Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and Cider. Dick Gabriel with
Speaker 1: your Thursday edition of our show, One day Closer to
Speaker 1: College Football. For the Wildcats, you know this, they take
Speaker 1: on the Old Miss Rebels down in Oxford. Noon kickoff, Yeah,
Speaker 1: eleven am local, but noon kickoff. That means we're on
Speaker 1: the air at ten am with Logan Stenberg, Jeremy Jarman,
Speaker 1: and Christy Thomas, and then Tom Leitch, Jeff mccor and
Speaker 1: I will have the action for you. It's going to
Speaker 1: be a tough one and we're gonna hear from Brad
Speaker 1: White here in just a minute, because man, what a
Speaker 1: challenge for the Kentucky defense, but a challenge for Old
Speaker 1: Miss as well, because the Rebels have stocked their schedule
Speaker 1: early with the eminently winnable games and they have been
Speaker 1: impressive in doing so. But based on the performances we've
Speaker 1: seen the last couple of weeks where the Kentucky defense
Speaker 1: was so good against Georgia and the offense of course
Speaker 1: comes alive against a weaker Ohio You team, this will
Speaker 1: be the best team that Mississippi will have faced. Can
Speaker 1: Kentucky hold them off? Well, we're gonna find out. But
Speaker 1: keep in mind. Two years ago, Wildcats came back and
Speaker 1: turned things around at halftime. You know what happened down
Speaker 1: the stretch. They scored to go ahead touchdown but had
Speaker 1: it taken off the board, and then a fumble by
Speaker 1: Will Levis when the O line broke down. Of course,
Speaker 1: Levis was hurt at the time. But this is a
Speaker 1: better Ole Miss team. I do believe this Kentucky O
Speaker 1: line is better than clearly than that one two years ago.
Speaker 1: And some of the guys are the same people, same players,
Speaker 1: They're just more experienced and better at their jobs. I
Speaker 1: can't say Brock vandergriff is better than Will Levis, but
Speaker 1: at least he's healthier than Levis was in that game.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be fun. We'll have it for you
Speaker 1: right here on six thirty wlap coming up at the
Speaker 1: bottom of the hour. Cameron Mills will join us here
Speaker 1: in the garage. Cameron, of course, the two time national
Speaker 1: champion and a guy who insists on coming to the garage.
Speaker 1: I'd have been on the phone with me once or twice,
Speaker 1: like at the last minute, but he didn't live too
Speaker 1: far away, and he is right, he goes it'll sound
Speaker 1: better if I'm there and he likes doing radio with
Speaker 1: me and I with him, so and of course Cameron
Speaker 1: is the co host of part of our pregame coverage
Speaker 1: for Kentucky basketball on the UK Network. But Cameron has
Speaker 1: been going to practice and watching the Wildcats and reporting
Speaker 1: via the UK Sports Network social media platforms. So we're
Speaker 1: going to get direct first hand reports of what is
Speaker 1: going on with Mark Pope, Cameron's former teammate. I think
Speaker 1: I said once upon a time that they were roommates.
Speaker 1: At one point they were not, but they're good buddies.
Speaker 1: And Cameron, of course knows the game and knows how
Speaker 1: Mark Pope was taught and trained under Rick Patino, among
Speaker 1: other coaches, but he'll be able to tell us what
Speaker 1: kind of Patino type qualities that Mark Pope has as
Speaker 1: a coach. I'm really curious about this, not that he
Speaker 1: he's going to scream and holler the way Patino did,
Speaker 1: but just the way he reaches players and what he
Speaker 1: teaches and how he teaches it. So that's coming up
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the hour. But I do want
Speaker 1: to get back to the UK football. Brad White, defensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: one of the best in the country, has had trouble
Speaker 1: at times with jail break offenses. It of course depends
Speaker 1: on his personnel, not just how they execute, but just
Speaker 1: how good are they. And he's got some good ones.
Speaker 1: That is the strength of this Kentucky team is defense.
Speaker 1: And yesterday after practice he talked about the fact that
Speaker 1: it's an early game. You got to get up and
Speaker 1: at him, and there's a lot to deal with.
Speaker 2: You know, the goal is just like we talked about
Speaker 2: going into that, you want to go into every game,
Speaker 2: but you know, we specifically talked about going to Georgia
Speaker 2: game and say just that focused execution all the way
Speaker 2: through practice in the meeting rooms, take it out, you know,
Speaker 2: on waivering effort.
Speaker 3: And take it serious by series.
Speaker 2: We did that in Georgia. I thought we did a
Speaker 2: nice job sort of carrying that over last week against Ohio.
Speaker 2: I need to continue to do that. It's going to
Speaker 2: be a tough environment. We were down there two years ago.
Speaker 2: We understand. You know, you get up. You know it's
Speaker 2: eleven o'clock Central time. You got to get geared up
Speaker 2: and ready to rock and roll.
Speaker 1: And kids, when he says ready to rock and roll,
Speaker 1: just use your urban dictionary and find out exactly what
Speaker 1: he means. You probably have a pretty good idea. It
Speaker 1: is so tough to prepare for a team like ole
Speaker 1: Mester or a team like Tennessee that runs the jail
Speaker 1: break and runs it well, because how do you do that.
Speaker 1: You can study video all you want, but on the
Speaker 1: practice field, of course, that's what the scout team is for,
Speaker 1: to run the other team's stuff. And what they do
Speaker 1: is they stand in a huddle. Usually what they do
Speaker 1: is because I don't get to go to practice unless
Speaker 1: I get special permission. But what they'll do, for the
Speaker 1: most part most teams is the stand in a huddle
Speaker 1: and a GA or somebody will hold up a playbook
Speaker 1: in the huddle say, okay, here's the play we're running.
Speaker 1: Here's what you need to do, what you need to do.
Speaker 1: But the key with old miss simple stuff. They're running,
Speaker 1: but they're doing it so fast. They're running to the
Speaker 1: line of scrimmage, getting set up and then boom, there
Speaker 1: they go again. They test your mental capacity, they test
Speaker 1: your conditioning, and there's no scout team in the country
Speaker 1: that can replicate that on a given practice day. And
Speaker 1: that's that's part of the big challenge.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's impossible to simulate it. You know, you just
Speaker 2: try to do the best you can to to try
Speaker 2: to get as many quality reps in as you can.
Speaker 2: But you know, it's I mean, it's it's hard for
Speaker 2: anybody in the country to simulate, you know, what they do,
Speaker 2: and especially at the efficiency that they do it at.
Speaker 2: I mean they've got you know, eight seniors, two juniors,
Speaker 2: you know, guys that have been in the system for
Speaker 2: a long time. They understand how to operate, they understand,
Speaker 2: you know, what they're trying to get done on each
Speaker 2: play call, and so then to add the pace on
Speaker 2: top of it is why they're so effective and efficient,
Speaker 2: and they're going to give you know, anybody they face
Speaker 2: all kinds problem.
Speaker 1: And not only do they have talented players, they have
Speaker 1: talented experienced players. So it's going to be a heck
Speaker 1: of a challenge and you'll hear it right here on
Speaker 1: six thirty WLAP. Reds lose to the Indians last night.
Speaker 1: No shocker there, and of course they have fired their
Speaker 1: manager have the Reds. Last night's game, though not without controversy.
Speaker 1: Guardians starter Tim Herron had a perfect game, going not
Speaker 1: just a no hitter, but a perfect game and Tim
Speaker 1: Friedel decided, in a two nothing ballgame, still a game,
Speaker 1: that he had to get on base, and so here's
Speaker 1: what he did. Here is Indians TV call of the play.
Speaker 1: Little pun attempt, Aaron grabs it, fires it not in time,
Speaker 1: and that'll be the first hit of the night.
Speaker 3: And listen to the booze.
Speaker 1: An all two typical call TV announcer telling you exactly
Speaker 1: what you're seeing. It drives me nuts. But that's a
Speaker 1: different topic. Now here's John Sadok in the reds Net.
Speaker 1: We're calling it the way a TV announcer should call it,
Speaker 1: just basically supplementing what happens, but also with the comment
Speaker 1: from his color commentator about the fact that it's a
Speaker 1: legit play.
Speaker 3: Here's Tim Herron fun try Aaron flip is late and
Speaker 3: the perfecto spoiled on a bug base hit by TJ. Friedel,
Speaker 3: go ahead and boom, it's still a game. It's two nothing.
Speaker 1: I love this play. Freedom is the one guy on
Speaker 1: this robster that'll use it from time to time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were booing, but as he said, look, it's a
Speaker 1: it's a ball game. If it's seven or eight nothing
Speaker 1: or whatever, and it's late eighth or ninth inning. I
Speaker 1: get it. You know, that's baseball protocol says you don't
Speaker 1: lay down a bun at that stage. And some of
Speaker 1: you think that the unwritten rules of baseball are stupid.
Speaker 1: But here's a guy in the seventh inning in a game,
Speaker 1: still trying, you know. I mean, yeah, their season's been
Speaker 1: cooked for a long time, but you try. You got
Speaker 1: to get out there and give effort. And then Friedo
Speaker 1: is one of those players. So the fact that they
Speaker 1: were booing about that is ridiculous. What was funny not ridiculous,
Speaker 1: I guess it should is to be expected, but come on.
Speaker 1: What was also funny was White Sox fans last night
Speaker 1: booed because their team won. They beat the Angels three
Speaker 1: to two and avoided a record setting loss. Fans wanted
Speaker 1: to be there, but it didn't happen, and when they won,
Speaker 1: fans booed up. Next controversy with UNLV football takes another
Speaker 1: step forward or backward here on six thirty WLAP Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Big Blue Insider. Coming up at the
Speaker 1: bottom of the hour just a few minutes, Cameron Mills
Speaker 1: will join us here in the garage, and as it
Speaker 1: often happens, he will basically fill the rest of the show.
Speaker 1: So that's why we talked a lot of football in
Speaker 1: segment one, because there's going to be a lot of
Speaker 1: basketball chatter from the bottom of the hour on not
Speaker 1: giving up on the football season. But Cameron has actually
Speaker 1: been to practice, so now I don't need to talk
Speaker 1: and speculate about what we might see and who might
Speaker 1: be doing what and what Mark Pope might be doing
Speaker 1: in practice. I've got an eyewitness and you do too,
Speaker 1: because you can see Cameron's practice reports on social media.
Speaker 1: Just follow the UK Sports Network and his practice reports
Speaker 1: will pop up from time to time. There is a
Speaker 1: little more football to talk about, and yesterday I mentioned
Speaker 1: the UNLV story where their quarterback, the Rebels quarterback Matthew Sluka,
Speaker 1: announced he was not going to play in any more
Speaker 1: games this season, citing missed opportunities, and we'll come back
Speaker 1: to that. But now they've lost another player, running back
Speaker 1: Michael Allen, who transferred in from NC State and he
Speaker 1: is leaving. He released on Twitter that he would not
Speaker 1: be playing any more games, and the reason is, of course,
Speaker 1: you can protect your red shirt year after three game,
Speaker 1: you can play up to four games. So he said
Speaker 1: I'm done, thank you and all that stuff. Looking for opportunities,
Speaker 1: but he said opportunities, unfortunately were not met. I'm excited
Speaker 1: to continue my footballer. But he also said this has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with money. This is nothing. He said,
Speaker 1: I did not receive a dime from any UNLV collective.
