Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and Sider Dick Gabrielle with
Speaker 1: you Tuesday edition of our program. Ordinarily this is a
Speaker 1: men's basketball night, but Kentucky Vanderbilt moved to Tomorrow night
Speaker 1: thanks television. So the Cats and the Doors go at
Speaker 1: it at seven o'clock.
Speaker 2: We'll have it for you right here with Tom.
Speaker 1: Leach and Jack Gibbons. Our local coverage at four point thirty,
Speaker 1: Network coverage at five thirty, and the Commodorees and Wildcats
Speaker 1: tip off as Kentucky looks for revenge over a Vandy
Speaker 1: team that beat the Wildcats down in Nashville earlier this year,
Speaker 1: and that was a game that saw Kentucky fall behind
Speaker 1: by fourteen and a half time played horribly down in Nashville,
Speaker 1: came came back, took the lead, had a seven point
Speaker 1: lead in the second half, and then lost seventy four
Speaker 1: to sixty nine.
Speaker 2: Sound familiar.
Speaker 1: Wildcats came back against Texas, took a lead and then
Speaker 1: let go of that and fell to the Longhorns. Holser
Speaker 1: to at least two games, and the Georgia game will
Speaker 1: also factor in to me.
Speaker 2: On selection Sunday.
Speaker 1: No matter what happens, and it may be a rough
Speaker 1: day for Wildcat fans, given the fact that it doesn't
Speaker 1: look good for Butler and Robinson coming back anytime soon,
Speaker 1: if at all.
Speaker 2: So it might be a day when Kentucky gets a bid.
Speaker 1: Assuming it does, Wildcats are gonna have to win some
Speaker 1: more to get a bid to the NCAA Tournament. But
Speaker 1: even if and when they do, you're gonna wonder what
Speaker 1: might have happened if not for the.
Speaker 2: Injuries, but also the games that got away.
Speaker 1: Even if those games don't get away, they might still
Speaker 1: make it no problem minus Jackson Robinson and Lamont Butler.
Speaker 1: But the losses to Georgia, Vandy and Texas I think
Speaker 1: will haunt this team. I don't know that it's gonna
Speaker 1: be able to recover enough to go on a run
Speaker 1: so they can shrug off those losses. And as for
Speaker 1: the injuries themselves, well, Mark Pope didn't sound real optimistic
Speaker 1: last night. He was upbeat but basically said it's status quo.
Speaker 3: For Lamont, he's actually moving pretty well. He still has
Speaker 3: a practice done a live play. But for him, it's
Speaker 3: just a matter of how far along does he have
Speaker 3: to get where he can actually take a hit in
Speaker 3: the game. That's the biggest question for him, and that's
Speaker 3: you know, that's gonna be a little bit of a
Speaker 3: guessing game. We'll try and get him just some live
Speaker 3: stuff in practice over the next week or so. For
Speaker 3: Jack's you know, he hasn't uh, he still hasn't done
Speaker 3: anything with his right hand. He's he's done a ton
Speaker 3: of left hand shooting and and probably unsurprisingly he's making
Speaker 3: a lot of shots left handed. So I am actually
Speaker 3: pushing him to just just tie up the right wrist man,
Speaker 3: just get that thing safe in a in a big cast,
Speaker 3: and let's go just play lefty on Wednesday. I'm not
Speaker 3: sure he's he's prepared to do that. Yeah, that's where
Speaker 3: we're in negotiations right now, trying to figure out. So
Speaker 3: those guys are working really hard to try and get better.
Speaker 1: That was Mark Pope on the Mark Pope Shows to
Speaker 1: Tom Leach, and I honestly believe the left handed talk
Speaker 1: with Robinson was strictly tongue in cheek. So now Kentucky,
Speaker 1: with virtually the same lineup that it put on the
Speaker 1: floor against Texas, will have to try to knock off
Speaker 1: this Vandy team, which has been kind of a giant
Speaker 1: killer all year long. In the SEC seventeen and eight overall,
Speaker 1: Vandy on or nca bubble. So Vandy's going to be
Speaker 1: playing its butt off in Lexington against the team it's
Speaker 1: already beaten. Doors are five and seven in the league,
Speaker 1: and if it makes a run in the SEC tournament,
Speaker 1: doesn't have to win it. Vandy could make the NCAA
Speaker 1: Tournament because of course you've got an opportunity in the
Speaker 1: Southeastern Conference for quad one wins. I'll tell you a
Speaker 1: bad loss for Vandy. They lost at Oklahoma, which is
Speaker 1: not a great team, ninety seven to sixty seven, and
Speaker 1: then lost to Florida, top ranked team on the road,
Speaker 1: eighty six to seventy five, but came back and beat Texas,
Speaker 1: same team to just beat Kentucky in Nashville eighty six
Speaker 1: to seventy eight. Due respect to Texas, it's not a
Speaker 1: real good team. It's got a great player in Johnson,
Speaker 1: but it's not a great team. Andandy also lost to
Speaker 1: Auburn in Nashville and Tennessee in Knoxville, and I saw
Speaker 1: the end of that game. Bandy had a sixteen point
Speaker 1: lead against the Tennessee team that has a hard time scoring,
Speaker 1: as you know, but Tennessee allowed Tennessee to come all
Speaker 1: the way back and win at eighty one to seventy six.
Speaker 1: So the Cats and the Doors tomorrow night, and it's
Speaker 1: another must win for Kent. Tell you got to protect
Speaker 1: the home court now period to make the tournament and
Speaker 1: to get the best possible seed, because that's what you're
Speaker 1: playing for now in postseason play. You're playing to get
Speaker 1: the best possible slot in the SEC tournament. Remember, it's
Speaker 1: a new format now in the SEC attorney thanks to
Speaker 1: the two new teams, So you've got to protect yourself there.
Speaker 1: And then of course if you can get the NCAAs
Speaker 1: and get the best possible slot. While we're talking about
Speaker 1: the SEC, what are the big ten in the SEC
Speaker 1: up to When it comes to the college football Playoff? Well,
Speaker 1: remember last year there were the heat of negotiations over
Speaker 1: the future of the College Football Playoff and in the end,
Speaker 1: executives from the ten FBS leagues and Notre Dame sign
Speaker 1: that memo of understanding which basically gave control the college
Speaker 1: football's two richest conferences, and everybody kind of bracing themselves
Speaker 1: for what happens next. Momentum now they say, is building
Speaker 1: to further expand the playoff to fourteen or sixteen teams
Speaker 1: and assign multiple automatic qualifiers per league, maybe as many
Speaker 1: as four for the SEC and the Big Ten, and
Speaker 1: then finalize a scheduling arrangement that, of course, will bring
Speaker 1: in gazillions of bucks from its various TV partners. But
Speaker 1: a playoff format change just might clear the way for
Speaker 1: the SEC to make that long discussed move to play
Speaker 1: nine regular season conference games, and it says here, according
Speaker 1: to a story on ya Yahoo, it could trigger all
Speaker 1: four power leagues to overhaul their conference championship weekend and
Speaker 1: as I mean, do away with conference championship games. I
Speaker 1: don't know that the TV networks would allow that, but
Speaker 1: the power brokers, the most powerful conferences, clearly throwing their
Speaker 1: weight around when it comes to the college football playoff.
Speaker 1: And I'm good with any of this if it ultimately
Speaker 1: leads the college football breaking away doing its own thing
Speaker 1: and leaving everybody else alone. So maybe we can get
Speaker 1: back to sanity when it comes to geographical alignment in
Speaker 1: the conferences, because nobody, nobody likes what is happening with
Speaker 1: teams going east coast to West coast and back and forth,
Speaker 1: and traditional geographic rivalries disappearing ridiculous. I so like the idea.
Speaker 1: It would take some doing of giving football whatever freedom needs,
Speaker 1: whatever or leeway at once, because look, fans will come
Speaker 1: for college football. I mean, it'll be like the Mini
Speaker 1: NFL or the NFL Junior, NFL Light NFL two point zero, whatever.
Speaker 1: But it makes too much sense to pass whatever legislation
Speaker 1: you need to pass to see to it that maybe
Speaker 1: the PAC twelve comes all the way back. How about
Speaker 1: the Ohio Valley Conference showing some sanity, and I would
Speaker 1: be willing to hazard any kind of guess that university
Speaker 1: presidents and ads would love it if their teams win possible,
Speaker 1: could go back to bus rides instead of plane trips
Speaker 1: and spare that expense.
Speaker 2: They got to find.
Speaker 1: Ways to spare expense these days. So instead of having
Speaker 1: your team fly from coast to coast, or from Michigan
Speaker 1: to Florida and back, stay closer to home. It makes
Speaker 1: too much sense. So you gotta wonder if it's ever
Speaker 1: gonna happen. You Eric from Mark pop Up. Next, we're
Speaker 1: gonna hear from Kenny Brooks. He talked on his radio
Speaker 1: show last night about one of the top players in
Speaker 1: the country wearing Kentucky blue and white Georgia amore and
Speaker 1: just about how talented players kind of set the tone
Speaker 1: the best talented players do for their teammates. A little
Speaker 1: bit later on David siske Off Catch Illustrated, it'll break
Speaker 1: down the UK Texas and talk about what the Wildcats
Speaker 1: have to look forward to this year. David, of course,
Speaker 1: with the Rivals Network, we're also gonna hear in a
Speaker 1: few minutes from Greg Stottlemyer, the voice of the EKAU Colonels,
Speaker 1: and coming up in hour number two, Jeff Picoro of
Speaker 1: SEC Plus will join us here on a Big Blon
Speaker 1: Sider six thirty wlap. Welcome back to the Big Bloon Sider.
Speaker 1: Coming up in just a few minutes, we'll chat with
Speaker 1: Greg Stottlemeyer, the radio voice of the EKU Colonels, who tonight,
Speaker 1: coming up at seven o'clock, have a huge conference game
Speaker 1: Atlantic Sun conference game with Lipscomb over in Richmond. You
Speaker 1: can see it on ESPN Plus, you can hear it
Speaker 1: on a one hundred point seven FM, and obviously Greg
Speaker 1: getting ready for the game right now. It's pre recorded,
Speaker 1: but EKU is on a real heater seven game win
Speaker 1: streak and This is a big one. Don't know that
Speaker 1: Eastern is going to win. It won't the regular season championship,
Speaker 1: but heading into tournament play, it is one of the
Speaker 1: hottest teams right now in the country under aw Hamilton.
