Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and sider Dick Gabriel with
Speaker 1: you on a Wednesday edition of our show. And it
Speaker 1: is Wednesday, which means we will talk with West End
Speaker 1: Bureau chief Gary Moore, as well as unforgettable guard Sean Woods,
Speaker 1: who now has added the duties of head coach of
Speaker 1: the La Familla entry in the basketball Tournament. That's the
Speaker 1: team composed primarily of Kentucky players UK players that will
Speaker 1: play in that national tournament one million dollars winner take all.
Speaker 1: They got to the SEMIS last year, beat the team
Speaker 1: from Louisville, but lost I think it was to the
Speaker 1: team primarily from Ohio State, which won the tournament. So
Speaker 1: Sean Woods was an assistant last year and as the
Speaker 1: head coach this year. Tyler Euless was the coach last year,
Speaker 1: but of course now he's living and working in Arkansas,
Speaker 1: so Sean takes over. We'll talk about that as well.
Speaker 1: Now at the bottom of this hour, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk with Cody Feger. He's an assistant coach under Mark Pope,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about that first year and now this
Speaker 1: year's team has come together. And fair warning, he grew
Speaker 1: up in Wisconsin. He's a Packers fan. There will yes
Speaker 1: be some Packer talk, but hanging there it's mostly basketball.
Speaker 1: You know by now, of course that Braden Hawthorne is
Speaker 1: a Kentucky Wildcat. Speaking of this year's class, you wondered
Speaker 1: was Mark Pope Donne And he kind of when he
Speaker 1: was asked about this last week gave it the evasive
Speaker 1: I don't know yet, that kind of thing. Still going
Speaker 1: after Braiden Hawthorne, who chose Kentucky last night from among
Speaker 1: Duke Virginia Tech West Virginia, you know. And I would
Speaker 1: play his announcement for you from YouTube, but the setup
Speaker 1: just wasn't very good. Bless their hearts. The audio was terrible.
Speaker 1: Two four seven had it up on YouTube, but it
Speaker 1: just wasn't It was very difficult to hear, quite frankly,
Speaker 1: but some of his comments were really interesting. And in
Speaker 1: fact I talked with Chris Fisher this morning on Tom
Speaker 1: Leach's show about this. But and he clipped part of
Speaker 1: the story. It was on the two four to seven
Speaker 1: website from Travis Brandam. One of the quotes but he
Speaker 1: talked about he said, this is the Hawthorne. He said,
Speaker 1: I feel like I have the best relationship out of
Speaker 1: all the schools with Coach Pope, he said, he calls
Speaker 1: me and texts me more than anybody I have ever
Speaker 1: talked to in the past since he's been recruiting me.
Speaker 1: This is the kid who committed to West Virginia so
Speaker 1: had them in his finalists. I wonder was that really legit,
Speaker 1: but then backed away in the fall, opened to reopened
Speaker 1: his recruitment in the spring, and now was chosen Kentucky.
Speaker 1: And not only that, Pope convinces him to come to
Speaker 1: Kentucky where you'll get the opportunity to play. When you
Speaker 1: look at this incredibly deep roster, one of the deepest
Speaker 1: in the country, and he is the tenth edition to
Speaker 1: next year's team, he's going to need more than one year.
Speaker 1: Every time they signed somebody you think is he wanted
Speaker 1: to know he weighs one seventy five, so he's going
Speaker 1: to need to spend at least a couple of years
Speaker 1: eating well in the weight room. But at what six
Speaker 1: seven six eight, he's got a seven foot three wings
Speaker 1: span And according to the story a high basketball IQ
Speaker 1: Bill said about as he said, trying to help Kentucky
Speaker 1: win number nine. Good answer, kid. Speaking of Mark Pope,
Speaker 1: He and two of Hawthorne's future teammates or I guess now
Speaker 1: they're current teammates, will be busy with USA basketball at
Speaker 1: in Colorado Springs. Pope is part now of the staff
Speaker 1: for USA Basketball's U nineteen under nineteen national team training
Speaker 1: at the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
Speaker 1: That all begins on June fourteenth. He will be coaching,
Speaker 1: among others, Malachai Moreno and Jasper Johnson. They will take
Speaker 1: part in the tryouts as well, everybody trying to make
Speaker 1: the twelve player roster for team USA squad that will
Speaker 1: compete in the twenty twenty five FOEBA Under nineteen World
Speaker 1: Cup in Switzerland. Not too shabby. Moreno has done this
Speaker 1: before he was part and so is Jasper Johnson. They
Speaker 1: were both part of the USA men's Nike Hoops summit
Speaker 1: team earlier in the spring that defeated the World Select
Speaker 1: team won twenty four to one, fourteen in overtime. So
Speaker 1: Malachi and Jasper will get some bonus coaching from their
Speaker 1: head coach. Every now and then, we look at this
Speaker 1: day in sports history, and it was on this day
Speaker 1: we talked about the nineteen eighty nine, Preakness Yesterday and
Speaker 1: Sunday Silence nineteen eighty eight. That Preakness on this day
Speaker 1: went to risen Star. Risen Star ran third in the
Speaker 1: Kentucky Derby in nineteen eighty eight. That was the year
Speaker 1: the Big Philly jumped out winning colors for Wayne Lucas
Speaker 1: and ran away st the Derby. Went back and watched
Speaker 1: that race. She took the lead three jumps and she
Speaker 1: was a big horse. Three jumps out of the gate
Speaker 1: and nobody caught her. I guess they all thought she
Speaker 1: was going to back up. She was. She was seventeen
Speaker 1: hands high. And I remember the first time I saw
Speaker 1: her at Churchill Downs. First day I was there. I
Speaker 1: was walking to the track and I passed her barn
Speaker 1: and she came out with a rider up exercise rider.
Speaker 1: He had to hug her neck just to clear the
Speaker 1: top of the of the door in the stable. She
Speaker 1: was so tall, And I said to myself, handicapping, note,
Speaker 1: she's not a girl. But by Saturday, I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: not betting the Philly, and I threw her out in
Speaker 1: like a dope and she won. Risen Star was third,
Speaker 1: breaking from the three hole. He goes on to win
Speaker 1: the Preakness on this day in nineteen eighty eight. Then
Speaker 1: he won the Belmont just like his daddy, Secretary, who
Speaker 1: won the Belmont by thirty one lanks. You got that
Speaker 1: famous photo of his jockey looking back to see that
Speaker 1: there's nobody near him. Risen Star won it the same way,
Speaker 1: you know, And back then people were saying, we'll never
Speaker 1: have another Triple Crown winner. It's too hard. And if
Speaker 1: Risen Star doesn't let winning colors get away, he was
Speaker 1: clearly the best three year old. He wins the Triple Crown.
Speaker 1: And I'll always remember that famous photo of Secretariat because
Speaker 1: I retweeted it when Kentucky was destroying UCLA during the
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen to fifteen season. Remember they were up like
Speaker 1: forty one to seven at half or something, and I
Speaker 1: tweeted a photo saying Ucla knows what the rest of
Speaker 1: the field felt like in Secretariat's Belmont. Thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you very much. We'll talk sec football next on six
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Coming
Speaker 1: up in just a few minutes, We're gonna chat with
Speaker 1: Cody Feeger. He's an assistant coach under Mark popees who
Speaker 1: will talk about what's been going on along the recruiting trail,
Speaker 1: and of course we'll talk about the first season for
Speaker 1: Pope and his staff, and a guy like Cody Figure
Speaker 1: who's been with Mark Pope for we're going dating back
Speaker 1: to the Utah Valley State days. A little bit later
Speaker 1: on Sean Woods, The Unforgettable Guard and West End Bureau
Speaker 1: Chief Gary Moore. Good news if you are a fan
Speaker 1: of Nick Saban, and he's got a lot of them
Speaker 1: now as an analyst for ESPN, not just Alabama fans.
Speaker 1: He has won a Sports Emmy for Outstanding Emerging on
Speaker 1: Air Talent for the work he's done at ESPEN. I
Speaker 1: guess it's like being the rookie of the Year. But
Speaker 1: Saban really did crush it on the anchor desk. And
Speaker 1: we talked about this back when Brady Tom Brady at
Speaker 1: first started doing games and just quite frankly, was not great.
Speaker 1: It was not the goat, you know whatever. I didn't
Speaker 1: expect him to be. But he was catching a lot
Speaker 1: of flak because he really, quite frankly, wasn't that good.
Speaker 1: But as I pointed out, then it's completely apples and pineapples.
Speaker 1: I mean it couldn't be more of a different challenge,
Speaker 1: more of a different job. But people were saying, oh,
Speaker 1: Saban would have been much better at it, and you know,
Speaker 1: maybe he would have. But the job he does for ESPN,
Speaker 1: and I'm not diminishing it in any way, is completely
Speaker 1: different from what Brady does. Brady's got to look at
Speaker 1: a play and instantly know why it worked or why
Speaker 1: it didn't. And when I coach up people, I've coached
Speaker 1: up a few people who have done color analysts jobs,
Speaker 1: primarily in football, but some basketball, and I tell them,
Speaker 1: your job is to say that whenever you break down
Speaker 1: a play that begins with in your mind. Don't say
Speaker 1: it on the air. You don't have to, but in
Speaker 1: your mind you're thinking that play worked because and then
Speaker 1: start talking, or that play didn't work because and then
Speaker 1: start talking, And you've got to do it right now.
Speaker 1: Plus you got somebody talking in your ear, You've got
Speaker 1: the replay, you got to run the telestrator, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: It's hard. And I'm not saying Saban couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he could. He's a very smart guy. But
Speaker 1: the job he does on the Anchor Death is coaching.
Speaker 1: He breaks down video. He explains it to the people
Speaker 1: in the room. It's not a meeting room, it's the
Speaker 1: anchor desk, and it's the cameras that take him to
Speaker 1: millions and millions of people. But it's what he's been
Speaker 1: doing his entire career, and to his credit, and he's
Speaker 1: going to because he coached the ultimate team game. He
Speaker 1: praised the people around him who helped prepare him will
Speaker 1: help him before, during, and after the broadcast. And he's
Speaker 1: great at it. And it comes at a really good
Speaker 1: time because obviously Lee Corso is stepping down. Corso worked
Speaker 1: to stay apart a viable part of ESPN's game day coverage,
Speaker 1: but after a stroke, and he told me in an
Speaker 1: interview that it's just not the same because he can't
Speaker 1: be as extemporaneous. He can do the scripted stuff really well,
Speaker 1: but the remarks that used to come off the top
Speaker 1: of his head, it just doesn't work for him anymore.
Speaker 1: And I think I think he still contributed, but a
Speaker 1: little bit. I think he HASPN did the right thing.
