Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big blon Sider to Gabrielle with you.
Speaker 1: Thursday edition of our program. Coming up tonight, we'll talk
Speaker 1: with Daryl Bird of the Cats Pause. He is the
Speaker 1: editor and publisher and a guy who every year goes
Speaker 1: down to the SEC meetings in Florida, down in Destin,
Speaker 1: and as far as I can tell, he's the only
Speaker 1: journalist from the UK beat who makes that trip. And
Speaker 1: I could be wrong about that, but I mean, Daryl
Speaker 1: goes down there every year and he always comes back
Speaker 1: with a notebook chock full of information and stories. He
Speaker 1: posts from down there and calls upon the information and
Speaker 1: bangs out story and column after column after story, uses
Speaker 1: it within the upcoming preseason yearbooks, both football and basketball.
Speaker 1: Just a lot of info and of course not just
Speaker 1: UK people, but the Commissioner talks to everybody you can
Speaker 1: down there, and this year is no different. And had
Speaker 1: to sit down with Mitch Barnhardt, had to sit down
Speaker 1: with Mark Pope exclusive because you know he's the only
Speaker 1: guy there. He'll talk to Mark Stoops, he may have
Speaker 1: already done it. He always talks to his troops, I
Speaker 1: think when he comes back and they have a sit
Speaker 1: down when it comes to what they need for the
Speaker 1: preseason magazine. But Mark Pope has talked about different topics
Speaker 1: regarding basketball, what he would like to see, you know,
Speaker 1: the forty game schedule and things like that. But among
Speaker 1: the changes Mark Pope would like to see, and he
Speaker 1: talked about going to quarters four quarters, he wasn't all
Speaker 1: that excited either way about it. I have constantly said
Speaker 1: there is zero reason, none, zip for US college basketball
Speaker 1: to be the only form of the game that plays
Speaker 1: two twenty minute halves. Is that big a deal? Not really,
Speaker 1: But I agree with anybody who says it would improve
Speaker 1: the product, it would improve the fan experience, It would
Speaker 1: improve things for everybody really because and if you follow
Speaker 1: women's basketball, you know this in the NBA as well.
Speaker 1: It resets the foul situation overseas. It does as well
Speaker 1: unless you like a steady parade of free throw shooting
Speaker 1: at the end of the first and second halves, then
Speaker 1: leave it the way it is, but otherwise change it up.
Speaker 1: And you know one of the first arguments as well,
Speaker 1: the TV timeouts or no no trust me. After a
Speaker 1: career in television, TV executives will figure out how to
Speaker 1: get their commercials in, how to get the brakes and
Speaker 1: how to get their money. Nobody's going hungry, trust me
Speaker 1: on this. Nobody's missing a payday, nobody's missing a paycheck.
Speaker 1: Get it done. But one of the other topics that
Speaker 1: came up, and it's on the cast Ball site today,
Speaker 1: Darrel's got a story and we talked to Daryl coming
Speaker 1: up to the bottom of the hour. But one of
Speaker 1: the things that Mark Pope was pushing forward. He mentioned
Speaker 1: this at a news conference here in lexinon not long ago.
Speaker 1: He would like to see that same rule they use
Speaker 1: in pro ball and in the women's game, where in
Speaker 1: the closing moments of a game, you're under your own basket.
Speaker 1: The other team's drained a bucket. Now you're behind. If
Speaker 1: you call time out, you get to put the ball
Speaker 1: in bounds at mid court. I'm not crazy about that.
Speaker 1: And by coincidence just the other day, because every now
Speaker 1: and then he'll tweet about it. Mike the course, he
Speaker 1: had the Sporting News, for my money, the best college
Speaker 1: basketball writer in the country. He's a regular guest on
Speaker 1: the Leach Report. And I was sitting in for Tom
Speaker 1: a week or two ago and I talked to Mike
Speaker 1: about this and got him going on it, among other things.
Speaker 1: But I had Mike de Corsi explain his passionate feelings
Speaker 1: about this. He is absolutely told opposed to this rule change.
Speaker 2: I don't think I'm being logical here. I don't think
Speaker 2: I'm taking this to extremes. Right, what if in baseball? Okay,
Speaker 2: so we want the great finish. So if you get
Speaker 2: you know that ghost runner thing they do to make
Speaker 2: the game as faster. Well, here we're gonna make it
Speaker 2: even faster. We're gonna bring in a batting practice pitcher
Speaker 2: to pitch to your best hitter, and then we can
Speaker 2: have this great finish where the guy hits it in
Speaker 2: the in the seats that everybody walks off. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's that's that's the logic that we're talking about it.
Speaker 2: It's it's unbelievable to me that people who love the
Speaker 2: sport of basketball don't love it enough to see what
Speaker 2: what garbage? The the the advanced the ball timeout is.
Speaker 3: Here's the thing that really.
Speaker 2: Drives me, uh that that that's the number one thing
Speaker 2: about it, the the uh, the obliteration of competitive logic.
Speaker 2: That's the thing that drives me craziest about it. But
Speaker 2: the secondary thing is you don't even pay a price,
Speaker 2: because like if if they said, Okay, here's the deal.
Speaker 2: We're gonna take your time out, but you guys got
Speaker 2: to go run a play without talking to your guys
Speaker 2: like nobody they because you're you're getting the timeout and
Speaker 2: the forty five feet, so you should get one or
Speaker 2: the other. If you're going to try to defend this rule,
Speaker 2: you should get the timeout so your guys can rest,
Speaker 2: or you should get the forty five to fifty feet
Speaker 2: whatever it is, and then you run a play. You
Speaker 2: better have run it well in practice, because you're not
Speaker 2: getting any help from the sideline that like, I don't
Speaker 2: I don't like that rule at all, but I'd like
Speaker 2: it a tiny I'd hate it a tiny bit less
Speaker 2: if you get it that way.
Speaker 1: I got you Mike the course of the Sporting News
Speaker 1: talking with me in a recent edition of the Leech Report,
Speaker 1: and quite frankly, I knew that was low hanging fruit
Speaker 1: because I knew that that would get him really cranked up.
Speaker 1: And I love it. Mike. To me, what I really
Speaker 1: like about him, beyond just his writing ability, is he
Speaker 1: can have a hot take. He'll come up with something
Speaker 1: almost immediately as far too many people do on social media.
Speaker 1: But he does not subscribe to herd mentality. If everybody's
Speaker 1: piling on when it comes to one particular topic and
Speaker 1: it's not just for the sake of it, Mike can
Speaker 1: dig through all the nonsense and see the logic immediately
Speaker 1: and present his side. And every now and then I'll
Speaker 1: retweet by saying, simply, there you go, using common sense again,
Speaker 1: or on Facebook or whatever. And that's one of the
Speaker 1: many things I like about Mike de Corsi, just the
Speaker 1: fact that he uses common sense so often. But it's
Speaker 1: fun when he gets cranked up. And I'll tell you what,
Speaker 1: he had a great reason to get cranked up. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you follow such things, but the Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: Pirates are struggling so badly right now in Major League Baseball,
Speaker 1: and they're making all kinds of dumb moves, and they
Speaker 1: say they're not going to trade Paul Schemes, but who
Speaker 1: knows anyhow. One of the things they did recently, and
Speaker 1: this just shocked me, befuddles me, is they were doing
Speaker 1: some kind of renovation or something and they dug up, basically.
Speaker 1: And I've been to that stadium. It's a great ballpark.
Speaker 1: But this pathway, this runway that was lined with bricks
Speaker 1: that had been purchased by Pirates fans, you know the
Speaker 1: way that they do it at the YMCA. If you
Speaker 1: want to contribute, you can purchase a brick and either
Speaker 1: put your name on it or in memory of or
Speaker 1: an honor of whatever. And so they had this walkway
Speaker 1: lined with bricks of Pirates fans, and they dug them
Speaker 1: all up and threw them away, and oh man, Mike
Speaker 1: went after him on social media, and I don't blame him.
Speaker 1: What possible reason do you have with it? That is
Speaker 1: the absolute epitome of corporate thumbing its collective nose at fans.
