Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and Siderday. Gabriel with you
Speaker 1: on a Wednesday edition of our show Nasty Day. In
Speaker 1: terms of the weather, we knew it was coming. Fortunately
Speaker 1: it was sunny, very very windy earlier today, but really
Speaker 1: pleasant otherwise, which meant a great It was a break
Speaker 1: for us the media, because we were invited by Mark
Speaker 1: Stoops to attend practice today and you've probably already seen
Speaker 1: some video, heard some comments, read some stuff from today's practice,
Speaker 1: you know. And what happens generally is we wait outside
Speaker 1: the gate or in the lobby, then they come out
Speaker 1: and speak to us after. But he let us come
Speaker 1: and observe today, and we'll get a chance to do
Speaker 1: it again before the end of spring, just as you will,
Speaker 1: I think on the last day of spring. More to
Speaker 1: come on that when we find out. But yeah, we
Speaker 1: got the eyeball things. You couldn't shoot what they call
Speaker 1: team practice team periods, So you're not gonna see any
Speaker 1: video right now of eleven on eleven stuff. For whatever reason,
Speaker 1: coaches get a little paranoid. Maybe other teams can scout
Speaker 1: that way, Maybe other teams can poach players through the portal. Hey,
Speaker 1: take a look at this guy. Let's go after him.
Speaker 1: You know, he's deep on their depth chart, that kind
Speaker 1: of thing.
Speaker 2: But that's okay.
Speaker 1: I just enjoyed being out there and watching it and
Speaker 1: then hearing comments from Stoops and some of the players afterwards.
Speaker 1: I have said him many times for many many years now,
Speaker 1: I stopped trying to evaluate what I see because I'm
Speaker 1: not an expert. You know, what I can tell is,
Speaker 1: first of all, somebody getting yelled at a lot. I
Speaker 1: can tell if kick return guys are dropping the ball.
Speaker 1: I can tell if punters are shanking the ball, so
Speaker 1: can you. I can tell the quarterbacks are connecting with receivers,
Speaker 1: but if they're not, I can't tell whose fault it is.
Speaker 1: Was the route run improperly or was the ball thrown improperly?
Speaker 1: If it looks good, I can certainly recognize that, and
Speaker 1: there was a lot of that today with all the
Speaker 1: quarterbacks Zac Calzada, Cutter, Bully and bo Allen. You know,
Speaker 1: but what does that mean? I don't know. You know, now,
Speaker 1: in some of the team drills, the d backs got
Speaker 1: the better of the receivers, and sometimes the receivers beat
Speaker 1: the d backs.
Speaker 2: That was fun to watch, But who was right? Who
Speaker 2: was wrong.
Speaker 1: Well, now you know what the coaches are looking at.
Speaker 1: Marks Troops always talks about, you know, he's a little
Speaker 1: bit torn after practices in the spring or the Blue
Speaker 1: White game or whatever, and then they're not gonna there's
Speaker 1: not gonna be one this year, but they'll have something.
Speaker 2: But as a.
Speaker 1: Coach, how do you evaluate did this guy do well
Speaker 1: or did this guy screw up? Every coach in America
Speaker 1: deals with that. But I'm not a football professional, so
Speaker 1: I mean I covered professionally, but you know, I can't
Speaker 1: tell you about footwork and technique and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: I can tell you who looked good. But you know what,
Speaker 1: for me, it.
Speaker 2: Goes back to how mummy's last year.
Speaker 1: Not picking on mummy, but I can tell you Mummy
Speaker 1: let us come to practice all the time. Because he
Speaker 1: was so overconfident, I should say, kind of smug. Uh.
Speaker 1: He would say, you guys don't know what you're looking
Speaker 1: at anyway, and he wasn't wrong. You know what are
Speaker 1: we going to do? Run back and talk about formations
Speaker 1: and this and that. Plus Mommy used to say, we
Speaker 1: all steal from each other. Everybody steals from everybody. It's inevitable.
Speaker 1: So he didn't care if we were practiced, unless he
Speaker 1: get mad at us threw us out a few times.
Speaker 1: But going into the two thousand season, they looked great.
Speaker 1: Kentucky looked great in the spring, in the summer and
Speaker 1: the pre fall workouts because all they did was work
Speaker 1: on pass Kelly and they never dropped the ball.
Speaker 2: I thought they in Bamadeli Li said.
Speaker 1: I think it was him, said we're gonna win nine
Speaker 1: games or ten games or something. No, Marlon McCree said that,
Speaker 1: Marlon McCree, we're gonna win ten games something like that.
Speaker 2: They won two.
Speaker 1: Mommy got fired. You know, I felt like an idiot
Speaker 1: because like, yeah, they're going to be really good. No
Speaker 1: they're not, or they weren't. So I quit trying to
Speaker 1: predict stuff based on what I saw in the spring.
Speaker 1: But I can tell, like I said, what QB's look like,
Speaker 1: and they all look good.
Speaker 2: I don't know who's gonna.
Speaker 1: Win the job, but Mark Steuops in general like what
Speaker 1: he saw today.
Speaker 3: You know, it was good to get outside. I'm glad
Speaker 3: you all were here today and got to see, you know,
Speaker 3: all the practice and got some footage. You could tell
Speaker 3: there's quite a few new guys out here. As I
Speaker 3: told the team, you know, there's plenty of work to
Speaker 3: be done, but I believe the last time I talked
Speaker 3: to you was last Saturday, and I felt good about
Speaker 3: their attitude, their work ethic and and just the process
Speaker 3: of getting better and putting in the work. And I
Speaker 3: feel the same way. You know, hopefully you guys saw
Speaker 3: that today. You know, I like this team. There's a
Speaker 3: lot of work to be done, but everybody's putting their
Speaker 3: head down, working and getting better, and that I can appreciate.
Speaker 3: So worked out well and again, glad you guys are here.
Speaker 1: And I think he meant that. I think he was
Speaker 1: glad that we got a chance to look. Although it
Speaker 1: tells you he's in a pretty good mood. You know,
Speaker 1: he wasn't in a good mood at the end of
Speaker 1: last year. Yeah, we asked about quarterbacks, no doubt, and
Speaker 1: he talked about the group, you know, as a whole,
Speaker 1: not one or two people in particular.
Speaker 3: I appreciate that as the group. You know, the group
Speaker 3: is growing. Zach brings in a guy that's played six years.
Speaker 3: You know, he's played you know, this is six year
Speaker 3: college football. So anytime you get that type of experience,
Speaker 3: you know, we've seen snaps, we've seen him playing, and
Speaker 3: now it's a matter of getting comfortable in our system,
Speaker 3: putting it all together. You know, through spring there's there's
Speaker 3: some things that look sloppy, that look ugly at times,
Speaker 3: and then we got to just pull it all together.
Speaker 3: And so both guys have made a lot of growth
Speaker 3: cutters getting better as well. You could see both guys
Speaker 3: have very live arms and you know, so you know
Speaker 3: that's a good thing. There's a lot to build on.
Speaker 1: The QBS kind of take turns talking to us, and
Speaker 1: today it was Zach Calzada. As you know, he spent
Speaker 1: the last two years at Incarnate Word in the one
Speaker 1: double A level FCS started all fourteen games, led the
Speaker 1: Cardinals to the playoffs, passed for nearly thirty eight hundred
Speaker 1: yards and thirty five touchdowns, had a big time in
Speaker 1: his two seasons there. As a junior, was at Auburn,
Speaker 1: but did not play in twenty twenty two, had an
Speaker 1: injured shoulder, and then spent three seasons prior to that
Speaker 1: at Texas A and M played in three games as
Speaker 1: a freshman, didn't play appear at all as a sophomore.
Speaker 1: Red shirt sophomore played in twelve games started ten of them.
Speaker 1: At one point was the sec offensive player of the week.
Speaker 1: But then he moved on. So now he's at Kentucky
Speaker 1: and he talked today about how much he liked you know,
Speaker 1: he's had to adjust what three times now to a
Speaker 1: new place, but he talked about why it's a little different.
Speaker 1: It was a little different for him arriving in Lexington.
Speaker 4: Every you know, new place is going to be different.
Speaker 4: But I think coming here it was a pleasant surprise,
Speaker 4: just to see the morale and the mentality of the team.
Speaker 4: You know, everybody comes in and goes to work every
Speaker 4: single day and it's been fantastic.
Speaker 1: Why was that a surprise?
Speaker 4: You know, It's just every place is different, you know,
Speaker 4: and you never know what to expect.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you go places and some guys work one way
Speaker 4: and some guys work another. But here I just feel
Speaker 4: really good about, you know, the whole group as the
Speaker 4: group as a whole, just coming to work every day,
Speaker 4: the willingness to get better and take the steps that
Speaker 4: we need to take.
Speaker 1: Zach's cal Zada will hear more from him, and we
Speaker 1: hear more about him as the spring goes on, But
Speaker 1: it's only got a couple more weeks. One of the
Speaker 1: other comments I wanted to share was what Stoops had
Speaker 1: to say about the D line, which of course is
Speaker 1: now with doubt Dion Walker's got some new faces in there,
Speaker 1: and Stoops didn't again speak about anybody specifically, but said,
Speaker 1: as a group, they're really going at it.
Speaker 3: You know, we all know that we needed to improve
Speaker 3: on the edge as well and get some pass rushers
Speaker 3: in here, and so you know, across the board, I
Speaker 3: just again as a group, I like them, I like
Speaker 3: the depth. We need to stay healthy, as you know
Speaker 3: this time last year, heck, I lost two d linemen
Speaker 3: for the entire year, and so we could go he
Speaker 3: him bang heads all day. And you're not going to
Speaker 3: get better when you lose two starters, you know, at
Speaker 3: the D line. So we're staying healthy, but we're still
Speaker 3: able to practice as physical as you saw today.
Speaker 1: Or from Stoops and the Wildcats tomorrow. Up next though,
Speaker 1: we're going to hear more about Malachi Moreno. The Future
Speaker 1: Wildcat played the McDonald's All American Game last night, six
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue and sider
Speaker 1: Dick Gabriel with you coming up in just a few minutes,
Speaker 1: Tom Leach, the voice of the Wildcats, will join us
Speaker 1: and we will break down, of course, this Kentucky basketball season,
Speaker 1: look ahead a little bit to the Kentucky Derby. Our
Speaker 1: number two as always on Wednesday, unforgettable guard Shawn Woods.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about the Wildcats and the Sweet Sixteen. Sean
Speaker 1: was there this week or this past week, i should say,
Speaker 1: and saw a lot of the Sweet Sixteen, and he
Speaker 1: worked high school basketball all year long for glycod dot com,
Speaker 1: the streaming TV service, so he had a really good
Speaker 1: handle on the eleventh region and some of the teams
Speaker 1: from outside the eleventh region that the local teams did play.
