Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and Cider. Dick Abriel with
Speaker 1: you on a Thursday edition of our show. We'll be
Speaker 1: abbreviated not too terribly much though, because we have UK
Speaker 1: women's basketball coming up, not at the top of the hour,
Speaker 1: but at seven point thirty because the Wildcats are playing
Speaker 1: over at Miszoo and Columbia. So Darren Hedrick's pregame comes
Speaker 1: up at seven point fifteen, with tip off just a
Speaker 1: minute or two after seven thirty sec plus has it.
Speaker 1: But of course we urge you to sing things up
Speaker 1: with our radio call with mister Darren Hedrick coming up
Speaker 1: in just a few minutes. Of course, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk tonight about Kentucky's win over Vanderbilt last night. That
Speaker 1: was a must win anytime you play at home, of
Speaker 1: course you got to protect the home court, but especially
Speaker 1: now with postseason, with postseason coming up so quickly, both
Speaker 1: the SEC if you've got to get that at least
Speaker 1: one by one night by and Indian say, rack up
Speaker 1: as many wins as you can, but protect that home court. Yes,
Speaker 1: tough for the Wildcats because as we all know, terrible
Speaker 1: terrible injury problems in the back court and we may
Speaker 1: not see any of these three by the end of
Speaker 1: the year. I'm hoping we see Lamont Butler, of course,
Speaker 1: sooner than later. You got to think Crisa would be
Speaker 1: back by now. But I have no idea what's going
Speaker 1: on from here with him. Don't know if Butler's gonna
Speaker 1: need postseason surgery, you know, if it's torn labram or
Speaker 1: just a spring or whatever. And every time I think
Speaker 1: about what Pope has said about Jackson Robinson, I just
Speaker 1: really wonderful'll ever see him again this year in a
Speaker 1: Kentucky uniform. So he just got to move on. And
Speaker 1: Pope again last night called it a new season. He's
Speaker 1: called it that before, not just you know, hang in there,
Speaker 1: guys till the troops get back. But regardless, last night
Speaker 1: was a big win, and it was tight in the
Speaker 1: first half and looked like the first Kentucky Vanda and
Speaker 1: saw actually Vandy jump out to a big league Kentucky
Speaker 1: came all the way back, took a nice lead, then
Speaker 1: blew it. But last night the Wildcats really exerted themselves
Speaker 1: and imposed their will in the second half against Vandy. Now,
Speaker 1: Colin Chandler had a big game, no question about that.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about him coming up after the break,
Speaker 1: specifically because there was a lot of postgame talk about
Speaker 1: him from Pope and his teammates and Colin. Of course,
Speaker 1: I hope you heard his interview with Jack Gibbons. But
Speaker 1: early in the second half, I mean, the first several possessions,
Speaker 1: it was obvious, it was clear. I tweeted as much.
Speaker 1: You saw it, you heard it, Tom and Jack talk
Speaker 1: about it. Kentucky went to the bigs. Kentucky went to
Speaker 1: Amari Williams and Andrew Carr. And it's not as though
Speaker 1: Vandy didn't have any size of its own, but Kentucky's
Speaker 1: bigs played really well last night. Andrew Carr looked healthy
Speaker 1: for the first time in forever. I mean, he's played,
Speaker 1: but he had that back injury. And Pope talked about
Speaker 1: how well Carr played at a time they needed it
Speaker 1: the most.
Speaker 2: You know, for the last month, we felt like we've
Speaker 2: been without three of our leaders in Lamont and Jackson
Speaker 2: and Drew. And he's been working so hard to find
Speaker 2: his way back, and I thought he was brilliant. He
Speaker 2: really did look like his old, physical, attacking self.
Speaker 3: The last two days were the first time where he
Speaker 3: had back to back essentially full practices, and I think
Speaker 3: he felt much better jumping back into the starting lineup,
Speaker 3: and I thought he was.
Speaker 2: I thought it was really really good tonight. I mean,
Speaker 2: we all know this Andrew Carr that performed tonight against
Speaker 2: a really imposing frontline. That's a terrific defensive team. This
Speaker 2: is a really special Manerbille defensive team, and I thought
Speaker 2: he was terrific.
Speaker 1: Pope also gave credit both in the media session and
Speaker 1: with Tom Leech to Angley Almanor, who was the guy
Speaker 1: who had to sort of take a step back, lost
Speaker 1: some minutes because he was playing a lot more. In fact,
Speaker 1: he started a game or two, didn't he with Andrew
Speaker 1: Carr either completely sidelined or slowed by that back injury.
Speaker 1: But he gave Almonor full credit for accepting his role.
Speaker 1: And when he said he went and talked to him
Speaker 1: about the fact that Andrew's going to start, get more minutes, etc.
Speaker 1: He just said, all right, coach, let's go. And it
Speaker 1: worked out, didn't it. Amari Williams man I was a
Speaker 1: man played huge and Pope brought up, of course, metrics
Speaker 1: that can tell us just how well Williams is playing.
Speaker 2: Guys we're witnessing, you know, we're seeing all these metrics
Speaker 2: right now where Amari right now is top five all
Speaker 2: time in the SEC in terms of PR forty minutes,
Speaker 2: top five all time, Like that's insane what we're witness
Speaker 2: seeing him do. He is, he is a unique player,
Speaker 2: and he's just getting more and more confident, more and
Speaker 2: more comfortable. He's getting more and more confident around the rim,
Speaker 2: where he's all you know he was he was not
Speaker 2: unstoppable at the rim early in the season because he
Speaker 2: would get rushed. Right now, he's just like, yep, I'm
Speaker 2: just gonna go to work down here, and I'm gonna
Speaker 2: get to two feet, just kind of go to I
Speaker 2: thought he was brilliant tonight.
Speaker 1: And again that's something that Pope brought up on the radio,
Speaker 1: but he gave more of an explanation. I guess he
Speaker 1: assumed the media folks it would either look it up
Speaker 1: or knew what it was. Par looks at average points
Speaker 1: plus assists plus rebounds per game all right now, he's
Speaker 1: playing about twenty one minutes a game, Amari Williams. So
Speaker 1: if you do just rough estimates and round down, let's
Speaker 1: say twenty minutes a game is so double it right average,
Speaker 1: he'd be averaging twenty points, sixteen rebounds, and six assists
Speaker 1: per game. That's as good or better than Oscar she
Speaker 1: Boy numbers incredible. So when you look at how Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: went after Williams last time they played and did a
Speaker 1: good job compared to this time, it was a huge difference.
