Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Moon Cider Day Abroe with you
Speaker 1: Friday edition of our show. It is the eve of
Speaker 1: game day, and not just any game, and it is
Speaker 1: the beginning of Southeastern Conference play. Tomorrow, the Wildcats take
Speaker 1: on those Florida Gators eleven a m. You'll hear it
Speaker 1: right here on six thirty WLAP. Why eleven am, as
Speaker 1: always television. I don't know any other details, guarantee you
Speaker 1: that's why. So start your day off with Kentucky in
Speaker 1: its first SEC game, and it's gonna be tough. The
Speaker 1: SEC is gonna be a bloodbath all year long. The
Speaker 1: worst team in the league right now in terms of
Speaker 1: win loss record South Carolina at ten and three. I've
Speaker 1: not seen a lot of SEC games other than Kentucky.
Speaker 1: I have to admit I've paid more attention to football.
Speaker 1: But I've seen Alabama play, I've seen Auburn play. Man,
Speaker 1: are they good? It's gonna be tough. I think Kentucky
Speaker 1: has picked the finish middle of the pack that may
Speaker 1: indeed happen. And I know how good the Wildcats have
Speaker 1: looked at times, but we saw what happened against Ohio State.
Speaker 1: Not a great team. Against Clemson, not a great team.
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, we see them come back
Speaker 1: against Gonzaga and Duke. Now those teams played different styles,
Speaker 1: and Clemson and Ohio State not nearly as physical, So
Speaker 1: Kentucky's gonna need to learn to bang and battle in
Speaker 1: the Southeastern Conference. These guys have come together playing together
Speaker 1: for the first time against SEC teams which likewise have
Speaker 1: been cobbled together. But the better teams, of course are
Speaker 1: the veteran ball clubs. So it's gonna be fun. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be wild. Just try to be patient because everything
Speaker 1: now is so vitally pointing toward March. And you got
Speaker 1: tired of hearing that with John Caliperi, But that's because
Speaker 1: his teams were so up and down, I think with
Speaker 1: those true freshmen. But it's gonna be fun. Of all else,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be fun, and you'll hear it right here.
Speaker 1: Speaking of fun, how much fun was last night's UK
Speaker 1: women's game. Kentucky opened up SEC playing the women's side,
Speaker 1: blew out Mississippi State ninety one to sixty nine, and
Speaker 1: State kept trying to come back, trying to come back.
Speaker 1: Kentucky went on a run late first half early second half,
Speaker 1: but Mississippi State kept getting to the basket and making shots.
Speaker 1: Fortunately for the Wildcats, the Bulldog could not hit three pointers.
Speaker 1: And that's what Kentucky did better than it ever has.
Speaker 1: In fact, Wildcats has set a record eighteen made three pointers,
Speaker 1: the previous record sixteen set four years ago. In twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: Kentucky has made at least ten triples in three of
Speaker 1: its last four games. And this is not a team
Speaker 1: that at the beginning of the year we heard, oh,
Speaker 1: they're gonna shoot a lot of threes, They're gonna make
Speaker 1: a lot of threes the way we did the men's team.
Speaker 1: But it's happening that way. It's the fifth time Kentucky's
Speaker 1: made at least three ten threes in games this season.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna live and die with the three pointers.
Speaker 1: It's gonna live and die with what the Cats can
Speaker 1: get done in the paint. And Kentucky did a great
Speaker 1: job last night because the three pointer opened up the
Speaker 1: paint for the Wildcats. But Kentucky with all that side
Speaker 1: Clara Strack and Silva and Key, they did the job
Speaker 1: last night against Mississippi State. Ninety one points tied for
Speaker 1: the largest margin of victory for Kentucky and an SEC opener,
Speaker 1: and was the most points scored in an SEC opener
Speaker 1: in the history of UK women's basketball, So all kinds
Speaker 1: of milestones. Last night, Dojah Lawrence had a game I
Speaker 1: and season I twenty eight points three I'm sorry, seven
Speaker 1: three pointers, their second twenty point game this season. Of course,
Speaker 1: Georgia Amore the outstanding point guard I had twenty seven points.
Speaker 1: She had seven three pointers and she hit a lot
Speaker 1: of hers on the run. Lawrence was spotting up in
Speaker 1: the corner or on the wings, did a great job
Speaker 1: doing that. Aymore, of course, is perpetual motion and not
Speaker 1: only hitting shots. She had nine assists for the second
Speaker 1: straight game, by the way, first player in program history
Speaker 1: to have at least twenty seven points and nine assists
Speaker 1: in the same game, so watching her shoot on the
Speaker 1: run pretty incredible. She will be the head of the snake.
Speaker 1: Of course, most point guards are for SEC opponents coming in,
Speaker 1: but then you get Amelia Hasset, who can score from outside.
Speaker 1: The birthday girl. She had three three pointers and Taoni
Speaker 1: Key was absolutely wicked tough on the boards ten points,
Speaker 1: thirteen rebounds, tied to a career high, and had her
Speaker 1: sixth double double this season. Clara Strack sixty five, seven points,
Speaker 1: eleven rebounds. So Kentucky looked good last night. Kentucky now
Speaker 1: twelve and one. Next up for the women Vanderbilt in
Speaker 1: Nashville on Sunday three o'clock. You'll hear it right here
Speaker 1: with Darren Heddrick. It'll be on SEC Plus as well,
Speaker 1: justin Rowland the catch illustrated. We'll talk Kentucky football for
Speaker 1: the most part. We're going to talk about the portal
Speaker 1: and how the Wildcats had done so far. A little
Speaker 1: bit later on Christy Thomas at the SEC Network. She
Speaker 1: worked last night's game. Scott Brown, a freelance writer who
Speaker 1: wrote Reggie Wharford. Scott Brown, a freelance writer who wrote
Speaker 1: a book about Reggie Wharford, the first African American basketball
Speaker 1: player at Kentucky to graduate, will join us in nowur
Speaker 1: number two and a few minutes. We're going to talk
Speaker 1: about Eddie grand because I posted something on Twitter that
Speaker 1: got all kinds of responses from UK fans good and
Speaker 1: bad about Eddie Grant. Really interesting, but I got to
Speaker 1: share with you. I comment from a man, Charles Barkley,
Speaker 1: who was kind of going back and forth via Inside
Speaker 1: the NBA on TNT with JJ Riddick, who claims that,
Speaker 1: among other things, NBA ratings TV ratings are down because
Speaker 1: of the criticism of the product. On TNT, Sir Charles
Speaker 1: clap back at him.
Speaker 2: She's just talking about TV. He said something about with
Speaker 2: the reason people aren't watching this craftic product we got JJ. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I like we out.
Speaker 1: There jacking up one hundred trees to night. JJ. I
Speaker 1: don know Jason Monroe.
Speaker 3: I don't know who that is, but JJ, you come
Speaker 3: for the king.
Speaker 1: You been not missed.
Speaker 2: And I can't get you, brother, because I got Remember,
Speaker 2: I got your Lakers games.
Speaker 1: You can't hope them flaws.
Speaker 4: They got.
Speaker 2: You just a dead man walking. They got rid of
Speaker 2: Frank Vogel, who did a good job.
Speaker 1: They got rid of Darbnham, who did a good job.
Speaker 1: But you came out that thing and you were gonna
Speaker 1: change things with that same ugly girl you went on
Speaker 1: to hate with.
Speaker 4: Sixty fifty one was your halftime score.
Speaker 2: We get back to the highlights. I think it came
Speaker 2: in at thinking I can make this thing worse. Here.
Speaker 2: You can.
Speaker 4: Legus steak Man, okay Man Tatum.
Speaker 1: By the way, I love it and Charles ain't wrong.
Speaker 1: Everybody jacking up threes now, but everybody's trying to be
Speaker 1: like the Warriors. And if you don't have Steph Curry
Speaker 1: and Klay Thompson and Steve Kurr running the show, you
Speaker 1: ain't gonna look like that NBA champion Warriors. So Barkley
Speaker 1: coming from the top rope and I love it. We'll
Speaker 1: talk Eddie grand next on six thirty w l A p.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider. I wanted
Speaker 1: to go over some tweets that have popped up in
Speaker 1: my profile because the other day somebody posted a clip
Speaker 1: from gosh, what was it twenty nineteen when Lynn Bowden
Speaker 1: ran for ran all over the SEC and helped leat
Speaker 1: Kentucky to the Belk Bowl victory, And that entire season
Speaker 1: was just so weird because you know what happened. All
Speaker 1: Kentucky's quarterbacks went down and they stick Bowden in a
Speaker 1: quarterback and he just took over and the Kentucky offense,
Speaker 1: they completely changed the offense. Yeah, a lot of it
Speaker 1: was Lynn doing things, but it was also the offensive
Speaker 1: line in formations and play calling and a little bit
Speaker 1: of passing, including the last play of the Belk Bowl,
Speaker 1: the last offensive play for Kentucky when Bowden throws a
Speaker 1: touchdown pass and I tweeted, I retweeted the clips. Somebody
Speaker 1: had shared the highlights from the Belkboll. In fact, it
Speaker 1: was the Kentucky Network, not the UK network, but whoever
Speaker 1: goes by that. And I just tweeted, Eddie gran We'll
Speaker 1: never get enough credit for what he did with the
Speaker 1: offense that season. Boy did it touch off reaction. It
Speaker 1: was really kind of fun to see it kind of
Speaker 1: come pouring in and Darren Ininshaw was involved in that
Speaker 1: as well as quarterbacks coach. I got close to one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty responses to that post. It was a repost,
Speaker 1: a reach twheet. Most of them were supportive, agreed with me.
Speaker 1: Many of them didn't. And I thought that was interesting
Speaker 1: because there were so many people who complained about Eddie
Speaker 1: Grand and ripped him of course on his way out.
