Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. Dicabrille with you on
Speaker 1: a Tuesday edition of our program. Thanks again to Aaron
Speaker 1: Gershawan and Billy Rutlede for handling the show last night.
Speaker 1: I was busy with UK Pro Day broadcasts on SEC
Speaker 1: Plus and we're gonna hear the tail end of that broadcast.
Speaker 1: We had a chance, Jack Gibbons and I did to
Speaker 1: talk with Mark Pope on the air towards the end,
Speaker 1: so we'll relive those moments coming up in our next segment.
Speaker 1: And you can see the entire broadcast. If you couldn't
Speaker 1: see it on SEC Plus, it is on YouTube right now.
Speaker 1: Just go to Kentucky NBA Pro Day and you can
Speaker 1: check out the basketball Wildcats, but football is number one
Speaker 1: here in segment number one, because the Wildcats back in
Speaker 1: action after a bye week take on the Giant Killers
Speaker 1: of Vanderbilt Commodore seven forty five kickoff at Kroger Field,
Speaker 1: and we'll have it for you the broadcast at five
Speaker 1: thirty pregame with Christy Logan and Jeremy and then Tom Leech,
Speaker 1: Jippicoh and I with the action as the Cats take
Speaker 1: on a Commodore team that is still buzzing as our
Speaker 1: Vandy fans and always will be I suspect from the
Speaker 1: upset win over Alabama, And of course Mark Stoops talked
Speaker 1: about that a great deal at his news conference yesterday,
Speaker 1: and one of the questions he answered was about Jerry Kill,
Speaker 1: who is a veteran college football coach and as of late,
Speaker 1: had been the head coach at New Mexico State, and
Speaker 1: Clark Lee was really struggling as the head coach at Vanderbilt.
Speaker 1: His team was nine to twenty seven, and he watched
Speaker 1: New Mexico State beat Auburn, which had clobbered Vandy. He
Speaker 1: watched the video and he wondered, how in the world
Speaker 1: did that happen. So in the offseason he went out
Speaker 1: to Las Cruses, New Mexico to talk to the staff there,
Speaker 1: including the head coach, Jerry Kill and the offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: Tim Beck, and he ended up hiring Tim Beck. Jerry Kill,
Speaker 1: he and Beck are very tight. So he came to
Speaker 1: the job interview and both Lee and Jerry Kill hit
Speaker 1: it off. And Kill had told Clark Lee, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if I want to keep on being a head coach.
Speaker 1: He was looking at retiring and just you know, hanging out,
Speaker 1: and clark Lee talked him into becoming his defensive coordinator.
Speaker 1: So he gets both the offensive coordinator and the head
Speaker 1: coach from New Mexico State and the quarterback Diego Flavia
Speaker 1: to transfer to Vanderbilt. So it's amazing to me that
Speaker 1: Vandy's football fortunes right now have pivoted thanks to three
Speaker 1: and other assistant coaches as well. But those three guys
Speaker 1: primarily from one of the sad sack programs in college football.
Speaker 1: But Clark Lee had done a really nice job at
Speaker 1: New Mexico State and they had actually been winning some
Speaker 1: football games. Well, now they're in Nashville, and now they're
Speaker 1: celebrating a win over the mighty mighty Alabama Crimson Tide,
Speaker 1: and Mark Stoops talked about that at the beginning of
Speaker 1: his news conference. And of course, now as we all knew,
Speaker 1: he has his team's full attention. They know what happened
Speaker 1: in Nashville on Saturday.
Speaker 2: Coming into this press conference and don't have to worry
Speaker 2: about selling Vanderbilt anymore and telling you telling you how
Speaker 2: good they are and how good Clark Lee's done. He's
Speaker 2: have a lot of respect for clark and what he's done.
Speaker 2: And what he's been building for some time. Of course,
Speaker 2: they beat us not long ago, so I know what
Speaker 2: he's capable of and what type of quality person and
Speaker 2: coach he is in the job that he's doing at Vanderbilt.
Speaker 2: Congratulations to them to see some of that hard work
Speaker 2: paying off getting such a big victory this past week.
Speaker 2: Vanderbilt was very impressive this past week. They were after
Speaker 2: you know, prior to that, they had their buy and
Speaker 2: they played Missouri extremely well. You know, they could very
Speaker 2: easily be sitting here at to and zero in conference
Speaker 2: against two top ten opponents.
Speaker 1: Is a course referring to the fact that coaches, that's
Speaker 1: coach speak, you know, they'll come in and tell you
Speaker 1: how great the other team is. And nobody did it
Speaker 1: to the extent of Lou Holtz, who, no matter how
Speaker 1: good his team was, will tell you, well, we may
Speaker 1: not have a chance to win this week, but we'll
Speaker 1: show up that kind of thing. But what the Vandy
Speaker 1: went over Alabama does is reinforced the fact that on
Speaker 1: every giving, any given Saturday, and in college football, of course,
Speaker 1: there are more misses than hits, more upsets that you
Speaker 1: flirt with and you don't finish off. But when you
Speaker 1: look back two Saturdays ago when Kentucky upset Old miss
Speaker 1: the only game that was able to knock Kentucky off
Speaker 1: the top of the store was that incredible Alabama Georgia game.
Speaker 1: And yet I guarantee you that Alabama Georgia game played
Speaker 1: a part and Alabama not being ready for Vanderbilt. And
Speaker 1: some are saying, a lot of people are saying that
Speaker 1: wouldn't have happened with Nick Saban as the head coach.
Speaker 1: It probably wouldn't. You got to give him the benefit
Speaker 1: of the doubt him of all people, because he was great,
Speaker 1: had the line about the rat poison, great at making
Speaker 1: sure his team remained focused. But maybe they did lose
Speaker 1: that game to Vanderbilt because Vanderbilt played extremely well, and
Speaker 1: as Mark Pope pointed out, you know they had Missouri.
Speaker 1: I watched a lot of that game, Andandy maybe should
Speaker 1: have won that game at Missou and let it get away.
Speaker 1: So this could have been a Vandy team coming in
Speaker 1: here that's two and zero in league play. And yet
Speaker 1: people still, I think right now, believe how Kentucky will
Speaker 1: win this one, and it should, but it may come
Speaker 1: down to the last position. This is going to be
Speaker 1: a very difficult game for Kentucky cheaply because of Diego
Speaker 1: Flavia the quarterback. And you and I have seen a
Speaker 1: lot of mobile quarterbacks come in here and give Kentucky
Speaker 1: all kinds of trouble, just as he did Alabama. This
Speaker 1: is a guy who could not get a Scollie offer
Speaker 1: from the University of New Mexico in his hometown, played
Speaker 1: juco ball for a couple of years, ends up in
Speaker 1: New Mexico State again one of the real have nots
Speaker 1: in college football, and then Vandy comes and poaches him
Speaker 1: and he quarterbacks one of the biggest upsets in the
Speaker 1: history of college football. So he got away from every
Speaker 1: recruiter in America for the most part. And I asked
Speaker 1: Stoops about that, about just the fact that this is
Speaker 1: a great lesson to learn for people who may only
Speaker 1: look at four and five stars, but you can find
Speaker 1: talent anywhere.
Speaker 2: Well, the first thing for him is you just have
Speaker 2: to congratulate him on his perseverance, you know, you know,
Speaker 2: the obviously the personal drive that he has, in the
Speaker 2: competitive nature that he has, and the perseverance that he has.
Speaker 2: But he's a very good football player and he's proven that.
Speaker 2: And I think you know, we all would say we like,
Speaker 2: you know, teams, and you like players that have a
Speaker 2: chip on their shoulder, and certainly he's playing that way.
Speaker 3: And you have to commend him, you know, for for
Speaker 3: just you know, not only that.
Speaker 2: I mean, he wants to win for his team, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, but he wants to prove people wrong,
Speaker 2: of course, and he wants to play well, but for
Speaker 2: his team. And I wouldn't expect anything less from from
Speaker 2: Clark Lee and a team like that.
Speaker 3: And I have a lot of respect for him. I've
Speaker 3: seen it coming.
Speaker 2: I've seen it coming for years, and you know, and
Speaker 2: so you know.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying I saw that upset coming.
Speaker 2: I just saw the way Clark was building his program
Speaker 2: and how hard they play under any circumstance. When you
Speaker 2: get teams that are fundamentally sound and they play extremely hard,
Speaker 2: they have an opportunity to.
Speaker 3: Win any game.
Speaker 1: If he saw his postgame interview, he talked about divine
Speaker 1: intervention and a plan and all this, and it was
Speaker 1: just so obviously overwhelmed by the emotion. But here's a guy,
Speaker 1: like Stoop said, who just persevered and persevered. But I
Speaker 1: also had Stoops earlier in the news conference about the
Speaker 1: fact that Vandy played really physical football. I didn't see
Speaker 1: the entire game, but I was spending the dial on
Speaker 1: college football Saturday. We all had the day off, didn't we.
Speaker 1: And I have the attention span of a fruitfly, so
Speaker 1: I'm bouncing from game to game. And I don't remember
Speaker 1: what game I was watching, but I saw the lower
Speaker 1: third score crawl across the screen still in the second quarter,
Speaker 1: Vandy thirteen, Alabama nothing. I thought, huh, Vandy has actually
Speaker 1: was seven to nothing, and then when I turned into
Speaker 1: the game, it was thirty teen and nothing because Vandy
Speaker 1: had just pulled off a pick six on a deflected pass.
Speaker 1: And I always say that if you're going to pull
Speaker 1: off an upset like that, you have to steal points
Speaker 1: with turnovers or field position or whatever. And Vandy did
Speaker 1: just that. But what a Vandy also did was it
Speaker 1: responded every time Alabama came up with a score. Vandy
Speaker 1: extended its lead on three different occasions. Because when you
Speaker 1: see Alabama score, you're thinking, all right, here they come.
Speaker 1: Vandy didn't think that way. And by the way, Nick Saban,
Speaker 1: Vandy fans trolled him after the game on his comments
Speaker 1: that it's tough to play everywhere in the SEC, but Vandy.
Speaker 1: He wasn't wrong, But on this day it was tough
Speaker 1: to play in Nashville despite the fact, and they showed
Speaker 1: this on TV more than once, almost the entire visitor
Speaker 1: section with solid red and white Alabama fans coming to Nashville.
