Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and Sider. Dick Gabriel with
Speaker 1: you on a Monday edition of our show. This is
Speaker 1: the usual Big Blue Insider, not the state wide because
Speaker 1: of basketball. Tomorrow on the road, the Wildcats take on
Speaker 1: Clemson part of the acc SEC Challenge. It is listed
Speaker 1: as a.
Speaker 2: Nine to thirty start. You know what that means.
Speaker 1: It'll be closer to ten o'clock. But just stay up
Speaker 1: a little later, you know, pot of coffee, all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Catcher seven to zero.
Speaker 1: Just an incredible start for Mark Pope's team. Maybe not
Speaker 1: that surprising given the schedule. With all due respect, but
Speaker 1: I don't know how many people expected the Wildcats to
Speaker 1: be duke or to average one hundred points a game
Speaker 1: at home ninety five plus overall. Don't know if the
Speaker 1: Cats will get that at Clemson. But whatever happens, you'll
Speaker 1: hear it right here on six thirty WLAP tomorrow night
Speaker 1: with Tom Leach and with Jack Gibbons, who's having the
Speaker 1: time of his life watching these kids shoot the basketball.
Speaker 1: It's just so much fun. And I've I've teased him
Speaker 1: here on the show. I just love hearing Jack giggle
Speaker 1: when when the shots start going down and you know,
Speaker 1: he's never met a shot he didn't like. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been a lot of fun so far. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's the man. Now. The women play an ACC team.
Speaker 1: They play at North Carolina. They go to Chapel Hill
Speaker 1: on Thursday, and we'll have that one for you right
Speaker 1: here as well. Darren Hedrick as the action for you
Speaker 1: at five pm, four forty five pregame UK women. Kenny
Speaker 1: Brooks his team off to a great start as well.
Speaker 1: Volleyball begins on Thursday as well. The Wildcats last night
Speaker 1: learned that they will indeed host. They'll play Cleveland State
Speaker 1: coming up a little bit later on. We're gonna hear
Speaker 1: from Craig Skinner. We'll have more on from the players tomorrow.
Speaker 1: But we got a lot to do tonight, a lot
Speaker 1: to talk about, So we'll hear from Craig Skinner later on.
Speaker 1: About drawing into the seam they call it a quarter
Speaker 1: the regional whatever, with Pittsburgh top seeded, top ranked, and
Speaker 1: guess who plays Pittsburgh to open up Morehead State.
Speaker 2: That's right, So you got UK.
Speaker 1: In the tournament, u OFL hosting Morehead State, and Western
Speaker 1: Kentucky is back in the tournament, so the state of
Speaker 1: Kentucky well represented when it comes to college volleyball.
Speaker 2: Need to get the football.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna keep talking about football for a while
Speaker 1: because there's a lot to do. If your Mark sto
Speaker 1: if you know this, but an embarrassing performance against the
Speaker 1: Cardinals of Louisville on Saturday, very disappointing, and I picked
Speaker 1: Kentucky by one point in the harrowd Leaders survey. But
Speaker 1: what I said was presuming Kentucky goes plus two or
Speaker 1: better in turnovers, otherwise it could be a long afternoon.
Speaker 1: And guess what they turned the ball over.
Speaker 2: It was horrible.
Speaker 1: The way Kentucky turned the ball over never gave itself
Speaker 1: a chance. Plus, it couldn't stop the run. Even if
Speaker 1: the Wildcats don't turn it over, I don't know that
Speaker 1: they win because they could not stop the run, which
Speaker 1: is something they did so well early in the years.
Speaker 1: This has been an incredibly frustrating, as you know, and
Speaker 1: confusing team compared to what Mark Stoops.
Speaker 2: Has had in the past.
Speaker 1: And that in mind our friend Mark's story asked a
Speaker 1: great question in the postgame press conference. I wasn't there,
Speaker 1: but I watched it after the fact, and he talked
Speaker 1: about the fact that Stoops teams have been known in
Speaker 1: the past for discipline and finishing games. That's why one
Speaker 1: of the reasons his program has been so successful. And
Speaker 1: we didn't see it this year, did we? And Mark
Speaker 1: Stoops admitted as much.
Speaker 3: Oh, I think this year, you know, we didn't do
Speaker 3: a good enough job in an in any area. You know,
Speaker 3: there's just no ways around it. You know, we we
Speaker 3: failed in that area. You know, we didn't have the
Speaker 3: discipline that we needed. You know, we didn't play as
Speaker 3: good as we needed to. We didn't have a you know,
Speaker 3: as there's every level needs to improve, you know, an
Speaker 3: accountability needs to happen.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: I think again I've mentioned it.
Speaker 3: I think you've seen that, you know, throughout the sec
Speaker 3: the difficulty of just just constantly thinking.
Speaker 5: You're going to go to a bowl game every year. Again,
Speaker 5: it's good.
Speaker 3: I think it's three of sixteen teams have gone to
Speaker 3: eight straight. So we've we've been pretty consistent, you know,
Speaker 3: to that, I'll defend you know what I mean this
Speaker 3: year there is no defense on that. You know, I
Speaker 3: agree with you. It's just not good enough. You know,
Speaker 3: It's not like you know, we don't know how to
Speaker 3: how to do it. You know, we got to have
Speaker 3: good players, we have to have good coaches. We got
Speaker 3: to all do our part, and you know that that
Speaker 3: part excites me.
Speaker 1: Toward the end of the news conference, somebody asked Duops
Speaker 1: about the fact that the fan frustration is really whipped
Speaker 1: up now on social media and elsewhere, and Stoop said
Speaker 1: he understands the frustration. He is as frustrated as the
Speaker 1: fans are.
Speaker 5: I could promise you that we're going to get back
Speaker 5: to work. We'll get it fixed.
Speaker 3: And you know, the the misery index, you know, goes around.
Speaker 5: You know, it goes around.
Speaker 3: And you know, for myself, you know it.
Speaker 5: You know, I've been around a long time, and I'm.
Speaker 3: Really concerned and concentrating and excited about the rebuild.
Speaker 5: Fans got to wait a long time.
Speaker 3: You know, I get to go to work tomorrow, and
Speaker 3: for that, I understand it, accept it, and I could
Speaker 3: promise you we'll go to work to get the team
Speaker 3: back to being a team that they could be.
Speaker 5: Very proud of.
Speaker 1: After the news conference, Stoops comes upstairs. This is the
Speaker 1: way it works every day or every Saturday and does
Speaker 1: as ready show with Tom. So that's why sometimes on
Speaker 1: the radio. He refers to his news conference, but he's
Speaker 1: already got his thoughts in order, and he's been talking
Speaker 1: about changes for quite some time because well, they have
Speaker 1: to be made obviously, not just in the way they
Speaker 1: do things, but personnel. They've not done a great job
Speaker 1: lately within the portal identifying players and you know, doing
Speaker 1: the best you can with them. So he talked to
Speaker 1: Tom about the fact that almost immediately changes would begin
Speaker 1: within the program, but don't look for a change at
Speaker 1: the top of the coaching staff.
Speaker 5: There's going to.
Speaker 3: Be you know, new you know, incoming freshmen, there's going
Speaker 3: to be incoming portal, and there's probably going to be
Speaker 3: some surprises, let's be honest, and and and there's going
Speaker 3: to be a surprise and uh and you know again,
Speaker 3: we won't flinch. It's not like we're gonna like it
Speaker 3: or anything. If you lose somebody, you don't want to
Speaker 3: but it's not the end all be ah. It's like,
Speaker 3: you know, there's ways to replace you know, everybody, And
Speaker 3: you know, I don't want to say that about.
Speaker 5: Me right now, because everybody will jump on that bandwagon.
Speaker 6: Tell me if it.
Speaker 3: Replaced me, everybody wants to replace me, right now, but
Speaker 3: I'm not going anywhere. My butt is going to work
Speaker 3: tomorrow and I'm gonna try, and I'm gonna be motivated
Speaker 3: as hell to get get this thing fixed and get better.
Speaker 3: So anybody that's wishful thinking that I'm not gonna be
Speaker 3: able tomorrow's has got the wrong wish because my butt
Speaker 3: will be in my office and we will. I can
Speaker 3: promise you we will attack this offseason and there's nothing
Speaker 3: for under lighthearted about it.
Speaker 5: But I know, you know, if you can't laugh at.
Speaker 3: Yourself for a moment, you know what I mean, then heck,
Speaker 3: you know I know, I know it's I know it hurts.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: I said it in my press conference. I so appreciate
Speaker 3: the fan base.
Speaker 1: And I have to admit Big Blue Nation. I was
Speaker 1: surprised and delighted and then mortified all in one afternoon
Speaker 1: on your behalf because I just didn't think there'd be
Speaker 1: much of a crowd.
Speaker 2: I thought there would.
Speaker 1: Be more Louisville fans quite frankly, but I know from
Speaker 1: talking to my friends and relatives over the Thanksgiving weekend
Speaker 1: that they were bracing themselves for another major letdown against Kentucky.
Speaker 1: They are so tired of seeing their team lose the UK.
Speaker 1: They weren't nearly as confident as Harry Douglas was. I
Speaker 1: saw him on one of the shows, probably ESPN. But basically,
Speaker 1: Harry Douglas was a terrific receiver in college and played
Speaker 1: a long time in the pros and I had forgotten this.
Speaker 1: But in this Stev got a loose game in seven
Speaker 1: Harry Douglas caught three touchdown passes. So that game still
Speaker 1: frustrates him, and naturally he was going to predict when
Speaker 1: they asked him, Yeah, it's a big Louisville win. But
Speaker 1: I didn't hear much of that from Louisville fans because,
Speaker 1: as I said, Kentucky's owned Louisville of late plus every year.
Speaker 1: Jeff Brohm's team every year's only been there a couple
Speaker 1: of years. But it happened to Purdue. They pull off
Speaker 1: a big upset and then lose to a weaker team. So,
Speaker 1: as one of my relatives said, we don't know which
Speaker 1: Louisville team is going to show up. Well, the good
Speaker 1: one did and the bad Kentucky team showed up. And
Speaker 1: Stoop's talked about discipline lack. He's talked about it for
Speaker 1: the last several weeks, lack of on field discipline, lack
Speaker 1: of leadership from older players, and I had heard some
Speaker 1: whispers about that coming from practice.
Speaker 2: It was a bad mix. That's what happens with.
Speaker 1: Teams sometimes, and that's on the coaching staff because they're
Speaker 1: the ones who mixed it up.
Speaker 2: They have really no perfect way of knowing.
Speaker 1: What it's going to be like when you pull players
Speaker 1: out of the portal, mix them with veterans, throwing some freshmen.
Speaker 1: In the past, they've had tremendous success, ten wins success.