Speaker 1: They kind of eased him back a little bit, and
Speaker 1: I hope it was his decision to step down. But
Speaker 1: when he as he does, there's not this giant chasm
Speaker 1: on the desk because Saban's there, and maybe they'll put
Speaker 1: somebody in Courso's chair. They really don't need it. They've
Speaker 1: got enough people on that anchor desk. But a tip
Speaker 1: of the captain, Nick Saban. Seven national championship trophies and
Speaker 1: now a Sports Emmy. Good for him. Speaking of sports
Speaker 1: on TV, there was a sports question at the end
Speaker 1: of Jeopardy I think it was last night maybe, and
Speaker 1: it was a really interesting question about population base for
Speaker 1: states that have NFL teams. And here it is. I'm
Speaker 1: going to play the clips. See if you know the
Speaker 1: answer this.
Speaker 2: Game NFL geography. Here's the clue. It's the state with
Speaker 2: the lowest population density to an NFL team. Thirty seconds.
Speaker 2: Good luck, and right.
Speaker 1: Here my mind immediately went, of course, Green Bay, not
Speaker 1: because I'm a Packers fan, but because it's the smallest
Speaker 1: market in all of professional sports. But remember he said state,
Speaker 1: and Wisconsin is fairly heavily populated compared to a lot
Speaker 1: of others. So I'm running through the cities in my
Speaker 1: head and I came up with the Colts in Indiana,
Speaker 1: kind of a rural state, got some big cities, but
Speaker 1: I decided Indiana was my answer because of the Colts,
Speaker 1: and here it is.
Speaker 2: This would have been a different state a few years ago.
Speaker 2: We'll start with Wendy Powish, who had eleven thy nine hundred.
Speaker 2: She wrote down, what is Colorado because of the broncos.
Speaker 2: I think that is the second least dense state today.
Speaker 2: So you're going to lose eighty one hundred, leaving you
Speaker 2: with thirty eight hundred. Mitch Laughlin was in second place
Speaker 2: with twelve four hundred. His response was Indiana, and I'm
Speaker 2: afraid that's also not it. Mitch will lose six thousand,
Speaker 2: one hundred and eighty, taking you down to six thousand,
Speaker 2: two hundred and twenty dollars. Brendan Lao had a pretty
Speaker 2: big lead with nineteen thousand, two hundred. Did you think
Speaker 2: of the right team in the right state? What is
Speaker 2: Minnesota now? I'm afraid not. In twenty twenty, the Raiders
Speaker 2: moved from Oakland to very sparsely populated Nevada there in
Speaker 2: Las Vegas now, so it's what is Nevada?
Speaker 1: I say when he said it would have been a
Speaker 1: state a few years ago, he couldn't say that prior.
Speaker 1: That's a heck of a clue. But yeah, it would
Speaker 1: not have been the Raiders in Las Vegas, but it
Speaker 1: would have been Colorado, as he said, and I looked
Speaker 1: it up. Colorado has five point nine million people. Indiana
Speaker 1: has six point nine million. Nevada's only got three points something.
Speaker 1: You know there are there are more people living in
Speaker 1: the state of Kentucky than live in Nevada. So anyway,
Speaker 1: interesting question on Jeopardy, I thought, and uh again, Indiana
Speaker 1: wasn't even close. He's sticking with football. Aaron Murray is
Speaker 1: the former Georgia quarterback who really good player. I mean
Speaker 1: in terms of college football and what he did at
Speaker 1: UGA A great player. He was drafted by the Chiefs
Speaker 1: out of college in the fifth round. He only played
Speaker 1: a couple of years in the league. He bounced around
Speaker 1: on practice squads and all but at Georgia he set
Speaker 1: some big marks that still stand. He is still the
Speaker 1: SEC career passing touchdown leader head of Peyton Manning, Eli Manning,
Speaker 1: Matthew Stafford, and still the SEC career passing yards leader
Speaker 1: a couple of times. Was second team All SEC in
Speaker 1: twenty eleven and twenty thirteen. His senior year twenty thirteen
Speaker 1: ended against Kentucky when Zadarius Smith, who said a long
Speaker 1: NFL career, threw him to the turn and that damaged
Speaker 1: his knee. He was on November twenty third in Athens
Speaker 1: and he threw for four touchdown passes but in the
Speaker 1: first half, but late in the half, Zadarius Smith sacked
Speaker 1: him and he suffered a season ending knee injury. George
Speaker 1: ended up eight and five on the year. This is
Speaker 1: before Georgia became a superpower again in the Southeastern Conference.
Speaker 1: But anyway, that's Aaron Murray and he had an interesting
Speaker 1: comment about arch Manning, and this came after the story
Speaker 1: came out that arch Manning is considered the potential, if
Speaker 1: not probable, overall number one pick next year after he
Speaker 1: plays the season of college football at Texas. And remember
Speaker 1: he was the benchwarmer this year. We thought we'd see
Speaker 1: him against Kentucky, but we didn't. Quin Ewers went the
Speaker 1: entire way. And remember, yours was supposed to be the
Speaker 1: greatest thing since school aid when he came out of
Speaker 1: high school, bounced around ni own money all that was
Speaker 1: never a college superstar. And Aaron Murray pointed that out
Speaker 1: when he pushed back against the notion that arch Manning
Speaker 1: is going to be the next superstar.
Speaker 3: And I said this last year during the season too,
Speaker 3: because I was a big fan of quinn Ewers heading
Speaker 3: into the season. I thought Quinn did some good stuff
Speaker 3: at times last season, but let's be honest, Texas had
Speaker 3: probably the second or third best roster in America, probably
Speaker 3: the second or third. Why were they not competing for
Speaker 3: a national championship is because Quinn was holding them back.
Speaker 3: Quinn did not perform to the level that I thought
Speaker 3: he could. And then you're sitting down in the NFL draft.
Speaker 3: I mean, he gets what drafted in the seventh round.
Speaker 3: So even NFL scouts we're saying, like, this guy's just
Speaker 3: maybe not as good as as anticipated coming out as
Speaker 3: a recruit or maybe even.
Speaker 1: Two years ago.
Speaker 3: So all in all, quinn Ewers had a disappointing season
Speaker 3: and it reflected in his draft stock.
Speaker 1: If you were so good.
Speaker 3: And everyone as you projected number one pick in the
Speaker 3: NFL draft come twenty twenty six, why in the hell
Speaker 3: are you not playing above a seventh round quarterback?
Speaker 1: And that is fair. Where was he if he was
Speaker 1: so good, why didn't he beat out quinn Ewers? Or
Speaker 1: their politics? Involved. Probably did they not want yours to
Speaker 1: transfer again, I don't know, but the bottom line is
Speaker 1: Steve Sarkisi and the head coach of Texas, and we're
Speaker 1: down there. It's like Kentucky basketball. It's national championships or nothing.
Speaker 1: And if he had a quarterback on his sideline that
Speaker 1: could get him there, he's gonna play him. But he
Speaker 1: didn't play Manning. He played yours. And remember the Kentucky game,
Speaker 1: it was never really in doubt, but Kentucky was hanging
Speaker 1: in there. But it looked to me like in the
Speaker 1: second half they decided we're going to put the ball
Speaker 1: in Quinn's hands, let him win the game. And he did.
Speaker 1: And quite frankly, Kentucky played about as well I thought
Speaker 1: as it could. Made some mistakes, but yours was the
Speaker 1: difference down the stretch. But he wasn't a superstar difference maker.
Speaker 1: And that is why I really think Aaron Murray's comments
Speaker 1: were fascinating. Welcome back to the Big Bluin Cider and
Speaker 1: joining us now in the celebrity hotline is assistant coach
Speaker 1: Cody Fieger, Mark Pope's staff. Uh, And I got to
Speaker 1: warn you, folks, he is I was Conson Native. He
Speaker 1: is a Packers fan as am I, and we will
Speaker 1: talk Packers football before this interview is over. But coach,
Speaker 1: let's let's start with the Wildcats. Just tell me what
Speaker 1: was your first year like for you when you came
Speaker 1: to Kentucky. You knew the brand, you knew the history,
Speaker 1: but you didn't really know it til you lived it,
Speaker 1: did you?
Speaker 4: No? No, you know, it was kind of like a
Speaker 4: you know, when Coach Pope called and you know, asked
Speaker 4: if I was interested and wanted to come, and he
Speaker 4: has like a dream, you know, and you know, everything
Speaker 4: I kind of thought of at this level, just the
Speaker 4: people that care and how much they love it and
Speaker 4: the passion for it. The only thing that I experienced
Speaker 4: it like this is growing up as a Packers fan,
Speaker 4: you know, so that that's kind of very similar how
Speaker 4: it is growing up in Wisconsin, where all it is
Speaker 4: Green Bay Packers all day long. That's the only thing
Speaker 4: you care about. And that's what Kentucky basketball is is
Speaker 4: to this state and to most people in the country.
Speaker 1: You worked with Mark Pope at Utah Valley, then it'd
Speaker 1: be y you when he called you. Was there any
Speaker 1: hesitation or was it? Did he did he finish his
Speaker 1: sentence before you said? Yes?
Speaker 4: Absolutely not. I mean I was, I was all in.
Speaker 4: I was so excited and you know, like I said,
Speaker 4: it's it's it's everything. You want to be a part
Speaker 4: of this place, he joked, I go ahead, Yeah, it's
Speaker 4: it's grateful for this opportunity and great people here to
Speaker 4: work with. And you know, I've been lucky to work
Speaker 4: you know, alongside him for for you know, three twelve
Speaker 4: years now.
Speaker 1: When he was introduced. He sort of joked about how
Speaker 1: quickly his daughters said yes, because a move like that
Speaker 1: was especially with with teenagers, you know, they're gonna have
Speaker 1: to leave their friends and all that stuff. Uh, but
Speaker 1: they grew up Kentucky fans because of him, but they
Speaker 1: had never been here. Uh. What was was was was
Speaker 1: there a Kentucky presence at all when it came to
Speaker 1: Mark Pope working at Utah Valley, working at Brigham Young.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure there were some framed photos or something.
Speaker 1: But how much did you know about Kentucky and him?
Speaker 4: Yeah? So, uh, you know, growing up, I would go
Speaker 4: to the YMCA and I had a good friend and
Speaker 4: we would He was actually a big Kentucky fan, so
Speaker 4: you know, we would we would play at the WYMCA
Speaker 4: and we'd end up pressing, would be the only you know,
Speaker 4: fIF sixth seventh graders pressing at the Yanta, just normal
Speaker 4: pickup ball, and we'd be like, so Kentucky defense time,
Speaker 4: and just like what coach Tino did it, you know,
Speaker 4: Kentucky a long time ago. So like I knew Travis Ford,
Speaker 4: Jamal Mashburn, like all those guys were guys that I
Speaker 4: watched and I grew up, you know, really enjoying. And
Speaker 4: then you know, I grew up in Milwaukee. I'm a
Speaker 4: huge Bucks fan and and Coach Pope was on you know,
Speaker 4: some of the best Bucks teams ever. So he'd be
Speaker 4: starting in the Eastern Conference finals, and you know, I
Speaker 4: was just kind of grew up like watching coach Pope
Speaker 4: and and you know, it's it's it's kind of crazy
Speaker 4: how it all all ended up. But yeah, he talked
Speaker 4: about Coach Patino. He talked about how special Kentucky was
Speaker 4: and the people there, and you know, when we're at
Speaker 4: Utah Valley, we played at Kentucky UH for a by game,
Speaker 4: and you know, you know, one guy gave him a
Speaker 4: sword when we were out here, We're like, well, he's
Speaker 4: the real out of here man. This place is awesome.