Speaker 1: So Greg will tell us what's going on with the Colonels.
Speaker 1: In our next hour, David Sisk from KATS Illustrated, we'll
Speaker 1: talk about the basketball Wildcats. We're also going to talk
Speaker 1: to Jeff Percoro about the UK women. Jeff and Christy
Speaker 1: on Sunday work the Kentucky Georgia game and the Wildcats
Speaker 1: blew out the Lady Bulldogs. This was after the loss
Speaker 1: to Texas that saw Kentucky hang in there for a
Speaker 1: while and then just then the Longhorns eased away and
Speaker 1: made it a rout. This is maybe I think it
Speaker 1: is the best team in the country, Texas, which has
Speaker 1: beaten both South Carolina and LSU. And if you got
Speaker 1: to see the game, either in person I was courtside
Speaker 1: or on TV and listening to Darren hedrick Man, Texas
Speaker 1: is good under head coach Vick Schaeffer. It just had
Speaker 1: Kentucky out manned. It's a reminder I kept thinking about
Speaker 1: there are a couple of players who injured preseason for
Speaker 1: the Wildcats, which is why Kentucky is not a deep team.
Speaker 1: It is talented, but not super deep. But still Kentucky
Speaker 1: could do a lot of damage in the postseason. And
Speaker 1: when you have a player like Georgia Amoor, anything's possible.
Speaker 1: And now I didn't have the greatest of games against
Speaker 1: the Longhorns, but you had to know Texas was going
Speaker 1: to tailor its defense around stopping Georgia Amore, keeping her
Speaker 1: from getting any kind of decent look.
Speaker 2: At the basket. They succeeded.
Speaker 1: She bounced back obviously against Georgia all due respect, but
Speaker 1: against Texas, I mean against yeah.
Speaker 2: Against Georgia.
Speaker 1: Georgia Aymore planninggaint Georgia against Texas, she was five or sixteen,
Speaker 1: missed all three of her three point shots, five turnovers.
Speaker 1: If you're into plus minus, she was minus eighteen at
Speaker 1: fourteen points, but just couldn't play her game and Texas
Speaker 1: saw too that.
Speaker 2: But when you've got.
Speaker 1: Talent like that, I mean elite talent, that's what happens.
Speaker 1: Georgia struggling this year, and Georgia Aymore bounced back with
Speaker 1: twenty one seven assists, only two turnovers plus minus was
Speaker 1: twenty nine and his three out of six three pointers.
Speaker 1: She is one of the best players in the country.
Speaker 1: And the other day we had Jenna Liftin from the
Speaker 1: Kentucky Colonel on the show and she wrote about what
Speaker 1: was it a couple of days ago, the fact that
Speaker 1: Georgia took her place in women's basketball history, became just
Speaker 1: the third d one player in women's basketball with twenty
Speaker 1: three hundred points and eight hundred career assists. And when
Speaker 1: you look at the other names, I mean just to
Speaker 1: be the third player period, but the most.
Speaker 2: Recent to do that. How about Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 1: Obviously the Iowa superstar and Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu did it
Speaker 1: finishing up her career. In twenty twenty, she was AP
Speaker 1: Player of the Year, Nasmith College Player of the Year,
Speaker 1: and of course both players Clark and Ionescu, were first
Speaker 1: overall in their respective draft classes. Amore twice this year
Speaker 1: has been named the Ann Myers Drysdale National Player of
Speaker 1: the Week. At Kentucky. Yeah, little low Kentucky really helping
Speaker 1: to put them on the map. I don't know that
Speaker 1: she'll be named Player of the Year. It could be
Speaker 1: the kid from Texas Madison Booker, probably Juju Watkins from
Speaker 1: Southern cal She's a real superstar. But I'll be extremely
Speaker 1: surprised if Aymore is not at least a second team
Speaker 1: All American playing the way she is in the toughest
Speaker 1: league in America. And you know, she had that forty
Speaker 1: three point game that really made headlines. She's on the
Speaker 1: Naismith College Player of the Year mid season team, the
Speaker 1: Wooden Award mid Season team, on a lot.
Speaker 2: Of watch lists. Pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: And Kenny Brooks was talking about her last night on
Speaker 1: his show with Darren Hedrick. And he's a guy, of course,
Speaker 1: who had a lot of success at James Madison and
Speaker 1: at All Star players there that he helped develop at Virginia
Speaker 1: Tech as well. Probably his best player that he's ever coached.
Speaker 1: It's not Georgia Aymore, believe it or not, at least
Speaker 1: not yet, so Elizabeth Kittley. At Virginia Tech. She was
Speaker 1: a two time All American, actually three time All American,
Speaker 1: three time ACC Player of the Year, three time All.
Speaker 2: Defensive Team in the ACC, Freshman of the Year. Just
Speaker 2: an incredible talent.
Speaker 1: But like Georgia, Aymore worked her buttle and that carried
Speaker 1: over to her teammates, and Kenny Brooks talked about that
Speaker 1: last night.
Speaker 4: I've been very fortunate where my best players have always
Speaker 4: been the hardest working players. And you know, and you
Speaker 4: know I've since James Madison all the way to Virginia
Speaker 4: Tech when we were successful and now here. When your
Speaker 4: best player is your hardest working player, everyone's going to
Speaker 4: follow suit. You know, when the kids see Georgia, you know,
Speaker 4: in the gym, they're gonna be like, we'll have Georgia
Speaker 4: in the gym that I need to get in the gym.
Speaker 4: And you look at Clara Strake. Clara Strack watched Lyz
Speaker 4: Kitley and she was like, Okay, well, Lyz Kitley got
Speaker 4: extra shots in. I'm going to get extra shots in.
Speaker 4: And it just continues on and on and on. For me,
Speaker 4: it started way back when, and you know when I
Speaker 4: had Tamra Young at James Madison University and she was
Speaker 4: the first WNBA draft pick I ever had. She went
Speaker 4: number seven overall from James Madison and it was because
Speaker 4: of those kind of workouts.
Speaker 5: She does it.
Speaker 4: She did it, and you know, Don Evans saw her
Speaker 4: do it. So many of the great players were doing
Speaker 4: it that now it just becomes tradition and it's something
Speaker 4: that we hang her hat on.
Speaker 1: In her story in The Kentucky Colonel, Jenna wrote that
Speaker 1: the world was sunned, the basketball world was stunned when
Speaker 1: Georgia left Virginia Tech. I don't know, and I'm not
Speaker 1: picking on Jenna, but I do wonder if that was
Speaker 1: truly the case, because they have such a great relationship
Speaker 1: Amore in Kenny Brooks, and really, when the word came
Speaker 1: out Georgia Aymore's leaving Georgia Virginia Tech, I'm sure a
Speaker 1: lot of people were surprised until they heard she's following
Speaker 1: Kenny Brooks to Kentucky. And given their relationship, and anybody
Speaker 1: who followed that team in that league had to have
Speaker 1: known of their relationship. And Kenny Brooks and George Amore
Speaker 1: talk about that all the time. How they can, you know,
Speaker 1: finish each other's sentences, read each other's minds. So I
Speaker 1: think when a player as established as Amore does transfer,
Speaker 1: that's one thing, but to follow the coach, and he
Speaker 1: talked last night Brooks did about how he helps work
Speaker 1: with Georgia Amore on drills for Kentucky and then drills
Speaker 1: for the WNBA, helping her prepare for a pro career.
Speaker 1: So it is a great relationship, but minus Georgia aymore
Speaker 1: this year. All due respect to the rest of the players,
Speaker 1: and of course Claire's track transferred as well from Tech
Speaker 1: you know at Kentucky's not anywhere close to what it
Speaker 1: is right now. It's been pretty amazing and a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. I will say, to follow UK women's basketball
Speaker 1: this year. All right, we'll take a break, come back,
Speaker 1: talk about those EKU Colonels. Top of hour number two.
Speaker 1: David Sisk breaks down what he saw and the Wildcats
Speaker 1: lost to Texas and where they need to improve moving
Speaker 1: forward given their injuries. And then Jeff Picoro will talk
Speaker 1: with us a little bit as well here on the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Sider six thirty wlier. Joining us now in
Speaker 1: our celebrity hoighline is a long time friend of mine,
Speaker 1: friend of the show, and the longtime radio voice of
Speaker 1: the EKU Colonels, mister Greg Stottlemeyer. And he's got a
Speaker 1: big game coming up tonight it is Lipskin, which starts
Speaker 1: in just a few minutes seven pm.
Speaker 2: But we got to talk Greg about EKU man.
Speaker 1: There were struggles early the Colonels arguably are the hottest
Speaker 1: team in the country.
Speaker 2: What's going on over there.
Speaker 6: They've really played hard, and they've played together. They moved
Speaker 6: the basketball, and they've hit shots. I mean, if you
Speaker 6: go back and look, they've won seven in a row,
Speaker 6: all in the conference. And in that win streak, they're
Speaker 6: scoring eighty six and a half points a game. They're
Speaker 6: hitting forty five percent from three, they're assisting on over
Speaker 6: half of their makes. And you know, we can make
Speaker 6: a complicated game simple, or it's really a simple game.
Speaker 6: Hit shots. If you hit shots, you normally win. And
Speaker 6: they're hitting shots, which they weren't earlier in the year.
Speaker 6: They buffed their free through percentage. They're up with well
Speaker 6: above eighty percent over the last sixteen games, and they're
Speaker 6: doing it without their leading score the last two games.
Speaker 6: Who injured a knee a little bit over a week ago.
Speaker 1: You know, watching some of these games on ESPN Plus,
Speaker 1: I saw the Austin p game down in Clarksville, a
Speaker 1: winnable game if not for shots that just wouldn't fall.
Speaker 1: The Stets and loss in Richmond by one point. Again,
Speaker 1: shots just weren't falling. And you posted a stat on
Speaker 1: Twitter or X if you will, just the other day
Speaker 1: about how great shooting has led to this streak. And
Speaker 1: it's really remarkable, isn't it.
Speaker 6: It really is. I mean you look at when they
Speaker 6: outshoot an opponent this year, they're twelve and one. When
Speaker 6: they get out shot, they're four and ten. Aw Hamilton's
Speaker 6: been at Eastern for seven years now.
Speaker 7: He's when he.
