Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Dick Gabrielle my last day of vacation today
Speaker 1: before football really starts and then morphs into basketball and baseball.
Speaker 1: So one more edition of the Best of the Big
Speaker 1: Blue Insider, and I'm going to take you back to March,
Speaker 1: first day of March, and forgive me right away for
Speaker 1: the fact that in this particular show very weak voice,
Speaker 1: I was coming off a bad cold, but John Caliperi
Speaker 1: was still Kentucky's head coach when we spoke and reed
Speaker 1: Sheppard was still a Wildcat. Here it is the best
Speaker 1: of the Big Blue Insider from the first day of March.
Speaker 1: The Wildcats tomorrow take on Arkansas. It is not the
Speaker 1: Arkansas team we thought we would see this year. It's
Speaker 1: not clearly the Arkansas team that razorback fans thought they
Speaker 1: would see. Some pick this team to win the SEC.
Speaker 1: They're not even a factor right now except for being
Speaker 1: a spoiler, and of course the Wildcats hoping to avoid
Speaker 1: that fate tomorrow. But based on obviously the way playing
Speaker 1: you gotta think Kentucky now, I would think I would
Speaker 1: hope is like a kid with a new toy, and
Speaker 1: by that I mean, hey, you're learning how to play defense,
Speaker 1: make it work for you. Let's see what you can
Speaker 1: do with it. So we'll find out. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about that a lot tonight with Tom Leech, voice of
Speaker 1: the Wildcats. Sewn Wood's the unforgettable guard. We talked to
Speaker 1: Sean each week. Sewan of course played for the Wildcats
Speaker 1: and also a longtime college basketball coach. And then our
Speaker 1: West End burea G. Gary Moore. We were bumped on
Speaker 1: Wednesday by the State Wide Show. So we will talk
Speaker 1: with Gary coming up in our number two. But yeah,
Speaker 1: Kentucky's still spinning and beaming and twirling talking about the team,
Speaker 1: the Big Blue Nation after that win over Mississippi State.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't that they went down there and won,
Speaker 1: it's how they won in my opinion, because remember now
Speaker 1: they were playing essentially without Rob Dillingham for much of
Speaker 1: the game. He played a total of sixteen minutes. He
Speaker 1: was in foul trouble. As you know, Justin Edwards wasn't
Speaker 1: quite himself, got in the early foul trouble and just
Speaker 1: wasn't playing back to the form he had shown. So
Speaker 1: I felt like they were kind of, you know, hamstrung
Speaker 1: a little bit. Fortunately, big performance from Big z even
Speaker 1: though he didn't rack a lot of numbers, but his
Speaker 1: plus minus was best for the team seventeen, which I
Speaker 1: find amazing. But the Cats hit three pointers ten out
Speaker 1: of thirty doesn't sound like it's great. And in fact,
Speaker 1: between Thiero and Dillingham they were two for eight and
Speaker 1: Reeves was two for seven himself. But Shepard had a
Speaker 1: good day shooting. DJ Wagner hit two for four. So
Speaker 1: enough went right so that when Kentucky down the stretch,
Speaker 1: put together a good defensive run and lord Mississippi State
Speaker 1: into a running gun game. And that's when State was
Speaker 1: missing shots and shooting quickly and didn't know how to
Speaker 1: do it. Kentucky, of course does and that's how the
Speaker 1: Cats came back sixty one percent shooting in the second half,
Speaker 1: fifteen of fifteen from the line. Now, State shot seventeen
Speaker 1: to thirty four in the second half, got inside way
Speaker 1: too much, and thanks to Hubbard, six to sixteen from
Speaker 1: the arc. But Kentucky took care of the ball a
Speaker 1: little bit better until the last seconds and got it done,
Speaker 1: thanks of course, to a lot of different things. But Reed,
Speaker 1: Shepherd was huge and Cali Perry. John Caliberry talked about
Speaker 1: him on his show with Tom Leach the other night.
Speaker 2: He has the ability to stay calm and not worry
Speaker 2: about losing. You only worry about winning. How do we
Speaker 2: win not? You can't play not to lose it. It's
Speaker 2: like a defensive team playing prevent defense. What does that
Speaker 2: prevent you from doing?
Speaker 3: Yes, So he goes.
Speaker 2: Down and you know, again, in a normal situation, you
Speaker 2: don't call it time out. In those situations, you let
Speaker 2: it play out because you take the other coach out
Speaker 2: of it. Their team is saying, don't foul, so you'll
Speaker 2: get a shot off because they're not going to fool you.
Speaker 2: And Reid had the sense to go and shoot that
Speaker 2: shot and he was guarded.
Speaker 1: Now I want to talk to Sean Woods more about that.
Speaker 1: We've talked in the past about why you call it
Speaker 1: time out, why you don't call time out. But yeah,
Speaker 1: getting back to read Shepherd, it was amazing to me,
Speaker 1: first of all what he did in the last minute
Speaker 1: and fifteen seconds. But secondly, and I don't mean this
Speaker 1: with any disrespect, how bad that pass was that he
Speaker 1: threw away. I mean that's something you see in middle school,
Speaker 1: maybe in high school. And I can't say he panicked
Speaker 1: because as Caliperi pointed out, he doesn't panic. But I
Speaker 1: think he has so much confidence in his own ability
Speaker 1: to advance the basketball and he saw his teammate, but
Speaker 1: it was just like a football pass that hangs up
Speaker 1: and gives the safety a chance to come over and
Speaker 1: pick it off, and it almost costs him the game.
Speaker 1: But all's well. That ended well, and it certainly ended
Speaker 1: well for the Wildcat Well, like I said, we'll talk
Speaker 1: more about it with Tom Leach and with Sean Woods.
Speaker 1: Coming up in a little bit was Gary Moore the
Speaker 1: come mine underway. And you might have read a little
Speaker 1: something here and there about Trevin Wallace, Wildcat linebacker, gave
Speaker 1: up his last year to try his hand to the NFL.
Speaker 1: We'll get this, and we knew he's a great athlete,
Speaker 1: But yesterday was the day linebackers and defensive tackles and
Speaker 1: ends were tested, and Trevin Wallace tied for third in
Speaker 1: the forty yard dash time among linebackers four point five
Speaker 1: to one seconds, tied him with the Edgerrin Cooper of
Speaker 1: Texas A and M, so that'll get your attention. And
Speaker 1: in the vertical jump thirty seven and a half inches
Speaker 1: second to a kid from University of Washington, and then
Speaker 1: he shows up in the broad jump second by an
Speaker 1: inch to the kid from you dub Ulu Full show
Speaker 1: is that kid's name? Now, you know you could scoff
Speaker 1: at all his testing, But what it does is measure
Speaker 1: out their fast twitch capabilities. Kind of athlete are they
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be a great player,
Speaker 1: And if you don't test well, it doesn't mean you won't.
Speaker 1: But it puts him front and center, doesn't it. And yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta go back and look at how he played
Speaker 1: at Kentucky. And if you don't, you're a fool. If
Speaker 1: you go just on combine, you know you're asking for trouble.
Speaker 1: But if you ignore this, you're a fool as well.
Speaker 1: And by the way, that the real headline came in
Speaker 1: the d Lineman when a kid from Penn State named
Speaker 1: Chop Robinson d Lineman six three two fifty four did
Speaker 1: a forty and four point four eight seconds. That's incredible.
Speaker 1: Will he be a great player, I don't know, but
Speaker 1: he probably moved up a little bit. It was a
Speaker 1: full tenth of a second faster than the next kid.
Speaker 1: Pretty amazing. I'm not a big combine guy. I know
Speaker 1: a lot of people tune in. I follow it a
Speaker 1: little bit. I like to see how the Kentucky kids
Speaker 1: will do. Obviously, I want to see how Andrew Phillips does.
Speaker 1: Like I've said before, I met that kid and me
Speaker 1: he was like one. His father interned for me at
Speaker 1: Channel twenty seven and then later in life bumped into
Speaker 1: him at a UK practice. Here's my son, Andrew. One
Speaker 1: other note before we go to break. Tubby Smith is
Speaker 1: going to be honored at the SEC Tournament as an
Speaker 1: SEC Legend. They'll be part of the Legends class past
Speaker 1: greats from all fourteen SEC institutions. And you know what
Speaker 1: he did here from ninety eight to oh seven, nca
Speaker 1: Tournament champion, ten conference titles, five League, five Tournament, and
Speaker 1: more than anything, carried himself like one of the great
Speaker 1: gentlemen in all the college basketball. Tip of the BBI,
Speaker 1: Captain w Smith. You're listening to the best of the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Insider more to come here on six thirty
Speaker 1: WLAP welcome back Dick Gabriel with you the best of
Speaker 1: the Big Blue Insiders that wrap up vacation. On this
Speaker 1: particular clip, we're going to take you back to that
Speaker 1: day in March, where we talk about the fact that
Speaker 1: Mitch Barnhardt and John Caliperi got together and decided that
Speaker 1: Caliperi would remain, at least for the time being, the
Speaker 1: head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats. Here it is the
Speaker 1: best of the Big Blue and s you might be
Speaker 1: able to say, it's well, we'll have to look back
Speaker 1: and see if this was hump day for the John
Speaker 1: Caliperry era, because, as we all know, last night, Mitch
Speaker 1: Barnhardt announced via Twitter that John Calipery will be back
Speaker 1: to coach again next year for the Wildcats, to the
Speaker 1: chagrin of some to to relief for the coach, I'm certain,
Speaker 1: but it's got some people scratching their heads what happens next.
Speaker 1: But we had to wait until Barnhart released the statement saying,
Speaker 1: as we normally do at the end of every season,
Speaker 1: Coach Caliperry and I have had conversations about the direction
Speaker 1: of our men's basketball program. I can confirm you will
Speaker 1: return for a sixteenth season as our head coach. Quick
Speaker 1: note on the final part of that sixteenth season, and
Speaker 1: I will never forget when I was talking to Tubby
Speaker 1: Smith and I actually got to have conversations with Tubby.
Speaker 1: He was head coach. I could just walk up, say
Speaker 1: hello and have conversations with him. Imagine that. Tubby told
Speaker 1: me that Lou Holtz told him that Kentucky basketball was
Speaker 1: like Notre Dame football, said, basically, it's a coach killer.
