Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue Insider at Gabrielle with you
Speaker 1: Friday edition of our program heading into another frigid weekend,
Speaker 1: but Rupp Arena will be anything but cold. Even if
Speaker 1: they're not hitting shots. The pace of the game when
Speaker 1: the Wildcats take on Alabama tomorrow will be sizzling in
Speaker 1: my opinion, So you're gonna want to listen here on
Speaker 1: six thirty WLAP. Yes, it's on ESPN with Jay Billis
Speaker 1: and Dan Showman, the best combination on TV for my money,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be a great game. I think it
Speaker 1: may not be the prettiest at all time, but it's
Speaker 1: gonna come down to who makes shots usually does. But yeah,
Speaker 1: this will be a breakneck pace, nothing like we saw
Speaker 1: with Kentucky and A and M noon tip, which means
Speaker 1: you came network coverage with Dave and Cameron beginning at
Speaker 1: ten thirty, Cassar Boys at nine to thirty. So if
Speaker 1: you're not going to the game, just put your radio
Speaker 1: on when you get up in the morning. And then
Speaker 1: of course you got two years, one for radio and
Speaker 1: one for television. So Kentucky Alabama another a huge game,
Speaker 1: but they're all big now in the SEC aren't they.
Speaker 1: And if it's anything, if this weekends anything like last night,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be wild because there were three upsets of
Speaker 1: top twenty teams, not just top twenty five teams. But
Speaker 1: Minnesota hits a three pointer at the buzzer and beats
Speaker 1: Michigan eighty four to eighty one. Michigan was ranked number twenty.
Speaker 1: First conference loss for the Wolverine, So Michigan State's got
Speaker 1: a good year going and SODA's Michigan in the Big Ten,
Speaker 1: Minnesota even destructor. That was Minnesota's first conference win after
Speaker 1: six Big Ten losses. So I don't know if Minnesota
Speaker 1: has been relevant since since Tubby Smith was there and
Speaker 1: got off to a good start and an injuries caught
Speaker 1: up with him and he eventually was fired. But yeah,
Speaker 1: Minnesota pulls off the win in overtime, by the way,
Speaker 1: eighty four eighty one. Now Temple in Philly hands Memphis
Speaker 1: its first American Conference loss. Memphis ranked eighteenth, but Temple
Speaker 1: wins eighty eight to eighty one, and at the same time,
Speaker 1: out on the West coast, Oregon State in overtime upsets
Speaker 1: Gonzaga ninety seven to eighty nine. This was in corvallis
Speaker 1: first WCC loss for Gonzaga, which is now five to
Speaker 1: one in the league. Played fourteen and five overall, and
Speaker 1: of course one of those losses was a come from
Speaker 1: a head setback to the Kentucky Wildcats. So crazy, crazy
Speaker 1: night last night in college basketball. But hey, what else
Speaker 1: is new? Right? All right? The Cats and the Crimson Tide,
Speaker 1: who feature what I think he's got to be the
Speaker 1: best player in the Southeastern Conference in Mark Sears. He
Speaker 1: is leading his team in scoring at eighteen points per game,
Speaker 1: that's third in the league, four and a half assists
Speaker 1: per game that's fifth in the league. He's the only
Speaker 1: player in the SEC in the top five in both
Speaker 1: scoring and then assists. Bama with five wins over AP
Speaker 1: top twenty five opponents, two wins away from tying the
Speaker 1: program record for most AP wins in a single season
Speaker 1: that was set last year, actually two years ago, in
Speaker 1: that twenty two to twenty three campaign that ended up
Speaker 1: a little short in the NCAA Tournament. Bama went to
Speaker 1: the final four last year. As you might recall, Nato,
Speaker 1: It's what a job he has done. Amazing to turnaround
Speaker 1: after coming from Buffalo. That's right, you can find good
Speaker 1: coaches a lot of places, and Alabama plucked him out
Speaker 1: of the frigid Northeast. Twenty five or twenty three AP
Speaker 1: top twenty five wins during his tenure at Alabama second
Speaker 1: all time behind Wim Sanderson. When Sam Newton was there,
Speaker 1: they only had the top twenty, so I don't know
Speaker 1: that would have figured in. But Sam Newton had some
Speaker 1: great Alabama teams. And by the way, in nineteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I know why I was looking this up,
Speaker 1: but Alabama went fifteen and three in the Southeastern Conference
Speaker 1: and didn't get to go to the NCAA Tournament. Why Well,
Speaker 1: there were only twenty eight teams invited back then, and
Speaker 1: only one team per conference that was slotted an NCAA
Speaker 1: tournament Berth. Alabama tied with Vanderbilt for the SEC regular
Speaker 1: season championship. There was no tournament back there no postseason tournament.
Speaker 1: They both went fifteen and three, but two of Alabama's
Speaker 1: losses were to Vanderbilt, so Vandy gets the tiebreaker and
Speaker 1: Vandy goes to the NCAA Tournament. Can you imagine going
Speaker 1: fifteen and three in your league and not getting a
Speaker 1: bid in the NCAA Tournament and Vandy brother Alabama, and
Speaker 1: Alabama did not go to the NIT for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: Sixteen teams went back then and Alabama either didn't get
Speaker 1: a bit. I can't imagine are chose not to go.
Speaker 1: Purdue ended up winning it in seventy four. This Alabama
Speaker 1: team is good enough to make a deep run in
Speaker 1: postseason again, and it looks like so is Kentucky. Maybe
Speaker 1: still a little premature to say that, but the Wildcats
Speaker 1: have impressive wins, as you know, and they play a
Speaker 1: similar style to Alabama, as you know. Our pope, talking
Speaker 1: to the media in his pre Alabama game news conference,
Speaker 1: said he certainly does expect to see similar styles on
Speaker 1: the floor in Repperena tomorrow.
Speaker 2: I mean, now you're hoping to find ways to increase
Speaker 2: the pace of the game, for sure, Like we always
Speaker 2: want to keep the pace faster, and we want to
Speaker 2: keep the space on the floor, and we want to
Speaker 2: keep the pace as fast as we can. So you
Speaker 2: would think Alabama come here and they're certain they're not
Speaker 2: trying to slow down.
Speaker 3: Those guys trying to go faster. So this might be
Speaker 3: a breakneck game where it's.
Speaker 2: Just like you know, down and back and down the
Speaker 2: back of Tell two Who Falls over Dead first?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: Which is super fun too.
Speaker 2: So I think going into games you have an idea,
Speaker 2: but every game takes on a character of its own.
Speaker 1: I think this is one of those games where no
Speaker 1: matter what's going on, whether team A is hitting shots,
Speaker 1: team B is hitting shots, whether they're they're missing, whether
Speaker 1: they're going on you know, cold spells, whatever, I think,
Speaker 1: neither team is going to slow down. They're going to
Speaker 1: keep pushing the tempo, keep looking for even more and
Speaker 1: more pace. And Mark Pope said, no matter what, he
Speaker 1: wants his team to keep it up.
Speaker 2: I mean, now you're hoping to find ways to increase
Speaker 2: the pace of the game for sure, Like we always
Speaker 2: want to keep the pace faster. We want to keep
Speaker 2: the space on the floor, and we want to keep
Speaker 2: the pace as fast as we can. So you would
Speaker 2: think Alabama come here, and they're certainly not trying to
Speaker 2: slow down. The guy's trying to go faster. So this
Speaker 2: might be a breakneck game where it's just like you know,
Speaker 2: down and back and down in back and Tell two
Speaker 2: who falls over Dead first?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: Which is super fun too.
Speaker 2: So I think going into games you have an idea,
Speaker 2: but every game takes on a character of his own.
Speaker 1: Coming up in our next segment, I'm going to share
Speaker 1: some stuff with you that Mark Pope talked about yesterday,
Speaker 1: just big picture stuff involving his team. He talked about
Speaker 1: humility versus and confidence versus arrogance. He talked about synergy
Speaker 1: and how that kind of translates into love for one
Speaker 1: another on a team. Really fascinating stuff. You never know
Speaker 1: what you're gonna get when you go to a Mark
Speaker 1: Pope news conference, but you know you're gonna get something interesting,
Speaker 1: and may take him quite a while to get to
Speaker 1: the point, but I think that's what's fun about it.
Speaker 1: So we'll hear that coming up in our next segment.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to share some other things with you.
Speaker 1: Quinn yours. You saw him play against Kentucky, you saw
Speaker 1: him in the playoffs, EXAs quarterback. He is declaring for
Speaker 1: the NFL Draft. We were down there in Austin, Tom
Speaker 1: and Jeff and I wondering about nixt season with Texas.
Speaker 1: He could have come back. You had to wonder if
Speaker 1: he did with their Arch Manning, if he came back
Speaker 1: with Manning stick around, because now it appears Arch Manning
Speaker 1: will be the incumbent. But get this, he could have
Speaker 1: stuck around Quinn The Yours could have stuck around and
Speaker 1: picked up eight million dollars in nil money if he
Speaker 1: had transferred to another school to play one more year
Speaker 1: in the NCAA. That's according to the two four to
Speaker 1: seven Sports. It did not share which school made that offer.
Speaker 1: Apparently it wasn't Texas. But had he decided to play
Speaker 1: another year wherever he had gone Quin Yours, now that
Speaker 1: means you talk about gambling on yourself. He's pretty certain
Speaker 1: he's going to be in the NFL next year, at
Speaker 1: least somebody's camp, and he is supposedly the best quarterback
Speaker 1: on the board. Honestly, I'm curious to see what he does.
Speaker 1: Maybe he didn't have to do that much against Kentucky,
Speaker 1: although he did play I think, really well in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: So some say he's the best QB who's coming out,
Speaker 1: so he'll make millions. But just imagine saying no, thank
Speaker 1: you and walking away from eight million dollars. That's pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: Speaking of dollars, in college athletics, there is a plan
Speaker 1: on the boards to pay athletes directly, and I owe money,
Speaker 1: but the Department of Education issued a statement yesterday that
Speaker 1: would really gum up the worksh if you will, it
Speaker 1: would run a foul, it says of Title nine, a
Speaker 1: nine page memo from the Department's Office for Civil Rights
Speaker 1: said nil money that goes two athletes should be treated
Speaker 1: the same as athletic financial aid, meaning scholarships. So if
Speaker 1: that remains in place, a lot of the plans and
Speaker 1: schools are making could be upended. I have a feeling
Speaker 1: the new president will stick his nose in there and
Speaker 1: change things. But remember Title nine level the playing field
Speaker 1: for women. But some say, I don't know. I want
Speaker 1: to use the word unfairly, but it's not equitable because
Speaker 1: it takes into account the fact that there are eighty
Speaker 1: five scholarship athletes, you know, on college football teams. So
Speaker 1: now when you're talking about equal numbers, if you will,
Speaker 1: are equitable numbers, you have to balance that against football
Speaker 1: and there's no way to you no easy way to
Speaker 1: do that with women's athletics. So this really complicates the matter,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be something that I think will
Speaker 1: be battled over all summer long. Coming up tonight on
Speaker 1: the show, we're going to hear from Jerry Hale. Jerry
Speaker 1: played for the Super Kittens. He was part of that
Speaker 1: great recruiting class with Kevin Greevy and Jimmy dan Connor,
Speaker 1: that bunch that went to the championship game in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy five. They are of course celebrating an anniversary this year,
Speaker 1: and they will be honored at an upcoming UK game.
