Speaker 1: It's stick Gabriel taking a little bit of time off,
Speaker 1: so we thought we would replay some of the best
Speaker 1: interviews from over the last several months. Please enjoy the
Speaker 1: best of the Big Blue Insider And man, I don't
Speaker 1: know what it is. Kentucky gets to host a regional
Speaker 1: and gets one of the toughest draws in the regional
Speaker 1: and has to be the visiting team twice in his
Speaker 1: own home ballpark. I can see that once, but twice?
Speaker 1: Come on, Well, now here comes Oregon State. Really good
Speaker 1: program which has won three World Series titles within the
Speaker 1: last well since six was it six seven and twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: it's been to the World Series nine times. So the
Speaker 1: Beavers come across country and they will play at six
Speaker 1: o'clock Saturday, nine o'clock Sunday. It's best out of three.
Speaker 1: Then if they need the third game, of course, they'll
Speaker 1: play it on Monday. But the Sunday game is at
Speaker 1: nine pm and both games are on ESPN. You so
Speaker 1: you got a smaller audience for the number two seed
Speaker 1: now and a nine o'clock start. Well, if they're trying
Speaker 1: to accommodate people on the West coast, that is a
Speaker 1: TV programmer's way of thinking, because of course that's six
Speaker 1: o'clock out there, but it's a slap in the face
Speaker 1: to the host team. The other thing is, and I
Speaker 1: get this from me, and we'll talk to our West
Speaker 1: Coast Bureau Chief, Gary Moore about this tomorrow, who lived
Speaker 1: in LA for more than twenty years. One of my
Speaker 1: closest friends lives out there, and they have both told
Speaker 1: me that West Coast people don't worry about East Coast
Speaker 1: times for sporting events nearly as much as we think
Speaker 1: they do. In fact, this Gary has told us when
Speaker 1: it comes say to the NFL, they like it because
Speaker 1: let's say your team will be it a West Coast
Speaker 1: team or a team you follow has got a one
Speaker 1: o'clock start in the NFL, it's ten am out there.
Speaker 1: You watch the game, then you go on with the
Speaker 1: rest of your day. If you're an Oregon State fan,
Speaker 1: if the game were a three in the afternoon, which
Speaker 1: would be six o'clock here, win or lose, you got
Speaker 1: half your day left or a great part of it.
Speaker 1: So it's just man, it's very frustrating, but at least
Speaker 1: your home you're playing in a super regional for the
Speaker 1: first time in program history. By the way, there was
Speaker 1: something that came up and I just made mention of
Speaker 1: it last night on the show, but I wanted to
Speaker 1: spend a little more time with it because this team,
Speaker 1: this Kentucky team with the dugout antics and the personalities,
Speaker 1: is so interesting and fun to follow. And as many
Speaker 1: of you know, I've gotten to travel with the team
Speaker 1: a little bit through the years, filling in on the radio,
Speaker 1: first for Neil Price, now for Darren Hedrick. And this
Speaker 1: year this is new. This year I noticed that, I
Speaker 1: think when I was on the bus with a team
Speaker 1: down in Round Rock, Texas. But I believe they've been
Speaker 1: doing it all year, and they've done a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff in the dugout. This is not a dugout thing.
Speaker 1: This is when they're all kind of bunched together. They
Speaker 1: might do it at other times, but they definitely do
Speaker 1: it on the bus. And the bus is like a
Speaker 1: rolling locker room. You know, they're laughing, they're joking, they're
Speaker 1: cutting up. They're using some language you might not want
Speaker 1: your kids to hear. And Nick has said, and Nick
Speaker 1: is not that kind of guy when it comes to language,
Speaker 1: but he has said he kind of turns a death
Speaker 1: bear to it because it's their locker room. It's not horrible,
Speaker 1: it's just, you know, nineteen twenty twenty one year old
Speaker 1: guys get together and say things sometimes. But one of
Speaker 1: the things they do is they mimic what Dak Prescott
Speaker 1: does for the Dallas Cowboys. Just before the ball is snapped,
Speaker 1: he'll call his audibles, he'll set protection, but just to
Speaker 1: make sure the team knows everything's good, we're ready to
Speaker 1: get going, he'll yell here we go, and he kind
Speaker 1: of chants it. It sounds like this, here we go, here.
Speaker 2: We go, Here we go, Here we go, Here we go,
Speaker 2: here we go, Here we go.
Speaker 1: That's a bunch of them I strung together. But Nick
Speaker 1: Benione made direct reference to this after the game. On
Speaker 1: after the championship game the other night, in the postgame
Speaker 1: press conference, when people Aaron Gershan asked Mason more, the
Speaker 1: pitcher who had been so sick, when did you know
Speaker 1: you could pitch? When did you know you'd be physically
Speaker 1: up to it? And because he had been out skipped
Speaker 1: the game, went back to the room and had an
Speaker 1: IVY and was just trying to recover. Nick jumped in
Speaker 1: with a story about a text message you got from Mason.
Speaker 1: That night at.
Speaker 3: Seven thirty six, my phone goes off. It's a text
Speaker 3: message for Mason.
Speaker 4: This is what he said, here we go.
Speaker 1: So if you didn't get that right away, that's what
Speaker 1: that was all about, was how that's one of their
Speaker 1: deals on the bus and probably elsewhere is every now
Speaker 1: and then. I don't know why I didn't want to ask,
Speaker 1: but at times somebody will just yell here we go.
Speaker 1: And evidently that was the battle cry for Mason Moore
Speaker 1: when he texted his coach to let him go. No,
Speaker 1: he'd be ready to go, and certainly he was putting
Speaker 1: up nothing but goose egg. It's going to be tough
Speaker 1: to do that against Oregon State. We'll talk more about
Speaker 1: the Beavers as the weekend gets closer. We'll try to
Speaker 1: talk to some folks from out there in Oregon as well,
Speaker 1: and a reminder small world. Before he became the athletics
Speaker 1: director at the University of Kentucky, Mitch Barnhardt for four
Speaker 1: years was the ad at Oregon State. So I'm sure
Speaker 1: there'll be some chatter about that throughout the week as well.
Speaker 1: We're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: More to come here on six thirty WLAP. It's Dick Gabriel.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the best of the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: That is the word of the day in the Big
Speaker 1: Boe Nation because their baseball team is heading for the
Speaker 1: College World Series for the first time in program history.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Boon Sider, Dick Gabriel, with you
Speaker 1: still a little bleary eyed after last night's nine o'clock
Speaker 1: start and then a postgame press conference that ended. I
Speaker 1: think we walked out of there at about about two
Speaker 1: point fifteen am, you know, and by the time you
Speaker 1: get home and get unpacked and try to get some sleep,
Speaker 1: it's three o'clock in the morning, at least for me.
Speaker 1: But we're up and around and we're thinking about the
Speaker 1: College World Series now. For the first time, the Kentucky
Speaker 1: Wildcats win a Super Regional and beat a really good
Speaker 1: Oregon State team by holding the Beavers to two runs
Speaker 1: that they got last night without benefit of a hit,
Speaker 1: and three hits over the two games, which is a
Speaker 1: record for the Super Regional format, which now is in
Speaker 1: his twenty fifth year. The previous record one of the
Speaker 1: Vandy Great Vandy pitching staffs held an opponent to five
Speaker 1: hits over two games. So the Kentucky pitching staff, which
Speaker 1: had been I don't want to say much maligned, but
Speaker 1: somewhat maligned down the stretch, came through in a huge
Speaker 1: way in both the Regional and the Super Regional. So
Speaker 1: now the Wildcats will go to Omaha. And they shut
Speaker 1: it down last night on a call third strike delivered
Speaker 1: by relief pitcher Johnny Hummel, who picked up the save.
Speaker 1: And here is how Darren hedrickcalled it on the UK
Speaker 1: Sports Network.
Speaker 5: Hummel's pitch colt strike three.
Speaker 6: Ball game over. The wait is finally over.
Speaker 5: Roll out the big blue carpet and Omaha, the University
Speaker 5: of Kentucky Wildcats are headed.
Speaker 2: To the College World Series.
Speaker 5: Kentucky defeats Oregon State three to two. They flood the
Speaker 5: field from that third base stugout and dog pile to
Speaker 5: the right side of the mound.
Speaker 1: And it's worth noting there was no dog pile after
Speaker 1: the regional. There was last year and Nick menze own
Speaker 1: back in twenty seventeen when before really before the season began,
Speaker 1: one of his goals was to see his team in
Speaker 1: a dog pile. He said, I love dog piles because
Speaker 1: it means They've just accomplished something, something great. So there
Speaker 1: was a dog pile. Then in seventeen when they won
Speaker 1: the regional, there was one. Last year when they won
Speaker 1: the regional. There was not one this year because they
Speaker 1: knew they wanted so much more and they knew they
Speaker 1: were going to host a super regional. And it was
Speaker 1: on this day in twenty seventeen today, seven years ago,
Speaker 1: that Kentucky opened Super Regional play at Louisville and got
Speaker 1: spanked a couple times by the Cardinals. Really good U
Speaker 1: OFL team, But I covered the game and I sat
Speaker 1: there thinking, you know, you've got to get a super
Speaker 1: Regional of your own. I mean, it's just so hard
Speaker 1: to win on the road in a super Seventy percent
Speaker 1: of a time the host team wins in the super Regional,
Speaker 1: which is as it should be, I think. I mean,
Speaker 1: the home team ought to have an advantage. They've earned it,
Speaker 1: so obviously did Kentucky, and they did not have much
Speaker 1: of a shot last year when they were sent to
Speaker 1: the Baton Rouge Superregional to play top ranked LSU, which
Speaker 1: went on to win the national championship. So they earn
Speaker 1: the right to host this year and they make it
Speaker 1: payoff with a win over really good as I said,
Speaker 1: Oregon State team and the winning run last night. Of
Speaker 1: course ten nothing the night before, but the winning run
Speaker 1: last night scored on a bizarre play. Some people say,
Speaker 1: have never seen it before. I've seen it, but I've
Speaker 1: seen it like at the little league level. And this
Speaker 1: is not to demean Oregon State. It was just a
Speaker 1: bizarre play. A strike three, swinging strike by Grant Smith
Speaker 1: frankly on a bad pitch. It was a great pitch,
Speaker 1: but bad for Grant down and end and the catcher
Speaker 1: couldn't handle it and then bounced away from him. But
Speaker 1: it bounced at such an angle that the catcher had
Speaker 1: to go so far to get the ball. He couldn't
Speaker 1: make it back to the plate. Nolan McCarthy on second base. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: round third runs through Nick Minsi and yelling stop. Didn't
Speaker 1: have his hands up, but he yelled stop. But McCarthy
Speaker 1: could see that the catcher was still busy chasing down
Speaker 1: the ball, and he saw that the pitcher failed to
Speaker 1: cover the plate. If you're a pitcher, and this happened
Speaker 1: to me many times because I threw a lot of
Speaker 1: bad pitches, if there's a guy on third and the
Speaker 1: ball you saw a bad pitch, he gets away from
Speaker 1: the catcher. You race to the plate, hoping that you
Speaker 1: can keep the guy from scoring. Well, runner was on second,
Speaker 1: so the pitcher obviously didn't give it a second thought
Speaker 1: at first that he needed to cover the plate and
Speaker 1: that's all McCarthy needed. In fact, the catcher beat the
Speaker 1: pitcher to the play. He was closest to McCarthy when
Speaker 1: Nolan slid in, but Nolan took flight. It wasn't as
Speaker 1: much a slide as it was a dive. Here's the
Speaker 1: way Darren called it at Keith Madison, the Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame coach alongside.
