Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Bloon Sider. Dick Gabrielle with you
Speaker 1: on a Monday edition of our program, Coming to You
Speaker 1: Live on Tape. We recorded from the garage, as we
Speaker 1: usually do, and I bring that up because that might
Speaker 1: not be the case later in the week. I have
Speaker 1: Jerry duty. So if I am summoned, it'll be the
Speaker 1: best of the Big Boon Sider. But we will be
Speaker 1: with you tonight and tomorrow night here from the garage.
Speaker 1: Baseball season is over for the Wildcats. You know that,
Speaker 1: of course. By now it's Kentucky and a painful, painful
Speaker 1: loss fell to West Virginia, my dad's alma mater last night,
Speaker 1: thirteen to twelve, in one of the wildest and when
Speaker 1: it comes to what was on the line and how
Speaker 1: they lost, it the most painful loss that I can remember,
Speaker 1: maybe ever in at least recent UK baseball history. I
Speaker 1: wasn't around. Well, I was around, but I wasn't there
Speaker 1: when Keith Madison's best team, which was in nineteen eighty eight,
Speaker 1: was about three innings maybe from the College World Series.
Speaker 1: And this is back before they took sixty four teams.
Speaker 1: It was so much harder to get into the world series,
Speaker 1: and he lost. His team lost to Stanford and Mike
Speaker 1: Messina had him down and again a couple of innings away,
Speaker 1: then lost, and then the next day they ran out
Speaker 1: of pitching. So that was painful. I remember reading about
Speaker 1: it back in nineteen eighty eight. There wasn't any radio
Speaker 1: or TV on it. But this one was worse to
Speaker 1: me because the Cats had it against West Virginia, a
Speaker 1: team they should have beaten in the opening round, and
Speaker 1: then they lose. They lose that one by a run,
Speaker 1: then they lose again by a run to West Virginia,
Speaker 1: and it was frankly because of errors. And yes, I
Speaker 1: know West Virginia made a bunch of errors as well.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if you're making errors, you're blowing it.
Speaker 1: And the Wildcats, of course, in Game one, made an error.
Speaker 1: Luke Lawrence made an error that opened the gates for
Speaker 1: West Virginia and the Wildcats lose at four to three.
Speaker 1: Wasted a great pitching performance by Ben Cleaver, the Slim Reaper.
Speaker 1: He gave up three runs, only one was earned, and
Speaker 1: then gave up an unearned run. When Simon Gregorson was
Speaker 1: on the mount, he gave up one hit, one unearned
Speaker 1: run and lost to West Virginia four to three. So
Speaker 1: now you got to battle back, and they did. They
Speaker 1: come back. They beat USC Upstate, which was a good team,
Speaker 1: not a great team. And then they got to play Clemson,
Speaker 1: which had lost to West Virginia, which came from behind
Speaker 1: and beat Clemson. So now the Wildcats have got to
Speaker 1: play the Tigers on their home field, and they destroyed Clemson,
Speaker 1: had a six run fourth inning and just had a
Speaker 1: big time, had what thirteen base hits, good pitching by
Speaker 1: Nate Harris, six innings, three runs, and the bullpen got
Speaker 1: it done havn Byers, Nile Ad cock Leydon Harris. So
Speaker 1: now that sets him up to play West Virginia again,
Speaker 1: and you know what happened. Cats jumped out to a
Speaker 1: four to one lead, made it five to one, made
Speaker 1: it six one, then gave up six runs in the
Speaker 1: fourth inning. Another error cost him Tyler Bell. And I'm
Speaker 1: not picking on these two guys, Luke Lawrence and Tyler Bell,
Speaker 1: because let's face it, Without those guys both offense and defense,
Speaker 1: Kentucky's not here. Kentucky's not in the postseason. But they
Speaker 1: made errors on routine plays at the worst possible time.
Speaker 1: Still Kentucky bounced back after giving up the lead and
Speaker 1: watching West Virginia tie it at seven to seven, and
Speaker 1: did what good teams do immediately answered, got two runs
Speaker 1: in the fifth, got three more in the sixth, and
Speaker 1: another in the eighth. Right, so now they're up twelve
Speaker 1: to seven. And I'll be honest with you, I knew
Speaker 1: how deeply Kentucky had gone into his bullpen, which had
Speaker 1: been somewhat of an issue all year, up and down,
Speaker 1: and I thought, man, I don't know if they can
Speaker 1: hold this lead. Even though West Virginia made five errors,
Speaker 1: I don't know if Kentucky can hold this lead. And
Speaker 1: it couldn't. Cats just kept either walking people or hitting people.
Speaker 1: And they walked seven, gave up runs with two outs,
Speaker 1: and they lose another one run game. Lost a dozen
Speaker 1: one run games this year. But I've got to be
Speaker 1: honest when I got to thinking about it, when I
Speaker 1: calmed down, I said to myself, at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the year, knowing or not knowing what I knew about
Speaker 1: this team, which is to say, I didn't know what
Speaker 1: they were going to be like, I didn't know who
Speaker 1: was going to play what. To the coaches, they thought
Speaker 1: they had to figure out figured out in the fall
Speaker 1: and preseason. They were changing the lineups, they were changing
Speaker 1: position players, some of them mostly in the outfield, but
Speaker 1: some at first base. They dealt with injuries to keep players.
Speaker 1: At one point they were down to their fifth third basement.
Speaker 1: They had James McCoy playing third base, which he'd never played,
Speaker 1: and of course McCoy spent a lot of time this
Speaker 1: year at first base, which he had never played. So
Speaker 1: they just kept juggling and tweaking and trying to fix thing.
Speaker 1: Lost their starting center fielder early in the year. They
Speaker 1: lost key relievers this year, and remember last year they
Speaker 1: were almost completely healthy going into postseason, same the year before.
Speaker 1: Not making excuses. You got to deal with it. Everybody
Speaker 1: deals with injuries. But those were some of the challenges
Speaker 1: that they had. And after the game, Nick Minjeone, talking
Speaker 1: to the media said, yeah, this is this is gonna
Speaker 1: bother him for quite some time.
Speaker 2: I'll be thinking about this game in these moments for
Speaker 2: a long time, because you know, when you have a
Speaker 2: team down and you gotta you gotta put him away.
Speaker 3: Proud of our.
Speaker 2: Team for the their ability to add runs. You know,
Speaker 2: obviously we we got down and then we responded and
Speaker 2: we kept adding to the lead. And just man, this team,
Speaker 2: very few people even gave his team a chance, so
Speaker 2: to be in this position, the leadership that we got
Speaker 2: from our seniors was absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1: It was interesting. He never directly commented on the collapse
Speaker 1: of the bullpen, because every time it seemed like his
Speaker 1: thoughts took him to that, he fell back on how
Speaker 1: proud he was of the team, how proud he was
Speaker 1: of the senior class, of what this team went through
Speaker 1: just to get here. Think about this now, with all
Speaker 1: the one run laws this year, and with all the
Speaker 1: mysteries surrounding this team that lost almost every starting player,
Speaker 1: including a reliever and starting pitcher, from last year's World
Speaker 1: Series team, they had one regular back. McCoy was a
Speaker 1: part time regular, if there is such a thing in
Speaker 1: right field. Devin Burks was the only position player back
Speaker 1: from last year. And again, including the rotation, the top
Speaker 1: relievers and all, and still they were one went away
Speaker 1: from playing for a shot at the Soupers again for
Speaker 1: the third consecutive year. I didn't see that coming, did you.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 1: Every once in a while you'd see potential when they
Speaker 1: swept Oklahoma, when they went to Knoxville and beat Tennessee.
Speaker 1: Ole Miss has planned for a super slot tonight against
Speaker 1: Murray State. Kentucky beat Ole Miss in one game, lost
Speaker 1: a couple of one run games to the Rebels, so
Speaker 1: you saw the potential there. They just couldn't quite nail
Speaker 1: it down during the regular season and last night against
Speaker 1: West Virginia. But again, as Minjiones said, very few people
Speaker 1: gave this Kentucky team a shot at doing anything this year.
Speaker 2: I told him, there's not a lot of people that
Speaker 2: gave them a chance a chance. So when I look
Speaker 2: back and I think about what this team has done,
Speaker 2: the amount of time, effort, energy, and the buy in
Speaker 2: that they just literally just bought into everything we were doing,
Speaker 2: it was truly remarkable.
Speaker 1: Truly remarkable. And still, by the way of those comments
Speaker 1: courtesy of on three dot com, still Kentucky should have
Speaker 1: won the game, and if West Virginia had lost, the
Speaker 1: Mountaineers would have said we should have won the game.
Speaker 1: That's just the way it went. But you got to
Speaker 1: take advantage. And Kentucky had so many opportunities to win
Speaker 1: that one, and really opportunities to get through this regional
Speaker 1: without a loss. But just missed it. So this is
Speaker 1: something when I think back on this season, I will
Speaker 1: think about all those one run games, midweek games, SEC games,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's another tough year for the league. It's
Speaker 1: not going to be quite as formidable as it was
Speaker 1: last year when half the field, well maybe it will
Speaker 1: be half the World Series field was SEC teams. But
Speaker 1: you got all missed playing as I said tonight for
Speaker 1: with Murray State in Oxford for a shot at hosting
Speaker 1: a super Wake Forest at Tennessee tonight. Little Rock Arkansas,
Speaker 1: Little Rock at LSU tonight, beat LSU last night. How
Speaker 1: about that in the box and forced another game at
Speaker 1: alex Box Stadium tonight. Oklahoma SEC team is at North Carolina,
Speaker 1: a team Kentucky swept, but then not Kentucky out of
Speaker 1: the SEC tournament. But it's an incredible year so far.
Speaker 1: Georgia done, Mississippi State done, Vanderbilt the overall number seed,
Speaker 1: number one seed done, beaten by Right State, Texas done,
Speaker 1: beaten by UT San Antonio. It's phenomenal. Now Auburn is
Speaker 1: gonna host the super or move to the Supers. Arkansas
Speaker 1: moves to the Supers. Auburn's a team to beat Kentucky
Speaker 1: early in this year. Arkansas did not play Kentucky the
Speaker 1: typical strong year in the SEC, but I think we'll
Speaker 1: agree Wildcats should still be alive. Coming up at the
Speaker 1: bottom of the hour, we're gonna talk with Jeff Picoro
Speaker 1: of the SEC Radio Network. We'll talk baseball, football, basketball,
Speaker 1: Our number two Derek Terry of Betcat Central, of course,
Speaker 1: has covered Kentucky baseball year long, and our New York
Speaker 1: City Bureau chief Mike Sephoznik. I'm going to check in
Speaker 1: with Mike on two fronts, number one to take the
Speaker 1: pulse of New York Knicks fans, and I think I
Speaker 1: already know the answer how they're treating Karl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 1: Remember now it's New York. But also Mike is about
Speaker 1: as wild eye a Kentucky fan as you'll ever want
Speaker 1: to meet. That's all I had on the Big Boon
Speaker 1: Sider here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Big Boon Sider. Coming up at the bottom of the hour,
Speaker 1: Jeff picorol the UK Sports Network, and coming up tomorrow
Speaker 1: night we'll talk to Darryl Bird. It's it's kind of
Speaker 1: a tradition the SEC people get together in Destin, Florida
Speaker 1: and meet and talk and all that. And Darryl is
Speaker 1: I believe the only local person, the only person on
Speaker 1: the UK beat who goes down to Florida covers the meetings.