Speaker 1: But by that he met this isn't money related. This
Speaker 1: is about playing time. And this probably has happened before,
Speaker 1: but you know, I haven't been really paying that much
Speaker 1: attention to it at other schools. This has not yet
Speaker 1: happened at Kentucky, where somebody comes in, doesn't get to
Speaker 1: play the way he wants and leaves before he burns
Speaker 1: the red shirt or the red shirt potential. This guy,
Speaker 1: he's a junior. In the first game of the year,
Speaker 1: ten carries for sixty five yards, but in each of
Speaker 1: the next two games one carry for three yards in
Speaker 1: a win over Kansas last week. So apparently he was
Speaker 1: in their plans and then no longer in their plans.
Speaker 1: But it had nothing to do with money the way
Speaker 1: Sluka's deal allegedly did. This is a guy what a
Speaker 1: big year's big career really At holy Cross, he was
Speaker 1: an FCS third team All American in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: transferred to UNLV and then announces quite publicly that he
Speaker 1: essentially reading between the lines, is not getting the money
Speaker 1: he was promised, and as we reported yesterday, his family
Speaker 1: has hired an agent. This guy named Marcus Cruelmarty told
Speaker 1: ESPN Unov did not come through a verbal offer of
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand dollars from an assistant coach. Now, the
Speaker 1: kid's father says that head coach Barry otom later told
Speaker 1: him in a phone conversation the offer wasn't valid because it
Speaker 1: didn't come from him, but rather from offensive coordinator Brennan Marion,
Speaker 1: who wouldn't talk to ESPN. And UNLV said that sluca's
Speaker 1: representative made financial demands upon the university and it's nil
Speaker 1: collective in order to continue playing. Here's the thing. Schools
Speaker 1: can't make big money offers. I know it's a technicality,
Speaker 1: but it's got to come from a collective that is
Speaker 1: not owned and operated by the school. Why that's the
Speaker 1: rule they set up. You might think that that's petty
Speaker 1: or whatever, but of the few guardrails that are out there,
Speaker 1: that's the big one. And UNLV said in a statement
Speaker 1: that the school interpreted demands from the agent as a
Speaker 1: violation of the NCAA pay for play rules. Of course,
Speaker 1: this is what it is, but also a violation, it
Speaker 1: said of Nevada state law. Said UNLV does not engage
Speaker 1: in such activity, nor does its respond to implied threats.
Speaker 1: UNLV has honored all previously agreed upon scholarships for Matthew
Speaker 1: Sluga goes on to talk about due diligence, working within
Speaker 1: the framework at the NCAA and all that. But what's
Speaker 1: troubling if you're UNLV is that Barry Odom allegedly said, oh,
Speaker 1: the offer didn't come from me, came from an assistant,
Speaker 1: as though to say, if it came from me, the
Speaker 1: offer would be valid. And Shawn Woods and I were
Speaker 1: talking about this yesterday on the show and Sean as
Speaker 1: Sean pointed out, if it's verbal doesn't mean anything. I
Speaker 1: mean it should in terms of are you going to
Speaker 1: honor what you said to the guy? But legally no, no,
Speaker 1: if it's not in writing, it's not happening. So what
Speaker 1: a mess at UNLV, which, by the way, decided to
Speaker 1: remain in the Mountain West Conference after it negotiated a
Speaker 1: re signing bonus with the league they were getting interested in.
Speaker 1: The PAC twelve. Air Force made the same decision, signing
Speaker 1: bonus staying in the Mountain West. Air Force had been
Speaker 1: speaking with the AAC, but they're going to remain in
Speaker 1: the Mountain West. So the PAC twelve trying to stay alive.
Speaker 1: Biggest game of the country this weekend is of course
Speaker 1: in the SEC. We'll say that a lot this season
Speaker 1: and for years to come. But it's Alabama Georgia, and
Speaker 1: it's not Kirby Smart against Nick Saban, but it's against
Speaker 1: the legacy of Nick Saban. But Kirby Smart is now
Speaker 1: the man in the SEC. I know Mark Stoops is
Speaker 1: the Dean, but in terms of accomplishments, Kirby Smart is
Speaker 1: the man. And I always think back to a conversation
Speaker 1: I have with Chris Hatcher, the former Kentucky assistant coach
Speaker 1: now the head coach at Samford down in Birmingham. But
Speaker 1: Chris went from here to Valdosta State, became the head
Speaker 1: coach at Valdosta State, and at one point Kirby Smart
Speaker 1: was first his defensive backs coach, then his defensive cord
Speaker 1: and he also Chris also had an assistant by the
Speaker 1: name of Will Muschamp, who went on to head up
Speaker 1: a couple of SEC football programs. He's an assistant coach now,
Speaker 1: but remember he was the head coach at Florida and
Speaker 1: in South Carolina. But Kirby went from Valdosta's well, started
Speaker 1: at Georgia, where he played a defensive back of course,
Speaker 1: picked off Tim Couch once by a time, but was
Speaker 1: a administrative assistant at Georgia, then Valdosta, GA at Florida State,
Speaker 1: then LSU defensive backs at Georgia and five E coach
Speaker 1: running backs. Left with Saban, went to or went with
Speaker 1: Saban to Miami and coached the secondary there. Then left
Speaker 1: with Saban, came to Alabama as the assistant head coach
Speaker 1: DB's and added the decoordinator title in twenty eight and
Speaker 1: after the twenty fifteen season headed for Georgia, where he
Speaker 1: has won ninety seven games, ninety seven and sixteen, looking
Speaker 1: to make it ninety eight Saturday Night against Alabama. Of course,
Speaker 1: those two national championships, along with two SEC titles and
Speaker 1: six East Division titles, and at least for the time being,
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for the East again. I was
Speaker 1: opposed to that, not that anybody Cares in the SEC
Speaker 1: office what I think. But I did like the fact
Speaker 1: that Kentucky had a better shot of getting to Atlanta
Speaker 1: for the SEC title game when there were divisions in play.
Speaker 1: I understand the scheduling challenges, but just selfishly wanting to cover.
Speaker 1: And I've been again. I've been to fifteen SEC Football
Speaker 1: Championship games when I was with the SEC radio network.
Speaker 1: I so want that for Kentucky fans, coaches, players, the program.
Speaker 1: It's so much fun and it's gonna be so much
Speaker 1: harder to do now. Not impossible, but really tough to
Speaker 1: do now. So yeah, Kirby Smart with a big opportunity
Speaker 1: this weekend against Alabama, and conversely Alabama, same thing, Kalen
Speaker 1: de Boor. This would be huge if his team can
Speaker 1: pull things off. So it's gonna be fun, all right.
Speaker 1: When we come back, Cameron Mills will join us here
Speaker 1: in the garage and we're gonna talk a lot of
Speaker 1: Kentucky basketball, but you and I are going to learn
Speaker 1: a lot about what's going on in practice, how Mark
Speaker 1: Pope is coaching, and what kind of basketball that we
Speaker 1: will all see coming up very shortly. That's next year
Speaker 1: on the Big Moon Sider six thirty WLAP welcome back,
Speaker 1: joining us in the garage as he does every once
Speaker 1: in a while. He's a very busy man. Cameron Mills
Speaker 1: with us, of course, a two time national champion and
Speaker 1: former host of his own radio show. Do you miss that?
Speaker 1: I know you don't miss the stress? No, and you
Speaker 1: made it too more difficult than it needed to be.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what I was doing you in seven years.
Speaker 3: In years, well, I eventually learned what I was doing,
Speaker 3: but I never got over the stress of And here's
Speaker 3: the thing, this is this show. Now, that's what I
Speaker 3: think about you and you and I know that Tony
Speaker 3: corneyser joke of anybody can do a show on Monday,
Speaker 3: what's your Thursday show? What's your Thursday show? Thursday? What's
Speaker 3: your Thursday show? You bring on has been's? Oh no, no,
Speaker 3: I don't miss.
Speaker 1: Your terribly relevant now we'll get to that in a moment.
Speaker 3: I do miss I do. Yeah, I get to go
Speaker 3: to practice a lot. I do miss the guys I
Speaker 3: did the show with. I miss hanging out with them
Speaker 3: because the show. As you and I've talked about so
Speaker 3: many times, we both like sports, and I would say
Speaker 3: we both love sports but we don't, and I don't
Speaker 3: think we If we had our drouthers, we would do
Speaker 3: much more than just sports, because there's so much stuff
Speaker 3: like Shorsy that you and I want to talk about,
Speaker 3: like letter like letter Kitty, that you and I want
Speaker 3: to talk about. So that's what I tried, because that's
Speaker 3: what I turned my show into. Look if I had
Speaker 3: my brothers when I did my show, i'd barely talk
Speaker 3: to UK sports. But as I was reminded by my
Speaker 3: staff of interns, Cameron, nobody cares what you think about Seinfeld.
Speaker 3: Nobody wants to hear anything other than UK stuff. And
Speaker 3: I'm like, all right. So we did an hour UK
Speaker 3: stuff and then second hour was what I thoroughly enjoyed.
Speaker 3: But the planning man the planning and I did it
Speaker 3: one day a week and it was on Sunday. And Susan,
Speaker 3: my wife, she was like, sweetie, you're just gone on Sunday.
Speaker 3: And I said, what do you mean, I'm right here
Speaker 3: in the house. She goes, mentally, you're not here because
Speaker 3: you're either stressing or planning, and you're just not here.
Speaker 3: And so it was at that point where because you know,
Speaker 3: this the reason I did the show was to get
Speaker 3: my ten thousand hours right. We've had this conversation. Don't
Speaker 3: give me a blank look. Basically, get the practice of hosting,
Speaker 3: getting in and out of breaks so that I would
Speaker 3: have the background of hopefully getting the job that I
Speaker 3: now have and being comfortable with the job.
Speaker 1: That I neronically enough, you don't have to get in
Speaker 1: and out of.
Speaker 3: Break No, I don't know. I've got to. I've got to.
Speaker 3: I've got a co host who does that for me. So,
Speaker 3: but I still will feel much more comfortable on that
Speaker 3: show than I would have if I had not had
Speaker 3: seven years of hosting a show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I get that. Uh No, I can obviously
Speaker 1: empathize because I'm always wondering. You know who can I get?
Speaker 3: Uh? Surprises me. I've not been called in a while.
Speaker 1: You know, well, I know you're a busy man. I'm
Speaker 1: always good.
Speaker 3: For I'm always good for an hour of just talking.
Speaker 3: Just I mean, look, I'm at home talking. As my
Speaker 3: wife said to me recently, you've got the knack of
Speaker 3: turning a ten second conversation into a ten minute one. Well,
Speaker 3: and the way I took it as I took it
Speaker 3: as a compliment. I'm like that sounds like my stories
Speaker 3: are interesting, and she was like, no, this is not
Speaker 3: this is not a compliment.
Speaker 1: Sweet. I've been told my better half that I talk
Speaker 1: too much. So uh yeah, my job and they get
Speaker 1: it for free, that's the thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they get the round the dinner table TV. We
Speaker 3: just I do. I've caught myself so many times, especially
Speaker 3: since I've been married last four years, of just like
Speaker 3: I'll talk and talk and I'll get up on a
Speaker 3: tangent and then I'll say, what were we What was
Speaker 3: I telling you about? And she'd look at me, she goes,
Speaker 3: I have no idea. I stopped listening ten minutes ago.
Speaker 3: It's like the opposite of what I hear most marriages, alike.
Speaker 3: Usually it's the man tunes out the woman. Now this
Speaker 3: is the woman that tunes out the man in my.