Speaker 1: But the Commodore's got it done and they're going to
Speaker 1: try to anchor down in Lexington Saturday night. Up next,
Speaker 1: Well Shift Gears, We're here from Mark Pope, Kentucky's new
Speaker 1: basketball coach, what he had to say about Pro Day,
Speaker 1: the event happening yesterday at Historic Memorial Coliseum. That's next
Speaker 1: on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: Coming up in a few minutes, Jack Gibbons will rehashed
Speaker 1: with me last night's activities that Kentucky Basketball NBA Pro
Speaker 1: Day got a chance to see. The Wildcats actually had
Speaker 1: a chance to see him practice earlier this week, and
Speaker 1: what they did last night was essentially the same drills.
Speaker 1: They just did it in front of basically every scout
Speaker 1: or a team a scout from every team in the NBA.
Speaker 1: But it was not drills that were specifically designed to
Speaker 1: show off skills for these guys. They were just given
Speaker 1: the opportunity as a group to look in And as
Speaker 1: I said in the broadcast on SEC Plus last night,
Speaker 1: you got to give John Caliperry credit because he put
Speaker 1: this together. It was another innovation for UK basketball. I
Speaker 1: don't know how much input he had from the likes
Speaker 1: of TJ Buiser and whoever. I think this one came
Speaker 1: together before TJ was there. But anyhow, the reason, of
Speaker 1: course was with Caliperio recruiting all the superstar recruits that
Speaker 1: he did, there were so many requests from scouts to
Speaker 1: come to practice, so they just kind of threw a
Speaker 1: net around to all of them and brought him in
Speaker 1: on the one day. And it had been broadcast in
Speaker 1: the past on ESPN. I'm not sure why we were
Speaker 1: given the opportunity to do it on SEC Plus, but
Speaker 1: I was glad we were and glad to be included.
Speaker 1: And it was great to work with Jack again. I've
Speaker 1: done so many shows with Jack and projects and specials
Speaker 1: and things like that. But in terms of putting on
Speaker 1: a head, said Mike, and sitting down court side with Jack.
Speaker 1: You may have seen my Facebook post that also had
Speaker 1: it up on Twitter yesterday, I photo from an old
Speaker 1: Herald Leader of Jack and me and the other guy
Speaker 1: in the pictures of Max's roommate Scott Owens, doing a
Speaker 1: high school game. Because when Jack retired from the NBA
Speaker 1: or was told his services were no longer needed, came
Speaker 1: back to Lexingon and got into broadcasting. Ralph Hacker hired
Speaker 1: him at WVLK and we did high school games together.
Speaker 1: I think that game was in a regional high school tournament.
Speaker 1: But Jack and I also did Transylvania basketball for two years.
Speaker 1: We did the home games and they were simulcast on
Speaker 1: VLK and on the old telecable of Lexingon. Remember tele
Speaker 1: a cable. Well, they were looking for content, so they
Speaker 1: simulcast Transylvania basketball and Jack and I did it. We
Speaker 1: traveled a little bit with the team, and Don Lane
Speaker 1: was so great with us and great to work with.
Speaker 1: And Jack and I got along famously. We knew each
Speaker 1: other from school. I mean I had covered his teams
Speaker 1: for the Kentucky Colonel and we just kind of hit
Speaker 1: it off. But I mean, Jack gets along basically with everybody.
Speaker 1: So if you don't hit it off with Jack, there's
Speaker 1: something wrong with you. But we've remained buddies ever since,
Speaker 1: and I really really enjoy having him on the show,
Speaker 1: and he's coming up in a few minutes, but just
Speaker 1: getting a chance to work with him, and look, he
Speaker 1: was tremendous. If you haven't seen the pro day broadcast,
Speaker 1: it's on YouTube and I linked it on Facebook and Twitter.
Speaker 1: But you forget Jack did nineteen years with the Orlando
Speaker 1: Magic TV Network. He is kind of a new beat
Speaker 1: a radio and did a wonderful job with Tom Leach
Speaker 1: last year and we'll do it again this year. But
Speaker 1: he is so polished and such a pro when it
Speaker 1: comes to TV, and mind did e were no replays
Speaker 1: last night, so he was doing everything on the fly
Speaker 1: as we all were, and our crew did just an
Speaker 1: incredibly great job and it was so much fun. He
Speaker 1: had a ball being in historic Memorial Coliseum. As I
Speaker 1: said in the broadcast, he's part of that history. Played
Speaker 1: his first two years of varsity basketball freshman and sophomore
Speaker 1: in Memorial Coliseum pre Rupp Arena, and of course practiced
Speaker 1: there every day. So he just loves being in the building,
Speaker 1: love seeing basketball there and had a great time. And
Speaker 1: of course he basically h piloted the interview when we
Speaker 1: had a chance to talk with the head coach, Mark
Speaker 1: Pope in the final minutes of the broadcast, and here
Speaker 1: it is courtesy of SEC plus. What did you think?
Speaker 1: What did you see tonight? I love this.
Speaker 4: I love this.
Speaker 1: It's good baskets. You guys like you, guys like that.
Speaker 1: You were supposed to be done twenty six minutes ago.
Speaker 5: We just can't get enough.
Speaker 1: Yeah it is.
Speaker 6: It is a great building.
Speaker 4: To play in.
Speaker 5: You did some work in here.
Speaker 6: I played my first sun first two seasons I played
Speaker 6: in this building. And I said, and you probably felt
Speaker 6: it as you practiced in this building. Some there was
Speaker 6: something about this building that the great players that who
Speaker 6: have played here, you just felt beast as you walked in.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And then the moments we had here that were not
Speaker 5: not in front of people like I mean, I have
Speaker 5: so many moments, but I'll never forget. So Nazi Muhammad
Speaker 5: played eighteen nineteen years in the NBA, is now on
Speaker 5: his way to being a general manager NBA team, one
Speaker 5: of the one of the most epic careers of any
Speaker 5: player here won a national championship. And I remember Nazi
Speaker 5: as a freshman and coach is killing us he's killing us,
Speaker 5: and you had to make a time before you could
Speaker 5: get off the floor. So Nazi's still running everybody else
Speaker 5: on the floor. He's a freshman. He's just like he's
Speaker 5: just grinding, trying to get his body in shape. And
Speaker 5: so he's run like this, I don't know what it was,
Speaker 5: one hundred and seventh ladder, and he came to the
Speaker 5: finish and we're all standing here, sitting at the at
Speaker 5: the baseline and Nazy like dives to try and get
Speaker 5: across the line, like literally right there in that spot
Speaker 5: right by the k yes, and dives across the line
Speaker 5: and coach is like, nope, get back on the line.
Speaker 5: And I remember, listen, I remember now it's like I'm
Speaker 5: talking about tears, man, Yeah, like tears. And then because
Speaker 5: this guy paid the price, he played eighteen nineteen years
Speaker 5: in the league.
Speaker 1: And that's the hard thing.
Speaker 6: And I've heard you say it, but that's a hard thing,
Speaker 6: touching the lines, for instance, getting all the way there.
Speaker 6: It's hard for players at this age to know what
Speaker 6: that extra little bit might translate into.
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, and right now, I mean, we were trying
Speaker 5: to be the best, which is which our lofty, lofty
Speaker 5: goal you're not the best by a large margin, you're
Speaker 5: the best by the tiniest of margins. So the more tiny.
Speaker 4: Margins you can put together.
Speaker 7: And so what was fun about practice day was there
Speaker 7: was some really broken execution and some sloppy stuff, but
Speaker 7: there were also some moments where guys inside showed up
Speaker 7: and how they responded something very very specific, and we're
Speaker 7: super encouraged by seeing that from our guys.
Speaker 6: You know, we've talked Mark about Gabe and I talked
Speaker 6: a lot about bringing all these pieces together and uh,
Speaker 6: figuring out how to make a team out of all
Speaker 6: these pieces. How is that coming along?
Speaker 1: I think it's been.
Speaker 5: Really fun because we have unbelievable So you know what
Speaker 5: when when we hit little rocky patchs like you do
Speaker 5: every training camp, every summer, we do with our staff, like,
Speaker 5: what we believe in is people right, and on this
Speaker 5: roster we have really special, elite level people that are
Speaker 5: also terrific basketball players. And so, you know, I just
Speaker 5: have a ton of confidence in this group because of
Speaker 5: the character of these guys and their commitment. They're really
Speaker 5: working to learn how to love each other. It's gonna
Speaker 5: be a special group and it's gonna be incredible to
Speaker 5: watch these guys and as as BBN, as as Kentucky fans,
Speaker 5: we're gonna love watching these guys, and we're gonna actually
Speaker 5: have some guys step up and have epic years and
Speaker 5: going to have big time professional careers.
Speaker 1: And really serve this team. And then stayed along.
Speaker 6: The way, did you know that aspect about the players
Speaker 6: when you went to get them, I'm talking about what
Speaker 6: kind of people they were?
Speaker 8: Did you all that?
Speaker 5: Well, it's a little bit of our filter. It's kind
Speaker 5: of a little bit about how we operate, and we're
Speaker 5: we're really brutally honest and transparent in the recruiting process.
Speaker 5: And and so you kind of filter yourself out a
Speaker 5: little bit if you're not grounded, like we talk about
Speaker 5: how important banners are here, and so if the only
Speaker 5: thing you're worried about is other things, if that's not
Speaker 5: a part of what you're worried about, you'll filter yourself out.
Speaker 5: If if you're not here to learn how to love
Speaker 5: a team and like and connect, connect, connect, then you're
Speaker 5: gonna kind of filter yourself out. So you have a
Speaker 5: you have a vibe of that when and if you're
Speaker 5: not actually starving to become a big time pro, you're
Speaker 5: gonna kind of filter yourself out, and so what you
Speaker 5: end up with is a good chance of getting great people.
Speaker 5: We suspected that, but over the eight months summer, the
Speaker 5: four week in the fall, and then out of Banner Camp.
Speaker 5: We just finished up a few days ago, I'm more
Speaker 5: confident of that we have.
Speaker 1: We have really extraordinary I gotta think Mark that that
Speaker 1: was a key element and how you put this team together,
Speaker 1: because you're putting it together in a unique way in
Speaker 1: such a short amount of time. You don't have time
Speaker 1: to fool with someone who's going to be a bad.
Speaker 5: Apple, right, Yeah, And that that's really important. And then
Speaker 5: and and and so all of that works together. It's huge. Listen.
Speaker 1: You know, you can.