Speaker 1: So anyway, yeah, my thanks to the leech. And you
Speaker 1: can read Darryl's story at two four seven sports dot
Speaker 1: com Backslash College Backslash Kentucky. Subscribe to the cash Boss
Speaker 1: if you haven't already. While we're talking Kentucky coaches, the
Speaker 1: former UK coach, Mark Pope's coach, the guy he will
Speaker 1: face or at lease his team will face down in
Speaker 1: Atlanta later this year, Saint John's Rick Patino, naturally his
Speaker 1: name floated in New York City about a potential replacement
Speaker 1: for Tom Thibodau. And this does not mean he's a
Speaker 1: candidate for the job. I say this over and over.
Speaker 1: Just because a writer or broadcaster or you know, Twitter
Speaker 1: author floats a list of candidates quote unquote, that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean they are. That's just people supposing who might be
Speaker 1: out there. And of course Patino formerly coached and that
Speaker 1: coached the Knicks for two years before he left New
Speaker 1: York for Kentucky, and Patino said he is zero interest
Speaker 1: in becoming a head coach of the Knicks. He was
Speaker 1: on a broadcast last night of the Yankees and the
Speaker 1: Guardians and they asked him, would you be interested? He said,
Speaker 1: I think whoever comes in, if he doesn't get to
Speaker 1: the finals, it's going to be deemed an unsuccessful season.
Speaker 1: So whoever comes in has got so much pressure on
Speaker 1: them to take this team to the next level, because
Speaker 1: that's why they're doing it obviously in their minds. Of course,
Speaker 1: they fired Tom Thibodeau on Tuesday, even though he had
Speaker 1: taken the Knicks to the Eastern Conference finals for the
Speaker 1: first time in twenty five years. And cbssports dot com
Speaker 1: on Instagram today they have a great graphic. They went
Speaker 1: back and looked at the Chicago Bulls. He was there
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen and fifteen. They went fifty and thirty two
Speaker 1: in his final season, fired him the next year. The
Speaker 1: Bulls without him forty two and forty the next year
Speaker 1: on one and forty one. A couple years later, he
Speaker 1: was the head coach in Minnesota with the Timberwolves for
Speaker 1: two seasons, forty seven and thirty five in his final season.
Speaker 1: Next year they fire him. Next year, they fired him
Speaker 1: mid season after a nineteen and twenty one start. They
Speaker 1: finished thirty six and forty six. The year after that,
Speaker 1: nineteen and forty five. So now the Knicks, after a
Speaker 1: fifty one and thirty one season they fire him, And
Speaker 1: now they got, of course next year question mark after
Speaker 1: that question mark. But that just goes to show that'd
Speaker 1: be careful what you wish for when you're getting rid
Speaker 1: of your coach. But the next coach of the New
Speaker 1: York Knickerbuckers will not be Rick Pattino. Up next, more
Speaker 1: bad news for the Cincinnati Reds. Bottom of the Arradaryl
Speaker 1: Bird a little bit later on Ryan Black of the
Speaker 1: Louisville Courrier Journal, and then we'll kind of go deep
Speaker 1: on the hiring by Eku, a former Wildcat player and
Speaker 1: assistant coach Jan Weisberg. That's next on the Big Blue
Speaker 1: and Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big
Speaker 1: Blue Insider. Coming up, Darryl Bird of the Cats pause
Speaker 1: talking about his trip to Florida to the SEC meetings
Speaker 1: and his conversations with Mitch Barnhardt and with Mark Pope.
Speaker 1: If you're a Reds fan, well, you're having another tough season.
Speaker 1: I know. Every time you get something to be excited about,
Speaker 1: it seems well, something bad happens. And of late it's
Speaker 1: been Hunter Green and he was the former first round
Speaker 1: draft pick who finally looked like a first round draft
Speaker 1: pick on the mound, but he needs an MRI and
Speaker 1: now he has a groin injury. Was pulled five innings
Speaker 1: into Tuesday Nights game against the Milwaukee Brewers, and again
Speaker 1: he was pitching well, but spent fifteen days on the
Speaker 1: injured list since then. Made three starts because of a
Speaker 1: groin strain back in early May, and was warming up
Speaker 1: for the fourth inning when he summed the athletic trainer
Speaker 1: on Tuesday Nights. That is not as bad as it
Speaker 1: felt in Atlanta, but it's still as he said, grabbed.
Speaker 1: But this was a guy who made his first All
Speaker 1: Star appearance last year and this year in eleven starts
Speaker 1: four and three two point seven two ERA. That's big
Speaker 1: league stuff man twenty five years old and was pitching
Speaker 1: well against the Brewers when he went down. He faced
Speaker 1: twenty three Milwaukee batters and threw first pitch strikes to
Speaker 1: all of them. And according to one of those outfits
Speaker 1: that keeps track of such things, sports Radar, he is
Speaker 1: the second pitcher to have one hundred percent first strike
Speaker 1: rate when facing twenty three or more batters since they
Speaker 1: began keeping track of his stuff in two thousand. There
Speaker 1: was a guy for the Tigers who did it back
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen. But that sounds like one of those
Speaker 1: animalytics where you're like, whatever, no, this is such a key.
Speaker 1: And if you followed UK baseball, you know what it
Speaker 1: looks like when a team you're watching, following rooting for
Speaker 1: has a pitching staff that cannot get ahead of hitters.
Speaker 1: You got a guy who can beyond routinely throw a
Speaker 1: first pitch strike. Man, that guy is going to be
Speaker 1: good and is good, and now he's got to sit
Speaker 1: for a while. So if you're a Reds fan and
Speaker 1: I root for the resimen, I don't root for the Cardinals.
Speaker 1: Hang in there. I don't know if better days are ahead,
Speaker 1: but they are for Hunter Green, that's for sure. By
Speaker 1: the way, speaking of college baseball, and if you follow
Speaker 1: the Cats, you saw Jack cagleone play against the Wildcats.
Speaker 1: He's a former Florida Gator. Well now, he was one
Speaker 1: of the fastest rising players in the minor leagues in
Speaker 1: the Kansas City Royals organization. Hell, he's been called up
Speaker 1: now he's a big Fans got excited, media got excited,
Speaker 1: except for some of the media types who scratched their
Speaker 1: heads overs because when you're talking about baseball, you can
Speaker 1: only bring a guy up or send him down so
Speaker 1: many times, and it's all about timing oftentimes. And of
Speaker 1: course the Royals wanted to bring him up, get the
Speaker 1: fans excited, sell tickets, and maybe he can help Kansas City.
Speaker 1: Right now in the American League Central is in fourth place,
Speaker 1: eight games behind the Tigers. I don't know if Caglion
Speaker 1: can help him make that up, But as more than
Speaker 1: one reporter has pointed out, they may end up losing
Speaker 1: him in the long run because of this move, and
Speaker 1: one reporter called it the single most irresponsible move I've
Speaker 1: seen in a long time. Evidently, if they had waited
Speaker 1: until after the middle of June, they are portration clock
Speaker 1: would have started a year later because they brought him
Speaker 1: up relatively quickly. Now he gets to go to arbitration
Speaker 1: a year earlier, where the Royals will either have to
Speaker 1: pay up or say goodbye to him, and of course
Speaker 1: they'll have to fight off the Yankees, the Mats. The Dodgers.
Speaker 1: Royal is a small market team that did win a
Speaker 1: World Series some years back, proving it can be done.
Speaker 1: But they might have screwed up with Jack Hagleon. He
Speaker 1: was a two way guy at Florida pitcher and hitter,
Speaker 1: but was signed by the Royals as a position player
Speaker 1: as a hitter, and this may be a mistake. Maybe
Speaker 1: it works out for him, could be a mistake. If
Speaker 1: you listen, you know I'm a Charles Barkley fan. I
Speaker 1: pulled clips from what used to be the Inside the
Speaker 1: NBA on TNT show, and we'll keep doing it whatever
Speaker 1: they end up, whatever they end up calling the new show.