Speaker 1: It'll grind you up and spit you out. And Holts
Speaker 1: was urging Tubby to get out of there. And this
Speaker 1: was well before Tubby left. But I don't know. Caliperry's
Speaker 1: built differently, I think than Holts. And and by the way,
Speaker 1: Holts didn't leave Notre Dame because of the stress. He
Speaker 1: left because they raised the academic standards back to what
Speaker 1: they had been before he got there, and he took
Speaker 1: advantage after they dropped the academic standards, brought in a
Speaker 1: lot of I'm not saying they were bad kids, but
Speaker 1: kids who ord nearly might not have gotten into Notre
Speaker 1: Dame and won a national title and almost one another one.
Speaker 1: Then they raised him back up over his strenuous objections
Speaker 1: and he left. But he wasn't wrong when he was
Speaker 1: talking to Tubby. And you look at the before and
Speaker 1: after pictures of Tubby from when he first got here,
Speaker 1: and when he left Man, you could tell the stress
Speaker 1: had taken a toll. It's hard to see how much
Speaker 1: stress has taken a toll of Caliperi because I think
Speaker 1: of that disconnect, we don't know him that well, at
Speaker 1: least media fans. He has definitely changed, there's no question
Speaker 1: about that. And I do think that the fans and
Speaker 1: a lot of this, of course, comes from the stress
Speaker 1: of losing, of premature exits. You know, you're gonna like
Speaker 1: a guy when your team wins. You're not gonna like
Speaker 1: a guy so much when your team loses, obviously, but
Speaker 1: when he refuses to do a postgame radio show after
Speaker 1: a loss, he refuses to talk to the media, meaning
Speaker 1: to the fans indirectly. Prior to just about every game,
Speaker 1: he didn't do much of a speech at Madness this year.
Speaker 1: It was almost like, let's get this over with and
Speaker 1: get on with it, you know. And that was one
Speaker 1: instance where and I don't know if it's because Eric
Speaker 1: Lindsay is gone. I think Eric wrote those speeches when
Speaker 1: he was a sports information and They'm not pointing fingers
Speaker 1: at anybody who's there, because if Calberry wanted a speech
Speaker 1: like that, they could have done it for him. But
Speaker 1: there just isn't the feeling right now toward the head coach,
Speaker 1: as we all know. And yeah, so many people wanted
Speaker 1: him gone, but as I've always said, a lot of
Speaker 1: that is I'm angry and someone needs to be punished.
Speaker 1: Why do you punish the coach? You fire him? The
Speaker 1: question is what brings us to the top part of
Speaker 1: Barnhardt's statement conversations about the direction of our men's basketball program.
Speaker 1: And this could be a standard line in every release
Speaker 1: about any coach at the university, successful or otherwise, but
Speaker 1: it's particularly important now, of course, because the direction of
Speaker 1: this basketball program is wrong. It's going in the wrong direction.
Speaker 1: It is becoming irrelevant to the NCAA tournament. And as
Speaker 1: somebody pointed out, and then this was tweeted and retweeted,
Speaker 1: it's becoming Indiana basketball now. At least Kentucky's making the tournament.
Speaker 1: But that's a terrible thing to say for Kentucky because,
Speaker 1: as Cali Perry's pointed out, they don't raise banners for
Speaker 1: getting to the tournament. And yes, Kentucky's won only eight
Speaker 1: NCAA titles only and how many you havever many years
Speaker 1: they've had this tournament. But Kentucky's been a contender so
Speaker 1: many times, and in fact was a contender under Caliperi
Speaker 1: each of his first five years. And you can make
Speaker 1: the arguments should have won one, could have won another.
Speaker 1: And I will still say the team that was knocked
Speaker 1: out of the tournament by COVID, I don't say they
Speaker 1: win it all caliberry. We would have won it. A
Speaker 1: lot of good teams obviously, but that team was his
Speaker 1: best team in my opinion, even better than this year's
Speaker 1: team in the post I guess in the last five years,
Speaker 1: I do believe that why Experience, Nick Richards, Emmanuel Quickly,
Speaker 1: Neck and Neck for Player of the Year, Remember that
Speaker 1: Neck and quick Who do you like Experience? Those were
Speaker 1: good teams and they guarded. I had a passionate discussion
Speaker 1: with Billy Rudgles and Aaron Gersha on Monday night. We
Speaker 1: got to argue about who should start. You know, they
Speaker 1: believed that Dillingham and Shepherd should have been starters from
Speaker 1: early on. My contention is they were not good on
Speaker 1: ball defenders and that Wagner and Justin Edwards gave them
Speaker 1: more in that department as well as rebounding and part
Speaker 1: of that too was Caliperry needed to keep them in
Speaker 1: the lineup for their own good mental health. Let's say,
Speaker 1: And you know one thing I didn't get into either
Speaker 1: is I know Edwards is part of that clutch group
Speaker 1: and Cali Perry needs that group when it comes to recruiting.
Speaker 1: So it's all intertwined. But bottom line is I still
Speaker 1: like the notion, as I said, of bringing those two
Speaker 1: guys off the bench early, an injection of enthusiasm. They
Speaker 1: change the game. You know, the other team is settled
Speaker 1: into whatever it thinks it's doing. Next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: these guys come in and change everything. Of course, it's
Speaker 1: a mood point now because you know Dillingham's leaving. You
Speaker 1: don't know so much about Reed Shepherd. We'll find out soon,
Speaker 1: but also find out on the fifteenth of April when
Speaker 1: that portal door swings open again, what happens and it
Speaker 1: stays open for two weeks? Who comes, who goes? And
Speaker 1: will Kentucky get older? As Cali Perry said on a
Speaker 1: show money, we need to get older? How much older?
Speaker 1: How many players can he bring in? He's got what
Speaker 1: six freshmen coming in? What if Bradshaw comes back? What
Speaker 1: if Shepherd comes back, which they should. They all should, really,
Speaker 1: but it's who's ready to pay them. Because remember, you've
Speaker 1: got that G League hanging there, so if you're not
Speaker 1: ready for the NBA, you can go to the G
Speaker 1: League and learn your craft. Oscar she Way's killing it
Speaker 1: in the G League right now. Of course, he was
Speaker 1: older and more mature, but that's what Kentucky needs, maturity
Speaker 1: on their team. And I played a little bit of
Speaker 1: this the other night. I was going to share with
Speaker 1: you if you didn't hear it the first time. After
Speaker 1: Kentucky's loss, the talking heads got together on both CBS
Speaker 1: and ESPN and chopped it up. And Jay Wright, who
Speaker 1: everybody seems to think would come back with the right price,
Speaker 1: he ain't coming back. And by the way, two national
Speaker 1: titles of Villanova a lot of dry spells, the same
Speaker 1: kind of dry spell Kentucky has in Villanova. While it's
Speaker 1: not Kentucky, it's close. When it comes to success in
Speaker 1: the postseason, it doesn't have eight, but of late it's
Speaker 1: been pretty damn good. But anyhow, everybody thinks that Jay
Speaker 1: Rod not everybody, but a lot of people think Jay
Speaker 1: Wright would take over Kentucky. He's not gonna do that.
Speaker 1: But I think he's doing a great job on CBS.
Speaker 1: And this is what he had to say about where
Speaker 1: not just Kentucky, but teams that might be dependent too
Speaker 1: much on young players. Where are they right now, especially
Speaker 1: given the fact that it's now the portal and NIL
Speaker 1: kind of ruling college sports.
Speaker 4: An era of taking these young freshmen and trying to
Speaker 4: play against older players is over.
Speaker 5: He did it.
Speaker 4: I think he did a phenomenal job with the guys
Speaker 4: all year, getting them to be as successful as they were.
Speaker 4: You can see they're playing against grown men. The guys
Speaker 4: on Kentucky will be far better pros than any of
Speaker 4: these guys on Oakland or any of these guys in
Speaker 4: the tournament, but they're not as good college basketball players.
Speaker 4: It's at this point in their career. They're not as
Speaker 4: disciplined yet as the guys from Oakland. And it's not
Speaker 4: Coyle's fault. It's they're eighteen years old and they're in
Speaker 4: this era where everyone's telling them how great they are.
Speaker 4: Just show up in college and you're gonna win. It
Speaker 4: doesn't happen that way. And the more the guys stay
Speaker 4: in college because of NIL is going to be tougher.
Speaker 4: For young teams like this to be successful.
Speaker 1: And he was talking specifically about Kentucky there, and he's
Speaker 1: absolutely right, absolutely right. You're listening to the best of
Speaker 1: the Big Blue Insider. More to come here on six
Speaker 1: thirty wlap. Hey, it's Dick Gabriel and you're listening to
Speaker 1: the best of the Big Blue Insider. Joining us now
Speaker 1: is a friend and a blogger and an author and
Speaker 1: a Kentucky man, John Wong Wong's whinings when you read
Speaker 1: his bloggie also is a writer a reporter for Nolan
Speaker 1: at Media Group. And that's right, isn't it Nolan Media Group.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Dick.
Speaker 6: It's always an honor to be on here with you.
Speaker 6: And I'm not just saying that because you asked me.
Speaker 6: I'm periodically, but I was. I was actually out of
Speaker 6: town for about five weeks doing a little research and
Speaker 6: writing on the West Coast and it was great to
Speaker 6: be able to tune in to Dick Gabriel and dus
Speaker 6: Lynn on the SEC Plus and you made me feel
Speaker 6: like I was writing Kentucky brout Park even though I
Speaker 6: was three thousand miles away. You guys do a great job.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 1: You shot me at text when you were out there.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize you were going back after the coach
Speaker 1: of your daughter's out there? Are you did I hear
Speaker 1: you say your researching? Are you writing another book?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: I'm actually working on a little fiction novel, my debut
Speaker 6: fiction novel. So part of the setting took place out there.
Speaker 6: I wanted to do a little bit of research and
Speaker 6: make it a little bit more realistic.
Speaker 5: Plus southern California pond trees.
Speaker 6: When sky see sand, you can't beat it.
Speaker 1: Is it a sports backdrop kind of book? Are you
Speaker 1: completely straining away from your comfort zone? No?
Speaker 6: No, We're all product of our experiences. And one of
Speaker 6: the main characters in here is a sports.
Speaker 5: Writer, believe it or not.
Speaker 6: And the premise of the book is a hall of
Speaker 6: fame basketball coach gets brutally murdered.
Speaker 5: During the quarter of a championship season.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and it's called get this Name, Image and Murder.
Speaker 5: I got to strike while the iron is hot. I
Speaker 5: love it.
Speaker 1: I love it now. Is one of the ancillary characters
Speaker 1: a dashing on orthodontist.
Speaker 5: Perhaps, Well, you'll just have to wait and see. But
Speaker 5: like I, like I said, we.
Speaker 6: All write about things that we're familiar with.