Speaker 1: Takes a little time, he and his wife, but he
Speaker 1: gets a chance to sit down with Mark Pope and
Speaker 1: Mitch Barnhart. The off times, would sit down with whoever
Speaker 1: was Kentucky said football coach at the time. Obviously Mark
Speaker 1: stoops right now, but now he waits until he gets
Speaker 1: back and sits down. Might have talked to him before
Speaker 1: the meetings, but they sit down and talk with each
Speaker 1: other with an eye on the Cat's Balls pre season
Speaker 1: football yearbook coming up, and you've heard us talk to
Speaker 1: Aaron Gershan about that. So we'll have a chance to
Speaker 1: talk to Daryl about that tomorrow night and catch up
Speaker 1: with him on what's been discussed. I know looking at
Speaker 1: the website that at the Cats Ball's website that he
Speaker 1: had a good sit down with Mark Pope and with
Speaker 1: Mitch Barnhardt. So we'll find out what's on their mind
Speaker 1: tomorrow night. Speaking of Jefpiicorel a long time with the
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Reds the network and there's a really bittersweet story
Speaker 1: about the Reds. Elie Della Cruz had a home run
Speaker 1: yesterday and this came right after he learned of the
Speaker 1: death of his sister. According to the story, obviously, playing
Speaker 1: in Chicago with a heavy heart, Red's lost seven to three,
Speaker 1: but Dela Cruz had a two run homer and scored
Speaker 1: two runs. And this is after he had found out
Speaker 1: that his sister had passed away. And Terry Francona, the manager,
Speaker 1: said Dela Cruz insisted he wanted to play and said
Speaker 1: the team would support him, and in fact, the fiftieth
Speaker 1: home run of his career came. Dela Cruz patted his
Speaker 1: chest as he took his final steps toward the plant,
Speaker 1: pointed to the sky and bang, knock one out of
Speaker 1: the ballpark. So, Ellie Dela Cruz right now is dealing
Speaker 1: with tragedy. Didn't talk to reporters on Sunday, Reds didn't
Speaker 1: offer any more details, but the home run was number
Speaker 1: twelve on the year for Elie Dela Cruz. And while
Speaker 1: we're talking tragedy, John Brincus remember him Sports Science, Remember
Speaker 1: that feature on ESPN. He was the co creator in
Speaker 1: the host. He died at age fifty four. There was
Speaker 1: no cause of death given in the story that I read,
Speaker 1: but it dealt extensively with depression. It said Brincus had
Speaker 1: been dealing with depression. According to the announcement of his
Speaker 1: death on social media. I can only assume he took
Speaker 1: his own life because he admitted that he had attempted
Speaker 1: suicide earlier in his life and had second thoughts. Obviously,
Speaker 1: but he sold his company and Sports Science that feature,
Speaker 1: and he said after he did that, he spiraled into
Speaker 1: what he called a deep, deep depression. He said he
Speaker 1: had a noose around his neck was ready to do it,
Speaker 1: but his dog named Zeppelin, tugged on his genes and
Speaker 1: pulled him out of what he called his suicidal funk.
Speaker 1: Then he sought help and said that he was in
Speaker 1: much better shape in terms of his personal life than
Speaker 1: he had ever been before. However, he is gone now
Speaker 1: and they keep talking about the depression from which he suffered.
Speaker 1: Sports Science was such a great feature, and as the
Speaker 1: story said, it aimed to uncover sports biggest myths and
Speaker 1: mysteries using cutting edge technology, settying things like momentum friction,
Speaker 1: the laws of gravity. The series won six Emmy Awards.
Speaker 1: It started on Fox Sports in twenty oh seven and
Speaker 1: it moved to ESPN. I thought it was such a great,
Speaker 1: great feature and a great idea, and I was I
Speaker 1: was sad when it went away. We talked last week
Speaker 1: with Kenny McPeak and his horse Mystic Dan and won
Speaker 1: the Derby. Want to raise the Churchill Downs on Saturday,
Speaker 1: So congrats to Kenny, who says Sovereignty will win the Belmont.
Speaker 1: He told us that when we were at his barn
Speaker 1: Friday morning, journalism will be entered. That's final. Now. Michael
Speaker 1: McCarthy worked his horse, breezed him yesterday. Breezing means train
Speaker 1: like he's racing, you know, going all out. And in
Speaker 1: fact the jockey for journalism when Berto Rispoli was actually
Speaker 1: in town from California yesterday morning and this was the
Speaker 1: only workout for journalism since the May third Kentucky Derby
Speaker 1: course Journalism finished second. But in case you're interested, he
Speaker 1: went a half mile in forty seven and five. That's
Speaker 1: pretty good, folks, opening quarter twenty three and change galloped
Speaker 1: out one minute four five furlongs one twelve and change
Speaker 1: for six. That's according to New York Racing Association clockers.
Speaker 1: Those are really healthy times. So Journalism appears to be
Speaker 1: ready to go after winning the Preakness, and even though
Speaker 1: he was bumped in traffic coming down the stretch, he's
Speaker 1: doing well up in New York. He's going to try
Speaker 1: to win that Preakness Belmont double runner up in the Derby.
Speaker 1: Winner of the Preakness will be the lone horse to
Speaker 1: compete in all three jewels of the Triple Crowd in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, and in fact, if he wins, he'll
Speaker 1: be the first horse to complete that Preakness Belmont double,
Speaker 1: not including Triple Crown winners since a Fleet Alex in
Speaker 1: twenty oh five. Sovereignty did work a half mile, so
Speaker 1: he's ready to go. Good to go. Bill Mott's Colt
Speaker 1: skip the Preakness, as you know, but recorded his third
Speaker 1: workout since the Derby on Sunday morning when I half
Speaker 1: mile and forty eight and change almost forty nine over
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma training track that's across the street from the
Speaker 1: main track at sarah Tooga. It's so weird picturing the
Speaker 1: Belmont at sarah Toga, but it's a good track. They'll
Speaker 1: get a great crowd and it's going to be a
Speaker 1: really good race, I think, with both sovereignty and journalism
Speaker 1: hooking each other again. Also training Sunday morning, a cult
Speaker 1: named Crudo. He's the son of Justify, a Triple Crown winner,
Speaker 1: and a horse that won the Sir Barton Stakes on
Speaker 1: the Preakness undercard, so he'll get some play. Finally, in
Speaker 1: case you track such things, and you may already know
Speaker 1: this if you're a Madden fan, but on the cover
Speaker 1: of Madden NFL twenty six, EA Sports announced earlier today
Speaker 1: and released an image Saquon Barkley and it's the photo
Speaker 1: from when he leaped over a player earlier this year.
Speaker 1: It was probably the greatest moment regular season for the
Speaker 1: Eagles when he did that. There had to be a
Speaker 1: zillion photos taken. And that's what's on the cover now
Speaker 1: of Madden. And if you believe in the Jinks, bet
Speaker 1: against the Eagles. I'm not going to bet against Saquon Barkley.
Speaker 1: Not me. Jeff Pacarl's next year on six thirty WLAP
Speaker 1: welcome back to the Big Moon side of joining us
Speaker 1: now in our celebrity online Mister Jeff Picayl, color analyst
Speaker 1: on the UK Football Radio Network, also sports director WTVQ
Speaker 1: here in election and much to discuss right now though, Jeff,
Speaker 1: as we move into the summer months, which can be
Speaker 1: challenging for local TV sports. But and you know you
Speaker 1: worked in TV sports back in the day. You've been
Speaker 1: a TVQ now for a little more than a year,
Speaker 1: I think, right.
Speaker 5: Three, you've been there three years.
Speaker 1: On your second years, they go around wow.
Speaker 5: Three.
Speaker 1: Well, then, you know, summertime, it seems like is getting
Speaker 1: smaller and smaller when it comes to getting yourself ready
Speaker 1: for the upcoming football season and stuff like that, isn't it.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, like Robin asked the other day, aren't
Speaker 5: they out of school? Why are they still playing baseball? Yes,
Speaker 5: they are the only guys on campus and the softball
Speaker 5: is the only.
Speaker 4: Girls on campus right now.
Speaker 3: So yeah, but you track.
Speaker 1: Athletes scattered out there, but they're not on campus.
Speaker 5: Right yeah. So yeah, it's getting shorter and short as
Speaker 5: you say, And you know, I don't see me into it,
Speaker 5: but you know you have to. If you're baseball, you've
Speaker 5: got to play the games and softball.
Speaker 1: So you know. Part of this too, though, is we
Speaker 1: are keeping an eye on transfers for all sports, most
Speaker 1: recently basketball of course, still some football out there, and
Speaker 1: then we start hearing about football what you guys used
Speaker 1: to call summer camp. I guess it's still camp technically
Speaker 1: in the middle of August, so you know, just the
Speaker 1: days are getting shorter.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean you look at that, they've got basically
Speaker 5: about well two months thirty about sixty days they're practicing,
Speaker 5: and they start practicing because remember it's a little earlier
Speaker 5: this year. The first game is August, like the first
Speaker 5: of August, so yeah, they'll be in there at the
Speaker 5: end of July practicing. You know, it's kind of weird
Speaker 5: because most of the guys are there. This is the
Speaker 5: time where when when I played, we worked at I
Speaker 5: worked at Clavern Farms in the summer for John Sosby
Speaker 5: with the farm manager there, and Seth of course was
Speaker 5: our big boss. But you know, we worked there for
Speaker 5: about five weeks and that was the only money we
Speaker 5: got back in the day. And everybody did I mean
Speaker 5: you talked to Derek and Felix and those guys, they
Speaker 5: all did it as well. You could work there. You
Speaker 5: worked at the pepsi plant over there on that for
Speaker 5: sales road road. Yeah, you just loaded trucks. That's what
Speaker 5: she did in the summer.
Speaker 1: Can I assume that your job at Clayburne was not glamorous,
Speaker 1: that you might have been working at one end of
Speaker 1: the horse that people try to avoid.
Speaker 5: Well, we actually did. And there was two things. And
Speaker 5: the one was okay, you you you'd get about twenty
Speaker 5: guys and you'd stand about five feet apart, and all
Speaker 5: of us had a hoe that had the two prongs
Speaker 5: on one end and the hoe on the other side.
Speaker 5: You just walk the fields where the you know, the
Speaker 5: pat they're different little paddocks or whatever you want to
Speaker 5: call their little acre.
Speaker 1: Lots and stuff.