Speaker 1: Barkley on his podcast has talked about how terrible the
Speaker 1: NBA All Star Game has become it's a waste of
Speaker 1: time unless you like seeing guys throw down outrageous dunks
Speaker 1: and all that. It's not as bad as the NFL
Speaker 1: All Star situation. But again, the only really good All
Speaker 1: Star game is baseball because they play defense. That's what
Speaker 1: makes for a great game. Well, Adam Silver has announced
Speaker 1: there will be a change to the NBA All Star format,
Speaker 1: and I bring up Barkley because he's been stumping for
Speaker 1: this for a while, but Silver confirms that in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six it will be the USA versus the World.
Speaker 1: They're not entirely sure what the actual format will be,
Speaker 1: but of course there are so many foreign born players
Speaker 1: in the league now that if they actually go at it,
Speaker 1: this could be a really great situation. And by the way,
Speaker 1: remember your reigning NBA MVP, former Kentucky Wildcat Shay Gilgris.
Speaker 1: Alexander would be on the World team from Canada, so
Speaker 1: he would be part of the squad that faces the
Speaker 1: American born NBA players. And one of the things that
Speaker 1: helped prompt this was the NHL introducing the Four Nations
Speaker 1: face off in lieu of a traditional All Star Game
Speaker 1: this year and it was crazy successful. The first meeting
Speaker 1: between the US and Canada drew more than ten million viewers.
Speaker 1: The finale got nine point three million on ESPN alone.
Speaker 1: That's a hockey record for the network. You better believe
Speaker 1: they took note of that. So that's why the NBA
Speaker 1: is going to make a change, and it's a good one,
Speaker 1: or should be. And you know who else might play
Speaker 1: for that world team if he's voted in. Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: Canadian born, I don't know, they don't make it, but
Speaker 1: Oscar sheib Way foreign born players. So yeah. Several out
Speaker 1: of UK and a lot in the NBA talked about
Speaker 1: bad news for Reds fans, some shocking news for Philadelphia
Speaker 1: Eagles fans, nothing immediately pressing, but Saquon Barkley, who carried
Speaker 1: that to what didn't carry them, but was the key,
Speaker 1: I think to their Super Bowl Championship run. He told
Speaker 1: an interviewer the other day that he might retire in
Speaker 1: the next year or two or four, and when he does,
Speaker 1: it'll be just yep, that's it. I'm done. And he
Speaker 1: kind of referred to Barry Sanders who left early compared
Speaker 1: to some other great players, and Barkley, of course, he's
Speaker 1: got all the money in the world now says he
Speaker 1: might just do the same thing. Oh that is scary
Speaker 1: stuff if you're an Eagles fan. Also if you're a
Speaker 1: fantasy football player. But we won't get into that. Up next,
Speaker 1: Daryl Bird of the Cats balls on six point thirty
Speaker 1: wlap Welcome back to the Big Blue in Cider. Let
Speaker 1: us say welcome back to Darryl Bird. He is the
Speaker 1: editor of the Cat's Pause and he is back from Florida. Darryl,
Speaker 1: you make the annual trip down there to the spring meetings.
Speaker 1: He makes a little pleasure with business, I know, but
Speaker 1: we talk every year about how that is such a
Speaker 1: fertile ground for information and sometimes breaking news. What was
Speaker 1: it like this time?
Speaker 4: Kind of the same, A lot of great information, especially
Speaker 4: with Mark Pope and Mitch Barhard. I get to do
Speaker 4: one on ones with him, which is really cool. But
Speaker 4: the last few years, as an entire group, it's been
Speaker 4: not frustrating.
Speaker 3: That's not fair.
Speaker 4: But we keep waiting for a resolution on this and
Speaker 4: I we thought, we know that we first talked about
Speaker 4: this like four years ago at that spring meeting, and
Speaker 4: here we are and still doesn't appear to be that
Speaker 4: much closer to having something finalized. It's in the chaos,
Speaker 4: and it's changed a lot from when they first introduced
Speaker 4: it and people were talking about it down there. We
Speaker 4: just everything keeps changing. We can't seem to get to
Speaker 4: a finish, finish line, which everybody wants. I think everybody
Speaker 4: down there is in the opinion. I don't care what
Speaker 4: the rules are. Just tell me, you know, make it
Speaker 4: a level playing field for everybody, so we all know
Speaker 4: what's what we can and can't do, and then we'll adjust.
Speaker 4: We'll get on with it. But right now they're adjusting
Speaker 4: as best they can with with you know, no guardrails
Speaker 4: in place whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, when all this began, you probably recall
Speaker 1: that Barnhard was getting black because people thought he was
Speaker 1: dragging his feed and then they try to make it
Speaker 1: sound like he was fighting it. And all you had
Speaker 1: to do was ask him, and he tells you, we
Speaker 1: just need guardrails so we don't make any mistakes. And
Speaker 1: Kentucky did make mistakes with some football players who got
Speaker 1: in trouble, uh with you know, loosely or unsupervised in
Speaker 1: ilse situations. Uh. But those guardrails, like you said, if
Speaker 1: they're out there. I don't even know what they might be.
Speaker 4: You know, no there are any. And I had a
Speaker 4: really good conversation with Mark Pope about and it ended
Speaker 4: up being about guard rails, but it was about his
Speaker 4: He's been very public he wants the regular season to
Speaker 4: go from thirty one to forty. And at one point
Speaker 4: in our conversation, I said, have you always been a
Speaker 4: fun He said no, No, this is one hundred percent
Speaker 4: to do with the chaos we're in right now.
Speaker 1: Really and he.
Speaker 4: Said, he said, it's all about He said, I've got
Speaker 4: these guys. Every every coach has a brand new team
Speaker 4: every year. We barely get to know them before the
Speaker 4: season's over and they're out the door. We're not preparing
Speaker 4: them for the NBA playing thirty one games where they've
Speaker 4: got up to one hundred depending how long the playoffs last.
Speaker 4: He said, we've got to speed it up. He's like
Speaker 4: he pointed out to me. I thought it was hilariously
Speaker 4: And you know what, it's been around forever, the stupid
Speaker 4: rule that right now they can only players can only
Speaker 4: work out four hours a week with something. It's really restricted.
Speaker 4: That rule has been around forever. These guys are getting
Speaker 4: really well compensated. You might want to get a little
Speaker 4: more for your money than restricting it, he said. And
Speaker 4: the funny thing is he didn't call him employees. I
Speaker 4: do these guys making this money want the extra work.
Speaker 4: They want to work put in a little more work
Speaker 4: to earn their their pay, and they can't.
Speaker 1: He said.
Speaker 4: It's just that's the stupidity of said. I want to
Speaker 4: push this thing out the forty so we get more time,
Speaker 4: we get a better team, you get a better bang
Speaker 4: for your bucket from a fan perspective, and you get
Speaker 4: to experience it more. And he said, and then the
Speaker 4: very bottom line, this is a revenue sport and we've
Speaker 4: got twenty million plus. Staring at uson richhair, he said,
Speaker 4: we had six extra games. We could almost cover that
Speaker 4: six extra home games. He said, that's how crazy it is.
Speaker 4: That thought that was really interesting. I was looking at it. Oh,
Speaker 4: he just wants to play forty more games, he said.
Speaker 4: You know, he's thinking much a much grander speed.
Speaker 1: That which is explained a headline. It explains the headline
Speaker 1: on your website about your your interview with Pope, the
Speaker 1: forty game regular season, and the headlines is prepared to
Speaker 1: be convinced, and it is very convincing. Although it's ironic
Speaker 1: they instituted that that four hour or twenty hour whatever,
Speaker 1: because Mark Pope's college coach was one of the guys
Speaker 1: who would work for these kids twenty hours a day
Speaker 1: if he could, I find out rather c Yeah, I
Speaker 1: love that. I also wonder he's talked about the forty
Speaker 1: game regular season in the past. How in the world
Speaker 1: would they squeeze that into the college calendar.
Speaker 4: It's a little different, I said, it's nine extra games.
Speaker 4: I said, okay, you want nine more SEC games? He
Speaker 4: said no, he was really fast. No, maybe one or two.
Speaker 4: Let's talk. Let's talk he had because we all been
Speaker 4: around Mark Poper and he is fascinating boy his brain work.