Speaker 5: Two two game in the seventh the two and he
Speaker 5: struck him out, but the ball got away from Weber.
Speaker 5: McCarthy to third. There's nobody at covering the play. It's
Speaker 5: a foot rice height times across safe. Nobody covered home
Speaker 5: for Oregon State and McCarthy scores from second as graft
Speaker 5: Smith arrives at first. What's a three to two Kentucky lead.
Speaker 4: What a heads up play by McCarthy. The pitcher was
Speaker 4: lackadaisical about covering home and McCarthy never slowed down. He
Speaker 4: was barely around third base, made a beautiful slide well
Speaker 4: ahead of.
Speaker 1: The throw, and after the game in an early morning
Speaker 1: news conference, here's the way Nolan described it.
Speaker 7: And I saw it squeaked by and I was running
Speaker 7: a third and immediately I saw their picture wasn't covering.
Speaker 7: I think I ran through a stop sign. But it
Speaker 7: ended up working out, so, uh yeah, no one's covered home,
Speaker 7: so might as well take what they're gonna give you.
Speaker 1: Were you worried that you dive?
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 7: I told Robert before the game that I was gonna
Speaker 7: I was gonna Pete Rose dive today. Yeah, and that
Speaker 7: ended up happening.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's crazy.
Speaker 1: There's Robert Hogan at the end there where uh Nolan
Speaker 1: had said to him I'm going to do a Pete
Speaker 1: Rose dive. And I really liked that or Pete Rose
Speaker 1: slide because it's obviously an homage to Pete Rose, and
Speaker 1: it's a reference to a famous photo of Pete Rose
Speaker 1: diving slash sliding into third base, and I'm sure you've
Speaker 1: seen it, but it sort of personifies and exemplifies Pete
Speaker 1: Rose hustle. Somebody got a great photo of him from
Speaker 1: really ground level of Rose sliding in that head first
Speaker 1: slide into third base, and Pete was one of the
Speaker 1: first guys. He didn't invent it, but to make it popular.
Speaker 1: Sliding head first. I thought it was crazy because you
Speaker 1: could break bones in your fingers and hands. But Rose
Speaker 1: did it, and that famous photo he's about a foot
Speaker 1: off the ground, and it seemed like McCarthy was as well.
Speaker 1: And then somebody asked Devin Burkes how he saw the play,
Speaker 1: and Hogan chimes in again because he was watching. He
Speaker 1: was still in the bullpen.
Speaker 8: I had it.
Speaker 1: I see that happen.
Speaker 9: I mean, like he's always being crazy as sent as
Speaker 9: the ball went by and the picture was I don't
Speaker 9: I don't know what he's doing. He was like looking
Speaker 9: around or something. I was like, I hopped over the
Speaker 9: fence and I was like knowing, like you're going, and
Speaker 9: he like, I was already on it. He was already
Speaker 9: like at home slotting. I was like, let's go.
Speaker 10: Yeah, we were, we were in the bullpen, and I
Speaker 10: was like I was I was watching when we were
Speaker 10: all like, oh my gosh, no one's doing it. The
Speaker 10: pictures on cover and go and and all of a
Speaker 10: sudden I see him die. I'm like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 10: he just did the Peter ros die like that was awesome.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I remember that. You know.
Speaker 10: It just shows how gritty we are and how we're
Speaker 10: willing to do everything it takes to win. I mean,
Speaker 10: I mean, he's also he's crazy.
Speaker 1: So and again that was Robert Hogan at the end
Speaker 1: and what a performance he had out of the bullpen,
Speaker 1: along with Cam O'Brien, Johnny Hummel, Ryan hagen Ow. The
Speaker 1: bullpen absolutely came through this weekend and really during the
Speaker 1: regional So that's why the Wildcats one of several reasons
Speaker 1: the Wildcats are going to Omaha. A big reason last
Speaker 1: night is you all the fans BBN showed up and
Speaker 1: you had to wonder. At nine o'clock start, you knew
Speaker 1: there'd be a great crowd. I didn't anticipate a bigger
Speaker 1: crowd compared to the night before. Obviously a lot of
Speaker 1: people came back and clearly with even more people, some
Speaker 1: new faces there last night who wanted a witness history
Speaker 1: and nobody left. I mean, you knew it was going
Speaker 1: to be a late night. Got chili too. Nobody left
Speaker 1: for the most part, they wanted to see the celebration.
Speaker 1: They were treated to a great game. Not a lot
Speaker 1: of offense. I mean, they loved what they saw the
Speaker 1: night before, ten to nothing battering Oregon State, but last night.
Speaker 1: It's the best kind of baseball really, when both teams
Speaker 1: are in it and every pitch matters, as it did
Speaker 1: last night, and the crowd was rewarded. And the crowd
Speaker 1: did its part, clapping along with the walk up music
Speaker 1: and trying to help their players, trying to influence the
Speaker 1: opposing players, throw it in the turf, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: So it was a great night for UK fans and
Speaker 1: obviously for the program, which got off to a great
Speaker 1: start this year. Fifteen to one in conference play. You've
Speaker 1: heard now about the hiccup. In non conference play, Kennesaw
Speaker 1: State came in. If you're a Kansas State player, you're
Speaker 1: watching Kentucky celebrate going to the College World Series and
Speaker 1: you're thinking, and we kicked their butts. We took two
Speaker 1: out of three in Lexington and outscored him twenty to three.
Speaker 1: I think it was or twenty one to three, something
Speaker 1: like that. But that's where the reset began for the
Speaker 1: Wildcats and helped them make history this year with another
Speaker 1: SEC championship. Another I say, another second SEC championship, a
Speaker 1: third NCA Regional title, and now our first Super Regional championship,
Speaker 1: and coming up a little bit later on, we're gonna
Speaker 1: hear from Mitch Barnhart. I grabbed him right early this
Speaker 1: morning after that press conference just to get his thoughts
Speaker 1: on how this program has come together, and basically I
Speaker 1: didn't ask it in as many words, but we talked
Speaker 1: about the fact that Mitch didn't fire Nick Benjie on
Speaker 1: when a lot of us thought he either might after
Speaker 1: that twenty two season, or you know, Nick might be
Speaker 1: walking on eggshells, and Nick knew it as well. He
Speaker 1: has talked a lot, and he went deep last night
Speaker 1: on his faith and how it helped him get through
Speaker 1: the toughest times after that year where they were one
Speaker 1: game short twenty twenty two of getting to the postseason.
Speaker 1: Basically he had lost two of his best pictures, Cole
Speaker 1: Stupp and Darren Williams, who's going to be with us
Speaker 1: on the show tomorrow night. So Mitch and I talk
Speaker 1: about that. That's coming up in hour number two. And
Speaker 1: on a personal note, I'm so happy for Keith Madison,
Speaker 1: who worked alongside Darren. As I mentioned you're listening to
Speaker 1: the best of the Big Blue Insider. More to come
Speaker 1: here on six thirty WLAP. It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Best of the Big Blue Insider. After the
Speaker 1: news conference early this morning, and I mean, like you know,
Speaker 1: two o'clock in the morning, I was walking out and
Speaker 1: who was standing there congratulating people with his family. Mitch Barnhardt,
Speaker 1: the Kentucky athletics director who oversaw the construction of the stadium,
Speaker 1: hired nickman Gione and did not pull the trigger when
Speaker 1: a lot of ads might have when his baseball coach
Speaker 1: was struggling, but he stayed with him and now they
Speaker 1: are reaping the rewards, the benefits. And I had a
Speaker 1: chance to talk to the UK athletics director about the
Speaker 1: school's first Super Regional championship.
Speaker 11: Truly remarkable for a group of young men that found
Speaker 11: every possible way to win a ball game. And we've
Speaker 11: seen him from every different way to win this way tonight,
Speaker 11: as Nick described in his press conference, probably pretty remarkable
Speaker 11: and pretty accurate. To scratch out a win with four
Speaker 11: hits on a play that was destined for failure and
Speaker 11: it turns into success by attacking and understanding the game
Speaker 11: and playing it at a high level.
Speaker 1: How fitting is it that that play puts you guys,
Speaker 1: I mean, there are a lot of players that's the
Speaker 1: winning run. That kind of play puts you guys in
Speaker 1: a world series. Yeah, no, I think it's great fitting.
Speaker 11: I mean, and it fitting for it comes from a
Speaker 11: guy like Nolan McCarthy who's just so gutty and gritty
Speaker 11: and and loves this program and so happy for him.
Speaker 11: But you know that the guy sitting behind the plate
Speaker 11: sort of the captain of the ship, if you will,
Speaker 11: out there is an amazing young man and Devin Burks.
Speaker 11: And when you think about us being up the middle,
Speaker 11: think about up the middle. You always talk about up
Speaker 11: middle in every sport. Devin Brooks, p d Grant, Nolan.
Speaker 11: It doesn't get much better up the middle than those
Speaker 11: four and just super super amazing. How you when you
Speaker 11: build it that way, you're intentional about it, it works.
Speaker 11: And then you trust your players to play the game
Speaker 11: really hard and understand that the team is the team
Speaker 11: and you've earned victory every day and you attack And
Speaker 11: those are things that Nick talks about it. I'm us
Speaker 11: as administrators, we're run and we hear him talk about it,
Speaker 11: so it doesn't change. He's what you heard tonight was
Speaker 11: that's Nick and that's what makes him beautiful and and
Speaker 11: he is real when he says the things that he says.
Speaker 11: And so he has built this program with some intentionality
Speaker 11: about about that. And super proud of him and what
Speaker 11: he represents and his walk with the Lord. And but
Speaker 11: at the end of the day, he he worked so
Speaker 11: hard at it, and it's it was a it was
Speaker 11: a tough spot two or three years ago, and he
Speaker 11: flipped the script and it's just awesome.
Speaker 1: The crowds start pouring into this place in Earnest really
Speaker 1: for Tennessee and the vandying in the regionals. When you
Speaker 1: who were instrumental in building this place and hiring him
Speaker 1: and all, when you see all this come together, what
Speaker 1: was going on inside of you?
