Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. Dick Abriel with you
Speaker 1: on a Tuesday edition of our program, and tonight we're
Speaker 1: going to talk college baseball, football, basketball as usual, also
Speaker 1: some NBA. I know not many of you out there
Speaker 1: are big NBA fans, but my guest, I'm very excited.
Speaker 1: One of my guests tonight is the radio voice of
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks and we had Chuck Cooperstein on the show. Gosh,
Speaker 1: it's been at least at least three or four years,
Speaker 1: and this is before I was doing the show in
Speaker 1: the garage. But I've known Chuck since the early eighties
Speaker 1: when he worked with us on the old Southwest Conference
Speaker 1: radio network. He was a sportscaster on KRLD Radio in Dallas,
Speaker 1: an all news talk station which back then was the
Speaker 1: radio voice of the Dallas Cowboys. The rights have since changed,
Speaker 1: I think a couple of times, but that's what KRLD
Speaker 1: was best known for. And Coop came down from Sportsphone
Speaker 1: in New York City. He's a New York native, and man,
Speaker 1: he's got a great voice, but could talk a mile
Speaker 1: a minute. And some of you may remember this back
Speaker 1: pre internet. Now, if you wanted to get all the scores.
Speaker 1: You could call a number, a nine hundred number, and
Speaker 1: it costs you. And these guys would get on the
Speaker 1: phone and rattle off these scores primarily for betters for gamblers.
Speaker 1: I mean you could barely understand them. They were talking
Speaker 1: so fast, and if you missed your score, you had
Speaker 1: to keep listening for them to go through them all
Speaker 1: over again, costing you more money. Well, Coop was one
Speaker 1: of those guys and landed a job at KLD, and
Speaker 1: we you know, you always need more people. I needed
Speaker 1: studio hosts, and because we broadcast all the games for
Speaker 1: all the teams, so we had to have guys doing halftime,
Speaker 1: in pregame, scoreboard drop ins and things like that all
Speaker 1: the time. And I had a couple of guys, but
Speaker 1: I needed one more. So I reached out to the
Speaker 1: new guy at the radio station and Coop came over,
Speaker 1: and long story short, he went to work for us,
Speaker 1: and we've been buddies ever since. Don't talk a whole lot.
Speaker 1: We keep up on Facebook and things like that. But
Speaker 1: he eventually, gosh, it took almost twenty years of him
Speaker 1: and he did ball games. He did college football. After
Speaker 1: I left, he was doing Southwest Conference football Westwood One Radio.
Speaker 1: He had worked games in rupp Arena, Kentucky games for
Speaker 1: Westwood I was a stats guy and you know, just
Speaker 1: hung in there and did a lot of great, solid work,
Speaker 1: and the next thing you know, the job was open,
Speaker 1: and he landed the Dallas Mavericks radio job in twenty
Speaker 1: oh five and he's been their voice ever since. Won
Speaker 1: an NBA Championship ring calling the Mavericks games. But we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk today about the Luca Donsige trade for Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: one of the greatest players in UK history. But we'll
Speaker 1: also talk sec ball in basketball, but Chuck because he
Speaker 1: is a proud Florida Gator, So that's coming up at
Speaker 1: the bottom of this hour. We will also naturally talk
Speaker 1: college baseball with Darren Headrick, the radio voice of the Wildcats,
Speaker 1: because they're going and I have to admit I was
Speaker 1: convinced when I turned that show on the Selections Show
Speaker 1: yesterday that they were not going to get in. And
Speaker 1: I have a hard time remembering a basketball season that
Speaker 1: was similar. I think you may have to go back
Speaker 1: to Joe Bees last year when the Wildcats kind of
Speaker 1: struggled and they were surprise to get in to the
Speaker 1: NCA Tournament and then pulled off a couple of upsets
Speaker 1: beat a good UNLV team, not one of the great teams,
Speaker 1: but a good one, and a really good University of
Speaker 1: Washington team that had two future NBA players on it,
Speaker 1: including Debtliff Shrimp. So the baseball Cats through strength to schedule,
Speaker 1: thank you see and RPI and all that, it's all
Speaker 1: tied together. They get in and we got a couple
Speaker 1: of comments from Nick Menzioni and his players. Coming up
Speaker 1: in our next segment, wild Cats take on West Virginia
Speaker 1: on Friday at noon. You'll see the game on ESPNU,
Speaker 1: but of course you'll hear it right here on six
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP with Darren Hendrick. Pregame eleven forty five, first pitch,
Speaker 1: probably a minute or two after high noon as the
Speaker 1: Cats take on West Virginia, a team that was here
Speaker 1: two years ago in the regional, not last year, but
Speaker 1: the year before, and a team that plays a very
Speaker 1: similar style to Kentucky. So we hear from the Cats
Speaker 1: coming up shortly now, speaking of West Virginia, saw this
Speaker 1: cross the wire Mary lou Retton, who is a native
Speaker 1: of Fairmont, West Virginia, which happens to be my late
Speaker 1: father's hometown. It's about ten miles south of Morgantown, which
Speaker 1: is where WVU is located. I knew Mary lou Rehtton
Speaker 1: was from Fairmont, and I hate to say this, but
Speaker 1: it's one of those decaying cities where people just keep
Speaker 1: moving away, and when you go there, it really has
Speaker 1: that feel. When my brother and my buddies and I
Speaker 1: go to Saratoga, we drive and a couple of times
Speaker 1: we've taken a really slight detour off the interstate I
Speaker 1: think it's seventy nine and gone into Fairmont. And the
Speaker 1: last time we drove to my grandmother's house and looked
Speaker 1: at it and that thing's falling apart. But anyway, Mary
Speaker 1: lou Retton apparently lives there now and was arrested and
Speaker 1: jailed on a misdemeanor charge of DUI. She was arrested
Speaker 1: in Fairmont back on May seventeenth. The report came out
Speaker 1: a person in a Porsche driving erratically, spelled of alcohol,
Speaker 1: slurred her words, failed to field sobriety test, refused a
Speaker 1: roadside breath test and blood test, and paid a fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred dollars personal recognizance bond. No comment from her attorney.
Speaker 1: She was sixteen years old when she became the first
Speaker 1: American female gymnast to win the all around gold at
Speaker 1: the eighty four LA Olympics. Also won two silvers and
Speaker 1: two bronze medals and really made gymnastics something big in
Speaker 1: the US. But remember this. Back in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: her family disclosed that Retin was recuperating from a rare
Speaker 1: form of pneumonia and she was in intensive care. Doctors
Speaker 1: found her oxygen levels dangerously low. They were thinking about
Speaker 1: putting her on a ventilator. She was getting worse, but
Speaker 1: went on some kind of oxygen treatment. She was in
Speaker 1: a hospital for a weeks, but she improved well enough
Speaker 1: to be sent home. Well, she's in a little bit
Speaker 1: of trouble now, but I was rooted for her, being
Speaker 1: from Fairmount, West Virginia, where I spent parts of several
Speaker 1: summers visiting the grandparents. College Basketball Michigan got some good news.
Speaker 1: I guess it's Yaksel lendeborg As withdrawn from the NBA draft.
Speaker 1: Otaga Away has not done this yet, but this kid has.
Speaker 1: He's going to play for Dusty May and the Wolverines
Speaker 1: next year. That's what he told on three dot com.
Speaker 1: He was ranked a number one player in the transfer portal.
Speaker 1: Remember this is a kid who had a great year
Speaker 1: last year at Alabama Birmingham Defensive Player of the Year
Speaker 1: average nearly eighteen points, eleven and a half rebounds, four assists,
Speaker 1: almost two blocks, and almost two steals per game. That's
Speaker 1: why he was the number one player in the portal.
Speaker 1: The most recent NBA mock draft said he would be
Speaker 1: he would go with the twenty sixth pick, But now
Speaker 1: he's heading for ann Arbor. You gotta think that with
Speaker 1: a kid who transferred in from UCLA, they got one
Speaker 1: from Illinois, they got one from North Carolina. They're gonna
Speaker 1: be probably top five preseason. They also got a couple
Speaker 1: of big time incoming freshmen. Michigan won the Big Ten
Speaker 1: last year beating Wisconsin. Remember that got to the sweet
Speaker 1: sixteen before they lost to Auburn. And they're gonna be really,
Speaker 1: really good if it all falls into place and everybody
Speaker 1: stays healthy this coming year. By the way, I mentioned
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. Remember the trade for Luka Doncic Well, Donsich
Speaker 1: evidently showed up in a photograph from a soccer match
Speaker 1: overseas and I saw the picture and I, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't pay a lot of attention to his physical appearance,
Speaker 1: but even I can tell this guy's in much better shape.
Speaker 1: You know. That was that was the criticism about his fitness. Wait,
Speaker 1: will he stay in shape? Get in shape and stay
Speaker 1: in shape? Will he work with Lebron? Well, he's doing
Speaker 1: something right because his physical condition played a role in
Speaker 1: the MAVs willingness to trade him. But now he's playing
Speaker 1: alongside Lebron and apparently more serious about getting leaner, getting healthier.
Speaker 1: And they're calling it his revenge body. But he was
Speaker 1: at a real Madrid match and somebody wrote, slim Luca
Speaker 1: will have this league shook. If that boy gets in shape,
Speaker 1: the league is in trouble. When we come back to baseball,
Speaker 1: Wildcats about it the hour, Chuck Cooperstein, Dallas Mavericks radio voice,
Speaker 1: around six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: Coming up at the bottom of the hour just a
Speaker 1: few minutes, Chuck Cooperstein, radio voice of the Dallas Mavericks,
Speaker 1: whose roster now includes Anthony Davis, the center point literally
Speaker 1: of Kentucky's twenty twelve INTAA title team Top of the Hour,
Speaker 1: darreon Hedrick Radio, voice of the baseball Wildcats. They opened
Speaker 1: play in the nca Tournament on Friday against West Virginia,
Speaker 1: a game you will hear right here. Nick Benziona the
Speaker 1: players talked earlier today and Nick reiterated everything Kentucky had
Speaker 1: lost from last year's team, everything but the starting catcher
Speaker 1: and at part time starting right fielder. Everybody else went pro.
Speaker 1: And then from the pitching staff they lost their entire
Speaker 1: starting rotation and top two relievers. Everybody went pro or graduated.
