Speaker 1: It's Stick Gabriel taking a little bit of time off,
Speaker 1: so we thought we would replay some of the best
Speaker 1: interviews from over the last several months. Please enjoy the
Speaker 1: best of the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 2: Coming up tonight Kyle Tucker of The Athletic.
Speaker 1: Always good to check in with Kyle. We're going to
Speaker 1: be talking a lot of basketball, though I haven't forgotten
Speaker 1: about football, but we will talk with Kyle about what's
Speaker 1: coming up with Mark Pope's team. As Kyle has broken
Speaker 1: down the entire SEC when it comes to personnel, who
Speaker 1: has what players coming back, how many minutes, how many points,
Speaker 1: how much experience?
Speaker 2: Things like that.
Speaker 1: Really interesting story on the Athletic and we encourage you
Speaker 1: to subscribe again. It's a great website if you love sports.
Speaker 1: There just isn't enough good sports writing out there and
Speaker 1: newspapers today, as we all know, because papers are drying up.
Speaker 1: But the Internet is alive with good stuff, and the
Speaker 1: Athletic I think is a great place to start. Robert Hogan,
Speaker 1: one of the baseball Wildcats, will join us. We'll find
Speaker 1: out about his future. He's awaiting to draft, but also
Speaker 1: has a year left if he wants to play more
Speaker 1: college baseball and what a year he had for the
Speaker 1: SEC champion Wildcats after transferring in from Texas A and M.
Speaker 2: Also, Kinsey Lee from LAX eighteen and.
Speaker 1: BB and tonight will join us to talk football and basketball.
Speaker 1: Kinzie went to Oklahoma State, so now she'll be covering
Speaker 1: the Sooners again. We'll talk about that with her. No
Speaker 1: hotter rivalry in college sports than Oklahoma and Oklahoma State,
Speaker 1: so we'll get her thoughts on that and a lot
Speaker 1: going on as well.
Speaker 2: Starting with we'll start.
Speaker 1: With a little bit of football from the professional ranks,
Speaker 1: but it involves a former Wildcat, Josh.
Speaker 2: Allen, who now will be going.
Speaker 1: By Josh Hinz Allen. He is changing his name officially
Speaker 1: to honor his family and by the way, this also
Speaker 1: will set him apart from the Buffalo Bill's quarterback Josh Allen,
Speaker 1: but the Kentucky Josh Allen says that because of the
Speaker 1: legacy of his family, he will be carrying on the
Speaker 1: tradition on the back of his jersey going by Heinz Allen,
Speaker 1: which is a nod to the maternal side of his family.
Speaker 1: He is from an athletic family. You might remember this.
Speaker 1: His sister Maisha plays for the Washington Mystics to other
Speaker 1: sisters Kira and Lttori played college basketball, also going by
Speaker 1: Hines Allen. His uncle, Gregory Hines, not the dancer, the performer,
Speaker 1: but an athlete, played at Hampton University in the eighties,
Speaker 1: was drafted by the Golden State Warriors and now Josh
Speaker 1: Allen now Heinz. Allen has signed the huge five year
Speaker 1: deal worth one hundred and forty one million dollars for
Speaker 1: Jacksonville after he gambled on himself. He could have signed
Speaker 1: another contract but decided to hold off, went for a
Speaker 1: career high seventeen and a half sacks, made the Pro
Speaker 1: Bowl force the Jaguars hands and they happily signed him
Speaker 1: to the huge contract, so he will remain at least
Speaker 1: for now in Jacksonville. But that does mean, of course
Speaker 1: Jacksonville fans who own a Jaguars jersey that says Allen, they.
Speaker 2: Need a new one now.
Speaker 1: But the jack said Hines Allen will host a jersey
Speaker 1: exchange in Jacksonville in September for people who own the
Speaker 1: old Allen jerseys. And he released through his Twitter in
Speaker 1: the X page, did Josh a really well produced piece?
Speaker 1: I'm sure Obviously the team helped him with it, explaining
Speaker 1: why he made this decision.
Speaker 3: Is not a struggle to probably say that this is
Speaker 3: what I want to do. This is what I want
Speaker 3: to do. I have decided to change my last name.
Speaker 3: I'm Joshua Hines Allen defensive end, Jacksonville Jaguars. You know,
Speaker 3: I've always been to highs and legacy is forever Premer's
Speaker 3: the point of the movie before. So you come from
Speaker 3: the richest and kind for other people in your family,
Speaker 3: and myself being the youngest one to go to all
Speaker 3: my sister's games, to know my what my uncles did
Speaker 3: in college and in the NBA, it just means something
Speaker 3: a little bit more. Arizona's best thing for me to
Speaker 3: follow that footstepss T. It's gonna be a surreal moment
Speaker 3: the first time I can get my name, and now
Speaker 3: it's growing up, having my sisters run out the tunnel intos,
Speaker 3: I's gone dark behinds out, everybody's watching me, and I
Speaker 3: just thought that was the coolest thak my last things changed.
Speaker 3: But I am still that person and I'm gonna continue
Speaker 3: to play like that and play even better. See I
Speaker 3: see now It's like I have the tension of people
Speaker 3: that are interesting. They saw what I did last year,
Speaker 3: so now I can't create my marritior on what I
Speaker 3: wanna do. And that's why I think right now is
Speaker 3: the perfect cause once I get.
Speaker 2: To the part of the Jaguar, I's.
Speaker 3: Gonna say a Josh run. And when I looked there
Speaker 3: is I went to my legs. You know, That's what
Speaker 3: I always wanna and that's he's going to see him that.
Speaker 1: And again that is from Josh Allen's Twitter page. If
Speaker 1: you want to see it for yourself or follow him
Speaker 1: in fact, go to Josh heinz Allen all one word
Speaker 1: Josh heinz Allen. That's his new Twitter account. So that's
Speaker 1: a pretty cool story. And again the residue of this
Speaker 1: is whenever you hear about Josh Allen now in the NFL,
Speaker 1: more than likely people will be talking about the Bills
Speaker 1: quarterback and listen for heinz Allen or watch for heinz
Speaker 1: Allen when you want to see or hear about the
Speaker 1: former Wildcat. Another story from the NFL, A couple of them, actually,
Speaker 1: this one is really sobering. Bernie Cozar, who if you're
Speaker 1: a Browns fan, and there are a lot of them,
Speaker 1: out there is in trouble in terms of his health.
Speaker 1: He's only sixty years old, but he is now suffering
Speaker 1: from Parkinson's, which is terrible, but also liver failure.
Speaker 2: He has been fading fast. Quite frankly. He said his
Speaker 2: body gave out on him during this past season, and
Speaker 2: in fact, he was at a Jets Browns game and
Speaker 2: he said he wasn't sure he was going to get
Speaker 2: home because he said his body, like I said, just gave.
Speaker 2: I said, I wasn't sure if it was going to
Speaker 2: make it out of there. They took him to the hospital.
Speaker 1: He needed a massive blood transfusion, and he said the
Speaker 1: doctors were wondering, how are you still alive because your
Speaker 1: hemoglobin levels were so low. He's on the liver transplant
Speaker 1: list and again diagnosed with Parkinson's in February, although he
Speaker 1: says now he's following a stricter diet exercise program and
Speaker 1: he feels much much better. But how could you not,
Speaker 1: I mean, he was suffering from ecoli blood poisoning, had
Speaker 1: heart trouble, and he said he believed he needed a
Speaker 1: liver transplant asap. Well. He is on the list, but
Speaker 1: right now he's doing much much better. You might recall
Speaker 1: he was the first round pick of the Drafts in
Speaker 1: the eighty five supplemental Draft, you will call it if
Speaker 1: you're a little bit older. But he was a guy.
Speaker 1: He from Ohio and he wanted to play for the Browns.
Speaker 1: He made no secret of the fact that he wanted
Speaker 1: to play for the Browns, and he did for eight
Speaker 1: years before he finished up his career with the Cowboys
Speaker 1: and the Dolphins as a backup. He led the Browns
Speaker 1: though to three AFC title games and never really broke through.
Speaker 1: But he did get to a Super Bowl with the
Speaker 1: Cowboys in ninety three and he got a ring, So
Speaker 1: technically he is a Super Bowl champion, but he has
Speaker 1: got a much bigger battle to win right now. He
Speaker 1: had a great career though, when you look at the stats,
Speaker 1: twenty three thousand yards, one hundred and twenty four touchdown passes,
Speaker 1: and now.
Speaker 2: He needs a new liver.
Speaker 1: And he would love, of course to get back to
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl. As a fan, he was there last
Speaker 1: year at the Super Bowl and in fact pos with
Speaker 1: pictures for pictures with Taylor Swift. Although I saw the
Speaker 1: photos and I would never have recognized him. He just
Speaker 1: obviously didn't look very good and looked very healthy. But yeah,
Speaker 1: Bernie Cosar, keep him in your thoughts because he's in
Speaker 1: trouble right now in terms.
Speaker 2: Of his health.
Speaker 1: Brett Farv trying to stay out of trouble, was trying
Speaker 1: to revive a defamation lawsuit. Now he's trying to bring
Speaker 1: to trouble. You might recall he's been in trouble in
Speaker 1: Mississippi because of misappropriated funds. He sued Shannon Sharp, television
Speaker 1: personality now NFL veteran, for defamation and the case was
Speaker 1: thrown out, but Farre's lawyers asked an appeals court today
Speaker 1: to revive the defamation suit. This is against a backdrop
Speaker 1: of the Mississippi welfare scandal, which is being called one
Speaker 1: of the state's largest public corruption cases. Federal judge in
Speaker 1: Mississippi throughout the lawsuit in October said Shannon Sharp he
Speaker 1: used constitutionally protected speech on a sports broadcas cast when
Speaker 1: he criticized Farre's connection to the welfare misspending case. Sharp
Speaker 1: said that Farv was quote taking from the underserved and
Speaker 1: that quote he stole money from people that really needed
Speaker 1: that money. And he also said someone would have to
Speaker 1: be a sorry person to quote steal from the lowest
Speaker 1: of the low, and Farre's lawyers said that a reasonable
Speaker 1: listener is taking the words steal literally and not figuratively.