Speaker 1: Life, and the standard responses.
Speaker 3: I don't know, I didn't know you were talking.
Speaker 1: To be honest, Well, whenever you and I are together,
Speaker 1: we get off on tangents like let me hold you
Speaker 1: on the first topic. You have a project going now
Speaker 1: with the UK Sports Network where you were basically reporting
Speaker 1: on practice the and it hits social media Wednesday Thursday.
Speaker 3: Well, so what it is is it's UK Healthcare sponsors it.
Speaker 3: I didn't set it up. It was set up by JMI,
Speaker 3: who of course is the UK Sports Network. And I
Speaker 3: was asked because and we started doing this a little
Speaker 3: bit last year. But of course when and look, this
Speaker 3: isn't a shot at cal caw wasn't my coach and
Speaker 3: cal bing cal as every coach should be. And I
Speaker 3: get this. They're leary about who comes to their practice.
Speaker 3: They're leary about what is said about what goes on
Speaker 3: in practice. And that goes for the current coach as well.
Speaker 3: The difference is that I'm no longer calling Deb to
Speaker 3: ask if I can come to practice more de Moore
Speaker 3: Deb Moore, he's the sports information director for specifically for Mark,
Speaker 3: for coach Poe.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I'm not calling her to say can I come to practice?
Speaker 3: I'll show up a practice when I want to show
Speaker 3: up to practice, and if he wants to ask me
Speaker 3: to leave, he can ask me to leave. Look, I mean,
Speaker 3: I know that sounds arrogant, but that's that's I mean
Speaker 3: he Look, he's already said he wants every former player
Speaker 3: to feel comfortable and always feel welcome to come to practice.
Speaker 3: But I just kind of look, I'm too close to Mark,
Speaker 3: and again based off our you know, twenty years, thirty
Speaker 3: years ago, our relationship, like he and I haven't talked
Speaker 3: talked a lot in thirty years. But nothing changes. You
Speaker 3: go through the trenches with these guys and you're like
Speaker 3: you're your your teammates for life. So it's just been
Speaker 3: fun going to practice and then with Pope being there,
Speaker 3: getting to go to a lot of practices, and when
Speaker 3: Cal was here, there were things I could report and
Speaker 3: I think we maybe did one or two practice reports
Speaker 3: last year when Cow was here. Towards the end of
Speaker 3: the season. When Pope got here, I felt like so
Speaker 3: did so did Jami. That there Man, there's a lot
Speaker 3: more to talk about. I mean, what's going to be different.
Speaker 3: Is this offense going to be as high powered or
Speaker 3: as you know, is groundbreaking as they as we think.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's just so much to talk about. And
Speaker 3: then we're going back to before we had coaches, before
Speaker 3: we had a team this summer and it's just been
Speaker 3: fun for me to go to practice. And I'll give
Speaker 3: you a perfect example this Monday. So Monday was the
Speaker 3: start of Banner Camp. I've been calling it hell week,
Speaker 3: because that's what we called it, and what I mean
Speaker 3: by that is what it was. Yeah, well it still is,
Speaker 3: but they're calling it banner Camp to soften the blow
Speaker 3: to the players, I think, but I think it's a
Speaker 3: brilliant name for what it is because, again, as Mark says,
Speaker 3: he knows the assignment, but these guys, this is the
Speaker 3: hardest week of practice all year, with the exception of
Speaker 3: about a two week period of time during Christmas because
Speaker 3: classes out and that twenty hour four hour rule goes away.
Speaker 3: Well as of Monday, the twenty hour four hour rule
Speaker 3: pops in, So that's you're not allowed to practice one
Speaker 3: four hours a day and you're not allowed to practice
Speaker 3: more than twenty hours a week, and you have to
Speaker 3: have one day off a week. So all summer they've
Speaker 3: they've had more stringent rules, right, it was like four
Speaker 3: hours a week instead of four hours a day. That
Speaker 3: was the summer, And so now they can go full
Speaker 3: board twice, they can have two a days, and that's
Speaker 3: what they're doing. They're going early in the morning, they're
Speaker 3: going in the afternoon. So I decided that I thought
Speaker 3: it would be interesting based on the fact that I
Speaker 3: had seen the summer practices and a couple of the
Speaker 3: early individual instructions. I thought it'd be interest because, I mean,
Speaker 3: those are all great, and it was fascinating watching the
Speaker 3: way Mark coaches and watching how these guys respond and
Speaker 3: seeing what kind of talent we had. But I wanted
Speaker 3: to see this week. This week has kind of been
Speaker 3: like I've had it marked on my calendar, like I
Speaker 3: want to see, Okay, what of what from our hell week?
Speaker 3: Is Mark Pope going to bring to the tape? What
Speaker 3: what from Patino? Where we would wake up at where
Speaker 3: I'd wake up at five in the morning to be
Speaker 3: ready for practice at six. I mean, it's one hundred
Speaker 3: yard walk to the Price. It's not like I'm gonna
Speaker 3: get logjamm in draffic. Did you have to set an
Speaker 3: alarm or did your inner nervous inner nervousness? Oh no,
Speaker 3: I set alarms several in fact, but it's still inner nervousness.
Speaker 3: I mean, that week is so intense, is so exhausting,
Speaker 3: and that's what I wanted to see, and the sadistic
Speaker 3: side of me I wanted to see. I wanted to
Speaker 3: see these guys suffer. And I mean that in the
Speaker 3: most complimentary way, because the most fun part about being
Speaker 3: an ex player, especially if you're around a guy who
Speaker 3: coached you or in this case was in this case
Speaker 3: was a teammate of you and went through what you
Speaker 3: went through, is you get to watch them make other
Speaker 3: people suffer and enjoy it. And I mean, and as
Speaker 3: bad as that sounds, it's just because part of it
Speaker 3: is you know what the suffering leads do and it's
Speaker 3: good things, and you want to tell him that. Meaning
Speaker 3: I want to tell the players as they were suffering
Speaker 3: through sprints on Monday morning, guys, this is this is
Speaker 3: what we're building. This is when we're hanging banners. We're
Speaker 3: hanging banners right now. Fortunately I had I had a
Speaker 3: teammate who's actually job it is now to tell him that,
Speaker 3: tell him that. But it's just fun. They well, they do,
Speaker 3: but it's still it's Mark is still not leaving. He's
Speaker 3: not leaving anything too. He's not And this is this
Speaker 3: is one thing I included in the practice report that
Speaker 3: came out yesterday or this morning, that he's not leaving
Speaker 3: anything the chance. I mean, you talk about the little things.
Speaker 3: He is. He is not leaving anything to chance. And
Speaker 3: again it gives me chills because It reminds me of
Speaker 3: a guy named Rick Patino, because nothing when you've got
Speaker 3: a head coach that gives you a thirty five page
Speaker 3: guiding report on every single team, and you were expected
Speaker 3: to know what is on page seventeen, and you are
Speaker 3: quizzed after after the game. Nothing's being left after the game.
Speaker 3: There was one one game in particular, he was convinced
Speaker 3: none of us read the scouting report, and so about
Speaker 3: three of us, four of us just so happened to
Speaker 3: be those of us who never played. So it was
Speaker 3: like me, Oliver Simmons and maybe nausey or something. We
Speaker 3: were Uh. He was yelling at us, and we won.
Speaker 3: We won the game, by the way, but he still
Speaker 3: didn't think we studied the scouting report, and so he
Speaker 3: was asking us questions like, you know, on page seventeen,
Speaker 3: how many times did you know how many times does
Speaker 3: Smith go in and out back to his left to
Speaker 3: the right compared to how many times does he go
Speaker 3: in and out go left? That was in the scouting
Speaker 3: report and we were expected to know that. So again,
Speaker 3: did you no? No? Because I didn't play. What differs
Speaker 3: to make if I know it? What matters is does
Speaker 3: Tony del know it, which was my answer.
Speaker 1: Ask him, he's the one that was in the game
Speaker 1: after Patino.
Speaker 3: No, I wanted to half of what I say I
Speaker 3: said to Patino, I never said the Patino. I wouldn't
Speaker 3: say it.
Speaker 1: Now Ryurn Mills is in the garage. We'll come back
Speaker 1: with a lot of questions for Cameron in just a minute.
Speaker 1: Here in the Big Blue Sider six thirty w l
Speaker 1: A P. Welcome back here in the garage with Cameron Mills.
Speaker 1: He is dropped by a very busy man, but he
Speaker 1: made time for us. He has been busy doing a
Speaker 1: lot of things, including going to practice and recording practice
Speaker 1: reports for JMI social media digital accounts. So many questions
Speaker 1: you you mentioned, uh Rick Patino, Mark Pope, his style
Speaker 1: in terms of his intensity and decibel level. It can't
Speaker 1: be as bad, you know.
Speaker 3: It is the exact opposite. Okay, how so this is
Speaker 3: the way he talks in practice. Really, this is him
Speaker 3: in practice. Now he will he will, he will reach
Speaker 3: a normal talking tone at some point. But it was
Speaker 3: so distracting to me that there was no yelling. There
Speaker 3: was coaching. I mean there was there was moments when
Speaker 3: when some of the assistant coaches would you know. But
Speaker 3: I've yet to hear a cuss word in practice other
Speaker 3: than other than by the players, right, which is normal.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's his look. I didn't cuss, but I
Speaker 3: cussed in practice because you don't know what else to
Speaker 3: say sometimes. But Pope, that's just And this is what
Speaker 3: I mean by the little things, because I even asked
Speaker 3: him after maybe the second practice, I'm like to ask
Speaker 3: you a question. I said, look, you and I you
Speaker 3: and I'm both doing what it was like under coach
Speaker 3: p I said, you seem to be the complete opposite.
Speaker 3: I said, you never cussed in practice. You never, I mean,
Speaker 3: you were nothing but encouraging in practice. I can't remember
Speaker 3: you ever being mad in practice. And I said, so,
Speaker 3: I didn't expect that. But what I definitely didn't expect
Speaker 3: is you almost whispering when you when you coached your team.
Speaker 3: And he has this habit of walking over to the guy.
Speaker 3: Like again, Coach Patino would yell at you loud enough
Speaker 3: for everyone to hear, and that was intentional. Mark is
Speaker 3: intentional seemingly to me, in that he will walk up
Speaker 3: if he wants, if he wants to teach you something
Speaker 3: or coach you, he will walk up and basically whisper
Speaker 3: in your ear. And I asked him one time because
Speaker 3: I was noticing this when they had team huddles, because
Speaker 3: I mean he was it was. It was quiet, it
Speaker 3: was soft, so huddle was uh huh huddle huddle was
Speaker 3: meaning he was talking, but he was like lower than
Speaker 3: a whisper. It was. It wasn't but it was close.
Speaker 3: I mean he was talking low, so low that it
Speaker 3: stood out to me. So I went up and I
Speaker 3: asked him. I said, why do you talk so quiet
Speaker 3: in practice? And again only Mark Pope? And this is
Speaker 3: when I say, when people you get when you when
Speaker 3: I say Rhodescholar candidate, Columbia Medical School read Dante's Inferno
Speaker 3: every night, right, I mean when I when I tell
Speaker 3: people these things, I don't. I still't think people understand.
Speaker 3: He is the most thoughtful, intuitive, intellectual coach in Division one.
Speaker 3: There's there's nobody nobody thinks about the little things more
Speaker 3: than this. So I asked him that, and so did
Speaker 3: it to me? He leans in And as soon as
Speaker 3: he leans in, what do you think I did lean back?