Speaker 6: Does not when his team doesn't get out shot Dick,
Speaker 6: he's ninety three and ten. So again, that's the simplicity
Speaker 6: the stat that tells you the most.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: Rebounding is important, turnovers are important, all that kind of thing,
Speaker 6: pace of play, but it gets down to the making shots.
Speaker 6: And again, I when they lost George Kimball to the
Speaker 6: knee injury. Over these last three games, other guys have
Speaker 6: stepped up. Mayor Wall of six to eight sophomore is
Speaker 6: a transfer from College at Charleston. He's once he's had
Speaker 6: his opportunity. He's averaged twelve and a half points over
Speaker 6: the last five games. He's over the last couple of games,
Speaker 6: he's hit over half of his three point shots. And
Speaker 6: they've found open three point shooters, and their three point shooters.
Speaker 7: Have had good have had good run Now that.
Speaker 6: Said, Lipscombe probably the best team in the conference overall,
Speaker 6: picked to win the preseason veteran team back. So this
Speaker 6: will be a really really tough one on what is
Speaker 6: Eku's senior night in the regular season.
Speaker 1: And yet Eastern wins add Lipscomb down in Nashville a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 2: How did that happen?
Speaker 6: Shot the ball well, just kind of had a great
Speaker 6: defensive game plan. The guy that they lost to the injury,
Speaker 6: Kimball and will not play, we don't expect in this game.
Speaker 6: He had a great game defensively and offensively. It wasn't
Speaker 6: Lipscomb's night. They're really good point guard or not point guard,
Speaker 6: but two guard. It was one of seven from the field,
Speaker 6: only had two points and ek you just really they
Speaker 6: jumped out on him early, kept the lead, repelled every
Speaker 6: comeback that the Bisons had, and I think it was
Speaker 6: game plan. It was execution of the game plan from
Speaker 6: the walk through on over to tip off. And it'll
Speaker 6: be interesting to see if they can keep it going
Speaker 6: because they've kind of positioned themselves they hold their destiny
Speaker 6: from here on out to the end of the regular season.
Speaker 6: The only team that they don't have a tiebreaker over
Speaker 6: is North Alabama, who's really good too. It's North Alabama
Speaker 6: Lipscomb tied for first and EKU is one of two
Speaker 6: teams a game back. So I didn't see this coming
Speaker 6: three weeks ago, I'll be very honest about it. And
Speaker 6: it's been a pleasant surprise to see what they've done
Speaker 6: and to keep it going. Who knows, but they're solidly
Speaker 6: in the postseason tournament. Obviously, you know in a one big,
Speaker 6: one bid league, you want to be playing well in February,
Speaker 6: end of March.
Speaker 1: Talking to Greg Stottlemeyer, the radio voice, and you can
Speaker 1: also see him on her least here, I'm on ESPN
Speaker 1: Plus coverage of EKU basketball coming up tonight at seven.
Speaker 1: It's Lipscomb and the Colonels over at Baptist Health Arena.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Aw Hamilton. I really enjoy talking to ad
Speaker 1: of course, you know it kind of and you've been
Speaker 1: around for a while. Makes Fielo when you've covered his
Speaker 1: high school team. But it's just been interesting watching him
Speaker 1: develop into one of the hot young coaches in the country.
Speaker 1: And man, that energy is infectious, isn't it.
Speaker 6: It really is? And you know you can have energy,
Speaker 6: but is your energy genuine, and his energy is genuine.
Speaker 6: He's a genuine person, and I think when you combine
Speaker 6: that with what he can do as a coach and
Speaker 6: make the right decisions on the sidelines, it's a good combination.
Speaker 6: He's got that record well above five hundred. He's had
Speaker 6: a year where he got again, like most mid majors,
Speaker 6: he got hit by the transfer of portal. His top
Speaker 6: two guards went to Florida Atlantic and to Evansville. But
Speaker 6: he goes down and finds Kimball, who's a really good
Speaker 6: Division two player. Last year he's emerging to the guy
Speaker 6: where in all likelihood he'll be a P five guy potentially,
Speaker 6: And yet he's been able to navigate that situation with
Speaker 6: the nil now. Obviously at the mid major level now
Speaker 6: it's just it's almost where you have to retool every
Speaker 6: year now, and so are the p fives, but they're
Speaker 6: doing it with the nil money to get who they want. Meanwhile,
Speaker 6: at the mid major level, you have to do something different.
Speaker 6: I'll give you an example. Dick Stetson, who who wont ika?
Speaker 6: You won the regular season? Last year Stetson won the tournament,
Speaker 6: all five of their starters playing somewhere else Wow. Yeah, Wow,
Speaker 6: Miami Liberty, Middle Tennessee, Utah State, and col State's Bakersfield.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 6: And there's three players, three players that were starters last year,
Speaker 6: good players in the Atlantic Sun all playing at Utah State.
Speaker 6: Gives you an example of what's going on. And you
Speaker 6: know we can and I know you cover the SEC
Speaker 6: and you can go to Jenni brew Green played at
Speaker 6: Eastern at Auburn. I can go on and on and on,
Speaker 6: Trey King from Lexington who went out to Iowa State
Speaker 6: and had a good career. It's the lay of the
Speaker 6: land nowadays.
Speaker 1: Do you think that all this movement, I mean, the
Speaker 1: changes are always afoot, but I do wonder how much
Speaker 1: influence there will be to change the transfer rule that
Speaker 1: restricts somewhat player movement. You know how many times you
Speaker 1: know you've got kids who played for five schools in
Speaker 1: five years. That's crazy, you know, And people say, well,
Speaker 1: you can't do it. They'll challenge it in court like
Speaker 1: Pavia did at Vanderbilt. But there's got to be some
Speaker 1: way for the pendulum to swing back closer to a
Speaker 1: system where it protects schools a little bit, don't you think.
Speaker 5: I think so.
Speaker 6: At least some kind of contractual framework to where you
Speaker 6: have to give a year or two and I love
Speaker 6: and AW made an interesting point to me. We were
Speaker 6: talking pregame once and he said, what's lost here is
Speaker 6: when these kids go to the portal. Let's say the season's.
Speaker 5: Over in mid Mark.
Speaker 6: You're in the portal, all of a sudden, you're not
Speaker 6: in a structured environment for a while, a month or
Speaker 6: two or three. Then you get to your new school.
Speaker 6: Now you've got to learn everything over. You lose two, three,
Speaker 6: four months, whatever the timeframe is of development of development.
Speaker 6: And so the dollar seems to trump the smart thing
Speaker 6: about the development of some players wherever they play the
Speaker 6: next season, whether it's at the same school or beyond EKU.
Speaker 6: On Senior Night, Will honor Tayte Blanton de Bonte Blant.
Speaker 6: We call him KTA on the air. I mean he's
Speaker 6: he's going to leave EKU five years number two in points,
Speaker 6: number nine are rebounds number five and assists. Aw told
Speaker 6: a story on the post game the other night. He said,
Speaker 6: I was I have my prepper, my whole spiel ready
Speaker 6: on our exit interview after the season. He does it
Speaker 6: with every player where you have to prove on what
Speaker 6: do you think? And he said I was ready to
Speaker 6: try to explain why I think he should come back
Speaker 6: and play at Eku. He said, coach, you don't need
Speaker 6: to do that. I like it here. I want the
Speaker 6: legacy here. I want ten years from now. And he
Speaker 6: told me t Tate Lant did on postgame he was
Speaker 6: our player a game the other night. He said, I
Speaker 6: want to be able to tell my kids in ten
Speaker 6: or twelve years, I played here.
Speaker 5: I did this.
Speaker 6: So I like that loyalty. You hope that the loyalty
Speaker 6: versus the money counter will balance like a scale, right,
Speaker 6: the scales of justice that somewhere will find the middle ground,
Speaker 6: because not the portal is good. And I understand, Hey,
Speaker 6: if you were given one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 6: for your work when you were in college at where
Speaker 6: it's the Kentucky Colonel, you probably would have gone somewhere
Speaker 6: else too, right, yep, yeah, right, So I understand it.
Speaker 6: I'm right, but you've got to think long term. And
Speaker 6: I worry about the handlers and the hangers on those
Speaker 6: kinds of things and how that impacts things. So I'm
Speaker 6: kind of glad that I'm on the on the back
Speaker 6: end of my career in college athletics, because I do
Speaker 6: I'm old school. I'm miss the old days in a way.
Speaker 1: You know, when it comes to the handlers as we
Speaker 1: come up against a break, Tubby Smith had the best
Speaker 1: comment about that kind of thing. And this was well
Speaker 1: before the Portal and NIO, but he was talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, the phenom kinds of kids who are destined
Speaker 1: or people think are destined for the riches of the NBA,
Speaker 1: he said, and they're oftentimes surrounded.
Speaker 2: By the handlers and the hangers on.
Speaker 1: And he said about the handlers, Tubby said, they hear
Speaker 1: the jingle, and I thought, man, that's a perfect way
Speaker 1: to describe it. They think they hear the jingle the
Speaker 1: coins in the pocket, and then you can't get rid
Speaker 1: of them. Everything goes sour. So Greg Stottlemeyer is my guess.
Speaker 1: He is the radio and TV voice of the EKU Colonels,
Speaker 1: who are coming up on a huge game with Lipscombs
Speaker 1: tonight over in Richmond. We'll come back and talk more
Speaker 1: basketball and a little football with Greg Haro on six
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're talking with Greg Stottlemeyer. He
Speaker 1: is a TV and radio voice of the EKU Colonels.
Speaker 1: We'd love it if you stay with us, but if
Speaker 1: you'd like to listen, go to one hundred point seven FM.
Speaker 1: Can also watch it on ESPN Plus as the Colonels
Speaker 1: take on Lipscomb, trying to extend their seven game winning streak,
Speaker 1: and man have they been hot. And Greg and I
Speaker 1: talked about shooting earlier, and I know that aw Aw
Speaker 1: Hamilton head coach. He's a little bit like well Polpe
Speaker 1: or Patino whoever. He likes us three pointers. But does
Speaker 1: everybody have the green light?
Speaker 2: Greg?
Speaker 6: Yeah, everybody does, and they've just moved the ball better
Speaker 6: to find the guys with the green light. They're hitting
Speaker 6: nine point nine three is a game take about twenty eight.
