Speaker 1: Oh, oh, guess what day it is?
Speaker 2: Guess what day it is?
Speaker 1: H anybody, It's hump Day.
Speaker 3: Yes, it is hump Day.
Speaker 4: Dick Gabriel with you on a Wednesday edition of The
Speaker 4: Big Blue Insider. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 4: And as we reach the midweek, there's all kinds of
Speaker 4: stuff to talk about, because of course, the portal never
Speaker 4: never fails.
Speaker 3: It always gives us something to talk about, doesn't it.
Speaker 4: And last night, late last night at the portal closed
Speaker 4: at midnight, and last night or sometime late yesterday, Travis
Speaker 4: Perry puts his name in the portal. Doesn't necessarily mean
Speaker 4: he's leaving, but for all practical purposes, if he wants
Speaker 4: to play, you know, appreciable minutes this coming year, then
Speaker 4: he'll find somewhere else to play. So we got that
Speaker 4: to talk about. The Wildcats lose one in terms of
Speaker 4: football to Vanderbilt.
Speaker 3: We'll talk about that as well.
Speaker 4: Arkansas apparently is losing a quarterback or maybe not.
Speaker 3: They're gonna fight it.
Speaker 4: That story popped up yesterday as well, and Lane Kiffin
Speaker 4: takes a cheap shot at Carson Beck. Lots and lots
Speaker 4: of portal news, which kind of shoves the Kentucky baseball
Speaker 4: win over Louisville last night.
Speaker 3: To our second segment.
Speaker 4: It was a really, really unexpected kind of game after
Speaker 4: those two teams played and again it was bitterly cold.
Speaker 4: Two weeks ago over in Louisville played a heck of
Speaker 4: a ball game. It went ten innings and Louisville won
Speaker 4: at four to three. Kentucky scored a run on the
Speaker 4: top of the ten, Louisville put up two and came
Speaker 4: away with the walk off win. Well, last night, Kentucky
Speaker 4: jumped on the Cardinals early and just kept piling up runs.
Speaker 4: I got to tell you, with all due respect because
Speaker 4: Dan McDonald knows what he's doing the head coach at Louisville,
Speaker 4: especially when it comes to pitching, but that was the
Speaker 4: worst pitching I've ever seen from a Louisville ball club
Speaker 4: in that game.
Speaker 3: And I've seen just about all of them through the years.
Speaker 3: They and we knew going in.
Speaker 4: We were told by somebody who covered the team that man,
Speaker 4: these kids can hit, they can score runs, but they've
Speaker 4: got some real issues when it comes to pitching. They're
Speaker 4: still in the running in the ACC, but they've got problems,
Speaker 4: especially midweek. So Kentucky took full advantage. We'll talk about
Speaker 4: that coming up. We'll also talk about that with Aaron
Speaker 4: Gershan of the Cat's Pauls, who was covering the game
Speaker 4: last night. But we need to talk about, of course,
Speaker 4: Travis Perry jumping into the portal. We'll talk with Aaron
Speaker 4: about that. Perry, it's a bit of a surprise because
Speaker 4: by all accounts he was coming back. Most of us
Speaker 4: thought he was coming back, and he had not indicated
Speaker 4: any interest in entering the portal. In fact, people talk
Speaker 4: to him right after the NCA tournament was over, but
Speaker 4: he jumped in just ahead of Tuesday's deadline eleven fifty
Speaker 4: eleven fifty nine pm last night. Second scholarship player to
Speaker 4: hit the portal, as you know, kerk Crisa was the other,
Speaker 4: and then the two walk Ons, Grant Derbyshire and Walker
Speaker 4: Horn also in the portal. So now Kentucky with twelve
Speaker 4: Skalie players for next year. Waiting to hear from Otega Olway,
Speaker 4: who's going through the NBA draft process, he'll make his decision.
Speaker 4: He has to by June fifteenth in order to withdraw
Speaker 4: in order to maintain his eligibility. Perry played in thirty
Speaker 4: one game, started four as a freshman. Of course, Lamont
Speaker 4: Butler's injury gave him more opportunity to play. Averaged two
Speaker 4: point seven points, only hit thirty one point three percent
Speaker 4: from the floor thirty two percent from three point range.
Speaker 4: Had his best games, ironically enough, in losses to Alabama.
Speaker 4: He scored twelve points at four steals in a loss
Speaker 4: at Alabama February twenty second, played really well, and then
Speaker 4: in the loss to the Crimson Tide in the SEC Tournament,
Speaker 4: the blowout, he scored eleven points. Perry hit at least
Speaker 4: one triple in thirteen of UK's final twenty one games.
Speaker 4: But of course Mark Pope and staff bring in Jalon Lowe,
Speaker 4: the kid from Pittsburgh. Denzel Aberdeen comes in. Maybe that
Speaker 4: was the last straw. Who knows you knew Jasper Johnson
Speaker 4: was coming. He's a combo guard. Travis Perry is considered
Speaker 4: a point guard, and that's primarily what he played for Kentucky.
Speaker 4: I never really thought of him as a point guard
Speaker 4: simply because and I know that's the position he played
Speaker 4: and that was his assignment for Kentucky. But watching him
Speaker 4: in the sweet sixteen, of course as the guy who
Speaker 4: broke King Kelly Coleman's record. He was the facilitator as
Speaker 4: well as the scorer for Lion County.
Speaker 3: He handled the ball a lot and he looked to.
Speaker 4: Get his teammates involved, but they needed him to score
Speaker 4: and he did. That's why he was the most viable
Speaker 4: player in the Sweet sixteen, leading the Lions to their
Speaker 4: first and only state champion and ship a couple of
Speaker 4: years back, five thy four hundred and eighty one points.
Speaker 4: Also the career leader in field goals made with nineteen
Speaker 4: hundred and eighteen free throws nine hundred and thirty three.
Speaker 4: He holds the record for mad three pointers seven hundred
Speaker 4: and twelve and steals at six hundred and fifty and
Speaker 4: coming out two four seven Sports rated him the number
Speaker 4: eighty eight overall prospect in the country in the twenty
Speaker 4: twenty four class and the number seven point guard. But again,
Speaker 4: I never really thought of him as a point guard,
Speaker 4: although given his size, that's essentially what he probably needed
Speaker 4: to play in college, and he wasn't going to be
Speaker 4: needed to score that much for Kentucky. Now where's he
Speaker 4: gonna end up? Well, who else recruited him? Western Kentucky,
Speaker 4: Ole Miss Cincinnati. You know, can he play in those
Speaker 4: places depends on who they have, who's coming through the
Speaker 4: portal to them.
Speaker 3: Who's leaving through the portal. So kind of a surprise
Speaker 3: to the Big Moon Nation.
Speaker 4: I think people are a little disappointed, but surprised only
Speaker 4: by the timing. If you looked at the roster, you
Speaker 4: had to wonder when and if this kid's ever going
Speaker 4: to get a chance to play. That's just the nature
Speaker 4: of the portal right now. So best of luck to
Speaker 4: Travis Perry. Wildcat football program missed out Jalen Sloan, who
Speaker 4: visited UK, chose Vanderbilt. He's a Southeast Missouri defensive lineman
Speaker 4: and it, from what I understand, look good for the
Speaker 4: Wildcats until the lake going.
Speaker 3: And he's going to Vandy.
Speaker 4: He tweeted an image of himself in Vandy Cullers and
Speaker 4: all I said is committed six two, two eighty eight
Speaker 4: three star recruits from a Georgia played thirteen games over
Speaker 4: the last couple of years with Southeast Missouri and didn't
Speaker 4: have great numbers, but he is the second lineman to
Speaker 4: choose Vanderbilt. Vandy's getting done in the portal. Apparently, Clinton
Speaker 4: as a bookie or might he might pronounce it as
Speaker 4: a week A is an old lineman from northern Arizona,
Speaker 4: the Lumberjacks, and he announced he was going to Vandy.
Speaker 4: That was not a kid that Kentucky was looking at,
Speaker 4: but Jalen Sloan was somebody the Wildcats coveted, but instead
Speaker 4: going to Vanderbilt. Hey, you win some into portal and
Speaker 4: you lose some. To me, the biggest portal story today,
Speaker 4: well there's two of them. Number one, Lane Kiffin sniping
Speaker 4: at Carson Beck.
Speaker 3: I mean it's Lane being Lane, right.
Speaker 4: Carson Beck transfers to Miami, hurt his arm in the
Speaker 4: championship game and has to go and get his arm repaired.
Speaker 4: He rehabs, and then he jumps into portal and signs
Speaker 4: with Miami after his season ended in the SEC title game.
Speaker 4: But apparently he has rehabilitated well enough for him to
Speaker 4: be handed an NIL deal worth more than four million.
Speaker 4: Lane Kiffin was on a podcast called The Pivot with
Speaker 4: some former NFL players Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder, and Fred Taylor,
Speaker 4: and one of the hosts brought up the fact that
Speaker 4: college kids are making an insane amount of money.
Speaker 3: Right now compared to what the NFL guys make.
Speaker 5: So, like you bring up the comparison to what they're doing,
Speaker 5: they're really getting NFL much. It's crazy, coach that you
Speaker 5: bring up the NFL structure with college now, because they're
Speaker 5: in the contract, they're making money. They're making millions a dollar.
Speaker 5: I think down in Miami, what's a Carson Beck four
Speaker 5: point three four points value union? He I think my
Speaker 5: biggest year was six. He's a college kid. So, like
Speaker 5: you bring up the comparison to what they're doing, they're
Speaker 5: really getting NFL money.
Speaker 6: Mimi even four point three million dollars, that's what the
Speaker 6: evaluation says. Hey, did they watch this game against Oh,
Speaker 6: don't have to be great, Jane trying.
Speaker 3: Not to go.
Speaker 4: That's Lane Kiffin appearing on the podcast The Pivot, and
Speaker 4: you could probably maybe hear him in the background saying, oh,
Speaker 4: you set me up or something like that.
Speaker 3: But he was still laughing about it.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 4: To his point, Beck did not play well against Ole Miss.
Speaker 3: Which beat Georgia last year.
Speaker 4: Beck was twenty for thirty one for one hundred and
Speaker 4: eighty six yards and one interception. Now, Carson Beck played
Speaker 4: well in the second half against Kentucky, but it was
Speaker 4: interesting how Kentucky stayed close to the Bulldogs until halftime,
Speaker 4: when it was apparent that the Georgia brain trust got
Speaker 4: together her and said, look, we need Carson Beck to
Speaker 4: win this game for us. And he ended up having
Speaker 4: a really good second half and the Bulldogs pulled away.
Speaker 3: But for the.
Speaker 4: Season, Beck threw for more than thirty four or nearly
Speaker 4: thirty five hundred yards, twenty eight touchdowns, twelve picks, sixty
Speaker 4: four point seven percent pass completion rate. But evidently Lane
Speaker 4: Kiffin isn't all that impressed with him. He did say,
Speaker 4: I don't get mad at the kids. It's not their fault.
Speaker 4: The system is they can go get it. It's free
Speaker 4: market with no cap and in some areas unlimited boosters.
Speaker 4: Apparently Beck's deal is only second to arch Manning's in value.