Speaker 1: Did you?
Speaker 3: He said? That's why, Cameron, he said, when I talk low,
Speaker 3: they have to lean in to hear me, and now
Speaker 3: I know they're listening, Like, who thinks like this?
Speaker 1: You do? You know? I learned that at a very
Speaker 1: young Asian radio an announcer who was cutting a commercial
Speaker 1: or P S A or something, and he was in
Speaker 1: a half whisper, and he said that makes people sit
Speaker 1: up and think, oh, this is this is something I
Speaker 1: need to hear.
Speaker 3: It's exactly you know what. That's probably even stated better.
Speaker 3: And I think that's why Mark, at least that's how
Speaker 3: he described it to me, that that's a better way
Speaker 3: of saying what I just describe. That's why he does it.
Speaker 3: If you're yelling, I can hang back here and pretend
Speaker 3: like I'm listening. If you're whispering, Shoot, my head coach
Speaker 3: is talking, I better pick this up. So you just
Speaker 3: for me, So you lean in and as low as
Speaker 3: he talks, everybody hears. It's just maybe it's not genius,
Speaker 3: but I don't know anyone else who does.
Speaker 1: I gotta assume everybody leans in.
Speaker 3: No, no, I mean other coaches, No, no, no.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying is excuse me if he's leaning in
Speaker 1: to talk to player A, Oh yeah, players B C.
Speaker 1: Dany aren't they leaning in as well.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't I don't know if he's if he's
Speaker 3: coaching up one player, because he'll whisper to them a
Speaker 3: lot of time. Look, I'm not saying does this every time.
Speaker 3: Sometimes he's talking to a group of them. But when
Speaker 3: he's got group huddle right right now, I don't know
Speaker 3: what it'll be like in a game, But when he's
Speaker 3: got group huddle, he's talking low. They're running win sprints
Speaker 3: yesterday or Monday, She's me, they're running win sprints Monday and.
Speaker 1: Monday. Monday.
Speaker 3: To me was like I felt like I'd just been
Speaker 3: I don't know how. It was just glorious, it was.
Speaker 3: It was just so much of it was Patino, but
Speaker 3: in a completely different style. Yeah, and a complete from
Speaker 3: coming from a different mind. And that was what was
Speaker 3: fun to me is because Mark obviously has taken everything
Speaker 3: he learned or to coach p which he will tell
Speaker 3: you a whole lot because we all did. And then
Speaker 3: he's learned over the last eleven years as a head coach,
Speaker 3: what that looks like coming out of the mouth of
Speaker 3: Mark Pope, what that looks like in a Mark Pope practice.
Speaker 3: He's not copying Coach p verbatim, no, but but but
Speaker 3: but I believe some some have some have tried, right,
Speaker 3: I think some have seen coach Patino's what he has
Speaker 3: accomplished and said, well, that's the that's how you need
Speaker 3: to be a coach, and and that's not how it works, right.
Speaker 3: You can't cookie cut his brilliance, and it is brilliant.
Speaker 1: Well, that said, I'm very curious to see within a game.
Speaker 1: And you may have already answered this, but when something
Speaker 1: goes wrong and Patino would blow a stack Caliper, what
Speaker 1: does Mark Pope do?
Speaker 3: I don't. I don't know that's that's.
Speaker 1: Out there because he's that veteran head coach.
Speaker 3: Yes, but I think do not know this. This is
Speaker 3: not something I've experienced. I've not talked to him about this.
Speaker 3: I don't know. And here's the other thing. I don't
Speaker 3: know how he was and what I mean by that
Speaker 3: as I can go watch b Yu film and I
Speaker 3: can he.
Speaker 1: Saw his team play firsthand in Louisville.
Speaker 3: Well, but that was different because that was we had
Speaker 3: gotten tickets me, Derek Anderson, Jared Prickett, Tony Delk, coach
Speaker 3: Bennett Shep. We had all gotten tickets from Mark intentionally
Speaker 3: behind his bench, and we had one goal. We want
Speaker 3: him to get a technical foul. So we were we were.
Speaker 3: We were yelling at him the whole time. We I mean,
Speaker 3: we were brutal to him and at one point we
Speaker 3: knew we got him because he turned around and laughed
Speaker 3: at us. We're like, job done. So we weren't taking
Speaker 3: that game serious. I mean, he was and and and
Speaker 3: And that's what I love about him is he knew
Speaker 3: why we were there. He knew, he knew we were
Speaker 3: gonna give him a hard time. But I'm not seeing
Speaker 3: I don't know what he's gonna be looking games. It's
Speaker 3: it's gonna be different than what we've had. But I
Speaker 3: do feel like he is feeling the pressure of being here.
Speaker 3: And what I mean by that is in a good way.
Speaker 3: Because again I've told you this before, coach with you
Speaker 3: know you stay all the time. Pressure is a good thing.
Speaker 3: Pressure forces you to pre.
Speaker 1: Pressure is a privilege.
Speaker 3: Oh I like that.
Speaker 1: I like that good. You've heard that.
Speaker 3: Coach P's thing was pressure is pressure forces you to prepare.
Speaker 1: That's good.
Speaker 3: And so I feel like that's what Mark is putting
Speaker 3: a lot of pressure on himself. But I think what
Speaker 3: he's doing. And I'm glad he's doing this, and I
Speaker 3: know UK fans be glad he's doing this. But he's
Speaker 3: spent a lot of pressure on himself to succeed. Now
Speaker 3: now he is not. His attitude is not We've got
Speaker 3: we're gonna you know, we're gonna build this program over
Speaker 3: the next three years. We are He's not we are right, Well,
Speaker 3: he is rebuilding. No, but that in thirteen new guys.
Speaker 3: But the connotation there is you're gonna have to wait,
Speaker 3: which is precisely what Tubby Smith's attitude was. I'm not
Speaker 3: read building.
Speaker 1: That's why he was hired. C. M. Newton hired Toby
Speaker 1: specifically because at Tulsa and Georgia he stepped in and
Speaker 1: with existing players succeeded instantly.
Speaker 3: And Mark has a brand new players. And that adds
Speaker 3: a layer to this that is different where I'll give
Speaker 3: you one how much time we got to give you
Speaker 3: one quick story a minute. So at the end of
Speaker 3: practice yesterday, God, there's so many, so many things I
Speaker 3: can tell you, but it's going to come out in
Speaker 3: practice report. But I but, but, but I don't I
Speaker 3: love sharing it with you at the at the end
Speaker 3: of practice that they they're doing these uh this drill
Speaker 3: called kills, and a kill is you got Blue team,
Speaker 3: White team, and both teams have one or two subs,
Speaker 3: and the goal is you got it's a defensive drill.
Speaker 3: The goal is you got to get three stops in
Speaker 3: a row. That's a kill. So Blue team got their
Speaker 3: kills quickly because because of a god name of Mary
Speaker 3: Williams Amari, I mean, just protected that rim like nobody's business.
Speaker 3: As a matter of fact, Pope even said he stopped
Speaker 3: after Mark's third block in a row, meaning third stop
Speaker 3: and row, meaning Blue team's kill was done. Mark markin Blue,
Speaker 3: the whistler said, guys, I'm not happy again, not yelling,
Speaker 3: just saying, guys, I'm not happy. Why am I not happy?
Speaker 3: Nobody had any idea, he said, because not a single
Speaker 3: one of you Blue guys have gone up and given
Speaker 3: that man a hug. He got you all your kills
Speaker 3: in three possessions. You better be pounding him right now.
Speaker 3: And all all six of them went up and gave
Speaker 3: him Mary Yeah, man, yeah, I'm like, Mark's like no, no,
Speaker 3: I shouldn't have to tell you to do that. So
Speaker 3: then White team has to get their kills. Right, we
Speaker 3: switch sides. Man, when you've got a team like this
Speaker 3: that can You've got Kobe Brea out there launching threes
Speaker 3: with like an inch of of you know, someone in
Speaker 3: his face and like only an inch away, and he's
Speaker 3: just just drilling them. Man, it sucks your soul out
Speaker 3: of you. I mean it's just so yeah, but you
Speaker 3: do everything right and you just say, all right, I
Speaker 3: got your band, and here's the thing. You can have two.
Speaker 3: You can have two defensive stops. If you don't get
Speaker 3: that next defensive stop, you go back to zero. So
Speaker 3: it is so disheartening. Every three in row, Blue got
Speaker 3: two in a row, Bam, back to zero because Kobe
Speaker 3: hit a three two in a row, Bam, Lamont drives
Speaker 3: for an easy layup. I mean, it just it is.
Speaker 3: I'm sitting there, I'm aching for this Blue team. And
Speaker 3: by the way, they're not divided up into starters and
Speaker 3: non starters, all right, so they're just kind of divided up.
Speaker 1: I don't even know yet, but I'm not right.
Speaker 3: So but usually I'm sitting over on the side and
Speaker 3: I am staying out of it, right, But I mean
Speaker 3: I got so hyped when Blue team, because I mean
Speaker 3: everyone started cheering for blue. Everyone started going, come on, man,
Speaker 3: you got this blue, you got this blue, Let's go.
Speaker 3: I'm standing in the corner like I'm a coach and
Speaker 3: I didn't care. I didn't care. I was I was
Speaker 3: waiting for one. I was coach Fox or coach figured
Speaker 3: to come over say man, go sit down. I was like,
Speaker 3: I'm rooting man because all of it, all of it
Speaker 3: did reminded me of our practices and it was so
Speaker 3: much fun to be part of.
Speaker 1: Amra Mills in the garage. We'll come back with our
Speaker 1: number two in just a minute here on the Big
Speaker 1: Blueing Sider six THIRTYHLAB. Welcome back to the Big Blue
Speaker 1: and Sider. I remember two of our program camera Mills
Speaker 1: in the garage. So this is gonna go. It'll feel
Speaker 1: to us as though it's gonna go quickly, but you're
Speaker 1: gonna it always does. But we're gonna talk a lot
Speaker 1: of Kentucky basketball. We're not ignoring Kentucky football. We talked
Speaker 1: about that, what if half hour.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to come in here and talk Kentucky
Speaker 3: football for you, like fall I love it, but I'm
Speaker 3: not going to give anybody any insight.
Speaker 1: That's true. And we're getting inside because camera has been
Speaker 1: at practice and shared some light on that in the
Speaker 1: last couple of segments. But I have so many questions
Speaker 1: for you. I got somebody answers, well, that's great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what has impressed you the most?
Speaker 3: Oh, shoot, so so much, especially this week because again, look,
Speaker 3: the intensity has been ramping up all summer. Look, they
Speaker 3: had like a I think there was like they've had
Speaker 3: one hundred and two practices, like if you count individual instruction,
Speaker 3: which is the team dividing up in threes or groups
Speaker 3: or three different groups, and so they're I think they're
Speaker 3: counting that something like that. But they have practice in
Speaker 3: the summer, they got two weeks off, they came back
Speaker 3: started individuals. Now the intensity is ramping up because now
Speaker 3: in the middle of practice, we're running, meaning mistake is made,
Speaker 3: we're on the line, middle of practice, after we've done
Speaker 3: some hard drills. We're just randomly on the line because
Speaker 3: it's the middle of practice, because its the middle of
Speaker 3: the game. Now, you can't get you can't get weaker,
Speaker 3: you can't get tired. Now now is when you've got
Speaker 3: to push forward. That was the other team gets tired.