Speaker 1: And Mark Byington, the Mandy coach, brought that up as well,
Speaker 1: or was at least asked about it.
Speaker 4: Well, he's huge. You know, if he was six six,
Speaker 4: I wouldn't worry about it. But his arms are incredibly long.
Speaker 5: He's tall.
Speaker 4: We know he's going to his left hand. Everybody in
Speaker 4: the country knows he's going to his left hand.
Speaker 1: Still tough to stop. And we were a little.
Speaker 4: Undersized, and we didn't want to double because he's a
Speaker 4: great passer. So if you double, you know, then he
Speaker 4: gives up threes. And the first game we played him,
Speaker 4: I thought we did a good job of kind of
Speaker 4: keeping him from getting to a deep post position. Today
Speaker 4: he did a really good job, and like I said,
Speaker 4: especially in the second half. It was a problem for
Speaker 4: us in the second half.
Speaker 1: Now, one of the things that Amari has done of
Speaker 1: late is play more physically and this has been a process,
Speaker 1: and Pope talked about this as well, because he's learning
Speaker 1: what he can get away with, essentially my words. You know,
Speaker 1: Pope talked about getting the whistle or whatever, but basically
Speaker 1: what he talked about was what can you get away with.
Speaker 1: At Drexel, he was the biggest, the strongest, the longest,
Speaker 1: the toughest and planning in smaller guys, so no doubt
Speaker 1: within the eyes of the officials he had perhaps advantage.
Speaker 1: Disadvantage was throwing his weight around and they probably called
Speaker 1: more fouls. But in the SEC you can get away
Speaker 1: with a lot inside. My man Cameron Mills and I
Speaker 1: argue about this. He hates the fact that, you know,
Speaker 1: they call hand checking out on the perimeter, fine, but
Speaker 1: that comes with officials looking at trying to stop a
Speaker 1: guy from getting where he wants to be in the
Speaker 1: middle in the paint, it's just about body on body contact.
Speaker 1: Those same guards who might be called for fouls for
Speaker 1: hand checking outside if they're inside, as Colin Chandler was
Speaker 1: banging around the rebound, that's not a foul, at least
Speaker 1: not at the SEC level. So Marii talked about the
Speaker 1: difference now and what he knows he can do physically.
Speaker 6: In that conference, it was like, you know, the charges,
Speaker 6: if you keep banging too much, they'll just droping. That's
Speaker 6: something I was always worry of my four years Batu, Like, now,
Speaker 6: no big is really going to do that. They kind
Speaker 6: of go pride and taking stand. So just knowing that
Speaker 6: and just knowing how to get around it is something.
Speaker 7: I'll tell you.
Speaker 1: It's got to be a lot more fun for him
Speaker 1: to be able to get in there and be as
Speaker 1: physical as he needs to be and make things work.
Speaker 1: Before the break, I did want to share with you
Speaker 1: comments from Pope about whether or not this team is
Speaker 1: where he needs it to be. Defensively, you know, just
Speaker 1: how good are they right now? They're better than you were.
Speaker 1: How good are they?
Speaker 2: Well, there's a lot of roomment for improvement because we're
Speaker 2: not great, so but we're we're getting better, and with
Speaker 2: this new group, we're getting better. I thought, you know,
Speaker 2: Travis Perry had a really really hard job tonight and
Speaker 2: I thought he stood in there admirably, right I'm talking
Speaker 2: about on the defensive end. And Colin Chandler I thought
Speaker 2: was really really good on the defensive end and still
Speaker 2: you know, has a ton of room to grow up,
Speaker 2: and he's able to catch move time time. And you guys,
Speaker 2: think about this. I have Trent Noah. I know Trent
Speaker 2: didn't make any shots tonight, but I have Trent Noah
Speaker 2: guarding Jason Edwards, their leading scorer a microwave score like
Speaker 2: five eleven. Jet guard for four and five minutes stretches
Speaker 2: during the course of this game. And if you had
Speaker 2: asked me at the be of the season if that
Speaker 2: was going to be the game plan, I would have said, no, never.
Speaker 2: But but it's been forced, honest, and these guys are
Speaker 2: stepping up into do it. I thought Trent Noah gave
Speaker 2: us a really really special defensive effort.
Speaker 1: I thought it was really great and that is what
Speaker 1: will take them where they want to be here as
Speaker 1: far as they can go in the postseason. They're gonna score.
Speaker 1: They're gonna run into a night though, and you've seen
Speaker 1: it where the shots that starn't falling. Can you get
Speaker 1: through by winning with defense? Early in the year, the answer,
Speaker 1: but this team was no. It was one of the
Speaker 1: worst defensive teams in the country, just like Caliperi's team
Speaker 1: last year. It's getting better with every game basically might
Speaker 1: not look at always, but they're not giving up one
Speaker 1: hundred points a game right now. And we'll see what
Speaker 1: they do against Alabama. They're gonna need to control tempo
Speaker 1: against Alabama. Can they do that and can they win
Speaker 1: doing it? Obviously that's the question. And if they don't, well,
Speaker 1: you know, they may have a little bit of fun
Speaker 1: in the postseason, but it won't last long enough before
Speaker 1: we get to the break. Comments from Mark Pope about
Speaker 1: the charity drive from last night, Don't Any Can Goods
Speaker 1: and raising money for the flood victims in Eastern Kentucky.
Speaker 2: You know, giving supplies and giving donations a cash to
Speaker 2: the people of eastern Kentucky is really important right now.
Speaker 2: The website is UK Athletics dot com forward slash flood
Speaker 2: Relief and I've been in contact with Governor for share
Speaker 2: several times and and the the donations there one hundred percent,
Speaker 2: there's no administrative overhead. One hundred goes to serving these people.