Speaker 11: Oh, I'm just so happy for Kentucky. You know, I
Speaker 11: say it, you know I say it all the time.
Speaker 11: I Uh, I'm super happy for our program and our players.
Speaker 11: I'm super happy for our fans, our fans. You know,
Speaker 11: you hear when you come to Kentucky. Hey, and Nick's right,
Speaker 11: they say things you can't do that you're you'll never
Speaker 11: get there. You guys don't. You're not in the conversation.
Speaker 11: And so I'm happy for our fans. You know, I'm
Speaker 11: tired of hearing the graphic. We're the only sc school
Speaker 11: never to have been check that box and get it
Speaker 11: rid of it.
Speaker 1: You know, we're done.
Speaker 11: We don't need to hear that anymore, you know, And
Speaker 11: so I'm happy for them. You know, I'm an older
Speaker 11: guy in this thing. Nick referred to my age in
Speaker 11: a nice way.
Speaker 1: I had a lot of.
Speaker 11: Wonderful things to celebrate in my career. One more thing
Speaker 11: is a really nice one more thing. This was special
Speaker 11: because it meant so many things to such a variety
Speaker 11: of people in a place where you know that loves
Speaker 11: this university very very much. And uh, it was so
Speaker 11: evident tonight. It's a nine o'clock star, for Pete's sake.
Speaker 11: And it was packed, I mean packed.
Speaker 1: Record crowd.
Speaker 11: Yeah, other people, other people, other people are announcing record
Speaker 11: crowds and anything like that. They didn't have our record crowd,
Speaker 11: you know. And this is you know, you hear about
Speaker 11: LSU in the box. Unbelievable place, pretty stinking good here tonight.
Speaker 11: The crowd was into it. Amazing. I thought our staff,
Speaker 11: And I want to commend my staff. They have worked tirelessly.
Speaker 11: They've had ns double a's, they've had high school championships,
Speaker 11: they've had track meets, they've had tennis championships, they have
Speaker 11: been all over the place. Our staff has worked so hard.
Speaker 11: So thankful for them. They're exhausted as much as the
Speaker 11: player's died. I know that they're absolutely exhausted with them.
Speaker 11: That was beautiful, and that was beautiful. That's what it meant.
Speaker 11: And then you did it for them too, and that
Speaker 11: was really special. But you know, I feel super super thankful.
Speaker 1: People forget that you were at Oregon State. You had
Speaker 1: some good years out there. It's kind of ironic and
Speaker 1: coincidental that they were. I mean, you hired their playbook,
Speaker 1: play guy, their head coach played when you were the
Speaker 1: A D there. But as much as anything, you know
Speaker 1: what the culture of winning baseball is like because you
Speaker 1: experienced that firsthand out there. That kind of comes together, doesn't.
Speaker 12: It, does.
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 11: Pat Casey taught me a lot about you know, I
Speaker 11: was fortunately, I had been to the World Series. I
Speaker 11: was on the baseball committee right and I was also
Speaker 11: at Tennessee when we went a couple of times, and
Speaker 11: so I had a feel, but never you know, you're
Speaker 11: not as invested in it at that point in time,
Speaker 11: and do you get to a spot where it I say,
Speaker 11: the program's mind, it's not mine, but you know we're
Speaker 11: working with it.
Speaker 1: And so.
Speaker 11: Never forget going to my first baseball game at Oregon
Speaker 11: State in nineteen ninety eight and I was going up
Speaker 11: the press pot stairs and the wood split and I
Speaker 11: fell all the way to the ground. Fellow and Pat goes, see,
Speaker 11: I told you we needed a new stadium. I said, yeah, buddy,
Speaker 11: So we began to So we began to raise money
Speaker 11: for a stadium. In case was far ahead of me.
Speaker 11: He was already he was down the road. He knew
Speaker 11: we needed it. So he was doing such amazing work
Speaker 11: and an amazing guy. I talked to him this week.
Speaker 11: I said, are you coming out? And he says, no,
Speaker 11: I'm not going. I said, I'll miss you, man, And
Speaker 11: so a lot of good friends I saw tonight. That
Speaker 11: was really nice, and it was nice to see some
Speaker 11: people and they thanked us for what we had done
Speaker 11: at Oregon State. But that was the precursor. I learned
Speaker 11: a lot in those first four or five years as
Speaker 11: an athletic director, and that I was able to come
Speaker 11: here and next right after a couple of decades worth
Speaker 11: of being here, you sort of get a little scar tissued,
Speaker 11: but you never want to lose the reason why you
Speaker 11: do this thing. And in this age of transfer portals
Speaker 11: and everything else that people are talking about nil and
Speaker 11: what's my deal and all this stuff, those dudes.
Speaker 2: Just play.
Speaker 8: Yeah, they just.
Speaker 1: You refer to the tough times. And I mean Nick
Speaker 1: was was struggling, and he talked about that tonight and
Speaker 1: he had to do a lot of self reflection. Uh
Speaker 1: sometimes for an eighty though. And you and I have
Speaker 1: talked about this, the best movie you make is the
Speaker 1: when you don't. And you you've done that with coaches before.
Speaker 1: Looking back on that time, I mean, what are your
Speaker 1: thoughts on how he came through that, how you guys
Speaker 1: came through it together?
Speaker 11: Yeah, I know, I think that there. You know, I
Speaker 11: hope over time you know when it's right to just
Speaker 11: hold them and when to fold them, you know, And
Speaker 11: I traditionally you know that I've traditionally tried to hang
Speaker 11: in there. You're conservative, yeah, and you know, and it's
Speaker 11: there's certainly some there are some hard times. And I'll
Speaker 11: say this, a lot of people won't take feedback that
Speaker 11: that man. He will take feedback and he absorbs it.
Speaker 11: He's a great learner, he's a great listener. And there's
Speaker 11: no pride in that deal. He prideful people usually fail
Speaker 11: people that are willing to accept feedback and accept and
Speaker 11: our good listeners and learners. That's what he is. He's
Speaker 11: a ferocious learner.
Speaker 1: And you do that, you.
Speaker 11: Will if you only if you're the smartest person in
Speaker 11: the room all the time, that's a problem, yep.
Speaker 1: And he is.
Speaker 11: Yeah, and he will candidly admit he wants to learn
Speaker 11: from other people. He does it every day and that's
Speaker 11: what makes him great. Congratulations, thank you, great fun. Let's
Speaker 11: go to Omaha.
Speaker 1: And they are going to Omaha, and so is the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Insider. I will be there as well. You
Speaker 1: kidding me. I wouldn't miss that for anything. After covering
Speaker 1: this program since well since the seventies, you're listening to
Speaker 1: the best of the Big Blue Insider. More to come
Speaker 1: here on six thirty w LAP It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the best of the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 2: Here's a swinging of drive today. Blaft Beck goes Nixon.
Speaker 5: Looking up daily win It, Daily wins It, Daily wins It.
Speaker 5: Kentucky defeats it Ceast five.
Speaker 6: To four on a walk off home run five.
Speaker 1: Mitchell Dailey, Welcome to the Big Blue in Cider. Dick
Speaker 1: Gabriel with you on a Monday. It is all about
Speaker 1: o Maha, my friends. The Wildcats winning their opener in
Speaker 1: the College World Series, first time they've ever played here,
Speaker 1: and they went it in dramatic fashion. The Big Blue
Speaker 1: Nations had a couple of days to digest it. Next
Speaker 1: game is coming up in just a few minutes. Darren
Speaker 1: Hedrick is going to have the pregame for you at
Speaker 1: six forty five, and then at seven o'clock it's Kentucky
Speaker 1: and Texas. A and M. Will set that matchup for
Speaker 1: you in just a minute. But I thought we would
Speaker 1: relive some of those moments from the other day when
Speaker 1: the Wildcats knocked off came from behind for the first
Speaker 1: time in postseason, and beat NC State. It was a
Speaker 1: game to saw Kentucky take the early lead and then
Speaker 1: went up three to one after State came back and
Speaker 1: tied it at one, and then State takes the lead
Speaker 1: on a wild pitch man ninh thinning, Kentucky dramatically ties
Speaker 1: it up in the bottom of the ninth Ryan Nicholson
Speaker 1: with a home run and then Mitchell Daily with a
Speaker 1: home run and the tenth inning to send the Wildcats
Speaker 1: back to the hotel. They got to walk back to
Speaker 1: the hotel through the fans as winners. And it's so
Speaker 1: incredible the way this thing happened. With Ryan Nicholson hitting
Speaker 1: a very unlikely pitch out of the ballpark in an
Speaker 1: unlikely way down the line, hits the foul pole. Nicholson
Speaker 1: was brought here to hit home runs, and as you
Speaker 1: may know by now, really struggled at first to hit
Speaker 1: him out of the ballpark for the Wildcats, but then
Speaker 1: found his stroke and now he's hitting home runs as
Speaker 1: well as anybody in the Southeastern Conference, at least the
Speaker 1: teams that are left standing. But as Nick Minzione pointed
Speaker 1: out at his postgame news conference, Nicholson was like third
Speaker 1: or fourth in the league in just league games in
Speaker 1: home runs a league he did, of course, had Charlie
Speaker 1: Condon and Christian Moore and guys like that, So not
Speaker 1: only a home run hitter, but a clutch home run hitter.
Speaker 1: And then Mitchell Daily transferred in from Texas. Nicholson from Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: where he was a home run hitter. Daily comes in
Speaker 1: from Texas where his career had just kind of fizzled
Speaker 1: a little bit. Freshman All American in the next two
Speaker 1: years he struggled. They recruited over him, even though he
Speaker 1: did play in two College World Series with the Longhorns. Well,
Speaker 1: now he's back and has a memory, of course, that
Speaker 1: the Big Blue Nation will never forget. We're gonna hear
Speaker 1: all the highlights coming up from Darren Hedrick a little
Speaker 1: bit later on. Highlights from the entire game, and of
Speaker 1: course Nick Lopez and an RBI single. Just a phenomenal
Speaker 1: performance in a really good baseball game. Both teams played well,
Speaker 1: and the Wildcats survive in Advance A and M survives
Speaker 1: in Advance. So these two teams play tonight. We'll go
Speaker 1: over the entire schedule coming up a little bit later
Speaker 1: on as well, but we need to hear from the Wildcats.
Speaker 1: You may have heard some of this over the weekend,
Speaker 1: but Mitchell Daily talked about his home run and it
Speaker 1: was pretty interesting. I thought that he got a tip
Speaker 1: from an assistant coach and he made it work.
Speaker 8: You know, I was just trying to back the ball up.