Speaker 6: They've raised their average up to almost thirty six percent
Speaker 6: from three, and so they're.
Speaker 5: Doing really well.
Speaker 6: And you got guys that are somewhat of a little
Speaker 6: bit of a defensive liability on the defensive end. But
Speaker 6: Ekau's done a good job of finding those shooters and
Speaker 6: you're getting value out of like for instance, Turner, butuntery.
Speaker 6: The five to eleven Junior uses Kentucky mister Basketball from
Speaker 6: Bowling Green.
Speaker 5: He also by the way.
Speaker 6: He set the school record. He's hit thirty seven foul shots.
Speaker 5: In a row.
Speaker 6: He's fifty one to fifty three this year from the
Speaker 6: foul line. He's shooting forty two percent from three. And
Speaker 6: there's a kid out of Cincinnati that was injured last
Speaker 6: year with a knee injury, and Jackson Holt he's he's
Speaker 6: really getting going lately. He's hit thirteen of his last
Speaker 6: twenty two over the last three games from three, and
Speaker 6: so e Ka used to become a tough guard because
Speaker 6: of the ability to move that ball around and find
Speaker 6: the shooters. And then you've got Blanton, who we talked
Speaker 6: about before the break, who has had back to back
Speaker 6: double doubles, where with the starting point guard being out
Speaker 6: day by day with this knee injury, he's had two
Speaker 6: point assists double doubles here recently, which is great for
Speaker 6: a guy that's your number two all time scores. We'll
Speaker 6: see though lips and stuff. Dick I ran the numbers
Speaker 6: on there. They have four starters who have played and
Speaker 6: started every game and in their careers they've scored almost
Speaker 6: fifty two hundred points on the button. They have a
Speaker 6: thousand assists, so that's a very veteran team coached by
Speaker 6: Lenny Acuff, who was at Alabama Huntsville for a long
Speaker 6: time and is a really really good coach.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it'll be it'll be.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, really good guy and a great guy too.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, looking at good guy.
Speaker 7: To talk to.
Speaker 1: The Colonel's last time out in overtime, they protected streak
Speaker 1: with a win over Queens out of Charlotte, North Carolina
Speaker 1: and Ika. You hit thirteen of twenty six from the
Speaker 1: arc and they win it even though Butchery didn't have
Speaker 1: a great game. I keep seeing all kinds of video
Speaker 1: and stuff about him on Instagram, but he wasn't the
Speaker 1: sharpest that night. But yeah, you mentioned Blanton had twenty
Speaker 1: three points in tenni assists and other guys coming through
Speaker 1: with double digit numbers. Has that been the way of.
Speaker 2: The Colonels here in this winning streak They kind of
Speaker 2: spread things out a little.
Speaker 7: Bit, it really has.
Speaker 5: They've spread it out.
Speaker 6: Lanton's taken on a new role, almost like a point
Speaker 6: forward at times, and he's so good in the medium range,
Speaker 6: and so the double and triple teams that were coming
Speaker 6: at him early in the season. As he's become more
Speaker 6: of an assist guy, it's opened up for him to
Speaker 6: do his work in the medium range area, you know,
Speaker 6: left or right of the of the of the foul lane,
Speaker 6: but inside the three point line. The biggest concern, if
Speaker 6: I was gonna look at the glass half empty, is
Speaker 6: you're not going to continue to shoot every night the
Speaker 6: way they've shot here over this oh during the wind
Speaker 6: streak and so there, and they're down a guy who
Speaker 6: is number five in the country in steel. So Kimball
Speaker 6: was leading the conference all year He's been top five
Speaker 6: in the country all year long before he got injured
Speaker 6: in steel. So you lose a really good on bold defender.
Speaker 6: And at the end because the a Sun moves their
Speaker 6: tournament up a little earlier than a lot of school
Speaker 6: a lot of conferences, it's a weird scheduling thing, and
Speaker 6: I don't know, it's tough. You play six games in
Speaker 6: the last fourteen days of the regular season. Wow, So
Speaker 6: the one to night will be the third game. So
Speaker 6: you're playing they're playing Thursday, Saturday. Tonight's Tuesday. They go
Speaker 6: to Bellermant on Thursday, then they fly to Florida and
Speaker 6: play games on Monday and Wednesday, and then the tournament
Speaker 6: would start the next Monday for the top eight seeds.
Speaker 6: So you know you're cun You're kind of in the end,
Speaker 6: the end of the year, you really are.
Speaker 1: Thankfully Bellam is not too far away. And with all
Speaker 1: due respect this guy the downboard. The Knights have been
Speaker 1: struggling this year, but you can't overlook them.
Speaker 2: You can't overlook anybody.
Speaker 6: I mean, they took they took Queen Stover times should
Speaker 6: have won the game. I mean that three wins coming
Speaker 6: into their game tonight, and they've been in a lot
Speaker 6: of games.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 6: So and he's gonna be pulling his hair out. He's
Speaker 6: a little fiery on the bench anyway, if you've never
Speaker 6: watched team so yeah, the reperees have to bring a
Speaker 6: little chapstick.
Speaker 1: Let's just say, well, he's a guy wh knows how
Speaker 1: to win championships. A couple of minutes left with Greg Stottlemyer,
Speaker 1: the radio and TV voice of the EKU Colonels, who
Speaker 1: take on Lipscomb tonight in a key matchup.
Speaker 2: Uh in the a Sun have you enjoyed? I know,
Speaker 2: I know you again, you're like me.
Speaker 1: Traditionally, you wish the OVC had held together with the
Speaker 1: traditional matchups E KU and Western Kentucky and Morehead and
Speaker 1: all that. But have you enjoyed the a sun.
Speaker 6: It's a yes and no thing for me. I'll just
Speaker 6: be brutally honest about it. I like getting off a
Speaker 6: bus in Florida rather than Mater in Illinois.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, So so the weather's nice. I missed the
Speaker 6: radio guys that that you got to know in the
Speaker 6: in the Ohio Valley Conference. But again I'm coming. I'm
Speaker 6: coming from the old days of Murray and Belmont and
Speaker 6: Jacksonville State and and Eastern and Moorhead and on and on,
Speaker 6: right and so so the operational part of it's a
Speaker 6: little tougher that the Florida schools aren't as basketball centric
Speaker 6: as far as outside the court, the operation, the things
Speaker 6: you and I have to put up with, So that
Speaker 6: parts a little bit more of a challenge. But on
Speaker 6: the over it's always nice to have a change, even
Speaker 6: like in football and the United Athletic Conference, going to
Speaker 6: Texas and Utah, just going to different places, seeing different programs.
Speaker 6: It's nice for a change. But I think you're on
Speaker 6: board with me. I mean, everybody thinks is there any
Speaker 6: way after all this stuff shakes out and the p
Speaker 6: fours do what they do, especially with football. Is there
Speaker 6: any way to get college athletics back to more regional regionalization.
Speaker 6: I don't know how you do it, but that needs
Speaker 6: to happen.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what they need to do, and they won't.
Speaker 1: And these aren't the only guys who have said it,
Speaker 1: but I first heard Rick Pattino say it.
Speaker 2: I'll say a Chip Kelly say, before you leave UCLA.
Speaker 1: Let football do its own thing and leave everybody else alone.
Speaker 1: You allow, you know, the EKA using order to go
Speaker 1: back to the traditional geographically skewed conference setups.
Speaker 2: Let football do their own thing.
Speaker 1: If they want to have an AFC NFC type setup,
Speaker 1: that's fine, but then leave all the other sports men
Speaker 1: and women are like, leave them alone to go back
Speaker 1: to traditional matchups. That to me, greg makes the most sense.
Speaker 1: I'm not in that you know arena, so I don't
Speaker 1: know how to make it work, but there are a
Speaker 1: lot of people smarter than I who could figure it out.
Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
Speaker 6: We've all said that. I know Steve Cotton over at
Speaker 6: Marshall has said the same thing. Eastern Western Middle we
Speaker 6: all ought to be playing every year. We all agree,
Speaker 6: but how it's easy to say it, but how do
Speaker 6: you do it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, but they get paid a lot of money, brother
Speaker 2: to figure that out. It is e KU.
Speaker 1: The hashtag is most exciting forty minutes in sports, and
Speaker 1: the Colonels play after that label, don't they.
Speaker 7: Greg, They do.
Speaker 6: Sometimes it's forty five or fifty minutes, but they do it.
Speaker 5: It's good.
Speaker 6: And you know, I don't know if you've been over
Speaker 6: since they renovated and they're done with two phases of
Speaker 6: the three. They've really done a good job of keeping
Speaker 6: the character of an arena that was built nearly sixties,
Speaker 6: but really going to get more and more fan friendly
Speaker 6: and it's really nice. I think they've done a great
Speaker 6: job of renovating and it'll be even better after the
Speaker 6: third phase with a new seating being put in the
Speaker 6: layover after the end.
Speaker 5: Of this season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's always been a great place to watch, but
Speaker 1: it's much more fan friendly now, I think, and a.
Speaker 2: Great place to watch great basketball. It can't be there tonight.
Speaker 2: It's about to get started, but Greg Stottlemeyer has it
Speaker 2: for you on TV and radio. Thank you, Greg, best
Speaker 2: of luck down the road.
Speaker 6: Good talking to you. I'll see you over at the
Speaker 6: State tournament.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 1: In fact, I'll be pitching in for the girls Sweet
Speaker 1: sixteen along with mister Stottlemeyer helping out with radio coverage.
Speaker 1: We'll tell you more about that coming up in a
Speaker 1: few days, but for now, that's the end of our
Speaker 1: number one. Coming up next, David Sisk of Katz Illustrated
Speaker 1: part of the Rivals Network, will tell us all about
Speaker 1: the basketball wiutcatch. He kept a close eye on them,
Speaker 1: and Jeff Picoro of SEC plus he and Christy Thomas
Speaker 1: work the Kentucky Georgia game. We'll talk to Jeff about
Speaker 1: the women's team as it heads down the stretch into
Speaker 1: postseason play. That's all I had here on the Big
Speaker 1: doing Sider six point thirty.
Speaker 8: W olupiat.
Speaker 9: Tact Tact.
Speaker 1: Then welcome back to the Big Blue and Cider joining
Speaker 1: us now. As a guy who's been a guest on
Speaker 1: our show many many times, you read his work and
Speaker 1: Cats Illustrated part of the Rivals Network, David Sisk coach.
