Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Moon Cider. Dick Gabriel with you
Speaker 1: on a Thursday.
Speaker 2: It's game day, game night, actually, Kentucky opens SEC tournament play.
Speaker 2: As you know, Oklahoma lies ahead because the Sooners knocked
Speaker 2: off Georgia last night. So it's the Cats and OU
Speaker 2: in a rematch of that game, incredible game earlier this
Speaker 2: year when the Wildcats beat Oklahoma eighty three eighty two.
Speaker 2: Got that incredible shot from Otega oh Way, who scored
Speaker 2: eighteen of Kentucky's twenty one down the stretch and of
Speaker 2: course helped block a shot. I don't know if you
Speaker 2: blocked it or just got a piece of it of
Speaker 2: the Oklahoma game winner at the buzzer. So it's a
Speaker 2: rematch of UK and OU. Will have it for you
Speaker 2: right here with Tom and Jack and all our pregame
Speaker 2: coverage coming up. But before that, I wanted to share
Speaker 2: with you a conversation I had with Donnie Adkins, who
Speaker 2: was a former high school coach who coached Lafayette to
Speaker 2: a state championship, and we talked about what's going on
Speaker 2: with high school basketball now that coaches have made it
Speaker 2: a point. And Rick Patino, the most high profile coach
Speaker 2: of all to talk about ignoring high school kids in
Speaker 2: favor of guys coming through the portal and high school basketball,
Speaker 2: and election has been sagging for a while now, But
Speaker 2: I thought i'd turned to Don and get his thoughts
Speaker 2: on the future of Kentucky kids, kids all over the
Speaker 2: country playing high school ball and will they have a
Speaker 2: shot now at big time college basketball.
Speaker 3: Well, Dick, I think there's you know, a lot of
Speaker 3: different things that go into this. You to look at
Speaker 3: just what's happening nationwide with COVID, you know, affecting the
Speaker 3: years of play. Well, now, some college kids have had
Speaker 3: six years of play. You're talking about a twenty three
Speaker 3: year old person play a four year old person going
Speaker 3: up against an eighteen year old freshman in college. And
Speaker 3: a coach kind of looks at that and says, well, man,
Speaker 3: he's proved himself for four years, five years. I need
Speaker 3: to take a look at this and look at it hard.
Speaker 3: You know, Look, we'll just look at Alburn with Rome,
Speaker 3: and you know, these kids transfermed there major kids, but
Speaker 3: yet they're transferring to a big program. How does that
Speaker 3: affect high school you know, recruitment. I mean it puts
Speaker 3: that high school person you've got to be a real,
Speaker 3: real not a five A. You've got to be a
Speaker 3: starter that year. You know, you got to come out
Speaker 3: of high school ready to compete, and those are few
Speaker 3: and far between.
Speaker 1: As we don't know, do you think.
Speaker 2: That more high school kids will end up going to
Speaker 2: mid majors Naia's jukos because so many of the higher
Speaker 2: level schools are going to be just looking more for
Speaker 2: just the veterans.
Speaker 3: I think I think, you know, right now, I think
Speaker 3: that's the trend that we're going to see, maybe in
Speaker 3: colleges that because you know, I'm a firm believer in
Speaker 3: the maturity of somebody and working in your program for
Speaker 3: three or four years and then as the time you're
Speaker 3: a junior and season really you know, being able to
Speaker 3: come in and contribute to my program. And I you know,
Speaker 3: I think a lot of coaches are looking at that
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 1: What's the answer do you think for high school kids?
Speaker 1: I mean, it looks like they're just going to be
Speaker 1: missing out.
Speaker 3: Well, I think you know, a lot of kids, they
Speaker 3: get these tags on them through AAU ball and summer
Speaker 3: ball and going to all these recruitment things that you're
Speaker 3: a five star, you're a three star, you're a two
Speaker 3: star whatever it is. But yet there are a lot
Speaker 3: of young people out there that don't get that notoriety
Speaker 3: that their athletic ability and how they play the game
Speaker 3: is up there with anybody. They just don't get that
Speaker 3: publicity that they that a lot of other people see.
Speaker 3: And I think that's a big part of it too.
Speaker 3: Also is that some of these coaches go out and
Speaker 3: they find these kids that quote, you know, coach John
Speaker 3: Smith never looked at because he wasn't in his area,
Speaker 3: or he wasn't you know, considered as a national recruiter
Speaker 3: by an AAU program or something. So I think that
Speaker 3: high school player is always going to have a spot.
Speaker 3: I just don't think it's going to be as glamorous
Speaker 3: it once was. You know, Uh, Coach Kyle Perry came
Speaker 3: in and said, hey, you're a freshman, I'm going to
Speaker 3: make you an All SAR, and he did it because
Speaker 3: look at his track record with what he did with
Speaker 3: those you know, those ones and done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and those kids will always be because the Cooper
Speaker 2: flags are few and far between. The kids of that
Speaker 2: you know, ability level, they're not gonna have to worry.
Speaker 1: It's the kids, like.
Speaker 2: You say, that need a year or two to mature
Speaker 2: and grow in a program exactly.
Speaker 3: And you look what grohme. Did you know he played
Speaker 3: two years at Moreheads and transfer to Auburn and he's
Speaker 3: All American and he's up for Player.