Speaker 1: And from the position players, the center field and Nolan
Speaker 1: McCarthy went through the portal, but everybody was gone except
Speaker 1: for two regulars, so they had to rebuild thirty one
Speaker 1: I think it is brand new players and Benjione talked
Speaker 1: about the fact that they kind of had to start
Speaker 1: over and accomplish what they could in a year immediately
Speaker 1: after a trip to the College World Series.
Speaker 2: So you're sitting there going, well, who did we have back?
Speaker 2: We literally had Devin and James back, and every other
Speaker 2: spot was wide open, and there was a lot of
Speaker 2: people that never gave this team a chance to even
Speaker 2: make the postseason. So these guys coming in had a
Speaker 2: decision to make. Am I gonna just do whatever I
Speaker 2: can to win that spot in that role or are
Speaker 2: we going to be a team. And I'm super proud
Speaker 2: of them because look what's happened.
Speaker 3: They've become a team.
Speaker 2: And even to the last day and the last minute,
Speaker 2: there was still some people that did not know or
Speaker 2: believe if we were even worthy or going to make
Speaker 2: the postseason.
Speaker 1: Yep, that's right, and I'm guilty as charged. I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I had my doubts, no doubt about it. I have
Speaker 1: seen Kentucky teams with more wins not get into the tournament,
Speaker 1: including one coach by Nick Benjeone I think three years ago,
Speaker 1: and Minjione has lived through stuff like this before. But
Speaker 1: strength to schedule being a part of that brutal sec
Speaker 1: got the Wildcats through it.
Speaker 2: People asked all the time, like, hey, what's what's Oklahoma
Speaker 2: Texas like in baseball? Like I said, well, let's let's
Speaker 2: review that Texas has been to Omaha more than any
Speaker 2: college baseball program in the entire country. And Oklahoma just
Speaker 2: played for the Baseball National Championship in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: So yeah, a league just got better. So I would
Speaker 2: tell you that I love our slogan on the wall
Speaker 2: out there. It just means more. And that's what the
Speaker 2: league has done, is like we've continued to get better
Speaker 2: and had more teams. And the thing that I'm appreciative
Speaker 2: about is the rest of the country knows and they understand,
Speaker 2: maybe now at a higher level. And when you just
Speaker 2: look at our non conference winning percentage, it was over
Speaker 2: eight forty. I think it was eight forty this year,
Speaker 2: up from a year ago.
Speaker 3: So when you just.
Speaker 2: Look at what our league has been able to do,
Speaker 2: not only against each other, I mean it is a dogfight.
Speaker 2: And I would tell you I think in our league,
Speaker 2: correct if I'm wrong, but I think an SEC team
Speaker 2: has played for a national championship fifteen of the sixteen years.
Speaker 3: Let that sink in.
Speaker 2: That basically says like who's it going to be this year?
Speaker 1: The fact that Kentucky is going down for the third
Speaker 1: consecutive year and this year, like the first couple, you
Speaker 1: had a great foundation when they went through a regional,
Speaker 1: hosted a regional two years ago. Most of that team
Speaker 1: came back. That was the core of the team that
Speaker 1: went to the College World Series. One of those guys
Speaker 1: as Nicks, that were gone, but now they're going a
Speaker 1: third straight time.
Speaker 2: I've been in this situation before as a head coach,
Speaker 2: and when we lost that many people, we finished dead
Speaker 2: last in the SEC, dead last. And I'm just proud
Speaker 2: of this group of guys in the staff because we
Speaker 2: are now five wins away from going back to the
Speaker 2: College World Series.
Speaker 1: I do remember that team. Oh that was a tough
Speaker 1: season to cover a lot of young guys that just
Speaker 1: didn't know how to win, didn't know what they were doing.
Speaker 1: There were some young guys on this team, but some
Speaker 1: veterans as well, including Patrick Herrera who transferred in from
Speaker 1: Northwestern at the end of GOT the twenty three season
Speaker 1: twenty two season, and he said, to what happened in
Speaker 1: Nashville when they were swept by Vandy and then losing
Speaker 1: to Oklahoma, they just had to put that behind him.
Speaker 4: It is what it is. You gotta look past to
Speaker 4: move on. So we just have gone one hundred percent
Speaker 4: in these practices. You know, would rather err on the
Speaker 4: side of giving it or all and not making it
Speaker 4: than worrying about what's going to happen and you know,
Speaker 4: going half hearted. So just giving it all in practice
Speaker 4: and just ain't out with coaches Cumans just bouncing back
Speaker 4: like that.
Speaker 1: Veteran lefty reliever Evan Byers has been a part of
Speaker 1: all three of these nca tournament teams. Uh And he
Speaker 1: said yeah, he admitted that seeing that name flashed on
Speaker 1: the TV screen was a bit of a relief.
Speaker 5: Yeah, definitely a relief, a lot of excitement in the room.
Speaker 5: You know, in nearest past, we knew we were going
Speaker 5: to be in the tournament. We knew we're gonna be
Speaker 5: a top you know, eight seed last year, hosting a
Speaker 5: regional of the year before that. So the uncertainty in
Speaker 5: the room kind of calls for more excitements.
Speaker 3: That was cool to see.
Speaker 5: Go back to see the video and everybody's reactions. It
Speaker 5: was a lot of fun and it was funny to
Speaker 5: watch them guys, you know react.
Speaker 1: So, not only are the Wildcats in there are a
Speaker 1: three seed taken on West Virginia a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: more than a couple of weeks ago. They were projected
Speaker 1: to be a three seed, didn't They sweep Oklahoma bumped
Speaker 1: up to a potential two seed. Fortunately they're not going
Speaker 1: to Oregon, which was a projection a while back. They
Speaker 1: will go to Clemson and it begins on Friday one
Speaker 1: of the UK note a big paid a for Kentucky
Speaker 1: offensive line coach Eric Wolford. UK has given him a
Speaker 1: contract extension plus a one hundred thousand dollars rays for
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, So now his contract is worth nine
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars. That's the going rate for veteran coaches. However,
Speaker 1: this is a guy the coaches a position that's been
Speaker 1: under a lot of fire, a lot of scrutiny, and
Speaker 1: will have to come through this year. If Kentucky's going
Speaker 1: to do anything to bounce back from a disappointing season
Speaker 1: last year, that offensive line has got to get better.
Speaker 1: Chuck Cooperstein next in six thirty WLAP welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Big Blue and Cider and joining us now in
Speaker 1: our celebrity highline is a guy I met when he
Speaker 1: walked through our studio doors in Dallas at the Southwest
Speaker 1: Conference Network GOSH back in the early eighties, and since then,
Speaker 1: Chuck Cooperstein has done an awful lot, but more than anything,
Speaker 1: he is own as the radio voice of the Dallas
Speaker 1: Mavericks and a buddy since like I said, Gosh, just coop.
Speaker 1: It just seems like it was yesterday, doesn't it.
Speaker 3: Nineteen eighty four, November November of nineteen eighty four. I
Speaker 3: got the call.
Speaker 1: Yeah, amazing.
Speaker 3: Can we tell Can we tell more about the first
Speaker 3: the first day though?
Speaker 1: Sure ahead.
Speaker 3: So the first you called me earlier in the week
Speaker 3: and said, no, come on in. It happened to be
Speaker 3: a really big weekend, like TCU was playing Texas and
Speaker 3: that was the one year. That was the year that
Speaker 3: Whacker had the team really going, and you know that
Speaker 3: one was number ten, one was number twelve, and you
Speaker 3: wanted me to do the studio shows for all the
Speaker 3: you know, for all the for all the games that day.
Speaker 3: They're like three or four games that day and we
Speaker 3: get to or at least I thought I was training.
Speaker 3: Let's put it this way. I thought I was training you.
Speaker 3: You said, at about ten fifty you ready to go.
Speaker 3: I didn't. I didn't know the format, I didn't know anything.
Speaker 3: So so Dick, so Dick Gabriel unnamed, unnamed went in
Speaker 3: and did the pregame show that day. Until I can
Speaker 3: pick her out what was actually going on?
Speaker 1: Oh man, uh yeah, but it all worked out.
Speaker 3: It all worked out somehow. I survived well.
Speaker 1: And what people need to understand is back then that
Speaker 1: league was the only league that owned the rights to
Speaker 1: all the games, all the networks, and so we talked
Speaker 1: to all nine networks, sometimes as many as six at once.
Speaker 1: It was really exciting. But uh, you had come down
Speaker 1: from New York to work for the great Carol d
Speaker 1: Radio and since then you called TCU Texas, SMU Basketball
Speaker 1: Football Westwood One. Uh, what a great career. But now
Speaker 1: the MAVs, you've got an NBA championship ring.
Speaker 3: I do, but long time, long time ago, but I
Speaker 3: got one.
Speaker 1: It was yeah, and uh, I still think you should
Speaker 1: have had another one, but let's not talk about that.
Speaker 1: I know, but man, being part of a franchise this
Speaker 1: year has been at really the epicenter of two huge stories.
Speaker 1: Trading away to the superstar and then snagging, against visually
Speaker 1: all odds, the number one draft pick in a lottery.
Speaker 1: What has that been like, Coop, To be a part
Speaker 1: of an operation.
Speaker 3: Like that, It's been the wildest roller coaster you could
Speaker 3: ever imagine. Look, nobody has ever experienced this, Oh, because
Speaker 3: no twenty five year old superstar, five time first team
Speaker 3: All NBA player has ever been traded in his prime.
Speaker 3: So the backlash you know from the fan base was
Speaker 3: just vociferous. Whatever you might think was a really bad
Speaker 3: day after Kentucky basketball loss, multiply that by about five million.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: And that's and that's what you have here, and really
Speaker 3: what you've had here on a pretty much pretty much
Speaker 3: daily basis since February second, when the trade went down.
Speaker 3: You know, Cooper Flagg being you know, the resumptive number one.
Speaker 3: And again there were a bunch of people who are
Speaker 3: still convinced, you know, or won't believe it until Adam
Speaker 3: Silver walks in that microphone and announces that Cooper Flag
Speaker 3: is going to play for the Mavericks on June twenty fifth.