Speaker 5: Look at you can always look at rosters on paper, okay,
Speaker 5: and a lot of times teams live up to what
Speaker 5: they are on paper. Sometimes they don't live up to
Speaker 5: one of them on paper. But what makes teams special
Speaker 5: is all the connected tissue, the special sauce, the you
Speaker 5: know what you had with your guys, like you guys
Speaker 5: want a championship because you know, those guys knew they
Speaker 5: needed to get you the ball and they wanted to
Speaker 5: get you the ball, and you guys loved each other
Speaker 5: enough to take care of each other. And and that
Speaker 5: cont connected tissue is I think what makes championship teams.
Speaker 1: I have one final question for you, meaning to ask
Speaker 1: you this. I can't remember how exactly how old you are,
Speaker 1: but you spent three years here, right, comparatively speaking, that's
Speaker 1: not a long time. And yet it is a part
Speaker 1: of you now, and I know you're hoping it becomes
Speaker 1: a part of them. Tell me how you relay that
Speaker 1: to them.
Speaker 5: Well, it's a lot of different ways. One is exposing
Speaker 5: them to BBN because you know, the beautiful thing about
Speaker 5: all the guys that are transferred here is they have
Speaker 5: a frame of reference, so they actually know there's nothing
Speaker 5: like this in college sports, right, And that's a gift
Speaker 5: I had. I played my first two years at Washington,
Speaker 5: so when I came here, I'm like, Wow, this is
Speaker 5: like nothing in the world where sometimes freshman coming in
Speaker 5: and the think, oh, this is just what college basketball is.
Speaker 5: They have no idea. So that's one thing, and then
Speaker 5: the second thing is like, we have these beautiful young
Speaker 5: men that are crushing it from the state of Kentucky
Speaker 5: that just ooze out the belief and faith in this place,
Speaker 5: and we talk about the history and we're blessed to
Speaker 5: have great four players like Jack that come around all
Speaker 5: the time and kind of share with our guys. And
Speaker 5: then and then also it's just this guy's connecting with
Speaker 5: each other like that that the understanding of how specialist
Speaker 5: is can also come from within our group, from us
Speaker 5: making it sacred right, and that's what the guys are
Speaker 5: trying to do right now.
Speaker 1: Mark, thanks so much, congratulating, appreciate you, thank you, recessful night,
Speaker 1: Pro Night, Pro Day. It's over here at the University
Speaker 1: of Kentucky. That's Mark Pope, the head coach. That's Jack Gibvans,
Speaker 1: part of the history from here at historic Memorial Palaceum Jack.
Speaker 1: Any final thoughts.
Speaker 6: Well, mainly to Mark because he has done a great
Speaker 6: job of getting us old guys back involved in the
Speaker 6: program and for us it's big. But I've always thought
Speaker 6: that's a big part of Kentucky basketball.
Speaker 1: So we are glad to have Mark here. That was
Speaker 1: at the tail end of our broadcast last night on
Speaker 1: SEC Plus of Kentucky Basketball Pro Day. And again, if
Speaker 1: you want to see the entire thing, it's on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Just type in Kentucky Basketball NBA Pro Day and you
Speaker 1: can check out this team for yourself. And we also
Speaker 1: have interviews with some of the players from prior to
Speaker 1: the broadcast. They didn't come over during the broadcast, but
Speaker 1: you get a chance to meet him a little bit,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna hear an awful lot from these guys
Speaker 1: starting today because today was media day. So but we
Speaker 1: did enjoy it last night, and we hope you enjoyed
Speaker 1: it as well. More with Jack coming up here on
Speaker 1: The Big Blue Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Big Blue Insider and joining me now is the
Speaker 1: guy who had to put up with me last night,
Speaker 1: Jack Gibbons from the UK Sports Network UK A American.
Speaker 1: I did appreciate working with you again. As I put
Speaker 1: on the on the interweb, Jack, you and I had
Speaker 1: not sat down at a game with headsets on and
Speaker 1: forever had we had been a minute?
Speaker 9: Yeah, it had been. It was really good to get
Speaker 9: back on the air with you, man. I mean, shoot,
Speaker 9: we started kac hesitate to think how many years ago
Speaker 9: since we first got started broadcasting together on the radio
Speaker 9: and doing some TV stuff. But yeah, it was really
Speaker 9: good to get back with you man, still one of
Speaker 9: the best in the business.
Speaker 1: Thanks.
Speaker 9: I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I love the fact that you got a chance to
Speaker 1: get back in the Memorial Coliseum as you did. And
Speaker 1: I'm sure we had done some high school games probably
Speaker 1: in there. But uh, to see your beloved Wildcats in
Speaker 1: action in a building that means so much to.
Speaker 9: You, Yeah, that was that was a huge part of
Speaker 9: my career while at Kentucky, you know, playing my first
Speaker 9: two seasons at Kentucky, we played in that building still,
Speaker 9: and it was just every time I walk in there
Speaker 9: brings back so many memories. Of course that changed a lot,
Speaker 9: and then I'm in this renovation that they've done to
Speaker 9: the building. It's just unbelievable. First thing you notice when
Speaker 9: you walk in there, man, is that you don't break
Speaker 9: out in a sweat, you know, from the building and
Speaker 9: so hot we were sitting, man, I was kind of jelly. Man,
Speaker 9: I said, this air conditioner works really well. Yeah, but
Speaker 9: that's the first thing you noticed. But it's it's a
Speaker 9: beautiful building. But you still get that basketball, Uh, just
Speaker 9: the phil of good basketball had been played in that building.
Speaker 9: So many great players, both on the men and the
Speaker 9: women's side, so so yeah, still a very very special
Speaker 9: special place for basketball.
Speaker 1: Valerie Stills Jersey hangs in the rafters and why not.
Speaker 9: Uh.
Speaker 1: And you know what, we didn't have a chance to
Speaker 1: get into last night. But and we've talked about this before.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: And you wrote about it in your book, how you
Speaker 1: got to play more than once in that building as
Speaker 1: a high schooler. And there was one huge game between
Speaker 1: you and new and James Henry Clay Bryant Station. Uh,
Speaker 1: your senior year. I was a freshman in UK living
Speaker 1: across the parking lot. I snuck in the back door
Speaker 1: and watched that one. Those were here and that place
Speaker 1: was full for those games.
Speaker 9: The other think we're turning people away, man.
Speaker 4: I mean.
Speaker 9: High school basketball really throughout the state of Kentucky, but
Speaker 9: especially in Lexington and Louisville at that time was just huge.
Speaker 9: And all of the four public schools at that time
Speaker 9: for public schools and Lexington had great, great basketball teams,
Speaker 9: so the interest was huge. The attendance to all of
Speaker 9: our games was big time. It got too big those
Speaker 9: games to be played in the actual schools, So we
Speaker 9: would play at the Memorial Coliseum, would play those games, man,
Speaker 9: and they would turn people away at those games. So yeah,
Speaker 9: those were very special days that so much fun to
Speaker 9: think back on.
Speaker 1: And that was back when it held eleven thousand and
Speaker 1: As we were doing the pre event interviews yesterday, I
Speaker 1: explained that to some of the new content yucky players,
Speaker 1: I said, this place used to be where they played
Speaker 1: the varsity games, and our eyes got kind of big,
Speaker 1: and one of them said, how'd they do that? I said, well,
Speaker 1: everything that's been built up in the end zones wasn't here.
Speaker 1: You know, you had bleachers on one end and kind
Speaker 1: of an opera house look on the other end. But
Speaker 1: the other thing too was the ceiling was a lot lower,
Speaker 1: which gave it kind of a the feeling like they
Speaker 1: have done in Durham, you know, where Duke plays. But anyhow,
Speaker 1: it served well last night, and it was a basic practice,
Speaker 1: as Mark Pope went over there with you and me
Speaker 1: prior to pro Day, But it was designed to give
Speaker 1: the scouts a chance just to see all kinds of
Speaker 1: skills that these guys could present, didn't it.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 9: Yeah, they mainly did offensive drills because that's what they pro.
Speaker 9: Scouts wanted to see guys who could shoot it, and
Speaker 9: they're plenty of among this team. Ball handling stuff, how
Speaker 9: do you handle fast break opportunities, what kind of decisions
Speaker 9: you make, all of that kind of stuff. Now, a
Speaker 9: regular everyday practice for this team will be a little
Speaker 9: bit different than what we saw last night because there's
Speaker 9: going to be more time spent on defense and defensive drills,
Speaker 9: which make it very interesting and will be very very
Speaker 9: important for this team because they will have to defend.
Speaker 9: They love to shoot the basketball, but they'll have to
Speaker 9: figure out ways to come up with the ball, and
Speaker 9: you do that through defense and rebounding. So still a
Speaker 9: lot of other stuff they need to work on. But
Speaker 9: it was good for the pros. It was good for
Speaker 9: the guys.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 9: You know, this is first time for all of those guys,
Speaker 9: and even though we have a lot of vets, a
Speaker 9: lot of guys who have been around for a long time.
Speaker 9: Even though we have a lot of those guys on
Speaker 9: the team, this is the first time that they've had
Speaker 9: the opportunity to go through these kind of situations. So
Speaker 9: it was it was a fun night for everybody there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you talked about on the wrap up when
Speaker 1: we were talking to to Mark Pope and I played
Speaker 1: that earlier in the show, the fact that he was
Speaker 1: able to to some extent, because you know, you can't
Speaker 1: get everybody you want. But in terms of the style
Speaker 1: of play, what he needed for his roster, he basically
Speaker 1: assembled it, putting the pieces together. It wasn't like a
Speaker 1: fantasy team or you know, you know, wouldn't it be
Speaker 1: great to have this guy and that guy was I
Speaker 1: I need this, I need that, complimentary players, that kind
Speaker 1: of thing.
Speaker 9: Yeah, he very methodically, very thoughtfully, if you will, went
Speaker 9: about putting together this team. Guys he has guys he
Speaker 9: feels will fit his season, his his his style of play.
Speaker 9: This season. He made sure he had a lot of
Speaker 9: shooters because he wants to shoot a lot of shots
Speaker 9: from the outside. But he had some bigs who can play.
Speaker 9: He just kind of went out and he got what
Speaker 9: the pieces that he thought would fit. And I think
Speaker 9: he's very happy with what he has has put together.
Speaker 9: I mean, I was pretty obvious, and he loves to
Speaker 9: talk about it. I mean, he got what he wanted
Speaker 9: and now putting them together and forming the team is
Speaker 9: going to be high priority for him.