Speaker 4: Of the Year.
Speaker 3: And that just becomes with a maturity level of playing
Speaker 3: the game and playing at a very high level and
Speaker 3: you know, establishing your game as you know, hey, I'm
Speaker 3: one of the biggest big men in the nation.
Speaker 2: I was talking to a friend about developing quarterbacks now,
Speaker 2: and you know how specialized that is. And he said,
Speaker 2: you know, we talked about all the moving into Portland
Speaker 2: all that, and he said, what do you do if
Speaker 2: you're a high school kid? Do you sign with a
Speaker 2: Western Kentucky all due respect, or any KYU or somebody
Speaker 2: hoping that some other school's going to notice you. That's
Speaker 2: essentially turning those mid majors into the feeder system for
Speaker 2: the big schools, isn't it.
Speaker 3: I think I think that's right, Dick. And you know,
Speaker 3: whether wherever I can go to get my plane, that's right.
Speaker 3: If I look at it from that standpoint, that's probably
Speaker 3: where I have to go, because I'm I want to
Speaker 3: develop I want to bake my game the best that
Speaker 3: it could be, and how do I do that only
Speaker 3: playing against competition and working out at it. That's not
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just like anything else.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I go back to when freshmen played freshman ball. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm that far back and coaching and being around programs
Speaker 3: is that that year was used as a development year
Speaker 3: to see what these kids could do playing against other
Speaker 3: freshman team in college and practicing against varsity competition every day.
Speaker 3: So that's how they developed. And then when the freshman
Speaker 3: came in with eligibility, that changed the system again. And
Speaker 3: now we have another change in the system again, and
Speaker 3: how coaches adapt to that and how they go about
Speaker 3: recruiting to their programs, there's going to be another change
Speaker 3: in college sports.
Speaker 2: Talking to Don Atkins, he coached Lafayette to the twenty
Speaker 2: oh one state championship and on the eve of the
Speaker 2: Sweet sixteen for the girls next week it's the boys.
Speaker 2: We're talking about the future of high school basketball players
Speaker 2: and recruiting the Portland all you mentioned aau Donnie, and
Speaker 2: it's been around forever, but I think with the advent
Speaker 2: of the internet with YouTube, the highlights and all that
Speaker 2: there there's I don't want to say it's an unsavory element,
Speaker 2: but are unhealthy. But like you said, I think I
Speaker 2: think all the.
Speaker 1: Attention being paid to.
Speaker 2: These AAU All stars, who for you know, it's no
Speaker 2: fault that they're on. I mean, it's the way the
Speaker 2: system is. They're playing three and four games a day.
Speaker 2: You know, they don't learn things like team defense. They
Speaker 2: don't learn much team offense either, do they. But it's
Speaker 2: it's it's highlighting the one kid or two kids. But
Speaker 2: I don't know how much good it's doing well, Dick.
Speaker 3: I think it goes back, you know, many many years.
Speaker 3: I was down in South Carolina working in a basketball
Speaker 3: camp one time, and I was talking to the coaches
Speaker 3: down in South Carolina and they this was, gosh, twenty
Speaker 3: some years ago. They said that, you know, AAU ball
Speaker 3: was killing their high school program because those kids were
Speaker 3: playing AAU ball instead of playing high school ball.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: And that you know, again, it's at this level. You're
Speaker 3: getting that level of competition out there, and those kids
Speaker 3: are getting noticed, and because they're getting noticed, the coaches
Speaker 3: are taking interest. And it I've always said this, that
Speaker 3: kid that's rated in the top one hundred and fifty
Speaker 3: in the country. There's another one hundred and fifty out
Speaker 3: there that just don't get noticed that probably are just
Speaker 3: as good.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2: And it doesn't have the appeal of an AAU program
Speaker 2: that is, you know, legally funded by a shoe company
Speaker 2: or this or that, and so they can offer airplane
Speaker 2: tickets to travel to games.
Speaker 1: And shoes and uniforms and that kind of stuff. Hard
Speaker 1: for a kid to turn down.
Speaker 3: Hey, it is, it is, especially when you know shoe
Speaker 3: company X, Y Z or whatever it is. Clothing companies
Speaker 3: you know, come into the picture and say, hey, we'll
Speaker 3: give you this, and mom and dad can come and
Speaker 3: watch too, and it's it's just taken I'll say, amateur
Speaker 3: athletics and really spun it on its head from what
Speaker 3: from what I grew up with and you grew up with.
Speaker 3: Let's put it that way.
Speaker 2: Talking to Don Atkins, he was the head coach of
Speaker 2: the Lafier Generals when they won the twenty oh one
Speaker 2: state championship. We'll talk more with coach in just a minute.
Speaker 2: On six thirty WLAP Welcome Back. We're talking with Don Atkins,
Speaker 2: Donny coach the Lafier Generals to the twenty one Sweet
Speaker 2: sixteen championship, not the only state Tuttle Lafayat ever won.
Speaker 1: But what a thrill coach for you your players.
Speaker 2: Now you've got teams going into the girls tournament this week,
Speaker 2: the boys next week. Of course, everybody's going to try
Speaker 2: to upend Sacred Heart Academy this.
Speaker 1: Week, which is going for its fifth straight.
