Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Moon Sider Day. Gabriel with you
Speaker 1: on a Friday edition of our show ahead of a
Speaker 1: big weekend for Kentucky Athletics. You've got UK women's basketball
Speaker 1: coming up tomorrow night, Kentucky football Tomorrow it is the
Speaker 1: Cats in Murray State and as the Wildcats try to
Speaker 1: get well, we'll have it for you right here. We'll
Speaker 1: talk some football a little bit later. I'm going to
Speaker 1: talk a lot of basketball as well. Brendan Quinn of
Speaker 1: The Athletic, who wrote a great piece about Mark Pope
Speaker 1: and his family. Coming up at the bottom of this hour.
Speaker 1: Brian Milem from WKYT. We'll be joining us as well.
Speaker 1: He covered the Kentucky Duke game in Atlanta. Will also
Speaker 1: talk about Murray State. Brian played baseball for Morehead State
Speaker 1: and Ohio Valley Conference team back then, back when Murray
Speaker 1: was in the OVC and was a competitive football team,
Speaker 1: so we'll hear from him as well. And it's going
Speaker 1: to be an interesting weekend in all of college football.
Speaker 1: But I've got to start with a story that came
Speaker 1: out yesterday. Bryce Underwood, who was committed a quarterback committed
Speaker 1: to LSU, evidently got an nil deal worth about five
Speaker 1: million from LSU. And there's a report on Bleacher Report
Speaker 1: that this kid declined and offer from Michigan ten and
Speaker 1: a half million dollars. It said Bryce Underwood won't be
Speaker 1: tempted by a massive nil offer from Michigan. I got
Speaker 1: to think he was tempted. Come on, But it was
Speaker 1: actually a story on on three that reported yesterday that
Speaker 1: Michigan was prepared quote unquote to offer the QB a
Speaker 1: four year now four year, ten and a half million
Speaker 1: dollar nil deal, trying to flip him from LSU. I
Speaker 1: think that's important. Ten and a half million over four years,
Speaker 1: and I got to think that a lot of these
Speaker 1: big dollar figures are four year deals as well. But
Speaker 1: he's sticking with LSU. Tells you where we are in
Speaker 1: recruiting right now. Though, speaking of recruiting, it's official now.
Speaker 1: Jasper Johnson is a Wildcat. The for sales native six
Speaker 1: four combo guard began his career at Woodford County High
Speaker 1: as you know, went off to a prep school. He
Speaker 1: has agreed to play for the Wildcats and made it
Speaker 1: official by signing an agreement. So did a guy who
Speaker 1: looked like was heading elsewhere, Kadan Lewis. But Mark Pope
Speaker 1: and staff they went to work and they pulled him
Speaker 1: into the fold. Six three left handed guard chose the
Speaker 1: Wildcats over Duke and Yukon. And this was before Kentucky
Speaker 1: knocked off Duke. Of course, he committed to the Wildcats
Speaker 1: some weeks ago, but had to help when he saw
Speaker 1: the Cats beat the Blue Devils. This kid was the
Speaker 1: Gatorade Player of the Year last year in the District
Speaker 1: of Columbia. There has some pretty good basketball over there.
Speaker 1: Wildcats go back to work. They don't play again, as
Speaker 1: you know, until Tuesday night. They've got the weekend off.
Speaker 1: But that means a lot of information for Mark Pope
Speaker 1: and his staff. And you know, just like football coaches
Speaker 1: what they call game film, video, whatever you want to
Speaker 1: call it, when yours deeply steeped in analytics, that is
Speaker 1: manna from heaven for basketball coaching staffs. And Mark Pope
Speaker 1: talked about all the great things that happened with the
Speaker 1: win over Duke, but it sounds like, first and foremost
Speaker 1: he likes having more information about his team.
Speaker 2: It's just a race from you know, our first game
Speaker 2: on November fourth to hopefully the final four. Like we know,
Speaker 2: we have to get so much better, and there's limited time,
Speaker 2: and so it's just a race to see how fast
Speaker 2: we can grow. And so I think that's the biggest
Speaker 2: thing that this game did for us, that Bucknell did
Speaker 2: for us at Right State did for us, is it
Speaker 2: just gave us more film and data and experience and
Speaker 2: to try and figure out how we can become a
Speaker 2: great team.
Speaker 1: When you think about it in those terms as a race,
Speaker 1: you think, man, that's gonna be a long, long slog,
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's the old marathon versus a sprint. But
Speaker 1: you know as well as I do, march is going
Speaker 1: to be here before we know it. Right, So, anytime
Speaker 1: you pick up a win like that over Duke and
Speaker 1: you can learn about your team and how to get better,
Speaker 1: it's a huge help. And one of the ways they're
Speaker 1: improving is conditioning. You saw that at play against Duke,
Speaker 1: and Pope talked about one of the changes they made
Speaker 1: in practice and it's similar to the way he played
Speaker 1: under Patino. Go like crazy for two or three minutes,
Speaker 1: will sub for you like a hockey shift, only they
Speaker 1: call it something different.
Speaker 2: Right now, Randy Twner and Brandon Wells are doing an
Speaker 2: unbelievable job, and we actually try something that I've never
Speaker 2: tried before. It's a segment of practice that is we're
Speaker 2: lovingly calling it our shame guest segment in practice. I
Speaker 2: think Andrew Carr might have referred to that in the
Speaker 2: post games Coach Fox's notion that you just keep coming
Speaker 2: in waves and coming in waves and coming in waves
Speaker 2: until you break someone. Right, It's just it's kind of
Speaker 2: a hard tominology for that.
Speaker 3: But where we're.
Speaker 2: Trying to find a twelve to twenty six minute segment
Speaker 2: in practice where there's very little coaching and there's no stoppage,
Speaker 2: and we're going to go until we drop.
Speaker 1: And it's paid off. The other night with the Blue Devils,
Speaker 1: younger guys who aren't used to that consistent, relentless pace
Speaker 1: yet of college basketball, they'll get it. By March, they'll
Speaker 1: have it. But you know, by March, Kentucky he'll be
Speaker 1: even further ahead because of the way they condition in practice.
Speaker 1: Talking with Sean Woods on Wednesday and some others, I
Speaker 1: talked about the fact everybody has that Kentucky wins that
Speaker 1: game with virtually nothing from Jackson Robinson on offense at
Speaker 1: one point, but as I pointed out as well, he
Speaker 1: did have a couple of blocks. And that brings us
Speaker 1: to what Mark Pope talked about when he talked about
Speaker 1: Jackson Robinson. He told the media he said, I haven't
Speaker 1: really talked to him about the game because he wasn't
Speaker 1: that Pope wasn't that upset with Jackson's struggles on offense.
Speaker 1: It's because Robinson evidently did so much on defense, and
Speaker 1: it may be the kinds of things that you and
Speaker 1: I don't notice, you know, we might notice him struggling
Speaker 1: on offense. Sean Woods and I talked about the fact
Speaker 1: that he wasn't that competitive on offense, and Duke took
Speaker 1: him out of the game, but then he took Duke.
Speaker 1: According to Pope, he took the Blue Devils out of
Speaker 1: a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you known't saying about Jackson's like he played great,
Speaker 2: Like he made huge defensive plays down the stretch. We
Speaker 2: kind of just do a it's a pretty raw reporting deal,
Speaker 2: but we do points given up, and Jackson was responsible
Speaker 2: giving up two points in the entire game. And you
Speaker 2: think about the matchups that he had. He was actually elite.
Speaker 4: He had.
Speaker 2: It's a massive toughness plays down the stretch. I was
Speaker 2: incredibly proud of him.
Speaker 1: So let that be a lesson to all of us.
Speaker 1: Just because somebody is not scoring the way you thought
Speaker 1: they might, we think they should, that doesn't mean they're
Speaker 1: not contributing at the other end. We should have known that.
Speaker 1: But I was so excited to see what Jackson Robinson
Speaker 1: could do against Duke that I was kind of scratching
Speaker 1: my head about it. But when I went back and
Speaker 1: looked at the score sheet, I noticed the points. I
Speaker 1: noticed two block shots. They didn't notice the minutes. He
Speaker 1: played a lot of minutes, But now you know why,
Speaker 1: because he played so well defensively. Now reminder, you've got
Speaker 1: Kentucky basketball tomorrow night. It's the women taking on the
Speaker 1: Louisville Cardinals at six o'clock, five point forty five pre
Speaker 1: game on our sister station, ninety eight point five FM.
Speaker 1: Because there was a chance that there'd be a little
Speaker 1: football runover on the AM side. So when you're done
Speaker 1: listening to the football postgame with Tom and Jeff and me,
Speaker 1: you can flip over and listen to Darren Hendrick as
Speaker 1: he calls the action Wildcats for the first time under
Speaker 1: Kenny Brooks playing against the Louisville Cardinals, but not the
Speaker 1: first time for Kenny Brooks and a couple of his players.
Speaker 1: Of course, the ones who came over from Virginia Tech.
Speaker 1: They know those Cardinals already.
Speaker 5: More familiar with them than anybody yet that we faced.
Speaker 5: And you know, I can probably tell you I can
Speaker 5: give you the scout on every one of their players
Speaker 5: because the familiarity that we've had with them, and those
Speaker 5: players are great players. And you know, I'm looking forward
Speaker 5: to being a part of the rivalry. Obviously, when I
Speaker 5: was a Virginia Tech, it was always with Virginia, so
Speaker 5: you understood the rivalry and the different feel of the
Speaker 5: game coming up. We just have to get our kids
Speaker 5: to understand that too. And you know, George's played against Louisville,
Speaker 5: Claire Strack has played against Louisville, tianni Key has played
Speaker 5: against Louisville. But nobody's played against Louisville in the Kentucky uniform,
Speaker 5: and so it's gonna be a little bit different. And
Speaker 5: I think probably the edge they might have is that
Speaker 5: they've got some players who played against Kentucky in their
Speaker 5: local uniforms.
Speaker 1: Again, Uku l on ninety eight point five at five
Speaker 1: forty five. Up next, Mark Stoops talks about game preps
Speaker 1: for Murray State. That is next in The Big bloon
Speaker 1: Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blonsider.