Speaker 8: I was just trying to see the slider up. And
Speaker 8: Kuzie said, you know, he leaves it up sometimes, and
Speaker 8: I saw it up and I just went for it.
Speaker 1: So Kuzzi is assistant coach. Austin cousin of the former
Speaker 1: Kentucky All American outfielder, joined the staff as an assistant.
Speaker 1: This is his first year, and gave him the tip
Speaker 1: watch for the slider up. And that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 1: All of these fireworks happened, as I said, after NC
Speaker 1: State had taken the lead in the top of the
Speaker 1: ninth inning. So just before the bottom of the ninth inning,
Speaker 1: Nick Amuratti, the bench coach, the hitting coach, offensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: pulled the Wildcats together and the dugout had a quick
Speaker 1: word and had paid off.
Speaker 8: Yeah, Emo just brought us together and he was like, Hey,
Speaker 8: this is what we play for.
Speaker 2: You know, let's let's let's have some fun.
Speaker 6: Let's do this.
Speaker 2: You know, don't try to.
Speaker 8: Do the whole message throughout the entire day from coach managing,
Speaker 8: from the rest of the coaching staffs, don't try.
Speaker 6: To do more.
Speaker 8: Just keep being us and I like, like Ron said,
Speaker 8: we got so much confidence in each other. And when
Speaker 8: he hit that home run, nobody was surprised.
Speaker 1: There were three home runs in the game. Of course,
Speaker 1: don't forget about Nolan McCarthy's. He got Kentucky on the
Speaker 1: board first. But you've got Nicholson a rather daily batting
Speaker 1: in a five hole, Nicholson in the six hole, and
Speaker 1: McCarthy batting seven. And those are the three guys who
Speaker 1: went yard throughout the course of the ball game. And
Speaker 1: in fact, they produced seven of Kentucky's nine base hits.
Speaker 1: And Nicholson talked about that, about the fact that they've
Speaker 1: got talent at the top of the order, but they've
Speaker 1: got talent at the bottom of the order as well. Well.
Speaker 13: I think it just happened to be us today. Our lineup, man,
Speaker 13: it's so deep. You get so much production, you know,
Speaker 13: from everyone up and down the lineup. Like I don't
Speaker 13: even like Waldly probably would tell you he didn't have
Speaker 13: his best day. I mean, just wait till he, you know,
Speaker 13: gets hot. But you know, it just happened to be,
Speaker 13: you know, just the string of guys today, and it
Speaker 13: could be so many different tomorrow, like I Orchell could
Speaker 13: not have it the next day, but somebody else is
Speaker 13: going to pick up a slack. And I think that's
Speaker 13: what this lineup and ball club do really well. And
Speaker 13: you know, everyone has the utmost confidence in the guy
Speaker 13: behind him and the guy in front of him, and
Speaker 13: I think you know that votes well for us.
Speaker 1: Since we've been in Omaha, there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: chatter out here among other media members and some of
Speaker 1: the coaches about the way Kentucky plays, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's wrong to call it small ball, but there are
Speaker 1: so many different ways this Kentucky team could hurt you.
Speaker 1: And Nick Minjione after the ball game reminded ever he
Speaker 1: talked about it before the game in Kentucky's first news
Speaker 1: conference out of here. He's talked about it all year, really,
Speaker 1: but that's what's been really about this ball club. One
Speaker 1: of the special elements to this team is the many
Speaker 1: different ways it is capable of hurting the other team.
Speaker 1: And we saw that on display in the win over
Speaker 1: NC State.
Speaker 3: Look, we bought it, we stole some bases, we hit homers,
Speaker 3: and you have heard me say this over and over.
Speaker 2: We are whatever it takes type of offense.
Speaker 3: And I thought today showed that buns, homers, two strike, hitting, walks,
Speaker 3: you name it, it was, and that when a park
Speaker 3: plays like this, now you got.
Speaker 2: To be able to do all that. So I was
Speaker 2: proud of them for that effort.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, nicksmon talking about this all year, and
Speaker 1: I've got to disclose to you a conversation he and
Speaker 1: I had early in the year. This was right when
Speaker 1: they got into conference play, and I believe it was yeah,
Speaker 1: it was going into it as the first Georgia game.
Speaker 1: Doug Flinn and I did the game on the SEC
Speaker 1: Network streaming channel, and we had the conference stats in
Speaker 1: front of us, which were primarily non conference games for
Speaker 1: all the teams, and offensively, Kentucky was added near the
Speaker 1: bottom in many many categories, added near the top in pitching.
Speaker 1: Wildcat pitching was tremendous preconference. It was good throughout conference play.
Speaker 1: But offensively, the Wildcats weren't racking up, you know, the
Speaker 1: video game numbers that some of the other teams had,
Speaker 1: and frankly some video game numbers types of numbers that
Speaker 1: Kentucky's had in the past, because the Wildcats were creating offense.
Speaker 1: But Doug and I did call it small ball and
Speaker 1: we talked about the fact that the Wildcats were winning
Speaker 1: by playing small ball. Yeah, Georgia was hitting a ton
Speaker 1: of home runs, Tennessee was hitting a ton of home runs,
Speaker 1: but Kentucky was creating ways to score well. I get
Speaker 1: a text message from Nick, I don't think he mightd
Speaker 1: be telling you this, and asked me to come see
Speaker 1: him before the next ball game. I can't remember which one,
Speaker 1: but I thought, Man, did I say something that that
Speaker 1: was off color or offensive or something like that? They
Speaker 1: got back to him. While the entry was no, it
Speaker 1: was simply that Nick had heard that we were talking
Speaker 1: about the team, and sometimes the players go back and
Speaker 1: watch the games. But Nick, in fact knew that we
Speaker 1: were talking about the offense that way, and he simply
Speaker 1: pointed out to me. He said, we're an offense that
Speaker 1: scores in so many different ways. You know. It was
Speaker 1: essentially what you just heard him talking about. He said,
Speaker 1: We're a do whatever it takes kind of offense. And
Speaker 1: I got to thinking, you know what this was after
Speaker 1: the Georgia series was over, and I said to him,
Speaker 1: you know what, come to think of it, You guys
Speaker 1: out Homer Georgia, which was the big, bad home running
Speaker 1: home run hitting team that up to that point and
Speaker 1: really was all year long thanks to Charlie Condon, who
Speaker 1: out here in Omaha won the Dick Howser Trophy from
Speaker 1: being Player of the Year. So I said, yep, okay,
Speaker 1: we will talk about your offense in a different way.
Speaker 1: He wasn't mad at me, but he just wanted to
Speaker 1: remind me that they could score with doubles, they could
Speaker 1: score with home runs. It wasn't always bunts and sackflies.
Speaker 1: And sure enough he was right. And so I asked him,
Speaker 1: as a follow up question of the comment you just
Speaker 1: heard about, how proud he might be because his team
Speaker 1: has been able to accomplish so much with this well
Speaker 1: rounded offense.
Speaker 3: When we get production up and down our lineup, that's
Speaker 3: us at our best, and we can do it in
Speaker 3: all different ways. And you know what, there's a lot
Speaker 3: of coaching that goes into that.
Speaker 2: But for the.
Speaker 3: Players to be able to execute all those different things,
Speaker 3: we have to be very intentional. And I just want
Speaker 3: to make sure that everybody knows it's not all about bunting,
Speaker 3: like the whatever it takes type of offense, like please,
Speaker 3: because bunning is a small piece to it. But to
Speaker 3: your point, we can hit homers two And.
Speaker 1: He told the story of a quote. He loves quotes
Speaker 1: that fits situations, and he brought up Oral Hersheiser, who
Speaker 1: broke the Major league record for consecutive innings pitch scoreless
Speaker 1: in pitched and he loved what Herscheizer had to say
Speaker 1: about his mental approach to that streak.
Speaker 3: And I think it was at the time, I don't
Speaker 3: even know I is it fifty nine consecutive scoreless innings?
Speaker 3: And they asked him how did you do that? How
Speaker 3: did you do that? And he says, I didn't worry
Speaker 3: about the results. I focused on the execution, so he wasn't.
Speaker 3: And if when you have a team and you have
Speaker 3: a season like we've had, and the reason why we
Speaker 3: were able to go fourteen and one in the league
Speaker 3: is because as soon as that win was over, it
Speaker 3: men not expired.
Speaker 2: As soon as they throw a pitch, it's over.
Speaker 3: As soon as you take a pitch in that bad
Speaker 3: it's over, and you have to move on as fast
Speaker 3: as possible. And this goes the same for life, right,
Speaker 3: I mean, if you are struggling. I had a sports
Speaker 3: psychologist tell me one time, if you struggle with the president,
Speaker 3: is because you live in the past, and there's times
Speaker 3: where you just keep reliving moments and if you struggle
Speaker 3: with anxiety, maybe you're.
Speaker 2: Living in the future too much.
Speaker 3: And in an age where everything in social media and
Speaker 3: everything's in front of their face. It's just we have
Speaker 3: gotten them to a spot where they can just move on.
Speaker 3: So what like so what what now? Do something else?
Speaker 3: So this team they have this unbelievable ability to just
Speaker 3: move on to the next thing, regardless good or bad.
Speaker 3: And then when you're able to do that and you
Speaker 3: can move on quicker, you're able to do things like today.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the best of the Big Blu Insider.
Speaker 1: Our number two is next year on six point thirty WLAP. Hey,
Speaker 1: it's Dick Gabrielle. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: Our number two taking a little time off, so please
Speaker 1: enjoy the best of the Big Blue Insider. And I
Speaker 1: wanted to share with you some of the comments that
Speaker 1: we heard from members of the nineteen eighty four Final
Speaker 1: four team guys who were honored at halftime. And if
Speaker 1: you were watching on TV, of course you didn't get
Speaker 1: to see much, if at all. If you were at Ropperina,
Speaker 1: it was a great event, although they only of course
Speaker 1: have a few minutes at mid court to be introduced.
Speaker 1: Sam Bowie made some great comments, and they had the
Speaker 1: trophies out there, the SEC Tournament Trophy, the Regional Championship Trophy,
Speaker 1: which to me, it's always interesting that the SEC Tournament
Speaker 1: Trophy is like three times the size of the Regional Championship.
Speaker 1: But I kind of liked that the trophies you get
Speaker 1: for going to the final four and for winning it
Speaker 1: are kind of understated, but I think they're kind of elegant.
Speaker 1: And of course, that was the team that went three
Speaker 1: for thirty three against Georgetown in the second half in
Speaker 1: the semifinals. And you know, there was a point in
Speaker 1: twenty well, I had to be twenty fourteen, back in
Speaker 1: the day, not too long ago, that I was working
Speaker 1: on a documentary about that team and about that game.