Speaker 4: Apparently arch Manning, who is now I guess the starting
Speaker 4: quarterback of Texas six point six million. The other story
Speaker 4: is what's happening at Arkans. The Razorbacks apparently lose a quarterback,
Speaker 4: Madden Iamaieva, the brother of Nico. He is in the
Speaker 4: portal and heading apparently for Southern cal I'm sorry for
Speaker 4: Ucla to play with his brother, but Hunter Yurachek, the
Speaker 4: guy the ad who hired John Calipari, has stepped in and,
Speaker 4: as one reporter put it, rattled his saber. He has said,
Speaker 4: I've spoken with the leadership at Arkansas EDGE that's a
Speaker 4: collective at Arkansas, and expressed my support in their pursuit
Speaker 4: to enforce their rights under any agreement violated by our
Speaker 4: student athletes. Moving forward, we appreciate EDGE his investment in
Speaker 4: our student athletes and acknowledge the enforcement of these agreements
Speaker 4: is vital in our new world of college athletics. In
Speaker 4: other words, you can't take the money and run, or
Speaker 4: at least if you do, there are going to be
Speaker 4: consequences because it says here a lot of kids have
Speaker 4: ignored buyout language.
Speaker 3: And now this may be tested legally. I won't say
Speaker 3: in court, but legally.
Speaker 4: So these are going to be really interesting times when
Speaker 4: it comes to nil contracts.
Speaker 3: How legal are they? Not?
Speaker 4: Long after Nico transferred to UCLA, Madden told the coaches
Speaker 4: he's homesick, wants to go back to southern California.
Speaker 3: But the rub is.
Speaker 4: He never played a game for the Razorbacks. He had
Speaker 4: originally committed to UCLA flipped to Arkansas agreed to a
Speaker 4: one year deal with Arkansas Edge, and now he wants
Speaker 4: to go to UCLA, which originally, as we said, had
Speaker 4: signed him, or at least he committed to UCLA.
Speaker 3: This is going to be interesting, all right.
Speaker 4: When we come back with talk Kentucky baseball a little
Speaker 4: bit later on, Aaron Gershon of the cats Balls will
Speaker 4: chat with us, as will Shawn was the unforgettable Guard
Speaker 4: and our Weston Bureau chief Gary Moore here on six
Speaker 4: thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue Cider. Coming
Speaker 4: up at the bottom of the hour. Aaron Gershan of
Speaker 4: the cats Balls. We'll talk about the Travis Perry decision
Speaker 4: to end of the portal and some doings with UK
Speaker 4: football as it relates.
Speaker 3: To the portal.
Speaker 4: Plus he covered Kentucky baseball last night. Our number two
Speaker 4: Weston Bureau chief, Gary Moore, will join us.
Speaker 3: Also Sean Woods.
Speaker 4: We talked to Sean every Wednesday, but this will be
Speaker 4: our first conversation since he was named the head basketball
Speaker 4: coach at Scott County High School. So Scott County, which
Speaker 4: went six and twenty one last year, making the change,
Speaker 4: and we're going to see if Seawn can work kind
Speaker 4: of the same magic that he worked at Mississippi Valley State,
Speaker 4: a team that he coached to a conference and conference
Speaker 4: tournament championship into the NCAA Tournament. When Shawn began to
Speaker 4: really make a name for himself, you might recall he
Speaker 4: was an morehead state. Things were going well and then
Speaker 4: there was some sort of misunderstanding with one of his
Speaker 4: players who made an accusation about Sean. Long story short,
Speaker 4: it was a big misunderstanding, and as it was explained
Speaker 4: to me, this was a young man who was prone
Speaker 4: to get down on himself, and after a mistake prior
Speaker 4: to halftime, he was hanging his head in the locker
Speaker 4: room and Sean kind of popped him on the shoulder
Speaker 4: and said, hey, man, get your head up, We're good.
Speaker 3: And later on the.
Speaker 4: Kids said to his father, hey, the coach hit me,
Speaker 4: and the dad made a huge deal out of it,
Speaker 4: and then the young man wanted to recant and just
Speaker 4: make it all go away, but it was too late.
Speaker 4: By then the school had made a bigger deal out
Speaker 4: of it. Frankly, as I understand it.
Speaker 3: Then it should have. So since then, Shawn's been looking
Speaker 3: for a new gig.
Speaker 4: He's been doing this and that, but wanted to get
Speaker 4: back into coaching and was coaching right along. When he
Speaker 4: was on TV with Glacott dot Com the teams in
Speaker 4: the eleven region and had a chance to chat with
Speaker 4: him about high school basketball leading up to the Sweet sixteen,
Speaker 4: and at one point he indicated that he was maybe
Speaker 4: interested in coaching at the high school level because he
Speaker 4: got excited about it again. So we'll talk to him
Speaker 4: about all of that coming up in our number two
Speaker 4: baseball Wildcats last night got their revenge and then some.
Speaker 4: They lost to Louisville four to three and ten innings
Speaker 4: two weeks ago. Last night it was seventeen to five.
Speaker 4: The big blow that opened the gates. Patrick Herrera crushed the.
Speaker 3: Ball to center field.
Speaker 4: And I had just been talking to Doug Flynn, my
Speaker 4: broadcast partner on SEC plus, about the sun, and Doug
Speaker 4: always brings that up as a Gold Glove winner, how
Speaker 4: difficult the sun can be both on hitters and defenders.
Speaker 4: And we could see with the shadows covering the infield,
Speaker 4: outfielders were still shading their eyes from the sun that
Speaker 4: was right behind the stadium and the Louisville the centerfielder
Speaker 4: simply lost the ball in the sun never had a chance,
Speaker 4: and that was a screamer that Herrera hit and it
Speaker 4: rolled all the way to the wall. It bases loaded,
Speaker 4: cleared the bases. Herrera ends up with a triple. He
Speaker 4: later had a home run that was an unbelievable massive
Speaker 4: shot that was about six to ten feet past to
Speaker 4: the right of the fair file pole. So he had
Speaker 4: a huge game. And we talked to Patrick after the
Speaker 4: game on SEC Plus.
Speaker 3: And when you squared up the ball they went for
Speaker 3: a triple, you knew you had crushed it, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, I hit it and I was like, dang,
Speaker 2: I think I got all that. I don't know why
Speaker 2: he's running in and you know at our field the
Speaker 2: sun is right. Yeah, filled his eyes so kind of
Speaker 2: lucked out, hit it hard, couldn't ask for anything more,
Speaker 2: and then got by him. So he I was happy
Speaker 2: with that swing and happy I could get the rbs
Speaker 2: right there.
Speaker 3: And you had to be happy with the swing on
Speaker 3: the home run. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that one a little more so, probably than the triple.
Speaker 2: I don't mind that one at all. But yeah, got
Speaker 2: a pitch in a good count and uh just got
Speaker 2: my swing off. I told myself before I swung like if.
Speaker 3: I miss miss early.
Speaker 1: So that was that was a good swing, Patrick, over
Speaker 1: the last week or so. You gotta like where your
Speaker 1: team is right now. You guys are playing good ball.
Speaker 1: The pitching has really come around, and every opportunity you
Speaker 1: get to knock in some runs, you guys have been
Speaker 1: stepping up getting some big hits.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, We've started a new thing where we
Speaker 2: just want to hop on the quab train. You know,
Speaker 2: we don't need a bunch of home runs or doubles.
Speaker 2: We just want to get a bunch of quabs one
Speaker 2: after another. So we found a way to do that
Speaker 2: this past weekend tonight. So yeah, it's been good for us.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: You eased up there at first base on that one
Speaker 1: hit you okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll be good, ready to go for the weekend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we figured that, We figured that, all right.
Speaker 8: You played well in Northwestern You have been an important
Speaker 8: part of Kentucky baseball. What's it like for you now
Speaker 8: as a leader for this team. You got a lot
Speaker 8: of new faces this year, helping the young.
Speaker 3: Guys come along.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. You know I've I've lucked out over
Speaker 2: the years. I've had guys like writer Childs who I
Speaker 2: lived with.
Speaker 3: He's now one of our coaches.
Speaker 2: Grant Smith, Amelian Pedre, Mitch Dailey just like showing me
Speaker 2: how you're supposed to go about your business. So I've
Speaker 2: just learned from them and use that this year, and
Speaker 2: I'm just really blessed to be in the position i
Speaker 2: am this year.
Speaker 1: For Hey, you got to be really proud though, buddy,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what you paid your dues. You worked
Speaker 1: at it, you kept getting yourself better, and now it's
Speaker 1: paying off.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, I'm glad the hard work's paying office here.
Speaker 2: And you know, we've been playing well, so we just
Speaker 2: got to keep it up.
Speaker 4: That's Patrick Herrera and his last year with the program.
Speaker 4: He transferred in from Northwestern. He was all Big ten,
Speaker 4: but was a utility player last year infield or outfielder
Speaker 4: for the team that went to Omar. He locked down
Speaker 4: the third base job and except for some games where
Speaker 4: he was the DH because he.
Speaker 3: Was a little bit injured. He hit an arm injury.
Speaker 4: He's back now excellent defender and had a great night
Speaker 4: against Louisville last night. So the Wildcats heading into the
Speaker 4: weekend with a series against the South Carolina game Cocks
Speaker 4: who have been struggling this year. Big opportunity for the
Speaker 4: Wildcats to rack up some more wins and get themselves
Speaker 4: in a position for postseason, to take the decision making
Speaker 4: away as much as they can from the committee members,
Speaker 4: make sure they're locked in and rack up as many
Speaker 4: victories now as they can. The schedule lets up just
Speaker 4: slightly the Cats with a home series this weekend against
Speaker 4: South Carolina.
Speaker 3: You'll hear all those games right here, and you'll see
Speaker 3: him on SEC Plus.
Speaker 4: Up next, Aaron gershan of the Catch Balls here on
Speaker 4: six point thirty WLAP Welcome back to.
Speaker 3: The Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 4: Joining us now as he does every week, is Aaron
Speaker 4: Gershaan of the Catch Bass.
Speaker 3: We try to give Aaron some time off.
Speaker 4: He joins us on the State Wide show on Monday
Speaker 4: through the seasons. But Aaron, there's too much going on man, Baseball, football, basketball.
Speaker 4: Let us start with Travis Perry's announcement. Should we be
Speaker 4: surprised by that, because by all accounts he was coming back.
Speaker 4: Does this represent a change of mind for him?
Speaker 3: Or did we just assume too much?
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 7: Probably, It's probably a combination of bolts. Honestly, I mean
Speaker 7: the fact that came down to the eleventh hour quite literally,
Speaker 7: with a portal closing at midnight last night. You're seeing
Speaker 7: some you know, announcements today. That's just the paperwork being
Speaker 7: filed and trickling in. But you know, clearly he put
Speaker 7: as much thought as he possibly could into this decision.