Speaker 2: But what do you remember about taking a team Because I,
Speaker 2: as you know, I worked with Jock Sutherland for several years.
Speaker 1: Jock was a great friend of mine and.
Speaker 2: Yours, and you know he just you how much he
Speaker 2: adored the Sweet sixteen and what it meant to him
Speaker 2: just to go there the first time he ever went,
Speaker 2: much less win it. What do you remember about about
Speaker 2: taking a team there? The thrill of winning it all?
Speaker 3: Well, they gets started goodness six In my high school days,
Speaker 3: I always wanted to get there, never did, just wanted to,
Speaker 3: you know, I think that that uh just continued to
Speaker 3: grow and grow. And then being at Tates Creek in
Speaker 3: ninety one when we took that team state championship game
Speaker 3: but lost in the finals to a good Fardale team,
Speaker 3: but then ten years later to be the head coach
Speaker 3: at lotyhat and come back and go on a twelve
Speaker 3: game winning strict down down the stretch to win it all.
Speaker 3: Was indeed kind of like I tell people all the time,
Speaker 3: it's like a fairy book. You know, It's like it's
Speaker 3: like a fairy tale, and it always It just happened
Speaker 3: to be on my fiftieth birthday.
Speaker 1: Oh man, Yeah, that was that was.
Speaker 3: That was indeed, ah, a very good present.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, just to share that entire experience, not just the
Speaker 2: night of the championship game, but the whole you know,
Speaker 2: I've Jock talked about when they handed him the packet
Speaker 2: with all the credentials and badges and passes and things
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, is that when it hits home?
Speaker 3: Well, I think it does. You get so involved in Okay,
Speaker 3: what do I have to do to win four basketball games?
Speaker 3: That's right, and you have to have good people around you. Luckily,
Speaker 3: I had a great assistant coaches that helped me during
Speaker 3: that time that they took a lot of that away
Speaker 3: from me that I didn't have to deal with that
Speaker 3: My job was to coach. They took care of what
Speaker 3: I'll call the minutia, that outside stuff, the tickets to passes,
Speaker 3: those kinds of things that yet still jumped in there
Speaker 3: and coached. Also, those are what my memories are about
Speaker 3: with that group.
Speaker 2: The powers that be are going to ruin March madness.
Speaker 2: If we give them a chance, they'll they'll make a
Speaker 2: money grab and screw it all up. I'm so happy,
Speaker 2: I'm sure you are too, that the Kentucky Sweet sixteen
Speaker 2: is still formatted the way it is. A team like
Speaker 2: Lyon County, Little Old Lion County can jump up and
Speaker 2: win it. All big schools will win it, but the
Speaker 2: small schools have a chance. Lafe, it's a big school,
Speaker 2: but you know you might have been you could have
Speaker 2: been knocked off by a small school. That's the beauty
Speaker 2: of it, isn't it.
Speaker 3: It is, Dick. And you know if we played Carlisle
Speaker 3: County the first game of that tournament, a very good team,
Speaker 3: you know, down in the western part of the state,
Speaker 3: came into the tournament, you know, unranked, just happen to
Speaker 3: get on a street and we just happened to have
Speaker 3: a very good game in the second half and beat them.
Speaker 3: And those smaller schools, all you have to do is
Speaker 3: win that one game in a district tournament. Maybe to
Speaker 3: get you into the region and then win a couple
Speaker 3: of games in the region and you're in the state tournament,
Speaker 3: and then who knows what happened.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right, just got to get there. You
Speaker 2: and I bumped into each other at a reception for
Speaker 2: the seventy five team.
Speaker 1: You were part of that. You were a ga, I.
Speaker 3: Believe, well, I was a student manager, ye, but you were.
Speaker 2: Soaking up the knowledge. What do you remember about that year,
Speaker 2: because it's been fits hard to believe, Donnie, it's been
Speaker 2: fifty years since we were in school and since that
Speaker 2: group made that un You know, they started as the
Speaker 2: super Kittens, had their ups and downs, but you know,
Speaker 2: they all played four years together. For the most part,
Speaker 2: they experienced all of that together, not just over a
Speaker 2: year or two, but for four years. Such a great experience.
Speaker 3: And they're still that way. You know, once a year
Speaker 3: they all get together, and they'll get together when they
Speaker 3: come back. It's not just for that reunion, but once
Speaker 3: a year they always come back to the UK game
Speaker 3: and get to dinner, go after dinner, you own and
Speaker 3: sit and just tell bad stories on each other.
Speaker 4: Again.
Speaker 2: I loved how Joe b told them at one of
Speaker 2: their reunions that you know, he had stories on them
Speaker 2: that they didn't know, and Vera and Joe at one point.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to hear any more
Speaker 1: of these.
Speaker 3: That was true.
Speaker 2: That was such a such a good ball club too,
Speaker 2: wasn't it.
Speaker 4: It was?
Speaker 3: You know, they came in, as you said, super kittens.