Speaker 1: We're talking to Cody Figuer, assistant coach and er Mark
Speaker 1: Pope at the University of Kentucky. And again, you grow up,
Speaker 1: as you said, a Packers fan in Wisconsin, but you're
Speaker 1: a basketball guy. How did that happen?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, so I just I honestly, I love playing
Speaker 4: football growing up, but I just I spent so much
Speaker 4: time just loving basketball. I would go to Yanta every
Speaker 4: single day when I was younger. I get to play basketball,
Speaker 4: you know, after school. My parents just dropped me off
Speaker 4: there and I hang out and play basketball for a
Speaker 4: couple hours, and I just kept on getting better. And
Speaker 4: I just enjoyed it, you know, and love watching the NBA.
Speaker 4: At any time you could, you could play. I mean
Speaker 4: obviously I had to shovel my you know, driveway a
Speaker 4: ton of times in Wisconsin just to play. But I
Speaker 4: always really enjoyed it. And you know, I love to
Speaker 4: talk basketball and watch it. And you know, I grew
Speaker 4: up around you know, Rick and Jerris, going to his camps,
Speaker 4: and you know, he was he was so great to
Speaker 4: me when I was younger. He taught me a ton
Speaker 4: of the game, and yeah, it was just there's just
Speaker 4: so many great things that made me enjoy basketball.
Speaker 1: How did you end up at the University of Utah
Speaker 1: and not at Marquette or Wisconsin or somewhere up there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So Rick majeris, you know, former coach at Utah, right,
Speaker 4: He's from Milwaukee. Originally he would do camps in Wisconsin.
Speaker 4: So I went to those camps. My parents signed me
Speaker 4: up and I was I went there when I was eight, nine, ten,
Speaker 4: eleven every year for and coach Majaris's would always remember
Speaker 4: me every year. But like because I was, you know,
Speaker 4: the hardest worker at camp. I'd die my loose balls
Speaker 4: and you know, take charges in camp, do all those
Speaker 4: sorts of things, and he kind of remembered me every year.
Speaker 4: And then you know, when when I turned fifteen, I'd
Speaker 4: go in the morning session or sorry, when I was fifteen,
Speaker 4: there was you know, the younger grade and then the
Speaker 4: other group in the afternoon, and he asked me to
Speaker 4: coach the younger grade, the younger group. So I was
Speaker 4: fifteen years old and I was coaching you know, eight, nine, ten, eleven,
Speaker 4: twelve year olds. And then I'd be a camper in
Speaker 4: the second session, and you know, we just kind of
Speaker 4: formed a great relationship. He asked me to walk on
Speaker 4: at Utah, but I'm too cheap, and I knew I
Speaker 4: wanted to coach because I really enjoyed those camps. And
Speaker 4: you know, then he said, all right, come work for
Speaker 4: me and I'll give you scholarship. And that's kind of
Speaker 4: how I wanned up there.
Speaker 1: And began as a video coordinator as a student. And folks,
Speaker 1: you need to know this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, go ahead, Oh sorry, Yeah, so I was. I
Speaker 4: was a student manager. I was with him twenty four
Speaker 4: steven every single daycha for a couple of years, and yeah,
Speaker 4: around them all day long. But I did every single
Speaker 4: type of job.
Speaker 1: Starting as a video coordinator, among other things. People need
Speaker 1: to understand. I'm sure you know this. Frank Vogel, who
Speaker 1: coached the LA Lakers to an NBA championship, began as
Speaker 1: a video coordinator, or at least that was early in
Speaker 1: his career at the University of Kentucky. So you know,
Speaker 1: video coordinators going to great things. People need to know this. Yeh.
Speaker 1: And Cody Figures now an assistant at Kentucky and is
Speaker 1: on our Celebrity hotline talking basketball and again another warning.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk Packers football a little bit later. But
Speaker 1: with this first year under your belt, tell me what
Speaker 1: it's like now on a recruiting trail working with coach
Speaker 1: Polk to put together the portal class. I don't want
Speaker 1: to use the word easier, but is it smoother now
Speaker 1: with the better lay of the land?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would. I would say, I mean this college
Speaker 4: basketball is changing every thirty seconds here to tell you
Speaker 4: the truth, but it is definitely a better feel of
Speaker 4: what we're looking for in the twenty five class, twenty six,
Speaker 4: twenty seven class compared to last when you know, we
Speaker 4: had to bring in a whole new roster in a
Speaker 4: month and uh, you know, it's it's ever changing navigating
Speaker 4: waters right now, so because they have as fluid as possible,
Speaker 4: but it's definitely, you know, definitely able to see everything.
Speaker 4: The hardest part, honestly, was we were still playing and
Speaker 4: then we were you know, the two biggest parts of
Speaker 4: our jobs were at the same time, and it was
Speaker 4: recruiting and we're still playing. That part was was complicated,
Speaker 4: and we missed out on a couple of guys because
Speaker 4: we're more worried about, you know, our team, Like these
Speaker 4: kids are like I want to come on visits this
Speaker 4: and that. We're like, we can't do that, Like we've
Speaker 4: we've got to do everything we can with these teams
Speaker 4: and and uh yeah, but that's that's that's that's kind
Speaker 4: of how it went. But we're really grateful with with
Speaker 4: the team and the roster we have, and yeah, it's
Speaker 4: uh it we had a better feel for this year.
Speaker 4: For sure.
Speaker 1: It was a tough season. In some ways it was
Speaker 1: rewarding and others. You had a nice NCAA tournament run,
Speaker 1: not as deep as you like, of course, but won
Speaker 1: some big games. And Jackson Robinson goes down hurt that
Speaker 1: that was a huge wrench in your plans, I know,
Speaker 1: But then you had other guys begin to blossom like
Speaker 1: otega Oway and and Maari Williams. You know, the thing
Speaker 1: you knew he could play defense, but the things he
Speaker 1: did with your All's offense, I mean, what was it
Speaker 1: like watching this team develop and kind of grow and blossom?
Speaker 4: It was it was it was you know, you like
Speaker 4: you saw Maury Williams have a triple double. Yeah, but
Speaker 4: you said, you just saw guys just develop, developed develop
Speaker 4: all year long, and you know, Brandon Garrison, Colin Chandler, Trenton.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 4: I mean we can go down the line with every
Speaker 4: single one of these guys get better. Like you said,
Speaker 4: Otega Away, who just you know, we knew was going
Speaker 4: to be a great player. We recruit him at BUYU
Speaker 4: and then you know, it's a great, great transition here
Speaker 4: to Kentucky and we knew he was going to be
Speaker 4: really good and talented, and he just stepped up to
Speaker 4: the plate and he was a second team All League
Speaker 4: and you know, he got a chance come back, He's
Speaker 4: got a chance to be you know, SEC Player of
Speaker 4: the Year.
Speaker 1: Or chatting with Cody Fieger, Kentucky assistant basketball coach, we'll
Speaker 1: talk more UK basketball on the other side of the
Speaker 1: break here on six point thirty, Wlap welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Big Bloon Sider Dick Gabriel with you. We are
Speaker 1: chatting with Cody Fieger, assistant coach under Mark Pope and
Speaker 1: a Milwaukee, Wisconsin native and Green Bay Packers fan. And
Speaker 1: he is a guy who has been out on the
Speaker 1: recruiting trail helping put together the transfer portal class. How
Speaker 1: pleased are you? It's kind of an obvious question with
Speaker 1: the group you come in, he got coming in for
Speaker 1: next season. You carry over some really nice players you're
Speaker 1: waiting to hear from, will take an away, but strong
Speaker 1: freshman class, some talented kids coming through the portal. You
Speaker 1: got to be really excited.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm really excited. And you know, we talk to
Speaker 4: these kids every day, every other day right now, and
Speaker 4: they're really excited to represent Kentucky. And that's that's the
Speaker 4: part that's really exciting that they want to come here
Speaker 4: and just be a part of this program and you know,
Speaker 4: our goals within the National Championship. But yeah, we're really
Speaker 4: excited about these kids. They're hard workers, they want to
Speaker 4: get to the league, and they want to win a
Speaker 4: championship here. So really fun group of kids. We had
Speaker 4: them all come on a visit kind of together, at
Speaker 4: least four of them, and spend a lot of time
Speaker 4: with their friend their family, and and yeah, it's a
Speaker 4: great group of kids.
Speaker 1: We mentioned earlier how long you've been with Mark Pope,
Speaker 1: and he has a really interesting style of offense. And
Speaker 1: I know it took a little while for the guys
Speaker 1: this past season to adjust. Do you think this group
Speaker 1: will better suit not that your last group didn't but
Speaker 1: will better suit the way you guys play offense and defense.
Speaker 4: I think we're gonna you know, every year offensively and defensively.
Speaker 4: You know, we've kind of changed things, like we keep
Speaker 4: it pretty fluid offensively and defensively and what we're doing
Speaker 4: and what we're looking for just depending on personnel. And
Speaker 4: we'll do the same thing this year. Like we'll be
Speaker 4: in practices and we'll see you guys do certain things.
Speaker 4: We're like, oh, we got to add that, we got
Speaker 4: to add this, we got to take this way. This
Speaker 4: could be better. So every year we've kind of been
Speaker 4: pretty fluid. And this team will this team will you know,
Speaker 4: they're athletic, good pastors, good decision makers. So well, we'll
Speaker 4: do a lot of things similar to last year, I'm sure,
Speaker 4: But like I said, we'll keep it fluid and make
Speaker 4: sure it fits exactly what we're looking for. Like I said,
Speaker 4: we didn't know, we didn't know how Mara Williams was
Speaker 4: going to be triple doubles and different things that he
Speaker 4: could do. And just got to you know, do our
Speaker 4: obs and put them in the best position possible at
Speaker 4: the end of the day.
Speaker 1: Coach Pope has mentioned on more than one occasion the
Speaker 1: decision making, you know. But that's true really in any sport,
Speaker 1: isn't it If you don't have to think about it,
Speaker 1: If you just inherently know, then you're two steps ahead
Speaker 1: of your opponent, aren't you?
Speaker 4: For sure? For sure? And you know, we spend a
Speaker 4: ton of time with our guys. We sent them a
Speaker 4: ton of film, and they want to be great decision makers.