Speaker 1: So we're going to talk to Jerry coming up at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the hour. Also, we're going to talk
Speaker 1: with the Billy Rutleds, because Billy and I are going
Speaker 1: to look ahead into the NFL playoffs and the college
Speaker 1: football Championship Game. Try to figure out who's going to
Speaker 1: cover if you will. I'm also going to talk to
Speaker 1: my old buddy Steve Moss from WKYT in advance of
Speaker 1: the Herod Leaders Sports Figure of the Year voting. It's
Speaker 1: kind of fun. I really love that project, and Mark's
Speaker 1: story will join us as he always does after the
Speaker 1: results are announced. But Steve and I have had many
Speaker 1: spirited discussions back when I was with WIE team really
Speaker 1: since then. Oftentimes our voting was maybe not wildly different,
Speaker 1: but markedly different. It's very similar this year, which kind
Speaker 1: of surprised me, So we'll talk about that a little
Speaker 1: bit later on in the show. And we're also going
Speaker 1: to hear about some crazy backstories from college basketball that
Speaker 1: might surprise you. But next Mark Pope really digs deep
Speaker 1: into what makes this Kentucky team special and why he
Speaker 1: likes coaching it so much. That's all ahead here on
Speaker 1: The Big Blue Sider six thirty wlap Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Big Bloon Sider. Coming up in just a few minutes.
Speaker 1: Jerry Hale haven't talked to Jerry on the show in
Speaker 1: a while. Jerry was part of the seventy four to
Speaker 1: seventy five team that went to the NCAA Championship game,
Speaker 1: part of the Super Kittens class that was recruited at Kentucky,
Speaker 1: and of course those guys couldn't play as freshmen, but
Speaker 1: their freshman team back when a lot of colleges played
Speaker 1: freshman schedules or the talk of the nation, and in fact,
Speaker 1: it was said off times not just gave the varsity
Speaker 1: team trouble, but beat the varsity. We're gonna I've talked
Speaker 1: to Kevin Grievy about that, but we're gonna talk to
Speaker 1: Jerry about that as well. Including a conversation about the
Speaker 1: upcoming get together and they're gonna have a reunion dinner
Speaker 1: and they're gonna be honored at one of the games
Speaker 1: because this is the fiftieth anniversary of that season. That
Speaker 1: was such a great year, coming off a thirteen and
Speaker 1: thirteen year, you know, And this is a team that
Speaker 1: was supposed to win a national championship or two and
Speaker 1: that win the conference every year, and they did as sophomores,
Speaker 1: but really fell down as juniors and then bounced back
Speaker 1: as seniors thanks to an infusion of young talent guys
Speaker 1: like Jack Gibbons, James Lee, Mike Phillips, Rick Roby. But
Speaker 1: there was so much fun to watch. And that's the
Speaker 1: team that I've sat Indiana, and Jerry is an Indiana native,
Speaker 1: so we'll talk to him coming up at the bottom
Speaker 1: of the hour. But I wanted to share with you
Speaker 1: a couple of comments from Mark Pope, and again, I
Speaker 1: do it all for this and I don't make these
Speaker 1: comments by way of judging him against the last coach
Speaker 1: he was here. But it's just a different style of coaching.
Speaker 1: It's a different brand of philosophy. John Calibray won a
Speaker 1: national title here. He did a lot of great things here,
Speaker 1: and yes, things fell off towards the end. So I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to compare the two, but I'm just saying
Speaker 1: I enjoy some of these deep dives that Mark Pope
Speaker 1: is making. And I don't know if there was any
Speaker 1: way to expect this. You knew it was going to
Speaker 1: be different with Mark, if for no other reason because
Speaker 1: he is deeper into analytics than most coaches. But he's
Speaker 1: just got a big brain and he is a deep thinker.
Speaker 1: And I guess if you held a lot of coaches down,
Speaker 1: they would say similar things. But with Mark, it just
Speaker 1: kind of comes more easily to him, and he every
Speaker 1: now and then drops in a coach speak, but every
Speaker 1: now and then he'll give an answer about well, the
Speaker 1: way his team is put together and the fact that
Speaker 1: he's got veteran players, but they're willing to all play
Speaker 1: a role. Nobody and I'm paraphrasing here, nobody needs or
Speaker 1: wants to be the star on this team. They're putting
Speaker 1: the needs of the team first. And that sounds pretty basic,
Speaker 1: pretty obvious, but it's not always the case. It's not
Speaker 1: always been the case at Kentucky, and you, as basketball
Speaker 1: fans you've seen it. You could tell every once. So
Speaker 1: it hasn't happened a lot, but every once in a
Speaker 1: while there are guys who put their own needs ahead
Speaker 1: of the team and their teammates. And one of the
Speaker 1: things Pope loves about this team is the fact that
Speaker 1: everybody is willing to be humble when it counts.
Speaker 2: This idea of humility is so important, right. A lot
Speaker 2: of times we mistake, we think that somehow confidence and
Speaker 2: humility somehow are not They're almost not exactly opposite, but
Speaker 2: they almost are in contention with this They're not like
Speaker 2: the most confident people are the most humble people. I
Speaker 2: really believe that there's a big difference between arrogance and confidence. Okay,
Speaker 2: arrogance people are not humble. Arrogant people are stuck. They
Speaker 2: can't learn, they can't grow. They think they know everything,
Speaker 2: and they're just stuck. Because you think you know everything,
Speaker 2: You're not going to take any new data in, You're
Speaker 2: not gonna actually be curious.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: But when you have when you have really really confident
Speaker 2: people that are really really humble and you throw in
Speaker 2: some curiosity, that is a growing that's a that's a
Speaker 2: growth mindset. Person that's someone's like, hey, I'm really good
Speaker 2: at this, and I know that I'm good enough of
Speaker 2: this to get better. I know I can get better.
Speaker 2: And the curiosity part seeps in there. And that's where
Speaker 2: we have a locker room with guys like that. Man,
Speaker 2: We have guys that are that are confident enough to
Speaker 2: really really be humble, and they got a whole load
Speaker 2: of curiosity and they get better. And we're seeing in
Speaker 2: real time with like big like monsters, things like our
Speaker 2: work on the glass right, and that's not done, like
Speaker 2: that's going to be a continuing progress, but we've made
Speaker 2: huge progress and.
Speaker 3: It's fun. It's funny coach guys like that.
Speaker 1: That was toward the end of the news conference when somebody,
Speaker 1: I think it was Keith Taylor asked him about the
Speaker 1: value of having veteran players and of course he's got
Speaker 1: He didn't say this, but I am, he's got the
Speaker 1: right veteran players. We've talked before about that, how Pope
Speaker 1: has done his homework, he and his staff and did
Speaker 1: a great job of getting not just the right kind
Speaker 1: of athlete, but the right kind of person through the portal.
Speaker 1: Because this was going to be obviously a unique situation
Speaker 1: an entire team coming together, kind of like the Dirty
Speaker 1: Dozen if you've seen a movie, you know, they needed
Speaker 1: certain skills, guys with certain skill sets to plug and play.
Speaker 1: But they needed the right kind of guy. And as
Speaker 1: Pope said, if you're confident as opposed to being arrogant,
Speaker 1: you've got an open mind and you're willing to learn.
Speaker 1: And you know he later on talked in a different
Speaker 1: context about Amari Williams, but it fits here. He said,
Speaker 1: he bumped into Amari coming out of Rapperena, Mark'said, coming
Speaker 1: out of the gym, coming out of Repperina after treatment,
Speaker 1: or might have been out of the joke Craft Center
Speaker 1: after the game late the other night, and he said,
Speaker 1: Amari kind of brightly said him, I'm learning how to
Speaker 1: box out. This is a guy who's three time defensive
Speaker 1: player of the Year at his previous school. He's played
Speaker 1: a lot of college basketball, he's been halfway around the
Speaker 1: world and back. But he's learning and he's happy to
Speaker 1: be learning it, which I thought was a really interesting SoundBite,
Speaker 1: a real interesting comment, especially against the backdrop of what
Speaker 1: Pope has talked about with regard to humility, and this
Speaker 1: kind of ties into another comment he made about synergy, which,
Speaker 1: as you know, is when a bunch of people or
Speaker 1: different groups come together as one and accomplish something and
Speaker 1: it's better than they could individually and cumulatively, you know,
Speaker 1: on their own. Doing it together makes for a better result.
Speaker 1: And Pope use that word as well as the word love.
Speaker 2: I believe that for a team to to become everything,
Speaker 2: to have all the synergy that you can have. And
Speaker 2: I'm using that word very specifically, like the definition of
Speaker 2: that word matters to really, like have the most impact
Speaker 2: of the synergy of guys together on a team that
Speaker 2: comes from a place of love, like it does. I
Speaker 2: know that sounds soft, but it's real. Like that is
Speaker 2: a real thing. And love is a two part word.
Speaker 2: Love is something it's an affection that you feel for someone,
Speaker 2: but it's also a very it's also a verb. It's
Speaker 2: an active endeavor. It's both. It's a nown and a
Speaker 2: verb and they're both real and you kind of flip
Speaker 2: back and forth between the two.
Speaker 3: And you know, teams function an elite.
Speaker 2: Level when you actually care enough about your teammate that
Speaker 2: you're not totally lost, your thoughts aren't lost on yourself.
Speaker 3: That's a real thing. It's one of the beauty.
Speaker 2: It's why I love team sports, It's why I love
Speaker 2: team organizations.
Speaker 3: It's why I love a staff.
Speaker 2: It's why I love looking at companies that actually function
Speaker 2: at a high level.
Speaker 1: Mark Pope News Conference. Never a dull moment I can
Speaker 1: recommend them. Welcome back and talk to Jerry Hale, former
Speaker 1: Kentucky super Kitten on the anniversary of a great season.
Speaker 1: That's next on six thirty Wlap Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Big bluem sider joining us now on our celebrity hotline
Speaker 1: is a longtime friend and a former believe it in
Speaker 1: a classmate. We overlapped in school though, Jerry Hale a
Speaker 1: little bit older than I am. You graduate in seventy five.