Speaker 3: There were seven of them, and they just you know,
Speaker 3: took the They didn't lose. I don't think their freshman
Speaker 3: year they did not lose. And matter of fact, I
Speaker 3: think they played one game over at the Frankfurt Convention
Speaker 3: Center and sold it out against I can't remember who
Speaker 3: it was, but uh, they sold that game out. And
Speaker 3: you know that was coach Hall's class. He was the
Speaker 3: one responsible for putting that together. You know, they were
Speaker 3: the they were his recruiting as those super kittens, and
Speaker 3: they came in and you know Jimmy Dan and Kevin
Speaker 3: and g J and Jerry and Mack and you know
Speaker 3: guy at that whole group. Yeah, Mike Flynn, Danny Hall,
Speaker 3: uh and a coach Hall would have got Leroy Bird.
Speaker 3: You're talking about the group because Leroy Bird was in
Speaker 3: that recruiting class.
Speaker 1: Was he really?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was he would have been a freshman with them,
Speaker 3: and uh with he would have been with Roby Fellack
Speaker 3: and James Jack and James and Danny Hall. Garry Bird
Speaker 3: was in that recruiting group. So you talk about a
Speaker 3: two couple of groups. And that's what recruiting was. You
Speaker 3: went out and got, you know, a class that was
Speaker 3: very good. Yeah, and then maybe the next year you'd
Speaker 3: have one or two to fill spot, and then the
Speaker 3: next year go get another and then that third year
Speaker 3: that's when you really went after the bang.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right before I let you go.
Speaker 2: As we said, Don is part of the cruise or
Speaker 2: scores table operates the twenty four second shot clock.
Speaker 1: You are sitting there.
Speaker 2: You you know a little bit about coaching basketball, and
Speaker 2: I know you've got to concentrate on that shot clock.
Speaker 1: But you are privy to so much where you are.
Speaker 1: What were your impressions this year? And it ain't over yet,
Speaker 1: but the home.
Speaker 2: Games are of Mark Pope and his style. You know,
Speaker 2: he's got an intensity all his own. He's not quite
Speaker 2: as profane as Rick Patino, if at all, but he's
Speaker 2: animated and you know he jumps in the middle of
Speaker 2: dust ups and things like that. But from what you've
Speaker 2: been able to tell where you sat, what were your
Speaker 2: impressions of Mark Pope?
Speaker 3: Number one? I think coach Pope went one is very
Speaker 3: very intelligent. I think, you know, granted, yeah he was
Speaker 3: going to go to medical school, but his intelligence in
Speaker 3: the game of basketball, how he adjusts the game to
Speaker 3: what you know, he makes adjustments in the game. That's
Speaker 3: one thing I think as coaches we all have to do.
Speaker 3: We've got to make adjustments. If this is not working,
Speaker 3: what am I going to do next? If this doesn't work,
Speaker 3: what do I have to do next? Defensively or offensively?
Speaker 3: Those kinds of things. You got to be kind of,
Speaker 3: as I said, you kind of have to think three
Speaker 3: and four possessions down the road to me to make
Speaker 3: things happen. And I think Coach Pope does an excellent
Speaker 3: job of that. I think he does an excellent job
Speaker 3: in relating to his players. I think his players respond
Speaker 3: to that in a way that young people do. And
Speaker 3: I always tried to do this as a coach. Is
Speaker 3: the worst thing I think you can do as a
Speaker 3: coach is embarrassed somebody on the floor, they make a turnover,
Speaker 3: and you immediately jerk him out of the game. Well,
Speaker 3: what have you done. You just told everybody in twenty
Speaker 3: three thousand people or twenty thousand people, this guy just
Speaker 3: made the biggest mistake in the world. Well he had.
Speaker 3: It was a mistake, but we can let's try to
Speaker 3: get over it and go to the next place because we
Speaker 3: don't have time to worry about that. And I think
Speaker 3: that was one thing that I asked Coach Hall one time.
Speaker 3: I said, Coach, what was the one thing that Coach
Speaker 3: Rupp did that you thought was better than anything else?
Speaker 4: He said he.
Speaker 3: Didn't live in that moment. He was like, you know, okay,
Speaker 3: it's old with it's done. Let's go to the next play.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not concerned that you have fallen down
Speaker 3: trying to make a layup. I'm concerned that your man's
Speaker 3: going the other way to better get back on defense. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, those kinds of things. And that's what I think,
Speaker 3: that's what we as coaches have to or had to do,
Speaker 3: was to convey that message to our players. Hey, that
Speaker 3: one play is not going to affect you. Let's get
Speaker 3: back and make another player a better play, or let's
Speaker 3: stop him on defense next time, or hey, let's see
Speaker 3: if we can't get a better shot. I can get
Speaker 3: this shot, but can we get a better shot? And
Speaker 3: I think that's what Coach Pope has done this year plus.
Speaker 3: I think he has brought I think some great enthusiasm
Speaker 3: to the fan base. Sure, Like you know, it's like
Speaker 3: a hometown guy came home. Although he wasn't from Lexington,
Speaker 3: but he was a hometown guy absolutely and he came home.
Speaker 3: And I think that's you know, that's part of it
Speaker 3: stands it.