Speaker 3: I mean that only it only partially assuages the issue,
Speaker 3: you know, because this team was you know, the franchise
Speaker 3: as we know it was built on dirt, nabiski and
Speaker 3: twenty one years and never leaving, you know, his statue
Speaker 3: with what loyalty never fades. And then Luca was you know,
Speaker 3: the heir apparent at the one cross over year before
Speaker 3: he took over and did things then no Mavericks player
Speaker 3: had ever done. And that was ripped away from the
Speaker 3: fan base and fortunately now they have the chance to
Speaker 3: fall in love with another player. Sure, but at the
Speaker 3: same time, you know, given how everything is played out
Speaker 3: in the NBA playoffs this year, you know, the Mavericks
Speaker 3: believe going into the season that they had a team
Speaker 3: that was capable of winning the championship, that they just
Speaker 3: needed to make some tweaks around the edges. And they
Speaker 3: did that. And you know, until Luca got hurt on Christmas.
Speaker 3: They were nineteen and ten, they were just fine. And
Speaker 3: then he got hurt, and then he got traded, and
Speaker 3: then everybody got hurt. It all fell apart down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but hurt. And here in the Big Boo Nation,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis comes over. And by the way, Chuck, we're
Speaker 1: going to get to this a little later. Chuck is
Speaker 1: a proud, proud Florida Gator, and he has worked several
Speaker 1: games in Rupp Arena for Westwood One Radio, so he
Speaker 1: knows college sports as well. But I think people here
Speaker 1: were a little stunned, not just at the trade, Chuck,
Speaker 1: but that people who follow the NBA were like, only
Speaker 1: for Anthony Davis know there was more than that, but around.
Speaker 3: Here there wasn't. It wasn't much. It wasn't much more
Speaker 3: than that.
Speaker 1: But around here that name has so much cachet, and
Speaker 1: yet they probably didn't understand what the MAVs were giving up.
Speaker 1: And plus Ad has been hurt a lot. But I
Speaker 1: guess you can understand why people around here are still
Speaker 1: protective of Anthony.
Speaker 3: Davis absolutely the way that Mavericks fans are protective of
Speaker 3: Luca exactly. It really runs the way it Listen, Anthony
Speaker 3: Davis top seventy five all time players going to the
Speaker 3: Hall of Fame. I mean, they didn't get nothing for him,
Speaker 3: but did they get but did they get the best
Speaker 3: player in the trade? That can that can be argued,
Speaker 3: That can be argued, you know, and especially you know,
Speaker 3: the biggest issue that people have with Davis is that
Speaker 3: he's never healthy. Now granted, you know the last couple
Speaker 3: of years he was more healthy, but he's never really
Speaker 3: been a particularly healthy player. And he's, uh, you know
Speaker 3: what he's going to be what thirty three next year?
Speaker 3: You know, he played what fifty eight games this year?
Speaker 3: I mean, he has a hard time playing sixty games.
Speaker 3: And if you know, if he's not going to be around,
Speaker 3: I mean, even Luca, who generally misses somewhere between twelve
Speaker 3: to fifteen games a year prior to this year. He's
Speaker 3: playing more games, he's more he's been more impactful now again.
Speaker 3: You know, Nico Harrison will tell you if you watch
Speaker 3: that game we played against the Rockets back in mid February,
Speaker 3: the first game after the trade, Anthony Davis was unbelievable.
Speaker 3: That's one of the greatest has of basketball I've ever seen.
Speaker 3: I mean, seriously, it was. It was unbelievable. But he
Speaker 3: got hurt. He got hurt in the third quarter and
Speaker 3: missed the next twenty games, you know, and then he
Speaker 3: came back and he had some really good games after that,
Speaker 3: but he was hurt. I mean, he understands the pressure
Speaker 3: that comes with this trade that he's got to be
Speaker 3: able to perform. But the interesting part about the whole trade,
Speaker 3: Dick was, you know, the Mavericks team this year was
Speaker 3: built around Luca. They got played. They got Klay Thompson,
Speaker 3: specifically because against Boston in the finals last year, the
Speaker 3: Haafricks couldn't score one hundred points in any of those games.
Speaker 3: They needed they needed more shooting. Klay Thompson would give
Speaker 3: them shooting. And on the other side, the Lakers were
Speaker 3: built around Anthony Davis and so so now they these
Speaker 3: guys switched teams and they're in really bad situations because
Speaker 3: they're not in situations that enhance what they do. So
Speaker 3: in a lot of ways, it was a lose lose,
Speaker 3: although in fairness, now you know Luca when he got
Speaker 3: there and you know, finally got healthy. I mean, the
Speaker 3: Lakers did finish third in the West, and the West
Speaker 3: is really good, so and they just did not play
Speaker 3: well in the Minnesota Series and wound up in a
Speaker 3: really bad matchup for them, which the playoffs always exposed.
Speaker 3: You know, if they if they had Anthony Davis in
Speaker 3: that series trying to match up with Gobaron Randall and
Speaker 3: those guys, maybe they're maybe they're better off. Maybe they're
Speaker 3: better off doing it that way. I mean, who knows.
Speaker 3: But that that's the interesting thing about it is that
Speaker 3: now both of them have so much to prove going
Speaker 3: into next season to be able to justify the trade.
Speaker 1: Talking to Chuck Cooperstein radio voice of the Dallas Mavericks,
Speaker 1: and as I mentioned earlier, has done a lot of
Speaker 1: college sports as well. We'll get to that in just
Speaker 1: a moment. Despite like I said, almost I think the
Speaker 1: odds are like one point eight percent that the MAVs
Speaker 1: get the number one draft pick. And again, when I
Speaker 1: lived in Dallas, I was a Maverick season ticket older,
Speaker 1: still a fan, but couldn't believe in myself and immediately
Speaker 1: and talking heads have to fill airwaves and the internet's
Speaker 1: bottomless pit that we have to fill. So now comes
Speaker 1: to the speculation that the MAVs trade to pick and
Speaker 1: there's only one guy you would even think about, I
Speaker 1: think trading for. And that's the honest But that's been
Speaker 1: put to rest. Right, it's going to be Cooper Flag.
Speaker 3: Right as far as I know, that's what That's what
Speaker 3: I keep hearing, and I believe it has to be.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know it's going to be. It's going
Speaker 3: to be an interesting experiment because, let's face it. You
Speaker 3: know Nico Harrison when he made the trade and immediately said, look,
Speaker 3: you know our window is three to four years. Well,
Speaker 3: you know, Kyrie Irving got hurt a month after the
Speaker 3: trade and he won't be back probably until late January
Speaker 3: or February, you know, so you know what are and
Speaker 3: then he really won't be at his best until the
Speaker 3: following years. So you've already lost the year there, but
Speaker 3: they're still there. And a but at the same time,
Speaker 3: you now have this this uber talent who's not even
Speaker 3: nineteen years old yet, which is just absolutely astonishing, and
Speaker 3: you're you're working on these parallel paths. Now, how do
Speaker 3: you how do you build your team? Do you build
Speaker 3: it for the future and do you build it around
Speaker 3: Cooper Flag or are you doing it to try to
Speaker 3: win in the short term? And especially when the general
Speaker 3: manager has said that he doesn't figure that he's necessarily
Speaker 3: long you know for the Mavericks, wants his contract expirers.
Speaker 3: So it's it's a really fascinating conundrum that they find
Speaker 3: themselves in, you know, from a team building standpoint, and
Speaker 3: then from a coaching standpoint, how Jason Kidd and his
Speaker 3: staff you know, work Flag into the mix where they're
Speaker 3: a little top heavy at the four and certainly at
Speaker 3: the moment anyway, not nearly strong enough at the point
Speaker 3: guard spot.
Speaker 1: Chuck Cooperstein, my Guess radio voice of the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: and a Florida Gator. We'll talk college sports on the
Speaker 1: other side of the break here on six thirty WLAP
Speaker 1: Welcome back. We're talking with Chuck Cooperstein, longtime friend and
Speaker 1: the radio voice of the Dallas Mavericks and an extraordinarily
Speaker 1: proud Florida Gator, a New Yorker who made his way
Speaker 1: to Gainesville. We've talked about that in the past, Chuck.
Speaker 1: But how happy were you? I mean, were you over
Speaker 1: the moon you had to be when your Gators jumped
Speaker 1: up and won the NCAA title.
Speaker 3: I was in the arena, man, it was the greatest good.
Speaker 3: It was. It was absolutely phenomenal. I missed the semi
Speaker 3: finals because the Mavericks were in Los Angeles playing the
Speaker 3: Clippers that night, but was but was watching, you know,
Speaker 3: in the in the dining room, you know, before we
Speaker 3: go down and do all the pre games. The time
Speaker 3: difference made it all work. Although that the end of
Speaker 3: the game took so freaking long. I was wondering, you know,
Speaker 3: I really going to be able to see this. But
Speaker 3: it was. It was great. It was you know, they
Speaker 3: were you could tell early in the season they were
Speaker 3: really good. But once they got into conference play and
Speaker 3: even though they lost to Kentucky, you know, to begin
Speaker 3: conference play in what was you know, certainly one of
Speaker 3: the top two or three games in the SEC the
Speaker 3: entire year. I mean, it was just an amazing game.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 3: That team was really good. H and Todd Golden had
Speaker 3: that thing figured out, you know, pretty quickly about who
Speaker 3: who could and who couldn't, and he wrote it. And
Speaker 3: you know, as we always see in the NCAAs, you know,
Speaker 3: there's always someone who breaks out and someone who really
Speaker 3: you know, makes that name for himself. And Walter Clayton
Speaker 3: clearly did that. Uh. I mean he was incredible looks
Speaker 3: even in the even in the title game where he
Speaker 3: had nothing going for the first thirty minutes of that game,
Speaker 3: he found a way to get it going when they
Speaker 3: when they needed him and obviously made the biggest defensive
Speaker 3: play of all Oh man, he what.
Speaker 1: A play and at one point played for Patino at Iona.
Speaker 1: What a great.
Speaker 3: Backstory, you know, fantastic and you know, and really was
Speaker 3: a was a high quality football prospect, that's right, much
Speaker 3: much more so even than a basketball prospect. And the
Speaker 3: only reason that he didn't follow Patino to Saint John's
Speaker 3: was that he has family in Florida and he in
Speaker 3: fact that his girlfriend that believe was was pregnant at
Speaker 3: the time, and I think they've had the child since then,
Speaker 3: and he wanted to be near his family. That's the
Speaker 3: old thing. He didn't go to Saint John's excellent.