Speaker 1: So we'll talk to Sean about that. Our Western Bureau chief,
Speaker 1: Gary Moores got the next couple of weeks off. He's
Speaker 1: out on the West Coast taking care of some business.
Speaker 1: He is a very important guy, as you might expect.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna have from Brian Milom, who covered the
Speaker 1: Wildcats on the road throughout the tournament, but it was
Speaker 1: also back, unfortunately in time to cover the Sweet sixteen
Speaker 1: championship game. That is a real passion of his high
Speaker 1: school sport. So that's what's coming up in our number
Speaker 1: two and a reminder. Tomorrow night, weather permitting UK Baseball,
Speaker 1: the Wildcats scheduled to take on Mississippi in a Thursday
Speaker 1: through Saturday series. Ordinarily, back through the years, teams would
Speaker 1: play Thursday through Saturday, last week of the year to
Speaker 1: give everybody an extra day to get ready for the
Speaker 1: SEC tournament. But once the SEC network came along and
Speaker 1: they've tried to spread out the schedule a.
Speaker 2: Little bit more to give more teams.
Speaker 1: More exposure on the Mothership. Everybody's on SEC Plus on
Speaker 1: the streaming channel. That's where you find Doug Flynn and
Speaker 1: yours truly. This week the Wildcats play on the main
Speaker 1: channel on the Mothership as we call it, tomorrow night,
Speaker 1: so that game's at seven o'clock. That kind of helps
Speaker 1: the fans in Mississippi or of course on the Central time.
Speaker 1: That means Darren Heddericks pregame show will be at six
Speaker 1: forty five and first pitch probably at seven to two,
Speaker 1: and then Doug and I will have the games for
Speaker 1: you on Friday and Saturday.
Speaker 2: Now last night.
Speaker 1: Malachai moreno in action in the McDonald's All American Game,
Speaker 1: and of course he has signed with the Wildcats mister
Speaker 1: Basketball and now a state championship player. He led Great
Speaker 1: Crossing to the Sweet sixteen title. That means back to
Speaker 1: back Wildcats who have won state championships had been named
Speaker 1: Mister Basketball and played in the McDonald's All American Game.
Speaker 1: Moving on to UK, Travis Perry did it last year.
Speaker 1: So Malachi, if you saw the game, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. I felt like, well, it's an All
Speaker 1: Star game and it's one of those I'll get mine
Speaker 1: kind of situations.
Speaker 2: So he barely saw the.
Speaker 1: Ball on offense for the first half of the game
Speaker 1: or so, and then in the second half he began
Speaker 1: to exert himself a little bit more, players began to
Speaker 1: look for him a little bit more, and he finished
Speaker 1: with a real nice game. He had nine points, four
Speaker 1: out of five, hit a three pointer in his only attempt,
Speaker 1: five rebounds, and had a game high two block shots
Speaker 1: plus an assist. One of those block shots came in
Speaker 1: the first half when the game was still in doubt,
Speaker 1: and it came. It was a really nice play, and
Speaker 1: the announcers were so busy talking about this guy or
Speaker 1: that guy.
Speaker 2: They kind of missed it.
Speaker 1: I saw it, and one of the first game stories
Speaker 1: I saw said that Moreno had one block, but no,
Speaker 1: he had too. He got credit for that one. Then
Speaker 1: he got another one in the second half, which was
Speaker 1: much more dramatic.
Speaker 2: But no, he acquitted himself.
Speaker 1: Well, this is not the kind of game where if
Speaker 1: you've never seen him play and you're watching this game,
Speaker 1: try not to judge, or just don't, because this is
Speaker 1: not the kind of game where you judge a guy
Speaker 1: with his skill set. And I know I sound very biased,
Speaker 1: but I got to see him play last year. I
Speaker 1: got to see him play through the in person through
Speaker 1: the Sweet sixteen this year, and.
Speaker 2: He's not the kind of guy.
Speaker 1: Maybe he needs to be more selfish to go out
Speaker 1: and get his But when you're big like that and
Speaker 1: you live in the low post, you're at the mercy
Speaker 1: of your teammates and nobody for most of the first
Speaker 1: part of the game was even looking for the seven footer.
Speaker 1: Everybody tries to get to the rims show after their moves,
Speaker 1: try to dunk, hit a jump shot, hit a three.
Speaker 2: But I think when his team, which.
Speaker 1: Lost, fell behind the East team, I think they realized
Speaker 1: we're gonna win this game. We got to use the
Speaker 1: big got to get to the big guy. So he
Speaker 1: did have a nice game and of course had a great,
Speaker 1: great Sweet sixteen. The entire team did for Great Crossing.
Speaker 1: And again, if you were listening last night, or you
Speaker 1: listened about the week, or you followed the Sweet sixteen,
Speaker 1: you might know that Great Crossing get this, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of a parallel with UK. Great Crossing lost its
Speaker 1: point guard early in the quarterfinal round, was not headed
Speaker 1: in the first round. But of course the games get
Speaker 1: tougher as the week goes on. And LJ. Holman, who
Speaker 1: is the veteran point guard for that team, and by veteran,
Speaker 1: I mean this is a team that's been all over
Speaker 1: the eastern half of the United States playing basketball, and
Speaker 1: this is the guy who ran the offense. And he
Speaker 1: laid he was trying to make a play on the
Speaker 1: sideline and landed awkwardly and rolled an ankle. Man. It
Speaker 1: was hard watching it and then watching him limp off
Speaker 1: the floor. And in fact, Cameron Mills and I bumped
Speaker 1: and we were walking out of Rup bumped into him
Speaker 1: in the parking garage with someone who was waiting with
Speaker 1: him for a ride. He had an ice pack on
Speaker 1: his ankle, said he was going to try to go
Speaker 1: the next day, but no way, there was no way
Speaker 1: he was going to be able to play, and so
Speaker 1: Great Crossing into adjust and rolled a couple different players
Speaker 1: through the point guard spot. But it worked out. And
Speaker 1: their coach told us, told me in the pregame that
Speaker 1: during practice, these two other guys, Gage Richardson and Vince
Speaker 1: Dawson is going to Moriad State. They take reps as
Speaker 1: a point guard, so they were ready. You know, it
Speaker 1: wasn't super smooth, and a lot of that had to
Speaker 1: do with Bowling Green. Well, Bowling Green played, but when
Speaker 1: the game was on the line, they got it to
Speaker 1: Moreno and everybody played well. Frankly, Bowling Green played well.
Speaker 1: But it was Great Crossing once Saint X was knocked out,
Speaker 1: And I don't know if X was better than Great Crossing.
Speaker 1: Saint X beat Great Crossing earlier in the year, much earlier.
Speaker 1: I would love to have seen that matchup, but hey,
Speaker 1: they got knocked out in the first round by Jeffersontown.
Speaker 1: So Great Crossing wins the state title. So how about this?
Speaker 1: Just like Travis Perry, Malachai, Moreno's final game as a
Speaker 1: Warhawk or Great Crossing High School was in Rapperina. His
Speaker 1: next game as a collegian will be as a Wildcat,
Speaker 1: his next home game in Rapperina in the UK Jersey.
Speaker 1: Somebody asked him about that after the game.
Speaker 6: It's definitely a real moment because you know, I wanted
Speaker 6: to end my high school career on this floor holding
Speaker 6: a big old trophy, and I know it wasn't my
Speaker 6: last time on this floor, but it was my last
Speaker 6: time in a great Crossing uniform. So it's honestly surreal.
Speaker 6: And coach canna have a tough time taking this jersey
Speaker 6: away from you until you know right now. But yeah,
Speaker 6: it was definitely a surreal moment and it's a great
Speaker 6: way to go out.
Speaker 1: So Malecia Moreno, before you know it, he'll be playing
Speaker 1: in a Kentucky uniform. So it was kind of fun
Speaker 1: to watch him win a state titled, just as it
Speaker 1: was fun last year watching Travis Perry. You know by
Speaker 1: now that the SEC is.
Speaker 2: Down a coach right now.
Speaker 1: A and M is well that as we speak, by
Speaker 1: the time you hear this to me, I hired somebody
Speaker 1: buzz Williams leaving Texas. A and M from Maryland clearly
Speaker 1: wanted to get back to the East Coast and he's
Speaker 1: got a six year deal now with the Terps. Don't
Speaker 1: know if he just wasn't comfortable with A and M.
Speaker 1: Couldn't have been money, because I will promise you Texas
Speaker 1: A and M is as much or more money to
Speaker 1: offer as Maryland does.
Speaker 2: But this is a good coach.
Speaker 1: Eighteen years as a head coach, eleven NCA tournaments, five
Speaker 1: straight at Marquette, three straight at Virginia Tech, and each
Speaker 1: of the last three at Texas. A and M. Also
Speaker 1: spent a year as a head coach at New Orleans.
Speaker 1: He is a good coach. Up next to the voice
Speaker 1: of the Cats, Tom Leach, you're on a big moon
Speaker 1: Sider six thirty wlap Welcome back to the Big Moon Sider.
Speaker 1: Joining me now is the voice of the Wildcats. You
Speaker 1: hear him, eat you and every day on this very
Speaker 1: radio station on the Leech Report at eight am. Mister
Speaker 1: Tom Leach, you just wrapped up yet another UK basketball season.
Speaker 1: But no slowing down now, you're already You've been hard
Speaker 1: at work on your Keenland material right.
Speaker 7: Yes, head to get out there early in the week
Speaker 7: because of the onslaught of rain that is coming, so
Speaker 7: trying to get some areas done for Keenland social media
Speaker 7: and the Today at Keenland show that airs every race day.
Speaker 1: But a labor of love for mister leach as is
Speaker 1: being the voice of the Wildcats. Now that you've had
Speaker 1: a couple of days for perspective, tell me if you
Speaker 1: would how did this season unfold based on what you expected?