Speaker 2: It's going to start. The first bunch of money is
Speaker 2: gonna is going to be dedicated to to paying for
Speaker 2: funerals to the fourteen I think that's still the number,
Speaker 2: the fourteen people that passed in the flood, and then
Speaker 2: every dollar after that is going to go to immediate
Speaker 2: emergency services for these families. So we're just asking everybody
Speaker 2: if they can jump in. And I couldn't be more
Speaker 2: grateful to BBN. We put a giant truck out there
Speaker 2: and it's full, and that just is man, it's an
Speaker 2: incredible commentary on just what Kentucky is and what BBN is.
Speaker 1: I get the rupp Aerna fairly early when I go
Speaker 1: and last night I brought them can goods and I
Speaker 1: went upstairs to drop them wherever I was supposed to
Speaker 1: drop them, and there was a little hand cart there
Speaker 1: right outside the front door. Nobody e been let in yet,
Speaker 1: and I was just about to drop mine on the handcart.
Speaker 1: But who was ahead of me but Deb Moore, who's
Speaker 1: in charge of the pr for the basketball team, So
Speaker 1: she went ahead of me. I said, no, no, you
Speaker 1: by all means you got to go first. Because she
Speaker 1: had a huge, huge bag. I had a smaller bag
Speaker 1: with three or four things in it, but she had
Speaker 1: a huge bag on behalf of Pope and the team
Speaker 1: she was dropping off to take out the truck. There
Speaker 1: were people already putting stuff in the truck. So it
Speaker 1: was really impressive what the Big Boe Nation did last night.
Speaker 1: All right, we'll talk about Chandler on the other side
Speaker 1: of the break here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Big Blullonsider. Coming up at a few minutes,
Speaker 1: Sean Woods will join us and break down last night's
Speaker 1: win over Vanderbilt. Sewn usually with us on Wednesday, but
Speaker 1: obviously we had basketball last night, and I will tell
Speaker 1: you he liked what he saw from the Wildcats. Then
Speaker 1: at seven fifteen pregame Kentucky women's basketball Darren Hedrick's got
Speaker 1: it katz in Missouri coming up at seven point thirty.
Speaker 1: Colin Chandler had his best game as a Wildcat last night,
Speaker 1: no question. Only one of four from beyond the arc,
Speaker 1: but seven points, six rebounds, and a couple of assists,
Speaker 1: a couple of steels, two turnovers in what fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was obviously playing with a lot of confidence,
Speaker 1: a lot of smarts, and a lot of heart, and
Speaker 1: he was happy that he played well and talked about
Speaker 1: the fact that his fellow freshman Travis Perry and Trendeou
Speaker 1: have had a little bit of success and they've kind
Speaker 1: of helped him along.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean it's it's tough. I mean it's tough
Speaker 8: stepping in and especially in a league like the SECS
Speaker 8: and playing at Kentucky, there's a big adjustment to it.
Speaker 8: And I think we're all we're all in it together,
Speaker 8: and it's nice to have people to to relate to
Speaker 8: and and to talk to and to feed off of
Speaker 8: each other. And and so those guys have been a
Speaker 8: big blessing in my life eric Kentucky, and I'm glad
Speaker 8: to go through this journey with them.
Speaker 3: It's been fun.
Speaker 1: Andrew Carr, as we mentioned earlier, looking healthy, looking much better,
Speaker 1: also very happy for his young teammate.
Speaker 9: I'm really proud of me that he really didn't know. Man,
Speaker 9: super proud of him. We're super super proud. You see
Speaker 9: how much he how hard he works and everything, and
Speaker 9: you know, it's the same thing for him.
Speaker 1: It's kind of similar.
Speaker 9: He really obviously wants to be able to step up
Speaker 9: and step into that role, and we knew it was
Speaker 9: gonna happen for him. He's been a great done a
Speaker 9: great job and practice for us. And so being able
Speaker 9: to see, you know, like you're talked about seeing those
Speaker 9: results on the floor is really special, and I'm really
Speaker 9: proud of me that he really didn't lost some job tonight.
Speaker 1: You have to remember a couple of things. Chandler, for
Speaker 1: whatever it's worth, was rated higher as a high school
Speaker 1: prospect then both Perry and Noah. I mean, he had
Speaker 1: a terrific high school career Player of the Year in
Speaker 1: Utah and all that, but hadn't played organized basketball, especially
Speaker 1: at this level for two years. Did his church mission, right,
Speaker 1: So now he comes back and he's just trying to
Speaker 1: get back in the swing of things and like everybody,
Speaker 1: trying to learn his new teammates. He's a really, really
Speaker 1: good athlete and he showed it last night, but it
Speaker 1: didn't surprise his coach, I guess. And leave it to
Speaker 1: Mark Pope to come up with an interesting analogy to
Speaker 1: describe just how well Chandler has been coming along college.
Speaker 2: Chandler, you know, we talk about these bamboo trees. You
Speaker 2: guys know the deal about these bamboo trees. So if
Speaker 2: you think about a bamboo force, you know, a bamboo
Speaker 2: tree can grow up to I think the Guinness Will
Speaker 2: Book of World Records, it's thirty six inches in a day.
Speaker 2: I think thirty five inches in a day. What happens
Speaker 2: is they grow over time. They go these massive networks
Speaker 2: of roots growing, grown, grown, growing, growing. You don't see
Speaker 2: it right, and then all of a sudden they shoot
Speaker 2: up out of the ground and they're going a yard
Speaker 2: a day almost, which is almost incomprehensible. That's a little
Speaker 2: bit of Colin Channel, like he's been growing big time
Speaker 2: roots and the place he made today he's been making
Speaker 2: in practice, and he is going to help us in
Speaker 2: a huge way. As we moved down the stretch. I
Speaker 2: was really proud of him tonight.
Speaker 1: That was a really entertaining analogy. And I only know
Speaker 1: this about bamboo trees. Number one. When I lived in Dallas,
Speaker 1: there were houses that backed up to these busy thoroughfares
Speaker 1: like Northwest Highway is a big one in Dallas, really
Speaker 1: expensive homes. So in order to cut down on noise,
Speaker 1: people planted bamboo because it grew so thick and so fast,
Speaker 1: it was almost like a green wall of vegetation behind
Speaker 1: their homes. But a friend of mine used to live
Speaker 1: next to a noisy apartment complex, so he planted bamboo
Speaker 1: to try to cut down on the noise. And all
Speaker 1: that well, it worked, except it grew so fast he
Speaker 1: had to cut it almost every day, had to cut
Speaker 1: it back to keep it at bay in his yard.