Speaker 1: And of course Farv accused of using funds that were
Speaker 1: designated for underprivileged people for his own use. That and
Speaker 1: his business partners. They believe the state of Mississippi that
Speaker 1: the Department of Human Services misspent more than seventy seven
Speaker 1: million from a temporary assistant fund for needy families down there,
Speaker 1: improperly received eleven million. I'm sorry one. Farv received improperly
Speaker 1: one point one million in speaking fees from a nonprofit
Speaker 1: organization that spent some of that money with approval from
Speaker 1: the Department of Human Services.
Speaker 2: The money was supposed to go toward a.
Speaker 1: Five million dollar volleyball arena at the University of Southern
Speaker 1: miss That's where his daughter was going to school and
Speaker 1: playing the sport.
Speaker 2: Far paid back to.
Speaker 1: One point one million. The court filing, though, said he
Speaker 1: still owes more than seven hundred thousand in interest. So anyhow,
Speaker 1: he sues Shannon Sharp loses the case. Now his lawyers
Speaker 1: are trying to make a comeback in appeals court. We'll
Speaker 1: step out when we come back All Star honors for
Speaker 1: Elied Delacruz of the Reds. And also we'll look back
Speaker 1: on a moment in my humble career when Holly Wood
Speaker 1: came to lexing. And that's more. Bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: More to come here on six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 2: It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome back to the Best of the
Speaker 2: Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: Speaking of baseball, Eli Delacruz is an All Star, no surprise.
Speaker 1: It would have been a shock if he hadn't been
Speaker 1: the most electric player in the game. And in fact
Speaker 1: was it last night he stole second base, the delayed steal.
Speaker 1: You see it, you know in the little league, it
Speaker 1: shouldn't happen in the majors, but catchers lobbing the ball
Speaker 1: back to the pitcher and Delacruze takes off and steals
Speaker 1: second base without a throw.
Speaker 2: Just incredible.
Speaker 1: And the Red release video of him of Dela Cruz
Speaker 1: getting the word from his manager in the full clubhouse,
Speaker 1: the locker room that he had made the All Star team.
Speaker 4: We have our All Star Game selection today. The player
Speaker 4: that's going to be in the All Star Game for US,
Speaker 4: I know that we really appreciate this guy is a
Speaker 4: person and a teammate first and foremost. But since day
Speaker 4: one of spring training, he's worked extremely hard. He played
Speaker 4: hard every single game this year and just keeps getting
Speaker 4: better and it's extremely well deserved.
Speaker 5: When to congratulate Ellie.
Speaker 2: And then his teammates started yelling speech speech, so he
Speaker 2: gets up and start speaking Spanish, of course, and so
Speaker 2: then yelled in English. So he said in English. You
Speaker 2: can understand it a little bit.
Speaker 1: I won't share it here, but he basically said he
Speaker 1: appreciated their support and how much it meant to him.
Speaker 1: So I can't wait to see what he does in
Speaker 1: the All Star Game, the only good professional sports All
Speaker 1: Star game worth watching. Last night on our show, Aaron
Speaker 1: Gershaan mentioned the fact that he would be going to
Speaker 1: Dallas I Am too for the SEC preseason football meetings,
Speaker 1: and he said he was curious to see who Mark
Speaker 1: Stoops was going to bring with him as far as
Speaker 1: players were concerned, And sure enough, Dion Walker will go
Speaker 1: along with the Eric Jackson, the linebacker and left tackle
Speaker 1: Marcus Cock. So Dion of course is everybody's preseason favorite
Speaker 1: as an All conference player and All American player and
Speaker 1: probably will be.
Speaker 2: Leaving after this year. But last year seven and a half.
Speaker 1: Sacks of his fifty five total tackles twelve and a
Speaker 1: half for lost second team All Conference, and man, that's
Speaker 1: a guy who commands double teams. Derek Jackson led the
Speaker 1: team for the second straight year in tackles eighty nine total,
Speaker 1: couple of sacks and interception, had a pick six at
Speaker 1: Mississippi State, broke up four passes. Did you realize he
Speaker 1: had that kind of season? Couple of quarterback hurries and
Speaker 1: a forced fumble. And Marcus Cox, remember he transferred in
Speaker 1: from Northern Illinois prior to last year. They plugged him
Speaker 1: into left tackle as expected, started all thirteen games and
Speaker 1: grated out at seventy one point two on Pro Football
Speaker 1: Focus and allowed just a couple of sacks. And he
Speaker 1: will be playing because of injury and the COVID year
Speaker 1: and all that, for.
Speaker 2: His seventh season with Kentucky.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he'll go to the NFL, but
Speaker 1: he's played a lot of college football already and he'll
Speaker 1: play a lot more so. Looking forward to hearing those
Speaker 1: guys talk down in Dallas. I mentioned Hollywood prior to
Speaker 1: the break, and the reason I brought it up was
Speaker 1: because something sparked a memory in me of the year.
Speaker 1: It was twenty twelve when Richie Nash, who was the
Speaker 1: son of the late Great Cotton Nash, came to town.
Speaker 1: Richie is an actor. He played college baseball. He played
Speaker 1: at Princeton and then turned to Hollywood, and like many actors,
Speaker 1: has a hard time finding work. You know, there aren't
Speaker 1: many actors who can just finish one job and line
Speaker 1: up the next. So Richie came back to his hometown
Speaker 1: with a movie that he had written, and he directed
Speaker 1: it and co produced it, which means help make it happen,
Speaker 1: and he called upon a lot of people he knew
Speaker 1: for help. Cotton Nash was very close to Harry Miller Junior,
Speaker 1: who was Adolf RUPs attorney, was a great lawyer in
Speaker 1: the state of Kentucky. Was also kind of my surrogate
Speaker 1: dad because his sons, Tom, John and Harry were friends
Speaker 1: of mine, particularly Harry. Harry's one of my closest friends.
Speaker 1: He's working in Hollywood now as a film editor. I
Speaker 1: worked with Harry and with John Wynn Miller, who has
Speaker 1: been on the show and will be again. John is
Speaker 1: a retired newspaper man and now an author, an award
Speaker 1: winning author, and he wrote a book called The Hunt
Speaker 1: for Peggy c which is, like I said, won awards
Speaker 1: and we're going to update that interview with John when
Speaker 1: he gets back from a European cruise. But Harry reached
Speaker 1: out to me one day from La and he said, Hey,
Speaker 1: you want to be in a movie.
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, what's up?
Speaker 1: And he explained to me that Richie was filming a
Speaker 1: movie right here in Lexington for the most part, a
Speaker 1: little bit in LA. But it was about a ballplayer
Speaker 1: who had been released and was coming back to Ten
Speaker 1: to see his father. Ultimately, I won't spoil it for you.
Speaker 1: It's on Amazon Prime. But his father was played by
Speaker 1: Bruce Dern. He only had a couple of scenes. One
Speaker 1: scene really, and it's tremendous. But there's a flashback scene
Speaker 1: where Richie's thinking through his troubled childhood. Dad had a
Speaker 1: problem with alcohol, Richie had a problem with personal discipline.
Speaker 1: And there's a scene that most of us lived a
Speaker 1: kid in bed with a transistor radio late at night,
Speaker 1: pleading with mom to let me stay up A little
Speaker 1: bit later, a little bit longer, and listen to the game,
Speaker 1: and they asked me to do a few lines as
Speaker 1: the radio announcer that the kid was listening to.
Speaker 2: Here's what it sounded like.
Speaker 1: He's a batter far in this series five for eighty
Speaker 1: two over runs six RBI in the previous two games.
Speaker 1: Me and he's showing no sign on tonight. Jimmy, are
Speaker 1: you still awake? And of course that's the kid, Jimmy Ripley.
Speaker 1: They called him Jimmy Rip in the film, Richie Nash's character.
Speaker 1: But they asked me to record those lines, which I
Speaker 1: did at the radio station. I sent them off to
Speaker 1: Hollywood and I kind of forgot about it, and then
Speaker 1: my buddy reached out when the film was finally finished
Speaker 1: and he said, hey, you know you're.
Speaker 2: In the movie. So that was really fun. And it's
Speaker 2: a fun film.
Speaker 1: As I said, it's an Amazon Prime and it's shot
Speaker 1: primarily in lectioning, and so when you go to watch it,
Speaker 1: you'll recognize so many different scenes from Euclid Avenue and
Speaker 1: the UK campus and Southeastern Little League's field. It's worth
Speaker 1: the watch just for that, but it's also just a
Speaker 1: fun movie to watch. And Richie Nash did a real
Speaker 1: nice job with it. Cotton Nash's Son had its premiere
Speaker 1: at the Kentucky Theater, and I did appreciate being allowed
Speaker 1: to be a part of it and was invited to
Speaker 1: the premier party.
Speaker 2: So that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: But watching that rewatching it on Amazon Prime was a lot
Speaker 1: of fun as well. The movie's called Hitting the Cycle
Speaker 1: on Amazon Prime.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: Not my Hollywood debut, though I was in a made
Speaker 2: for TV movie for less than one second called Derby.
Speaker 1: I was an extra, played my part with great gusto.
Speaker 1: But maybe my favorite Hollywood moment was actually in a
Speaker 1: movie My Name, Our Family Name from a Broadway show
Speaker 1: called Anything Goes, And there's a famous song referring to
Speaker 1: the angel Gabriel blowing his horn and ethel Merman sang
Speaker 1: it on the Colgate comedy album.
Speaker 6: I Am.
Speaker 2: Will You be Ready to Go?
Speaker 1: When I Blow My That show originally appeared on stage
Speaker 1: on Broadway nineteen thirty four. It's been revived a few times,
Speaker 1: and I think that song ended up in a Marx
Speaker 1: Brothers movie of You at some point, which is where.
Speaker 2: I first noticed it. But yeah, that's kind of fun.
Speaker 1: Not just hear yourself on film on celluloid if they
Speaker 1: still use that, but to hear one's name sung from
Speaker 1: the Broadway stage and beyond. So all right, coming up
Speaker 1: next Kyle Tucker of the Athletic, and then a little
Speaker 1: bit later on Robert Hogan, Kentucky Pittrick. You're listening to
Speaker 1: the best of the Big Blue Insider. More to come
Speaker 1: here on six thirty wlap. Hey, it's Dick Gabriel and
Speaker 1: you're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 2: Joining us now in our.