Speaker 4: They want to be efficient. We think we're pretty good
Speaker 4: teachers with that also, So it's you know, it's very
Speaker 4: important for us is decision making. We don't want to
Speaker 4: call a ton of plays. We want to we want
Speaker 4: to let these guys read and make decisions out there.
Speaker 4: And because that's the best offense that that's the best
Speaker 4: players making decisions and making plays for each other.
Speaker 1: Talking to Cody Fieger, assistant coach at the University of Kentucky.
Speaker 1: He is a Milwaukee native. Fair warning now begins the
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packer portion of our conversation. But you mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier just growing up and was kind in Milwaukee, and
Speaker 1: everything is all Packers all the time, just as it's
Speaker 1: for the most part in most of the state of
Speaker 1: Kentucky uk LT. I grew up in Louisville back back
Speaker 1: in the day when they didn't play each other, believe
Speaker 1: it or not, so you could actually root for both teams.
Speaker 1: But it's a pretty even split in Jefferson County. But
Speaker 1: tell me what it's like on Packers Sundays in Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: In Wisconsin. I mean, and I lived in Dallas for
Speaker 1: two years. It's got to be like when the Cowboys
Speaker 1: are playing, everything shuts down. It's got to be that
Speaker 1: way in Wisconsin.
Speaker 4: True, oh for sure. So you know, like I said,
Speaker 4: when I was born, my parents put me on the
Speaker 4: season ticket list. Of course, so I'm that was the
Speaker 4: first thing that happened.
Speaker 1: Where are you now? And I was.
Speaker 4: I was eighty thousand away when I was born, and
Speaker 4: now I'm not now I'm at forty two thousand, I
Speaker 4: want to say, So, you know, hopefully my great great
Speaker 4: grandkids could get season tickets. My dad's got season tickets though,
Speaker 4: so excellent, you know, so I have a chance there.
Speaker 4: But yeah, so that was the first thing that was
Speaker 4: done when I was born. And then my parents also
Speaker 4: bought me a stock in the Packers.
Speaker 1: Just like me.
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, come on, there's there's not many owners walking
Speaker 4: around the city. Of Lexington, say, I own a football team.
Speaker 1: We are NFL owners. You are correct, we are NFL.
Speaker 1: That's right. We're important. By the way, I also own
Speaker 1: a share, a micro share of a horse that won
Speaker 1: the Kentucky Derby. So I'm not just an NFL owner,
Speaker 1: but a Kentucky Derby owner. So winner. Oh my gosh, graduation,
Speaker 1: A pretty important guy. Coach sitting in here in my
Speaker 1: in my garage, recording this conversation. Uh, favorite player, favorite
Speaker 1: Packers player or players growing up?
Speaker 4: I mean, Brett Farb was my hero, right and uh,
Speaker 4: you know, there's this new documentary that just came out
Speaker 4: yesterday and I'm about fifteen minutes into it and I
Speaker 4: don't know if I want to finish it because so
Speaker 4: we're talking about his good stuff right now, right, But
Speaker 4: I love him. You know, Robert Brookes, you know, you
Speaker 4: know Sterling Sharp, you know.
Speaker 1: On defense, Reggie White there you girls.
Speaker 4: Woodson, yeah, girls, Woodson, Yeah, Clay Matthews. I mean, there's
Speaker 4: so many, so many greats that you know that I
Speaker 4: enjoyed for years.
Speaker 1: I have a Clay Matthews Jersey believe it or not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, no, he was, you know, and Reggie you know,
Speaker 1: I've been to Green Bay once and I remember I
Speaker 1: flew in with my buddies. We're all Packer fans, and
Speaker 1: we flew directly into Green Bay. We didn't fly and
Speaker 1: then drive, and I purposely looked out the window and
Speaker 1: thought about Reggie White, because, as you know, when Reggie
Speaker 1: White signed, people followed because he couldn't sign anywhere, but
Speaker 1: he signs with a little bitty Green Bay, And I thought,
Speaker 1: what must it be have been like for Reggie White?
Speaker 1: But then he was a country boy from Tennessee, so
Speaker 1: it wasn't that big a deal, you know, so, but
Speaker 1: I'm thinking when he flew into green band was looking around,
Speaker 1: and as you know, when you find a Green Bay man,
Speaker 1: it's farmland surrounding this tiny little city. But excellence followed,
Speaker 1: and the Super Bowl followed as well. A few minutes
Speaker 1: left of Cody figure, we are talking about our beloved
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers. By the way, my favorite player I
Speaker 1: got some years on you mine was Bart Starr. And
Speaker 1: so my dog's name is Bark Starr. She's laying right here.
Speaker 1: But it's just it's such a generational thing, just like
Speaker 1: Kentucky basketball, isn't it. I mean, you talk to any
Speaker 1: Kentucky fan, whatever the age, and from their generation, they've
Speaker 1: got favorites. And now you got kids who wanted to
Speaker 1: be John wall And it wasn't that long ago John
Speaker 1: wall was at Kentucky. But it doesn't make it's got
Speaker 1: to make you feel like it's all one and the same.
Speaker 1: Am I right?
Speaker 4: Oh for sure? Yeah, I mean I got you know,
Speaker 4: Trent Now showed me a picture of him with John Walla.
Speaker 4: I'm like, wow, it looks like six seven years old.
Speaker 4: I'm like, this is this is insane, you know, it's crazy,
Speaker 4: it's crazy. Uh, next time, well, if you do go
Speaker 4: up to a Packer game, my dad's got season tickets,
Speaker 4: like I said, and the tailgates. He's missed like four
Speaker 4: home games in like forty years or something like that.
Speaker 4: So wow, you got to you gotta go up there
Speaker 4: and uh and start tailgating with him at seven am
Speaker 4: if the games at noon, and then you know, the
Speaker 4: games at three. He starts sailgating five hours before, so
Speaker 4: of course, right across the street from Lambeau. It's it's
Speaker 4: a it's a great setup.
Speaker 1: You know. Tailgating and the NFL is a real art.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's pretty good at Kentucky and the SEC.
Speaker 1: But it's it's nothing like the NFL, I don't think,
Speaker 1: and I think the Packer tailgate and you know what,
Speaker 1: you may have seen this. I've seen the Packers once
Speaker 1: in Green Bay, but I've seen him in Nashville, Cincinnati, Dallas,
Speaker 1: a couple other cities, and Packer fans, as you know,
Speaker 1: are everywhere. We're everywhere. And so it was the tailgating,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 4: Yep? Yep, yeah, oh for sure. Yeah, like I went
Speaker 4: to uh. I took my son to his first Packer
Speaker 4: game a couple of years ago in Edinburgh and good
Speaker 4: retailgated and had a great time and it was perfect
Speaker 4: hatching some other friends out there. So yeah, well it's
Speaker 4: so similar to Kentucky basketball man, it is so similar.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, speaking of sons and Brett Farv, my son's
Speaker 1: team is the Denver Broncos, because when we played them
Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl, I spent that week on the
Speaker 1: radio ragging about how we were going to win. I
Speaker 1: was very obnoxious. So my son, being being a contrarian,
Speaker 1: he decided he was going to root for whoever the
Speaker 1: Packers were playing. It happened to be the Broncos and
Speaker 1: of course they beat us, so I have to and
Speaker 1: I've actually purchased Broncos gear for him for Christmas. I
Speaker 1: hate to admit, but you know, you gotta you gotta
Speaker 1: be an honorable you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah you're good, dad, Yeah you're good.
Speaker 1: But when my first granddaughter was born, you know, she
Speaker 1: got a Green Bay Packers doll and that did not
Speaker 1: sit well with with her parents. So anyway, it's you can.
Speaker 1: I got to be the subjective journalist, but when it
Speaker 1: comes to the Packers, that can be a real jerk.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of fun. That's what I say about
Speaker 1: owning stock. Yeah, it gives you license to be obnoxious,
Speaker 1: which is so great, so great. Uh does your dad
Speaker 1: still live in Milwaukee or where does he live?
Speaker 4: Yeah that my my parents still live in in Milwaukee,
Speaker 4: and you know they're uh, you know, my brother lives
Speaker 4: up there and they still go to Packer games. And
Speaker 4: then you know, I'm hoping going to get up to
Speaker 4: Lambeau this year, just gotta check out kick at our schedule.
Speaker 4: But yeah, they're still living up there and they you know,
Speaker 4: when the Packers lose, I try to give my dad
Speaker 4: a couple of days by smart. That's the way it's
Speaker 4: always been smart smart.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I was overjoyed when Randall Cobb
Speaker 1: ended up with the Green Bay Packers. It was so great.
Speaker 1: And of course yeah the year the year prior, our
Speaker 1: punter for the Packers who won a Super Bowl, Tim
Speaker 1: mass Day was a Kentucky guy.
Speaker 4: Oh I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And I think he a team may be
Speaker 1: living back here in Lexington, So if I find out,
Speaker 1: I'll send him your way. Look, I know you have
Speaker 1: more important things to do. Uh, there's nothing more important
Speaker 1: than talking about the Packers. But in terms of your employment,
Speaker 1: there's probably more important things for you to do. But
Speaker 1: I do appreciate the time. It's good talking to you again, Coach.
Speaker 1: Hope to see you soon, my friend.
Speaker 4: Thank you all right.
Speaker 1: Up next our number two with unforgetable guard Sean Woods,
Speaker 1: now the coach as well as at Scott County High
Speaker 1: School of La Fama, the team involved in the basketball
Speaker 1: tournament this coming summer. Also West Nbera chief Gary Moore
Speaker 1: here on six thirty WLAP tact.
Speaker 5: Can anything then.
Speaker 1: Back, Welcome back to the Big Blue and Cider, joining
Speaker 1: us as he does every Wednesday on our celebrity hotline
Speaker 1: is the unforgettable guard. Sean Woods, now the head coach
Speaker 1: at Scott County. But now another dude, he added to
Speaker 1: the resume, and you were part of Lafe A Melia
Speaker 1: last year's as an assistant coach. Now you're the head coach.
Speaker 1: I guess this has got to be another exciting assignment,
Speaker 1: am I Right?
Speaker 5: Well, no doubt about it. Anytime you can coach, you know, anyone,
Speaker 5: I don't care if it's Pee Wee League, Junior Pro,
Speaker 5: junior high or whatever. You get an opportunity to coach
Speaker 5: young men and and and and try to you know,
Speaker 5: achieve a common goal and that's excellent, and trying to
Speaker 5: win as many games or a championship as you possibly can.
Speaker 1: Bottom line is winning. But this is an entirely different
Speaker 1: type of coaching, isn't it.
