Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: Oh, guess what day it is.
Speaker 3: Guess what day it is?
Speaker 2: Huh anybody, It's hump Day.
Speaker 4: Yes, it is hump Day. Welcome to the Big Boone Sider.
Speaker 4: Dick Gabri was he on a Wednesday edition of our program.
Speaker 4: Coming up tonight baseball, football, basketball, a little bit of
Speaker 4: horse racing. At the bottom of the hour, Aaron Gershan
Speaker 4: of the Cats Balls will join us talk about the Wildcats,
Speaker 4: a little bit of NBA with Aaron as well, and
Speaker 4: in our number two. As usual on Wednesdays, we visit
Speaker 4: with our head coach of the Scott County Cardinals and
Speaker 4: unforgettable guard Sean Woods. Also, our West End Bureau chief
Speaker 4: Gary Moore joined us in our number two. I wanted
Speaker 4: to talk a little bit first about UK basketball, the
Speaker 4: NBA and the media because for many, many years being
Speaker 4: a member of the media, I've heard people criticize us,
Speaker 4: those of us in the media about being negative or whatever.
Speaker 4: And that's the case. You're always going to hear that
Speaker 4: if somebody says or writes anything that doesn't agree with
Speaker 4: what they think, and isn't you know, if you're not
Speaker 4: with us, you're against this kind of stuff. But if
Speaker 4: you think it's bad here, and I've heard people talk
Speaker 4: about how terrible it is. No trust me, it's not.
Speaker 4: And I will start by saying, I remember many many
Speaker 4: years ago hearing Rick Patino talking to somebody about the
Speaker 4: media in Kentucky compared to the media in New York.
Speaker 4: Because remember he had come from coaching the Knicks. You
Speaker 4: talk about a lightning rod. Now he had won a
Speaker 4: bunch of games up there, they had won a divisional title,
Speaker 4: they had packed Madison Square Garden. But he was still
Speaker 4: criticized because if you're a pro coach anywhere, you're going
Speaker 4: to be criticized, especially in New York. And of course
Speaker 4: Tom Tibodeau just fired by the Knicks. All he did
Speaker 4: was win fifty games get him to the Eastern Conference Final.
Speaker 4: We will come back to that. But I heard Patino
Speaker 4: explain to somebody comparing media in Kentucky to the media
Speaker 4: in New York. And when he talked about us, he said,
Speaker 4: they're like candy compared to New York. I always got
Speaker 4: to kick out of that, They're like candy compared to
Speaker 4: the media in New York. And that's true, you know,
Speaker 4: because New York is the most competitive media market in
Speaker 4: the world, and those men and women up there are
Speaker 4: battling for ratings, for eyeballs, for readers, still for clicks.
Speaker 4: So what's the best way to get those Well, not
Speaker 4: by saying everything's great. No, by attacking. And you know,
Speaker 4: if the team is winning and winning big, yeah, it's fine.
Speaker 4: But if it's not, they attack, And that has happened now,
Speaker 4: of course with the Knick's coach who's now fired and
Speaker 4: it's kind of divided the media. Should he have been fired?
Speaker 4: Should he not? But of course one of the biggest
Speaker 4: targets right now, literally and figuratively is Karl Anthony Towns
Speaker 4: came over in the trade from Minnesota for Julius Randalls,
Speaker 4: so two Wildcats being swapped, and Towns was supposed to
Speaker 4: be the final piece of that puzzle. And you heard
Speaker 4: Mike Sephaznik talk about this on the show. Are New
Speaker 4: York based superfan UK superfan the other day. I got
Speaker 4: some tweets and texts from you guys and joined that interview.
Speaker 4: I'm glad you did. But as Mike pointed out, Towns
Speaker 4: is built like the proverbial aircraft carrier, as Al McGuire
Speaker 4: used to call, but he is not the classic and
Speaker 4: I don't know how many of these guys exist anymore,
Speaker 4: low post bigs who set up shop in the bottom
Speaker 4: of the paint and do all their work there. No,
Speaker 4: he's out on the floor, he's shooting threes, but he does.
Speaker 4: Every big man does that now in the NBA. DeMarcus
Speaker 4: Cousins was doing that in the NBA before he got hurt.
Speaker 4: So now he's the big he's the big target, he's
Speaker 4: the big paycheck, and he's the biggest target for criticism
Speaker 4: and Mike, not long after we taped our interview, he
Speaker 4: sent me a link to a SoundBite from WFN Radio
Speaker 4: knocking Boy, not just knocking destroying Carl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 5: Here, it is the biggest issue that the Knicks have
Speaker 5: going forward to get to the next level is the
Speaker 5: fact that they waited and waited and waited to go
Speaker 5: all in on a couple of guys, and the biggest
Speaker 5: one being Karl Anthony Towns, and they went and they
Speaker 5: traded for him, and he's making fifty million dollars a
Speaker 5: year and at the core, he's a loser. That is
Speaker 5: their biggest problem. The guy is a loser, He's a
Speaker 5: losing player. He complains, he is soft. He shows you
Speaker 5: flashes where he's the best player on the court, not enough,
Speaker 5: he doesn't play enough defense. He bitches and moans. He is,
Speaker 5: up until this point in his career, a loser who
Speaker 5: is making fifty million dollars, who is going to be
Speaker 5: a logjam. As far as them trying to get to
Speaker 5: the next level.
Speaker 3: His shot selection on Saturday night was insane.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's it's he is getting to the point
Speaker 5: now as one of the most frustrating players I have
Speaker 5: ever watched in the uniform of a team that I
Speaker 5: root for because I know how good he can be,
Speaker 5: and it's just so damn annoying watching him not realize
Speaker 5: his full potential. And I don't know if it'll ever happen.
Speaker 5: I really don't know, but that that is their biggest issue,
Speaker 5: is the fact that they thought this Town's thing was
Speaker 5: going to work better than it did and it hasn't.
Speaker 4: That is Greg Giannati of WFN Radio up in New York,
Speaker 4: And as I said, very competitive. You gotta go after somebody,
Speaker 4: So he's going to go after Towns. Right. What happens
Speaker 4: next year, whoever's coaching, If the Knicks win the title,
Speaker 4: this guy's going to be all over Karl Anthony towns
Speaker 4: in a good way. Towns will be a here, They'll
Speaker 4: have a ticker tape parade, and all will be forgiven
Speaker 4: and forgotten. But that's just the nature of the media
Speaker 4: up in New York. But please keep that in mind
Speaker 4: when you complain about us. And I'm not saying we're
Speaker 4: above reproach. You complain about us all we all you want.
Speaker 4: People have complained about me since I began my career,
Speaker 4: such as it is. But I just think it's interesting
Speaker 4: when I hear people complain about lexing and media and
Speaker 4: talk about us, And of course it's all relative. I know,
Speaker 4: if you grew up in this area and you grew
Speaker 4: up reading and listening and watching media people, you know
Speaker 4: what you like and you know what you don't like.
Speaker 4: But trust me, it's nothing, nothing like it is in
Speaker 4: the bigger markets. For that reason, what if Mark Pope
Speaker 4: it was expected now to make a run for the
Speaker 4: national title? Legitimate run, as Cameron Mills pointed out yesterday,
Speaker 4: that's always the mission. What nobody expected that? And I
Speaker 4: wonder how many people expected a Sweet sixteen run based
Speaker 4: on a reaction by the Wildcat faithful. Probably not many.
Speaker 4: They were so happy with that team last year. Well
Speaker 4: what about this coming year? And we'll talk about the
Speaker 4: preseason Top twenty five here in a minute. So what
Speaker 4: if Pope doesn't accomplish that, What if he doesn't get
Speaker 4: it done in the next three to five years, I
Speaker 4: guarantee you he won't be trashed away. Karl Anthony Towns
Speaker 4: has been trashed in New York preseason rankings right now
Speaker 4: they all two early preseason rankings are out there. And
Speaker 4: you may have noticed if you listened last night with
Speaker 4: camer Mills. I didn't bring this up because he loses
Speaker 4: his mind whenever you talk about polls. This is the
Speaker 4: blind spot for him. He refuses to accept the fact
Speaker 4: it's for fun, for us that the consumer, and for
Speaker 4: the people doing the polls. It's a way to fill
Speaker 4: space and time. I always say, the internet's a bottomless
Speaker 4: pitt and we have to fill it right cbssports dot
Speaker 4: com as they're all too soon. Top twenty five preseason
Speaker 4: and number one is Saint John's talk about high expectations.
Speaker 4: Thirty one and five. Last year, upset in the nca
Speaker 4: Tournament by Arkansas, but they get a bunch of transfers
Speaker 4: a guy from North Carolina, Bryce Hopkins from Providence, got
Speaker 4: a kid from Arizona State from Cincinnati, Stanford, Idaho State
Speaker 4: crying out loud an Naia player transferring in. They're bringing
Speaker 4: in a kid from overseas and a four star high
Speaker 4: school kid. Patino said he was going to ignore high
Speaker 4: school kids. He did sign one, and CBS Sports has
Speaker 4: them number one preseason. I will save you the time.
Speaker 4: Kentucky is number twelve, and this is after well Tago
Speaker 4: Away made his announcement, but of course they cite him.
Speaker 4: Brandon Garret Garrison, all the transfers coming in and the
Speaker 4: four star freshman class Jasper Johnson, Malachai Moreno, and Brayden Hawthorne.
Speaker 4: So now you're wondering, well, who could be better than Kentucky?
Speaker 4: In between uk and Saint John's Well Houston three at
Speaker 4: the top seven scorers are back from a team that
Speaker 4: played for a national title last year. Brigham Young is third.
Speaker 4: How about that they've got freshmen, They've got transfers. Perdue
Speaker 4: is fourth, Yukon fifth. Florida defending champion is six, but
Speaker 4: five of its top ten scorers back. Texas Tech is seventh,
Speaker 4: then Michigan Duke, Ucla, and Arizona, following Kentucky, Iowa State, Alabama,
Speaker 4: and Louisville at number fifteen. I've seen Louisville in the
Speaker 4: top ten in one of these way too soon surveys.
Speaker 4: So again, it's just for fun, and I doubt if
Speaker 4: this changes much now between the beginning of the season
Speaker 4: and today, unless somebody gets hurt. But it's just for fun.
Speaker 4: Nobody's saying that Saint John's is a lot. But it's
Speaker 4: going to be fun to see what Patino does for
Speaker 4: an encore, just as it's going to be fun to
Speaker 4: see what Mark Pope does for an encore. And remember
Speaker 4: they play each other down in Atlanta. We'll talk about
Speaker 4: this in more, but Aaron Gershawn when we come back
Speaker 4: up next the College Football Hall of Fame ballot. I
Speaker 4: mentioned the other night Randall Cobb is on the ballot.