Speaker 7: You know, I think I would have said at the
Speaker 7: beginning of the year that this is probably a Sweet
Speaker 7: sixteen team really and and just you know, the talent
Speaker 7: they could could do that, and but that you know,
Speaker 7: then when you get to that point and you you know,
Speaker 7: see what the matchup is and how well you're playing
Speaker 7: and how healthy you are, and unfortunately, you know, the
Speaker 7: injuries were an.
Speaker 5: Issue as far as their overall health.
Speaker 7: But the thing I don't I'm sure I didn't see
Speaker 7: coming was how good they would be at their best.
Speaker 7: I think at their best, I mean the team that
Speaker 7: beat Duke and that won over Gonzaga in Seattle, even
Speaker 7: after Crisa had they had to go out in that
Speaker 7: game and it was lost to the season and they
Speaker 7: didn't have Butler that day, and the.
Speaker 5: Team that won that shootout with Florida.
Speaker 7: Another team that made it to the Final Four and
Speaker 7: the first day of conference play that team was better
Speaker 7: than a Sweet sixteen team. So it's just a shame
Speaker 7: that we didn't get to see them full strength at
Speaker 7: their best for the March run.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, and I'm with you on that. Prior
Speaker 1: to the season, I wondered could this team get out
Speaker 1: of the first weekend? But then they shouted racking up
Speaker 1: those quad one wins. We were counting quad one wins
Speaker 1: early in the season with an eye on that the postseason.
Speaker 1: That was pretty amazing, wasn't it.
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 7: And I think the Duke, I mean, this is a
Speaker 7: Kentucky team that wasn't ranked in some of the preseason polls,
Speaker 7: was I guess somewhere probably south of the number twenty position,
Speaker 7: and about it one of them, And I think that
Speaker 7: was probably just done the name Kentucky more so than
Speaker 7: anybody believing that they were, you know, maybe a serious
Speaker 7: Final four contender.
Speaker 5: And then what was it? Let me look here. Three
Speaker 5: games into the.
Speaker 7: Season they go down to the Champions Classic and beat Duke,
Speaker 7: and at that point it was.
Speaker 5: Like, oh wow, what do we have here?
Speaker 7: Yeah, And at one point Kentucky made it into the
Speaker 7: top five in the country before they started getting hit
Speaker 7: with the injury issues and a little bit of a
Speaker 7: you know, up and down run in the SEC. But
Speaker 7: you know, that win over Duke opened a lot of
Speaker 7: eyes about you know what Mark Pope was maybe going
Speaker 7: to be able to do, not just this season, but
Speaker 7: long term in Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and now, of course he's got to rebuild, but
Speaker 1: doesn't have to totally restock the roster, so obviously that'll
Speaker 1: be a huge plus. But it's good to be a
Speaker 1: different feel to a team next season, isn't it.
Speaker 7: It is, But it's gonna be nice to have a
Speaker 7: little bit of carryover. I'm assuming that the three freshmen
Speaker 7: will be back, and then I'll take it away and
Speaker 7: Brandon Garrison will be back, and I think he'll probably
Speaker 7: get to a point where there's even a little more carryover.
Speaker 7: I saw a stat I can't remember exact numbers, but
Speaker 7: it was the returning minutes percentage of minutes from the
Speaker 7: previous season for the teams that are in the final four,
Speaker 7: and Duke obviously had a low number. I think this
Speaker 7: was in the twenties. But they're dominated by some lottery
Speaker 7: pick level of freshmen. But the other three teams were
Speaker 7: in the sixties and seventies, maybe maybe Houston was even
Speaker 7: were in the low eighties in terms of percent of
Speaker 7: returning minutes. So I think that's you know, we know
Speaker 7: Kentucky made it to a Sweet sixteen as the only
Speaker 7: team without any returning points from the year before that,
Speaker 7: and in the other teams that did that, you go
Speaker 7: ahead and zero points back either went out early or
Speaker 7: weren't even in the tournament. So that was, you know,
Speaker 7: significant in its own right, but just serves to underscore
Speaker 7: you know, how difficult it is to do that from scratch.
Speaker 7: So now they don't have to do that next.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and now they've got something they can put in
Speaker 1: for or they have spent the season putting in front
Speaker 1: of recruits. This is what it's going to be like
Speaker 1: if you hadn't paid attention to bring him younger Utah
Speaker 1: Valley State, you know, people more people pay attention to Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Look at what they accomplished in that one year, less
Speaker 1: than one year in weeks putting a team together. How'd
Speaker 1: you like to be a part of that? Now, so
Speaker 1: much of that's going to come down to nil. I
Speaker 1: understand that, But that's the case for everybody, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: at least Mark Pope has a body of work at
Speaker 1: UK to show to potential future Wildcats.
Speaker 7: Right right, and he can show them not only that
Speaker 7: it is a fund style, an NBA friendly style, and it.
Speaker 5: Is a style that can compete at the highest level.
Speaker 7: Again, going back to that Duke game, the Gonzaga game,
Speaker 7: beat a really good Louisville team, beat Florida's. I mean,
Speaker 7: they'd be two of the teams that are in the
Speaker 7: final four. And that's significant because coming into the year
Speaker 7: there was the stat that Mark Pope had never won
Speaker 7: an NCAA tournament game either, by the way, had Todd
Speaker 7: Golden at a Florida. And turns out that there's there's
Speaker 7: a lot of guys that have never won a Derby
Speaker 7: or a Derby prep race. But if you give them
Speaker 7: horses that are fast enough to do that, you'll find
Speaker 7: out that they can win Derby prep races in Derby.
Speaker 7: So that's what he has now, that what Todd Golden
Speaker 7: acquired at Florida. And so but it's still in saying that,
Speaker 7: you know, it's nice to validate it. And they won
Speaker 7: two tournament games this year, and but you know, the
Speaker 7: wins they had in the regular season. That validates not
Speaker 7: only is the system you know, fun and NBA friendly,
Speaker 7: but can win at a high level.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what did you think of the comments the players
Speaker 1: made after the game about it? And I heard you
Speaker 1: were talking about it on your show yesterday, and I
Speaker 1: heard you talk about it with Mark Pope on his show.
Speaker 1: The fact that they hung out till six am, it
Speaker 1: wasn't that great.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I remember, you know, the COVID year when Cal
Speaker 7: Perry told the story about the guys that you know
Speaker 7: came back and just wanted to scrimmage one last time
Speaker 7: when they weren't going to get to play anymore. So
Speaker 7: I think if you're a fan of a team, you
Speaker 7: you like to hear and feel that those guys are
Speaker 7: as invested in it as you are, and it's not
Speaker 7: just a means to an end for them, that it's
Speaker 7: really meaningful on a level beyond you know, any compensation
Speaker 7: or anything like that. And so that was that story.
Speaker 7: I think it's just a good example of that. I
Speaker 7: think we, you know, had certainly heard that in comments
Speaker 7: from the players, you know, podium after the game or
Speaker 7: in the locker room and really even leaning up to
Speaker 7: the postseason, like almon Or talking about you know what
Speaker 7: it meant to him to get a chance to play
Speaker 7: at a place like Kentucky that he never thought would
Speaker 7: come his way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I know fans, I'm sure were
Speaker 1: probab least some fans had to be thinking why couldn't
Speaker 1: these players through the years have had similar emotions. Well,
Speaker 1: that's really not fair because a kid coming in out
Speaker 1: of high school, you know, he's not.
Speaker 2: Going to be.
Speaker 1: He's not going to embrace that kind of emotion. I think, Tom,
Speaker 1: because these guys you were talking about bounced around.
Speaker 2: A little bit from school to school.
Speaker 1: In some cases like Andrew carr or they played at Drexel,
Speaker 1: they played at Fairley Dickinson wishing that, you know, or
Speaker 1: a Kobe Bread who believed he was good enough to
Speaker 1: play at Kentucky but was told no, you're not, and
Speaker 1: was playing a Dayton and then they.
Speaker 2: Get the out. It's like a new life, a second chance,
Speaker 2: a second.
Speaker 1: Go around, and there's there's no way anybody can appreciate
Speaker 1: it as much as they did. Does that make sense?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 7: No, I get that. And and and it's an example
Speaker 7: of the two sides of the transfer portal. On one side,
Speaker 7: there's a you know at school like Morehead that had
Speaker 7: Jenni Broom on its roster for two seasons and now
Speaker 7: you know, may end up being the National Player of
Speaker 7: the year Cooper fly and those the you know, the
Speaker 7: Direxels that had Amar Williams or the Dayton that had
Speaker 7: Kobe Braa, you know, on and on that those teams
Speaker 7: get their rosters rated UH these days, and it's I
Speaker 7: know it's awful for their fans and UH and their teams,
Speaker 7: but I also think about the other side of it
Speaker 7: and the the individual and just think, you know, if
Speaker 7: I had been blessed us to have that kind of
Speaker 7: ability as a player to play major college basketball. I
Speaker 7: grew up a Kentucky fan. And you know, let's say
Speaker 7: you Kentucky didn't think you're good enough to play there,
Speaker 7: and you go somewhere else and show them that maybe
Speaker 7: you are, And then why shouldn't you get the chance
Speaker 7: if you've earned it with the way that you've played.
Speaker 7: Yet you know it hurts the but you know it
Speaker 7: hurts the team that you played for. But you gave
Speaker 7: them everything you had while you played for them, and
Speaker 7: now you get this chance to you know, Kobe Bray,
Speaker 7: Ansley Almon or Maury Williams to go experience what it
Speaker 7: was like, what it is like to be on the
Speaker 7: Kentucky basketball Nate Festina, it's a good example. Gave his
Speaker 7: heart and sold a Bucknell and had great memories there
Speaker 7: and they got great, you know, return on their investment
Speaker 7: of a scholarship in him, and then he got a
Speaker 7: chance to come and be a Wildcat for a season.
Speaker 7: Unfortunately that got short by COVID, But you know, I
Speaker 7: just have seen how those guys just throughly enjoyed that,
Speaker 7: and that's that's a good thing to me, even though
Speaker 7: I know it hurts the mid majors.
Speaker 1: Cali Perry tried to get older with his team, and
Speaker 1: I think just because of injuries and had some tough breaks,
Speaker 1: it didn't work out for him. But uh, that's got
Speaker 1: to be the way things are now, you know the trend.
Speaker 1: And of course famously Patino has said he's not even
Speaker 1: gonna look at high school kids. I think that's a
Speaker 1: bit hyperbolic, but he will depend more on the transfers.