Speaker 1: Welcome back. We haven't talked on the show in quite
Speaker 1: a while.
Speaker 4: Have not, Dick, but thanks for having me appreciate it.
Speaker 1: You reached out the other day to let me know
Speaker 1: that you and your seventy five team that went to
Speaker 1: the championship game, you're having a reunion to celebrate golly
Speaker 1: fifty years.
Speaker 4: Fifty years. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now, you've gotten together before, of course, but it's always
Speaker 1: fun when you guys get together, tell stories, and of
Speaker 1: course you don't have Coach Hall with you anymore. But
Speaker 1: I remember him talking about some of the stories you
Speaker 1: guys told. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear him,
Speaker 1: you know, but then he would tell stories on you guys.
Speaker 1: So it's always fun.
Speaker 4: Isn't it. It is? And it brings me back to
Speaker 4: after I had graduated. Just a quick little story, Coach
Speaker 4: All asked me to go up on a recruiting trip
Speaker 4: up in Indiana with you. And it was Coach Parsons
Speaker 4: and myself and the pilot who was a friend of
Speaker 4: the programs. And we flew up the Indiana and Coach
Speaker 4: party since and I went to see one kid play.
Speaker 4: Coach Hall and Bob went to see this other guy play.
Speaker 4: And when we got back, we got back to this
Speaker 4: little hangar where we were. We were sitting there and
Speaker 4: drink a salt drinking Coach Hall asked me, goes. He says,
Speaker 4: why did you drive me crazy? You know, talking about
Speaker 4: our group? Yeah, And I said, Coach, you're the one
Speaker 4: that drove us crazy. I mean it was, it was.
Speaker 4: It was a back and forth thing, but I was
Speaker 4: I was almost scared to be sitting there with him.
Speaker 4: But he's asked me this question. But but we had
Speaker 4: a lot of fun and a lot of good stories.
Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit first of all about why
Speaker 1: you came to school here. You're one of several Indiana
Speaker 1: starred I mean you were you were a great player
Speaker 1: in the state of Indiana. Could have gone to a
Speaker 1: lot of places, turned down norm Sloan and then c
Speaker 1: state right and but decided to cross the border. Not
Speaker 1: a lot of action in the other direction. Never heard
Speaker 1: of many Kentucky kids going up to Indiana. But as
Speaker 1: you came down and and played here for a great team.
Speaker 4: Well, mine was pretty simple and you probably know the
Speaker 4: story though, but my dad was from originally from Litchfield, Kentucky,
Speaker 4: and then when he married my mom, they moved to
Speaker 4: New Albany, Indiana, just right across from Louisville. But we
Speaker 4: listened to Claude Sullivan and Kywood Lefpard, you know, growing up.
Speaker 4: And dad was a big avid Kentucky fan. So I
Speaker 4: was in dockmated with Kentucky instead of I you, even
Speaker 4: though I'm living right there in Indiana. But so he
Speaker 4: kind of brought me into you know, want noise to
Speaker 4: go to Kentucky. So it was a dream for me
Speaker 4: to go to Kentucky and the cake stories out there
Speaker 4: that when I was twelve, he got a ticket and
Speaker 4: we came down to see Kentucky and Tulane. I got
Speaker 4: all reps, runs, autographs is in sixty six, the sixty five,
Speaker 4: sixty sixties, and got all their autographs, and that at
Speaker 4: the end of the game, they wheeled out a big
Speaker 4: six foot cake in the shape and number one because
Speaker 4: they were re number one in the country. He said,
Speaker 4: anybody wants a piece, come down and get it. So
Speaker 4: I ran down. I was one of the first ones
Speaker 4: in line, and Coach Trump was actually handed me a
Speaker 4: piece of cake and that actually had an A on
Speaker 4: it or something part of his name. He cut off
Speaker 4: and I took it back and I told my dad,
Speaker 4: I want to go eat it till I signed at Kentucky,
Speaker 4: so that that cake stayed in refrigerator till I signed,
Speaker 4: and then they brought it out when I signed it
Speaker 4: a it was an assembly at my high school, and
Speaker 4: then they brought it out and then I said, well,
Speaker 4: I'm going to eat it to we win the national championship.
Speaker 4: So they took it out to San Diego with them.
Speaker 4: So if we had if we had beaten uc LA.
Speaker 4: It's always that what if, ef hutting, what if things.
Speaker 4: But I would have taken a bite of it. But
Speaker 4: to this day that cake is in my freezer.
Speaker 1: Will it be consumed?
Speaker 4: I doubt it. I think the kids will probably throw
Speaker 4: it in my casket or whatever we put.
Speaker 1: You in a casket. I know, what was it like
Speaker 1: at your high school among your friends, your teammates, your
Speaker 1: buddies when you said Kentucky I mean, or did they
Speaker 1: always assume you were going there?
Speaker 4: Yes? I mean because they knew. I mean, especially playing
Speaker 4: golf yesterday with a good friend of mine who was
Speaker 4: the other guard on the team. He lives down in Bufford.
Speaker 4: I'm down in South Carolina right now, and he talked
Speaker 4: about that yesterday. We were talking. He says, you remember,
Speaker 4: he said, you know, you like Tennessee. And there's another
Speaker 4: guy he mentioned, Gary Downey, and he said he loved
Speaker 4: Tennessee and you know, and he and I would go
Speaker 4: back and banner back about that. But so yeah, it
Speaker 4: was you know, I got a lot of ribbing and
Speaker 4: stuff like that about it, but not much. And I've
Speaker 4: had a lot of a lot of friends that you know,
Speaker 4: always said they rooted for me, but you know for IU,
Speaker 4: So you know it was good.
Speaker 1: You know in the documentary we put together on your
Speaker 1: former teammate or Reggie Warford and talking to Bob Guy,
Speaker 1: yet he told the story you've probably heard it about that.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows that seventy five game. We all believe Kentucky
Speaker 1: would have won, but John wouldn't announced his retirement a
Speaker 1: little bit of extra motivation for UCLA. And really, I
Speaker 1: know you think you guys still should have won. You
Speaker 1: missed some free throws and wood and should have been
Speaker 1: teed up when he walked out on the floor during
Speaker 1: the game. But anyhow, and Bob respectfully said to the coach,
Speaker 1: you know, we believed that if you hadn't nash your retirement,
Speaker 1: we would have won, and John wouldn't. Very equally politely
Speaker 1: but firmly explained to Bob, no, Bob, we would have
Speaker 1: beaten you with our quickness, and went on to break
Speaker 1: it down for him. That was a great story. But
Speaker 1: I gave Bob credit for even bringing it up.
Speaker 4: Well, you know there's another story about that same thing
Speaker 4: with Greedy. Kevin had was in out in California, and
Speaker 4: you know he'd worked for the Lakers as a scout
Speaker 4: and so forth. But I don't know when this was,
Speaker 4: but it wasn't point. He might have been when he
Speaker 4: was playing ball, but he was on it on the
Speaker 4: elevator and Coach Wooden was on there. Good boy, he said.
Speaker 4: He said something about, you know, coach, and we should
Speaker 4: have beaten you all, and Coach Woulden's responsible. That says, yeah, Kevin,
Speaker 4: but you know, if you could have played better defense,
Speaker 4: maybe you could have.
Speaker 1: But Kevin still had a great game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I'll tell you.
Speaker 1: What then we'll move on. But I made the mistake, Jerry,
Speaker 1: of saying that to Denny Crumb once, and it was
Speaker 1: at a point where I knew him a little bit,
Speaker 1: and I brought that up. And of course Denny by
Speaker 1: then was at U of L but fiercely loyal to
Speaker 1: John Wooden, his former coach and former boss, and man,
Speaker 1: he more than firmly told me why I was wrong.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that that door swings both ways. Talking to
Speaker 1: Jerry Hale, former Kentucky Wildcat, well, once a Wildcat, always
Speaker 1: a Wildcat, But he and his teammates from the seventy
Speaker 1: five team will be honored Prior to the South Carolina game.
Speaker 1: And uh, when you talk about that team, everybody always
Speaker 1: wants to talk about Jerry. And I know you've answered
Speaker 1: countless questions about the Super Kittens. That was one of
Speaker 1: the last teams where freshmen weren't allowed to play varsity basketball,
Speaker 1: and your freshman team made almost as many headlines, didn't
Speaker 1: it as the varsity because you were it was a
Speaker 1: big class. There was so much talent and you guys
Speaker 1: played a I don't know if it was a full schedule,
Speaker 1: but an ambitionous schedule of freshman games, and you had
Speaker 1: the best team in.
Speaker 4: The country as freshmen, right, And when we ended up
Speaker 4: playing twenty two games that year and we were twenty
Speaker 4: two and oho, we averaged I think we might have
Speaker 4: averaged over one hundred points, my gosh. And it was
Speaker 4: close to that. And you know that's without the three
Speaker 4: point sure go as well for shock, right, But you know,
Speaker 4: the one thing just kind of going back to the
Speaker 4: beginning when we all came to UK as freshmen. We
Speaker 4: were in the dorm and there was a show that
Speaker 4: came on It said rainy night in Georgia. I think
Speaker 4: Billy Thompson Yell, ex field sportscaster back then put it together,
Speaker 4: but it was it was about the Western Kentucky game
Speaker 4: the previous year and how they beat us and that
Speaker 4: there was new hope on the horizon. Well, we were
Speaker 4: locked in our room and varsity Andrew Stamford, they were
Speaker 4: banging on the door and they wanted to just kill us.
Speaker 4: We were scared to come out of the room and
Speaker 4: we were watching this thing and it was kind of
Speaker 4: you know, touting us as being the savior and all
Speaker 4: this stuff. So that was kind of the start of it.
Speaker 4: And then as the season wore on, we ended up
Speaker 4: practicing against the varsity every day because the varsity was
Speaker 4: kind of limited back then as far as the scholarship
Speaker 4: players that they had, right, and they had a few
Speaker 4: walk ons, But we ended up scrimmaging and practic against
Speaker 4: the varsity every day, which made us a lot better
Speaker 4: but made them better as well. And I remember the
Speaker 4: first time we scrimmaged them, they beat us fifty three points,
Speaker 4: and you know, we ran and the old they ran
Speaker 4: the old number ten play and Tom Parker had come
Speaker 4: across just lay out greevy, you know, on the ten pick.