Speaker 1: So I thought, what am I forgetting? Am I forgetting
Speaker 1: something about Eddie Grant? And that season when Bowden took over,
Speaker 1: like I said, it was more than just give Lynn
Speaker 1: the ball and get out of his way. No, there
Speaker 1: were actual plays called. As I said there and many
Speaker 1: of them involved run pass options and the option usually
Speaker 1: you know Lynn running the football. But like I said,
Speaker 1: they had to alter formations and blocking schemes and things
Speaker 1: like that downfield blocking by receivers. It was an absolute
Speaker 1: team effort. And a lot of people pointed out they
Speaker 1: said our offensive line was really good that year, and
Speaker 1: it was. It was, But do not conflate that old
Speaker 1: line from that year with the best on line Kentucky
Speaker 1: said in my opinion, which was the Will Leviswandelle Robinson year,
Speaker 1: which was what twenty twenty one. But it was good.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was developing. There were a lot of
Speaker 1: good players, young guys, depth, that sort of thing. So yeah,
Speaker 1: the old line was good, no question. And if you
Speaker 1: ask me, the offensive line problems have been number one
Speaker 1: on a UK football list. All of you out there
Speaker 1: who are and I would think that's all of you
Speaker 1: Kentucky football fans who have been very frustrated over the
Speaker 1: last three years, really because seven wins that's not enough anymore,
Speaker 1: is it. Most of it I think goes back to
Speaker 1: the old line. I'm not laying it at the feet
Speaker 1: of any particular coach or player. I'm just saying that
Speaker 1: because of the portal, and because of different recruiting successes
Speaker 1: and near missus, Kentucky has not been able to put
Speaker 1: together the kind of offensive lineman room that it takes
Speaker 1: to go back to playing the way it used to
Speaker 1: it and I don't know if it ever will. Quite frankly,
Speaker 1: because of the portal. Young players don't stick around now
Speaker 1: and work on their game to the point where it
Speaker 1: might be their junior year before they can play. They
Speaker 1: can go out and get more minutes and more money elsewhere.
Speaker 1: They won't be as good for the most part. But
Speaker 1: how do you put a group together? And this isn't
Speaker 1: just Kentucky. Everybody's having the same issues. But let me
Speaker 1: remind you, and again, I don't need to carry Eddy
Speaker 1: Grand's water. His resumes for itself, the job he did
Speaker 1: at Auburn, the job he did at Cincinnati, and the
Speaker 1: job he did at Kentucky. And I bring up Cincinnati
Speaker 1: because you might recall Mark Stoops was looking for an
Speaker 1: offensive identity. He tried a form of the air raid
Speaker 1: when he got here, and he later admitted he shouldn't
Speaker 1: have that that was more of a marketing thing. That's
Speaker 1: not who he is. He's a play action guy who
Speaker 1: likes to run the ball first, but they've got to
Speaker 1: be able to throw the ball down the field. And again,
Speaker 1: think about that jan Dale Robinson year. That was Kentucky
Speaker 1: at its best offensively. Per Mark Stoops, he didn't call plays,
Speaker 1: but that's what he wanted to see. A guy like
Speaker 1: Benny Snell or Chris Rodriguez who could move the chains,
Speaker 1: especially in the red zone, get the ball into the
Speaker 1: end zone. But when you need it, gash people do
Speaker 1: the explosives, like they say. So if you're going to
Speaker 1: single out one year, it's that one. But you might
Speaker 1: recall Eddie Grant and Darren Hinshaw get here fully expect
Speaker 1: to do at Kentucky what they did at Cincinnati, and
Speaker 1: that was put the Wildcats into the top ten and
Speaker 1: so many different offensive categories including running the ball and
Speaker 1: overall offense. And Drew Barker was the trigger man part
Speaker 1: of that class at twenty fourteen. It was going to
Speaker 1: turn Kentucky football around. And you might remember this, Freddy Maggert,
Speaker 1: our buddy, predicted that that class and he did this
Speaker 1: not long into the twenty fifteen year. He thought that
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen class might set Kentucky football back because it
Speaker 1: wasn't working out properly. The fifteen class ended up being better.
Speaker 1: But Drew Barker was part of the fourteen class. He
Speaker 1: was going to be probably a three year starter and
Speaker 1: rack up all the yards and lead the Wildcats thanks
Speaker 1: to Graham and Hinshaw on their offense. And he gets hurt.
Speaker 1: He gets hurt in the second game in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: down at Florida. And what happened after that? They turned
Speaker 1: to a Juco guy that they had signed at the
Speaker 1: last minute named Steven Johnson, and Steven showed up knowing
Speaker 1: that Kentucky had what looked to be the incumbent guy,
Speaker 1: the starter, and Drew Barker. He said, I just want
Speaker 1: a chance to compete, and he did, and he lost
Speaker 1: out to Barker. But the next thing you know, they're
Speaker 1: down to Florida getting hammered forty five to seven. Barker
Speaker 1: goes down injured, and suddenly Stephen Johnson is put on
Speaker 1: the spot. He's got the keys of the Cadillac and
Speaker 1: now it's up to him. And how about that. He
Speaker 1: did the job, starting with that huge win over a
Speaker 1: poor New Mexico State team. They beat him sixty two
Speaker 1: to forty two, and it was fun to watch, wasn't it.
Speaker 1: And Kentucky ends up going seven and six that year
Speaker 1: in the regular season. But what happened at the end
Speaker 1: of the year, Wildcats upset Louisville four touchdown underdogs and
Speaker 1: beat Lamar Jackson and the Louisville Cardinals the Heisman Trophy
Speaker 1: winner forty one thirty eight on the last second field
Speaker 1: goal by Austin McGinnis. And people, well, Lamar Jackson fumbled
Speaker 1: in Kentucky. Yeah, but you know what, Benny Snell had
Speaker 1: fumbled and given the ball to Louisville, and Louisville fumbled
Speaker 1: it right back. And then the Cats go on and
Speaker 1: losing a ballgame to Georgia Tech. But what did job
Speaker 1: Steven Johnson did? And again Eddie Grant, Darren Henshaw. They
Speaker 1: grabbed this Juco kid who was when he got to
Speaker 1: Kentucky maybe won sixty one sixty five, he admitted later
Speaker 1: he was listed in one seventy five or one eighty.
Speaker 1: But you could look at him and see. And I
Speaker 1: helped produce the documentary on Stephen called Hartible Wildcat. And
Speaker 1: there were more people, including the training staff, coaches, teammates
Speaker 1: who said it was the toughest kid I've ever played with,
Speaker 1: a scrawny little quarterback. But again there's Eddie Grand's fingerprints
Speaker 1: on that season. Yeah, it eventually went sour and it
Speaker 1: was interesting. Not long ago, Mark Stoops admitted that after
Speaker 1: that twenty twenty year when the Cats went five and
Speaker 1: six and really struggled at times on offense, you know,
Speaker 1: it's weird they get They put up forty one against
Speaker 1: South Carolina and ended up winning the bowl game against
Speaker 1: North Carolina State. But Grant realized they had to make
Speaker 1: a change at offense. They talked it over and that's
Speaker 1: when they made the change. But it's interesting to me
Speaker 1: how people remember. Of course, it's like anything in sports.
Speaker 1: They remember what they want to remember. And it was
Speaker 1: so fascinating to me to see so many people respond
Speaker 1: to the repost of those Belk Bowl highlights with Lynn
Speaker 1: Bowden and when I mentioned Eddie Grant, and of course
Speaker 1: he's back with a program. I don't think he has
Speaker 1: a title, but he's sort of the general manager. He
Speaker 1: works on you know, raising nil funds and things like that,
Speaker 1: and you will not see a person on that sideline
Speaker 1: more involved emotionally and mentally. Who's not calling plays than
Speaker 1: Eddie Grant. I see him before each game. I see
Speaker 1: him on the sidelines. He kind of stands on the
Speaker 1: edge of the coaching box and he talks to players.
Speaker 1: He doesn't coach him up, but he just talks to
Speaker 1: him and you know, gets written all over his face.
Speaker 1: How deeply involved he is still with UK football even
Speaker 1: though he's not on the coaching staff anymore. But you know,
Speaker 1: he contributes so interesting And if you're interested in looking,
Speaker 1: just go to my ex or Twitter and you can
Speaker 1: catch up with some of the comments that poured in
Speaker 1: after they saw the video of Lynn Bowden running all
Speaker 1: over Virginia Tech and what was a great game? Remember
Speaker 1: Virginia Tech moved down the field and was working to
Speaker 1: either tie or win the game, and the defense came
Speaker 1: up for the Wildcats. So all right, we're gonna shift
Speaker 1: back to basketball when we come back in some football
Speaker 1: as well. Here are the Big Moon Sider six thirty
Speaker 1: Wlap Welcome back to the Big bon Sider, joining us
Speaker 1: now as a longtime friend of the show. You see
Speaker 1: his work with Cats illustrated. He is Justin Rowland, who
Speaker 1: has been covering Kentucky sports for quite a while. Justin
Speaker 1: Happy New Year to you you as well did This
Speaker 1: is obviously basketball season. We're still talking football because of
Speaker 1: the playoffs, but now with a portal door spinning like
Speaker 1: a windmill and the players coming and going, it's really
Speaker 1: a fascinating time, isn't it for college football? If you
Speaker 1: if you can put a motion aside, just just watching
Speaker 1: everything from as you can kids like to say, you know,
Speaker 1: ten thousand feet, it's kind of interesting.
Speaker 4: It sure is. I mean, you think about the excitement
Speaker 4: that there used to be on like National Signing Day.
Speaker 4: It's almost like signing Day is like a year round thing,
Speaker 4: or at least for a couple of months, and it's
Speaker 4: like immediately important. It's not like we're going to sign
Speaker 4: these guys in three years from now they might be
Speaker 4: impact players or they're going to transfer somewhere else. It's like,
Speaker 4: we're going to sign these guys, and these guys are
Speaker 4: going to from in how our next season goes. The
Speaker 4: problem is people are are kind of worried about next season,
Speaker 4: but in the long term, it makes the sport more
Speaker 4: exciting year round.
Speaker 1: And it keeps guys like you on your toes because
Speaker 1: you dig in and you research and you and your
Speaker 1: folks on your website with rivals are on top of
Speaker 1: the folks coming in and you tweeted, I guess it
Speaker 1: was last night about a new running back for Kentucky.
Speaker 1: What do we want to know about? Is a Dante Dowdell.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, Dante Dadell Nebraska running and I mean they
Speaker 4: got so many new additions and so much to catch
Speaker 4: up on. But he was a highly regarded recruit two
Speaker 4: years ago and he signed with Oregon. He went to
Speaker 4: Oregon and they were pretty loaded in the backfield. He
Speaker 4: still got seventeen carries, so even Oregon recognized his talent
Speaker 4: and he transferred to Nebraska after last year at Nebraska
Speaker 4: he scored twelve touchdowns and he was a great short
Speaker 4: yardage running back. I mean, I think he's more proven
Speaker 4: than shit was coming in from Ohio State the previous years.