Speaker 4: He said, how about they allow us an exhibition game
Speaker 4: two weeks into camp, just so we get a sneak
Speaker 4: peak of what we look like. Yeah, that exposes our
Speaker 4: team to our fan base a month earlier than normal,
Speaker 4: so they can start to get to know get get
Speaker 4: a peak of these how about we get an exhibition
Speaker 4: like that. We had another exhibition towards the end of it.
Speaker 4: Let us do that. And then he said this also,
Speaker 4: they're so restricted on their schedule right now. I said,
Speaker 4: we can get this out to forty. We can bring
Speaker 4: conversations like malle back into it, we can we can
Speaker 4: play these games, and we can do the rips that everybody,
Speaker 4: the fans want to take. So it wasn't just nine
Speaker 4: regular season games in his mind, it was spreading it
Speaker 4: out a couple maybe a couple of conference games, maybe
Speaker 4: a couple of exhibitions, and a few more non commerce
Speaker 4: to open up some of these trips.
Speaker 1: And I want to take talking to Daryl Bird of
Speaker 1: the Cats polls. He was down in Florida, sat down
Speaker 1: exclusively with Mark Pope and Mitch Barnhardt. And you can
Speaker 1: read all about it. As a kid, they say at
Speaker 1: two four seven sports dot com backs slash College Kentucky.
Speaker 1: I just type in Cat's Balls, It'll take you there
Speaker 1: and subscribe. He not only wants to wanted to talk
Speaker 1: about expanding the regular season. You talked to both Pope
Speaker 1: and Barnhart about expanding the NC tournament. I don't know
Speaker 1: where you are on that. I'm afraid they're going to
Speaker 1: screw it up. They what do these guys have to say?
Speaker 4: I'm with you, I leave it alone. Mitch Barnhart was.
Speaker 4: Of course, he was on the committee five years. He
Speaker 4: was over it. God bless him. He was over He
Speaker 4: was a chairman during the COVID year when they had
Speaker 4: to do it all in India, and how he worked
Speaker 4: that out is a miracle and kept all that. I mean,
Speaker 4: there weren't really any hiccups at all, aside in fact,
Speaker 4: the UK was nine and sixteen and never got close
Speaker 4: to it. That's the worst part. So he has a
Speaker 4: fun He says, I think there's something special about sixty eight, right,
Speaker 4: So he's he's more allowed to leave it alone. Hope
Speaker 4: had an interesting take. He said, I keep hearing talk
Speaker 4: conversations of we'll add more, we'll have the automatic qualifiers
Speaker 4: kind of play each other and advance that way. And
Speaker 4: he said, you do that and suddenly the number one
Speaker 4: seed is getting a much stronger opponent than maybe they
Speaker 4: would have gotten. He said, I think you work all
Speaker 4: season long to get the best deal you can possibly
Speaker 4: get as a one seed. He wasn't He wasn't shining
Speaker 4: to the idea that it would become a much harder
Speaker 4: game for a one seed because of who advanced from
Speaker 4: earlier playing games. Kind of I guess like the NBA does.
Speaker 4: But he was he kind of he said never say never,
Speaker 4: because again, we need more revenue. So he sees that argument,
Speaker 4: but he I think just in his heart, he preferred
Speaker 4: to leave it alone the way it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's love with him. My cynical take is, why
Speaker 1: don't we add let's add some more mediocre teams and
Speaker 1: get a few more mediocre games. But does that serve
Speaker 1: your public? No? But does it serve the bank Bakers?
Speaker 1: Does it serve the bank accounts of the people who
Speaker 1: want the money? Right?
Speaker 4: That's what I call it is. Charlie Baker's argument was
Speaker 4: weak in that, well, everybody knew there were some sixty
Speaker 4: eight to seventy two's that probably should have been what
Speaker 4: are you saying exactly?
Speaker 3: Really?
Speaker 4: And there's no way you don't see the was then
Speaker 4: the report come out that ESPN was gonna throw a
Speaker 4: lot of money at the SEC if they'd add another
Speaker 4: conference game. I haven't seen the networks strown a lot
Speaker 4: of money college basketball. If you have just increased this
Speaker 4: tournament from sixty eight to seventy two or six or whatever.
Speaker 1: No, No, it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 4: Some of you you know it doesn't.
Speaker 1: If it ain't. It'll happen exactly right. I mean, it
Speaker 1: may not be the Golden Goose, but they've got a
Speaker 1: pretty good thing going.
Speaker 4: But yeah, they do.
Speaker 1: There are just some people that just can't leave well
Speaker 1: enough alone. By the way, doubling back to exhibitions for basketball,
Speaker 1: and there's talk about that. We'll talk about it on
Speaker 1: the other side of the break. For football. You know
Speaker 1: who plays exhibition games and the world doesn't crumble. Baseball,
Speaker 1: they play exhibitions. They play a couple of them in
Speaker 1: the fall, and they may play one or two in
Speaker 1: the spring, and that helps guys like Nick Minngeon and
Speaker 1: whoever figure out what they've got. And really, with all sports, Darryl,
Speaker 1: back to your point in the day and age, as
Speaker 1: Mark Pope said, we barely get to know these guys.
Speaker 1: You know, it seems like every team is replacing anywhere
Speaker 1: from a third to half of their their roster every year.
Speaker 4: And that's not changing changing any time.
Speaker 1: It's only going to get well, it's kind of a
Speaker 1: qualified term, it's only going to get worse or let's
Speaker 1: say more profound.
Speaker 4: Am I right, yes, yeah, you're right with it again.
Speaker 4: We'll popos some with our guardrails it's just gonna craziness
Speaker 4: is going to continue.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did Barnard talk anything about getting a handle on
Speaker 1: the portal and limiting the numbers of times kids can
Speaker 1: step in and materialize elsewhere?
Speaker 4: No, that never came up during during our conversations. I
Speaker 4: know it's a big topic, the portal windows in football especially.
Speaker 4: It makes no sense that the way they when they
Speaker 4: open it when they close it. So I know the
Speaker 4: coaches are in favor of changing those days. We'll see
Speaker 4: how that plays out.
Speaker 1: Darrel Bird is my guest. He is the editor of
Speaker 1: The Cat's Clause, and we'll come back and talk more
Speaker 1: Kentucky basketball and football on the other side of the
Speaker 1: break here on six thirty WLP. Welcome back. We're chatting
Speaker 1: with Darryl Bird. He is the editor of The Cat's Pause.
Speaker 1: He made the trip down to Destin, Florida for the
Speaker 1: SEC Spring meeting. He's got a chance to sit down
Speaker 1: exclusively with Mark Pope and Mitch Barnhardt. And before I
Speaker 1: shift you over to football, your lead story on your
Speaker 1: website coming out of the weekend was Mark Pope and
Speaker 1: a what if scenario? Without giving away the store, because
Speaker 1: we want people to subscribe to your website, But is
Speaker 1: it eating at him? What happened this past season. It
Speaker 1: was a great year, uh, you know, in terms of
Speaker 1: what people expected, but as you point out, two of
Speaker 1: the four teams in the final four, Kentucky beat.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was the first question. I kind of we
Speaker 4: settled into it, and I said, I'm just curious, does
Speaker 4: it because you beat Duke? And Flora said does that
Speaker 4: haunt you? And He's like, I try not to think
Speaker 4: about it a lot. And I was like, except when
Speaker 4: I bring it up. He just started laughing. Said, no,
Speaker 4: it pops in my head a lot, but not for
Speaker 4: a reason you think. He said, it haunts me that
Speaker 4: Lamont Butler didn't get a full year healthy. Yeah, he said.
Speaker 4: Andrew Carr was off to such a fantastic start and
Speaker 4: then the back spasms and those issues it injured for weeks.
Speaker 4: That's what haunts me, that those guys didn't stay healthy
Speaker 4: and didn't weren't able to take it. As far as
Speaker 4: who knows, I mean, they took out Duke in Florida,
Speaker 4: took out Duke when they were healthy, took out Florida
Speaker 4: when some of the injuries are starting to pop up,
Speaker 4: So who knows? You know, he said that it bothers
Speaker 4: me for them. You know, he'll get another chance. They won't. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: and you don't really very insightful that way.