Speaker 5: And yeah, and you had to get all the thistle out,
Speaker 5: all the all the you know the thing, because they
Speaker 5: could eat those and callacky or they step on them
Speaker 5: and jump. So that's all you did, was just cut
Speaker 5: the weed mile Frank hare Cam Jacob to me, David, Tom, Yeah,
Speaker 5: a bunch of us worked out there. Then the other
Speaker 5: thing was, yeah, then when it got a little bit
Speaker 5: later and you had to bail Hey, and they had
Speaker 5: a flatbed truck and you'd walk behind it and pick
Speaker 5: up the veils. They were forty and eighty pound bails.
Speaker 5: Two different guys and Tom up on the truck and
Speaker 5: guys stacked them on the truck.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, it's basically work out for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I wonder if Folds were doing that now. I
Speaker 1: think I know the answer.
Speaker 6: Well you mentioned.
Speaker 1: I know. It's like it's like at the station. When
Speaker 1: we used to have interns that were we were allowed
Speaker 1: to actually tell them to do stuff. You know, Now
Speaker 1: things changed legally, so basically all interns could do when
Speaker 1: I was still working TV was sit there and watch.
Speaker 1: I mean, we sneak them a little work now and then,
Speaker 1: but it was, you know, it was ridiculous. Anyway. We
Speaker 1: could go on all night about that. But much to
Speaker 1: discuss various sports. Let us start with baseball. I know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've tried to qualify that game last night, Jet,
Speaker 1: but that had to be the weirdest, uh oddest, saddest
Speaker 1: game that I think I've ever recovered in UK baseball.
Speaker 1: I wasn't there when Keith Madison's best team in eighty
Speaker 1: eight got knocked out of the tournament because there were
Speaker 1: there were three innings from the world's He's back when
Speaker 1: it was even harder to get there. I wasn't there
Speaker 1: for that one man.
Speaker 5: Well, I think I think What makes this hurt the
Speaker 5: worst dick is the fact that you know, and I'm
Speaker 5: not blaming one player, you can't do that because this
Speaker 5: was a full team breakdown. But you know, and Tyler
Speaker 5: Bell was playing on a on a hurt knee. I mean,
Speaker 5: he got drilled right in the kneecap, missed the game before.
Speaker 5: But he comes back, he's he's your best player.
Speaker 1: Face that.
Speaker 5: I mean, the guy is unbelievable. He makes really two
Speaker 5: areas only gave him one, but he makes two errors
Speaker 5: and if either of those, which one was a routine
Speaker 5: double play, you're at the inning. He doesn't get it.
Speaker 5: They score five runs after his after his error, he
Speaker 5: just bobbled the ball coming up the transfer to try to,
Speaker 5: you know, flick it over to second base. And they
Speaker 5: score five runs, you know, And then how many the
Speaker 5: thing I didn't look at yet, and you and Dougie
Speaker 5: and Darren I'm sure have done this, but how many
Speaker 5: who runs that they score with two outs? There had
Speaker 5: to be eight or nine or ten.
Speaker 1: Those are the most frustrating.
Speaker 5: I mean, they just couldn't get that third out. You know,
Speaker 5: they hit two different innings.
Speaker 1: And this is microcosmic of the entire season. I mean,
Speaker 1: what a dozen one run losses? You know they may
Speaker 1: they could play another fifty years and that not happened.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, here's the thing too, And I've said
Speaker 5: this about football, so and I'll say it about baseball.
Speaker 5: There's two positions, one in football and one in baseball
Speaker 5: that you just simply can't find enough of these. And
Speaker 5: football it's offensive defensive line. You just can't find six
Speaker 5: foot six, three hundred and fifteen pound guys growing on trees.
Speaker 5: Baseball you can never have enough arms. And I would
Speaker 5: spend every dollar I had on nil whatever they have
Speaker 5: and try to get pittried, because all you need was
Speaker 5: one guy to step up yesterday, just one to get
Speaker 5: you to today. And I thought, I hope they played
Speaker 5: Clemson on Saturday because I thought they could beat West
Speaker 5: Virginia twice, and you know, because I thought, you know,
Speaker 5: they beat Clemson pretty east handily and really should have
Speaker 5: beat West Virginia the first game and the second game.
Speaker 1: Well, and again, an intern an in turn, an error
Speaker 1: on a routine play opens the door. But you know,
Speaker 1: it takes all phases. And this has been a decent
Speaker 1: Kentucky defensive team. I think I told you uh, not
Speaker 1: as good as some in the past. But yeah, when
Speaker 1: you get all three phases like you did in that
Speaker 1: blowout of Clemson and then you make it look easy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I didn't see that coming either, blowing out Clemson
Speaker 1: and West Virginia, in all fairness, did win the Big twelve,
Speaker 1: but I thought Kentucky was better, but not not when
Speaker 1: it came to when West Virginia needed to shut things down.
Speaker 1: They had enough arms to do that because one of
Speaker 1: my concerns, Jeff, was that this Kentucky team might flatten
Speaker 1: out the way it did in the SEC two. That
Speaker 1: was the most puzzling game to me of the year,
Speaker 1: you know, going to sleep against Oklahoma and they were
Speaker 1: destroying the ball down in Clemson. I was pleasantly surprised
Speaker 1: by that.
Speaker 5: Well here's the bottom line to this, and I don't
Speaker 5: know what the answer is, but really, if you take
Speaker 5: the last what was it eight games they played, they're
Speaker 5: one and seven.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know that's not good.
Speaker 1: Right after they sweep Oklahoma, Yeah, wellhich wasn't long after
Speaker 1: they went down and could have swept Tennessee here.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I thought the Vanderbilt series, you know, again,
Speaker 5: a game they are a series. They really could have
Speaker 5: won all three games, and instead they lose all three
Speaker 5: and I think you're just like, well, we're done. And
Speaker 5: I think that maybe some of those guys who were
Speaker 5: a little surprised you weren't you always say that thirteen wins.
Speaker 5: I hear you guys talk all the time and your
Speaker 5: your chain gang guys at thirteen wins is the uh,
Speaker 5: you know kind of that probably the floor magic number. Yeah,
Speaker 5: even though they're thirteen and seventeen. And I'm one that
Speaker 5: says I don't think you should reward a team for
Speaker 5: being under five hundred to get into postseason. But that's
Speaker 5: just me. But you know, I just thought that was
Speaker 5: a tough way to end the season, and especially one
Speaker 5: where you brought in thirty new guys and now how
Speaker 5: many of those guys are going to stay next year?
Speaker 5: You know, That's that's the big problem in baseball, there's
Speaker 5: such a turnover.
Speaker 1: But some of the best players on this team are freshmen,
Speaker 1: that's the good news, or sophomores like Ben Cleever. So
Speaker 1: he's Jeff Coorrol. He's a sports director WTVQ and color
Speaker 1: analysts on the UK Football Network. We will shift to
Speaker 1: Kentucky football on the other side of the break here
Speaker 1: on six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking to Jefficorrel
Speaker 1: of WTVQ and the UK Sports Network, and before long
Speaker 1: we'll be calling. I assume we'll get the contracts in
Speaker 1: the mail. Jeff, you never know Kentucky football coming up.
Speaker 1: You mentioned earlier how you would spend whatever you could
Speaker 1: to bring in linemen. Well, Mark Stoops did that. I
Speaker 1: don't know the particulars you might of what they're spending,
Speaker 1: but O line, as we all know, has been a
Speaker 1: huge issue. We're not going to beat that dog anymore.
Speaker 1: But it is going to be interesting. You talked about,
Speaker 1: you know, guys getting to know each other, and here
Speaker 1: in the offseason, receivers and quarterbacks and running backs to
Speaker 1: a point, can't go out and throw the ball, get
Speaker 1: to know each other. Yeah, what do linemen do at
Speaker 1: this time of year?
Speaker 5: This is the time when they're really lifting weights and
Speaker 5: just getting bigger and stronger, chause they're going to lose
Speaker 5: ten to fifteen pounds as the season goes on from
Speaker 5: wear and tear and beating down. You can't lift as
Speaker 5: much weights and stuff. But there's really not a whole
Speaker 5: lot you can do. Look, I always talk about offense
Speaker 5: the blind as being like a dance. You know, everybody
Speaker 5: has to take the right steps and the only way
Speaker 5: to do and you can't do it with four guys.
Speaker 5: You can't do it with three. It has to be
Speaker 5: all five, and a lot of times it has to
Speaker 5: be six because the tight end is so integral. Now
Speaker 5: in Kentucky's offense right blocking scheme, I should say not passing,
Speaker 5: let me how you make that straight. But you know
Speaker 5: they really have it. They have to all five beat
Speaker 5: together and the only time you can do that is practice,
Speaker 5: and so it's hard for them in the off season
Speaker 5: to get the five guys or six guys together and
Speaker 5: just do steps. So they don't really do that. But that,
Speaker 5: to me is the biggest thing, is repetition because it
Speaker 5: has to be second nature to these guys. And now
Speaker 5: as fast as the defensive linemen have become with the size,
Speaker 5: if you take one bad step, if you take a
Speaker 5: drop step instead of a jab step, or you take
Speaker 5: a crossover step, your beat and you know, these guys
Speaker 5: have to learn that, and some of them have to
Speaker 5: learn it with starting with your right foot. Anna left
Speaker 5: the guys that flip both sides, So it just takes time.
Speaker 1: You are a wide receiver back in the day, and
Speaker 1: you've got a wide receiver room now with some guys
Speaker 1: who came back, but also some new faces, you know,
Speaker 1: and I don't know what was going on in terms
Speaker 1: of the dynamics over the last couple of three years
Speaker 1: with Dane Keene Barrian Brown. They were clearly clearly the
Speaker 1: best players and made some big plays, they really did,
Speaker 1: but just something just seemed off. I don't know what
Speaker 1: it was. What do you expect, what do you anticipate
Speaker 1: this year?
Speaker 5: Well, I think it's additioned by subtraction. To tell you
Speaker 5: the truth, I think that those two guys were and
Speaker 5: I have to say, let me try to put this
Speaker 5: in the best tone I can. They were really good players.
Speaker 5: I don't know how great the teammates they were. How
Speaker 5: that you know, you have to be cocky, you have
Speaker 5: to be self assured. You know, you're like a fighter
Speaker 5: pilot out there when you're a quarterback and you're a
Speaker 5: wide receiver, right, you got to want the ball and
Speaker 5: but you also have to do other things. And you
Speaker 5: also don't out in the huddle, and you also don't
Speaker 5: yell and scream at your coach and things like that.
Speaker 5: I really think that this team is better now they've
Speaker 5: got they've got some guys and that I think will
Speaker 5: really help. And I did want to correct you on
Speaker 5: one thing. I wasn't a wide receiver, Dick.
Speaker 1: I was a downfield anfield blocker. That's right. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: coach wherever you are, that's right.
Speaker 5: Yes. But and I do want to say this. I
Speaker 5: really think that I don't think you're going to see
Speaker 5: any problems with the receiving room.
Speaker 3: I really do.