Speaker 4: But but you know that kind of started then as
Speaker 4: we started playing our games we'd always played you know,
Speaker 4: the night before or the day the day before the game.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, nothing before, but you know, yeah, and then
Speaker 4: they started switching it to the day before the game,
Speaker 4: like on a Friday evening because we were selling I mean,
Speaker 4: they would be able to fill the colisseum. So we
Speaker 4: were filling the coliseum for the freshman games and so
Speaker 4: that was that was kind of neat. And then we
Speaker 4: even when we went on the road, it was kind
Speaker 4: of that way. We you know, we'd try to play
Speaker 4: you know, earlier because they can help sell more tickets.
Speaker 4: I guess, you know, the kind of have two games there.
Speaker 4: But anyway, that was kind of good. And one of
Speaker 4: the first big games we had was in Frankfort and
Speaker 4: we dedicated the Frankfort Convention Center and it was against
Speaker 4: Furman and they had Professor Leonard who was a sudden
Speaker 4: foot center, a guy named Baron Hill who have played
Speaker 4: against in Indiana and in the high school tournament. He
Speaker 4: was ended up being a congressman later on, but he
Speaker 4: was a guard and ran the hundred like under Ten's flat. Wow.
Speaker 4: They had a couple other guys, but anyway, we ended
Speaker 4: up beating them by sixty points. And it was you know,
Speaker 4: it's just one of those things that everything worked out.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think we started out on them and
Speaker 4: it was twenty something and nothing wow, and so it
Speaker 4: was just you know, that just kind of elevated them more.
Speaker 4: And that was like the third or fourth game of
Speaker 4: the season, and so it just carried on and you know,
Speaker 4: we we had some close games naturally at Florida and Tennessee.
Speaker 4: I remember that. You know, they ended up being in
Speaker 4: single digit wins, but you know, they were all winning.
Speaker 4: So it was a it was a magical time.
Speaker 1: Former Kentucky guard Jerry Hale as my guess. We'll come
Speaker 1: back and talk more basketball with Jerry in just a minute.
Speaker 1: Hair on the Big Blue Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Jerry Hale. Jerry part of the nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy five Kentucky team that played for a national championship,
Speaker 1: and we'll be honored prior to the South Carolina game
Speaker 1: and that weekend guys will get together for a reunion dinner.
Speaker 1: And you know, Jerry that the story of that team
Speaker 1: I think is one of the most fascinating in UK
Speaker 1: basketball history. We talked about the Super kittens, and then
Speaker 1: you win a conference championship as sophomores and everything's great,
Speaker 1: but you're undersized as juniors. Bob's got to play center,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Dan's got to play forward, and you're thirteen and
Speaker 1: thirteen and everybody want a job's head. Then you turn
Speaker 1: around ad size, ad talent and the recruiting class and
Speaker 1: as we all know, you got to the championship game.
Speaker 1: What was it like being a part of a team
Speaker 1: as a group, you guys experience that together. Boy, all
Speaker 1: the ups and downs.
Speaker 4: You know, well we did, and you know, kind of
Speaker 4: getting back the nightmare of our junior year. It's one
Speaker 4: of those things. You know, you look at the schedule
Speaker 4: and you look at the scores. There were a lot
Speaker 4: of games that we lost that were close, and you know,
Speaker 4: I always say good teams win close games, they know
Speaker 4: how to win. We didn't do it that year. I mean,
Speaker 4: we lost those close games and that you know, that
Speaker 4: created a thirteen and thirteen year for us. But we
Speaker 4: went to Australia, Tahiti and Australia during the summer prior
Speaker 4: to our senior year, and that got us a closer
Speaker 4: as the seven of us that came in together. We've
Speaker 4: always been close, but you know, coming both with the
Speaker 4: rest of the guys. And now we didn't have Rick
Speaker 4: and Mike and James and Jack Jack on the trip
Speaker 4: to Australia, but it did get uscare. We spent three
Speaker 4: days in Tahiti and played the national tahesion team, which
Speaker 4: i was taller than any of their guys at six foot,
Speaker 4: so that wasn't the thing. But as we went down,
Speaker 4: we played seventeen games in Australia. And back then there's
Speaker 4: a guy named Eddie Palliabinkis who was from Australia and
Speaker 4: he played at LSU. Good white, real blond headed guard,
Speaker 4: long hair. But anyway, every time we played a national
Speaker 4: team or a real good team, Eddie would show up
Speaker 4: and be on that team. I mean whether we're in
Speaker 4: Sydney and Melbourne, Adelaide, Cannabar, wherever we were, Eddie would
Speaker 4: be on that team. But anyway, so we always saw
Speaker 4: enough of anybody you thinkus. But but that that that
Speaker 4: that trip helped us, you know, mode into more of
Speaker 4: a cohesive unit. And then when we got back and
Speaker 4: when Rick and Jack and James and Mike joined us
Speaker 4: and Danny Hall, that just created, you know, a more team,
Speaker 4: and we really had that drive and and you know,
Speaker 4: the big guys helped us and everybody got to get
Speaker 4: back into their normal position.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're talking to Jerry Hill. Got a few minutes left.
Speaker 1: People to this day, Jerry asked me, what's what's the
Speaker 1: favorite game you covered when it comes to basketball. I
Speaker 1: still go back to the seventy five minutes region and
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of games, but that game where
Speaker 1: you all upset Indiana and they'll always say, well, Scott
Speaker 1: May was coming off an injury and all, but nobody
Speaker 1: expected you guys to win that game, And uh no
Speaker 1: it was. I mean when you look back and you
Speaker 1: being an Indiana kid against the backdrop of this Bob
Speaker 1: Knight cuffing Joe b in the back of the head
Speaker 1: and Lynn Nance wanting to attack him, I got to think,
Speaker 1: for you an Indiana kid, that had to be incredible.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, you know I was. We got to beat
Speaker 4: us about twenty four ye Bloomington that year in December,
Speaker 4: and I was part of the play that created the
Speaker 4: backslap in the coach Hall's head by Coach Knight. Steve
Speaker 4: Ballfield was driving down the floor and he ended up
Speaker 4: charging me and they charged. They said, well, they call
Speaker 4: it the charge. Knight thought of was a block and
Speaker 4: that's what he went over everything, and we were up,
Speaker 4: but they were up about twenty something and you know,
Speaker 4: Coach Hall said something to him and you know, and
Speaker 4: that's when he turned and then Coach Knight slapped him
Speaker 4: upside the head. But then Lynn Nance, you know, kind
Speaker 4: of came after his defence. But but yeah, but then
Speaker 4: then you bring that over into March and Dayton, the
Speaker 4: Bloomington or in Indiana again. And before the game, we
Speaker 4: had a practice on that Friday and Coach Hall, I
Speaker 4: know Jerry Lucas was doing play off play for CBS
Speaker 4: and Coach Hall kicked him out of practice because he
Speaker 4: didn't want anybody because he was We played with Bob
Speaker 4: Knight at Ohio State and so we didn't want anybody.
Speaker 4: We had the most knockdown, drag out practice. We had
Speaker 4: guys getting in fights. And when Coach Hall said, he said,
Speaker 4: when they set that pick down on the baseline, I
Speaker 4: want you to run him over. Well. And then when
Speaker 4: we got back and we got ready for the game,
Speaker 4: and when nothing was said after the end of that practice,
Speaker 4: got to the game that day, we were getting ready
Speaker 4: and Coach Hall, you know, puts on the board, he
Speaker 4: puts you know, nets Bus Coliseum and we get out
Speaker 4: there and we in the first play of the game,
Speaker 4: Bob guy had just laid out Steve Green on the baseline.
Speaker 4: And their motion offense kind of changed after that because
Speaker 4: you know, Bob got called a foul, but where they
Speaker 4: would kind of dip the shoulder and they would run
Speaker 4: their motion offense, and you know, after two or three
Speaker 4: runs through that motion, they would have an open shot
Speaker 4: because you know, we would be dodging the picks. Now
Speaker 4: they were dodging us trying to pick us, so we
Speaker 4: were getting over the picks. So that that that made
Speaker 4: it a lot better. And you know, we were up a
Speaker 4: little quite a bit on them. When I say back
Speaker 4: quite a bit, I mean it was up to seventy
Speaker 4: eight points there toward the end of the game, but
Speaker 4: it got real tight. They're at the end as well,
Speaker 4: and that they made a run there. But yeah, that
Speaker 4: was that was That was a magical time. And to
Speaker 4: go back into the coliseum and you know like that
Speaker 4: with the bus, the place is packed.
Speaker 5: It was, it was.
Speaker 4: It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: There's going to be a lot of laughs, aren't there
Speaker 1: When you guys get together for your reunion.
Speaker 4: There there will be and and you know, it's just
Speaker 4: one of those things. I mean, Unfortunately, we've got four,
Speaker 4: you know, of our teammates and are not with us,
Speaker 4: with Reggie, Mike Phillips, Danny Hall and GJ. Smith, you know,
Speaker 4: so it's kind of a thing we're missing. But we've
Speaker 4: reached out and still trying to reach out to Gj's wife.
Speaker 4: Hopefully she'll be able to make it. But I know
Speaker 4: Candy Phillips and her and Mike and Mike and her
Speaker 4: son's going to join her and Marissa Warfire's going to
Speaker 4: make it down so that's good. And like I say,
Speaker 4: we're just trying to get a hold of gd right
Speaker 4: now and any air the Danny that might be able
Speaker 4: to come and represent him as well.
Speaker 1: Jerry, thank you so much for the time. Always a pleasure.
Speaker 1: Looking forward to seeing you.
Speaker 4: All right, Dick, Thanks very much. Go cats.
Speaker 1: That's it for our number one. Coming up on hour
Speaker 1: number two, Billy Rutledge and I will tell you who's
Speaker 1: going to win the NFL playoff games, and there are
Speaker 1: some great ones coming up We're also going to look
Speaker 1: ahead to Notre Dame, Ohio State. We'll pick that one
Speaker 1: as well, and I'll talk to Steve Moss and wqyit
Speaker 1: about who should be the sports Figure of the Year
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty four. Say with us all of that
Speaker 1: as ahead here on the big one side, her six
Speaker 1: point thirty lap name. Welcome back to the Big Blue
Speaker 1: and cider coming up at in just a few minutes. Actually,
Speaker 1: Steve Moss from WYT longtime sports videographer and producer. He
Speaker 1: and I are going to talk about this year's voting
Speaker 1: for the twenty twenty four Kentucky's Sports Figure of the Year.