Speaker 1: Celebrity hotline is Kentucky right hander Robert Hogan and Robert,
Speaker 1: how are you this summer?
Speaker 7: I'm fantastic, Missure, Abraham, fantastic. Just you know, living life cool.
Speaker 1: I got to know, what has life been like for you?
Speaker 1: After living the dream of playing in the College World Series,
Speaker 1: after winning a SEC championship, a regional title, a Super
Speaker 1: Regional championship, and then you make it to Omaha, what
Speaker 1: has life been like for you?
Speaker 7: It's honestly been surreal being able to experience all of that.
Speaker 7: And now I just get to relax for a little
Speaker 7: bit and then get right back into it because once
Speaker 7: the next year comes, it's the new season, new team.
Speaker 7: Got to get ready for it.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you will be playing again for the Wildcats,
Speaker 1: Is that right?
Speaker 7: Yeah, as long as I don't get picked up in
Speaker 7: the draft next week. Yeah, I'm back at Kentucky.
Speaker 1: I know it does depend on the draft though, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: But a lot of guys out there waiting to hear.
Speaker 2: Aren't there?
Speaker 7: Oh yeah? A lot.
Speaker 2: Well, let me.
Speaker 1: Talk first about it. And you've answered this before I realized.
Speaker 1: But the fact that you gambled on yourself, you left
Speaker 1: Texas A and M you know, it was a great
Speaker 1: program obviously, and you're essentially re recruited, and you had
Speaker 1: to make another big decision, just as you did coming.
Speaker 2: Out of high school.
Speaker 1: What is that like for a young person where you're
Speaker 1: really making decisions that are going to literally affect the
Speaker 1: rest of your life.
Speaker 2: Was that tough?
Speaker 7: Oh? Yeah, I'd have to say anyone out there that's
Speaker 7: young and kind of going through that process, just don't
Speaker 7: let it get too big. You don't want to get it,
Speaker 7: let it get too high, or let it get too low.
Speaker 7: Be able to take all the information in that you're
Speaker 7: getting and kind of analyze it. That was the big
Speaker 7: thing for me, this last one. It was do I
Speaker 7: want to be a Friday night guy at a mid major,
Speaker 7: you know, get school paid for or that on myself,
Speaker 7: Like you said, take that step, go right back to
Speaker 7: the SEC because I believe in myself that I deserve
Speaker 7: and I believe that I should be playing at the
Speaker 7: SEC level. And that was just something where I was like,
Speaker 7: I'm going to prove to not only myself but everyone
Speaker 7: else that I belong here. And it wasn't a mistake
Speaker 7: that I was at Texas saying it.
Speaker 1: Did you have any doubt out coming out of Texas?
Speaker 1: A and M an SEC school and you pitched, You
Speaker 1: made a lot of appearances as a reliever, But did
Speaker 1: you have any doubts coming out of A and M.
Speaker 7: I would say for sure, Uh, coming out right away,
Speaker 7: I definitely had doubts. I was thinking, am I really
Speaker 7: good enough here and I able to play at this level?
Speaker 7: Just kind of questioning who I was, if I was
Speaker 7: a pitcher of what was going on. And then I
Speaker 7: had someone tell me like, just believe in yourself. You
Speaker 7: have proven that you can succeed. It's an off year,
Speaker 7: change your mindset and keep playing.
Speaker 1: And then Nick calls or I don't know who made
Speaker 1: the first who reached out to you first from Kentucky.
Speaker 7: So yeah, so from Kentucky. It was actually funny. So
Speaker 7: Ammo was following me on Twitter, following me on following following,
Speaker 7: trying to get my attention. I ended up dming him
Speaker 7: on Twitter. He reached out, We talked. I talked to
Speaker 7: coach Roselle. Then next we talked like an hour and
Speaker 7: a half the next day. Absolutely loved him, like every
Speaker 7: second that we talked to it was just baseball is
Speaker 7: being able to actually like have a conversation not just
Speaker 7: about baseball but life. And then draft comes around, and
Speaker 7: after the draft I talked to coach Minche and we
Speaker 7: talked for an hour and it was like eleven o'clock
Speaker 7: at night, and I was like, wow, okay, and I
Speaker 7: just right then and there I knew. I was like,
Speaker 7: this is this is where God wants me, this is
Speaker 7: where my path leads. So I'm gonna go do it.
Speaker 1: You mentioned coach Roselle. That's a guy who minces few words.
Speaker 1: Am I right? I mean you know where you stand
Speaker 1: with him. You know the word is he coaches hard.
Speaker 1: But a lot of guys really respond to that. And
Speaker 1: you guys responded this year to him, didn't you, Oh.
Speaker 7: One hundred percent. I would have to say that when
Speaker 7: it comes to Roselle, he's so good at just being upfront, honest,
Speaker 7: telling you exactly what you need to work on, exactly
Speaker 7: what you need to do to get there. And he
Speaker 7: has trust in everyone. If you put in the work,
Speaker 7: he's going to believe in you. He's not going to
Speaker 7: just say, Okay, you're not thrown anymore. He's gonna make
Speaker 7: sure to work and help you even though yeah, it's
Speaker 7: gonna be hard sometimes, Like it's that's how it is.
Speaker 7: I mean, it's tough love and you know he's in
Speaker 7: your corner. So when he does get on us, we're like, okay, yes,
Speaker 7: because we know that he's fighting for us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't know.
Speaker 7: Exactly exactly, and we are all just like because we
Speaker 7: love We all, each one of us loved him. And
Speaker 7: he's like, So that's the thing where it's like as
Speaker 7: soon as he if he got on us, we knew
Speaker 7: it was out of love and that he's like he
Speaker 7: wants us to get better, he wants us to succeed.
Speaker 1: Coaches are people who push athletes beyond where athletes they
Speaker 1: can be where they've been and oh yeah, I know
Speaker 1: that so much of pitching is mental. How does that
Speaker 1: element play in when you're talking about mixing the physical
Speaker 1: and the mental.
Speaker 7: The mental is probably the biggest part about baseball. We
Speaker 7: have to define like the physical and mental between each
Speaker 7: person because some people are going to be it's going
Speaker 7: to affect them more physically, some people more mentally. And
Speaker 7: you need to know each of one of your players
Speaker 7: when it comes to the mentality side, because you can
Speaker 7: have some guys where they need to have it hard
Speaker 7: all the time. You need to give them that tough
Speaker 7: love all the time. Then you have some guys where
Speaker 7: it's like you give them that tough love and then
Speaker 7: the next time it's okay, like you're improving. You just
Speaker 7: need to take it a little step step further and
Speaker 7: like just nice and easy, but talk to them. And
Speaker 7: so that's where you just got to know your players.
Speaker 7: And that's what I think Themsel is amazing, even coach
Speaker 7: Minch all the coaches really yeah, is that they know
Speaker 7: each one of their players so they know how to
Speaker 7: coach them. And it's not just okay, I'm going to
Speaker 7: coach everyone like this, it's individually and I mean, for
Speaker 7: crying out loud, this game. If you hit the ball
Speaker 7: and get a base hit thirty percent of the time,
Speaker 7: you're in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 7: And that's something like you have to be okay with
Speaker 7: failure in this game. You'd have to be And that's
Speaker 7: one thing I was not good with last year, and
Speaker 7: then this year I was like, you know what, it's baseball.
Speaker 7: It was one outing. It's not going to happen in
Speaker 7: the next one. And it's just that ability to just
Speaker 7: move on and be like, you know what, I am
Speaker 7: good enough. One outing doesn't define me. And that's something
Speaker 7: mine in Roselle say all the time.
Speaker 1: You mentioned your initial conversation with Nick Minjee on release,
Speaker 1: the one that lasted for an hour, and I know
Speaker 1: he is not afraid to and he did so during
Speaker 1: the tournament profess his you know, support from his faith
Speaker 1: and you mentioned it as well. So you guys connected
Speaker 1: on that level. I got to think that brought you
Speaker 1: an element of peace, am I right?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, it was. It was something that it was like, okay,
Speaker 7: me and him connect on this.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 7: I could not tell you. I was in Louisiana last
Speaker 7: year during the Super Regional when they were playing Kentucky
Speaker 7: and their announcers, the fans, everyone had nothing but nice
Speaker 7: things to say about mine and the guys. And I
Speaker 7: was like, and then when he talked to me, and
Speaker 7: how he talked to me, and when we connected on
Speaker 7: our faith, it was just like you know what it
Speaker 7: was like that relaxing, like I don't have to worry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know you're in good hands.
Speaker 7: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: Robert Hogan is our guess.
Speaker 1: He's a right handed pitcher for the baseball wild Cats,
Speaker 1: the SEC champs. Will come back and talk more baseball
Speaker 1: in just a minute, we're listening to the best of
Speaker 1: the Big Blue Insider. More to come here on six
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP. It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome back to the Best
Speaker 1: of the Big Blue Insider, talking with Robert Hogan, a
Speaker 1: Kentucky veteran right handed pitcher who either will be drafted
Speaker 1: next week or return to the Wildcats.
Speaker 2: Good to have options.
Speaker 1: Let me look back on this past season, though, Robert,
Speaker 1: and we started at the end, but let's start at
Speaker 1: the beginning. You were lightly used early. I think it
Speaker 1: was not until the third week of the season that
Speaker 1: we saw when you went an inning against Western Kentucky.
Speaker 1: You went an inning against Lipscomb. But then to me,
Speaker 1: I believe and it was pretty evident. Your breakout performance
Speaker 1: was at Eku midweek game, but you guys had already
Speaker 1: beaten Eastern the night before. Now you're in Richmond and
Speaker 1: they're amped up. Man, there were no hitting your offense
Speaker 1: until the seventh inning, but you came on early and
Speaker 1: you went three perfect innings and really held things down.
Speaker 1: What did that do for you and how did that
Speaker 1: help set you up for the rest of the year.