Speaker 2: That's former Lafia coach Don Atkins up next to David
Speaker 2: Sisk of Cats Illustrated on six thirty WLAP Welcome back
Speaker 2: to the Big Blue Insider, joining us down our celebrity
Speaker 2: hotline as a guy who was a longtime friend of
Speaker 2: the show. Now, David Sisk, you see his work for
Speaker 2: Cats Illustrated, part of the Rivals network, and he covers
Speaker 2: both Kentucky and North Carolina recruiting and breaks it down
Speaker 2: on the internet for us both schools. I might get
Speaker 2: to North Carolina in a minute because they played Duke
Speaker 2: on Saturday and that was an interesting game. But Kentucky
Speaker 2: Missouri coach I thought Kentucky had a shot at winning.
Speaker 2: I did not honestly think that Kentucky would run off
Speaker 2: to a lead and then fight off Missouri the way
Speaker 2: it did. I thought it might come to the last
Speaker 2: couple possessions. What did you think of that game?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was interesting, and you know it was it
Speaker 4: was the North Carolina paces. Let me start it over
Speaker 4: after North Carolina.
Speaker 1: Let me start answer the question when however, you just
Speaker 1: start anytime?
Speaker 4: Okay, Yeah, it was and it was an interesting game.
Speaker 4: It was the Kentucky's pace. And I'll tell you, I
Speaker 4: thought Mark Pope, He's done obviously a really good job
Speaker 4: this year, but I thought that might have been the
Speaker 4: best game that that he's coached all year because they
Speaker 4: well they had to make adjustments, and I thought they
Speaker 4: were spot on offensively and defensively. It wasn't one of
Speaker 4: those deals where I'll give you an example, you play Oklahoma,
Speaker 4: that's a team that I know that they may be
Speaker 4: in a tournament, but they're they're they're not that good
Speaker 4: a team. Or you take somebody who scores a lot
Speaker 4: of points and can't get stops. Or you play a
Speaker 4: really good defensive team who doesn't score that much. Missouri. Uh,
Speaker 4: you know, if you look at them and all the
Speaker 4: game was going on. I went back and was looking
Speaker 4: interseasonal history, saying, Okay, do they have a history of this,
Speaker 4: really have an offensive difficulties when they lose? Do they
Speaker 4: just get cold and they don't? You know, Kentucky really
Speaker 4: defended them as well, I think, as anybody has. And
Speaker 4: then you look at the offensive side of it. You know,
Speaker 4: Kentucky's got watch at eight points ten minutes into the
Speaker 4: game or something like that, and then they end up
Speaker 4: scoring as much as they do. So I just really
Speaker 4: thought they were tremendous on both ends. They played with
Speaker 4: a lot of physicality. It just seems to me like
Speaker 4: when Bray gets going, is knocking down threes, and it
Speaker 4: just it's like they just have a surge. And I
Speaker 4: think we saw some of that. But I thought all
Speaker 4: the bigs are, all the starters were really good. I
Speaker 4: think Pope, now that we've gotten into probably getting into
Speaker 4: the postseason here, they're shortening the roster up a little bit.
Speaker 4: He is, and I just think that there was obviously
Speaker 4: a certain group of players that were the big time contributors.
Speaker 4: You see Almari Williams playing a lot more minutes than
Speaker 4: he normally dies, so I feel like he settled on
Speaker 4: you know what this team does. He settled on a
Speaker 4: rosk on the lineup that he wants to play the roster.
Speaker 4: And you know, it's been it's been hard to figure
Speaker 4: out of all the injuries and the inconsistencies. And I
Speaker 4: think now he said, Okay, this is who we are
Speaker 4: and this is what we're going to go with now
Speaker 4: is to get into the postseason. And that's what you
Speaker 4: want to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, in an offhanded way, at least
Speaker 2: you know you hate to lose at Jackson Robinson, but
Speaker 2: at least you know now if you're a player, if
Speaker 2: you're a coach, if you're an assistant, you're not going
Speaker 2: to have him. This is who you are, this is
Speaker 2: what you've got. It's almost like the way Arkansas kind
Speaker 2: of surged a bit when Boogie Flann was lost for
Speaker 2: the season and everybody kind of settled in and knew
Speaker 2: what their job was. That's the case now with Kentucky.
Speaker 2: Does that mean makes sense?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I think you said that very well. I don't believe
Speaker 4: that that. Obviously, you don't want to lose Jackson Robinson
Speaker 4: to play like that at any time, but you certainly don't.
Speaker 4: You would rather do it a couple of weeks beforehand
Speaker 4: than to do it. You know that that Hi would
Speaker 4: go down yesterday. So now here's the thing when it
Speaker 4: rears its head, I think, or when teams really get
Speaker 4: into bray and you can't find a shot, and then
Speaker 4: they're not stretching the defense as much. And you look
Speaker 4: at a couple of games where they just didn't make
Speaker 4: a ton of threes, and in the last two games
Speaker 4: they shot it very well. I've got a theory, and
Speaker 4: it's a theory only I don't think obviously Missouri is
Speaker 4: a team like Alabama or Auburn. But I think there's
Speaker 4: certain teams that can throw that appletam out there on
Speaker 4: the defensive end that can kind of get them out
Speaker 4: of their rhythm, and especially with Boay, have been able
Speaker 4: to find a shot. And then I think you've got
Speaker 4: other teams like Missouri are very good or not quite
Speaker 4: as athletic, who can't do that as well. And then they,
Speaker 4: you know, and then Kentucky can kind of just go
Speaker 4: efensively and assist them, and everybody who has their roles
Speaker 4: can get into those roles. And then if I was
Speaker 4: on the other hand and I wanted to rebut that
Speaker 4: I would say, well, what about Tennessee, And I would go,
Speaker 4: I really don't have an answer for that. I can't
Speaker 4: there It was like Kentucky's Tennessee's kryptonite, I guess, but
Speaker 4: you know it. It is interesting obviously as we go
Speaker 4: into the tournament, no doubt about it.