Speaker 1: That's the polling that the Hero Leader does. Thanks to
Speaker 1: Mark's story, it's his baby. He didn't create ate it,
Speaker 1: but he inherited the job of putting out the ballot,
Speaker 1: collecting them, tabulating them, and then writing about it, presenting
Speaker 1: it in the newspaper and online. And the results will
Speaker 1: come out in a couple of weeks. But Steve and
Speaker 1: I for many many years work together at KYT and
Speaker 1: he has a ballot, and so we used to throw
Speaker 1: our voting together, independent on one another, and then later
Speaker 1: on we compare notes and We did that again this year,
Speaker 1: of course, even though we don't work together per se,
Speaker 1: and amazingly, our ballots were incredibly similar, including the person
Speaker 1: we think should be at the top. I don't know
Speaker 1: that this person will win as the Kentucky Sports Figure
Speaker 1: of the Year, but Steve and I feel strongly about
Speaker 1: it and we agreed on it. But like I said,
Speaker 1: it's interesting the names that are on our respective ballots
Speaker 1: are very similar, and in some cases in the exact
Speaker 1: same spot. You vote one through ten and then they
Speaker 1: just vote. You know. The Mark puts together the balloting
Speaker 1: on a point total thing and it's a lot of fun,
Speaker 1: but it's really demanding. I take it very seriously, and
Speaker 1: I go through and I mark anybody who I think
Speaker 1: should be considered. And it's tough to ignore most of
Speaker 1: these folks. But after all these years, I kind of
Speaker 1: know what I'm looking for. Who has done the best
Speaker 1: at the highest level, be it national or at their
Speaker 1: highest level wherever they're competing. But one of the problems
Speaker 1: for me is coaches versus athletes. One year, I made
Speaker 1: it a point to not vote for any coaches, just
Speaker 1: to see what my ballot would look like. And then
Speaker 1: this year I will tell you I've got at least
Speaker 1: one coach on my ballot high school versus college, college
Speaker 1: versus pro. You know this sport, that sport. It's been
Speaker 1: an Olympic year, so a lot of Olympic athletes on
Speaker 1: this year's ballot. So I'll go through and mark any
Speaker 1: and every person I think I need to consider. Then
Speaker 1: I win it down to the top fifteen. And then's
Speaker 1: the tough part. Who do I leave off the top
Speaker 1: ten before I mail it into Mark. So coming up
Speaker 1: in a few minutes, Steve and I will talk about
Speaker 1: that Billy religion, and I will run down the NFL games,
Speaker 1: some great playoff games with some point spreads that will
Speaker 1: surprise you some that may not. And then of course
Speaker 1: the National Championship Game comes up on Monday night, Ohio
Speaker 1: State and a Notre Dame. But I wanted to share
Speaker 1: with you here in this segment a couple of things
Speaker 1: I pulled off the innerweb. And the first one and
Speaker 1: I have seen comments like this, you can't help but
Speaker 1: see fans of the Arkansas Razorbacks who are just killing
Speaker 1: John Caliperry, and I don't take any delight in that
Speaker 1: some of you do. And that's fine. And then there's
Speaker 1: a lot of dumb people out there saying dumb things.
Speaker 1: And one of Caliperi's supporters was out there trying to
Speaker 1: take up for Calipery and addressing UK's situation with Mark Pope,
Speaker 1: and he tried to basically say, Caliperi had it tougher
Speaker 1: coming to Arkansas than Mark Pope did coming to Kentucky.
Speaker 1: So listen to this. It's not very long, but you'll
Speaker 1: see why I had to roll my eyes. You probably
Speaker 1: will too.
Speaker 6: I was on the only team to have a late
Speaker 6: Layton for the freshman I was on only team is
Speaker 6: like that, not Kentucky. You could say, well, Kentucky got
Speaker 6: he was new. He had no players when he got
Speaker 6: He had players that were still on Kentucky when he
Speaker 6: got there. But then he bought a whole bunch of
Speaker 6: juniors and seniors from BYU PW brought him two players, actually,
Speaker 6: one that really played a significant amount of minutes. Did
Speaker 6: Jay Wagon was hurt a lot last year, Big Z
Speaker 6: was hurt or in eligible. So the only one that
Speaker 6: really played was a dude Theore and and he has
Speaker 6: stepped his game, but he has gained weight and he
Speaker 6: has put his game and he's doing his thing.
Speaker 1: This guy couldn't be more wrong, could he. Yeah, Kentucky
Speaker 1: had players. Yeah, they had a couple of walk ons,
Speaker 1: You're right about that, But they had no scholarship players.
Speaker 1: Cali Perry, I think had a couple. Cal Perry had
Speaker 1: it bad as well, but arguably he brought with him
Speaker 1: experienced players. And look, Wagner played a lot. He was
Speaker 1: injured last year. Wagner's an experienced college player. Yes, he
Speaker 1: had his problems, but I think prior to this season,
Speaker 1: most people would have agreed that Arkansas, In fact, a
Speaker 1: lot of people did because they picked them to do
Speaker 1: better than they are for the talent they got, plus
Speaker 1: Boogie Flant, high profile recruits. And then to say that,
Speaker 1: you know Pope, he basically shrugged off what Pope has done.
Speaker 1: But that's a guy trying to defend his program. I
Speaker 1: get it. But that's what's out there right now among
Speaker 1: Arkansas fans. Now. The other clip I want to share
Speaker 1: is a story Shane Battier, the former Duke player, told
Speaker 1: about his recruitment and about why he did not become
Speaker 1: a Kentucky Wildcat, and it all goes back to the
Speaker 1: guidelines and rules he set up for the recruiters who
Speaker 1: were coming at him.
Speaker 7: You have coaches calling him every hour the night, just
Speaker 7: trying to find it. I wanted my time. I didn't
Speaker 7: want to be tied down, distracted from my schoolwork and
Speaker 7: my basketball. And so I had my list of six schools.
Speaker 7: It was Michigan, Michigan State, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, and Kentucky.
Speaker 3: And I went by alphabetical order.
Speaker 7: And every Monday night I said, coach k your window
Speaker 7: is from eight to a fifteen. I will be there
Speaker 7: and I will be all yours. All right, Coach izoh,
Speaker 7: you're from eight fifteen to eight thirty. And I went
Speaker 7: down the list.
Speaker 3: Shut the hell up. Think about how crazy this is.
Speaker 3: That's how psycho I was. He's seventeen. I was psycho.
Speaker 7: And so like the coaches appreciated it, like they liked
Speaker 7: it because they knew I was going to be there.
Speaker 7: They knew, like they didn't have to talk about nonsense,
Speaker 7: and they moved on so like it was a win win.
Speaker 3: I loved it. I'll never forget.
Speaker 7: Rick Patino at Kentucky called me outside of his window,
Speaker 7: called me from Yankee Stadium.
Speaker 3: He's like eh, we're you know, we're at the World Series.
Speaker 7: I'm in Steinbrenner's box and I just wanted to holler
Speaker 7: at you and just you know, just just connect, say
Speaker 7: how you doing. It was look at Wednesday night, I said,
Speaker 7: coach man, it's great to hear from you. Man, I
Speaker 7: thank you for calling. It's you know, have fun, you know,
Speaker 7: go Yankees. I'll talk to you later.
Speaker 3: Click.
Speaker 4: I hung up.
Speaker 3: I said, Mom, take Kentucky off the list.
Speaker 7: If that guy doesn't respect my rules, he's not gonna
Speaker 7: respect me if I go there.
Speaker 3: Take them off.
Speaker 7: So Kentucky was off off the ship after one phone call.
Speaker 3: No one else broke the rules. But that's how psycho
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 2: He like the most disciplined seventeen year old I've ever
Speaker 2: heard of.
Speaker 1: That was my reaction too. How does a seventeen year
Speaker 1: old come up with that? But that was great. Now.
Speaker 1: Kentucky fans lined up in the comments section to point
Speaker 1: out that Battier was on that twenty or the nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety eight team that lost to Kentucky, which eventually won
Speaker 1: the national championship. And that's true. But Battie, a boy,
Speaker 1: what a career her? You know, you could make the
Speaker 1: argument that he's the greatest player in the history of
Speaker 1: Duke when you look at his overall career. Won a
Speaker 1: couple of NBA titles, three times National Defensive Player of
Speaker 1: the Year. At Duke, his team won a national championship
Speaker 1: in twenty oh one. He was the most outstanding player
Speaker 1: and consensus All American National College Player of the Year. There.
Speaker 1: I'm sure other Duke players who won more national titles, perhaps,
Speaker 1: but when you look at this guy's resume, he might
Speaker 1: be the greatest Duchie of them all, but might have
Speaker 1: been a wildcat if Patino hadn't screwed up. I always
Speaker 1: wonder if Patino knows that story. I ever see him
Speaker 1: in the near future, I'll have to ask him. Up
Speaker 1: next Steve Moss from wk WHYS he will talk about
Speaker 1: the hero leader Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year voting
Speaker 1: a little bit later on Billy rutleds here on six
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue and sider
Speaker 1: joining us now is a longtime friend and former colleague.
Speaker 1: Steve Moss and I worked together WKYT for a zillion
Speaker 1: years and have had many interesting discussions both in the
Speaker 1: office and in the car. As we went from various
Speaker 1: assignment to assignments, some of them halfway across the country.
Speaker 1: And Steve, one of the things I've always looked forward
Speaker 1: to is the Herald Leaders Sports Figure of the Year balloting.
Speaker 1: Mark Story does an incredible job. That's a huge undertaking.
Speaker 1: But how many times have you and I and oftentimes
Speaker 1: Brian Milem chimes in as a native Kentuckian and Lee
Speaker 1: k We've differed so often and argued so much about
Speaker 1: who should win the award and who should be on
Speaker 1: the list and our top ten? And you and I
Speaker 1: put our heads together via text messages the other day
Speaker 1: and our top four or five are almost identical. I
Speaker 1: find that incredible. I don't know if it's bizarre, but
Speaker 1: it's quite the coincidence, isn't it.
Speaker 6: It is?
Speaker 5: And to Mark Story's credit, shout out to him because
Speaker 5: it is. I mean, we just entered the twenty twenty
Speaker 5: five year and he's probably already started by taking notes
Speaker 5: and gathering stats, and he does such a great job
Speaker 5: of presenting all of the voters with I don't know
Speaker 5: how many people are on that on that list of suggestions,
Speaker 5: one hundred and fifty maybe.
Speaker 4: Something like that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, uh. And and in this year's case, as
Speaker 5: I've told you before, I think you can make the
Speaker 5: case for like five or six people. Uh and yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: at least And when when I asked you and showed
Speaker 5: you my ballot and then you returned with yours, I
Speaker 5: was like, wow, Uh, you know, we're headed in the
Speaker 5: same direction here. Yeah, it's not it's not often that
Speaker 5: that you and I or me and Brian, or you
Speaker 5: and Brian or anybody in the office would would have
Speaker 5: you know, some similar lists.
Speaker 4: We were all over the place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of times, there's a lot of the
Speaker 1: same names, but I think the top four or five
Speaker 1: is had caught my eye very similar for us.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and and and this year, you know, there were
Speaker 5: there were a good number of good stories.