Speaker 7: And you know, I don't think we as the media
Speaker 7: read too much into it because he was the only
Speaker 7: guy after the Loston Tennessee that was asked if he
Speaker 7: was coming back in point blank answered with yes. So
Speaker 7: I mean, it's hard to not take a kid at
Speaker 7: his word. But when you see what Kentucky did in
Speaker 7: the transfer portal right this offseason, kind of loading up
Speaker 7: at his position and clearly recruiting over him, and you
Speaker 7: know they were at thirteen scholarship players, it just it
Speaker 7: just made sense for Travis, I think. And there just
Speaker 7: wasn't the playing spot. I think Mark Polpe like to
Speaker 7: play eleven guys. Probably the two odd men out with
Speaker 7: the thirteen they originally had would have been I would
Speaker 7: say Malachi right now and Travis Perry. So, uh, it's
Speaker 7: a frustrating thing. I'm sure for Travis this is probably
Speaker 7: oh I know for a fact, this is Rome School. Yeah,
Speaker 7: it made sense.
Speaker 3: Wait a minute, now, you think that did. Malachi won't
Speaker 3: get much run this coming.
Speaker 7: Season, not as a true freshman. I just don't think.
Speaker 7: So you have Jaq Clayton, you are, you have Jay
Speaker 7: and Clayton's Jake Hughes his nickname. If he's that healthy.
Speaker 7: You know, maybe early on in the season you see
Speaker 7: Maliki in some of those non conference games, but he's
Speaker 7: going to demand a lot of playing time, probably gonna
Speaker 7: be your starting center. And then they they learned Brandon
Speaker 7: Garrison that so I think if they were gonna if
Speaker 7: they were planning on playing MALICEI heavy minutes, I don't
Speaker 7: know if you go all out to lear Brandon Garrison back, well.
Speaker 4: You know Moreno is like I'm sure, and I've seen
Speaker 4: him play a lot a lot of bigs.
Speaker 3: It just takes longer for them to develop at the
Speaker 3: college level. He is a much better player now than
Speaker 3: he was last year when he led great crossing to
Speaker 3: this through the sweet sixteen.
Speaker 4: So, but getting back to Travis Perry, you know, I'm
Speaker 4: sure a lot of schools will love to have a
Speaker 4: kid who can shoot like that.
Speaker 3: I was saying earlier in the show.
Speaker 4: Aaron that when I saw him in high school, he
Speaker 4: did everything, brought the ball up the floor, facilitated and scored.
Speaker 4: And I know he played point guard at Kentucky. He's
Speaker 4: listed as a point guard. I just think of him
Speaker 4: more as a two, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I definitely see him as a two as well.
Speaker 7: And I just think that last year he had to
Speaker 7: play the one at Sea. They were up against it,
Speaker 7: and they definitely played him at a position. The problem is, yes,
Speaker 7: he's a two, but he's also only six to one
Speaker 7: and eighty pounds, right, so in the SEC with the
Speaker 7: way it was last year, really hard to cut him
Speaker 7: at the two. Then they had to play him at
Speaker 7: the one at a necessity. I'm sure even before his
Speaker 7: decision to transfer, he'd been working on adding some weight,
Speaker 7: but at this point maybe he could grow. He's only eighteen,
Speaker 7: but you know, you're only six to one and and
Speaker 7: as a physical as a league, it's really tough. So
Speaker 7: but this was also I'm just throwing this out there.
Speaker 7: I know, SOORC or scoop on this, but we're in
Speaker 7: a time right where crazy things happen. Who's to say
Speaker 7: Travis doesn't go put on some good weight play really
Speaker 7: well somewhere else and maybe it's at Western I don't know,
Speaker 7: and comes back here one day. That is literally kind
Speaker 7: of how how the way the world is right now.
Speaker 7: And I just think probably at the end of the day,
Speaker 7: this is the best objectively for him, I think it's
Speaker 7: the best decision if he is going to go transfer
Speaker 7: where he can get somewhere to play. And for Kentucky,
Speaker 7: you know, not to nothing against Travis, but it's just
Speaker 7: it's not a big deal at all because they have
Speaker 7: so much depth. They had already eleven or twelve guys
Speaker 7: whim to be playing over him. It opens up another scholarship.
Speaker 7: Maybe they had another piece they feel can help. It's
Speaker 7: kind of loaded. Maybe they go and get you know,
Speaker 7: there's the freshman Brandon Hawthorne or incoming freshman who is
Speaker 7: kind of a mid to high four star late bloomer
Speaker 7: out of West Virginia, z committed when they had the
Speaker 7: coaching change there. Maybe they maybe they pursued, they had
Speaker 7: to visit with him. Maybe they kick the tires and
Speaker 7: go even heavier on him. It opens up another spot
Speaker 7: and another chance to be creative from our poping company.
Speaker 7: So I think at the end of the At the
Speaker 7: end of the day, it's going to be a win
Speaker 7: win for everyone.
Speaker 3: You know, they did such a great job. We've talked
Speaker 3: about that.
Speaker 4: Everybody has putting this team together that that played this
Speaker 4: past year, and they were guys who just had so
Speaker 4: much appreciation for being at Kentucky. Kobe Braham might have
Speaker 4: been the best example of a guy was told early on,
Speaker 4: you know, you're not good enough to play at Kentucky,
Speaker 4: and I was always in the back of his mind,
Speaker 4: and then by the time he got here, he was
Speaker 4: so appreciative. Andrew Carr sim a lot of these guys.
Speaker 4: You gotta wonder, now, Aaron, the cynic in me wonders
Speaker 4: are they going to be able to keep finding guys
Speaker 4: like that in this day and age of big bucks
Speaker 4: in the portal. I need playing time now, you know. Hey,
Speaker 4: you know, hey, come be a part of Kentucky basketball.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what's it worse to me that kind of stuff?
Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
Speaker 7: Yeah? I completely agree. It's really hard. There's some really
Speaker 7: good players that they pursued very hard out of the
Speaker 7: transfer portal and they went other directions. Kentucky got outdid
Speaker 7: you know, talking about Donovan Dent to point Grup from Mexico,
Speaker 7: and then Lamar Wilkerson was kind of the big one.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 7: About a week ago today, right where he chooses Indiana,
Speaker 7: goes on the field of sixty eight because he doesn't
Speaker 7: want to go to Kentucky and just be another guy.
Speaker 7: And what he meant by that is Kentucky had a
Speaker 7: full roster at that point, Indiana had four players. He
Speaker 7: can go to Indiana, get all the shots he wants
Speaker 7: and get paid, you know, the higher amount. So they're
Speaker 7: simply gonna be guys with those trains of thought. But
Speaker 7: I do still think there's a place for God, you know,
Speaker 7: with Andrew car Kobe Brea, the Kentucky kids and Trenton
Speaker 7: Travis's state of mind as well. And you just look
Speaker 7: at some two of the guys they added through the
Speaker 7: portal this year, Jade and Quaintance, and yeah, he's getting
Speaker 7: paid handsomely, you know, top center in the transfer portal
Speaker 7: and a guy who's probably gonna be a first round
Speaker 7: pick in next year's NBA draft. But he's a guy
Speaker 7: that was committed to Kentucky out of high school. He
Speaker 7: was a guy to play for John cal Ferry. From
Speaker 7: everything I had heard around this time last year he
Speaker 7: was very interested in keeping his commitment, and it was
Speaker 7: more so Mark Pope and the staff wanting to just
Speaker 7: kind of start fresh and kind of remove remove themselves
Speaker 7: from the Caliperry era, get a fresh start going. And
Speaker 7: now that he gets back in the portal, like, he's
Speaker 7: getting recruited heavily by Auburn who's coming off a trip
Speaker 7: to the Final four, and you know, those are kind
Speaker 7: of the two schools zooking it out.
Speaker 9: And I heard.
Speaker 7: The money was pretty much the same, and he picked
Speaker 7: Kentucky because he loved it here when he first committed
Speaker 7: and he's always wanted to play here, so you know
Speaker 7: that still exists. And then with Denzel Aberdeen the transfer
Speaker 7: from Florida, Jacob Poulichek, who wrote a great story about
Speaker 7: it in an interview with his dad, where basically Denzel
Speaker 7: didn't want to necessarily leave Florida, but Kentucky was his
Speaker 7: green school growing up, and when the opportunity came up,
Speaker 7: he couldn't pass it down. So there is still some
Speaker 7: of that out there, but definitely it's definitely when there's
Speaker 7: crazy dollars being torn around and playing time is you know,
Speaker 7: there's only so many spots on so many teams. You know,
Speaker 7: it's harder to find those kids, but they're still out there.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 4: Speaking of the Portal, Boogie Flan leaving Arkansas for the
Speaker 4: Portal but also intends to remain in the NBA draft
Speaker 4: after that June fifteenth deadline, So I mean, why in
Speaker 4: the world even bothered to enter the portal, but period
Speaker 4: I did?
Speaker 3: Did he expect him to be a first rounder?
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 7: I mean, look, it is interesting though, I think it
Speaker 7: probably is just an insurance policy got from He doesn't
Speaker 7: get the feedback that he was expecting or what cal
Speaker 7: Perry's clearly hinting out expecting there. I mean, he did
Speaker 7: miss almost the whole SEC slate with a wrist injury.
Speaker 7: He came back clearly wasn't quite one hundred percent during
Speaker 7: the NCAA tournament, So I don't know how scouts are
Speaker 7: viewing him. I don't know what his medicals are showing.
Speaker 7: And even when he played, I mean he played pretty well.
Speaker 7: It wasn't like, uh, he was lighting it up and
Speaker 7: looked like a surefire lottery are Yet I think he
Speaker 7: has that ceiling. So with that, Arkansas's current roster construction.
Speaker 7: They have various sakhoff of Miss Donald's all American point
Speaker 7: guards coming in. DJ Wagner's coming back for his junior year. Uh,
Speaker 7: there's not really a spot for Boogie Flann there at all.
Speaker 7: So if your boogie flanned, if you do end up
Speaker 7: having to go back to college, makes sense to open
Speaker 7: up your options because Arkansas has moved on, and as
Speaker 7: they should have, they had to, They had to prepare
Speaker 7: for that. All all indications were this time last year
Speaker 7: Boogie was going to be a one and done lottery pick,
Speaker 7: and you know, he stills a chance to be.
Speaker 9: A first rounder entered the draft, so uh.
Speaker 7: You know, you got to keep the keep the options open.
Speaker 7: And really that's what you're going to see, or that's
Speaker 7: what you see with a lot of these guys you
Speaker 7: know who have their names in the NBA Draft. I
Speaker 7: mean there was a kid from UiB that Yachtall Lendenberg
Speaker 7: that Kentucky went at pretty hard and then kind of
Speaker 7: pulled off of uh.
Speaker 9: That ended up in Michigan.
Speaker 7: I mean, he's going to make uh Dusty May and
Speaker 7: that's statsweat up until that May twenty eighth deadline. Jaron
Speaker 7: Pierre and Jacksonville State, and you know, Kentucky was kind
Speaker 7: of in the same boat waiting on Jackson Robinson this
Speaker 7: time last year. So you know, we'll see what Boogy
Speaker 7: ends up doing. But it makes sense open your options.
Speaker 3: Well and more.
Speaker 4: With Aaron gershan of the cash Balls, he after a
Speaker 4: break here on six thirty w l a F welcome back.
Speaker 4: We're talking and Aaron Gershawan he covers the Cats for
Speaker 4: the Cat's Boss football, baseball, basketball, he does it all.
Speaker 4: We were talking about the portal with regard to basketball
Speaker 4: the football Cats.