Speaker 5: So a lot of.
Speaker 6: These characters are composites. There's a lot of Big Gabriel
Speaker 6: and this sports.
Speaker 1: Writer got it well. And you've written books you also
Speaker 1: kind of processed and what the better word is for
Speaker 1: your father's books, your father's book that came out recently.
Speaker 1: But what is it like now, John, to try to
Speaker 1: fashion this story at a cent air when in the
Speaker 1: past you've been able to listen to other people, talk
Speaker 1: to other people, draw upon their experiences, and put fact
Speaker 1: onto the page.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's completely different writing.
Speaker 6: Fiction, boding nonfiction, completely different areas. And that's one of
Speaker 6: the reasons why I wanted to kind of explore that
Speaker 6: life is short. You want to take advantage of all
Speaker 6: these opportunities, explore different options. But it was very, very different.
Speaker 6: For example, in some of my other books, I had
Speaker 6: to really focus in on making sure that I got
Speaker 6: the scores correct and the facts and the figures and
Speaker 6: the historical aspect of it. I include a lot of
Speaker 6: history in this fiction book, But on the other hand,
Speaker 6: I'm able to craft a lot more with it than
Speaker 6: I usually would with some can already happen that's already
Speaker 6: written in stone. Plus if I miss getting a particular score.
Speaker 6: Who cares, I'll just make it up.
Speaker 1: It's fiction, right when in your many endeavors, when you're
Speaker 1: wearing your journalist cap, you have to be accurate. You
Speaker 1: have to strive to be as accurate as possible. And
Speaker 1: in this case, who cares?
Speaker 6: Right, Well, there are probably some people who will still care.
Speaker 6: You don't want to purposely go mawaligning anybody. You want
Speaker 6: to say bad things that are completely untrued.
Speaker 5: But you can leave a lot of things to the imagination.
Speaker 5: And I had a.
Speaker 6: Lot of fun with this. I've always wanted to do a.
Speaker 5: Fiction book, and I may still crash and burn.
Speaker 6: But hopefully I built up enough of an audience that
Speaker 6: people be interested. It's first and foremost it's a who
Speaker 6: done it? It's a murder mystery. But on the other hand,
Speaker 6: it's given me kind of a platform and I can
Speaker 6: write an exposition on everything that I think.
Speaker 5: Is wrong in the world of.
Speaker 6: College sports right now, all this nil transfer portal onset
Speaker 6: of sports gambling. I certainly give my personal take into
Speaker 6: all of that, and it'll be interesting to see what
Speaker 6: the responses are. I can speak through a lot of
Speaker 6: the main characters.
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to that you and I've talked before,
Speaker 1: and I teach you about you know, a former Well,
Speaker 1: you'll always be a dentist. I mean, you don't lose
Speaker 1: that status, but you are retired. Orthodonisy turned basically to
Speaker 1: sports writing and reporting, and in your second career, as
Speaker 1: it were, you happen to hit it. You just referred
Speaker 1: to this this period of college athletics, and you and
Speaker 1: I were at UK at the same time, giving away
Speaker 1: your age a little bit, didn't know each other. But
Speaker 1: what that means is our backgrounds are similar when it
Speaker 1: comes to the sports and teams we followed. And now
Speaker 1: you and I and everybody really we're having to a
Speaker 1: just to this period of college athletics. It is really unprecedented, John,
Speaker 1: and it can make your head spin, can it.
Speaker 5: Well, you have to have the right mindset, Dick, because.
Speaker 6: If you let it, it can really get It's easy
Speaker 6: to be the old guy. Get off my lawn. It
Speaker 6: was better in the old.
Speaker 5: Days, And realistically, I do think.
Speaker 6: It was better in the olden days.
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm not saying that there wasn't a lot
Speaker 5: of payment to players going on.
Speaker 6: There was pay to play going on. Ever since the
Speaker 6: dawn of civilization. I'm sure some of it was underhanded
Speaker 6: and such, but there was still more of a sense
Speaker 6: of the purity of the game. People playing for the
Speaker 6: name on the front of the jersey, people playing for
Speaker 6: the love of the game. And it's so different right now.
Speaker 6: It's a whole new world. But you know what, you
Speaker 6: better get used to it because it's not changing. The
Speaker 6: force is already out of the barn. All this legislation
Speaker 6: that they're kind of coming up with to try to
Speaker 6: limit the collectives out there and the influence of parties, well,
Speaker 6: when it comes right down to it, I say, who
Speaker 6: you do. It's still paid to play. Sure, whether the
Speaker 6: collectives are paying or whether the school's paying, it's all
Speaker 6: different right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, in the ruling that came down the settlement
Speaker 1: two point seven billion, I just saw something where UCLA
Speaker 1: has six hundred scholarship athletes and they may be divving
Speaker 1: up as much as twenty million dollars among them. So
Speaker 1: you know, the thing to remember is if you're a
Speaker 1: Kentucky fan, you're gonna be okay. You know, your school
Speaker 1: isn't a power conference. It has a it's dealing from
Speaker 1: a position of strength. John, I worry about it. I
Speaker 1: always say that's the Ekus, the Murray States, the Moorhead States,
Speaker 1: even to a degree, the Western Kentucky's because that's not
Speaker 1: in a big media outlet, not in a huge D
Speaker 1: one conference. And I really wonder in the next decade
Speaker 1: what it's going to look like. I hope I'm around
Speaker 1: to see it. But you're right, it's nothing like when
Speaker 1: we were and it never will be again like when
Speaker 1: we were in school.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that they play a big, big part
Speaker 5: of this landscape of why we.
Speaker 6: Enjoy sports so much. I love seeing the Westerns and
Speaker 6: the Easterns them doing.
Speaker 5: Well and to see them kind of fade out.
Speaker 6: Or be sucked up into.
Speaker 5: Some other big board Texas that's coming, where all we have.
Speaker 6: Are the big boys playing the game.
Speaker 5: That scares me. But even within UK, Dick, I'm a
Speaker 5: I'm a sports fan, but I think.
Speaker 6: I'm first and foremost at University of Kentucky sports fan.
Speaker 5: I'd rather watch UK ping pong than.
Speaker 6: I would probably the NBA Championship because I love the
Speaker 6: University of Kentucky and right now, what with all these
Speaker 6: changes that are coming, they're gonna be sports in which
Speaker 6: you're gonna have to pick and choose. You know, Kentucky
Speaker 6: is gonna obviously they're gonna support men's basketball and football,
Speaker 6: and women's basketball and baseball. But some of these other
Speaker 6: minor sports are gonna have to pick and choose switch
Speaker 6: ones that that want to be throwing that money into.
Speaker 6: And that's going to be a difficult decision.
Speaker 1: Yep. And as all of this evens out, uh, there
Speaker 1: are gonna be schools that make tough decisions. And you're
Speaker 1: gonna see, and I've said this from day one, You're
Speaker 1: gonna see Olympic sports disappear at some schools. I don't
Speaker 1: think it will happen to Kentucky, but I do fear
Speaker 1: for and I love you know, I cover baseball, volleyball
Speaker 1: for the SEC network, you know, every now and then
Speaker 1: women's basketball, soccer, stuff like that. So I fear for that.
Speaker 1: But in terms of the name on the front of
Speaker 1: the jersey, Kentucky with a basketball coach now who has
Speaker 1: pledged that that will be job one representing that name.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider
Speaker 1: More to come here on six thirty WLAP He it's
Speaker 1: Dick Gabriel and you're listening to the best of the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Insider. We're talking with blogger, author reporter John
Speaker 1: Wong of Wong's whinings and the Nolan Media Group. I
Speaker 1: don't know that you and I have spoken on the air, John,
Speaker 1: since Mark Pope was hired, because it's we said you've
Speaker 1: been traveling. But I had some of his comments that
Speaker 1: he that he said on the Fine Bomb Show yesterday.
Speaker 1: They've been making the rounds and I played some of
Speaker 1: them earlier on the show tonight, and as I was
Speaker 1: preparing for the interview with you, I got to think,
Speaker 1: and this guy is perfect for John Wong because he
Speaker 1: loves UK. He has talked from literally day one about
Speaker 1: the name on the front of the jersey as opposed
Speaker 1: to the back. He's a man of faith, he's a
Speaker 1: family man. You are Mark Pope, aren't you. Maybe without
Speaker 1: all the basketball acumen, but in so many.
Speaker 6: Ways right, And I think he probably enjoys winning as much.
Speaker 5: As I do. Also, So the proof is going to.
Speaker 6: Be in the polding. Ultimately, there's going to be a
Speaker 6: there's a period in which was kind of a lot
Speaker 6: of slack just because of who he is, but ultimately
Speaker 6: it's going to come down the winning ball games and.
Speaker 5: Dancing in the tournament. Different than it is with any
Speaker 5: other coach. But yes, very very exciting. Yeah, I left.
Speaker 6: Town the day before his news conference. I missed all
Speaker 6: of that albolo. Of course, I streamed everything online, but.
Speaker 5: As you know, it's not the same as being.
Speaker 6: There in person and soaking it all in. But on
Speaker 6: the other hand, it gave me a little chance to
Speaker 6: kind of step away from the hubbub that was brewing
Speaker 6: within the town. I was three thousand miles away. People
Speaker 6: there in California. They didn't ever know who Mark Pope is,
Speaker 6: Mark wu what'd you get him for? They're interested at Dagers, Lakers, whatever.
Speaker 6: And it really made me realize how Kentucky centric we
Speaker 6: are living here in central Kentucky. This was the first
Speaker 6: Saturday of May. Of course, I'm waking up Kentucky Derby,
Speaker 6: I'm in my yoga class, and I.
Speaker 5: Say, hey, everyone, first Saturday of May.
Speaker 1: Hooray.
Speaker 5: They didn't know what I was talking about.
Speaker 6: But we really are Kentucky centric, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 6: There are things that we're just very, very passionate about.
Speaker 6: But yeah, I've had.
Speaker 5: A chance to kind of kind of sit back and
Speaker 5: the way things worked out thick.
Speaker 6: It was probably as well as we could have even
Speaker 6: drawn it on the board. The way that fan base
Speaker 6: was divided over coach John Caliperry, I don't think there
Speaker 6: was any way we could have.
Speaker 5: Come back the next year and had any.
Speaker 6: Sort of success. I mean it was literally I think
Speaker 6: split fifty fifty down the middle. People loved him, other
Speaker 6: half hated him. But with Pope on board, boy, there
Speaker 6: was a little bit of initial pushback, but within twenty
Speaker 6: four hours that was so amazing. The tie turned completely
Speaker 6: And everybody I talk to you now is the full
Speaker 6: support of them. Do I wish he had a couple
Speaker 6: more great scores? Yeah, I wish she could have done that.