Speaker 5: I like. I like the dynamics they have there. You've
Speaker 5: got a quarterback with Annon for an arm. The big
Speaker 5: difference is going to be to make blackform. And let
Speaker 5: me put it bluntly to you. This you you said
Speaker 5: about an offensive lineman, a good a just a good,
Speaker 5: not a great. A good offensive lineman these days is
Speaker 5: going to cost you about two hundred to two hundred
Speaker 5: and fifty thousand dollars. Just how about that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I believe it, Lowick.
Speaker 5: I can't fathom that as a college kid. It just
Speaker 5: doesn't make sense to me. And I understand the people
Speaker 5: who said, you know, we're still wearing tim Couch jerseys
Speaker 5: and they're still buying Tim Couch jersey and he didn't
Speaker 5: get a penny for that.
Speaker 3: You know, I.
Speaker 5: Understand that, I do. But they've opened this and we
Speaker 5: could talk at nauseing about this. I just don't know
Speaker 5: where the end's going to be because this is in
Speaker 5: a professional situation here. Where are they going to get
Speaker 5: the money? I mean, you brought in five guys that
Speaker 5: cost you know, on that offensive line, that cost you
Speaker 5: well over a million dollars just for the offensive lineman. So,
Speaker 5: you know, I just don't know, and it's just amazing.
Speaker 5: We didn't have anything. You know this, you didn't have
Speaker 5: anything when you were in school. We worked on the side.
Speaker 5: We got twenty bucks, you know, Derek Graansey. Then we're
Speaker 5: upset because they only got fifteen. We got twenty, but.
Speaker 4: That was it.
Speaker 1: Why did you get.
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: But now to walk around, why why did.
Speaker 1: You get the works? Why did you get twenty in
Speaker 1: Rambley at fifteen? Did they drop it?
Speaker 5: I think no? I think it was a you know,
Speaker 5: what do you call it? A cost of living increase?
Speaker 1: Oh? Wow? No kidding?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well yeah, but.
Speaker 5: And so those have there going. Why did you get
Speaker 5: twenty bucks? The r our dining hall was in the
Speaker 5: building wasn't open on the weekend, so we had to
Speaker 5: eat on our own, right, and some kids don't have
Speaker 5: any money, So the university was allowed to give back
Speaker 5: then a small stipend to eat on the weekends, and
Speaker 5: it was fifteen twenty dollars. So that's what we got,
Speaker 5: which went.
Speaker 1: A longer way back then, but still it was Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: goes to you guys. You guys need you guys needed
Speaker 1: more fuel than the average man. A few minutes left
Speaker 1: with Jeffercorrel. We spent and I interviewed your buddy Kenny
Speaker 1: McPeak last last week. I know you all were hanging
Speaker 1: out at a concert not not long ago, but Mystic
Speaker 1: Dan wins on Saturday, the Kentucky Derby winner Kenny McPeek.
Speaker 1: Jeff as a, I knows your buddy. You guys have
Speaker 1: been from bud since high school. But in terms of
Speaker 1: what he does for the sport, obviously we know horses
Speaker 1: can't talk, and guys like Kenny, who who are good
Speaker 1: at it, really advances through ABD racing, which you love
Speaker 1: as much as I do.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he really has and I think that you know,
Speaker 5: for those that don't know. Horse Racing now is an
Speaker 5: app that you can get on your phone. It's free,
Speaker 5: which is amazing. It does have ads, but it's free.
Speaker 5: And that's something that he thought of.
Speaker 4: He wanted.
Speaker 5: You know, he was a guy that years and years
Speaker 5: and years ago, was let's open up our signal to everybody.
Speaker 5: You know, and you know, I know understand that racing
Speaker 5: was afraid of gambling and all that kind of stuff
Speaker 5: on the side, but you know, why not open it up?
Speaker 5: And now they finally have. But that's beside the point.
Speaker 5: He's a Hall of Famer now from what he's done
Speaker 5: wi him and Derby and the Oaks. He's won everything
Speaker 5: except the He's won the Prietness, he's won the Belmont,
Speaker 5: he's won Bader's Cards. Yeah, he's just never won the
Speaker 5: Breeders' Cup, uh Classic, the Classic. But he's won the
Speaker 5: Distaff and he'll be in the Hall of Fame. That's amazing.
Speaker 5: But yeah, he's he's done great. And Mystic Van the
Speaker 5: first Derby winner to come back to Churchill and Winter
Speaker 5: Race since Silver Charms. How about that?
Speaker 1: I did not know that. I know he won what
Speaker 1: was it Saturday Friday?
Speaker 5: Yea, he won the Blak Friday, he won the Blame,
Speaker 5: which is yeah, that's called Stephen Yeah, the Stephen Foster
Speaker 5: Undercard they call it. For the weekend. I'm sorry, it
Speaker 5: was Saturday. Saturday he won the Flame. You know, it's
Speaker 5: a nice race. It's a it's a graded race. It
Speaker 5: was a really nice deal. He wasn't the favorite post
Speaker 5: time was post time, finished third. But he did the
Speaker 5: same thing he did in the Derby Brian Hernandez nos
Speaker 5: his horse and took the turn and really kind of
Speaker 5: cut the corner and just ran away from everybody. So
Speaker 5: he looks to be back. And you know, now they're
Speaker 5: hoping that Torpedo Anna can get back on track as
Speaker 5: well in her next race up in New York.
Speaker 1: Well, and I can't recommend enough the series you know
Speaker 1: on Netflix about Racing to the Crown. I mean, you
Speaker 1: talk about an inside look, but also as people who
Speaker 1: work in TV, you know what I think about someone
Speaker 1: who's done a few documentaries of my day? How many cameras,
Speaker 1: how many people, how much behind did they spend? And
Speaker 1: it's brilliant And and Kenny's run center, isn't he Yeah?
Speaker 5: You know he did a Yeah, he just lightning in
Speaker 5: a bottle for him too, because since that series and
Speaker 5: since his horse, his horse is when the Oaks and
Speaker 5: the Derby, his business is now better than it's ever been.
Speaker 5: He's opened a new string up in New York, so
Speaker 5: he has a ton of horses up there with Jimmy Jerkins,
Speaker 5: of course, his dad one of the all time great trainers,
Speaker 5: Allen Jerson being second Pario twice. Jimmy's running that the
Speaker 5: string of horses up in New York for Kenny. So
Speaker 5: he's got him in Florida at at his farm down
Speaker 5: there is where all the babies go. That's where they
Speaker 5: get broke and everything he bought. He bought paddle with
Speaker 5: stables down there, and it's a beautiful facility. Then he's
Speaker 5: got him in New Orleans, he's got him in Oaklawn,
Speaker 5: He's not him in Kentucky. He's got him at Churchill
Speaker 5: and at his farm at Magdalena. And then he's got
Speaker 5: the big string up in New York. So he has
Speaker 5: literally hundreds of horses now in training. And you know,
Speaker 5: it couldn't happen to a better guy, and.
Speaker 1: Wishing well, yeah, and we're going to make our annual pilgrimage.
Speaker 1: My brother and my friends and I are going to
Speaker 1: go up there this August as we have the last
Speaker 1: three or four years, and last time up there we
Speaker 1: got a chance to see therpeda Ana out on the track.
Speaker 1: Kenny unfortunately was ill that day, so we didn't get
Speaker 1: a chance to talk to him, but she is a
Speaker 1: true superstar and she is in great hands as we know.
Speaker 1: He is Jeff Picarel of WTVQ. Jeff Picarel on Twitter
Speaker 1: or x Very simple and watch morehum on thirty six.
Speaker 1: Listen for him on the UK radio notework. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1: Thanks ed up next our number two with Batcat Central's
Speaker 1: Derek Terry and our New York City Bureau Chief Mike Sephazni.
Speaker 1: That's next on six thirty Like Bag.
Speaker 6: Take Back, Welcome back to.
Speaker 1: The Big Moonsider joining us down our celebrity hotline is
Speaker 1: a guy who's been covering the baseball Wildcats all year.
Speaker 1: Bat Cat Central is the name of the website. Derek
Speaker 1: Terry is the name of the writer, and Derek, you
Speaker 1: were down in Clemson up until Sunday until yesterday. I
Speaker 1: had him make it back, of course, because you have
Speaker 1: a real job today. But uh, it's just crazy how
Speaker 1: that regional basically encapsulated the entire season for Kentucky.
Speaker 6: Isn't it?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: And unfortunate Kentucky. But that's how it. Uh So that's
Speaker 3: how it ended, you know, the end of season of
Speaker 3: what is it, dick twelve won round offices this year,
Speaker 3: I think ends up being the final number. And uh,
Speaker 3: you know this one, Uh, this one stinks. I mean
Speaker 3: you're up two times by five runs in this uh,
Speaker 3: in this final game against West Virginia and you know,
Speaker 3: unable to hold it and use a lot of pitchers.
Speaker 3: If you if you look the box score, it looks
Speaker 3: a lot like some of those midweek games with some
Speaker 3: of the names that are out there, you know, just
Speaker 3: really having to go deep into the pen. And uh,
Speaker 3: you know there were some errors in there as well
Speaker 3: that led to that, which on one hand, West Virginia
Speaker 3: committed five errors themselves. You know, they didn't play very
Speaker 3: plain either And at the end, you know what you said,
Speaker 3: I think is probably true. That really kind of encapsulates
Speaker 3: the season. Just a lot of really close calls, a
Speaker 3: lot of really hard losses and season ends and in
Speaker 3: pretty brutal fashion. It's hard to see a season end
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 1: You know, Minjeone likes to talk about doing things they've
Speaker 1: never done before. I don't remember them losing a game
Speaker 1: like this, especially one that brings the season to an end.
Speaker 1: You know, it's just it's nuts. But you mentioned errors,
Speaker 1: and I will always look back and I'm not pointing fingers.
Speaker 1: There were so many mistakes made. But the middle infielders
Speaker 1: for Kentucky, Luke Lawrence, Tyler Bell, during the regular season,
Speaker 1: they committed only four errors a piece. They were you know,
Speaker 1: they took up where Grant Smith and Amelian Petrade left off.
Speaker 1: They were one of the best middle infield I think
Speaker 1: one of the best middle infielder combos in the SEC,
Speaker 1: if not the country. And yet Luke Lawrence in the
Speaker 1: first game against West Virginia a routine play, Tyler Bell
Speaker 1: in the game last night, a routine play, and they
Speaker 1: both led directly to Hugh Jennings. Never saw that coming,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know that is that is a tough way
Speaker 3: to go out. I mean, both these games against West Virginia,
Speaker 3: especially Sunday's game Friday, you know, I think they played
Speaker 3: that well. I don't think either team played very long Friday.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it was just postseason nerves. Starting out,
Speaker 3: both teams committed air as he mentioned Lawrence Is that
Speaker 3: brought in two runs, and I believe West Virginia shortstop
Speaker 3: also made their that led the UK scoring two runs.