Speaker 7: The biggest thing for me was I trusted myself and
Speaker 7: I knew everyone had my back. I knew the guys
Speaker 7: behind me, I knew and I was doing it for
Speaker 7: the guys behind me too. It was just that like
Speaker 7: mental change where I was like, Yeah, this is it
Speaker 7: and I'm just going to keep dominating. And then that
Speaker 7: just boosted my confidence and the next outing better like
Speaker 7: and then I come in against like Kennesaw and things
Speaker 7: start going really well. And that's just where you had.
Speaker 7: I had that mentality like mentality click change, whatever you
Speaker 7: want to call it, and it it kind of changed
Speaker 7: my whole perspective on who I was.
Speaker 1: What do you mean by your perspective on who you are?
Speaker 7: So What I mean by that was, I was, how
Speaker 7: did I say this? I was kind of I didn't
Speaker 7: really like talk much. I was at the beginning, I
Speaker 7: was quiet. I was trying to figure out where I was,
Speaker 7: you know, in the program, and that's where just trying
Speaker 7: to fit in. So that perspective is like, okay, you can.
Speaker 7: When I could tell like okay, yeah, everyone's together, we
Speaker 7: all love each other, like okay, then that that like
Speaker 7: mentality change, I was like, yeah, I don't have to worry,
Speaker 7: I don't have to be nervous.
Speaker 1: Okay, hey, what you did was you became Bobby Spins,
Speaker 1: didn't you. Yeah?
Speaker 4: I did.
Speaker 1: That's Robert's name because of the breaking balls he throws
Speaker 1: so well. But you really uncorked your emotions, is the
Speaker 1: way it manifested his self, didn't it.
Speaker 2: I mean was that something you had always done up
Speaker 2: until that point?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 7: I mean actually I would say yes. Until A and M.
Speaker 7: I kind of became a little bit quieter.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 7: My first year at A and M, I had the emotion.
Speaker 7: Second year, I don't know, I just had something change
Speaker 7: in me and who I was, and I didn't really
Speaker 7: show much emotion. And then this year everyone's telling me like, dude,
Speaker 7: that's who you are. You don't got to change it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I.
Speaker 7: Was like okay, So then I just started showing emotion
Speaker 7: being who I was on the mound and that's just
Speaker 7: being up there and no on, this is our game,
Speaker 7: you know, this is my game, and if something cool happens,
Speaker 7: I'm gonna go crazy because I think it's awesome when
Speaker 7: the defender, Like I'd like the defense makes me play,
Speaker 7: you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and they made a lot of them.
Speaker 7: Uh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1: How much did it help? I got to think it
Speaker 1: was a big help because you're uh. I started to
Speaker 1: say bullpen, but your bullpen was good. But your dugout
Speaker 1: became famous this year, literally famous for.
Speaker 2: The energy and weirdness.
Speaker 1: And it just seemed like your emotion coming off the
Speaker 1: mound after a good inning just just fit right into that.
Speaker 2: Am I right?
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, Hunter, Like could not say it any better.
Speaker 7: I Mean, a dugout is what builds the energy for
Speaker 7: the game, you know, it's it kind of flips the
Speaker 7: momentum from side to side. If you have that good dugout,
Speaker 7: good energy coming from the dugout, then everyone else is like,
Speaker 7: oh yeah, okay, let's get into it, and like then
Speaker 7: they start getting that energy.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I asked Ryan Hagen now the same question. Of
Speaker 1: course he's your dugout captain. Uh yeah, I said, is
Speaker 1: it tough when it's time for all of you guys
Speaker 1: should go to the bullpen to tear yourselves away from
Speaker 1: the fun and the dugout and go to work down there.
Speaker 1: In the book, of course, Haig's had to assign somebody
Speaker 1: else to be the captain, But when you guys had
Speaker 1: to break away, leave the nest and go to the bullpen,
Speaker 1: that had to be kind of tough.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, I would I would say. It was always
Speaker 7: like I don't want to leave. I don't want to
Speaker 7: leave because like it's sometimes it'd be like in an
Speaker 7: inning where we're actually doing something really fun and I'm like,
Speaker 7: oh no, I just want to stay a little bit longer. Yeah,
Speaker 7: you know, And that's what was so fun is we
Speaker 7: were all just engaged every single inning, no matter what.
Speaker 7: And that was something that's just so fun, because you know,
Speaker 7: sometimes games can be four hours long. You get into
Speaker 7: extra innings and then you're sitting there like kind of
Speaker 7: losing it a little bit. But then when you have
Speaker 7: something to do every inning with the guys on the dugout,
Speaker 7: and you just make it feel like home. You have
Speaker 7: no like you're like, I don't care how long I'm here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can't wait to get back into the doug
Speaker 1: at as exactly talking to Robert Hogan, Kentucky right hand
Speaker 1: or part of a team that won the SEC championship,
Speaker 1: and you did it by beating Vanderbilt, which was is
Speaker 1: a great program, but came to town the last weekend
Speaker 1: and you guys took two out of three. You pitched
Speaker 1: in the opener. It helps it set Kentucky up for
Speaker 1: that championship winning game the next night. What was that
Speaker 1: weekend like with the crowds? I know, and they came
Speaker 1: despite the rain, as Nick said, they just wore the
Speaker 1: rain and yeah, and you guys just plowed through them
Speaker 1: for two games.
Speaker 6: It was.
Speaker 7: It's unbelievable seeing Big Blue Nations show out like that
Speaker 7: and have the support that we did this year.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 7: It was awesome and it made going to Omaha that
Speaker 7: much easier for us because of BBN, because we were like,
Speaker 7: all right, we're used to these crowds like we're used
Speaker 7: to it being and so just having the fans like
Speaker 7: that and like showing that they're gonna sit out in
Speaker 7: the rain, like I don't think I've ever seen any
Speaker 7: any fan base sit down in the rain like they did,
Speaker 7: and it's really spectacular.
Speaker 1: See, Yeah, they just bonded with you guys. Were you
Speaker 1: all bonded with each other?
Speaker 2: Didn't they?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 7: I think it was something that they had fun watching us. Yeah,
Speaker 7: you know they had They were like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 7: look at what they're doing. And then they started doing
Speaker 7: stuff like with the pink hat. You know. I think
Speaker 7: that's just I think it's super cool. Even with the
Speaker 7: walkout songs, yes, you know that that was when you
Speaker 7: look around and you see seven eight thousand people doing
Speaker 7: Waldy's walk up for doing Grants clap, doing the James
Speaker 7: McCloy like side to side, Like it's just it's unreal
Speaker 7: to see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we touched on defense earlier, and it's a really
Speaker 1: obvious question, but we always asked the pictures when you
Speaker 1: got the defense behind you, and Granted and Pete were
Speaker 1: established up the middle. But Ryan Nicholson, I think surprise
Speaker 1: people a little bit with his glove and then Mitchell Daily,
Speaker 1: who was a freshman All American as a middle infielder.
Speaker 1: Now he's a third base and now playing it at
Speaker 1: all conference level as a pitcher.
Speaker 2: Man, that's a security blanket.
Speaker 7: Oh my gosh, yeah, are you kidding me. It's one
Speaker 7: of those things where they hit it on the ground,
Speaker 7: you know, it's an out. You like, hit it in
Speaker 7: the air, it's an out. You even if you think like, oh,
Speaker 7: that's going to be a hit. Next thing, you know,
Speaker 7: g comes up out of nowhere, throws it, Ron picks it.
Speaker 7: You're like, wow, in never mind, or you know, Mitch,
Speaker 7: they put a bunt down, they put a really good
Speaker 7: bunt down. Misscums throws it. You're like, all right, I'll
Speaker 7: take that. Like it's one of those things where you're like,
Speaker 7: all right, this is easy. And that's why it's just
Speaker 7: so easy to come the zone when you have guys
Speaker 7: like that, you have i say, four gold Glovers behind
Speaker 7: you in the infield.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, and you know Nick Manjeon has always preached in
Speaker 1: every great coach does pitching and defense, and that you've
Speaker 1: got you know, final question when you do come back.
Speaker 1: If you do come back, and I wish you the
Speaker 1: best with a draft, but I'd love to cover. Thank
Speaker 1: you your next season, new faces, a lot of guys
Speaker 1: moving on to the portal, graduation, the draft transferred.
Speaker 2: But that's college baseball.
Speaker 1: I mean, people get upset about it when it happens
Speaker 1: in football and basketball and baseball. People just kind of
Speaker 1: chuckle because that's business as usual on college baseball, isn't it.
Speaker 8: M H.
Speaker 7: I would one hundred percent agree, And I think the
Speaker 7: thing that we're going to have to do this year
Speaker 7: is the same thing that the older guys showed us
Speaker 7: last year. You know, they brought everyone in and treated
Speaker 7: them like a brother since they won. And I think
Speaker 7: even with all the new faces, I think we're gonna
Speaker 7: be able to mesh because I know Koozy and coach
Speaker 7: Rozelle and Manage when they look at guys, they look
Speaker 7: at guys with the same personality that we all do.
Speaker 7: Great kids that want to have fun and they have
Speaker 7: and they show a motion on the field too, and
Speaker 7: that that's something that when you get a bunch of
Speaker 7: guys that have like for the same people, you can't
Speaker 7: beat that. That's why this year I don't like. I
Speaker 7: will say it's going to be hard to beat the
Speaker 7: chemistry we had this year because I just don't think
Speaker 7: there's a team out there that was as close as
Speaker 7: we were.
Speaker 2: I don't see how. I don't see how.
Speaker 1: Robert Hogan, right hander. Wherever you are next season, I'll
Speaker 1: be rooting for you. If it's in the pros.
Speaker 2: If it's thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Follow Robert on Twitter at Robert Hogan one four to
Speaker 1: two three, Thank you sir.
Speaker 2: Having a great summer. Thank you very much, Robert Hogan.
Speaker 1: Or you can call him Bobby Spins because he does
Speaker 1: throw a great breaking ball more than one. Actually, you're
Speaker 1: listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider. Our
Speaker 1: number two is next year on six thirty w LAP. Hey,
Speaker 1: it's Dick Gabriel. Welcome back to the Big Blue and
Speaker 1: Side Hour number two. Taking a little time off soap,
Speaker 1: please enjoy the best of the Big Blue Insider. Coming
Speaker 1: up today, we're going to talk a lot of basketball,
Speaker 1: some football, and some baseball as well.