Speaker 3: One got away.
Speaker 4: Jalen Stone, who was a d lineman at Southeast Missouri
Speaker 4: State at the FCS Level one double A, decided at
Speaker 4: the last minute to go to Vanderbilt and from from
Speaker 4: everything I'd heard, Kentucky thought they were in pretty good
Speaker 4: shape with him.
Speaker 3: Six two eighty eight was.
Speaker 4: A three star coming out of high school, but has
Speaker 4: obviously improved and now he's going to be a common
Speaker 4: or how surprised should we be about this.
Speaker 7: In the portal era? Nothing surprisingly, It takes one good
Speaker 7: offer and that you could not be on the radar
Speaker 7: to landing a commitment. Yeah, that's kind of what seems
Speaker 7: to have happened here with Stone. I know he had
Speaker 7: an Oklahoma visit earlier this week and he got through
Speaker 7: it without committing. And he's supposed to be at Kentucky
Speaker 7: Friday thor Sunday, So Kentucky probably felt pretty good internally
Speaker 7: that he got out of Norman without you know, choosing them.
Speaker 7: But you know, Vandy step stuff and gets their guys.
Speaker 7: So that's just that's the nature of the Beast nowadays.
Speaker 7: Not too surprising, And to be honest with you, I
Speaker 7: was already not with him in particular. And I know
Speaker 7: you can never have enough D line depth, but you know,
Speaker 7: Kentucky as things currently, Sam will only have two or
Speaker 7: three more.
Speaker 9: Spots scholarship wise available.
Speaker 7: I feel like that's a position they're better off. And
Speaker 7: then maybe inside linebacker where they really really need to
Speaker 7: get somebody. I don't know if they're going to, but man,
Speaker 7: are they sinning there or even quarterback. I mean, if
Speaker 7: you have an injury there, you're talking about getting really
Speaker 7: sinned inexperience. So you know, maybe it's a blessing in
Speaker 7: disguise where you can go and use that scholarship for
Speaker 7: something maybe of greater need. But yes, you know they've
Speaker 7: clearly had a visit set up and probably bummed to
Speaker 7: lose him through to an SEC rival there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the other thing.
Speaker 4: Not only do they lose him, but they got to
Speaker 4: play against him, right And people know Vandy beat Kentucky
Speaker 4: last year, and don't forget Vandy finished the year by
Speaker 4: winning a bowl game for the first time in change years.
Speaker 7: And they've won two it a three against Kentucky going
Speaker 7: back to twenty two. So yes, unfortunately for Kentucky, the
Speaker 7: momentum is shifted in that series. And you know that
Speaker 7: was you know, the rous stone. But also you know
Speaker 7: for Kentucky, Vanderbilt recruiting had to head Shaziah Pee that
Speaker 7: was down to Vandy in Kentucky it sounded like and
Speaker 7: Kentucky very badly needed that left tackle. So yeah, it
Speaker 7: is what it is that's important to give this take
Speaker 7: a type deal.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm want to jump back to basketball for just
Speaker 4: a minute. What is Denzel Aberdeen give Mark Pope? Because
Speaker 4: I thought that was a really interesting movie. Goes from
Speaker 4: a national championship team to within the conference to basically
Speaker 4: an arch rival.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's fascinating how that all happened. But I think
Speaker 7: he just gives them one. He sits just such a
Speaker 7: position of need, which or if they have a second
Speaker 7: like experience ball handler, not that you know Tom Chandler
Speaker 7: is the capable of handling the ball. Shore Shaff Johnson
Speaker 7: capable of handling the ball. Sure, but you know those
Speaker 7: guys Chandler doesn't as to do it all that much.
Speaker 7: Last year, Jasper is going to be a true freshman.
Speaker 7: You know, you had to add another one to help
Speaker 7: Jalen Lowe out there.
Speaker 9: And you know Aberdeen.
Speaker 7: Does that, and you know he could play off the ball,
Speaker 7: and he's really really good in catch and shoot situation.
Speaker 7: He's not a great shooter off the drive or off
Speaker 7: the dribble, but he's great in catch and shoot situation.
Speaker 7: So he just gives you a versatile weapon in that backcourt,
Speaker 7: and he gives you a winner. I mean, he won
Speaker 7: a high school state championship in the seven A level
Speaker 7: down in Florida as a prep kid out of Orlando. Obviously,
Speaker 7: just won the NCAA Tournament at Florida, won the SCC
Speaker 7: tournament at Florida. It's helped Florida get to the He
Speaker 7: had his breakout game actually was as a sophomore last
Speaker 7: season when Florida was a sixth seed in the SEC tournament.
Speaker 7: They gets to the semifinals and he dropped twenty seemingly
Speaker 7: out of nowhere on Texas A and M to get
Speaker 7: pored in the title game there. So you know, he's
Speaker 7: a guy who has tons of tons and tons of
Speaker 7: postseason experience and has excelled in those moments. And I
Speaker 7: guess another guy is going to be fearless. You know,
Speaker 7: great length at six to five in the backboard so
Speaker 7: fits everything. Kentucky was looking for experience, proven winner, good
Speaker 7: shooter and got some really good length A few.
Speaker 4: Minutes left with Aaron Gershan as a cast balls. Let
Speaker 4: me shift to the baseball. You covered last night's Louisville game.
Speaker 4: None of us expected that kind of outcome given the
Speaker 4: way these teams played two weeks ago, but that was
Speaker 4: in the freezing cold.
Speaker 3: This was a perfect night for baseball.
Speaker 4: But you've been able to cover more baseball since basketball ended,
Speaker 4: just in time to watch this Kentucky team eraon. It
Speaker 4: looks like really build confidence and start to play its best.
Speaker 7: Yeah, they're they're fun. They're looking like an NCAA tournament team. Now.
Speaker 7: I don't think if any of us could have said
Speaker 7: that for sure, just it's so frustrating. It that jumps
Speaker 7: off the page is they have led in seventeen of
Speaker 7: eighteen SBC games and the one lost that in the
Speaker 7: one game they lost trailed start to finish was Texas,
Speaker 7: the third game of the series, and they only lost
Speaker 7: that game by our run. So they're losing these close games,
Speaker 7: they're blowing leads and it's all sorts of frustration. And
Speaker 7: then you know, you go down to Tennessee, you lose
Speaker 7: game one, okay, and Nick McKay shoves in game two
Speaker 7: and they you know, the offense is able to get
Speaker 7: some in shuring frons you win that game. And really
Speaker 7: same thing in game three where Ben Cleever really shuts
Speaker 7: down Tennessee. I think he had maybe had give up
Speaker 7: a two run homer and that was it. And then
Speaker 7: Kentucky has insurance late. And then yesterday, every time Louisville
Speaker 7: kind of made a run, I think they scored three
Speaker 7: in the fifth and cut it down to five, Kentucky
Speaker 7: just kept tacking on insurance runs. And they're they're finding
Speaker 7: ways to win games now where they felt like they
Speaker 7: were finding ways to lose games where the offense would
Speaker 7: kind of go cold in the later innings and the
Speaker 7: bullten would really struggle to hold up in the last
Speaker 7: three games. You know, take not the bullpen being obviously
Speaker 7: you know, shut games down to Tennessee. But last night
Speaker 7: the story was the offense just a relentless attack and
Speaker 7: putting a ton of insurance funds on the board, to
Speaker 7: the point that Louisville shifted their first basement onto the
Speaker 7: mound and kind of waves the right white flag there.
Speaker 9: So yeah, it was a.
Speaker 7: Really good night. And this program is tending in the
Speaker 7: right direction at the right time. I mean, I think
Speaker 7: they were in the mid forties and the RPI before
Speaker 7: they went down in Knoxville and that seven yeah, yeah,
Speaker 7: thirty twenty seven. Yeah, I saw twenty seven right after
Speaker 7: the game. So yeah, so they're you know, they're probably
Speaker 7: on pace to be a two seed in the regional
Speaker 7: and you know, just how big of a deal would
Speaker 7: it be to make the tournament this year? Was you know,
Speaker 7: all they lost in last year's roster, Like, the program
Speaker 7: has never been to the NCA Tournament three years in
Speaker 7: a row, and if they're able to do that this
Speaker 7: year with everything they lost and to be honest to
Speaker 7: deficiencies they have. That's super impressive stuff right there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and again a brutally tough schedule. And and something
Speaker 4: that Nick Minjione told us on the air last night
Speaker 4: is these new kids, the guys who transferred in through
Speaker 4: the portal, and there are a lot of them, are
Speaker 4: now just starting to figure things out.
Speaker 3: And that's what it takes, especially at the.
Speaker 7: SEC level, right, no question about it, no question about it.
Speaker 9: It's it's the.
Speaker 7: Toughest league there is in college baseball by quite a margin.
Speaker 7: And you know a lot of you can look at
Speaker 7: where a lot of these transfers from this year's team
Speaker 7: specifically are from, and they haven't come really close to
Speaker 7: what they're facing.
Speaker 9: Now.
Speaker 7: You're talking about some kids in the MAC, you're talking
Speaker 7: about kids from the Missouri Valley, like it is just
Speaker 7: a different beast here in the SEC, and they're starting
Speaker 7: to get the hang of it. And the starting pitching.
Speaker 7: You know, the big thing that Kentucky has that even
Speaker 7: some teams in the SEC don't is Mick McCain. Ben
Speaker 7: Cleaver is a one two punch. I know, I'm not
Speaker 7: quite sure why he does the thing where McKay doesn't
Speaker 7: start on Fridays. But the best things are here or there.
Speaker 7: But those two guys are a one two. I mean
Speaker 7: that that's a kentuckting the team. You don't want to
Speaker 7: play in a regional just because of those two guys.
Speaker 7: I mean, those two guys are the real deal.
Speaker 4: Mkay, I believe was the Friday starter for a while
Speaker 4: but began to struggle. Yeah, now he's looking more alive. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, now he's looking more like the guy that
Speaker 4: they expected.
Speaker 7: Hey, yeah, do what you got to do to get
Speaker 7: him comfortable. But yeah, I mean even I was. I
Speaker 7: looked at Tony Vtello's transcript and he, you know, he
Speaker 7: said the same thing that you know, those two guys
Speaker 7: in Mkay and Cleaver. That's as good as a combo
Speaker 7: in the sec.
Speaker 3: Yeah it is right now. He is Aaron Gershawn. He
Speaker 3: is the beat writer for The.
Speaker 4: Cat's Pause covers football, baseball, basketball. Follow him on Twitter
Speaker 4: or x at a Gershwan ninety nine. Thank you, Sarah,
Speaker 4: I hope you get to slow down a little bit,
Speaker 4: But I don't count on it.
Speaker 9: Don't count on it.
Speaker 7: Appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Up next to our number two, Sean Woods, the unforgettable
Speaker 4: guard who is now the new head boys basketball coach
Speaker 4: at Scott County High School along with Western.
Speaker 3: BUREACHIU Geary Moore. That's ahead on six thirty.
Speaker 10: Such tacking anything.
Speaker 4: Welcome back to the Big Blue Sader And every Wednesday,
Speaker 4: scheduling permitting, we chat with unforgettable guard Sean Woods is yours.
Speaker 3: He hangs in the rafters of rupp Uh.