Speaker 1: You get a guy like Courtney Love from Nebraska, didn't
Speaker 1: get to play a whole lot of Nebraska, played really
Speaker 1: well at Kentucky. They get a former All American, well
Speaker 1: once on an All American always Pops Johnson from Georgia.
Speaker 1: He spends much of the year injured, so never really
Speaker 1: got a chance to play the way we expected him
Speaker 1: to play, with the kind of skill set that brought
Speaker 1: him to Georgia and made him an All American. And
Speaker 1: by the way, you got to throw in the fact
Speaker 1: that Eric Jackson was hurt, and I know it sounds
Speaker 1: like an excuse, but he was the pivot man when
Speaker 1: it comes to the run defense, communicating and making plays.
Speaker 1: That was a big, big setback losing him at first
Speaker 1: we thought for a week or two, then the rest
Speaker 1: of the year that's what happened. But to me, one
Speaker 1: of the biggest problems and it will keep up on
Speaker 1: being a problem with Mark Stoops and his staff unless
Speaker 1: they figure out a better way to evaluate talent in
Speaker 1: the portal, is the fact that we're now in the
Speaker 1: portal era. That's not going away. There may be some
Speaker 1: guardrails put up for nil, but the portal's not going away.
Speaker 1: They may tweak it a little bit, but you're going
Speaker 1: to keep on seeing player movement like this, and it's
Speaker 1: going to be vital to college sports. And what that did,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, was.
Speaker 2: It removed one of the.
Speaker 1: Great advantages that Stoops and company enjoyed as they built
Speaker 1: this program. You saw it when he arrived.
Speaker 2: They weren't very good. What were they no?
Speaker 1: Then they started adding players, good players, and they got
Speaker 1: better every year after that second year they improved. They
Speaker 1: got better and better and better because as they were
Speaker 1: adding good players whom they had evaluated properly as high
Speaker 1: school recruits, and many of them were two and three stars.
Speaker 1: But they started landing some four stars thanks to Vince
Speaker 1: Merrow and Mark Stoops. The bottom line was the talent
Speaker 1: level grew, and as the talent level grew, the ceiling raised,
Speaker 1: and so did the floor.
Speaker 2: They rebuilt this program, they rebuilt the culture, and it
Speaker 2: took a while.
Speaker 1: But they did it the way good programs do. They
Speaker 1: brought in. People would always ask me, what's going on
Speaker 1: in Kentucky? Why are they so much better now?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 1: I see, I shrug, better players, better players, and more
Speaker 1: of them depth because they could go out and make
Speaker 1: it happen with recruiting, evaluation, coaching, game plans. Well, how
Speaker 1: do you put together a game plan every year?
Speaker 2: With the new OC.
Speaker 1: Stoops talked about quite a bit with Tom Leech and
Speaker 1: in his press conference a lack of continuity on offense
Speaker 1: at times that was crippling, and not to put everything
Speaker 1: at the feet of a group, but the offensive line
Speaker 1: has come nowhere near the quality of the old big
Speaker 1: Blue wall. And there were two or three big Blue
Speaker 1: walls that had really good years and then injuries and
Speaker 1: coaching changes and misevaluations and the old line just could
Speaker 1: not keep up. Some guys did, some guys didn't, and
Speaker 1: that is the heart of your team because obviously it
Speaker 1: decides how long you're going to be on the field offensively,
Speaker 1: moving the change, scoring points, but it also dictates how
Speaker 1: long your defense will be on the field, and Kentucky's
Speaker 1: defense this year spent way too much time on the field.
Speaker 1: The best defense is less defense, and you go back
Speaker 1: and look at the most successful stoops teams, Fewer minutes
Speaker 1: on the field for the defense, and better field position
Speaker 1: for the offense. I would love to break it down,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure somebody will field positioned consistently. This year
Speaker 1: for Kentucky was terrible, and with an offense that was sputtering.
Speaker 1: That's why you're averaging, That's what it's amazing if they
Speaker 1: got more than twenty points in one game.
Speaker 2: There's a lot to do and we're going to talk.
Speaker 1: About it over the next few weeks, you and I
Speaker 1: and we'll have a lot of guests on to chat
Speaker 1: about it as well. But here I'll leave you with
Speaker 1: this thought, if you go to the break, I came
Speaker 1: to realize that people talk about it's Kentucky just a
Speaker 1: basketball school. No, you know why it's a football school now?
Speaker 1: Because you had a clunker of a season right. That
Speaker 1: followed a lot of success. Eight straight Bowl games, back
Speaker 1: to back seven wins seasons that back in the day
Speaker 1: people thought was absolutely impossible, and prior to those, a
Speaker 1: ten wins season. And yet Kentucky fans want to fire
Speaker 1: their coach. Now that's what happens at football schools. If
Speaker 1: you don't win eight, nine, ten games, fire the coach.
Speaker 1: Now you know you're a football school. Back to talkson
Speaker 1: volleyball live here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Big Blue and Sider. It is tournament time for
Speaker 1: the UK volleyball team, and I'm sure you know by
Speaker 1: now they will host. The Wildcats will a subregional Kentucky
Speaker 1: at number three seed in the Volleyball Championship Tournament and
Speaker 1: the Cats will host Western Kentucky, Minnesota, and Cleveland State
Speaker 1: this week. Matches are on Thursday, beginning at four thirty
Speaker 1: with Minnesota and Western Kentucky. Then the Wildcats at seven
Speaker 1: o'clock take on Cleveland State, and the championship match for
Speaker 1: the sub regional the next night at seven point thirty.
Speaker 1: If you can't get the historic Memorial Coliseum, well, the
Speaker 1: Wildcats will be on ESPN Plus and the ESPN app
Speaker 1: twentieth consecutive tournament appearance under head coach Craig Skinner, who,
Speaker 1: by the way, is the SEC Coach of the Year
Speaker 1: once again. Brooklyn Delay is the Player of the year.
Speaker 1: Last year she was Freshman of the Year. Now she's
Speaker 1: Player of the Year. This is twenty five trips now
Speaker 1: to the NCA Tournament for the Wildcats, and of course,
Speaker 1: back in the COVID year twenty twenty which stretched over
Speaker 1: into the spring of twenty one, the Wildcats won the
Speaker 1: national championship. Each of the last two years they got
Speaker 1: to the sweet sixteen, and quite frankly, last year a
Speaker 1: lot of us thought the Cats would go farther than
Speaker 1: the sweet sixteen. They did too, but it didn't happen.
Speaker 1: They're looking to go farther this time. Oh and I
Speaker 1: told just seven seven thirty whatever on Friday that could
Speaker 1: potentially change based on what they call TV selection. So
Speaker 1: I'll have the information for you here and on Twitter
Speaker 1: so well. UK Volleyball on Twitter and at UK Athletics
Speaker 1: dot com. Craig Skinner and his team meeting last night
Speaker 1: at the Coliseum to watch the selection show, and it
Speaker 1: was not one of the teams that had a live
Speaker 1: camera pointed at it, like, for instance, Morehead State, which
Speaker 1: got the short straw, the shortest straw of all. The
Speaker 1: Eagles will play Pittsburgh in pittsburgh opening game. Pittsburgh, top seeded,
Speaker 1: top ranked Moreheads say, look, just take a set off
Speaker 1: the Panthers and go from there.
Speaker 2: But that's gonna be tough.
Speaker 1: Pitt is really really good. But you know, you got
Speaker 1: to see Moreheads kids celebrating some of the other teams
Speaker 1: as well. But Kentucky's become such a fixture now in
Speaker 1: the nca tournament that they don't burst into chairs. You know,
Speaker 1: they applauded, they were happy, they smiled, They knew they
Speaker 1: were gonna host, they knew they'd be in a tournament,
Speaker 1: and now they want to get down to business.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Craig Skinner talked to us afterwards and told us how
Speaker 1: Kentucky's first opponent he knows the coach pretty well.
Speaker 6: Well, it's cool because a guy used to play against
Speaker 6: in college is the head coach at Cleveland State, so
Speaker 6: we get to relive a little rivalry here. But Chuck
Speaker 6: Voss is a friend of mine and we played against
Speaker 6: he was at Ohio State. I was at ball State,
Speaker 6: So we had some rivalries, but I mean it's every
Speaker 6: team in this tournament has a challenging draw in one
Speaker 6: way or fashion or another, and you know ours is
Speaker 6: no different. And you know, get the chance to play
Speaker 6: at home, which is awesome, and be in front of
Speaker 6: our crowd again or a home crowd again. And you know,
Speaker 6: on the other side with Western and Minnesota, both have
Speaker 6: proven to be good team. So the challenges is beating
Speaker 6: Cleveland State and then then moving on to the next
Speaker 6: tough challenge.
Speaker 1: So Chuck Voss, the head coach at Cleveland State, leading
Speaker 1: his team to its sixth Horizon League Tournament championship. On Sunday.
Speaker 1: Cleveland State be Green Bay three to two to win
Speaker 1: the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It was
Speaker 1: the first for the Since the twenty seventeen season. Voss
Speaker 1: has coached Cleveland State to all six of its Horizon
Speaker 1: League Tournament titles. Liebro Emma Walker for Cleveland State was
Speaker 1: named the tournament MVP. So we'll, I'm sure say that
Speaker 1: name a lot, including Niah Hall or Nia Hall and
Speaker 1: Lake and Voss both made the All Tournament team. Kentucky
Speaker 1: should win, but you just never know. In a sport
Speaker 1: like volleyball, where momentum changes so quickly. It's unlike any
Speaker 1: sport I've ever covered. So again Thursday and Friday, we'll
Speaker 1: have it for you in ESPN. Plus the Wildcats opening
Speaker 1: up with Cleveland State after Minnesota, and Western Kentucky, which
Speaker 1: has a really good team.
Speaker 2: Square up, a boy, the Big ten is really really good.
Speaker 2: Up next.
Speaker 1: Ken Spencer of WHAS six thirty WLAP welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Big Blue in Sider joining us now is a
Speaker 1: longtime buddy and friend of the show. And as I
Speaker 1: always say, a guy knows what it's like to get
Speaker 1: hit in the mouth and a foot college football game.
Speaker 1: That is Ken Spencer of whs over in Louisville formerly
Speaker 1: WTVQ here in Lexington. And as I mentioned before, Kid,
Speaker 1: in your job, you cover both ends of the interstate,
Speaker 1: and you and I have talked all season long about
Speaker 1: how this Kentucky football program.
Speaker 2: Is just sagging. Can I assume you weren't surprised by
Speaker 2: the outcome Saturday?