Speaker 4: And he would have yeah, he would have been part
Speaker 4: of a one to two kind of thunder and lightning
Speaker 4: combination at Nebraska and they would have loved to have
Speaker 4: him back in Nebraska. Matt Rule brought Dabtele in because
Speaker 4: Matt Rules said, we have to have a physical culture
Speaker 4: of physical mentality and doubt all is a guy who's
Speaker 4: just going to try to run right through you, and
Speaker 4: he runs hard, he runs fast. He's not going to
Speaker 4: shake in bake you. He's not going to miss many tackles,
Speaker 4: but he's going to run through some tackles. And that's
Speaker 4: the role he'll fill at Kentucky. Also, you figure they'd
Speaker 4: have a thunder enlightening thing going with Jamry and Wilcox
Speaker 4: coming back as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Will you talk about a need though, just in
Speaker 1: a physical back, you know, and that's only brought home
Speaker 1: even more by watching Chris Rodriguez play in the NFL. Now,
Speaker 1: it was amazing how how often Kentucky needed that this
Speaker 1: year and just couldn't get it done.
Speaker 4: That's right, Yeah, it's it's not common. It's uncommon to
Speaker 4: see Kentucky struggle in those short yardage situations. But you
Speaker 4: know that's the byproduct of the offensive line struggles and
Speaker 4: they didn't have that power back option this year. I
Speaker 4: think going into this season, you feel better about Dowdell
Speaker 4: and Wilcox than you felt about Demy and a less
Speaker 4: proven Wilcox. You feel better about the running back.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, Well he's got to run behind some talent.
Speaker 1: He's got to run behind an O line that gets
Speaker 1: it done, which really has struggled quite frankly over the
Speaker 1: last three years. They bringing a kid from Arkansas who
Speaker 1: has played in the SEC, but obviously that's that's no guarantee.
Speaker 1: What do we know about Braun and anybody else they're
Speaker 1: bringing in.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Braun. Braun is the kind of guy that they
Speaker 4: could send the SEC media day and he's a very
Speaker 4: good interview He's very well spoken, he's very intelligent, and
Speaker 4: he's a he's a good culture guy. He was All
Speaker 4: SEC two years ago, right, one of the better, one
Speaker 4: of the better players on Arkansas's offensive line in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty three, he wasn't one of their very best offensive
Speaker 4: linemen this year. And my understanding is he probably needs
Speaker 4: to lose a few pounds to hit peak performance. But
Speaker 4: this is a guy that played a ton of snaps
Speaker 4: in the SEC, started at Florida, went to Arkansas, and
Speaker 4: I just think he's a set it, forget it, legitimate
Speaker 4: SEC starter at guard. And so bringing him in means
Speaker 4: they're going to have four new starters on the line
Speaker 4: instead of three, because it wasn't a given they would
Speaker 4: bring in another guard.
Speaker 1: And they've got the kid from New Mexico. They got
Speaker 1: a kid from from the MAC from Bowling Green. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we've seen in this work. We've seen it not work.
Speaker 1: But you know they're going to have to learn to
Speaker 1: play in the SEC, aren't they.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Alex Wolfschlager was a first team All MAC player
Speaker 4: at Bowling Green. Is their right tackle this year and
Speaker 4: he needs to get a little bit stronger, so he
Speaker 4: needs a good off season in the strength program. But
Speaker 4: I guess the question is do they have their left
Speaker 4: tackle or not. You know, we've seen you got to
Speaker 4: have a left tackle to protect Zach Calzada or he's
Speaker 4: going to struggle. Wolfschlager could play right tackle. The offensive
Speaker 4: lineman coming in from New Mexico, Wallace Unamba, could play
Speaker 4: right tackle, but I'm not sure if either one of
Speaker 4: them is you feel great about it left tackle and
Speaker 4: that's that's the spot they definitely need to lock down,
Speaker 4: no matter.
Speaker 1: Who they're protecting, and it's it going to be either
Speaker 1: Cut or Bully or Zach kal Zada. Do you know
Speaker 1: much about him Zach? Yeah?
Speaker 4: He I mean, he's been around for a long time, right,
Speaker 4: So he started his college career at Texas A and M.
Speaker 4: And he didn't play at first, but he wasn't expected to.
Speaker 4: And then he led that twenty twenty one team to
Speaker 4: an eight and four record. He was very up and down.
Speaker 4: That was a pretty talented A and M team. Eight
Speaker 4: and four. Going eight and four for Jimbo is about
Speaker 4: what he did there. And so he had some games
Speaker 4: where he really struggled, probably playing a head of schedule,
Speaker 4: but then he beat Alabama and Mark Passwaters, he covers
Speaker 4: Texas A and M on rivals, told me it was
Speaker 4: the best game he's ever seen a quarterback play, just
Speaker 4: just hitting every spot on the field, just an electric
Speaker 4: clutch performance. And he was hurt and went back into
Speaker 4: the game hurt and led them to victory over Alabama,
Speaker 4: and they beat South Carolina, they beat I want to
Speaker 4: say Missouri, and so he had some moments. He's got
Speaker 4: a great arm, he can run, but he's got to no,
Speaker 4: he can't fit the ball into every window, and he's
Speaker 4: got to know that he's got to make good decisions.
Speaker 4: So I would say Vandigrid is almost kind of the prototype.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm not saying he's going to be Vandergriff,
Speaker 4: but they're similar players in some respect.
Speaker 1: Well without protection It doesn't matter what he is or
Speaker 1: who he is. We'll never know what Rock Vandergriff might
Speaker 1: have been. But Calzada, I know, played at the FCS level,
Speaker 1: which is around here where Eastern Kentucky plays. When he
Speaker 1: was at Incarnate Word, and having covered that level for
Speaker 1: quite a while, I can tell you it's more about
Speaker 1: speed than size. But you said going to make plays,
Speaker 1: and he had good numbers at Incarnate Words.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he put up good numbers his first year there,
Speaker 4: and he could have gone into the portal to go
Speaker 4: to another place, but he stuck around for another year.
Speaker 4: Incarnate Word is where cam Ward attended before he went
Speaker 4: to Washington State before he went to Miami, and so
Speaker 4: they liked the development the quarterback history there and he
Speaker 4: came out this year and he hit even more big plays.
Speaker 4: He was even more efficient. He protected the ball a
Speaker 4: little bit better. He's got to protect the football, that's key,
Speaker 4: you know it. With a new offensive line questions around him,
Speaker 4: he's gonna make some big plays, but he's got to
Speaker 4: cut down on the number of kind of turnover worthy
Speaker 4: plays and it's gonna be interesting. One thing he is
Speaker 4: a lot more than vander Griff is experience he's got
Speaker 4: a lot of experience at the college level.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And by the way, if that sounds familiar in
Speaker 1: Carnate wered Kentucky baseball fans know, that's where Grant Smith,
Speaker 1: the shortstop played before he transferred to Kentucky and became
Speaker 1: one of the best in the country. We're talking with
Speaker 1: Justin Rowland of Cats illustrated of course about the transfer portal.
Speaker 1: A lot of guys on defense coming through as well. Justin.
Speaker 1: They've really got some needs, especially at linebacker, but d well,
Speaker 1: everybody needs d lineman, but especially I think at linebacker.
Speaker 1: Do you see it that way?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I mean we've gotten so used to having
Speaker 4: headliner names that find that's right, and how long has
Speaker 4: Weaver been around? And but just guy Jamin Dumus Johnson,
Speaker 4: and you had DeAndre Square and Deeric Jackson and Trevin Wallace.
Speaker 4: They've had a lot of a lot of years that
Speaker 4: were a luxury there up the middle, not just with
Speaker 4: good starters that they've had pretty good depth there. So
Speaker 4: you bring back probably Davyn Rayner and he's somebody that
Speaker 4: you hope your starter level contributions. And Landon Watson comes
Speaker 4: in where he was a starter at Marshall last year,
Speaker 4: and that's one of the great questions for me. How
Speaker 4: did the defensive players coming in translate? Watson has only
Speaker 4: played really one year as a starter at Marshall, and
Speaker 4: so he's going to be presumably a starting inside linebacker
Speaker 4: at Kentucky and how he handles that is going to
Speaker 4: be big. But I like the edge defenders they brought
Speaker 4: in at linebacker. Cameron Olds at kent State had a
Speaker 4: breakout season with six sacks, and he was a pretty
Speaker 4: coveted player. And then on the other side, Sam Green
Speaker 4: coming in from USC He played about as much for
Speaker 4: the First Southern cal as Tyree Spear replayed for Kentucky.
Speaker 4: So he's ready to step up into a starters level role.
Speaker 4: And he had some flashes, some splash plays. So Green
Speaker 4: and Cameron Olds helped the situation at edge. But I'm
Speaker 4: with you, linebacker is a question.
Speaker 1: Justin Rowland is my guest. We're going to come back
Speaker 1: and talk a little more football on talks and basketball
Speaker 1: as well in the eve of the SEC season for
Speaker 1: the Wildcats and everybody else. It's the big blooming cider
Speaker 1: of six thirty WLAP welcome back. We're talking with Justin
Speaker 1: Rowland of Cats illustrated and part of the Rivals Network.
Speaker 1: The playoffs in full swing, now controversial justin entertaining to
Speaker 1: be sure. The top four seeds have all been knocked out.
Speaker 1: Greg Sank is now speaking out about the fact, reminding
Speaker 1: people that the current format was built for a college
Speaker 1: football landscape that included Back then, the PAC twelve was
Speaker 1: considered a Power five conference. Now he's talking about making changes,
Speaker 1: and we had to figure this would happen, the receding
Speaker 1: and all that, you know, because look, Notre Dame underseeded,
Speaker 1: Ohio State underseeded, things like that. But have you enjoyed
Speaker 1: what you've seen.
Speaker 4: So farsolutely I've enjoyed it. I think it's interesting that
Speaker 4: we get the twelve team playoffs at the same time
Speaker 4: that NIL and the portal have really changed the sport,
Speaker 4: because it seems like it's made it more difficult to
Speaker 4: build one of those super teams that Kirby and Saban
Speaker 4: have had recently. Now it's a one year sample. If
Speaker 4: you look at the best teams now, the four best
Speaker 4: teams less standing now do not appear to be on
Speaker 4: the level of recent national championship teams in my opinion,
Speaker 4: so that's no knock on Penn State or Notre Dame,
Speaker 4: And I think you can make the case that Notre
Speaker 4: Dame would be an interesting national champion. That would you know,
Speaker 4: a generation have to deal with that that hasn't had
Speaker 4: two for But you know, I feel like we knew
Speaker 4: that the format was not going to be the best
Speaker 4: for maximizing the number of SEC teams in, and eventually
Speaker 4: it seems like Sinkie wants that to evolve more to
Speaker 4: where the sport is in other respects. But the secason
Speaker 4: so down this year. They really don't have room to talk.