Speaker 1: Do you think that's where we are now? College basketball?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 7: I think so, unless you just can you know, do
Speaker 7: get access to some really special freshman that can maybe
Speaker 7: compete at the you know, the championship level, which they
Speaker 7: clearly have, but you know that's not something that's probably
Speaker 7: going to happen on an annual basis. So yeah, I
Speaker 7: think it is the older players that you know, you
Speaker 7: look at a Walter Clayton junior that wasn't highly recruited
Speaker 7: and played at IONA and now is an All America
Speaker 7: type guard, a legitimate big time player and I'm not
Speaker 7: sure how much of an NBA prospect I'm trial yet
Speaker 7: some level of the shot, but he's not you know,
Speaker 7: a lottery pick guy, but one heck of a college
Speaker 7: basketball player. And I think that's you know, I thought
Speaker 7: when Cal tried to get older, it didn't feel like
Speaker 7: it was a maybe fully thought out planned It was
Speaker 7: just collecting as the piece as you could collect, right,
Speaker 7: Whereas I thought the way Pope approached it in his
Speaker 7: first season it was very strategic and you know, in
Speaker 7: terms of the team that he built, and I think
Speaker 7: that intensified the impact of the injuries because it was
Speaker 7: so uh, you know, so much a situation where the
Speaker 7: whole was greater than the parts, and when they lost
Speaker 7: some of those parts. It it really hurt their overall profile.
Speaker 7: Whereas you know, in years to come, maybe he'll have
Speaker 7: guys that have a little more of that ability to
Speaker 7: you know, get their own shot when the some breaks down,
Speaker 7: or you know, just to have that great individual talent.
Speaker 4: But.
Speaker 7: Lacking that that group together fit together so well that
Speaker 7: they at their best, when they were at full strength,
Speaker 7: were able to compete with you know, the Duke team
Speaker 7: that had all the lottery picks and the Florida team
Speaker 7: that's in the Model four.
Speaker 1: He is Tom Lee's the voice of the Cats. We'll
Speaker 1: come back with more in just a minute on the
Speaker 1: Big bullon sider six. Well, we'll come back. We're talking
Speaker 1: with Tom Leach's the radio voice of the football and
Speaker 1: basketball Cats. He's also been studying the horses at Keenland.
Speaker 1: We've got the Kentucky Derby coming up. Before I get
Speaker 1: to that, though, Tom Mark Stoops has kind of played
Speaker 1: things pretty close to the best. Let everybody in practice
Speaker 1: today but or at least the media, but didn't want
Speaker 1: to talk specifically about anybody, and you know, it really
Speaker 1: did for quarterbacks. But it's an interesting approach he's taken.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a back to the basics for stoops,
Speaker 1: which I think is a really good signed you.
Speaker 7: I agree, it feels right. I think he uh, you know,
Speaker 7: maybe struggled is too strong a word to get comfortable
Speaker 7: with the changes, and maybe overdid it in terms of, yeah,
Speaker 7: letting guys have maybe more rope than he normally would
Speaker 7: avoid having them pilfered by somebody else and that kind
Speaker 7: of thing. And now I think he's it feels like
Speaker 7: he's back to the approach of look, this is this
Speaker 7: is our culture, this is how we do it, this
Speaker 7: is what the money is.
Speaker 5: None of that fits for you.
Speaker 7: Wish you good luck, yeah, and this, you know, this
Speaker 7: is we're you know, going to go to go to
Speaker 7: battle with the guys who are all in on what
Speaker 7: our plan is and that you know, if you're a
Speaker 7: fan that's frustrated, then you don't want to hear words.
Speaker 7: You just want to see results. And I get that,
Speaker 7: and that's why I'm sure he's you know, not spending
Speaker 7: a lot of time trying to you know, hype up
Speaker 7: his team. Some coaches would probably still try to do that,
Speaker 7: and it's just kind of whatever your nature is. But
Speaker 7: I think my guess is he feels like there's nothing
Speaker 7: I can say that's going to sway anybody that already
Speaker 7: has said in their opinion. But we can do things
Speaker 7: on the field that can change opinion, and so let's
Speaker 7: just focus all the attention on doing that. So I
Speaker 7: like the it feels like he's getting back to, you know,
Speaker 7: truly who he is as a coach, right and being
Speaker 7: physical and big, strong offensive line and you know, defensive
Speaker 7: line that can hold its own in the SEC. And
Speaker 7: if you can start there, and you know, that's the
Speaker 7: thing I think a lot of us didn't know if
Speaker 7: you could you know, if you could do that at Kentucky,
Speaker 7: maybe you'd have to be a little bit gimmicky to
Speaker 7: compete in the SEC. But he has shown that you
Speaker 7: can get the kind of guys in the trenches to
Speaker 7: compete at this level.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 7: And so I think they're definitely, you know, recommitted to
Speaker 7: doing having that kind of team.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's just gonna be tough for Kentucky fans.
Speaker 1: I think, well, first of all, you know how it is.
Speaker 1: They want to see it. They've been spoiled. Seven wins
Speaker 1: aren't good enough anymore. And you and I came up
Speaker 1: either as fans or as journalists covering teams where seven
Speaker 1: wins would be cast for a parade. But Stoops raised
Speaker 1: the floor, didn't he not just the ceiling.
Speaker 7: No, that's true, and and that's you know, as it
Speaker 7: should be. That's that's how you get better. I remember
Speaker 7: Kaywood saying one time that the Kentucky football didn't expect
Speaker 7: it us and I think that really changed under rich Brooks,
Speaker 7: where you know, the the expectation bar was elevated. But
Speaker 7: I remember when I did the book with Richie said
Speaker 7: that getting from the bottom to competitive was more challenging
Speaker 7: at Oregon than it was at Kentucky. But getting from
Speaker 7: competitive to the top was going to be much more
Speaker 7: challenging at Kentucky than it was at Orgon because of
Speaker 7: the SEC and so that's, uh, just what you have
Speaker 7: to deal with. But you know he Stoops has had,
Speaker 7: you know, teams that were able to compete with the best,
Speaker 7: and you know it, uh you know nowadays with the
Speaker 7: with the playoffs, you know, he had a couple of
Speaker 7: teams that would have been right there in the in
Speaker 7: the hunt for it. So that's the thing now is
Speaker 7: can you you know break there. I think for the
Speaker 7: longest time it was getting to the SEC Championship game
Speaker 7: was kind of the white whale for Kentucky to pursue.
Speaker 7: And I think that teams were you know, Rich had
Speaker 7: a couple of teams that were I think good enough
Speaker 7: to do that, and and Mark had and uh they
Speaker 7: you know, that's still out there, but I think now
Speaker 7: it's you know, can you get good enough to get
Speaker 7: in that playoff? And I think, you know, he we
Speaker 7: had a couple of teams that would have been, you know,
Speaker 7: right there with a shot. You know, they probably would
Speaker 7: have needed each year to win one more game, but
Speaker 7: that was certainly doable. And so if it was doable,
Speaker 7: then it can be doable down I fully agree.
Speaker 1: Before I let you go, do you have a Derby
Speaker 1: horse yet?
Speaker 5: I don't.
Speaker 7: I think there's a chance we may. I may find
Speaker 7: him on this weekend in the Bluegrass Steaks or the
Speaker 7: Santa Anita Derby.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 7: I think it's it's kind of odd that you look
Speaker 7: at the races last weekend, the prep races, the Florida
Speaker 7: Derby and the Arkansas Derby both had incredibly fast early
Speaker 7: paces where had you know, young horses like there was
Speaker 7: a Bafford horse that had only started as a maiden
Speaker 7: that you know, got into a locked into a speed duel.
Speaker 7: The same thing happened in Florida and had perfect setups
Speaker 7: for closers. But that's not especially these days, doesn't seem
Speaker 7: to happen in the Derby. There's a time when it
Speaker 7: did when they had for the implemented the system they had.
Speaker 7: Now they got the horses based on earnings. You'd get
Speaker 7: some horses that had no chance of getting the distance,
Speaker 7: but would just set a freaky fast pace and you'd
Speaker 7: end up with some unexpected results. And that doesn't happen
Speaker 7: anymore in the Derby in many years anyway.
Speaker 5: And so you had.
Speaker 7: Some results that I don't know, maybe there you know
Speaker 7: you can fully trust them, I don't know if you can,
Speaker 7: just because that was an outlier of a pace scenario
Speaker 7: in those two races, So that need you to kind
Speaker 7: of elevate the winters with maybe just an extra grain
Speaker 7: of salt.
Speaker 5: And so.
Speaker 7: Just because of things like that, I don't have a
Speaker 7: real strong opinion on any horse yet. So that's why
Speaker 7: I'm kind of thinking there's two of the major perhaps
Speaker 7: historically that are coming up this weekend, that there are
Speaker 7: horses in there that you know, looked like they of
Speaker 7: the makings of being a Derby winner. So maybe I'll
Speaker 7: find my Derby horse in there. If not, it'll be
Speaker 7: one of those years where I'm intentionally intently following the
Speaker 7: people who whose opinions are respect about the training, trying
Speaker 7: to find the now horse.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I was going to say the same thing.
Speaker 1: If it doesn't, the horse doesn't present himself or herself,
Speaker 1: then yeah, the works are even more vital, perhaps because,
Speaker 1: like you say, the horses that really didn't belong their
Speaker 1: year after year, that my brother referred to as bums
Speaker 1: kind of you know, screwing things up for everybody else.
Speaker 1: I think you get a truer look. That's why I
Speaker 1: think the chalk has been holding up obviously through the years.
Speaker 1: But we've had some longer shots at the board and
Speaker 1: that's always fun. As you know, Tom Leach is the
Speaker 1: voice of the Wildcats, but you hear him on the
Speaker 1: Leach for Board each and every day on this very
Speaker 1: radio station at eight am.
Speaker 2: Thank you, sir. Hope to see at the racetrack.
Speaker 7: Yes, and hopefully we can get a fast track for
Speaker 7: the racing at Kieland more often than not the spring,
Speaker 7: but it's unlikely to happen this weekend.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, that's right, Thank you, brother sounds good. Up next
Speaker 1: hour number two with our unforgettable guard Sean Woods and
Speaker 1: Bryan Mylin wk YT given our Western Bureau chief Gary
Speaker 1: Moore the next couple of weeks off, but more to
Speaker 1: come at six thirty w.