Speaker 1: Well, and he makes a great point. And you know,
Speaker 1: Jackson Robinson, same situation. And it was interesting to me,
Speaker 1: especially with all this this postseason chatter about Otaka Away
Speaker 1: and the NBA and all that. But people, I won't
Speaker 1: say they forgot Jackson Robinson, but Otaga Oway became so
Speaker 1: prolific that he kind of replaced Jackson Robinson in the mines.
Speaker 1: I think of a lot of fans because remember the
Speaker 1: beginning of the year, when they need a bucket, who
Speaker 1: are they going to go to? Jackson Robinson? And at times, yeah,
Speaker 1: he showed that he would be the guy, especially when
Speaker 1: he got over whatever doubts he had lingering, but then
Speaker 1: when he got hurt, Yeah, but that's another guy. Just
Speaker 1: think if that team had been healthy a year, what if? Right?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's it's all right. It would drive me crazy.
Speaker 4: But he's he's trying to digest at all and move forward.
Speaker 3: But I did ask, I.
Speaker 4: Said, did you even watch the championship game? He said,
Speaker 4: I don't even remember where it was. I think I
Speaker 4: saw bits and pieces.
Speaker 1: Wasn't he at the convention or don't the coaches get together?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, he was at the convention and to trying
Speaker 4: to recruit, you can't really recruit at that point in person,
Speaker 4: so he's doing some work in that regard. But yeah,
Speaker 4: I could see where a coach would not want to
Speaker 4: watch that game. Especially it's like you're looking at Florida
Speaker 4: the coach you used to compete against at San Francisco,
Speaker 4: and then here you beat them and you knew what
Speaker 4: your team was capable of when it.
Speaker 1: Was healthy, and you beat Duke when in Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they shot up ten spots and I forgot I
Speaker 4: was in little research. They went from number nineteen to
Speaker 4: number nine with that one victory.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Talking to Daryl Bird as the catch posse, he is
Speaker 1: back from the spring meetings in Destin, Florida, had a
Speaker 1: chance to sit down with Mark Polpe and Mitch Barnhardt.
Speaker 1: We mentioned all the way he comes back. So now
Speaker 1: when you look, I've really been studying this a little bit.
Speaker 1: I think it's fascinating and Pope might have the best
Speaker 1: roster in the country in terms of the different components
Speaker 1: and how he mixed them you've got the returning veterans
Speaker 1: and now especially with Oway, who could be pre season
Speaker 1: Player of the Year. You've got the transfer portal post
Speaker 1: on as good a job as anybody, and then you've
Speaker 1: got the freshman. He said, a terrific recruiting year. And
Speaker 1: you know people will mark Pope be able to recruit
Speaker 1: that was ridiculous. You know, he's got Kentucky for crying
Speaker 1: out loud. But each one of those components, people like
Speaker 1: to break them down and rank them. You know, I
Speaker 1: think Pope's done as good a job with those three
Speaker 1: components as anybody in the country, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Yeah, his ranking as far as when you combine two
Speaker 4: four seven, does the ranking where they combine the high
Speaker 4: school class and the portal class. Yeah, I think there's
Speaker 4: number three leave. Yeah. And I was trying not to
Speaker 4: ask the question, trying to ask the question carefully because
Speaker 4: you don't want to insult his first team. I said,
Speaker 4: but it appears you guys purposely wanted to get more
Speaker 4: athletic this time. And he's like, oh yeah. I was like, well,
Speaker 4: I guess I was worried about nothing. He said, There's
Speaker 4: no doubt he said, we wanted the versatility. How was
Speaker 4: he put it? The versatility that my guy can guard
Speaker 4: multiple positions or play multi you know, I don't. They
Speaker 4: didn't want to be tied down to you know, I
Speaker 4: can only got guard the shooting garden. I'm not I'm
Speaker 4: not value to you. And maybe because of the injuries
Speaker 4: they just went through that, you know, if they do
Speaker 4: take a hit, that they've got someone versatile enough to
Speaker 4: pick up and not miss the you know, not miss
Speaker 4: a beat on that regard.
Speaker 1: It's going to be fascinating to see how he cobbles
Speaker 1: is together and it's going to be a fascinating read
Speaker 1: if you will only subscribe to the cats ba's website
Speaker 1: and read Daryl's interview with Mark Poop and Mitch Barnard.
Speaker 1: Now you're back from Florida, and I know you've never
Speaker 1: really quit working on the yearbooks coming up. You know,
Speaker 1: our man Aaron Gershan has kind of kept us up
Speaker 1: to day on what he's up to. But what's going
Speaker 1: to be the overall theme of this year's college football yearbook?
Speaker 1: I know you guys are hard at work on that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we are coming. We'll go to Preston unless actually
Speaker 4: the cover is pretty much done it's all about the
Speaker 4: puzzle pieces. And I know it's human nature, but it
Speaker 4: bugs me a little bit because they've got forty two
Speaker 4: new faces. And if you just sit down right now,
Speaker 4: say who's you gonna put on the cover of yearbook,
Speaker 4: You're like, I don't know, I don't I don't know
Speaker 4: the quarterback, I don't know the running backs that well,
Speaker 4: there is no name player that just jumps off that's returning,
Speaker 4: and that again, that's part of this environment we're in,
Speaker 4: and it bugs me a little that. I guess it's
Speaker 4: human nature, especially in this day and age. I've never
Speaker 4: heard of these guys. Therefore, I don't know that they're
Speaker 4: any good. Yeah, versus they could be much better than
Speaker 4: last year's team, you don't know, So it's it's more
Speaker 4: from that regard. And then got the schedule. They could
Speaker 4: be much better than last year, and it not showed
Speaker 4: because of the brutal schedule that they're staring at. And
Speaker 4: I don't know who they angered at the SEC or
Speaker 4: for who Missouri. Have you seen Missouri's SEC schedule? Now,
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, it's there is no cake walking SEC.
Speaker 4: But if there was, this is as close as it gets.
Speaker 4: Is that right, Oh yeah, it's it's worth looking up there.
Speaker 4: I'll do it based on who they they don't play.
Speaker 4: It's it's like, oh you you got a kidding me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's really what it's about. It it's you
Speaker 1: don't it is? Yeah? Yeah, Well, and you and I
Speaker 1: have covered this program long enough to where how many
Speaker 1: times have we said that they could be better but
Speaker 1: the schedule won't allow it to show. But as Mark
Speaker 1: Stoops made improvements to this program, they kind of pushed
Speaker 1: through that. Now they've fallen back and they just got
Speaker 1: to figure it out. Obviously, I'm sure you'll write a
Speaker 1: lot about the O line, the D line, really all
Speaker 1: of it. But yeah, you're right, it's it's gonna be
Speaker 1: in terms of the returning players, and the new face
Speaker 1: is the most mysterious preseason I think we've ever covered.
Speaker 4: You know, oh, there's no doubt. Forty forty two I
Speaker 4: think it was new faces. But then now I look
Speaker 4: around and I'm like, oh, this is driving that's crazy.
Speaker 4: But then you look at West Virginia where Rich Rodriguez
Speaker 4: is back as coach, seventy two new players, what yeah, geez, like,
Speaker 4: oh my goodness, I'm gonna shut up wanting. It's like
Speaker 4: a covering West Virginia is going.
Speaker 1: What it's like with coach Prime did the Colorado?
Speaker 4: Yeah, man, it's it's crazy.
Speaker 1: How do you scout that?
Speaker 4: You don't know, we're gonna do what I said?
Speaker 1: How would you scout that team? You can't.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the coaches can't scat it.
Speaker 1: We did.
Speaker 4: Nobody could write about it. Be very difficult, but it's
Speaker 4: it's one of those wheres you just got to learn them.
Speaker 4: They need they need to get some couple of bigger
Speaker 4: they be. You know, obviously they're the opener, but they
Speaker 4: need to get a big SEC win early. Oh yeah,
Speaker 4: it's kind of to change this momentum that they'll.