Speaker 5: No doubt? You know, I had an opportunity to be
Speaker 5: the head coach last year and I didn't know if
Speaker 5: I could, so I told twenty, you know, try to
Speaker 5: get someone else. And he got a good one and
Speaker 5: Tyler Uless, who did a great job. And I was
Speaker 5: there with him, and I realized that I can't coach pros,
Speaker 5: you know, I've never coached pros before, but it's coach
Speaker 5: in the same way. You know, especially guys that know
Speaker 5: how to play. You know, it's easier coaching pros because
Speaker 5: you know, all you got to do is give him
Speaker 5: an assignment and they'll go out and do it. And
Speaker 5: the good thing about this situation, coaching, the TVT deal
Speaker 5: and with La Familia is these guys we made it
Speaker 5: a pride deal.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: Anytime you put on that jersey that says Kentucky represent Kentucky,
Speaker 5: you know, it just moves through your soul and it
Speaker 5: creates another type of competitor. And that's the reason why
Speaker 5: we have success. You know, if Nate Cstina doesn't leave us,
Speaker 5: you know, I loved our chances on winning that deal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember that you guys were rolling and then
Speaker 1: you lost eight and you were just kind of a
Speaker 1: different team when you call it again, everybody on this
Speaker 1: roster either played in the NBA or overseas or both.
Speaker 1: And I got to think too, whatever the level, if
Speaker 1: you are a good athlete, in this case a basketball player,
Speaker 1: and you want to excel, you will accept coaching, won't you,
Speaker 1: no matter how high a level you've reached.
Speaker 5: No doubt about it. And the good thing about coaching
Speaker 5: these pros is they know it already. They've been coached
Speaker 5: at the highest level, you know, and as long as
Speaker 5: they coming in with the right frame of mind, the
Speaker 5: coaching is easy because all we're doing is trying to
Speaker 5: strategize ways to simplify and create ways for us to
Speaker 5: be successful in the offensive end and then do things,
Speaker 5: you know, from a defensive end standpoint, to give us
Speaker 5: a great chance to win.
Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned frame of mind, and I remember when
Speaker 1: Twany spoke to the media and he said when he
Speaker 1: put out the message looking for players trying to see
Speaker 1: he was willing to play and of course coach like
Speaker 1: you guys. You know, he basically said, in a paraphrasing,
Speaker 1: this is not just something to get together and break
Speaker 1: a sweat and have fun. I mean, you guys, really,
Speaker 1: as you said, you sort of rededicated yourselves, didn't you.
Speaker 5: We did, you know, we had to kind of come,
Speaker 5: had to come to Jesus meeting last year. You know,
Speaker 5: they kind of had that attitude at first. Then after
Speaker 5: about the second day, you know, we just told him listen,
Speaker 5: you know, you still represent Kentucky and you know, people
Speaker 5: still want to beat us, and you know, we we're
Speaker 5: asking these fans to come out and support us, and
Speaker 5: we got to, you know, put on a great show
Speaker 5: because when we're playing RUP or wherever we're playing at,
Speaker 5: no matter what, if you've been here five years, been
Speaker 5: gone for six years, these the people here in the
Speaker 5: state of Kentucky still expect you to win. And this
Speaker 5: is still you know, and we're playing for something. We're
Speaker 5: playing for a million dollars, So that was the other character.
Speaker 1: Also, it's more than the money though, isn't it.
Speaker 5: Oh, no doubt about it. Is the pride, you know,
Speaker 5: still having that Kentucky on your chest a little bit,
Speaker 5: even though we're called a liah fa me, but everyone
Speaker 5: knows we're the product of UK basketball.
Speaker 1: I was really pleased. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.
Speaker 1: You probably weren't that a lot of these guys were
Speaker 1: really moved and touched by the fan response. And as
Speaker 1: you said, a lot of these guys have been gone
Speaker 1: far far away, I mean, out of sight, out of
Speaker 1: mind for several years, but when they came back, it's
Speaker 1: like they'd never been gone, you know. And I guess
Speaker 1: you kind of saw that coming. But I got a
Speaker 1: kick out of that.
Speaker 5: Well, what we had to do was and it was
Speaker 5: you know, everything happens for a reason. And you know,
Speaker 5: as an assistant coach, not only did I help with coaching,
Speaker 5: you know, I really had to, you know, teach these
Speaker 5: guys how significant they are to Kentucky. You know, most
Speaker 5: of those guys and these guys that are playing for
Speaker 5: US had only spent eight months in the Commonwealth because
Speaker 5: they they were one and done for the most part,
Speaker 5: so they didn't appreciate and know how significant they were
Speaker 5: as far as an autograph session. You know, they couldn't
Speaker 5: believe that so many people would come back and want
Speaker 5: their autographs.
Speaker 4: So after the yeah, it was it was.
Speaker 5: Amazing because how can you get used to anything when
Speaker 5: you're only here to play basketball, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 5: and then you go into the NBA. This was just
Speaker 5: like a feeder system for them, and I had to
Speaker 5: really emphasize, you know, like after the first game, I
Speaker 5: made everyone after the game go back out out in
Speaker 5: the arena area and sign every article rapped to the
Speaker 5: last person left.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 5: Interesting because they didn't you know, and I told them,
Speaker 5: I said, listen, you're not going to be more significant
Speaker 5: than any in any other place in the world. But
Speaker 5: here I said, you know, Tyler, you is Willie calistein
Speaker 5: you know Taler, this Phoenix Suns. They never forgot about
Speaker 5: you already, you know, Willie klostein Sacramento Kings that forgot
Speaker 5: about you already. You know all that. But Kentucky never
Speaker 5: forgets you.
Speaker 1: That's right, That's right.
Speaker 5: You know. And even though if you played six months,
Speaker 5: four years or whatever, you still wore that uniform and
Speaker 5: there's still a great appreciation for you in this place,
Speaker 5: unlike any other place that you will live or be
Speaker 5: at in your life. And that was my that was
Speaker 5: my call in last year, and it's going to be
Speaker 5: my call in this year too.
Speaker 1: That's a great point, you mate, because in the pros
Speaker 1: you're a commodity. You know that some people, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: rise above that. But but ninety eight percent of the time,
Speaker 1: you know, and people sign up for that right as
Speaker 1: a pro You could say if you stayed one franchise
Speaker 1: for thirteen or fourteen years, that might be different. That
Speaker 1: doesn't happen anymore, does it now?
Speaker 5: As you can see that, you know, the trading is
Speaker 5: just like anything else. You know, nobody's staying in one place.
Speaker 5: And look at it. It's in college now.
Speaker 1: That's true. That's true. Hey, speaking of which I know.
Speaker 1: You notice Boogie Flann leaves Caliperi, dips his toe in
Speaker 1: the NBA waters, then goes to Florida. And it can't
Speaker 1: be a money thing because we know there's a bottomless
Speaker 1: pit of chicken money and more in Arkansas. But he leaves.
Speaker 1: The guy he said no thanks to Kentucky and followed
Speaker 1: Caliperiy to Arkansas, got hurt, but came back. They had
Speaker 1: a good run. But then he leaves for Florida. What
Speaker 1: do you make of that?
Speaker 5: Typical? Typical? You know, there's just no loyalty in college
Speaker 5: athletics anymore, you know. And you could tell, just like
Speaker 5: anywhere else, he didn't care about Arkansas. That Arkansas in
Speaker 5: his chest. No one does, you know. And last year
Speaker 5: because it was the first year, you know, no one
Speaker 5: can leave after, you know, because they all stayed. But
Speaker 5: you're gonna see something leaving already here. You know, you
Speaker 5: had a freshman already leave. You had a in state
Speaker 5: Kentucky kid already leaves. It's gonna be It's gonna be
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying, And you can't knock coaches,
Speaker 5: you can't knock anything that is the layer of the
Speaker 5: land now. And that's the way these kids and their
Speaker 5: parents think. They're always looking for the next fix. They
Speaker 5: don't want the truth. They want people to tell them
Speaker 5: how good they are. And they're thinking that the grass
Speaker 5: is green on the other side where there's money playing, coaching,
Speaker 5: so on and so forth. You know, there's just no
Speaker 5: stay power anywhere. And that's a prime example because cal
Speaker 5: actually we everyone thought, if you're a basketball person, that
Speaker 5: Arkansas didn't hit their stride until Bulley Flynn actually got hurt, exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and everybody might be a thing. Everybody had to
Speaker 1: become more involved and just not watch Boogie. But when
Speaker 1: Boogie came back, they were a better team for it,
Speaker 1: weren't they Exactly.
Speaker 5: So now he's trying to penny back off the guard
Speaker 5: to Florida had last year. They may have to make
Speaker 5: that run, you know. And he thinks he's gonna step
Speaker 5: in and be treated the same way, which I'm sure
Speaker 5: you know, coach is gonna put the ball in his
Speaker 5: hands and expect him to get to expect the same
Speaker 5: results that he got from the guard previous. But that's
Speaker 5: the way this world is now.
Speaker 1: Dick, You're right, You're right. He is Sean Woods. He
Speaker 1: is the in forgettable guard. His jersey hangs and the
Speaker 1: Raptors are up now. In addition to being the head
Speaker 1: coach at Scott County High School, he's the head coach
Speaker 1: of La Familla, like a UK based team, the Kentucky
Speaker 1: based team that will play in the Basketball Tournament. Those
Speaker 1: guys got to the Semis last year. We'll see if
Speaker 1: they can take it a step further at least this
Speaker 1: coming summer, and we'll come back and talk more hoops
Speaker 1: with a coach in just a minute here on six
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Sean Woods, the
Speaker 1: unforgettable guard, the head coach off on me, also the
Speaker 1: head coach at Scott County High Sean, you were talking
Speaker 1: earlier about the appreciation that the former Wildcats had when
Speaker 1: they came back last summer and signed autographs and they
Speaker 1: were surprised people still remembered them, And I'm wondering what
Speaker 1: you've thought. We we kind of touched on this through
Speaker 1: the months, but the guys Mark Pope brought in this
Speaker 1: past year and now was building another team and we
Speaker 1: haven't had a chance to talk to these guys yet,
Speaker 1: but for instance, Kobe Bray made a joke, but he
Speaker 1: was serious about not giving back his Kentucky jersey. He said,
Speaker 1: they're gonna have a hard time getting this back from me.
Speaker 1: And he admitted to Ben Roberts as a hero leader
Speaker 1: that he kept it. That he said, he's always going
Speaker 1: to keep it. You know, all of those guys had
Speaker 1: such a profound appreciation for coming from a decent school
Speaker 1: where they'd been with some success. But now they get
Speaker 1: to come to Kentucky. And Kobe's case, people told him
Speaker 1: one coach and said, you're never going to be good
Speaker 1: enough to play there. So all these guys who show
Speaker 1: up they adored playing at Kentucky. And we talked about
Speaker 1: the fact that that may dwindle a little bit. But
Speaker 1: I really do believe that I don't think Pope's gonna
Speaker 1: take anybody. He doesn't kind of feel that way.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying, Well, well, it's not what
Speaker 5: he's taking, it's what he's doing when he gets them.