Speaker 4: He'll get my vote, But as for who else I'm
Speaker 4: going to vote for, this is one of the toughest
Speaker 4: years I can remember, and so many of the players
Speaker 4: you and I have seen them play against Kentucky or
Speaker 4: we've seen them play in high profile games. That's all
Speaker 4: ahead here on the big Blue side. Six thirty Wlap
Speaker 4: Welcome back to the Big Blue Sider. Coming up at
Speaker 4: the bottom of the hour, Aaron Gershawn of the catch Pause,
Speaker 4: and then in hour number two, Sean Woods, the unforgettable Guard,
Speaker 4: and West End Bureau Chief Gary Moore. We speak to
Speaker 4: each of those guys scheduling permitting on Wednesdays. I talked
Speaker 4: a little bit yesterday about the fact that Randall Cobb,
Speaker 4: the maybe best all around player in the history of
Speaker 4: Kentucky football, is now on the College Football Hall of
Speaker 4: Fame ballot the class of twenty twenty six, and he
Speaker 4: is up against some serious, serious competition. But think about
Speaker 4: this now, Remember now, Tim kouch went in what was
Speaker 4: it last year, they put out these numbers, five point
Speaker 4: seven eight million players in college football since the first
Speaker 4: game Princeton versus Rutgers in eighteen sixty nine. No, I
Speaker 4: didn't cover it, but since then, only a total of
Speaker 4: one thousand, one hundred and eleven players eleven to eleven
Speaker 4: have earned induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Speaker 4: That is point zero two percent, less than two to
Speaker 4: one hundredth of a percent of anybody who played the
Speaker 4: game in the last one hundred and fifty five seasons.
Speaker 4: And from the coaching ranks. Only two hundred and thirty
Speaker 4: seven individuals have been named to the College Football Hall
Speaker 4: of Fame. So amazing, amazing those numbers, which is why
Speaker 4: it's so tough to get in. I do have a
Speaker 4: vote as a member of the College Football Writers Association,
Speaker 4: and going through the ballot, yeah, I will vote for
Speaker 4: Randall Cobb. And I know it's terribly parochial, maybe a
Speaker 4: little biased, but that's why there are people like me
Speaker 4: across the country with votes with ballots. So but as
Speaker 4: I said, I went through the names, and you know,
Speaker 4: they just conjured so many memories. But so many of
Speaker 4: these players played against Kentucky or we had seen them
Speaker 4: play somehow. In some of these names, you're gonna know regardless.
Speaker 4: Morton Anderson, the great kicker from Michigan State. Eric b
Speaker 4: Enemy to Colorada running back nineteen ninety third in the
Speaker 4: Heighspan Trophy balloting. Courtney Brown, a great defensive end of
Speaker 4: Penn State, played against the Wildcats in the nineteen ninety
Speaker 4: eight outback Well actually played it on January one, nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety nine. But he was an incredibly good player, unanimous
Speaker 4: first team All American and Penn State's all time career
Speaker 4: leader in TFLs and sacks and played against Tim Couch
Speaker 4: in Kentucky. How Mummy's team back then another Penn State
Speaker 4: player Kase Johnnick Carter. If you're a Bengals fan, you
Speaker 4: saw him play. Injuries meant he did not have a
Speaker 4: great pro career, but he unanimous first team All American
Speaker 4: and a Heisman runner up In nineteen ninety four. Brad
Speaker 4: culpeper Florida defensive tackle Wildcats had to play against Aaron Donald.
Speaker 4: Kentucky never played against him. He played at pitt and
Speaker 4: then of course went on to a great NFL career.
Speaker 4: Super Bowl champion Elvis Doomerville, UFL defensive end, unanimous first
Speaker 4: team All American and twenty oh five winner of the
Speaker 4: Negerski Trophy. Led the nation in sacks that year with
Speaker 4: twenty and was ranked fourth in TFLs with twenty two.
Speaker 4: What may have won him that Nigersky Award was his
Speaker 4: performance against Kentucky that year. Cardinals won that game thirty
Speaker 4: one to twenty four. Good game and he was a
Speaker 4: difference maker six sacks in one game that broke the
Speaker 4: NCAA single game sack record. Later on, he broke the
Speaker 4: NSA record for forced fumbles that season. Von Dunbar, running
Speaker 4: back for Indiana, played against the Wildcats. Robert Griffin third
Speaker 4: RG three from Baylor, consensus first team All American, blew
Speaker 4: his knee. He killed his NFL career, but a great
Speaker 4: player in college. Percy Harvin two, I'm first team All
Speaker 4: American for Florida. Remember watching him play against Kentucky. Kentucky
Speaker 4: had no answers for that guy. Nobody had answers for
Speaker 4: that guy. Also, Garrison Hurst, running back nineteen ninety two
Speaker 4: from Georgia, was so great watching him play against the Wildcats.
Speaker 4: His senior year. He ran for one hundred and seventy
Speaker 4: one yards in a touchdown against Kentucky beat the Wildcats
Speaker 4: forty to seven, mark Ingram Alabama running back Believe it
Speaker 4: or not, Alabama's first ever Heisman Trophy winner, and he
Speaker 4: graduated in twenty oh nine. Up until that point, Bama
Speaker 4: had never had a Heisman Trophy winner, but he was
Speaker 4: sec offensive player of the year, led the league in
Speaker 4: rushing and touchdowns. You know who else is on the ballot?
Speaker 4: Riot Leaf, Washington State first team All American quarterback, third
Speaker 4: in the Heisman Trophy voting. Remember the NFL draft that
Speaker 4: year came down to Peyton Manning or Ryan Leaf. Colts
Speaker 4: made the right decision. Leif had terrible problems with his
Speaker 4: personal discipline, shall we say when he got out. But
Speaker 4: a great college player, Marshawn Lynch Cal running back is
Speaker 4: on the ballot. You know who else is on the ballot?
Speaker 4: Kellen Moore from Boise State quarterback twenty ten first Team
Speaker 4: All American, finished his career as the winningest starting quarterback
Speaker 4: in college football history, still Boise States all time leading passer.
Speaker 4: Really part of that Boise team that put that program
Speaker 4: on the map. I'll tell you another guy who's got
Speaker 4: to go in first ballot. I gotta think Cam Newton
Speaker 4: of Auburn and since his first team All American Heightsman
Speaker 4: Trophy winner in twenty ten led the Tigers to a
Speaker 4: national title. But the toughest game that year for Auburn
Speaker 4: go look it up. Prior to the championship game, Kentucky
Speaker 4: in lection It Wildcats had a chance just barely missed
Speaker 4: upsetting Auburn, which needed a game winning drive led by
Speaker 4: Newton in a closing seconds and a field goal to
Speaker 4: beat the Wildcats. And until the championship game. That was
Speaker 4: their toughest game. I know they fell behind it to
Speaker 4: come back against Alabama, but they won easily over Alabama
Speaker 4: compared to the win over Kentucky. Ken Norton, Junior UCLA
Speaker 4: linebacker is on the ballot. His son He is the
Speaker 4: son of the boxer. Ken Norton Junior's son. At one point,
Speaker 4: he's a sports catch. At one point worked at WLKY
Speaker 4: and Louisville. How about that Antwine Randall l Indiana First
Speaker 4: Team All America quarterback in twenty one as a senior.
Speaker 4: His team had a losing record. What was the first
Speaker 4: team All American and his last game of his college
Speaker 4: career was a win over the Wildcats. They were supposed
Speaker 4: to play Kentucky second weekend of September, then nine to
Speaker 4: eleven happened. That game was moved to the end of
Speaker 4: the year and Randall LL had a big game. His
Speaker 4: team carried him off the field. After winning over Kentucky,
Speaker 4: he became the first player in FBS history to throw
Speaker 4: for six thousand yards and rush for three thousand yards.
Speaker 4: Ran for more yards in any quarterback in FBS history
Speaker 4: at that point. At the conclusion of his career, switched
Speaker 4: to wide receiver, had a nice pro career. Larry Severs
Speaker 4: Tennessee wide receiver, first team All American consensus nineteen seventy
Speaker 4: five at seventy six, but his last game as a
Speaker 4: collegiate a lost to Kentucky in Knoxville, sixth to nothing.
Speaker 4: Kentucky went on to the Peach Bowl. Tennessee did not
Speaker 4: get a bid and their coach was fired. But Larry
Speaker 4: Sivers great player. Also in the ballot and Dominican Sue
Speaker 4: the great Nebraska defensive tackle Mantit Tew Notre Dame linebacker,
Speaker 4: unanimous first team All American. Unfortunately was best known because
Speaker 4: he got catfished. Also in the ballot Peter Warwick, great
Speaker 4: wide receiver from Florida State. Five years with the Bengals.
Speaker 4: If you're a Bengals fan, you watched him. So that's
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. This is an incredibly talented ballad. Not
Speaker 4: sure who I'm going to vote for, but I will
Speaker 4: vote for Randall Copp Back in the minute with Aaron
Speaker 4: Gershean on six thirty wlap welcome back to the Big
Speaker 4: Blue and sider joining us now as he does each week.
Speaker 4: Aaron Gershan of the Cats pause, and before we talk
Speaker 4: about the current Wildcats, Aaron, I got to ask you
Speaker 4: about a former Wildcat. You covered Karl Anthony Towns when
Speaker 4: he was here, or at least, let's see, were you
Speaker 4: in Indiana by then?
Speaker 2: Not yet? No, this was before I was actually still
Speaker 2: up in New York. Okay, all right, that's right, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: two years ahead.
Speaker 4: Of me, that's right. But as I mentioned in a
Speaker 4: previous segment, growing up in the New York area, being
Speaker 4: as sportsman as you are, you're used to hearing, seeing
Speaker 4: reading the media coverage that we played earlier with the
Speaker 4: SoundBite of a radio host destroying Carl Anthony Towns. I mean,
Speaker 4: is that just business as usual up there?
Speaker 2: Business as usual up there? I mean, it gives me
Speaker 2: some pleasure right now. But go listen to the Jan
Speaker 2: Soto rants. With how he's performing so far with the Mets,
Speaker 2: you'd act like he's in the fourteenth year of that
Speaker 2: contract and it's all over and he's a bus So
Speaker 2: that's just how it is in New York. Everything's under
Speaker 2: a very sick microscope and you got to perform and
Speaker 2: look that clip. I actually I agree with the fact
Speaker 2: he could be frustrating and the shot selection sometimes is
Speaker 2: way off, and he's such a good player, and he
Speaker 2: is inconsistent, and I think those are all good takes.
Speaker 2: But to say he's what's holding them back, to tell
Speaker 2: them back this year is crazy to me, based on
Speaker 2: the fact they went further this year. And I know
Speaker 2: the same team beat him. I get that, but and
Speaker 2: you know everyone's going to make the argument, oh, if
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum to get hurt, well in Game five, when
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum unfortunately did arraus achilles, the Knicks had all
Speaker 2: the momentum before that injury occurred. They were in the lead,
Speaker 2: and they were probably still going to win the game,
Speaker 2: and they would have been up three to one, and
Speaker 2: then they still lost the game with Tatum backs without
Speaker 2: with Tatum out, so you know, and then they were
Speaker 2: able to finish off that series and dominate Game six,
Speaker 2: and you know, so to me, they actually took the
Speaker 2: next step this year, even if you want to call
Speaker 2: it a little lucky that you know, a superstar went down.