Speaker 4: He has coached extensively at the college level, but now
Speaker 4: we must address him as coach.
Speaker 3: Sean Woods, the head coach at Scott County High School. Hey, congratulations, man.
Speaker 9: Appreciated, Dick. You know, never thought I'd be coaching high school,
Speaker 9: but you know, I'm looking forward to this opportunity. Uh,
Speaker 9: you know, as everyone knows, I'm a coach, you know,
Speaker 9: and I'm passing about you know, enhancing you know, young
Speaker 9: men through basketball and and uh, you know, uh had
Speaker 9: some other opportunities, but I just felt like, you know,
Speaker 9: I can make a much bigger impact, you know, in
Speaker 9: a situation that that's that's thirsty and has success and
Speaker 9: and uh, you know, it's just a new saga in
Speaker 9: my life and and and and and really looking forward
Speaker 9: to it.
Speaker 4: You know, people don't know this, but when you and
Speaker 4: I were chatting one day off the air. Uh And
Speaker 4: as I've mentioned more than once, you've been doing a
Speaker 4: lot of broadcasting over the past year for Glcott. You've
Speaker 4: covered a lot of high school basketball.
Speaker 3: You're at the sweet sixteen. You really got about high
Speaker 3: school basketball.
Speaker 4: You had a great high school career, and you told
Speaker 4: me kind of offhand a few months ago, you know,
Speaker 4: maybe you'd like to get involved at the high school level.
Speaker 3: How much did that affect you, Sean, when when you
Speaker 3: were around that that.
Speaker 9: Atmosphere, Well, it rejuvenated me. Is just you know, being
Speaker 9: around it, talking about it, analyzing it. You know, I
Speaker 9: had to you know, do my homework and all these
Speaker 9: teams that I was you know, commentating about, and it
Speaker 9: got my juices backflowing. You know, it got me back
Speaker 9: into scouting, got me back into doing you know, detail
Speaker 9: info and then watching high school basketball, and you know,
Speaker 9: coaching is coaching, you know, And that's what I realized,
Speaker 9: you know. You know, even though it's more money at
Speaker 9: the at the at the college level, so on and
Speaker 9: so forth, but when you have a passion for for something,
Speaker 9: no matter what the pay is, it just it's who
Speaker 9: you are. And that's who I am and you know,
Speaker 9: this is an opportunity. It's it's a very unique situation
Speaker 9: because it's not just a public school, it's a it's
Speaker 9: a school that really gets, you know, basketball, who has
Speaker 9: a passion for Basketball's community that I'm very familiar with.
Speaker 9: And you know, they're Thurston for winning. They you know,
Speaker 9: the other school in the county won the state championship
Speaker 9: this year, and you know, it was just a great
Speaker 9: it was just a perfect fit. You know, the administrators
Speaker 9: there in Scott County are awesome. You know, they are
Speaker 9: on board with the vision that I've had and have
Speaker 9: and it was almost like a match made in heaven. Man.
Speaker 9: I mean, God works in mysterious ways. And it was
Speaker 9: just a situation that just smacked me in the face.
Speaker 9: It was like, hey, this is what it is. And
Speaker 9: I didn't second guess it. You know, when the opportunity came,
Speaker 9: I went for it and uh, you know, look look out,
Speaker 9: we know we're here now.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, and yeah, it's it's it's a tough situation now
Speaker 4: because as you said, great Crossing jumps up wins the
Speaker 4: state championship. Scott County struggled this past year. Back in
Speaker 4: the day Scott County. Was it in that county as
Speaker 4: you know. And now some kids are going to Great Crossing,
Speaker 4: some are going to Scott County. But the tradition is there,
Speaker 4: isn't it for Scott County.
Speaker 9: High Oh, no doubt about it. You know. I think
Speaker 9: what happened was and it's just like anything else. You know,
Speaker 9: when a talent comes in as a seven footage that's
Speaker 9: very very rare. You know you're going to get that.
Speaker 9: You know, Scott County got. Had they got Malachy Marino,
Speaker 9: it'll have been still Scott County. Yeah, you know, but unfortunately,
Speaker 9: you know, Billy Hicks left. You know, Steve was you
Speaker 9: know those guys, you know, middle school coach, they had
Speaker 9: a great relationship with him. When he moved up to
Speaker 9: the high school level, they followed. And with a great
Speaker 9: player like that, you know, other kids are going to
Speaker 9: follow because they want to play with a great player
Speaker 9: like that, you know what I'm saying. So that was understandable.
Speaker 9: Now the time is great for me because oh that's over.
Speaker 9: You know, man, don't hit. He's gonna be big, He's
Speaker 9: gonna be a Kentucky. So we're starting back from scratch
Speaker 9: square one. So uh, you know, I don't have to
Speaker 9: worry about that, you know now. You know it's about
Speaker 9: you know, me and Scott County starting our own legacy
Speaker 9: again from scratch, and you know it's it's almost like
Speaker 9: an even playing field, you know within the county.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well you mentioned that that it was a perfect fit.
Speaker 4: You know, your your passion and your vision for the school.
Speaker 4: What what is that, Sean? How did you sell them
Speaker 4: on your brand of basketball, your brand of coaching?
Speaker 9: Well, they did all their homework. I'll tell you what. Man,
Speaker 9: I Billy Parker, who's who's a great guy. Uh, you know, shoot,
Speaker 9: if I needed a GM, he'd be the first person
Speaker 9: that I'd hire. Uh he's a he's a county superintendent.
Speaker 9: And also D T. Wales, who's the county a d.
Speaker 9: I mean I opened the floodgates, you know. I gave
Speaker 9: them every person that knew me, who knew my career,
Speaker 9: you know, to reach out to them and ask them
Speaker 9: about me. And they did that. You know, they they
Speaker 9: they you know, raised up every rock, you know everything.
Speaker 9: They I mean, they know me better than I know
Speaker 9: myself as far as what other people think of me.
Speaker 9: And you know, they did their due diligence because they
Speaker 9: wanted to know, you know, everybody you know, you know
Speaker 9: don't know what exactly, you know, what I was accused of,
Speaker 9: you know, years ago at Morehead and that was a
Speaker 9: big question mark because I haven't lived here, you know,
Speaker 9: i'n't been around the twenty five years. The only thing
Speaker 9: they remember about me is you know, having a great
Speaker 9: coach career Morehead and then it ended because of something
Speaker 9: that I was accused of. And you know, they got
Speaker 9: a chance to talk to the ad who was at
Speaker 9: the school at the time at Morehead, they got a
Speaker 9: chance to talk to all my assistants, got to talk
Speaker 9: to people who knew who knew me and who I
Speaker 9: worked for and with after that, and they came up with.
Speaker 9: You know, what they came up with was nothing. And
Speaker 9: they knew how talented I was as a coach and
Speaker 9: the success that I've had. You know, once they got
Speaker 9: past that, you know that that was nothing there. You know,
Speaker 9: now the rest is you know, you know, there's a
Speaker 9: reason why we you know, he's available West Scott County
Speaker 9: because if that does not happen, you know, I'm not
Speaker 9: accused of that. Shoot, you know, I'm at NC State
Speaker 9: or something like that. So you know, God has a
Speaker 9: way of putting you in a place where you can
Speaker 9: make significant impact. And I'm just fortunate to be the
Speaker 9: steward and be seglected. Is that to be that, because
Speaker 9: that's what I am. I I you know, I love
Speaker 9: coaching young kids and young men. And I started my
Speaker 9: career coaching the Eastern Junior proh yeah, yes. And it
Speaker 9: all started with Wayne Martin and his kid and my
Speaker 9: son and some of the best players do in that era.
Speaker 9: And that's why I started that, and that's why I
Speaker 9: you know, I shoppened my teeth and uh, you know,
Speaker 9: I'm more than a basketball coach. People don't understand, you know,
Speaker 9: I'm I'm a mentor. I've been there, done that, and
Speaker 9: now you know, I used to always talk about high
Speaker 9: school coaches on what they didn't do from a fundamental
Speaker 9: standpoint of teaching young men the bass of basketball, even
Speaker 9: though they're talented. Now I get an opportunity to do that.
Speaker 9: So it's a match made in heaven, you know, I
Speaker 9: can you know, and and you know how my career
Speaker 9: has gone. You know, I've always been chasing and as
Speaker 9: successful as I've been at the schools that I've been
Speaker 9: at They've been very hard situations. Oh yeah, and I'm
Speaker 9: at a place in my life now with my wife
Speaker 9: and I you know, she's looking, you know, she's like Sean.
Speaker 9: You know, you you've proven yourself. You know, it's unfortunate
Speaker 9: that you didn't get the opportunities as other guys have gotten.
Speaker 9: But you still want to leave a legacy somewhere and
Speaker 9: we need to, you know, be able to you know,
Speaker 9: place our feet in the sand and leave a mark.
Speaker 9: And this this is maybe your opportunity to do so.
Speaker 4: I was going to ask you that you were a
Speaker 4: Mississippi Valley State. You became a national headline when you
Speaker 4: took that school to the Inside Tournament. There's there's it
Speaker 4: seems like every year there's there's a team like that that,
Speaker 4: you know, the little team that could to have nots
Speaker 4: to jump up and make a mark like that, and
Speaker 4: that obviously that was a boost to your career. But
Speaker 4: that that truly is you will know, no disrespect one
Speaker 4: of the have nots in college basketball.
Speaker 3: You know, that's where Jerry Rice went to school and
Speaker 3: all that.
Speaker 4: But and you know morehead State has battled for everything
Speaker 4: it's ever needed.
Speaker 3: You were at Southern, you now.
Speaker 4: You're at Scott County with a nice facility and as
Speaker 4: you said, great tradition, great backing, so you're not trying
Speaker 4: to dig out at this place. I know they had
Speaker 4: a poor year this season, but you know you got
Speaker 4: a lot going for you there that had to make
Speaker 4: it so attractive it did.
Speaker 9: You know, And I'll tell you what I mean, it's
Speaker 9: almost a better job than two of the jobs that
Speaker 9: I had, you know what I'm saying, Just yeah, and
Speaker 9: that's refreshing, you know, And you know, you're not worried
Speaker 9: about the bottom line. You just worry about making an
Speaker 9: impact with kids. And when you do it the right way,
Speaker 9: especially at high school, good things happen. And you know,
Speaker 9: I know a you know, once we get it going,
Speaker 9: we'll be able to attrack some of the stage finance
Speaker 9: and some of the country's finance. And then that's why
Speaker 9: I'm trying to get it to to where not only
Speaker 9: to be one of the best teams in the state,
Speaker 9: but you know, a national name like it had been
Speaker 9: when when when coach Itch was there, So you know,
Speaker 9: everything's lined up. I'm just happy to have an opportunity
Speaker 9: to be the guy and get it to back to
Speaker 9: where it was. I mean, you know, I'm not gonna
Speaker 9: treat it any different than I did in college. You know,
Speaker 9: I'm gonna work my butt off, and you know my
Speaker 9: thing was to never never let anybody else outwork me.
Speaker 9: And shoot, I'm working hard already, and you know, just
Speaker 9: to be back in the saddle. Uh, it is a blessing.