Speaker 5: You know, he's really harping on unlike you know, the
Speaker 5: past coaching. I'm not knocking cal but caw was wasn't
Speaker 5: into the fans and and and and getting to know
Speaker 5: this guy in tradition, he was more into him. And
Speaker 5: you know, getting these guys to where he promised them
Speaker 5: he was going to get them to. So it's a
Speaker 5: totally different look. But Mark he knows nothing. But you
Speaker 5: know when he sells and he goes into a place
Speaker 5: and then he's coaching, he's coaching out of pure, pure passion.
Speaker 5: And not only that, it's Kentucky basketball is in his soul,
Speaker 5: So anything that comes out of his mouth, there's nothing
Speaker 5: but pure Kentucky basketball. And when you're hearing that every day,
Speaker 5: all day, and then you're back and it's and he's
Speaker 5: backed up by the by the passion of these fans
Speaker 5: and the commonwealth. They feel it. But when there's a
Speaker 5: nipp and tug about what's important and not important, you know,
Speaker 5: you get you can't get the full effect of what
Speaker 5: Kentucky basketball is all about as a player. Now you're
Speaker 5: getting it from Mark Pope because you know you he
Speaker 5: lived it and it's so much in his soul that
Speaker 5: he don't know no other way. And it's all about
Speaker 5: the passion and and and and what the task is
Speaker 5: at hand. That wasn't the case with Cal, and Cal
Speaker 5: did a great job. But it's two different approaches and
Speaker 5: the but the one that we're used to as the
Speaker 5: Commonwealth is the one that Pope is doing. You know,
Speaker 5: we're selling the jersey, we're selling the front of the jersey.
Speaker 5: And Pope is allowed on his kids to indulge in
Speaker 5: the Commonwealth, where Cal didn't let allow his kids to
Speaker 5: indulge in the Commonwealth. That that makes.
Speaker 1: Sense, I agree, And yeah, and then he was successful
Speaker 1: at first, had to run of bad luck and bad
Speaker 1: moves towards the end. But now you look at all
Speaker 1: the former Wildcats who are Cali Perry Wildcats who are
Speaker 1: still alive in the NBA playoffs. You know, it underscores
Speaker 1: the job he did recruiting getting the talent here, including
Speaker 1: Julius Randall. And I talked to Box story about this.
Speaker 1: He wrote about this in the Harrow Leader. But I
Speaker 1: thought he made a great point, Seawan, and the Julius
Speaker 1: Randall has been I think, and again he was only
Speaker 1: here for like to like you say, about eight months,
Speaker 1: less than a year. One of the more underappreciated Kentucky players.
Speaker 1: You know, helped this team, who carried this team to
Speaker 1: a championship game. Now you see his game in the NBA.
Speaker 1: He's a man now, but I think he's he to
Speaker 1: me is right up there, Sean with Keith Bogan's who
Speaker 1: was here, you know for four years, but really underappreciated.
Speaker 5: You see it that way I do, and Keith Bogans
Speaker 5: is one of the most underappreciated. Keith Bogans was a
Speaker 5: solid basketball player and he proved his work in the NBA.
Speaker 5: He's probably the only two guards that played more than
Speaker 5: ten years and never average double figures. But because of it,
Speaker 5: because he was such a great locker room guy and
Speaker 5: really devoted his his his prows to defense. Is allowed
Speaker 5: him to stay that long and everywhere he went he
Speaker 5: was you know, he he improved that team just because
Speaker 5: of his leadership and the hard work that he brought
Speaker 5: every single day. And I think Julius Randalls was the
Speaker 5: same way.
Speaker 1: Bogans became a three and D guy at the right
Speaker 1: time in the NBA, didn't he.
Speaker 4: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're talking to Sean Woods. He is a head
Speaker 1: coach at Scott County now the head coach as well
Speaker 1: a lot of me the TBT entry and getting back
Speaker 1: to that tournament last year. When you guys played over
Speaker 1: in Louisville, things got a little chippy, but that kind
Speaker 1: of underscore what you were talking about, you know, playing
Speaker 1: as much for pride as the money, right.
Speaker 5: And you know what, that's when that pride really really
Speaker 5: came out, because it was just like a Louisville Kentucky
Speaker 5: game in the regular season, and then it felt just
Speaker 5: like it. You know, even though I was coaching, man,
Speaker 5: I still felt that I still got the chills in
Speaker 5: my body and the competitive spirit when we played. When
Speaker 5: they came out, you know, they had the little l's
Speaker 5: up with their fingers. I said, hold on, guys, we're
Speaker 5: not coming out yet. We let them go out, and
Speaker 5: all of a sudden, when we came out, you know,
Speaker 5: they tried to tried to boguard tickets and everything. But
Speaker 5: what I put, what I should, what I told those guys,
Speaker 5: I said, let me tell you something. There's not an
Speaker 5: arena or a school or a venue that can keep
Speaker 5: Kentucky Wildcat fans from being in the getting in there.
Speaker 5: And guess what when we came out that that place
Speaker 5: was electrifying of Kentucky fans, you know, and and and
Speaker 5: it blew their minds, you know, it blew their minds.
Speaker 5: And we put a whipping on him. And they were
Speaker 5: so bad that, you know, one of their guys had
Speaker 5: to spit in neck Sustina's face just because he put
Speaker 5: the l's down instead of als up. You know that it.
Speaker 4: Got that hippy.
Speaker 5: And guess what it was so good, Dick that two
Speaker 5: of the most prominent basketball players from each school was
Speaker 5: at the game. Darryl Griffith was there for them, and
Speaker 5: Jack Gibbns was behind our bench, and then Mark Pope
Speaker 5: and then Mark Pope went so far to bring his
Speaker 5: whole team to that game. Yeah, that's when it started.
Speaker 5: That's when his team looked at this and say, hey,
Speaker 5: we're at a different place. This is huge.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what a great move. I had completely forgotten about that.
Speaker 1: Think he'll do it this year if you guys play,
Speaker 1: here's the deal.
Speaker 5: We're gonna be going against you know, practicing at the
Speaker 5: at the practices at the Joe Craft Center, practicing with
Speaker 5: him again just like we did last year. And hopefully
Speaker 5: he will invite them. Because Louisville won. You know, they
Speaker 5: beat us again. They out soldas and tickets, you know
Speaker 5: what I'm saying, pre sale tickets. So we're gonna play
Speaker 5: that game again and both of us meet each other
Speaker 5: in Louisville. But I think it's a great venue, and
Speaker 5: I think it's going to be even more Kentucky fans
Speaker 5: than it was last year. But man, it was half
Speaker 5: and half and Freedom Hall was jam packed to the
Speaker 5: gild for a a TBT game. It was the high.
Speaker 5: It was the highest UH turnout in TVT history.
Speaker 1: I went to so many games in Freedom Hall as
Speaker 1: a kid growing up in Louisville, Kentucky. Colonel's games, watch
Speaker 1: U of L play there, watch UK play there, high
Speaker 1: school tournaments there. You talk about one of the great
Speaker 1: traditional venues, and I know it's it's it's old and creaky,
Speaker 1: but I love going to that place.
Speaker 5: Richie Farman and I was talking about it yesterday. We
Speaker 5: were talking and we were talking about you know, Gym,
Speaker 5: you know the numbers he put up in the state championship.
Speaker 5: And not only that, it's a great venue. I mean,
Speaker 5: I love playing in Freedom Hall. I've had some of
Speaker 5: my great games against Louisville and there, you know, just
Speaker 5: the floor, I mean, it's just a great place to play.
Speaker 5: And uh, you know, rich and I talked about it
Speaker 5: yesterday for about thirty minutes. So yeah, I don't mind it.
Speaker 5: I would like for us to be here in Lexington,
Speaker 5: but we got fans all over the state so that
Speaker 5: there's nothing in the world that can't keep Kentucky fans
Speaker 5: from getting there.
Speaker 1: Richie Farmer versus Alan Houston in that state championship and
Speaker 1: in the Sweet sixteen was the greatest performance, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: one versus the other really in the history of Sweet sixteen.
Speaker 1: If you can find it, it may be on YouTube somewhere,
Speaker 1: but it's you.
Speaker 4: Know, I watched it.
Speaker 5: I watched it and I was yeah, and I told Richie,
Speaker 5: I said, guys, dog, they let you walk the ball
Speaker 5: up the court. It didn't start guarding you until you
Speaker 5: got to the until you got to the top of
Speaker 5: the key. You bounced the ball twice, either you got
Speaker 5: to to your pull up or they cut you off.
Speaker 5: You spin and you and you got to your pull up.
Speaker 5: And if they tried to double team, run somebody to
Speaker 5: ask you. You had Russ Farmer on one side. You have
Speaker 5: Russ Chadwell on the other. And that was the only
Speaker 5: thing y'ard Ryan all game and you beat a really
Speaker 5: good baller team just not doing that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, amazing, amazing. Shawn Woods, he is the unforgettable guard.
Speaker 1: We talk to him each and every week. Head coach
Speaker 1: at Scott Conny now the head coach of LA for me.
Speaker 1: We'll talk more as summer goes on about high school
Speaker 1: hoops and the basketball tournament. Coach, thanks so much, Thank you, Jack.
Speaker 5: Looking forward to talking to your game buddy.
Speaker 1: And up next, West End Bureau Chief Gary Moore here
Speaker 1: on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Boo Insider.
Speaker 1: It is Wednesday, which means we cast our eyes to
Speaker 1: the west to our West End Bureau Chief Gary Moore
Speaker 1: down I sixty four over in La Louisville area after
Speaker 1: many years in Los Angeles, and we chat each and
Speaker 1: every week. Two guys in the six packs.
Speaker 6: What we call this thing, you and me and six
Speaker 6: things to talk about six twigs and we got one, two,
Speaker 6: three baseball things.
Speaker 1: Right off the well.
Speaker 6: I want to say bat, but pardon the punt. Here
Speaker 6: we go past rivalry weekend, the world champion in first
Speaker 6: place Dodgers. You may have seen were swept at home
Speaker 6: at Dodger Stadium by the lousy last place Crosstown Angels.
Speaker 6: Why bad Dodger pitching. Also over the weekend, Kentucky lost
Speaker 6: three leads late, then all three heartbreaking games to number
Speaker 6: nine Vandy. Why bad UK pitching? In fact, it's been
Speaker 6: kind of a trend this year. I think you mentioned
Speaker 6: the stat before. UK has led in twenty seven of
Speaker 6: the thirty SEC Conference games in the regular season, but
Speaker 6: they only went thirteen and seventeen in those thirty and
Speaker 6: kind of the same deal yesterday in the sec A
Speaker 6: Tourney when thirteen seeded Cats had a won a nothing lead.
Speaker 6: That should be enough for you guys to win the
Speaker 6: damn game for twelve seed Oklahoma. And then the Cats,
Speaker 6: of course had swept them a couple weeknds Ago lost
Speaker 6: to him yesterday five to one. So now gotta wait
Speaker 6: until Monday high noon when the brackets are unveiled on
Speaker 6: ESPN two plus. I know you've talked about this basis
Speaker 6: Small America says UK's a lock to get in D one.