Speaker 9: L at the.
Speaker 10: Show doing anything anything, Anta don't have to think tat
Speaker 10: don't do.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. It is Wednesday.
Speaker 1: That's when we talked to the unforgettable guard Sean Woods
Speaker 1: as Jersey hangs in the rafters of Rupp and he
Speaker 1: has talked with us all season long about both college
Speaker 1: and high school basketball because he was incredibly active when
Speaker 1: it came to covering high school ball for glack Cott TV.
Speaker 1: But let us talk first coach about the end of
Speaker 1: the season. Kentucky losing to Tennessee. It was a Tennessee
Speaker 1: team I just think was better, certainly played better, but
Speaker 1: just given a turnaround to this Kentucky team made defensively
Speaker 1: and got to the sweet sixteen. I mean, you got
Speaker 1: to give him credit for how far they got this year.
Speaker 11: I know you feel that way, Oh, no doubt about it.
Speaker 11: You know, dealing with the injuries, the ups and downs.
Speaker 11: You know, they didn't get to me until they did
Speaker 11: make a major emphasis on defense. I think Mark really
Speaker 11: learned in his first year at being in the SEC
Speaker 11: how how how grueling it is. And you know, even
Speaker 11: though you know there was you know, some of the
Speaker 11: highest scoring teams in the country came from the ACC.
Speaker 11: But those high scoring teams defended and which enabled them
Speaker 11: to be high scoring teams because they were shutting people
Speaker 11: down to get in transition. Can you if you high
Speaker 11: scoring team, that means that you're getting a lot of
Speaker 11: transition situations, right and Tennessee and those teams like that Florida,
Speaker 11: even though you're looking at you know, the points that
Speaker 11: they score, they defend. And you know, Mark, I thought,
Speaker 11: you know, didn't know how tough and physical this league was.
Speaker 11: So defense really wasn't a mainstay in their m of things.
Speaker 11: That's just me just look from a coach looking at it,
Speaker 11: because of how disoriented and thought they were on that
Speaker 11: side of the ball. I think he got frustrated the
Speaker 11: game when he was supposedly threw the furniture or whatever.
Speaker 11: But I think it was a wake up call for
Speaker 11: him too. Oh, because when you don't emphasize defense your
Speaker 11: team shows, and they showed that defense really wasn't a
Speaker 11: major emphasis. And then when he made it, him and
Speaker 11: his staff made it an emphasis. Okay, and all they
Speaker 11: need to do is just defend a little bit, and
Speaker 11: they started defending real well. And and then now that
Speaker 11: got them back in the groove of being able to compete,
Speaker 11: you know, like I said, for instance, like I told
Speaker 11: you before, I thought that Brea could defend, but he wasn't.
Speaker 11: You know, you can't tell me as athletic as he is,
Speaker 11: and Jackson all these guys, is that they can't defend.
Speaker 11: They didn't have to. They weren't demanded to. So when
Speaker 11: you think a guy's going to defend, no, they're gonna
Speaker 11: want the easy way out. And then when they started
Speaker 11: losing games and things like that, knowing that it was
Speaker 11: because of their defense, it wasn't because of their offense,
Speaker 11: somebody had to change and it had to begin with
Speaker 11: Coe Pope, and then everybody else bought in because they
Speaker 11: were embarrassed. One thing I can say that the best
Speaker 11: job he did not only from a wins and lost standpoint.
Speaker 11: I think the best job Mark Pope did was to
Speaker 11: and and to put in these young men's souls in
Speaker 11: a short amount of time what it is to be
Speaker 11: a Kentucky basketball player, what it is to have that
Speaker 11: name on your chest. And that was the best part
Speaker 11: of his coaching deal this year, I think, which allow
Speaker 11: him to do the things that they would do and
Speaker 11: have success that they had. Because if you look at
Speaker 11: all these guys, they've only been here six months, eight months.
Speaker 8: They don't have the same.
Speaker 11: Aura and feeling about this place to say the other
Speaker 11: guys did, who were really just one and done. You
Speaker 11: know what I'm saying. You know, these guys were older,
Speaker 11: and he instilled in their heart and in their soul
Speaker 11: every single day, how it important, how important it is
Speaker 11: to make a significant impact, how important it is to
Speaker 11: fight with that with that name on your jersey and
Speaker 11: the pride that you have. Guys, that's the reason why
Speaker 11: he did that.
Speaker 1: Guys were you guys were so happy for him when
Speaker 1: he got the job.
Speaker 5: Is that?
Speaker 2: Did you see that coming?
Speaker 1: Sean?
Speaker 11: I didn't know how he can do it. I've never
Speaker 11: been around him as a coach, and I didn't know what.
Speaker 11: You know, I knew that he loved this place. You
Speaker 11: know what I'm saying, I think to us practice and
Speaker 11: no matter if he did the right wrong, whatever they
Speaker 11: were doing in practice, the one thing he emphasized every
Speaker 11: single day was how important it is and what the
Speaker 11: mission is at this place. If you don't like it,
Speaker 11: you know it's not gonna be the place for you.
Speaker 11: And he struck lightning in a bottle with character kids,
Speaker 11: and that's what I hope he gets strikes lighting the
Speaker 11: battle again with the next group of transfers that can
Speaker 11: buy in so quick because Lamont Butler bought in, Yeah,
Speaker 11: always bought in. All those guys bought in. I just
Speaker 11: think that Breah was the last one of the last ones,
Speaker 11: that Jackson were the last ones because they didn't want
Speaker 11: to buy in on the defensive bend and really dig in.
Speaker 11: If Brad became a big time defensive player the last
Speaker 11: six seven games.
Speaker 1: Right, well, you know, and I think so much of
Speaker 1: that too was and you can, you know, flag me
Speaker 1: off if you think I'm wrong. But these guys obviously
Speaker 1: began their careers elsewhere you know it places and weren't
Speaker 1: nearly as high profile. Even San Diego State was not
Speaker 1: a high profile program, as you know, until Butler and
Speaker 1: his teammates took him to the final four. Otherwise everybody,
Speaker 1: you know, you might have known that school because of
Speaker 1: Tony Gwynn, but otherwise you know, or Kawhi Leonard. But
Speaker 1: having played at Fairley, Dickinson, A, Drexel, at all these
Speaker 1: other places, now they're Kentucky Wildcats.
Speaker 2: And they loved it, didn't.
Speaker 11: They They loved it, and it was a place that
Speaker 11: they had all dreamed of playing. Yes, coming out of
Speaker 11: high school, just didn't wasn't good enough or thought of
Speaker 11: as that caliber player to play at this level. And
Speaker 11: when they got their opportunity, they took it and they
Speaker 11: ran with it. And I've never seen I mean, I've
Speaker 11: lived it, so I know how quick and how you
Speaker 11: know these people can get into your soul being a player,
Speaker 11: and how they love you. But these guys ain't never
Speaker 11: came for that. You ain't getting that type of love
Speaker 11: at Drexel. You're not getting that type of love. Fie Dickinson,
Speaker 11: You're not getting this type of love. And even San
Speaker 11: Diego say, you know what I'm saying, so either Wake
Speaker 11: Force for that matter, Arizona, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, So you know it.
Speaker 11: Was like man, it was like that girl who just
Speaker 11: kisses different. It's like that kool aid that just tastes different.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 11: This is one of a kind, and once you get
Speaker 11: a taste of it, you want to be a part
Speaker 11: of it. And then the person who's cooking and seeding you,
Speaker 11: he's full of it. There was no way and that's
Speaker 11: the reason why they fought through the adversity, you know
Speaker 11: what I'm saying. They did all they could do. And
Speaker 11: I can commend him. Even though we lost in the
Speaker 11: Sweet sixteen, he squeezed all the juice out of that tournament.
Speaker 11: And guess what, it was refreshing every game, even though
Speaker 11: we were hurt. Maybe that maybe two games or so
Speaker 11: that we just we fought and we were a dangerous
Speaker 11: team to play every single night. Every single night. We
Speaker 11: were a dangerous team to play. And that's all you
Speaker 11: can ask for, especially in your first year, putting a
Speaker 11: team like this together. You know, And now I hope
Speaker 11: you know. I'm sure they're in the office right now
Speaker 11: on their phones, you know, looking at the trying and
Speaker 11: I'm sure, I mean I know about ten of them.
Speaker 11: They're trying to go get or they better be trying
Speaker 11: to go get because I'm watching them too. But on
Speaker 11: another hand, other hand, Dick, I'm I'm more impressed and
Speaker 11: looking forward to next year with Malachi Marino watching him.
Speaker 11: I watched him in the state tournament, but.
Speaker 5: Not only that.
Speaker 11: I got a chance to watch the scrimmage at the
Speaker 11: McDonald's game, and people's like been asking me, you know,
Speaker 11: what do you think about Maleochai. You know, I'm saying,
Speaker 11: he doesn't.
Speaker 5: Have a motor.
Speaker 11: He's so quiet, he's this, he's that. You know, you
Speaker 11: always want to knock the guy, especially at seven foot
Speaker 11: of playing against bidgets in high school. And I told them,
Speaker 11: I said, you don't become a MacDonald All American as
Speaker 11: a big unless you dominated at that level other bigs
Speaker 11: when you're out on that circumplane in the NBA, right,
Speaker 11: you know, the nybdo Lil's and all that. And watching
Speaker 11: him in that scrimmage the other day, he was the
Speaker 11: best five men in the game the other day in
Speaker 11: that scrimmage.
Speaker 2: Okay, that sounds good.
Speaker 11: Okay, So what I'm saying is in his class, this
Speaker 11: twenty twenty five class, he's one of the top twenty
Speaker 11: five players in this class.
Speaker 8: He's got skills not in the state in.
Speaker 11: This class, and I saw it with my own eyes
Speaker 11: against the top twenty five best the other day yesterday
Speaker 11: as a matter of fact. Then shoot, he's catching out
Speaker 11: of you dunks, he's blocking shots, he's making jump shots.
Speaker 11: He's doing his thing. See when you were playing in
Speaker 11: high school at the seventh foot of you're limited because
Speaker 11: of you know, the style of play here. You know
Speaker 11: what I'm saying. But I think that he's got more
Speaker 11: in his in his bag, and it's going to be
Speaker 11: even more because I know he's a good passer. I
Speaker 11: know he's super skilled. The question everybody has is kN
Speaker 11: he's stick it to go out there and stick it.