Speaker 1: That's a great backstory.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 1: And fortunately for you as well as the hiring, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I've to admit I didn't know much about him when
Speaker 1: Florida hired him. But some of the heads that I follow,
Speaker 1: uh were impressed by him. Did you know much about
Speaker 1: him from afar or maybe you've got networking contacts.
Speaker 3: No, I didn't know much about him. I remember watching
Speaker 3: them play Notre Dame in the NCAA's and and being
Speaker 3: what a what a terrific game that was? And you know,
Speaker 3: San Francisco didn't win that game, but you could you
Speaker 3: could see there was an there was an NBA influence
Speaker 3: to what he does and how he plays. And uh
Speaker 3: and I think kids, you know, kids want to play
Speaker 3: in the NBA, right, They want the best chance to
Speaker 3: play in the NBA, So you might as well go
Speaker 3: play an NBA style. Uh. And And in fact, in
Speaker 3: many ways you know he's he was ahead of the
Speaker 3: curve as far as you know, not just shooting a
Speaker 3: whole bunch of threes and whatever. You know, the three
Speaker 3: true outcomes of basketball. But he loves side. He I mean,
Speaker 3: you mean look at I mean, look at that team.
Speaker 3: I mean you look at you know, Thomas Hawk and
Speaker 3: look at content and look at the hand hand glotting,
Speaker 3: and that they got the seven nine Canadian kids. You
Speaker 3: know who sat out last year, you know Olivier Leo.
Speaker 3: You know who's who I guess is going to be,
Speaker 3: you know, attempting to play this year and get himself
Speaker 3: into the rotation. And and size was so important to
Speaker 3: Florida's success. Had a really hard time matching up with
Speaker 3: them because they would just they would just dominate the
Speaker 3: boards and you know, get offensive rebounds, get extra opportunities, kickouts,
Speaker 3: three pointers, that kind of thing. But it seemed like
Speaker 3: in a lot of ways he was ahead of the
Speaker 3: curve as far as you know, that type of recruiting.
Speaker 3: But at the same time also knowing that you know,
Speaker 3: you've got to be able, you know, to shoot a
Speaker 3: certain number of threes. Now, last year he had a
Speaker 3: team that was a terrible three point shooting team, and
Speaker 3: they you know, sometimes you wonder and this is not
Speaker 3: just with him, but this is with everybody. Like on
Speaker 3: nights when you don't have it on nights, when you're
Speaker 3: not making threes. I mean, I understand the shooter mentalities
Speaker 3: that the next one's going to go in, but at
Speaker 3: times like the coach has got to say, fellas, we've
Speaker 3: got to find a different way to score. And I
Speaker 3: think Todd last year probably did not do that enough
Speaker 3: with his team. And I think this year, and especially
Speaker 3: with Clayton and his ability not just to shoot, but
Speaker 3: he's you know, able to drive it, get into the
Speaker 3: paint and make things happen, they were much much more
Speaker 3: balanced in that way. And I don't think he's, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, he's he did a really really good job
Speaker 3: with that team, and obviously that team believed in him
Speaker 3: because I mean, how many times did they have to
Speaker 3: play from behind, especially in the NCAA tournament, how many
Speaker 3: times they had to play from behind against really good
Speaker 3: teams and they were able to rally to win. Now,
Speaker 3: you know, he's he's lost a couple of coaches to
Speaker 3: head coaching jobs, has to replace some staff and we'll
Speaker 3: see how that goes going forward.
Speaker 1: Chuck Cooperstein, I guess radio voice of the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: and a Florida Gator. Your team also lost a kid
Speaker 1: at the University of Kentucky and Mark Pope.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, we could talk about the portal all night.
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, you got a talented kid,
Speaker 1: I find an interesting job. You got a kid who
Speaker 1: came in from Princeton and another kid from was it Ohio?
Speaker 3: You yes? Sometime?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know, not not plucking kids from
Speaker 1: you know, the so called college powerhouses, but kids who
Speaker 1: clearly fit his style. I think that's fast.
Speaker 3: But he well he did get Boogie Flann too. That helps.
Speaker 3: But but but I think I think you see that throughout, uh,
Speaker 3: throughout the portal and throughout you know, the the early spring.
Speaker 3: It's not necessarily you know poaching, uh poaching you know,
Speaker 3: big to big, you know, power forward to power forward.
Speaker 3: I mean, look at look at the kid, the Landenborg. Uh,
Speaker 3: you know, from U A. B. To Michigan. You know
Speaker 3: a lot of people thought was gonna go into the draft,
Speaker 3: and he just declared that, you know, he's gonna he's
Speaker 3: gonna go to Michigan and play next year, which makes
Speaker 3: them really good because because Dusty, because Dusty May has
Speaker 3: really used the portal well, uh to to keep that
Speaker 3: team up. Uh. So I mean, well, I think what
Speaker 3: it goes to show is that, you know, there are
Speaker 3: a lot of really good players. But at the same time,
Speaker 3: it's it's kind of a shame that the you know,
Speaker 3: the mid majors are are sort of being used as
Speaker 3: a as a proving ground for the for the hie
Speaker 3: majors to see, you know, do we want to bring
Speaker 3: this guy in or not? Because as I think, you know,
Speaker 3: Mark Pope's done it. Uh, I think, uh, you know,
Speaker 3: Golden's done. I think generally speaking, the philosophy in college
Speaker 3: basketball now, with very few exceptions, is to get old
Speaker 3: and staled.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, Well, it pays off in so many ways,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know it's paying off. It paid off
Speaker 1: for the Gators with the national title, National basketball title
Speaker 1: a few minutes left with Chuck Cooperstein let us talk football.
Speaker 1: Billy Napier, by all accounts, was a good hire. But
Speaker 1: I know Gator fans are still a little bit restless.
Speaker 1: How do you feel right now because back when you
Speaker 1: were in school, losing to Kentucky wasn't even a consideration,
Speaker 1: was it?
Speaker 3: And now they before well, it actually was. Because my
Speaker 3: freshman year was the Kentucky ten and ten and one
Speaker 3: season seventy seven when when when Art's still and Derrek
Speaker 3: Ramsey was there that old I am that all, yeah,
Speaker 3: that was that was my freshman year. Now we played
Speaker 3: pretty good that day. We lost fourteen to seven. But
Speaker 3: of course Florida, the Florida that year had ten players
Speaker 3: drafted into the NFL Draft, more than any other school.
Speaker 3: They went six to four and one, and really that's
Speaker 3: why Doug Dickey got fired the following year, even though
Speaker 3: he did a better job coaching a four and seventeen
Speaker 3: than he did a sixty four and one team. But
Speaker 3: after that, yes, it took a long time for Kentucky
Speaker 3: to beat Florida. But you know, I think Kentucky is
Speaker 3: Kentucky's kind of over the last years anyway, has really
Speaker 3: figured some things that they've been far more physical. I mean,
Speaker 3: and even there were, you know, several games that they
Speaker 3: lost where it's like, at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: how did they lose that game? Had it or how
Speaker 3: did Florida win that game? I think it was more
Speaker 3: of how Kentucky lost the game. I mean, so it
Speaker 3: had been because because Mark Stewkes does coach a really
Speaker 3: physical style football. But I think Billy Billy was just
Speaker 3: about done. I was in Gains both for the A
Speaker 3: and M game last September, and that was just disastrous.
Speaker 3: You know, on the heels of the of the Miami game.
Speaker 3: It was the Miami game all over again, except A
Speaker 3: and M wasn't nearly as talented and the game was
Speaker 3: basically over at halftime. And uh, you know, to his credit, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, and again to their players credit, Uh, they
Speaker 3: they hung they hung in there. They played a really
Speaker 3: good game against UCF, won that game, played a really
Speaker 3: good game against Tennessee. They should have won that game,
Speaker 3: absolutely should have won that game, wound up losing it overtime.
Speaker 3: And then listen, they had Georgia on the ropes. If
Speaker 3: if DJ Lagway doesn't get hurt, they're gonna be Georgia
Speaker 3: that day, because Georgia was not interested in playing. And
Speaker 3: and you know, now, as it turned out, Georgia had
Speaker 3: a lot of games this year where they they probably
Speaker 3: were not interested in playing for whatever reason. Yes, yes,
Speaker 3: in fact, that was that was the day of the
Speaker 3: A and M game in games Goal, so I watched
Speaker 3: most of that game. And yes, Rock Bander, if Rock
Speaker 3: Vandergrift could have completed a pass, maybe maybe Kentucky wants
Speaker 3: up winning the game. But but you know, the November
Speaker 3: was really good. It was a really good finish to
Speaker 3: the year. Uh, the Lagway didn't do much in the
Speaker 3: spring because of his shoulder, but he's gonna be fine. Uh,
Speaker 3: you know, he really from again. All indications is recruited well,
Speaker 3: he's done well in the portal, so you know, the
Speaker 3: expectations are high. But at the same time, the schedule
Speaker 3: was really hard. It's you know, pretty much the reverse
Speaker 3: of what they had last year. But you know that
Speaker 3: means you're you know, you're still having to play. You know,
Speaker 3: at least you get Tennessee at home, you get Texas
Speaker 3: at home, and hopefully that that makes a difference.
Speaker 1: You know, I actually covered a couple of Kentucky wins
Speaker 1: in games but which I didn't know would be possible
Speaker 1: as a sidelines reporter. But I can also tell you, brother,
Speaker 1: I spent some of the longest days of my career
Speaker 1: working games down there in the heat with Florida just
Speaker 1: absolutely trashing Kentucky, mostly with Spurrier there. So you know
Speaker 1: how it goes up and down in the SEC. But
Speaker 1: next time we talk, we'll talk about the changes in
Speaker 1: the conference and in college ball, but we're out of time.
Speaker 1: I do appreciate talking with you. I'd love listening to
Speaker 1: you on serious XM radio, and I'm rooting for the MAVs,
Speaker 1: my brother.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. Thanks, Dick, have a good one you too, man.
Speaker 1: That takes me back to those early days in Dallas,
Speaker 1: and I do remember that now that he mentions it
Speaker 1: that I had to jump in. I was the executive producer,
Speaker 1: but I jumped in and did a segment there in
Speaker 1: the studio, just until we could get Chuck settled. But
Speaker 1: I got to tell you, you know, it was great.