Speaker 2: To me, the Knicks had bigger issues. It was their
Speaker 2: offense really, And you know, I don't necessarily agree with
Speaker 2: firing Tom said though, with given what he's done with
Speaker 2: this franchise that has been just awful until he arrived
Speaker 2: and they made the playoffs his first year, and they've
Speaker 2: been the playoffs all but one year he was there.
Speaker 2: But you know, their offensive times kind of similar to
Speaker 2: what we saw toward the end of the cal era,
Speaker 2: a little bit outdated, a little bit slow, and then
Speaker 2: the short rotations, and you could demply tell fatigue got
Speaker 2: the guys like Kat and Jalen Brompton and Josh Hart
Speaker 2: by the end of the year because they play such
Speaker 2: a darn large low during the regular season. And that's
Speaker 2: not to say they need to be I'm not a
Speaker 2: load management fan, so it's not the fact like, yes,
Speaker 2: he can play his eighty two games, but playing forty
Speaker 2: minutes in seventy of eighty two games, yeah, I don't
Speaker 2: know if that's the best strategy. You've got to have
Speaker 2: a bench, and you've got to have depth. In Indiana
Speaker 2: had it in the next.
Speaker 4: Day, Yeah, And which to me points the finger at
Speaker 4: the front office. Basically, you know, give him if you're
Speaker 4: going to play short rotation, there's a reason if you
Speaker 4: give him a reason to play deeper in the bench. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean, he's not going to be Mark Pope playing everybody.
Speaker 2: But you know exactly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I just thought that was interesting. And as
Speaker 4: I said earlier, I always kind of have to smile
Speaker 4: when I hear people ripping on us, the media. I mean,
Speaker 4: that's all part of it. We you know, we take criticism.
Speaker 4: But you know, if you really want to know what
Speaker 4: it's like to hear media trashing the team they cover.
Speaker 2: Yeah, New York and Philadelphia for you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would think Boston Philadelphia, I would think, yeah,
Speaker 4: which I call the abreast city in America. So anyway, yeah,
Speaker 4: so I did want to touch on that with you.
Speaker 4: But now, speaking of Mark Pope, in the all too
Speaker 4: premature polls and surveys and rankings and all Kentucky's up there,
Speaker 4: CBS Sports has him twelfth preseason right now, it's all
Speaker 4: in good fun. But on your website, Isaac Trotter of
Speaker 4: two four to seven Sports as Kentucky seventh, not twelve,
Speaker 4: and gives Kentucky a huge shot at winning a national title.
Speaker 4: But that's what people expect. So that's Is it a
Speaker 4: big deal or no?
Speaker 2: I mean, look, it is in a sense that last
Speaker 2: year it was a little different. You know, you're coming
Speaker 2: in with a ton of unknown with guys that had
Speaker 2: never played together before, with a coach who you didn't
Speaker 2: know how he was going to perform here because he
Speaker 2: had really only been a head coach in the city.
Speaker 2: You saw obviously played here, but it's different. And they
Speaker 2: came into the season a people ranked twenty three that
Speaker 2: was almost like it almost felt like name brand, you're
Speaker 2: going to get in. So they come in twenty third
Speaker 2: and then they start the year red hot, and they
Speaker 2: go all the way up to number four, you know
Speaker 2: before they lost to Clemson. So you know, there's a
Speaker 2: lot of unknown last year, and I think it is
Speaker 2: a big deal that already in year two where last
Speaker 2: year they're really the expectation was just makes the tournament
Speaker 2: and let's see what we've got. This year, it's final
Speaker 2: four busts in a lot of people's eyes. And when
Speaker 2: you build a roster this talented and with this much death,
Speaker 2: you have a guy in oteke Away who was all
Speaker 2: the second team all SEC last year, was your leading scorer,
Speaker 2: was in double figures in all but two or three games,
Speaker 2: coming back to lead the team. Like, yeah, it's going
Speaker 2: to come with expectations, especially you know, again, I think
Speaker 2: we touched on it. Last week Auburn and Alabama got
Speaker 2: saved by the bell too on NBA Day, NBA deadline Day,
Speaker 2: getting file On back to Bama and then Pettiford back
Speaker 2: to Auburn. So you know, those two teams probably were
Speaker 2: fringe top twenty five. Now they're looking, you know, top
Speaker 2: fifteen to top twenty, but still they're not. I don't
Speaker 2: think they're gonna be as dominant as they were last year.
Speaker 2: Florida should be really, really good again. They've reloaded Arkansas,
Speaker 2: you think is gonna be better. I still am skeptical
Speaker 2: about the shooting on that roster, so you know, the
Speaker 2: SEC is not going to take a drastic step back.
Speaker 2: But I think it's almost impossible for to be as
Speaker 2: elite as it was last year. I mean, I could
Speaker 2: be wrong, and I hope I'm wrong, because it was
Speaker 2: a heck of a lot of fun watching all these
Speaker 2: battles last year. But yeah, I see they I think
Speaker 2: they are on paper a top ten teams. But you
Speaker 2: got to now it's about managing those expectations and going
Speaker 2: out and performing. We haven't really, we haven't really seen
Speaker 2: a Mark Pope led team have these high expectations and
Speaker 2: see how he handles, you know, keeping those rankings out
Speaker 2: of eyesight, out of earshot. We haven't seen that yet. So,
Speaker 2: you know, last year they were kind of like the underdogs.
Speaker 2: Even though they did get up into the top four
Speaker 2: and they beat some really good teams, no one was
Speaker 2: really no one really took them all that seriously. And
Speaker 2: you know, they went to the Sweet sixteen with a
Speaker 2: pang groups. So it's gonna be different this here, coming
Speaker 2: in with high expectations, and if they.
Speaker 4: Had stayed healthy, I think the expectations pre season last
Speaker 4: year would have been adjusted on the fly by us
Speaker 4: in the media about your fans, because, as you said,
Speaker 4: they got off to that great start, they piled up
Speaker 4: good big win after big win. But the injuries, the
Speaker 4: puzzling losses, Yeah, the fact that they didn't play very
Speaker 4: good defense until after that Old Miss loss. Everybody kind
Speaker 4: of had to tap the brakes a little bit, didn't they.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no question about it. They absolutely had to
Speaker 2: tap the breaks and see uh, it was just waiting
Speaker 2: and see mode. You never kind of knew which Kentucky
Speaker 2: team was going to come out for a little bit
Speaker 2: there with their defensive issues, and you know, that's one
Speaker 2: thing on Mark Tube's resume that has been concerning, and
Speaker 2: you hope you know this year now, when he has
Speaker 2: the best, by far the best rosters ever put together
Speaker 2: on paper, is these puzzling, weird losses to teams they
Speaker 2: have no business losing to. I mean, you just go
Speaker 2: back to his last year there at BYU. They lost
Speaker 2: the Brandon Garrison in Oklahoma State, who finished dead last
Speaker 2: in the Big twelve. They loft Oklahoma and won't take
Speaker 2: away That team wasn't any good. So you know there
Speaker 2: are some puzzling losses that happened that year, and go
Speaker 2: through his track record, I don't have them all in
Speaker 2: front of me. And then last year, of course, you
Speaker 2: know losing you know, Georgia ended up being a tournament team,
Speaker 2: but a team he should be able to handle. You
Speaker 2: lose on the road to Texas when Texas was paying
Speaker 2: up as well and you had the game in control,
Speaker 2: and you know, I'm missing some of the other weird
Speaker 2: ones off the top of my head, but just just games.
Speaker 2: You feel like you should have had Vanderbilt on the
Speaker 2: road again, another tournament team, but you know you're down big,
Speaker 2: then you take an eight point lead. You should be
Speaker 2: able to finish them off. So you know, that is
Speaker 2: one thing you look at going to next year, you
Speaker 2: look at how you know, maybe I don't know if
Speaker 2: it's hype. I don't know if it's what the messaging.
Speaker 2: Who knows. Maybe it was just off days from these
Speaker 2: particular teams and it's just all, you know, just not
Speaker 2: a trend we should be worried about. But yeah, that's
Speaker 2: definitely something.
Speaker 4: Will monger when you look at preseason polls, as you said,
Speaker 4: business as usual for Kentucky and even dating back to
Speaker 4: the Caliparia are his last two teams preseason twenty two
Speaker 4: to twenty three. Around of twenty three twenty four, Kentucky
Speaker 4: was ranked sixteenth. Wi's low for the Wildcats. Of course,
Speaker 4: the year before Kentucky preseason was number four Ashley, you know.
Speaker 4: And by the way, in that poll, Yukon was nowhere
Speaker 4: to be seen, jumped up and won it.
Speaker 2: So yeah, what was I would love to know? And
Speaker 2: I was very high on Florida. I just want to
Speaker 2: say Darryl Bert actually last year look at our cat
Speaker 2: pause Yeah, if you go look at our Cat's pause
Speaker 2: SEC rankings, I think he moved to Kentucky fifth and
Speaker 2: put Florida four. Actually it's Florida up at number three,
Speaker 2: but Darrell adjusted it. That's okay. But I wonder if
Speaker 2: they were ranked going into the year. I bet they
Speaker 2: were top twenty five, but I don't think they were
Speaker 2: that high up in there. It just it all all
Speaker 2: has to play out of the floor. There's always going
Speaker 2: to be teams that I mean, no one had any
Speaker 2: expectations for Louisville last year and how could you. And
Speaker 2: you know, they ended up having a very nice year.
Speaker 2: I know the ACC was down, but you know they
Speaker 2: lost seven or eight games. That's a really really good
Speaker 2: year no matter how you slice it. So you know,
Speaker 2: there's always going to be a team that's overlooked. But
Speaker 2: you know, Kentucky this year, you know last year was
Speaker 2: kind of in that boat. This year they're going to
Speaker 2: come in you know, was it on their chest and
Speaker 2: they're going to have to They're gonna have to perform.
Speaker 2: It's the first again, it's the first time we've really
Speaker 2: seen this with Pope, and it's going to be really interesting.
Speaker 2: And like you said, some cow Perry teams handled it
Speaker 2: really well and others, you know, not so all.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and others were disappointing. Uh, the AP preseason basketball
Speaker 4: poll for last year did not did not have Florida anywhere.
Speaker 2: You even have Florida, how about that didn't.
Speaker 4: Even have them and they had them twenty first and Kentucky,
Speaker 4: as you said, was twenty third. But people who covered
Speaker 4: the se see they were talking Florida early in the year.
Speaker 4: So yeah, it just depends.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I don't know how people really missed it.
Speaker 2: The two guys coming back with Clayton and Richard and
Speaker 2: then Elijah Martin was an absolute stud and winter at you.
Speaker 2: But that's all right.
Speaker 4: He is Aaron Gershaan as the Cat's Balls. We'll come
Speaker 4: back and talk more with Aaron on the other side
Speaker 4: of the break here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back.