Speaker 11: I think he's gonna be skilled enough to be able
Speaker 11: to go out there and stick it because that's what
Speaker 11: Mark Pope does. I mean, they shoot all day every day.
Speaker 11: You know, they brush their teeth and working on they
Speaker 11: follow through all at the same time. So I think
Speaker 11: that's going to improve his game. That does he have
Speaker 11: to get stronger? Yeah? Is he gonna have to go
Speaker 11: to that gump with in the sec Yeah, but he's
Speaker 11: athletic and he's seven foot in his skill, will he
Speaker 11: get beat up some Yeah? But if he a starter
Speaker 11: and can lead us to an SEC championship in national championship,
Speaker 11: not as a freshman being a starter. But he's gonna
Speaker 11: be good enough, no doubt, a doubt.
Speaker 2: He is Sean Woods.
Speaker 1: And forget guard. We will come back and talk more
Speaker 1: high school and college basketball in just a minute here
Speaker 1: on the Big Moon Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back
Speaker 1: for Tucky with Sean Woods, who has covered a lot
Speaker 1: of high school basketball this year and of course has
Speaker 1: followed the Wildcats as well. And uh, you know we
Speaker 1: talked about Kentucky and Tennessee. Tennessee absolutely flopped.
Speaker 2: The next game.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like it just took everything out of
Speaker 1: them to be Kentucky because they weren't even competitive in
Speaker 1: the regional final?
Speaker 11: No, Tennessee was that much better than Kentucky that game?
Speaker 7: Okay, right, all right?
Speaker 5: And then.
Speaker 8: Houston, Yeah, Houston is that much.
Speaker 11: Better than Tennessee. Okay, if that makes sense, it does
Speaker 11: you'd that day in Kentucky just like that, just because
Speaker 11: Houston is Saint john that can shoot.
Speaker 1: Yes, that Saint John's man.
Speaker 2: Saint John's could not could not, They.
Speaker 11: Could do everything right. He had the toughest players they
Speaker 11: played the toughest style, but they can you know, Billy Doavin.
Speaker 11: I would always say, good offense, these good defense. Any
Speaker 11: dead week, could the game be zero zero?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I you know, you still got a guard. But
Speaker 1: when when the For instance, I picked Michigan State to
Speaker 1: beat Auburn, But had I known, I really should have
Speaker 1: done a little more research that Michigan Sate was the
Speaker 1: worst three point shooting team in a Big ten.
Speaker 2: I would never have picked.
Speaker 1: Them because once they got behind, they were just they
Speaker 1: were working their tails off on defense, and they were
Speaker 1: working so hard to get good shots on offense and
Speaker 1: they weren't falling. Then Auburn would come down and bang
Speaker 1: knocked down a three.
Speaker 11: So yeah, you do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're exactly right.
Speaker 2: You're exactly right that that surprised me as well.
Speaker 1: Uh, let me ask you one old question about Tennessee.
Speaker 1: What do you know anything about the way Barnes teaches defense.
Speaker 1: Why was Tennessee so sound fundamentally defense and to a
Speaker 1: point defensively and to a point it cost them on offense.
Speaker 11: No, you got to have personnel, okay, And his style
Speaker 11: of play has always been great defense. You know what
Speaker 11: I'm saying, up the line defense, keeping the ball, kick
Speaker 11: penetration out of paint, making you take tough threes, being
Speaker 11: physical with you, knocking you off your cut. That's always
Speaker 11: been Rick Barnes, you know. Uh, his teams have always
Speaker 11: been physical, but his teams have never been able to
Speaker 11: have never been really good jump shooters. He's got, He's
Speaker 11: always had great slashers and undersize physical for me and
Speaker 11: and things like that, and strong guards that can come downhill,
Speaker 11: but not too many guys that can you know, spread
Speaker 11: that spread that you know, spread you out as far
Speaker 11: as shooting the basketball. So I am I'm thinking that
Speaker 11: he's going to try to do something different, you know
Speaker 11: what I mean. Like, for instance, Mark needs to get
Speaker 11: tougher you know, he's got to get tougher guys, more guys. Well,
Speaker 11: Coach Barnes gotta get more shooters, you know. And I'm
Speaker 11: sure Costatino's gonna do the same thing. He's got to
Speaker 11: get more shooters, I mean, because the game is so
Speaker 11: predicated on scoring. And know, and you can see that
Speaker 11: the only reason why Houston is where they are because
Speaker 11: they can score. Florida can score, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 11: All these teams are in the final flourd they can score.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you gotta be able to go get a bucket.
Speaker 11: When you be able to get a bucket, And that's
Speaker 11: the reason why Duke is plowing people out because surprisingly
Speaker 11: Duke is super defensively. But there's not a gun to Florida.
Speaker 11: There's not a threat either you throw it in the
Speaker 11: post of the big fella or penetrate in. He's getting
Speaker 11: dunks over the top, he's blocking shots, you know. I mean,
Speaker 11: they they're so long. You know, Houston gets in you physical,
Speaker 11: you know, Florida long physical. I mean in Auburn, come on,
Speaker 11: they're so long.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they really are.
Speaker 11: They got the bionic Man. I mean, there's no way
Speaker 11: I thought he was coming back.
Speaker 1: Nasty injury.
Speaker 2: So who do you.
Speaker 11: Think right now? I guarantee you he's sore. Taking all
Speaker 11: the time telling.
Speaker 1: You who do you think wins this thing?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 11: I still think this is just me. I think it's
Speaker 11: gonna be Florida Duke.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 11: I just think that Duke can score more than than
Speaker 11: than Houston. I think it's gonna be I think it's
Speaker 11: gonna be a slug fest. But you know, when you're
Speaker 11: five men or your four men can step out and
Speaker 11: be a two guard or maybe a point guard. And
Speaker 11: these guys are shooting the lights out. I mean there's
Speaker 11: not one guy, not one league on the offensive bend
Speaker 11: from Duke right now. I mean, everybody's gonna have I say,
Speaker 11: under So they're the most I hate to say, but
Speaker 11: they're the most impressive team going in here. Florida is
Speaker 11: a fight back team. You know, when you got that guard,
Speaker 11: they just refuse to let them lose. Oh yeah, you know,
Speaker 11: can they get down on Duke and then come back
Speaker 11: and win a game like that? You know, can they
Speaker 11: get down against Auburn maybe because they've gone against each
Speaker 11: other the four that makes sense. Yeah, But you know,
Speaker 11: Houston's got to play almost perfect on the offensive end,
Speaker 11: and they got to score eighty points or so to
Speaker 11: beat some of these teams, which you know at least
Speaker 11: seventy five, because you know, score seventy sixty five seventy
Speaker 11: that's not gonna be.
Speaker 1: We got minutes left with Sean Woods, who, as I said,
Speaker 1: did a lot of high school basketball games for a
Speaker 1: Gleckcott dot com this year. And you saw great crossing.
Speaker 1: You saw Frederick Douglass, you saw the Powerhoffs teams. Great crossing,
Speaker 1: of course, goes on to winning. We talked earlier about
Speaker 1: Malachi Marino. I thought it was really interesting, Sean, that
Speaker 1: great crossing could have dumped it into the big guy
Speaker 1: in the low post on every possession, but didn't. Yes,
Speaker 1: you know, now they've got Vince Dawson, who's terrific. I
Speaker 1: think he'll be fine at More if he stays at
Speaker 1: Morehead State. Uh, but.
Speaker 2: What did you think of of the rest of the field.
Speaker 1: I mean, there were there were some great games. You
Speaker 1: came for a lot of those, and I mean teams
Speaker 1: were jacking up threes like crazy, uh, and and running up.
Speaker 11: Yeah, yeah, I mean, goodness gracious, I mean, everybody would
Speaker 11: make it shot to the sweet sixteen. I mean, and
Speaker 11: who would have thought that same next get upset like that? Yes,
Speaker 11: you know what I mean. And and and that's how
Speaker 11: they got upset, because they got beat on a team
Speaker 11: just was just super hot, yep, and they took it
Speaker 11: for granted, you know what I mean. So I just
Speaker 11: think and then that that just paved the way for
Speaker 11: for for our thought, a great cross And I didn't
Speaker 11: think anybody was in their class after that.
Speaker 1: You told me about saying next you in the middle
Speaker 1: of the year.
Speaker 5: I told you how dom that they were.
Speaker 11: And they were beating I mean they you know, when
Speaker 11: I get go back and think about it, though, Dick,
Speaker 11: when they beat when they beat Great Crossing pretty good,
Speaker 11: it was at saying that it was at say so,
Speaker 11: you know, who's the sale on a place like this,
Speaker 11: and it was meant to be, you know what I mean.
Speaker 11: I'm happy for a former future cat to win the
Speaker 11: state championship on his way into wearing the Big Blue
Speaker 11: for the second year in a row.
Speaker 1: And you know, I love how after the game and
Speaker 1: you you were watching on TV, but so you couldn't
Speaker 1: have seen this, But after he was you know, after
Speaker 1: the the wron court celebrations and hugs and things like that,
Speaker 1: and he took off on a dead sprint for the
Speaker 1: end zone and he kept right on running and went
Speaker 1: up the steps into the end zone seats and was
Speaker 1: jumping up and down with his classmates. I have never
Speaker 1: seen anything. I've seen kids just climb the wall to
Speaker 1: go find mom and dad and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: But I love the fact that Matho Chai.
Speaker 1: Breno jumped up and wanted to celebrate with his classmates.
Speaker 2: I think that says a lot about.
Speaker 11: That kid, Well, you know, he's a fixture in that community,
Speaker 11: you know what I mean. And you know, when you're
Speaker 11: the tallest guy in the community and the most helded guy,
Speaker 11: the most popular guy, You're only gonna be two types
Speaker 11: of people. One that is like a butttholder, don't want
Speaker 11: to be talked, don't want to talk to nobody. You
Speaker 11: know what I'm saying. You're social introvert or you have
Speaker 11: you know, personality and indulge in your community and and
Speaker 11: really like the effect of putting smiles on people's faces
Speaker 11: and establishing friends, you know what I'm saying. And should
Speaker 11: He's had a heck of a college I mean high
Speaker 11: school career, and in a small community like Georgetown, I mean,
Speaker 11: what better way to have to make a living and be,
Speaker 11: you know, the town hero. Right about now?