Speaker 4: Uh reed Shepherd for.
Speaker 5: Instance, you know this kid was just kind of still
Speaker 5: call him the kid even though he's a professional now,
Speaker 5: but just years ago, yeah, just a couple of years ago,
Speaker 5: was playing in North Laurel And we've seen Reid kind
Speaker 5: of grow up in front of our eyes, and you
Speaker 5: could make a case for him. And uh, you know,
Speaker 5: of course, Sidney McLaughlin, who was a you know, UK's
Speaker 5: one and done track athlete who who to me is
Speaker 5: probably the best athlete on the planet. Uh and could
Speaker 5: go could go down as one of the greatest hurdlers
Speaker 5: in history. Uh. She won two gold medals and set
Speaker 5: a sixth world record this year. So but you know,
Speaker 5: if you if you're asking me who I voted for, uh,
Speaker 5: I went with Kenny McPeak at the top, just because, yeah,
Speaker 5: just beca he's hyper local, Tates Creek grad. We've all
Speaker 5: you know, heard that story before. You super nice guy, Yes,
Speaker 5: that too, super nice guy. But you know, nice guys
Speaker 5: don't always finish first sometimes. But for the first time
Speaker 5: in fifty two years won the Kentucky Oaks Derby Double,
Speaker 5: which you know, when it happened, it was like, did
Speaker 5: that really just happened? And for a guy who was
Speaker 5: searching for his first Kentucky Derby win, you know, he
Speaker 5: did it in grand fashion.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
Speaker 5: So with with Mystic Dan and Torpedo Anna is still
Speaker 5: out there, you know, kicking butt. So yeah, I went
Speaker 5: with him, And I had Sydney at a very close second.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I had Sydney on my ballot as well. Well.
Speaker 1: First of all, I had Kenny at the top of
Speaker 1: my list. I can't remember the last time you and
Speaker 1: I agreed on who should be at the top. I'm
Speaker 1: sure we have because I'm sure it's been that obvious.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I had Sydney third. I flipped flopped her.
Speaker 1: You had Nickmns you own third. I had him second,
Speaker 1: and the reason was, again going back to sports figure,
Speaker 1: just the way his team galvanized this community. Wasn't just
Speaker 1: what they accomplished, but it was. And again, I'm at
Speaker 1: baseball more than you are, but I know how much
Speaker 1: you enjoy covering baseball. But just seeing the way the
Speaker 1: crowds turned out and turned lexing in for a couple
Speaker 1: three weeks more than that really into into a baseball city.
Speaker 1: I had Readed Shepherd fifth. You had him fourth, and again, yeah,
Speaker 1: sports figure that you know the talk that he generated,
Speaker 1: you know the debate should he be starting, not just
Speaker 1: the performances he turned in. I had Lamar Jackson little
Speaker 1: higher than you. I had him fourth because he is excelling,
Speaker 1: could be an MVP at the highest level of football.
Speaker 1: You've got him on your ballot at ten. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: now you and I did for a little bit. I've
Speaker 1: got Louisville's volleyball coach Danny Busman Kelly at number six.
Speaker 1: She coached her team, and again I'm extremely partial to volleyball.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you did those volleyball games, so I understand that.
Speaker 1: Coach them to the national title game. But then I've
Speaker 1: got Brooklyn Delay number seven, the SEC player of the year.
Speaker 1: You and I both have Shay Gilgis Alexander at number eight.
Speaker 1: Why did you pick him?
Speaker 5: Just because he had another tremendous season and already through
Speaker 5: the start of this season, I believe he's you know,
Speaker 5: he's in the top ten and scoring. He's already being
Speaker 5: mentioned as another potential in VP candidate. He was last
Speaker 5: year he finished second in MVP voting. And for a
Speaker 5: guy who started his UK career as a backup point
Speaker 5: guard on the bench, you know, he has become a
Speaker 5: superstar in that league and the Oklahoma City under his
Speaker 5: team that he that he runs basically, they are they
Speaker 5: are now being predicted. I think they're the Vegas pick
Speaker 5: to win the NBA World title. So he, yeah, he was.
Speaker 5: He was down on my list. Again, I I deferred
Speaker 5: a little bit more to Kentucky in's I had a
Speaker 5: couple of high school kids down there in the mix.
Speaker 5: Brady Atwell quarterback from the western part of the States
Speaker 5: who put up gaudy numbers.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 5: But you know, just those those three or four people
Speaker 5: that we have at the top, I mean, they're just
Speaker 5: kind of no brainers for me.
Speaker 1: I agree. It's just the question is is the order
Speaker 1: of finish You've got Donna Mario coach Sacred Heart to
Speaker 1: get another championship. I grudgingly left her. I had her
Speaker 1: best player. His name escapes me. I had her on
Speaker 1: my initial list and had to leave Roff, the kid
Speaker 1: who was part of all four of her state championship teams.
Speaker 1: I included a high school football player, and I started
Speaker 1: to go with Brady Atwell, but Steve, I went with
Speaker 1: Jack James. He was my number ten on my ballot,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't even quite frankly aware of him. But
Speaker 1: I knew that Paduka Tilman had another great team. There
Speaker 1: were fifteen and zero. They won the four A state title,
Speaker 1: and he had incredible numbers, as high school kids often do.
Speaker 1: But he also won a state wrestling championship, which to
Speaker 1: me just kind of moved him up a little bit
Speaker 1: on my ballot. But like you said, there are so
Speaker 1: many stories like that, aren't there there are.
Speaker 5: This year, there seemed to be a you know a
Speaker 5: larger number of stories like that, and as you say,
Speaker 5: figures who had us all talking has more so than
Speaker 5: in the past year. So getting credit to Mark's story
Speaker 5: for keeping us reminded of all those stories and he
Speaker 5: does that's just an incredible job. And then you know
Speaker 5: he gets the job of tabulating all these votes now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, I'll tell you I had on my
Speaker 1: finals but didn't make my last cut with Chad Pennington,
Speaker 1: the coach at Saye. Yeah, who coached a team that
Speaker 1: went fifteen and oh and want to state title. And
Speaker 1: you know they used to be the laughing stock of
Speaker 1: the city.
Speaker 5: He used to not have a Yeah, they used to
Speaker 5: not have football exactly. And I understand, you know, I
Speaker 5: understand the interest with Chad. You know, if you if
Speaker 5: you gave it for a ten year period, he would
Speaker 5: certainly be on my list just because of what he's
Speaker 5: built there. Yeah, so it's it's he again, another great story.
Speaker 1: One of my second games, kind of second gainst myself
Speaker 1: a little bit at times. That's part of the fun
Speaker 1: I left Lee keefer Off I have voted for I
Speaker 1: think I did the very first interview with her. At
Speaker 1: least I did broadcast interview when she was fifteen. I
Speaker 1: had her on the Big Blue Insider, and she is
Speaker 1: on number nine on your list. Of course, another gold
Speaker 1: medal performance, a couple of them. She did Neil too.
Speaker 5: This time I kind of had I believe she is
Speaker 5: the most decorated American fencer female there that we've had.
Speaker 1: And there are several Olympic athletes on the ballot. I
Speaker 1: kind of chose Sydney and left it a dad as
Speaker 1: the representative. In my own mind, if I had had
Speaker 1: eleven picks, I probably would have Lee. The other thing
Speaker 1: that I wonder, I'm probably I'm second guessing myself a
Speaker 1: little bit. I got Travis Perry number nine. You've got
Speaker 1: a number six on your list, And again going back
Speaker 1: to sports figure, just his backstory. You know the record
Speaker 1: he set and then and then to couple that with
Speaker 1: a state championship which I got to cover this year.
Speaker 1: He certainly belongs on the list. And I'll tell you what, Steve,
Speaker 1: I guarantee you he got some first place votes. I
Speaker 1: would not be at all surprised.
Speaker 5: I'm certain that he did. And you know, he was
Speaker 5: kind of one of those uh, you know, you hate
Speaker 5: to pigeonhole some kid, but you know, he's one of
Speaker 5: those guys that kind of forced you k, you know
Speaker 5: force K's recruiting hand. Yeah, a little bit. And uh,
Speaker 5: you know, kudos to him. His father coaches the high
Speaker 5: school team and they come in there and rub and
Speaker 5: all eyes are on him because he scored you know,
Speaker 5: fifty three hundred points in his career. And while it's
Speaker 5: not a career award, the fact that those guys just
Speaker 5: came in there and blew through everybody, it was, you know,
Speaker 5: another good story.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really was. And again sports figure of the year.
Speaker 1: Uh you know, so it's so hard to compare apples
Speaker 1: and oranges, sports girls, boys, that kind of thing. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the fact that he came in with all eyes on
Speaker 1: him and he performed, you know, and and so.
Speaker 4: The pressure yeah, no, I mean he had he.
Speaker 1: Might he could have arguably had a better Sweet sixteen
Speaker 1: and he was on the list as well.
Speaker 5: But I like to say, you know, and I wanted
Speaker 5: I wanted badly to put Yeah, I wanted badly to
Speaker 5: put a local picture on there who came in in
Speaker 5: a crunch period situation, you know, with the Dodger. I
Speaker 5: wanted to put I wanted to put him on there,
Speaker 5: but you know, his his season numbers.
Speaker 4: Up to that point weren't great.
Speaker 1: Walker Bug.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he was coming off surgery and you.
Speaker 1: Know it's just then he pitched so well in the
Speaker 1: World Series.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You know, in crunch time
Speaker 5: he comes in and literally, you know, on his day off,
Speaker 5: he says, I'll go in there and pitch, and he
Speaker 5: goes in there, and you know, the Dodgers won a
Speaker 5: World championship.
Speaker 1: So tell you I had on my original finalist list
Speaker 1: was Montavin Quisonberry from Boyle County. You were raving about
Speaker 1: him all year and all he did was have an
Speaker 1: incredible season and then he won all the Gatorade Player
Speaker 1: of the Year and other awards. Mister Football signs with Kentucky.
Speaker 1: He was another guy that probably made my final fifteen.
Speaker 1: But you know another issue that I dealt with originally
Speaker 1: my knee jerk for number one was Reed Shepherd Uh
Speaker 1: because just because of just the larger than life persona,
Speaker 1: he kind of took on bringing it back to Kenny Uh.
Speaker 1: When I looked at and this is what I wrote about,
Speaker 1: if they included. I don't know if Mark will whoever
Speaker 1: lays out the paper. They asked us to include some
Speaker 1: thoughts with a ballot, and I just wrote about what
Speaker 1: that weekend means worldwide in the world of sports, and
Speaker 1: it's the biggest sports story in the world that weekend.