Speaker 1: Coming up in just a few minutes, Brendan Quinn will
Speaker 1: join us from The Athletic. He wrote a terrific piece
Speaker 1: about Mark Pope, and not so much about Pope and
Speaker 1: his career and all that, but his career is part
Speaker 1: of it. But through the eyes of Mark's family. He
Speaker 1: has spent a lot of time, did Brendan with Mark's wife,
Speaker 1: with his daughter's kind of tracing the steps to electing
Speaker 1: in from Brigham Young but really all over all the
Speaker 1: different coaching jobs Mark head, starting with that assistant ops
Speaker 1: director job at Georgia something they created for him. So
Speaker 1: it's a great story. Brendan's gonna tell us about it
Speaker 1: and about the access he got to the Pope family.
Speaker 1: That comes up at the bottom of the hour. A
Speaker 1: little bit later on, you're gonna hear a segment from
Speaker 1: the Wildcat Whip. That's the that Tom Leach, Jeff Piccorl
Speaker 1: and I record each week. It's basically similar to the
Speaker 1: really quick segment we do just before Playboy Play begins,
Speaker 1: the whip around Tom and Jeff and me talking about
Speaker 1: the upcoming game, and we thought, well, we'd like to
Speaker 1: do more. We'd like to share more thoughts. There just
Speaker 1: isn't as much time during the broadcast of the pregame,
Speaker 1: so we sit down each week and we whip it around.
Speaker 1: We are usually at South of Wrigley. This week we
Speaker 1: couldn't get over there, but they have been so gracious
Speaker 1: hosting us each week. It's a great place to go
Speaker 1: for Italian beef sandwiches in Chicago style hot dogs and
Speaker 1: things like that. But Tom and Jeff and I got
Speaker 1: together here in the garage. You'll hear a segment of
Speaker 1: that coming up a little bit later on as we
Speaker 1: break down Kentucky and Marie State. If you'd like to
Speaker 1: hear the entire podcast, not that long, take you about
Speaker 1: fifteen or twenty minutes, but you can check it out
Speaker 1: on the UK Sports Network site, on x or Twitter,
Speaker 1: on my Facebook page which I think Tom has shared
Speaker 1: as well. So that's all coming up a little bit
Speaker 1: later on. But tomorrow night or tomorrow afternoon, actually it's
Speaker 1: Kentucky Murray State. How about that? A day game here
Speaker 1: in lectionon Wildcats and Racers. Kick it off at one thirty.
Speaker 1: It's going to be streamed on SEC Plus. Of course
Speaker 1: you've got your radio, we'll have it for you eleven thirty.
Speaker 1: Pregame network Local covered starts at ten thirty. Then the
Speaker 1: kickoff at one thirty as Kentucky tries to get well
Speaker 1: and get right against the team that just is really
Speaker 1: having a nightmare of a season. It is added near
Speaker 1: the bottom of offense and defensive stats Murray State in FCS,
Speaker 1: which is essentially one Double A football, and Murray State
Speaker 1: at one point was a contender in one Double A.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to talk to Brian Milin about that.
Speaker 1: Coming up an hour number two, Brian with WKYT. We'll
Speaker 1: talk to Brian about his trip to Atlanta to cover
Speaker 1: the Wildcats and Duke. But Brian played baseball at Moorhead State,
Speaker 1: a member of the Ohio Valley Conference for the longest time,
Speaker 1: and he remembers when Murray State was a playoff team
Speaker 1: in one Double A. It has just really fallen on
Speaker 1: some terribly, terribly hard times. So this comes at a
Speaker 1: good time for the Wildcats, you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: it's a get well game. Physically, mentally, emotionally. Mark Stoops
Speaker 1: talked about the fact that coming off the bye week,
Speaker 1: went into these last three games. Somebody asked him about
Speaker 1: Rock Vandergriff finishing well because he's got another year of eligibility.
Speaker 1: Whether it's here somewhere else, or maybe he wants to
Speaker 1: try the NFL, who knows. But Stoops talked about the
Speaker 1: fact that really everybody needs to finish well.
Speaker 2: Our players have been a good place.
Speaker 6: You know, we talked about to buy. I think was
Speaker 6: at a good time. You know, we're beat up and
Speaker 6: we're getting better. We're still not, you know, anywhere near
Speaker 6: full strept, but I think antily you can see guys
Speaker 6: in a better spot, and we're trying to finish strong.
Speaker 1: Over the last week or so in practice, they've gone
Speaker 1: what they call good on good first team against first team,
Speaker 1: just trying to sharpen things up a little bit and
Speaker 1: it should work out. But you know, we have seen
Speaker 1: one Double A teams come in here. I mentioned this
Speaker 1: the other night. Eku came in here and nearly upset
Speaker 1: the Wildcats. Remember it took some late heroics from Patrick
Speaker 1: Toles throwing a couple of touchdown passes to fight off
Speaker 1: the colonels ut Chattanooga came in a Division one but
Speaker 1: not a highly harald the team and Kentucky needed some
Speaker 1: last second magic to win that game, So it's not
Speaker 1: a giffn Nothing ever, is a given, especially in college football.
Speaker 1: So Stoops talked about the fact that, yeah, he would
Speaker 1: love to play more than one quarterback. He would love
Speaker 1: to get deeply into his bench, into his roster, play
Speaker 1: the young guys who deserve a chance to go out
Speaker 1: and be reward good for the work they've done. But
Speaker 1: you don't just walk out there and expect Murray to
Speaker 1: lay down. You got to make it happen.
Speaker 7: I've been open.
Speaker 6: I've talked to the team about this. You know. We
Speaker 6: haven't always you know, taken care of business with with
Speaker 6: somebody that everybody thinks you're much better than or whatever.
Speaker 6: We can't ever you've heard me talk about that, and
Speaker 6: I think I think you all know you believe me
Speaker 6: when I tell you that because I've lived it, right,
Speaker 6: I mean, you you all have seen me out there struggling,
Speaker 6: you know at times to be the you know an
Speaker 6: FCS team, you know or one Double A teams and
Speaker 6: and uh, you know, we don't take anything for Brander.
Speaker 6: But I did talk to the team about that with work,
Speaker 6: if if you're supposed to take care of business at
Speaker 6: a certain spot, didn't do it. But but you know
Speaker 6: what happens sometimes us is you know, it's it's guys,
Speaker 6: believe that you're just going to go from zero to sixty.
Speaker 6: Doesn't happen. Then just one play at a time, right,
Speaker 6: that's all we can do.
Speaker 7: And you know I've.
Speaker 6: Challenged the team to embrace that. Just just taking care
Speaker 6: of your business, do your job, do it right, and
Speaker 6: then you know things will happen.
Speaker 1: And of course he's right, they haven't always taken care
Speaker 1: of business. So that's job one tomorrow. The other thing
Speaker 1: is stay healthy. You've got Texas and Louisville coming up.
Speaker 1: You know you're gonna win this one. If you don't,
Speaker 1: you don't deserve to go anywhere in postseason. But uh,
Speaker 1: you've got a shot at going to a bowl game.
Speaker 1: Finishing six and six. It's going to take a huge effort,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you've got Texas in Austin, then the home
Speaker 1: game with Louisville, a good Louisville team coming up. So
Speaker 1: win this one and come out of it healthy and
Speaker 1: at least give yourself a fighting chance, and we'll have
Speaker 1: it for you right here, one thirty kickoff. You can
Speaker 1: listen on six thirty WLAP. It's a huge college football weekend.
Speaker 1: This this game doesn't really I mean, it's vital for Kentucky,
Speaker 1: of course, but in the national picture, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of huge games and one of them Tennessee Georgia.
Speaker 1: Tennessee can put itself into the playoff picture with a
Speaker 1: win over the Bulldogs. And Pete Thammil of ESPN has
Speaker 1: written that Tennessee has turned into Georgia, so they have
Speaker 1: the better defensive line one through ten and that's how
Speaker 1: Georgia dominated over the last few years, with a defensive
Speaker 1: line deep and talented, and so many of those guys
Speaker 1: now are in the National Football League. But a lot
Speaker 1: of people expect Tennessee to win this one. They are
Speaker 1: eight and one, number one in the Southeastern Conference. The
Speaker 1: only team to beat Tennessee this year Arkansas, and remember
Speaker 1: that was a bit of a surprise. Tennessee has beaten
Speaker 1: three top twenty five teams Alabama, Oklahoma, and NC State.
Speaker 1: You saw Kentucky Tennessee. The volunteers looked mortal. They left
Speaker 1: the door open. Wildcats didn't have enough to storm through
Speaker 1: it with all those injuries and mistakes Kentucky made. But Jordia,
Speaker 1: Tennessee is going to be a big one this weekend,
Speaker 1: the biggest very likely. Up next Brendan Quinn of The Athletic.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about the piece that he wrote about Mark
Speaker 1: Pope and the entire Pope family. He sat down with
Speaker 1: Leanne and all the girls, and it's a great piece.
Speaker 1: I urge you to try to find it either on
Speaker 1: The Athletic or the New York Times, but it is
Speaker 1: worth the read back in just a minute here on
Speaker 1: the Big Blue and Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Big Blue Insider. And you have heard me
Speaker 1: through the years as we talked to our old pal
Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker talking about the Athletic, a terrific website. And
Speaker 1: the other day something popped up in my feed and
Speaker 1: I am a subscriber, have been for a while, and
Speaker 1: it was a wonderful piece by a gentleman named Brendan
Speaker 1: Quinn who's on our Celebrity hotline. He wrote a great
Speaker 1: feature story about Mark Pope and Brendan welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you joining us.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Dick. I got if you you're gonna need
Speaker 4: to check that hotline. If this is a celebrity status.
Speaker 3: Here, I gotta.
Speaker 4: Something's going to wright. But I appreciate Yeah, I appreciate
Speaker 4: you having me on.
Speaker 1: Here's the rule. While you're on the celebrity hotline, you're
Speaker 1: a celebrity. Once you hang up, that's all. It's all you.