Speaker 2: Quite frankly, I know a lot of you aren't.
Speaker 1: Into baseball anymore, but you got to take note of
Speaker 1: what's happening up in Cincinnati. But we're going to talk
Speaker 1: with Sean Woods, the unforgettable Guard. He's with us on
Speaker 1: every Wednesday. By the way, our West n BERA chief
Speaker 1: Gary Moore, usually joined us on Wednesdays, is out of
Speaker 1: town once again called away on business, so he will
Speaker 1: not be with us. Cl Brown columnists for the Courier Journal.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to him about SEC football, among other things. Also,
Speaker 1: Lee K Howard of WKYT TV. I want to talk
Speaker 1: to Lee K as well about the fact that Texas
Speaker 1: and Oklahoma are joining the SEC, because Lee K went
Speaker 1: to West Texas State. He's from New Mexico, so he's
Speaker 1: from that part of the world and he probably has
Speaker 1: a better feel for college football coming from that area
Speaker 1: just about anybody around. Yeah. I lived in Texas for
Speaker 1: a couple of years, but I didn't grow up there.
Speaker 1: And he played high school football, and as I said,
Speaker 1: is from New Mexico Albuquerque and not Albuquerque, but that
Speaker 1: area and went to college in Texas.
Speaker 2: So we'll talk to Lee K about that. One.
Speaker 1: Kentucky football recruiting note it's not a huge headline, but
Speaker 1: it is important. Mark Stoopson's staff had picked up a
Speaker 1: junior college defensive tackle from the West Coast named Dennius
Speaker 1: or Deneas Jackson. He's six five, three thirty five, not
Speaker 1: a superstar at his college, which was San Pablo Contra Costa.
Speaker 2: College, and he had eleven tackles last year. But keep
Speaker 2: two things in mind.
Speaker 1: Number One, when you're the nose tackle, your job is
Speaker 1: to command double teams and that's so the other guys,
Speaker 1: of course, can have more room to roam, more room
Speaker 1: to operate. And if that's what this guy did PROMI
Speaker 1: and his team was successful, then yeah, he was a
Speaker 1: good player. But what he'll provide for Kentucky is depth
Speaker 1: because they've lost Josiahs of the Wildcat to the torn
Speaker 1: Achilles and uh, I don't know that he'll play at
Speaker 1: all this year, but Mark Steops mentioned it a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago at a fundraiser over for Eku or his
Speaker 1: friend Walt Wells. So depth has been a strength for
Speaker 1: Kentucky on the d line, and it lost some important
Speaker 1: depth when Hayes went down. Number ninety seven had a
Speaker 1: couple of big tackles against Florida and against Louisville, the
Speaker 1: two games. It popped up on the SEC takeover day
Speaker 1: for Kentucky. So they've got somebody to kind of fill
Speaker 1: that gap a little bit, and maybe he'll surprise us
Speaker 1: and play a lot. But the odds are he's been
Speaker 1: He's definitely been brought in for depth, but the odds
Speaker 1: are he won't play a whole lot, but depths so
Speaker 1: vital everywhere, especially when you're playing on the line.
Speaker 2: One Kentucky and one more.
Speaker 1: Can you note when it comes to the Olympics. Jasmine
Speaker 1: Camacho Quinn, another Wildcat, has now been named the flag
Speaker 1: bearer for Puerto Rico at the upcoming ceremonies. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine not just making the Olympic team, but being tapped
Speaker 1: by your country whatever it is to carry the flag
Speaker 1: in the opening ceremonies coming up in Paris on July
Speaker 1: twenty sixth. Camacho Quinn won Puerto Rico its first Olympic
Speaker 1: gold medal in Tokyo in twenty twenty one. Remember they
Speaker 1: put it off for a year because of COVID. She
Speaker 1: wins the gold there, then wins bronze and silver in
Speaker 1: twenty two and twenty three respectively at the World Athletics Championships,
Speaker 1: and another gold at the Central American and Caribbean Game.
Speaker 1: So she is a superstar in that part of the world,
Speaker 1: and she may well win one hundred meter hurdles in Paris.
Speaker 1: She will not have to race against Sydney MacLaughlin Lebron
Speaker 1: because she's only running in the four hunt where she
Speaker 1: absolutely owns.
Speaker 2: The world right now.
Speaker 1: But what a thrill for Jasmine Camacho Quinn And congratulations
Speaker 1: to her. Speaking of congratulations man Reese Hines, and I'm saying,
Speaker 1: speaking to you Reds fans, congratulations, you have something else
Speaker 1: to be excited about. Hasn't been a lot to be
Speaker 1: excited about of late for the Reds. We talked yesterday
Speaker 1: about Elie Dela Cruz making the All Star team. Well,
Speaker 1: Reese Hines is a guy who just came up. If
Speaker 1: you're a Reds fan, you already know about this guy.
Speaker 2: If you're a casual fan, you may hear more about him,
Speaker 2: and you may not.
Speaker 1: That's what's interesting about rookies. This guy was the second
Speaker 1: round pick overall number forty nine for the Reds in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, so he's been in the miners obviously for
Speaker 1: a while. But in his first two games he has
Speaker 1: five hits, eight at bats, right extra base hits, a
Speaker 1: couple of homers, a couple of doubles, and a triple,
Speaker 1: and last night against the Colorado Rockies, he hit a
Speaker 1: four hundred and fifty eight foot home run that honestly
Speaker 1: rivals anything I think the Dela Cruz has done. Came
Speaker 1: off to bat at one hundred and twelve miles an hour,
Speaker 1: and of course number one pitchers don't know the rookies yet.
Speaker 1: But the pitch this guy hit was an off speed
Speaker 1: pitch that did not break. So it was a fat, huge,
Speaker 1: fat pitch right down the middle, and I think a
Speaker 1: lot of it and with all due respect, most major
Speaker 1: leaguers could have hit this one out, but not the
Speaker 1: way this kid did it. And the internet now contains
Speaker 1: a clip from Red's Daily, which is a Twitter site
Speaker 1: or an x site, and Hoover put it together included
Speaker 1: all four broadcast calls or the four main broadcast calls
Speaker 1: TV and radio from both teams. Here's the Reds call
Speaker 1: from John Sadak And a lot of people complain about him.
Speaker 2: I don't know the guy.
Speaker 1: He's a good buddy of Darren Hedrick, and I don't
Speaker 1: see many Reds games, so I don't mind him so
Speaker 1: much when I see him. People who watch him a lot,
Speaker 1: so he gets too excited. Hard not to get excited
Speaker 1: about this home run. This is Red's TV.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, just.
Speaker 7: There would be all the.
Speaker 9: Case signs in the un perduc race.
Speaker 10: Hurns makes baseball history, the first man Evers launched rive
Speaker 10: extra base.
Speaker 2: Hits in his first two games. And there is little Dogs.
Speaker 2: Wow wow, wow is right. That's all you could say.
Speaker 1: And if you haven't seen it yet, please do yourself
Speaker 1: a favor and go find that video. Jeff Brantley was
Speaker 1: at the mic for the radio call and the Reds
Speaker 1: radio network, and this is not the greatest recording, but
Speaker 1: this is what was offered on Twitter.
Speaker 10: Oh my pridmis dude, he killed that ball that is
Speaker 10: way over the crown case. The second home run in
Speaker 10: his Minny Knights for re times. My lord, what a
Speaker 10: home run by this kid. He has burst onto the
Speaker 10: scene here with the Reds and it's an eight four
Speaker 10: revs league. Oh man, thank you. This first five minutes
Speaker 10: are all extra base hits.
Speaker 3: In the big League.
Speaker 1: And I think that was Chris Wels there at the end. Again,
Speaker 1: not the greatest recording. It kind of sounds like an
Speaker 1: old timey radio broadcast the way that came off there.
Speaker 1: Somebody just stuck a recorder up in front of the radio.
Speaker 1: But we do appreciate having it. Now, what did it
Speaker 1: sound like to the folks back in Colorado. Well, here's
Speaker 1: Colorado Rockies TV.
Speaker 8: Oh boys, this kid has hit two monstrous home runs.
Speaker 8: How far did that?
Speaker 2: They go?
Speaker 8: Eight to four? Reese Hines a homework day at the
Speaker 8: Big League's evident.
Speaker 1: Late and you can hear the fireworks in the background,
Speaker 1: but Ree signs providing fireworks of his own. Finally, here
Speaker 1: is the Colorado Rocki's radio call of that home run.
Speaker 8: Justin Lawrence with a bitch and hit harder to left field.
Speaker 8: Another home run, hammered disc ball into the third deck
Speaker 8: and left hung a sweeper that time. And Hines with
Speaker 8: his second home run in two games of a big
Speaker 8: league career, fifth extra basis and it's eight to four rids.
Speaker 1: Now, I got to admit I love stuff like this.
Speaker 1: I love hearing the compared calls. Being someone who has
Speaker 1: done a lot of baseball on the radio and TV
Speaker 1: primarily over the last many many years, very blessed, very
Speaker 1: fortunate to do that. And we talk a lot a
Speaker 1: lot of us broadcasters about guys we like, guys we disliked.
Speaker 1: But this was just fun to hear this. I have
Speaker 1: to admit, though, that when I heard the Rockies call.
Speaker 1: I had an absolute flashback to a Kentucky versus Tennessee
Speaker 1: game earlier this year, and now here it is again. Oh,
Speaker 1: just that immediate reaction like here we go again kind
Speaker 1: of thing, and I flashed back to UK Tennessee because
Speaker 1: this was the series you might recall, where Kentucky winds
Speaker 1: up losing the series at home to Tennessee and because
Speaker 1: of that had to share the SEC championship. Still a
Speaker 1: great weekend where Kentucky had really the last two weekends
Speaker 1: with the Wildcats wrapped up a share of the SEC title,
Speaker 1: just their second, but Tennessee kept hitting home runs. Kentucky
Speaker 1: hit about as many home runs that weekend, but they
Speaker 1: were bases empty shots. Tennessee seemed to always have men
Speaker 1: on base, and that was the difference literally in the weekend.