Speaker 3: So it was just kind of some sloppy play. He
Speaker 3: won't use this as an excuse. I'm not sure when
Speaker 3: he'll talk to media again if he if he did
Speaker 3: last night, I don't think Bell ever really got over
Speaker 3: that what happened Friday to start off. He just didn't
Speaker 3: look the same, you know, is that leg I plot
Speaker 3: him for fighting through it, but I think it was there,
Speaker 3: you know, bothering him that whole time. So you know,
Speaker 3: I don't think his range was as good. But just
Speaker 3: be told him that er, that's a pretty much a
Speaker 3: roostine ball, and he's made that play basically all year
Speaker 3: and he didn't there and they led to health lead
Speaker 3: he should say to a really big inning.
Speaker 1: You know, there is a bright side to this, believe
Speaker 1: it or not, in that some of the young guys
Speaker 1: made big plays, big ad bats. You know, it seems
Speaker 1: like Derek most of the quality on his team as
Speaker 1: the younger guys, you know what I mean, Does it
Speaker 1: look that way to you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, Belle great Sea and you know he
Speaker 3: didn't go out the way he'd want, but this was
Speaker 3: you know, he's it's been a long time. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm trying to think, Dick, when was the last time
Speaker 3: that you remember a freshman just clearly being the best
Speaker 3: player on a team. Because I thought that was the
Speaker 3: case this yere cole h had a last year a
Speaker 3: senior transfer from Columbia, But I really just think all around,
Speaker 3: Bell was by far the best player, and you don't
Speaker 3: see that all the time with the freshman. So Hudson
Speaker 3: Brown is a guy that will leave that regional feeling
Speaker 3: much better about probably his standing of where things are.
Speaker 3: I mean, he was excellent those last few games. Lawrence
Speaker 3: can come back. Schwartz a starter, he can come back,
Speaker 3: So a lot to build around. And then on the
Speaker 3: mountain tooth leave Nick Harris give a great outing against
Speaker 3: Clemson some Sunday, So there's plenty of the build arounds.
Speaker 3: So have some freshman come in next year too that
Speaker 3: I think can help right away. But you know, like always,
Speaker 3: now know it's probably going to come down to how
Speaker 3: well you do in the portal to kind of to
Speaker 3: build around the edges a little bit, and I think
Speaker 3: this team can. I think he liked the bones of
Speaker 3: the roster pretty well. But h I said, they need
Speaker 3: to go to the portal and and find at least
Speaker 3: two or three difference makers, hopefully put them back and
Speaker 3: probably regional competition for hosting a regional you know, contention
Speaker 3: for that next year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because that is something that you know, Kentucky fans
Speaker 1: have gotten used to used to doing.
Speaker 3: And you know, well when they when they've advanced, it's
Speaker 3: been when they've held up themselves. It's it's hard when
Speaker 3: you go on the road and to try to win
Speaker 3: a reasonable.
Speaker 1: You know, your point about the best player being a freshman.
Speaker 1: Technically you can go back to the COVID season when
Speaker 1: John Rhodes was the national national freshmen of their code,
Speaker 1: but they only played seventeen games, so you know, that's
Speaker 1: kind of got an answers by it. But and you
Speaker 1: know now he's in an Orioles chain played you know,
Speaker 1: left early. But anyhow, Yeah, I mean, there's there's a
Speaker 1: lot to like, but this was the most maddening season
Speaker 1: for those losses, and I can remember and it just
Speaker 1: seemed like Derek had never got any better.
Speaker 3: You know, no it didn't. I mean if you think
Speaker 3: back to the Vanderbilt series when it's easy to say
Speaker 3: now because they weren't even among the last four teams
Speaker 3: they got in. But yeah, when you were kind of
Speaker 3: sweating it out there on selection, you know last Monday
Speaker 3: Memorial Day for the selection show, you could point towards
Speaker 3: you know, two straight walk off home runs for Vanderbilt
Speaker 3: and then in similar fashion, it wasn't a one run loss,
Speaker 3: but they held a three run lead I think in
Speaker 3: the sixth inning of the final game and ended up
Speaker 3: not being able to hold it. So that was just
Speaker 3: one series, But there were others. I mean Auburn or yeah,
Speaker 3: I think it was Auburn they lost back to back
Speaker 3: eight to seven games. Texas they lost their one run game,
Speaker 3: I mean, what an SEC game. But the MIDWEK against
Speaker 3: Woolville they lost. You know, they had to lead in
Speaker 3: that game and lost. So when you have that many,
Speaker 3: I don't think there's just one thing you can point sphere.
Speaker 3: I'm sure there were situations where the coaches felt like
Speaker 3: they could have made some better decisions. You know, there's
Speaker 3: plays that the players could have done better thinking. I
Speaker 3: think it was against auebign right. I can't remember if
Speaker 3: it tied it or if it put or if you
Speaker 3: k would have won, or if it just led to
Speaker 3: it been tied. But Bell I think dropped the pop
Speaker 3: up in the infield really early on in the season,
Speaker 3: and you know, so there's enough flame to go around.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 3: I would say the goal now for the coaches will be,
Speaker 3: you know, the portal opens today Monday, and from from there,
Speaker 3: you know, they'll spend the next few days, I'm sure
Speaker 3: evaluating what they thought went well, where they need to
Speaker 3: get better and try to identify things within their roster
Speaker 3: that you know, maybe led to this and to the
Speaker 3: end this kind of season. But overall, I mean three
Speaker 3: straight tournament appearances. This is a team that, as strange
Speaker 3: as it's kind of the outcomes were in terms of
Speaker 3: how disappointing it was, I feel like they had expectations
Speaker 3: and I know people are going to it is a
Speaker 3: bitter loss, you know, to lose that way, I think
Speaker 3: it'll haunt people for a while so are involved with
Speaker 3: that game. But to get back to a regional in
Speaker 3: a season like this where they had to replace so
Speaker 3: much from a College World Series team, I think they
Speaker 3: really showed a lot to be honest, that this was
Speaker 3: not some kind of one off kind of thing last
Speaker 3: year or you know there you know, Mark excuse used
Speaker 3: to talk about it after that twenty eighteen season that
Speaker 3: they just didn't want to have a good team, they
Speaker 3: wanted to have a good program. But I think for
Speaker 3: baseball it was similar this year. You know, you didn't
Speaker 3: want to go two or three more years after you
Speaker 3: made it to the World Series before you had a
Speaker 3: shot to really have a team that you felt like
Speaker 3: would be good again. So in that sense, you know,
Speaker 3: you were cruising Sunday night, I felt like you're going
Speaker 3: to being a Game seven of the regional tomorrow you
Speaker 3: Monday night for that whenever the game was going to
Speaker 3: be played at some point on Monday, and it didn't
Speaker 3: fall that way. But uh, I don't think you look
Speaker 3: at this program and see it as one that's just
Speaker 3: so far off from getting back to Omaha. Really not
Speaker 3: a guarantee by any means. Yeah, I think if they
Speaker 3: can go to the make the right kind of editions,
Speaker 3: and uh absolutely it should be it should be a
Speaker 3: team that isn't hosting conversation and that's probably something we
Speaker 3: can talk about later in the summer after the drafts
Speaker 3: and and what we kind of see how a better
Speaker 3: idea of what the roster is looking like. But I
Speaker 3: feel like I keep a yeah, no, I was gonna say.
Speaker 1: I also think and I keep reminding myself. And you know,
Speaker 1: Minjion never used as an excuse. They had a significant
Speaker 1: number of injuries this year, two important players, and one
Speaker 1: of them was to Robert Hogan. You know. The bullpen
Speaker 1: collapsed Sunday, uh, you know, and they had trouble with
Speaker 1: it all year. Robert Hogan pitched briefly this year and
Speaker 1: wasn't right when he pitched. And this is a guy
Speaker 1: they thought, and I thought they had every right to
Speaker 1: expect that based on what he did down the stretch
Speaker 1: last year. He was one of the reasons they got
Speaker 1: to Omaha, and they knew they could lean on him,
Speaker 1: a veteran pitcher who had really good SEC caliber stuff.
Speaker 1: And he just wasn't there. And he wasn't the only one.
Speaker 1: There were four or five six players that they were
Speaker 1: really counting on and that didn't happen last year. And
Speaker 1: men Geone kind of mentioned this down the stretch that
Speaker 1: last year and really the year before prior by the
Speaker 1: time they got the tournament play, everybody was healthy. And
Speaker 1: I throw in one more thing we forget unless we
Speaker 1: sit down and just think about it. Last year Kentucky
Speaker 1: had a left fielder who was putting together a first
Speaker 1: round draft pick kind of season, you know, which was
Speaker 1: as important as anything that happened for that team. So
Speaker 1: I think this team had to scrap a lot more
Speaker 1: and just kind of ran out of gas.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I told Daniel Hager, who covered it for ks Are
Speaker 3: that you know, I felt like they maxed it out
Speaker 3: this year. I mean, I really did. This was a
Speaker 3: team that I don't know that It's depends on how
Speaker 3: you want to look at it. Because when he played
Speaker 3: as many close skins as they did, it's it's easy
Speaker 3: to look at the record and look at these individual
Speaker 3: games and say they should have won some of these
Speaker 3: we add those up. When you add those up, it
Speaker 3: could have been a sixteen or seventeen win team in
Speaker 3: the SBC. But I guess if I it's kind of
Speaker 3: hard to quantify this. I don't know if I feel
Speaker 3: like that was their talent level though, I don't know
Speaker 3: if I feel like they were a seventeen type. I
Speaker 3: mean that's pretty good, you know, if you can get
Speaker 3: the seventeen wins in the league. I mean, that's a
Speaker 3: clear regional host type team, and you can play with
Speaker 3: the numbers to say that that was a possibility. So
Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean, that's a good point on
Speaker 3: Hogan though, because with how little he was used, you
Speaker 3: more or less kind of throw him in the in
Speaker 3: the category of like lost production from last year because
Speaker 3: he just never really did anything. And you know, it
Speaker 3: wasn't even an option on the stretch with his injury.
Speaker 1: No, And yeah, the thing is you thought you had him,
Speaker 1: you know going into the season. That that was one
Speaker 1: of the toughest things about it. You know, he only
Speaker 1: appeared in nine games, so yeah, you know, and we
Speaker 1: can talk what it should have could have And I
Speaker 1: thought I thought Benjie and broke it down pretty well
Speaker 1: when he talked about how, you know, games come down
Speaker 1: to individual moments, individual pitches, plays, and they were and
Speaker 1: I felt like the same thing with all these close games,
Speaker 1: they were really close to being I don't know if
Speaker 1: it was seventeen wins, but being better than they were.
Speaker 1: So this is one man we're going to scratch our
Speaker 1: heads about for a long time, aren't we.