Speaker 6: Baseball dot Com has the Cats a number three seed
Speaker 6: even with a twenty nine to twenty four record. You
Speaker 6: remember they have the ninth toughest schedule in all of
Speaker 6: college baseball. You've seen them all season.
Speaker 1: Are they a lock? No? And I only say it
Speaker 1: is because having covered this program for decades literally, I
Speaker 1: have seen teams with better records not get in. Now,
Speaker 1: to your point, directly to your point, strength, to schedule, RPI,
Speaker 1: all of that is going to matter huge for the Wildcats.
Speaker 1: And you've got to credit Nick Benjee, and part of
Speaker 1: that is out of his hands. It's the SEC now.
Speaker 1: But he went a couple of years ago when his
Speaker 1: future at Kentucky was teetering, he went to school on
Speaker 1: scheduling and RPI. He really did a deep dive because
Speaker 1: this was after a year where they had a lot
Speaker 1: of wins but didn't get in, and a team with
Speaker 1: an RPI that wasn't as good as Kentucky's was selected
Speaker 1: over the Wildcats. So he studied away or though various
Speaker 1: ways to keep it out of the hands of the
Speaker 1: committee members. It's just like basketball, you know, play a
Speaker 1: tough schedule, win games, and don't let them decide your fate.
Speaker 1: You do it yourself. But as you said, there have
Speaker 1: been so many close losses and menji Owone was on
Speaker 1: with Paul Feinbaum two days ago and I broke this
Speaker 1: down on the show yesterday, and he and I have
Speaker 1: talked about this before you think about this, all the
Speaker 1: pitches that are thrown in every game, there are hundreds
Speaker 1: and hundreds of moments, and a handful of those moments
Speaker 1: to side games. Yep. And as he pointed out, five
Speaker 1: moments stood between Kentucky and eighteen SEC wins and tack
Speaker 1: on another four nine moments stood between Kentucky and another
Speaker 1: SEC title. That's how close it come, so so thin, Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: So we got to hold our breath now, don't we? Exactly?
Speaker 6: Well over and over here the same kind of deal
Speaker 6: our second swig here two weeks ago, yesterday, Dick, You
Speaker 6: remember then number nineteen Louisville beat number ten Vanderbilt Jim
Speaker 6: Patterson Stadium five to four. But since that point, the
Speaker 6: now unranked Cards gone two to five in the regular season,
Speaker 6: including losing city bragging rights to Bellermant, which hadn't beat
Speaker 6: Louisville since nineteen ninety one. Why did Louisville lose all
Speaker 6: those games? And when the bell awful pitching?
Speaker 1: What else? I mean?
Speaker 6: They scored eleven runs yesterday like yesterday the round one
Speaker 6: of the ACC Tournament in Durham lost to pit first
Speaker 6: time they played them all season and ended up losing
Speaker 6: thirteen to eleven. It was a bullpen game, but that's
Speaker 6: why they lost awful starting and relief pitching yesterday. But
Speaker 6: I ask you, does it all really matter? The Cards
Speaker 6: are listed as a two seed already by D one
Speaker 6: baseball dot com. When those brackets come out on Monday,
Speaker 6: the end of the season, we know arms are tired,
Speaker 6: and if any pitching staff needs a rest around here, well,
Speaker 6: U of L definitely coming into Durham. Their tm ERA
Speaker 6: was five points. That's thirteenth out of sixteen teams. So
Speaker 6: you know what, maybe it's a good thing for both
Speaker 6: the Cards and the Cats to bow out early.
Speaker 1: What do you think? Well, I think Louisville is playing
Speaker 1: in a tough conference. Not as tough as the SEC,
Speaker 1: of course, but the ACC is tough, and usually Louisville,
Speaker 1: well any team, the best teams are playing their best
Speaker 1: baseball right now, and usually that's the case for Louisville.
Speaker 1: But I got to say, watching Kentucky sweep not sweep
Speaker 1: split with UOL that frigid game over in Louisville where
Speaker 1: the Cards won it in a walk off again, another
Speaker 1: game where Kentucky couldn't protect the lead, and then the
Speaker 1: Wildcats blew out the Cardinals, I mean destroyed them over
Speaker 1: here in Lexing and Gary, I was amazed at how
Speaker 1: poor Louisville's pitching was. You know, they've got some arms,
Speaker 1: but not nearly as many as it has had in
Speaker 1: the past, and that's been a big problem. And that's
Speaker 1: what will keep Louisville, I think, from advancing, because it
Speaker 1: just seems like, you know, some of the guys are
Speaker 1: still playing in the pros and doing very well, they're
Speaker 1: just not as talented, to put it bluntly, as they've
Speaker 1: been in the past. So you know, you get the
Speaker 1: right draw, the right seed, you can do some damage.
Speaker 1: But I am amazed at how thin Louisville's pitching is
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 6: Third swig continuing with baseball in the majors, and this
Speaker 6: kind of a footnote to last week. Even though the
Speaker 6: Pete Rose talk has died down here in the last
Speaker 6: ten days, whether you should get in the Hall of
Speaker 6: Fame or not one long deceased three time All Star,
Speaker 6: two time World Series Champion, and seven time Gold Glover.
Speaker 6: As you and I have said before, it should already
Speaker 6: be enshrined. Yep, former Cardinals great Kurt Flood. Every single
Speaker 6: time a major leaguer signs any free agent contract of
Speaker 6: any amount, the ones they sign nowadays usually set them
Speaker 6: up in their family financially for life. Obviously, well, that
Speaker 6: player should utter these four simple words, thank you, Kurt Flood.
Speaker 6: But you know they never do. I never hear it.
Speaker 6: Kurt Flood. For those who are kind of gray on
Speaker 6: the area sacrificed as playing career, fought the archaic reserve clause,
Speaker 6: sued MLB and Commissioner Koon, and we lost in the
Speaker 6: Supreme Court. He weakened their defense to the point that
Speaker 6: they would lose three years later in nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 6: I ask you, is there a player alive or no
Speaker 6: longer living, who did more for the welfare of other
Speaker 6: players than Kurt Flood?
Speaker 1: No, bluntley, No, When people think about free agency, they
Speaker 1: might go back that far. They're going to think Marvin Miller.
Speaker 1: And that's fine. He was head of the union and
Speaker 1: he scared the dickens out of the owners, and rightfully so.
Speaker 1: But he is standing on Kurt Flood's shoulders. He's not
Speaker 1: with us anymore, but he and like you said, every
Speaker 1: player is standing on flood shoulder, and you know what,
Speaker 1: Flood maybe deserves to be in just on his playing
Speaker 1: merits alone. I agree. And you know, was part of
Speaker 1: those great Cardinal teams of the sixties World Series champs
Speaker 1: a couple times, and you know, a great center field.
Speaker 1: Although he watched a play against the Tigers that cost
Speaker 1: us the World Series. I won't go there, but he
Speaker 1: he refused to be traded to the Phillies and he
Speaker 1: said no, you know, and just thought it was just
Speaker 1: ridiculous that he had no say, we're talking about baseball's
Speaker 1: reserve clause, of course, So yes, he lost his case
Speaker 1: in a Supreme court, but ultimately they came around and
Speaker 1: now and some people think free agency is terrible, but
Speaker 1: think about where the players were prior to that, and
Speaker 1: the mere pittances they were being paid. And now are
Speaker 1: they overpaid? Sure a lot of them are, but they've
Speaker 1: got the same freedoms that most people in the workforce have,
Speaker 1: and they should.
Speaker 6: Go back to those days of the Cardinals. Stan Usual
Speaker 6: is even told to take a pay cut. Yes, well,
Speaker 6: you didn't have the same year last year as it
Speaker 6: went before, so you're gonna take less money this year,
Speaker 6: and you can't go any place else here.
Speaker 1: Sign it like it, lump it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that was kind of and what you said, and
Speaker 6: to your point about, you know, combined his his you know,
Speaker 6: on the field stats with what he did later on,
Speaker 6: it's inexplicable why he's not in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 6: Combining those two things, her fourths, wig and the six pack.
Speaker 6: Let's go to a basketball. The w NBA season officially underway,
Speaker 6: and for its number one superstar arena filling attraction, it's
Speaker 6: really on. With her freshman initiation at Hazing season in
Speaker 6: the Yearbook, Caitlin Clark serve notice and set the tone
Speaker 6: in Game one that she will no longer be taking
Speaker 6: anyone's crapola.
Speaker 1: This year.
Speaker 6: She used the off season pretty wisely. She's returned with
Speaker 6: some added muscle, as did her team, the Fever, getting
Speaker 6: six time all start to want to Bonner plus some
Speaker 6: other tough players like Sophie Cunningham, Natasha Howard, Brianna Turner,
Speaker 6: as well as new coach Stephanie White, who already knows
Speaker 6: how to get into the finals. In Saturday season opener,
Speaker 6: if you saw this, it was the most watched regular
Speaker 6: season WNBA game in twenty five years, Clark was called
Speaker 6: for a tickie tac technical after a slight shove of
Speaker 6: Chicago's Angel Reese and after Reese really shoved Fever center
Speaker 6: a Leah Boston for an offensive rebound. As for Clark's foul,
Speaker 6: I've seen more pushing in the men's room, but Reese's
Speaker 6: hysterical reaction was the highth no pun intended of hypocrisy.
Speaker 6: After you remember she cheered her teammate Kennedy Carter's cheap
Speaker 6: shot on Caitlin last year. Darling, if you're gonna dish
Speaker 6: it out, you're gonna have to eat it later on too. Okay,
Speaker 6: so last night the Fever loss to the Atlanta Dream.
Speaker 6: They're gonna play him again in Atlanta tomorrow night. Last
Speaker 6: night's game was an indie. I'm not that crazy about
Speaker 6: the NBA Finals. I don't really care about any of
Speaker 6: the four teams, but this Caitlin Clark revenge tour.
Speaker 1: Bring it on, baby well in the Atlanta Dream of
Speaker 1: course a little bit. Ryan Howard, former Kentucky Wildcat, maybe
Speaker 1: the greatest player in the history and definitely I think
Speaker 1: in the history of UK basketball women's basketball. But you
Speaker 1: know what's amazing about this Caitlyn Clark Angel Reese feud.
Speaker 1: And now you've got two ESPN analysts bickering, going back
Speaker 1: and forth, hurling personal insults, you know, Robert Griffin third
Speaker 1: and Ryan Clark. So it's very entertaining, and it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's going to probably for the wrong well not probably,
Speaker 1: definitely for the wrong reason. Bring some attention. But if
Speaker 1: it does get people watching, hey, Mare is the better? Right?
Speaker 6: Absolutely? Fifth wig Here, let's go into the home stretch.