Speaker 1: But there was always this feeling of dread when one
Speaker 1: of the Tennessee hitters came up, especially Christian Moore. And again,
Speaker 1: this is a team that went on to win the
Speaker 1: national title and Kentucky was this close to winning that
Speaker 1: series and winning an outright SEC title. Still they'll say, hey,
Speaker 1: conference championship, will take it. But Doug Flynn and I
Speaker 1: we got called out a little bit on Twitter by
Speaker 1: at least one Tennessee fan who posted a clip from
Speaker 1: the movie Major League because at a crucial moment when
Speaker 1: Kentucky had a shot at nailing things down, but Tennessee
Speaker 1: one of their hitters.
Speaker 2: I think it was more went.
Speaker 1: Yard Doug and I gave way to our emotions. I
Speaker 1: try to play everything down the middle when I'm doing
Speaker 1: SEC network stuff because our audience, I know, is if
Speaker 1: it's Kentucky, Tennessee as many volunteer fans watching as Kentucky fans,
Speaker 1: maybe more because you got six to eight thousand Kentucky
Speaker 1: fans in the ballpark.
Speaker 2: Doug trying to play a little more down the middle.
Speaker 1: But Doug played at Kentucky, played two sports at Kentucky
Speaker 1: and didn't come up under Kavid Lefford as I did.
Speaker 1: He's trying hard, but in this particular game, we had
Speaker 1: a hard time masking our disappointment. And so a Tennessee
Speaker 1: fan posted this clip from Bob Uker after a crucial
Speaker 1: home run in the Major League movie when the Indians
Speaker 1: team was still getting hammered early in that film, and
Speaker 1: this is what Yuker sounded like when he announced a
Speaker 1: key home run given up by Charlie Sheen's character the
Speaker 1: relief pitcher.
Speaker 9: Top of the knife, leading ten to seven bases loaded,
Speaker 9: two down, and Rick Kawn has come on to try
Speaker 9: and nail it down against Philippi agular dangerous, right headed
Speaker 9: bout it.
Speaker 3: Here's the pitch.
Speaker 1: That's the first thing I thought of when I heard
Speaker 1: the Colorado Rockies broadcasters Doug and I. We didn't say
Speaker 1: the world that we bleeped out here, but we may
Speaker 1: as well have, because that's what it was like. As
Speaker 1: soon as I think it was more hit the home run,
Speaker 1: we knew it was gone and our shoulders dropped and
Speaker 1: we were like, oh man. But I just, like I said,
Speaker 1: I just love situations like this where it's an incredible
Speaker 1: feat and you get to go back and hear what
Speaker 1: both sides had to say about it. And again, those
Speaker 1: are courtesy of the Reds and Rockies, TV and radio networks.
Speaker 1: Coming up in just a few minutes. Cl Brown of
Speaker 1: the Courier Journal. Also coming up Sean Woods, the Unforgettable Guard,
Speaker 1: and Lee K. Howard from WKYT. But after the break,
Speaker 1: did a major college football coach just admit to driving
Speaker 1: while intoxicated multiple times.
Speaker 2: I got that for you.
Speaker 1: Nick, You're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: More to come here on six thirty WLAP It's Dick Gabriel.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the best of the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: Saw something else on Twitter in the X involving UK
Speaker 1: fans and Arkansas fans released in Arkansas supposed account on
Speaker 1: Twitter on X and it was something that apparently, and
Speaker 1: I say apparently for a reason, touted John Caliperi's success
Speaker 1: as the Arkansas coach.
Speaker 2: There was a post.
Speaker 1: About the former Wildcats who had success with the U
Speaker 1: Team USA and you probably saw, you know, bam Adebayo
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker, Anthony Davis and the tweetthead a graphic
Speaker 1: and I said, going for gold with the at Team USA,
Speaker 1: at USA Basketball and at coach cal arc which is
Speaker 1: his new address. Turned out this was a fake because
Speaker 1: Kentucky fans went a little crazy about it, criticizing the
Speaker 1: Arkansas social media manager for posting something touting successive players
Speaker 1: under John Caliperi, making it seem like they were Arkansas
Speaker 1: products because the title of the account was Arkansas Razorbacks
Speaker 1: Men's Basketball. But a woman named Rachel Harris tweeted back said, Hi,
Speaker 1: I run this account, this was never posted. Thanks for
Speaker 1: your time, Although somebody else tweeted back, but you did
Speaker 1: list all of coach Cow's draft picks from Memphis and
Speaker 1: Kentucky on draft night, and pardon my take, made fun
Speaker 1: of you for it that actually did happen. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe so, but you can't blame somebody on draft night
Speaker 1: for listing all the Caliperi's success no matter what the school,
Speaker 1: when it comes to players who have made it in
Speaker 1: the NBA. I don't blame it for that. But it's
Speaker 1: just funny how this one sparked. And it's not surprising
Speaker 1: sort of. I won't say it was an avalanche, but
Speaker 1: an outcry of complaint about it. I mentioned Oklahoma State's
Speaker 1: coach Mike Gundy, and I talked about him yesterday with
Speaker 1: Kinsey Lee, who went to Oklahoma State. She works for
Speaker 1: a WLX and BBN tonight. And this is the guy
Speaker 1: who was criticizing a columnist who had written several years
Speaker 1: ago about one of his players, and Gundhy didn't like it,
Speaker 1: and he challenged the writer by saying, write about me
Speaker 1: or come after me. I'm a man, I'm forty, which
Speaker 1: just became a punchline. But this is, as Kinsey told
Speaker 1: us yesterday, just a guy who was a fiery coach
Speaker 1: and emotional coach. And he was talking at Big twelve
Speaker 1: Media Day about one of his players, star running back
Speaker 1: Ali Gordon, who was arrested on a DUI charge and
Speaker 1: he was the Big twelve Offensive Player of the Year
Speaker 1: last year, actually was arrested for suspicion.
Speaker 2: Of dui back at the end of June.
Speaker 1: And Gundhy almost finally told ESPN on Tuesday, he said,
Speaker 1: he's going to play. I'm going to do what we
Speaker 1: think is best for Oklahoma State football, and I think
Speaker 1: it's best for Ali to stay. If there's any punishment,
Speaker 1: it's making him carry the ball fifty times in the
Speaker 1: first game. All right, you can you can debate forever
Speaker 1: this issue. You know, what kind of lesson are you teaching,
Speaker 1: not just Gordon but the other players. And I guarantee
Speaker 1: you Oklahoma State fans are ninety five percent behind Gundhy
Speaker 1: on this because well, it's football. But basically, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: you're letting this kid get away with it. But here's
Speaker 1: what's more disturbing. Here's what Gundhy said at PAC twelve
Speaker 1: Media Day. It's part of his rationalization. Let's put it
Speaker 1: for why he is handling it this way.
Speaker 5: So I looked it up on my phone. What would
Speaker 5: be the legal limit in Oklahoma was point oh eight
Speaker 5: and OLI was point one. So I looked it up
Speaker 5: and it was based on body way, not to get
Speaker 5: into the legal side of it, but I thought, really,
Speaker 5: two or three beers or four, I'm not justifying what
Speaker 5: all I did.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you what decision I made.
Speaker 5: Well, I thought, I've probably done that a thousand times
Speaker 5: in my life, and you know, it's just fine. So
Speaker 5: I got lucky. People get lucky first, I thought, okay.
Speaker 1: So I looked it up and again, not the greatest.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's out there, but I couldn't find a
Speaker 1: better recording. But I know I get a little preachy sometimes.
Speaker 1: I'm trying not to, however, and I'll admit that when
Speaker 1: I was young and dumb, I can think of a
Speaker 1: couple times I can remember that I got behind the
Speaker 1: wheel and I shouldn't have. And I'm sure there were
Speaker 1: other times when I did and didn't realize it. But
Speaker 1: in this day and age, how in the world. Do
Speaker 1: you justify something like that because the kids your best player.
Speaker 2: It's just wrong.
Speaker 1: But that's where we are right now. And here's a guy,
Speaker 1: Mike Gundy who just admitted shrugged it off by saying, well,
Speaker 1: I've driven drunk probably a thousand times. That's the wrong
Speaker 1: thing to say, and it may stir something up out there,
Speaker 1: may already have for twenty four to forty eight hours.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the kid made a mistake, but to.
Speaker 1: Just ignore it, I don't get it. And in case
Speaker 1: you're wondering about how UK would handle it, it's essentially
Speaker 1: a case by case, but it is not I'm told
Speaker 1: up strictly to the coach. There are several layers of
Speaker 1: leadership on campus involved.
Speaker 2: If you know what I'm.
Speaker 1: Saying, that would work with the respective coach in that area.
Speaker 1: Back in the day when Sam Newton was here, and
Speaker 1: of course there was a terrible fatal car accident involving
Speaker 1: football players alcohol and Artie Steinmett lost his life. CM
Speaker 1: Newton put together a policy that was really too harsh.
Speaker 1: But it was, as he admitted later, a bit of
Speaker 1: a knee jerk reaction to having to call a parent
Speaker 1: or parents and say I'm sorry, but your child is
Speaker 1: dead from a traffic related alcohol related incident. You sent
Speaker 1: him here to us, and we didn't take very good
Speaker 1: care of him, so you might recall for at least
Speaker 1: a year, the policy was a kid loses his scholarship
Speaker 1: or her scholarship, and one of the basketball players did
Speaker 1: lose the scholarship, and everybody got all upset, not understanding
Speaker 1: that that wasn't the only people thought they did it
Speaker 1: just for the publicity. No, that wasn't the only athlete
Speaker 1: who lost their scholarship. It was the highest profile athlete
Speaker 1: see him later, back off, and the athlete was made
Speaker 1: to sit out a year if they were involved in
Speaker 1: a diui arst but did not lose their scholarship.
Speaker 2: So that's where we are as a society right now.
Speaker 1: Though you've got a football coach basically saying he's going
Speaker 1: to play and saying so in a defiant way. So
Speaker 1: make of it what you will. Oklahoma State fans are
Speaker 1: loving it. I can't say I love it right now myself.