Speaker 1: So if Chandler's coming along as fast as bamboo, I
Speaker 1: thought that was a really interesting place for Mark Pope
Speaker 1: to go, describing Colin Chandler's growth as something that you
Speaker 1: might see in a bamboo forest. And remember, now, bamboo
Speaker 1: is not just like those fishing canes. It can grow
Speaker 1: a foot around and really strong and thick. So you know,
Speaker 1: maybe that's the proper analogy. Who knows? All right? Coming
Speaker 1: up next, Sean Woods. We'll talk with us about last
Speaker 1: night's went over Vanderbilt later on at UK women's basketball
Speaker 1: Wildcats and the Tigers at Missou here on six thirty.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider this Thursday. Boy
Speaker 1: had basketball last night, so tonight we talked with the
Speaker 1: Unforgettable Guard showing Woods' jersey hangs in the rafters of RUP.
Speaker 1: Last night, Sean Vandy comes to town, a Vandy team
Speaker 1: to beat Kentucky. As you know down in Nashville, I
Speaker 1: don't remember much of the game except I remember watching
Speaker 1: the ticket how is this happening? And then last night
Speaker 1: the first half of it kind of looked like a
Speaker 1: similar game. What changed at halftime? Do you think?
Speaker 5: Well? First of all, Kentucky came out more aggressive defensively,
Speaker 5: I thought. And then two, you know, it's hard winning
Speaker 5: at Bandy. I don't care how good you are. I
Speaker 5: don't care how good we as a Kentucky team. They
Speaker 5: always find a way every so often every year, two
Speaker 5: three whatever to beat us at Bandy, and that happens.
Speaker 5: I don't care how good your team is. That just
Speaker 5: happened at Bandy's. It just does. And you know, I
Speaker 5: didn't panic with that one, because you know, you never
Speaker 5: can't get used to that arena, You never can't get
Speaker 5: to the dynamics of it and things like that. So
Speaker 5: that wasn't big for me. I just wanted to make
Speaker 5: sure that we took took care of business here. Even
Speaker 5: though we're hurt and injured, we still got good enough
Speaker 5: to beat Bandy at home, and we were last night.
Speaker 1: I felt like at one point Kentucky missed like eight
Speaker 1: of nine or nine a ten three point shots. I
Speaker 1: felt like they were working, they were hunting three pointers
Speaker 1: preps a little too much, just you know, my opinion.
Speaker 1: One man's opinion uh. And in the second half, clearly
Speaker 1: they thought let's attack the rim. They used the size,
Speaker 1: they used Car, that use Williams and and really went
Speaker 1: out and established things.
Speaker 5: Did you see it that way, Dick, I'm gonna say this,
Speaker 5: It was like that. And the reason being because when
Speaker 5: you're scouting Kentucky you already know that they want to
Speaker 5: shoot thirty threes. Okay, So what you do is you
Speaker 5: get delusional on the fact that Alway can drive you.
Speaker 5: You get delusional that Williams is better than what you
Speaker 5: think he is off the bounds, taking it from coast
Speaker 5: to coast, or even just getting to his left hand.
Speaker 5: He's so strong, you know, to get that car can
Speaker 5: score when he gets to his spot. So I think
Speaker 5: from a defensive standpoint, you put so much coaches and
Speaker 5: other teams put so much emphasis on the three point
Speaker 5: shot that they they really they don't really respect. They
Speaker 5: disrespect the fact that Alway and those guys can get
Speaker 5: to the rim and finish better than what you think.
Speaker 5: And like I told you last week, Dick, it's not
Speaker 5: a surprise that we're better defensively. We can play defense
Speaker 5: when we want to individually, and now that we've been
Speaker 5: smacked in the face. We've been embarrassed a few games
Speaker 5: going that they can compete, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 5: and and and that's what's happening. And I'm not seeing
Speaker 5: be the best defensive team in the country, but my god, compete.
Speaker 5: And that's what they're doing right now, and it's given
Speaker 5: them chance to win. And I thought that was a
Speaker 5: major part in the game last night.
Speaker 1: We talked about the fact to your point, that they
Speaker 1: have stepped up the amount of work that they've done
Speaker 1: in practice on defense and it's paying off, isn't it.
Speaker 5: Well. I think Pope has grown up a little bit
Speaker 5: too and realized that defense is more is just as
Speaker 5: important as that offense. And you know, you can't just
Speaker 5: practice all day shooting threes. You got to really defend,
Speaker 5: and you got to have defensive principles. You know, I
Speaker 5: wasn't seeing team defense. I wasn't seeing up the line defense.
Speaker 5: I really wasn't seeing just fundamental defense like help side
Speaker 5: and things like that. I saw it last night. And
Speaker 5: that's what you gotta work on, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: And I'm sure next year from summertime, whenever he gets
Speaker 5: you know, gets this team back together, with all the
Speaker 5: transfers and everybody, I would hope that defense would be
Speaker 5: a significant part of his workouts. Uh. And two, all
Speaker 5: you got to do is watch coach Patina. I'm just
Speaker 5: being honest with you. You know, you come in here and
Speaker 5: you say we're gonna be worked as hard and we're
Speaker 5: gonna be the hardest working team in America. Well that
Speaker 5: that goes on the defensive end, and you know, and
Speaker 5: now you're doing it. But you you know what I'm saying, Hopeles,
Speaker 5: it's not too late, but you know it's one your
Speaker 5: game or two. But next year you got to really
Speaker 5: hone in playing defense teams defense, you know, really concentrate
Speaker 5: on that because Coach Patino is one of the worst
Speaker 5: shooting teams in the Big East, but he's the best,
Speaker 5: one of the top five to six teams in America
Speaker 5: because how tough they are.
Speaker 1: And we'll talk about we'll talk about Patina a little
Speaker 1: bit more in the second half of the interview here
Speaker 1: because Sean and I have both been watching the documentary
Speaker 1: series about the Saint John's and the Red Storm. But
Speaker 1: where does where does this put Kentucky right now? I mean,
Speaker 1: you got two brutally tough games coming up. You got
Speaker 1: Alabama on the road, You do have Oklahoma which is struggling,
Speaker 1: but then Auburn comes to town. Uh, we're gonna learn
Speaker 1: a lot more about this team pretty soon, aren't we.