Speaker 1: It's all you.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 1: I will say this though, in the Big Bow Nation,
Speaker 1: if people read your story, you'll become a celebrity, at
Speaker 1: least locally. Here was a terrific piece of mark and
Speaker 1: there have been a gazillion stories written about him. Of course,
Speaker 1: you kind of went at the family angle, which I
Speaker 1: thought was fascinating. Tell me, first of all, why you
Speaker 1: chose that, and secondly, tell me about the access you got.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So this all of this kind of starts more
Speaker 4: so last basketball season when I wanted to do a
Speaker 4: story on BYU basketball and the intersection of you know,
Speaker 4: the school being owned operated by the Church of Jesus
Speaker 4: Christ the Latter day Saints, and that's been kind of
Speaker 4: the mission of the university and the athletic department being
Speaker 4: a vehicle for exposure for the religion, et cetera, et cetera,
Speaker 4: et cetera. So that the dynamic of that and the
Speaker 4: direction of college sports with pay for play with nil,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, where there's this kind of
Speaker 4: it seems like there's a fundamental tension between those two goals, right,
Speaker 4: So that's what I wanted to write about. So I
Speaker 4: went out to Provo and spent three days with Mark
Speaker 4: and had some behind the scenes access at in on
Speaker 4: some meetings, got to know him fairly well. You know,
Speaker 4: I thought the story was interesting, et cetera, et cetera,
Speaker 4: But you know, we had a lot of conversations that
Speaker 4: had absolutely nothing to do with the story, and it
Speaker 4: was about him, and it was about his life, and
Speaker 4: it was about his family. And I'm the son of
Speaker 4: a coach, so I kind of grew up around. We're
Speaker 4: in a family that kind of was, you know, described
Speaker 4: to the schedule of a college coach. And now my
Speaker 4: dad coached you know, track and field, across country and
Speaker 4: all that stuff, but it was every weekend news away recruiting,
Speaker 4: all that stuff. But so we talked a lot about
Speaker 4: that and him having you know, a large family that
Speaker 4: he was raising and you know, Leanne's experience of growing
Speaker 4: up as a coach's child. So I just kind of
Speaker 4: stored all of that right in the recesses of the mind.
Speaker 4: And once you know Mark at the Kentucky job, you know,
Speaker 4: one of my first thoughts was, Wow, that family's about
Speaker 4: to get you know, a lot of exposure, and that's
Speaker 4: that's going to be difficult. And then obviously, once you know,
Speaker 4: the great Kyle Tucker decided to you know, take his
Speaker 4: talents elsewhere, you know, we had a void for the preseason,
Speaker 4: and you know, we needed to do something on Mark.
Speaker 4: I would argue that, you know, it's they're interconnected, but
Speaker 4: him going to Kentucky and Calgo in Arkansas, and those
Speaker 4: two and Cooper Flagg are probably the three biggest stories
Speaker 4: of the preseason, so you know, we needed to have
Speaker 4: them accounted for. So I reached out to Mark and said, listen,
Speaker 4: I would like to write something about you, but I
Speaker 4: think it needs to kind of come maybe from the
Speaker 4: perspective of your wife and your daughters, and maybe that
Speaker 4: can help kind of have a broader audience learn about you.
Speaker 4: Because one of the big things that you like, you know,
Speaker 4: is you know, the second the game starts you know,
Speaker 4: the human sides over. No one cares anymore who you are,
Speaker 4: right once there's wings and losses. You are a video
Speaker 4: game character and no one cares. So you know, I
Speaker 4: just wanted to maybe give a portrait of the person
Speaker 4: underneath the job title before before things got real.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how did he respond? Because a lot of coaches
Speaker 1: are very pretense as well, they should be of the
Speaker 1: wife and especially the kids.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, he he was. He was open to it.
Speaker 4: I basically just kind of painted a picture of what
Speaker 4: it would entail and all this, and like I said
Speaker 4: to the four girls, his daughters, like, you know, not
Speaker 4: profially you right, Like the story is about your dad.
Speaker 4: And and I think that gave everyone a degree of
Speaker 4: comfort of like, you know, what do you want to
Speaker 4: know about me? It's you know, it's not about you.
Speaker 4: So you know, I think that that was put put
Speaker 4: people at ease a little bit. And then also it's
Speaker 4: like a matter of trust, you know that that the
Speaker 4: job requires sometimes and knowing that there's no other agendas,
Speaker 4: there's no ulterior motives, there's you know, it's just trying
Speaker 4: to produce the best story for the audience. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm not a character in the story, right, it's it's
Speaker 4: just it's just them as a family, and the goals
Speaker 4: are trying to make them as snic as possible.
Speaker 1: Talking to Brendan Quinn, he wrote a terrific piece about
Speaker 1: Mark Pope and his family, Leanne and the four girls,
Speaker 1: and you know, ultimately this story is about love, about
Speaker 1: their interpersonal relationships with their dad, with the husband and wife,
Speaker 1: and how much he loves this place. And I asked
Speaker 1: Mark the other day during we were broadcasting the pro
Speaker 1: Day event, and I said, you know, your early fifties
Speaker 1: or whatever, you only lived here for three years, and
Speaker 1: yet you are so passionate about this place. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot of passion in this story, isn't there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's a great point. And you know, I
Speaker 4: think a lot of it is. You know, there's probably
Speaker 4: more digging to be done if you really want to
Speaker 4: kind of print the screws on that brain and try
Speaker 4: to figure out what's all in there. Like, you know,
Speaker 4: he moved around a little bit as a kid. You know,
Speaker 4: he was in Washington and et cetera. And then yeah,
Speaker 4: I think there was a fundamental disappointment with how things
Speaker 4: ended at Washington. He was a big time He was
Speaker 4: a big, big time recruits and he and four other
Speaker 4: this was a wormhole. I fell down. I was reading
Speaker 4: all these old newspaper stories about when he committed to
Speaker 4: Washington in eighty nine. There it was a big deal.
Speaker 4: It was him and the program was in bad shape, right,
Speaker 4: but he and four other Seattle area players committed to
Speaker 4: the program and that was supposed to be the turnaround.
Speaker 4: And then two years later they weren't winning. The coach
Speaker 4: was fired, and you know, Mark had to go find
Speaker 4: a new place. You know, he gave the new coach
Speaker 4: a chance and met with him, but ultimately decided to
Speaker 4: go elsewhere. And you know that he looked at looked
Speaker 4: at Utah, but but ultimately, you know, he was recruited
Speaker 4: by Kentucky the first time. Yeah, and then when Potito
Speaker 4: came back around, you know, I feel like that really
Speaker 4: became part of his identity, and that's where that passion
Speaker 4: come from.
Speaker 1: I remember hearing his name from Rick Patino when he
Speaker 1: was unhappy with the way his team rebounded at one season.
Speaker 1: Hed next year, that's not going to be a problem
Speaker 1: because Mark Pope's going to be here and he was
Speaker 1: already on campus. You know, practicing, so I thought, yes,
Speaker 1: send the bar pretty high for this guy. But I
Speaker 1: have heard Mark. I heard Mark maybe probably as a
Speaker 1: player in the past, talk about some element of failure
Speaker 1: he felt because of what happened at You Do. But man,
Speaker 1: you talk about second chances. He hit that one out
Speaker 1: of the park, didn't he.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And the thing that I'm kind of always been
Speaker 4: most fascinated by with his Kentucky experience was, you know,
Speaker 4: Rick telling him, you know, you're going to be kind
Speaker 4: of the glue guy that holds this whole thing together
Speaker 4: and going from the guy I mean he was the
Speaker 4: Pac ten Freshman of the year.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, his first season at Washington, he started every game
Speaker 4: his first two years. You know, he was on his
Speaker 4: way to having a pretty prolific college career, and he
Speaker 4: he decided, you know, I'm going to go be the
Speaker 4: sixth guy on a really good team and with the
Speaker 4: aim of winning a national championship. And he ended up
Speaker 4: getting drafted. That's great. But you know, if you think
Speaker 4: about how big men were treated and thought of by
Speaker 4: the NBA in the early nineties, you know, if he
Speaker 4: had played somewhere else and been you know, all conference
Speaker 4: of this, all conference, that averaging, you know, seventeen a game.
Speaker 4: Blah blah blah. It could have been a first round pick. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know that he likes to downplay how how how
Speaker 4: big of a player he was. But you know, I'm
Speaker 4: sure if he had maybe gone to Utah, gone wherever
Speaker 4: as a transfer, it could have been very different in
Speaker 4: terms of how his his career went from there.
Speaker 1: I'm talking to Brendan Quinn of The Athletic about a
Speaker 1: piece he wrote about Mark Pope and the family. Will
Speaker 1: come back with more in just a minute for Brendan
Speaker 1: and just a second here on the Big Moon Side
Speaker 1: or six thirty wlap, Welcome back. My guest is Brendan Quinn.
Speaker 1: He is a fine writer with the Athletic, and you
Speaker 1: also see his work at times on the pages of
Speaker 1: the New York Times, which now owns the Athletic and
Speaker 1: uses that basically as its sports section kind of picks
Speaker 1: and chooses. Did they pick your piece? I take the
Speaker 1: Sunday Times? But was it anywhere else in the New
Speaker 1: York Times? Yet?
Speaker 4: You know, I would think usually a story of this
Speaker 4: length would probably fall on a weekend edition. Yeah, so
Speaker 4: I would look for it this weekend for instance, last week,
Speaker 4: my story on John Califari at Arkansas ran on the
Speaker 4: Athletic on like a Tuesday or Wednesday, and then ran
Speaker 4: in print on I believe Saturday, with the leaders of
Speaker 4: the sports section in the print edition.