Speaker 3: He I'll be curious to know kind of how this
Speaker 3: season is viewed in the long run, because really, I
Speaker 3: don't think we'll be a forgettable team. I mean, I
Speaker 3: think they did a good job to get back, but uh,
Speaker 3: I don't know, no, no real defining moments outside of
Speaker 3: that Tennessee series. I think where they kind of turned
Speaker 3: the season around and well, Oklahoma, Yeah, that was a
Speaker 3: good sleep. I was actually out of town that weekend,
Speaker 3: so that doesn't doesn't stick out in my mind as
Speaker 3: much as they it should have. You know, there's something
Speaker 3: game too. I mean, this was one where you send
Speaker 3: out the number eleven team in the country, probably played
Speaker 3: you know, tied of school record for runs in the postseason.
Speaker 3: So that was a good thing. And had they held
Speaker 3: on and won last night and found a way to
Speaker 3: pull it off, and I think they very quickly would
Speaker 3: have become you know, kind of a lovable group that
Speaker 3: was just scrapping through the postseason found the way to
Speaker 3: win some games. But as it was, you know what
Speaker 3: other element, Dick and I don't know much more time
Speaker 3: you got, but just how will the guys that are
Speaker 3: on this team that come back, you know, what what
Speaker 3: lessons will they take from this year? How will these
Speaker 3: you know, really painful losses It all the time, you know,
Speaker 3: teams that come up a little bit short, they have
Speaker 3: really painful in to their season. It's a long way
Speaker 3: until they play again. And you know, I don't know
Speaker 3: how much that will drive guys in the offseason or anything,
Speaker 3: but I guess kind of what mentality will got to
Speaker 3: take from this year that we're here and saw how
Speaker 3: close they were and and really probably how disappointed they
Speaker 3: are that it turned out the way that it did,
Speaker 3: with with with how close they were to getting back
Speaker 3: to forcing a winner take all games in that regional,
Speaker 3: I mean, a lot to build on. I think that's
Speaker 3: if you want to take an optimistic view, they're they're
Speaker 3: I mean, they have a legitimate superstar. I think a
Speaker 3: Bell who should come back next year and leave the
Speaker 3: way Schwartz took a step up. We mentioned Brown, Ethan
Speaker 3: handle got hurt. He's a guy that I think they
Speaker 3: love that. You know, Ethan's one of those guys that
Speaker 3: the production of this point's probably not matched. What kind
Speaker 3: of player he is. I think he's better than why
Speaker 3: he's shown. I think the coach is still that way,
Speaker 3: and I'll get him back from injury. So I think
Speaker 3: it will be a very exciting off season adding to
Speaker 3: this group. And I fully and again, well we'll want
Speaker 3: to play out. But just as the season ended, in
Speaker 3: my view, someone that keeps up with it a lot,
Speaker 3: I feel like it's reasonable to think they're going in
Speaker 3: the next season that the expectation could be that there'll
Speaker 3: be one of those top sixteen teams again and then
Speaker 3: hosting a regional one.
Speaker 1: I agree with you, and again that's the standard now,
Speaker 1: so it makes it kind of fun. He is Derek Terry.
Speaker 1: He produces the website Batcats Central. You can sign up
Speaker 1: Batcats pluralcentral dot com if you want to follow Kentucky baseball.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, and we'll talk to you down the road.
Speaker 3: All right, thanks for having me on coming up.
Speaker 1: At the bottom of the hour or New York City
Speaker 1: Bureau Chief Mike Sefasnik, you'll talk about the Cats and
Speaker 1: the NBA on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Side, and just a quick segment here ahead
Speaker 1: of the bottom of the hour. We will chat. But
Speaker 1: Mike Safaznik, he is the producer of the Mike Saffo
Speaker 1: podcast where he talks sports and he likes to talk
Speaker 1: to authors, also traveling. He is a guy who's been
Speaker 1: He's trying to visit every country in the world, so
Speaker 1: we'll get caught up with him there. But the reason
Speaker 1: I talked to him is he is such a UK fan.
Speaker 1: I call him a New York City Bureau Chief. In
Speaker 1: his real job, he is actually a New York City
Speaker 1: police officer, but he goes by Mike Saffo on the podcast.
Speaker 1: And he's a UK fan because when he was a kid,
Speaker 1: when he was twelve, he went to a watch party
Speaker 1: in New York City, where he's born and never lived
Speaker 1: anywhere else, and he was the only UK fan watching
Speaker 1: the Kentucky Duke game. And we all know what happened
Speaker 1: in that game, but Mike was stubborn. He picked Kentucky
Speaker 1: the underdog. He even had a white T shirt and
Speaker 1: he wrote UK on it or Wildcat or something, made
Speaker 1: it his own special jersey, and of course, with three
Speaker 1: seconds or two seconds or whatever left in the game,
Speaker 1: ought his team at one. We all know what happened
Speaker 1: after that, and Mike ran home crying. But he's been
Speaker 1: a Kentucky fan ever since. And he somehow reached out
Speaker 1: to Cameron Mills. I think they get him on his
Speaker 1: podcast and they became fast friends. And that's how I
Speaker 1: met Mike. We've been up in New York visiting with
Speaker 1: him and things like that, and he's been on my
Speaker 1: show several times as our New York City bureau chief.
Speaker 1: So we'll chat with Mike coming up, and I want
Speaker 1: to know what's going on right now, and I think
Speaker 1: I already know with Knicks fans and Karl Anthony Towns
Speaker 1: now that they've lost in the playoffs, So we'll talk
Speaker 1: about that, but we'll also talk about Mark Pope and
Speaker 1: the Wildcats in the upcoming season. You got to talk
Speaker 1: about that right with the New York City Bureau Chief
Speaker 1: here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big
Speaker 1: Blue Insider. Joining us now, we haven't chatted well. We
Speaker 1: need to check in every now and then with our
Speaker 1: bureau chief. We have a few up in New York City.
Speaker 1: Mike Sephoznik of the Mike Staffo Podcast is my NYC
Speaker 1: bureau chief. How are you, sir?
Speaker 4: Dick Gabriel Always a pleasure and this is one you're
Speaker 4: the best.
Speaker 3: To what you do?
Speaker 4: You know to call me or get me all when
Speaker 4: I'm so down and disappointed with sports and stuff. So
Speaker 4: you get me really animated. This is why you're a genius.
Speaker 4: You never called me when things are good.
Speaker 1: Well, the Yankees are doing okay right.
Speaker 4: Well they lost eighteen two nights ago, but yes, they
Speaker 4: won last night, so we're doing okay. We're in first place.
Speaker 1: That's good. Aaron Judge is healthy, that's the important thing.
Speaker 1: But I needed to make sure you weren't out on
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Bridge thinking about doing something drastic after your
Speaker 1: knicks locked. And we talked prior to the season about
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Town's the big trade to send Julius Randall
Speaker 1: to Minnesota. They have their issues, but it looked like
Speaker 1: Towns was doing everything you all needed them to do
Speaker 1: until you guys ran in to the Indiana Pacers, who,
Speaker 1: by the way, I hated when I was growing up
Speaker 1: because they kept beating my Kentucky Colonels. But just how
Speaker 1: do people feel about Towns today?
Speaker 4: Oh, Dick Gabriel keys public enemy number one? Knicks fans, Yeah,
Speaker 4: what Knicks fans like me? We're out of control of
Speaker 4: noxiously rational. They love cats. And remember here's what I
Speaker 4: always tell you New York sports fans, they're not the
Speaker 4: biggest college basketball guys, so they didn't watch Kat at Kentucky,
Speaker 4: so they didn't know much about him. Then he went
Speaker 4: to Minnesota and all they see is his great stats
Speaker 4: and he's a big dude. So when he came here,
Speaker 4: we think we're getting not me. The fans here like
Speaker 4: we're getting old school big man who can pound, he
Speaker 4: can bounce down below, he's gonna bump, and they think
Speaker 4: they get like this Charles Oakley who can score. They
Speaker 4: see Cat like, okay, we like this naess and what
Speaker 4: do we talk about when he came, they're gonna love
Speaker 4: when he drops forty eight on a Thursday night against Milwaukee.
Speaker 4: But the playoffs came, he is unfortunately public enemy number one.
Speaker 4: Dictate every call to every sports show, every article. They're
Speaker 4: done with Cat. They're like one and done trade him.
Speaker 4: And of course we want the new shiny toy. We
Speaker 4: want Giannis that they're done with Cat. Unfortunately, they're done
Speaker 4: with the dumb styles. They turned on him real quick.
Speaker 1: It's bad and to be expected it being New York.
Speaker 1: I know it's the city you love, the city's so nice.
Speaker 1: They named it twice. But yeah, it's it's it's to
Speaker 1: be expected. He had to know that going. He grew
Speaker 1: up in New Jersey, right, yes, yes, so he.
Speaker 4: Kind of make the most one block one block. Jalen
Speaker 4: Brunson had most blocks than him. They hated the random three,
Speaker 4: you know, they forget he dropped twenty and that's great
Speaker 4: comeback when. But Dick, they're done with him. Like I
Speaker 4: listened to all the podcasts Anthony Nick Laws, My Long
Speaker 4: Lonely Walk Yesterday alone, not worry. If I was get
Speaker 4: hitten by a boss, I wouldn't care. Everyone's still a cat. Unfortunately,
Speaker 4: they've tied it with them. It's bad right now. I
Speaker 4: don't love it. But they're like, he doesn't play defense,
Speaker 4: he was targeted. We don't want him. This is what
Speaker 4: mansouta got ridy. We need Randall that. It's so believable.
Speaker 4: That's just crazy right there.
Speaker 1: Though they want Randall back after they do they want
Speaker 1: Randall that, but that's sports, and that's sports in New York. Uh.
Speaker 1: The franchise doesn't hate him now, right, I mean, you
Speaker 1: got the building blocks right right?
Speaker 4: I think, so listen obviously without getting two in depth,
Speaker 4: we need a vet, you know, the Pacers just kept
Speaker 4: running nine guys out there. Tims. He's known for using
Speaker 4: the same six guys. We need defenders, that's what it is.
Speaker 4: And I think we weren't sold, you know, a fusse item.
Speaker 4: There was no sweet baiton switch. We knew what we
Speaker 4: were getting with Kat. A lot of the real nick
Speaker 4: fans didn't. They're not watching Minnesota West Coast games at
Speaker 4: ten o'clock, so they think they're getting this bruiser. They
Speaker 4: think a guy and all the time it's like, wait
Speaker 4: a minute, our center is just shooting threes. He's not
Speaker 4: even a center. I think one caller told the great
Speaker 4: he says, he's not a big man.
Speaker 3: He's just a.
Speaker 4: Toll man, Like he's not a Knicks big man. You know,
Speaker 4: you're thinking Ewing Oakley Mason that.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: They we try to hold on to the glory days.
Speaker 4: But unfortunately they're not the biggest fan of Colle Anthony
Speaker 4: Towns right now.