Speaker 5: No doubt about it? And you know, not only we
Speaker 5: better defend, we bet it tough enough, and we bet
Speaker 5: a man up and we better hit that that that
Speaker 5: that weight room a little more, uh, these couple of weeks,
Speaker 5: because these guys are strong, they're massive, and they're relentless
Speaker 5: at chasing that ball. And then it's gonna be You
Speaker 5: think the beginning of the year was physical, now there's
Speaker 5: saying a lot of things on the line as far
Speaker 5: as seating things like that. Guys are desperate and you
Speaker 5: see how hard these other teams are playing, you know,
Speaker 5: spec you know a lot of Texas, you know, desperate
Speaker 5: and were in that desperate mode too, of you know,
Speaker 5: trying to make a good run going into the postseason,
Speaker 5: and not only that, creating a defensive mentality and identity
Speaker 5: going down the stretch, because if we don't, uh, this
Speaker 5: postseason is not gonna be as good as we would like,
Speaker 5: and it's not gonna last as long as we wanted
Speaker 5: to last.
Speaker 1: Either I did think I saw more health side defense
Speaker 1: last night, or was I imagining that.
Speaker 5: You saw a little better defense, a little more health
Speaker 5: side defense, you know, And I thought I thought Vanderbilt
Speaker 5: really got out of character a little bit. But to
Speaker 5: to Kentucky's credit, they were trying ISOs on on Perry
Speaker 5: and whenever there wasn't help, they went right by him.
Speaker 5: And you know, Kentucky, you know, kind of a little bit,
Speaker 5: but it's got to be you know, it's got to
Speaker 5: be often and all the time. You know, it's we
Speaker 5: got to be like that up the line, doing what
Speaker 5: our defensive principle should be doing in order for us
Speaker 5: to have a chance. And I thought, for once we
Speaker 5: were plugging up the lanes. We were hedging up the
Speaker 5: lane far as taking away driving lanes. And thank god
Speaker 5: them being on the road, they didn't shoot as good
Speaker 5: as they would have. Especially.
Speaker 1: Uh, let's talk a little bit about Colin Chandler, a
Speaker 1: guy who had been away from basketball, if you can imagine,
Speaker 1: for two years from organized basketball. Uh So it's taking
Speaker 1: him a little longer, I think, to come around. Uh,
Speaker 1: but he clearly had his best game last night. He
Speaker 1: looks to me a civilian. Uh like his quart awareness.
Speaker 1: You know he's got he's got good physical skills, he's quick,
Speaker 1: and I think he's got a pretty good basketball IQ.
Speaker 1: But from where I sat, his best game and it
Speaker 1: came a good time, didn't it.
Speaker 5: No doubt about it. His best basketball is ahead of him, thinking,
Speaker 5: you know, we can't ask a kid. That's the one
Speaker 5: thing about having to take those Mormon trips and things
Speaker 5: like that. You can't sit out in today's they are
Speaker 5: college basketball man for two years and expect to come
Speaker 5: back and be a big time contributor. You know, it's
Speaker 5: already hard enough to train every day and still not
Speaker 5: be good enough when you're out for two years. Come on,
Speaker 5: you know you're time off. You know, you really come
Speaker 5: out of high school so you haven't been coached and
Speaker 5: know the nuances of college basketball. The game's fast, guys
Speaker 5: are more stronger, So you know he's behind. But after
Speaker 5: this year, he's in a summer. I look for him
Speaker 5: to be a major contributor next year for this Wildcat team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you make that jump from first year to second
Speaker 1: that's pretty substantial, isn't it.
Speaker 5: And I think Perry's going to be better next year. Too,
Speaker 5: just because he's better now. I don't know if he's
Speaker 5: gonna be a starter, you know, but he's going to
Speaker 5: be a more He's gonna be better defensively. I think
Speaker 5: I think he's gonna play with more confidence because I
Speaker 5: still think he's a little shaky out there with getting
Speaker 5: pressured because he gives the ball up too early. I mean,
Speaker 5: you get in him. He gives the ball up before
Speaker 5: he gets to Havelf court. That lets me know that
Speaker 5: here to death. So he's got to get more confident
Speaker 5: in the off season, and they need to start playing
Speaker 5: pickup more. Yeah, you know made us in the off season.
Speaker 5: You know, these guys don't play pickup as much, you know,
Speaker 5: with their individual workouts. And that's one thing we're gonna
Speaker 5: talk about with coach Patina when you watch his documentary.
Speaker 5: Individual instruction is key, and that's got to be just
Speaker 5: as much influenced in your day to day from a
Speaker 5: college basketball program standpoint than anything else because skill development
Speaker 5: is where it is. And I'm sure that coach Pope
Speaker 5: and those guys are going, uh, you know, put their
Speaker 5: individual instruction thing together and and and and make him
Speaker 5: a more confident guard to where he can withstand pressure
Speaker 5: and get across half court and sometimes, you know, fool
Speaker 5: some people and get by him and get to the
Speaker 5: rim a little bit and finish better. So you know
Speaker 5: that there's a lot of growth with these young guys.
Speaker 5: But in the midst one thing they can do is
Speaker 5: if you leave them open for the most part, they
Speaker 5: can make a jump. So that them a chance, because
Speaker 5: if they couldn't shoot, they wouldn't you know what I mean,
Speaker 5: it wouldn't be the worst, wouldn't be touched on this team.
Speaker 5: So thank god they do that, and I think they're
Speaker 5: getting better. I just hope that they can withstand and
Speaker 5: I hope Butler from what I'm hearing that maybe he
Speaker 5: can come back on Saturday. I don't know, but you
Speaker 5: know that Laborim deal that showed it there is it's tricky.
Speaker 5: And do you want him now against Alabama or do
Speaker 5: you want a long haul round a week or two
Speaker 5: longer to get ready for what's really, really, really important.