Speaker 7: Actually I was a little surprised. My final score prediction
Speaker 7: was Louisville twenty eight fourteen, okay going into the game,
Speaker 7: so I was not surprised that Louisville won. I was
Speaker 7: not surprised that they were. They won by a couple
Speaker 7: of touchdowns, but I was generally surprised with just the
Speaker 7: complete physical dominance in the game by the Cards over
Speaker 7: the Cats.
Speaker 4: And look, I.
Speaker 7: Didn't think that Louisville was going to win despite Kentucky
Speaker 7: being the much more physical team. Like I just if
Speaker 7: you never really see that out of this Kentucky football team,
Speaker 7: can't expect them to show that kind of dominance over anybody.
Speaker 7: I mean, think about how many times Murray State got
Speaker 7: for the quarterback, let you know, to go yeah, and
Speaker 7: so so I wasn't surprised about that, but I was.
Speaker 7: I was certainly surprised by that dominant physically in the
Speaker 7: game and just how easy it look like we kind
Speaker 7: of talked about like, look, Kentucky just kind of looks
Speaker 7: like a team that's just ready for the season to end.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: They played like it, yeah, looking for a place to
Speaker 2: fall down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know through the years, and I was,
Speaker 1: I've talked about this last week. Buddy of mine and
Speaker 1: my brother always look them up in Louisville at the
Speaker 1: U of L game, and they.
Speaker 2: Always said the same thing. Your linemen are so big.
Speaker 2: I don't know if size was the difference, but certainly execution.
Speaker 1: And attitude were the difference in the trenches on Saturday,
Speaker 1: were they not.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And I think that's kind of been a I
Speaker 7: think that's kind of been a sign of a lot
Speaker 7: of things over the course of this season in for
Speaker 7: this Kentucky football team. I mean, you know, we make
Speaker 7: so much out of you know, the cast offensive line
Speaker 7: and not being able to protect the quarterback. I think,
Speaker 7: you know, generally speaking like yards per rush, you know,
Speaker 7: I think they were fine this year in that department.
Speaker 7: There was a couple of things. You know, they didn't
Speaker 7: break big runs, and they were really poor on short
Speaker 7: yarded situations, you know, And those two departments I think
Speaker 7: that they were they were lacking. But you know, in
Speaker 7: the in the general like down and distant stuff. I mean,
Speaker 7: I think they were fine getting the three the five
Speaker 7: to six yard runs and maybe you know, just a
Speaker 7: little bit longer than that every now and again. But
Speaker 7: those two departments they just weren't good. But you know what,
Speaker 7: like the defensive line wasn't very good this year either. No,
Speaker 7: I mean, you know, in case in point, and I
Speaker 7: think Louisville and I mentioned and I after the game,
Speaker 7: I think I asked Louisville conning back to Duke Watson
Speaker 7: and true freshman running back at that I said, did
Speaker 7: you see anything from their game against Texas that allowed
Speaker 7: you that made you think you could have some success?
Speaker 7: And he was like absolutely, because if you look back
Speaker 7: at that Texas game, I mean that defensive line and
Speaker 7: linebacker corps was just absolutely dashed the entire game into
Speaker 7: the running game. And in fact, when they got close
Speaker 7: and made it a game, Texas just ran the football
Speaker 7: all the way down the field. I mean we're talking like,
Speaker 7: you know, seven, eight, nine, ten yard runs each and
Speaker 7: every play, and that's just not something that you're accustomed
Speaker 7: to see from this defense.
Speaker 4: Just was the case this year.
Speaker 1: And you know, after that game, Van Hiles, who you
Speaker 1: probably know, I don't know if you've ever talked to Van,
Speaker 1: but former Kentucky d back analyzes a video on the internet.
Speaker 1: He said, that Texas game really illustrated just how much,
Speaker 1: to your point, they missed Eric Jackson. You know, not
Speaker 1: that one guy's to stop everything, but as you know,
Speaker 1: there's a ripple effect. You know, he knew he knows
Speaker 1: where to be or at least knew where to be
Speaker 1: and when, and he could execute.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, I thought Kentucky's tackling against Texas and at
Speaker 1: times against Louisville was so poor. You know, Texas running
Speaker 1: back to bouncing off people that didn't happen with Jackson.
Speaker 2: So plus they're worn down as well.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and think about think about this. You know, sometimes
Speaker 7: it's football can be a game of a half a second. Yeah,
Speaker 7: and Derek Jackson is somebody who's who's seen it all.
Speaker 7: And so if you're there, you know, a second or
Speaker 7: you know, not even a second, but if you're there
Speaker 7: like a half second sooner, yeah, you know, the plays
Speaker 7: completely stopped. If you're a half second lay, the game's
Speaker 7: going for ten or more yards. And so you know,
Speaker 7: I think you you probably saw a lot of that. Yeah,
Speaker 7: I mean Derek Jackson not being in the lineup absolutely,
Speaker 7: you know, completely stuffed him. But you know, even even
Speaker 7: him not being there at line backer, like you know,
Speaker 7: the front four, I mean, it just it wasn't a
Speaker 7: good day for them, you know, at all. And it
Speaker 7: really wasn't a good season for that unit.
Speaker 1: No, no, And you know the craziest thing was after
Speaker 1: the Old Miss win, for the next week or two.
Speaker 1: Can I heard some of the regional and national talking
Speaker 1: heads speaking of the Kentucky defense and using words like
Speaker 1: elite and when you go back and look at what
Speaker 1: they did against Georgia in ole, miss, I think that
Speaker 1: was fair. And then the bottom just fell out. Injuries
Speaker 1: took their toll. Uh, the offense left the defense out
Speaker 1: on a field.
Speaker 2: For so long. So yeah, it was not clearly not
Speaker 2: a typical mark shoots defense.
Speaker 7: No, not no. And you're right, you know you mentioned
Speaker 7: national talking heads. I mean honestly, like I said that
Speaker 7: about Kentucky's defense.
Speaker 2: Familiar national you're big.
Speaker 7: Time, Yeah, but I would say that about kntective defense
Speaker 7: after the old Myth game, you know, one of those
Speaker 7: things where you know, you don't know if they can
Speaker 7: score enough points to win a bunch of games, but
Speaker 7: they're at least going to stop people. And they they stopped.
Speaker 7: They stopped people, and to be honest with you, sometimes
Speaker 7: like they were their own worst enemy on that side
Speaker 7: of the ball as well. Fifteen yards, you know, with
Speaker 7: penalties and mistakes and different things along that, like like
Speaker 7: you know, all of the stuff about you know, there's
Speaker 7: so much there, but this just wasn't a disciplined football
Speaker 7: team from the from the penalties, from the assignments. Like
Speaker 7: you know how many times you know, after I always
Speaker 7: say this after the Old Miss game, how many times
Speaker 7: did this team just not look prepared and focused?
Speaker 2: Exactly? Yeah?
Speaker 7: And so like to me, when you don't have a
Speaker 7: team that's prepared and focused, man, that's that that starts
Speaker 7: at the highest position and then it works its way
Speaker 7: down like if you're not prepared and focused, it starts
Speaker 7: at the top.
Speaker 4: Looking.
Speaker 1: What did you make of Mark Tup's postgame comments.
Speaker 7: I made of the postgame comments? I mean it was
Speaker 7: I think it was much of the same that we've
Speaker 7: heard pretty much all year. Not good enough, not going anywhere,
Speaker 7: going to put in the work. Like I've said this,
Speaker 7: and I've said this to my kids, and I've said
Speaker 7: it to other people. And this has nothing to do
Speaker 7: with about Kentucky football. This has everything to do about everything.
Speaker 7: But I think it still stands true here. It's easy
Speaker 7: to use words. It's easy to say I am competitive.
Speaker 7: It's easy to say we're going to go back to
Speaker 7: work and we're going to get this fixed. But do
Speaker 7: your actions back.
Speaker 4: Up your words?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 7: Like like when the hours that you're putting in each
Speaker 7: and every week to get this right, to get this fixed.
Speaker 7: Are they matching the words that are coming out of
Speaker 7: your mouth. Nobody's at you know, we're not in that complex.
Speaker 7: We don't see the things. But the proof in the
Speaker 7: pudding on the field doesn't match the words that are
Speaker 7: coming out of the mouth.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, I got to thinking about everything Stoop said,
Speaker 1: both on the radio and in the postgame news.
Speaker 2: Conference, and I thought back, kent to.
Speaker 1: When he first got here, a young, younger decoordinator looking
Speaker 1: for a chance to prove himself in a big boy league.
Speaker 2: And he did that.
Speaker 1: And he came in and he was a dervish, a
Speaker 1: buzz saw, whatever you want to call him. Brought a
Speaker 1: great friend and Vince Merrow built a good staff.
Speaker 2: He's had some issues there.
Speaker 1: But you know, he knew he had a plan, the
Speaker 1: blue collar, youngstown approach of coaching football, and he did it.
Speaker 2: But now that approach would work to a point.
Speaker 1: But when you mix in the two things he abhors
Speaker 1: and every coach does the portal and nil, It's just
Speaker 1: I can't imagine him, you know, trying to throw himself
Speaker 1: back into this job the way he did twelve years
Speaker 1: ago because everything has changed so much.
Speaker 7: Yeah it has. And you know, you mentioned, you know,
Speaker 7: twelve years ago when he got the job and he
Speaker 7: came in and the mindset that you have when you've
Speaker 7: tasted success, and you know, let's be honest, when you win,
Speaker 7: you know, what is it ten games and three years
Speaker 7: or you know what I mean? When you had ten
Speaker 7: win seasons or whatever a couple and that many and
Speaker 7: that timeframe at a place like Kentucky that's just not
Speaker 7: used to ten win seasons and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 7: you know, and look like it's all this is all
Speaker 7: part of the conversation. When you're making nine million dollars
Speaker 7: a year like now at this point, you're living on
Speaker 7: the yacht and can you have the blue collar mentality
Speaker 7: when you feel like you're on the yacht now? Some
Speaker 7: people can't. Some people keep it?
Speaker 2: Did he keep it?
Speaker 7: Like I said, I'm not in that. I'm not in
Speaker 7: that facility. I don't know, but what I'm seeing on
Speaker 7: the field says it seems like somebody took the foot
Speaker 7: off the gas.
Speaker 1: Yeah, don't know how, when or why, but it was
Speaker 1: pretty evident this year and a lot apparently it will
Speaker 1: be happening fairly quickly in terms of personnel, according to
Speaker 1: Stoop's players, and he's hoping.
Speaker 2: To keep his staff together over the next year three weeks.