Speaker 1: I got to hear in Montcarel. Dianna thought Hey, that's
Speaker 1: a guy I could use, and gave him a call.
Speaker 1: He came over and next thing you know, he was
Speaker 1: one of our studio anchors. And not long after I
Speaker 1: left Dallas, he really began to make his climbing and
Speaker 1: five became the radio voice of the Dallas Mavericks. Did
Speaker 1: a lot of other stuff, but that's how he's best
Speaker 1: known now. I re Number two is up next with
Speaker 1: Darren Hedrick, and we'll talk about the SEC Commissioner taking
Speaker 1: up again for SEC football, which you would expect him
Speaker 1: to do and how Kentucky figured in to a little
Speaker 1: bit of a controversy last year when it came to
Speaker 1: the college football playoff. That's next. You're on six thirty
Speaker 1: of a do you like to welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Big Blue and Sider joining us now on the Celebrity Hotline.
Speaker 1: He was in the garage last week with the rest
Speaker 1: of the Chain gang, but Darren Headrick, the radio voice
Speaker 1: of the baseball Wildcats, is with us. And I gotta admit, Darren,
Speaker 1: that as optimistic as we tried to be when you
Speaker 1: and the other guys were in the garage as the
Speaker 1: selection show unfolded, brother, I thought, well, that's it, you know.
Speaker 1: And they were down to like the last two possible
Speaker 1: regionals and they got in. And I talked to Patrick
Speaker 1: Herrera before the press conference earlier this morning. He said, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: they made it tough on us. We had to wait.
Speaker 1: But you were as optimistic as anybody. And of course
Speaker 1: you see every game virtually, and so you were right
Speaker 1: in the middle of that sec action. Is that what
Speaker 1: kept you positive? Seeing how tough that league is day
Speaker 1: in and day out.
Speaker 6: To be honest, it really was just knowing how good
Speaker 6: the league is And you know, one of the points
Speaker 6: that I don't think people have talked about enough with
Speaker 6: this dick is Kentucky saw Oklahoma and Texas added to
Speaker 6: the league this year, which did not do any favorite
Speaker 6: for anybody. It just made the league deeper and it
Speaker 6: made it better. And Kentucky faced both and went four
Speaker 6: and two in the regular season against them. And Kentucky
Speaker 6: did not get the benefit of playing Missouri when they
Speaker 6: had one of their worst seasons ever, So you know,
Speaker 6: I felt like that helped Kentucky ass. I think going
Speaker 6: on the road and beating Tennessee and Knoxville wait a
Speaker 6: lot towards helping their resume. I think having a win
Speaker 6: over Louisville and Texas as well. And the biggest thing
Speaker 6: for me though, is Kentucky passes the eye test. They
Speaker 6: compete so hard and they play so close with these teams,
Speaker 6: and it's like coach Menngiona has talked about, they can
Speaker 6: beat anybody on any given day, but with the margin
Speaker 6: of era, they can also lose some of those games.
Speaker 6: And we saw that plenty of one run defeeds should
Speaker 6: have won the series at Vanderbilt. But you credit the
Speaker 6: number one overall seed for hitting the walk off home
Speaker 6: runs to earn the sweep. So no, I think this
Speaker 6: team deserved it. And even though the trends were going
Speaker 6: the wrong way Sunday night, from a lot of the
Speaker 6: experts and publications, I thought Kentucky deserved being in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know that. You make a good case
Speaker 1: for that. And again, having seen all the home games
Speaker 1: and most of the road games, I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I just wondered, as you did, and well, the text
Speaker 1: chain was popping when those underdogs kept jumping up and
Speaker 1: winning their conference tournaments. Bubble teams kept moving in, and
Speaker 1: you thought they might elbow Kentucky to the sideline. But
Speaker 1: I was as surprised as anything, Darren, And I know
Speaker 1: you probably, well maybe not that they were not one
Speaker 1: of the last four teams end that shock. You were surprised.
Speaker 6: A little bit, Yeah, just because you know, really, all
Speaker 6: you have to go on is what a lot of
Speaker 6: the publications like D one Baseball and Baseball America are saying.
Speaker 6: And those guys know what they are talking about. Now.
Speaker 6: Are they educated guesses, Yes, but they're educated guesses, and
Speaker 6: so yeah, from those standpoints, it kind of felt like, Okay,
Speaker 6: these are it's getting pretty tight. And Arizona State is
Speaker 6: a team that was way behind Kentucky and the rpiously
Speaker 6: finished fourth in the Big Twelve, and the Big Twelve
Speaker 6: was the number three RPI conference this year. Obviously, by
Speaker 6: the way the brackets unfolded, the ACC was not highly regarded.
Speaker 6: The ACC regular season champion is not hosting, and their
Speaker 6: tournament champion wasn't even a top five seed. I don't
Speaker 6: think are a top four, So clearly the committee did
Speaker 6: not care for the ACC as much as they did
Speaker 6: the Big Twelve.
Speaker 3: And the SEC.
Speaker 6: And I know there was some borderline Big East teams
Speaker 6: that didn't make it in. I thought the committee did
Speaker 6: an overall about as well done of a job as
Speaker 6: they could, because nobody's you're never going to make everybody happy.
Speaker 6: But I thought they'd made some really defensible choices, let's
Speaker 6: put it that way, and I thought Kentucky being inn
Speaker 6: certainly was one of them.
Speaker 1: You know, you mentioned Vandy in that series. I mean
Speaker 1: you talk about just making your stomach grind. I can't
Speaker 1: imagine what it was like. I was listening to you,
Speaker 1: but just to be down there and Kentucky scored what
Speaker 1: eighteen runs over three games against a Vandy team that
Speaker 1: the following weekend wins the SEC Tournament and Darren gives
Speaker 1: up only three runs to Oklahoma, Tennessee and Ole Miss.
Speaker 1: That's phenomenal. And I felt like Kentucky at least that
Speaker 1: weekend was the better team than Vandy, which is now
Speaker 1: the overall number one seed. It was amazing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, they certainly played like they were and you know,
Speaker 6: offensively they were in sinc They laid down butts, they
Speaker 6: stole bases, they hit home runs, and they executed in
Speaker 6: big spots to score those runs. And I'm like you,
Speaker 6: I thought they outplayed Vandy. It's just unfortunately you're two
Speaker 6: pitches away from being two and one at worst. Yes,
Speaker 6: in that series, if you don't give up a leadoff
Speaker 6: walk in the seat spending on that last day, then
Speaker 6: maybe you know you're three to zero. But I thought overall,
Speaker 6: Kentucky did a great job in that series, and the
Speaker 6: way Vandy's playing now, we'll see. I for one, think
Speaker 6: this tournament's wide open, just like I think this regional
Speaker 6: and Clemson is going to be wide open this weekend.
Speaker 1: Really, I really do.
Speaker 6: I think you've got a number of teams that can
Speaker 6: jump up there and win it. I think Georgia Tech
Speaker 6: can make the College World Series from that two seed
Speaker 6: in Oxford. I think they're good enough to beat Old
Speaker 6: Miss in Oxford. I think they're good enough to beat
Speaker 6: Georgia in a super regional.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 6: Time will tell, though. You know, they had one of
Speaker 6: the weaker regular season schedules in the ACC. That's not
Speaker 6: Georgia Tech's fault. That's their conference. That's the way they
Speaker 6: did it with their computer generated schedule. But I think
Speaker 6: Georgia Tech's good enough to make Omaha. I think Texas
Speaker 6: can win it all. I think Vanderbilt has the pitching
Speaker 6: to do it. And then you look at the regional
Speaker 6: this weekend that Kentucky's in West Virginia Big twelve champions
Speaker 6: stumbled down the stretch and got swept at Kansas. Clemson
Speaker 6: is really good at home, but they're mortal as all
Speaker 6: teams are, and so I think this thing could be
Speaker 6: wide open in the postseason. This is going to be
Speaker 6: a fun postseason baseball experience.
Speaker 1: It really will be. Darren Hedricks our guest. He is
Speaker 1: a radio voice of the baseball Wildcats. He'll be there
Speaker 1: at Clemson when the Wildcats open up on noon Friday
Speaker 1: at noon on Friday you mentioned Georgia Tech. The ESPN
Speaker 1: did a nice job with their head coach, hall of
Speaker 1: famer who is retiring. So there's an emotional edge, I
Speaker 1: think for Georgia Tech. But that can help a team
Speaker 1: like the Wildcats. I think emotions because here they have
Speaker 1: survived that bet you four straight losses Vandy and then
Speaker 1: the SEC tournament. But you know, getting in when a
Speaker 1: lot of people didn't think you would. That can lift
Speaker 1: a team, can it?
Speaker 6: It really can? And you can circle the wagons and
Speaker 6: play as a team and go for it all. And
Speaker 6: I also think that playing in the SEC as fun
Speaker 6: and electric as an environment and as hostile as it
Speaker 6: will be at Clemson this weekend, if and when the
Speaker 6: Wildcats do play the Tigers, I think Kentucky's ready for that.
Speaker 6: They've played in Nashville against Vanderbilt. They've played at Tennessee.
Speaker 6: If you can win a series at Tennessee with as
Speaker 6: hostile of an environment as that can be, you're all right.
Speaker 6: They've been to Georgia. There's players on this team that
Speaker 6: have been to the box at LSU, and they've even
Speaker 6: talked about that. So you know this, this is not
Speaker 6: anything this weekend they have not already seen and they
Speaker 6: should be ready for it.
Speaker 1: You were at the news conference earlier today when Nick
Speaker 1: ben joined, a couple of the players spoke, and we've
Speaker 1: been dropping those interviews in here tonight on the show.
Speaker 1: But he mentioned injuries, and you know, and you talk
Speaker 1: about it on the air as well. You just kind
Speaker 1: of remind fans, but you don't harp on it, and
Speaker 1: you know, he might discuss it with you singularly in
Speaker 1: the pregame show whatever, But as he said, he has
Speaker 1: made a point of not talking about it because you know,
Speaker 1: he's right. Nobody else cares. I mean that the team cares.
Speaker 1: You care, I care, but you know, everybody deals with injuries.