Speaker 1: Well in the Times did retweet it, so somebody up
Speaker 1: there got it like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1: I was looking through the story worry about the girls,
Speaker 1: because it was so interesting to me that the reason
Speaker 1: Scott Drew, one of the biggest reasons, as you know,
Speaker 1: he didn't take this job, was because missus Scott Drew
Speaker 1: would not have been comfortable with the spotlight here on
Speaker 1: her and her family, and that's why Drew sent her
Speaker 1: in the plane to Lexing and to check things out
Speaker 1: while he stayed back in Waco. But one of the
Speaker 1: stories Mark told, I'm sure you know, at the PEP
Speaker 1: rally that served as his welcoming back to Kentucky. He
Speaker 1: told about how all the girls were all in and
Speaker 1: you wrote about that, how the youngest might have balked
Speaker 1: a little bit because it probably would have been the
Speaker 1: toughest on her, you know, h picking up high schools,
Speaker 1: making new friends. But I was fascinated, Brandon by the
Speaker 1: fact that they were all of them all in, weren't they. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think part of it is, you know, they grew
Speaker 4: up Kentucky fans. You know, even while he was bouncing
Speaker 4: around jobs, going Georgia at Wake Forest and then by
Speaker 4: you and Utah Valley, et cetera. They're always at their
Speaker 4: core Kentucky fans.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And and I think even beyond that, like it's it's
Speaker 4: bigger than just Oh, Kentucky's like the best job in
Speaker 4: the country, So we want that for dad, or it's
Speaker 4: his dream, so we want that for dad. I think
Speaker 4: a lot of this goes to Lee Man and she
Speaker 4: grew up changing schools every two three years and being
Speaker 4: around a basketball team, and like that is her. That
Speaker 4: is her normal, right, It is being a coach's kid
Speaker 4: is you know, seeing the highs of winds and the
Speaker 4: lows of losses and being there being part of a
Speaker 4: team like that was normal. So when Mark dropped it
Speaker 4: out of med school and when I go into coaching,
Speaker 4: she was like, let's do it. And one of the
Speaker 4: things and it didn't make it into the final copy,
Speaker 4: and it's because I'm a bad writer. But one of
Speaker 4: the things that scout the most is when they were
Speaker 4: Leanne was explaining to me. She's like, you know the
Speaker 4: thing about or no, I'm sorry Mark said this to me,
Speaker 4: or even one of the girls. I'm sorry, I apologize,
Speaker 4: but I think it might have been Laila actually said,
Speaker 4: you know, Mom never has never complained or take an
Speaker 4: issue with or been angry about Dad's schedule or when
Speaker 4: he wasn't there right, And it was because it was
Speaker 4: always breakfast or framed as we have practice today. We
Speaker 4: have a recruiting trip, our team is doing this, our
Speaker 4: team is doing that. So it's not Mark as the
Speaker 4: head coach. They're all the head coach, you know. So
Speaker 4: that is the product. I think of Len coming up
Speaker 4: under her father, Lynn Archibald, who coached for twenty eight
Speaker 4: years and had you know, he was fired. He knows
Speaker 4: what it's like to be fired as a job and
Speaker 4: he had yest that places. He took a team to
Speaker 4: the NCAA tournament as a head coach, and I think
Speaker 4: her understanding that made her as a parent so uniquely
Speaker 4: qualified for what's really challenging. It is not easy being
Speaker 4: a coach's spouse, and she's just so hardwired to what's
Speaker 4: most important. And she raised bord Altars who are the
Speaker 4: same way.
Speaker 1: I think really really fascinating. I saw that about Lynn Archibald,
Speaker 1: and here's a quick aside. Lynn Archibald for just a
Speaker 1: union and took over for Jerry Pim at Utah, right, Yes,
Speaker 1: Jerry Pim's Utah team in nineteen seventy seven. It was
Speaker 1: part of the seventy seven to seventy eight season which
Speaker 1: Kentucky won a national title. Utah team upset Kentucky in
Speaker 1: their Christmas tournament and won their won their invitational tournament.
Speaker 1: Cliff Hagen was so ticked off that as he handed
Speaker 1: him the trophy, he said, congratulations, I'm inviting you right
Speaker 1: now to come back next year and try to defend this.
Speaker 1: They did not, but uh. And then, as you know,
Speaker 1: probably Pim went on to UC Santa Barbara because he
Speaker 1: wanted to live on a boat.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: And that's why Archie.
Speaker 4: Wanted to live on a boat, and he said it
Speaker 4: was a better job and wanted to live in California.
Speaker 1: I'd say the ocean had a lot to do with that.
Speaker 1: We got a few minutes left with Brendan Quinn. You
Speaker 1: know it was interesting, Uh. The one of the stories
Speaker 1: Mark told about his girls, I don't remember which one
Speaker 1: it was, but there's a really famous video clip where
Speaker 1: his ninety six team, his championship team in the hallway
Speaker 1: before they came out on the on the court. You
Speaker 1: may have heard about it or seen it, where they
Speaker 1: chant who's in the house tonight? UK. And when Mark
Speaker 1: talked about that to his kids, one of his daughters
Speaker 1: started chanting that. That explored me. That was I thought
Speaker 1: that was one of the great anecdotes. So that told
Speaker 1: me that the family was all in.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's there's a there's a million examples of that.
Speaker 4: When I think it was Shay even it was one
Speaker 4: of the younger ones who went in Shay when there
Speaker 4: was a game when he had the Georgia job, when
Speaker 4: he got the Georgia job as a you know, low
Speaker 4: level assistant assistant to the director of Best Operations, which
Speaker 4: I didn't know was the job. I don't think I've
Speaker 4: seen that listed anywhere in any other program, the dobo
Speaker 4: having having hit to her own assistant, you know, just
Speaker 4: a six ten ball boy. But he, you know, he
Speaker 4: had he got the position at Georgia. So the family
Speaker 4: went down and you know, one of the girls they
Speaker 4: grew up Kentucky fans, and when they were going to
Speaker 4: their first game, realized that they were supposed to be
Speaker 4: rooting for Georgia and it was unacceptable, you know, it
Speaker 4: was like, we can't root for we can't root for Georgia.
Speaker 4: So they had to stop and go buy a pair
Speaker 4: at Kentucky, a blue Kentucky stocks for her to wear
Speaker 4: at the game, uh, to kind of put her at
Speaker 4: ease for root for out rooting, you know, for for
Speaker 4: for Kentucky. So yeah, you know, I think it's it's
Speaker 4: it's one of the things that really I think was
Speaker 4: kind of like the big picture thought in this is
Speaker 4: the idea that when he was hired, is the notion
Speaker 4: that you know, the job's too big for him? Is
Speaker 4: what you heard a lot. And look, I have no
Speaker 4: idea how this is going to go, right, Like if
Speaker 4: you told me it's not going to work and in
Speaker 4: three years, you know, there's a change and whatever, I'd
Speaker 4: be like, yeah, I could see that. And if you
Speaker 4: told me they're gonna win a national championship, I could say, yeah,
Speaker 4: I could see that. So but but either way it
Speaker 4: won't be because the job is too big for him,
Speaker 4: you know, like that that is not it who knows
Speaker 4: what else could happen, but I think it's anything. It's
Speaker 4: the opposite that everything in a very unique life is
Speaker 4: has been circumscribed for this exact opportunity or moment. So
Speaker 4: you know, let's see what happens from here.
Speaker 1: Well. Yeah, and that said, before I let you go,
Speaker 1: I got to ask you to take you back to
Speaker 1: Tuesday night when Mark Pope, just three games into his
Speaker 1: first regular season at Kentucky, gets a signature win over
Speaker 1: Duke of all teams, the team Kentucky fans love to hate.
Speaker 1: I know you were spending the dial that night, is
Speaker 1: in your role as a guy who follows college basketball nationally,
Speaker 1: but what were you thinking, knowing this coach and this
Speaker 1: family the way you know now as they put the
Speaker 1: finishing touches on this upset?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I think there was. It was a
Speaker 4: fine example of he's a good coach. I know that
Speaker 4: he presents as a certain way, but I mean he
Speaker 4: is a really good basketball coach. And this team is
Speaker 4: is a very interesting blend of like guys that I
Speaker 4: think kind of has pieces of him where it's you know,
Speaker 4: there is it's almost a bunch of glue guys like
Speaker 4: I don't know who's the who's the star.
Speaker 1: Of this team?
Speaker 4: I don't know. I know Andrew Carr was the leading scorer, right,
Speaker 4: but like, yeah, who's the guy who's the lottery pay
Speaker 4: I don't. I don't think that exists. It's a lot
Speaker 4: of pieces, there's a lot of bodies. I like that
Speaker 4: at any given time, the second that opposing team gets comfortable,
Speaker 4: he can roll a completely different lineup out there, give
Speaker 4: you a wildly different look. You know, you sub in
Speaker 4: Kobe Burrea for at one stop or to play that
Speaker 4: other team is the pandemic. He's gonna bang it for
Speaker 4: two threes, you know, or you know, Kirk kerk Creed
Speaker 4: is coming off a bench, giving a you know, a
Speaker 4: big time change of pace at at the league guard position,
Speaker 4: and you know, and they're going to get looks. It's
Speaker 4: gonna be you know, if they if they go down.
Speaker 4: But that's that was good basketball. You know, pt attempt
Speaker 4: thirty seven twos, seventeen assists. It's they're going to play
Speaker 4: I think, good aesthetic basketball. Do they have the star
Speaker 4: power to go, you know, to to reach April? I
Speaker 4: don't know, but but yeah, I think it's gonna be
Speaker 4: good ball.
Speaker 1: It will be, and Brendan Quinn will keep an eye
Speaker 1: on it for the Athletic. You can read him online
Speaker 1: or in the pages of the New York Times. Follow
Speaker 1: him on Twitter at b F Quinn. Tell me real quickly,
Speaker 1: what is what does your slogan mean? Is that? Is
Speaker 1: that Latin at astra per alas portchie.
Speaker 4: At astra uh It translates to to the stars on
Speaker 4: the wings of a pig. And it was. It was
Speaker 4: what Steinbeck wrote on the first page of every novel
Speaker 4: he submitted to his publisher. And it was because when
Speaker 4: he was a grade school student, a teacher told him, yeah,
Speaker 4: you want to be a writer, You'll be a writer
Speaker 4: when pigs flock ah, And so he went with ashtruck
Speaker 4: rally of portste And I am no John Stepnbeck, but
Speaker 4: I did almost like basically a fail out of every
Speaker 4: class I ever took, and was called by many many people,
Speaker 4: you will not actually be a writer of any so
Speaker 4: nice reminder.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no one ever said that to me, but I'm
Speaker 1: sure they were thinking it. So I'm right there with you. Brenda.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much again. Congrats on a great piece,
Speaker 1: and I'll be looking for more of your work.
Speaker 4: I really enjoyed the conversation. Tick thank you.