Speaker 1: And what people I think Jack need to remember is
Speaker 1: this isn't being done as a theory he was successful
Speaker 1: at Utah Valley States, successful at Brigham Young. The style
Speaker 1: of play that he has developed thanks to all the
Speaker 1: different coaches, he said, George Carl Larry byrd Rick Patino.
Speaker 1: You know, he's kind of molded his style of play
Speaker 1: and he went out and got guys he believed who
Speaker 1: can play it. He's not trying any What I'm saying
Speaker 1: is he's not trying something new. It's new to these kids,
Speaker 1: but it's not.
Speaker 9: New to him, and that's what's important. He's very confident
Speaker 9: in number one, his knowledge of the game. He's very
Speaker 9: confident in his ability to build players to fit what
Speaker 9: he is wanting to accomplish and wanting them to accomplish.
Speaker 9: He's very very confident, and he should be because he's
Speaker 9: been in close close contact. You mentioned some coaches, but
Speaker 9: he's he's you know, he's been in close contact with
Speaker 9: some other coaches who are very skilled and very good
Speaker 9: at what they do. He's learned from all of those guys,
Speaker 9: and he has taken bits and pieces. Uh, He's been
Speaker 9: able to in his mind perfect a system that he
Speaker 9: fills work and that's what is most important about Mark.
Speaker 9: He's very confident in what he does and how he
Speaker 9: does it. He also is wanting to learn more. I mean,
Speaker 9: just think about it. He's learning from these guys, just
Speaker 9: like these guys are learning from him. He's never he's
Speaker 9: never had a team like this, with this much talent.
Speaker 9: He's never had a team with this much experience. He's
Speaker 9: never had a team made up like this team has
Speaker 9: made up. So yeah, he is teaching guys and he's
Speaker 9: showing them and he likes to say, empowering guys to
Speaker 9: be able to make their own decisions in games. But
Speaker 9: he's learning as well about these guys, these guys and
Speaker 9: this kind of team. So it's an interesting situation all
Speaker 9: the way around.
Speaker 1: Jack Givans is my guest from the UK Sports Network.
Speaker 1: Can't I work UK Pro Day last night on SEC Plus.
Speaker 1: We'll come back and ask a few more questions of
Speaker 1: the goosen just a minute here on six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to talking to Jack Givens, UK al American
Speaker 1: from the UK Sports Network. We had the pleasure and
Speaker 1: privilege of working UK Pro Day last night for SEC Plus.
Speaker 1: Before I go any further, I couldn't sneak it into
Speaker 1: the broadcast, Jack, because we were having so much fun
Speaker 1: but shameless plug for your book. Are things still going well?
Speaker 9: Things are going really well, Gabe. I'm still completely shocked.
Speaker 9: I've been a lot of events, but a couple this
Speaker 9: week that I have. Thursday night, I'll be in Monticello
Speaker 9: at I think the Main Street Bookstore from five to seven,
Speaker 9: So I'll be in be Down and Monicello. But on Friday,
Speaker 9: and this is going to be a really really special event,
Speaker 9: not because I'm there necessarily, but we have signing at
Speaker 9: Kingland for Kentucky Day, University of Kentucky Day, we have
Speaker 9: a signing there. I'll be there. Nate Northington, who obviously
Speaker 9: was one of the first African American, if not the
Speaker 9: first Afteran Americans to play not just at Kentucky but
Speaker 9: in the sec He'll be there. Dereck Ramsey will be
Speaker 9: there selling his book. Northington will be selling his book.
Speaker 9: And then for the first time, and you'll love this
Speaker 9: because of your relationship with this guy over the years,
Speaker 9: but we'll have available for the very first time Reggie
Speaker 9: Warford's book. Reggie was had just completed the book when
Speaker 9: he passed away a year and a half or two ago.
Speaker 9: He had just completed the book it's finally ready to
Speaker 9: come out. It has not come out to the public yet,
Speaker 9: but I was able to get some early releases, so
Speaker 9: I'll have some copies of Reggie's book there that people
Speaker 9: can purchase. So it's going to be a really really
Speaker 9: special day from one to four at Keenland Friday. We
Speaker 9: might be doing something the same kind of thing at
Speaker 9: the Kentucky Vandy football game on Saturday that hasn't at
Speaker 9: the Take Club. That hasn't totally been put together, but
Speaker 9: we're trying to have the same guys together for that.
Speaker 9: But this Ain't Friday is going to be really special.
Speaker 9: I mean really special.
Speaker 1: That is fantastic And I did not know that when
Speaker 1: I asked you about your book, and I knew I
Speaker 1: spoke to the man who was helping Reggie with the
Speaker 1: book as we were putting together the documentary we did
Speaker 1: on Reggie. So I can't wait to read that and
Speaker 1: see that after having spent so much time with Regg
Speaker 1: before we lost him. But I know how much he
Speaker 1: meant to you, and you were a vital part of
Speaker 1: that documentary as well. That's an all star lineup, man,
Speaker 1: it really, it really is.
Speaker 9: And and you know, I haven't had a chance to
Speaker 9: spend much time around Nate, so I'm looking forward to
Speaker 9: being there with him. Of course. Uh, Derek and I,
Speaker 9: we we're big gam buddies. Yeah, we go back to
Speaker 9: our days at Kentucky. We were We came in together,
Speaker 9: we left together, so we have a special relationship that
Speaker 9: goes through the years. And Uh, but I'm really excited
Speaker 9: for people to get an opportunity to get a hold
Speaker 9: up of Reggie's books because he was so important man,
Speaker 9: he was. Uh, he came along at a time when again,
Speaker 9: if Reggie had not come yep uh and had and
Speaker 9: and figured out a way to be successful in a
Speaker 9: very adverse in some ways adverts situation. Been the only
Speaker 9: African Americans, the first to play four years here at Kentucky,
Speaker 9: but the only one on the team at that time.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 9: If if he's not successful, who knows what would have
Speaker 9: happened at Kentucky for guys like Mary Haskins and Larry
Speaker 9: Johnson and James Lee and myself who came through at
Speaker 9: that time. So it's really really gonna be good to
Speaker 9: get a hold of Reggie's book. You're talking about stories
Speaker 9: gave Oh my goodness, you wait until you read some
Speaker 9: of the stories that's this book.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean you've said before you would have had
Speaker 1: second thoughts about coming if you hadn't seen a guy
Speaker 1: who look like you and Marion Haskins. Reggie said, I
Speaker 1: called him up and said I need you, and Marian
Speaker 1: said I'll be there. Yeah. Larry Johnson's similar story. And
Speaker 1: the most amazing part of all of this, Jack, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's in a book I had in the
Speaker 1: documentary was Reggie had decided I've had enough and he
Speaker 1: was walking down the hall to toe coach hall, I
Speaker 1: need to go somewhere else, and bumps into Leonard Hamilton,
Speaker 1: who talked him into staying because Leonard was interviewing for
Speaker 1: a job and that changed the course of basketball history.
Speaker 1: Stuff like that's incredible, isn't it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, you know, and and and you're absolutely right, Reggie,
Speaker 9: I mean it was. It was tough man. And he
Speaker 9: was just about out the door when Leonard Hamilton came
Speaker 9: and Leonard told him, he said, Reggie, not everybody can
Speaker 9: do what you're doing. Matter of fact, you might be
Speaker 9: the only guy at this time who could be a
Speaker 9: pioneer who could do what you're doing. And he convinced
Speaker 9: Reggie to stay, which which was huge. Another big story
Speaker 9: about Reggie. I don't know if you put it in
Speaker 9: his book, but I talked about it in my book.
Speaker 9: My very first practice, official practice, we had played games
Speaker 9: and done our thing, but we came out my freshman year.
Speaker 9: Reggie was was already a junior. But we came out
Speaker 9: and Reggie said, hey, rook He called me, rook, rookie, Hey,
Speaker 9: come on, let's play a game of horse. And I said, yeah, Reggie,
Speaker 9: I said, sure, let's play. You know, we're just messing
Speaker 9: around trying to wait the coach on the coaches to
Speaker 9: come out to get started. So he said, you go first.
Speaker 9: So I went first and I shoot my normal little
Speaker 9: fifteen foot jump shot, which I shot a lot of
Speaker 9: and it goes in. And you know, Horse, if I
Speaker 9: make a shot, you got to follow it the same place.
Speaker 9: I walk. Well, Reggie goes walking to the other side
Speaker 9: of the floor and I look over at him and
Speaker 9: I say, hey, Reggie, I made this shot. And Ray said, no,
Speaker 9: you didn't. And I looked at him. I said, Reggie,
Speaker 9: I made the shot. He said, no, you didn't make
Speaker 9: the shot. And we went back and I said, man,
Speaker 9: come on, I saw it go in, he said, listen,
Speaker 9: and you need to learn this right now. On this level,
Speaker 9: the only shots that count are the shots that go
Speaker 9: in without him the rim. He said, it hits the rim,
Speaker 9: so that doesn't count. So from that day forward, it
Speaker 9: changed my whole thought process in shooting and making shots.
Speaker 9: It helped me get the arc right on the shot.
Speaker 9: It helped me get the touch correct on the shot.
Speaker 9: And had I not learned that lesson, I wouldn't have
Speaker 9: been as successful as I was shooting the basketball. But
Speaker 9: it's that kind of stuff that a guy like Reggie,
Speaker 9: who has experienced and who knows and knew how to
Speaker 9: play that kind of stuff, taught me. And that's one
Speaker 9: of the many, many, many reasons why he still to
Speaker 9: this day holds a special place in my heart.
Speaker 1: Jack Gibbans, go out and see him at Kaelan on
Speaker 1: Friday and listen for him on the UK Sports Network
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Goose Gibbons. Thank you brother, I'll see
Speaker 1: you soon.
Speaker 9: I Gabe, good talking to you.