Speaker 7: Here's I Here's what I would also say, Dick. This
Speaker 7: is my opinion, and you may agree with it and
Speaker 7: you may not, But like, this isn't this isn't a
Speaker 7: this wasn't in my opinion, This wasn't a twenty twenty
Speaker 7: four problem. This was this was. All of these things
Speaker 7: that we're talking about now they took place in twenty
Speaker 7: twenty three. But the biggest thing that happened that masked
Speaker 7: everything was they beat Louis at the end of the year.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 7: And if they don't win that game, everything that we're
Speaker 7: talking about right now we would have talked about last year.
Speaker 7: But that mass and it was a band aid over
Speaker 7: a lot of stuff. And so instead of all of
Speaker 7: this coming to light after one season, now you've had
Speaker 7: two seasons of erosion. So it's probably, honestly, it's probably
Speaker 7: worse now than if it would have taken place last year.
Speaker 1: Ken Spencer, my guest sports director whas formerly WTVQ, We'll
Speaker 1: come back and talk basketball with Kent on the other
Speaker 1: side of the break here on six thirty WL, Welcome
Speaker 1: back my guest, Kent Spencer, sports director, whas over in
Speaker 1: Louisville and worked for several years here at WTVQ in Lexington.
Speaker 2: And being in Louisville, Kent covers both ends of the interstate.
Speaker 1: As I said, so now Kent, Kentucky basketball fun. Everybody's happy,
Speaker 1: Louisville basketball fun. I don't know if everybody's happy over there,
Speaker 1: but they got to be happier than they were because
Speaker 1: good things are happening on both ends of the interstate,
Speaker 1: which means means all is right with our world when
Speaker 1: it comes to covering college basketball.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, look, look I think I think Louisville fans
Speaker 7: and the Battle for Atlantis had so much fun, right, Like,
Speaker 7: first off, they beat the Brakes off of Indiana, and
Speaker 7: then they come and win a hard fought game against
Speaker 7: West Virginia. They're in the championship game of that tournament.
Speaker 7: And what a nice response for them after getting blown
Speaker 7: out at home by Tennessee a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 7: So you know, like there are they're already starting to
Speaker 7: match like win totals under the Kenny Paint era and
Speaker 7: certain and certain points right like like this is this
Speaker 7: is like there they are. They're on cloud nine. And
Speaker 7: I think for for Kentucky fans, like yeah, I mean,
Speaker 7: you know, I've been asked this a couple of times
Speaker 7: and I would say this, like, has anything gone wrong
Speaker 7: for Mark Pope Yet Nope, Like he said all the
Speaker 7: right things, He's done all the right things. They've had
Speaker 7: the results on the court. You know, there's the video
Speaker 7: of the Duke game and him calling what Cooper Flag
Speaker 7: was gonna do? Like you know, all of these things
Speaker 7: are are are are happening and in the right way,
Speaker 7: and it really feels like this is a team that
Speaker 7: people really like as far as personality, how they play,
Speaker 7: the style. You know, it's just it's all it's all
Speaker 7: really well right now.
Speaker 1: You know I mentioned this more than once, and forgive
Speaker 1: me if I'm if I'm boring people with it, but
Speaker 1: I just think it's vital. Jack Gibbons made this point.
Speaker 1: And by the way, if you haven't had a chance
Speaker 1: to listen to Jack, because I know you work a lot,
Speaker 1: but he is there's so much joy in his voice
Speaker 1: watching this team, especially because they're always jacking it up.
Speaker 1: You know, Jack was a shooter, unabashedly, unapologetically, and he
Speaker 1: loves what he's seeing. But he made this great point,
Speaker 1: Kent in this third or fourth game. He said, it's
Speaker 1: so refreshing to see this team working when the shot
Speaker 1: clock is winding down and a play has broken down
Speaker 1: and they fix it among themselves. They don't stop as
Speaker 1: freshmen need to do and turn to look at the bench,
Speaker 1: so their maniacal coach can wave his arms and scream
Speaker 1: and yell and direct traffic. They know what to do,
Speaker 1: and it's it's kind of fun to watch, isn't it.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, I mean, you know sometimes it's it's changing
Speaker 7: the way that a game is played. You know, I thought,
Speaker 7: going back to a couple of weeks ago, right like
Speaker 7: in the first half, Duke's physicality was almost overwhelming to
Speaker 7: them in the first half, and they really struggled with
Speaker 7: it because up until that point, you know, when you're
Speaker 7: playing directional team U, there's not a whole lot of
Speaker 7: that going around. So they they had to adjust to that,
Speaker 7: and at halftime they adjusted to that, and they just
Speaker 7: kept chipping away. Like in the NCAA tournament or in
Speaker 7: college basketball in general, I think you have to your
Speaker 7: way just can't be the only way. You're going to
Speaker 7: have to win different ways. And for me, it proved
Speaker 7: that that team can win a different way. They still
Speaker 7: scored seventy seven points and they had not a very
Speaker 7: good night offensively at all that game, and you found
Speaker 7: a way to win that game. And so there's one thing.
Speaker 7: You know, some some national folks out there will tell
Speaker 7: you that this Kentucky team and they're breaking down like
Speaker 7: other teams and stuff like that, and they're like, this
Speaker 7: Kentucky team is close to their ceiling. And I would
Speaker 7: I would push against that because this team has a
Speaker 7: new coaching staff that's only like Jackson Robinson is the
Speaker 7: only dude who's played for Mark Pope, and they've got
Speaker 7: so many new pieces. Yes, are they older, absolutely, but
Speaker 7: are they close to their ceiling in my opinion, when
Speaker 7: it comes to getting used to each other and this
Speaker 7: system on a court in the heat of the moment
Speaker 7: in games, absolutely not. I think it's a lazy take
Speaker 7: to be, to be quite honest with you, because they can,
Speaker 7: you know, being comfortable with each other and knowing what
Speaker 7: somebody is going to do in the fight and the
Speaker 7: fire is completely different, and so I think that this
Speaker 7: team still has a long way to go as far
Speaker 7: as you know, reaching their ceiling. But watching them right
Speaker 7: now has it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say that's the next thing out of
Speaker 1: my mouth. You can tell these kids are having so
Speaker 1: much fun. They were all either good or very good
Speaker 1: players at their previous schools and they have a chance
Speaker 1: to do something great and they're really enjoying it.
Speaker 7: Best best person I think to look at in regards
Speaker 7: to that, there's actually two people that I would actually
Speaker 7: try to point out here. Number one is honestly like
Speaker 7: Kerk Crisa, Like I mean, think about like the player
Speaker 7: that he was at Arizona and I didn't really watch
Speaker 7: it much at West Virginia. As the player that he
Speaker 7: was at West Virginia. I mean, he is almost like
Speaker 7: th thrilled. I wouldn't call it taking a back seat,
Speaker 7: but I would say he's thrilled to be unselfish, yea,
Speaker 7: Like he has completely given himself to this team to
Speaker 7: the point where like sometimes I think like he's too unselfish,
Speaker 7: And I mean, look that doesn't say like every now
Speaker 7: and again he pulls a forty five footer. But you know,
Speaker 7: but like I think like he's been almost like the
Speaker 7: ultimate team guy coming off the bend, you know, all
Speaker 7: of that stuff. And then you know another guy is
Speaker 7: is Jackson Robinson. You know, he's the guy who's been
Speaker 7: in in Mark Pope system and clearly, like you know
Speaker 7: when when Pope talks about you know, like being unabashed
Speaker 7: and making sure that you've got to take the shot
Speaker 7: when it's there, you've got to take the shot. He
Speaker 7: does it without hesitation and not in a selfish manner,
Speaker 7: but he just does it because he knows how this
Speaker 7: offense is supposed to run. And that's what other guys
Speaker 7: are still, in my opinion, still still figuring out a
Speaker 7: little bit. But in that Duke game when he struggled,
Speaker 7: you look at the clips and you look at the
Speaker 7: stuff of him down the stretch and them getting stops defensively,
Speaker 7: and how engaged he wasn't in the game because it's
Speaker 7: not about him. Member he came back to to improve
Speaker 7: his NBA stock in part well, that game he didn't
Speaker 7: really probably improve his NBA stock, but he didn't care.
Speaker 7: He was fully invested in the moment.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 7: That's that's the good stuff.
Speaker 1: Hey, I guarantee you it's some NBA Scotts. Notice that,
Speaker 1: and you know and why wouldn't you?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's Ken Spencer, sports director whas follow him on
Speaker 1: x or Twitter or whatever you call it at WHS
Speaker 1: Elevan Kent. You can follow his work at WHS eleven
Speaker 1: dot com.
Speaker 2: Thank you, brother seed down the road.
Speaker 4: Hey, thank buddy.
Speaker 2: Up next Tour.
Speaker 1: Number two with Maggie Davis of BBN Tonight and doctor
Speaker 1: John Wong.
Speaker 2: Author sportswriter. Back at just a minute.
Speaker 1: You're on a big one sider six point thirty w
Speaker 1: l APERG. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider joining
Speaker 1: US Center Celebrity Highline is a fixture on our program.
Speaker 1: Here in a fixture on UK sports. Maggie Davis, who
Speaker 1: is an anchor, reporter, producer, editor, writer.
Speaker 2: She does it all for BBN Tonight.
Speaker 1: Of course all of you all do everything right, I
Speaker 1: mean it's good old mid market TV.
Speaker 2: Everybody has to pitch in.
Speaker 8: Yes, it is good old fashioned teamwork.
Speaker 7: Right about that.
Speaker 8: There's a seven person sports department at LA eighteen and
Speaker 8: we do not take it for granted, but we also
Speaker 8: don't take any little piece of this job lightly. And
Speaker 8: so yes, all seven of us can pretty much do
Speaker 8: every other person's job as well, so we all can
Speaker 8: sort of bleed together in that way, which is very good,
Speaker 8: especially this time of the year, as you know, although
Speaker 8: oh yeah, it's looking up a little bit with football
Speaker 8: season unfortunately in the horizon of for Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no ball game, so you can concentrate on basketball.
Speaker 1: Let us start with basketball. I've been kind of going
Speaker 1: football heavy a little bit in this show. But when
Speaker 1: you started making plans, just kind of daydreaming a little
Speaker 1: bit about this basketball season, because you guys have the
Speaker 1: nightly show and a show on Saturday, did you ever
Speaker 1: think did you ever dream that the start would be this?
Speaker 1: I don't know how they're going to finish, but I
Speaker 1: think this start has caught a lot of people by
Speaker 1: happy surprise.
Speaker 8: I think that's absolutely fair, and yes, it has certainly
Speaker 8: taken me by surprise.
Speaker 1: I think the.