Speaker 1: And the reason was it looked like Kentucky wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: do much that year in the postseason. And there was
Speaker 1: the Julius Randall team, and you might recall they were
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, stumbling about, but they caught fire
Speaker 1: at the end. But I didn't think and when none
Speaker 1: of us thought they were really going to go anywhere,
Speaker 1: and I was a WKYT and we always made some
Speaker 1: extra revenue as the station in the postseason selling specials,
Speaker 1: you know, pre tournament specials, and I produced them and
Speaker 1: we had one each week, you know, depending on how
Speaker 1: long they were in the tournament. Well, this team was
Speaker 1: gonna last very long, so I thought, well, let's try
Speaker 1: to make up some of that revenue and I can
Speaker 1: put together a documentary on that eighty four team. And yeah,
Speaker 1: they lost, but they were a much beloved team and
Speaker 1: then they jump up and go to the Final four.
Speaker 1: So I put that documentary on the shelf. But I
Speaker 1: had talked to coach Hall. I had talked to Sam
Speaker 1: and Jim Master and maybe one other about that game
Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen, or rather the eighty four team, and
Speaker 1: they came back this week. They had a reception and
Speaker 1: a dinner for the guys on Friday night. They all
Speaker 1: got together at the game on Saturday, but prior to that,
Speaker 1: they brought in Bowie and Kenny Walker and Jim Master
Speaker 1: to talk to us, to talk to the media, and
Speaker 1: Kenny talked about the fact that that game, Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was a long time ago, but it all kind of
Speaker 1: came rushing back.
Speaker 14: Man, I can't believe that it's been forty years ago.
Speaker 14: Doesn't seem like it, you know. Unfortunately, you know, I've
Speaker 14: seen some of the guys over the court for the
Speaker 14: last few years, when Melvin Turpin passed away and Brett Barup,
Speaker 14: you know, passed away, and then of course losing Coach Hall,
Speaker 14: you know, about a year or so ago, and then
Speaker 14: of course Melvin.
Speaker 2: A.
Speaker 14: Lake Kelly, who was an assistant coach on that team
Speaker 14: as well. So I want to recognize all of those
Speaker 14: people because obviously they can't be here, but they were
Speaker 14: part of a special team. Nineteen eighty four were supposed
Speaker 14: to be our year. Coach Hall told me several times
Speaker 14: after his coaching career is over with, he thought that
Speaker 14: was going to be the team to win it all
Speaker 14: and he would ride off into the sunset, you know,
Speaker 14: led by the Twin Towers, Sam Buie, Melvin Turpin, myself
Speaker 14: on the front line, Dicky Bille, Jim Masters in the
Speaker 14: starting lineup, Winston Bennett, James Blackman, Roger Harden, Brett Barup
Speaker 14: coming off the bench. I think we had about eight
Speaker 14: or nine McDonald's all Americans on that team. And this
Speaker 14: was supposed to be the team and to get that
Speaker 14: close to realizing your dream. Even forty years later, I
Speaker 14: still can't believe it. Played a great first half against
Speaker 14: Georgetown and then unfortunately somebody put a lid on the basket.
Speaker 14: It's like a strange episode of the Twilight Throone or
Speaker 14: something where you just just couldn't get out of the funk,
Speaker 14: and still hurts to this day.
Speaker 1: Kenny's been recognized at Rapperina before more than once. He
Speaker 1: made the y and all that, but he told us
Speaker 1: how much he was really looking forward to going out
Speaker 1: there with his teammates and being recognized at halftime.
Speaker 14: Glad to be with these guys and can't wait to
Speaker 14: share more stories with him, but more importantly to walk
Speaker 14: out on Rupperena one more time. You know, getting chill
Speaker 14: chill bumps thinking about it right now.
Speaker 1: And as you might expect, Kenny got a great ovation
Speaker 1: from the crowd, and it was well deserved. Of course.
Speaker 1: Somebody asked him about beyond the final four, beyond winning
Speaker 1: that regional title, his favorite memory from that eighty four season.
Speaker 2: I got it.
Speaker 14: I got a big smile on my face because you
Speaker 14: all probably know what I'm thinking. You Turme up from
Speaker 14: the nineteen eighty four season. Oh that's an easy one.
Speaker 14: I mean we had a lot of good games. You know,
Speaker 14: the Dream Game, you know, the series had just started.
Speaker 14: We beat Louisville twice that year.
Speaker 2: That was fun.
Speaker 14: We beat Houston in a game right before you know Christmas.
Speaker 14: We beat Illinois in Ille Champagne. Illinois didn't beat him
Speaker 14: again here.
Speaker 2: In Elite eight. So those games were fun.
Speaker 14: But for me personally, nineteen eighty four SEC Tournament, Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 14: I've been doing sports talk radio here in Lexington, a
Speaker 14: postgame show with Larry Glover of the for a long
Speaker 14: long time.
Speaker 2: And if I had a dime.
Speaker 14: For every time that I get asked this question, what
Speaker 14: did it feel like to make the shot to make
Speaker 14: Charles Barkley cry? And they said, You're the only guy
Speaker 14: in the history of the SEC that made Charles Barkley cry.
Speaker 14: So for me, I really do appreciate that moment. And
Speaker 14: every time that I see Charles Barkley always let him know,
Speaker 14: don't forget about this six foot eight skinny kid from
Speaker 14: Robert and Georgia made you cry.
Speaker 1: I've heard him tell that story before. It's always great
Speaker 1: one of the things that he left out was he
Speaker 1: was shocked when Joe Hall told him in the huddle,
Speaker 1: you're going to take the shot. He obviously, as most
Speaker 1: of us did, I was watching on TV when I
Speaker 1: lived in Dallas. He expected the ball to go to
Speaker 1: Bowie or Turpin and Joe Hall first thing he says
Speaker 1: is Kenny, you're going to take the shot. Kenny said, here,
Speaker 1: I'm a sophomore, but I'm like, okay, And the shot
Speaker 1: hit the front of the rim and rolled in. It
Speaker 1: was obviously a moment to remain. I'm sure they talked
Speaker 1: about that a little bit, but as Jim Master pointed out,
Speaker 1: it was just funny, said, seeing all the guys, just seeing.
Speaker 15: Him a lot of fun for me. And it's a camaraderie.
Speaker 15: It's like a fraternity back then. Also, being as as
Speaker 15: you get older, being a very small part of an
Speaker 15: unbelievable tradition in Kentucky basketball, you get more and more
Speaker 15: pride of that's what I did.
Speaker 2: So a lot of pride, a lot of great.
Speaker 15: Friends, a lot of great memories, a couple bad ones,
Speaker 15: but all in all, it's been beautiful, I think for
Speaker 15: all of us and for our families to come back beautiful.
Speaker 1: I think Jim's going to be remembered most for the
Speaker 1: shody hit against Louisville that put the game into overtime,
Speaker 1: and he talked about that game as being part of
Speaker 1: the bittersweet memories he had at Kentucky. But they took
Speaker 1: a lot of pride, he said, and taking it to
Speaker 1: Louisville that game. He just couldn't get over the hump
Speaker 1: in the overtime, just like in Seattle, they couldn't get
Speaker 1: over the hump and start knocking down shots against Georgetown.
Speaker 1: Talking to Sam Buie, one of my questions to him
Speaker 1: was about the fact that well expected Sam to be
Speaker 1: a high volume shooter and scorer, but instead because of
Speaker 1: all that talent and at least in the eighty fourteen,
Speaker 1: he was more of a facilitator.
Speaker 16: I was just telling somebody thirty minutes ago that I
Speaker 16: was a second pick in the draft and I only
Speaker 16: averaged ten points a game. I was talking to Coach
Speaker 16: Oh we were out on the floor, and I was
Speaker 16: trying to tell him that these kids got to realize
Speaker 16: that if you do what you're supposed to do, you
Speaker 16: can do this thing for a living and get compensated
Speaker 16: at it, but I took the fourth most shots of
Speaker 16: that team. I averaged ten points a game, but we
Speaker 16: as a group had a lot of success.
Speaker 2: So but that's a good point. You don't have to
Speaker 2: go out and put up thirty points to be noticed.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to follow up with a comment that
Speaker 1: I've made on the show more than once that Trey
Speaker 1: Mitchell reminds me with his passing ability of Sam standing
Speaker 1: there in the high post, looking over the defense or
Speaker 1: in trace case, around and finding his teammates. Sam was
Speaker 1: so great at that, and that's why he didn't take
Speaker 1: that many shots. He was too busy passing to Melvin
Speaker 1: and Master and Kenny and people like that. So Sam
Speaker 1: also talked about the fact that even though this team
Speaker 1: did not get to the finish line, it is still
Speaker 1: a much beloved squad according to the Big Blue Nation.
Speaker 16: The fact that we did come up short and did
Speaker 16: not get a chance to put another national championship banner
Speaker 16: up there. All through my pro career, every time I
Speaker 16: saw Patrick Ewing, I used to tell him he's walking
Speaker 16: around with my ring because not you, Patrick, or anybody
Speaker 16: can tell me that we were not the best team
Speaker 16: in the country. We just happened to come up and
Speaker 16: have a half the way we did in Seattle. But
Speaker 16: I think the people are thinking, like mister Bowie, that
Speaker 16: we still were the national champions.
Speaker 1: So Canny talked about the great memory of winning that
Speaker 1: SEC tournament game. Somebody asked Sam, I think Jef Drummond did.
Speaker 1: Does he have memory of another moment from his career
Speaker 1: at Kentucky, And Sam right away went to his last
Speaker 1: home game in rap Arena senior year.
Speaker 16: When you come through the hoop, the memories, the emotions
Speaker 16: knowing that it's coming to a close, all the relationships
Speaker 16: and all the.
Speaker 2: Love that we had as a unit.
Speaker 16: A lot of times the general public they just see
Speaker 16: the ball thrown up and the game begins, but there's
Speaker 16: so many people that make it happen. And I knew
Speaker 16: after being here for five years that that was coming
Speaker 16: to a close. So my last game here will stick
Speaker 16: out above. I was us to play on the make
Speaker 16: the nineteen eighty Olympic team and played double digits in
Speaker 16: the NBA, but Kentucky my last game in rupp Arena
Speaker 16: by far.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider
Speaker 1: More to come here on six thirty WLAP It's Dick Gabriel,
Speaker 1: welcome back to the best of the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: I mentioned the other day when we heard comments from
Speaker 1: members of the eighty four Final four team that was
Speaker 1: honored this past weekend. Bowie and Kenny Walker and Jim
Speaker 1: Master spoke to the media, and I said that I
Speaker 1: would hang on to this information and comment till later
Speaker 1: in the week. We were talking so much basketball the
Speaker 1: other day, but I did mention the fact it didn't
Speaker 1: get a lot of media play. But Tony Neely, who
Speaker 1: introduced all the players, made the announcement that Jim, who's
Speaker 1: a financial advisor for Hilliard Lyons, had made a donation
Speaker 1: to the University of Kentucky in the sum of one
Speaker 1: million dollars, half two athletics, half to the general fund.