Speaker 1: I remember who is Next year on six thirty WLAP
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue in Cider I number
Speaker 1: two of our program. Dick Gabrielle with you on media
Speaker 1: day for UK basketball. We talk a lot of football,
Speaker 1: of course, but it is overlap time, so time to
Speaker 1: hear from more of the Wildcats. You heard from Mark
Speaker 1: Pope and I number one of a little bit more
Speaker 1: from him in a couple of minutes, this being media
Speaker 1: day and him addressing basically every sportscaster and sports writer
Speaker 1: in the state of Kentucky, so it seems. But players
Speaker 1: got their say today, meaning you're going to be seeing
Speaker 1: a lot of soundbites on TV and then hearing clips
Speaker 1: the internet. Anything you read, website, newspaper is going to
Speaker 1: be overloaded right now with UK basketball stuff. But that's
Speaker 1: okay because you'll still read football as long as the
Speaker 1: while Cats are winning. Right gone to the days I
Speaker 1: really think when people would sit back, slump back in
Speaker 1: their chair in their seat and say, one's basketball start
Speaker 1: thanks to Mark Pope and a team that has of
Speaker 1: late one more than it is lost, but it's vital
Speaker 1: coming up Saturday that they protect their home serve. Mark's
Speaker 1: Story has a column out there about the fact that
Speaker 1: UK and its last eleven games on the road, conference
Speaker 1: games six and five at home, last eleven conference games
Speaker 1: two and nine. He has stoops about it on Monday
Speaker 1: afternoon and Soup said, I have no idea. I have
Speaker 1: no idea, I have no answer except he said we
Speaker 1: played some pretty good teams and he's right about that.
Speaker 1: But today is basketball media Day, so we'll hear from
Speaker 1: some of the players. You heard from a lot of
Speaker 1: them last night on SEC Plus, and we'll relift some
Speaker 1: of those interviews in the days to come. But I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk today to some of the guys I
Speaker 1: didn't have a chance to visit with yesterday, and one
Speaker 1: of the first being Otega Olway, who has a lively
Speaker 1: game of lively personality. And he talked to us about
Speaker 1: somebody who we may not have heard much about yet
Speaker 1: or people didn't know much about him going in, but
Speaker 1: he said, you'll hear about him now.
Speaker 10: I'll say, Annesley, I'm gonna he's a sniper. Sniper like
Speaker 10: a lot of people. I feel like he goes on
Speaker 10: a lot of people's radar, but he's really good, Like
Speaker 10: I haven't seen someone that can shoot it like him
Speaker 10: in a while a while.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Coach Pumpe said earlier he's a perfect fit for
Speaker 1: his system for you for sure.
Speaker 10: And He's very unselfish too, like he just he hunts
Speaker 10: open shots, does and try to force anything too much.
Speaker 4: So it's it's great.
Speaker 1: He'll be a matchup night Marin.
Speaker 10: And yeah, I think so, because what if you go
Speaker 10: guard him with a big man, I can't do it.
Speaker 4: Guarden with a guard, He's gonna shoot right over him.
Speaker 4: So it's gonna be tough.
Speaker 11: YEA.
Speaker 1: What do people need to know about your game?
Speaker 10: I'll just say that I'm an overall three level score.
Speaker 4: Like a lot of people just think that I just
Speaker 4: get downhill, but.
Speaker 10: I could really do a lot of other things, and
Speaker 10: I'm just gonna continue to show that in ways that
Speaker 10: I can. So I think that people are gonna expect
Speaker 10: that a lot this year.
Speaker 1: Why were you a good fit for Mark Pope's system?
Speaker 4: How did he sell you just being around shooters?
Speaker 10: I feel that's big for me because I am a
Speaker 10: downhill type of player, So like just having space, knowing
Speaker 10: that you can't help off the person in the corner
Speaker 10: because if you do easy pass to the corner, open three,
Speaker 10: so like you just have to stay with your man
Speaker 10: and then that just that just gives so much space
Speaker 10: right there. So that was kind of the main thing
Speaker 10: and just being able to on their coach is going
Speaker 10: to always pump confidence under you, and it's always gonna
Speaker 10: believe in you. And he has big goals and aspirations
Speaker 10: just like I do too. So, what has been or
Speaker 10: maybe the biggest challenge for you joining this new team
Speaker 10: for you this season, like a lot, really hasn't been
Speaker 10: much of a challenge, Like it just feels like it
Speaker 10: was meant to be really like I really fit. I
Speaker 10: fit in very well with my teammates. I mean, everything's
Speaker 10: been going well with the coaches. Like everything's been smooth
Speaker 10: so far.
Speaker 1: That's Otago oh Way to transfer from Oklahoma just to
Speaker 1: sophomore after one year at OU nineteen times put up
Speaker 1: double doubles last year, average eleven points and almost four
Speaker 1: rebounds a game for the Sooners. His brother, by the way,
Speaker 1: is a linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens. So comes by
Speaker 1: his athletic ability and the genetics quite honestly. Now he
Speaker 1: was talking about Ansley alman Or the transfer from Fairleigh Dickinson,
Speaker 1: where he was first team All Northeast Conference. One thousand
Speaker 1: career points and a four year career at Fairleigh Dickinson
Speaker 1: averaged sixteen in a game. Last year, He's six seven,
Speaker 1: but hit thirty nine point four percent of his three pointers.
Speaker 1: He had ninety three triples last year. That was a
Speaker 1: fairly Dickinson record. Actually it tied the record, but it
Speaker 1: did lead the conference, and in fact, as a sophomore,
Speaker 1: was named the conference most Improved Player of the Year.
Speaker 1: So he's got skills. He brings size and a shooting ability.
Speaker 1: That size is going to be a real problem when
Speaker 1: teams try to figure out how to play him defensively.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I guess you could say that, you know, a
Speaker 12: little bit of a matchup problem. You know, I could
Speaker 12: do more than just shoot, but shooting is definitely something
Speaker 12: that you know, puts defenses on a frenzy.
Speaker 4: So it definitely helps me a lot.
Speaker 1: That said, tell us about the interaction with Mark Pope
Speaker 1: when he approached you about coming to Kentucky.
Speaker 12: Oh, you know, he when he first proached me, he
Speaker 12: was just letting me know how he feels like, how
Speaker 12: it fit perfectly in the as system, and how he'd
Speaker 12: use me and how you know, what his plan was
Speaker 12: when it came to winning a lot of games and
Speaker 12: being able to have like so many different good players
Speaker 12: on the team so that we can make a deep
Speaker 12: run when it goes.
Speaker 4: So coming to a tournament time.
Speaker 1: How much of the discussion was about shooting?
Speaker 12: It was a lot, you know, because you know, he
Speaker 12: shot like a lot of threes actually, Iyu. You know
Speaker 12: in my research show and that says goal is to
Speaker 12: shoot the most threes in the country, So he definitely,
Speaker 12: you know, you need shooters to be able to do that,
Speaker 12: so's he definitely you mentioned that when he's recruiting me, you're.
Speaker 1: About coming to a team that's basically a puzzle, all
Speaker 1: these pieces coming together and the challenge that you guys
Speaker 1: are looking at.
Speaker 4: Uh, it's been like a great transition so far.
Speaker 12: You know, I feel like it's one of the probably
Speaker 12: the closest team I've been on, like in my college career,
Speaker 12: because yeah, we've been together probably since June, and you know,
Speaker 12: we were all living to lodge at first and everybody
Speaker 12: getting to know each other, spending every day of each other,
Speaker 12: eating meals together and stuff like that, going out here
Speaker 12: every day and just getting closer day by day. And
Speaker 12: I feel like, you know, what we've done since June
Speaker 12: to become as close as we could be has worked
Speaker 12: and we're a really close team.
Speaker 8: I feel like, at what point did it kind of
Speaker 8: hit you where where you are as opposed to where
Speaker 8: you were in terms of the program and the tradition
Speaker 8: and and maybe expectations are coming in here?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 12: Probably like right away. You know, once I committed here
Speaker 12: is uh, social media was going crazy. You know, a
Speaker 12: whole bunch of followers jumping on people with DM and
Speaker 12: me things like that, always people always reaching out. You know,
Speaker 12: it was crazy once I committed, and especially after coming
Speaker 12: here and coming on campus and seeing how different the
Speaker 12: facilities are and the resources you have here, it's just
Speaker 12: second to none in the country.
Speaker 8: Was it something like when you walk through the halls
Speaker 8: where you kind of got to grasp of the history
Speaker 8: and tradition.
Speaker 12: Yeah, right out here in the in the Craft Center,
Speaker 12: you could you could see all the history, all the
Speaker 12: AH players who played here, the championships they won, and
Speaker 12: you see all the coaches and coach sharing and stuff.
Speaker 12: It it's it's definitely a privilege to be able to
Speaker 12: walk these holes and play on this court and represent
Speaker 12: the University of Kentucky.
Speaker 1: But if that comes to high expectations from the BBN,
Speaker 1: what do you know about that what do you expect?
Speaker 12: Yeah, obviously, you know you see them on social media
Speaker 12: always telling me what the U excitations and obviously it's
Speaker 12: a blue buzz. So you know, the only expectations win
Speaker 12: in the national Championship. And that's what our expectation two
Speaker 12: as a team is. So you know, we both had
Speaker 12: the same expectation. So we're gonna go out there and
Speaker 12: do whatever we can to go and a shoot that goal.
Speaker 1: That is Ansley Almon or the big from Fairleigh Dickinson.
Speaker 1: You're gonna like what you see. We saw him drain
Speaker 1: three pointers last night on the pro day telecast. Again,
Speaker 1: we had Mark Pope on earlier. If you missed that,
Speaker 1: you can pull it up on the podcast version. But
Speaker 1: I will share with you at least one of the comments.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna feed off of these for a long time.
Speaker 1: He's really good. But somebody asked him, and the question
Speaker 1: was asked him more than once since he first appeared
Speaker 1: at that PEP rally that masqueraded as an introductory news
Speaker 1: conference several weeks ago. But somebody asked him about coming
Speaker 1: back to his alma mater and being the head coach
Speaker 1: at a school where he helped win a national championship.
Speaker 7: I don't know, guys, this is gonna sound so petty,
Speaker 7: but it's not. It's gonna sound petty. And then let
Speaker 7: me explain. So from time to time I get to
Speaker 7: sign an autograph and blow it, I get to put
Speaker 7: ninety six Champs and it's not it's actually not it's
Speaker 7: it's it's that sounds super petty, right, because I on
Speaker 7: the on the petty side, I recognize that that's just
Speaker 7: a little bit bragging rights and it's a little bit like,
Speaker 7: you know, they're having not many people to get to
Speaker 7: write that, right and so, But but what means so
Speaker 7: much to me is that in that nine to six
Speaker 7: Champs exclamation mark is like a whole lot of like
Speaker 7: fight and blood and sweat and tears and together and
Speaker 7: like leaning on guys and a lot of doubts and
Speaker 7: worries and frustrations and hopes and perseverance and all that's
Speaker 7: wrapped up into that. And I'm grateful that I get
Speaker 7: to do that and be here and do that because
Speaker 7: that's what I want from for my guys so badly.