Speaker 1: Did you guys do any postgame interviews with him?
Speaker 11: I did want with him, I sure did so.
Speaker 1: And I didn't get to see it, But I guarantee
Speaker 1: all he wanted to do was talk about his teammates, right, was.
Speaker 11: No doubt about it, you know what I'm saying. You
Speaker 11: know it was never about him, right, you know? And
Speaker 11: so and and the night I interviewed him. Vince had
Speaker 11: a really good game. It was again Timya Clayton. Vint
Speaker 11: had thirty that night, so it was both of them
Speaker 11: up there, and you know, it was just he was
Speaker 11: just saying, you know, this is why it was such
Speaker 11: a dangerous team, because it's not about me. You know,
Speaker 11: we got other guys. And I think LJ. Holman played
Speaker 11: good that night also, so you know, it was it
Speaker 11: was they They were the best team in the state
Speaker 11: and they showed it.
Speaker 1: Well. I'm glad you brought up LJ two because he
Speaker 1: sprained his ankle early in the second game in a
Speaker 1: quarterfinal game and they had to play without him, so
Speaker 1: they had to make adjustment before I let you go
Speaker 1: real quick, uh, I said, As I mentioned, Vince is
Speaker 1: going to Moried State. I hope he stays there. Maybe
Speaker 1: he does, maybe he doesn't. But what kind of future
Speaker 1: does he have?
Speaker 11: Tell you what, he's gonna sit in and go with
Speaker 11: Johnathan Maddicks because he can stretch you out with the three,
Speaker 11: he can get to his mid range. He's got a
Speaker 11: nice body. Johnny's gonna make him play a little more defense,
Speaker 11: but you know, I think he's capable of doing that.
Speaker 11: But I think he's gonna be a great addition for
Speaker 11: Johnson Maddocks down there more.
Speaker 1: His state sounds good to me.
Speaker 2: Sean Woods is the unforgettable guard.
Speaker 1: We talk to him each and every week, and next
Speaker 1: week we'll talk about the new national champion coach.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 5: Have a good one, you two, Dick.
Speaker 1: Brian Milin from WKYT is up next on the Big
Speaker 1: Boon Insider six thirty w.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Big Moon Sider.
Speaker 1: Joining us now on our celebrity highline is a guy
Speaker 1: who is a big fan of the Cats and the
Speaker 1: NCAA tournament and a combination of both. Because Brian Mylin
Speaker 1: is the sports director of the CBS affiliate WKYT, my
Speaker 1: employer for many many years. Uh, Brian, I know it's
Speaker 1: a lot of work when Kentucky's in the tournament, but man,
Speaker 1: we we like it when when the ratings are good,
Speaker 1: don't we. I mean, yeah, that's important, yeah, but I
Speaker 1: mean it's just a happy time when the Wildcats are winning.
Speaker 8: It is and it's good obviously for the morale of
Speaker 8: the state. Sure individually, if you're a Wildcat fan and
Speaker 8: if you are in the business of UK athletics. It's
Speaker 8: good for all involved and obviously the further they go
Speaker 8: in a tournament, the better it is all the way around.
Speaker 8: And unfortunately it ended much sooner than people had hope.
Speaker 8: But I think in retrospect they can'ts probably win as
Speaker 8: far as they could considering everything that they had going
Speaker 8: against them and for them. And you know, hey, when
Speaker 8: you assemble a team in six weeks or less, whatever
Speaker 8: it was Mark popend to do, I think a sweet
Speaker 8: sixteen berth and getting out of that first weekend was
Speaker 8: just huge.
Speaker 1: You and I talk a lot about how we're both
Speaker 1: old school guys, well I'm older or not, but you know,
Speaker 1: we like it when when retro moments pop up, and
Speaker 1: to me when whenever I spoke to these kids, and
Speaker 1: I know they're young men, but to me, their kids
Speaker 1: they always will be always. And I've talked to several
Speaker 1: people about this postseason, the fact that these guys, and
Speaker 1: I think it was so much more evident when they
Speaker 1: had to take.
Speaker 2: Off that uniform for the last time or refused.
Speaker 1: To what it meant to them to play in this program,
Speaker 1: for this team, it was really throwback stuff, wasn't it.
Speaker 1: And not because they played it for four years. It's
Speaker 1: because they didn't get to play here for four years,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden they got this one
Speaker 1: shot at it, and they just absolutely became engrossed in it.
Speaker 8: They are an example of the old saying that some
Speaker 8: of the parts out equal the whole. That's right, because
Speaker 8: these guys were not recruited by Kentucky, right how many
Speaker 8: of them were recruited by major players in Division Basketball
Speaker 8: two one and a half, I don't know. But collectively,
Speaker 8: it shows what the team can do when you bring together. Yeah,
Speaker 8: you weren't a five star, you weren't a four star,
Speaker 8: you weren't a three star probably in some people's books.
Speaker 8: But if you take two here, you take three there,
Speaker 8: and put this here and that piece fits perfectly. Wow,
Speaker 8: look what you can do. And I think if you
Speaker 8: can remove the word injury from this team, a team
Speaker 8: that won twenty four games with a banged up unit
Speaker 8: the last two thirds of the season, I mean you
Speaker 8: can conceivably say this team could have been a thirty
Speaker 8: win team had they stayed healthy. But hey, twenty four
Speaker 8: wins is a great start to what everyone hopes is
Speaker 8: the beginning of a new championship era.
Speaker 1: In Kentucky's Yeah, and it was they were fun to
Speaker 1: watch style of play, and once the defense came around,
Speaker 1: that made it even more fun. You know. I tipped
Speaker 1: my cap to Caliperi what he got done at Arkansas,
Speaker 1: And for whatever reason, there were times that that the offense,
Speaker 1: the Arkansas offense looked like the offense that would get
Speaker 1: bogged down at Kentucky.
Speaker 2: But there were other.
Speaker 1: Times when I thought, well, I would like to have
Speaker 1: seen that in Lexington. But the way Pulp played it,
Speaker 1: you know, the the offense that he designed and and
Speaker 1: borrowed from other coaches was so much fun to watch.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and it was everything about from April fourteen when
Speaker 8: rupp Arena was packed yeah for his announcement, every just
Speaker 8: about everything from then until now has left you with
Speaker 8: a smile on your face, like, Hey, this is the
Speaker 8: style we want to see. We want to see a
Speaker 8: coach who's thoroughly invested in every aspect of the team,
Speaker 8: the program, the community, the state, eight everything. There was
Speaker 8: a time Calipari was that guy. Then when you can't
Speaker 8: live up to your first at what five of the
Speaker 8: first six years, it's a pretty dark good season. And
Speaker 8: then things happened behind closed doors whatever. But with this team,
Speaker 8: what a great way to start a new era. And
Speaker 8: the team was mature. They could talk to you, not
Speaker 8: that the other kids couldn't from years past, but to
Speaker 8: have a Nate Cestina from a few years ago and
Speaker 8: read Travis and some of these guys that were so
Speaker 8: nice to talk with. You could hold a conversation and
Speaker 8: they would take you where you wanted to go with
Speaker 8: your question or your story. The same way with these guys,
Speaker 8: and they look you in the eye. They were young
Speaker 8: adults and and and even acted like older adults, and
Speaker 8: it was just nice to to be around the mature
Speaker 8: of a team that you could tell was just so
Speaker 8: grateful to have this opportunity.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I came across a clip from the documentary that we
Speaker 1: did on the ninety eight championship team, and I don't
Speaker 1: know if you remember, but we interviewed the three captains, Cameron,
Speaker 1: Jeff Shephard, the seniors, and Alan Edwards.
Speaker 2: Together.
Speaker 1: It was over at Cameron's house and we just pat them,
Speaker 1: set him on a couch, and one thing they talked
Speaker 1: about was playing for each other. And I'm listening to
Speaker 1: these comments and I'm in my mind I'm hearing them
Speaker 1: from you know, however what sixteen years ago, But it
Speaker 1: sounded for all the world like what these guys did
Speaker 1: this year. You know, these guys who all were thrown together.
Speaker 1: It was almost like a made for TV movie, you know.
Speaker 1: And they came from literally every corner of the country
Speaker 1: north southeastern West, in all walks of styles of basketball,
Speaker 1: and through this scene together. You know, under the guidance
Speaker 1: of Mark Pope and to his great credit, Brian, as
Speaker 1: you just alluded to this, he picked the right guys,
Speaker 1: not just the right players, but the right guys and
Speaker 1: that made such a difference.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it did.
Speaker 8: And I know that there are some people and you
Speaker 8: could see it on social media boards and whatnot, saying, well,
Speaker 8: he can't do this, If he can't do that, speaking
Speaker 8: of recruiting the major player folks, what do you I mean, Dolly,
Speaker 8: look what he did. If cal didn't have a magic
Speaker 8: wand Mark Pope probably borrowed it for a while to
Speaker 8: turn this team into something the entire state could be
Speaker 8: proud of. If Rick Bakino can take a team and
Speaker 8: go fourteen and fourteen in his first year, you would
Speaker 8: have sworn that team won twenty four games that year,
Speaker 8: by the way they played and the way they hustled.
Speaker 8: The same thing can be said to this team to
Speaker 8: a different degree. And the fact that they nobody saw
Speaker 8: them winning anything except oh yeah, they're gonna maybe go
Speaker 8: five hundred.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 8: Who knows in the SEC with sixteen teams now playing
Speaker 8: Duke and playing all of the Gonzaga, they're not winning
Speaker 8: these games. Well, lo and behold look what happens. And
Speaker 8: you know, some of.
Speaker 5: These people who say that Pope.
Speaker 8: Won't be able to do this and won't be able
Speaker 8: to do that, be quiet and sit down. It's one
Speaker 8: thing to be loud and wrong privately. It's another thing
Speaker 8: to be loud and wrong publicly. And anybody that does
Speaker 8: is not on the Mark Pope train right now. They
Speaker 8: need to have their their oatmeal above the eyebrows right now,
Speaker 8: because this guy is putting together something we have not
Speaker 8: seen here before. Yeah, maybe the collective is not five
Speaker 8: star guys. That's okay. As long as you win at
Speaker 8: the end of the day, that's what matters. And that's
Speaker 8: what he did in this first year.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And here's the other thing I kept reminding myself,
Speaker 1: he's not a first year coach. People kind of spoke
Speaker 1: about him like he was feeling his way or whatever.