Speaker 1: I know what I would say, but I don't have
Speaker 1: a vote, So we'll leave it at that and we'll
Speaker 1: come back and talk more with Sean on the other
Speaker 1: side of the break, including our thoughts on Red Storm
Speaker 1: rising that's the documentary series on the Vice Channel about
Speaker 1: Saint John's and Shawn's former coach Rick Patino. Back in
Speaker 1: a minute here on six thirty WIP Welcome back. We're
Speaker 1: talking with Sean Woods, the Unforgettable guard whose jersey hangs
Speaker 1: in the rafters of RUP and he and I have
Speaker 1: both been checking out Red Storm Rising. It's the Vice
Speaker 1: Channel series documentary series. They got one going on John Caliperi,
Speaker 1: but also on Rick Pattino year old coaching. Before we
Speaker 1: went on the air, I asked you if you were
Speaker 1: having flashbacks watching because I remember once you told me
Speaker 1: that you thought Rick had mellow just a little bit,
Speaker 1: but eastounds pretty salty to me. What are your impressions
Speaker 1: of that series, Dick, I'm just.
Speaker 5: Gonna be straight with you. That's coaching. That's why he's
Speaker 5: the best. Yeah, Nope. Long as he's got breath in
Speaker 5: his body, as long as he's got his core is
Speaker 5: good to where he can roar like he roars, as
Speaker 5: long as his mind is as sharp as it is,
Speaker 5: he can coach till he's on a hundred years old,
Speaker 5: and he'll still be the best coach in America. That
Speaker 5: is the best coach in the United States, bar none,
Speaker 5: and all he's doing is just giving you a taste
Speaker 5: of education on what makes him great. That voice when
Speaker 5: it roars, Oh my god, brought back memories. You know,
Speaker 5: the f bombs that come out of his mouth, hot mouth,
Speaker 5: and he's spitting in your face and things like that.
Speaker 5: We used to put towels over our face all the
Speaker 5: way over our nose. Just the only thing was showing
Speaker 5: was our eyes because he becoming at you. And so
Speaker 5: sometimes those those those little bombs, those you know, spit bombs,
Speaker 5: hitting you dead, but he's dead on point. Everything comes
Speaker 5: out of his mouth. His own point is strategic, and
Speaker 5: he challenges you and he hits you in the core
Speaker 5: and go ahead.
Speaker 1: Coaching is more than just dropping F bomb. So what
Speaker 1: is It's not so much how he said, what about
Speaker 1: what he is saying? Not so much how he said.
Speaker 1: I know he drives it home with decibel levels and
Speaker 1: creativity in his language. But you know, I can't get
Speaker 1: out there and then try to teach people how to
Speaker 1: play basketball and think I'm you know, coaching, Well, if
Speaker 1: I'm cussing a bluestorm, what in fact does he say?
Speaker 1: What does he see? And how does he break the
Speaker 1: game down.
Speaker 5: So well, Okay, what he does is he challenges you. Okay,
Speaker 5: he makes everybody uncomfortable about losing. That's his magic. Okay,
Speaker 5: when he's miserable, everybody's miserable. I'm talking about from the
Speaker 5: janitor to the s I D Person in the build
Speaker 5: to the assistant athletic director. Everybody is miserable. So and
Speaker 5: everybody feels that rap when he's taken a loss. So
Speaker 5: what he does is is just from day one, losing
Speaker 5: is bad. You know. Losing is like saying, you know,
Speaker 5: I'm a gast god or something. I don't know, but
Speaker 5: he just yeah, And you know what, That's why he's
Speaker 5: the greatest because he doesn't accept losing at all, and
Speaker 5: he's going to find a way to challenge you and
Speaker 5: he's going to put you on the spot. He can
Speaker 5: talk to everybody, but he can be talking to you.
Speaker 5: It's like going to church and everybody's sitting in church
Speaker 5: and a preacher's preaching, but you thinking that this preacher
Speaker 5: is only talking to you. He's not just talking to you.
Speaker 5: He's hitting everybody. And that's Coach Patino man, and that's
Speaker 5: why he's the best. He can get guys to play
Speaker 5: harder than any coach in America. This team is talented. Yeah,
Speaker 5: they got two guys that are really really good. He
Speaker 5: can get talented guys to buy in on that defensive
Speaker 5: bench to where their ball is the most important deal.
Speaker 5: And it's like train wrecks every single night when you
Speaker 5: play those guys and to be down as many as
Speaker 5: he was. And if you watch that documentary and when
Speaker 5: he went in there and he said that speech, sixty
Speaker 5: five percent of kids today would that quit. He's got
Speaker 5: the guys that he wants and they can take him.
Speaker 5: Everybody can't. And that's a shame. That's where this world
Speaker 5: is coming to. That's why this team, as Saint John's
Speaker 5: is one of the top five or six teams in
Speaker 5: America because he's got one of the top five to
Speaker 5: six teams character wise who can take coaching in America
Speaker 5: that can take him. You know, he doesn't dance around
Speaker 5: a kid, you know what I'm saying, because he can
Speaker 5: go in to transport, portal and things like that. So
Speaker 5: he is what college basketball, college athletics, and what young
Speaker 5: men need. They need constructive criticism, They need to be
Speaker 5: told the truth. They need to know that underachieving and
Speaker 5: being average is not acceptable, and that's who he is.
Speaker 5: We're buying it, it's not buying it.
Speaker 1: And yet the portal has changed that to a degree,
Speaker 1: hasn't it. And if a kid doesn't like it and
Speaker 1: yelled at well, I'm leaving. You know there's somebody over here.
Speaker 1: He's got some nil money and he's going to be
Speaker 1: nicer than me.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but you know, you in a basketball you in war.
Speaker 5: College athletics is for athletics is war. And when you
Speaker 5: ask the kid to play defense, come on, you think
Speaker 5: they will give you everything. Nobody, but but if there's
Speaker 5: a fear factor, you're gonna play defense. And you saw
Speaker 5: the kid I forget. The kid's name is from Africa.
Speaker 5: The kid that theyn't hardly ever played last night. I
Speaker 5: watched him play last night after Kentucky. This kid hardly
Speaker 5: ever played. He had double figures at halftime.
Speaker 1: You're talking about the kid who transferred from kid Zubie
Speaker 1: what's his name? He transferred from Kansas because he wasn't
Speaker 1: Yeah no.
Speaker 5: Not him, not the big fellow that wing that came okay,
Speaker 5: and he played his behind off last night just with toughness.