Speaker 4: And in this year they really have been a down conference,
Speaker 4: the most down that I think it's been in at
Speaker 4: least fifteen years, certainly not like we've seen the conference
Speaker 4: for the last twenty. And the big question for me
Speaker 4: is is the Big ten just ultimately going to beat
Speaker 4: a big winner from NIL because those schools have just
Speaker 4: as much money as the SEC. They just haven't had
Speaker 4: the geography, they just haven't been where the best players are.
Speaker 4: And so I think my hot take is that the
Speaker 4: Big Ten is just going to be the long term
Speaker 4: big winner from NIL.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 4: But the SEC will get more teams in normally than
Speaker 4: they did this year.
Speaker 1: What did you think of Arizona State Texas now they're sewing.
Speaker 1: It was a terrible I thought, no call on targeting,
Speaker 1: which absolutely affected the game. And what were your thoughts
Speaker 1: when you saw that happen?
Speaker 4: Terrible? I mean, they're I mean the coach said after that,
Speaker 4: I don't even know what constitutes targeting, what targeting is.
Speaker 4: You know, you're never going to take human error completely
Speaker 4: out of the game. You can try to account for it,
Speaker 4: you can try to put guardrails and technology in place,
Speaker 4: but human error is always going to be a part
Speaker 4: of the game and it's unfortunate that it would happen
Speaker 4: on a stage like that. But crazy to see Texas
Speaker 4: rally from down fourth and thirteen, needing a score to win.
Speaker 4: You blink and they're up by eight. This wild, wild format.
Speaker 1: My takes always get the easy ones, right, and that
Speaker 1: one seemed easy. But it just yeah, they just couldn't
Speaker 1: pull the trigger on Well, let me shift it to basketball.
Speaker 1: In the time we have re many You were talking
Speaker 1: about the SEC and the strength of the conference in football.
Speaker 1: Is the basketball conference at men's basketball? Do you think
Speaker 1: it's really that strong or is it just a matter
Speaker 1: of so many teams scheduled. Well, if you had a
Speaker 1: chance to see.
Speaker 4: Much, I think it's really that strong. Yeah, I've watched
Speaker 4: a good amount and the number of teams that you
Speaker 4: could see going to the Elite eight, I mean, compared
Speaker 4: to the rest of the country, just the quality of
Speaker 4: play is astounding. I mean, there really is kind of
Speaker 4: like one of those best years for the Big Ten,
Speaker 4: or best years for the ACC or best years for
Speaker 4: the Big East. The SEC is at that level. And
Speaker 4: you know, but we've seen so many years where the
Speaker 4: SEC just didn't take care of business in the non conference,
Speaker 4: and then this year they are excellent in the non
Speaker 4: conference schedule, and so now you're in a situation where
Speaker 4: even if the teams in the league go up and down,
Speaker 4: even if some of them disappoint, the resumes are already
Speaker 4: always such that like all those resumes are versus the
Speaker 4: other conference. So really you're guaranteed a lot of Quad
Speaker 4: one opportunities the rest of the way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's my concern for the league is that they're
Speaker 1: going to start obviously beating each other up right now,
Speaker 1: and so their record won't be quite as glittering as
Speaker 1: it is now. But are the committee, people paying close enough,
Speaker 1: paying the attention they need to pay. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, eyeballing these teams when it comes time to
Speaker 1: make decisions.
Speaker 4: I think they are unless there's an inherent built in
Speaker 4: anti SEC bias, which I don't think that there is.
Speaker 4: Might have been a built in anti Calipari bias in
Speaker 4: the seeding, but not SEC anti Calipari bias, I would say,
Speaker 4: but I think they seeded the Big ten like that before.
Speaker 4: We've seen years when the Big Ten would have like
Speaker 4: eleven or twelve of the top twenty five teams on
Speaker 4: kN Palm and it is ultimately reflected in the seedy
Speaker 4: and I think that it will be.
Speaker 1: Have you seen Arkansas play much? What do you think
Speaker 1: of what's happening out there in Fadble earlier.
Speaker 4: In the season. Adu has really taken his game to
Speaker 4: other When I've watched Hero play, I mean, he's he's
Speaker 4: going to be a really good player. He's going to
Speaker 4: be a pro, and he would be really good on
Speaker 4: this Kentucky team, just adding something that they don't have.
Speaker 4: But I wonder how far those guards are going to
Speaker 4: take him. I don't think John L. Davis unless he's
Speaker 4: turned it around completely. Has been quite the fit that
Speaker 4: they expected him to be, and Jay Wagner has had
Speaker 4: some moments. But I just don't know. I just don't
Speaker 4: know that they're built quite the way the team. Same
Speaker 4: question we've had with other Calipari teams. Are they built
Speaker 4: the way that you want to win at the highest level?
Speaker 4: But they'll there'll be a tournament team and they they
Speaker 4: have the potential to come in and win it. Run
Speaker 4: that were to happen, it would be interesting to see
Speaker 4: their reaction.
Speaker 1: But what do you think of the way this Kentucky
Speaker 1: team's built.
Speaker 4: I like it. I like how Pope has pretty much
Speaker 4: two of everything. He's got a lot of flexibility. He's
Speaker 4: got to get the rotations right. But ultimately, how they
Speaker 4: respond to physical defense, I think is going to be
Speaker 4: a lot of it. We've seen that as a question
Speaker 4: for another Kentucky team or two recently. But how do
Speaker 4: you respond when they get in your face and they
Speaker 4: make it harder to run your offense? And that's when
Speaker 4: they've been a little bit more inconsistent. Not everybody can
Speaker 4: guard you like that, but the SEC had a lot
Speaker 4: of teams that can't.
Speaker 1: And you just described what Ohio State did right up
Speaker 1: in New.
Speaker 4: York, right right, and in the pre Clinson how how
Speaker 4: they respond the mindset, the preparation that they have coming in.
Speaker 4: You know, if they're expecting it to be a cakewalk
Speaker 4: and Florida comes in on Saturday and they're blowing up
Speaker 4: their screens and they're extending the defense and they're making
Speaker 4: it hard to get to get the ball moving around
Speaker 4: the perimeter, then it's going to be hard. I mean,
Speaker 4: I've picked Florida to win this week, and I know
Speaker 4: the other guys with Jet Till said pick Kentucky, but
Speaker 4: a lot of toss up games. And got to know me,
Speaker 4: you could go eleven and seven in this SEC and
Speaker 4: the National Titles Attendant.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I was talking to hoops wife,
Speaker 1: so I'm sure you know Dick Weiss, the venerable Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame sports writer up in New York. He told
Speaker 1: me he thinks the SEC champ regular season might have
Speaker 1: as many as six regular season losses.
Speaker 4: They could, they could. Now I think Alabama and Auburn
Speaker 4: and Tennessee are are We know that those three teams
Speaker 4: are going to win a lot of games, But how
Speaker 4: it's going to play out and you know, we know
Speaker 4: Kentucky's gonna win a lot of games, but I don't
Speaker 4: know that we know they're going to be quite at
Speaker 4: that very highest level. We'll see.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you one more about the SEC, and
Speaker 1: it probably should have led with this question, why is
Speaker 1: this happening? In your opinion? Why has everything come together
Speaker 1: so well for SEC basketball this particular year.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, like a decade ago, the SEC
Speaker 4: started hiring some really big name coaches and you could
Speaker 4: tell that it was an emphasis for the league to
Speaker 4: go more all in on basketball. And I feel like
Speaker 4: the down this is a downstream effect of having really
Speaker 4: good coaches.
Speaker 2: In the league.
Speaker 4: So when the ACC, when the Big Ten, when the
Speaker 4: Big East were the dominant conferences, the Big Twelve, those
Speaker 4: leagues tended to have the most all star cast of coaches.
Speaker 4: And now you throw in nil and the SEC is
Speaker 4: swimming in cash. I mean, I think the SEC just
Speaker 4: has the best cast of coaches in college basketball. And
Speaker 4: that's that's kind of reflected in the product.
Speaker 1: Speaking of how ironic did Jim larronagad Miami steps down
Speaker 1: complaining about the portal and anil and yet he rides
Speaker 1: it to the Final four a couple of years ago.
Speaker 4: That's right. It's just they don't want to deal with it.
Speaker 4: You don't want to deal it's it's a quality of
Speaker 4: life issue. You might you might win, but you're you're
Speaker 4: not going to have as much fun along the way.
Speaker 4: I mean, you're managing a lot more and you're doing
Speaker 4: a lot less basketball coaching. I'm sure it's more so
Speaker 4: a problem for football, but for basketball. I mean as
Speaker 4: a coach, you probably feel like you just don't have
Speaker 4: control anymore. Maybe day to day but year to year. No,
Speaker 4: you don't have control now, and the control belongs to
Speaker 4: the players.
Speaker 1: And bringing it back to football, it is so evident
Speaker 1: that that Mark Stoops just is not loving life right
Speaker 1: now because he cannot coach football the way he wants
Speaker 1: to coach it.
Speaker 4: That's right. I mean he had he was, he really
Speaker 4: program is all about culture and blue collar identity, and
Speaker 4: the changes in the sport have pulled the rug out
Speaker 4: from under that approach.
Speaker 1: That's exactly.
Speaker 4: And you get some other programs that have tried to
Speaker 4: do it that way, like IOWA and whatnot to darying
Speaker 4: degrees of success. But when you're old method was developing
Speaker 4: guys for two to three years and that becomes a
Speaker 4: harder formula and you got to you gotta adapt, adjust
Speaker 4: or die. And that's where they're at.
Speaker 1: All these nil dollars has almost made it a white
Speaker 1: collar situation. But yeah, a discussion for another night. Justin Rowland.
Speaker 1: We love talking football and basketball. You're always up to speed.
Speaker 1: He is a publisher of Cats Illustrated. Find it at
Speaker 1: Cats Illustrated dot com and subscribe. Thank you, buddy, have
Speaker 1: a good.
Speaker 4: One, Thanks, thank you too.