Speaker 4: We're talking with Aaron Gershaan of the Cat's Pause and
Speaker 4: he's been working, of course on Kentucky basketball, football, baseball.
Speaker 4: By the way, James McCoy anders the portal, you've got
Speaker 4: a story on the website. A little bit of a
Speaker 4: surprise maybe.
Speaker 2: Not what do you think A little bit and a
Speaker 2: little bit not like yeah, it's kind of it's kind
Speaker 2: of like, you know, this year was a little weird
Speaker 2: for him where he had his best season statistically lies
Speaker 2: and again every time they you know, not coming what
Speaker 2: happened against West Virginia, but everyone melted down in that one.
Speaker 2: Actually picked pretty darn well in those little relief appearances.
Speaker 2: He had hit a two eight five era you know,
Speaker 2: only I think twelve or thirteen innings, but still pretty
Speaker 2: solid there, and you know, had hit two eighty six
Speaker 2: by far his best on the ear. But it was
Speaker 2: kind of weird where he was on the bench for
Speaker 2: a while and then he comes back into play first
Speaker 2: base when they kind of gave up on Dylan Koon's
Speaker 2: and you know, maybe they should have played Hudson Brent.
Speaker 2: It was kind of a kind of a weird year
Speaker 2: with him where you know, he boo chins and he's
Speaker 2: still being counted on at a relief at some points
Speaker 2: and probably you know, going into his last year, going
Speaker 2: somewhere where he has a more established, clear cut role,
Speaker 2: and you know it's going to be this this is
Speaker 2: the first off seasons where it's going to be so
Speaker 2: interesting to see what happens in the sense that Kentucky
Speaker 2: has so much talents coming back. But now we're really
Speaker 2: you know, two years ago, you could have said the
Speaker 2: same going into the twenty twenty four year, and yes,
Speaker 2: the portal was active, but now it's now you're seeing
Speaker 2: the warcats come out and teams with no rules coming
Speaker 2: in and throwing all these dollars out. And you know,
Speaker 2: you can't tell me that the LSUS the Mississippi States
Speaker 2: of the world are not going to be coming after
Speaker 2: Tyler Bell and coming after you know, Ryan Schwartz and
Speaker 2: Hudson Brown and Ben Cleaver like they Kentucky has some
Speaker 2: really darn good players that are half the return next year,
Speaker 2: and you know it's gonna be really interesting and hopefully
Speaker 2: they can keep all of them. Because if they keep
Speaker 2: all of them, and even if they keep the vast
Speaker 2: majority of them, I think Minion what he said in
Speaker 2: his press conference is not far off. Like if they
Speaker 2: do the if they make the moves they have to
Speaker 2: make in the portal to you know, they're gonna need catching.
Speaker 2: They have no castres on next year's roster. They're gonna
Speaker 2: need to address the bullten issues that kill them this year.
Speaker 2: They're gonna need probably one more starting picture. But if
Speaker 2: they do all that and then bring back what they have,
Speaker 2: like it's a top ten roster. It really is. I mean,
Speaker 2: just based on the returning talent and how they performed
Speaker 2: this last year. But it's gonna be really hard to
Speaker 2: keep the Tyler Bells, the Hudson Browns and Ryan Schwartz
Speaker 2: Ben Clee. Like, this is going to be the first
Speaker 2: kind of test for Kentucky baseball in their NIL situation.
Speaker 2: And I think all fans and media like are curious
Speaker 2: to see how this thing goes.
Speaker 4: So you anticipate a bidding war.
Speaker 2: I mean, how could he not. I mean Tyler Bensley,
Speaker 2: guy that was the sixty sixth pick in the draft,
Speaker 2: you know, just last year, and he performed. I mean,
Speaker 2: he was a three hundred hitter, he was all SEC
Speaker 2: freshman team, you know, unfortunately had the knee injury, but
Speaker 2: and take away that one, he had his you know,
Speaker 2: learning curves as short but overall really darn good there
Speaker 2: as well. And you know he's a guy who's just
Speaker 2: gonna get better and better. He's probably on his way
Speaker 2: to becoming a first round pick one day. And yeah,
Speaker 2: you can't tell me that the lss of the world
Speaker 2: are not And I'm not just I'm just saying all
Speaker 2: too because I know what the type of baseball war
Speaker 2: chests they have. But even like Arizona State, they have
Speaker 2: a ton of money they pour into baseball. Mississippi State
Speaker 2: now with a new head coach, starting a new era
Speaker 2: like Texas, I mean what they were able to do
Speaker 2: this year. I know they did disappointing end there in
Speaker 2: the tournament. A lot of teams in the SEC did,
Speaker 2: But yeah, I would expect it's going to be uncomfortable
Speaker 2: for Mgione and this staff.
Speaker 4: There are a lot of teams would see what they
Speaker 4: can do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh of course, yeah, you're already seeing it. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, Western Kentucky just had an outstanding there and
Speaker 2: their best, best handful players already hit the portal. And
Speaker 2: and I'm sure Murray State did you see there's a
Speaker 2: screenshot going around how Murray State's roster if you go
Speaker 2: on their website, the website during the old miss game
Speaker 2: crashed really like all right, how many coaches are on
Speaker 2: there going through the roster tampering here. So that's just
Speaker 2: that's what happens. But you know Kentucky, yes they're in
Speaker 2: the SEC, and yes they've made the tournament three years
Speaker 2: in a row, gone to a College World Series. They
Speaker 2: just still don't have the work chefs that some of
Speaker 2: these other schools do. That some of these other schools do,
Speaker 2: and that's what's going to make it really tough to
Speaker 2: obtain all these really really good players they have to
Speaker 2: come back.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but with a rule change. Is one big plus
Speaker 4: for Kentucky is full scholarships now, I mean.
Speaker 2: Been a huge show.
Speaker 4: Eleven point seven scholarships. Yeah, done. Ridiculous rule that they
Speaker 4: held a lot of programs back for many years and
Speaker 4: now that's not the case anymore. So even kids, even
Speaker 4: kids who might leave for a third of a scholarship
Speaker 4: or you know, room aboard or book money or whatever,
Speaker 4: now they can stick around because mom and dad don't
Speaker 4: have to write that big check.
Speaker 2: That's right. And that's why you're seeing all these mid
Speaker 2: majors or you know, not even necessarily mid majors, but
Speaker 2: team like three seeds and two seeds and these regionals
Speaker 2: win because those playing fields are so level between that
Speaker 2: and the portal, I mean, and these teams are so old.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean, like I almost I think college
Speaker 2: baseball is growing and that makes me really happy, but
Speaker 2: like I don't feel like it's being talked enough. Like
Speaker 2: what Murray State what And I know Louisville won the
Speaker 2: reasionable right state knocking out Vanderbilt UTSA beating Texas like that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like all those things, like they're not being talked about enough,
Speaker 2: because it's an amazing story to show you how much
Speaker 2: this field has been leveled like this. You could never
Speaker 2: have thought any of this would happen five years ago.
Speaker 2: But now you're sitting here going in to Supers and
Speaker 2: the number one and two teams in the country are
Speaker 2: gone towards you. The seven overall seat is gone, like
Speaker 2: some power power programs with a lot of money being
Speaker 2: knocked off by teams with not nearly as much money,
Speaker 2: but they're able to put their full team on scholarship
Speaker 2: and clean up in the portal when all the big
Speaker 2: big names are help.
Speaker 4: And you know what, Nil rolled around. A lot of
Speaker 4: people looked at Coastal Carolina, which won the World Series
Speaker 4: within the last decade, So that'll never happen again. Now
Speaker 4: you know, you can't really say that, can you?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: And look at Coastal they hosted and now they're in
Speaker 2: the Supers. Yeah, like I mean, perfect example. Yeah, it
Speaker 2: is happening, and I mean you have again Utsa, Murray
Speaker 2: State's and the Super It's it's great, it's great for
Speaker 2: the sport, but it's just not being talked about enough.
Speaker 2: Just that scholarship change is huge. I think that's part
Speaker 2: of the reason Kentucky has gotten things back on track
Speaker 2: a bit. And it will help them, you know, in
Speaker 2: these in these transfer portal battles. But at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, man, it's gonna be it's gonna be
Speaker 2: a big test. I genuinely like, I don't really have
Speaker 2: a good feel of what these baseball kids are able
Speaker 2: to pay. These guys, I just I'm sure just don't
Speaker 2: have a good feel. I think this will be a
Speaker 2: good learning curve for all of us to see what
Speaker 2: help they need. It will be a good message for everybody.
Speaker 4: Well whatever happens Aaron Gershaw and his pals that the
Speaker 4: cast Balls will be covering it. And you can follow
Speaker 4: Aaron on Twitter at a gersha in ninety nine. Thank
Speaker 4: you sir, and we'll talk to you next week anytime.
Speaker 4: And Aaron brings up a great point about the bidding
Speaker 4: war coming up. Yeah it's tampering, sure it is, but
Speaker 4: unless a coach calls a player, technically it's not tampering.
Speaker 4: But again we bring up to the eleven point seven.
Speaker 4: If you didn't know, you've got basketball teams with what
Speaker 4: thirteen skollies, women's basketball gets, fifteen, football eighty five whatever
Speaker 4: it is. Baseball forever has said eleven point seven scholarships. Now,
Speaker 4: if your school has programs involving grants where you can
Speaker 4: go out and get a kid with certain types of
Speaker 4: grant money, then you can. You could in the past,
Speaker 4: you know, add that to your recruiting budget. Basically, not
Speaker 4: every school can do that, and now and Kentucky did
Speaker 4: it somewhat, but not nearly as much as others. They
Speaker 4: weren't able to. But now you don't have to worry
Speaker 4: about that because the rules are changing the total number
Speaker 4: of scholaries. Baseball can be fully funded in terms of schollies.
Speaker 4: You got to cut down and do away with walk ons,
Speaker 4: but you've also got the nil dollars figuring in. So
Speaker 4: I know athletic administrators don't like to call it the
Speaker 4: wild West, but give me a better term and I'll
Speaker 4: use it. Our number two is Sean Woods and Gary
Speaker 4: Moore next done six thirty WLP.
Speaker 6: In any type set such statute anything.
Speaker 4: On welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider. Each Wednesday,
Speaker 4: we chavel our unforgettable guard Sean Woods. His jersey hangs
Speaker 4: in the rafters of rup And before we talk about
Speaker 4: high school and collegeball coach, we need to talk about
Speaker 4: the NBA. Your beloved Indiana Pacers will play for a championship,
Speaker 4: but one of the victims of their success is a
Speaker 4: fellow coach, Tibbs, the head coach Tom Thibodeau for the Knicks.
Speaker 4: He gets fired after coaching his team to fifty wins
Speaker 4: in their first appearance in the Eastern Conference Final in
Speaker 4: more than two decades. I know you're a Pacers fan,
Speaker 4: but as a professional coach man, you got a feel
Speaker 4: for that guy, don't you.