Speaker 3: So we're running wind sprints, and again this is a
Speaker 3: deistic part of me is like, yeah, now here we go,
Speaker 3: here we go, and.
Speaker 1: Couples karma coming back.
Speaker 3: I mean when if it's karma, how would you.
Speaker 1: Describe that that feeling? Because I guarantee you every former
Speaker 1: player probably has the same.
Speaker 3: Oh. I know we do, because I've had conversations with
Speaker 3: former teammates, like when Coach p was at Louisville and
Speaker 3: we go to a Louisville practice and be like, remember
Speaker 3: when we did and then we get mad when the
Speaker 3: coach in Coach pe'ce case, was like, what do you
Speaker 3: why'd you be so hard on them? You were harder
Speaker 3: on us, Like we'd have that conversation. So, but they're running,
Speaker 3: they're wanting running win sprints, and just like always, And
Speaker 3: I want to be very clear about this because I
Speaker 3: want people to understand two things happen when you're running
Speaker 3: win sprints in the middle practice. Okay, Number one, there
Speaker 3: was always because you got a goal, right, You're not
Speaker 3: just running to run. You've got a time goal that
Speaker 3: you're trying to hit. There are always guys, always, and
Speaker 3: sometimes not even the guys you would think because you're
Speaker 3: in the middle of practice some guys who worked harder.
Speaker 3: Sometimes some guys came off lifting before practice. That there
Speaker 3: are always every everybody has been the guy to not
Speaker 3: make the time. And so there were a couple of
Speaker 3: guys that were not making the time. And what I saw,
Speaker 3: which considering these guys just met four months ago, right,
Speaker 3: I mean maybe some of them played and knew each other.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but they just met four months ago.
Speaker 3: And Mark has done a fantastic job of making it
Speaker 3: a point of I got a year, actually less than
Speaker 3: a year. I got five months to build these guys
Speaker 3: into a unit, a unbreakable unit, which is why they
Speaker 3: went to Hazard, which is why they had, you know,
Speaker 3: their retreat with doing yoga out on the lake in
Speaker 3: the middle of the morning, which is why they're going
Speaker 3: bowling together watching movies that you just spent sounding familiar
Speaker 3: to you, by the way, because I know you and
Speaker 3: I have talked about this is exactly what we did. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the only thing they have done that we had never
Speaker 3: play golf. We never played golf, and we played golf together,
Speaker 3: but never as a team.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't be great if they could take a foreign trip.
Speaker 1: Isn't it a great bund You need a.
Speaker 3: Foreign trip out of North America. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's.
Speaker 1: What foreign is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well all guys went to Italy exactly, and what
Speaker 3: did we do that next year?
Speaker 1: Won a title?
Speaker 3: Mm hmm. Look, there's all a bunch of reasons for that.
Speaker 1: By the way, I was supposed to be on that
Speaker 1: trip in the story. Was it somebody else screwed?
Speaker 3: Culpepper was on that trip with us? And I want
Speaker 3: to say it was Mark Kombs, komsoms Kums and Culpepper,
Speaker 3: I think that trip with us.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 3: But anyway, so they're running, but in the two things
Speaker 3: that happened when you run, and it happened with us.
Speaker 3: So I want anyone thinking that they're worried about this
Speaker 3: team because this is happening. No, no, no, this just happens.
Speaker 3: Is at number one, you've always got guys that don't
Speaker 3: make it, and when you don't make it, you run again,
Speaker 3: not just that guy, the team, because what that does
Speaker 3: is it forces the team to either lift that guy
Speaker 3: up or that or those two or those guys up,
Speaker 3: because sometimes it's it's it's more than one. Lift that
Speaker 3: guy up, or you can turn against him because your
Speaker 3: mind is angry that he's not making time. Therefore, I'm
Speaker 3: being punished. So your your initial reaction is to yell,
Speaker 3: is to berate at him, right, the right reaction is
Speaker 3: to encourage build up, pick up. Right. That is precisely
Speaker 3: what happened on sprint one real Monday morning. Wow, here's
Speaker 3: what happened. So then they didn't make the first sprint.
Speaker 3: A couple of guys missed it. They also cheated again
Speaker 3: very common. And when I say they cheated, what I
Speaker 3: mean is they're not touching the line. They're stopping a
Speaker 3: foot before the line to get an edge on so
Speaker 3: they can make time. Well, Mark, me and Marcus got
Speaker 3: every coach watching every line, and I would watch the
Speaker 3: coaches when they would fall shore that line. The coach
Speaker 3: watching line would just look at Mark and say shake yeah,
Speaker 3: shake his head no. And so anyway, so you got
Speaker 3: a couple of players not making time. Very first time
Speaker 3: it happened, no coaches involved. The team picked up the
Speaker 3: guys that were on the floor sucking air right, picked
Speaker 3: them up, and they got in a team huddle. I
Speaker 3: don't know what was said. I was on the other
Speaker 3: out of the court. I don't know what was said,
Speaker 3: but I'm like, that's not how we did it. We
Speaker 3: yelled at each other.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Now at the beginning of the season. Then the season
Speaker 3: we had learned. But these dudes are day one of
Speaker 3: what we called hell week with their comed banner camp.
Speaker 3: They got they they've already got this. Well.
Speaker 1: They got together and whispered each other.
Speaker 3: Yeah, without the coaches. And that's one thing that Marcus
Speaker 3: specifically done and that has stood out to me probably
Speaker 3: more than anything, is he lets them coach themselves. He
Speaker 3: wants them to teach each other, and he wants he
Speaker 3: wants to hear you explain to your teammates. Sure, what
Speaker 3: I did wrong or what you did wrong?
Speaker 1: You mention early you stay here, that that will will
Speaker 1: be an early sign of success. Was it was a
Speaker 1: small less not a capitalist. When the players are teaching
Speaker 1: each other.
Speaker 3: And they're already doing he's forcing them to do that,
Speaker 3: so they're already doing that. But I think what he's saying,
Speaker 3: and I think you're right, is when they're doing it
Speaker 3: without thinking yeah yeah, because that's how it should be.
Speaker 3: I mean, because what they does this it forces you
Speaker 3: to be thinking about what just happened, right. It basically
Speaker 3: you become a coach on the court and when you
Speaker 3: become a coach on the court, when you got five
Speaker 3: of them, man, you don't miss a lot of assignments.
Speaker 3: So anyway, i'll wrap the story up. So they're running
Speaker 3: these sprints. They have this huddle, run the next sprint.
Speaker 3: Guys are cheating, some guys are missing the line, and
Speaker 3: some guys are missing the time. Now you start to
Speaker 3: see the tempers come out a little bit, just a
Speaker 3: little bit though, right, you start to see, you know,
Speaker 3: but everything that was said, even with the you could
Speaker 3: you could hear the frustration of the voice. But there's
Speaker 3: come on, they're saying. And I'm not gonna say you
Speaker 3: who it was it was missing the time because I'm
Speaker 3: not going to embarrass anybody. Just just remember that it
Speaker 3: was usually me personally that was missing time that got
Speaker 3: yelled at. But I mean it was all I mean,
Speaker 3: I wouldn't say it was all positive, but it wasn't negative.
Speaker 3: It was it was come on, come on, man, you
Speaker 3: got this, come on lifting And then the best thing,
Speaker 3: so they run it again. The guys are missing lines,
Speaker 3: guys not making time. Now at this point, I'm feeling uncomfortable.
Speaker 3: I'm starting to get nervous. I'm like I don't know
Speaker 3: what's getting ready to happen, but things are getting ready
Speaker 3: to blow. The whole time, though, Mark got his hands
Speaker 3: behind his got his hands behind his, behind his back.
Speaker 3: He's just walking. He's not yelling, he's not saying a word.
Speaker 3: The only thing he's saying is on the line. They'd
Speaker 3: get up to get online, they'd run, they wouldn't make it.
Speaker 3: He'd he'd let them recover for you know, a little bit,
Speaker 3: just a very little bit on the line, wouldn't make
Speaker 3: it again, guys will be here all day. I mean
Speaker 3: everything is what Patino said, except just in a different
Speaker 3: tone of voice. So the last time, and I was
Speaker 3: waiting for this because I remember this happening with us
Speaker 3: is and I I was sitting next to the team psychologists.
Speaker 3: Do you know we have that now? No. Mark reached
Speaker 3: out to the Department of Psychology and said, I need
Speaker 3: Dall's help. Interesting, there has been a team psychologist. There
Speaker 3: has been a psychologist from the UK Department of Psychology
Speaker 3: at every practice for the last month, watching for the
Speaker 3: guys whose confidence might be slipping or something else is
Speaker 3: going on. They're watching and if they see something, they
Speaker 3: noticed something, they go straight to Pope and tell them
Speaker 3: it is again, this isn't groundbreaking, but man, it's just
Speaker 3: every small thing. There's no such thing as something too
Speaker 3: small to not deal with. And so the last time,
Speaker 3: and this is when my blood started boiling in a
Speaker 3: good way and I just started making I just like
Speaker 3: I was ready to run through walls. Is two guys.
Speaker 3: It just happened to be two of the guys that
Speaker 3: had been making every sprint and been hitting every line.
Speaker 3: They got up. Nothing had to be said. They got
Speaker 3: behind the two guys that had been missing the time
Speaker 3: the most, and they ran with them, meaning they kept
Speaker 3: them in front of them. They kept pushing them, they
Speaker 3: kept literally physically shoving them on forward. They kept encouraging them,
Speaker 3: and they chanced them not making the time and them
Speaker 3: not making the hitting the line just so they could
Speaker 3: cross the line with their teammate. And that third time,
Speaker 3: they all made it. And I mean you thought we
Speaker 3: had hung a banner in that moment. I mean it
Speaker 3: was just amazing because the team figured out how to
Speaker 3: hit the goal themselves.
Speaker 1: Cameron Mills in the garage will come back and learn
Speaker 1: more about Mark Pope's Kentucky team, the very first one.
Speaker 1: All kinds of new faces, lots of things to learn.
Speaker 1: That's ahead here on the Big Blue and Sider six
Speaker 1: thirty W L A B. Welcome Back Out number two
Speaker 1: Cameron Mills in the studio with us in the studio
Speaker 1: in the garage. If you want to say it that way,
Speaker 1: same thing. Yeah, what can you tell people about the
Speaker 1: offense other than we know they're going to shoot a
Speaker 1: lot of threes? But how different will it be compared
Speaker 1: to what we've seen in the past? And then do
Speaker 1: you like it?
Speaker 3: I love it because they're gonna shoo lot threes? Why
Speaker 3: would I hate that? They're not only gonna shoo lot threes?
Speaker 3: And I and I say, I say, yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: say this carefully because you know, look, I want.
Speaker 1: Man, I think that's real word that would count anywhere.
Speaker 1: But we'll look count of sound like would.