Speaker 2: Tennessee is a puzzlement. But I'm going to leave that
Speaker 2: to the people in Knoxville to figure it out. Losing Robinson,
Speaker 2: on the one hand, settles things down a bit in
Speaker 2: terms of question marks.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, it does affect your depth a
Speaker 1: little bit.
Speaker 2: Uh. But you know, and you mentioned tightening up that roster,
Speaker 2: that rotation might mean fewer minutes for two of the
Speaker 2: three freshmen.
Speaker 1: A man.
Speaker 2: Chandler has come around in a huge way, hasn't he?
Speaker 4: He has? And now it's hit and miss because you know,
Speaker 4: he's had some good games and then you know, he's
Speaker 4: got the game against Auburn where he was just, you know,
Speaker 4: he just he just looked like he was a fish
Speaker 4: out of water in that game. But how many Alburns
Speaker 4: are you going to see? So you know, But but
Speaker 4: the thing I like about him in comparison, and I'm
Speaker 4: not knocking any of the freshmen. But the thing I
Speaker 4: like about him, and I think you can see it
Speaker 4: in the rankings, is that Chandler has sec athleticism in him,
Speaker 4: and it's not where he's got to adapt and play
Speaker 4: a certain way he played conservatively or anything like that
Speaker 4: to you know, keep from making mistakes. I think he
Speaker 4: really can get out there and play his game. The
Speaker 4: more comfortable he gets now, I think in all fairness,
Speaker 4: and I do think it kind of puts them in
Speaker 4: a tough spot with a lack of doubt, and you know,
Speaker 4: with the other point guard being down outside of Butler,
Speaker 4: they have to slide him over to the point that's
Speaker 4: not his natural position, and I don't think that's necessarily
Speaker 4: fair to him in a way to put him at
Speaker 4: that spot. But when he's in position and he can
Speaker 4: play off the ball, you know he's really really it
Speaker 4: just had to click because the athleticism, the tools were there.
Speaker 4: Now there's still going to be get some inconsistencies because
Speaker 4: he's a freshman and he didn't play a ton early,
Speaker 4: so he's not a Cooper flag that's been after a
Speaker 4: thirty eight minutes game all year long. But he's kind
Speaker 4: of having to adapt into that role, and as far
Speaker 4: as the depth goes, I'm not really worried about that
Speaker 4: too much. I don't think we get into the tournament,
Speaker 4: that's not a big issue. You're playing twice a week
Speaker 4: like you normally would, you're not on other load. But
Speaker 4: the SEC tournament if you get into about that third day,
Speaker 4: and that's a good problem to have. I think if
Speaker 4: you ask Kenteking fans or Mark Pope or anybody else,
Speaker 4: and then I'd like they would all say, hey, if
Speaker 4: that's an issue on Saturday, will take Oh yeah, you know,
Speaker 4: you put us to Saturday all day long. I think,
Speaker 4: you know, the only thing I would see is the
Speaker 4: four games and four days deal, and hopefully you can
Speaker 4: get that far. You know, where health does become.
Speaker 1: An issue, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2: We're talking to David sisk if Cat's Illustrated part of
Speaker 2: the Rivals Network, back with more from the coach in
Speaker 2: just a minute. Here on a Big Bloom Sider six
Speaker 2: thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: We're talking with David Siske, covers Kentucky and North Carolina
Speaker 2: recruiting for the Rivals Network you see on Cat's Illustrated site,
Speaker 2: and I'm talking to Jack Gibbons on the broadcast Saturday,
Speaker 2: and one of my pet peeves not a big deal,
Speaker 2: but people like to say, well, you know, they're not
Speaker 2: freshmen anymore by now, and my response, and Jack agrees
Speaker 2: with me and he's lived it, of course, is yes
Speaker 2: they are. Because this is a first for everything all
Speaker 2: this the tournament format, I mean at the college level,
Speaker 2: especially the SEC where you've cramming all those games into
Speaker 2: a short amount of time, but the NCAA tournament, the
Speaker 2: way you prepare, the way you travel, tickets for your
Speaker 2: family and.
Speaker 1: Friends, all that stuff.
Speaker 2: And as Jack reminded me from last year, it was
Speaker 2: sad for Kentucky, but you know, Dillingham and Shepherd as
Speaker 2: well as they played all year, did not play well
Speaker 2: in their low SEC tournament game. So that's a lot
Speaker 2: to deal with for a young kid, isn't it.