Speaker 8: First moment I started thinking about it was actually at
Speaker 8: that Mark Pope press conference at Ruffereo. I'll never forget
Speaker 8: what he said. We'll never forget he said. Last season
Speaker 8: my team was second in the country and three point
Speaker 8: shot attimpts over the course of the season. You know,
Speaker 8: everyone cheers and almost kind of drowned out what he
Speaker 8: said next, which is, but at Kentucky, we don't like
Speaker 8: coming in second place. And just that was really everyone's
Speaker 8: big introduction to Mark Pope, right, and you could go
Speaker 8: back and you know, the diehards can read all this
Speaker 8: BYU stuff and sort of read about his coaching trajectory
Speaker 8: and the kinds of teams he's had in the past,
Speaker 8: and obviously that offensive philosophy starts to take shape. And
Speaker 8: you hear him make a statement like that before he
Speaker 8: even has a roster put together, and you're like, all right,
Speaker 8: this guy is dicking with this plan. He's taking it
Speaker 8: very seriously, and no matter what the roster looks like,
Speaker 8: it sounds like he's building a program that's going to
Speaker 8: be completely different than the one we've gotten to know
Speaker 8: over the last decade plus. And that system works for
Speaker 8: a very long time here. But I think that statement
Speaker 8: by Pope at that first real big press conference of
Speaker 8: we don't like coming in second place, even in the
Speaker 8: context of a percentage and number of three point shots
Speaker 8: taken throughout a season, well, that's really when it started clicking,
Speaker 8: at least for me in terms of all right, that's
Speaker 8: what this team's going to do. Now can he build
Speaker 8: a roster to do it? And then you saw all
Speaker 8: the pieces sort of trickle in, one by one by one,
Speaker 8: and every single piece on this roster really with the
Speaker 8: exception the only exception being Amari Williams as a guy
Speaker 8: who you didn't expect to come in and take three
Speaker 8: pointers or a bunch of jumpers or anything like that.
Speaker 8: You're like, all right, well, he's brought in the pieces
Speaker 8: to fit that statement, and the real question mark is
Speaker 8: just how does it all fit together? And that's the
Speaker 8: part that surprised me, although maybe shouldn't, just because of
Speaker 8: the experience. I think you see that, you know, across
Speaker 8: the nation the last couple of years, really since the
Speaker 8: explosion of the portal, some teams said better than other teams,
Speaker 8: no doubt, But the experience factor and the maturity that
Speaker 8: comes with it, I think is a big part of
Speaker 8: that equation.
Speaker 1: I agree, And I keep thinking back now to the
Speaker 1: preseason interviews we all got to do because you know,
Speaker 1: as you recall, now they can have workouts in the summer,
Speaker 1: so now we can have access, and they were nice
Speaker 1: enough to make them available because we were bugging the
Speaker 1: crap out of them. But I just felt like these
Speaker 1: these players because of the maturity level, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Maggie, they you know they they've they've done
Speaker 1: interviews before, maybe not a scrum of reporters like they
Speaker 1: see in Lexington, but you're not a little bit older
Speaker 1: and wiser, and they were a little bit more relaxed.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's one reason they've come together
Speaker 1: like they have.
Speaker 4: Does that make sense absolutely?
Speaker 8: I think it also gives way to how unselfish this
Speaker 8: team has been so far, and that's really been the
Speaker 8: defining feature to this point in the season. That's what
Speaker 8: Pope has preached the most. That's what in all of
Speaker 8: those scrums that you're talking about, the players have talked
Speaker 8: about the most. And when you look at their numbers
Speaker 8: just throughout the course of the first real love of
Speaker 8: games here, that's what really stands out. Obviously it's easy
Speaker 8: to say, shoot it. You could talk about percentages, but
Speaker 8: let assist the turnover ratio has been a huge talking
Speaker 8: point and it really goes back to exactly what you
Speaker 8: were saying, that maturity, the understanding of coming becauther. Most
Speaker 8: of these guys really for their last season you know,
Speaker 8: a big chunk of them as fourth, fifth, sixth year seniors,
Speaker 8: and they understand the magnitude of what they're doing, they
Speaker 8: understand where they are doing it. This is a theme
Speaker 8: that talks so openly about the start of the Jersey
Speaker 8: and everything that Pope has said that he took the job.
Speaker 8: He has built a team that understands and respects this
Speaker 8: program as much as he does, which is hard to
Speaker 8: do when you are plucking guys from all across the country,
Speaker 8: from different hometowns, from different programs, different walks of life.
Speaker 8: A couple, you know, Amari Williams is from another country
Speaker 8: and he comes in and understands what it means to
Speaker 8: play at Kentucky. And I think you're seeing that. I
Speaker 8: think we saw it in the Duke game. We saw
Speaker 8: that experience in the fight really come out, maybe to
Speaker 8: a lesser extent in some of these non conference games,
Speaker 8: but you even think about the Western matchup, and that
Speaker 8: was a tough game for these cats. That was a
Speaker 8: physical game. They didn't get into a rhythm, they weren't
Speaker 8: able to play like how they wanted to play, but
Speaker 8: they still were able to just gut out of win.
Speaker 8: And I loved what Pope said after the game about
Speaker 8: this kind of feeling like a first round in CAA
Speaker 8: tournament matchup, like maybe it's not perfect, but all that
Speaker 8: mattered was you were able to realize that you had
Speaker 8: to get this done. This wasn't one you could just
Speaker 8: let slip away. And Kobe Braya had talked about this too.
Speaker 8: He said, we understand what we're doing right now, and
Speaker 8: we understand what a loss will change, and we don't
Speaker 8: want to feel that yet. We're not ready to feel that.
Speaker 8: We're deep into this schedule and we're not ready for
Speaker 8: a letdown. And I love that perspective from him too.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. People talk about winning streaks and pressure. I know
Speaker 1: it's a modest seven games, but you know it's a
Speaker 1: great way to start, and you can understand why they
Speaker 1: want to protect that now. Tomorrow Night's game on the
Speaker 1: road later in the evening, And I don't know, honestly
Speaker 1: that much about Clemson, but it's an ACC team, so
Speaker 1: another and they've already beaten one ACC team, so you
Speaker 1: know the challenges are beginning to pile up, aren't they.
Speaker 8: Well, I'm excited for this week. This is a week
Speaker 8: I've had circled really since the beginning of the season.
Speaker 8: I think Kentucky fans generally speaking, looked at this schedule
Speaker 8: and said, all right, Duke, all right, first week in December,
Speaker 8: all right, locull and those are the first, you know,
Speaker 8: couple of big games that stand out, and you want
Speaker 8: to see him take care of business in every game
Speaker 8: in between. You'd love to see him continue to win
Speaker 8: by thirty. Right, But these tests are really the ones
Speaker 8: that get circled before the start of the season, and
Speaker 8: they're the ones where we truthfully learn the most about
Speaker 8: this team and its potential. And we saw such a
Speaker 8: good picture of that against Duke and the Champions Classic,
Speaker 8: which I don't remember honestly, Bick if you were there
Speaker 8: or not, But that was a rowdy environment. But I
Speaker 8: would say it was probably fifty to fifty, maybe sixty
Speaker 8: forties just Kentucky fans, Like there were certainly Duke fans
Speaker 8: in that building that will allow, but it was still
Speaker 8: an environment that chanted go Big Blue, and there were
Speaker 8: plenty of Kentucky fans making noise in there. I don't
Speaker 8: know what it's going to look like in climbs in
Speaker 8: on a true road test. This seem's first real taste
Speaker 8: of that and you know something about that Orange, I
Speaker 8: think it just might be a little crazy in there.
Speaker 8: So I'm excited to see how they handle that. And
Speaker 8: then of course, I Daga has looked really, really good
Speaker 8: to start the year, so I'm excited to see how
Speaker 8: they handle not exactly a true road test, but for
Speaker 8: all intents and purposes, basically a true road test, flying
Speaker 8: all the way up to Seattle, and how they handle that.
Speaker 8: And it's just a new wrinkle, And that's what this
Speaker 8: time of the year is all about. That's what makes
Speaker 8: it fun. And you know that there's still a good
Speaker 8: chunk of the season left regardless of what happens. But
Speaker 8: if you can come away this we's feeling good, looking
Speaker 8: good with two good wins. That continues to build this
Speaker 8: momentum much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're right, it's not the home arena for Gonzaga.
Speaker 1: But whenever you make that job made that flight more
Speaker 1: than once to Seattle. It's a road trip, trust me,
Speaker 1: you know your body has to adjust. But yeah, that's
Speaker 1: all part of it. We're talking to Maggie Davis BBN
Speaker 1: tonight you see it on l Exa team. We'll come
Speaker 1: back and talk a little more basketball and some football
Speaker 1: with Maggie on the other side of the break here
Speaker 1: on six thirty WLAP here's Maggie and three two welcome back.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Maggie Davis. He is the anchor, co
Speaker 1: anchor and the producer, just does it all for bb
Speaker 1: and tonight BBN Game Day along with came in Keith
Speaker 1: Farmer and the crew they have over there at l
Speaker 1: e X eighteen. Kenny Brooks not to be outdone by
Speaker 1: Mark Pope. You talk about a fun style of play,
Speaker 1: and he cobbled his team together. Maggie, much like Mark
Speaker 1: did I need a piece here, a piece there, I
Speaker 1: need this, I need that, And I don't know if
Speaker 1: you got to everybody you wanted. But thanks to the
Speaker 1: fact that he got Georgia Amore and a couple others
Speaker 1: that he really needed.
Speaker 2: What a great start.
Speaker 8: Absolutely and the one thing I will say that, unlike
Speaker 8: Mark Pope knock on Wood to this point is Kenny
Speaker 8: Brooks has had to deal with some serious injuries to
Speaker 8: start the year. They are down two players that they
Speaker 8: really felt like would be contributors on this team. You
Speaker 8: know this preseason talk, practice, early summer whatever. You don't
Speaker 8: know exactly how it's all going to shake out how
Speaker 8: many minutes those two pieces would have burned. But regardless,
Speaker 8: those are two valuable pieces to a roster that, like
Speaker 8: you said, really had to come together quickly and maybe
Speaker 8: isn't as big or as deep as a typical roster
Speaker 8: would be. If you had a full cycle to add
Speaker 8: in freshmen, you'd have a big chunk of returners. You
Speaker 8: maybe grab a couple from the portal. You don't have
Speaker 8: the luxury of that when you're hired over the offseason
Speaker 8: and you're tasked with building a roster in such a
Speaker 8: short amount of time, and then to lose two key
Speaker 8: pieces between that time and your first game, I think
Speaker 8: it's absolutely dutch, a devastating mark on a program, and
Speaker 8: Kenny Brooks has really I mean, he talked about it
Speaker 8: a little bit early on.
Speaker 7: But he's not harped on it.