Speaker 9: And you know, it's a different type of mindset, it's
Speaker 9: a different type of job, but it's it's I think
Speaker 9: right now, in my mind, it could be more rewarding
Speaker 9: because I'm making a bigger impact, not just with my
Speaker 9: team and the varsity, but just the young people in
Speaker 9: the community of Scott County. You know, I look forward
Speaker 9: to to reaching out to the and develop and even
Speaker 9: the middle school and the elementary school, you know, because
Speaker 9: that's what I that's who I am, Dick, and my
Speaker 9: roots started here at coaching little kids, so I have
Speaker 9: a passion for that. You know, the world has changed
Speaker 9: a little bit, but I'm looking forward to the adjustment
Speaker 9: and having a good time with it.
Speaker 4: He is Sean Wood was the new head coach at
Speaker 4: Scott County High and of course one of the unforgettables.
Speaker 4: We'll talk more basketball on the other side of the
Speaker 4: break here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back with chatting
Speaker 4: with Shawn Woods, the Unforgettable Guard. He is now the
Speaker 4: head coach at Scott County High School, so new things
Speaker 4: to deal with with younger folks. But you know you'll
Speaker 4: be counseling people and one of the headlines when it
Speaker 4: comes to the portal this morning, coach, and earlier, I
Speaker 4: guess it was later last night. You and I have
Speaker 4: talked a lot about the Wildcats and Travis Perry, who
Speaker 4: at the last minute puts his name into the portal,
Speaker 4: and you and I have talked about the fact that
Speaker 4: he's got a long way to go to compete at
Speaker 4: the level of Kentucky competes.
Speaker 3: That I got to wonder, were you.
Speaker 4: Surprised at all that he chose that rap because it
Speaker 4: looked like he was.
Speaker 3: Coming back and he still might. But clearly they've recruited
Speaker 3: over him.
Speaker 9: No doubt about it. And we have to you know,
Speaker 9: you know, but he's a Kentucky kid. You know, you
Speaker 9: got the uniform, you know, But you know, Mark's got
Speaker 9: to do what he's got to do, you know, and
Speaker 9: and he's got to create, he's got to you know,
Speaker 9: go o recruit the best so we can be able
Speaker 9: to compete for national SEC championships and national championships. You know,
Speaker 9: Travis had a decision to make, and he you know,
Speaker 9: the decision is do I sit here and enjoy the
Speaker 9: ride and after I graduate, I can you know, still
Speaker 9: be an important part of the community, the state of
Speaker 9: Kentucky community and be successful burgess wise, you know, or
Speaker 9: do I love play more at this particular time in
Speaker 9: my life and want to you know, and feel like
Speaker 9: I have, you know, a lot to give to the
Speaker 9: game of basketball, but just having an opportunity to play
Speaker 9: at a lower level to where I can really have
Speaker 9: some success. And that's the choice that he's making right now.
Speaker 9: And you know, just because he's at Kentucky, just because
Speaker 9: he's a Kentucky kid, you know, doesn't mean that the
Speaker 9: universe of Kentucky is the right fit for him from
Speaker 9: a from a playing standpoint. But you know, you got
Speaker 9: the opportunity, You earned the right, you know, with the
Speaker 9: high school career that you had. Now it's you know,
Speaker 9: I think he's a kid that wants to play, you know,
Speaker 9: and you can't, you know, and he's a competitor and
Speaker 9: you can't knock that.
Speaker 3: No, you can't.
Speaker 4: Players want to play, no question about that. And yeah,
Speaker 4: and when he got his chance to contribute, he did
Speaker 4: at times, and at times he was overmatched. But like
Speaker 4: I said, it's it's a as you point out, it's
Speaker 4: a potentially life changing decision. You had to make that
Speaker 4: choice as a high school senior. I sometimes wonder if
Speaker 4: people realize. I remember hearing a football recruit talking about
Speaker 4: this kid seemed incredibly mature for his age about his
Speaker 4: college choice, and he said, Uh, it's going to determine
Speaker 4: the rest of my life. It's going to probably determine
Speaker 4: who I marry, you know, things like that. Have a wow,
Speaker 4: this kid's gone deep on this.
Speaker 3: Uh. And it couldn't have been easy for him, right, No.
Speaker 9: You know, and I'm sure you know I can. I
Speaker 9: can see him right now. He in his dad and mom,
Speaker 9: you know, sitting there contemplating you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 9: the pros and cons. Yeah, you know, because three four
Speaker 9: years comes back comes real quick.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, dad's his coach.
Speaker 9: His dad was his high school coach, right and you
Speaker 9: want to, you know, see where you can fit in
Speaker 9: for the rest of your life, you know, And this
Speaker 9: is a life, life changing situation here in the decision.
Speaker 9: And you know I've been there, you know, I. You
Speaker 9: know I I you know when we were you know,
Speaker 9: when I was recruited and that year that's when we
Speaker 9: got hit with that probation. That's when we got hit
Speaker 9: with the investigation. And when it went down after writing
Speaker 9: during my vice freshman year and I was actually sitting
Speaker 9: out that year, I had some real decisions to make,
Speaker 9: and my mom just told me straight up, she said,
Speaker 9: you're staying, you know, she said, you cann You're gonna
Speaker 9: You're gonna weather this storm. This is the first time
Speaker 9: as a young man, just time to grow up and
Speaker 9: and and face the fire and handle some type of
Speaker 9: adversity and make the best of it. And it was
Speaker 9: the best decision I ever made. You know, who would
Speaker 9: have thought that my jerseysy be retired? Who thought that
Speaker 9: I have to have an impact with three other men?
Speaker 9: Where actually more than that to to to to have
Speaker 9: that impact at the universe of Kentucky when it was
Speaker 9: at the lowest peak of his entire makeup. So I
Speaker 9: I I don't envy him at all, But if he
Speaker 9: does make whatever decision he made by putting this stuff
Speaker 9: in in the portal. I give him kudos because that's
Speaker 9: a that's a major decision. Uh. And he's got to
Speaker 9: think of him. He's got to think for him, you know,
Speaker 9: what's best for him. And that's why I respect it,
Speaker 9: you know what I mean. It's not you know what
Speaker 9: everybody else thinks. It's about what he thinks because it's
Speaker 9: his life. And I would love to see him wearing
Speaker 9: at eleven again, you know what I'm saying for the
Speaker 9: rest of his career because I like him as a person.
Speaker 9: But you know, if he wants to go play and
Speaker 9: play a lot of minutes, then he needs to go,
Speaker 9: you know. But if he stays, he knows he's not
Speaker 9: gonna play that much. But he can still be a
Speaker 9: fixture in the folklore you know of Kentucky basketball and
Speaker 9: and live a happy life when it's all said and done,
Speaker 9: because you know he's gonna be taken care of and
Speaker 9: you know, get a decent job and being good business
Speaker 9: when he graduate. So you.
Speaker 4: Interrupted, But do you think the portal situation has I
Speaker 4: don't know if enhanced is the word, but intensified that
Speaker 4: that feeling of self. You know, these kids now They're
Speaker 4: almost forced to think more about themselves as opposed to, Hey,
Speaker 4: I can go to this school and be a part
Speaker 4: of something with these other guys who have signed and
Speaker 4: the other guys that are on the roster, and we together,
Speaker 4: we can do this. Now, it seems like the portal
Speaker 4: is forcing kids to think even more about themselves. And
Speaker 4: you've got to start with yourself obviously, But you know,
Speaker 4: it's it's almost like a pilum mentality.
Speaker 3: Do you see it that way?
Speaker 9: I mean, it's like what guys think in the NBA.
Speaker 9: You know, you once you get there, it's a business,
Speaker 9: and now college athletics has become a business. It's about
Speaker 9: what can I how can I maximize who I am
Speaker 9: financially in this situation? And it's unfortunate, it's almost nasty.
Speaker 9: It's not pure anymore, and you know it's hard to grasp.
Speaker 9: I mean I went to the final four man and
Speaker 9: not one coach was happy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I get that.
Speaker 9: You know, and that almost helped my decision on really
Speaker 9: pursuing the sky Cannon situation. Really, you know, is money
Speaker 9: worth all this headache and heartbreak? And you know, you know,
Speaker 9: I like to coach. I like to get people to
Speaker 9: buy into being prideful. Where is the pride anymore? You know?
Speaker 9: The Benjamins doesn't have pride. Benjamin's does not have pride?
Speaker 9: Benjamins is what can you do for me? And for
Speaker 9: me as a coach. I'm just old school, you know,
Speaker 9: And you know, and the minute I think you're selfish,
Speaker 9: the minute I think it's about you, that's hard to coach.
Speaker 9: And that's what we're doing right now. You know, they're
Speaker 9: talking about Kentucky right now. You know the their roster
Speaker 9: is worth twenty million dollars, ye million dollars. You know
Speaker 9: now you really you know the handlers of these people,
Speaker 9: the parents of these people. You know, not only is
Speaker 9: the twenty million dollars, but now you're getting it, you
Speaker 9: get more calls, you know what I'm saying from parents
Speaker 9: and handlers about playing time, what they look like, so
Speaker 9: on and so forth. I mean, it's it's a lot
Speaker 9: more to juggle. You know, where's the national chair to
Speaker 9: compete for national championship come into play? Where does it
Speaker 9: compete for the SEC championship? Come into play? Where is it?
Speaker 9: You know? The pride? You know? And that's what I
Speaker 9: was I keep bragging on Mark Pope about what he
Speaker 9: put together this past year. As far as you know,
Speaker 9: the mentality of these guys being bought in, right, right,
Speaker 9: that's gonna be hard to do every year when you
Speaker 9: you know, when you know, you can't get a kid
Speaker 9: unless you pay him X amount of dollars. He ain't
Speaker 9: worried about Kentucky the tradition. He's worried about how much
Speaker 9: money am I getting.
Speaker 4: You have got to get the right kids in there.
Speaker 4: Every coach, but every coach is dealing with that. Well,
Speaker 4: it has been quick. We'll talk again, but congrats again
Speaker 4: once again on the Scott County job. Shawn Woods, the
Speaker 4: unforgettable guard now the head coach of the Scott County Cardinal.
Speaker 3: Your cardinal, Sean.
Speaker 9: Hey, did you see me on BBN the other night.
Speaker 9: You know I'm a cardinal, but I'm a Scott Catty,
Speaker 9: Scott County cart County cardinal. If you look at the deal,
Speaker 9: it has six teeth in his mouth. Okay, the other
Speaker 9: cardinal does it?
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, I'm glad you pointed that out. All right, coach,
Speaker 4: we'll talk next week.
Speaker 3: Thanks.
Speaker 4: So happy for Sean. I know he wanted to get
Speaker 4: back into coaching. He was kind enough to send me.
Speaker 4: I didn't know this was happening, but he texted me
Speaker 4: the front page of the Georgetown newspaper, which had a
Speaker 4: little teaser up in the corner, and then the front
Speaker 4: page of the sports section with his picture on it,
Speaker 4: saying that he had been hired as the new head
Speaker 4: coach of the Cardinals. So Scott County, it's gonna be
Speaker 4: interesting to see if they can bounce back from six
Speaker 4: to twenty one. Western Bureau Chief Gary Moore next six
Speaker 4: thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big bluin Cider. It
Speaker 4: is Wednesday, which means we will look west to the
Speaker 4: other end of I sixty four to our West End
Speaker 4: Bureau chief, Gary Moore, longtime West Coast Bureau chief, and
Speaker 4: he's moved from Los Angeles to LA the Louisville.