Speaker 6: But Mark Pope supposedly a great offensive mind. He'll put
Speaker 6: it together. That's why we're paying him the big bucks.
Speaker 1: Well, and may get one or two great scores because
Speaker 1: that that's not over yet. Now, Well, were these deadlines
Speaker 1: coming and going? You know, you may you bring up
Speaker 1: an interesting point about if Calipari had stayed. I do
Speaker 1: think they would have had success. It would have won
Speaker 1: a lot of games, But you would have had this
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was a pallor or a
Speaker 1: dark cloud or whatever hanging over the program because it
Speaker 1: seemed like there was this win or else vibe that
Speaker 1: that arose. You know, you had the uncomfortable meeting between
Speaker 1: Caliperi and Barnard and they appeared on on TV. Some
Speaker 1: said they looked like hostages. Others said they looked like,
Speaker 1: you know, people in couples therapy.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 1: And clearly it was uncomfortable. But everybody in the big
Speaker 1: Blue Nation, good or bad, you know, pro or con,
Speaker 1: would have been waiting to see just how far they
Speaker 1: went in the NCA tournament, John, and I don't think
Speaker 1: it would have mattered how far they went short of
Speaker 1: the final four. People would have gone I don't want
Speaker 1: to They wouldn't have gone crazy, but especially if they
Speaker 1: got knocked out in the first round. But it just
Speaker 1: would not have been palatable. I don't think so. Now,
Speaker 1: like you say, it's a fresh start with.
Speaker 6: Mark Pope, Yeah, you are correct in that for the
Speaker 6: very first time. And this is what's extremely, extremely scary, Dick.
Speaker 6: I knew people who were just as avid Kentucky fans
Speaker 6: as I were. Was cheer for the program always, and
Speaker 6: there were a couple of those guys who were actually
Speaker 6: cheering against cal Perry. They wanted the team to do
Speaker 6: poorly just so that it would kind of hasten his exit.
Speaker 6: That to me is extremely, extremely scary. We're fans, we're passionate.
Speaker 6: We should cheer for.
Speaker 5: The program no matter what.
Speaker 6: Now, of course I'm talking everything, not not regarding our
Speaker 6: media hat. You know, that's a whole different ballgame.
Speaker 5: But as a fan, to be cheering against your team.
Speaker 6: Just because you have an agenda with the coach, to me,
Speaker 6: that crosses the line. That's not good.
Speaker 1: And that said, you mentioned cutting some slack to Mark Pope.
Speaker 1: Do you think the Big Blue Nation is capable of that?
Speaker 1: And I will And I mentioned this on the show earlier.
Speaker 1: We saw that in Patino's first year because we you
Speaker 1: know where the program was then it hit below rock bottom.
Speaker 1: That's that wasn't the case, even though the roster was empty.
Speaker 1: That's not really the case in this day and age
Speaker 1: of the portal. But nobody expected much of anything from Patino,
Speaker 1: and he delivered well beyond I think their expectations. Mark Pope,
Speaker 1: who of course played for Rick, I don't think has
Speaker 1: that luxury, does he? I mean, will people cut him slack?
Speaker 6: I think He's got a one year honeymoon period for sure.
Speaker 6: I think they could do extremely, extremely poorly this year,
Speaker 6: and they're not going to get rid of them or
Speaker 6: anything like that. There'll be a few natives who are restless,
Speaker 6: but that's to be expected. This does remind me a
Speaker 6: little bit of that eighty nine year, that first Patino year,
Speaker 6: and I think a lot of the excitement that was
Speaker 6: generated that year was because of who the player were,
Speaker 6: you know, the unforgettable, the in state stars, plus the
Speaker 6: style of play that they played, you know, that ustle
Speaker 6: up and down the court. I think that played a
Speaker 6: lot into how how the fans got into it and
Speaker 6: got got after him. I think this year, with Travis
Speaker 6: Perry and and Trent Nolan there in the Kentucky connections,
Speaker 6: there's a lot of similarities associated with that. So yes,
Speaker 6: I think they well cut him from slack. I think
Speaker 6: he's got a complete free range this one. Ear the excitement,
Speaker 6: the brand new fervor of Kentucky basketball back again. I
Speaker 6: think that'll carry the team through. That'll carry Pope through
Speaker 6: a few.
Speaker 1: Minutes left with John Wong, blogger author Kentucky fan, Wong's whinings,
Speaker 1: Staying with this parallel interesting that you had. We talked
Speaker 1: about Patino when he first got here. Pope played for Patino,
Speaker 1: but played for a lot of guys in the NBA
Speaker 1: and draws a lot of the lessons he learned from them.
Speaker 1: But when Patino got here, yeah, his roster was not
Speaker 1: full of all stars. Mashbourne wasn't here yet. But now
Speaker 1: I was talking to Sean Woods about this on the
Speaker 1: show last night. Patino inherited guys who knew how to
Speaker 1: play the game, and I'm talking. You talked about the
Speaker 1: unforgettables of Sean and Pelfrey and Feldaust and Richie. Those
Speaker 1: guys knew how to play basketball, basketball players and which
Speaker 1: Cali Perry talked about this year, and he wasn't wrong
Speaker 1: about that. He had guys with high basketball IQ starting
Speaker 1: with Reed Shepherd. I think Pope's gonna have a similar
Speaker 1: roster because he's gonna have veterans and he has vetted
Speaker 1: these guys. Plus he's a pretty good coach.
Speaker 5: Right, Absolutely.
Speaker 6: I think when when you mentioned those guys the Unforgettables
Speaker 6: fell House and Farmer and pil and Woods, those guys
Speaker 6: were not only high I but they were very coachable.
Speaker 5: Yes, they had good coaching.
Speaker 6: Throughout their high school careers, and I think that that
Speaker 6: kind of parlayed into being able to accept a guy
Speaker 6: like Patino who was extremely demanding coming in and essentially
Speaker 6: telling them you will do this this, You're going to
Speaker 6: do it my way too. He ran those guys ragged,
Speaker 6: and they were able to accept his coaching acumen and
Speaker 6: parlay it into.
Speaker 5: The success that they did that year. I'm hoping that
Speaker 5: you're going to see the same thing with some of
Speaker 5: these guys on this team, this roster.
Speaker 1: Well, as we wrap this up, speaking of the portal
Speaker 1: and coachable players and building with guys who are transferring in.
Speaker 1: What a job Nick min Joon and his staff have
Speaker 1: done really the last two years of blending their recruits
Speaker 1: three year guys like Devin Burks and Nolan McCarthy and
Speaker 1: Evan Byers with the portal guys, and that's all been
Speaker 1: a part of the fabric of college baseball for decades.
Speaker 1: People transferring in because they only have eleven and a
Speaker 1: half scholarships, but they've put together another contender and now
Speaker 1: an SEC champion. John and I know you've covered several
Speaker 1: of the baseball games since you've been back you got
Speaker 1: to be looking forward to this weekend.
Speaker 5: This This is amazing, Dick. When you think.
Speaker 6: About where men young and the program lost two to
Speaker 6: three years ago. This was a guy who was on
Speaker 6: the hot seat. People really wanted to do it and
Speaker 6: to see what they've accomplished the year after in which
Speaker 6: they made to run the SEC Tournament, and then last
Speaker 6: year and now this year. It's a little bit different
Speaker 6: than basketball.
Speaker 5: We're not going to be judging this team on the success.
Speaker 6: In the postseason. I'd like to see him make him run.
Speaker 6: One of my bucket list items is still Omaha College
Speaker 6: World Series. But even if they don't make it out
Speaker 6: of the regional I think what they've accomplished during the
Speaker 6: course of the season these past seasons, that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 6: That speaks for usself.
Speaker 5: Thanks Dick, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: See at the ballpark Listening to the Best of the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Insider. Hour number two is next here on
Speaker 1: six thirty w LAP. It's Dick Gabriel, Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Best of the Big Blue Insider. Joining us now
Speaker 1: is a longtime buddy at, a friend of the show,
Speaker 1: former WTVH sports director. Now the sports director WHS said Louisville,
Speaker 1: Kent Spencer, who, as I like to say, is one
Speaker 1: of only two guys on the beat that I know
Speaker 1: of who's been hitting the mouth in a college football game.
Speaker 1: Him and Jeff pcorro So. I love talking football with
Speaker 1: uh SEC media days in Dallas. It's going to be
Speaker 1: a zoo down there, Kent. But if your Mark Stoops,
Speaker 1: what do you think is going to be the message
Speaker 1: about your team? Because last year I think everybody bought
Speaker 1: into the Kentucky hype and I think rightfully so, and
Speaker 1: Kentucky underperformed. I got to think he back sat down
Speaker 1: a little bit, don't you.
Speaker 7: I think cautious optimism is probably, you know, his his
Speaker 7: best thing. And you know, I think if if he
Speaker 7: has a few question marks or if he has a
Speaker 7: few unknowns, even if it feels good about him, I
Speaker 7: think it's okay to put things out like, look, hey,
Speaker 7: we're gonna have to see We're gonna see have to
Speaker 7: see how these guys perform. We're gonna have to see
Speaker 7: how these guys hold up and this in this situation.
Speaker 7: But I think you know, if you're Mark Stoops, you're
Speaker 7: you're one hundred percent right. He was pretty he was
Speaker 7: very bullish on his team last year, and to be
Speaker 7: quite honest, I mean they were, you know, they were
Speaker 7: really close to having a really good season, but you know,
Speaker 7: some of those losses I South Carolina and a few others,
Speaker 7: you know, they were real letdowns and underperformed in certain situations.
Speaker 7: I mean, even look at the at the bowl game.
Speaker 7: Great great moments, right, yeah, but you can't get it
Speaker 7: done against a Clemson team that's a that's a notable brand.
Speaker 7: That would have been a huge victory for them, you know,
Speaker 7: and and propelled them into the offseason. Just didn't work
Speaker 7: out that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Kautia's optimism is fair because there are
Speaker 1: so many question marks starting at quarterback, but defense has
Speaker 1: question marks two so uh and and they can't mess
Speaker 1: around ken as you know, the scheduled demands, they'd be
Speaker 1: ready to go almost immediately.