Speaker 4: It is? And you could see teams that have really started,
Speaker 4: not started, but have been getting away from it, you know,
Speaker 4: And that was took critique on, you know, cal Perry,
Speaker 4: and it's been that way, especially since the portals started
Speaker 4: coming along, is that teams were going to get away
Speaker 4: just about everybody from the one and done thing. And
Speaker 4: of course Cali Perry's kind of stable that but you
Speaker 4: saw Swsky, you know, as he really didn't want to
Speaker 4: deal with a portal. So Shire has done a good
Speaker 4: job of that and all and and he's a tremendous
Speaker 4: high school recruiter, but he's had a good mix. But
Speaker 4: you know, like I said, there's a I don't mean
Speaker 4: to be the dead horse here, but we all know
Speaker 4: there's a Trooper Lass different guy. So but when you
Speaker 4: look at when you look at freshman, yeah it is
Speaker 4: that is a big deal. But the thing now is
Speaker 4: guys are playing in college basketball longer they've ever played.
Speaker 4: So you know, you students say, well you're playing against
Speaker 4: twenty year old guys. Now you may be playing the
Speaker 4: twenty four year old. So you know, that doesn't make
Speaker 4: a difference. Like you said, it's the you have all
Speaker 4: these things you have to take care of. And I
Speaker 4: think that's helpful if you're you're at a place like
Speaker 4: Kentucky and you've got a big staff, you know, and
Speaker 4: you've got guys who can help you know, uh, these
Speaker 4: players with things and kind of be of eight that
Speaker 4: are not out there, you know, swimming by themselves. So
Speaker 4: I think you know, as far as that goes, Hopefully
Speaker 4: that you know, the people that work inside the Kentucky
Speaker 4: basketball program, the Flate department, you give them as much
Speaker 4: help as possible. And here's the thing. Now you're able
Speaker 4: to do that, And I think that needs to be
Speaker 4: said because there was a time you couldn't. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 4: you couldn't get involved in any of this stuff, and
Speaker 4: now you can. So it's hopefully that that makes a difference.
Speaker 4: Is nos tough as it might have been a one time.
Speaker 2: One of the knocks on Mark Pope when he was
Speaker 2: hired and the naysayers who jumped right away on the
Speaker 2: hire was the fact that he has never won as
Speaker 2: a coach and NSA tournament game. Of course he's played
Speaker 2: in him, but has never won one. And I know
Speaker 2: that the postseason life is different for not just players
Speaker 2: but coaches, but I do like his chances this year.
Speaker 2: I don't know obviously who they're going to draw, who
Speaker 2: they're going to play, but I think that you know,
Speaker 2: and I know it is different though, isn't it, David,
Speaker 2: Because like I said, different for the players and different
Speaker 2: for the coaches, isn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah? And we will find out how he does. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but you know, there's only one way to do it, man,
Speaker 4: So you know, I thought it was like, you know,
Speaker 4: just throw you the water and you learn to swim.
Speaker 4: So but you know, here here, here would be my rebuttal,
Speaker 4: I go, do I know what he's going to do
Speaker 4: based on record coming into his tournament? No, I don't,
Speaker 4: And I would rather have the uncertainty rather than the
Speaker 4: other way around. I had a Tennessee fan yesterday and
Speaker 4: about to have been about eight o'clock Eastern time, who
Speaker 4: I ran into and we're they were still trying to
Speaker 4: figure out the brackets, and he said, I hope Tennessee
Speaker 4: plays Arkansas because we know John Keller Perry Kitt win
Speaker 4: a postseason so he uh, you know, so we knew
Speaker 4: where Kentucky was at two and eight in the last
Speaker 4: ten going home on Friday and the SEC tournament, going
Speaker 4: home on the first weekend in the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 4: So I liked the uncertainty, but I don't think. I
Speaker 4: don't think Kentucky's want to get this thing and get
Speaker 4: out coached. So you know, just from watching him this year,
Speaker 4: he does a really good job. He's so sound strategically,
Speaker 4: so I'm not too worried about that at all. I mean,
Speaker 4: I'm not watching Kentucky play and just constantly asking myself,
Speaker 4: what in the world are you doing? You know that
Speaker 4: that really never happens.
Speaker 2: Plus you got them back. I don't know if he's
Speaker 2: sixty eighty or ninety five percent, but he's a guy
Speaker 2: who has played all the way through to the final
Speaker 2: four and that counts for That costs.
Speaker 1: For a lot though.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I went into skill. I really believe that.
Speaker 4: And you know, I think he's interesting to take. Like
Speaker 4: the Philadelphia Eagles, they were talking about their strategy was
Speaker 4: to go out and draft people out of the big
Speaker 4: time programs. Yeah, you see, they got so many guys
Speaker 4: out of Georgia and Alabama that had been their console.
Speaker 4: That's right, And you know, I don't think that's an accident.
Speaker 4: But yeah, went into skill and uh uh. And I
Speaker 4: think with him, you know, it looks to me like
Speaker 4: he's getting a little better physically. To me, when he
Speaker 4: first came back, it was pretty noticeable. You know, he
Speaker 4: was trying to favor he was trying to favor the
Speaker 4: shoulder quite a bit. But I will say this, he
Speaker 4: took one or two hard falls on that left shoulder
Speaker 4: yesterday and uh I uh, and he got back he
Speaker 4: throw it back up. So that was a good thing.
Speaker 4: And you know the whole thing with the shoulder issue,
Speaker 4: you get hit wrong and it just goes out. You know,
Speaker 4: you're just okay. So you know he went down on
Speaker 4: that left show. He had a hard ball run a
Speaker 4: bucket where he went in for a shot and went
Speaker 4: down on it. Even the announcer talked about it. And
Speaker 4: he's just bounced right back up and played. So I
Speaker 4: think that's a that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: Everybody held their breath in a big blue nation. I
Speaker 1: can tell you that.