Speaker 8: It's not been an excuse and it really hasn't dampened
Speaker 8: to anything. At this point in the season. This team
Speaker 8: has looked so good, like you said, a fun style
Speaker 8: of play. I loved what he talked about this a
Speaker 8: couple of weeks ago, I think it was right before
Speaker 8: the Louisville game, and he got asked about the crowd
Speaker 8: and you know, maybe not the attendance they were expecting
Speaker 8: or hoping for the first couple of games, but obviously
Speaker 8: felt like there would be a great turnout for that
Speaker 8: Cats versus Cards matchup in Memorial Coliseum, and obviously there was.
Speaker 8: But beforehand he was talking about the fan attendance and
Speaker 8: he's like, listen, we get it, like we have to
Speaker 8: prove what we are, what we do. We are fun
Speaker 8: to watch. And he said, as soon as you get
Speaker 8: somebody in this building and they say, oh my god,
Speaker 8: he has a six foot five girl bring in the
Speaker 8: ball up the court and then she can pull up
Speaker 8: and shoot it, well, maybe I'll buy another ticket and
Speaker 8: I'll come to another game too, And I'm locking in
Speaker 8: from the teeth and because this team is fun to want.
Speaker 8: And I loved that perspective, and I think he is
Speaker 8: absolutely backing up everything that he's saying to this point.
Speaker 1: It's making a fun to watch volleyball opens up at home.
Speaker 2: You knew they were going to host.
Speaker 1: They happen to be in the pit regional or quarter
Speaker 1: or whatever they're calling it. But I wondered how many
Speaker 1: people who followed UK Volleyball thought Kentucky would a win
Speaker 1: the conference championship and be get to host again. Player
Speaker 1: of the Year Brooklyn the Lake, Coach of the Year,
Speaker 1: Craig Skinner. It's incredible what he's.
Speaker 2: Done over there.
Speaker 8: It really is. And you talk about surprise, etc. You
Speaker 8: look at this early time or non conference part of
Speaker 8: the schedule. We talk about it on our show almost
Speaker 8: every season, Dick. I'm sure you do too, and you
Speaker 8: call so many of the games. You know this as.
Speaker 7: Well as anybody.
Speaker 8: But every year, Craig Skinner schedules like this and some
Speaker 8: years ago is better than others. Right, a couple of
Speaker 8: years ago they were able to really go on a
Speaker 8: run through that non conference and you're like, all right,
Speaker 8: this team is really good because they handled that like
Speaker 8: champions and then could just sail through the SEC. That's
Speaker 8: not what this season has been like. This season was tough.
Speaker 8: At the beginning of the year was a grind, and
Speaker 8: they truthfully did not handle everything. While they were changing
Speaker 8: a lot about how they're running their offense or defense
Speaker 8: they're serving has been so tough. I mean, they were
Speaker 8: really struggling just with service errors. The start the year
Speaker 8: was really the defining sort of statistic in so many
Speaker 8: of those early season matches that you just felt like, man,
Speaker 8: this team can be good. They have great pieces. You
Speaker 8: brought up Brooklyn Delay. I mean, you have an offensive
Speaker 8: weapon like that, how are you not winning some of
Speaker 8: these games? But they just were making so many errors
Speaker 8: and so many mistakes. You didn't know how they'd be
Speaker 8: able to pull all the pieces together. And I think
Speaker 8: the culmination of a couple of pieces around Brooklyn Delay
Speaker 8: stepping up. And obviously you have the coach of the
Speaker 8: year at Craig Skinner, who has shown his magic and
Speaker 8: his word season after season after season. I don't know
Speaker 8: why anybody doubts him at this point because he's always
Speaker 8: able to figure out a way to get his team
Speaker 8: to be playing their best volleyball at the right time
Speaker 8: of the year. And that's exactly what we're again this season.
Speaker 1: Well at the other end of the campus, of course,
Speaker 1: is Kentucky football, and man again, high expectations by all
Speaker 1: of us, and I'm sure the coaches and players did too.
Speaker 1: You had a terrific defensive line, you had the transfer
Speaker 1: in a quarterback, you had a transfer in an All
Speaker 1: American linebacker, and after that, old Miss upset and everybody said,
Speaker 1: well after that South Carolina lost, now they're back on schedule.
Speaker 1: Then it all fell apart, and I know injuries had
Speaker 1: a lot to do with it, but and you know,
Speaker 1: I've been around for a while.
Speaker 2: This is one of the more puzzling seasons I've ever covered.
Speaker 2: How did you see it?
Speaker 8: Well, you know, just sitting here thinking about our conversation
Speaker 8: about the volleyball team and how they're playing their best
Speaker 8: at the end of the year, and that's really what
Speaker 8: we've come to expect with that program. And then you
Speaker 8: contrast that to this new conversation about football. I just
Speaker 8: think about some of the conversations we had in Week
Speaker 8: two South Carolina, we three Georgia, some of those early
Speaker 8: season games, and like the potential we saw, but also
Speaker 8: the issues that were a parent right from the start,
Speaker 8: especially in that matchup with the Game Cops early.
Speaker 4: On in the year.
Speaker 8: And then you look at the back half of the
Speaker 8: schedule and I don't think that Kentucky made the appropriate
Speaker 8: changes to say that they were playing any better at
Speaker 8: the end of the year than what we saw early
Speaker 8: in the season. And absolutely injuries is a big part
Speaker 8: of that, but that also comes down to your program.
Speaker 8: Your culture, your coaching staff, and your ability to adjust.
Speaker 8: And I think this program, historically, speaking under Mark Stoops,
Speaker 8: has done a phenomenal job of adjusting. There have been
Speaker 8: devastating injuries on this program in years past, and I
Speaker 8: mean the Lend vote in season is the perfect example, right.
Speaker 8: I mean, that's the very obvious one of you have
Speaker 8: a devastating series of injuries, and yet by the end
Speaker 8: of the year, you do feel like you're playing your
Speaker 8: best football because you just have guys out there who
Speaker 8: want to win, who are working hard, and you really
Speaker 8: felt like one cohesive unit. I think that was the
Speaker 8: missing this season. It never felt like this group got
Speaker 8: it together as a cohesive unit. And think about the
Speaker 8: offensive line issues. I didn't see a lot of improvement
Speaker 8: there by the end of the season. You think about
Speaker 8: the wide receivers and the guys that you thought this
Speaker 8: team would be built around, I'm not sure that they
Speaker 8: got better by the end of the year. The defense,
Speaker 8: I think, really struggled as the season went on. I mean,
Speaker 8: in some of those early season games, like they were
Speaker 8: stopping the rush at every point of attack, and the
Speaker 8: D line it Fit in particular, was dominant and by
Speaker 8: the end of the year, it just wasn't that force anymore.
Speaker 8: And so I think that is really, when you look
Speaker 8: at it from top to bottom, that's the most frustrating,
Speaker 8: like you said, puzzling part of the entire season. It's
Speaker 8: because you did have all of these great individual pieces
Speaker 8: and maybe you say, all right, we don't know exactly
Speaker 8: how they're all going to fit together at week one,
Speaker 8: but surely by the end of the year, you've had
Speaker 8: weeks and weeks and weeks to get this together, to
Speaker 8: put these pieces in place and to be playing your
Speaker 8: best football, and they just works. And that's the issue
Speaker 8: for me and so many others.
Speaker 4: I think, what did.
Speaker 1: You think of Mark Stoop's comments both of the media
Speaker 1: and I don't know if you heard the comments he
Speaker 1: made to Tom Leech, but he tried to, I think,
Speaker 1: reiterate the fact that he's got the energy and the
Speaker 1: willingness to turn this thing around. Like he's trying to
Speaker 1: convince the big Blue Nation, which for the first time
Speaker 1: is complaining about a coach who is the all time
Speaker 1: winning his coach and led his team to a couple
Speaker 1: of ten win seasons.
Speaker 2: But the Natives are unhappy.
Speaker 8: And that's the hardest part of the whole situation is
Speaker 8: because he is the winning.
Speaker 7: His coach here.
Speaker 8: He has taken this program to places that had never
Speaker 8: gone before and for a lot of years never dreamed
Speaker 8: that it could go. And then to go to eighth
Speaker 8: straight bowl games, to really compete in the SEC, and
Speaker 8: to take care of business year in and year out
Speaker 8: against teams like Florida and Louisville and Missouri and Lord,
Speaker 8: I mean Vandy and then here recently, that has not
Speaker 8: been the case. It is disappointing, and I think you
Speaker 8: can appreciate everything that's happened over the past decade while
Speaker 8: still saying, hey, these past couple of years haven't quite
Speaker 8: lived up to that. And the status for the college
Speaker 8: football landscape is only getting harder. The SEC is only
Speaker 8: getting better. Our schedule next year is just as tough.
Speaker 8: You know, you need to hear a little bit of
Speaker 8: reassurance from your head coach. I do think that's what
Speaker 8: Mark Scoops was doing after the game. I heard his comments,
Speaker 8: like you said in the media to Tom Leitch, I
Speaker 8: understand what he's saying. I think that's what he had
Speaker 8: to say. I don't know what else he could have
Speaker 8: said to be honest with you, I don't work in
Speaker 8: pr I'm sure there's another way you could spin it,
Speaker 8: But for me, from a reporter standpoint, I mean, he
Speaker 8: says he's coming back. I take that at face value,
Speaker 8: and it sounds like that's the man who was unhappy
Speaker 8: with the season and who says I'm going to be
Speaker 8: motivated to change it. And if you're a Kentucky fan,
Speaker 8: you have to hope that he's right and.
Speaker 7: That he will.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the thing that hangs over in the entire situation
Speaker 1: is a portal in the nil And I said it
Speaker 1: earlier in the show, and now I'll keep saying it
Speaker 1: in that you know, he loves building a program the
Speaker 1: old fashioned way, and now college football is anything but
Speaker 1: old fashioned. But that's a topic for another discussion. I
Speaker 1: do appreciate your time, and again, you and I were
Speaker 1: talking before we went on the air.
Speaker 2: You tailgated. You survive the cold as you tailgated, didn't you.
Speaker 8: I did listen. One thing no one could ever say
Speaker 8: about me is that I'm not dedicated, not loyal. Because
Speaker 8: I was out there in the same tailgate spot I've
Speaker 8: been in all season long.
Speaker 7: I didn't care. I mean I did care.