Speaker 1: But it's amazing to me when I was I was
Speaker 1: playing cards the other night with some friends and we
Speaker 1: were watching one of the games, and one of the
Speaker 1: guys college fan dismissed they don't play any defense in
Speaker 1: the NBA. Said, Oh my gosh, yes they do. The
Speaker 1: Pacers beat the daylights out of him when he was
Speaker 1: in the paint. And I know there's been so much
Speaker 1: said and written about the fouls you know that are
Speaker 1: called and not called in the playoffs. Indiana is amazingly
Speaker 1: physical and Karl Anthony Towns took the brunt of that, didn't.
Speaker 4: He He took it and they knew what they were doing.
Speaker 4: They would do a pick and roll, and they just
Speaker 4: took advantage of him. Listen, Brunson doesn't play defense either,
Speaker 4: but all we cared about was mak. You know, it's
Speaker 4: old school basketball mentality. Robinson a logo on Matumbau. We
Speaker 4: want our big guy to block shot. Yes, we want
Speaker 4: to be the chef and that's not Kat and they
Speaker 4: just took such advantage of him. And listen, we were
Speaker 4: out coached. And the one thing Nick fans we don't
Speaker 4: we won't accept it seems better than us. The Paces
Speaker 4: are a better basketball team than us, and we would
Speaker 4: accept that. So we have to find the reason. And
Speaker 4: the reason now on today's tongue is Carl Anton Towns.
Speaker 4: He's the reason we lost. If we had Randall, Randall
Speaker 4: would have bumped yeah, so's it's typical of New York
Speaker 4: sports talk radio. I don't want to say nonsense over.
Speaker 4: Yeah that's what it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's what I was afraid of. I knew
Speaker 1: that was the case, but needed to get it from
Speaker 1: my bureau chief in fact. So now all you've got
Speaker 1: to look forward to is next year. But you do
Speaker 1: have a former Kentucky wild well, once a whilecat, always
Speaker 1: a wildcat, as you know in Shake Gels of Alexander.
Speaker 1: Will you even allow yourself to root for another team? Right?
Speaker 1: Do you just root for him with Oklahoma City?
Speaker 4: I am basically I might bring out my Seattle SuperSonics
Speaker 4: old gear. I am the biggest thunderstand because I like you.
Speaker 4: Reggie Miller broke my heart. I've always hated the Piecers.
Speaker 4: I don't like to stay of Indiana as a Kentucky
Speaker 4: basket plan as well. And then when Halburton did the
Speaker 4: choke still and then you wore black to like the
Speaker 4: funeral in game six, and I am the biggest thun
Speaker 4: defan you've ever met. Right now, I am SGA. I
Speaker 4: might go to the MD store on Fifth Avenue to
Speaker 4: Bida's jersey. Yeah, so I am usually I don't watch.
Speaker 4: You know, when Kentucky loses, I'm done. I don't want
Speaker 4: the rest of the tournament. I don't care, you know,
Speaker 4: I am all in appointment watching. I need to stund
Speaker 4: it to embarrass the pieces because we should. They embarrassed us.
Speaker 4: I need like another bully. We got bullied. I need
Speaker 4: a bully to come take the take over them.
Speaker 1: Well, now Halliburton is trying to make people believe that
Speaker 1: he was slighted and that he's better than SGA and
Speaker 1: all that. Of course, you know, uh, the kid in
Speaker 1: Minnesota was doing the same thing. So I think that's
Speaker 1: going to be a really interesting matchup if they go
Speaker 1: at each other.
Speaker 4: Well that's what it is. SGA, I don't know if
Speaker 4: he's even gonna be going. SGA is going fun on
Speaker 4: a show, of course, but Halliburn's doctuing playing and then
Speaker 4: part will be Yeah. So Halliburn just tossed listening when
Speaker 4: he did that choke signed, dick you if you would
Speaker 4: have still my neighbors must have. I was worried they
Speaker 4: were going to pull the fleet some of the things.
Speaker 4: I was screaming at him when he did the choke sign.
Speaker 1: And for those listening who aren't NBA fans. The chokes
Speaker 1: sign was basically an homage to Reggie Miller because that
Speaker 1: a big Pacers win over the next many many years ago,
Speaker 1: Reggie Miller did the exact same thing.
Speaker 4: So uh, and he pointed, Reggie mill Is on the broadcasting.
Speaker 4: You know this, Reggie mill Is broadcasting it. He does
Speaker 4: it chokes and points to Miller.
Speaker 1: I'm like, as you pointed back at him too. I
Speaker 1: gave Reggie Miller credit for not being all in on
Speaker 1: the Pacers. I know he had to be excited inside,
Speaker 1: but uh, you know, you've got to maintain some level
Speaker 1: of professionalism, especially at that level on tn T. But
Speaker 1: he did a good job. By the way, I don't
Speaker 1: know much of the NBA on TNT. You watch, I'm
Speaker 1: a big fan. I run clips from Barkley and Shack
Speaker 1: on my show. But you know, they have been so
Speaker 1: great for the best studio show on television, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna miss it.
Speaker 3: I don't know about you any sport.
Speaker 4: It's not just the best best one it is. Yes there,
Speaker 4: they're dynamic, and you know what I love about it.
Speaker 4: And you know that you're a big sports guy, the NFL, MLB,
Speaker 4: You're always changing it. You're bringing in a row, you're
Speaker 4: bringing in this one, You're that status thing. Their relationship,
Speaker 4: their dynamic, it was so pure. I was so broken
Speaker 4: when they were starting it off. How is this? This
Speaker 4: is the this was it? This is the NBA. I'm
Speaker 4: so upsetentive. I love everything they did, really, even when
Speaker 4: your team's down and they talked. Honestly, I love it.
Speaker 4: I think it can be very missed on that whole.
Speaker 4: Like you know, it's part of your life, it's how
Speaker 4: you watch the game. Tune it for them too.
Speaker 1: And Ernie Johnson is the perfect guy and has been
Speaker 1: for that group. And he reminds me of Dick Enberg,
Speaker 1: who was the perfect guy when they paired him with
Speaker 1: Al McGuire and Billy Packer, and he knew when to
Speaker 1: shut up and let those guys go. And it was
Speaker 1: TV gold and there just isn't enough of that. Mike
Speaker 1: Sephaznik is my guest. He is our New York City
Speaker 1: Bureau chief, a huge UK fan podcaster in his own right.
Speaker 1: We'll come back and talk Kentucky sports in just a
Speaker 1: minute here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're talking
Speaker 1: with Mike Sephaznik, the Mike Saffo podcast is available. Can't
Speaker 1: recommend it enough, especially if you like books about crime
Speaker 1: and if you like travel and things like that. I
Speaker 1: know you just got back from another country you checked
Speaker 1: off your list? Where were you?
Speaker 4: I went to Lebanon and then Syria. Yes, I spent
Speaker 4: the week in Syria. So that was a wild one.
Speaker 4: And I'm actually going on. It's actually, besides North Korea,
Speaker 4: a country called Turkmenistan. It's actually the most difficult country
Speaker 4: in the world to visit. And after four years, I
Speaker 4: just got my visa three days ago. I'll be going
Speaker 4: there in two weeks. So yes, that's the next one.
Speaker 1: And you try to get to North Korea for how long?
Speaker 4: Oh, Dick, I'll tear the quickest story. I had the
Speaker 4: opportunity to go there eight years ago. I was invited.
Speaker 4: I said, yes, And what do you think happens if
Speaker 4: we're supposed to go in March? And I said, listen,
Speaker 4: I can't go in March because of obviously marching edne
Speaker 4: Kentucky basketball, so I don't go. We rescheduled for October.
Speaker 4: I won't go to the Yankees and the playoffs. And
Speaker 4: then the next time it was when unfortunately the Ottawamberg
Speaker 4: situation happened, and the USA stopped issuing visas, like we
Speaker 4: stopped going there. So the two chances I had my
Speaker 4: friend's way, I didn't go to the Kentucky and I
Speaker 4: wouldn't go to the Yankee. So typical Mike's spasmic ware spots, rooms,
Speaker 4: you know, other great opportunities to me.
Speaker 1: I do need to double back to the Knicks real quickly.
Speaker 1: I forgot to ask you about this. Mike h is
Speaker 1: very good friends with Cameron Mills, and that's how I
Speaker 1: met Mike, and we do the text chain thing as well.
Speaker 1: And the other day you sent us some photos of
Speaker 1: you at the next game with with Walt Frazier and
Speaker 1: other dignitaries, and uh, you were there as part of
Speaker 1: the security crew. You must have been like a kid
Speaker 1: on Christmas morning.
Speaker 4: We go there, didn't went out getting two into the
Speaker 4: whole story. I had to go there for work reasons,
Speaker 4: for police reasons, right, and they're like, hey, listen, here's
Speaker 4: the deal. You have full access. I need you to
Speaker 4: know basically, look out for this guy, this guy, this
Speaker 4: guy Mike. The one game there's no picture. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 4: obviously they're not working. So, you know, John Stalks walks
Speaker 4: by me, like, all right, hey guys one Alan Houston,
Speaker 4: Helen Houston. But I'll let that one go. And then
Speaker 4: I see well plots for Agil. I'm like, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm done, mister Fraser boom, five minute conversation. I
Speaker 4: see Bill Bradley, and then I'm digging. She reaped out
Speaker 4: do her a game Latrelle's free. Well it's Chris Child.
Speaker 4: If you dribbled the basketball, if you were over six
Speaker 4: to two. I was taking this picture with you. Hey, Mike,
Speaker 4: don't take pictures on the floor. I had my toes
Speaker 4: on the blue just pin up a set. The guy
Speaker 4: no self control. And finally the guy I was working with,
Speaker 4: he thinks Omark like, bro, we gotta get out of here.
Speaker 4: I'm like, is everything the right to prow I see
Speaker 4: where this would go. Let's go. So, yeah, I got
Speaker 4: my pictures. You know, no self control, But yes, it
Speaker 4: was one of the coolest experiences watching the game from
Speaker 4: the floor. Was happened to beat that? Yeah? The only
Speaker 4: thing that they're very lucky. I couldn't get it for
Speaker 4: us to meet Kylie Jenner and Bench Stiller and those
Speaker 4: guys that was my next.
Speaker 1: Move, and I should have pointed out Mike is one
Speaker 1: of New York City's finest, but deep down he's a
Speaker 1: kid at heart like we all are. All Right, well,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the basketball Cats. You've kept an eye,
Speaker 1: I know, and I'm certain you've peppered Deb Moore or
Speaker 1: whoever what's request to have Mike Mark Pope on your podcast,
Speaker 1: But you've watched him rebuild this team. We talked this
Speaker 1: past season about the joy that you took and how
Speaker 1: well Kentucky played still though finished in around the middle
Speaker 1: of the pack in the SEC. How confident are you
Speaker 1: and what's coming up?
Speaker 4: Well back to last year, how fun was it because
Speaker 4: maybe my expectations were lower, and I'm like, you know what,
Speaker 4: let's just have a buying season. And I remember Cameron
Speaker 4: calling me you jow Hood even reached the guys like, bro,
Speaker 4: give us a chance. You're going to love the way
Speaker 4: this team plays and then you fall in love with it.