Speaker 7: No, you're right, and and you know you you mentioned
Speaker 7: you mentioned quarterback. They felt so good about Devin Leary
Speaker 7: going into last year and that he was more of
Speaker 7: a proven product than than Brock vandergriff Is. And so
Speaker 7: you know, I think when you and I think for
Speaker 7: me and and probably most people would would agree, Devin
Speaker 7: Leary experiment was more of a disappointment than it was
Speaker 7: a positive there. You know, I just don't think, you know,
Speaker 7: anybody he had the season that anybody thought he was
Speaker 7: going to have. I thought, you know, I think everybody
Speaker 7: thinks that they were going to be a lot better
Speaker 7: in that in that department. So you know, those kind
Speaker 7: of things, especially early on, that's going to be tested.
Speaker 7: And then also, you know, I think the offensive line
Speaker 7: showed a little bit of improvement last year, as you know,
Speaker 7: but but it needs that it needs to get back
Speaker 7: to where it used to be, and that's tougher. You
Speaker 7: and I have talked about this before. You know, the
Speaker 7: longer that John Schlarman is is not there anymore, the
Speaker 7: more you know, the Big Blue Wall is only the
Speaker 7: Big Blue Wall in name only at the moment. And
Speaker 7: it's a I almost kind of equate it to remember
Speaker 7: when Nebraska's defensive line used to be known as the
Speaker 7: black Shirts. Yeah, and they would have the black Shirts.
Speaker 7: You know, they still do that at Nebraska. That's a
Speaker 7: name only, like they don't play that way anymore, and
Speaker 7: so and that used to come from the tom Osborne days. Well,
Speaker 7: you know, tom Osborne is long since gone, so you know,
Speaker 7: you almost have to redefined or find your own identity now.
Speaker 7: And so you know, they really need their offensive line
Speaker 7: to get back to protecting the quarterback, to be in
Speaker 7: physical on a on a consistent basis, and they just
Speaker 7: weren't that anymore. And I look at their their secondary
Speaker 7: so many question marks there, like, hey, what's what's going
Speaker 7: to happen there? You know, I think there are a
Speaker 7: lot of question marks, and they're going to be tested,
Speaker 7: Like you said, with that schedule early, with with the
Speaker 7: likes of South Carolina and Georgia. You know, early, man,
Speaker 7: they're going to be put to the test early.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can't losing Andrew Phillips and and right away
Speaker 1: think oh we'll be fine, maybe we'll be even better.
Speaker 1: Now you've got to go out and prove that. And
Speaker 1: they've got some opportunities to do that. But the last
Speaker 1: time we saw that defensive backfield, it had been decimated
Speaker 1: by injuries by the end of the bowl game. And
Speaker 1: we all know what happened at the end of that game.
Speaker 1: So so much to prove isn't there.
Speaker 7: You know, they've they've had guys though that have had
Speaker 7: rough outings and bowl games and at the end of
Speaker 7: the season season and they've specifically in the secondary, and
Speaker 7: those guys have used that in the past as a
Speaker 7: motivation for the future and really have have bounced back
Speaker 7: and had great seasons the very next year. And so
Speaker 7: that's that's one of those things that I'm curious to
Speaker 7: see and and you know, to be to be quite
Speaker 7: to be quite honest, you know, I look at a
Speaker 7: Barry and Brown at wide receiver, who I think had
Speaker 7: nice moments last year, and even maybe Dame Key at
Speaker 7: wide receiver. I think some of those guys had nice moments,
Speaker 7: but I think they would even probably tell you their
Speaker 7: season as a whole was largely a disappointment, yeah, because
Speaker 7: they had set so much of expectations on them, on
Speaker 7: themselves and what they did. I think both of those
Speaker 7: guys had had had nice Bowl games there, Well, how
Speaker 7: do you use that back and how do you have
Speaker 7: a more consistent season Because those guys, they have the
Speaker 7: talent to be able to play on Sundays, but you
Speaker 7: got to be consistent in what you do. You got
Speaker 7: to be consistent in how you prepare and your knowledge
Speaker 7: for the game. So I'm curious to see how they react.
Speaker 7: I'm curious to see how they perform in bush Hampden's
Speaker 7: offense that they're going to use this year.
Speaker 1: Talking to Ken Spencer, sports director whas Over in Louisville,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad you brought up bush ham down because
Speaker 1: it's interesting. One of the things that Mark Stoops I
Speaker 1: think has done at Kentucky is built consistency in the
Speaker 1: world way they recruit and develop and win games. But
Speaker 1: he's not afraid to make changes. And it's not often
Speaker 1: his decision like you know, Liam Cohen suddenly bolts. But
Speaker 1: he has had more than one offensive coordinator. They have
Speaker 1: not all been cookie cutters. But you know, I think
Speaker 1: that he is willing Stoops to go with a guy
Speaker 1: like bush Hamon and say, let's see what you can bring.
Speaker 1: And you know, in basic philosophy is what he needs.
Speaker 1: But he's always gonna want to run the football, isn't he.
Speaker 1: It's always going to have to be balanced.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, they want they want to be fifty
Speaker 7: to fifty. They want to be better in the passing game.
Speaker 7: They want to be explosive. You know, I think you
Speaker 7: know everybody talks about Okay, Kentucky football is here. Okay,
Speaker 7: and they've had a few years where they've been able
Speaker 7: to kind of make that jump and get up there
Speaker 7: and and you know, have have really really a really
Speaker 7: really nice season. And so for me, when I look
Speaker 7: at when I look at them kind of going forward,
Speaker 7: I think that they need consistency in the offensive coordinator position.
Speaker 7: They just haven't had it.
Speaker 5: Dick.
Speaker 7: I mean, you know, yeah, Liam Cohen came back for
Speaker 7: two different stints, but it was to one year stints.
Speaker 7: I believe, Yeah, that's just not that's just not enough.
Speaker 7: And you know, Rich Gangarello and then even before that,
Speaker 7: obviously there was there was the one year even though
Speaker 7: Eddie granted had been there a long time. But I
Speaker 7: mean we're talking what bush Hampton is is the fifth
Speaker 7: offensive coordinator they've had.
Speaker 6: In five years.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and and you know, maybe you know, some things
Speaker 7: stay the same, but verbiage always changes and how things
Speaker 7: are called in different things. So that's these kids happened
Speaker 7: to learn five different you know, five different systems in
Speaker 7: five different years. Now some of those are coming in
Speaker 7: to new and freshmen. You know, they really haven't had
Speaker 7: to learn that much. That's so much change, you know,
Speaker 7: and it's impossible to say, like, hey, we're going to
Speaker 7: keep an offensive coordinator for five ten years, but you know,
Speaker 7: you could really benefit by having somebody for three to
Speaker 7: four years. And so I think they really need consistency
Speaker 7: at that position in order to be able to take
Speaker 7: the next step. It's impossible to do it with so
Speaker 7: much change.
Speaker 1: You know, as you say that, I flash and it
Speaker 1: doesn't take much to the Bill Curry era when Bill
Speaker 1: changed his offensive coordinator so many times. But the difference
Speaker 1: is they change their style. You know, they go from
Speaker 1: pro style to eyebone to optionists, you know, and it
Speaker 1: affects your recruiting patterns. That's the one thing they haven't
Speaker 1: really had to change. They've they've kind of stayed pro style,
Speaker 1: so they haven't had to go out and you know,
Speaker 1: maybe get a whole bunch of fullbacks or a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of more wide receivers or different kinds of old linemen,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: Yeah, But but here's my here he would be the
Speaker 7: only pushback on that. So personnel is always the same, right,
Speaker 7: But when you change burbage so much, when you change
Speaker 7: burbage and plays and all of this this so much,
Speaker 7: it can be the same concept, but it can be
Speaker 7: completely different is what is the one thing that coaches
Speaker 7: want their teams to do. They want them to play
Speaker 7: without thinking. They want them to play fast, right, I
Speaker 7: want them to be free of mind, so you can
Speaker 7: play fast if you are learning a whole new playbook
Speaker 7: each and every year. Man, it is impossible to do
Speaker 7: that thing without thinking. And so and in college football
Speaker 7: and in the SEC when you take a moment and you're
Speaker 7: thinking about it, the plays already passed, You're you're long gone.
Speaker 7: If you're a steps low in that league, you're losing
Speaker 7: by thirty and so you know, it's it's one of
Speaker 7: those things where I think, you know, these guys in
Speaker 7: some moments are thinking so much. That's why it's so
Speaker 7: tough for true freshmen to really be able to exel.
Speaker 7: They can excel in certain positions because maybe certain some
Speaker 7: positions are a little simpler but or they have a
Speaker 7: certain package, but you know, you put a you put
Speaker 7: a true freshman in there, let's say an offensive line
Speaker 7: or something like that. Man, that game moves really really fast.
Speaker 7: It takes a long time for it to slow down.
Speaker 7: So I just think that benyl side of things, it
Speaker 7: needs to get easier. And with that comes consistency.
Speaker 1: Ken Spencer's my guess he is a sports director. Whas
Speaker 1: and Louisville will come back and talk more Kentucky football
Speaker 1: with Campada. They're listening to the best of the Big
Speaker 1: Blue Insider. More to come here on six thirty w lap. Hey,
Speaker 1: it's Dick Gabriel and you're listening to the best of
Speaker 1: the Big Blue Insider talking with Ken Spencer talking Kentucky
Speaker 1: football with This Furts director W h As This week
Speaker 1: in Dallas, Dion Walker, I think will captivate the writer's room.
Speaker 1: I think, really any room he's in own you. He's
Speaker 1: one of the three players. And I think Derek Jackson
Speaker 1: will be fine. Marcus Cox will be fine. Old Limaner usually,
Speaker 1: as you know, pretty good interviews. But there's just something
Speaker 1: about Walker. He's charming, isn't he.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so he not only is he charming, but he's
Speaker 7: not afraid to be bullish.
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 7: You know, there might be some they may tell him
Speaker 7: not to say certain things, but sometimes you just you
Speaker 7: you know, you can't put him in a cage. First off.
Speaker 7: First off, he's too big and he's too good, and
Speaker 7: there may be a few things that come out of
Speaker 7: out of his mouth that will make Mark Stukes cringe
Speaker 7: a little bit. But yeah, he's one of those kids
Speaker 7: like once you sit down with him and then you
Speaker 7: get away from the conversation, you look at whoever you're
Speaker 7: with and you're like, man, I really enjoyed that. Yeah,
Speaker 7: that's just the way, that's just the way that he is. Yeah.
Speaker 7: I think that he'll be a kid this week that
Speaker 7: everybody enjoys talking to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm curious to see how de Eric Jackson
Speaker 1: does and I think he will do well. He's a
Speaker 1: smart kid, but he is soft spoken. As you know.