Speaker 7: I want for our guys. I want them to be
Speaker 7: able to to be able to write that you know
Speaker 7: for their year and then to be able to write
Speaker 7: that Champs underneath it. And it's not about that. It's
Speaker 7: not about bragging rights or anything else. It's about like
Speaker 7: the this hmmm right that you know that nobody else
Speaker 7: knows except the other guys that were in that locker
Speaker 7: room that really really know. And it's and then and
Speaker 7: then how you grow as a human being through it.
Speaker 7: And so it's I'm so grateful to be back here
Speaker 7: to to to take our big swing at it and
Speaker 7: see see if we can get there. I'd like all
Speaker 7: of our guys be able to write that.
Speaker 1: Not all of his answers were quite as long winded,
Speaker 1: but that was a good one. Coming up next, we'll
Speaker 1: take a look at the bowl picture right now according
Speaker 1: to a major publication. We'll see if Kentucky rates or
Speaker 1: how the Wildcats rate right now and look later on
Speaker 1: Lindsay Golf from WKYT. I want to come on six
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP Welcome back, coming up with tabbing Lindsay Goff
Speaker 1: of WKYT. She is the weekend sports anchor, cover the
Speaker 1: press conference yesterday with Mark Soups and has covered college
Speaker 1: football both here in Lexington and down in Savannah, Georgia,
Speaker 1: so we'll get her thoughts on what happened with those
Speaker 1: Georgia Bulldogs in Alabama and of course the Alabama Vandy game,
Speaker 1: a headline that popped up this morning. A judge granted
Speaker 1: preliminary approval to the two point seventy eight billion with
Speaker 1: a B legal settlement, and this is going to transform
Speaker 1: college sports because it will allow schools to pay players.
Speaker 1: The US District judge ordered a release in order set
Speaker 1: a timeline for the deal that would go into effect
Speaker 1: on October the eighteenth. That's when athletes can begin to
Speaker 1: apply for payment. The final hearing is set get this
Speaker 1: for April seventh of next year. That is the day
Speaker 1: March Madness comes to a close. How about that. That's
Speaker 1: quite a coincidence, isn't it. It finalized, this deal would
Speaker 1: allow the biggest schools to establish a pool of about
Speaker 1: twenty one and a half million in the first year
Speaker 1: to distribute money to athletes through a revenue sharing plan. Now,
Speaker 1: you could still, if you're an athlete, do your name,
Speaker 1: image and likeness deals with outside groups, but former college
Speaker 1: athletes as far back as twenty sixteen would be able
Speaker 1: to apply for their share of two point five seven
Speaker 1: six billion set aside to help them recoup the money
Speaker 1: they could have made from nil deals, which weren't allowed
Speaker 1: until twenty twenty one. And this all began with the
Speaker 1: Edo Bannon lawsuit. As it's known, that's the guy who
Speaker 1: looked at a video game that had his name and
Speaker 1: his number. I don't know if it looked like him,
Speaker 1: but his likeness. Without his consent, companies that were producing
Speaker 1: video games, one in particular, a sports making gazillions of
Speaker 1: dollars without his or any other athletes approval. Nobody signed anything,
Speaker 1: yet there they were. And yeah, at first I got
Speaker 1: to think it was fun, but after that it was like, hey,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, they're doing this without me or without
Speaker 1: my consent, So now it is literally going to pay off.
Speaker 1: USA today has a table of bowl games way too soon,
Speaker 1: but it's always fun, and the internet's a bottom most pit.
Speaker 1: They got to fill it. So a guy named Eric
Speaker 1: Smith projected every college bowl game, including the college football
Speaker 1: playoffs playoffs, and here's who he has in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Boise stayed at Georgia, Notre Dame at Oregon. I always
Speaker 1: stayed at Alabama, that's right, Alabama, Miami at Penn State
Speaker 1: in the quarterfinals, Georgia, Kansas State, Penn State, Texas, Alabama,
Speaker 1: Ohio State, Oregon against Clemson. How about that Clemson coming
Speaker 1: back from the dead. And then he's got the semifinals
Speaker 1: in there as well, Georgia, Texas, Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia
Speaker 1: versus Ohio State in the championship game. Didn't say he's
Speaker 1: gonna win, He's just saying who's gonna play and win.
Speaker 1: Now you're wondering, what about them Wildcats. Well, he's got
Speaker 1: Kentucky in the Liberty Bowl December twenty seventh. Make your
Speaker 1: plans now, Maybe got the Wildcats playing in Oklahoma State.
Speaker 1: That would be a good matchup. Oklahoma State has some
Speaker 1: really really good teams in the past, not so much
Speaker 1: this year, not right now, but if Kentucky keeps improving,
Speaker 1: obviously Oklahoma State could as well, that could be a
Speaker 1: good game. Billy Rutligi's beloved Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. He says,
Speaker 1: will win Conference USA and play Billy in the Hawaii
Speaker 1: Bowl against Santase State. So save your money and put
Speaker 1: in for a vacation day in and around Christmas Eve.
Speaker 1: That's right. December twenty fourth, he's got Western Kentucky against
Speaker 1: Santase State U of L. He's got in the Military
Speaker 1: Bowl on December twenty eighth against Memphis. And that's about
Speaker 1: it for any teams around here that you might be
Speaker 1: interested in. But at least he still has Kentucky. And
Speaker 1: obviously that is based on the EPSOD win overall. Miss
Speaker 1: Music City. I know Kentucky fans get tired of that one.
Speaker 1: He's got Tennessee in that game. Boy, the Music City Bowl.
Speaker 1: People would love that, except the city Fathers wouldn't make
Speaker 1: quite as much money in downtown Nashville because obviously volunteer
Speaker 1: fans would come in on game day. That's December thirtieth.
Speaker 1: He's got them playing Michigan. A lot of interesting matchups.
Speaker 1: USAToday dot com is where he can find that. The
Speaker 1: story by Eric with a K. At the end, e
Speaker 1: ri C. K. Smith has got his college football bracket.
Speaker 1: He's going to update that as well, but thought i'd
Speaker 1: share that with you. A lot of upsets over the
Speaker 1: last couple of weekends in college football. And Tony Franklin,
Speaker 1: our old pal, who was an assistant at Kentucky and
Speaker 1: has worked at several universities, including Cal Berkeley, where he
Speaker 1: coached the young quarterback named Jared Goff. He is always
Speaker 1: posting information about basically coaching coaches, but coaching teams as
Speaker 1: well via Twitter. He's now a consultant basically, and he
Speaker 1: writes about upset wins, gigantic upset wins, and he writes
Speaker 1: things like the best opportunities for big plays to upset
Speaker 1: a better team come on fourth and one or less,
Speaker 1: and he mentions Vandy's play action deep throw for a
Speaker 1: touchdown and remember now Kentucky's deep throw for a key
Speaker 1: first down against Ole missed, but that was not fourth
Speaker 1: and one. Be the most physical team. He talked about
Speaker 1: how Vandy whipped Bama up front, which was true and
Speaker 1: made Bama's defense look soft. Also said, have a killer
Speaker 1: quarterback with no fear, Yes, that's Diego Pavia. Have a simple,
Speaker 1: executable plan that seems complex to the opponent. And he
Speaker 1: writes Bama's defense looked unprepared. Right again, And Tony Franklin
Speaker 1: also writes respond during the season properly and professionally to heartbreaks,
Speaker 1: and he reminded that Vandy should have beaten Missouri, and
Speaker 1: I forgot they lost to Georgia State. Both heartbreakers, but
Speaker 1: he said players kept fighting and believing because of incredible Lee.
Speaker 1: He said Vandy pulled off the best winner of the
Speaker 1: history of their school because everybody was all in. And
Speaker 1: he points out that the administration made exceptions on transfers
Speaker 1: to get them into school. And you know what, that
Speaker 1: happens everywhere. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's
Speaker 1: a bigger deal at Vandy for obvious reasons. He also wrote,
Speaker 1: and I talked about this earlier, the head coach made
Speaker 1: dramatic staff changes, and Tony Franklin writes that the head
Speaker 1: coach brought in maybe the best coach in football, Jerry Kill,
Speaker 1: to be his advisor. And you know why you haven't
Speaker 1: heard more about Jerry Kill. He was getting it done,
Speaker 1: I think in Minnesota, and he began to have epileptic seizures.
Speaker 1: And in fact, when Clark Lee went to Las Crusis
Speaker 1: to talk to Tim Beck, the OC and ultimately to
Speaker 1: Jerry Kill, Jerry Kill couldn't drive because he had had
Speaker 1: a seizure. And when you have a seizure, it depends
Speaker 1: on state law, but for the next three or six
Speaker 1: months or whatever, you can't drive a car. So that's
Speaker 1: something he's had to deal with and that's why he
Speaker 1: had to step down for a while as a head coach.
Speaker 1: But he became a head coach again at New Mexico
Speaker 1: State and now he's the DC at Vandy, and he
Speaker 1: will be here on Saturday night. We'll take a break.
Speaker 1: Lindsay Goff up next from WKYT here on six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider and joining us
Speaker 1: now in our celebrity hideline as somebody who actually covered
Speaker 1: the Mark Stoops news conference yesterday and witnessed, via the
Speaker 1: miracle of television, Vandy's upset win over Alabama. Lindsay Goff,
Speaker 1: who is the weekend sports anchor for WKYT. Before I
Speaker 1: get the Mark Stoops comments, tell everybody about how you
Speaker 1: came across that game, because you were like me, you
Speaker 1: were probably paying attention to other things you were working,
Speaker 1: of course, and then suddenly you heard what was going on.
Speaker 13: Well, no, I always pay attention to whoever UK is playing.
Speaker 13: I usually run a couple of their highlights. This as
Speaker 13: like a preview, like, hey, next week Kentucky's got you
Speaker 13: know whoever, And I'll run a few highlights on the
Speaker 13: eleven o'clock news on Saturdays, and so obviously they were
Speaker 13: playing Vanderbilt next. So I put the Vanderbilt game on and.
Speaker 1: One of my.