Speaker 4: And it was something we always asked. And yet these
Speaker 4: guys aren't going to be here four or five years.
Speaker 4: But getting these transfers over and these guys who proved
Speaker 4: it seems love Kentucky beast well not that the old
Speaker 4: guys didn't. And I'm not going to have no rebusiness history,
Speaker 4: you know, but I just love the way he's playing.
Speaker 4: You know what, twenty four and twelve we looked good.
Speaker 4: We weren't great in the conference, but out come, yes,
Speaker 4: he was stacked. She really could expect. The one thing
Speaker 4: that's weird because the NBA Draft's coming up soon and
Speaker 4: I never miss it and we might only have like
Speaker 4: a guy drafted. When was the last time we went,
Speaker 4: have me twenty years that we didn't have a cat
Speaker 4: drafted in the first rounds? Right, So that's a weird
Speaker 4: thing to not have this superstar. But how can you
Speaker 4: not be excited about to see.
Speaker 3: This coming up?
Speaker 4: I think Polk's can do like the greatest job. Like
Speaker 4: everyone's bought into his game, right, his system.
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting that you mentioned that about not
Speaker 1: having a first round pick, but I think it's a
Speaker 1: it's a bit of a win that Kobe Brea played
Speaker 1: himself into the second round. He was expected just to
Speaker 1: be a free agent, you know, and he played well
Speaker 1: enough for Kentucky. So yeah, I mean it's it's odd,
Speaker 1: but it was more of a group effort.
Speaker 3: Wasn't it, Well, it's the team.
Speaker 4: And all we said is so whenever we lost them
Speaker 4: at it, if it was the Saint Peters or in
Speaker 4: the Leit eight, we're not a team. We're players that
Speaker 4: want there's mostly me saying and not you because you're
Speaker 4: a reasonable fan. It was we're not a team, you know, overreaction.
Speaker 4: My wife said that not made. But we finally played
Speaker 4: at the team last year week. You know, injuries, obviously
Speaker 4: I want more defense, so everyone in I bet I
Speaker 4: know we see the theme the Knicks, Kentucky, anything with
Speaker 4: a K. We don't play defense. We play a little defense.
Speaker 4: That's calling of what I want a little more defense
Speaker 4: to take that next step now you know, next step
Speaker 4: is the Elite eight, and then you know we're building.
Speaker 4: It's one year.
Speaker 1: To me, that was one of the more interesting chapters
Speaker 1: in the story this year was when they played at
Speaker 1: Ole Miss And I'm sure you watched that game at
Speaker 1: their live on as your kids used to say on tape,
Speaker 1: and uh, they were so terrible and they looked like
Speaker 1: they weren't even interested, and Pope and company doubled down
Speaker 1: on defense. The next day he talked about Bray himself.
Speaker 1: He said he literally threw himself and so I could
Speaker 1: see him in my mind's I thrown himself on the
Speaker 1: floor at the Craft Center. But the defense amped up
Speaker 1: and they were I won't say a different team, but
Speaker 1: a much better team, weren't they after that?
Speaker 4: It's exactly what Cameron said when Cameron's like, listen, Mark
Speaker 4: Polpe will not go to coch coach Pope will not
Speaker 4: make you run through the wall with him. He'll grow
Speaker 4: through the wall first and then you follow. He's a
Speaker 4: perfect leader. And I loved when Cameron said that. I
Speaker 4: got pumped up, of course, and then I bought and
Speaker 4: pulled out my old ninety six. Yeah, Kentucky sug but
Speaker 4: they're buying into his whole thing, and you're excited again
Speaker 4: and again. Expectations of Holly where I think the pre
Speaker 4: rankings with maybe fifteenth or sixteen maybe can's work. So
Speaker 4: the expectations of Holly again because we're Kentucky, very similar
Speaker 4: to noticing, you know, one of the blue bloods, one
Speaker 4: of the elites. But I think we have another great season.
Speaker 4: Like I just love this whole team aspect. I kind
Speaker 4: of want one or two of the superstar studs. That's
Speaker 4: just because like the shiny new toys. But I'm going
Speaker 4: to trust Coach Pope on this one.
Speaker 1: Well take away could fit that bill and he's coming back.
Speaker 3: But what I find early, guy yea goo.
Speaker 1: What I find the most interesting about the way Pope
Speaker 1: has built this team is he's done it with returning players.
Speaker 1: He's done it with portal players, and he's done as
Speaker 1: good a job just about as anybody with that. And
Speaker 1: he's doing it with true freshmen with recruits. Because your
Speaker 1: neighbor Rick Patino, the Saint John's coach, has said this year,
Speaker 1: at least for this year, he's not even looking at
Speaker 1: high school players. He's going to do it through the portal.
Speaker 1: Of course, when you have Mike Ropoli, you know, the
Speaker 1: Vitamin water billionaire, you can buy whatever you need if
Speaker 1: they are if they're going to take the money. But
Speaker 1: I just like to mix that Pope is put together,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 4: And again I never not coach cal you know how
Speaker 4: much I loved him. But he would just say the
Speaker 4: ten best players, give me the ten bests. I don't
Speaker 4: care if six them play, you know, play the three.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: It seems that and it could be wrong on wrong
Speaker 4: a lot. It seems like Polk's like, Okay, we need
Speaker 4: to let's find the best number two.
Speaker 3: He's not.
Speaker 4: He's strategically recruiting from everywhere, and he's doing it the
Speaker 4: right way. Listen, we all want, you know, ten great things.
Speaker 4: We don't need ten Mercedes in your driveway. Like I
Speaker 4: think he's just doing any piece we need. We need
Speaker 4: to We need a big man. Let's go get him.
Speaker 4: We need, we need a good go. He's running the bench. Listen,
Speaker 4: he's running a great program. Is only good things coming up?
Speaker 3: And I love it.
Speaker 4: No one I don't want to say turned on him.
Speaker 4: You know, you lose the Tennessee in the you know
Speaker 4: in torment, that's stucky. But everyone still loves him.
Speaker 3: That's what I love.
Speaker 4: I hate when everybody just overreacts, which I'll usually do.
Speaker 1: I sell one overreaction Twitter tweet after some loss, when
Speaker 1: somebody's get rid of him, now, don't wait, get rid
Speaker 1: of him, I'm like, what are you drunk? A few
Speaker 1: minutes left with Mike Saffo, Kentucky fan or New York
Speaker 1: City borough chief and a terrific podcaster in his own right,
Speaker 1: What about Patino? What what had that done? Because man
Speaker 1: playing in the garden and I love coming up even
Speaker 1: though Kentucky lost. I love covering games in the Garden.
Speaker 1: I first did it in seventy six when Kentucky won
Speaker 1: the n I up there there's no place better. And
Speaker 1: for him to get that place rocking again. And he
Speaker 1: was one of the great stories in the NCATE tournament
Speaker 1: this year until Cali Perry brought it to an end.
Speaker 1: But what that What has that been like? Watching him
Speaker 1: breathe new life into the college team in New York.
Speaker 4: It's so great. Like I said, unfortunately college basketball here
Speaker 4: isn't huge, but it was huge back in the Big East. Yeah,
Speaker 4: with Carni Seca, with Chris Mall and those guys, even
Speaker 4: to Felipe Lopez. So Katino comes from he was at Iona.
Speaker 4: Oh you know, there'll be a story here and there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: But halfway through the year when there were no more
Speaker 4: game to Carni Seca because too many fans were going there.
Speaker 4: And like Frances and New York Sports radio is talking
Speaker 4: about Saint John's. They never got discussed. You would get
Speaker 4: a call randomly if they made a tournament. No one
Speaker 4: told me. Now they were kind of leading some story.
Speaker 4: And listen, Patino is just a magnet when Coach P
Speaker 4: does anything, and now the team's going on a run,
Speaker 4: and of course the story with Calipari. But Patino up
Speaker 4: here bringing games now to the Garden, now playing Kentucky
Speaker 4: this year. I know it's in Atlanta, I believe, But
Speaker 4: now he is. He is the story. They're talking about recruiting,
Speaker 4: and I don't think the last time we talked about
Speaker 4: recruiting if he was like a Felipe Lopez.
Speaker 3: Recruiting twenty thirty years ago.
Speaker 4: And so anything Patino's doing now, like I got his
Speaker 4: name the guard who he sat in the second half?
Speaker 3: Was it really?
Speaker 4: Unfortunately I forgot the Saint John's guard that would never
Speaker 4: be discussed and it was a lead story. I'm like, wow,
Speaker 4: what Patino's doing? So people care about Saint John's basketball? Now,
Speaker 4: what's your be good? Anytime he talk basketball is great.
Speaker 4: But anything Coach P does up here now is a story.
Speaker 4: So he's got the Garden, He's on the jumbo tron.
Speaker 4: Anything Patino does, he got the dinner. He's making the
Speaker 4: newspapers and he lost it too. Yeah, now just he
Speaker 4: is a stafle theer. Probably we'll city on sport's so
Speaker 4: great and they want a Tino coach, and Nick, I'm
Speaker 4: telling you it's gonna be crazy to deal with him.
Speaker 4: They adore him. They lost him up.
Speaker 1: Here, no doubt. And here's so old I am. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm older than dirt. But I covered that Saint John's
Speaker 1: team that played in the final four in lexingon Kentucky
Speaker 1: in rupp Arena back in nineteen eighty five, and by coincidence,
Speaker 1: Felipe Lopez, his Saint John's team was upset by Detroit
Speaker 1: Mercy in the NCA Tournament. I had that game for
Speaker 1: INCA Radio, so I got a chriss cross with Saint
Speaker 1: John's throughout my career. Anyhow, we are out of time, sadly,
Speaker 1: but we're talking in Mike Saffo the Mike Saffo Podcast.
Speaker 1: Check it out. He is our New York City Bureau
Speaker 1: chief and it's crazy about all things UK basketball. And
Speaker 1: you're on Twitter. Tell people who had to find you on.
Speaker 4: Twitter at Mike's STAFFO m I k E s A.
Speaker 4: Fol Please do not go to my Twitter after Nick's lost,
Speaker 4: Kentucky lost, Kentucky Yankees lost, Giants loss. Whenever my sports
Speaker 4: team lose, don't go I overreact sometimes and I apologize
Speaker 4: in the morning, though I apologize, Yes.
Speaker 1: Don't when he said when he tweets my life is over,
Speaker 1: don't take it literally. He'll be back. Thanks sir, you're
Speaker 1: talking to you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, sir, and that'll do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks to my guest Mike's Shaffo, Jeff Mcorol and Derek Terry.
Speaker 1: Good night from the garage and Lexington.
Speaker 7: It's like I picked the wrong week, Chris Smoker.
Speaker 6: It's like I picked the wrong week.
Speaker 4: Quick Drink, It's like I picked the wrong week.
Speaker 1: Quit on peta means picked the wrong week.
Speaker 7: Christas Blu tact.
Speaker 8: Tact anything canning the back takes to tson it, don't, don't,
Speaker 8: don't notting to the