Speaker 1: He's not a bad interview. But generally when it came
Speaker 1: to linebackers, we would gravitate to Trevin Wallace, wouldn't we
Speaker 1: His running made and now. But of course Derek D.
Speaker 1: Jack is a veteran. He's played a lot of football
Speaker 1: and he knows what's coming at him.
Speaker 7: I think, you know, the funny thing about it is
Speaker 7: is sometimes like you know a kid and you don't
Speaker 7: know if they're the best talker or not, or you know,
Speaker 7: you don't maybe necessarily go with them to interviews. So
Speaker 7: when it comes to coaches and fans, they don't care
Speaker 7: about that stuff. Like, are you solid?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 7: And Eric Jackson for Kentucky's defense is as solid as rock.
Speaker 7: I mean, I really think that he took a massive
Speaker 7: step forward last year on that defense. And I think
Speaker 7: when you look at their defense outside of Dion Walker,
Speaker 7: who's always going to be, you know, a one man
Speaker 7: wrecking crew up front, I think the Eric Jackson at
Speaker 7: linebacker is as as solid as a gainst. He always
Speaker 7: seems like he's in the right He always seems like
Speaker 7: he's in the right place. And when he arrives, he
Speaker 7: arrives with bad intention.
Speaker 1: When you lose a running mate, like like a Trevin
Speaker 1: Wallace who obviously was a great college player, he's in
Speaker 1: the NFL now and came out a year early as
Speaker 1: a linebacker, what what are the adjustments you have to make?
Speaker 1: What kind of challenge is it going to be for Jackson?
Speaker 1: And again an experienced guy, but he's going to be
Speaker 1: flanked by a new running mate, you know what I mean?
Speaker 7: Yeah, but that that running mate has already had some experience,
Speaker 7: a ton ton of experience at the SEC level. And
Speaker 7: so you know, the one thing about you know, playing
Speaker 7: with a linebacker for a couple of years is you
Speaker 7: know where they're going to be you know, kind of
Speaker 7: how they do things and this and that you know,
Speaker 7: it will it will come, and it can and I
Speaker 7: think at linebacker honestly that I think it can come
Speaker 7: in practice. You know, sometimes you don't really know things
Speaker 7: until you get in a game, but I think you
Speaker 7: can feel of each other at that position in practice.
Speaker 7: And the way that that that Brad White and and
Speaker 7: those coaches they you know, they've they they've coached those
Speaker 7: linebackers up really well, you know, over these you know,
Speaker 7: last handful of years or how however many long so
Speaker 7: you know, inside linebacker for them, in my opinion, has
Speaker 7: has generally been a strength for what they do. They've
Speaker 7: always found the fips and they found guys who kind
Speaker 7: of compliment each other there.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, they've done a good job at that and
Speaker 1: they need to. That has to happen because if they're
Speaker 1: not communicating, that could be a real disaster. A couple
Speaker 1: of minutes left of Ken Spencer Kent covers U of
Speaker 1: l Indiana whatever it takes there in the city of Louisville,
Speaker 1: and I watched again that Louisville Kentucky game. I was
Speaker 1: laid up recovering from surgery, as you know, when they
Speaker 1: played that game, and what a great football game. But
Speaker 1: I had kind of forgotten how talented Louisville was going
Speaker 1: into that game. It was the favorite, an eight point favorite,
Speaker 1: I think in that game Ken. So now it's almost
Speaker 1: a rebuilt roster for Jeff Brohm and they've already been
Speaker 1: predicted to be better than Kentucky. That's that's a win
Speaker 1: from most prognosticators for Louisville when they look at the schedule,
Speaker 1: what can we expect from from the Cardinals and when
Speaker 1: UK and U of L get together. A lot of
Speaker 1: foot ball has to happen between then and now. But
Speaker 1: it's going to be interesting again, isn't it.
Speaker 7: Yeah. I mean, you know, when you look at the
Speaker 7: when you look at the cards I think that most people,
Speaker 7: even though I mean, you know they Louisill played so
Speaker 7: well last year, but you know, their their biggest disappointment was,
Speaker 7: you know, they lost the last three games of their season,
Speaker 7: and Jeff Brown was he has not been shy about
Speaker 7: the fact that even in those three games, his most
Speaker 7: disappointing loss were the Kentucky loss because that's a rivalry game.
Speaker 7: That's the game that he desperately wants to win. He
Speaker 7: knows his fan base desperately wants to win. It's not
Speaker 7: been easy going for them in that series the last
Speaker 7: handful of years, and so it's it's the one game
Speaker 7: that that he wants. I also think that most fans
Speaker 7: would tell you that they thought that Jack Plumber was
Speaker 7: not the best answer for them at quarterback, even though
Speaker 7: I think he was by far the best quarterback they
Speaker 7: had on the roster. Right, they wanted more out of
Speaker 7: that position, right, And let's be honest, I think Kentucky
Speaker 7: fans wanted more out of that position for them last
Speaker 7: year as well. So Jeff Bron brings in Tyler Shuck
Speaker 7: transfer from Texas Tech. He is going to be I
Speaker 7: want to say, he's going to be twenty five years
Speaker 7: old at some point in like August or September, right,
Speaker 7: and he's a talented kid. Actually he's a talented man.
Speaker 7: When you're twenty five, you're told you're a man. But
Speaker 7: he is a talented man who has not been able
Speaker 7: to stay healthy. They have to keep him healthy, they
Speaker 7: have to keep him upright for them to be able
Speaker 7: to win football games. I think that they believe that
Speaker 7: their offensive line is even though they lose a Brian Hudson.
Speaker 7: I think they think their offensive line is you know, uh,
Speaker 7: one of their strongest assets that they have coming back.
Speaker 7: Their question marks obviously are at quarterback if you can
Speaker 7: keep him healthy running you know, they running back. They
Speaker 7: lose two of their running backs, their their top two
Speaker 7: running backs to the NFL. And then wide receiver. You know,
Speaker 7: you had a lot of wide receiver turnover. Now you
Speaker 7: do have some guys coming back, but not you know,
Speaker 7: not your high end producers. So they do have some
Speaker 7: question marks. He's you know, he has lived in the portal.
Speaker 7: You know, they they've really attacked the portal and so
Speaker 7: you know, we'll kind of see, you know, not so
Speaker 7: much early on because you know they kind of they
Speaker 7: kind of ease into this thing right a little bit
Speaker 7: schedule wise, but at some point you know you're gonna
Speaker 7: be tested and you'll see how those guys perform. But no,
Speaker 7: I think, you know, with the way that they you know,
Speaker 7: some of the guys they got out of the portal,
Speaker 7: they feel good, but you've got to be able to
Speaker 7: to to mesh and go forward and be successful as
Speaker 7: a unit.
Speaker 1: So I guess by the time UK and U of
Speaker 1: L play. We'll find out which team is meshed the best.
Speaker 1: I guess and stayed healthy.
Speaker 7: I think that's the Dick. I think that's the biggest
Speaker 7: thing right Like also, I think, what what are you
Speaker 7: playing for when that game rolls around? And are you
Speaker 7: healthy enough to be able to perform at your best?
Speaker 7: I think those two are huge, huge factors.
Speaker 1: Ken Spencer sports director Whas and Louisville give everybody your
Speaker 1: ex handle at WJS eleven ten. It's just that simple.
Speaker 1: Thank you, brother. We'll see it on the road. You're
Speaker 1: listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider. More
Speaker 1: to come here on six thirty w LAP. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Best of the Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel
Speaker 1: with you my last day of vacations. So we're taking
Speaker 1: you back to a conversation and I had with Ryan
Speaker 1: Walschmidt later in the season. The Wildcats were rolling. They
Speaker 1: were coming off the sweep of Alabama. This particular segment
Speaker 1: aired the night of the Kentucky Samford game down in Birmingham.
Speaker 1: In fact, Samford beat the Wildcats, but Kentucky went on
Speaker 1: to win a series at Auburn. Again, another road series
Speaker 1: win at Auburn the Cats on their way to an
Speaker 1: SEC title. So my conversation with Ryan Walshman, who would
Speaker 1: go on to become a supplemental first round draft pick
Speaker 1: and signed for a couple of million bucks, they're listening
Speaker 1: to the best of the big doingsider. Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: big road week for the Wildcats, but they are rolling. Man.
Speaker 1: They come off a sweep of Alabama. That's their fifth
Speaker 1: sweep of the season, three in the conference, two in
Speaker 1: non conference. And one of the guys in one of
Speaker 1: the biggest reasons, quite frankly, is Ryan Walshmidth Kentucky's left
Speaker 1: fielder who blew his knee in the summertime playing summer ball,
Speaker 1: but had the surgery and then made it all the
Speaker 1: way back just about for the start of the season,
Speaker 1: began as a DH They finally put him back and left.
Speaker 1: He has been killing the ball and I had a
Speaker 1: chance to sit in and talk with him in the
Speaker 1: dugout after the win on Sunday against Alabama. Well, first
Speaker 1: of all, congratulations on another sweep. You guys. Your confidence
Speaker 1: level's got to be off the charts.
Speaker 3: Yeah for sure.
Speaker 8: I mean just coming out here every day having a
Speaker 8: good time with each other and just enjoying playing baseball.
Speaker 3: You know, when you do that.
Speaker 8: I think it takes a lot of stress off of everything,
Speaker 8: just making the pitch, making the play, getting the hit.
Speaker 8: I think when you're just out here having fun with
Speaker 8: each other and just enjoying everyone's company makes it a
Speaker 8: lot of stress free baseball, And I think that accounts
Speaker 8: for a lot of winning too. So I think that's
Speaker 8: the biggest part of our success so far.
Speaker 1: It's a happy time right now. But take me back
Speaker 1: to to your injury. Had you ever had an injury
Speaker 1: like that?
Speaker 3: What happened? Just a bad step or what.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I stepped in a hole in the cape trying
Speaker 8: to make a throw to the plate, and you know,
Speaker 8: I felt the tear when I did it.
Speaker 3: I was hoping I broke my leg. Wasn't ended up
Speaker 3: being the case.
Speaker 1: It's funny to say that I hope I broke my mind.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, Usually when it's that bad, you're hoping for just
Speaker 8: the most positive thing that could happen.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was tough. I had an injury way
Speaker 3: back in high school. I hurt my arm.
Speaker 8: I was out for a little bit, but nothing to
Speaker 8: this extent of tearing your ACL, and I think the
Speaker 8: hardest thing about it is just you gotta be able
Speaker 8: to deal with it as quick as you can and
Speaker 8: just move on because you can't change it. You just
Speaker 8: gotta change your mind and change how you think about it.