Speaker 1: I sure do. That's the nature of our business, especially
Speaker 1: in the NBA. I mean, you know, it's just I
Speaker 1: don't know, you know, these gms, and sometimes players can
Speaker 1: get tired of, you know, because I can see Tibbs,
Speaker 1: you know, who's a real stickler for defense and playing
Speaker 1: tough and things like that. You know, coaches nowadays, you know,
Speaker 1: saying they wear on guys like that, you know, especially
Speaker 1: at that level. I don't know if that's it or
Speaker 1: of the management things that he took him as far
Speaker 1: as he could take them, you know. I mean, look
Speaker 1: what they did at Dwayne Casey years ago at at Toronto,
Speaker 1: you know, coach of the year, and he got fired,
Speaker 1: you know, and Tim is one of the best coaches
Speaker 1: in the NBA.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you know, I do remember reading though, when
Speaker 4: he coached the Bulls, and he, to your point, he
Speaker 4: kind of wore on the players, and you know, he
Speaker 4: can't fire all the players, so they fired the coach.
Speaker 4: But they weren't winning. I guess that's what's surprising. Generally,
Speaker 4: when you're winning, everybody's happy, of course, but when he
Speaker 4: got fired and I tweeted this, you know, and I've
Speaker 4: said this before, you're basically punishing somebody. Everybody's mad, and
Speaker 4: you got to punish somebody. And they're not going to
Speaker 4: punish the players because they all have contracts, so it's
Speaker 4: easier to punish the coach. Is that too simple?
Speaker 1: That's the that's the easiest way to go.
Speaker 4: Yeah, But like you said, there's oftentimes more that goes
Speaker 4: on behind the scenes. But I think a lot of
Speaker 4: it too was they people complained, media fans, he didn't
Speaker 4: play enough people, meaning you know, his roster wasn't what
Speaker 4: it might have been, and that's front office stuff. So
Speaker 4: bringing it to your level college and high school, you know,
Speaker 4: you can't just rely on five or six guys. That's
Speaker 4: pretty obvious, right, right, So what do you do? What
Speaker 4: do you do as a coach. I mean, he's got
Speaker 4: to depend on a GM to go out and hire guys.
Speaker 4: But at your level high school, in college, how do
Speaker 4: you avoid that?
Speaker 1: I mean you got to develop that roster, right, I
Speaker 1: mean in high school it's nothing but development because you know,
Speaker 1: you're not supposed to recruit things like that, so you
Speaker 1: you're really just coaching what's coming in your hallways year
Speaker 1: and year out without any choice. And you got to
Speaker 1: you know, hopefully you get a good crop in, you know,
Speaker 1: and the stays that even flow. But that's not that's
Speaker 1: not or or or. You know, it'd be the same
Speaker 1: teams winning the state championship and.
Speaker 2: So on and so forth every year.
Speaker 1: So that's what that's the beauty of high school basketball.
Speaker 1: But then college you are in control for for for
Speaker 1: the most part, of who you bring in. You know,
Speaker 1: you're the guy who went out recruit, but you got
Speaker 1: to you know, it's so competitive. You got to beat
Speaker 1: other guys out for talent and hopefully you brought in
Speaker 1: more talent than they did, and then you can be
Speaker 1: able to do it. You know, that fits what you
Speaker 1: do as a coach, That allows you to be better
Speaker 1: than the other team even though they did recruit more
Speaker 1: talent or better talent than you. So it's kind of different.
Speaker 1: But as an NBA guy, you're stuck unless you the
Speaker 1: GM and the coach or you got a lot of
Speaker 1: school and and and decision making. You know, you you
Speaker 1: doing what you know. Sometimes a player show up and
Speaker 1: you don't even know that there was a trade man
Speaker 1: done until the player gets there. So you know that's
Speaker 1: that's a heck of a feeling right there, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Special got things going, yeah, and you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's tough.
Speaker 4: Speaking of roster development, you and I talked about this
Speaker 4: right after you got the job at Scott County High School.
Speaker 4: Your crosstown rival wins the state great crossing with the
Speaker 4: core of players, Sean, as you pointed out, who have
Speaker 4: been together since middle school, which anymore, it seemed like
Speaker 4: that used to be the case. Kids grew up, same neighborhood,
Speaker 4: same middle school, same AAU team all the way through
Speaker 4: high school. It seems like anymore that's not even possible,
Speaker 4: or they're just doing things differently. You've got so much
Speaker 4: movement now, and you covered high school basketball all year
Speaker 4: on TV side, and you saw teams that have, well
Speaker 4: this kid was at this school last year and the
Speaker 4: year before somewhere else. Uh do you think we'll ever
Speaker 4: get back to routinely seeing teams with the core of talent,
Speaker 4: of kids who have played together for most of their
Speaker 4: careers or has that gone forever?
Speaker 1: Eight things are right now, it's gonna be tough. I mean,
Speaker 1: look at Florida, who had you know, just come off
Speaker 1: a run final full run and you know their guy
Speaker 1: who probably is gonna be starting this year, who's a
Speaker 1: six man last year, left to come to Kentucky. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean social media, you know, high dollar
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's changed the game, and you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know when it's gonna stop. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I mean, because these kids have so much
Speaker 1: leverage and so much freedom to either demand money or
Speaker 1: go search for it, and then they can leave with
Speaker 1: no nothing.
Speaker 4: And it's not quite the same in the high school ranks.
Speaker 4: But indirectly it is because well, if I can leave
Speaker 4: this team go to that team, I got a shout
Speaker 4: at the scholarship, you know, with nil benefits that maybe
Speaker 4: I don't get over here or is that too? Is
Speaker 4: that all simplifying or is that what's happening?
Speaker 1: Say it again now.
Speaker 4: They it seems like on the high school level you
Speaker 4: don't have nil directly. But what I'm thinking, what it
Speaker 4: looks like is kids might be thinking, well, I'm going
Speaker 4: to transfer even though I've been with this group for
Speaker 4: so long, because if I go to this school over here,
Speaker 4: maybe I get a scholarship and I can cash in,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean most of these kids now look
Speaker 1: at the state of Kentucky. People are running the prep
Speaker 1: schools now because prep schools are playing money. And then
Speaker 1: you get hooked up with an agent. I mean you
Speaker 1: got high school kids that have agents.
Speaker 4: Now, are you serious?
Speaker 1: Uh huh oh? Man, Like you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: that's going to prep school and things like that to
Speaker 1: have agent.
Speaker 4: Wow, I mean an agent, agent, not just a friend
Speaker 4: of the family or something like that.
Speaker 1: No agent, agent. They're going down to the high school ranks.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean, yes, how do you deal
Speaker 3: with that man?
Speaker 4: As a head coach?
Speaker 1: How do you deal with it?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean that's the land of land, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, all these coaches got to deal with it.
Speaker 1: And what these college coaches are doing are hiring people
Speaker 1: to deal with this so they don't have to.
Speaker 2: Deal with it.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I think back to when Cali Perry first got
Speaker 4: here and brought in John Wall DeMarcus Cousins, and the
Speaker 4: word was that, at least for Wall, Roy sweet ol'
Speaker 4: roy over North Carolina didn't want to deal with John
Speaker 4: Wall's people, and apparently Cali Perry was pretty good at that.
Speaker 4: You know, I mean is that happening everywhere now?
Speaker 1: Yes? Yes, because there's so many people involved with these kids,
Speaker 1: and everybody's got their hand out and demands. You know,
Speaker 1: these people are telling coaches how they want them to
Speaker 1: play their kid. You know what I'm saying, Like he
Speaker 1: you know, he's a pro, so he's got to get
Speaker 1: this many shots. You know, he's got to start, he's
Speaker 1: got to play these many minutes. You know, you got
Speaker 1: to make sure if he's a guard and you putting
Speaker 1: him in pick a roll situation so he can show
Speaker 1: the pros what he needs to do. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: sure like old way, you know, he went to the
Speaker 1: Combines and you know, got an evaluation of what he
Speaker 1: needs to work on us and improve his draft status.
Speaker 1: So what do you think he's gonna do when he
Speaker 1: comes back to Kentucky he wants to take you know,
Speaker 1: he's I'm sure his people told Mark this is what
Speaker 1: they're looking for, this is what he needs to be
Speaker 1: doing the show that he's worthy to build the NBA.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, mid first round of late
Speaker 1: first round draft pick. So how is his mentality going
Speaker 1: to change when he comes back? You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I gonna be the same old way, all bought in
Speaker 1: humble or is he gonna come in with a chip
Speaker 1: on the shoulder saying, you know, as a prima donna
Speaker 1: like you need me. You know, I played this good
Speaker 1: at the end of the year, So now I got
Speaker 1: to show these guys that I can do this and that.
Speaker 1: And it may be against what Mark is doing well.
Speaker 4: And as a guy, I'm sure And you've talked. You
Speaker 4: and I have talked at length about parents, not just
Speaker 4: after you got the head coaching job at Scott County.
Speaker 4: But you may have already heard from people, but I'm
Speaker 4: sure you probably will as a as a head coach
Speaker 4: at the high school level from parents who mean well.
Speaker 4: They all mean well, but you know they want their
Speaker 4: kid to be used the best possible way to show
Speaker 4: off their talents. How do you deal with that?
Speaker 1: I just tell them, Look, you know, with my experience,
Speaker 1: you know, being a college basketball coach, coming down to
Speaker 1: high school, I was the guy who was recruiting them,
Speaker 1: so I know what they're looking for.
Speaker 4: One.
Speaker 1: Two, you know my relationships with everybody in college basketball.
Speaker 1: You know, I can help you get to where you
Speaker 1: need to get to between on what level you are.
Speaker 1: And then three, we're going to work like a college
Speaker 1: you know, So you're going to be You're going to
Speaker 1: know what college basketball is all about from a from
Speaker 1: a working standpoint, you know what I mean. So that's
Speaker 1: what I bring to the table. And then you know,
Speaker 1: I've got you know, over twenty some guys playing professional
Speaker 1: basketball too, played in the NBA, So I think I
Speaker 1: know what I'm doing a little bit, and that gives
Speaker 1: me a little more credibility than most because I've been
Speaker 1: where they're trying to go.
Speaker 4: Is Shawn Woods. He is the unforgettable guard whose Jersey
Speaker 4: hangs and the raptors of RUP and the head coach
Speaker 4: at Scott County High School. We'll come back and talk
Speaker 4: more basketball in just a minute on the Big Blue
Speaker 4: Insider here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking
Speaker 4: with Sean Woods, former Wildcat guard is Jersey hangs in
Speaker 4: the raptors of Rup, and of course he is the
Speaker 4: head coach at Scott County High School. We've been talking
Speaker 4: about roster development coaches being hired and fired and dealing
Speaker 4: with agents and parents and things like that, and you know,
Speaker 4: the fact that you've got that experience is so key.