Speaker 1: Have a chance based on that schedule, will a chance
Speaker 1: they will well shamelessly plug the publication day when people
Speaker 1: can pick up their their football magazine.
Speaker 4: We always are out the week after July fourth, The
Speaker 4: week of July fourth, it comes out like the fifth, sixth.
Speaker 4: We try to avoid the holiday crush and just get
Speaker 4: it up immediately after fourth of July. It will be around.
Speaker 1: Well. I know in this daye that the internet people
Speaker 1: still scoop up the preseason magazines and the catch to
Speaker 1: have thanks to Darryl and Aaron Gershaan and their crew.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, sir, and we'll chat again before
Speaker 1: the summer's out.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Up Next, our number two is Ryan Black of the
Speaker 1: Courier Journal and the new head baseball coach at Eastern Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Dan Weisberg gets all they had on six thirty w
Speaker 1: M P.
Speaker 6: Takes Do.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue and sider joining us
Speaker 1: now as a guy who's been on the show several times.
Speaker 1: Welcome back Ryan Black at the Courier Journal. It is
Speaker 1: the off season, of course, but Ryan, thanks to the portal,
Speaker 1: thanks to the interweb, which you most endeavor to fill
Speaker 1: as we all do. Uh you never really you get
Speaker 1: to take some time off now and then, but uh
Speaker 1: it does, Kid. The beat keeps you busy. Ryan covers
Speaker 1: the basketball and football cats. But you really don't get
Speaker 1: to slow down much, do you.
Speaker 3: No, It's I mean, can't feel like we've talked about
Speaker 3: this so many times any time to have me on
Speaker 3: and thanks again for having me. Honest is yeah, I
Speaker 3: feel like there used to be, you know, prior to
Speaker 3: the transfer portal and prior to so many changes that
Speaker 3: have up into college athletics in the last you know, decade.
Speaker 3: But there used to be a little bit more of alone,
Speaker 3: a little bit more time to catch your breath, and
Speaker 3: now it just seems like it's just constant roster shuffling
Speaker 3: and then all these other offseason events that go on.
Speaker 3: Now it's like you kind of there's just not as
Speaker 3: much time to catch your breath as or what that's
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, for fans, it's kind of
Speaker 1: fun because now it's the way way too soon preseason
Speaker 1: top twenty fives and the rankings of the portal classes,
Speaker 1: and you still got the recruiting cla classes that people
Speaker 1: like to rank. But does it seem to you like
Speaker 1: the portal classes were for obvious reasons Now Our front
Speaker 1: and center used to be who had the best recruiting class,
Speaker 1: now is who's got the best portal class? Right?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 3: And I mean, I know I wrote about this, you know,
Speaker 3: a few weeks ago, just about the fact that at
Speaker 3: that time Kentucky football only had one commit you know,
Speaker 3: for twenty twenty sixth class, and I kind of let
Speaker 3: off with just saying that, Hey, I mean, there are
Speaker 3: certain schools like Ole Miss, for instance, that they just
Speaker 3: prioritize the portal over you know, over high school recruiting
Speaker 3: because you know, Lane Tiffin is kind of used like, hey,
Speaker 3: I'd rather bring in a guy already know who has
Speaker 3: been through the rigors of college and knows how to
Speaker 3: pick up a college playbook versus this is just a
Speaker 3: little bit more of a risk, you know, projecting a
Speaker 3: high school guy to comes to college level. So I
Speaker 3: think you're a hundred cent of right, dick it. And
Speaker 3: here's the other thing too, And I think you would
Speaker 3: agree with this for as long as you've been around it. Man,
Speaker 3: National Signing Day in February used to be this just
Speaker 3: massive bonanza of an event in the college sports calendar.
Speaker 3: And now especially because it's kind of just sandwich THENTO
Speaker 3: December with all the early andlies and juco transfer, it's
Speaker 3: nasal Sunday favorite, that seems like a complete after thought.
Speaker 3: So it's just yeah, and like, it just used to
Speaker 3: be one of the biggest things to me in the
Speaker 3: college sports calendar, especially if you were ready a big
Speaker 3: time football school where the football recruiting wasn't a big
Speaker 3: deal that But now it just seems like it's just
Speaker 3: that they just throw it in there and there might
Speaker 3: be a couple of guys who were signing in February,
Speaker 3: but the ninety percent of your classes signing in December.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, it's exactly.
Speaker 3: It's just a different deal. It's a different deal for sure.
Speaker 1: Well, to that end, that presentation of Recruiting Day on
Speaker 1: the web by UK, it evolved from me sitting in
Speaker 1: a chair in front of one camera if I had
Speaker 1: something to report, Okay, they got a new signing or
Speaker 1: is it a podium or something. They asked me to
Speaker 1: come in and do that. Uh, and then you know
Speaker 1: I would walk off camera and it would just be
Speaker 1: the video of an empty podium, you know, until somebody
Speaker 1: else signed. Well, that quickly evolved into one of the
Speaker 1: biggest and most intricate and involved broadcast events I've ever worked.
Speaker 1: We had you know, six or seven people on the broadcast,
Speaker 1: you know, and all these lights and camera. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you ever attended one of those things, because
Speaker 1: a lot of media people came, but it was a
Speaker 1: huge production. Christy Thomas ankered and you know, he interviewed
Speaker 1: stoops in Maryland, every coach we could find. And now,
Speaker 1: like you said, it's like, oh, by the way, here's
Speaker 1: what's happening.
Speaker 3: So yeah, like that, it's literally just like I feel
Speaker 3: like it's just an email in February, like, hey, you
Speaker 3: know they they've added maybe one or two guys to
Speaker 3: the you know, eighteen to twenty five. They signed back
Speaker 3: in December, you know what. And I'll I was like
Speaker 3: to say, I do kind of miss the one signing
Speaker 3: day in February simply because right there was always those
Speaker 3: crazy twists and turns of like, well, hey at three pm,
Speaker 3: and every other member of the tries to sign, but
Speaker 3: the superstar, we haven't seen his facts come through. And
Speaker 3: maybe because his mom didn't want to go there or
Speaker 3: is there some other school making a laugh that there
Speaker 3: was just so much kind of a circus at in
Speaker 3: the you're doing. I really enjoyed all the twists and
Speaker 3: turns and drama and like that. Now that's just it's
Speaker 3: just it's it's very much like, uh, it's cold, rootless efficiency. Now, well,
Speaker 3: you know, everything everybody signed still delivered. It's good to
Speaker 3: go a different time.
Speaker 1: Back when you were a little fella and we recovering.
Speaker 1: Well that's how that's what recruiting was. Like. They would
Speaker 1: issue they would fax us uh, or or even hand
Speaker 1: deliver a mimeographed list of play here's our recruits. Okay, thanks,
Speaker 1: and that was it, you know. Uh So, Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: kind of the pendulum has swung back in the other direction.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Ryan Black of The Courrier General covers
Speaker 1: of football and basketball gats since we started with football,
Speaker 1: you are there when Mark Stoops speaks every week and
Speaker 1: of late, when he is spoken about how they intend
Speaker 1: to do business this coming year, he has made it
Speaker 1: very clear you don't even have to read between the
Speaker 1: lines that he wants to get this thing back. Obviously
Speaker 1: in terms of wins and losses to wear was but
Speaker 1: the way they do business, you know, and I really
Speaker 1: think he made portal mistakes and he made management mistakes
Speaker 1: with regard to how he ran his team. He also
Speaker 1: had some tough breaks with injuries, you know, new coordinator,
Speaker 1: all that stuff. But it sounds like he is gonna
Speaker 1: put all of his energy into making this the Mark
Speaker 1: Stoops program. It was back four or five years ago.
Speaker 1: You I get that read, don't you.