Speaker 1: I remember one of the books coming up and nour
Speaker 1: number two Brian Milom, we'll talk to us about Kentucky
Speaker 1: Duke down in Atlanta, which he covered for w KYT,
Speaker 1: and we'll look ahead to the Kats and the Murray
Speaker 1: State Racers. That's all I had here on the Big
Speaker 1: bullon Siders six point thirty. W lap.
Speaker 3: Man Samer.
Speaker 1: Mag welcome back to the Big Blue and Cider, joining
Speaker 1: us on our celebrity hotline. As a guy who is
Speaker 1: well traveled and you know him well, Brian Mylm, Sports
Speaker 1: Director w KYT. Brian, I say well traveled because you
Speaker 1: have covered many many NCAA tournaments. In fact, you and
Speaker 1: I have been tethered to one another during the tournament
Speaker 1: when I was producing pre tournament specials for WKYT. But
Speaker 1: I bring that up because I was really and I
Speaker 1: wasn't there, but just watching and listening that game Tuesday night,
Speaker 1: Duke Kentucky and Atlanta kind of to me had the
Speaker 1: feel of an nca tournament game, you know, not the records,
Speaker 1: not the teams, just the way it kind of unfolded.
Speaker 1: Did it feel that way in Atlanta?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, it felt like everybody knew and this is
Speaker 4: no disrespective Michigan State and Kansas, but those fans even
Speaker 4: knew we're not the main event tonight. And I talked
Speaker 4: to several Kansas people who were in the area beside
Speaker 4: me when I was doing live shots for the early shows,
Speaker 4: and everybody was talking about Cooper flag at Duke and hey,
Speaker 4: how good is this Kentucky team. You know, this is
Speaker 4: kind of a neat story, isn't it. And as the
Speaker 4: game and I told the guy, I said, you see
Speaker 4: the crowd move in about half time of the Kansas
Speaker 4: Michigan State game, And I took a picture in the
Speaker 4: first half from up top of the arena, so many
Speaker 4: empty seats for that first game. And then if I
Speaker 4: could have got to the top prior to tip off
Speaker 4: of Duke Kentucky, you would not have seen one in PC.
Speaker 4: I mean, it was everything who wanted this game to
Speaker 4: be from a fans perspective.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know it's interesting about that you mentioned
Speaker 1: Michigan State Kansas. Not a great game, but a great
Speaker 1: performance by Hunter Dickinson. And back in the day when
Speaker 1: you and I were younger, when dinosaurs were roam the Earth.
Speaker 1: He would have been the topic of conversation, wouldn't he
Speaker 1: a big aircraft carrier who posted a double double was
Speaker 1: almost unstoppable. But instead it was a true freshman who
Speaker 1: was not should be planning his high school right now.
Speaker 1: But that's where we are now, isn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a new world and we're all trying to
Speaker 4: navigate it. And there's a lot of Christopher Columbuses out there.
Speaker 4: But it is a new world. The young man is legit.
Speaker 4: He can go question about it. But there was such
Speaker 4: an electricity in that building when Duke got off to
Speaker 4: the good start, that UK comes back. Then Duke comes back,
Speaker 4: then the UK, and I kept just being that guy.
Speaker 4: I kept thinking of Rocky too. Now it's Creed, now
Speaker 4: it's Balboa, now it's Freed. I mean. It was a
Speaker 4: back and forth blood set with dunks from Duke and
Speaker 4: then unbelievable rebounds from this guy. Well he hits a three,
Speaker 4: Kirk Krista comes in and gives a little spark, and
Speaker 4: then Amari does this thing. It was somebody seemingly different
Speaker 4: on every possession because Jackson Robinson had his work game offensively,
Speaker 4: but as mart Pope pointed out, yesterday, everybody he guarded
Speaker 4: only score two points. You know, that ridiculous spin move
Speaker 4: on the base line.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, you had to keep that in mind. That
Speaker 1: Robinson he wasn't. He didn't look like a lost ball
Speaker 1: proverbial in high weeds the way Colin Chandler did. But
Speaker 1: he did he struggled on aim. Mean, you could tell
Speaker 1: Duke shaded its defense to keep him from from getting off.
Speaker 1: But uh, he used his athleticism to contribute at the
Speaker 1: defensive end. But but to your point about the two teams,
Speaker 1: you know another cliche were sports people trading the haymakers.
Speaker 1: Great games, Brian, in my opinion, have several layers. It's
Speaker 1: not just one big run by one team, one big
Speaker 1: run by another team that can't happen, you know, the
Speaker 1: classic comebacks. But I think the best games, like I said,
Speaker 1: have those layers, have those different changes in equilibrium and momentum.
Speaker 1: And that had to feel like that in Atlanta, it
Speaker 1: sure looked like it.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And also another layer that it didn't hit me
Speaker 4: until late in the game in the first half. Duke
Speaker 4: outscored UK twenty eight to six in the eight Wow,
Speaker 4: and Kentucky, what do we know? What is Mark Pope said,
Speaker 4: this Kentucky team is gonna do We are gonna shoot
Speaker 4: three yep, we are gonna shoot threes. They I believe
Speaker 4: this is right. Somebody can go look it up. I
Speaker 4: believe UK hit only two threes in the last thirteen
Speaker 4: minutes of the game.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 4: And they did what did Kentucky do? They went to
Speaker 4: the body. They kept going, attacking the rim, attacked the
Speaker 4: rim because there have been so much talk of well, UK,
Speaker 4: you take away the three pointer, Now, what can they
Speaker 4: do against a good team? Well, we saw it. There
Speaker 4: was The passing is such It's such a marvelous thing
Speaker 4: on this ball club. We're so unselfish. Kobe Brea had
Speaker 4: that rifle passed the garrison and then Lamart Butler finds
Speaker 4: this guy and Otega, oh wait finds that guy. I mean,
Speaker 4: it's just somebody like, holy cow, this is just unreal.
Speaker 4: And it was just a joy to see UK answer
Speaker 4: the call and the favorite duke withered down the stretch.
Speaker 4: They got tired.
Speaker 1: I was about to ask you about that. Could you
Speaker 1: tell from your vantage point, because it certainly looked like
Speaker 1: it on TV that they were tiring towards the end
Speaker 1: of the first half.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I thought, you know, UK, there is one moment
Speaker 4: and I saw it last night when I was going
Speaker 4: back to label my clips from the game, and I
Speaker 4: remember seeing it in the viewfinder for literally a third
Speaker 4: of a second. But it was just that moment. Oh yeah,
Speaker 4: there's a play when UK does something and mallow watch
Speaker 4: the big seventeen student East center. He just like this side.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I just don't think I can keep
Speaker 4: going on. And and you saw Kentucky kind of like,
Speaker 4: let's go, let's goa coach McLean on the sideline, Jesus
Speaker 4: standing up, let's go get the crowd. When's the last
Speaker 4: time you saw UK coach appeal to the crowd. Come on,
Speaker 4: let's go.
Speaker 1: He's pretty cool.
Speaker 4: Oh man, Dick, I tell you what two things stood
Speaker 4: out in this game that only I know about it
Speaker 4: because where I was on the floor, right in front
Speaker 4: of the bench, yes, right on the baseline, I was
Speaker 4: in front of Travis Perry and uh for the majority
Speaker 4: of the game where he said I was Art Pope
Speaker 4: did not say one cuss word. And but you know
Speaker 4: that's almost expected from coaches these days. He was upbeat
Speaker 4: the whole game. Guys, Hey, watch for this this is
Speaker 4: gonna be there. I promise you, this is gonna be there.
Speaker 4: The but also the way the kids on the bench
Speaker 4: never stopped talking about the game. Travis Perry Colin was
Speaker 4: one of these guys. Angela Alanor was in this little group,
Speaker 4: and they were kept saying, coach, that's the same place
Speaker 4: they flipped the play.
Speaker 1: Oh wow.
Speaker 4: And then Clane looking to the smart talk to the pope. Pope,
Speaker 4: they're flipping the play. They're like, yeah, yeah, good catch,
Speaker 4: good catch. I mean, it was neat. It was a
Speaker 4: like it was as if you had seventeen coaches on
Speaker 4: the sideline and everybody saw one thing different. We're in
Speaker 4: the past sideline on the baseline, and ain't nobody saying nothing, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: oh amazing.
Speaker 1: That's what I miss you know. I I sit up
Speaker 1: near to the ceiling now, Reparina. They moved the media.
Speaker 1: I tell my friends up there, I said, the only
Speaker 1: reason we're sitting up here, they can't put us any higher,
Speaker 1: you know, because they're selling the seats on the sideline now.
Speaker 1: But the one thing I missed, because you can actually
Speaker 1: see the game pretty well. You see plays them as
Speaker 1: you know you and I sat near the ceiling at
Speaker 1: the at the house that Michael built when in Chicago
Speaker 1: when Kentucky destroyed UCLA. But you can't hear the players talking,
Speaker 1: the coaches talking, what they're yelling at the referees, how
Speaker 1: they're talking on defense. That's a world unto itself.
Speaker 4: And I love that, oh absolutely absolutely. And Kirk Crisa
Speaker 4: came off the floor once he goes, guys, that's my bad.
Speaker 4: I won't let that happen again. That's on me. That's
Speaker 4: on me. They It was incredible, Dick to hear these
Speaker 4: young men dissect certain things of the game. And Angeley
Speaker 4: said something once. Travis was beside me again and he said, hey,
Speaker 4: did you see that? Watch this curl they're going to do,
Speaker 4: And it was they were analyzing the game the way
Speaker 4: in many ways think old school people think the game
Speaker 4: should be done. We're in the past. And I'm not
Speaker 4: knocking on players of the past. I've been on that
Speaker 4: baseline and I've been next to the bench and they're
Speaker 4: not talking basketball.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well they're not as experienced. They haven't been in
Speaker 1: the past. And now you've got a masterclass literally at
Speaker 1: your feet on Kentucky basketball. And the only sad thing
Speaker 1: and I know you've already thought about this is when
Speaker 1: you guys rotate the shooting duties. I know at Reperena,
Speaker 1: you and Steve moss and Lindsey and Lee k but
Speaker 1: you're you're seated next to the opposition bench. And Mossy
Speaker 1: has told me through the years some of the interesting
Speaker 1: things and profane things that you hear at that end
Speaker 1: of the court. But I used to sit, you know,
Speaker 1: fifteen feet from the Kentucky bench and listen to what
Speaker 1: was going on there. It really is cool, isn't it.