Speaker 13: Colleagues I was like, hey, Vanderbilt toured first, and he's like, oh,
Speaker 13: it's not gonna last. I was like, Vanderbilt just had
Speaker 13: to pick six on Alabama and he's like, oh, it's
Speaker 13: not gonna last. About halftime he had the game on
Speaker 13: as well, and uh yeah, then yeah, I was, but
Speaker 13: you know, kind of half paying attention. I was working
Speaker 13: on my show and had to go anchor the sixth,
Speaker 13: so kind of looking back and forth, but I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 13: they might be doing something here.
Speaker 1: You covered SEC football for a long time, both the
Speaker 1: KYT in a previous station and I mentioned earlier in
Speaker 1: the show tonight, lindsay that you know, we've always seen
Speaker 1: Kentucky flirt with upsets. There's more flirting than actually finishing.
Speaker 1: And I don't know about you, but I just could
Speaker 1: not believe my eyes. And I'm sure that was a
Speaker 1: case for everybody at the game and everybody looking in.
Speaker 13: Oh yeah, it was a wild one and there were
Speaker 13: a lot of upsets. I think I wrote in a
Speaker 13: script yesterday that nine of the top twenty five. I
Speaker 13: think we're upset on Saturday. So it was a wild week.
Speaker 13: And fortunately for Kentucky fans, we weren't on like the
Speaker 13: losing end of that. We were just kind of able
Speaker 13: to sit back and watch and enjoy some stress free football.
Speaker 13: But yeah, the Vanderbilt Alabama game, and then I thoroughly
Speaker 13: enjoyed on Twitter afterwards seeing the cold posts go down
Speaker 13: Broadway to the river. My sister's a senior at Vanderbilt,
Speaker 13: so I was talking to her and yeah, it was
Speaker 13: the heck of a game by the.
Speaker 1: Common orths did Was she in that crowd?
Speaker 13: She was not, So we are very opposite siblings. She
Speaker 13: could not care less about sports. She was using the
Speaker 13: opportunity to do laundry because no one was in the
Speaker 13: dorm on.
Speaker 1: Saturday night in Nashville.
Speaker 11: I know, I know.
Speaker 8: Wow.
Speaker 13: I guess that's why she gets good grades. She's very responsible.
Speaker 1: That's probably a good point. Well, let's back it up
Speaker 1: a couple of weekends and you're looking in on Kentucky,
Speaker 1: old miss and again and your colleague you were talking
Speaker 1: about Steve Moss, and he and I, as you know,
Speaker 1: worked together for many, many years and we covered a
Speaker 1: lot of near missus and we always talked about the
Speaker 1: late hammer, and I think Vandy fans might have been
Speaker 1: waiting on the late hammer. And boy, I'll tell you,
Speaker 1: when Ole Miss completed that deep ball in the middle
Speaker 1: of the field late I thought, I hear it comes,
Speaker 1: it's over time in the late hammer. Oh man, But
Speaker 1: what were your thoughts as you watched that game unfold?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 13: Well, I was by myself. He took that weekend off,
Speaker 13: so I was by myself up there for that one.
Speaker 13: And I think my friend's down in the newsroom. For
Speaker 13: those that don't know the sports offices upstairs, they could
Speaker 13: hear me yelling. But yeah, I was just waiting for
Speaker 13: the shoe to drop, and it never did. When they
Speaker 13: took victory, I was like, oh, oh, this really is happening.
Speaker 1: Anybody in that newsroom. I can tell you on a Saturday,
Speaker 1: no matter what the TV station, there are always football
Speaker 1: fans in the newsroom as well. Oh yeah, And when
Speaker 1: you walk through, the only person who really has their
Speaker 1: head down working is the producer because they can't afford
Speaker 1: to get behind. But everybody else, if their work is
Speaker 1: only halfway done, they're watching the game so yeah, but
Speaker 1: going into that one, Lindsay, and again you've covered a
Speaker 1: lot of press conferences and talked to a lot of
Speaker 1: Kentucky football players, how surprised were you by that win
Speaker 1: by the Wildcats overall Miss?
Speaker 13: To be completely honest, and I'll say this as a
Speaker 13: Kentucky alumni as well, I did not really give them
Speaker 13: a shot down at Ole Miss. I knew they played
Speaker 13: Georgia well, they usually played George are pretty good, and
Speaker 13: that was at home. I did not think going down
Speaker 13: to Mississippi they would fare as well. Obviously pleasantly surprised,
Speaker 13: but I really truthfully did not give them a shot
Speaker 13: going down to Old Miss.
Speaker 5: So that's on me.
Speaker 13: As much as we study it and talk to these guys,
Speaker 13: you know, it's still you got to play the game.
Speaker 1: And we talked a lot too as to have you
Speaker 1: Brad Smith and guys on the defensive side of the ball,
Speaker 1: and we kind of knew that would be the strength
Speaker 1: of his team. But it's really interesting to me now
Speaker 1: after that Georgia game, people I think wrote it off
Speaker 1: as a fluke, what's wrong with Georgia, But after the
Speaker 1: Old Miss game, now I'm hearing terms from the national
Speaker 1: voices of Kentucky's defense being elite, elite.
Speaker 13: Yeah, yeah, that's the chatter.
Speaker 1: I guess.
Speaker 13: You know, you get close to number one and okay,
Speaker 13: and then you knock off number six on the road
Speaker 13: and people start to pay attention. And I know, you
Speaker 13: know it's Vanderbilt this weekend, but they are coming off
Speaker 13: a big win, and you heard Mark Stuts say yesterday
Speaker 13: to defense is going to be crucial. Vanderbilt likes to
Speaker 13: dominate the clock and they had the ball for like
Speaker 13: forty minutes. I think Alabama only had the ball, that's right,
Speaker 13: seventeen minutes in that game. So it's going to be
Speaker 13: really crucial and they're going to be tested once again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, Kentucky had a similar plan as
Speaker 1: it turned out for all miss dominating the clock, didn't it.
Speaker 13: Yeah, they did. I think Kentucky and Vanderbilt are similar
Speaker 13: in a lot of ways, just you know, nobody expects
Speaker 13: them to upset the big teams. But also, yeah, they
Speaker 13: are both programs that are being rebuilt, and they kind
Speaker 13: of do similar things in a way. You know, they
Speaker 13: both like to run the ball and run out the
Speaker 13: clock and play physical ball and just make it difficult
Speaker 13: for these teams.
Speaker 1: This could be a really ugly game. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean because if Kentucky, you know what, Kentucky basically
Speaker 1: had forty minutes of position time to twenty for all miss.
Speaker 1: So these two teams exert their will like that, this
Speaker 1: could be a really ugly looking football game.
Speaker 13: Oh I know what did he say yesterday? Points will
Speaker 13: be a premium. Yeah, we might not have a lot
Speaker 13: of highlights so as far as scoring, but thank good
Speaker 13: if you have Alex Rayner, he can you know, hopefully
Speaker 13: knock a couple down if they can't move the ball
Speaker 13: too well.
Speaker 1: But yeah, well, still nothing on Chip training him. Of
Speaker 1: course he you know, Stoops is playing those cards as
Speaker 1: close to the best as he possibly can. I don't
Speaker 1: blame him. And he said something I had a setback
Speaker 1: in training them's recovery, so that's not good news.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't expect to see Hairston this week.
Speaker 1: So those are two keys for the Wildcats and that's
Speaker 1: something that I think late in the season Lindsey could
Speaker 1: affect things even more.
Speaker 13: I agree, you need the depth to play an SEC ball.
Speaker 13: People get banged up and hopefully Harston will be back
Speaker 13: at some point for their sake, trade them. I'm not
Speaker 13: sure about now. When he mentioned that setback yesterday, I
Speaker 13: assume that's from when he went back to practice and
Speaker 13: reaggravated something. He didn't confirm that, but that's my assumption. Yeah,
Speaker 13: I mean they're gonna need the depth. One good thing
Speaker 13: he did say was that Hardley Gilmour had got back
Speaker 13: out there. Yep, that's helpful. But yeah, they're they're gonna
Speaker 13: need the depth, that's for sure. The schedule doesn't get
Speaker 13: a lot easier.
Speaker 1: No, And it's a kind of it's a time of
Speaker 1: year though, where injuries begin to build. But you talk,
Speaker 1: it's an odd schedule with the two breaks. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I don't think we've ever seen this before at Kentucky.
Speaker 1: But it's great that they can kind of break the
Speaker 1: season up the thirds, isn't it.
Speaker 9: It is?
Speaker 13: And it's a weird schedule too, because they kind of
Speaker 13: bounce in and out a conference play, like after Tennessee
Speaker 13: they've got Murray State and then you go to Texas.
Speaker 13: So it's a I think it's a favorable scheduled the
Speaker 13: way it's like laid out, not necessarily the opponent. Yeah,
Speaker 13: you know, the SEC it's gonna be tough, but the
Speaker 13: way it's laid out that they do get those two
Speaker 13: weeks to get some people healthy, and then not that
Speaker 13: you write off Murray State by any means. You know,
Speaker 13: on any given Saturday, anybody can win, but out of
Speaker 13: conference play at least to try to limit some of that.
Speaker 1: I think. Did you have a chance to watch any
Speaker 1: of the Tennessee Arkansas game?
Speaker 13: I watched a little bit of it, not a ton.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but that that did not
Speaker 1: in credit Arkansas. But that was not the jail break
Speaker 1: Tennessee team they were kind of used to sing, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean?
Speaker 4: It was not No.
Speaker 13: I did catch the highlights obviously. Yeah, that was also
Speaker 13: a weird game. I do love that the Arkansas people
Speaker 13: played rock Top afterwards. I thought that was ultimate. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 13: that that was a weird game. I didn't to see
Speaker 13: a ton of it, but Tennessee looked out of sorts. Yeah,
Speaker 13: what a what a week for the state of Tennessee.
Speaker 13: Vanabel beat Alabama loses.
Speaker 1: That could not have been a better day for Vandy
Speaker 1: fans such as right right, Tennessee Lewis and the Commodore's
Speaker 1: anchored down all over Alabama. Lindsay Goffer my guest. She
Speaker 1: has the weekend sports anchor for WKAT. We'll come back
Speaker 1: and talk more sports with Linda here Lindsay here in
Speaker 1: just a minute on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. Lindsay
Speaker 1: Goff's on our celebrity hotline. She is the weekend sports
Speaker 1: anchor at WKYT, where I spent many a fun today
Speaker 1: and not so fun one's to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: but I love covering football. You covered, as I've said
Speaker 1: at KYT, but also your previous station, were you more
Speaker 1: Was that more Auburn or Georgia that you covered down there?