Speaker 1: Up next in our number two, Scott Brown, who wrote
Speaker 1: a book on the late great Reggie Wharford. Reggie, of course,
Speaker 1: was the first African American basketball player men's basketball player
Speaker 1: to graduate from UK and the subject of a documentary
Speaker 1: we've put together a few years ago. Scott's book is terrific.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Scott coming up next and Christy Thomas
Speaker 1: of the UK Network and SEC Plus. That's all ahead
Speaker 1: in our number two here on six thirty, Good La,
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue Cider. Joining us now
Speaker 1: is a gentleman I met via the phone a few
Speaker 1: years ago, Scott Brown, who was the editor and publisher
Speaker 1: of Steeler Depot, the website but also a freelance writer,
Speaker 1: and Scott became friends with my buddy and my former
Speaker 1: classmate and a man I covered when he was a
Speaker 1: UK basketball player of the late great Reggie Wharford and
Speaker 1: has written a book about Reggie that is available now.
Speaker 1: If you haven't picked it up yet, you need to
Speaker 1: have this in your UK basketball library because it is
Speaker 1: such an incredible chapter in the history of UK basketball. Scott,
Speaker 1: good to talk.
Speaker 2: To you again, Yeah, Dick, thanks, thanks for having me
Speaker 2: on and always great to talk to you. And I
Speaker 2: would like to say about the book. Is a documentary
Speaker 2: you and I believe cam Mills.
Speaker 1: Cameron was the exec producer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, it was tremendous and a great resource and
Speaker 2: even more importantly, I know how much it meant to
Speaker 2: Reggie for you to tell his story in that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's quite obviously the parallel and you can
Speaker 1: put so much more into the book than we were
Speaker 1: able to get into our basically forty four minutes of
Speaker 1: the documentary. But tell everybody about how it is you
Speaker 1: came to know Reggie and just to know him immediately
Speaker 1: and his story. You know, that's a hell of a
Speaker 1: story and made for a documentary and a great book.
Speaker 1: But how did you happen to cross paths with Reggie?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a really interesting story, and that Reggie. When
Speaker 2: I was growing up, Reggie became somewhat of a mythical
Speaker 2: figure to me. And I say that because he was
Speaker 2: an assistant coach at Pitt and I knew he had
Speaker 2: played at Kentucky. And my cousin Tom became really good
Speaker 2: friends with Reggie. I think they were rocketball buddies and
Speaker 2: and just became really close from that. And I would
Speaker 2: just breathlessly wait for Reggie stories about Pitt. You know
Speaker 2: some of the players that's when they had You're talking
Speaker 2: about Turner's Sake and Charles Smith, guys like that. And
Speaker 2: all those guys were recruited by Reggie, by the way,
Speaker 2: you know, the teams that really kind of Golden era
Speaker 2: and pit basketball with Smith, Eacon Lane. Reggie recruit all
Speaker 2: those guys. And anyway, you.
Speaker 4: Know, I.
Speaker 2: Got to know him a little bit grown up, and
Speaker 2: one day, and I'm not positive of the year, but
Speaker 2: my cousin called me and he said, you know, paraphrasing,
Speaker 2: that he had just seen Reggie and Reggie was Reggie
Speaker 2: was just he was such a great storyteller, and he
Speaker 2: was telling stories that day, and so my cousin called
Speaker 2: and said, you know, his story really needs to be
Speaker 2: a book. Would you be interested? And I said yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: He said, well there's a catch, and I said, well
Speaker 2: what is that? He said, he might not have much
Speaker 2: time left. And at that point it was you know,
Speaker 2: Reggie and his family that they didn't think he had
Speaker 2: much more than months to live. And long story short,
Speaker 2: he ended up living, you know, at least three years
Speaker 2: past that. And anyway, what I did was, you know,
Speaker 2: Tom set up a meeting with Reggie, and I went
Speaker 2: down and spent about three hours with him, and uh,
Speaker 2: you know, he's he was telling stories about growing up,
Speaker 2: playing for Jobie Hall, uh, coaching pitt and uh. And
Speaker 2: I walked out that day with three hours of tape
Speaker 2: and said, oh my goodness, this is an unbelievable story.
Speaker 2: The only bad partner is that and then I had
Speaker 2: to transcribe it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Uh. But from there we started and and what I
Speaker 2: would do is regulated about an hour from me, I'm
Speaker 2: about an hour outside of Pittsburgh, and we would meet,
Speaker 2: you know, once a week, did just for a couple
Speaker 2: of years and and just talk all things that he
Speaker 2: had to say about his incredible experiences breaking the color
Speaker 2: line in Kentucky and unfortunately his his health issues which
Speaker 2: were married ot and and really, uh, you know with
Speaker 2: the heart transplant, kidney transplant. That's that's really just the
Speaker 2: top of a of a very long list. And from
Speaker 2: all that evolved a pretty incredible book, not anything that
Speaker 2: I wrote, but just Reggie's story and all those obviously
Speaker 2: to talk to a ton of people who who were
Speaker 2: important in his life. And and again it just really
Speaker 2: started that phone call he you know, would you want
Speaker 2: to want to write a book, but there's a catch,
Speaker 2: you might not have much time with uh, with Reggie.
Speaker 2: And I ended up having uh, three glorious years with
Speaker 2: him and became pretty close. We became pretty close, and
Speaker 2: uh it was just a really uh you know, one
Speaker 2: of the most worthwhile things ever done.
Speaker 1: And you ended up speaking at his funeral where I
Speaker 1: and I which I attended along with Jack Gibbons and
Speaker 1: a lot of other lot of former Kentucky players.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was blown away by that that he he
Speaker 2: wanted me to do that, and I did. I did
Speaker 2: not know that, to be honest with you, until his
Speaker 2: wife Marissa asked me if I would speak, So, yeah,
Speaker 2: it was. It was a tremendous honor. And I do
Speaker 2: have a funny story about that. So I am horrible
Speaker 2: with directions. And after the service they had, there was
Speaker 2: the burial, and I am people were leaving there and
Speaker 2: there was a reception at a nearby restaurant or hall, right,
Speaker 2: And so I obviously have a Pensania plate and I
Speaker 2: think people from Kentucky, and I hope you weren't one
Speaker 2: of them, saw my plates and assumed that I knew
Speaker 2: where I was going, and they started following me, and
Speaker 2: I got horribly lost in this sem It was a
Speaker 2: in my defense, it was a really sprawling cemetery. Very yes,
Speaker 2: but I got lost. And finally I was just I
Speaker 2: kind of pulled over and faked like I was on
Speaker 2: a phone call so people could just try and find
Speaker 2: their way out because they were following them wrong, they're
Speaker 2: wrong thing.
Speaker 1: I think I remember that happening. I don't know I
Speaker 1: was riding. I was actually driving with Jack and Jim Andrews,
Speaker 1: and I think I do remember some folks got turned
Speaker 1: around in the cemetery. But my story now was so
Speaker 1: I'm going up and you know, Jack and Jim and
Speaker 1: I are telling stories and all. So I turned to
Speaker 1: Jack and I said, Jack, I've never been to a
Speaker 1: black funeral. What can I expect? And so he said, well,
Speaker 1: ordinarily they do take a while, he said, but Marissa
Speaker 1: doesn't want people to, you know, sit for three hours
Speaker 1: or so. She wants to keep this at a at
Speaker 1: a tight ninety minutes, you know, but as you well know,
Speaker 1: it went way past that. And Jack was laughing about
Speaker 1: that when we walked out of the church. He said,
Speaker 1: you know, you think I lied to you. You know,
Speaker 1: I said, now everybody needed to say. Everybody wanted to
Speaker 1: speak and say something about Reggie. So you know, it
Speaker 1: was sad but joyful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's funny. When I talked to Marisa afterwards
Speaker 2: about that, she she said that, you know, at first
Speaker 2: she started getting a little antsy and nervous because you know,
Speaker 2: obviously the time was going over. But then at the
Speaker 2: middle she said, you know, what, the heck with it,
Speaker 2: I'm just going to enjoy this, and and I'm glad
Speaker 2: that she did. She and her sons Tiger and Grant
Speaker 2: were able to hear what everyone had to say about Reggie,
Speaker 2: and uh, yeah, it was it was longer and she wanted,
Speaker 2: but at some point she just said, you know what,
Speaker 2: I'm just going to go with it and my stress
Speaker 2: about it and just really enjoy the celebration of a
Speaker 2: wonderful life.
Speaker 1: You talk about a strong woman, Am I right?
Speaker 2: One hundred percent correct? Yeah, And that's a big part
Speaker 2: of his story too, is you know Marissa and the
Speaker 2: strength that she and her her father and grand Tiger showed.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: You know, while Reggie dealing with the issues in the
Speaker 2: in the in the twilight of his life, all the
Speaker 2: health issues, uh, and you know, they they really kept
Speaker 2: him going. And he kept going because of his love
Speaker 2: for them and wanting to be there for them as
Speaker 2: long as he could. And I'll tell you what I mean,
Speaker 2: he I don't know if I ever the fight that
Speaker 2: he showed was amazing and they were I mean, Dickie,
Speaker 2: he had he he had COVID at once and it
Speaker 2: was around New Year one year and I remember getting
Speaker 2: to texta Marissa Saint Reggie had COVID and Texas back,
Speaker 2: is there anything I can do? And I got back
Speaker 2: one more answer, prayers And you know, I mean he
Speaker 2: was in ICU and he figured, you know, with with
Speaker 2: all of his his hard problems. There was no ways
Speaker 2: to survive that, and he lived. He lived another year
Speaker 2: and a half. Uh, I mean, just a just a
Speaker 2: fighter and in it's still something that inspires me to
Speaker 2: this day talking to.
Speaker 1: Scott Brown, is the author of the Reggie Warford Story,
Speaker 1: Integrating Basketball at the University of Kentucky. We'll come back
Speaker 1: with more for Scott in just a minute. Here on
Speaker 1: the Big Bloon Sider six point thirty WLAP. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Big Bloon Sider. We're talking with Scott Brown.
Speaker 1: He is a freelance writer. He is also the publisher
Speaker 1: of Steeler Depot website. But he is the author of
Speaker 1: the Reggie Warford Story, Integrating Basketball at the University of Kentucky.
Speaker 1: And it does, as we said earlier, kind of parallel
Speaker 1: the documentary that Cameron Mills and Jason Eperson and I
Speaker 1: worked on a few years ago called Fight of His Life.