Speaker 2: David's by the way, as a guy who.
Speaker 1: Former uybl Travelers coach, writes basketball recruiting for UK and
Speaker 1: North Carolina and breaks video down on Twitter and uh coach,
Speaker 1: you had some interesting posts after the Texas game, which
Speaker 1: is understandable, of course, but I thought really interesting is
Speaker 1: one of your latest was about the fact that teams
Speaker 1: are fitting and all teams do this figure out how
Speaker 1: to guard the other guy, and they know that Otega
Speaker 1: Oway might be the only wildcad who can get downhill.
Speaker 1: How does that affect the way teams are guarding Kentucky.
Speaker 5: Well, they're going underscreens, they are gaping him and playing
Speaker 5: off and uh, you know, besides that, now, I think
Speaker 5: there's a big difference in having once you were out
Speaker 5: on the floor then twos and I'm talking about when
Speaker 5: you're backcourt perimeter players. So if you've got Jack some
Speaker 5: Robinson and uh Kobe Brea, it's on a court together,
Speaker 5: you know, it gets harder to uh to help on
Speaker 5: a guy like Oway who can get downhill. But if you, uh,
Speaker 5: you've only got the one shooter out there, then you
Speaker 5: can really get into a guy like Brea. And that's
Speaker 5: what they're doing, and they're really playing no touch on
Speaker 5: him and uh face guarding and not letting him have
Speaker 5: the outside shots, not let him have the catch. But
Speaker 5: you know, you take away then and uh, they're just
Speaker 5: playing under him. And and and going under the screens,
Speaker 5: and when you've got the five guys out there, then
Speaker 5: really put the ball in the basket. It gets tougher
Speaker 5: to spend all that. But uh, I'm gonna be honest
Speaker 5: with right now. I mean Travis Perry and uh and
Speaker 5: and uh Trentonoa. They're they're gonna have to earn the
Speaker 5: other teams respect to be able to score. So teams
Speaker 5: are just getting up in them and say, okay, let's
Speaker 5: see if you can beat us off to dribble, you know,
Speaker 5: so the help doesn't come from the other spots, and
Speaker 5: they just they don't think that they can beat them
Speaker 5: one on one. So then uh, you when you do that,
Speaker 5: you can uh you know, you can play off a
Speaker 5: way and you can uh you know, you just cirly
Speaker 5: got that one guy who can really get by you
Speaker 5: and then you're not happy and you don't have to
Speaker 5: worry about kicking out to the other shooters and things
Speaker 5: like that. So it uh, it just makes it easier
Speaker 5: right now to guard the whole team and and uh
Speaker 5: you don't have to worry about guys getting to the
Speaker 5: whole end shooting things like that. So players are one dimensional,
Speaker 5: so uh, I think what you saw from Texas is
Speaker 5: what you're gonna see some Vanderbilt a lot tomorrow night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 1: And uh it's it's frustrating, I know, or Kentucky fans,
Speaker 1: uh bray. I had probably his worst game as a Wildcat,
Speaker 1: although I really thought I had seen David in other games.
Speaker 1: I thought i'd seen him do a better job of
Speaker 1: going to the rim when when you're right, teams are not.
Speaker 1: Do not let him touch the ball.
Speaker 2: You know they're holding him all that.
Speaker 1: But he said to develop other parts of his game,
Speaker 1: and I thought he was really coming along with that,
Speaker 1: or am I imagining that?
Speaker 5: Well, I'm looking at his numbers right here. As we
Speaker 5: do this, you get old like me and you can't
Speaker 5: remember stuff you'll see one day.
Speaker 2: I'm probably older than you are.
Speaker 5: If you look at if you look at at Perea,
Speaker 5: sixty three of his ninety one makes have been by
Speaker 5: three one hundred and forty three out of one hundred
Speaker 5: and ninety nine attempts thee. So you know, we're twenty
Speaker 5: five games in and he's only attempted sixty six pointers
Speaker 5: on a year, so about three a game. So here's
Speaker 5: the whole thing. Uh, it's not to the point where
Speaker 5: you're saying, Okay, we're not going to let you have
Speaker 5: the two or something like that, or we're not gonna
Speaker 5: take that away. The thing is the teams are saying, okay,
Speaker 5: number one, we're going to get up in you. We're
Speaker 5: going to deny the catch. We're going to pressure you
Speaker 5: not only to take away the three, but we just
Speaker 5: don't think you can go by us.
Speaker 7: Yep.
Speaker 5: So, and it goes back to what you were saying, Well,
Speaker 5: I goo old way right now. The way roster is
Speaker 5: is the only guy who can get downhill, and the
Speaker 5: other guy like that is Ansley. I'mna uh. He's kind
Speaker 5: of the same way, you know, and more of a
Speaker 5: catch and shoot guy rather than Bray because Bray can
Speaker 5: put the ball on the floor and get the three
Speaker 5: off the drib ver. Eminar's more of a catch shoe guy.
Speaker 5: So that's just what they're saying. We're going to get
Speaker 5: out in you and we're going to deny you to catch.
Speaker 5: We're going to test every three and if you get
Speaker 5: biased good, we don't think you can.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Right.
Speaker 1: And conversely, I thought Texas did a good job, and
Speaker 1: other teams will seek to do this. You talked about
Speaker 1: Perry and Noah earning the respect by making plays defensively.
Speaker 1: Teams of course will go at them and isolate and
Speaker 1: make them guard something they didn't have to do much
Speaker 1: of in high school.
Speaker 5: Right. Yeah, And if you look at if you look
Speaker 5: at Kentucky right now, and you you go to those
Speaker 5: players defensively and hang on, I'm going to click on
Speaker 5: that Travis Perry as far as and I'm going by
Speaker 5: having Mayakawa here, his defensive percentiles, defensive impact percentile, he's
Speaker 5: in the seventh percentile, one being as low as you
Speaker 5: can get, one hundred being as good as you could get.
Speaker 5: So you know, he's in the seventh percentile defensively. So
Speaker 5: according to that, only six players out of one hundred
Speaker 5: really are going to have a lesser impact defensively. And
Speaker 5: you know, if you get into uh, if you get
Speaker 5: into Noah and I'm gonna pull that up here, uh,
Speaker 5: that's going to be uh, that's going to be pretty similar.
Speaker 5: I don't have that number right in front of you
Speaker 5: here in the second, but it's going to be pretty similar.
Speaker 5: So you know. But but the thing about Perry is
Speaker 5: is the size too, because when you go back to
Speaker 5: the Texas game. Uh Trey Johnson was sixty, so you
Speaker 5: know he could just go and get the ball and
Speaker 5: go over it. But at least Noah does have a
Speaker 5: little bit of size. It's not going to be the
Speaker 5: quickness going a perimeter, but you could see, you know
Speaker 5: in the Texas game. You know when you take when
Speaker 5: you take Mark and you take Johnson both they're really
Speaker 5: both very talented offense with the ball. So they were
Speaker 5: just kind of taking turn. Okay, if we can't get
Speaker 5: to look against uh Noah, we'll attack uh, you know,
Speaker 5: we'll attack Perry and vice versa. And they were doing
Speaker 5: it well, you know, two really long time well not
Speaker 5: long time, but to really good guards marsmen doing it
Speaker 5: a long time. Whereas uh Johnson, you know, leading this.
Speaker 5: He's seen scoring in the freshman so you know, those
Speaker 5: guys are pretty legit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's not fair of us to expect you know,
Speaker 1: no you know, I mean, come on, but again, it's
Speaker 1: just looking we're looking at what to expect down the
Speaker 1: stretch here.
Speaker 5: You know, say this, We're not blad I promise you
Speaker 5: this the kids not I'm blast. I'm glad you said it,
Speaker 5: but it's not fair. I mean, you've got you've got
Speaker 5: guys really and really like when Noah, Noah really didn't
Speaker 5: figure much into the into the game plan really until
Speaker 5: the Vanderbilt games there. That's when when players started getting hurt.
Speaker 5: And I was at the game and I'm like, Wow,
Speaker 5: he's the man. He's get big minutes. He's not even played. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and you know Perry's you know, minutes have extended. So
Speaker 5: you're talking about freshmen who are developmental players, and that's
Speaker 5: the whole thing. And they've been thrust into roles now
Speaker 5: and honestly they're not physically ready because they're guys who
Speaker 5: are going to take two or three years of development.
Speaker 5: They're going to reach their MAC that's right. So, like
Speaker 5: you say, they're being thrown into situations right now and
Speaker 5: just trying to make the best out of it.
Speaker 1: People need to remember Mark Pope's comments about those kids
Speaker 1: and Colin Chandler early in the year, preseason, early on
Speaker 1: people of course one of the Kentucky boys get you know,
Speaker 1: when they weren't really needed because the injury situation wasn't
Speaker 1: what it is now, and his comments were all skewed
Speaker 1: toward they're going to help us in the future. They're
Speaker 1: learning every day, you know, we're feeding them, you know,
Speaker 1: they're trying to drink out of a fire hose all
Speaker 1: that stuff. But it was all pointed toward the future.
Speaker 1: Well then suddenly the future became now, isn't it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I did. And you know, your hope is, you know,
Speaker 5: with rose colored glasses and blue colored glasses, that if
Speaker 5: you could get Butler and Robinson back healthy, and well,
Speaker 5: we just don't know, and I don't think anybody does.
Speaker 5: Really Shoulders just a tough thing. And the thing is
Speaker 5: is he going to be able to play through it?
Speaker 5: Not favor it? Talking about Butler and then Robinson's you know,
Speaker 5: you're you're you're looking at the rest of a shooter.
Speaker 5: So those are tough situations. But what I was going
Speaker 5: to say is if the hope is that if they
Speaker 5: could get back healthy, all of a sudden, you've got
Speaker 5: two players there who've been asked to do a lot
Speaker 5: that they wouldn't have to have kind of grown up,
Speaker 5: you know, on a job, and yeah, you know, really
Speaker 5: might give you more effective depth if you can be
Speaker 5: healthy than's what you would have had a month ago.
Speaker 5: So you know, if they could, these guys can come
Speaker 5: back that are injured may be a good thing in
Speaker 5: a long term, you know, got two or three years
Speaker 5: down the road, but twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, when you listen to Pope trying
Speaker 1: to read between the line when he said I'm heartbroken
Speaker 1: for Jackson, first thing I.