Speaker 4: And I also wonder Sean, you and I have talked
Speaker 4: before about the fact that you are a terrific point
Speaker 4: guard in college, one of the better point guards in
Speaker 4: America really when you look at what Kentucky accomplished while
Speaker 4: you were there, and but as you pointed out, you
Speaker 4: were not a point guard in high school. You did
Speaker 4: what your team needed you to do to win. Will
Speaker 4: you share that or how much will you share that
Speaker 4: with kids? Because that I think that's a great parable.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, Well, I much I'll share
Speaker 1: it every day, you know, and the style of play
Speaker 1: that I play, it's it allows everyone on my team
Speaker 1: to show that they can dribble, pass and shoot. Everybody's
Speaker 1: got to be a you know, be able to dribble,
Speaker 1: pass and shoot with me. So that's what we work
Speaker 1: on in individual workouts, you know, and player development because
Speaker 1: I don't have a seven footer, so everybody's a guard
Speaker 1: for the most part. So it's actually good for me
Speaker 1: because yeah, we may have a six two six y
Speaker 1: three center, but he's going to have guard tendencies to
Speaker 1: be able to you know, dribble pass and shoot, which
Speaker 1: allows my team to be more effective and more dangerous
Speaker 1: from a matchup situation because I can play five out
Speaker 1: and and everybody's a threat. So you know, that's why
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's so fun to play for me
Speaker 1: and watch our style of play because we play so
Speaker 1: fast and everybody will be able to dribble, pass and shoot,
Speaker 1: which allows us to play faster, more entertaining, and everybody's
Speaker 1: having a good time instead of going down there and
Speaker 1: one guy only can do this and one guy can
Speaker 1: only do that. I've never liked to coach that way,
Speaker 1: so you know, if you were a shooter, good, but
Speaker 1: most shooters don't play defense very much or they're not
Speaker 1: great ball hounds. Well, that's where the school of Rick
Speaker 1: Patino comes in to play the Billy Donovans and things
Speaker 1: like that. The individual workouts to improve your skill level.
Speaker 1: So that's when I'm big on and that's what I'm
Speaker 1: going to be doing while I'm high school coaching at
Speaker 1: Scott count of High School.
Speaker 4: Do you have the time to do the individual workouts?
Speaker 4: Because I know what it was like for you guys
Speaker 4: in college. Sometimes you had to report at six am
Speaker 4: and then go to class and come back to practice
Speaker 4: things like that. But what about at the high school
Speaker 4: of it, because you're right, individual workouts were so key
Speaker 4: for you guys.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, we're doing it right now. We try to
Speaker 1: get up before school, get our workout in, and then
Speaker 1: come back after school. So I try to, you know,
Speaker 1: put in place as close as I can, simularize as
Speaker 1: close as I can what the college level is. And
Speaker 1: you know, we do our waits in the morning sometimes
Speaker 1: or wait till the afternoon, but we try to go
Speaker 1: at least before and after just to maximize, you know,
Speaker 1: because when they go to college, they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: do that, you know what I'm saying. You know, you
Speaker 1: got you got your individual workouts and waits before before
Speaker 1: you go to class, and then you know, you get out,
Speaker 1: you know, practice at three thirty four o'clock and you
Speaker 1: got practice, you know, and you know that's what that's
Speaker 1: that's what we're doing, you know right now, And I'm
Speaker 1: sure a lot of high school coaches are doing that.
Speaker 1: You know, that's the only way you can do it
Speaker 1: because from from eight fifty to three fifty, you know,
Speaker 1: they're in school unless you have them in a study
Speaker 1: hall or gym class or something like that that most
Speaker 1: of your players are in that you can get some
Speaker 1: stuff done that way too. So you know, there's ways
Speaker 1: of skin. There's plenty of ways of skin a cat.
Speaker 1: You just got to be creative.
Speaker 4: You played a system that people know that was just
Speaker 4: wall to wall defensive pressure. People don't realize that you
Speaker 4: guys probably pressed more than most of the teams that
Speaker 4: followed at Kentucky. In fact, Bettino's championship team did not
Speaker 4: press nearly as much as you guys because he didn't
Speaker 4: have to add so much talent there. You guys did
Speaker 4: it just to kind of cover for the fact that
Speaker 4: you didn't have a super deep, talented roster, but it worked.
Speaker 4: Will we see that? Will we see that at Scott
Speaker 4: County High School?
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 1: You will, Yes, yes you will.
Speaker 4: Now, how are you getting them? You guys had to
Speaker 4: sell out, man, I mean, I know how hard it
Speaker 4: was on you. I don't know for sure. I didn't
Speaker 4: do it, but I heard stories. You know, how do
Speaker 4: you sell that to high school kids?
Speaker 1: Well, we're doing it right now, Dick. And it's hard.
Speaker 1: They're uncomfortable right now. God bless them. But when they
Speaker 1: when they get it, they're gonna understand. You know, you
Speaker 1: got it. In order to get somewhere you never been,
Speaker 1: you got to do things you've never done. And right now,
Speaker 1: that's that's where we are as a program. The program
Speaker 1: was so down when I took it over. You know,
Speaker 1: they only won six games last year. I'm around down.
Speaker 1: You know, the confidence is down. So right now, all
Speaker 1: I'm doing is building confidence, building a toughness from a
Speaker 1: mental standpoint, and and and really demanding them to play
Speaker 1: at a higher level than they've ever played before. And
Speaker 1: they're uncomfortable right now. They're struggling a little bit. But
Speaker 1: some of them are starting to get it and start
Speaker 1: to feel that they're getting better, and which that's what
Speaker 1: it's all about, you know what I mean. You know,
Speaker 1: you know, right now I'm the bad guy because you know,
Speaker 1: they I'm putting them in a situation they're not used to.
Speaker 1: But they'll see it in the long run, how how
Speaker 1: it's paid, how it's going to pay off, because they're
Speaker 1: you know, everybody's uncomfortable, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 1: the talent level is not where I want it to
Speaker 1: be right now, but it will be in a short
Speaker 1: amount of time. But you know, you just got to
Speaker 1: roll with what you got to roll with, and no
Speaker 1: matter who it is, Like I got that from Coach Patino,
Speaker 1: you got to figure out a way to maximize what
Speaker 1: you got. And we're not talented enough right now to
Speaker 1: just go head to head with somebody. We got to
Speaker 1: create pace, We got to create our whole deal to
Speaker 1: offset some of our deficiencies. And that's just to you know,
Speaker 1: speed the game up, money the game, pressure the basketball
Speaker 1: to create more more more possessions, uh, until we get
Speaker 1: some size in athleticism. So that's yeah, we're gonna play
Speaker 1: almost exactly the way. And you know, as well as
Speaker 1: I do. It's gonna be fun, it's gonna be nation.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Uh, you know, with with with the talent rosters that
Speaker 1: we have, we're still gonna create, you know, keep teams uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: And that's all I can, you know, all we can do.
Speaker 4: Right now, I'll be making some trips to Georgetown to
Speaker 4: see that. I'll let you go with this. Uh, in
Speaker 4: terms of trying to convince, you know, coaching teaching these kids, uh,
Speaker 4: today's kids, as we all know, they're all about screen time,
Speaker 4: their phones, their iPads, their computers. Will you or have
Speaker 4: you already pulled up perhaps some Kentucky basketball from back
Speaker 4: in the shawn Woods era to show them, Look, we
Speaker 4: beat Shaquille and Eland l s U playing this way.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: Well, I told the kid, I got a little point guard.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be a sophomore, and you know he's trying
Speaker 1: to find his way and he don't know how to
Speaker 1: take me yet. And sometimes you got to be sarcastic
Speaker 1: with these kids and tie them on the butt and
Speaker 1: things like that. So I called him Scott Skoules. He
Speaker 1: had no clue who Scott skous is.
Speaker 4: Oh well I could see that, and I.
Speaker 1: Said, well, go look him up. I said, go look
Speaker 1: him up, and then we'll talk about it tomorrow we'll.
Speaker 2: Come back to practice.
Speaker 1: So I'm looking forward to seeing him today a little
Speaker 1: bit of what he thought about Scott Skoules, and he's
Speaker 1: gonna be you know, I said, it's a compliment. It's not.
Speaker 1: It's I'm not you know, it's a compliment. And Scott
Speaker 1: Scouts was an Indiana guy, played at Plymouth High School.
Speaker 1: Beat Gary Roosevelt, who's you know, a big time athletic
Speaker 1: team out of Gary, Indiana. Uh, he beat him. They
Speaker 1: went on to Michigan State and did a thing in
Speaker 1: Michigan State and not Tey. He was to kill O'Neills
Speaker 1: for first point go out. When he got to orlandos right,
Speaker 1: played in pros.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then became a coach. So I want to
Speaker 4: hear the rest of that story next week. All right, Okay,
Speaker 4: all right, thanks coach, talk to you later.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 4: Dick Sean Woods is our unforgettable guard. We talked to
Speaker 4: him each and every Wednesday scheduling permitted. And now, of
Speaker 4: course as the head coach at Scott County High School,
Speaker 4: so we'll keep an eye on those Cardinals. Western Bureau
Speaker 4: Chief Gary Moore is up next here on six thirty
Speaker 4: WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue and Cider. It
Speaker 4: is Wednesday, and that means we look to the west,
Speaker 4: to our Westen Bureau Chief Gary Moore was on the
Speaker 4: West coast for many, many years, too many KLOS Radio,
Speaker 4: too many, and now he's back in LA, the Louisville
Speaker 4: area and he checks in every week.
Speaker 7: Two guys in a six pack, you and me and
Speaker 7: six things to talk about, six swigs as they were,
Speaker 7: and a first dick.
Speaker 4: I will tell you that.
Speaker 7: Somewhere up there, Johnny Reagan is still smiling, smiling about
Speaker 7: what I Our hometown Murray State Racers capped off Monday
Speaker 7: night in Oxford.
Speaker 4: For the unfamiliar.
Speaker 7: Johnny Reagan was a head baseball coach at Murray State
Speaker 7: for thirty six years. He won eleven OVC Championships. He
Speaker 7: was chairman of the NCAA Baseball Committee, and is in
Speaker 7: the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, among many
Speaker 7: other halls. Full disclosure, though, my connection to the Racers
Speaker 7: runs deeper than just that geography. Coach Reagan's family and
Speaker 7: mine went to the same church and as an elementary
Speaker 7: and middle school punk. I rode my Stingray bike to
Speaker 7: many a Murray State game was bat boy for many
Speaker 7: a visiting team like let's see Purdue, Vandy, Brown, North
Speaker 7: Dakota and so on. The Racers were called then the Thoroughbreds. Yeah,
Speaker 7: in baseball, you remember that as long as coach Reagan
Speaker 7: was there. And for this year's Murray State team to
Speaker 7: reach its first ever Super Regional and to beat the
Speaker 7: likes of old miss in Georgia Tech to accomplish it, Dick,
Speaker 7: it feels like all those fields of dreams. I spent
Speaker 7: many an afternoon upon finally coming Game one Racers Duke
Speaker 7: Saturday afternoon in Durham one pm on ESPN U.