Speaker 5: You know, if you want to You tell me, Okay,
Speaker 5: I want to be a high major player. I want
Speaker 5: to be a Division on player. I want to play
Speaker 5: at Kentucky. Well, if you want to play at Kentucky,
Speaker 5: I grew up in Kentucky. I want to play Kentucky. Okay,
Speaker 5: do you want not? Just do you want to play
Speaker 5: at Kentucky. There's a price to pay when you come
Speaker 5: play in Kentucky. And what that is is you got
Speaker 5: to play at a national championship level every single night. Now,
Speaker 5: if you can't do that, don't be mad because you're
Speaker 5: not playing. Don't be mad because they're going somewhere else
Speaker 5: and getting a kid that can do that. And that's
Speaker 5: where I'm at right now. Not knocking any of these kids,
Speaker 5: but man, what do you think this was? You can't guard,
Speaker 5: but you think you're good enough to play in Kentucky
Speaker 5: because you're a mester basketball. Come on, man, this is
Speaker 5: a different level. If you're going against Jergen knots who
Speaker 5: don't care about that they're coming at your neck and
Speaker 5: you watch like Auburn and Alabama, these dudes don't care
Speaker 5: about that. They embarrass you, and Facatino's teams don't get embarrassed.
Speaker 5: They embarrass you.
Speaker 1: That's extra motivation for the you faced it and the
Speaker 1: kids who play for Kentucky right now. It's taking them
Speaker 1: a little while, I think to learn it, but that's
Speaker 1: extra added motivation. And you know, everybody made fun of Caliperry,
Speaker 1: but he wasn't wrong when he said it's everybody super Bowl.
Speaker 5: No doubt about it, no doubt about it, you know.
Speaker 5: And I'm so proud that finally these kids are are
Speaker 5: answering the bill a little bit because I didn't buy it.
Speaker 5: Don't tell me you can't play defense. Don't tell me
Speaker 5: you can't. You can't play harder than what you're playing.
Speaker 5: Don't tell me that a guy could just give you
Speaker 5: a straight line without giving you a move b line
Speaker 5: and he's beating you to the basket. You're not. Come on,
Speaker 5: I don't buy that as a coach, and there's no
Speaker 5: excuse for me. You gotta have some will on your
Speaker 5: own as a competitor to play defense. You a competitor.
Speaker 5: It's like playing one on one. Okay, I'm not gonna
Speaker 5: let you score, but I'm gonna score on you. That's
Speaker 5: just a competitiveness, and that's how you win. You can't
Speaker 5: you know just oh I want to play, you know,
Speaker 5: not playing no earn that deal because that guy that
Speaker 5: on the other side, you guess that could touch you
Speaker 5: across your chest and that means you're supposed to be
Speaker 5: better than that other team that got that name on
Speaker 5: their chests.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll see if that plays out on Saturday when
Speaker 1: the Wildcasts play at Alabama. Whatever happens, we'll talk about
Speaker 1: it with Shawn Woods next week, the unforgetable Guard. And
Speaker 1: we can't recommend it enough. If you can find the
Speaker 1: Vice channel on whatever however you get your TV, it's
Speaker 1: well worth it. It's so good that Shawn Woods is
Speaker 1: having flashed Rick Patino flashbacks. But you'll learn a lot
Speaker 1: about Saint John's and uh, that's gonna be a team
Speaker 1: nobody wants a tournament time, am I right.
Speaker 5: No doubt about it. Guess what else, Dick, he still
Speaker 5: makes those of minor suits look good too.
Speaker 1: Don't Yeah, and he always will he always will. Sean. Thanks,
Speaker 1: we'll talk to you next week. Okay, coming up one
Speaker 1: more segment then we'll make way for UK women's basketball
Speaker 1: with Darren Hedrick All on the other side of the
Speaker 1: break here on six thirty, Wlap Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Big Blue and Cider final segment of our program. We're
Speaker 1: gonna make way for Darren Hedrick pregame coverage of Kentucky
Speaker 1: and Missou Wildcats are in Columbia there and are behind us.
Speaker 1: So that's a seven thirty start coming up some fifteen
Speaker 1: a pregame Darren and coach Kenny Brooks. Wildcats ranked fourteenth
Speaker 1: in the country right now coming off that win over
Speaker 1: those Georgia Bulldogs. Twenty and four. Now overall, Kentucky nine
Speaker 1: and three in the SEC, five and three on the
Speaker 1: road in conference play. This is the best twenty four
Speaker 1: game start since the twenty twelve thirteen season when the
Speaker 1: Wildcats began the year at twenty one and three, and
Speaker 1: the UK Women on social media moved to graphic describing
Speaker 1: the success so far this year under Kenny Brooks and
Speaker 1: basically mentioned him as a Coach of the Year candidate
Speaker 1: nationally now if not SEC, and of course why not?
Speaker 1: And look, you can make the case for Vic Shaeffer Texas.
Speaker 1: Maybe he does deserve it. I don't think anybody expected
Speaker 1: Texas to win the SEC, but we all expected Texas
Speaker 1: to be good. He's a really good coach. Has a
Speaker 1: lot of good players. So does Don Staley at South Carolina,
Speaker 1: and we know how good they are, although they've struggled
Speaker 1: at times this year. Lsu Kim Maulky. She'll always be
Speaker 1: in a discussion. I like to look at teams that
Speaker 1: are overachieving. Where were they predicted to finish projected and
Speaker 1: where are they now? Nobody who covers SEC basketball the
Speaker 1: women's side expected this patchwork team to be twenty and four.
Speaker 1: I will tell you that people who follow women's basketball
Speaker 1: knew that when Georgia Amore and Clara Strack, but particularly
Speaker 1: when Georgia transfer to Kentucky following Kenny Brooks, they knew
Speaker 1: that was a game changer, literally game changer, a game
Speaker 1: changing move that meant wins for Kentucky. But didn't mean
Speaker 1: this many. Did it mean eighty four fifty five over Georgia,
Speaker 1: which is not a great team but not a bad team.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean Aymore an All American twenty one
Speaker 1: points and seven assists in that one her twelve to
Speaker 1: twenty plus point game this year. Fifteen times she's gone
Speaker 1: fifteen or more points and five or more assists per game,
Speaker 1: most of any player in the league since twenty two three.