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think you know. When I kind of did
Speaker 3: a season interview after last season ended, as you kind
Speaker 3: of have mentioned that he's kind of gone, and he's
Speaker 3: been pretty open about like, hey, you know, the way
Speaker 3: that we won and that we built this program. It
Speaker 3: wasn't flashy. You know, a lot of times it was
Speaker 3: like a very you know, run heavy ball, control, pass
Speaker 3: enough to Kief Monis and played great defense and hold
Speaker 3: on to leads. And certainly that has not been really
Speaker 3: the offense they've really tried to put out there, you know,
Speaker 3: in the last few years. And so I think it's
Speaker 3: kind of like what you're saying is they returned to
Speaker 3: the earlier years when they were still ascending, you know, obviously,
Speaker 3: because and then you know, I mean they were in
Speaker 3: a rough place before he got here, and it took
Speaker 3: a few years to get it on track, and then
Speaker 3: we know what happened after that. I mean, they had
Speaker 3: the longest streak of bowl appearances in program history. And
Speaker 3: I know some people say, well, again, I know it's
Speaker 3: a lot easier to make bowls now, but back for fact,
Speaker 3: and uh, and I think that, hey, all the matters,
Speaker 3: you know, Dick, at the end of the day's winning.
Speaker 3: So it doesn't matter if you're if you're flashy while
Speaker 3: doing if you're losing. Yeah, So it's like as long
Speaker 3: as you know, you win, that's that's what fans here.
Speaker 1: Well, people can dismiss the bull streak, but Mars troops
Speaker 1: always had at the ready the numbers that backed it up.
Speaker 1: And again, if it's that easy, why aren't more schools
Speaker 1: doing that? Not even Alabama had a bull run like that.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, you can schedule yourself wins, but you've still
Speaker 1: got to win enough to get the ball games. And
Speaker 1: not a lot of schools were doing that the way
Speaker 1: Kentucky was back then. And I know fans got a
Speaker 1: little restless when they weren't going to some of the
Speaker 1: bigger bulls. But what is it three trips now of
Speaker 1: the Citrus Bowl. That's not too bad, right, And uh yeah.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, I would just say that. I mean, for
Speaker 3: the longest time, you know, the Citrus always have been
Speaker 3: considered really the biggest bowl that was not one of
Speaker 3: against the Roads Orange Cotton, right. Uh And now of
Speaker 3: course even now, I guess say they dropped the name
Speaker 3: ors come back to the Peach. But it's like it's
Speaker 3: always been a like the biggest bull payout for the
Speaker 3: outside of those bowls. I mean, I think like that's
Speaker 3: that's nothing, that's Nothing's golf at I mean a Citrus Bowl,
Speaker 3: the heck of a heck of a good game if
Speaker 3: you're not able to get kind of in the mix
Speaker 3: for those kind of traditional kind of January first time games.
Speaker 1: Never heard anybody complain about the Citrus Bowl. People kind
Speaker 1: of began to grumble about the Music City Bowl because
Speaker 1: the weather wasn't obviously is great, But I never heard
Speaker 1: anybody complain about the Citrus Bowl. We're talking to Ryan
Speaker 1: Black of the Courage Journal, covers of football and basketball Cats. Obviously,
Speaker 1: line play is going to be the focal point really
Speaker 1: every day leading up to and through the season, and
Speaker 1: I don't think it's oversimplifying it Ryan to say that
Speaker 1: is going to be I think the key to their
Speaker 1: success this year. You got a second year with Bush Hampden,
Speaker 1: You've got a brand new quarterback, you got new guys
Speaker 1: carrying the ball on a backfield, Your star wide receivers
Speaker 1: have moved on. But none of that matters if the
Speaker 1: old line doesn't do a better job than it has
Speaker 1: over the last three years. Do you see it that way?
Speaker 3: Oh well, I mean, Dick, one hundred percent, I think it.
Speaker 3: We've we've kind of talked about this before, but at
Speaker 3: the end of the day. I mean, yeah, you can
Speaker 3: have a quarterback or running back, your receiver, you know,
Speaker 3: who can get the ball in their hands and make
Speaker 3: guys miss, but they can't do it every single play
Speaker 3: for you know, sixty seventy eighty however many snaps in
Speaker 3: a game that they're gonna get. And so you know,
Speaker 3: if you don't have guys up front who can just
Speaker 3: move the you know, opposing defensive guys out of the way,
Speaker 3: you know you're gonna have a long day. And that's
Speaker 3: why we saw Kentucky struggle just so mightily on offense
Speaker 3: last year, you know, kind of ranking either at the
Speaker 3: bottom or among the bottom court courtile of the SEC
Speaker 3: and pretty much every every major offensive category. And as
Speaker 3: you said to me that they say that that it
Speaker 3: all starts up front.
Speaker 1: He is Ryan Black covers the wild Cat for the
Speaker 1: Career General. We'll come back and talk some basketball in
Speaker 1: just a minute here on six thirty w l a P.
Speaker 1: Welcome back with Chatting with Ryan Black. Heid is the
Speaker 1: UK beat writer for the Career Journal. Covers both football
Speaker 1: and basketball, and with the football in our rearview mirror,
Speaker 1: let us turn to basketball. What was your responsor your reaction,
Speaker 1: I should say, when you had to write about Travis
Speaker 1: Perry leaving the program.
Speaker 3: Huh, Well, it was certainly a surprise to me, Dick,
Speaker 3: you know, simply because you know, I asked him, you know,
Speaker 3: point blank after after the lost in the scene in
Speaker 3: Sweet sixteen year that well, first I mentioned I hate
Speaker 3: that I even have to ask this, you know, the
Speaker 3: old days you didn't have to write. But it's like, hey,
Speaker 3: you know, are do you at this point in time?
Speaker 3: Are you planning on being back that season? He's like, well,
Speaker 3: he's a straight up yet like, of course I'm planning
Speaker 3: on being back. And so I kind of thought, you know,
Speaker 3: to myself, Dick, that really, of the guys who would
Speaker 3: you know you would think would come back, the two,
Speaker 3: for certain would be the two the two Kentucky guys,
Speaker 3: the two Kentucky native him and Trent Noah. And so certainly,
Speaker 3: when I when I found out he was he was
Speaker 3: transferring it, it certainly caught me by surprise. But I
Speaker 3: guess it just I mean, it's just if we just
Speaker 3: go back to this all time that it's just the
Speaker 3: state of modern college athletics right now is you cannot
Speaker 3: bank on anybody saying at any school for the entirety
Speaker 3: of their career.
Speaker 1: No, No, it's a sign. Other times there's no question
Speaker 1: about that. And if somebody stays somewhere for their entire career,
Speaker 1: they might have stayed two or three years only because
Speaker 1: they've left early. Are they there for the whole the
Speaker 1: whole shebang? Uh? But another guy coming back otega Olway,
Speaker 1: I got to think you weren't surprised by that, But
Speaker 1: you can't blame the guy forgetting all the information that he.
Speaker 3: Can, right well, I wasn't surprised that he's he's, you know,
Speaker 3: coming back. What I would say that I was surprised
Speaker 3: about was that that it kind of took as as
Speaker 3: long as it did, And if you kind of have
Speaker 3: read and seen things, is that it really it came
Speaker 3: down to the wire with him in terms of that
Speaker 3: that he had made enough progress in the eyes of
Speaker 3: of NBA talent evaluators that it made it a much
Speaker 3: suffer decision for him then originally was thought because I
Speaker 3: at least know that, you know, when he when he
Speaker 3: decided to go through the draft process, it was more
Speaker 3: kind of like what Jaalen Lowe, his now new teammate,
Speaker 3: was more about going there and getting feedback about, hey,
Speaker 3: what should I work on in my senior season? It
Speaker 3: was and so the fact that it kind of that,
Speaker 3: that it came maybe as close to him staying in
Speaker 3: the draft as it was, that surprised me. But I think,
Speaker 3: you know, Dick gaug, you know, you got to look
Speaker 3: at now. I mean, Kentucky was what with him coming
Speaker 3: back essentially the preseason SEC Player of the Year, very
Speaker 3: possibly a preseason first team All American and then everything
Speaker 3: else they've got on this roster. I mean, Kentucky, you know,
Speaker 3: you don't have a heck of a team on as
Speaker 3: we're looking at on paper.