Speaker 4: Oh? It is. And I can tell you without question,
Speaker 4: the most vulgar bench in the history of Reperrena Oka
Speaker 4: opposition of a game I've been to was Boston University
Speaker 4: a couple of years ago. I heard things that would
Speaker 4: make sailors blush and and but they're like buck Nell
Speaker 4: what They had a couple of guys down there. They
Speaker 4: were analyzing the game right state, not very talkative. But
Speaker 4: I have just fallen in love with the way this
Speaker 4: team is a throwback. Even the young guys are old
Speaker 4: in a way of in the way of thinking the games,
Speaker 4: talking the game. And you look at Travis Perry. His
Speaker 4: father's a coach, so he's gonna you'll buy it on
Speaker 4: so but you can see they are dialed in and
Speaker 4: they're all looking for something. Yeah I'm not playing. I'm
Speaker 4: not playing, and I know I'm probably not gonna play.
Speaker 4: But what can I contribute to the game that maybe
Speaker 4: will help somebody not on this next possession, but can
Speaker 4: minutes from now.
Speaker 1: Yep, that's great, just look for it.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's just constant shatter about the game. Was
Speaker 4: like being in the dugout again where everybody's uh it was.
Speaker 4: It was awesome.
Speaker 1: And by the way, not no disrespect to Boston you.
Speaker 1: But when I said, I'm not surprised, it's because doing
Speaker 1: Kentucky baseball, we had a real problem to night several
Speaker 1: years ago Kentucky played Boston College. Boston is just a
Speaker 1: tough town. It's a krusty town. It's an angry town
Speaker 1: at times. And the language we had to move our
Speaker 1: microphones off the Boston College dugout because their players were
Speaker 1: so sall we say, colorful. And you know how baseball is, man,
Speaker 1: you were a baseball player. Uh that can be even
Speaker 1: worse than basketball.
Speaker 4: Yell.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so uh yeah, be careful what you what
Speaker 1: you listen for. We'll come back and talk football with
Speaker 1: Brian Miley in just a minute here on the Big
Speaker 1: Moon Sider six thirty eight WLA. Welcome back Brian Mile
Speaker 1: and my guests, sports director w K YT and a
Speaker 1: longtime veteran of covering TV sports both in uh Lexington
Speaker 1: and in Eastern Kentucky. When he was with WYMT prior
Speaker 1: to that. I'm not, you know, not exactly prior or
Speaker 1: did you go to YMT right out of college?
Speaker 4: Yes, okay, I have two stations, Ryant and Kye.
Speaker 1: Alrighty. So Brian finished up his career at Morehead State.
Speaker 1: And I bring that up because I said, Brian was
Speaker 1: a baseball player, and you played in the Ohio Valley
Speaker 1: Conference and Murray State was an OVC team for the
Speaker 1: longest time, and about the time you got to Morehead
Speaker 1: I believe maybe a little before that or after, Murray
Speaker 1: State had some really good football teams. And it's just
Speaker 1: kind of sad where they are right now, isn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I believe when in nineteen ninety two, my freshman year,
Speaker 4: the fall of ninety two, Morehead had a three and eighteen.
Speaker 4: Not that good. Some of the individual talent was good
Speaker 4: because when they decided to go one double A non scholarship.
Speaker 4: People went to San Jose State. One young man went
Speaker 4: to Nebraska and was on their national championship teams of
Speaker 4: the mid nineties. You had guys move around, but there
Speaker 4: was a disconnect. Well, Murray State comes in and Morehead
Speaker 4: beat the brakes off of the Racers, and I believe
Speaker 4: in my college tenure that was Morehead's first ODC win
Speaker 4: my freshman year. Wow, And it was pretty bad and
Speaker 4: Murray is not. You know, it's just a tough situation
Speaker 4: over at Murray right now for football, and but for
Speaker 4: UK's purposes, Hey, we need a break, we'll take it.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, And you know this was going to
Speaker 1: be that kind of game anyway. But yeah, Murray has
Speaker 1: really struggled. And you know, back in the day, a
Speaker 1: team like that could rebuild and you know Juco's transfer
Speaker 1: for things like that, but now the transfer picture is
Speaker 1: so different. In fact, Juko's might be the only way
Speaker 1: to go for Murray State because the the n i
Speaker 1: L and the portal and all that that is really
Speaker 1: hindered kids going to junior colleges. Not to mention kids
Speaker 1: coming out of high school who may not get a
Speaker 1: look as many looks as they got prior to all
Speaker 1: this madness.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think And I said this to a coach
Speaker 4: who agreed and said that, you know, hadn't looked at
Speaker 4: it that way. But all they're doing at the D
Speaker 4: one level just recycling athletes. It's going to hurt the
Speaker 4: high school athlete who wants to go to a place
Speaker 4: like Eastern or Murray or you know, take your take
Speaker 4: your pick the situation. Hey, and if you're good enough,
Speaker 4: guess what we're going to take you out of Murray State.
Speaker 4: We're going to take you out of e k U
Speaker 4: and bring you up a level. And guess what we're
Speaker 4: going to pay you as well. You know, and you
Speaker 4: just don't have that at that level at the Murray
Speaker 4: State level of football. It's a tough blow to that
Speaker 4: division of football and the guys like Walt Wells at
Speaker 4: EKU who really turned around their season, winning on the
Speaker 4: winning on the road and at home against nationally ranked teams.
Speaker 4: They've got to get creative. And I just don't know
Speaker 4: how much creativity you have in certain levels of college football.
Speaker 4: With the way Murray is going right now, this is
Speaker 4: going to be interesting to see.
Speaker 1: First of all who plays for Kentucky. You know, do
Speaker 1: the guys who are coming back from injury, do they
Speaker 1: give them an additional week of rest basically gambling and
Speaker 1: it's a pretty good gamble that you won't need them
Speaker 1: with all due respect against Murray State. Or do you
Speaker 1: play play these guys to help knock the rust off
Speaker 1: and prepare for Texas?
Speaker 4: Yep, let's go back a couple of years. Remember when
Speaker 4: Steven Johnson was hurt and the UK is playing Austin T.
Speaker 4: And Austin T jumps out thirteen to nothing and people
Speaker 4: are are you kidding me? So Stoops has to send
Speaker 4: Johnson back into the game at quarterbacks just he was
Speaker 4: gonna rest him the whole game and some of the
Speaker 4: other guys. I think SUPs may have learned a lesson
Speaker 4: that day, saying, look, we can play all the younger
Speaker 4: guys after we get a twenty one nothing lead. Yeah,
Speaker 4: let's get the lead. Let's get some momentum for these
Speaker 4: guys who, let's say Cutter Bowley gets a lot of
Speaker 4: play tomorrow. Well, I think he would feel more comfortable
Speaker 4: at twenty one nothing maybe than nothing nothing. And you
Speaker 4: you know, you get one of those weird tip passes,
Speaker 4: a pick change, come on, and that's what happened in
Speaker 4: that Austin p game. We had weird things happen early
Speaker 4: and Stukes had to play it like an SEC game.
Speaker 4: Put everybody in, let's go, let's take their business. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 4: I'd rather see UK jump out fourteen to nothing. Then
Speaker 4: put Cutter Bowlly in. Then put that next generation of
Speaker 4: Wildcats who want to get some games in and still
Speaker 4: keep that red shirt. I'd like to see that happen.
Speaker 4: Then put the Then put in the young Cavalry.
Speaker 1: That's right here. They come over the ridge. We're gonna
Speaker 1: see what they can do. But well, you talk about
Speaker 1: a team, and people have always complained about these games,
Speaker 1: but non conference games, and could we at least play
Speaker 1: the teams in state, Well, you know that's what you're getting.
Speaker 1: But well, if ever a team needed a shot in
Speaker 1: the arm, a boost of confidence, whatever you want to
Speaker 1: call it, it's Kentucky.
Speaker 4: Yeah it is, and it really is. And they I
Speaker 4: don't think anybody saw UK at three and six through
Speaker 4: nine games. Maybe one or two people maybe, but nobody
Speaker 4: saw the Nobody saw losing to Carolina the way they did.
Speaker 4: Nobody saw losing the Vanderbilt. Nobody saw UK beating old myths.
Speaker 4: Nobody saw nearly taking out Georgia. Nobody. It's been such
Speaker 4: a discombobulated season of I didn't see that coming, yeah,
Speaker 4: And I'm sure Mark soups Is I was like, yeah,
Speaker 4: I didn't see this coming either, And it's just been
Speaker 4: a very disjointed, very awkward season for UK football.
Speaker 1: And as it turns out, South Carolina, I hate to admit,
Speaker 1: it's pretty good. Yeah, you know, an old miss now
Speaker 1: is getting some talk is maybe a dark horse for
Speaker 1: the playoffs and playoffs playoffs, that's right, but uh, you
Speaker 1: know who who is Georgia Now? We're going to find
Speaker 1: out this weekend with Tennessee, which is also pretty good.
Speaker 1: Somebody called Tennessee the new Georgia, So you know, it
Speaker 1: just goes to show you what do we know right
Speaker 1: going into the season? What does anybody know?
Speaker 4: Yeah, And that's why sometimes I get I get kind
Speaker 4: of professionally claustrophobic in making predictions, because we all we
Speaker 4: know until you get an injury or you get oh,
Speaker 4: there's that upset. Oh my gosh, who saw that happening?
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness. You know, UK had Tennessee in a
Speaker 4: position to possibly steal a win, missing three field goals.
Speaker 4: Tennessee kept open that door. They kept it open the
Speaker 4: whole game and Ducky had a chance to do something.
Speaker 4: But then you know, brock Danda Gripp goes down and
Speaker 4: he wasn't having a great game, but he was having
Speaker 4: a gutsy game. And when Kentucky has beaten Tennessee in
Speaker 4: the past, with the exception of that twenty twenty season,
Speaker 4: it's been a gutsy performance from people. But yeah, it
Speaker 4: has just been a strange season. And I know people
Speaker 4: are like, oh, you got to get rid of Stoops.