Speaker 8: It was freezing. It was twenty degrees yeah at eight o'clock,
Speaker 8: eight thirty in the morning when we rolled up. But
Speaker 8: we had our hot chocolates and we had our little
Speaker 8: tailgate breakfast food, and we put the sides of the
Speaker 8: tent up to block the winds and we got it
Speaker 8: done for a couple of hours there. I did not
Speaker 8: have to work this game, which was very nice. I
Speaker 8: worked the Texas game the week prior and had so
Speaker 8: many basketball games in between. It was nice to have
Speaker 8: a Saturday off, no doubt about it. And obviously with
Speaker 8: a Saturday off, what else am I supposed to do
Speaker 8: other than go stand in the cold and watch a football.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad you had fun before the game again,
Speaker 1: and thank you as always Maggie Davis. She is the
Speaker 1: anchor reporter. You see her on BBN tonight on LAX
Speaker 1: eighteen and follow her work through the volleyball tournament and
Speaker 1: basketball as well.
Speaker 2: Thank you, young lady. We'll see you down the road.
Speaker 8: Thank you so much for you soon, and I hope
Speaker 8: you had a great Thanksgiving coming up next.
Speaker 1: Doctor John Wong blogger, writer, sportswriter, that is, author. He
Speaker 1: has written several books, including one that is a murder mystery.
Speaker 1: He hopes to move that product for just in time
Speaker 1: for Welcome back to the Big Moon Cider thirtieth now,
Speaker 1: as a longtime friend of the show, He's an author,
Speaker 1: a columnist, a blogger, a sportswriter, doctor John Wong. And
Speaker 1: before we shamelessly plug your book, I've seen you back
Speaker 1: on social media, John, but let's go in reverse order.
Speaker 1: You covered the Bengals yesterday.
Speaker 2: What a crazy game here. The Steelers have.
Speaker 1: Been chugging along, scoring, you know, eighteen twenty points and
Speaker 1: it was a track meet.
Speaker 2: Did you expect that kind of game?
Speaker 7: No.
Speaker 4: In fact, I did a little preview beforehand, and I
Speaker 4: was telling everybody that this was going to be a
Speaker 4: game in which the Steelers were going to try to
Speaker 4: control the clock, they were going to try to run
Speaker 4: the ball, and it was going to be very very brutal,
Speaker 4: low scoring, typical AFC North type game. And afterwards, I
Speaker 4: think Tomlins said, yeah, that was actually the game plan.
Speaker 4: But it just so happened that the Bengals defense kind
Speaker 4: of invited them to go ahead and throw the ball.
Speaker 4: So of course Russell Wilson takes advantage of that and
Speaker 4: he just tears them up. Yep, Dick. I think this
Speaker 4: has probably been one of the I've been following the
Speaker 4: Bengals a long time. I've been covering him for probably
Speaker 4: eight or nine years. This is probably the most disappointing
Speaker 4: season based on what the expectations were. This was a
Speaker 4: Super Bowl contending team, and not only are they nowhere
Speaker 4: near that, but they're not even sniffing the playoffs and
Speaker 4: they're going to end up being at the battom of
Speaker 4: their division. JO weak out, what in the world happened when.
Speaker 1: They made That's what I was going to ask you.
Speaker 1: When they made the Super Bowl, which you covered, everybody
Speaker 1: knew about Burrow and chasing all that, but they had
Speaker 1: a terrific defense and just for short of winning it.
Speaker 1: And yet I know players come and go in the NFL,
Speaker 1: but coaching staff has remained intact.
Speaker 2: But what do they lack?
Speaker 4: Do you think, Yeah, it's they've had some tough luck
Speaker 4: in terms of injuries and so forth, but there's just
Speaker 4: a lack of cohesiveness. It seems like you've heard the
Speaker 4: term complimentary football being thrown about everywhere. Now. They just
Speaker 4: haven't played that. They haven't had a game in which
Speaker 4: both the offense and defense have put it together a
Speaker 4: critical plays. Their record is a heck of a lot.
Speaker 4: They're better than their four n eight record, But as
Speaker 4: Bill Parcell says, you are what your record says you are,
Speaker 4: and they just haven't been able to put it together
Speaker 4: the critical times when they've had to make the big play,
Speaker 4: they haven't come. If you look at him, especially offensive wise,
Speaker 4: statistics wise, Burrow, he's had an MVP season, him and Chase.
Speaker 4: You look at all their numbers and man, oh man,
Speaker 4: you figure, how in the world can this team be
Speaker 4: so bad in terms of their record. But it is
Speaker 4: what it is. What a disappointment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wasting this kind of year by Burrow, who I
Speaker 1: had parenthetically is one of my fantasy football quarterbacks and
Speaker 1: he's done well by me, I can tell you since
Speaker 1: he kind of turned a corner a few games into
Speaker 1: the season. But they've also got a running back who
Speaker 1: was I was pleasantly surprised at the way they ran
Speaker 1: the ball.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they've got all the pieces in place, at least
Speaker 4: on the offensive side of the ball. I think. I
Speaker 4: think having Higgins in and out during the course of
Speaker 4: the year also hurt him quite a bit a lot
Speaker 4: more than people be willing to admit because he just
Speaker 4: provides that huge target right in the middle of the field.
Speaker 4: It just opens up space for everybody else, even for
Speaker 4: that running game that you're talking about. Yeah, pleasantly surprised
Speaker 4: at all that. But yes, the window, the window is closing,
Speaker 4: and it's a wonderful window. The Bengals need to take
Speaker 4: advantage of it. But unfortunately it's this idea of mediocrity
Speaker 4: that's going to start sinking in again, and I'm afraid that, hey,
Speaker 4: we may have seen the peak.
Speaker 1: Well, speaking of mediocrity, let's go back another day as
Speaker 1: we go into reverse order with doctor John Wong. You
Speaker 1: were there when the Wildcats absolutely laid an egg and
Speaker 1: flopped everyone to say it against Louisville. I wasn't certain
Speaker 1: Kentucky could win. I did not think Kentucky would play
Speaker 1: that poorly. I was amazed John at the turnovers, were you.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I like to say they got their butt kicked. Happened,
Speaker 4: and it was a little bit surprising because I think
Speaker 4: there was enough excitement generated with Cutter Bowley starting. The
Speaker 4: crowd was there, they were into it, and Kentucky if
Speaker 4: you remember they started out, oh well, you know the
Speaker 4: first couple of plays and on all of a sudden
Speaker 4: that Willcox fumble. Well it wasn't actually a fumble, he
Speaker 4: just got bar ripped away from That kind of turned
Speaker 4: the tide and set the dominoes in action. After that,
Speaker 4: it just seems like all the energy was kind of
Speaker 4: zapped out and they just sworen't in it. It was
Speaker 4: It was kind of embarrassing.
Speaker 1: Jeffiicorro talked about the fact that U of L unlike Texas,
Speaker 1: had the week to prepare for Cutter Bully. I don't
Speaker 1: know what the difference they might have seen and Cutter
Speaker 1: versus Brock Vandergrift maybe more of a pocket passer.
Speaker 2: Than Brock, who can throw on the run. But you know, Brock,
Speaker 2: I think down down.
Speaker 1: The stretch so banged up happy feet just just wasn't himself.
Speaker 2: I went back John and.
Speaker 1: Looked at video from first of the year, and admittedly
Speaker 1: it wasn't playing against Texas, but Brock Vandergrift played some
Speaker 1: pretty good football when he had time to throw, and
Speaker 1: that just kind of withered on the vine. And then
Speaker 1: Cutter comes in and uh and has a terrible day.
Speaker 4: Well, I think you hit on it. It all comes
Speaker 4: down to that old line when they were just provided
Speaker 4: no protection for either Brock or eventually Cutter and Vanda
Speaker 4: Griff he just lost confidence. I mean he was a
Speaker 4: mental case at the very end because he was constantly
Speaker 4: When you're constantly running for your life, when you don't
Speaker 4: have trust in the guys ahead of you providing the blocks,
Speaker 4: opening up holes, providing any sort of protection, then your
Speaker 4: mind just just goes downhill. It's hard to recover from that.
Speaker 4: I felt bad for Cutter. He's put in a position
Speaker 4: being his first start as a true freshman.
Speaker 2: Who well, I'll tell you what it reminded me.
Speaker 1: And Jeffercorrel's talked about this as well more than once.
Speaker 2: And I think you might have been here. You might
Speaker 2: have been in dental school when Randy Jenkins played here.
Speaker 4: Yes, I remember, and he was.
Speaker 1: A tremendous athlete and he just was so beating up
Speaker 1: that he just got the.
Speaker 2: Happy feet, you know.
Speaker 4: And you know in the athletic field, confidence is more
Speaker 4: than fifty percent. I mean, you have to have talent,
Speaker 4: but everybody, I don't care how good you are, you
Speaker 4: need you need that backing up of knowing that you
Speaker 4: can do it in certain situations and when their confidence
Speaker 4: isn't there, then you see what happens. Things go downhill
Speaker 4: very very quickly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the defense could not stop the run again,
Speaker 1: amazing did it so well most of the season.
Speaker 2: What happened there?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think we need to kind of circle back
Speaker 4: to now the elephant in the room, Dick, and that
Speaker 4: is what's going on with Stuts and his legacy and
Speaker 4: everything from that standpoint, because he is a defensive type
Speaker 4: guy and the one thing that we could always count
Speaker 4: on was the defense coming through. He would kind of
Speaker 4: be a little bit well hands off maybe the wrong word,
Speaker 4: but more hands offish in terms of the offensive side
Speaker 4: of the ball, but defensively he was always there. And
Speaker 4: to not have the trust on that side of the
Speaker 4: ball once again, we talked about complimentary football. When it's
Speaker 4: not there, then you can see what can happen. What
Speaker 4: are your thoughts on Stoops. I know I'm never one
Speaker 4: to ever advocate for anyone losing their job, but there's
Speaker 4: so much going on behind the scenes. I figure you're
Speaker 4: the guy in the know. You ought to be able
Speaker 4: to give us some nuggets, those of us in the
Speaker 4: peanut gallery on the outside.
Speaker 1: I have an opinion like everybody else. But look, you
Speaker 1: and I we've talked about this before. We were on
Speaker 1: campus at the same time going to school. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I went in journalism. You foolishly went into dentistry. But no, anyway,
Speaker 1: we know what it's like to watch a program that
Speaker 1: had false starts and sputtering and set back by penalties.
Speaker 1: You know, he comes in and provides an element of
Speaker 1: consistency at one point, and now he's taking a step
Speaker 1: or two back. I think he's earned the right to
Speaker 1: clean up his mess. But as I said earlier at
Speaker 1: the top of the show, John I said, the portal,
Speaker 1: I think this era has taken away a bit of
Speaker 1: an advantage. That's Tubes and Vince Marrow and their staff
Speaker 1: have had in that they could beat other teams. And
Speaker 1: they did this by evaluating talent, signing kids, recruiting, developing,
Speaker 1: and putting together a good plan to go out and win. Well,
Speaker 1: now the portal door is spinning and on top of that,
Speaker 1: offensive consistency has been terrible.