Speaker 1: And boy Kenny rose above it, didn't.
Speaker 5: He He did. And if anybody knows Kitty, and you
Speaker 5: and I do know Kenny, uh, you know, he's a
Speaker 5: he's a grinder.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 5: He's had a couple of horses who have been knocking
Speaker 5: on the door, you know, to Hanald run probably yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, he's had some great phillies, but he's never
Speaker 5: been able to literally, uh get that gold ring. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and he finally does, and you know, the day before
Speaker 5: he has thorpedo Anna and she just crushes the field.
Speaker 5: It's just a it's just a great story because you
Speaker 5: and I, well, it's it's it's kind of personal for
Speaker 5: us because we we've kind of grown up with Kenny
Speaker 5: in the business and you see him, you know, on
Speaker 5: the backside, and he's there, you know, at four am
Speaker 5: in the morning. And people don't understand how difficult the
Speaker 5: lifestyle it is for these trainers and you know, yeah,
Speaker 5: and so it's kind of cool to see Kenny now
Speaker 5: become the hot trainer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's good for the game, very good for the
Speaker 1: game because he understands marketing. It's right, video of Thorpeda
Speaker 1: Anna on social media. He's got people working with him
Speaker 1: on that and uh, you know he he doesn't seek
Speaker 1: them out, but he loves doing interviews just to you know,
Speaker 1: promote the game. And I know some of the national
Speaker 1: talking heads love having him on because he's, as we
Speaker 1: like to say, good copy and I wish him the best.
Speaker 1: But this is going to be great when the votes
Speaker 1: are finally tabulated and announced. As I said, we'll have
Speaker 1: Mark on the show and we'll look back on it.
Speaker 1: But it's a lot of fun this year, MOSSI thank
Speaker 1: you so much, and we'll be looking for your coverage
Speaker 1: tonight of high school basketball.
Speaker 5: You got it, appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Up next, Billy Rutligs and I take a look at
Speaker 1: the weekend's football matchups, tell you who's going to cover,
Speaker 1: what's spread, and a little later on heroes, fools and Flakes.
Speaker 1: Here on the Friday edition of The Big Bloo Insider
Speaker 1: six thirty, welcome back to the big blooing sider joining
Speaker 1: us down. Our celebrity hotline is our own Billy Rutledge
Speaker 1: and Billy and I occasionally weigh in on NFL games
Speaker 1: and try to decide who's going to win, if not cover,
Speaker 1: And man, there are some great playoff games this weekend,
Speaker 1: are they not?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 8: What a great time a year for football. We got
Speaker 8: the Divisional round this weekend, a little national championship on
Speaker 8: Monday in college football, so not only a good college
Speaker 8: basketball games, but some football to watch.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, So let us start with Saturday tomorrow. It's
Speaker 1: the Texans at the Chiefs, and man, what a spread.
Speaker 1: The Chiefs are an eight point favorite over an under
Speaker 1: forty one and a half. We'll get to that, but
Speaker 1: that's a lot of points, first of all in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Secondly in the playoffs. Billy, Plus, this Kansas City team
Speaker 1: has been winning close games all year long. But I
Speaker 1: know you put a lot of thought into such matters.
Speaker 1: What do you say about this one?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think most people will be inclined to pick
Speaker 8: Kansas City, you know, being fifteen and two on the year,
Speaker 8: But you're right. I mean, this is a team that's
Speaker 8: done it been in a lot of one score games,
Speaker 8: and eight eight and a half points is a lot
Speaker 8: no matter what you get the line at. I'm inclined
Speaker 8: to take Houston here, not to outright win, but to
Speaker 8: at least cover. I think, you know, the offensive line
Speaker 8: has not been great for CJ.
Speaker 5: Shroudy.
Speaker 8: I think he's definitely regressed a little bit, and they
Speaker 8: have some injuries in the wide receiver room. But I
Speaker 8: think this team will keep it close. It will be
Speaker 8: tough though in Arrowhead with Taylor SWI probably in the booth, Dick.
Speaker 8: You know, the NFL script is going to have the
Speaker 8: Chiefs going through. But I think the Texans surprise the
Speaker 8: people at the close game and they do cover the eighth.
Speaker 1: Here's my problem, and I wish I could say I
Speaker 1: fully agree because I do just just a lot of points.
Speaker 1: But Joe Mixon is questionable, and I know he doesn't
Speaker 1: literally carry the team, but I think if if Houston's
Speaker 1: going to shorten the game with the running attack, he
Speaker 1: was their best weapon, and he's, like I said, questionable.
Speaker 1: He might play practiced in a limited way Wednesday missed Thursday,
Speaker 1: but I think they were doing that just to save
Speaker 1: him with that ankle. But they're not gonna mention or
Speaker 1: they're not going to make any announcement until like ninety
Speaker 1: minutes prior to tomorrow's game. Damian Pierce and dari agab
Speaker 1: Walle are the backups. But man Mixon's had a good year.
Speaker 1: Does that affect your thinking in it either way?
Speaker 8: No, I think you're right about mixing. I mean, he's
Speaker 8: a guy that came over from Cincinnati and he's been
Speaker 8: everything I think Houston wanted from him. I would counter
Speaker 8: with Kansas City and Houston played late in the year.
Speaker 8: I believe it was late December, maybe just before Christmas,
Speaker 8: one of the last few weeks of the year, and
Speaker 8: the Texans only lost that game by eight points in
Speaker 8: Kansas City twenty seven to nineteen, and they only they
Speaker 8: had under one hundred rushing yards for the game, so
Speaker 8: they really didn't do it on the ground. It was
Speaker 8: CJS throughout through the air and in Tank Dell when
Speaker 8: he was still healthy. So you know, we'll see. It's
Speaker 8: tough to bet against Andy Reid in the playoffs. Ye,
Speaker 8: And I mean that's a guy that is really just
Speaker 8: prepared and gets the most out of his talent. And
Speaker 8: that's why Patrick Mahomes is able to win Super Bowls
Speaker 8: even after a guy like Tyreek Hill leaves the team,
Speaker 8: and and you know you're throwing to Juju Smith Schusters
Speaker 8: and draft picks like Xavier Worthy. Patrick Mahomes is great.
Speaker 8: But you know, if I put Josh Allen on that
Speaker 8: Chiefs team, I think he'd still win the same amount
Speaker 8: of Super Bowls, if not more. Because of how strongly
Speaker 8: I feel about Andy Reid. So they've had some time
Speaker 8: to prepare. Kansas City, you know, expected to make that
Speaker 8: AFC Championship game. But I do think Demiko Ryans this
Speaker 8: will be a great test for him to see where
Speaker 8: he's out of bedge.
Speaker 1: Yeah, great defensive coach. Also on Saturday, Commanders in Detroit,
Speaker 1: Washington is a nine and a half point underdog, so
Speaker 1: even greater spread there. And again if you're just looking
Speaker 1: at who's gonna win the game, and that's how you
Speaker 1: want to bet, you'd say the Lions. This one opened
Speaker 1: Billy at five and a half. Now it's a nine
Speaker 1: and a half. Lions have all kinds of injured players.
Speaker 1: I root for the Lions now even though they're in
Speaker 1: my division, because Josh Pascal plays for the Lions. Former Wowcat,
Speaker 1: but Ken Washington keep it close enough.
Speaker 8: You know, it's a quarterback league, and when you have
Speaker 8: a dynamic quarterback, I don't think you can count yourself
Speaker 8: out of any game. And Jenden Daniels is exactly that.
Speaker 8: He did a great job versus my Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Speaker 8: in the wild card round. But I will say the
Speaker 8: buck secondary is beat up. This is not you know,
Speaker 8: this is not night Trent Lane and some of these
Speaker 8: great names of the past. So you know, credit to
Speaker 8: him for doing what he needed to do and get
Speaker 8: the late victory that ended in a doink, which I'll
Speaker 8: never get over. But you know what, I think the
Speaker 8: Lions are a little too much this year. David Montgomery,
Speaker 8: I know, is on the track of getting back for
Speaker 8: this game. And even if he's not there, Jamier Gibbs
Speaker 8: is just I've ment RB want this year, whether you
Speaker 8: look at fantasy or just his impact app for David
Speaker 8: Montgomery left, he has been simply incredible and the Lions
Speaker 8: put up a lot of points. I mean, Ben Johnson
Speaker 8: is the offensive coordinator that is getting looks for head
Speaker 8: coaching positions, and rightly so, how could you not want
Speaker 8: to play for a guy like Dan Campbell, though, I
Speaker 8: mean that guy will bring the energy and have you
Speaker 8: ready for every game. So this has been a good
Speaker 8: story for the Commanders. Jayden Daniels is somebody that'll be
Speaker 8: around for quite a long time if he can stay healthy.
Speaker 8: I'll l RG three down there with wathingon. But you
Speaker 8: know what, Detroit at home. It's a team of destiny.
Speaker 8: I can't think of too many other teams that I
Speaker 8: would feel more comfortable winning the Super Bowl this year.
Speaker 1: Sunday Games, Eagles at home with the Rams. The Eagles
Speaker 1: are six and a half point favorite, and a lot
Speaker 1: of people think it's their year for the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Saquon Barkley is having one of his probably his best
Speaker 1: season obviously ever after coming over from the Giants Rams,
Speaker 1: some people surprised they got this far.
Speaker 8: You know, Nick Sirianni's taken a lot of heat, especially
Speaker 8: last year when they had such a hot start and
Speaker 8: then lost what five six seven games in a row
Speaker 8: to end the year, and then lost to my Buccaneers
Speaker 8: in the playoffs, And it feels like the missing piece
Speaker 8: they needed was Saquon Dick. I mean, he has really
Speaker 8: taken some heat off of Jalen hurts. You know, despite
Speaker 8: aj Brown reading books on the sidelines being mad for
Speaker 8: only getting three or four targets a game, this is
Speaker 8: a much more rounded Eagles team. And I hate to
Speaker 8: say that because I don't root for Philadelphia and anything Dick,
Speaker 8: and after some of the videos that have come out
Speaker 8: from Eagles fans and how they treated some of the
Speaker 8: Packers fans in the last game, you know, they're just
Speaker 8: the worst fan based in professional sports. And there's just
Speaker 8: simply no way other way to put it. But I
Speaker 8: do think they get it done in this one. I
Speaker 8: think they've got a lot of firepower, and this has
Speaker 8: been a good story for the Rams, you know, with
Speaker 8: all the California fires, them moving that game to Arizona.