Speaker 1: That's damned impressive. And a lot of athletes have come
Speaker 1: back quite frankly and made contributions, but I don't remember
Speaker 1: one like this. And so he took time in between
Speaker 1: answering questions about the Final Four and the big shot
Speaker 1: he made against Louisville. Master hit that huge jumper that
Speaker 1: sent the game into overtime and the Wildcats had blown
Speaker 1: a double digital lead and Louisville had taken a lead,
Speaker 1: but then Kentucky comes back and needed that bucket from
Speaker 1: Jim Master. And as he put it, many times, people said, well,
Speaker 1: how could you take that shot? What was you know?
Speaker 1: He said, I had no choice. You know, he goes up,
Speaker 1: There's about two seconds left, maybe more. But as Jim
Speaker 1: put it, he knew he had to take that shot
Speaker 1: and he had to hit it. That is the definition
Speaker 1: of clutch right there. And we all know what happened
Speaker 1: in the overtime. But anyway, Jim, I think was an
Speaker 1: undervalued player and it came to the coaches knew. But
Speaker 1: on the other side of this comment, I'll share some
Speaker 1: of the information about Jim and his career, because when
Speaker 1: you play with Bowie and Turpin, and you know, prior
Speaker 1: to that, Minifield and Dicky Beale and those guys, you're
Speaker 1: going to get overshadowed a little bit. But man, he
Speaker 1: had a hell of a high school career and a
Speaker 1: college career and now a professional career as well. But
Speaker 1: I asked him, you know, why make that donation.
Speaker 15: There's really about six reasons. One, I've had good fortune
Speaker 15: and good luck. I talked to Mitch about a year ago.
Speaker 15: Uh even better things that happened to me during this time.
Speaker 2: So I was thinking about it, Dick for a while.
Speaker 15: And then I thought about education and all this and
Speaker 15: and uh so I live here, I played here.
Speaker 2: I'm part of a crazy tradition. Small part.
Speaker 15: I graduated in four years business, proud of that.
Speaker 2: My brother Randy went to a business school there.
Speaker 15: So the education part, the athletic part.
Speaker 2: I'm a big Mitch Barnhart fan.
Speaker 15: For not only what he does on the court, but
Speaker 15: what he does off the court.
Speaker 2: My son, he didn't like basketball until last year, so
Speaker 2: that's fun. He's into it. We live here.
Speaker 15: I said all those things, and I thought it was
Speaker 15: time to do something. How small it is, I hope
Speaker 15: it helps the university, not only athletically. I hope it
Speaker 15: helps shows all young men or women that you don't
Speaker 15: have to be a first round back draft pick, you
Speaker 15: don't have to be a first round baseball player football.
Speaker 15: You can still be successful in life with a degree
Speaker 15: from Kentucky and be a shot an athlete and move
Speaker 15: on and do good things. I hope that does something
Speaker 15: for the university. Hope it does something for other people.
Speaker 15: And I'm proud to.
Speaker 1: Do it pretty impressive, and so was his basketball career.
Speaker 1: He was mister Basketball in Indiana and he didn't really
Speaker 1: like it, but a lot of people compared him to
Speaker 1: Kyle Macy. Their games were different. I mean, Kyle was
Speaker 1: a facilitator. Jim was a shooter. He was a scorer
Speaker 1: and proud of his ability to shoot and score. And
Speaker 1: that's how he became mister basketball in Indiana. In nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty second team Parade All American McDonald's All American. And
Speaker 1: I had kind of forgotten about this, but you wouldn't
Speaker 1: think that Jim, or you might think that Jim was
Speaker 1: torn between UK and I. You know, he was being
Speaker 1: recruited heavily by, among other schools, Notre Dame, and as
Speaker 1: we followed, and we didn't follow recruiting nearly as much
Speaker 1: back then as we do now, but we knew Can
Speaker 1: Kentucky was going after mister basketball in Indiana. And more
Speaker 1: than one mister basketball has come down here to play.
Speaker 1: You know, Mike Flynn was the best player in the
Speaker 1: state of Indiana and played for that seventy five Kentucky
Speaker 1: team that went to the championship game. So Master came
Speaker 1: down as well, started for three years, was All Conferences
Speaker 1: sophomore and junior year, third team All SEC, and he
Speaker 1: had that huge game against Louisville, and he had a
Speaker 1: really good tournament, and he was named All NCAA Regional.
Speaker 1: In fact, he was named to the All Regional team
Speaker 1: the year prior. What people don't remember about Jim and
Speaker 1: I ran out of time. I was going to ask
Speaker 1: him about this, but I was the only guy I
Speaker 1: think who really cared about it except for Jim. He
Speaker 1: was a member of the nineteen eighty three Pan Am
Speaker 1: team that won the gold medal. That I mean, he
Speaker 1: makes this team of course, it's like the prelude to
Speaker 1: the Olympics. And the best player on that team guy
Speaker 1: named Michael Jordan. Yeah, but also on that team Michael Cage,
Speaker 1: Chris Mullen, Sam Perkins, Ed Peinakney was on that team,
Speaker 1: Mark Price, Charlie Sitton, I mean, Wayman Tisdale, Leon Wood,
Speaker 1: You're like who? Leon Wood was a player at cal
Speaker 1: State Fullerton, went on to a long Nbacre's first round
Speaker 1: draft pick, and he actually became an NBA referee after
Speaker 1: his playing career was over. But Jack Hartman coached that
Speaker 1: team and they won the gold medal, and Jim was
Speaker 1: part of it. You know, had to make his way
Speaker 1: through tryouts and as you heard, you got to compete
Speaker 1: against a guy named Jordan. You've got Mark Price, a
Speaker 1: tremendous point guard, and Leon Wood a tremendous point guard.
Speaker 1: So Jim was playing four minutes at the shooting guard
Speaker 1: and won a spot there and won himself a gold medal.
Speaker 1: And I remember reading the story from somebody not from
Speaker 1: Kentucky who covered the tryouts and kept an eye on
Speaker 1: that team. And Jim was also drafted in the sixth
Speaker 1: round by the Pacers, didn't make the NBA and chowse not.
Speaker 2: To go to Europe.
Speaker 1: But whoever wrote this story, and I was living in
Speaker 1: Dallas at the time, said Jim Master can do things
Speaker 1: other than shoot the basketball that you might not think
Speaker 1: he's capable of doing. But Kentucky didn't need him to
Speaker 1: do it. What Kentucky needed him to do was shoot
Speaker 1: from the outside and take the pressure off Melvin Turpin
Speaker 1: prior to Booie's arrival after the two years with the injury,
Speaker 1: and in that eighty four season helped loosen things up
Speaker 1: for both of the Twin Towers. And he did that
Speaker 1: and he did it really well and obviously he enjoyed
Speaker 1: his time when he's proud of the time he spent
Speaker 1: at UKN As I told you the other day, Jim
Speaker 1: stayed right here when basketball was over, settled in, started
Speaker 1: a financial career, raised his family, and now has donated
Speaker 1: one million bucks to his alma mine. We're listening to
Speaker 1: the best of the Big Blue Insider. More to come
Speaker 1: here on six thirty w LAP. It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Best of the Big Blue Insider. Joining
Speaker 1: us down our celebrity hotline is a longtime friend of
Speaker 1: the show and a colleague, mister John Clay, columnists for
Speaker 1: The Arrow Leader and John. Things kind of slowing down
Speaker 1: for you a little bit, But it's been it's been
Speaker 1: quite the run with Kentucky baseball, that's been. That's been
Speaker 1: kind of fun, hasn't it. Oh?
Speaker 12: Yeah, absolutely. I really got into the College even though
Speaker 12: it didn't make the trip to them all, but really
Speaker 12: got into watching the College World Series, obviously because you know,
Speaker 12: with Kentucky being in it. But even through the whole
Speaker 12: thing I watched. I think I watched the majority of
Speaker 12: every game in the World College World Series and Yeah,
Speaker 12: it was a lot of fun, of course to see
Speaker 12: Kentucky make it, but then to follow the other teams too.
Speaker 12: I thought it was a really good tournament all the
Speaker 12: way through.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, people are wondering now ken they
Speaker 1: do it again, and it's it's gonna be tougher obviously
Speaker 1: with Texas and Oklahoma joining up. But what do you
Speaker 1: see in the future, the near future?
Speaker 12: Well, I mean I think, you know, I think I
Speaker 12: said this before. You know, they had a good year
Speaker 12: last year obviously, when a lot of people, myself included,
Speaker 12: thought that maybe, you know, Nick Minjion wasn't the answer
Speaker 12: for the job at Kentucky after having two or three
Speaker 12: bad years there. But he got turned around last year.
Speaker 12: But then you know, they made it to the super
Speaker 12: reason they lost the LSU and then LSU went on
Speaker 12: and won the whole thing. But you thought, okay, was that,
Speaker 12: you know, was that a fluke? Was that an aberration?
Speaker 12: Can he keep it going? And then and then this
Speaker 12: year they took it one step further. So I don't obviously,
Speaker 12: as you said, it's going to be tough to get back.
Speaker 12: It's always going to be tough to get back. But
Speaker 12: I do think they are in a really good place.
Speaker 12: I think the ballpark has made a big difference. I
Speaker 12: think Nick has made some changes which he has openly
Speaker 12: talked about about. How you know, during COVID or whatever,
Speaker 12: he talked to former players and they told him some
Speaker 12: things that he didn't want to hear, but there were
Speaker 12: things he needed to year and he made some changes.
Speaker 12: So I think they're in a good spot. And just
Speaker 12: the exposure that they got from making being there at
Speaker 12: the College World Series was a lot was made out
Speaker 12: of it being their first time being there. But I
Speaker 12: think the exposure they got, I think obviously will help them.
Speaker 12: I think they're in a good place for the future.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they've done such a great job. And I've
Speaker 1: said it over and over minji On and his staff,
Speaker 1: because it is a staff wide effort to work the portal.
Speaker 1: You know, I think they've worked the portal as well
Speaker 1: as anybody. Getting the right guy not just the skills.
Speaker 1: It's not putting a fantasy team together, it's getting the
Speaker 1: right guys. And they've done as good a job as
Speaker 1: that as anybody in the country.
Speaker 12: Absolutely, and you know more about it than I do
Speaker 12: as far as Nick concerned. But you know, me. I'm
Speaker 12: a big Springsteen guy, and I remember reading in his
Speaker 12: memoir where he said that he learned early on it
Speaker 12: wasn't getting the best musicians for your band, it was
Speaker 12: getting the right musicians for your band. And I think
Speaker 12: that's true. You know, in all sports with about the athlete,
Speaker 12: it's not the It's got to be a good fit.