Speaker 9: Oh?
Speaker 13: No, it was all Georgia bulldogs. We were in Savannah, obviously,
Speaker 13: so we covered Georgia, Southern Savannah State UG North Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 13: they cover Auburn. Yeah, down in Savannah, it's all bulldogs.
Speaker 13: That's actually where Uga the bulldog lives. Yeah, it's Asa.
Speaker 13: He's always belonged to the same family, the Silers, and
Speaker 13: they're from Savannah. The father he passed I believe last
Speaker 13: year the year before, but he he's he was a
Speaker 13: lawyer down in Savannah and his kids still live there.
Speaker 13: So every game day they drive UG up tap.
Speaker 1: And UG opposers because it's it's weird, but they're cheerleaders
Speaker 1: and UGA are on the visitors sideline and I'm always
Speaker 1: it's so crowded. I'm always trying to work my way
Speaker 1: around them. And because the student section is right behind
Speaker 1: off to the side, they can't be directed behind by rule,
Speaker 1: but they're just often to where everybody where the guys
Speaker 1: all paint their chests and everything. Uh, and right behind
Speaker 1: the Kentucky sideline. So Uga, he doesn't know what he's doing,
Speaker 1: but poses for I don't know. Yeah, he poses for
Speaker 1: hundreds of pictures. He does before and at halftime and
Speaker 1: after the game, and on the hot days he lays
Speaker 1: on a bag of ice. You know, I have never
Speaker 1: he does. I was gonna say he's living his best life.
Speaker 1: I've never posed with the UGA for a photo. Don't
Speaker 1: know that I ever will. But yeah, he's he's living large.
Speaker 13: But anyhow, confession I have. I'm a dog lover. He's
Speaker 13: a good boy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he is a good boy. But I was going
Speaker 1: to ask you about that Alabama Georgia game. Did you
Speaker 1: have a chance to keep as a weekend sports anchor?
Speaker 1: You're running around like a headless chicken, I know from
Speaker 1: having filled him many times on the weekends. But how
Speaker 1: much of that Alabama Georgia game are you able to watch?
Speaker 9: Not a ton?
Speaker 13: Like I said, I think I had it on one
Speaker 13: of the TVs and was catching it here and there.
Speaker 13: I'm never surprised if either to wins that game, but
Speaker 13: somehow Kirby smart just jan not so one. The one
Speaker 13: Alabama win, granted was for a national title, so you'll
Speaker 13: take that all day. But I wasn't sure how that
Speaker 13: dynamic would change with Saban retiring. It seems like Alabama
Speaker 13: still got their number.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, definitely, definitely. But you know what impressed me
Speaker 1: and I went back and watched it. I have to
Speaker 1: admit I gave up on it.
Speaker 9: Uh.
Speaker 1: You know there's always stories about games that end in
Speaker 1: incredible ways and people, Oh, I went to bed, I
Speaker 1: changed the channel, started watching another game, and uh, but
Speaker 1: I did go back and watch the entire second half
Speaker 1: just the other day, and what Georgia did Lindsey coming
Speaker 1: back And the reason I the reason I bring it
Speaker 1: up is because I think when Kentucky took Georgia to
Speaker 1: the wire, like I said, the story coming out was
Speaker 1: what's wrong with Georgia, and at halftime of that game,
Speaker 1: I know people were thinking, well, I guess Georgia is
Speaker 1: not the good Look what happened with Kentucky. Look what
Speaker 1: happened for the first half. But I think that second
Speaker 1: half by Georgia makes that Kentucky effort looked that much better.
Speaker 13: You know, I agree, I agree they I mean, I
Speaker 13: think they scored like nineteen points in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 13: They played great, and just the scoring at the end
Speaker 13: of the game. Yeah, I did catch the very end.
Speaker 13: We had it on actually in all the TVs down
Speaker 13: in the studio between breaks, like, oh my god, couldn't
Speaker 13: believe it. So I think that Georgia is a good
Speaker 13: football team, which makes Kentucky's effort against them, like you said,
Speaker 13: more impressive. I know that, you know, they almost lost
Speaker 13: to Kentucky, and they did lose to Alabama. But I
Speaker 13: think they're a good football team, and I think that
Speaker 13: does show what Kentucky was able to do.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, and some say should have beaten Georgia, but
Speaker 1: that's the debate for the ages. Yeah, but I will
Speaker 1: say this that, yeah, Georgia clearly put the ball in
Speaker 1: Carson Beck's hands in Lexington, and it worked. It was
Speaker 1: almost like the coaches said, you know, this guy's going
Speaker 1: to win and lose a game for us, and why not?
Speaker 1: And honestly, I sure, I firmly believe, and it's not fair.
Speaker 1: And if I had a vote, I wouldn't vote this way.
Speaker 1: But if they had come back and beaten Alabama, I
Speaker 1: think that would have won the Heisman for Beck or
Speaker 1: put it to you this way, it would have been
Speaker 1: his to lose. But after throwing that pick, he ain't
Speaker 1: gonna win it now. But he's still a really, really
Speaker 1: good quarterback.
Speaker 13: I agree, especially Vanderbilt hurt Milrose chances wide.
Speaker 1: I guess Travis Hunter may have moved it it. I
Speaker 1: don't know. It's a yeah, yeah, I've said it before.
Speaker 1: The if I had a vote, I would almost always
Speaker 1: look for Like when Anderson the linebacker for Alabama a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, I might have voted for him.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: You know people like that because it shouldn't just be
Speaker 1: the best stats. I'm a guy on the best team.
Speaker 1: A few minutes left with Lindsay Golf Weekend sports anchor WKYT.
Speaker 1: It was media day earlier today at Kentucky. Mark Pope
Speaker 1: not really introducing his first team because we've had a
Speaker 1: chance already to talk to all these guys thanks to
Speaker 1: some of the preseason workouts and the change in rules,
Speaker 1: but now they've had a chance to play together, work together.
Speaker 1: We got to see him last night on the pro
Speaker 1: DA telecast, and I agree lindsay that there probably isn't
Speaker 1: someone who you might classify as elite, but there are
Speaker 1: a lot of really good basketball players on this team.
Speaker 1: I think Pope has done a really great job of
Speaker 1: picking and choosing from the menu that is the Portal
Speaker 1: and putting together the kind of team he wants, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean.
Speaker 13: I agree. It's definitely not the Caliperi style of let's
Speaker 13: throw five future NBA players on the fourse. See what happened. Yes,
Speaker 13: but you know sometimes that didn't always work. So billing
Speaker 13: team to the style of offense and defense that you
Speaker 13: want to play, I think is a smart move in
Speaker 13: the portal era. And yeah he did. He took kids.
Speaker 13: People were worried, right like Martin Pok kind of took
Speaker 13: his time picking out some of these players. And it
Speaker 13: wasn't just like all right, let's grab the five form
Speaker 13: or five stars and throw throw an offer at him.
Speaker 13: And you know, see what happens. So he definitely has
Speaker 13: hands selected this team, and I'm excited to see how
Speaker 13: it comes together.
Speaker 1: He's got bigs, he's got a couple of really good
Speaker 1: point guards. Everybody can shoot. We're watching last night a
Speaker 1: six seven forward Ansley Almanar, who all he did was
Speaker 1: set a record at his old school for three pointers.
Speaker 1: What a matchup nightmare. He's going to be but young talent,
Speaker 1: veteran talent. So I think they're going to win more
Speaker 1: games than people believe. I think there are people who think, well,
Speaker 1: if he can just do this or that, I'll be happy.
Speaker 1: I think he's going to have the big Blue Nation
Speaker 1: thinking about a deep postseason run. I know I'm getting
Speaker 1: way ahead of myself, right, I think that February you
Speaker 1: could see that, I think so, you know, I.
Speaker 13: Think I've heard from a lot of people too that
Speaker 13: are kind of down, like they're like, oh, we're not
Speaker 13: going to be very good this year. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 13: know that that's the case. I think the portal has
Speaker 13: really opened.
Speaker 1: It up a lot.
Speaker 13: We've seen that with Kentucky, right, he used to dominate
Speaker 13: through the SEC slate and that just hasn't been the
Speaker 13: case the last few years because the portal's kind of
Speaker 13: even the playing field. I think they're gonna win games.
Speaker 13: I think they're going to be competitive. I think they
Speaker 13: make the postseason, and I think once you get to March,
Speaker 13: there's always a chance, right, I think there's always a chance.
Speaker 13: So I like this team and I'm excited to see
Speaker 13: them play some actual games from actual opponents. I know
Speaker 13: we've got Madness on Friday and then Blue White the
Speaker 13: following week. I'm excited to see these exhibitions and some
Speaker 13: of these early non conference games.
Speaker 1: Well, go back and look at last year's Big Twelve standings.
Speaker 1: Brigham Young was picked to finish at her near the bottom,
Speaker 1: but in fact finished ten and eight pulls them upsets,
Speaker 1: won twenty three games. I mean, you know he's had
Speaker 1: two other jobs, Mark Pope, and it's overachieved. It both
Speaker 1: you overachieved at Kentucky.
Speaker 9: This year.
Speaker 13: You're making a run, right right, Yeah, definitely, so.
Speaker 1: Big bou Nation you might be. And but here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Get your hopes up. And if you don't get to
Speaker 1: the final four, we all know what that means. But
Speaker 1: I do think maybe people are just bracing themselves and
Speaker 1: that's okay too. Lindsey Goff is the weekend sports anchor
Speaker 1: at WKYT. Tell everybody how to follow you on Twitter, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Twitter at.
Speaker 13: Lg on TV, and I have a Facebook page floating
Speaker 13: somewhere out there. I think it's Eldolf Sports.
Speaker 1: The best thing to do is just turn on KYT
Speaker 1: on the weekends and check out her work, and she
Speaker 1: pops exactly Monday through Friday as well. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: We will see you down the road.
Speaker 13: Yep. Thanks for having me and I'll do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks to my guests, Jack Gibbons, Lindsey Golf, thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. That's a good night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 11: Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention. I've
Speaker 11: just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story and
Speaker 11: I need all of you to stop what you're doing
Speaker 11: and listen.
Speaker 5: Shning Ball