Speaker 4: First time I ever went to the College World Series
Speaker 4: was in nineteen eighty four. I was working down in Dallas,
Speaker 4: and I did not know anything about Johnny Reagan. I
Speaker 4: knew who he was, but I didn't know he was
Speaker 4: a wheel in college baseball. And he was sitting right
Speaker 4: there in the Primo seas he might have been the
Speaker 4: Baseball Committee chairman at the time, surrounded by all these
Speaker 4: people paying homage to him. I've talked to Keith Madison
Speaker 4: about Johnny Reagan many times, and yeah, he was the
Speaker 4: man for so long at Murray State. And I remember
Speaker 4: the first time I did at Murray State baseball game
Speaker 4: and I'm like, they made a mistake here. It's just Thoroughbreds.
Speaker 4: But yeah, for some reason he wanted him to be
Speaker 4: called the Thoroughbreds and not the racers. And yeah, I
Speaker 4: mean somewhere he's smiling, and Buddy, I've covered baseball at
Speaker 4: Ole Miss. To win a game there, oh, to win
Speaker 4: a regional there is mean football is first at Ole Miss,
Speaker 4: but baseball second, not basketball. It's tough. And they did it.
Speaker 7: And get this, Murray scored forty two runs in those
Speaker 7: four games in Oxford. They're just the tenth number four
Speaker 7: seed to ever reach a super regional. Pretty cool stuff.
Speaker 4: And beat UK earlier this year. Yeah, they did. Second,
Speaker 4: Swig and Dick.
Speaker 7: If you would have told me last week that Louisville
Speaker 7: would be hosting a super regional this weekend, you know,
Speaker 7: I don't think I would have been that surprised. I mean,
Speaker 7: we talked about it last week. They're pitching and left
Speaker 7: a lot to be desired going under the Vandy Regional.
Speaker 7: But you know, the Cards had already beaten Vandy, and
Speaker 7: I wasn't that worried about Wright State or East Tennessee.
Speaker 7: We knew they could hit. But check out the pitching
Speaker 7: stats from last weekend. Twenty seven innings from the starters
Speaker 7: or all the pitchers, and they just had ten hits, allowed,
Speaker 7: only four earned runs, forty three k's with a three
Speaker 7: to zero record. That's a kind of performance you definitely
Speaker 7: want this time of year. So starting Friday three o'clock
Speaker 7: ESPN two, it sold out Patterson Stadium, the Cards host
Speaker 7: of Miami and acc foe they did not play this year.
Speaker 7: The Canes are thirty four and twenty five overall, Cards
Speaker 7: are thirty eight and twenty one, but Louisville's twenty seven
Speaker 7: and seven at home, So give me the car Ds
Speaker 7: to reach their sixth trip to Omaha. Who do you
Speaker 7: like in this one?
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, if they're pitching is up to snuff now.
Speaker 4: But here's the thing again. They played Kentucky twice. You know,
Speaker 4: I got a chance to eyeball them twice and Kentucky loses.
Speaker 4: Stop me if you've heard this one. A one run game,
Speaker 4: a walk off in the tent of Louisville. But that
Speaker 4: game is played in like sub thirty degree weather. When
Speaker 4: they played again, Kentucky beat Louisville seventeen to five, run
Speaker 4: ruled them, and I thought, what has happened to Louisville's pitching?
Speaker 4: And again you never can't quite tell with the midweek,
Speaker 4: But as you know, in the postseason, it's about everybody,
Speaker 4: not just the starters, it's the entire staff because comes
Speaker 4: down to pitching depth. And evidently Louisville got healthy, and
Speaker 4: I give him a real chance like you do. Third Swig.
Speaker 7: Then, of course, as you just mentioned, we've got your
Speaker 7: alma mater u ofk and mine Wku. Dick has been
Speaker 7: three days now, and that sting of blowing not one
Speaker 7: but two five run leads against West Virginia Sunday, it
Speaker 7: still hasn't really worn off for me. You score twelve runs,
Speaker 7: you gotta wine Murray prove that the next night. But
Speaker 7: you know, it's like you said, the same story you
Speaker 7: saw and you called all seasonally, this time losing the
Speaker 7: leads in the most heart wrenching form ever. Stats guru
Speaker 7: Corey Price tweeted Sunday night was UK's twelfth lost this
Speaker 7: season by just one skinny Measley run but you know,
Speaker 7: Nick had to replace practically every key member of last
Speaker 7: year's World Series team. So hats off for me anyway
Speaker 7: for even getting to the regional to begin with. So
Speaker 7: I ask you, now, what our priorities one, two, and three?
Speaker 4: Pitching?
Speaker 7: Pitching and more pitching, especially on the back end.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's got to be. But the good news is
Speaker 4: that the best players for the most part on this
Speaker 4: team are the young guys. You know, your Tyler Bells,
Speaker 4: your Ryan Schwartzez, your Hudson Brown's, people like that. You know,
Speaker 4: I mentioned this earlier, but they're losing James McCoy, a veteran.
Speaker 4: He's in the portal, you know, which is not that surprising,
Speaker 4: but you know, he had his best year this year.
Speaker 4: So yeah, you got to have arms, there's no question
Speaker 4: about that, especially in the SEC. But when the house
Speaker 4: settlement comes down, you know, and then the scholarships are
Speaker 4: a little more spread out, Kentucky needs to get aggressive,
Speaker 4: and I think it will. But that's one thing minji
Speaker 4: On has done lately really well, is use the portal
Speaker 4: and build with parts and elements that he believes need
Speaker 4: to be landed for his style of play, you know,
Speaker 4: And you can argue and I go crazy when they
Speaker 4: make the third out of third base and that kind
Speaker 4: of stuff. But since he really changed the way he
Speaker 4: does business, they've known nothing but success forth Swig.
Speaker 7: You know, I've had a lot of people either email
Speaker 7: me or text or call, Hey, what happened to your toppers?
Speaker 7: Thought they were supposed to be so great?
Speaker 4: Hey?
Speaker 7: Look paraphrase coach John Wooden. Their pitching needed to be
Speaker 7: at its best when its best was needed, and it
Speaker 7: just was not. And that especially hurt considering Western was
Speaker 7: third the nation in ERA coming into Oxford. Their two
Speaker 7: best pitchers that gave up four and three runs in
Speaker 7: the first two innings respectively against Georgia Tech and Old
Speaker 7: Miss ended up losing nine to two and eight to six.
Speaker 7: It's hard to get in a hole that early in
Speaker 7: some of these games unless your Murray State just hit
Speaker 7: your way out of it. You know, they had no
Speaker 7: home runs in that game on Monday night when he
Speaker 7: scored twelve runs.
Speaker 4: Wow, that's a side note.
Speaker 7: In the Conference USA Tournament, Western gave up nineteen runs
Speaker 7: in four games. I was well above their three point
Speaker 7: three five ERA, so some cracks were already appearing before
Speaker 7: they got to Oxford. But hey, hell of a season
Speaker 7: in BG right forty six wins, second most in school history.
Speaker 7: That they got their first ever Conference USA title, first
Speaker 7: trip back to the regionals since two thousand and nine,
Speaker 7: and the highest national ranking ever WKU baseball history. They
Speaker 7: were number seventeen the week of April twenty second. So
Speaker 7: the standard has been the set. But as you know,
Speaker 7: and Nick and the Batcats know all too well, it's
Speaker 7: hard to repeat these banner years back to back.
Speaker 4: Yeah, especially now with a portal being in place. And
Speaker 4: I got to think that there are gonna be some
Speaker 4: toppers who look around. There's inn al money out there.
Speaker 4: There's gonna be more scholar money, which will help Western
Speaker 4: Kentucky as much as anybody. But yeah, maybe baseball more
Speaker 4: than any sport, although that's hard to quantify. Feels the
Speaker 4: movement of these players, and yeah, that does break. It
Speaker 4: has brought some parody, but it has made the rich
Speaker 4: get richer at the expense of schools like Western Kentucky.
Speaker 4: But it's always fun when a school jumps up and
Speaker 4: as a like that.
Speaker 7: Fifth swig when more baseball note dick over the weekend
Speaker 7: in Los Angeles, the twenty twenty four World Series rematch happened,
Speaker 7: the Yankees and the Dodgers LA winning two out of three.
Speaker 7: And I can tell you from all the years covering
Speaker 7: the Boys in Blue out there, that Yankees ticket is
Speaker 7: always the hottest ticket any year for Dodger fans. So
Speaker 7: you'd think that that was the case again last weekend, right,
Speaker 7: Not so fast, my friend down the five Freeway in Anaheim,
Speaker 7: the Savannah Bananas sold out two nights at the Big
Speaker 7: A lowest ticket price on StubHub for a pair of
Speaker 7: tickets for the Bananas two hundred and nine dollars fifty
Speaker 7: two cents. How about a pair of Dodgers Yankees tickets
Speaker 7: lowest price won seventy one. Seventy two bananas were also
Speaker 7: given the Royal Disneyland treatment, marching down Main Street with
Speaker 7: Mickey Goofy and Donald Duck not the other done. In
Speaker 7: a great La Times story by Anthony Leon. Over the weekend,
Speaker 7: Banana's owner and ringmaster Jesse Cole, talked about going to
Speaker 7: Disney World when he was a kid and what that
Speaker 7: emotional experience did for him. He said, quote, our success
Speaker 7: is not judged by revenue. It's not judged by sales.
Speaker 7: It's judged by the moments we create. How do we
Speaker 7: make someone feel something unquote selling out stadiums that their
Speaker 7: regular tenants can't even sell out. Heals a lot of
Speaker 7: magic memories to me. And they got some sellout dates
Speaker 7: coming up here in Louisville in I think a few weeks.
Speaker 4: I just read a story about I think this was
Speaker 4: back in the sixties maybe or the late fifties when
Speaker 4: Phil Wrigley, who of course you know Wrigley Field, Rigley,
Speaker 4: Dumb and all that, but based in California, realized that
Speaker 4: within one hundred mile radiance of LA nine thousand softball teams,
Speaker 4: and a thousand of them were women's teams, and they
Speaker 4: incorporated those teams. They allowed them to use the old
Speaker 4: Wrigley Field out in LA back in the day and
Speaker 4: sold tickets and made a lot of money. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean, I think southern California is the perfect venue
Speaker 4: or situations like that. You lived out there, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. Sure, but you know the banana ball
Speaker 4: you can see on ESPN Plus now they got their
Speaker 4: own streaming network. It's incredibly entertaining. And I think I
Speaker 4: may have told you this before, but Kentucky had a
Speaker 4: picture on his staff. A guy from New Jersey, good dude,
Speaker 4: Alex Degan. He was a six foot eight, well it
Speaker 4: is six foot eight. Wanted to be an Air Force
Speaker 4: pilot too tall, so transferred to Kentucky from Air Force.