Speaker 2: Thought was he won't be back, you know.
Speaker 1: But they're they're you know, they're they're stopping short of that,
Speaker 1: and you're right, well.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry, I mean right, but I think that's the case. Anyway.
Speaker 5: You hardly ever say if a player's injured it's long term.
Speaker 5: They never say up front, hardly that they're done, you know,
Speaker 5: So it's uh, you know, like you say, you kind
Speaker 5: of hold your breath, but we just we don't know
Speaker 5: right now.
Speaker 2: No, uh, And it's clearly a different team, I know.
Speaker 1: But as they like to say, everybody's dealing with injuries,
Speaker 1: but not everybody has a team that was put together
Speaker 1: like this cobble together almost like a jigsaw puzzle by
Speaker 1: Mark Pope and his staff and guys were recruited for
Speaker 1: specific needs, and then they recruited depth to go along
Speaker 1: with them.
Speaker 2: But yeah, you know, the point.
Speaker 1: Guard depth is shot, and you know you've got your
Speaker 1: top three point guards Sideline. I remember when that happened
Speaker 1: to Tube Smith at Minnesota. You had a really good
Speaker 1: team and lost every one of his point guards, and
Speaker 1: that was that. You know, it's just it's hard to
Speaker 1: lose that obviously that coach on the floor, isn't it?
Speaker 5: It is, and you know it's the most important position
Speaker 5: out there. And the problem is, like you said, the
Speaker 5: injuries have hit at one spot, so you're down your
Speaker 5: first Did Butler? People forget about Chris? He was their
Speaker 5: second part?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Oh, then you move. You know what happened as soon
Speaker 5: as Butler got moved? But what did they do? Jackson
Speaker 5: Robinson to the point. Yeah, Now Jackson Robinson's at the point.
Speaker 5: Now you've got You've got Perry, and you know you're
Speaker 5: asking Amari Williams to do a lot and you know,
Speaker 5: I had some clips there, you know, late in the
Speaker 5: game where I believe Kentucky may have been really tired
Speaker 5: and and you're you're you're asking some of these guys
Speaker 5: to just do Yeoman's work and to do a lot.
Speaker 5: And so now I know this a lot and from
Speaker 5: coaching experience, if you had a guy who played point
Speaker 5: some and handled the ball, but he did your scoring,
Speaker 5: or he might be your best defender and all that right,
Speaker 5: you try to take him off the ball as much
Speaker 5: as you can, just to let him rest because of
Speaker 5: a pressure can really wear you down. And now here
Speaker 5: you are with you know, you're asking Marii Williams to handle,
Speaker 5: you know, and so that takes even more out you know,
Speaker 5: of the tank. But like you said, you hit him
Speaker 5: all at once at one position and that's the one
Speaker 5: that really runs it. And the statement I've made is
Speaker 5: Kentucky is the way this team's been built. Some of
Speaker 5: the parts equal to and the system. And they don't
Speaker 5: or systematic players. They don't have that great one on
Speaker 5: one player. They don't have the guy it's going to
Speaker 5: be lottery pick, first round pick. They don't have that.
Speaker 5: They don't create. They get theirselves open and they play
Speaker 5: off the system, and uh, that's what works for them.
Speaker 5: And when you know, you start taking a couple of
Speaker 5: parts out of that, like you say that jigsaw puzzle,
Speaker 5: and all of a sudden you don't have a corner
Speaker 5: piece and you can't find your piece in the middle,
Speaker 5: and you know, it messes the whole thing up. That's
Speaker 5: kind of what you're looking at now.
Speaker 2: It's exactly right. We're talking with David Sisk.
Speaker 1: He is you see his work in Cats Illustrated part
Speaker 1: of the Rivals. Now we're welcome back and talk more
Speaker 1: Kentucky basketball in just a minute here on the Big
Speaker 1: boone Sider.
Speaker 2: Six thirty WLA. Welcome back.
Speaker 1: We're talking with David Sisk of Cats Illustrated part of
Speaker 1: the Rivals Network. And you see his work on Twitter
Speaker 1: as well, breaking down video U and you posted a
Speaker 1: couple of clips the free the missed free throw of
Speaker 1: the rebound to Texas in particular, as one know those things.
Speaker 2: I don't care who's out of the lineup or who's in.
Speaker 2: You can't let that happen, can you? No?
Speaker 5: And then I'm telling you what and this, I've got
Speaker 5: out of coaching last May after thirty years, and yeah,
Speaker 5: I did. I did this the first year I've not coached.
Speaker 5: It's nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 5: And just going back last year and a year before,
Speaker 5: just thinking about how many times we got into players
Speaker 5: on the high school level after we told them and
Speaker 5: told them and told them. When the foul shot goes
Speaker 5: up number one and you're on the bottom, you line
Speaker 5: up at the top of your space, close to the
Speaker 5: goal on top I think you can get and then
Speaker 5: as soon as the balls were released, you step up
Speaker 5: the paint into him. And that's that's just you know,
Speaker 5: it's it's really as as basic as it gets, basically
Speaker 5: fundamentals it gets. And and if you watch what they did,
Speaker 5: you know, Williams went just looked up and box out
Speaker 5: and I don't know, maybe Trade Johnson's good shoot, he
Speaker 5: just granted he was gonna make it, but he he
Speaker 5: he goes under a rim and the big that Texas had,
Speaker 5: he really didn't even have to fight for that rebound.
Speaker 5: They had that kick and he just had to Actually
Speaker 5: the player behind him knocked it. Lows went to Johnson
Speaker 5: and then Johnson, you know, flols and flings one up
Speaker 5: and it goes off the backboard and then Texas big
Speaker 5: guy just grabs it and dunks it right off the backboard.
Speaker 5: And so but but in Will's fairness, in fairness to him,
Speaker 5: I mean, he's the engine that makes this thing go.
Speaker 5: He's far the best player that they've got. They asked
Speaker 5: him to do more than anybody else. But you know,
Speaker 5: even after he didn't block that out and there was
Speaker 5: another situation where Trey Johnson had got about two or
Speaker 5: three rebounds. The rest of the Kentucky guys and just
Speaker 5: stand it, yep. I mean they're there to paint and
Speaker 5: they just relax, stand straight up and watch, and you know,
Speaker 5: it look like Williams is fighting off a swarm of
Speaker 5: bees by hisself in there. Know, he's trying to He's
Speaker 5: trying to take care of two or three guys and
Speaker 5: the rest of them are watching. You know, we blame
Speaker 5: Williams stepping up on that rebound. Then he didn't have
Speaker 5: any help once the once it got past that.
Speaker 1: They need more nastiness, you know, and they had they
Speaker 1: had acknowledged earlier in the year when we hear the
Speaker 1: talk about us being soft. Uh, that might have come
Speaker 1: back to haunt them a little bit. But they could
Speaker 1: use some Jamal mcglore in there, couldn't they.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And you know they really I think you can
Speaker 5: do it sporadically. I think by this time of year good.
Speaker 5: But if you look at them and you know they'll
Speaker 5: say you've got to be nasty and all that, you'll
Speaker 5: look and they don't have a game where they defend
Speaker 5: well or they played well. They's clear whatever and else
Speaker 5: they see, that's what it was, that's what it took.
Speaker 5: But the bottom line is it didn't. It doesn't happen
Speaker 5: consistently of them. It's like a team that can't shoot.
Speaker 5: You know, they may have that one game where they
Speaker 5: shoot the ball well, but you know they're probably not
Speaker 5: going to keep it up for several games in a row.
Speaker 5: So it is what it is, and this is not
Speaker 5: I mean, if you look at these guys, know, Amnor
Speaker 5: is not a physical guy. He's built that way. And
Speaker 5: I still say car is really deemed up. Oh yeah,
Speaker 5: you know his back turning. He's not been the same
Speaker 5: since he went down all that back and he's just
Speaker 5: not as active. That was the other guy that could
Speaker 5: be fiscal with Williams. Pray's not physical, Robinson's not physical,
Speaker 5: O way is uh, Butler is. Butler's not playing And
Speaker 5: you know Perry's not a physical player. I think Trent
Speaker 5: noan time will Bee and he plays hard, but he is, uh,
Speaker 5: you know, he's not up for that physically yet. So
Speaker 5: you know that's a lot of you know, you get
Speaker 5: it and you get it and spurts from different spots.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but you got to have it. You know
Speaker 2: you got you can't win without it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you do, you do, and I'll give exactly. You know,
Speaker 5: I watched arkansall and trying to think who they were
Speaker 5: playing Texas A and M, and it wasn't pretty ball.
Speaker 5: And I wouldn't want my team really to play like
Speaker 5: either one of them, just to be honest. We I mean,
Speaker 5: I drew like Kentucky style playing style in the way
Speaker 5: they do much better. But man, you look at those
Speaker 5: guys and they've just got grown men who are physical
Speaker 5: and defend and go rebound, and their headhunters and you know,
Speaker 5: you like to have a little bit of a minx,
Speaker 5: but you know, Kentucky just you know, over as a whole,
Speaker 5: just they're not built that way.
Speaker 2: Gotcha.
Speaker 1: He is David Sisk and he is built for basketball.
Speaker 1: You can follow him on Twitter at coach David Cis.
Speaker 1: See his work and catch illustrated. When we come back
Speaker 1: next time and visit, coach, we'll talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about North Carolina.
Speaker 2: They got a rough one. You think Kentucky fans are struggling.
Speaker 2: What if you North Carolina fan? But for now, thanks coach,
Speaker 2: We'll talk to you again.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, no, it's not totally doom and glue.
Speaker 5: You know they could win. They got six way out.
Speaker 5: I'm not saying it's doom good they I think they
Speaker 5: could could split. You know, I think Alabama and Auburn's
Speaker 5: gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough at Missouri, but
Speaker 5: Vanderbilt is one that could go either way. I've seen
Speaker 5: a couple of people that I really trust on their
Speaker 5: analytics and they've got just about a one or two
Speaker 5: point games of all night. So it's it's gonna Wednesday night. Rather,
Speaker 5: it's gonna be Uh, it's gonna be a battle.
Speaker 1: Yes it will, and you will hear it right here,
Speaker 1: up next Jeff Piicorrol in the UK Network and SEC
Speaker 1: Plus here on six thirty w l AP Joining us
Speaker 1: now in our celebrity hotline.