Speaker 1: And I knew Reggie, of course from college. He and
Speaker 1: I share a birthday. Believe it or not, he's a
Speaker 1: year older. I was reminded him he's a year older
Speaker 1: than I am. But you know, I wrote a piece
Speaker 1: about Reggie at the end of his career at Kentucky,
Speaker 1: and he balked at talking to me, and he said,
Speaker 1: you know, you haven't wanted to talk to me before,
Speaker 1: why do you want to talk to me now? And
Speaker 1: he was, you know, a little way, he was making
Speaker 1: a point. He knew the answer, of course, you know,
Speaker 1: and I just kind of said, well, you know, that's
Speaker 1: kind of the way it works and all that. But
Speaker 1: what got me in with him, Scott was his mother
Speaker 1: liked the article. And then, you know, so when I
Speaker 1: went over Moy, when I went over mom, I was
Speaker 1: good with the rest of the family. But you know
Speaker 1: what people need to realize is and yeah, this dates
Speaker 1: back to the early seventies. It's stunning what Reggie and
Speaker 1: his family had to go through as African Americans coming up.
Speaker 1: But Kentucky fans need to understand that maybe that seventy
Speaker 1: eight championship team doesn't come together if not for Reggie,
Speaker 1: who had graduated two years prior. But told those young guys,
Speaker 1: you know, told Jack Gibbans and those guys, you're going
Speaker 1: to win a championship. That's how good you are. But
Speaker 1: Jack admitted on camera to me, said to you, I
Speaker 1: might not come to Kentucky if I don't see Reggie
Speaker 1: Warford on my recruiting trip. You know, that's that's so vital.
Speaker 2: And it's incredibly and one thing that that blows me
Speaker 2: away about Gradory's story, especially in context of everything that's
Speaker 2: happening now in college athletics with the transfer Florida and
Speaker 2: guys going to school to school, is that he stuck
Speaker 2: it out of Kentucky and and forget, forget everything else
Speaker 2: off the court, just solely on the court. This is
Speaker 2: a guy who was an ultra competitor and wanted to play,
Speaker 2: and he could have gone probably a lot of other
Speaker 2: places and have been a star or at least been
Speaker 2: a starter, which during his first three years of Kentucky, uh,
Speaker 2: he didn't see the court much. And he stuck it
Speaker 2: out and and and again that's in the context of
Speaker 2: what we're seeing today, and that's nothing that's not to
Speaker 2: denigrate you know, kids today, and you know, they actually
Speaker 2: have a lot more freedom with with the portal and
Speaker 2: n I L and good for them for taking advantage
Speaker 2: of it. But it's still that's just unheard of for
Speaker 2: a guy to wait his turn like that the way
Speaker 2: Reggie did despite all the frustration, and you totally hit
Speaker 2: it on the head, is you know, do they win
Speaker 2: the seventy eight championship if things go sideways for Reggie
Speaker 2: Kentucky and he ends up leaving because obviously they had
Speaker 2: Mary Gibbons and I'm sorry Mary Haskins and Larry Johnson.
Speaker 2: Then then Jack and James Lee and guys like that followed,
Speaker 2: and really guys who were the core of that seventy
Speaker 2: eight championship team, especially Jack Gibbons. I mean, I don't
Speaker 2: We'll never know, but you know, they might not have
Speaker 2: followed Reggie to Kentucky and somebody had to go first,
Speaker 2: and that was Reggie.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's fascinating to me. One of the
Speaker 1: greatest stories. And you've got it in your book and
Speaker 1: it's in a is Reggie who had basically committed to
Speaker 1: Austin p and a young recruiter named Leonard Hamilton because
Speaker 1: see he had, you know, gone down to Clarksville to
Speaker 1: play pickup games from Drakesboro hitchhiked to go play basketball
Speaker 1: down there. Yeah, and uh, and he had decided Reggie
Speaker 1: to leave and is walking down the hall at the coliseum,
Speaker 1: which is a hallway that I walked a thousand times
Speaker 1: to go to job's office and say I'm out and
Speaker 1: he bumps into Leonard Hamilton.
Speaker 2: How about that?
Speaker 1: How about I mean take it from there. Tell everybody,
Speaker 1: I don't want you to give away the store. But
Speaker 1: that's a great story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think you yeah, you really nolt it
Speaker 2: is it was. It was a total coincidence that they
Speaker 2: ran into each other. But Jobi was and I'm not
Speaker 2: sure exactly if he had hot I think he was
Speaker 2: an interviewing PI. Yes, yes, And and basically, you know, Reggie,
Speaker 2: they bumped him into each other, you know, fearedly. One
Speaker 2: guy was was coming and one guy was preparing to
Speaker 2: go in Reggie and and coach Hamblon talked to him
Speaker 2: and and paraphrasing here, just you know, I said, hey, wait,
Speaker 2: wait a second, hold on, hold on, don't do anything yet.
Speaker 2: You know, I may become to join you. And he
Speaker 2: got hired and talked Reggie in the staying and and
Speaker 2: I think Reggie needed that too. Is not just having
Speaker 2: you know, a couple of black teammates, but having a
Speaker 2: black assistant coach as well. And he and Hamilton obviously
Speaker 2: became very close and worked until the day that he passed.
Speaker 2: So but yeah, I mean there's another one if like
Speaker 2: what if what if Reggie doesn't bump into Leonard Leonard
Speaker 2: Hamilton that day. Well, you know, talk about kind of
Speaker 2: the butterfly butterfly effect of that on Kentucky basketball.
Speaker 1: And you probably know this, but Leonard Hamilton had decided
Speaker 1: to quit coaching. He had quit himself because he kept
Speaker 1: knocking his head on the barrier being a black assistant
Speaker 1: and people saying, you're not going to be a head
Speaker 1: coach at an established you know, you can go to
Speaker 1: one of the smaller schools, but you're never going to
Speaker 1: get where you want to be. And he went to
Speaker 1: work for I think dal Chemical or in principle and
Speaker 1: accepted a job and somebody said, hey, I think Joe
Speaker 1: Hall's looking for an African assistant, and the rest is
Speaker 1: literally basketball history. Now if you look at Leonard Hamilton's resume, now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's incredible. I'll be honest, I did not
Speaker 2: know that about him looking to leave the coaching profession.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's just so many things, so many what ifs,
Speaker 2: and that's that's such a great part of you know,
Speaker 2: Kentucky basketball history. In Reggie's history with the program, got a.
Speaker 1: Few minutes left with Scott Brown. He is a freelance
Speaker 1: writers also the publisher and editor of Steelers Depot dot com.
Speaker 1: But he wrote the Reggie Warford Story, which you can
Speaker 1: get through University Press. If you don't have it in
Speaker 1: your UK basketball library, you need to have a Jack
Speaker 1: Gibbons wrote the foreword. But Scott has talked to us
Speaker 1: about the fact that basically for three years he built
Speaker 1: a relationship with Reggie and Marissa and their sons up
Speaker 1: there in Pittsburgh. And of course Reggie was inducted into
Speaker 1: the Kentucky Basketball Hall of Fame, the High School Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame, I should say, and I went over and
Speaker 1: set all out to and paid my respects, congratulations. And
Speaker 1: it's funny. Cameron Mills and I worked on a couple
Speaker 1: of other docks on the ninety eight to ninety six
Speaker 1: championship teams, and he kept saying, what's next. I said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of toying with with, you know, something on Reggie,
Speaker 1: and he's like, who's that. Come on, man, you got
Speaker 1: to know. So I told him Reggie had told him
Speaker 1: Reggie's story, I said, But Cameron, I said, Reggie's in
Speaker 1: a bad way. And I don't know how much longer
Speaker 1: we're going to have him, And I said, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure I'm up to this. I'm not sure I'm up
Speaker 1: to this. Well, Cameron blew Right by me went to
Speaker 1: Reggie and said, hey, we're going to do a documentary
Speaker 1: on you, and he was so excited. And I love
Speaker 1: the fact that you know, he was a humble, god
Speaker 1: fearing man. But as you know, Scott, he liked the
Speaker 1: fact not because it was all about him, but because
Speaker 1: his story could help other basketball players down the road.
Speaker 1: That's what I respected the most about that process. Did
Speaker 1: you get the same feeling?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? And one thing that I'm really gratified for that
Speaker 2: Marissa has told me several times is you know projects
Speaker 2: like that, working on this book or things that helped
Speaker 2: keep Reggie alive, to be honest with you, because it
Speaker 2: gave him something to look forward to. And as you know,
Speaker 2: I'm sure I can't imagine the tape that you guys
Speaker 2: had that didn't make it into the documentary just because obviously, yeah,
Speaker 2: you've got a finite time there, but uh, I mean
Speaker 2: his stories and and and just awake and tell it,
Speaker 2: and and his charisma, his recall it just for me,
Speaker 2: it made it so much easier other than again having
Speaker 2: to transcribe like three hours of tape after every every meeting.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean it's just he definitely wanted to
Speaker 2: tell his story to help others, and that's just really
Speaker 2: a continuation of what he had done, uh in Kentucky,
Speaker 2: you know, breaking that barrier line, being that first guy
Speaker 2: to go for for Marion Haskins and James Lee and
Speaker 2: Jack Gibbons and Dwayne Casey. Uh, you know, guys like
Speaker 2: that and and and to be honest, uh, you know
Speaker 2: when when Reggie, after Jack Gibbons and James Lee and
Speaker 2: that class got there, there was no way he was
Speaker 2: leaving Kentucky because you know, he had he had promised
Speaker 2: them that that he would stay and he took that
Speaker 2: responsibility seriously and obviously he did stay. But uh, but yeah,
Speaker 2: it was just his his his storytelling, his his recall
Speaker 2: and just his charisma. I mean, it was just it
Speaker 2: was such a joy to be around him. And and
Speaker 2: I'll tell you a story too, is not a story,
Speaker 2: but not one time when I saw him and he
Speaker 2: was going through unimaginable pain and suffering during that time,
Speaker 2: not one time did he not greet me with the
Speaker 2: biggest smile and just just the light like so happy
Speaker 2: to see me. And it made me feel like I
Speaker 2: was the most important person in the world. And and
Speaker 2: that to me is the measure of Reggie war for
Speaker 2: as much as anything he accomplished is just who he
Speaker 2: who he was person day in and day out.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, that's a great way, great place to leave it.
Speaker 1: We could talk all day about Reggie, but I will
Speaker 1: say that you need to get the book, make it,
Speaker 1: like I said, part of your UK library and tell
Speaker 1: you what. Next time I call, we'll talk to some
Speaker 1: Steelers because I got a lot of friends that were
Speaker 1: Steelers fans. But again, finite time doing us in. But
Speaker 1: Scott Brown, thank you so much for.
Speaker 2: Your time, big thank you for having me on. And
Speaker 2: again I just want to reiterate how much Red and
Speaker 2: his family appreciate all that you did for Reggie and
Speaker 2: getting his story out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks Scott, have a great.