Speaker 4: And when he got out, or at least one summer,
Speaker 4: he played for the Bananas and he told me he
Speaker 4: enjoyed it. He said they want me back. I said,
Speaker 4: he going to go. He goes. I'm not much of
Speaker 4: a dancer, so you've really got to have all the
Speaker 4: skills set to be a banana.
Speaker 7: You know who came back, John Lackey, who is a
Speaker 7: two thousand and two World Series hero for the Angels,
Speaker 7: and he had a banana er he got, He pitched
Speaker 7: and got a guy out, but they gave him a
Speaker 7: huge ovation.
Speaker 4: Done nice.
Speaker 7: Let's see here a sixth and final swig. Okay, you
Speaker 7: can quote me on this. Anybody listening, make sure he
Speaker 7: gets this message.
Speaker 4: Message.
Speaker 7: Pat McAfee's a woos and a scaredy cat and a
Speaker 7: guy who just doesn't get it. Hard to believe McAfee
Speaker 7: took enough hits to the hit while he's on special
Speaker 7: teams in the NFL to affect his sanity for dissing
Speaker 7: who's your musical legend numero Uno, John Mellencamp.
Speaker 4: But it happened first.
Speaker 7: McAfee gets on the PA during that game four of
Speaker 7: the Pacers Nicks game in Indy, uses all this profane
Speaker 7: language to be rate the New York celebrities court side,
Speaker 7: causing all the fans to boo the visitors. Then Mellencamp
Speaker 7: took to social media to apologize quote on behalf of
Speaker 7: most Hoosiers for the poor behavior, calling it poor poor sportsmanship,
Speaker 7: not hoo's your hospitality, to which McAfee, who, by the way,
Speaker 7: John did not name as a culprit, but we all
Speaker 7: knew who it was. McAfee said on his Teen Boys
Speaker 7: show tell he told John to shut the f up
Speaker 7: and quote suck it, buddy, unquote. McAfee was invited to
Speaker 7: New York and Madison Square Garden for the series game
Speaker 7: five by Ben Stiller, who's one of the celebrities booed
Speaker 7: there at game four, but McAfee chickened out. Madison Square Garden,
Speaker 7: of course, is where many a snowflake like McAfee milks.
Speaker 4: Yeah, But when you jump into a situation like this,
Speaker 4: especially with the Knicks, and New York fans, you're all
Speaker 4: the way in, whether you like it or not. And
Speaker 4: you would think that by now because McAfee the moment
Speaker 4: they put him on the air on ESPN, moved him
Speaker 4: from podcast to on air, and again it's cable, you know,
Speaker 4: immediately caught flak and you know they run that disclaimer
Speaker 4: on his TV show and things like that. So it's
Speaker 4: not like he doesn't know, not like he's not aware
Speaker 4: of things like this every now and then. You've got
Speaker 4: to think before you speak.
Speaker 7: Well, I guarantee you you know how conservative a state
Speaker 7: Indiana is. They're gonna side. You put McAfee and Mellencamp together,
Speaker 7: they're gonna side with Mellencamp.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah. And the thing is Melencamp,
Speaker 4: as you know, is not a guy who's somewhere out
Speaker 4: there and says, oh yeah, I'm from Indiana. Oh. He
Speaker 4: lives it. He does know. He's seen at Indiana games
Speaker 4: all the time. He's always on it. Yeah, Kentucky Indiana
Speaker 4: football games a long time ago. So yeah, you know,
Speaker 4: I'm a fan of a lot more than just his music.
Speaker 4: He's a tough guy.
Speaker 7: I don't know if Mackie knows what he's getting the
Speaker 7: ring with. But Mac John's a tough dude.
Speaker 4: Yeah, beware. That is Gary Moore. He is our Western
Speaker 4: bureau chief. We'll come back with a couple of hot
Speaker 4: reads in just a minute here on the Big Boon
Speaker 4: Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big bon Sider.
Speaker 4: We're chatting with our Western Bureau chief, Gary Moore. We
Speaker 4: have heard two guys in the six back time for
Speaker 4: a couple of hot reds and Gary, a fun farewell
Speaker 4: to in rest in peace to Jim Marshall, who was
Speaker 4: a great, great NFL player back in the sixties and
Speaker 4: seventies yep, and was known for essentially two things, being
Speaker 4: an NFL iron Man yep. And going the wrong way
Speaker 4: with a fumble and returning his sixty six yards into
Speaker 4: his own end zone for a safety. You know he
Speaker 4: got the wrong way tag. NFL films ranked him in
Speaker 4: the two thousands as the second best player not in
Speaker 4: the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but Gary. When Brett
Speaker 4: farre broke the iron Man record for consecutive regular season games,
Speaker 4: he broke Jim Marshall's record. Not a QB, not a
Speaker 4: wide receiver, but a defensive Lineman two hundred and seventy
Speaker 4: consecutive regular season games, and you gotta wonder, will we
Speaker 4: ever see a guy like that again, a defender like that.
Speaker 7: Not playing that long, that's for sure. Think about that
Speaker 7: did not miss a game from nineteen sixty one to
Speaker 7: seventy nine. And you know that's when guys were really
Speaker 7: they're a lot dirtier, I think than they are now,
Speaker 7: getting away with lots more stuff. And like Richard Pryor
Speaker 7: said when we were talking about Jim Brown, you know
Speaker 7: Jim Brown never missed a game either, he said. Nowadays
Speaker 7: you got guys getting hurt in practice and.
Speaker 4: The purple people eaters.
Speaker 7: Do you remember Jim Marshall, Carl Eller, Alan Page, and
Speaker 7: then you had Gary Larson for a few years, and
Speaker 7: then Doug Sutherland came in after I think seventy four
Speaker 7: or something like that.
Speaker 4: But I love those guys.
Speaker 7: I loved watching That's amazing stat You'll never see that again.
Speaker 4: By the way, Marshall wasn't the original wrong Way guy.
Speaker 4: There was actually a player named Roy Regals, and he
Speaker 4: you know, became known as wrong Way Regals. In college,
Speaker 4: he played for the Cal Golden Bears. He returned a
Speaker 4: fumble into his own end zone, and after Marshall made
Speaker 4: his mistake, he sent Marshall a note that said, welcome
Speaker 4: to the club, but he needs to be remembered for
Speaker 4: a lot more than just that. Yeah, our second high rate.
Speaker 4: I mentioned this earlier. I went through the list of
Speaker 4: guys who were in the College Football Hall of Fame ballot,
Speaker 4: including Randall Cobb, who will get my vote. But well,
Speaker 4: you talk of had a tough, tough list from which
Speaker 4: to choose. However, I didn't know if it'll be this
Speaker 4: year or whenever, but I think it's got to be
Speaker 4: a no brainer for Mike Leach. Oh yeah, they waive
Speaker 4: the rule used to be a certain winning percentage for
Speaker 4: a coach. And of course he died suddenly, way too young.
Speaker 4: But here's a guy who thanks a lot to how
Speaker 4: Mummy revolutionized college football. Yeah, and you know, I don't
Speaker 4: care about wins and losses. That guy belonged to the
Speaker 4: Hall of Fame, no question.
Speaker 7: Look at his coaching tree, look at and I can't
Speaker 7: help but think about the success that Jaden Daniels has
Speaker 7: had at Washington because of Cliff Kingsbury, who was a
Speaker 7: Mike Leach player and part of that whole coaching tree.
Speaker 7: Mike Leach's teams that unranked teams beat eighteen ranked teams
Speaker 7: over the course of his year. I mean that besides
Speaker 7: all this stuff, and you covered him, you were there
Speaker 7: when he was doing great things with hal and you
Speaker 7: got to talk to the pirate. I mean, he's quite
Speaker 7: he's a fun individual as well. I think the percentage
Speaker 7: was six hundred and they lowered it down to five
Speaker 7: ninety five winning percentage, but he should have been in
Speaker 7: any way regardless of that. That's a crazy rule.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know, I kind of get it. But
Speaker 4: on the other hand, you know, you look at a
Speaker 4: guy like Rich Brooks. University of Oregon football is what
Speaker 4: it is because of Rich Brooks, right, you know, he
Speaker 4: stayed there and they gave him the time to build
Speaker 4: that program. They play on Rich Brooks field for crying
Speaker 4: out loud. But his one lost percentage isn't great because
Speaker 4: it took a while to build that program. And now
Speaker 4: if Oregon is not preseason top fifteen, there's something wrong.
Speaker 4: And that's because Rich Brooks did the groundwork, the dirty work,
Speaker 4: and they're all standing on his shoulders and a lot
Speaker 4: of people are standing on Mike Leach's shoulders right now.
Speaker 4: And when he died, I got Neil Price on the
Speaker 4: phone and I swapped stories with him. Now the Mississippi
Speaker 4: State playbo play voice, and he adored talking to Mike
Speaker 4: Leach is because they would talk about everything but football,
Speaker 4: both on and off the air. And we only got
Speaker 4: to know Mike a little bit when he was here.
Speaker 4: But I give how Mummy credit because he gave Leach
Speaker 4: the title offensive coordinator. Mike Leach never called a play
Speaker 4: that can help build a game plan, coach the quarterbacks,
Speaker 4: but how Mummy called the plays. But Mummy knew that
Speaker 4: the rest of the country media born would look at
Speaker 4: Mike Leach and sure enough, Gary, you might remember this.
Speaker 4: When Kentucky was on TV, cameras would always find Mike
Speaker 4: Leach in a press box like they do with all coordinators,
Speaker 4: right right, and you know there he is the offensive
Speaker 4: coordinator for this you know, air raid offense and all that.
Speaker 4: Now it was Mummy, but it helped Mike Leach move along.
Speaker 4: And when Oklahoma needed an OC, who did they hire Mike?
Speaker 4: I know? And what happened? They won a national title.
Speaker 4: Look at the body of work.
Speaker 7: Look how you just pointed it out with the hurry up, yeah,
Speaker 7: huddle kind of stuff. Yeah, go and get the defense
Speaker 7: back on their heels. A lot of people didn't want
Speaker 7: to change to that until they did. I see Nick Saban,
Speaker 7: see others that never liked that kind of stuff, you know.
Speaker 7: And then Chip Kelly you know, maxed it out as
Speaker 7: well with Oregon.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so yeah, he belongs. He is Gary Moore. He
Speaker 4: is our west hamd BUA chief. We meet every week
Speaker 4: for a dose of six from Gary, and you can
Speaker 4: find him at.
Speaker 7: At nine five five Gary, same fabulous internet joint you're at.
Speaker 4: I'm at Big Blue Insider One. I got people paging me.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna have to let you go.
Speaker 7: I see it, erasers go, card see.
Speaker 4: It and I'll do it for now. Thanks to my
Speaker 4: guest Gary Moore, Aaron Gershawn Sean Woods that said good
Speaker 4: night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 1: Now the three two swung huh a pop Fowl's back here.
Speaker 6: How ow wow.
Speaker 4: It really hit me. I didn't know it was coming
Speaker 4: back that.
Speaker 3: Far stact tact the.
Speaker 6: Ship anything Canning letting down to Tim, don't do