Speaker 1: I rehab three knees, not an ACL, but still some
Speaker 1: serious surgery. And isn't it weird how your body just
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like it's yours, that part of you, that limb.
Speaker 3: You're like, what are you doing to me?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 3: No, for sure.
Speaker 8: Sometimes I'm doing stuff and I'm like, man, I don't
Speaker 8: remember doing it feeling like this when I did it.
Speaker 3: But you know it, Just gotta keep pushing.
Speaker 8: Every day, just get healthier and just keep going down
Speaker 8: that path of just positive mindset, positive just things that
Speaker 8: happened for me, and just keep getting strung longer and
Speaker 8: keep getting better every day.
Speaker 1: Was the timetable first put to you, You should be
Speaker 1: able to play this year.
Speaker 3: Did you think it would take longer?
Speaker 1: Did the doctor sink it would take longer?
Speaker 8: Yeah, So as soon as I got hurt, I obviously
Speaker 8: mapped out the chart. I took the calendar out, accounted
Speaker 8: the month, so I was like, okay. They at first
Speaker 8: there telling me, eight months is the earliest possible. And
Speaker 8: you know, I'm I'm a pretty positive guy. I'm pretty
Speaker 8: hard worker, and I think the first thing I said
Speaker 8: was like, I'm gonna be back for the first game.
Speaker 8: Like that was my goal was to be out there
Speaker 8: for February seventeenth. I was like, that's the day I'll
Speaker 8: be back. And I came really close. I mean I
Speaker 8: was right there. I pressure Doc, We all pressured Doc,
Speaker 8: like hey man, he's ready, and he was like, I'll
Speaker 8: give him that bat for the first weekend. So I
Speaker 8: got one pinch hit, remember, made it back. I got
Speaker 8: to DH one game the next week. Take taking the
Speaker 8: baby steps, but that was just always my goal. I
Speaker 8: set the data being ready for the first game, and
Speaker 8: that's that's why I put my mind to And usually
Speaker 8: when I my mind.
Speaker 3: Of something, I don't I don't like to do anything
Speaker 3: but that.
Speaker 1: So what was it like for you when you could
Speaker 1: we talk to you after you got to finally play
Speaker 1: defense and you got to get back to patrolling left field.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's awesome.
Speaker 8: I mean obviously just being able to play the game
Speaker 8: again was a big thing for me. And you know,
Speaker 8: still dhing was awesome, but I like to try and
Speaker 8: impact the game in as many ways as possible, so
Speaker 8: getting back out there on defense was just another big
Speaker 8: step for me, and it was a little nerve wracking
Speaker 8: at first. I think the first ball I got was
Speaker 8: the groundball to throw someone out of the plate, and
Speaker 8: I missed it. I ended up messing up to play
Speaker 8: and I was just like, man, I was thinking about
Speaker 8: it obviously going in. I'm like, of course, this is
Speaker 8: the first play I'm going to get. But you know,
Speaker 8: every game I get to go back out there, every
Speaker 8: day that goes by, I just feel more comfortable playing
Speaker 8: the field. Confidence is back, and I'm just getting back
Speaker 8: to playing like I normally do.
Speaker 1: I don't remember the game, but I was feeling it
Speaker 1: for Darren on the radio, and I remember I was seeing, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's coming back from the ACL slowly, blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: and I don't know much we're gonna see him on
Speaker 1: your stole second. How was that for you when you
Speaker 1: really got to turn it loose on a base pass.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a big thing for me.
Speaker 8: I think my base running and my ability to run
Speaker 8: the bases is one of my better tools as a
Speaker 8: baseball player, and I think being able to do that
Speaker 8: again and just feeling the freedom to be able to
Speaker 8: run the bases how I want and being aggressive and
Speaker 8: just not really thinking about my knee too much on
Speaker 8: the basis is a huge thing for me, and I
Speaker 8: think it might help me in some extent where the
Speaker 8: other teams probably know about my injury, probably heard about.
Speaker 3: It, like be any of the season. Probably, Yeah, he's
Speaker 3: most likely probably not gonna steal.
Speaker 8: He came back from ACL recently and I go take
Speaker 8: it off and catch him off guard. So I'm sure
Speaker 8: that might not be the case anymore. I've gotten some
Speaker 8: stolen bases and play a little bit of games, But
Speaker 8: it's just it's awesome to be able to do things
Speaker 8: and just not have anything in my mind about it
Speaker 8: and just be able to play free again.
Speaker 1: And I know you were so hungry to get back
Speaker 1: this your second year here. You knew this team was
Speaker 1: gonna be special, or at least you hoped it would be.
Speaker 1: Maybe you knew it would be, so that had to
Speaker 1: be even tougher for you coming back.
Speaker 8: Yeah, definitely, I think that I was just looking forward
Speaker 8: to being out there and playing with the guys. I
Speaker 8: got to watch all fall, got to do track lan.
Speaker 8: I got to help out in practice and I saw
Speaker 8: a really similar team to last year.
Speaker 3: I saw the group of guys we had.
Speaker 8: I got to really get to know everyone off the field,
Speaker 8: as I couldn't really play much on the field, so
Speaker 8: I did my best to do that.
Speaker 3: And it's just really similar to the guys we had
Speaker 3: last year. We built the culture last.
Speaker 8: Year, we're continuing it this year, and I think that's
Speaker 8: it's the new way of Kentucky baseball now. I think
Speaker 8: that's the big thing for us, is just taking those
Speaker 8: steps to set the tradition and set the standard for
Speaker 8: the future teams coming. And I think that's the biggest
Speaker 8: thing for us, is just to keep doing what we're
Speaker 8: doing and don't change.
Speaker 1: We're talking to Kentucky left field or Ryan Waldschmid. Kind
Speaker 1: of an odd question, but did being forced to step
Speaker 1: away at all help you in any way? You were
Speaker 1: just talking about it and Minch told me that you
Speaker 1: were such a help in the fall, But having to
Speaker 1: sort of look at it from a distance, relatively speaking,
Speaker 1: did that help you much at all?
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 8: I think anytime you can step back and take a
Speaker 8: different perspective to the game, that you don't normally have.
Speaker 8: You can pick up on little things that you wouldn't
Speaker 8: be doing usually. I did a big job with the
Speaker 8: TrackMan for the pictures for the Fall, and I think
Speaker 8: it helped me as a hitter.
Speaker 3: Track man's pretty much just the.
Speaker 8: V LO spin rate location just tracks all their pitches
Speaker 8: and as a hitter, for me to get on that information,
Speaker 8: to be able to understand that information, I think it really.
Speaker 3: Helped me as a hitter. And knowing the zones, like
Speaker 3: I got.
Speaker 8: To see umpire strike zone, He's like, okay, a few balls.
Speaker 3: Off, not giving it.
Speaker 8: Just learn like the little things of just umpires, strike zone,
Speaker 8: how pitches move, what pitchers are trying to do, And
Speaker 8: I think that helps me out as a hitter as well.
Speaker 8: And also with that, I think just watching from the side,
Speaker 8: just picking up on little things, picture tendencies.
Speaker 3: I try to do as much as I could as.
Speaker 8: Being in the dugout as I could help me out
Speaker 8: when I run the bases or when I'm hitting. I
Speaker 8: think anytime you can have a different point of view
Speaker 8: as a player, it definitely helps.
Speaker 1: You are really barreling up. It seems just about everything,
Speaker 1: even loud foul balls, and it took a little while
Speaker 1: this season to get to that point. But are you
Speaker 1: feeling it about as well as you have because it
Speaker 1: looks that way.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm just really confident right now at the plate,
Speaker 8: I'm trying to get my swing off. I think last
Speaker 8: year I was a pretty patient hitter. I got walked
Speaker 8: a lot, and I think, yeah, I didn't get hit
Speaker 8: a lot. But I think for me, it's just knowing
Speaker 8: what I can do and knowing my zones. And I
Speaker 8: think when I get more swings off this year, I'm
Speaker 8: putting more balls in play hard, getting more hits, and I'm
Speaker 8: still getting the walks because I mean that when you
Speaker 8: show you can hit it, they're not gonna try and
Speaker 8: throw it there again. So that's for me, it's just
Speaker 8: getting back in the groove. And I don't think coming
Speaker 8: back from being out for seven eight months, you're not
Speaker 8: really gonna get much better by taking pitches and walking.
Speaker 3: You gotta swing away.
Speaker 8: Everyone talks, you gotta swing your way into the lineup,
Speaker 8: Gotta hit yourself, you gotta keep yourself in the lineup.
Speaker 3: So I think for me, it's just getting as many
Speaker 3: swings as possible.
Speaker 8: I know when I came back in the beginning of
Speaker 8: the spring, I told Jamo and coach Couzy coach Mne,
Speaker 8: I was like, hey, like, I know, I have pretty
Speaker 8: good plate discipline.
Speaker 3: I'm not really trying to work that right now.
Speaker 8: I'm trying to get as many swings in as possible
Speaker 8: before the season starts because I want.
Speaker 3: To be able to be ready for when my time comes.
Speaker 8: And I think that has definitely helped me down this
Speaker 8: stretch for the future and just as we continue to
Speaker 8: go through the season.
Speaker 1: Mason Moore said that when he was young, he might
Speaker 1: not have an He's young still, but he might not
Speaker 1: have foreseen this kind of start for you guys. He
Speaker 1: said today, this doesn't surprise me use the same way.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think coming in last year, I didn't really
Speaker 8: know what to expects my first year in the SEC.
Speaker 3: I came from a small conference.
Speaker 8: Obviously, all the guys here look like they're the best
Speaker 8: players I've seen in a long time, so I didn't
Speaker 8: know what to expect. But when we went through the season,
Speaker 8: I was like, man, we can compete with anyone. I
Speaker 8: think our style of baseball, how we play. Everyone says
Speaker 8: we don't have much power, but I think we've out
Speaker 8: homeered every team we've played so far in our series.
Speaker 8: But we also have the bund We also have the hit.
Speaker 8: We do a great job at two strikes. And I
Speaker 8: think we were talking yesterday and I was like, we're
Speaker 8: just a team. We do it for each other, we
Speaker 8: do it to get on base. We trust the guy
Speaker 8: behind us, We steal bases, we find a way to
Speaker 8: get things done. Whereas other teams maybe stationed the station
Speaker 8: might take them four hits to score.
Speaker 3: That's not us and that's not our way to baseball.