Speaker 2: He was successful at Utah Valley State. It's successful to
Speaker 2: bring him young.
Speaker 1: You know, this wasn't the first time he's made decisions
Speaker 1: under fire in a game, and it wasn't the first
Speaker 1: time he went back to the drawing board, which he
Speaker 1: did halfway through the year after they were.
Speaker 2: Embarrassed by old miss Me.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I gotta or I saw something
Speaker 1: on social media after that game. Gotta get rid of him. Now,
Speaker 1: get rid of Pope. Now just cut your losses. Get
Speaker 1: somebody else in there. Now, I'm like, okay, all right,
Speaker 1: let's reset. Brian Miley was my guest from WKYT and
Speaker 1: we'll talk more on the other side of the break
Speaker 1: here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with
Speaker 1: WDKYT sports director Brian milein of course talking about the
Speaker 1: basketball cats. And meanwhile, Kenny Brooks is having a ball,
Speaker 1: and or at least Kentucky fan we're having a ball
Speaker 1: watching the UK women and one of the most disappointed,
Speaker 1: heartbreaking losses.
Speaker 11: Oh.
Speaker 1: You know, when you've got everything going for you, you got
Speaker 1: George Ambore going up for a three footer and it
Speaker 1: just rolls off. Talk about a made for TV movie.
Speaker 1: You know that one didn't end properly. But it's amazing
Speaker 1: that these were kind of like living dual lives, these
Speaker 1: two programs.
Speaker 8: At the same time. Yeah, I mean, it was fascinating
Speaker 8: to see two coaches, not brand new but brand new
Speaker 8: to Kentucky from a coaching perspective, come in and revamp
Speaker 8: everything from head to toe pretty much and be able
Speaker 8: to put together the seasons they did stunning really in
Speaker 8: a lot of ways. I was in Greensboro when Kentucky
Speaker 8: lost to Oklahoma. That was a surprise a little bit,
Speaker 8: you know, And both in that loss and in the
Speaker 8: UK men's loss to Tennessee just didn't fire.
Speaker 11: Things just didn't.
Speaker 7: Drop and it was just tough.
Speaker 8: But at the end of the day, looking back, look
Speaker 8: how far everything can come forward, just when you sit
Speaker 8: down and say, Mitch Barnhart, Okay, who do we get?
Speaker 8: We go get this person, We get this person. And
Speaker 8: Mark Pope not a Hall of Fame coach, not yet anyway,
Speaker 8: and everybody was if you you know, you were there,
Speaker 8: you know everybody's talking about Billy Donovan is going to
Speaker 8: be here, and and Bryce is coming, and all these guys,
Speaker 8: and then you get and then on the women's side,
Speaker 8: you get the quiet Kimny Brooks, the man who just
Speaker 8: stoically goes about his job on the sideline and brings
Speaker 8: with him some of the most exciting players this program
Speaker 8: has not had in a long time. Collectively. There's been
Speaker 8: individual players like a Ryan Howard obviously, but collectively what
Speaker 8: he was able to do in such a short amount
Speaker 8: of time is just mesmerizing. Because this is a program,
Speaker 8: the women's program, they have had pockets of success but
Speaker 8: have not been able to sustain it over a decade
Speaker 8: or more in a row. Terry Hall had that great
Speaker 8: team in the early eighties and then things got a
Speaker 8: little lean for a while for a long time, and
Speaker 8: then Mickey Dmoss reignites the flame and Matthew Mitchell carries it.
Speaker 8: But then even that flame starts to die down a
Speaker 8: little bit, and then you have Kenny Who's boom coach
Speaker 8: Brooks a big explosion. Now the question can he keep
Speaker 8: doing it at Kentucky and the SEC when you've got
Speaker 8: the likes of South Carolina at LSU and Tennessee is
Speaker 8: probably waiting for a rebirth to come back to what
Speaker 8: they used to be if they can. It was just
Speaker 8: a fascinating season.
Speaker 11: And one of the books.
Speaker 1: Yep, well before I Let You Go, you covered the
Speaker 1: Sweet sixteen great crossing wins it I love working at
Speaker 1: where I was privileged enough to work on the radio
Speaker 1: network this year. But precious few blowouts and just some
Speaker 1: really exciting.
Speaker 2: Games, people just throwing in three pointers.
Speaker 1: Left and right, and of course you had the star
Speaker 1: power of Malachi Moreno. I thought it was a fascinating year.
Speaker 8: It was, and the best team won, and that's the way.
Speaker 5: It ought to be.
Speaker 8: The best team did win. But when you look back
Speaker 8: through the tournament, you saw the teams that were supposed
Speaker 8: to be there, the majority of the sixteen teams that
Speaker 8: were there, the majority were pre season number one in
Speaker 8: their region, and that doesn't happen all the time. But
Speaker 8: you saw the upset of Saint X in the first round,
Speaker 8: which got everybody. You know, Montgomery County making just their
Speaker 8: third appearance in school history and the last two times
Speaker 8: they've gone County this when they've gone to the semi final.
Speaker 8: Happy Oscar took them in twenty thirteen, and you saw
Speaker 8: the embattled coach from Cooper that is no one really,
Speaker 8: I don't think unless you're in the mix of it
Speaker 8: understands just what the heck is going on with that.
Speaker 8: And then you see all the three pointers. You see
Speaker 8: stars that could have had a greater impact on this
Speaker 8: state had they made it to the Sweet sixteen more often,
Speaker 8: such as Austin Sperry had Breadthett County who put on
Speaker 8: a show. And you see the butting. You see the
Speaker 8: budding stars like Rhys Davidson at North Laurel. My gosh,
Speaker 8: and can they make it back to do to be
Speaker 8: a repeat and to make a name for themselves again,
Speaker 8: There's so many great storylines, but with great crossing, being
Speaker 8: able to win a title with homegrown kids in six
Speaker 8: years is incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because the
Speaker 1: coach mentioned that. Steve Page mentioned that in the post
Speaker 1: and postgame interviews. I think one kid had moved in
Speaker 1: maybe the point right L. J. Holman h when he
Speaker 1: entered high school. But otherwise all those kids played at
Speaker 1: middle school. And there's another great story south Oldham straight
Speaker 1: out of Crestwood. They're warm up shirts. Those kids created
Speaker 1: those or came up with the idea in middle school
Speaker 1: and they got together and said, someday we're going to
Speaker 1: wear these in upp arena. I know you love stuff
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 8: Yeah, And because there it adds to the stories that
Speaker 8: all of us hear people say, you know what, Dick,
Speaker 8: we've got a great seventh grade group coming up. If
Speaker 8: these guys stayed together together, make go run, if you know,
Speaker 8: and usually those teams that we hear that from are
Speaker 8: from rural area. That's because maybe just make like Montgomery County,
Speaker 8: they've only been three times. They've been to the championship
Speaker 8: game in the tenth region I think eleven times, but
Speaker 8: they've only made it three. And and then when you
Speaker 8: see some of these schools that last name ends in
Speaker 8: county or in Ashland, who has made seven trips in
Speaker 8: a row, you know that's where you hear we've got
Speaker 8: a great young group and if we can keep them together,
Speaker 8: we can get to Reparena and make some noise.
Speaker 7: And now now the now, the goal is.
Speaker 8: Just keeping them together. If we know this world has
Speaker 8: turned into a transfer portal all the way around.
Speaker 1: It has even on a high school level. That's a
Speaker 1: that's a topic for another evening. But or prep schools
Speaker 1: or things like that. But uh, but yeah, and you
Speaker 1: worked in eastern Kentucky for so long. You know what
Speaker 1: it's like, what it's like for a community to have
Speaker 1: a team come together like that. And and we saw
Speaker 1: the crowds show up in Reperena, so and some did,
Speaker 1: some didn't.
Speaker 2: But then on the other hand.
Speaker 1: Uh, you know, when the whole town turns out, it's
Speaker 1: just fantastic. And that's that's been the way it has
Speaker 1: been for years. Brian Mylin, sports director WKYT, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, sir, And I guess now we'll just sit
Speaker 1: back and wait and see who wins this championship and
Speaker 1: you can see it on WKYT. The final four.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's right. First time in what almost twenty years,
Speaker 8: we've had all four number one seeds. Yeah, let's play
Speaker 8: it out and see how it plays out.
Speaker 1: Was that how your bracket played out? Did you have
Speaker 1: all the child Oh.
Speaker 8: Yeah, especially last night when I put in that final team. Yeah,
Speaker 8: it's it's the way it worked out.
Speaker 1: Perfectly, all right, coach, have a good one, all right,
Speaker 1: thanks to you. I always talk about some of the
Speaker 1: TV guys who are road warriors. Obviously, the newspaper people
Speaker 1: as well. But you know, I was a TV guy
Speaker 1: for a long time and Brian's one of them.
Speaker 8: Now.
Speaker 2: He travels.
Speaker 1: He went to all the games and as often as
Speaker 1: not drives instead of flies. And I look them as
Speaker 1: road warriors because they're hauling that equipment. And trust me,
Speaker 1: it ain't easy. On one trip, we actually flew the
Speaker 1: airline broke our tripod, which isn't easy to do either,
Speaker 1: so and there's no accountability, trust me on that. Anyhow,
Speaker 1: I do appreciate Brian for taking the time. Tomorrow night,
Speaker 1: it's Kentucky Baseball. The Wildcats take on Ole Miss in
Speaker 1: a Thursday through a Saturday series and the SEC network
Speaker 1: will have it. Doug Flynn and I will have it
Speaker 1: on SEC Plus on Friday and Saturday. But because it's
Speaker 1: on the mother Ship Tomorrow night, the game begins at seven,
Speaker 1: meaning Darren's pregame is at six forty five, so I'll.
Speaker 2: Have a shorter Big Moon in Cider for you. But
Speaker 2: after that, weather permitting.
Speaker 1: Of course, it's going to be the Wildcats and the
Speaker 1: Ole Miss Rebels is Kentucky goes back to work, trying
Speaker 1: to protect its home turf after a road series win
Speaker 1: down at A and m so we'll be with you
Speaker 1: until six forty five and is Darren with pregame Cats
Speaker 1: and the Ole Miss Rebels.
Speaker 2: After that, that's it. Good night from the garage and Lexington.
Speaker 11: Man, you are one pathetic loser.
Speaker 10: Then anything to do anything then letty that.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 10: Don't then don't, don