Speaker 8: I'm happy for Matthew Stafford. I'd love for Stafford to
Speaker 8: get another shot at Detroit. That would be a fun
Speaker 8: NFC championship game. Give some credit to Sean McVay for
Speaker 8: getting this team in position to compete. They didn't have
Speaker 8: Cooper Cup for a while, Kuka Nakua was injured. So
Speaker 8: this Rams defense and this team has overcome a lot
Speaker 8: to get to this point. But I think you're in Philly.
Speaker 8: It's a game that they could snow over the weekend
Speaker 8: to scamdig I think Saquan who fell just short of
Speaker 8: the record because they didn't give it the old college
Speaker 8: try in the last game. We'll probably get over one
Speaker 8: hundred yards of this one.
Speaker 1: The Eagles could be susceptible given the Rams power at
Speaker 1: their passing game and the talented receivers, and the Eagles
Speaker 1: d backs aren't the greatest. But I'm like you, I
Speaker 1: like the Eagles in this one, like them to cover
Speaker 1: as well. Best game of the weekend Baltimore in Buffalo
Speaker 1: and the Ravens are now a favorite. This one opened
Speaker 1: with the Bills favored by a point. Now the Ravens
Speaker 1: are favored by a point. The two MVP candidates, the
Speaker 1: two quarterbacks going at it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and if you're a Buffalo Bills player, you have
Speaker 8: to feel disrespected being at home and being an underdog, right,
Speaker 8: I mean, this is this is Josh Allen time, and
Speaker 8: he's had a great season, just like Lamar. And unfortunately,
Speaker 8: I feel like the conversation around this game will be
Speaker 8: more about who loses and the legacy of the quarterback
Speaker 8: of who loses in this game compared to who wins it.
Speaker 8: But you know what, I think this is going to
Speaker 8: be the best win of his career. I think Lamar
Speaker 8: Jackson finally gets a done.
Speaker 4: Dick.
Speaker 8: He been on a different level this year, and I
Speaker 8: think the tipping point is the talent around Lamar Jackson
Speaker 8: compared to the talent around Josh Allen.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 8: You know, big credit to John for you know, willing
Speaker 8: that roster with maybe one other Pro Bowl player on
Speaker 8: the entire roster besides Josh Allen. Meanwhile, the Ravens have
Speaker 8: won everywhere you look, especially a lot on the offensive
Speaker 8: line and Derick Henry, who I'm kind of rooting for Dick,
Speaker 8: you know, as a quasi Titans fan as well. I
Speaker 8: think he got the short end of the stick, but
Speaker 8: he found a nice new home and looks better than
Speaker 8: ever at times. So I think that's a tough that's
Speaker 8: a tall task for a Buffalo team. Who you know,
Speaker 8: let's be real, they'll have the home field advantage, right.
Speaker 8: It will be fun seeing Buffalo in a playoff game
Speaker 8: and these two quarterbacks go at it. But I am
Speaker 8: rooting for a guy that is electrifying, and I do
Speaker 8: hope that Lamar Jackson finally gets it done here because
Speaker 8: then the conversation becomes if he doesn't, that he just
Speaker 8: can't win the big one. And you know, I would
Speaker 8: hate that for the kid because he may be the
Speaker 8: most exciting NFL player I've ever seen. And that do
Speaker 8: don't take it away from Josh Allen. He is somebody
Speaker 8: that I guess besides Cadillac Williams and the Tampa Bay
Speaker 8: Buccaneers back in they Dick maybe even Bucky Irving and
Speaker 8: what he's shown this year, but what Lamar Jackson does.
Speaker 8: Jayden Daniels has shown shades of a little Lamar Jackson
Speaker 8: as well, but Lamar is on a different level. And
Speaker 8: call me a homer of being in the Louisville market
Speaker 8: for many eight years, I think that he doesn't get
Speaker 8: it done.
Speaker 1: I think it's Ravens simply because of Derek Henry. I
Speaker 1: think he's the answer. I got about a minute left.
Speaker 1: Tell me about Ohio State Notre Dame Buckeyes. Aer what
Speaker 1: an eight or a nine point favorite?
Speaker 8: Right right? You know, I love the story about Riley Leonard.
Speaker 8: You know a transfer guy that's getting it done at
Speaker 8: Notre Dame. His mom texts him, you suck before every
Speaker 8: game to motivate him. I just think that's one of
Speaker 8: the best stories in sports. I don't know if my
Speaker 8: mom would have the heart to do that, but unfortunately,
Speaker 8: I don't think this game is close, Dick. I you know,
Speaker 8: I think Ohio State breaks off of them. I still
Speaker 8: think of Ryan Day looking around that field after they
Speaker 8: lose to Michigan, and that was just a focal point
Speaker 8: for what Ohio State has done ever since. And so
Speaker 8: I think that while we want this to be a
Speaker 8: close game, and I think Notre Dame has a lot
Speaker 8: of people behind him this year, somehow as one of
Speaker 8: the more hated teams in college football over the years,
Speaker 8: I do think Ohio State gets it done.
Speaker 1: Ohio State has explosive players on offense. Notre Dame does not.
Speaker 1: Notre Dames that plays physical football like a Big Ten team.
Speaker 1: But I do think it's Ohio State. And I'm with
Speaker 1: you on that. Billy, Thank you so much, and we
Speaker 1: will talk to you Monday night on the State.
Speaker 8: YBBI enjoyed it. Thank you, Dick.
Speaker 1: That is our own Billy Rutledge and you can hear
Speaker 1: him every morning on this very radio station on the
Speaker 1: KSR pre show at nine am. Heroes, Fools and Flakes,
Speaker 1: next on six thirty wa Welcome back thanks to my
Speaker 1: guest Steve Moss, Billy Rutledge, Jerry Hale. Time now for heroes,
Speaker 1: fools and flakes as we close out the weekend. My
Speaker 1: hero is Danielle Collins, who well she's a tennis player,
Speaker 1: so if you're a tennis fan you know who she is,
Speaker 1: and competing in the Australian Open. She is outgoing and
Speaker 1: kind of fun. And the other day she beat an
Speaker 1: awesome and destiny ava and was booed about it and
Speaker 1: somebody asked her and she was heckled during the match,
Speaker 1: and after the match was over, somebody asked her about
Speaker 1: what it was like dealing with the hecklers, And this
Speaker 1: is one of the greatest answers I've ever heard.
Speaker 9: One of the greatest things about being a professional athlete
Speaker 9: is the people that don't like you and the people that.
Speaker 3: Hate you, they actually pay your bills.
Speaker 9: It's kind of a cool concept, and you know, obviously
Speaker 9: my professional career is not going to last forever, and
Speaker 9: so I just remind myself every day, like when I
Speaker 9: have that kind of stuff, like.
Speaker 3: They're paying my bills.
Speaker 9: Like every person that's bought a ticket to come out
Speaker 9: here and heckle me or you know, do what they do.
Speaker 9: Like it's all going towards the Danielle Collins fun so like, yeah,
Speaker 9: bringing on, I love it.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. It wouldn't be great if more pro athletes
Speaker 1: took that attitude. I mean, yeah, your your tickets, the
Speaker 1: ticket you bought that's paying me, Thank you very much
Speaker 1: for the swell money. I just love that, and I
Speaker 1: thought that was something that other athletes should hear and
Speaker 1: should adopt. Daniel Collins at the Australia Open. My fool
Speaker 1: tonight is anybody who believes that Bill Belichick and Tom
Speaker 1: Brady are going to stay put. I'm not saying they won't,
Speaker 1: but just because they say they are, what have we
Speaker 1: learned about pro athletes? Now this is just coming off
Speaker 1: the pro athlete Daniel Collins. But contracts are made to
Speaker 1: be broken, and money talks, and yeah, Brady's making a
Speaker 1: ton of money from Fox Sports. I can't imagine he
Speaker 1: has enjoyed. He's got to know about the criticism and
Speaker 1: he's not been bad, but he's not been the greatest,
Speaker 1: which is what he was arguably as the winning his
Speaker 1: quarterback in the history of the game. But he's just average.
Speaker 1: There are so many other and again, first year, did
Speaker 1: any of us excel in our first year? Very few
Speaker 1: of us. I wouldn't want to go back and listen
Speaker 1: to my air checks for my first year on the air.
Speaker 1: But now with all these other challenges, including the biggest
Speaker 1: helping the Raiders put a team together, don't be at
Speaker 1: all surprised if Brady in despite what his agent Don
Speaker 1: Yee said, don't be surprised if he doesn't fulfill his
Speaker 1: ten year, three hundred and seventy five million dollar contract.
Speaker 1: Belichick has yet to sign his contract as well. The
Speaker 1: cynic in Me says he's waiting to see what happens
Speaker 1: in the NFL, despite the fact that his girlfriend, the
Speaker 1: twenty four year old Hey good for you, says Belichick
Speaker 1: stay input. And Michael Lombardi is GM at North Carolina
Speaker 1: who's been on our show, said that he's out recruiting
Speaker 1: right now, and then please ignore all this talk about
Speaker 1: the NFL. I would hope he's out recruiting. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: nothing might come of the NFL. But in this day
Speaker 1: and age, we're all cynical. We'd be fools to think
Speaker 1: that everything is locked down and in place our flake tonight.
Speaker 1: Kind of a flaky situation. Of course. Let's go back
Speaker 1: to the Jets and Aaron Rodgers, who finally spoke on
Speaker 1: Thursday on the Pat McAfee show. It's generally where he
Speaker 1: breaks his silence if he's not doing regular media, and
Speaker 1: he said, I think everybody understands in terms of his
Speaker 1: immediate future with the Jets, that it's going to come
Speaker 1: down to a GM and a coach and myself and
Speaker 1: whether we all want to do a dance together or
Speaker 1: if it's not in the cards. That's actually the right response.
Speaker 1: But it's so fun right now to see the media,
Speaker 1: the talking heads, everybody, fans trying to figure out what's
Speaker 1: going to happen with Aaron Rodgers. And as a shareholder
Speaker 1: an owner of the Green Bay Packers, my response is,
Speaker 1: you guys, have fun, good riddance, that's gonna do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us. Have a great weekend, everybody.
Speaker 1: That's a good night. From the garage in Lexinger, What.
Speaker 3: The hell is going on out here?
Speaker 1: Well, Nook scared because his eyelids are jammed and his
Speaker 1: old man's here.
Speaker 3: We need a live was it a live rooster?
Speaker 2: We need a live rooster to take the curse off
Speaker 2: Jose's glove, and nobody seems to know what to get
Speaker 2: Millie or Jimmy for their wedding present.
Speaker 3: About right, that's right, we're dealing with a lot of.
Speaker 6: Well, camel sticks always make a nice gift, and maybe
Speaker 6: can find out what she's registered and maybe a play
Speaker 6: setting or have your silverware pounds day.
Speaker 3: Okay, let's get te. We're go
Speaker 1: Da