Speaker 4: You gotta do this, you gotta do that. First off,
Speaker 4: Mark Stoops has deserved a mulligan. Oh yeah, because of
Speaker 4: what he has done. But if this was to be
Speaker 4: his last season, for whatever the reason, you just don't
Speaker 4: want it to happen like this, after what he's done
Speaker 4: for the last eight, nine, ten years, you just don't
Speaker 4: want to see that. And it's just been I know
Speaker 4: it's kept him up at night. I know it has
Speaker 4: because you can sometimes see it, you can hear it
Speaker 4: in the voices. Soy have we let one get away
Speaker 4: from us? How do we do that. We didn't even
Speaker 4: show up. How do we how do we do this?
Speaker 4: You go back to the media day. They all thought, folks,
Speaker 4: we're going to be the surprise team of the SEC.
Speaker 1: They have been.
Speaker 4: They kind of have been reversed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's wearing on him. And you know it's not
Speaker 1: like when Billy Gillespie would bounce into the press conference.
Speaker 1: Well another butt kicking, you know. So, uh no, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to take you back to that. But Brian
Speaker 1: Mylam is the sports director w ky T watch for
Speaker 1: his coverage of the Wildcat football and basketball. And we
Speaker 1: will talk to you, sir. We'll see you at the ballgame.
Speaker 4: You got it, buddy, Thank you.
Speaker 1: We'll look back at an interesting week in our next
Speaker 1: half hour plus Heroes, fools and flakes here on the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Insiders six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 4: That was the week.
Speaker 1: Over, let it go? That was the week Dot was It's.
Speaker 7: Not it way up pluk But he's playing the all.
Speaker 1: That was the week. Yes, it was quite a week.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue in Sider. To Gabriel
Speaker 1: with you on a Friday, as we wrap things up.
Speaker 1: Coming up tomorrow, Kentucky football, the Wildcat's taking on the
Speaker 1: Murray State Racers. You'll hear it right here on six
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP with a one thirty kickoff. And again a reminder,
Speaker 1: this is a streaming game, so you will not see
Speaker 1: it on ESPN or the SEC Network. You'll see it
Speaker 1: on SEC Plus. But of course we invite you to
Speaker 1: listen to the radio and to help prep you for that.
Speaker 1: Pull up the Wildcat Whip. You can get it off
Speaker 1: my Facebook page, you can get it off Tom's Facebook page.
Speaker 1: You can also find it on Twitter on the UK
Speaker 1: Sports Network account or mine or Jeff Picorul's or Thom's.
Speaker 1: And we talk, of course a lot about the game
Speaker 1: coming up, shouldn't be much of a game, but also
Speaker 1: what's going on with the Wildcats right now, And in
Speaker 1: fact we talked about Murray State just really struggling this year,
Speaker 1: and as I put it to the guys, they've just
Speaker 1: had a hard time competing and they probably aren't in
Speaker 1: a position to compete tomorrow. No they don't.
Speaker 8: I remember some great e KU Murray games, Yes, in
Speaker 8: the yeah yeah, and the other thing I remember you
Speaker 8: guys will remember this. This was sixteen seventeen Steven Johnson's
Speaker 8: Hurt Yeah and they're playing Austin p and they decided
Speaker 8: to try to get through through the game without using him,
Speaker 8: and they get a pick six like maybe on the
Speaker 8: first play, and they're down like somebody else started a quarterback. Yeah,
Speaker 8: and uh uh they end up when you know, coming
Speaker 8: back and blowing them out as was expected. But you
Speaker 8: know that was, you know, a similar situation and that
Speaker 8: there's some you know question of who's going to be
Speaker 8: the starting quarterback this week because of the injury that
Speaker 8: Brock suffered in the last game down at Tennessee. And
Speaker 8: it's a much inferior opponent. So I've I thought Kentucky
Speaker 8: played I don't know, but you guys were expecting at Tennessee.
Speaker 8: I thought they really given the circumstances with their personnel losses,
Speaker 8: especially on defense and then on offense. As the game started,
Speaker 8: I really thought they played pretty well.
Speaker 1: I was amazed.
Speaker 8: I thought they were going to get annihilated, seriously, and
Speaker 8: we've covered that game before at Tennessee, and I thought
Speaker 8: the best chance they had if they were going to
Speaker 8: shock the world and get an upset, that would give
Speaker 8: them a chance to maybe keep the ball street going.
Speaker 8: I thought, well, it'll probably be it would more likely
Speaker 8: be Texas because they'd have a week off off get
Speaker 8: well game against a team like Murray and then you'd
Speaker 8: take your shot. But they played well against Tennessee, so
Speaker 8: they need now to have the get well game.
Speaker 7: I still think we have not seen the best of
Speaker 7: them yet. Ole Miss was close to being a complete game.
Speaker 7: But again in the Tennessee game, if you look back,
Speaker 7: penalties at the you know, just just killed this team,
Speaker 7: and then.
Speaker 8: And then be getting killed with turnovers. Yeah.
Speaker 7: I was gonna say the ball hits in two interceptions,
Speaker 7: hit the hands of the receiver. Yeah, I mean you
Speaker 7: just got to catch the football.
Speaker 1: What did they lack if you can remember back to
Speaker 1: the ole Miss game, because I would have thought that
Speaker 1: that was their best. We know they they came up
Speaker 1: short against Georgia a couple of plays and they win
Speaker 1: that game. But I don't know how much better could
Speaker 1: they have played against Olems. I just think given the
Speaker 1: hostile territory and all that the.
Speaker 7: One thing that's missing, and it kind of is still missing.
Speaker 7: I think through this whole season it's the chunk plays. Yeah,
Speaker 7: the big plays, and I meant one they had one,
Speaker 7: So I was gonna say they had one, you get
Speaker 7: four or five, you know when you play, when you
Speaker 7: watch it, and I hate going back to any of
Speaker 7: the top ten teams. Oregon's a great example. They get
Speaker 7: every drive it seems like that. You're like, again, they
Speaker 7: get a thirty yard pass, they get a twenty five
Speaker 7: yard run, and it's just it's hard because this offense
Speaker 7: almost has to be perfect and you see him pounding
Speaker 7: and pounding and pounding their way down the field and
Speaker 7: they just they for whatever reason, they can't spring. I mean,
Speaker 7: they've run Burrion, they've run Brown Stevens on that end
Speaker 7: a round, you know, the sweep, and they just they've
Speaker 7: been close, but they just haven't had that.
Speaker 1: That's why they scouted though. People are ready for that.
Speaker 1: But you're talking more about downfield throwing.
Speaker 8: Right, Well, they got a big chunk play at the
Speaker 8: start of the Tennessee guy on a run, So now
Speaker 8: maybe he could give you a little bit of that
Speaker 8: and maybe you get a couple of twenty plus runs
Speaker 8: in a game from him, and then you alternate him
Speaker 8: with civil Karmbay then offensively, you know, they had a
Speaker 8: tight end down the scene yep to then almost thirty
Speaker 8: yards catus, so you know maybe I thought one thing
Speaker 8: with Brock as a first time starter, he was maybe
Speaker 8: locking a little too much on Dane, who's been very
Speaker 8: good obviously, But you know, maybe I can spread the
Speaker 8: ball around a little bit more.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and again I think that this happens to every quarterback,
Speaker 7: that you get a little gun shy when you're getting
Speaker 7: pounded back there. It happened to Randy Jenkins if you
Speaker 7: remember back when when Randy was the quarterback, because he
Speaker 7: was basically doing the same thing back then. We took
Speaker 7: the step from the center and he would take his
Speaker 7: drop and turn around. There'd be two guys breathing down
Speaker 7: his neck and he just had to get rid of
Speaker 7: the ball. And that's kind of been the case here.
Speaker 7: So Brock now has gotten a little skittish back there
Speaker 7: a lot of times. The one thing that he does
Speaker 7: that it's fixable up. But a lot of quarterbacks when
Speaker 7: they try to escape, they try to get out of
Speaker 7: the pocket. What makes you don't want to compare him
Speaker 7: to Peyton Manning, but what makes a lot of great
Speaker 7: court backs great is the way they can move up
Speaker 7: in the pocket. Okay, great example is your guy Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 7: He's not fast at all, but he moves in the
Speaker 7: pocket to give himself time. He just takes a little
Speaker 7: step this way, a little step this way, step up
Speaker 7: where he can then get the pass away and it's
Speaker 7: whole feeling. Yes, yeah, that and again I think this
Speaker 7: comes from him not playing the last three years, basically
Speaker 7: that he's lost that clock in his head because how
Speaker 7: many times have we said get rid of the ball
Speaker 7: and he takes the sack. So he's learning this is
Speaker 7: again and again. If he plays this week, this is
Speaker 7: a game where he should excel. Yeah, because the one
Speaker 7: thing I noticed, Tom, and you can back me up
Speaker 7: with this. I mean they've got a linebackers one hundred
Speaker 7: and ninety seven pounds and I mean the size is
Speaker 7: just it. It's a huge and it could be a
Speaker 7: monumental difference in this game where you should be able
Speaker 7: to just plow the row.
Speaker 1: Tom Leech and Jeffricorrel and the Wildcat whip And if
Speaker 1: you like to hear the entire segment, it's a podcast
Speaker 1: take you about fifteen to twenty minutes. Just go to
Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter. UK Sports Network account has it for
Speaker 1: you on Twitter or x. Earlier this week, Sean Woods
Speaker 1: joined me as he always does. The unforgettable guard. Sean
Speaker 1: had predicted me. He shot me a text a day
Speaker 1: or two before the Duke game, and Sean has been
Speaker 1: skeptical about how this team came together, what's going to accomplishment.
Speaker 1: Having seen practice a few more times, Sean made a
Speaker 1: prediction that Kentucky would beat Duke, would pull the upset.
Speaker 1: And I had him on as I usually do.