Speaker 2: And Step said as much yesterday, didn't he.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a new era right now, Dick and I
Speaker 4: was reading a book about an American contractor who was
Speaker 4: held hostage in Iraq for three hundred and eleven days.
Speaker 4: And I never want to equate sports with real life
Speaker 4: and death situations, but there are some still familiarities. And
Speaker 4: one of the things that this guy said that helped
Speaker 4: him get over this idea of captivity was this idea
Speaker 4: of hope that maybe this very next day would be
Speaker 4: the day in which he would be rescued, and that
Speaker 4: kept him going. And what I sensed with the UK
Speaker 4: football program, no matter who I talk to, even the
Speaker 4: die hard Stoop supporters, is this general lack of hope
Speaker 4: about him being able to turn this around, not only
Speaker 4: from the on the field standpoint, navigating the NIL portal
Speaker 4: and transfers and all this which he has loathed he's
Speaker 4: admitted it publishing, but also in terms now of this
Speaker 4: idea of culture, where we've taken a backstep. You know,
Speaker 4: Stoups was always talking about the difference between climate and culture,
Speaker 4: and he prided himself on keeping this good culture. And
Speaker 4: ironically it seems like we've almost taken a complete one
Speaker 4: point eighty fore this idea of very very disciplined Stoop
Speaker 4: see everything in order, no nonsense, it's kind of metamorphosized
Speaker 4: into this. Hey are the inmates running the asylum. Kentucky
Speaker 4: has essentially been the one that's been held hostage by
Speaker 4: these large nil funds coming through with the likes of
Speaker 4: a Brock Vandergriff or a barry On Brown, where they
Speaker 4: feel like they have to commit to these guys because
Speaker 4: they've invested so much money. It's hard to pull the plug.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but here's the thing. Everybody else is in the
Speaker 1: same boat. That's the thing.
Speaker 2: How well do you deal with it?
Speaker 1: And here's the other thing, John, as we go to
Speaker 1: the break, this is all so new to Kentucky fans.
Speaker 1: I talked about this again off the top of the show.
Speaker 1: Are you a football school or a basketball school? Well,
Speaker 1: you're becoming a football school when you've got a coach
Speaker 1: who a couple of years prior, over a course of
Speaker 1: three years, won twenty four games and now you want
Speaker 1: him gone.
Speaker 2: That is literally never happened here. But you know what.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the new SEC. John Wong as my guest.
Speaker 1: We'll come back and talk more with John in just
Speaker 1: a minute, and then brace yourself. There's a seamless book
Speaker 1: plug coming up here on the Big Mossider six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 2: Welcome back. We're talking with John Wong is a blogger.
Speaker 1: Wong's Whinings works for Nolan Media Group, covering sports and
Speaker 1: also as an accomplished multiple published author, if that's the
Speaker 1: right word. And we'll get back to that in a moment,
Speaker 1: but let me talk a little basketball with you, John.
Speaker 2: Brighter times on the hardwood for both men and women.
Speaker 4: Got to be enjoying that, right, Yeah, it seems like
Speaker 4: the world has kind of tilted back on its proper
Speaker 4: access again. Stock up Kentucky basketball, Stock down Kentucky football. Boy,
Speaker 4: the more things change, the more things stay the same,
Speaker 4: don't they. Yeah, I'm super super excited with this pope
Speaker 4: and this philosophy, the bread, the fresh air that's come in.
Speaker 4: I'm really pleasantly surprised at how well the team has played,
Speaker 4: because I'm like you, at the very beginning of the year,
Speaker 4: when he had all these new guys who had never
Speaker 4: played together at all, you kind of wondered, you know,
Speaker 4: is he going to be able to put this thing together?
Speaker 4: But not only are they playing team basketball, but they
Speaker 4: really seem to like each other, you know, especially they
Speaker 4: take up for each other when Williams got pushed during
Speaker 4: that last game. I love the way Kobe Braya kind
Speaker 4: of responded, and then the team responded. You know, this
Speaker 4: is a team that really really looks out for each other.
Speaker 4: They have each other's back, and that's going to be
Speaker 4: so critical. This week is going to tell us a lot.
Speaker 4: Where cal Perry said Kentucky's built for March, he kind
Speaker 4: of made a little bit of a full of himself.
Speaker 4: But I think this week is going to tell whether
Speaker 4: we can legitimately say that this team is going to
Speaker 4: be built for March or not. I'm I'm excited. I
Speaker 4: won't be a Clemson, but I'm actually heading out to
Speaker 4: Seattle for that. Yeah, that's going to be a bucket
Speaker 4: list side and for me, I want to I want
Speaker 4: to see him play those ags.
Speaker 1: I thought about going to that one, but my wife
Speaker 1: and I are going to New York took to watch
Speaker 1: that game.
Speaker 2: So yeah, a lot of opportunities.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned being ready for mind A lot of
Speaker 1: Calipari's teams were not so much lately, but one of
Speaker 1: the teams that absolutely was was the twenty seventeen team,
Speaker 1: the Fox Bam and a Bio team, and this team
Speaker 1: statistically is keeping pace with that one in terms of
Speaker 1: being undefeated. Through seven games. It could be just a coincidence,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I'm with you. I like the way this
Speaker 1: team's coming together.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'd love to have a Fox Month or at
Speaker 4: a Byo on this team, but I don't think anybody
Speaker 4: can match that talent level. But I'm thinking Pope, he'll
Speaker 4: He'll make it up with this analytical approach. Now, of
Speaker 4: course he has this medical background, so he's speaking my language.
Speaker 4: When he's talking frontal cortex, Olympic system and he talks
Speaker 4: about after action autopsies. That brings a big, big smile
Speaker 4: off my face. I love that. How can you not
Speaker 4: win with talk like that?
Speaker 2: John?
Speaker 1: Could you have seen you yourself in what your third
Speaker 1: year in Denis I don't know what the equivalent is,
Speaker 1: but calling your folks and saying I'm going to go
Speaker 1: be a graduate assistant basketball coach.
Speaker 4: I think I would have been disowned at that particular point.
Speaker 4: They would say, what in the world are you talking about?
Speaker 4: Although there were a couple of times when I was
Speaker 4: sitting there up in that co laboratory waxing teeth that
Speaker 4: I said, what in the world am I actually doing here?
Speaker 4: But after investing three years and thousands of dollars in tuition.
Speaker 4: There was absolutely no chance in France that I was
Speaker 4: going to back out of that, and plus things worked out,
Speaker 4: I was going to say, hey, yeah, yeah, yeah. Not
Speaker 4: only did I do dentistry, but now I'm I'm back
Speaker 4: to my real love, doing what dig Gabriel War was
Speaker 4: doing all this time.
Speaker 1: Well, you got to see the world on Uncle Sam's
Speaker 1: nickel as well. You got to do some traveling before
Speaker 1: I let you go. All right, time for a shameless plug.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know if your book's going to fit in
Speaker 1: a stocking, but under the Tree you got more than
Speaker 1: one book though out there, man.
Speaker 4: Yeah I do. This is actually my seventh book, but
Speaker 4: it's actually my debut novel. I've always wanted to write
Speaker 4: a fiction book, and I said, what better way to
Speaker 4: incorporate fiction than to also mixed in all the ongoings
Speaker 4: of my sports writing career. So this is an NIL
Speaker 4: based book. Believe it or not. It's called Name, Image
Speaker 4: and Murder. It's about a Hall of Fame basketball coach
Speaker 4: who gets brutally murdered during the course of a championship
Speaker 4: season run. So it's it's part murder mystery, part who
Speaker 4: done it, but it's also part college basketball action thriller.
Speaker 4: My faith is super important to me, I throw and
Speaker 4: a lot of spiritual statire in there. So if you
Speaker 4: are a fan of any of those genres basketball, Faye, murder, mysteries,
Speaker 4: this has to be the book for you. Makes for
Speaker 4: a wonderful, wonderful Christmas gift. If you're around pal all,
Speaker 4: We've got Glad to sign it for you. This is
Speaker 4: it name Image of Murder. Today's actually the last day
Speaker 4: for a cyber sale, so you can go on and
Speaker 4: get it at Ingram Sparks. A beautiful hardcover edition cost
Speaker 4: soft cover in terms of classy gift, but last day
Speaker 4: to go ahead and get that for a reduced price.
Speaker 4: Other than that, you can still go into Joseph Beth
Speaker 4: Wheeler's Pharmacy Amazon of course and grab that book. So
Speaker 4: that's my shameless plug.
Speaker 1: Well, and I will follow up when you go into
Speaker 1: Joe Beth. And this is an unpaid endorsement. I just
Speaker 1: like the store obviously, but there's a table right up
Speaker 1: front devoted to Kentucky authors, and your book is front.
Speaker 1: I was pointing it out to my wife the other day,
Speaker 1: so it's front and center, you know, you and I
Speaker 1: have talked about this book. I think this is the
Speaker 1: third or fourth time, and every time you mentioned the
Speaker 1: crime use the word brutally words brutally murdered. Is that
Speaker 1: a dust jacket phrase or is that just so has
Speaker 1: to come up?
Speaker 4: It's it's pretty darn intense, and I don't I don't
Speaker 4: pull any punches, you know. I start out right of
Speaker 4: the out of the gate with uh with A with
Speaker 4: a big, big action scene. And my hope is I'm
Speaker 4: treating it like my sports writing. I want you to
Speaker 4: be able to see it in front of your eyes.
Speaker 4: And fiction, of course, is a little bit different. This
Speaker 4: is all new to me. I didn't know whether this
Speaker 4: book would suck or not, but it seems like that
Speaker 4: a lot of the initial reviews that I've gotten back
Speaker 4: have been just real, real positive, And I don't think
Speaker 4: these are people that are just telling me things that
Speaker 4: I want to hear. So thank you to everybody who's
Speaker 4: purchased it, and and Istory, in a big, big smile
Speaker 4: on my face, just being able to promote this on
Speaker 4: your show, Dick, because I know I know sales are
Speaker 4: just going to go through the absolute ruth.
Speaker 2: Right now, let's hope, so John, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: We'll see at the ballgames.
Speaker 4: Hey, Happy belated Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas Day. Everybody go cat.
Speaker 1: And that'll do it for now, thanks to my guest,
Speaker 1: Ken Spencer, John Wong, Maggie Davis. Tomorrow night it's Kentucky basketball.
Speaker 1: We'll have a short show ahead of that because.
Speaker 2: It's a nine thirty tip. You'll hear it all right here,
Speaker 2: that's it, Good night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 5: Wait, let me explain something to you. I am not
Speaker 5: mister Lebowski. You're mister Lebowski. I'm the dude
Speaker 3: Sang