Speaker 3: But let's say this, would it? Yeah, there's just too
Speaker 3: many dudes on this team one through five that can
Speaker 3: hit can hit threes. I went to a practice a
Speaker 3: few weeks ago when they were doing kind of and
Speaker 3: I'm trying to think was it individual or was it
Speaker 3: maybe before they went home so maybe still still in
Speaker 3: the summer, they had broken everybody up. By two dudes
Speaker 3: every at every basket, and they had different They're each
Speaker 3: going to get one hundred threes off and they had
Speaker 3: different again again just like us. Again, this is this
Speaker 3: is just exactly you know. You don't you don't go
Speaker 3: through shooting threes so many passages you just catch and shoot,
Speaker 3: because that's not how it happens in a game. Right,
Speaker 3: you're moving, and you're moving at game speed, so you
Speaker 3: would have to make a game speed movement from the
Speaker 3: top of the key to the wing, from the wing
Speaker 3: to the corner, from the baseline or meaning from the
Speaker 3: from the block out to the corner right, and you're
Speaker 3: making these cuts game speed, and the coaches are hitting
Speaker 3: you with the passage, so you're catching shooting as you're
Speaker 3: going game speed. So this isn't just catch shoot, catch shoot,
Speaker 3: catch shoot without winded. You're getting winded. So there were
Speaker 3: two baskets that I was closest to, and that's only
Speaker 3: reason I'm bringing out because as a team, they hit
Speaker 3: some ungodly number of threes out of what were their
Speaker 3: thirteen fourteen dudes, So you got a was at a
Speaker 3: fourteen hundred threes out of fourteen hundred three attempts I
Speaker 3: mean as a team, they hit like twelve hundred or something.
Speaker 3: It was. I'm telling you that's what they hit. I
Speaker 3: don't know for a fact that's what they hit, but
Speaker 3: I don't like it. I sat there watching dudes just
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't remember a whole lot of missus,
Speaker 3: but the guys I were watching or I was watching,
Speaker 3: so they hit together. As a as a duo, they
Speaker 3: hit one hundred and seventy six out of two hundred.
Speaker 3: The basket next to them hit one hundred and seventy
Speaker 3: five out of two hundred, and those two, the four
Speaker 3: of them, they weren't even the best shooter of the day.
Speaker 3: That was Jackson. Jackson hit one hundred and seventy eight
Speaker 3: or I'm sorry, Jackson hit seventy eight. Because you only hit,
Speaker 3: you only shoot a hundred. Jackson hit seventy eight out
Speaker 3: of one hundred. So again, you're not guarded, makes a difference,
Speaker 3: but you are going game speed. So yes, that part
Speaker 3: of the offense I love. Here's another thing that I
Speaker 3: learned this week that I think some of the players
Speaker 3: have talked about publicly, but Mark emphasized on Monday, there's
Speaker 3: a thirty second shot clock. We are failing if we
Speaker 3: don't initiate the offense past half court with twenty seven
Speaker 3: seconds or more on that shot clock, which means we
Speaker 3: have three seconds from ball through the net, out of
Speaker 3: bounds in or rebound to get forty seven feet wow,
Speaker 3: three seconds. If we're not across that half court within
Speaker 3: twenty seven seconds left on that shot clock, we have
Speaker 3: failed on that possession, which gives us whatever our offense
Speaker 3: is going to be, whether we're going against his own,
Speaker 3: whether we're going main demand, whatever we're gonna run, we
Speaker 3: got time, right. I mean, you think about how many times,
Speaker 3: not just Kentucky, but in the past. You just take
Speaker 3: college basketball in general, where you got guys yo yoing
Speaker 3: the ball up the court. One of the great things
Speaker 3: about READ last year and DJ last year is they
Speaker 3: didn't do a whole lot of that. It was great
Speaker 3: to watch because they I mean, even on you know ball,
Speaker 3: take it out of bounce, they were busting it up
Speaker 3: because think about how much pressure that puts on the defense. Right,
Speaker 3: I mean, you got even it's not a fast break,
Speaker 3: but you got to get back like it's a fast break.
Speaker 3: And if I know anything about Pope as a teammate,
Speaker 3: I don't know this yet about him as a coach.
Speaker 3: I'm finding out his practice goes along, and I'm not
Speaker 3: asking anim these questions. I mean I will. It's not
Speaker 3: that I don't feel comfortable. I will. I just I'm not.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to stay out of his way and just
Speaker 3: watch practice and just kind of see what I can see.
Speaker 3: And if I really have a question, I might ask
Speaker 3: one of the assistants. But it's just one of those
Speaker 3: things where I believe Mark's goal because of how he
Speaker 3: played and how he was taught while he was here,
Speaker 3: which is the same as me. Is that whether we
Speaker 3: press forty minutes or not, the goal is we are
Speaker 3: going to wear our opponents out to the point where
Speaker 3: and I've told you this before, one of the greatest
Speaker 3: moments of my life, one most powerful, probably moments of
Speaker 3: my life, is we're playing some team and we are
Speaker 3: We're like the twelve minute mark of the first half,
Speaker 3: and we're up twenty. Of course we are. I'm in
Speaker 3: the game. We're up twenty, And to be clear, what
Speaker 3: I mean by is we're up twenty. Therefore I got
Speaker 3: to play, not we were up twenty because of me.
Speaker 3: I think most people understand that, but I had been
Speaker 3: in the game. I've been I've been playing well, I've
Speaker 3: been in the game. It mattered. And and again I'm
Speaker 3: not a defender that this is not this is not
Speaker 3: my millu.
Speaker 1: But nice word, thank you.
Speaker 3: I'm guarding guarding this guy. And you remember this because
Speaker 3: you know when you get tired under Patino and I'm
Speaker 3: assuming Pope, it's the same way. Because I've not seen
Speaker 3: any of this in practice. When you are tired, you
Speaker 3: don't you don't go down on your on your knees, right,
Speaker 3: you don't. You don't tug on your shorts. That's exactly right.
Speaker 3: You stand up, you put chands above your head. That's
Speaker 3: how you do. Now that makes it harder to breathe, Yes,
Speaker 3: that's the point, all right. It is expanding your cardiovascular system.
Speaker 3: It is making it harder to read. It is in
Speaker 3: a i'm all a little way, it's keeping you, it's
Speaker 3: getting you in better shape. But if you think about
Speaker 3: the offense has to start. Basically, we've just made or
Speaker 3: missed the basket. We got to get back because these
Speaker 3: duds are gonna I mean, they're gonna be there in
Speaker 3: three seconds. That's gonna wear a team out. So present
Speaker 3: or not pressing the goals to wear a team out.
Speaker 3: So when I was playing, and again, it's just it's
Speaker 3: one of those moments, one of the moments you remember
Speaker 3: because you're like, that's why I play at Kentucky. That's
Speaker 3: why I wanted to come to Kentucky. That's why we're
Speaker 3: national champions. Because I think this was the ninety seven season.
Speaker 3: After we won in ninety six, obviously it was I
Speaker 3: was playing and we're playing and it wasn't it wasn't
Speaker 3: a big team. It was like a mid major team.
Speaker 3: But because of our scouting report and because we were
Speaker 3: just in the best shape of anyone in the country,
Speaker 3: and we knew that, and we were told that's what
Speaker 3: was one of the motivating factors to get us through
Speaker 3: those hard treadmill workouts, those hard preseason workouts, the hard practices.
Speaker 3: Is no one is working as hard as you, or
Speaker 3: no one is working harder than you. That's what was said.
Speaker 3: It was also said someone might be working as hard
Speaker 3: as you, but no one's working harder than you. So
Speaker 3: we're down under our basket, there's a dead ball, and
Speaker 3: the guy I'm guarding he's bending over and we're just
Speaker 3: twelve minutes into the game or eight minutes in the game,
Speaker 3: he's tucking on his shorts and just that he looks
Speaker 3: up at me and look, this is an arrogant moment
Speaker 3: on my have, but I couldn't help it. And for me,
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm the last person that should be saying
Speaker 3: what I said to this dude. He says, dude, man,
Speaker 3: y'all know our plays better than we do. I'm like,
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 1: You know our plays better than we I said, I
Speaker 1: know we do.
Speaker 3: He said, what were you still pressing for? And I said,
Speaker 3: I'll never forget. I said this because I knew the moment,
Speaker 3: I said, I kind of chuckled inside. I said, you arrogant. Yeah,
Speaker 3: just you cocky dude, I said. I looked at him,
Speaker 3: and I said, actually, I don't even think I looked
Speaker 3: at him. I think that because I was. I was.
Speaker 3: It was one of those things where you just the
Speaker 3: pride was up in you and you just feel like
Speaker 3: belittling your competition. I mean, we're up twenty. There's still
Speaker 3: thirty two minutes off to go on this game. The
Speaker 3: game is no longer in doubt. We're killing this team.
Speaker 3: Guys suck and win. How much long are y'all gonna press?
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, if we started pressing, Oh oh, well
Speaker 3: we won't stop. If we started, we won't stop. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 3: next thirty two minutes, we just getting started, buddy. It
Speaker 3: was so belittling.
Speaker 1: It was so just.
Speaker 3: I mean, Pordue was down. Portue was just I mean,
Speaker 3: and they couldn't. I mean, look, they didn't have the
Speaker 3: talent we had. But it's just you're it's built into you,
Speaker 3: like you're not gonna out work us.
Speaker 1: And you know what was funny about that was the
Speaker 1: longer Betina was here, the less his team's pressed because
Speaker 1: they were so you guys were so good at half
Speaker 1: court man deed man, but just the thought of it,
Speaker 1: everybody had to spend so much time preparing for it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that you guys had won the game mentally by the
Speaker 1: time you stepped out on the court many times, not
Speaker 1: every night.
Speaker 3: I'm glad you brought that up because I think that
Speaker 3: that's what That's one I think a lot of people
Speaker 3: didn't understand, and I didn't understand it when I first
Speaker 3: got there, is it's not none of this is about
Speaker 3: physical condition. It's about mental condition. Your body will keep
Speaker 3: going until you tell it, you can stop. And the
Speaker 3: goal of the hard practices and of the unrelenting storm
Speaker 3: that is brought on by your head coach, whether it's
Speaker 3: quietly the way Mark does it, or way whether it's
Speaker 3: loud with a lot of cousins the way goes b
Speaker 3: does it, the goal is to mentally prepare you for
Speaker 3: never quitting. And that was the thing because we were
Speaker 3: taught and Mark is a perfect example. Mark talked as
Speaker 3: a player. He talked about I mean, I remember the
Speaker 3: phrases Mark would use. We embrace adversity, right, this is
Speaker 3: this is our team captain. This is not our head coach,
Speaker 3: our team captain. We embrace adversity. Things would go wrong
Speaker 3: in practice, guys, let's go. Let's embrace this. This is
Speaker 3: what makes us better and part of us Like, man,
Speaker 3: shut up, we're tired. He's like, we embrace this. And
Speaker 3: then it would be like, hey, guys, this is we
Speaker 3: we win. We win championships by hitting those lines. You know.
Speaker 1: My favorite one of my favorite stories from the ninety
Speaker 1: eight documentary that we did Yeah, was you guys. You
Speaker 1: and Shep and Allen when we talked to you together
Speaker 1: talked about in terms of being in shape. You're down
Speaker 1: ten in the championship game to Utah, but you ran
Speaker 1: off the floor, ran past them a full mile back
Speaker 1: to that locker and you could it really was in
Speaker 1: the thin air and you could tell that they were
Speaker 1: dragging on the walk floor.
Speaker 3: Well, remember there was a third year in a row
Speaker 3: we had played Utah. We always knew, or at least
Speaker 3: we learned, this is a team that were in better shape.
Speaker 1: But you know you had him at that point because
Speaker 1: she shep said.
Speaker 3: Jep pointed it out to us. He pointed out once
Speaker 3: we got in the huddle after the half half halftime talk,
Speaker 3: he said, guys, did you notice the way they left
Speaker 3: out the court?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I don't know anybody did, but he did.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: And again that's what the captain should do.