Speaker 6: We've got some horse talk. Did Maryland's governor really call
Speaker 6: the Preakness the crown Jewel of the Triple Crown? Oh yeah,
Speaker 6: you wish pal that jewel happened two weeks before your
Speaker 6: little rhinestone deal at the pretiness. Okay, and you know
Speaker 6: his last name's more he should know better, right, dug Sure,
Speaker 6: I have not seen any of the Belmont odds yet.
Speaker 6: Maybe you have seen some inside stuff. Could potentially be
Speaker 6: quite the field. We're talking Derby winners, sovereignty, who is
Speaker 6: already going to be there? Preakness, Winter Journalism I think will.
Speaker 1: Probably be there.
Speaker 6: Is it the Baieza that's going to be also possibly
Speaker 6: in there? Maybe Preakness runner up Gosger. However, fretty one listening.
Speaker 6: If you want to see some really beautiful and some
Speaker 6: very famous thoroughbreds up close and way more personal than
Speaker 6: watching them on TV, may we suggest a visit to
Speaker 6: the Old Friends Retirement Home for Thoroughbreds right up the
Speaker 6: road from you in Georgetown. It's about three hundred beautiful breads,
Speaker 6: from three Kentucky Derby winners to horses who never even
Speaker 6: started a race. Got some Breeders Cup winners up there too,
Speaker 6: Big Brown is there? Silver Charm is up there, open
Speaker 6: daily for tours, and right now the weather is perfect.
Speaker 6: School's going to be off for everybody here pretty soon.
Speaker 6: Takes a family and friends and go the website to
Speaker 6: check it all out and make reservations. Old Friends Equine
Speaker 6: dot org. That's Old Friends Equine dot org.
Speaker 1: God bless those folks. They're doing some good work up there,
Speaker 1: aren't they. Yeah, And it was overdue, and I was
Speaker 1: so overjoyed when they built it. A Silver Charm? Is
Speaker 1: there a nineteen ninety seven Derby winner or one of
Speaker 1: my all time favorites. I actually picked a trifecta that year,
Speaker 1: and it was pretty simple that chalk came in, but
Speaker 1: it was a great ray Kentucky Derby battle and Silver
Speaker 1: Charm and Captain Bodget who didn't like each other down
Speaker 1: the stretch, and it's just, yeah, it's a great idea,
Speaker 1: it's well executed, and I've been buying there a couple times.
Speaker 1: But yeah, the folks they need support quite frankly, but
Speaker 1: this is the best place for it.
Speaker 6: Great time a year to go out there, our sixth
Speaker 6: and final swig in the six Backs the time year.
Speaker 6: Also in minor league, teams started announcing their their wacky
Speaker 6: alternative identities for a given night, and nobody does it
Speaker 6: wackier than the Madison, Wisconsin Mallards of the Amateur north
Speaker 6: Woods League. Last year, you may remember, for a night
Speaker 6: the Mallards became the motivational speakers in honor of Madison
Speaker 6: native the late Chris Farley, who's Saturday Night Live sketch
Speaker 6: the sketch as a speaker named Matt Foley yep.
Speaker 1: Who also lived in a van down by the river.
Speaker 6: It's still my favorite SNL sketch I think of all time.
Speaker 6: So this coming July the fifth, they're gonna be the
Speaker 6: Madison never minds an homage to the groundbreaking grunge album
Speaker 6: of the same name by Nirvana, which was recorded in
Speaker 6: part in Madison at their Smart Studios. There, their game
Speaker 6: Night Jersey mimics the album artwork, but instead of a
Speaker 6: baby underwater reaching for the floating dollar bill you they
Speaker 6: remember a cartoon duck is submerged reaching for a hot dog.
Speaker 6: And it's kind of sort of anatomically correct too. Go
Speaker 6: check the picture I have on X. Of course, there's
Speaker 6: gonna be plenty of Nevermind's merch and some proceeds are
Speaker 6: set aside for charity, but it's all in good fun.
Speaker 6: And besides, like the teen Spirit song from the album,
Speaker 6: Nevermind says, here we are now.
Speaker 1: Entertain us love it. I think that the creative minds
Speaker 1: at work in minor league baseball are fantastic, and having
Speaker 1: a chance dub flinning me for a couple of summers
Speaker 1: to do those games was one of the great experiences
Speaker 1: of my career. Such as it is, I look forward
Speaker 1: to this every year. Gary Moore is our Western bureau Cheap.
Speaker 1: We'll come back with a couple of hot regions. Just
Speaker 1: a minute here on six point thirty WLAP, welcome back.
Speaker 1: We are talking with West n BUA chief Gary Moore,
Speaker 1: we've gone through six two guys in a six pack
Speaker 1: now for a couple of hot reads. And I guess
Speaker 1: we shouldn't be surprised by this, Gary, But Hard Knocks
Speaker 1: was supposed to happen the series at North Carolina. They
Speaker 1: scrapped the project, and now, according to The Athletic and
Speaker 1: The New York Times, one of, if not the reason,
Speaker 1: was that belichick girlfriend Jordan Hudson demanded content approval and
Speaker 1: partial ownership of Hard Knocks. I will say that you
Speaker 1: can't blame her for the Chritz book, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: all they can do is say no. But right, North
Speaker 1: Carolina fan, you're like, what the what we wanted this
Speaker 1: and now exactly you're gonna get it.
Speaker 6: I'm just I still every time I see this woman
Speaker 6: and I hear the stuff like this, I'm thinking, who
Speaker 6: is this?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Where did she drop in from? I mean, she's trying
Speaker 6: to control that one week, she's trying to be Miss
Speaker 6: Maine in some beauty tests. She's trying to control the
Speaker 6: the CBS Sunday Morning stuff. Yep, it's well, and I
Speaker 6: think people say well about the age difference.
Speaker 1: No, I think they're a good match.
Speaker 6: They're both control freaks, think about it, and so now
Speaker 6: and he's seating a lot of control apparently to her,
Speaker 6: and she's taken it. And that's, you know, I believe
Speaker 6: the reporting that happened. I'm not surprised that that that's
Speaker 6: the story that.
Speaker 1: Came out of that.
Speaker 6: It sure sounds like something that they said that there
Speaker 6: was an unfortunate turn that happened at the very last
Speaker 6: minute and that's why they pulled out of it. So
Speaker 6: that sounds like there's some there's more smoke and fire there.
Speaker 1: Who could possibly expect that production company to say, sure, here, here,
Speaker 1: take our money and take control over our project and
Speaker 1: you know, getting a chance to see them in action
Speaker 1: hard knocks when they were at the Bengals camp. The
Speaker 1: number of people cameras, editing equipment, it's massive. And you're
Speaker 1: going to turn that over to the twenty four year
Speaker 1: old girlfriend of the coach. I don't think so.
Speaker 6: And you have experience in this one where.
Speaker 1: Exactly exactly let's see that resume tape. Our second hot
Speaker 1: read involves my beloved Green Bay Packers who have been ridiculed,
Speaker 1: and I will say probably rightly so, Although there is
Speaker 1: some merit to this. But that was the anonymous team
Speaker 1: and it came out instantly that was trying that it
Speaker 1: proposed to ban the tush push play. And now they're
Speaker 1: talking about it in the spring league meetings. They have
Speaker 1: kind of altered their request for how this was going
Speaker 1: to be changed. And basically, you know what, this was
Speaker 1: helping a runner lifting, pushing pulling was against the rules
Speaker 1: up until twenty oh five. Then they changed the rule.
Speaker 1: So now they're tweaking it saying, well, let's make it
Speaker 1: so that any runner that has push pulled or lifted
Speaker 1: is called assisting the runner and that's against the rules. Well, again,
Speaker 1: not a hill I'm gonna die on. But it's kind
Speaker 1: of a bad look for my boys, isn't it? It is?
Speaker 6: And I saw that Jason Kelsey's in Minneapolis at the
Speaker 6: meetings and he's gonna try and lobby to keep it
Speaker 6: as it is. And and to your credit, full disclosure here,
Speaker 6: when you sent me a link about this, you sent
Speaker 6: me the Eagles of h SP Nation link with the
Speaker 6: headline sore loser Packers submit revisedush push band proposal.
Speaker 1: I'll give you credit for that.
Speaker 6: You didn't send me the Packers SP Nation one. You
Speaker 6: sent me the Eagles one. Good on you, man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, everybody's everybody's just a play harder figure out
Speaker 1: a way. I don't know if they'll ever figure out
Speaker 1: a way to stop this play, especially if you Jason
Speaker 1: Kelsey was the key. He was the best center at
Speaker 1: getting low and making that drive. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you know, is it good for football? It's good
Speaker 1: for the Eagles. It was a good A lot of
Speaker 1: teams have tried it, Gary and they failed at it.
Speaker 1: I know, Coach Push, you know, but if it's fourth
Speaker 1: and one and it's almost an automatic yard that's not
Speaker 1: necessarily good for football. But the fact that other teams
Speaker 1: are failing, I think underscore is the fact that it's
Speaker 1: not automatic. No, it's not.
Speaker 6: And it's been going on to some degree right for
Speaker 6: decades when there has been like a fourth in inches
Speaker 6: or forth.
Speaker 1: What here's supposed to do? Yeah, you know, you.
Speaker 6: See guys now that are like they're still in the shotgun.
Speaker 6: When it drives me crazy. When it's fourth and one
Speaker 6: from the half yard line and you've got six inches
Speaker 6: to go to get a touchdown and you're still in
Speaker 6: a shotgun, drives me crazy.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and about the touch push as well. I'd
Speaker 1: be okay if the auloge pulling people. Pushing is one thing.
Speaker 1: I know it may be splitting airs, but uh, you know,
Speaker 1: pushing is one thing, pulling at another. But we will
Speaker 1: revisit here on the Big Blue Insider is Gary Moore.
Speaker 1: Watch him on X or Twitter at at nine to
Speaker 1: five to five. Gary, I've seen you there too at
Speaker 1: this Big Blue Insider one. That's right, have a good one,
Speaker 1: see you next week and that'll do it. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much to all my guests tonight. Cody Feger, Kentucky assistant
Speaker 1: coach and or importantly, well it depends on where you're
Speaker 1: coming from, but a Green Bay Packers fan. When I
Speaker 1: first met him, Mark Pope saw my Green Bay Packers
Speaker 1: phone case said you got to meet coach Figer. He's
Speaker 1: from Milwaukee, and that's where we went from there, so
Speaker 1: a good time talking to him, as well as as
Speaker 1: always our Western Bureau chief Gary Moore and Seawan Woods
Speaker 1: now the coach of La Familia in the basketball tournament.
Speaker 1: That's it. Good night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 2: Don't you have some kind of a line that you
Speaker 2: keep open for emergencies or for celebrities. I'm both. I'm
Speaker 2: a celebrity in an emergency. Can you catch me through
Speaker 2: on that line
Speaker 1: Please, such statu