Speaker 3: Area where we chat with him every week.
Speaker 11: Dude, two guys in a six pack, and ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 11: This is our annual final mock draft episode where we
Speaker 11: run off the audience by predicting all seven rounds and
Speaker 11: all two hundred and fifty seven.
Speaker 3: Smoke him if you got him all craft.
Speaker 11: We don't have time for that, Okay, T minus twenty
Speaker 11: four hours and change until the most tedious three and
Speaker 11: a half hours in all of sports. Round one and
Speaker 11: only Round one of the NFL Draft tomorrow night, eight
Speaker 11: to eleven thirty pm. If you can stay awake on
Speaker 11: ABC and on ESPN and on the NFL Network live
Speaker 11: from U sure, beloved lambeau Field stockholder, you it's all
Speaker 11: we're gonna do here, And swig number one is just
Speaker 11: pick draft choice number one, pretending that you and I
Speaker 11: are both the Titans general manager, because they still have
Speaker 11: as of right now at the number one pick. Now,
Speaker 11: if I'm the GM of Tennessee, first of all, I'm
Speaker 11: living down in Belle Mead. Boy, that's a nice area
Speaker 11: and it's gorgeous down there. And with our first pick
Speaker 11: in the draft, I'm gonna take the best, most talented
Speaker 11: quarterback that is obviously cam Ward. Why well, he seems
Speaker 11: to think faster than my current guy, Will Levis, because
Speaker 11: he's put up some monster offensive numbers consistently down there,
Speaker 11: and he's done it running.
Speaker 3: Around a lot.
Speaker 11: And that's another reason I would take him, because of
Speaker 11: my porous o line. So he's gonna have to scramble
Speaker 11: a hell of a lot here in the first year,
Speaker 11: who you're gonna take at number one?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you have to take Ward because you
Speaker 3: need a QB.
Speaker 4: They've given up clearly on will Levis, although interestingly they
Speaker 4: fired a Vrabel as head coach because he was not
Speaker 4: fully by.
Speaker 3: Hind Will Levis. But anyhow, Yeah, this kid's gonna have
Speaker 3: the same.
Speaker 4: Problem the Lewis had, although maybe he makes better decisions.
Speaker 4: Levis forced too many plays and made too many turnovers.
Speaker 4: But the biggest problem Gary, in my mind, is that
Speaker 4: let's say you take Abdul Carter, or you taking you know,
Speaker 4: a defensive player or whatever, there aren't any qbs out
Speaker 4: there who could really help you in the immediate future.
Speaker 4: And I'm looking right at you, Aaron Rodgers, You're not
Speaker 4: the answer either. If there were somebody out there in
Speaker 4: the free agent world, and.
Speaker 3: They would have made that move by now.
Speaker 4: But they have made no secret, the Titans, about the
Speaker 4: fact that they're not going to move that number one pick.
Speaker 3: So it looks like they're committed to a QB. And look,
Speaker 3: you'll sell some tickets, right sure, part of.
Speaker 11: It our second swig in the six packs. So another
Speaker 11: week of NBA playoffs. Man, they're getting physical out there.
Speaker 11: We saw some of that last night. Man, elbows are
Speaker 11: flying all over the place. Another week to actually give
Speaker 11: a rats rump about the association for me. So we
Speaker 11: got three big games Tony Orlando, Boston, Miami at Cleveland,
Speaker 11: and my Warriors at Houston. And also this week another
Speaker 11: mindless moment. I know you've talked about it from Dallas
Speaker 11: general manager for now Nico Harrison, who said on Monday,
Speaker 11: quote I did know that Luca was important to the
Speaker 11: fan base, I didn't quite.
Speaker 3: Know it to what level.
Speaker 11: Unquote talk about being so far in the frame you
Speaker 11: can't see the picture. Can you even imagine red auerback
Speaker 11: miscalculating to a Celtics fan's love of Larry Bird or
Speaker 11: Jerry West, not knowing how popular Magic or Kobe was
Speaker 11: to all the fans. Now, remember and besides Luca, let's
Speaker 11: not forget Harrison, let some kid name Jalen Brunson escape
Speaker 11: to New York. Yeah, a couple of years ago, Sacramento
Speaker 11: in Atlanta just fired their gms. They didn't say anything
Speaker 11: nearly as stupid as Harrison. So how does this guy
Speaker 11: still have a gig? Is it because he's got this
Speaker 11: huge extension? They still owe them a lot of money
Speaker 11: that he signed last summer after the championship run.
Speaker 4: Gotta be I just read a piece in The Athletic
Speaker 4: about this whole dynamic and Mark Cuban, And of course
Speaker 4: we know that if Cuban had still been the guy
Speaker 4: in charge, that this likely would.
Speaker 3: Not have happened. Although when Cuban sold, he was.
Speaker 4: Supposedly going to help make basketball decisions.
Speaker 3: Cuban and Nico. Well, now it's Nico and Cuban, but.
Speaker 4: There's also Gary, a long list of mistakes made by
Speaker 4: Cuban and by the Mavericks of great players they have
Speaker 4: not drafted. You referred to Jalen Brunson. He's not the
Speaker 4: only one, but this is clearly the dumbest move. And
Speaker 4: I really believe that Harrison was trying to minimize, you know,
Speaker 4: his damaging role. And I like what Charles Barkley, Oh
Speaker 4: I Love on TNT said, just, you know, stop talking,
Speaker 4: just to shut up.
Speaker 3: You made a mistake, own it. Stop. But this guy
Speaker 3: can't seem to get out of his own way. Third
Speaker 3: swig in the six backs.
Speaker 11: Speaking of reading the room illiteracy, did you see the
Speaker 11: tweet that UCLA Football sent out welcoming new quarterback banknote Nico.
Speaker 11: They had Nico in a UCLA uniform wearing the same
Speaker 11: number that he wore last year at Tennessee, number eight.
Speaker 11: Just one problem, that number was retired years ago after
Speaker 11: it was worn by former Brewin star and Hall of
Speaker 11: Famer some guy named Troy Aikman. Suffice to say, a
Speaker 11: lot of Brewin fans were already unhappy with the school
Speaker 11: welcoming a kid who apparently held out for more dough
Speaker 11: and then bolted way late in the spring, almost screwing
Speaker 11: up that Orange.
Speaker 3: School's quarterback sitch.
Speaker 11: Until because we've seen the quarterback UCLA had already signed
Speaker 11: from app State, Joey Aguilarp said, f this went and
Speaker 11: signed with the Vols an nil trade for an nil trade.
Speaker 11: Basically your pal. Bill Plashke also sent out the welcome
Speaker 11: wagon in his latest La Times column with the headline
Speaker 11: Nico yalim well, I can't pronounce his last name, Nico
Speaker 11: joining uc everybody loses now besides Nico signing with UCLA
Speaker 11: after he signed with the Balls. You've got more on
Speaker 11: this a little bit later on. But Nico's little brother
Speaker 11: is also coming to Westwood. Maybe maybe after a couple
Speaker 11: of months at Arkansas. Full disclosure here, I did some
Speaker 11: postgraduate studies at UCLA, and yeah, this all feels really
Speaker 11: slimy to me. But you know, I also recall Troy
Speaker 11: Aikman also transferred to UCLA from Oklahoma, but that was
Speaker 11: about Switzer's wishbone offense, not about a gold digging punk here.
Speaker 11: But this, I got a bad feeling about this, dick.
Speaker 11: You know what football karma can be, Like, we'll see
Speaker 11: what happens in the fall.
Speaker 4: Aikman never should have signed with Oklahoma in the first place,
Speaker 4: if you're back to that, because of that offense, as
Speaker 4: you said, And yeah, we talked earlier about Nico's brother Madden,
Speaker 4: but yeah, this is an interesting sub chapter in the
Speaker 4: world of college sports, the chapter about nil and the
Speaker 4: portal and all that. And now, as I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 4: Arkansas's pushing back, and I'm certain Arkansas doesn't want to
Speaker 4: keep this kid, but you know, the collective like, hey,
Speaker 4: what about our money? You never played a game, and
Speaker 4: you know it's going to wind up in front of
Speaker 4: a judge somewhere or at least in depositions and all that.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I just have a hard time seeing how
Speaker 4: this is going to work out for UCLA, and I
Speaker 4: think Agilar is going to be the winner because you
Speaker 4: talk about a quarterback friendly offense at Tennessee, right, Yeah, and.
Speaker 11: He's got a great coach who was a quarterback obviously,
Speaker 11: and we'll go from there. Yeah, let's see here forth
Speaker 11: Swig and the six backs. Speaking of that fugly Arne school,
Speaker 11: shout out to the Batcats who went down I seventy
Speaker 11: five over the weekend, took two out of three from
Speaker 11: the then number two team in the nation, and then
Speaker 11: last night out of Kentucky Proud Park early night for
Speaker 11: you never Cats needed only seven innings to throttle number
Speaker 11: nineteen Louisville seventeen to five. Cards are baut rated fall
Speaker 11: out of the top twenty five. Maybe after this weekend
Speaker 11: they've got three with number ten Florida State starting out
Speaker 11: here on Friday. UK goes for four in a row
Speaker 11: Friday night, six thirty at Proud Park, first to three
Speaker 11: with South Carolina, then they head down to Warren County
Speaker 11: and one with WKU. And speaking of the number seventeen Hilltoppers,
Speaker 11: they abused Evansville last night in BG fourteen to four,
Speaker 11: running their record thirty three and seven twenty four and
Speaker 11: one at home on.
Speaker 3: The campus of WKU.
Speaker 11: It's gonna be your alma mater and mine might be
Speaker 11: a game there next Tuesday.
Speaker 3: Something's got to give, Gabriel.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Kentucky now playing with a lot of confidence, obviously,
Speaker 4: and really it started a.
Speaker 3: Week ago with the comeback win over Miami.
Speaker 4: So basically they came from ahead, then came from maybe
Speaker 4: not behind, but from a tie game and won a
Speaker 4: walk off. But yeah, they played with so much confidence
Speaker 4: against Tennessee. The pitching has come around. Now they're getting
Speaker 4: the offense. We talked to one of the players after
Speaker 4: the game last night. He said, we stopped worrying about
Speaker 4: home runs and that just quality add bats, just trying
Speaker 4: to stack up what they call quabs, and it's working
Speaker 4: for them. So you know, they've they've they flirted with
Speaker 4: success so many times this year, so many close losses.
Speaker 4: So now let's not discount the fact that the schedule
Speaker 4: is letting up ever so slightly, relatively speaking.
Speaker 11: Agreed Fittswig and the six Pack. Let's talk minor league
Speaker 11: baseball here in the Commonwealth. Opening night for your Lexington
Speaker 11: Legends on Friday night, yep let Legends Field over there
Speaker 11: just off North Broadway. Postgame fireworks going to be happening
Speaker 11: Friday night.
Speaker 3: Then down in.