Speaker 1: But they were so fortunate each of the last two
Speaker 1: years just to be healthy at this time completely, and
Speaker 1: now it's frustrating to talk about the guys who aren't available,
Speaker 1: and yet, hey, everybody's got to deal with that, right.
Speaker 6: That's right. Everybody's dealing with it, especially this time of year.
Speaker 6: And I'm sure there's a you know, look at Texas.
Speaker 6: Their Friday night starter's been out for over a month
Speaker 6: now and they've had to retool their rotation. So everybody's
Speaker 6: going through it, but you know, for me, I do
Speaker 6: bring it up occasionally, not to harp on it, but
Speaker 6: just to remind people it is a part of the
Speaker 6: story of this year that you lose your center fielder
Speaker 6: Ethan Hendle was playing terrific in SEC play before the
Speaker 6: foot injury sideline him for the year. And then they
Speaker 6: have some pieces on this pitching staff that haven't appearing
Speaker 6: on the mound and all this spring due to injuries
Speaker 6: that were expected to be major contributors. So it's you know,
Speaker 6: and then there are times they've had to patchwork the lineup.
Speaker 6: Against Mississippi State, they were down to their fourth and
Speaker 6: fifth options at third base. It's just a part of
Speaker 6: going through a thirty game SEC schedule and they're fortunately,
Speaker 6: I think they're coming out on the other end of
Speaker 6: it now and starting to get guys back and healthy
Speaker 6: for this run in the postseason.
Speaker 1: We're talking to Darren Hedrick, the radio boys of the
Speaker 1: Baseball Wildcats. He'll call the action when Kentucky opens NCAA
Speaker 1: tournament play against West Virginia coming up on Friday. We'll
Speaker 1: talk more with Darren on the other side of the
Speaker 1: break here on six thirty WLAP Welcome Back my guest
Speaker 1: Darren Hedrick of the UK Baseball Network. He is the
Speaker 1: playbook play voice of the Wildcats who open up NCAA
Speaker 1: tournament played this Friday at noon Eastern against those West
Speaker 1: Virginia Mountaineers. And by the way, you need to pull
Speaker 1: up the Inside Kentucky base Ball podcast with the two Darrens,
Speaker 1: mister Hedrick and mister Williams, the former Kentucky pitcher. They
Speaker 1: he'll prep you for the upcoming tournament. And Kentucky did
Speaker 1: not play West Virginia this year or a last, but
Speaker 1: we all got a chance to watch the Mountaineers play
Speaker 1: in the tournament two years ago in a Lexington similar
Speaker 1: style as Kentucky. They try to create chaos on the
Speaker 1: base pass.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: Two years ago they had a guy who was one
Speaker 1: of the best in America doing that. I don't know
Speaker 1: much about him right now, do you.
Speaker 6: I've looked at him a little bit, not enough that
Speaker 6: I could sit here and spout a bunch of individuals
Speaker 6: and their stats. I can tell you they're pretty balanced.
Speaker 6: Like you were talking about, they'll steal, they've got some power.
Speaker 6: They defend well. You don't win the Big twelve by accident.
Speaker 6: They're pitching staff as solid. They've got two really strong
Speaker 6: starters on the weekend Friday and Saturday, not little one
Speaker 6: two punch. We'll see how they decide to pitch. I'm
Speaker 6: assuming we're going to get their best on Friday to
Speaker 6: try to get off to a good start in the regional.
Speaker 6: If that's the case, then it's likely kern Ki r N.
Speaker 6: He's got ninety two strikeouts on the season and an
Speaker 6: ERA in the mid threes. So they do have some
Speaker 6: good pitching on that respect, but just a solid team.
Speaker 6: I will be curious to see how the styles clash
Speaker 6: because the Big Twelve, it's a different style they've got. Well,
Speaker 6: their geography stretches from West Virginia to Arizona, so you're
Speaker 6: talking about different climates for the ball. Why is a
Speaker 6: lot different. So you go down to Baylor or Arizona
Speaker 6: or Texas Tech, and the ball flies a lot different
Speaker 6: than it does in West Virginia. So we'll see how
Speaker 6: these styles clash on Friday. It should be a really
Speaker 6: interesting matchup.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but we don't know who's pitching yet for Kentucky,
Speaker 1: and it's got to be tempting for Minjeon and Dan
Speaker 1: Roselle to flip the rotation and start Ben Cleaver, get
Speaker 1: off to that good start in the regional and go
Speaker 1: with the Sunday guy. But they're still Mulley that over,
Speaker 1: aren't they.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I don't think they're ready to announce a starter for
Speaker 6: Friday just yet, but you're.
Speaker 3: Right about that.
Speaker 6: To me, to win a regional, winning that first game
Speaker 6: is so critical. And we've seen why Kentucky is three
Speaker 6: for three and making Super Regionals under Nick Menjeon when
Speaker 6: they are interregional because they do start one to oh. Now,
Speaker 6: they've had to come from the loser's bracket a couple
Speaker 6: of times, but that was you know, they still started
Speaker 6: one to oh in all those regionals. So get off
Speaker 6: to a one and oh start and then see what
Speaker 6: happens on that Saturday, and hopefully by Sunday you're playing
Speaker 6: with house money, and like coach Manda says, you're three
Speaker 6: wins away from a Super and five wins away from Omaha.
Speaker 1: So let let's go back. And speaking of getting off
Speaker 1: the good starts, let's go back to the SEC tournament. Kentucky.
Speaker 1: It looked like there was so much traffic against Oklahoma
Speaker 1: in the first three innings, and you know, they bounced
Speaker 1: into a double play of the bases loaded. I mean,
Speaker 1: they just couldn't get anything going and it looked like
Speaker 1: all the steam just left them and they flattened out
Speaker 1: and lost that one to a team they had just
Speaker 1: swept five to one. And we all know how hard
Speaker 1: it is just to sweep, much less win four straight
Speaker 1: against a top ten team. But I don't anticipate that
Speaker 1: kind of effort or lack of same. Not that it
Speaker 1: was a lack of effort, they just they just kind of,
Speaker 1: as I said, just kind of flattened out at the
Speaker 1: plate laid against Oklahoma. But I don't think we'll see
Speaker 1: that on Friday.
Speaker 6: To you, I think you're going to see a lot
Speaker 6: of energy. I think you're going to see a highly
Speaker 6: motivated team in this regional A lot of people didn't
Speaker 6: think they would make it and here they are, so
Speaker 6: they might have a little chip on their shoulder with
Speaker 6: something to prove. And I think we're going to see
Speaker 6: their best effort against West Virginia and whomever they might
Speaker 6: play on Saturday.
Speaker 3: After that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know this is an sec that, as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, ads Oklahoma and Texas, and hey, they're both
Speaker 1: on Kentucky's schedule. How about that, although thankfully for the
Speaker 1: Wildcats both in Lexington and you know, people forget that
Speaker 1: they took one off of Texas and the Game three
Speaker 1: of that series was a one run game, right, and
Speaker 1: then nobody, I don't think nationally expected Kentucky to sweep Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: but that series Texas Tennessee kind of signaled to the
Speaker 1: rest of the country that, oh, wait a minute, Kentucky's
Speaker 1: kind of waking up, you know what I mean?
Speaker 6: I agree, and you know what, I still throw in
Speaker 6: the series win down in College Station against Texas.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 6: I know A and M did not have the season
Speaker 6: they wanted and they did not make the tournament, first
Speaker 6: time ever that the preseason number one ranked team did
Speaker 6: not make a regional. So I know their season did
Speaker 6: not go as they planned. But part of the reason
Speaker 6: for that is because Kentucky went down there and won
Speaker 6: two out of three, and I thought that was a
Speaker 6: huge series for this team and part of the reason
Speaker 6: why the entire way through the SEC they were one
Speaker 6: or two wins away from being five hundred in the league.
Speaker 6: And I always like to remind people, you know, people
Speaker 6: kind of scoff oh, thirteen league wins. Well, thirteen gets
Speaker 6: you in the tournament, as we know, fourteen you're solidly
Speaker 6: in the field, and fifteen you're in the conversation to
Speaker 6: host a regionals. So you get one or two of
Speaker 6: those one run losses to go the other way, and
Speaker 6: we might be playing at home this weekend.
Speaker 1: Well, and Nick talked earlier today about something I saw
Speaker 1: him discuss with Finebaum, and you and Doug and Keith
Speaker 1: and I have talked about this, just the you know,
Speaker 1: one pitch, one play is the difference so often and
Speaker 1: Nick has parsed the numbers of the five thousand plus
Speaker 1: pitches that have been involved in Kentucky baseball games. Nine
Speaker 1: plays separated Kentucky from another at least a share of
Speaker 1: the SEC championship. But that's baseball, isn't it. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know what, A lot of a lot of teams
Speaker 1: can say that, But so what, it's still true, right, yeah?
Speaker 6: I mean you go back and I know the plays
Speaker 6: he's talking about. I may even know so, but he
Speaker 6: really wasn't referring to, you know, don't drop a pop
Speaker 6: up against Auburn and you win that series. The Tigers
Speaker 6: were down to their final out and losing that game.
Speaker 6: And you know Kentucky doesn't make the catch of a
Speaker 6: rootine pop up, they score two tiet and go on
Speaker 6: to win it. I think it was old myth. Devid
Speaker 6: Birch drilled a ninety to one hundred mile an hour
Speaker 6: line drive, but it was right at the short stop,
Speaker 6: five feet to the left or right. It's a game winner.
Speaker 6: You look at the Vanderbilt series, there's two the two
Speaker 6: walk offs, there's two right there. So you know there's
Speaker 6: four wins right there. Just if the you make the
Speaker 6: pitch or make the defensive play, or make or get
Speaker 6: the hit, then you're sitting there looking at seventeen league
Speaker 6: wins instead of thirteen. So it is that close. That's
Speaker 6: the margin, and that's what he keeps referring to. And
Speaker 6: a lot of those close plays went their way the
Speaker 6: last two years and this year not not as much.
Speaker 1: I'll let you go with this. You mentioned the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, and really last year's Omaha team began
Speaker 1: to take route clearly the year prior, when they host
Speaker 1: the regionals, they had to go down to LSU to
Speaker 1: play the eventual national champion. I don't think anybody really
Speaker 1: expected them, although they played well down there, but they
Speaker 1: carried that experience into the following year and played well
Speaker 1: enough to host as they won the conference, host a
Speaker 1: super and we've talked about that so much as they
Speaker 1: could just host a Super and not go to Louisville
Speaker 1: or not go to LSU and it all paid off.