Speaker 2: One you too.
Speaker 1: Thanks Up next Christy Thomas of the SEC Network and
Speaker 1: the UK Network on the Big Blone Siders six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1: Welcome back, join now by longtime friend and colleague Christy
Speaker 1: Thomas of the UK Network and SEC Plus, and that's
Speaker 1: who she was working for last night. She and Jeffiicoro
Speaker 1: calling the action as the UK women opened up Southeastern
Speaker 1: Conference play, and Chris I wroted it off the numbers
Speaker 1: earlier in the show, but suffice it to say, I
Speaker 1: got to think, a you guys didn't expect to see
Speaker 1: that kind of shooting prowess from this team. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was in a game plan or not,
Speaker 1: but obviously they said a new record and be a
Speaker 1: blowout win over a decent Mississippi State team in Kenny
Speaker 1: Brooks's first Southeastern Conference game. What does that tell us?
Speaker 3: Well, I think there's a good bit to unpack as
Speaker 3: far as all that goes. One would be that I
Speaker 3: think what we saw with Mississippi State coming into that
Speaker 3: game at thirteen and one is that their non conference
Speaker 3: schedule really wasn't maybe as difficult as what it should
Speaker 3: have been to get them ready for a league play.
Speaker 3: So I think that's one piece of it. I think
Speaker 3: the other piece of it is that this Kentucky team
Speaker 3: is probably underestimated, and you know, I thought they could
Speaker 3: they could win that game last night, No question, did
Speaker 3: I think they could win it like that and per
Speaker 3: form like that. I'm not so sure because we've seen
Speaker 3: some really good things out of this team this year.
Speaker 3: But you know, I go to go to shoot around.
Speaker 3: I watched shoot around a lot, and I know this
Speaker 3: team can shoot. There's no question this team can shoot.
Speaker 3: And that's something that Deja Lawrence said last night in
Speaker 3: the post game with us, was I know I'm a
Speaker 3: good shooter, right, I mean, so she said this was
Speaker 3: just a matter of getting in the gym and just
Speaker 3: getting up shots and then having that confidence, the same
Speaker 3: kind of confidence that their coach has, and then that
Speaker 3: they they have to find that in themselves. And last
Speaker 3: night they did that. And you know, this is much
Speaker 3: like baseball when your leadoff man gets a hit and
Speaker 3: you're just passing the bat and then everybody can get
Speaker 3: a hit. Basketball is the same way. If you see
Speaker 3: one teammate knock down a shot and then another one,
Speaker 3: everybody starts to gain a little bit of confidence. That
Speaker 3: these two young ladies were absolutely on fire last night,
Speaker 3: which was making it impossible to guard them. I mean,
Speaker 3: they were hitting three pointers that that I felt like
Speaker 3: were relatively contested, so and you could just kind of
Speaker 3: see Sam Purcell kind of throw his hands up like,
Speaker 3: I don't, don't, I don't know what else to do.
Speaker 3: So yeah, this was this was a game that it
Speaker 3: really all came together for Kentucky in all the right
Speaker 3: ways because I thought they were really good on the
Speaker 3: defensive end too.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'll get to that in a minute. But
Speaker 1: speaking of the shooting I mentioned earlier, Dajiel Lawrence did
Speaker 1: a great job filling lanes, spotting up on the outside.
Speaker 1: Georgia Aymore Christy, it seemed like half of her threes
Speaker 1: were on the run, on the move. And I know
Speaker 1: you were a post player, but you can appreciate somebody
Speaker 1: who gets those feed organized, as Bill Rafferty says, and
Speaker 1: her form was just flawless.
Speaker 3: And this isn't something that Listen, she's gifted, and you
Speaker 3: know she's athletic and all those things that this young
Speaker 3: lady works at it so make no mistake that this
Speaker 3: isn't something that she works at. These young ladies come
Speaker 3: in an hour before practice, an hour before they're shoot around,
Speaker 3: and get in extra work in order to be able
Speaker 3: to fine tune things like that to be able to
Speaker 3: offer that in a game. You know, when you're coming
Speaker 3: off the screen that quick. Really, she's only five six,
Speaker 3: so you know she's she's not very big in that way,
Speaker 3: so she's got to be able to get that shot
Speaker 3: off quickly, and she does that. But she elevates so
Speaker 3: well for her size, which is another huge feather in
Speaker 3: her cap She's got great shooting form and she has
Speaker 3: an enormous amount of confidence. All that to mix together
Speaker 3: is a dangerous player and so I think that's what
Speaker 3: I love. But I tell you from her stat line
Speaker 3: is so impressive from a scoring perspective, you know, hitting
Speaker 3: seven of ten three pointers, but she had nine assists.
Speaker 3: And that's what I think I love about that balance
Speaker 3: that you get with Georgia Amore is that she above
Speaker 3: all else, has such a high basketball IQ that she
Speaker 3: absolutely understands how and when to facilitate for a team,
Speaker 3: and then how and when to score for her team.
Speaker 3: You know, they had a run of about they would
Speaker 3: zero for five on a couple of trips, and she
Speaker 3: came down and threw up a shot that you think, oh,
Speaker 3: is that the one, and you're like, well, heck yeah,
Speaker 3: because it went in. So she just gets it. She
Speaker 3: just underunderstands what her capabilities are and what she brings
Speaker 3: to the table for a team, and she knows when
Speaker 3: to offer it.
Speaker 1: I like it when she she goes over and talks
Speaker 1: to Kenny Brooks while her team or the other team
Speaker 1: shooting freeze is whatever. And I'm always saying, man, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear what they're talking about. You know.
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, they've got such a special relationship and there's
Speaker 3: such a mutual respect for each other, and you know
Speaker 3: that's that's something that has been earned over the years,
Speaker 3: and you know, this is something I think that you know,
Speaker 3: there's only there's two players that remained from last year's team.
Speaker 3: That's Sanaia Tyler and Cassidy Row. And I think Sanaia
Speaker 3: Tyler is learning now what Georgia Amore is knowing is
Speaker 3: that we're gonna if you buy in and you listen
Speaker 3: and you'll do what he says. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: then you start to understand we can have a really
Speaker 3: good working relationship. And that's ultimately what this is is
Speaker 3: is a relationship that is a two way street and
Speaker 3: that communication works both ways. And it's really a beautiful
Speaker 3: thing to watch.
Speaker 1: This is the biggest Kentucky team I think, I think
Speaker 1: up and down the roster. Maybe ever think that I
Speaker 1: can remember, and you've been covering almost as long as
Speaker 1: I have. But it's skilled. It's not just Biggs taking
Speaker 1: up space. I mean strack. Obviously, she's one of the
Speaker 1: best in the league, if not the country. Silva is
Speaker 1: going to be good. You and I talked about this
Speaker 1: last night after the game. When she gets in the
Speaker 1: weight room, but she helps. But the key was was
Speaker 1: was key last night the way she worked the boards
Speaker 1: against bigger and what looked like stronger Mississippi State bigs.
Speaker 1: And that's going to be so vital. As you know
Speaker 1: in the SEC this year.
Speaker 3: Johnny Key is scrappy. That's what I really saw last
Speaker 3: night from her was a player that when she comes
Speaker 3: down with the rebound and three sets of hands and
Speaker 3: arms are around her, she's able to have strong hands
Speaker 3: and get herself out of that to get the ball,
Speaker 3: to outlet the ball and get it going the other way.
Speaker 3: And she's not afraid of the fight. I think that's
Speaker 3: the other thing that you know past players, it's a
Speaker 3: different game where it's you know, it's not the same
Speaker 3: game back when I played. So that's why we see
Speaker 3: all three of these post players. I include Amelia Hassett
Speaker 3: in that in a lot of ways. But you'll see
Speaker 3: Janny Key, Claire Strike, Clara Silva step out and shoot.
Speaker 3: They'll face up. They shoot this really love. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's a it's a thing of beauty, this little fadeaway
Speaker 3: shot that's very dirt and Navidski like and and it is.
Speaker 3: It's because the game is very different, and you know,
Speaker 3: these these young ladies are learning a skill set and
Speaker 3: have a skill set that is very different from what
Speaker 3: you might think a six ' five post player would
Speaker 3: have in the game today. So you know, these young
Speaker 3: ladies are very versatile. They're all excellent passers, which certainly
Speaker 3: is we've seen on display all season long from them.
Speaker 3: They see this floor really well, so they've they've got
Speaker 3: a really special skill set.
Speaker 1: What is it about the way Kenny Brooks, I won't
Speaker 1: say coaches, but constructs offense and defense that leads you
Speaker 1: to believe that this team can can compete in the SEC?
Speaker 1: He at the upper level of the SEC.
Speaker 3: This guy's only had one losing season in his entire
Speaker 3: coaching career. So when you consider that alone, he must
Speaker 3: know what he's doing. He must be he's getting something right.
Speaker 3: But I think the big thing is is he understands
Speaker 3: what kind of player he wants, and it is a
Speaker 3: certain kind of player. He wants you to play a
Speaker 3: certain way, but he also wants you to act a
Speaker 3: certain way. He wants you to be coachable in a
Speaker 3: certain way. So he's looking for a certain type of player,
Speaker 3: and he doesn't care if you're the best player in
Speaker 3: the country. If you don't fit that mold and that's
Speaker 3: not what or who you are, then you may not
Speaker 3: fit in with this team. So I think having a
Speaker 3: real understanding of what he wants and what he's looking for,
Speaker 3: more than anything, brings a team together and jels a
Speaker 3: team together to be able to play together in a
Speaker 3: way that is so hard to coach and do. But
Speaker 3: I think him just knowing exactly what kind of player
Speaker 3: he wants has been the key to his six because
Speaker 3: you know, look, he's he's always got players that can
Speaker 3: shoot and players that can do a lot of different things,
Speaker 3: but they have to be able to play together. Last
Speaker 3: night was twenty three assists on twenty six made baskets
Speaker 3: for Kentucky. That the team that plays together, right, So
Speaker 3: I think that's that's very telling about what kind of
Speaker 3: team Eddie Burk wants to put together, n sorry, wants
Speaker 3: to put together.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean it's it's clear that the guy knows
Speaker 1: what he's doing. Obviously his resume. Yes, State staff. But
Speaker 1: you know what impressed me the most last night is
Speaker 1: it seemed as though you got to give State credit.
Speaker 1: I mean, they ran their stuff and they've got good stuff,
Speaker 1: but they didn't guard very well on a three point line.