Speaker 1: Well A Ray come back and talk more basketball with
Speaker 1: Cameron Mills here on the Big Blue Siders six thirty
Speaker 1: w LAP. Welcome back to the garage with Cameron Mills,
Speaker 1: who has been spending some time watching Mark Pope's teams
Speaker 1: practice and you can see Cameron's reports on the UK
Speaker 1: Sports Network of digital sites on x.
Speaker 3: Or Are they gonna put him on FACEBA, Facebook? I think,
Speaker 3: I think, I think They even put it on ucastlegs
Speaker 3: dot com.
Speaker 1: Different practice reports from Cameron. Obviously there are Beatino type
Speaker 1: carryovers when it comes to drills and plays, But in
Speaker 1: terms of the way he's doing business as a coach,
Speaker 1: what else is Mark Pope doing?
Speaker 3: It's unique, yeah, unique because that that's that's the one
Speaker 3: thing I remember you. We have a we have a
Speaker 3: You have a colleague in town that has a radio
Speaker 3: show named Alan Cutler and Alan I was on his
Speaker 3: show this is way back in the summer and he
Speaker 3: was getting he had gotten an interview. He's gonna have
Speaker 3: interview with Pope play that week. And he asked me,
Speaker 3: who was on love? I love how you did this.
Speaker 3: I've been asking people, you know, to give me questions
Speaker 3: to ask Pope. I'm like, man, do your own job.
Speaker 3: So but I love Alan, But I gave him one,
Speaker 3: I said, because I didn't talked to Pope about this yet.
Speaker 3: I want to know what kind of what you and
Speaker 3: I were talking about earlier. What did you take from
Speaker 3: Patino that you still implement and what did you leave behind? Right?
Speaker 3: And I'm starting I've started to see some of that,
Speaker 3: and I've also started to see some of the ways
Speaker 3: that Mark brilliantly implements a Patino tactic, but in his
Speaker 3: own Mark Pope way. Yes, and again that's just man.
Speaker 3: I just get chills watch it happen because I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: I know what he's doing. He's not doing it the
Speaker 3: way our coach did it, but he's doing it. But
Speaker 3: one of the things that coach p never did. I've
Speaker 3: never seen a coach do this. I'm not saying they haven't,
Speaker 3: and I'm not saying this is some genius, brilliant idea.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying it seems special in an athletic environment.
Speaker 3: Is at the end of practice on Monday, and I
Speaker 3: don't know if they have been doing this for a while.
Speaker 3: I haven't seen it. This first time I saw it.
Speaker 3: Mark gives him his last minute talk, and part of
Speaker 3: that talk was what I think you and I talked
Speaker 3: about earlier, is the difference between what it takes to
Speaker 3: be in the Final four and what it takes to
Speaker 3: win the banner right to hang the banner. And we're
Speaker 3: not here to get in the final four. We're here
Speaker 3: to hang the banner. So he's talking to him about
Speaker 3: the little things, and he's doing his low voice. He's saying, guys, look,
Speaker 3: I know you think we're being sticklers. I know you
Speaker 3: think we're being hard on you. You have to understand
Speaker 3: every team does what you're doing. We have to do
Speaker 3: the little the extra step we have to go. And
Speaker 3: it's like I said about the lines and the sprints.
Speaker 3: We can't cheat on the lines. Final four teams cheat
Speaker 3: on the lines, Banner hanging teams, hit the line or
Speaker 3: go beyond the line. That's what you have to do.
Speaker 3: So at the end of practice, he gives that little
Speaker 3: speech and I'm I mean, I just just like I've
Speaker 3: told people that I'm ready to I'm not even a player,
Speaker 3: I'm not even in shape. I'm like, dudelet's what do
Speaker 3: you want me to do. I'll run through brick wall
Speaker 3: for you. Right now, let's go. The team huddles up
Speaker 3: and it's not a huddle like everybody in like they
Speaker 3: do that too, But before they do that, it's a
Speaker 3: big circle arms around everybody, right, great, Bure, just a team,
Speaker 3: just a team, and Pope none of the other coaches.
Speaker 3: Players only And I felt bad because I wanted to
Speaker 3: be in it. I'm like, I kept kind of sneaking close,
Speaker 3: like you want me in this players only just Mark
Speaker 3: and I don't know what they call it, but I
Speaker 3: call it the thank you circle because what they did
Speaker 3: is Mark started it off and he he he singled
Speaker 3: out a player. And again just because Marcus Mark is
Speaker 3: very very careful about he don't want any of his
Speaker 3: players called out good or bad right now. He doesn't.
Speaker 3: He doesn't want any like, you know, if somebody's doing
Speaker 3: really really well, he doesn't. He you know, just look
Speaker 3: just it's team. It's all about team right now. I
Speaker 3: get him. So, so he called out a player.
Speaker 1: He doesn't stop practiced or recognize.
Speaker 3: Oh no, no, oh no, no, no, absolutely he does,
Speaker 3: absolute absolutely. What do you mean what I'm saying is
Speaker 3: by me? Like when I come to a practice support
Speaker 3: like you know, he wants to make sure like hey man, Cam,
Speaker 3: don't don't you know, don't, don't mention the player, don't
Speaker 3: Minchian based, don't Minchian Bay's name, like he don't want
Speaker 3: any of his players individualized right now, good or bad.
Speaker 3: I think certainly bad. And and not that I would
Speaker 3: do that anyway, because that's not why I'm there, right.
Speaker 1: I should cross off the question about who has impressed
Speaker 1: you the most?
Speaker 3: I can answer that, but I didn't even I mean, shoot,
Speaker 3: they all have I mean they I mean they all
Speaker 3: have those moments. Yeah, back to thank you circle. So
Speaker 3: Mark starts it off and he says, I want to.
Speaker 3: I want to, And it's all about gratitude. It's all
Speaker 3: about and again it's the end of a two hour
Speaker 3: long marathon, and marathon because they never stopped moving marathon practice.
Speaker 3: They're just sucking in. They're so happy that practice won.
Speaker 3: If banner banner banner Banner Camp has done, we got
Speaker 3: like twelve more, I guess. But I want to. I
Speaker 3: want to thank so and so. And he mentioned a
Speaker 3: player and I will say he is one of our
Speaker 3: Kentucky boys. And I could not tell what Mark said
Speaker 3: about him. But he was thankful for the way he was.
Speaker 3: He was thankful for his attitude. He was thankful for
Speaker 3: all the learning he had done in the last few weeks.
Speaker 3: He was he was thankful for all of the strides
Speaker 3: he had made in the last few weeks. Now it's
Speaker 3: that person's job and someone else in that circle and
Speaker 3: to thank them. And I thought we were going to
Speaker 3: go around and hit all fourteen guys. We didn't. I
Speaker 3: think at some point they probably will, but for time's sake,
Speaker 3: because again it's all freaking n C double A and
Speaker 3: their stupid rules they've got, you know.
Speaker 1: Sure design to protect you from Rick Bettino.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was, and look again, I was thankful for
Speaker 3: him then. I don't think they should exist anymore. But
Speaker 3: it was just so special to watch the guys go
Speaker 3: around and have to have because this is a big
Speaker 3: thing for some of these guys.
Speaker 1: You talk about being spot exactly, to talk.
Speaker 3: Out loud in front of your teammates and be vulnerable
Speaker 3: and say, I'm thankful for so and so for what
Speaker 3: he's taught me this week. I'm thankful for so and
Speaker 3: so for what he taught me today about going further
Speaker 3: than I think my body was going to allow me
Speaker 3: to go. I mean, yeah, you just in your thinking,
Speaker 3: My god, these guys love each other and if they
Speaker 3: don't now, they better, they better soon because Mark's going
Speaker 3: to force it into them. But I think the one
Speaker 3: thing Mark would tell you about the ninety six team,
Speaker 3: and I would even say the ninety five team, even
Speaker 3: though we got beat in the lead eight, is that.
Speaker 3: And you you know this from interviewing the ninety sixteen
Speaker 3: and doing the ninety six documentary, ninety eight documentary is
Speaker 3: Man It Is and this is why you and I
Speaker 3: I think love Shorsey And if you don't, If you
Speaker 3: don't know, folks, let me tell you some if you
Speaker 3: want to know what it's like playing sports at a
Speaker 3: high level. Even though Shorty's not about playing well, it.
Speaker 1: Is at an intense.
Speaker 3: Level, at a brotherly level, at a.
Speaker 1: By the way, it's about hockey.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's about hockey and man it makes It is
Speaker 3: on It's on Hulu. It's on HULUO. I think actually
Speaker 3: it might be on Netflix now. But it started off
Speaker 3: with the show Letter Kenny. It there was a sound
Speaker 3: yep that doesn't exist. It's a hysterical dialogue, so well written.
Speaker 3: And then they did a spin off on one of
Speaker 3: the characters from Letter Kenny and called it Shorty. And
Speaker 3: it's all about a guy who is at the end
Speaker 3: of his hockey career and just won't quit because he
Speaker 3: doesn't know what to do after hockey. And I mean
Speaker 3: the lessons that the lessons of teammates, the lessons of
Speaker 3: brotherly love, the lessons of go until you die, the
Speaker 3: lessons of if you can't win, don't play.
Speaker 1: Oh. So they weave it in and out. So I
Speaker 1: gotta tell you before we hit the next break. Cameron
Speaker 1: and I were fortunate enough. I guess it was last
Speaker 1: year we did again the TV on the Blue White
Speaker 1: game up in northern Kentucky. So we're talking about anything
Speaker 1: and everything but the.
Speaker 3: Game, but the game. On the way home, the Blue
Speaker 3: guy and he asked me, have.
Speaker 1: You seen Letterkenny? And I said, I've seen it. Listen, Oh,
Speaker 1: you gotta watch this.
Speaker 3: So he pulls it up on his phone, driving you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so and so you made me watch the first
Speaker 1: episode and then I watched it. I thought, well, this
Speaker 1: is worth the look. And I start to hand it back.
Speaker 1: He goas, no, no pull ups. Second, keep going, keep going,
Speaker 1: I will. I will watch the rest at home and
Speaker 1: what happened. And I got hooked on it. In fact,
Speaker 1: I binged it quicker than you.
Speaker 3: I've yet to finish it. I don't want to finish
Speaker 3: it because I want to end. I want to Letterkennedy in.
Speaker 3: I've finally cut up and watched season two of Suresy,
Speaker 3: but season three just came out. But and it is
Speaker 3: and I love that. But it's got so much heart
Speaker 3: about what it takes you rate similar. That's why it
Speaker 3: means something to me is because I look at what
Speaker 3: they're saying to each other, and they're not saying nice
Speaker 3: things in a nice way. They're not This is parents.
Speaker 3: It's not a clean show okay at all. But there
Speaker 3: are so many lessons in there that are so precisely
Speaker 3: what happens if you want to be great at a
Speaker 3: team sport. There's so much sacrifices talked about. There's some
Speaker 3: I mean, you know when they when they get the equipment,
Speaker 3: you know, between season one and two, sures what are
Speaker 3: you gonna do? And he he looks over at the
Speaker 3: weight room, it says, that's what I'm gonna do. He
Speaker 3: doesn't say it, but it's just implied. It's like, it's
Speaker 3: just I'm gonna work harder, right, I mean, it's just
Speaker 3: I freaking love this show. My first practice report, I
Speaker 3: had a shirt on this said set the tone. He's
Speaker 3: gonna set the tone. And I got my handslapped by
Speaker 3: Jay am I saying can we wear some Kentucky gear?