Speaker 11: Bowling Green on Saturday, Rot Row You meddling kids get
Speaker 11: Scooby Doo Night at the Hot Rods game. That's a
Speaker 11: four oh five in the afternoon. First pitch players are
Speaker 11: going to be wearing these actually pretty cool Scooby Doo
Speaker 11: jerseys that's going to be auctioned off to benefit the
Speaker 11: Buddy House for down Syndrome. I've actually posted a photo
Speaker 11: of the jerseys on next They did a pretty cool
Speaker 11: job with those. But you know, Dick, no good theme
Speaker 11: night goes unpunished. In a crystal clear sign, the apocalypse
Speaker 11: is still upon us. Our Louisville Bats over here Friday
Speaker 11: night are apparently willingly hosting Pickleball Appreciation Night, pickled pickle
Speaker 11: themed drinks. Thanks, I'll pass even if you're buying pickle
Speaker 11: themed food, And there's also a special ticket package that
Speaker 11: will also punish you with a don't wait for it,
Speaker 11: Bats pickleball paddle for something that isn't quite ping pong.
Speaker 11: It isn't quite tennis, but it certainly has the most
Speaker 11: annoying ball paddle sound. That is the antithesis of leather
Speaker 11: hitting a Louisville slugger.
Speaker 3: Try appreciating that.
Speaker 4: Oh man, I have not given in to the pickleball craze.
Speaker 4: Several friends of mine have here over in Lexion In
Speaker 4: at Woodland Park. They renovated one of the tennis courts
Speaker 4: and now it's a pickleball court. Look, it's people getting
Speaker 4: out getting exercise. That's a good thing, I know, but
Speaker 4: it's just right now, it's too much. And that's always
Speaker 4: the case. I think it's more than a fad. It's
Speaker 4: a new sport quote unquote. But yeah, I can do
Speaker 4: with that pickle lemonade, which is being offered to one
Speaker 4: of the fast food franchises right now.
Speaker 3: Now I'm my hometown of Murray. They just opened up
Speaker 3: some brand new pickleball courts. Nice try tennis folks. Okay
Speaker 3: if you.
Speaker 11: Sixth and final swig since you and I last spoke,
Speaker 11: It was announced that former U of L and Indiana
Speaker 11: football coach and the heart and soul of ESPN's College
Speaker 11: Game Day League Corso, would be taking his final bow
Speaker 11: on the first show of the twenty twenty five season.
Speaker 11: It'll be August thirtieth, twenty three days after coach celebrates
Speaker 11: his ninetieth birthday. Now, we've been kind of prepped for
Speaker 11: not seeing him on the panel the past couple of
Speaker 11: years when he's had to miss shows for health reasons
Speaker 11: or whatever. But it's still going to take them getting
Speaker 11: used to not seeing them every week, and not just
Speaker 11: because of the numbers. He's been there thirty eight years,
Speaker 11: four hundred and thirty mascot headgear picks. That's a winning
Speaker 11: percentage of sixty six and I have percent with a
Speaker 11: perfect nineteen ninety nine season, but not so fast with
Speaker 11: the numbers.
Speaker 3: It's more than that, way more than that. It's him.
Speaker 3: It's the guy. It's the man's heart, his.
Speaker 11: Love not only for the game we all love, but
Speaker 11: his love for people and the fans and humanity in general.
Speaker 11: You can always tell that, You've always been able to
Speaker 11: tell that over the years. That inferior knockoff pregame show
Speaker 11: in Fox doesn't have anyone in the same personality area
Speaker 11: code as League Corso the only question is does ESPN
Speaker 11: retire the head wear picks. I think probably don't have
Speaker 11: to because you know, Dick, I can't imagine Nick Saban
Speaker 11: putting on the head piece, putting on the head piece
Speaker 11: of an Auburn Tiger. Given the odds of that team winning.
Speaker 3: Maybe they let McAfee do it.
Speaker 4: I think people might accept that from him because he
Speaker 4: is outrageous and you know, I'm with you, though, I
Speaker 4: think that might be a bit that they need to retire.
Speaker 3: It was so much fun growing up in Louisville watching
Speaker 3: Corso's teams play. He's a good football coach. He's put
Speaker 3: together a really good program in Louisville.
Speaker 4: And here's all you need to know about Lee Corso
Speaker 4: as a promoter and as a performer.
Speaker 3: His Coaches show, the theme.
Speaker 4: Music was Foggy Mountain Breakdown. I mean, if that didn't
Speaker 4: get you excited, this is back when coaches shows were
Speaker 4: the window to the team because generally it was the
Speaker 4: only time you could see the video of most teams playing. Yeah,
Speaker 4: he was a lot of fun to watch. He was
Speaker 4: a lot of fun on ESPN. And I love the
Speaker 4: fact that not so fast my Friends became a thing
Speaker 4: and it was something that was organic. It just happened
Speaker 4: naturally and now as part of our lexicon, and that's
Speaker 4: something I'm thankfully forever. People will think sports fans about
Speaker 4: Lee Corso when they hear that or say that he
Speaker 4: is Gary Moore, our West N Bureau chief will come
Speaker 4: back with more in just a minute. On the Big
Speaker 4: Blue Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back, We're chatting with
Speaker 4: Gary Murrio as our West N Bureau chief. We heard
Speaker 4: two guys in a six pack. Now time for a
Speaker 4: couple of hot reads. And you know we're always.
Speaker 3: Banging on people. It seems like in this segment having
Speaker 3: fun with it.
Speaker 4: But we need to really really tip our collective caps
Speaker 4: to rock O Beckt. He is an Iowa state quarterback.
Speaker 4: And we talked about these guys.
Speaker 3: You know, going for the money and you know this
Speaker 3: guy might get sued and that guy ran out on
Speaker 3: a team.
Speaker 4: This is a guy who used his nil earnings to
Speaker 4: donate entertainment consoles to pediatric rooms at a hospital at
Speaker 4: a medical center in Ames.
Speaker 3: Iowa this week.
Speaker 4: Gary, And all I can say is, let's hope that
Speaker 4: it leads to more of this kind of thing.
Speaker 11: I'm just going to say more of this, please. And
Speaker 11: I love the fact that it's getting a lot of
Speaker 11: good publicity because, as we know, publicize something good like that,
Speaker 11: well I can do that with my money. Hey, that's
Speaker 11: a great idea. Hey, why not, you know, and that's
Speaker 11: kind of a ripple effect. Let's see more of that
Speaker 11: kind of stuff happening, because we all know that these colleges,
Speaker 11: you know, everybody's got a hospital nearby, a lot of
Speaker 11: them are obviously at a lot of medical schools involved
Speaker 11: with that, and just good things in general that guys
Speaker 11: are doing with money.
Speaker 3: I like to see that kind of matrure what a
Speaker 3: good guy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's by coincidence in the state of Iowa
Speaker 4: where during University of Iowa football games.
Speaker 3: We've talked about this through the years.
Speaker 4: At one point, I think it's at the end of
Speaker 4: the first quarter, everybody in the stadium, players included.
Speaker 3: The stadium's right next to the children's hospital. You've seen
Speaker 3: the video.
Speaker 4: Everybody turns and waves at the kids who are all
Speaker 4: watching the game through the windows of their hospital rooms.
Speaker 3: Actually, I get emotional just thinking about that. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: agree with you.
Speaker 4: And you know, there are people who find I don't
Speaker 4: know if distasteful is the right word, but they wonder
Speaker 4: about people like John Caliperi, who was very public with
Speaker 4: his charity work, and like, you know, a lot of
Speaker 4: people think it's you know, hey, look at me.
Speaker 3: I'm a great guy. Whatever.
Speaker 4: That's fine, But what it might also do is prompt
Speaker 4: somebody else to do it. Like you said, Yes, somebody
Speaker 4: notices what this kid from Iowa State's doing and thinks, hey,
Speaker 4: maybe I can do the same thing.
Speaker 3: Follow the leaders on things like that. Yeah, follow the
Speaker 3: charity leaders.
Speaker 4: Well, we have touched on this a little bit, but
Speaker 4: Arkansas now at least a collective, and the school will
Speaker 4: work with Arkansas Edge. I mentioned this earlier in the show,
Speaker 4: is putting, as the headline said, putting Madden Iamalieva into
Speaker 4: the crosshairs by encouraging the collective to try to get
Speaker 4: back some of its money. Good and evidently, in reading
Speaker 4: an article on cbsports dot com, this is not an
Speaker 4: isolated incident of kids signing, taking the money, and then
Speaker 4: you know, I need to move on. Thanks Bob, thanks
Speaker 4: for the swell money by We're going to see more
Speaker 4: of this, Gary, and it's going to get ugly before
Speaker 4: it gets pretty.
Speaker 11: The confusing thing about this is we don't really see
Speaker 11: any of the contracts, do we We don't know if
Speaker 11: there's a clause that says you have to pay back
Speaker 11: if you leave within this timeframe, and what I've been
Speaker 11: able to read is that even if there is that
Speaker 11: kind of language in there, it could be nullified. I'd
Speaker 11: buy this house agreement that's going to be coming up
Speaker 11: approval pretty soon, that involves all of the schools, and
Speaker 11: as far as it was already supposed to have been approved,
Speaker 11: I think by last week, by Good Friday, and now
Speaker 11: it's going to be like maybe another couple three weeks,
Speaker 11: maybe another month.
Speaker 3: We don't know.
Speaker 11: There's so much legal mumbo jumbo up in the air
Speaker 11: about this. I know they're gonna get their money back.
Speaker 11: I mean, it seems like it would be the right
Speaker 11: thing to do if if players should have a buyout clause,
Speaker 11: if the coaches have a buyout clause, right, you.
Speaker 3: Would think so.
Speaker 4: But was odd is at least in some of these
Speaker 4: agreements it doesn't include how much or even if you play.
Speaker 3: So I think if nothing else, will see some of
Speaker 3: these deals rewritten. But again, no guardrails. That's the entire
Speaker 3: problem with NIL and with the portal.
Speaker 4: They had to rush into this because of the Ed
Speaker 4: O'Bannon case, and so now they're kind of trying to
Speaker 4: figure it out as they go along, and that's no
Speaker 4: way to deal with millions of dollars.
Speaker 3: He is Gary More, He is our West End bureau chep.
Speaker 4: We traveled him each and every week and you can
Speaker 4: follow his musings in rants on Twitter or x at.
Speaker 3: At nine to five five Gary, same joint you're at
Speaker 3: yep at Big Blue Sider one. Thank you sir.
Speaker 4: Have a good week, have good week, Derby fun next
Speaker 4: week and I am looking forward to that.
Speaker 3: That's gonna do it for this edition of the Big
Speaker 3: Boon Sider.
Speaker 4: Thanks to coach Sean Woods to Gary Moore, to Aaron
Speaker 4: Gersha and that said, good night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 9: What's going I say, what's going on here?
Speaker 7: Staying here with you?
Speaker 2: Beak open, say something explaining yourself.
Speaker 9: Your tongue's flipping, but no noise that's coming on of
Speaker 9: your big mob.
Speaker 3: Don't get out and stay out, scrash out.
Speaker 10: Air, take that, stain anything, do anything, Satan.
Speaker 9: Take that.
Speaker 10: Anything, but I think done. Dont doing the