Speaker 1: It didn't look like Kentucky relaxed. You know, maybe for
Speaker 1: a minute or two, but you get out to a
Speaker 1: big lead and kids can lose focus. I didn't see
Speaker 1: that last night, did you.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: I totally agree, and I actually said that coming out
Speaker 3: of a commercial break going into the fourth quarter is
Speaker 3: this is when you put the adblolutely, put your foot
Speaker 3: on the gas. You don't take anything for granted. But
Speaker 3: I think some of that comes with the experience that
Speaker 3: this team has. You know, a lot five players played
Speaker 3: thirty one plus minutes last night, so they don't have
Speaker 3: a deep bench, they don't have a lot of players
Speaker 3: that they play. But what you have out of those
Speaker 3: five are players that have played a lot of basketball.
Speaker 3: So I think they understand that and They're going to
Speaker 3: follow Georgia amore, and as Georgia goes, they will too.
Speaker 3: And Georgia plays as a tremendous amount of intensity from
Speaker 3: tip off the final buzzer, and so she's setting the
Speaker 3: tone in a lot of ways. So and this team
Speaker 3: wants to follow her. So I think that was huge
Speaker 3: last night.
Speaker 1: Christy Thomas my guess. She worked last night's Kentucky Mississippi
Speaker 1: State game for SEC Plus along with Jeff mcorrel. We'll
Speaker 1: come back with more from Christy in just a minute.
Speaker 1: Hair on a Big one Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome
Speaker 1: back with talking with Christy Thomas. She worked the UK
Speaker 1: women's basketball last night for the SEC network, but she
Speaker 1: also is a teammate on the UK Radio network when
Speaker 1: it comes to Kentucky football. She and Jeremy and Logan Stenberg,
Speaker 1: who had a great rookie season. I thought this year he.
Speaker 3: Did, Yes, he was very good.
Speaker 1: Yes, but you guys were tasked with you open the broadcast,
Speaker 1: you look at the upcoming game, but it also evolved
Speaker 1: sifting through the previous game. And there was too many
Speaker 1: losses this year, of course, but it was such a
Speaker 1: head scratching season Christy. When you go back and look
Speaker 1: at some of the things Kentucky did, especially the episode
Speaker 1: went over Ollle Miss and how well the Wildcats played
Speaker 1: over Georgia. And I just heard you guys constantly saying
Speaker 1: if we could just get back to that level of football,
Speaker 1: and it never happened. And I'm just wondering, looking back
Speaker 1: on it, can you put your finger on one or
Speaker 1: two things that you look at. Did they try to
Speaker 1: explain it all?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right, it is a head scratcher in a
Speaker 3: lot of ways. But I think there are two things
Speaker 3: that stand out to me about it. One is that
Speaker 3: they just didn't appear to be any player leadership. And
Speaker 3: I think oftentimes, as we've talked about the women and
Speaker 3: there is no question who the leaders on that women's
Speaker 3: team is, you really, I don't think there was a clear,
Speaker 3: clearly defined leader in the locker room for this football team,
Speaker 3: and that that can't happen, So, you know, I think
Speaker 3: that that's so important. But I think that's also where
Speaker 3: the transfer portal helps you and hurts you. I mean,
Speaker 3: you have new guys that are coming in that probably
Speaker 3: could be leaders, but do they take on a leadership
Speaker 3: role and they haven't been here and they don't know
Speaker 3: things like other players do. You've got to be very sure,
Speaker 3: very confident in yourself and your abilities to be able
Speaker 3: to do that in order to take on a leadership
Speaker 3: role in an environment like that. Georgia Amore was empowered
Speaker 3: to do that by the nature of the situation and
Speaker 3: her coach and that sort of thing. And I just
Speaker 3: don't think we saw that from There's not anybody you
Speaker 3: could point to to say, you know, and I've talked
Speaker 3: to Logan a lot, an awful lot about that with
Speaker 3: the offensive line and how they took they took it
Speaker 3: upon themselves that have their own inner workings of their
Speaker 3: own leadership and how they were going to do things,
Speaker 3: and he said, you know, I don't see that on
Speaker 3: this offensive line. And then I think the other piece
Speaker 3: of it was that we've really gotten bogged down with
Speaker 3: this nil and who can offer me what kind of thing?
Speaker 3: And you know, that's something that we talked about on
Speaker 3: the broadcast a couple of times, is who wants to
Speaker 3: play football? You know, it's one thing to want to
Speaker 3: go somewhere where you can, you know, set yourself up
Speaker 3: and make some money and do those things and I
Speaker 3: don't begrudge an athlete wanting to do that or having
Speaker 3: the ability to do that at all, but you also
Speaker 3: have to want to play the game. And I think
Speaker 3: that's where we maybe we lost a little of that
Speaker 3: with some guys that we had big expectations for this
Speaker 3: season and maybe we're a leaddown and we didn't see it.
Speaker 3: You've got to want to love the game and like,
Speaker 3: if it's gone tomorrow, have you left it all out there?
Speaker 3: And there's a lot of guys in that locker room
Speaker 3: that would have to say no, they didn't.
Speaker 1: I've been talking this and last about the fact that
Speaker 1: and he brought it up and more than once Mark
Speaker 1: Stoops does. Buddy also says, look, I'm not whining and crying.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying this is what it is with the
Speaker 1: portal and nil. And he is so stereotypical of I
Speaker 1: would say ninety eight percent of the coaches in America
Speaker 1: who are just unhappy with the way things are. They've
Speaker 1: got to get together and change it. More guardrails, different calendar,
Speaker 1: do something because an old school guy like Mark Stoops
Speaker 1: is not coaching the way he wants to coach. And
Speaker 1: I got to think very few people are.
Speaker 3: It's a mess. It's a complete mess. I mean, it's
Speaker 3: all the way up and down. You know, as you
Speaker 3: think about the NCAAA trying to do things for the
Speaker 3: student athlete and trying to get on the side of
Speaker 3: the student athlete, there's a way to do that with
Speaker 3: there being a happy medium. Do I know what the
Speaker 3: answers aren't?
Speaker 4: Absolutely not.
Speaker 3: I know we're not there, right, I mean, this is
Speaker 3: not When I think about NIL standing for name, image
Speaker 3: and likeness, I means you make money off of your
Speaker 3: or name, image and likeness. It doesn't mean I pay
Speaker 3: you to come here to play football. So I think
Speaker 3: that's where my frustration with NIL really comes in, is
Speaker 3: that you're getting paid anyway with a free education. So
Speaker 3: now whatever you do when you get here, your performance
Speaker 3: will dictate whether you get a car dealership deal, or
Speaker 3: whether you get a billboard deal, or whether you are
Speaker 3: asked to come sign autographs and get paid for that,
Speaker 3: or whether you get jerseys that you know, that's what indicates.
Speaker 3: Your performance on the field indicates what kind of money
Speaker 3: you make now on your name, image and likeness. So
Speaker 3: I think that's what's gotten lost for me, is it's
Speaker 3: like why are we paying people? And then these kids
Speaker 3: are getting disappointed because a lot of times they're being
Speaker 3: promised things that are not being delivered. So, you know,
Speaker 3: and then I think the transfer portal has just become
Speaker 3: really a very sad place for a lot of athletes
Speaker 3: because they go there and never come out, and then
Speaker 3: they realize maybe they've made a mistake. And I said,
Speaker 3: you know, I think as we look back, what I
Speaker 3: want to see is in ten to fifteen years, these
Speaker 3: athletes that made these decisions and did these things, what
Speaker 3: kind of regrets do they have, because we need to
Speaker 3: learn from that as well too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that soleness and there's going to be way too
Speaker 1: many sitting back blaming other people pointing for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1: I also fear for the high school kids because now
Speaker 1: you know how many kids are going to be ignored. Well,
Speaker 1: instead of going into the high school ranks, let's use
Speaker 1: the portal, uh, you know in mass and uh it's
Speaker 1: like I said, this has got the change. And I
Speaker 1: don't bash the NCAA in air quotes like most people, because, uh,
Speaker 1: it is a collection of the schools, but there's got
Speaker 1: to be leadership at the top. Whether it's in Indianapolis
Speaker 1: or on committees, you know, chancellors eighties or whatever. They've
Speaker 1: got to fix this and they can do it, can't they.
Speaker 3: Well, they can fix it, that they have to do
Speaker 3: it with some quickness.
Speaker 2: Like, let's don't drag our feet.
Speaker 3: Let's don't let you know, let's don't make it a
Speaker 3: year's long process. I think that's the other frustration that
Speaker 3: a lot of fans have is why does something take
Speaker 3: so long to do it?
Speaker 1: Shouldn't.
Speaker 3: I mean, you all know there's a problem. You know
Speaker 3: there need to be changes. Let's talk about it, Let's
Speaker 3: get it done. Let's figure out what those are. And
Speaker 3: they don't have to all be instituted at once, you know.
Speaker 3: Let's let's start to make small changes that are better
Speaker 3: for the game and better for the athlete, better.
Speaker 4: For the school.
Speaker 3: Let's make it better for everybody. But let's get to it.
Speaker 3: Let's let's don't keep dragging our feed and take years
Speaker 3: to make this happen.
Speaker 1: Well, because their member institutions, they have committee meetings that
Speaker 1: only happen a few times a year and all that,
Speaker 1: maybe they need to change the entire structure, create a
Speaker 1: czar or somebody like that you know, with with eight
Speaker 1: or ten people working with them on behalf of this
Speaker 1: because I don't know, but you're right.
Speaker 3: It's well, it's like it's like this corporate America nonsense. Right,
Speaker 3: It's like just because you meet a couple like you
Speaker 3: guys are in charge figure it out. I mean, this
Speaker 3: is you know, like, let's problem solve this and figure
Speaker 3: it out. If you only meet a couple of times
Speaker 3: a year, then maybe that's not enough. Let's figure this thing.
Speaker 4: You know, it's not rocket science.
Speaker 1: Christy Thomas of the UK Network watch your own sec pluses. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much, have a good one.
Speaker 3: Hey, thanks for having me and that'll do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks to my guest Christy Thomas, Scott Brown and Justin
Speaker 1: Rowland Tomorrow Kentucky Basketball eleven AM Tip with Tom Leach
Speaker 1: and Jack Gibbons. Thanks for joining us. That's it. Good
Speaker 1: night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 4: Where the hell have you been?
Speaker 1: Soldier training? Sir? What kind of training? Son?
Speaker 2: Be me training, sir?
Speaker 4: Day amer