Speaker 1: This year's team had to kind of condense all of
Speaker 1: that into one season, didn't it. Thirty one new faces,
Speaker 1: guys who had played at other places and had some
Speaker 1: individuals success but not so much as a team. Some
Speaker 1: had had some had been to the NCAA tournament, But
Speaker 1: they had to squeeze it all into one year and
Speaker 1: develop as a potential, you know, winning ball club. That
Speaker 1: ain't easy, is it?
Speaker 3: Oh? It's not.
Speaker 6: And while they are going to lose some key pieces
Speaker 6: off this year's team to graduation and who knows, maybe
Speaker 6: some pro ball, but they're going to have a lot
Speaker 6: of faces back next year. And so I feel like
Speaker 6: this year's team kind of has a similar path as
Speaker 6: that twenty twenty three club in that you're going to
Speaker 6: return a lot of guys. It was twenty twenty three
Speaker 6: stretching to twenty twenty four. Now it's twenty twenty five,
Speaker 6: stretching into twenty twenty six, you're going to get Tyler
Speaker 6: Bell and Luke Lawrence and Ryan Schwartz and Hudson Brown
Speaker 6: and all these guys are going to be back for you,
Speaker 6: Kayas Gargett Ethan Hindle and so you get those guys
Speaker 6: and then an outstanding freshman class in the future is
Speaker 6: looking really bright. And like you mentioned earlier today in
Speaker 6: the press conference, you've made three straight regionals and now
Speaker 6: for a lot of the guys coming up in high school,
Speaker 6: Kentucky is a brand that a lot of players are
Speaker 6: going to want.
Speaker 3: To play for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a style, it's a brand, it's a chance
Speaker 1: to play in the SEC. It's a viable alternative. Not
Speaker 1: everybody can sign with LSU, right, not everybody can sign
Speaker 1: with Texas come play in the SEC. Yeah, it's the
Speaker 1: northernmost you know. But it's also one of the nicest
Speaker 1: facilities in all the college baseball. So it's all coming together,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 6: That's right. And I apologize for the sirens behind me.
Speaker 6: They're coming to take me away, haha.
Speaker 1: So it's okay. When you need a ride, brother, you
Speaker 1: need a ride, that's fine, that's right. Darren Heddrick will
Speaker 1: call the action as the Wildcats take on those West
Speaker 1: Virginia Mountaineers, and also tune in pull up the podcast
Speaker 1: Inside Kentucky Baseball. You learn a lot from the two
Speaker 1: Darren's mister Hedrick and mister Williams. Thanks so much, brother,
Speaker 1: have a safe trip and we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 6: You got it, Dick, thanks so much for having me
Speaker 6: my friend. We'll see you down the road.
Speaker 1: Up next, we'll talk college football to playoffs and Greg
Speaker 1: Sankey is ruffling some feathers at the spring meetings, which
Speaker 1: is to be expected the SEC Commissioner. And we'll hear
Speaker 1: more from the baseball Wildcats on the other side of
Speaker 1: the break here on the Big six thirty WLAP. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Big Blue Insider, Dick Gabriel with you
Speaker 1: coming up tomorrow night. It's going to be the best
Speaker 1: of the Big Blue Insider. Why jury duty, that's right,
Speaker 1: I got the slipping the mail and once again, and
Speaker 1: I'm one of those lucky people. I don't know why,
Speaker 1: but my name keeps coming up. It's come up probably
Speaker 1: half a dozen times. And I talk to people all
Speaker 1: the time who have never been called I don't know
Speaker 1: why that is. I don't mind it. It's just, you know,
Speaker 1: it's part of being an American citizen. That's all well
Speaker 1: and good, but you got to rearrange some things in
Speaker 1: your life now. I am semi retired. I am not
Speaker 1: currently involved in calling games because my job with the
Speaker 1: UK Baseball games, the streaming telecast that's behind me for
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks now and college football. I assume
Speaker 1: I'll be back with a network. Can't really say for sure.
Speaker 1: You never know until you get the contract in the mail.
Speaker 1: But if I am, I don't have to worry about
Speaker 1: that until late August. So just doing this little radio
Speaker 1: show out of my garage is it keeps me busy.
Speaker 1: But if I'm tied up much of the day down
Speaker 1: at the courthouse, well, I've just got to present the
Speaker 1: best of and then you wait and see if you're selected.
Speaker 1: You have to call a number every day for five
Speaker 1: straight days to see if your during number, duror number
Speaker 1: is mentioned. And then when you go to report, you
Speaker 1: see if you're one of the people selected. And I'll
Speaker 1: be honest, I've never been selected for one reason or another,
Speaker 1: but you still have to go down there, go through
Speaker 1: the process. That's all well and good, that's fine, that's
Speaker 1: all part of it. But as I said, you just
Speaker 1: got to make arrangements, and I'll be making arrangements for
Speaker 1: the best of the Big Blue Insider tomorrow. And I
Speaker 1: do have vacation coming up as well, so we'll replace
Speaker 1: some of those classic bbis coming up this summer. Anyhow,
Speaker 1: it's not going to be long before we're talking about
Speaker 1: the college football openers. And as I mentioned in the
Speaker 1: very first part of the show, first or second, lots
Speaker 1: of chatter about the college football Playoff and whether it
Speaker 1: will be. It will not be this year. But as
Speaker 1: I mentioned the other night, they're changing the seeding, which
Speaker 1: means that the supposedly weakest of the teams that get
Speaker 1: in will not receive buys as they did this past year.
Speaker 1: But Greg Sankey was rattling some cages down at the
Speaker 1: SEC spring meetings and it caught the attention of a
Speaker 1: columnist for cbsports dot Com, Tom Fornelli, and he took
Speaker 1: note of comments that Sankie made down in Florida. Sankie
Speaker 1: doing his job, and he does it well. I remember
Speaker 1: when he was named the commissioner, we weren't sure who
Speaker 1: was going to be the next one. But he quickly
Speaker 1: showed that he was dealing from a position of strength,
Speaker 1: wasn't afraid to do so. And he has done a
Speaker 1: great job because look at what the SEC is doing
Speaker 1: now everywhere, not just football, how good basketball is now.
Speaker 1: And throughout the nca tournament there was a lot said
Speaker 1: and written about why the NCAA or I'm sorry, why
Speaker 1: the SEC has become so much better at basketball. The
Speaker 1: entrants money, it's always money, but how have they spent it?
Speaker 1: They have hired good coaches and good assistant coaches, and
Speaker 1: that's a reflection of the head coaches they hire. Schools
Speaker 1: of plowed money into facilities, and let's face it, the
Speaker 1: SEC network has provided so much money, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: all dumped into football. It went to basketball, went to
Speaker 1: women's basketball, went to baseball, went to everything. SEC is
Speaker 1: good in everything. They're spreading the money out and now
Speaker 1: it makes it tougher on the people who are trying
Speaker 1: to come up with the college football playoff recipe. And
Speaker 1: Sankee was still complaining essentially indirectly but directly about two
Speaker 1: teams that did not get into playoffs, even though it
Speaker 1: be Georgia, and he said this, it's clear that not
Speaker 1: losing becomes in many ways more important than beating the
Speaker 1: University of Georgia, which two of our teams that were
Speaker 1: left out did. All right, he's referring, of course, to Alabama,
Speaker 1: Ole Miss, South Carolina. They were three loss SEC teams
Speaker 1: left out because Indiana and SMU had better records. Okay,
Speaker 1: Alabama and ole Miss, as Fornelli points out, did beat Georgia.
Speaker 1: But in many of you knew this from last year,
Speaker 1: it's what else happened to those teams? Yeah, Alabama beat Georgia,
Speaker 1: huge game, big win. Then what happened? They lose to Vandy.
Speaker 1: All due respect to Andy year six and six. That's
Speaker 1: great for Vandy beat Alabama, huge win, but you know
Speaker 1: it is Vandy a team you hang your a win
Speaker 1: that you hang your hat on. No, and if you
Speaker 1: lose to Vandy, my gosh. So Alabama loses to Vandy
Speaker 1: and Oklahoma, which wasn't any good and in SEC games alone,
Speaker 1: those two teams combined for a three and eleven record
Speaker 1: in games not against Alabama. All right, now, you're gonna
Speaker 1: you're gonna like this one. Kentucky fans Ole Miss jumps
Speaker 1: up and beats Georgia, Lane Kiffin beats Georgia. What happened next, Well,
Speaker 1: they lose to Florida. Not bad, do you respect to
Speaker 1: my friend mister Cooperstein. Florida did finish eight and five,
Speaker 1: went three and four in SEC games, not against Ole Miss.
Speaker 1: But what killed Ole Miss? Losing to Kentucky at home?
Speaker 1: Remember that heck of a game, twenty to seventeen. The
Speaker 1: Wildcats win it, and it was the only SEC win
Speaker 1: of the year for the Wildcats, and it very likely
Speaker 1: kept oh Miss. I would say it definitely kept Ole
Speaker 1: Miss out of the playoff. It's other seven games all
Speaker 1: losses by an average of fourteen and a half points. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: you beat Georgia. Is that the golden ticket? Not this year? No,
Speaker 1: And Kentucky got to play spoiler. And you know, you
Speaker 1: look back on that game. I keep saying this, what
Speaker 1: happened to that team? Where did that team go? They fought,
Speaker 1: they clawed, they scrapped, they did not everything right, but
Speaker 1: they overcame whatever mistakes they made and out played the rebels.
Speaker 1: And this was a great day for a college football game,
Speaker 1: great crowd, weather cooperated, and Kentucky made some really big plays,
Speaker 1: so did ole Miss and the Wildcats win it and
Speaker 1: spoiled their party. Now, South Carolina played the toughest non
Speaker 1: conference game of those three and beat Clemson on the road.
Speaker 1: No bad losses for the game Cocks, but did lose
Speaker 1: to Alabama and ole Miss. So if you don't put
Speaker 1: them in the playoff, you don't put South Carolina in
Speaker 1: the playoff. But keep in mind is for Nelly pointed out,
Speaker 1: then an at large spot disappeared when Clemson won the
Speaker 1: ACC and qualified for the College Football Playoff because otherwise
Speaker 1: it was not going to go. So, yeah, Sankee's doing
Speaker 1: his job when he talks about how not losing is
Speaker 1: more important in some areas than beating a team like Georgia.