Speaker 2: Hey, it's Dick Gabriel and you're listening to the best
Speaker 2: of the Big Blue Insider. It's Dick Gabriel.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the best of the Big Blue Insider
Speaker 1: joining us now on our celebrity hotline for the first
Speaker 1: time is a familiar name if you're a Kentucky fan
Speaker 1: or a fan of high school basketball in the common. Well,
Speaker 1: Trent Noah, Kentucky's fifth all time leading scorer in high
Speaker 1: school basketball history and part of Mark Pope's first Kentucky team. Trent,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.
Speaker 1: What has life been like for you since the end
Speaker 1: of your high school career when you were committed to
Speaker 1: South Carolina, then all of a sudden there are big
Speaker 1: changes at Kentucky and thing you know, you're a Wildcat.
Speaker 2: What has life been like for you?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's been a whirlwind. But I mean, I'm just
Speaker 6: super thankful where I ended up and everything worked out
Speaker 6: like I should have. And now I'm super excited to
Speaker 6: be here and likes intend and be on campus and
Speaker 6: get things rolling up here. It's been an excellent four
Speaker 6: weeks and I just can't wait to keep going and
Speaker 6: keep them freeing with our team.
Speaker 1: Well, before we talk about that, I got to take
Speaker 1: you back to the Sweet sixteen. I know it didn't
Speaker 1: end the way you like but man, it was close
Speaker 1: and you had the tournament of a lifetime for Harland County.
Speaker 1: You must have loved those rims and rupp Arena.
Speaker 2: Am I right?
Speaker 6: Maybe a little bit?
Speaker 2: Well, you come in, you.
Speaker 1: Get thirty five in your first game, forty eight in
Speaker 1: the next, going into that tournament, and you would add
Speaker 1: a great junior year. You'd had a great senior campaign.
Speaker 1: You average nearly thirty a game. But did you feel
Speaker 1: like you had that kind of.
Speaker 2: Tournament in you as you took your team into the
Speaker 2: sweet sixteen?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean it was just such a such an
Speaker 6: honor to be in the state tournament. We finally got
Speaker 6: over the hump. So I knew this was my last
Speaker 6: year and we had one opportunity to hope, make full
Speaker 6: history and win a game. So he and my teammates
Speaker 6: just wanted to do whatever we could go down in
Speaker 6: the history books and do something for our community.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you were the.
Speaker 1: First school, I know you know this to reach the
Speaker 1: state finals since twenty eleven, So I know that meant
Speaker 1: a lot to you, didn't it?
Speaker 6: That's their for sure. I mean, I guess in our area,
Speaker 6: the success of the state tournament hasn't been great recently.
Speaker 6: So to see us I win a few games down
Speaker 6: there and make some noise just meant a lot to
Speaker 6: our community and the surrounding areas.
Speaker 2: You Know. One thing I think people maybe in a
Speaker 2: bigger city like Lexington or Louisville, don't appreciate, and I've
Speaker 2: been down the state a little bit, is what the
Speaker 2: high school team like Carlon County High can mean. As
Speaker 2: you said, to the community.
Speaker 1: I mean, it just grabs everybody, doesn't it.
Speaker 6: It's there, I mean definitely. I mean all all of
Speaker 6: our team is all Harlan County kids. They've all grown
Speaker 6: up together. We didn't have any transfers or anything like that.
Speaker 6: So I think that's what what kind of makes us special.
Speaker 6: We just have been going to classes for four years together,
Speaker 6: just growing up, building our way up, and really just
Speaker 6: just build a determined team, get to make some noise
Speaker 6: and win some games. So it's always fun when.
Speaker 2: You do it like that, you do it with your buddies,
Speaker 2: with your friends.
Speaker 6: Right, It's there, definitely, I mean, that's what it's all about.
Speaker 6: That's why I go basketball is so special and I'll
Speaker 6: never take those times for granted. Some of the greatest
Speaker 6: times in.
Speaker 1: My life talking to Trent Noi, he is, of course
Speaker 1: from Harland County and now Kentucky Wildcat, and you talked
Speaker 1: about how things changed not long after you had committed
Speaker 1: to South Carolina, but you said things are now the
Speaker 1: way they should be. I mean your dad played football,
Speaker 1: are you. I'm sure your grandfather played football in UK
Speaker 1: in the early sixties. Can I assume you grew up
Speaker 1: a Kentucky fan?
Speaker 6: That's there definitely?
Speaker 8: I did.
Speaker 6: I mean growing up in Kentucky. I think everybody's a
Speaker 6: Kentucky fan. My grandfather played and playing with the ten
Speaker 6: thirty team. I mean every time going down to his house,
Speaker 6: there's there's just UK decres everywhere. He's always got Kentucky
Speaker 6: sports game on and then, and so is our family.
Speaker 6: I mean we've been going to Kentucky football games for
Speaker 6: for like sixty three years. I think has how long
Speaker 6: we've had season tickets. So yeah, I mean it's just
Speaker 6: our family pleeds blue, and so do I. So it's
Speaker 6: it's just it's a real feeling now that I'm here
Speaker 6: where the Kentucky jerse.
Speaker 2: What did he tell you about did you ever ask
Speaker 2: him about being part of the thin thirty?
Speaker 6: Yeah? I mean it's super cool to just sit down
Speaker 6: and kick his brain and just and just hear the
Speaker 6: stuff that he has to say. I mean, how how
Speaker 6: hard that that he worked and and and to stay
Speaker 6: there and just a crazy, crazy year faking tucky football.
Speaker 2: That was.
Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about the president now. You you get
Speaker 1: the call from Mark Pope. What was that like to
Speaker 1: hear from him and get an offer because as you
Speaker 1: well know, he puts such a premium on shooters.
Speaker 6: Yes, Sarah, it was. It was incredible. It was such
Speaker 6: a it was such a great feeling that that I
Speaker 6: won't forget. And it was it was a no brainer
Speaker 6: once that happened, I made. I made a pretty quick
Speaker 6: decision whenever whenever he uh reached out to me. So yeah,
Speaker 6: it just all worked out and and God's plan just
Speaker 6: just it. God plans there than mine. So it's a
Speaker 6: crazy little bit, but I'm so thankful for it all.
Speaker 1: When you have scholarship offers a young man at your age,
Speaker 1: I know that is a life defining decision that you
Speaker 1: and your teammates have to make. But you also had
Speaker 1: to show a level of maturity when you had to
Speaker 1: reach out to South Carolina and say thank you but
Speaker 1: I'm going to Kentucky. How difficult was that?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean I just there's some things that are
Speaker 6: going on, a lot of factors that went into it,
Speaker 6: and that's when I ask got on my letter of intent,
Speaker 6: and then my recruitment opened back up, and then it
Speaker 6: was just back back from day one. So that was
Speaker 6: something really challenging because I finally knew where I wanted
Speaker 6: to go and then I restarted all over. So yeah,
Speaker 6: it was difficult, but I mean, like I said, it
Speaker 6: all worked out how I should have been and I'm
Speaker 6: just super excited.
Speaker 2: For this year.
Speaker 1: So now you're on campus, You've already worked out with
Speaker 1: your new teammates, and there are a lot of older
Speaker 1: guys on that squad and here you are, as a
Speaker 1: true freshman kind of starting all over again.
Speaker 2: What's happened like for you?
Speaker 6: I mean, yes, it's like a gold mine here. I
Speaker 6: mean there's so many great resources and great people to
Speaker 6: learn from. I mean, our coaching tap uh, it's so
Speaker 6: brilliant in the IQ, in the gym whenever we practice,
Speaker 6: it is so high. I mean listening to all the
Speaker 6: older guys talk, but it's such a it's such a
Speaker 6: perk being around those those older guys and just getting
Speaker 6: to learn from them and let them take me under
Speaker 6: their wing and just and just uh stepping me off
Speaker 6: in the right direction of my college career. I mean,
Speaker 6: there's just so much learning going on, and it's just
Speaker 6: it's just awesome and in a gold mine for for basketball.
Speaker 2: Well, your head coach is a gold mine of information.
Speaker 2: You know how smart he is.
Speaker 1: Rhodes Collar a candidate UH in college and I covered
Speaker 1: his teams obviously.
Speaker 2: At u K. What's you like having kind of a
Speaker 2: brainiact for a head coach.
Speaker 6: I mean it's amazing. I mean I wouldn't I wouldn't
Speaker 6: want to be playing for anybody other than him. I mean,
Speaker 6: he does a he does an excellent job. He definitely
Speaker 6: has us going in the right direction. So I mean
Speaker 6: just just every day just just looking to learn from
Speaker 6: him and and uh is picking up stuff that he
Speaker 6: does is just help me and the team out. I mean,
Speaker 6: it's just amazing that every day you can just learn
Speaker 6: so much from a guy with his knowledge.
Speaker 1: He is quoted as saying that he liked you because
Speaker 1: you're tough, you're hard nosed, and you have a special
Speaker 1: physicality and ordinarily Trent you don't hear shooters described that way,
Speaker 1: but that, honestly, that's the first thing I noticed about
Speaker 1: you in the sweet sixteen is you're a little bit
Speaker 1: bigger than than most of the wing players, but you're
Speaker 1: strong enough to get inside. Tell me about that, that
Speaker 1: combination you've been blessed with, and I know you worked
Speaker 1: hard at that, haven't you.
Speaker 6: That's there, I mean for sure. I mean I just
Speaker 6: do whatever I can to help the team win. I mean,
Speaker 6: I mean, no matter what it is, to try to
Speaker 6: always play hard and make the roight play and I
Speaker 6: just try and make my teammates better around me because
Speaker 6: that's what wins basketball game. So I can do that,
Speaker 6: and I think I think I'm doing a fair job.
Speaker 2: Uh well, pretty fair. Yeah. Tell me about the way
Speaker 2: your Harlan County teams were prepared, were coached and how
Speaker 2: that's helped prepare you for u K.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean we had excellent coaching staff. I mean
Speaker 6: it was it was such a cool experience being able
Speaker 6: to play for my for my dad and my senior
Speaker 6: year and then making the run whenever he was on
Speaker 6: the staff. So yeah, I mean, just going in it's
Speaker 6: just super cool that that we just leave like math
Speaker 6: class and then go practice with those guys. We were
Speaker 6: just trying to figure out mass problems and then and
Speaker 6: then we're running. So like, I think that's that's just
Speaker 6: something a special thing about Hoschol basketball. So yeah, I
Speaker 6: mean I always, uh, occasionally I'll go back and watch
Speaker 6: some games from from this past season. But yeah, that
Speaker 6: was such a great song.