Speaker 8: And I think even showed Friday night, they bunted against
Speaker 8: us two times in a row and scored a run
Speaker 8: and they were going crazy, And it's like people like
Speaker 8: to criticize our way of baseball, but then they start
Speaker 8: implementing it.
Speaker 3: It's pretty good idea, yeah exactly.
Speaker 8: So I think for us, it's just continuing to stick
Speaker 8: with that and just being how we are.
Speaker 3: And I think this year, when I came in, I.
Speaker 8: Was that we had a lot of returners coming back,
Speaker 8: We had a lot of good arms coming back, and
Speaker 8: I thought this was how our season was gonna be going.
Speaker 8: I thought we were going to be a really good
Speaker 8: team again. And I think when you believe that, it
Speaker 8: really helps to actually go out there and get it done.
Speaker 1: We're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: More to come here on six thirty w LAP. It's
Speaker 1: Dick Gabriel. Welcome back to the Best of the Big
Speaker 1: Blue Insider. Two of my conversation with Ryan Walt Schmid,
Speaker 1: wild kat leftfielder who has worked his way all the
Speaker 1: way back from a serious knee injury in the summertime,
Speaker 1: and he's tearing it up right now. He's talking to Darren.
Speaker 1: He brought up a great point about this ballpark and
Speaker 1: your ball club. Two other teams come in here and
Speaker 1: look around, they wonder about how it'll carry if they
Speaker 1: can get out. You guys know how to swing in
Speaker 1: this ballpark. You know you're not gonna be swinging from
Speaker 1: the heels. That ain't gonna work. And the way you
Speaker 1: guys do it is the way that works. Obviously, that's
Speaker 1: a huge advantage, isn't it.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent?
Speaker 8: I think a lot of swings for other teams are
Speaker 8: tailored for the long ball. They have shorter parks, they
Speaker 8: have upwards swings. They're trying to get the ball in
Speaker 8: their and hit home runs. For us, we come out
Speaker 8: here every day for VP and our swings are tailored,
Speaker 8: hit line drives, and hit the ball hard, hit it low,
Speaker 8: which when you hit it hard like that, you're gonna
Speaker 8: get hits here, you're gonna get hits at the other
Speaker 8: field always plays for how we swing. The other teams
Speaker 8: are park might not play for them, and it's not
Speaker 8: anything we did to them. It's just they're trying to
Speaker 8: hit home runs in a place where it's not gonna
Speaker 8: play to your advantage. But I think our swings and
Speaker 8: how we hit the ball it'll play anywhere. And I
Speaker 8: think that's a big part of it is as long
Speaker 8: as we stick with that and we don't try and
Speaker 8: get away from what we're doing, we'll always have success.
Speaker 1: It translates throughout the league. You guys played down in Texas,
Speaker 1: you hit home runs, you hit doubles. That's gotta be
Speaker 1: kind of a comforting thought. Even if you're behind a
Speaker 1: run or two, you just keep doing what you're doing.
Speaker 8: I think for us, not only can we hit the
Speaker 8: long ball, we also work counts.
Speaker 3: We get pitchers pitch counts up.
Speaker 8: That helps you as a hitter, and the dugout helps
Speaker 8: you as a hitter on deck, you're seeing everything he throws.
Speaker 8: And I think for us, so when you try and
Speaker 8: hit line drives and you stick to your approach the
Speaker 8: entire time, home runs will come by accident. And I
Speaker 8: think that's a big part of our offenses. We just
Speaker 8: try and hit the ball hard, and if you elevated
Speaker 8: and hit a home run, you weren't necessarily trying to
Speaker 8: do that. But when you have teams that just keep
Speaker 8: trying to hit home runs and take some four hits
Speaker 8: to score, it's really hard to come back from the game.
Speaker 8: Like today, As soon as we had that five run lead,
Speaker 8: I was like, man, Mason's throwing sinkers in there. They're
Speaker 8: swinging to hit the ball in the air. I don't
Speaker 8: know how much success they're going to get today.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Mason, You guys, I think clearly, well at
Speaker 1: least seven and zero the best Sunday starter. You've flip
Speaker 1: flopped a little bit on Friday.
Speaker 3: It has been successful.
Speaker 1: Dom comes through the portal and all American. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: mentioned that you thought your pitching would be as good
Speaker 1: or better. Your bullpen has been solid. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: you just look like you got all the elements.
Speaker 8: It takes one hundred percent, and I think that the
Speaker 8: more their success continues to happen, the more confident they're
Speaker 8: going to get, and the more it's just gonna build
Speaker 8: for us. I think we use five arms this weekend
Speaker 8: in total, and that's crazy to think when you have
Speaker 8: people like Hags that still hasn't gotten much work coming
Speaker 8: back from injury buyers, hummele all these guys. Cooper O'Brien
Speaker 8: didn't throw this weekend and he was leading in appearances
Speaker 8: for a while. I just think it's awesome to see
Speaker 8: that our starters can do that and go seven innings.
Speaker 8: Because when you can do that and you have a
Speaker 8: bullpen that'll come in and shut it down, I think
Speaker 8: it's really hard to beat us. And I think it's
Speaker 8: just awesome to see all these guys take that next
Speaker 8: step that I knew they had.
Speaker 3: In them, and it just just.
Speaker 8: Took some confidence and just a little bit of success
Speaker 8: to have them really show it.
Speaker 3: And I think it's awesome for those guys.
Speaker 1: It took the pollsters a little while a little extra
Speaker 1: time to take notice of you, even though you you
Speaker 1: swept a really good Georgia team and now you're finally
Speaker 1: moving up at the polls, but people who wonder still
Speaker 1: what the heck happened with Kennesaw and Nick said, you
Speaker 1: guys just weren't yourselves. But I got to think, in hindsight,
Speaker 1: that's a great lesson.
Speaker 8: Yeah, definitely, I've always believed that you were.
Speaker 3: This is a long haul.
Speaker 8: We're going to play some great teams, and sometimes it's
Speaker 8: good to just get that little fire and you it's
Speaker 8: good to lose a game or two just to just
Speaker 8: to know you're a human and just to know you're
Speaker 8: back down to earth. I mean, some teams that don't
Speaker 8: ever have to go through adversity, when you face it
Speaker 8: later in the season, it takes you down. You're done,
Speaker 8: your season's over. If you have a team that just
Speaker 8: cruises through the entire season and a postseason comes around
Speaker 8: and then you finally face some adversity, it's hard. But
Speaker 8: when you get to see it early and then you
Speaker 8: get to build from it, learn from it.
Speaker 3: I know Coach always talks about.
Speaker 8: Losing and how you learn from it, and I think
Speaker 8: that was a big thing for us.
Speaker 3: We really learned that we needed to be ourselves again
Speaker 3: and not.
Speaker 8: Try and do too much. And also I give credit
Speaker 8: to that team. They played really well that weekend.
Speaker 3: They hit the ball.
Speaker 1: They're shortstop.
Speaker 8: Yeah, they had good defense, good pitching, and they hit
Speaker 8: the ball. I mean it's hard teams we usually manipulated.
Speaker 8: We were saying teams are trying to hit home runs,
Speaker 8: and they really didn't try and do that. They just
Speaker 8: hit line drives and they were getting hits. And sometimes
Speaker 8: you just lose.
Speaker 3: They beat you. But I think it really gave us
Speaker 3: some fire to be better.
Speaker 1: We'll let you go with this. You got a kind
Speaker 1: of an odd week coming up with the game in
Speaker 1: Birmingham and then the Thursday Saturday series. But I got
Speaker 1: to think the closeness to this team, and I've traveled
Speaker 1: with you guys as you know, uh, not an issue
Speaker 1: really and maybe a little more fun.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 8: I definitely think the way our our team has developed
Speaker 8: that dugout atmosphere too.
Speaker 3: Recently loves a dugout. I love it. I mean I'm
Speaker 3: laughing in the outfield sometimes at these guys. I can
Speaker 3: hear it at the play. It's just incredible.
Speaker 8: I think that these the energy that we bring doesn't
Speaker 8: make any away series feel any different thing we're playing
Speaker 8: at home. I think they really get involved, and they
Speaker 8: keep us involved, and it really keeps the players locked.
Speaker 1: In, and that helped make Oxford your ballpark, didn't it
Speaker 1: one hundred percent?
Speaker 8: I mean I think Friday night they said something around
Speaker 8: eight thousand fans, and I really felt like there was
Speaker 8: nobody cheering against us. The way the dugout was talking,
Speaker 8: the way we were playing is like I didn't even
Speaker 8: notice it had eight thousand fans there.
Speaker 3: It really didn't phase us at all.
Speaker 8: And I think that's a huge, huge advantage going into
Speaker 8: some of these parks and some of these places and
Speaker 8: into the postseason, because you're not always going to be
Speaker 8: playing at home. So I think when we can develop
Speaker 8: that feeling of being at home, it's really going to
Speaker 8: help us in the long run.
Speaker 1: We've signed a lot of autographs. I appreciate your time
Speaker 1: and good luck. I know you'll have fun. And congratulations
Speaker 1: on the.
Speaker 3: Way you're hitting the ball, Yes, sir, I appreciate it.
Speaker 8: Hopefully we keep going and keep winning some games and
Speaker 8: I keep hitting them hard.
Speaker 1: That's Ryan Walschmid, and he might be hitting the ball
Speaker 1: better than anybody right now for this Kentucky team. He's
Speaker 1: hitting three ten, but in conference play against the best
Speaker 1: pitchers in America. He's batting three fifty five with six doubles.
Speaker 1: He's got two of his three home runs, not a
Speaker 1: home run hitter, but two of us three against SEC pitching.
Speaker 1: And again, this is a guy who got off to
Speaker 1: the slow start because of injury and now is just
Speaker 1: destroying Southeastern Conference pitching. Everything he hits, it just seems
Speaker 1: as a rocket, even the foul balls coming off his bat.
Speaker 1: He has three three hit games, four two hit games,
Speaker 1: so just piling up base hits in bunches, thirteen steals
Speaker 1: officially caught four times, but down in round Rock. In
Speaker 1: one of those games, he stole third base easily, but
Speaker 1: they called batter interference on Devin Burks at the plate,
Speaker 1: which meant that the base runner stealing during that play
Speaker 1: is also out. Devin struck out and they called Waldi
Speaker 1: out at third base, so they really took a stolen
Speaker 1: base away from him. That's all for now, Back tomorrow night,
Speaker 1: live on tape in color. You're on the Big Moon, Sider.
Speaker 1: That's it. Good night from the garage in Lexington and
Speaker 1: so SA