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I was recording the practice report that day, but I
Speaker 3: had that shirt on it. I love that shirt, but
Speaker 3: it's just it's just watching watching Mark know what it
Speaker 3: takes because you look, you've got the coach out there
Speaker 3: that have won national championships as coaches. There aren't too
Speaker 3: many that have won as players. There are some, there
Speaker 3: aren't too many, And there definitely aren't too many that
Speaker 3: have won as players that are Rhodes Scholar candidates that
Speaker 3: are absolutely geniuses and are so intellectual.
Speaker 1: It's also played in the NBA under a guy named
Speaker 1: Larry Bird and played for four different really good creations.
Speaker 3: Yeah but Larry Bird, Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: Cars, I know, I know, you're right. We'll played in Europe,
Speaker 1: so it was part of that kind of community. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so many lessons to learn.
Speaker 3: And everything they says is authentic.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: And that's what I hope people learn that they haven't
Speaker 3: learned already. This is not fake enthusiasm, folks, This is
Speaker 3: Mark pop enthusiasm.
Speaker 1: One more break and we'll talk more basketball with Camera
Speaker 1: Mills on the other side here on six thirty WLP.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Garage final segment with Camera Mills.
Speaker 1: We always love having camera here because it goes by
Speaker 1: so quickly, but.
Speaker 3: Because you have an easy show, because you don't have
Speaker 3: to talk or think I just ramble for an hour
Speaker 3: it that's.
Speaker 1: True, but it's not as easy as you think, because
Speaker 1: I have to keep you on time topic and I
Speaker 1: have to make sure you get here. So anyhow, I
Speaker 1: have to wrangle Cameron Mills. I do want to in
Speaker 1: your You're a lot like Cali Perry. One question segment done,
Speaker 1: which is a good thing. And I've got a list
Speaker 1: of questions I'm not.
Speaker 3: Going to get to, but surely I've answered them.
Speaker 1: In some way. Yeah, you kind of surround. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I do want to specifically with I know, you know,
Speaker 1: poping w to sing a laugh, but I'm not asking
Speaker 1: you to praise them. Yeah, but the freshman uh trend
Speaker 1: Noah and Travis Perry. Of course they're playing with a
Speaker 1: lot of older guys. And well, okay, that's my question.
Speaker 1: What have you seen in those guys?
Speaker 3: So what I've seen with those guys is because you've
Speaker 3: got again three of them, Yeah, yeah, right right. It's
Speaker 3: not just Trent and Travis, the Kentucky guys, but you've
Speaker 3: got Colin who you know, Mark Colin Chandler who Mark
Speaker 3: recruiter from BYU. He went on to your Mormon mission
Speaker 3: and now he's back but these are the smallest, not
Speaker 3: just high wise, right. I mean Trent's actually probably the
Speaker 3: biggest of the three. Yea, I mean he's Trent's a
Speaker 3: strong dude. Yeah, and the and the and the toss
Speaker 3: of the of the three. But they're young again. We're
Speaker 3: back with those three. We're back to the Caliperry eighteen
Speaker 3: year old recruits, right, That's who these guys are. They're freshmen,
Speaker 3: and they look like every other freshman looks. They look
Speaker 3: like Tony Delk looked when he got here. They look
Speaker 3: like all of us look well, some of us looked
Speaker 3: a lot bigger when they got here, but they look
Speaker 3: like os. But they're forced because again they're they're practicing, right,
Speaker 3: I mean they are, they're forced to learn these lessons.
Speaker 3: I mean, they are getting the notot beaten out of
Speaker 3: them by some grown men in their fifth year of
Speaker 3: college basketball, and it is nothing but good for them.
Speaker 3: And the cool thing is is that they're getting shots off,
Speaker 3: they're handling themselves defensively, they're having breakdowns, but they're all
Speaker 3: having breakdowns. I mean, they're just they're playing well. Now,
Speaker 3: will that turn into these guys getting a lot of clock,
Speaker 3: I don't know. It might, but boy, they get there's
Speaker 3: a lot of talent on that team with a lot
Speaker 3: of experience that they're gonna have to overcome. But what's
Speaker 3: cool to me is that they're getting their run and
Speaker 3: they're learning what it takes physically mentally to be in
Speaker 3: the game if they get their chance. And because this
Speaker 3: is a team that I think is gonna go up
Speaker 3: and down, and obviously it's why everyone time it seems
Speaker 3: gonna jack up forty threes a game.
Speaker 1: We'll shoot.
Speaker 3: You can't got two guys, probably three, I'm I'll throw
Speaker 3: calling in there, but I know Trent and Travis. Those
Speaker 3: dads are gonna shoot forty five percent. I mean, they
Speaker 3: just they just they don't miss shots. It's just a
Speaker 3: matter of conditioning with them. And to be real, I
Speaker 3: think it's a matter of conditioning for all these guys
Speaker 3: because I don't think they've ever been asked to work
Speaker 3: as hard as Hoope is going to ask them to work.
Speaker 1: All Right, I'm almost at a midway point of this
Speaker 1: final segment, so I.
Speaker 3: Want to jump in thank you for giving me that
Speaker 3: time frame, so I have will to shut up, But
Speaker 3: I do want to ask you.
Speaker 1: About expectations you've you've grown up here, your dad played here,
Speaker 1: you've played, you got two rings, all that stuff. Everybody knows.
Speaker 1: You also know the big Blue Nation inside and out.
Speaker 1: And right now, I don't want to push your button
Speaker 1: and talk about preseason polls.
Speaker 3: But uh, now you sure because it sounds like you're
Speaker 3: getting ready.
Speaker 1: To No, I'm not right, but there are no there
Speaker 1: there don't. It doesn't seem to be a lot. There
Speaker 1: aren't don't seem to be a lot of expectations good
Speaker 1: uh from national media. It don't matter I know, or
Speaker 1: fans about this team. What what do you think they
Speaker 1: can reasonably expect from this team?
Speaker 3: I think the reason there's no expectation from the fans
Speaker 3: because there's no expectation from the national media. The national
Speaker 3: media had been had been saying all along, Hey, this
Speaker 3: is a team to beat. I think the fans would
Speaker 3: think that because I think the fans go by what
Speaker 3: the national media thinks, because look, they don't know, they're
Speaker 3: not in practice.
Speaker 1: They And the thing about this team fans media, he
Speaker 1: knew one of them, Yeah, you.
Speaker 3: Know, I mean Jimmy Didyx was in practice the other day.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, And the biggest thing he did.
Speaker 3: And the biggest thing he that you know, that made
Speaker 3: the biggest news was all the NBA posters are gone,
Speaker 3: which it was weeks ago, it was months ago. That
Speaker 3: was the summer when that happened.
Speaker 1: Jimmy wasn't there.
Speaker 3: I was, and I said it. I just didn't get
Speaker 3: credit for it. But I'm not bitter, but you tweeted,
Speaker 3: I'm not bitter about that. I believe I put in
Speaker 3: a practice report. I'm not sure. I can't. I can't.
Speaker 3: I can't guarantee that I by the way, by the way,
Speaker 3: I'm joking. I love Jimmy, but I keep seeing these things.
Speaker 3: And you can say you don't want to push my buttons,
Speaker 3: you can pushed my buttons because you brought it up.
Speaker 3: I keep seeing these things. I keep seeing these things
Speaker 3: that people like UK is still not respected good. I
Speaker 3: don't want us to be respected right now. Who gives
Speaker 3: a rats behind what we're ranked in August September? It
Speaker 3: does not matter at all? Do you think Mark Pope
Speaker 3: one time, I've been at six practices, I haven't heard this,
Speaker 3: and I guarantee he's never said, guys, listen, I'm really
Speaker 3: concerned about what our preseason ranking is do you think
Speaker 3: that has ever come up? And it will never come up.
Speaker 3: It won't because it never came up when he was
Speaker 3: a player. Coach Patino never brought up our rankings because
Speaker 3: it didn't matter.
Speaker 1: You are always a hunted team.
Speaker 3: Doesn't matter. He never brought that up. All that we
Speaker 3: talk about is that under everything that yes, everything we
Speaker 3: talk about on this side, which is we get everybody's
Speaker 3: suit where everybody's super Bowl. Coach p never said that.
Speaker 1: We knew that.
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter what the national media thinks, because the
Speaker 3: keyword is there thinks. There's a reason we play these
Speaker 3: game games, and the games work out who is the
Speaker 3: best team. So all that matters is March and technically
Speaker 3: the end of the beginning of April. That's all that matters.
Speaker 3: And as Mark mentioned it, all we know the assignment
Speaker 3: to be pre season number one. Has anybody heard that?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: What has he said? We know the assignment and he
Speaker 3: points to the banners. You don't hang banners for preseason garbage.
Speaker 1: You know what you need to do is adopt his
Speaker 1: technique of leaning in and whispering when it comes.
Speaker 3: I'm more happy with shouting its stupidity easily see it's
Speaker 3: just so frustrating. I mean, I realize, I realize our
Speaker 3: ego wants to be mentioned among the number one teams.
Speaker 3: I don't care right now, my ego gets hurt if
Speaker 3: we're not number one in April, right, because that's all
Speaker 3: that matters.
Speaker 1: You got about a minute and a half. What kind
Speaker 1: of defense have you seen them work on?
Speaker 3: There will be I think there will be his own
Speaker 3: I've said that before. Well, I'm almost positive there will be.
Speaker 3: I don't think Marcus is constrained by you know, maybe
Speaker 3: Cow's attitude towards it. Not premarily Zone or No, No,
Speaker 3: I don't think so. I think it'll be primarily Man,
Speaker 3: But I think I think more in the realm of Patino.
Speaker 3: It depends on who we're playing, right, It depends on
Speaker 3: who Because I think the scouting reports are going to
Speaker 3: be similar to what we had, because Mark knows that works.
Speaker 3: Yeah sometimes even when we didn't read him. Mark knows
Speaker 3: preparation matters. And again he doesn't miss the small thing.
Speaker 3: So I think you'll see a lot of whatever he thinks,
Speaker 3: or the coach that has that scout, or the coaching
Speaker 3: staff together, whatever they think gives us the greatest advantage
Speaker 3: over who we're playing. That's kind of defense. Will play.
Speaker 3: If that means we're going full court forty minutes press,
Speaker 3: we will. If that means we're going two three trapping corners,
Speaker 3: we will, one three one trapping corners, we will. If
Speaker 3: that means we're playing man to man picking up kind
Speaker 3: of a you know, cowards press or whatever it's called,
Speaker 3: which I hate, we will. Whatever we need to do,
Speaker 3: we will.
Speaker 1: Thanks for coming by. Always fun.
Speaker 3: You don't want more, I got more?
Speaker 1: Well, you can keep talking, but I got to sign off.
Speaker 3: I'll go home, Susan. Susan will love to hear it.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: Now you've got me fired up, trust me.
Speaker 1: He was fired up when I opened the garage door.
Speaker 1: But we do appreciate Cameron coming by, and he's right,
Speaker 1: it's kind of an easy show because I just sit
Speaker 1: back and listen. Thanks again to Cameron. That's a good
Speaker 1: night from the garage in Lexington. Now the three two
Speaker 1: swing on a pop fowl back here? How how it
Speaker 1: really hit me? I didn't know it was coming back
Speaker 1: that far