Speaker 1: What's that like for you when you queue up a
Speaker 1: game from this past year and you get to watch
Speaker 1: your yourself and your buddies.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean just whenever we all hang out after
Speaker 6: act the year, I mean, it's just good times, just
Speaker 6: getting to go back and laugh at and stuff and
Speaker 6: then it's just really good, good bonding time and then
Speaker 6: get a look back on the cool memories that we may.
Speaker 1: It's more about what happens on the bus and in
Speaker 1: the locker room, right as opposed to I mean, you
Speaker 1: go back and look at wins and all that, but
Speaker 1: it's it's the stuff off the court that's the most fun,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 6: For sure? I Mean we had so many we had
Speaker 6: so many good times that that. I mean we can
Speaker 6: tell stories about forever. But yeah, that was great, great kids,
Speaker 6: great people to be here for sure.
Speaker 1: Well, you've talked about the wealth of basketball knowledge on
Speaker 1: the Kentucky roster. Tell me about chemistry. Tell me about
Speaker 1: the bonding that's taking place.
Speaker 6: Yes, sir, I mean you would think that. I mean
Speaker 6: I think if you put in an outsider, just just
Speaker 6: dropped them in and watch the practice with no power knowledge,
Speaker 6: I think they could they could tell that. They would
Speaker 6: say that we've been together for a while. I mean,
Speaker 6: I think our chemistry is really taken off super quick,
Speaker 6: and I think that comes with what's doing heart stuff together,
Speaker 6: practicing condition and also off the court. I feel like
Speaker 6: we take a lot of time bonding off the court.
Speaker 6: I mean, we have all been excited about the new
Speaker 6: college football video games, so that's been fun. Playing with
Speaker 6: the gods. Yeah, I mean I just think we're a
Speaker 6: really closed group and I think that'll translate to the
Speaker 6: basketball court.
Speaker 2: You mentioned conditioning. What has strength and conditioning been like
Speaker 2: for you? And nutrition they feed you guys pretty well.
Speaker 6: It's their I mean it's it's all completely different, but
Speaker 6: I mean it's all for the better. I mean they're
Speaker 6: so they're so smart with what they do and they
Speaker 6: have a plan for everything. So me and my teammates
Speaker 6: who are just trying to follow the best we can
Speaker 6: and know that it all be good for us at
Speaker 6: the end.
Speaker 1: I lived on campus my first year, and I met
Speaker 1: a lot of guys from around the country but also
Speaker 1: from around Kentucky, and a lot of them got homesick
Speaker 1: right away. I guess you probably don't have time for that,
Speaker 1: do you. You're so busy of basketball.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean I am extremely busy with basketball in school.
Speaker 6: I mean, and and there's no there's no reason to
Speaker 6: be homestick for me. I mean, this is a dream
Speaker 6: that I've that I've always wanted to happen. Now it's
Speaker 6: finally happened. So I don't think the homestake problem. I'm
Speaker 6: just I'm just living and.
Speaker 1: Well, now you've got a new roster of brothers. Right,
Speaker 1: so you're you're you're already at home. Uh have you
Speaker 1: decided yet what you want to study? What your major is?
Speaker 6: I have not. I'm still kind of exploring a little bit.
Speaker 6: But hopefully we'll get that figured out here.
Speaker 1: I had plenty of time for that. We're talking with
Speaker 1: trend Noah. He of course is one of the new Wildcats,
Speaker 1: so many new Wildcats, but coming in from Harlan County,
Speaker 1: which he led to the Sweet sixteen championship game you
Speaker 1: lost to Travis Perry. I know you've answered this question
Speaker 1: a bunch, But now he's a teammate. What's that like
Speaker 1: for you?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean it's awesome getting getting sued up on
Speaker 6: the same team as him. I mean, he's an exceptional player,
Speaker 6: really good person, really good frandom on and now that
Speaker 6: we can finally we've been playing against each other all
Speaker 6: over these past years, and now we can finally be
Speaker 6: on the same team and share the ball with each
Speaker 6: other and tear the court with each other. So yeah,
Speaker 6: it's really cool to be alongside a player like him,
Speaker 6: and he just makes everybody around them better.
Speaker 2: All right, who's a better shooter? You were him? I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 6: He's a really good shooter. But yeah, I guess we'll
Speaker 6: have to have a shootout here too.
Speaker 2: Looking at the.
Speaker 1: Roster, here's an opportunity for you to work against guys,
Speaker 1: as you said, who have played so much ball, guys
Speaker 1: who are in their third, fourth, fifth years of college basketball.
Speaker 1: As it's been fun just picking up on the little
Speaker 1: things that these guys are kind of the subtleties.
Speaker 2: Of the game.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean definitely. They know they're so experienced and
Speaker 6: they never make like you rarely see them make mental
Speaker 6: areas because how often they've seen this stuff and how
Speaker 6: often that they play at this level. So I mean yeah,
Speaker 6: just being able to just talk with them and just
Speaker 6: hear the stories that they've been through and and and
Speaker 6: they're ups and downs, that just makes a big blot
Speaker 6: easier for the three pressmen that we had.
Speaker 2: We got a chance to talk with three of the
Speaker 2: veteran players. I guess it was late last week early
Speaker 2: this week, uh.
Speaker 1: And they all Trent talked about what it meant to
Speaker 1: them to be a part of Kentucky basketball and had
Speaker 1: that name on their chest.
Speaker 2: I know some people are concerned about that that these guys,
Speaker 2: you know, they come and go after a year, they
Speaker 2: don't really know or appreciate what it means to play
Speaker 2: basketball here. I don't get that impression.
Speaker 1: Now you've grown up with it, but what have you
Speaker 1: seen and these guys who have dropped in for maybe
Speaker 1: just the one year, but how they appreciate where they are?
Speaker 6: Yes, sir, I mean I definitely. I think everybody in
Speaker 6: our roster really really gets the message and and really
Speaker 6: understand how big of a deal and honor it is
Speaker 6: to put on the Kentucky jersey. And I think the
Speaker 6: coaching staff and coach Cope has has done a good
Speaker 6: job to let the people know, maybe like from far
Speaker 6: away that that don't fully get it at the beginning,
Speaker 6: that that how big of a how big of a
Speaker 6: deal it is, And yeah, it really just is an
Speaker 6: honor for all of us and to play for to
Speaker 6: stay to Kentucky and play for the people and the
Speaker 6: amazing fans that that we're that we're bussed to have
Speaker 6: is is really just an honor. There's so much proud
Speaker 6: of that kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1: Your passion is really evident when you did not get
Speaker 1: the offer from the previous staff, were you hurt, were
Speaker 1: you angry dejected? Or did you just shrug it off
Speaker 1: and move on?
Speaker 6: I mean, uh, I mean, like I said, everything times
Speaker 6: for a reason and never every uh, every coaching team
Speaker 6: has different philosophy, and I wouldn't want to be in
Speaker 6: a situation somewhere it wouldn't get best for the both
Speaker 6: of us. So I mean, I completely understand everybody does
Speaker 6: everybody does stuff different, but I was just focused on
Speaker 6: the school. Is that that we were created VI at
Speaker 6: the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's smart and like you said, it all
Speaker 2: worked out. I will let you go with this.
Speaker 1: Growing up, you grew up a wildcat. Whether people want
Speaker 1: to say that or not. You talked about what the
Speaker 1: household is like being a big Blue house. But that said, Trent,
Speaker 1: you know what the expectations are from Kentucky fans, and
Speaker 1: I know that you guys are intent on delivering. But
Speaker 1: what about expectations from the Big Blue Nation. How are
Speaker 1: you guys handling that?
Speaker 6: I mean, I think I think it's I think it's awesome.
Speaker 6: I mean there's a lot that comes there's a lot
Speaker 6: that comes with where in a Kentucky Jersey. But I
Speaker 6: think that's what makes it so special. I mean, anything
Speaker 6: short of the banner is not what we wanted. So
Speaker 6: that that's the plan this year, and that's the plan
Speaker 6: moving forward. That hangs them or not, and and hopefully
Speaker 6: we can get the job done at UK.
Speaker 2: Freshman Trent Noah, And you're listening to the Best of
Speaker 2: the Big Blue Insider on six point thirty WLAP. It's
Speaker 2: Dick Gabriel. Welcome back to the Best of the Big
Speaker 2: Blue Insider. Troy Aikman, of.
Speaker 1: Course, made a name for himself here were the Dallas Cowboys,
Speaker 1: and he's a lead broadcaster now in the NFL. But
Speaker 1: he's in the news today because he and Lamar Jackson,
Speaker 1: another famous number eight, are knocking heads over the number eight.
Speaker 1: Jackson is challenging Troy Aikman's use of number eight in
Speaker 1: the US Patent and Trademark Office complaint. According to federal records,
Speaker 1: Jackson owns or has applied for several trademarks using the
Speaker 1: number in various phrases, and Aikman right now is attempting
Speaker 1: to use the word eight. I guess in all caps.
Speaker 1: That's the way it appears in a wire story on
Speaker 1: apparel and bags, and Jackson's complaint says likely cause confusion, mistakes,
Speaker 1: or to deceive the purchasing public as to whether they're
Speaker 1: buying products from Jackson or Aikman's company. This is all
Speaker 1: according to Jackson's attorney. They filed it earlier this month.
Speaker 1: The motion or whatever they call it so. They claim
Speaker 1: that Jackson has spent a lot of time and effort
Speaker 1: and money in promoting advertising and promoting advertising and popularizing
Speaker 1: the number eight in connection with his personality and fame
Speaker 1: and is well known by the number because of his notoriety.
Speaker 1: Of course, well so is Troy Aikman. So now you're
Speaker 1: looking at recency bias, and this is all over two
Speaker 1: guys who are trying to use a word, just a number.
Speaker 1: The image of the number eight later in the story
Speaker 1: it does not appear in all caps, so who knows.
Speaker 1: That'll do it for now. Thanks for joining us for
Speaker 1: this special edition The Stuff, the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 2: That's it. Good night from the garage in Lexington.