Speaker 4: And I asked him why, Well, I got a chance
Speaker 4: to watch Duke their first two games, and I've been
Speaker 4: watching Kentucky, of course, and then you know, I've been
Speaker 4: going to practice more often here lately, and I just
Speaker 4: saw flaws and Duke from a maturity standpoint that that
Speaker 4: intrigued me. You know, one thing about Kentucky, as you
Speaker 4: saw last night and everybody else got to see, was
Speaker 4: no matter how talented these teams are in the country,
Speaker 4: I think Kentucky's head of the curve as far as
Speaker 4: continuity and playing with each other and knowing everybody's roles,
Speaker 4: you know, everybody. All these other teams are still trying
Speaker 4: to figure it out with either newcomers or transfers, and
Speaker 4: they're trying to jail whereas Mark Pope's system and what
Speaker 4: they've been doing since the summer. They're so far ahead
Speaker 4: of everybody right now. And you know, everybody who played
Speaker 4: for Kentucky last night contributed in some type of way. Yeah,
Speaker 4: there was not the only person who just couldn't get
Speaker 4: it going is jack and Robinson. And Kentucky showed last
Speaker 4: night that they could win at a high level without
Speaker 4: the person who everybody thinks is their best player.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and didn't Jackson Robinson just his presence force
Speaker 1: Duke to adjust its defense a little bit and account
Speaker 1: for him, which left other people opportunities to do things.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, but you know, the thing about it
Speaker 4: was that that I wasn't impressed with with him was
Speaker 4: he didn't compete like I wanted him to, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean. No, I really don't think, you know.
Speaker 4: And you know last night they were better with him
Speaker 4: off the floor than on the floor. He just couldn't
Speaker 4: get a rhythm. I think, you know, his flaw is,
Speaker 4: you know, if you get up in him, he has trouble,
Speaker 4: you know, as long as he can make open shots.
Speaker 4: And I think it's you know, because of the frustrations
Speaker 4: and how the game went, he had a couple of
Speaker 4: times to hit Daggers to either put Kentucky up or
Speaker 4: whatever wide up in jump shots that he has made
Speaker 4: thus far, and they weren't even close. So what I'm
Speaker 4: saying is this is a veteran team and a glue
Speaker 4: team already, and we're just now getting started. I'm just
Speaker 4: amazed and really looking forward to how good this team
Speaker 4: could be.
Speaker 1: Sean Woods from our show earlier this week, when the
Speaker 1: Unforgettable Guard told me why he had predicted Kentucky would
Speaker 1: be Duke, and again, Sean was skeptical early because of
Speaker 1: the way this team came together. It's a Kentucky team
Speaker 1: that does not have, at least it doesn't look as
Speaker 1: though it has a lottery pick, maybe a first round
Speaker 1: draft pick in one of these guys. But you know,
Speaker 1: Duke's got the glossy, glittering freshman class. But Kentucky had
Speaker 1: guys who knew how to get things done down the stretch,
Speaker 1: and that's why Kentucky won it. Earlier today, something popped
Speaker 1: up on Instagram. It was a melt, basically a combination
Speaker 1: of comments from Mark Pope and John Caliperi from a
Speaker 1: couple of their respective news conferences. I have gotten tired
Speaker 1: of all the Calipery comparisons. When it comes to way
Speaker 1: people right, and it's very predictable. Right after the Duke game.
Speaker 1: No way cali Perry wins this game. Well maybe not
Speaker 1: because he probably would have a roster full of freshmen
Speaker 1: and they wouldn't have known how to win it. But
Speaker 1: how will this Kentucky team play in March versus the
Speaker 1: Caliperi teams? Lately they haven't played very well. But what
Speaker 1: somebody had fun with news conferences given by Pope and
Speaker 1: by Calipery. They couldn't be more different. And here's an example.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna give you a long answer because I actually
Speaker 2: care about this.
Speaker 3: Uh give it to Jimmy and finitesimal.
Speaker 2: Amount of of other areas. But we're spent a lot
Speaker 2: of time right now obviously talking about our total player load,
Speaker 2: a load number that's really heavy inactive load, which is
Speaker 2: kind of all the extraneous stuff.
Speaker 7: The ball goes around a perimeter, what why would you
Speaker 7: do that?
Speaker 2: They'll like run three peals in a row.
Speaker 1: Three?
Speaker 2: She was really good off the bounds, had a great
Speaker 2: baseline blind cut where he was getting some action away
Speaker 2: from the ball.
Speaker 7: How about this thought make a three.
Speaker 2: When I say the words, it sounds pretty trite and
Speaker 2: maybe a little bit raw.
Speaker 5: It takes me out every time we make a mistake.
Speaker 4: No I don't.
Speaker 2: But it breaks down into jumping load and running load
Speaker 2: and dynamic load in the active load. And these are
Speaker 2: kind of like thirty thousand foot concepts and so getting
Speaker 2: them into like hard fast data is complicated.
Speaker 7: How about that statement, that's pretty much spot on.
Speaker 1: Mark is big time into analytics, and a lot of
Speaker 1: his answers are very if you will, analytical. Caliperi has
Speaker 1: always been really animated, and I do think after all
Speaker 1: these years, Caliperry's just bored talking to the media. He's
Speaker 1: done it for so long, and that's why he doesn't
Speaker 1: do pregame press conferences, even in Arkansas. I quit doing
Speaker 1: them at Kentucky. And partly though it's his fault, because
Speaker 1: we would ask him questions that he would not answer.
Speaker 1: People criticize the media, why don't they ask him a
Speaker 1: tough question. It doesn't matter what you ask him. He's
Speaker 1: going to say what he wants, but sometimes the question
Speaker 1: deserves a direct answer. He didn't always go there, and
Speaker 1: that's what got really frustrating. So we get direct answers
Speaker 1: from Mark Pope. They are much appreciated, but don't be
Speaker 1: surprised if they do get a little dry. And that's
Speaker 1: just the way sometimes his mind works. It's fascinating, but
Speaker 1: the differences couldn't be greater, not to say that one's
Speaker 1: better than the other. And now the Arkansas media are
Speaker 1: asking each other, what did he just say? Heroes, fools
Speaker 1: and flakes? Next six thirty eight WAP.
Speaker 7: That was the weeklaw over, let it Go, that was
Speaker 7: the week tuck It's sided way.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue and Cider, final segment
Speaker 1: of our program. My thanks tonight to Brendan Quinn of
Speaker 1: the Athletic and Brian Milem from WKYT time only for heroes,
Speaker 1: fools and Flakes and our hero tonight, well heroes plural.
Speaker 1: And this may sound a little odd Philadelphia Eagles fans,
Speaker 1: that's right there, as tough as it gets in all
Speaker 1: the professional sports. And we could have easually flipped this
Speaker 1: to a fool being the New York Giants. But I
Speaker 1: love the fact that the Eagles fans last night, late
Speaker 1: in the game with the Washington Commanders, began to chant
Speaker 1: thank you Giants for Saquon Barkley. Remember he signed that
Speaker 1: six year deal, I'm sorry, three year deal worth almost
Speaker 1: thirty eight million dollars. He had one hundred and forty
Speaker 1: six yards those two fourth quarter touchdowns, and why the
Speaker 1: Giants let him go? I mean, and then if you
Speaker 1: watched Hard Knocks, they were like, well, we just can't
Speaker 1: really sign him, can we? And yet they stick with
Speaker 1: Daniel Jones when in fact, when given a chance behind
Speaker 1: a decent line, healthy Saquon Barkley is as good as
Speaker 1: it gets in the National Football League and the Giant
Speaker 1: let him go to an intradivisional opponent. So yeah, they
Speaker 1: were fools, But the Eagles fans appreciated the moment last
Speaker 1: night absolutely and Shannon, thank you Giants for Saquon Barkley,
Speaker 1: who may carry them to the Super Bowl. Our fool
Speaker 1: tonight is Jake Paul, not just for stepping into the
Speaker 1: ring with Mike Tyson. Look, Jake Paul is a professional fighter.
Speaker 1: He is a cruiserweight. Might be best known for his
Speaker 1: YouTube videos, and back when vine was popular, he had
Speaker 1: like more than five million viewers. I don't know what
Speaker 1: kind of fighter he is. I know he's all tatted
Speaker 1: up of course, so as Tyson, but Jake Paul in
Speaker 1: addition to getting into the ring with Tyson, he's what
Speaker 1: forty plus years old, he has bet on himself. He
Speaker 1: has bet his entire take his share of the loop
Speaker 1: for this fight, the purse share for him forty million dollars.
Speaker 1: He has decided he would put that up against the
Speaker 1: notion that he would win over Mike. Tyson's who is
Speaker 1: basically betting money doesn't have I guess he has it,
Speaker 1: but it hasn't been earned yet. He's betting forty million
Speaker 1: dollars that he will beat like Tyson. This is literally
Speaker 1: nothing ventured, nothing game our flake. Tonight, we're actually stepping
Speaker 1: away from sports and we're turning to the world of
Speaker 1: science because scientists have discovered a marine creature that, as
Speaker 1: they put it, basically can time travel. This species defies
Speaker 1: the natural limits of aging, how because it basically ages
Speaker 1: in reverse. It's called the comb jellyfish, and the nickname
Speaker 1: is the time traveling comb jellyfish. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: try to read the Latin name for it, but it
Speaker 1: defies aging by reverting its adult form back to larval stage.
Speaker 1: It turns the clock back on its life cycle in
Speaker 1: a way scientists have never observed. You got to wonder
Speaker 1: who started the research on this, who figured this out?
Speaker 1: This is why sidedists are awesome. And somewhere somebody with
Speaker 1: more money than since is already trying to take steps
Speaker 1: to see if he can figure out how this works.
Speaker 1: It's almost like a bad movie. So he can steal
Speaker 1: one of these things and inject it into himself and
Speaker 1: live forever. Here's a good movie, a plot for you.
Speaker 7: I to do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much. Enjoy college football tomorrow as the Wildcats
Speaker 1: take on Murray State at a one thirty kick. You'll
Speaker 1: hear it right here. That's a good night from the
Speaker 1: garage in Lexington.
Speaker 6: I'm sorry, what was that again.
Speaker 3: I'm a god, God, I'm a guy.
Speaker 2: I'm not the guy.
Speaker 4: I don't think
Speaker 3: Manana