Speaker 2: Is alone time friend in college.
Speaker 1: You know him as the TV voice of UK Women's basketball.
Speaker 1: Jeff Piicarel and Christy Thomas on SEC Plus. In fact,
Speaker 1: Jeff Row, you did your last answer. I cannot believe
Speaker 1: that regular season is almost over?
Speaker 7: Isn't it just crazy? Yeah, you have a You have
Speaker 7: less than two weeks before the season ends for the
Speaker 7: women and the postseason starts it's nuts.
Speaker 1: You work the blowout the other night of Georgia. This
Speaker 1: Kentucky team lost to a really good Texas team. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about that in a minute, but what did you
Speaker 1: see in that Georgia game that has you excited about
Speaker 1: the postseason?
Speaker 7: Well, you know, they had been so dependent on Georgia
Speaker 7: Amore this year, and deservedly so. I mean, she could
Speaker 7: start for any team, and I'm talking Texas or Yukon
Speaker 7: or South Carolina too. I mean, she's an All American
Speaker 7: guard for a reason, unbelievable player, but so dependent on
Speaker 7: her and really Claristrack and it's been kind of a
Speaker 7: two headed monster. But what I've liked is the emergence,
Speaker 7: especially over the last probably six to eight games, of
Speaker 7: Tianni te She's a fantastic player. Sister was an unbelievable
Speaker 7: player Tennessee. Tianni's is really starting to come into her own.
Speaker 7: Got her tenth double double in the season, fourteen points
Speaker 7: the career. I had fourteen rebounds in that game against Georgia.
Speaker 7: It's just given her another given the team another dimension.
Speaker 7: And then the second part of that is Amelia Hassett,
Speaker 7: the other Australian on the team. When she's shooting like
Speaker 7: she did in the Georgia game, it just opens everything
Speaker 7: up for people haven't seen a play. She's kind of
Speaker 7: like what you would see in the NBA with a
Speaker 7: Durant or Novinskia, a taller player six almost six y five,
Speaker 7: but shoots a three and can also rebound. And when
Speaker 7: she shoots, it just gives Strack more room inside. So
Speaker 7: that's what I like about this team is those players
Speaker 7: are really starting to come on here at the end
Speaker 7: of the year.
Speaker 1: You don't think of Hassett as being that tall because
Speaker 1: she spends so much time out in the perimeter, loves
Speaker 1: the corner threes and things like that, But then when
Speaker 1: she's inside grabbing rebounds and Proban needs to do more
Speaker 1: of that, you realize how big she is.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and she's really a streaky shooter. If she you know,
Speaker 7: she hit the first shot of the game, was a
Speaker 7: three pointer, and next thing you know, she's what was
Speaker 7: she four of seven? I think for the game for
Speaker 7: three a lot like Kobe Bray is for the guys.
Speaker 7: If he hits his first shot, look out. If she
Speaker 7: hits her first shot, lookout. And she did the other day,
Speaker 7: and it just led to you know, a lot of
Speaker 7: open looks underneath.
Speaker 1: She had been in a little bit of a slump recently,
Speaker 1: and some of that was because Kenny Brook said she
Speaker 1: was under the weather, but apparently her confidence was sagging
Speaker 1: a little bit. Man, she busted out against Georgia, didn't she?
Speaker 5: She did?
Speaker 7: And you know the other thing I think with that
Speaker 7: is she I don't think has played as much as
Speaker 7: the five starters or have been asked to play this
Speaker 7: year because of the injuries that Kentucky's had. This is
Speaker 7: really a team that goes seven deep and that's it. Yeah,
Speaker 7: and it's a decided to drop off. And I don't
Speaker 7: mean that in a bad way, but we're talking elite
Speaker 7: players and you know there's one or two on the
Speaker 7: bench and then it's a drop off. And that's something
Speaker 7: that you know, Kenny wasn't going to have when he
Speaker 7: got the team together, but two huge losses before the
Speaker 7: season even started with injuries has has really called his
Speaker 7: team down to seven or eight players. So I think
Speaker 7: that some of that, you know, wear and tear, and
Speaker 7: then the other thing I think that that's kind of
Speaker 7: hurt them and especially Clara and Amelia, is the physicality
Speaker 7: of the SEC. And it's something we've heard a lot
Speaker 7: of coaches talk about and both the guys and the
Speaker 7: women's game, but it's something that I really think has
Speaker 7: to be looked at.
Speaker 5: It.
Speaker 7: It's the only problem that I have in the SEC
Speaker 7: with the officiating is and I don't know how to
Speaker 7: stop this. And I asked Kenny Brooks this and shoot
Speaker 7: around the other day and he said, Jeff, if you
Speaker 7: can figure it out, please tell me, because I can't.
Speaker 7: Is every team South Care, every really good team has
Speaker 7: got big eggs that are massive, And what I mean
Speaker 7: is six four six ' five and you know, big body,
Speaker 7: and they just run down the court and they run
Speaker 7: Claire Strack is set in the paint. Texas's young lady
Speaker 7: is guys every bit of six four sixty five and
Speaker 7: every bit of probably two hundred and thirty pounds, and
Speaker 7: she just barrels in there and runs right into you.
Speaker 7: And it knocked Claire back, and then Claire regains her stance,
Speaker 7: and then they just put their shoulder down and ram
Speaker 7: into you. And they allow that to happen. And then
Speaker 7: if a defender does the arm bar, which you put
Speaker 7: your arm out, you know, and four arm kind of
Speaker 7: shot they call that a foul. If you use your hands,
Speaker 7: they usually let you touch one time, but if you
Speaker 7: use your hands out in front of your body, they
Speaker 7: ram you once. The second time it's going to be
Speaker 7: a foul. So that to me is the only thing.
Speaker 7: Because I love doing women's basketball. People go, do you
Speaker 7: like doing women's backlocks? I love it. It's actual game.
Speaker 7: You can watch plays, you can see them. It's not
Speaker 7: just let's go one on one, you know, move aside
Speaker 7: out and let's you know, the guy's game is so
Speaker 7: much about just the athleticism of one or two guys
Speaker 7: on the team. And the girls play team basketball, and
Speaker 7: I think it's a blast to watch. But that's the
Speaker 7: one thing I think that needs to be fick.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you, and I was, you know,
Speaker 1: I think the coaches, if they could get together and
Speaker 1: decide on how they want the games to be called,
Speaker 1: if you can get any kind of quorum that.
Speaker 2: Way, good luck with that.
Speaker 1: And more to your point, I do like the description
Speaker 1: of the two different styles of play. The men's game
Speaker 1: is much more vertical. The women's game is more horizontal, yeah,
Speaker 1: which which means you know, passing and the extra pass
Speaker 1: and things like that. Getting back to the wild game,
Speaker 1: you mentioned Georgia Amore, and yeah, she is absolutely worth
Speaker 1: the price for admission. But Tiani key Inside you mentioned
Speaker 1: her right off the top. I really wish there were
Speaker 1: more of the Kentucky front liners who've played with her
Speaker 1: kind of swag, you know what I mean. I mean
Speaker 1: she when she's in there, You've seen it. How many
Speaker 1: times she's like, this is my space, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm here for the basketball, Get out of my way.
Speaker 2: I love seeing that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and you know, Dick, I think it's probably because
Speaker 7: she's played some with her big sister growing up, probably
Speaker 7: who was a force, you know, down low too, and
Speaker 7: her mother, both her mom and her sister are even
Speaker 7: taller than she is, and she's every bit of six four.
Speaker 7: So but yeah, she just plays the game. And again
Speaker 7: when you watch when you watch Connecticut South Carolina, you
Speaker 7: know LSU, they play with that you know, Iowa when
Speaker 7: Caitlyn was there, they play with that swagger that you
Speaker 7: know that you know that you see from really good teams,
Speaker 7: and she has that. And and again this is his
Speaker 7: Kenny's first year, and you know he's he's going to
Speaker 7: get the two players back. He's got one of the
Speaker 7: top ten recruits in the whole country coming in next season.
Speaker 7: I think that he's he's mastered what he's done, but
Speaker 7: he he has to figure out how to get a
Speaker 7: little more physical too, because his game isn't that style
Speaker 7: and that's not the way they played basketball, you know,
Speaker 7: in the in the ac.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, you know, and now you've got you saw
Speaker 1: how good Texas was, uh, and now the other and
Speaker 1: came back not just beat LSU, but had to come
Speaker 1: from behind to do it. But yeah, you mentioned the
Speaker 1: big they had, but they've also got you know, Booker,
Speaker 1: I mean, they've got so many talented players. And I
Speaker 1: think it underscored exactly what you were just referring to
Speaker 1: the fact that Kentucky's a little out man because of
Speaker 1: the two key players who are out injured. I kept
Speaker 1: watching that Texas game thinking how much could those two
Speaker 1: kids on the bench have really helped Kentucky?
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
Speaker 7: Yeah, because you know that game was a very close game.
Speaker 7: Kentucky had the lead in the second quarter and then
Speaker 7: you got I think it was a second or third foul. Yeah,
Speaker 7: and so Clara has to go out and now you
Speaker 7: get a little smaller and still if they don't hit
Speaker 7: that three pointer right at the end of the half,
Speaker 7: you know, it's a four point game, and then our
Speaker 7: five point game, and then it goes to eight and halftime, right,
Speaker 7: and then you know they just they just worry out
Speaker 7: in the second half. But you know the amazing thing
Speaker 7: that when you when you look at athleticism across the board, Texas,
Speaker 7: the South Carolinas. But now it used to be one
Speaker 7: or two teams, right, it was always Connecticut and maybe
Speaker 7: Notre Dame and maybe. But you've got UCLA who got
Speaker 7: beat by USC. You've got South Carolina, oh, by the way,
Speaker 7: got trounced, you know, in their last game at home.
Speaker 7: They've lost, you know, a couple of games in a row.