Speaker 2: Uh before I let you go, as I said, you
Speaker 2: cover North Carolina as well, and they're not real.
Speaker 1: Happy down there right now with Hubert David.
Speaker 2: You and I have talked about him before, but man,
Speaker 2: what a tremendous atmosphere on Saturday for that duke game.
Speaker 2: And they made that incredible run and one kid got hot,
Speaker 2: but they just couldn't fight them off.
Speaker 1: I mean that that Duke is just too good, isn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah? And I thought that I thought North Carolina played
Speaker 4: really is about as good as they could play. And
Speaker 4: I'll be on it with you. It kind of went
Speaker 4: this month the way I thought. I just thought North
Speaker 4: Carolina was a team of a lot of loss and
Speaker 4: even after they they so they lose to they they
Speaker 4: split with pit and the one where they beat them
Speaker 4: was was a one point win. They had one point
Speaker 4: win against North Carolina State. Uh, Syracusekin, they had some
Speaker 4: Notre Dame. Rather they've had some tight games and but
Speaker 4: they were playing batter or something of the final six games.
Speaker 4: And uh, but I thought they would because the reason
Speaker 4: is the a SEC so bad. You get down to
Speaker 4: those final six games, you get down to the six
Speaker 4: teams they played before Duke, and you're basically playing them
Speaker 4: in a major schedule. North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, Miami,
Speaker 4: Florida State. I mean those I mean it's the dregs
Speaker 4: of B one basketball. So but you know, but they
Speaker 4: were winning pig where they weren't weren't our lace. I said,
Speaker 4: I do feel like they're playing better. I think you
Speaker 4: know that the crowd really gave them a lot of energy.
Speaker 4: They came out against a dude really playing hard, and
Speaker 4: but in the I think the game playing kind of
Speaker 4: spread them out. They got real athletic guards. Try to
Speaker 4: let those guards work but I don't like you say
Speaker 4: they're playing Duke and Dukes is too much. I mean
Speaker 4: they really are. And and now here's the bad thing
Speaker 4: for North Carolina. You're saying, Okay, maybe they can make
Speaker 4: a run any ACC tournament. Well, they needed to get
Speaker 4: up to be a sixth seed, to be honest, and
Speaker 4: that way they could either get Louis or Clemson and
Speaker 4: try and have a better opportunity to try to get one.
Speaker 4: But now they're going to open up probably will Pitt
Speaker 4: who and then wait, Foresto's actually the forest seed. North
Speaker 4: Carolina's to five. Well, they don't get anything off those winds.
Speaker 4: I mean, they're in worse shape than North Carolina is
Speaker 4: as far as NCAA tournament bubbles, So they don't anything.
Speaker 4: Will Quad want guess what? You can win two games
Speaker 4: and you get Duke in the semi final and you're
Speaker 4: in the same place. So I think anything short of
Speaker 4: being Duke beating Duke, and I can't see that under
Speaker 4: any scenario. Now it's going to be on a neutral
Speaker 4: floor and Duke's gonna have a lot of fans in
Speaker 4: there because they're expecting to win it. I just can't
Speaker 4: see them in the situation where they're going to go.
Speaker 4: They're going to go play or get to the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 2: Well, it's interesting to hear you calling the ACC the
Speaker 2: dregs at least of the bottom half. But the future
Speaker 2: is kind of cloudy. But we're out of time, so
Speaker 2: we will pick that up next up.
Speaker 4: I've read this right quick. North Carolina was not up
Speaker 4: to their standard this year, but they got an ACC
Speaker 4: problem because if you get past Duke, Clemson and Louisville,
Speaker 4: I mean there's nobody there can't your resumeating another. Rest
Speaker 4: of them are any good. But man Will Wade may
Speaker 4: be coming to North Carolina state gangster may He may
Speaker 4: be the first step to getting the lead back.
Speaker 1: Were you surprised they fancy stayed a year out of
Speaker 1: away from a final four trip, fired their coach.
Speaker 4: No, it was it was an old testament miracle that
Speaker 4: they won the games they won last year. I mean
Speaker 4: they were they had to win the ACC tournament. They
Speaker 4: were bad. They got all the way to the final four.
Speaker 4: I mean that was a miracle run like another and
Speaker 4: and you know, and then they were just as bad
Speaker 4: and it just it delayed inevitable.
Speaker 2: I got you, I got youa and sometimes that happens. Coach,
Speaker 2: thank you so much and we'll talk to you soon again.
Speaker 2: I hope David Sisk. Follow him on Twitter at coach
Speaker 2: David Sisk. Look for is how he breaks basketball down
Speaker 2: on Twitter. Coach enjoyed a tournament?
Speaker 4: All right, we'll do it man, And like I said,
Speaker 4: now time here to get off ga I do for now.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned for pregame coverage. Kentucky and Oklahoma coming next
Speaker 2: at six thirty.
Speaker 1: W ip.
Speaker 5: Stat tats to back them.
Speaker 4: It, don't.
Speaker 5: Don't