Speaker 12: It's got to be somebody who compliments the other players.
Speaker 12: You know, we arend a little of that when talking
Speaker 12: to Mark Pope earlier this week in basketball, where he
Speaker 12: talked about team building and building players and relationships. That
Speaker 12: is so important, maybe even more important. Obviously, you got
Speaker 12: to have athletic ability. You got to have the talent
Speaker 12: and the skill level. That maybe more important. It's the
Speaker 12: chemistry and how the pieces fit together.
Speaker 1: I'll get to Mark Pope in a minute, but I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about the previous UK coach because you
Speaker 1: wrote about it leading up to the NBA Draft. Then,
Speaker 1: of course, Reed Shepherd, as you point out or somebody
Speaker 1: pointed out, was the first college player taken in the draft,
Speaker 1: and the Houston Rockets jam said they believe he was
Speaker 1: the best player in the draft. And then of course
Speaker 1: Dillingham goes to the Spurs, which was supposed to be
Speaker 1: a great thing. Then he goes to the Wolves, which
Speaker 1: might be even better. John, they're so close to a title.
Speaker 1: But John Calipery, I guess this was his farewell to Kentucky,
Speaker 1: you know, two more first round draft. But you wrote
Speaker 1: the other day about the infamous statement that he made
Speaker 1: I guess after his first year at Kentucky about this
Speaker 1: being another greatest night in UK history. I'm like you.
Speaker 1: I believe that if he could, he would completely walk
Speaker 1: that back. It was clearly done for recruiting purposes. But
Speaker 1: I don't think he ever lived that down, do you no?
Speaker 12: And that's kind of what I wrote the other day.
Speaker 12: You know, as we know what John, John can kind of,
Speaker 12: you know, get into the hyperbole and sometimes he gets
Speaker 12: carried away with himself over the years. And yeah, I
Speaker 12: think maybe he would walk that one back. He obviously
Speaker 12: was talking to recruits obviously, you know, recruits want to
Speaker 12: go to the NBA. That's there, your high level recruit,
Speaker 12: that's what they want to do. And he was speaking
Speaker 12: to those guys, but he took it a little too far.
Speaker 12: The only the thing that annoyed me the other night
Speaker 12: was that all the people saying, and you hear it
Speaker 12: over and over. You know Cal didn't start. You know,
Speaker 12: he hit two guys going the top eight and he
Speaker 12: didn't start them. You know, it just shows what kind
Speaker 12: of coach he is. I wrote back earlier, and I
Speaker 12: retweeted the other night the same Colum and I got
Speaker 12: a lot of blowback from that. I think col was
Speaker 12: unfairly criticized for that reach. Shepherd was at the third
Speaker 12: most minutes on the team. They had a rotation going
Speaker 12: that I think Cal was comfortable with. Those guys were
Speaker 12: in the game a lot of times before the first
Speaker 12: TV time out. If you go back and look, a
Speaker 12: friend of mine sent me a Texic or after the
Speaker 12: season saying, what was the score at the sixteen minute
Speaker 12: I'd like to know the score at the sixteen minute
Speaker 12: mark of those games. This was the person who was
Speaker 12: critical of cow. So I went back and looked at that.
Speaker 12: In the last fifteen games Sick, only six times were
Speaker 12: they behind at the sixteen and mark when Shepard million
Speaker 12: into the game. And two of those games Shepherd actually
Speaker 12: started when DJ Wager was hurt and they were fine,
Speaker 12: so two of the six, So I thought, you know,
Speaker 12: and I also to say to this people, you know,
Speaker 12: Mark Pope did not start Jackson Robinson. He was the
Speaker 12: sixth player. He was probably by u's best player. He
Speaker 12: was the sixth man of the year in the Big twelve,
Speaker 12: and Mark Pope did not start him. You know, just
Speaker 12: because you do not start doesn't mean you're not a
Speaker 12: good player. And a lot of people feel like bringing
Speaker 12: in a six man off the bench to give your
Speaker 12: offensive punch is the best way to go. So I
Speaker 12: think Cal was. You can criticize Cal for a lot
Speaker 12: of things. I can make you a list if you
Speaker 12: want me to, but I thought that one was overblown.
Speaker 1: John I could not agree more. And I argued every
Speaker 1: week with my colleagues on air, Aaron Gershawan and Billy
Speaker 1: rut Ligion for a couple of reasons, one of them
Speaker 1: being we all get swept up in offense. And clearly
Speaker 1: these guys were the best offensive wing players along with
Speaker 1: Antonio Reeves, but with all due respect, they didn't bring
Speaker 1: a whole lot of on ball defense. Now, Reid could
Speaker 1: shoot gaps and backtip and all that, but you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: you might get a little more offensive punch off the
Speaker 1: bench right away if they're rather if they're starting. But
Speaker 1: on the other hand, you're going to give up more points.
Speaker 1: So I and I you know, as you know, I
Speaker 1: lived a couple years in Dallas, and I went to
Speaker 1: a lot of NBA games, and they you know, there's
Speaker 1: in the NBA, there are automatic subs early on, and
Speaker 1: I will watch the Maverick subs get up, but not
Speaker 1: even the coach looking at him at some point. So
Speaker 1: I kind of got used to that. Now it wasn't
Speaker 1: exactly the same thing, but the bottom line was, I
Speaker 1: really liked the infusion of energy that those guys brought
Speaker 1: when they came into the game. That was something that
Speaker 1: Kentucky had that nobody else had in the country. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm like you, you could, you could pick
Speaker 1: at Caliperi for a lot of things, but but I will.
Speaker 1: I know, I'm an outlier. I'm stubborn. So but I
Speaker 1: did fully, fully agree on that. You were there. When
Speaker 1: Mark Pope spoke to us the other day, did anything
Speaker 1: in particular jump out at you.
Speaker 12: Just wrote about this too. I mean he didn't really
Speaker 12: you know, he didn't talk basketball. He talked about the
Speaker 12: things around the teams, the thinks we talked about earlier
Speaker 12: about chemistry. You guys, all new guys getting in the
Speaker 12: same boat together. The only thing in common is they
Speaker 12: all took that leap of faith to get in the
Speaker 12: same boat. They don't really know each other, you know,
Speaker 12: the process of getting getting them to know each other
Speaker 12: and get along, that's what you know, kind of the
Speaker 12: summer is for. We talked about that before Cal when
Speaker 12: he brought in all his freshmen. You know, that kind
Speaker 12: of stuck out to me, and just you know, it's
Speaker 12: just going to be different with Mark. I think he's
Speaker 12: such a breath of fresh air. Nothing against Cal, it's
Speaker 12: just different. You know, the way Mark talks to the media,
Speaker 12: the way he reacts and so forth. As people tell me,
Speaker 12: and that's true. We'll see what happens when they lose
Speaker 12: a couple of games. But right now, I think he's
Speaker 12: doing everything right. I think everything is going as well
Speaker 12: as could be expected, maybe even more than that. To
Speaker 12: this point.
Speaker 1: Well, you know Kentucky fans as well as anybody. I
Speaker 1: think the word reasonable is one of those malleable words
Speaker 1: right now. But you also know that the closer the
Speaker 1: season gets, the hype and the hysteria will take hold.
Speaker 1: But what do you think fans, let's say, what's fair
Speaker 1: to expect this year from the basketball team?
Speaker 12: Well, I mean, I think you know, they want a
Speaker 12: winning team, a competitive team, a team that you know,
Speaker 12: obviously when they get to March, can make a you know,
Speaker 12: not necessarily get to the Final four, but be a
Speaker 12: factor in March, which Kentucky has not been for the
Speaker 12: past few years, even though when they've had an I C.
Speaker 12: You know, it may be a little rough start now
Speaker 12: because as we said, these guys are have not played
Speaker 12: together before you got an all new team. They are older,
Speaker 12: which obviously should help. But I think just that you
Speaker 12: get the feeling that he thinks he mark you know,
Speaker 12: he that he will I don't want to say up
Speaker 12: to the job because I think he's up to the job,
Speaker 12: but that he's going in the right direction and they
Speaker 12: can see in the future with recruiting and so forth,
Speaker 12: that he's he's going to bring, you know, do great things,
Speaker 12: going to get the job done. I think that's more so,
Speaker 12: maybe even than the results the first season. You know
Speaker 12: that he gives them the confidence, which I think he
Speaker 12: will he is the right man for the job, and
Speaker 12: then he'll be able to do great things here.
Speaker 1: I know people in this day and age wonder about
Speaker 1: his desire for incoming players to embrace Kentucky tradition. You
Speaker 1: know the name on the front of the jersey. You
Speaker 1: know what it means, know what the history means, you know,
Speaker 1: and you have a right to be a little cynical
Speaker 1: about that, I think in this day and age. But
Speaker 1: through pure osmosis, I gotta think John that anybody who
Speaker 1: plays for him is going to get that, don't you.
Speaker 12: Well, yeah, absolutely, I mean, because that comes through through
Speaker 12: and through his love of the program. I thought it
Speaker 12: was interesting the other day when he talked about his
Speaker 12: favorite English professor at UK, yes, doctor Bli. And when
Speaker 12: I mentioned that to my wife, who was an English
Speaker 12: major at UK, when I got back from the press conference,
Speaker 12: I said something about that, she knew immediately who Mark
Speaker 12: was talking about because she had doctor Bly when she
Speaker 12: was in school. So, you know, that kind of touch
Speaker 12: which we haven't had, you know, recently, because he is
Speaker 12: a UK guy. He went to school here, he played here,
Speaker 12: and you know, we haven't had that in a while.
Speaker 12: And I think that's kind of a nice touch as well.
Speaker 12: And I think I think you're right. I think some
Speaker 12: of that will carry over to the players, whether they're
Speaker 12: here one year or two years or you know, four years.
Speaker 12: I think some of that His love for the school
Speaker 12: and his knowledge about the school and the program, I
Speaker 12: think will definitely help.
Speaker 1: John Clay is my guest sports Columns for the Hero.
Speaker 1: Later we'll come back with more questions for John. You're
Speaker 1: listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider. More
Speaker 1: to come here on six thirty w lap. Hey, it's
Speaker 1: Dick Gabriel and you're listening to the best of the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Insider. John Clay is my guest in our
Speaker 1: celebrity hotline. We're talking sports. It is the talking season.
Speaker 1: John is Mark Stoops likes to point out, and SEC
Speaker 1: football media days are coming right at us. It's going
Speaker 1: to be a zoo down in Dallas. I think I'm
Speaker 1: going to stick my toe back in the water, if
Speaker 1: nor for another reason, to reacquainate myself with some friends
Speaker 1: down there. But I'm wondering. I think we both know
Speaker 1: what it's going to be like for Stoops when he
Speaker 1: gets down there and his dalliance, whatever you want to
Speaker 1: call it, what Texas A and M is gonna come
Speaker 1: up front and center isn't it.