Speaker 7: And just the athleticism of the women's game has really
Speaker 7: taken a turn because you're just these kids are getting
Speaker 7: it's the same as football, and I look at football,
Speaker 7: the kids are just bigger, stronger and faster, and now
Speaker 7: these women are bigger, stronger and faster and there's more album.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was about to say there were only two
Speaker 1: or three elite teams because it didn't seem like there
Speaker 1: were that many elite players. You know, and now they're
Speaker 1: all over the place and it's going to make for
Speaker 1: an interesting SEC tournament, to say the least. Jeff picrrols,
Speaker 1: my guess we'll come back and talk more in just
Speaker 1: a minute. You're on the Big Blue and Sider six
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Jeff Picarel. He
Speaker 1: is the TV voice of UK women's basketball and SEC
Speaker 1: Plus along with Christy Thomas. Before I get off women's basketball,
Speaker 1: just one or two more. What is it about Kenny Brooks?
Speaker 1: I mean good, another good hire by Mitch Barnhardt. He
Speaker 1: had a proven track record, of course, first to James Madison,
Speaker 1: then at Virginia Tech, took that program.
Speaker 2: To the final four.
Speaker 1: But you've watched his team's practice, You've seen the shoot arounds,
Speaker 1: you've done the games. What is it about his ball
Speaker 1: clubs that makes him so effective?
Speaker 7: You know, it's very interesting. In practice he delegates authority.
Speaker 7: Let's you know, his assistant coaches coach. But he gets
Speaker 7: this point across without yelling and screaming and cussing. It's
Speaker 7: he has a stare to the girls, and they you know,
Speaker 7: and they but I think that and again I think
Speaker 7: you almost have to be a little different when you're
Speaker 7: coaching a woman or a young lady than you are
Speaker 7: a boy or a man. And he comes across really
Speaker 7: well because look, and this is in all sports and
Speaker 7: in all sexas there are players you can yell and
Speaker 7: scream at and there's some that you can't. But he
Speaker 7: gets this point across, and he's like the basketball whisperer.
Speaker 7: I mean, he'll pull someone and just say a couple
Speaker 7: of things to him and they understand. He's just gets
Speaker 7: along so well. And maybe it's because he has all girls,
Speaker 7: you know, his as his children, and but he he
Speaker 7: just they really respond to him and his style. Uh
Speaker 7: and and not taking anything away from Gino or Pat
Speaker 7: when she was, you know, coaching in a live how
Speaker 7: you know, fire and Brimstone. He's completely different. But he
Speaker 7: gets this point across and and I think he understands
Speaker 7: what he's looking for in an athlete. And he said,
Speaker 7: I didn't go out and just get ten women to
Speaker 7: come in here and fill out a roster. I got
Speaker 7: the players that could play my style of play and
Speaker 7: and and come in here and be successful.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And he had to do almost exactly what Mark Pope did.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And rebuilding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he could go out and he went out and
Speaker 1: got a your aymore.
Speaker 2: What's be huge?
Speaker 7: Well and again she said, and he said I was
Speaker 7: going to the moon. I'd go play for him on
Speaker 7: the moon.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 7: And that's and you and I have talked about this
Speaker 7: with coaches. How many coaches have moved on and the
Speaker 7: players would say, I are when they graduate, you hear
Speaker 7: such great things from the former players. I would give
Speaker 7: I would give anything to go back and get one
Speaker 7: more year playing for ex coach. And that's the way
Speaker 7: it is with him. And in Georgia said it. We
Speaker 7: didn't take a second. He said, I'm going to Kentucky
Speaker 7: and I and before he got got asked, because I'm going, yeah,
Speaker 7: you know, that's that's the kind of coach you want
Speaker 7: to have, and that that's the respect that he gives them.
Speaker 7: And really with Georgia and and and the rest of
Speaker 7: the women, practice starts. Let's say it's a ten o'clock practice.
Speaker 7: If you're there at nine forty five, you're late because
Speaker 7: everybody else is already there and they're working. You know,
Speaker 7: they're working before or practice starts with assistant coaches and
Speaker 7: just getting shots up and every single practice i've been
Speaker 7: to has been like that. I set up a interview
Speaker 7: that I did with Claire a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 7: and we get there and we're doing the interview and
Speaker 7: then all of a sudden, we hear ball bouncing and
Speaker 7: there's somebody out there shooting. You know, So you know,
Speaker 7: one of the players, And that's just the way they are.
Speaker 7: They they respect him and and love playing for him.
Speaker 1: I heard him talking on his radio show last night
Speaker 1: about how and this is not an accident, you know.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's it's a tribute to the way
Speaker 1: he and a lot of guys recruit this way. He said,
Speaker 1: my best players have been my hardest workers. And then
Speaker 1: other players will see, hey, George's out there getting up
Speaker 1: some extra shots. Maybe I need to go out and
Speaker 1: get up extra shots.
Speaker 2: And it's not a given.
Speaker 1: You know, generally a great player is a hard worker.
Speaker 1: But everybody knows. So I'm sure you played with guys
Speaker 1: who wasted their talent because it didn't he really put
Speaker 1: in the work, weren't as good as they could have been.
Speaker 1: But the fact that he's able to recruit and develop,
Speaker 1: identify and develop these kids who are great players, and
Speaker 1: as great as they can be because they work hard.
Speaker 1: I think that's a that's an element of coaching that's overlooked,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And you know, I got to be in Cincinnati
Speaker 7: with Joey Vato, and Joey was not a guy that
Speaker 7: was a raw, raw guy. He wasn't like Scott Rowland
Speaker 7: that would grab guys and say here's what we're doing.
Speaker 7: He would very suddenly say, Dick, do you want to
Speaker 7: get better? I'll be at the hitting cage at two o'clock. Well,
Speaker 7: we don't have to be here for three, I know,
Speaker 7: but I'm here too. Yeah, And next thing you know,
Speaker 7: there's three guys there. The next thing you know, there's
Speaker 7: five guys there. And that's the way it is here.
Speaker 7: When when they're out there early, you know who's out
Speaker 7: there early, strak aymore as it key. It's the best
Speaker 7: players that are out there, and then the other one
Speaker 7: kind of followed their lead. And that's what you have
Speaker 7: to have. Bob Huggins told me this years and years ago.
Speaker 7: I want to get to a point where the players
Speaker 7: are coaching each other. And once you get that, then
Speaker 7: you've got them. And that's Georgia Amore is his coach
Speaker 7: on the floor, she tells him what to do. Sometimes
Speaker 7: you'll see during a game where there's a foul and
Speaker 7: she'll run over to the bench when they're shooting free
Speaker 7: throws and be telling him and showing him on a
Speaker 7: you know, a race board, here's I think this will work,
Speaker 7: and he'll.
Speaker 5: Say, Okay, do it.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 1: All of that said, what do you think this team
Speaker 1: can do as thin as it is relatively speaking in
Speaker 1: the postseason.
Speaker 7: Well, I think the key here, Dick is going to
Speaker 7: be they have to win one of the three big
Speaker 7: games they have left, which is LSU, Tennessee, and South Carolina.
Speaker 7: If they win one of those games, I think they're
Speaker 7: sured the double buy And if they get the double
Speaker 7: by that would do wonders for their legs. And I'm
Speaker 7: talking about the SEC Tournament because I really think that
Speaker 7: you have to, especially with how good college basketball has
Speaker 7: become on the women's side, they have to get a
Speaker 7: high seed. So if they can get to Saturday, that
Speaker 7: would be huge. So if they could, if they could
Speaker 7: not have to play a game until it would that
Speaker 7: be Thursday or Friday, would be monstrous. If they could
Speaker 7: get to Saturday, which is the semi finals. That would
Speaker 7: be monstrous for them. They're right now, they're a four
Speaker 7: seed and they have a two game cushion over Old Myth.
Speaker 7: So but Old Myth has the tiebreaker because that was
Speaker 7: the one game that you're looking at, going, how did
Speaker 7: they lose that game? And they don't lose that, they're
Speaker 7: really in the cat bird seats, so they got to
Speaker 7: be you know, Tennessee's probably the one, but you never know.
Speaker 7: South Carolina's not playing great. You got LSU here and
Speaker 7: all the rest of the games, the three games they
Speaker 7: have left here sold out.
Speaker 1: So Tennessee's off the dangerous so as we know, and
Speaker 1: you know, we keep hearing this, and it is true
Speaker 1: that with the men's league, you know, it's going to
Speaker 1: be tougher to win the SEC tournament maybe than winning
Speaker 1: the NCAA tournament. Yes, because you're playing every night. The
Speaker 1: teams are so tough.
Speaker 2: I got to think it's similar with the women's game, too,
Speaker 2: isn't it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Yeah, that's why I said you got to get
Speaker 7: that double bye, because you don't because it's just you
Speaker 7: have to play so hard. You can't coast in any
Speaker 7: of these games. I mean, you know, look Kentucky lost
Speaker 7: to Georgia on the men's side. Who would have thought that. Nope,
Speaker 7: you know, in the game the other night against Texas. Now,
Speaker 7: the one thing the boys have to do. The guys
Speaker 7: have to get healthy.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's all.
Speaker 7: If they're healthy, they got you know, but you got
Speaker 7: what you got with the women's team. And again I
Speaker 7: think the double bye would would really help them.
Speaker 1: Is Jeff Pecorol. Follow him on Twitter at Jeff Pecorol.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Sarah. Next time we'll talk some football.
Speaker 7: All right, Bud.
Speaker 2: Thanks and that'll do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks to my guests Jeff Piccoro, David Sisk and Greg Stottlemeyer.
Speaker 1: And a reminder, Tomorrow night is Kentucky basketball as the
Speaker 1: Wildcats take on those Vanderbilt Commoners. You will hear it
Speaker 1: right here. Hope will coverage at four thirty, needwork at
Speaker 1: five point thirty, Tom and Jackie the call at seven
Speaker 1: to catch.
Speaker 2: And the common origin rupp Arena.
Speaker 1: That's your right to stay warm, everybody. Good night from
Speaker 1: the Fridger Garage in Lexington.
Speaker 8: A A ron?
Speaker 3: Where are you?
Speaker 8: Where is a a ron?
Speaker 5: Right now? No?
Speaker 2: A ron?
Speaker 5: Huh?
Speaker 3: Well you better be sick, dead or mute.
Speaker 5: A ron here?
Speaker 2: Oh man, why didn't you answer me the first time
Speaker 2: I said ear huh, I'm you know, I'm just asking you.
Speaker 5: I said it like four times, So why didn't you
Speaker 5: say it the first time? I said a a ron because.
Speaker 8: It's pronounced aaron.
Speaker 3: You're doing messed up a ron.
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Speaker 9: tape donating to the