Speaker 1: Tony Key is coming on strong. Jeff pi Corral on
Speaker 1: the show the other night. Believe she's kind of been
Speaker 1: my words, the secret sauce for this team. She had
Speaker 1: fourteen and fourteen, her tenth double double of the year
Speaker 1: against those Bulldogs in her third straight. Melia Hassid comes alive.
Speaker 1: She'd been struggling a bit. Kenny Brooks talked to A
Speaker 1: Darren about this on his radio show Monday night. Amelia's
Speaker 1: confidence was down a bit, her physicality was down. She'd
Speaker 1: been sick, but they didn't say anything about it, but
Speaker 1: she looked like her old self against Georgia and Dojor
Speaker 1: Lawrence has been terrific all year long, first time. The
Speaker 1: Wildcats have won twenty games since the twenty nineteen twenty season,
Speaker 1: and Brooks led their tied the late Terry Hall is
Speaker 1: the quickest head coach in program history to reach twenty
Speaker 1: wins at UK. Terry Hall was the coach when the
Speaker 1: Wildcats won the SEC title back in eighty two. A
Speaker 1: lot of people think it was Debbie Yo. Debbie built
Speaker 1: that team. She recruited those kids. She recruited Valerie Still
Speaker 1: and Lee Wise and PJ. Hedges and Lisa Collins, and
Speaker 1: they won a lot of games under Debbie. But Terry
Speaker 1: was actually the head coach when they won the SEC title.
Speaker 1: So there's a there's a vote. I don't have one
Speaker 1: for Kenny Brooks. Wouldn't be surprised if he won Coach
Speaker 1: of the Year in the league or nationally. You win
Speaker 1: the SEC Coach of the Year, you're absolutely up there
Speaker 1: in the national picture. But again, I could see the
Speaker 1: guy at Texas winning it a lot. There's a lot
Speaker 1: to happen the next couple of weeks. Before we leave you,
Speaker 1: I need to share a couple of things with you.
Speaker 1: One of them is making the rounds on social media.
Speaker 1: If you go to Awful Announcing on Twitter or x
Speaker 1: you'll see a lot of talk about it. But one
Speaker 1: of the headline making sports happenings over the last few
Speaker 1: days was the Hockey USA Canada fights breaking out. Within
Speaker 1: nine seconds, Mark Pope shows video to his team to
Speaker 1: hire it up for the Vandy game. You know, whatever
Speaker 1: you feel about hockey, hockey fights to me are boring
Speaker 1: the same thing over and over. You know, there's no
Speaker 1: technique to it. They're just slugging away. They all look
Speaker 1: the same to me, people love them. I know when
Speaker 1: the Thoroughblades were here my own kids, we'd be sitting
Speaker 1: up in the stands when my kids would run, like
Speaker 1: a lot of people run down to the glass and
Speaker 1: press their nose against it to watch the fights. I
Speaker 1: just think it's kind of dull. But that's me, and
Speaker 1: you could take it out of hockey today. Warner Wolf
Speaker 1: used to say, this institute of rule, drop your gloves.
Speaker 1: You're out of the game. Period. They don't have fighting
Speaker 1: any Olympics, and Olympic hockey is great, but it's it's
Speaker 1: sadly or whatever you want to call it, a tradition
Speaker 1: in the NHL, in all hockey, at least professional hockey,
Speaker 1: it is. But Molly Karum on ESPN called it hypocritical
Speaker 1: that some sports are allowed to fight and others are not.
Speaker 1: And there are those who believe that she was trying
Speaker 1: to invoke some sort of discussion about the fact that
Speaker 1: the NHL is predominantly white, and that she is trying
Speaker 1: to draw racism into the discussion. Maybe she was. If so,
Speaker 1: it's idiotic, because look, the NHL governs itself. If the
Speaker 1: NBA wanted to allow fights and assigned penalties as one
Speaker 1: person on Twitter said they could do that socad baseball,
Speaker 1: so could the NFL. It's you for better or worse.
Speaker 1: It's been a tradition. It's just silly to try to
Speaker 1: turn that discussion into something that it's not. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: whether she meant that or if she did, trying to
Speaker 1: turn it into something it's just a waste of time.
Speaker 1: So again, if you want to follow up on that,
Speaker 1: go to awful announcing. It won't take you far. It
Speaker 1: won't take you long, won't take you far, and you're
Speaker 1: scrolling to find out right around the Draymond Green comments
Speaker 1: about how the All Star Game is a joke anymore
Speaker 1: in the NBA, But that's been happening for a while.
Speaker 1: Before I leave you, I got to share one other
Speaker 1: thing with you. This is the strangest thing I've seen
Speaker 1: in a while when it comes to injuries, and if
Speaker 1: it's been out there, I missed it, So I apologize.
Speaker 1: But Dustin May is a Dodgers pitcher who missed a
Speaker 1: lot of time on the injured reserve list. The announcement
Speaker 1: came in July of last year. That May he would
Speaker 1: have been out since the middle of twenty three with the
Speaker 1: torn flexer tendon in his right arm. We missed the
Speaker 1: rest of the twenty four season because of a tear
Speaker 1: in his esophagus. Yeah, in his throat. And I'm only
Speaker 1: now reading how it happened. The team said he suffered
Speaker 1: the tear at dinner one night and required medical intervention.
Speaker 1: Apparently in the La Times just had a story about
Speaker 1: this within the last week May publicly now it's explaining
Speaker 1: what happened. He choked on a piece of lettuce. He
Speaker 1: was eating a salad at the Dodgers rehab facility in
Speaker 1: Arizona and began to choke and a very tiny piece
Speaker 1: of lettuce caused a tear in his esophagus so badly
Speaker 1: he needed emergency surgery and for the longest time couldn't
Speaker 1: lift waste more than ten pounds. So that's set him
Speaker 1: back in his recovery. It's not funny, but boys are bizarre, man,
Speaker 1: all right. Stay tuned out for women's basketball next with
Speaker 1: Darren Hedrick Cats in Missouri. That's coming on next on
Speaker 1: six thirty. W do LA for you.
Speaker 7: Anything? Then sat change tact that.
Speaker 5: I think.
Speaker 7: Can back from taunt. Then don't do