Speaker 12: Oh yeah, especially in Dallas because there'll be a lot
Speaker 12: of Texas media there and there'll be plenty of questions
Speaker 12: and uh, you know, I think Mark will handle it fine.
Speaker 12: But yeah, that will definitely be one that will definitely
Speaker 12: be one of the questions and one of the storylines,
Speaker 12: if not here, certainly down in Texas and with A
Speaker 12: and M. We'll see how that goes. Well, Mark's been
Speaker 12: around for a while. I think he'll amble is fine.
Speaker 1: Uh, you know, for him to be the longest ten
Speaker 1: year head football coach in the Southeastern Conference at one school,
Speaker 1: to me, John and just not a knock on him
Speaker 1: or UK, it's just that's just not the way things
Speaker 1: have gone right.
Speaker 12: No, No, not not here, not anywhere. You know, you know,
Speaker 12: it's wild when you think about it. Uh, you know
Speaker 12: that we think Saban's retirement. He's the longest tendron coach
Speaker 12: in the SEC. Obviously, you know, be a different different
Speaker 12: year this year with Texas and Oklahoma coming in. I
Speaker 12: think that obviously got a really tough schedule, but they're
Speaker 12: always gonna have a tough schedule in the SEC. But
Speaker 12: I think it's a really tough schedule. I think, actually,
Speaker 12: I think this could be one of the more talented
Speaker 12: rosters and Marcus had since you've been here. Obviously, there's
Speaker 12: some question Marchie got quarterback who's unproven. You got a
Speaker 12: new offensive coordinator, the third offensive coordinator in three years.
Speaker 12: You got some questions on defense, especially in the secondary,
Speaker 12: how that what's going to happen there? But I think overall,
Speaker 12: when you look at the roster, overall, I think it's
Speaker 12: one of the better rosters he's had since he's been here.
Speaker 12: The scary thing is the schedule and how they're going
Speaker 12: to be able to navigate that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I keep saying, John, because as you said,
Speaker 1: when you're in the SEC, you're gonna have a tough schedule.
Speaker 1: But they have traded more manageable opponents for others that
Speaker 1: might not be so manageable. But more than anything, it's
Speaker 1: not the schedule. It's the calendar, you know, those those challenges.
Speaker 1: So early will learn a lot, but this may really
Speaker 1: be a gut punch early in the season, you know.
Speaker 12: Yeah, Now, I do think that it will help them
Speaker 12: from the standpoint that they will learn early. They'll learn,
Speaker 12: you know, after these first three weeks, so they're missed
Speaker 12: and then soath line in Georgia. He's going to have
Speaker 12: a better idea of what, you know, what kind of
Speaker 12: team he has, where his strengths and weaknesses are. But
Speaker 12: you could also take a couple of losses along the way.
Speaker 12: I mean, certainly the Georgia game, there'll be a heavy
Speaker 12: underdog in that game. So how they come out of
Speaker 12: that's going to be key. Not so much from a
Speaker 12: win law, maybe not so much from a win loss situation,
Speaker 12: but you know how he feels about his team and
Speaker 12: what holes he knows he's going to have to shore
Speaker 12: up the rest of the way. But you're you're right,
Speaker 12: it's and you know it's it's easy to sit here
Speaker 12: and look at the schedule on paper and you never
Speaker 12: know how it's going to play out. Nobody thought at
Speaker 12: this point last year the Missouri was gonna end up
Speaker 12: twelve and two or whatever. Eleven and two or whatever
Speaker 12: they ended up last year. So there'll be teams that
Speaker 12: do better than you expect, and they'll be teams that
Speaker 12: don't do as well as you expect. But obviously, you know,
Speaker 12: having to go to Texas, Texas is going to be
Speaker 12: one that they're probably going to be number three in
Speaker 12: the country in the preseason poll. They're gonna be one,
Speaker 12: probably one of the five teams all year long. That's
Speaker 12: a tough game, Auburn. It's you Freeze's second season. You'd
Speaker 12: have to think common sense tells you that they'll be
Speaker 12: better than they were last year, you know, despite the trouble.
Speaker 12: If you Freeze got into in the past, I think
Speaker 12: he's a good obviously a good coach. So yeah, I
Speaker 12: mean those two games, plus you factor in they have
Speaker 12: to go to Florida. This is a make or break
Speaker 12: gear for Billy Napier. How are they going to react
Speaker 12: to that? You know, all those things fit in as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Louisville's is going to be better. And I already
Speaker 1: saw way too soon not not a top twenty five
Speaker 1: that had Louisville ranked in Kentucky unranked. So yeah, it's
Speaker 1: going to be but it's going to be fun. A
Speaker 1: few minutes up with John Clay the hero leader. This
Speaker 1: sounds random, but I'll tie it in. When I was
Speaker 1: a kid, I don't know if you read sporting news,
Speaker 1: but I did. But then when the free agency began,
Speaker 1: and I'd look at a story and do I want
Speaker 1: to read this it was if it was full of
Speaker 1: dollar signs, John, I would skip it. I want to
Speaker 1: hear I'm gonna read about baseball, not contracts. Well, I
Speaker 1: think when when we tune in or listen in or
Speaker 1: go to the SEC meetings, there's going to be so
Speaker 1: much chatter about nil and the portal and things like that,
Speaker 1: which I think is just grinding away at the sports.
Speaker 1: It takes it. It's vital, but it takes away a
Speaker 1: lot on of fun, doesn't it.
Speaker 12: Oh yeah, and you know, really, you know, we we
Speaker 12: have our own metrics at the row Leader in Kentucky
Speaker 12: dot com. And the stories, you know, we write about it.
Speaker 12: My colleague Mark Story writes about it. John Albim, we
Speaker 12: write about it, but those stories don't get as many
Speaker 12: clicks or his pace views. It's just the stories about
Speaker 12: the roster or who's coming in, who about recruiting and
Speaker 12: that sort of thing. Obviously, they're very important you have
Speaker 12: to write about I have to pay attention to it.
Speaker 12: But I think you're right. I think the fans they
Speaker 12: have their feel of that. Uh they want to know,
Speaker 12: you know, how good is the team going to be
Speaker 12: this year?
Speaker 15: Uh?
Speaker 12: That sort of thing. I heard a story Mike Lombardi,
Speaker 12: the former GM. He has his own podcast. He said
Speaker 12: that he worked with CBS. He was working at CBS
Speaker 12: and Jim Nance pulled him aside at one time and
Speaker 12: Jim Nance told him, Mike, you're doing a great job,
Speaker 12: but you're talking too much inside baseball football about general
Speaker 12: managers and about the inner workings. So the little old
Speaker 12: lady in IWA, who has her favorite team is the Pear.
Speaker 12: She wants to know three things. Who's the quarterback, who's
Speaker 12: the coach, and are we going to be any good
Speaker 12: this year? So you need to talk more about that. So,
Speaker 12: and I think that's what the average fan, that's what
Speaker 12: they're that's what they're most interested in, more so than
Speaker 12: the dollar. Soiunds and the numbers.
Speaker 1: I'm a Lombardi fan. I listened to his podcast. I
Speaker 1: actually bought one of his books, and I've had him
Speaker 1: on the show, and I remember that anecdote and absolutely correct.
Speaker 1: When he starts talking about our contracts are structured and
Speaker 1: you know option here and all that stuff, my eyes
Speaker 1: start to cross. But I'm like most people, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: want to know, even if it's not about the packers.
Speaker 1: You know what, I love it when he talks about
Speaker 1: the different approaches from different coordinators. And that's why, getting
Speaker 1: back to your comment about the new OC, I'm really
Speaker 1: curious to see what this Kentucky offense looks like with
Speaker 1: Bush Hamden and can he and whoever's the starting QB,
Speaker 1: assuming assuming it's Vander can they capture I won't say recapture,
Speaker 1: but let's say replicate the kind of magic that they
Speaker 1: had with will Levis here. Yeah.
Speaker 12: I mean from all the looks at the sound of it,
Speaker 12: he wants to continue some of those thing things, but
Speaker 12: kind of adapted more to the college game. And I
Speaker 12: think one of the things is the running quarterback. Yeah,
Speaker 12: you know, I mean, I don't think they're gonna run
Speaker 12: a lot of his own read but I think one
Speaker 12: of the reasons they took the Orangeboro kid from Rutgers
Speaker 12: as a transfer whim Sat or however you pronounce his
Speaker 12: last name, but anyway, you know, at Rutgers he was
Speaker 12: a starter, but if you go by his numbers, he
Speaker 12: wasn't much of a passer, but obviously he was a
Speaker 12: dual threat. He can run into a great athlete, and
Speaker 12: the fact that they took him, and I think you're
Speaker 12: going to see maybe him in certain situations run packages
Speaker 12: and so forth. I think that's going to be an
Speaker 12: interesting change. I thought that was the one thing with
Speaker 12: rich S Gangarello when he didn't want Will Levis to run,
Speaker 12: and I know he didn't want him to get hurt,
Speaker 12: and they were it be about their backup, and he
Speaker 12: thought he had an NFL future and he wanted to
Speaker 12: get hurt. But if the year before, under Liam Will's
Speaker 12: first year, you know that the run was a threat.
Speaker 12: I mean, not so much running on his own read,
Speaker 12: but take off on a quarterback draw or even on
Speaker 12: a scramble, and they took that away from Will his
Speaker 12: second year, and I thought that hurt him more than anything.
Speaker 12: So but you know, we'll see how it goes this year.
Speaker 12: But I think Vandergriff, you know, I think I've said
Speaker 12: on this show before. You know, I've got a lot
Speaker 12: of contacts in Georgia who were really high on Vandergriff
Speaker 12: and thought that he was neck and neck with Carson Beck.
Speaker 12: Last year during Paul Camp, they went with Beck, and
Speaker 12: Beck played so well. Vander Griff, you know, never really
Speaker 12: got in the game for not much, but they were
Speaker 12: highing him. The only knock was that he played at
Speaker 12: a small school in Georgia, was a five school for
Speaker 12: five school, a five star prospect, but he played as
Speaker 12: a smaller school than wonder about his competition. But he
Speaker 12: looked he has the looks of a quarterback, and he
Speaker 12: has the looks of somebody who can run if you
Speaker 12: need him to run. What did him to say? We
Speaker 12: need the quarterback to get two first downs with his
Speaker 12: feet every game. And I thought that was a really
Speaker 12: interesting thing that Bush said.
Speaker 1: John, Thank you sir, We'll see you down the road.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Dick that I'll do it for now. Thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us for this special edition the best of
Speaker 1: the Big Blue Insider. That's it. Good night from the garage.
Speaker 6: In Lexington, mass As biggest same