Speaker 1: But man, if you're on that committee that's looking at
Speaker 1: the big picture, you gotta look at the overall body
Speaker 1: of work. However, keep in mind Indiana went eleven and one,
Speaker 1: but still finished behind Tennessee which was ten and two
Speaker 1: and four other two loss teams, and that's why Indiana
Speaker 1: had to play Notre Dame on the road in the
Speaker 1: first round. Strength to schedule it matters, So keep an
Speaker 1: eye on his College Football Playoff, but understand, keep an
Speaker 1: ear on Greg sank. He will never stop and nor
Speaker 1: should he pushing for the sec but you got to
Speaker 1: look beyond a glittery win over a tough team like Georgia.
Speaker 1: We'll come back and again talk more Kentucky baseball on
Speaker 1: the other side of the break, hering the Big Moon
Speaker 1: Sider six point thirty Wlap Welcome back to the Big
Speaker 1: Blue in Side. Eric. A couple of other baseball notes
Speaker 1: for you. Then we want to talk about the transfer
Speaker 1: portal in football. Buddy of mine who's from Lexington who
Speaker 1: now lives in Reno Nevade moved from Los Angeles to
Speaker 1: Reno retirement home. Right. Well, he's a big NBA but fan,
Speaker 1: and he's always bugging his wife when he's watching NBA games,
Speaker 1: pointing out the UK guys. You know, there's so many
Speaker 1: of them now in the league and must get tiring
Speaker 1: for her. So anyhow, for whatever reason, he's not a
Speaker 1: big baseball fan, but he just moved to the Reno
Speaker 1: area and he dragged his wife to this minor league game,
Speaker 1: Reno Aces versus Albuquerque Isotopes. So he said, we left
Speaker 1: early because this guy from Albuquerque kept hitting home runs
Speaker 1: and I guess it became a route I emailed him.
Speaker 1: He told me the story and I emailed him back
Speaker 1: and said, hey, that's a UK guy. It was Ryan Ritter.
Speaker 1: You may have seen this or heard about this. But
Speaker 1: Ryan Ritter, former Gold Globe I think I mentioned this,
Speaker 1: former Gold Glove winning shortstop for the Wildcats, promoted to
Speaker 1: Triple A. Hit three home runs in one game for
Speaker 1: Albuquerque for the Topes when he was at Kentucky. Of course,
Speaker 1: his glove was phenomenal, but he was working on his
Speaker 1: offense and he's finding his stroke now, at least in
Speaker 1: the minor leagues. They ended up winning fourteen nothing. That's
Speaker 1: why my buddy left early. But Ritters are now twenty
Speaker 1: four years old and Reno. I'm sorry. Albuquerque is the
Speaker 1: Triple A team for the Colorado Rockies book, could they
Speaker 1: use some help. You might see him in the biggs
Speaker 1: before this season is over. And that three home run
Speaker 1: game took him to eleven straight games a hitting streak
Speaker 1: with a franchise record ten straight games with an extra
Speaker 1: base hit. So huge day for Ryan Ritter in front
Speaker 1: of I don't know how big the crowd was in Reno,
Speaker 1: but one person there was a UK grad. No idea
Speaker 1: that Ritter had been a wildcat one. Another note from
Speaker 1: the miners, Jack Cagleone's also getting it done. He was
Speaker 1: a two way player for Florida, not a great picture
Speaker 1: of what a hitter, and now playing for the Omaha
Speaker 1: Storm Chasers in Salt Lake where I guess the thin
Speaker 1: air may have had something to do with this. Hit
Speaker 1: home runs at went one hundred and thirteen point six
Speaker 1: miles per hour four hundred and ten feet. The next
Speaker 1: night one hundred and eleven miles per hour exit velocity
Speaker 1: four hundred and forty one feet. On Saturday, hit one
Speaker 1: that was out of here at one hundred and seven
Speaker 1: miles an hour. They didn't have the distance. And on
Speaker 1: Sunday one hundred and eight miles an hour, four hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty nine feet. That was in the first inning.
Speaker 1: Then in the tenth inning hit one out one hundred
Speaker 1: and seven miles an hour. Kind of cool because Doug
Speaker 1: Flinn and I when we did minor league baseball for
Speaker 1: a couple of summers, we did games both in Omaha
Speaker 1: and in Salt Lake City, two great ballparks, and boy,
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City, the backdrop phenomenal, just great scenery as
Speaker 1: you might expect, and we also saw the Albuquerque Isotopes,
Speaker 1: not in Alberka, No, yeah, we did. We did do
Speaker 1: a game in Albuquerque, and if you're a Simpsons fan,
Speaker 1: you know that's the Springfield team, the Springfield Isotopes. Homer
Speaker 1: works at a nuclear plant and the ballpark has statues
Speaker 1: of the Simpsons all over in Albuquerque. We couldn't show
Speaker 1: them on TV because we were working for CBS Sports Network,
Speaker 1: and of course the rights to the Simpson owned by Fox,
Speaker 1: but we could talk about it and we did. Now
Speaker 1: about the portal, there's a study that was published by
Speaker 1: cbssports dot com. This may effect, This may slow the
Speaker 1: traffic when it comes to football players jumping into portal.
Speaker 1: Elite recruits are having trouble being drafted after going through
Speaker 1: the portal. Seven years of data. They've been studying and
Speaker 1: they have watched as former highly coveted high school recruits
Speaker 1: enter the transfer portal and they have more and more
Speaker 1: trouble being drafted. They looked at the classes four seasons
Speaker 1: from the twenty eighteen class and beyond three hundred seven
Speaker 1: players drafted. Of those three to zero seven, only sixty
Speaker 1: one of them were transfers. That's a rate of eleven
Speaker 1: point four percent. Non transfers from the same top two
Speaker 1: four to seven classes drafted fifty three point six percent
Speaker 1: of the time. So again, the odds are if you
Speaker 1: ended a portal, your odds of being drafted are much
Speaker 1: lower than if you stick around. As you might expect.
Speaker 1: Quarterbacks transfer far more often sixty nine point eight percent
Speaker 1: of the time in those four years twenty eighteen to
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. Sixty four percent of the transfers wide receivers,
Speaker 1: fifty nine and a half percent running backs, and so
Speaker 1: on and so on. Go to cbsports dot com if
Speaker 1: you want to read the whole story, and click on
Speaker 1: the NCAA football But what I find interesting and a
Speaker 1: little surprising was that interior offensive alignment transfer thirty seven
Speaker 1: point three percent of the time, defensive tackles thirty six
Speaker 1: percent of the time. You would think they would command
Speaker 1: top nil dollar, but apparently they all stay put and
Speaker 1: they broke it down to offensive tackles. Only thirty two
Speaker 1: point five percent of those classes from twenty eighteen to
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one were offensive tackles. No surprise about quarterbacks, right,
Speaker 1: But interestingly, only two of the one they were looking
Speaker 1: at the multi time transfers. Guys you transferred more than once,
Speaker 1: Only two have been drafted so far from twenty eighteen
Speaker 1: to twenty twenty two. Actually only two multiple transfers, and
Speaker 1: one of them you saw beat the Wildcats. Tyler Shuck
Speaker 1: U of L started off at Oregon, then went to
Speaker 1: Texas Tech and then U of L and that's where
Speaker 1: he really blossomed. But in all fairness, he stayed healthy there,
Speaker 1: so much of his off the field movement was a
Speaker 1: result of injuries, and then the other guys took his job.
Speaker 1: Tyler Baron, who had a nice season at Miami, technically
Speaker 1: transferred twice, but he did so in the same off season.
Speaker 1: Remember he went from Tennessee to Louisville to Miami in
Speaker 1: just five months. There's a lot of reasons to transfer.
Speaker 1: Some guys transfer up, and you can look at cam Ward,
Speaker 1: who is of course a big timer now quarterback started
Speaker 1: off at Incarnate Word, then Washington State and then Miami.
Speaker 1: In Carnate Words. One double a FCS Josh Simmons transferred
Speaker 1: from San Diego State to Ohio State, basically moving up.
Speaker 1: But these are the numbers, including especially i'd say, the
Speaker 1: draft stuff that you gotta think every coach in America
Speaker 1: is arming himself these numbers. When guys come in and say,
Speaker 1: I'm going to hit the portal a quarterback. That's kind
Speaker 1: of different. Only one guy can play quarterback, but some
Speaker 1: of these other positions. Even if you are a quarterback,
Speaker 1: they can pull out this research and these are like
Speaker 1: elite players. The top players is rated by two four
Speaker 1: to seven sports, and they can show the numbers. These
Speaker 1: are the guys who are drafted, and these are the
Speaker 1: guys who are not. Those are some sobering figures. If
Speaker 1: you ask me finally, well, this isn't exactly the same thing,
Speaker 1: but it's about a player who's going to be on
Speaker 1: the move. Perhaps Aaron Rodgers has still not said anything,
Speaker 1: at least as I record this, about where he's going.
Speaker 1: Everybody believes it'll be Pittsburgh. Somebody asked him, would you
Speaker 1: ever join the Bears Bears rivals of course of my
Speaker 1: beloved Packers. He said no. What he said, I believe
Speaker 1: there's a team that might play in Chicago this year
Speaker 1: on a road trip. I don't know, not sure. Got
Speaker 1: to check it out. Well, the Steelers Jeff Drummond and
Speaker 1: Keith Farmer play the Bears Seek twelve on November twenty three.
Speaker 1: Seven other teams do as well, but he's just making
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh weight, making him want it, and we're all getting
Speaker 1: tired of it. Thanks to Chuck Cooperstein, thanks to Darren Heddrick.
Speaker 1: That's it, good night for the garage and Lexington.
Speaker 7: It's thrilling to meet you, Gloria. Hi. Yes, you obviously
Speaker 7: have a wonderful economy with words, Gloria, I look forward
Speaker 7: to your next syllable with Greek eagerness.
Speaker 8: Such tact sing can think anything, then Sat thinks them
Speaker 8: back to.
Speaker 6: Them.
Speaker 8: Don't