Speaker 1: Had he ended that, and of course everything's on paper now,
Speaker 1: and you kind of answered my next question, what do
Speaker 1: you foresee for him this coming year? And I keep
Speaker 1: going back to what Antonio Reeves did his last year
Speaker 1: at Kentucky after getting all that info from the scouts,
Speaker 1: and he did it within the framework of what Taller
Speaker 1: Perry's team was doing that year and what they needed
Speaker 1: him to do. I don't see and or take a
Speaker 1: away going crazy jacking up as many shots as he can.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's what the pros need to see.
Speaker 1: From him. You know, I think they probably need to
Speaker 1: see a better handle and as good as defense as
Speaker 1: he can play, and he's pretty good. Uh so, I
Speaker 1: you know, there's concerns some might be concerned that he's
Speaker 1: gonna go out and just play for himself. I don't
Speaker 1: think that happens.
Speaker 3: What do you think I agree? I mean, I think,
Speaker 3: as you mentioned Dick, I mean he's already shown, I mean,
Speaker 3: he can get to the rim with you know, with
Speaker 3: these he as he said, he also tied to the
Speaker 3: team lead and steals, So I mean he's already a
Speaker 3: pretty good defender. I think the two really primary things are,
Speaker 3: you know, showing that he can create for other teammates.
Speaker 3: And the number one thing that, because of the way
Speaker 3: the NBA emphasizes, is more consistency on his three points. Yeah,
Speaker 3: if you can lead, and I don't think he'll ever be,
Speaker 3: you know, on the level of like you kind of
Speaker 3: mentioned Antonio Reeves or obviously a couple of the guys
Speaker 3: last season who were such incredibly good shooters. But at
Speaker 3: least if he can make if he can make it
Speaker 3: more consistently than he has to this point his college career,
Speaker 3: I mean that that really unlocks a lot of things
Speaker 3: for him because he's kind of got all the other
Speaker 3: tools that you would want for a pro player.
Speaker 1: I've seen Kentucky ranked in the top ten preseason and
Speaker 1: it's jugg in just for fun in the top fifteen.
Speaker 1: So high expectations, which Mark Pope obviously is known and
Speaker 1: which fans know now are being thrust upon his team,
Speaker 1: which is still, for the most part, a brand new roster.
Speaker 1: What do you think of what you've read so far
Speaker 1: from from your national colleagues about what's expected of Kentucky
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think I'm a little surprised a
Speaker 3: few of them have Kentucky ranked a little lower than
Speaker 3: I would expect. I feel like I've seen a lot
Speaker 3: of like nine, ten, eleven, twelve rankings with really I
Speaker 3: kind of feel like they seem much closer to the
Speaker 3: top five than fifteen. Just from and again, Dick kind
Speaker 3: of like that we're literally talking about hypotheticals here. At
Speaker 3: the end of the day, everything play itself out. But
Speaker 3: to me, I just feel like, man, seeing what Mark
Speaker 3: Pope did in year one, overcoming the injuries they did,
Speaker 3: get winning some of the games, they did, you know,
Speaker 3: get to the final four teams. I guess I'm a
Speaker 3: little bit prised it doesn't seem like he's getting a
Speaker 3: little more of the benefit of the doubt already heading
Speaker 3: into year two. But I don't know if that's part
Speaker 3: of it is there's still people who who still want
Speaker 3: to see more from you know, Mark Pope and his
Speaker 3: staff to maybe give them that benefit of the doubt
Speaker 3: that so many other programs already get because of a
Speaker 3: long time, you know, coach who's been in you know,
Speaker 3: in place.
Speaker 1: I thought some of Pope's comments were really fascinating when
Speaker 1: he talked about the improvement from years one to two
Speaker 1: for his returning players, and of course he has you know,
Speaker 1: kind of an intricate approach offensively, but also for his staff,
Speaker 1: which was not just a cookie cutter lift, you know,
Speaker 1: copy and paste from from BYU. He has new assistant coaches.
Speaker 1: I'm really curious to see how this team functions this
Speaker 1: coming year compared to last because of what Pope said
Speaker 1: about year one of year two, It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: people always talk about freshman to sophomore year you make
Speaker 1: your biggest jump. It's that That's what it sounded like
Speaker 1: to me, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and as you said, I mean, the only the
Speaker 3: only person who previously built his staff who came with
Speaker 3: him was with Cody Seeger how he had worked with
Speaker 3: with Mark Fox. That Mark Fox was his boss at Georgia,
Speaker 3: So a little bit a little bit different kind of
Speaker 3: dynamic there. But I think that's honestly what I'm most
Speaker 3: interested to see, you know, Dick is I'm I mean,
Speaker 3: I think we just know, uh, the team's gonna score
Speaker 3: points because the offense, the way that is they are
Speaker 3: going to I'm just I'm mostly interested seeing what improvements
Speaker 3: do we see defensively, because you know, there were definitely
Speaker 3: some times last year they were they were rough, they
Speaker 3: were pretty bad. You know, they did show improvement as
Speaker 3: he went on, but I'm kind of curious see how
Speaker 3: quickly from the jump can they be better, you know,
Speaker 3: especially with and Aca. What I love one thing I
Speaker 3: do love, you know, in college efles, it's gonna get
Speaker 3: to play real teams in these exhibitions, and you know,
Speaker 3: and I don't I don't. I don't want to take
Speaker 3: away from them playing Georgetown College or Transylvania or whoever.
Speaker 3: I know at least that that that that gives those
Speaker 3: guys an experience of playing ROP. But I guess, as
Speaker 3: as a sports writer who's kind of being asked to
Speaker 3: make observation by a team, you learn a heck a
Speaker 3: lot more from them playing Purdue and Georgetown University than
Speaker 3: you do from playing you know, like, like I said,
Speaker 3: some of these smaller schools that are in state. So well,
Speaker 3: he keeps I think that's a little bit of.
Speaker 1: Yet he keeps pushing for forty regular season games, So
Speaker 1: I guess maybe this is a start, but he's not
Speaker 1: afraid to share that opinion. I'll let you go with this.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a fun season. Uh, the schedule
Speaker 1: is going to be really incredibly fun. I think I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, but I can't wait for that
Speaker 1: Atlanta matchup with Saint John's.
Speaker 8: Oh.
Speaker 3: I think, like you said, there's some great, great, great,
Speaker 3: great great, you know matchup, And of course we don't
Speaker 3: even know what the SEC scipts gonna be yet, but
Speaker 3: may and you know, I think of all the games
Speaker 3: they've got that we know of right now, that the
Speaker 3: one that get the circle is the one against rich
Speaker 3: Tino Saint John's Atlant at the CBS Sports class, that
Speaker 3: that could be a bar burner of a game. Hen't
Speaker 3: wait for that one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too, And when it happens, Ryan Black will
Speaker 1: be there covering, presumably for the Courier Journal. He is
Speaker 1: the beat writer for the CJ, cover in the football
Speaker 1: and basketball cats. Thank you, Sarah, and we'll talk to you.
Speaker 1: I'm Sue. I'm sure soon this summer. But have a
Speaker 1: good one.
Speaker 3: Hey, thanks so much having me on. Dick always enjoyed.
Speaker 1: Up Next, Eastern Kentucky has a new head baseball coach.
Speaker 1: He is one of the winningest coaches in all of
Speaker 1: college baseball, and he was part of the greatest story
Speaker 1: I think in college baseball a couple of years ago
Speaker 1: about a small college team's run to the World Series
Speaker 1: championship game after its school had shut its doors. Jan Weisberg,
Speaker 1: deformer Kentucky Wildcat. We'll hear from him and Keith Madison
Speaker 1: on the other side of the break here on six
Speaker 1: point thirty WLAP.
Speaker 7: Please welcome the night head coach of EKU Baseball, Jan Weisberg.
Speaker 1: That's what it sounded like when EKU Athletics director Kyle Moss,
Speaker 1: himself formerly a UK staffer, introduced eku's new head baseball
Speaker 1: coach Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. You heard
Speaker 1: a few days ago if you follow college baseball at all,
Speaker 1: that Jan Weisberg was named the new head coach at
Speaker 1: Eastern Kentucky. The colonel's really struggled this past year with
Speaker 1: the first year head coach in a little bit over,
Speaker 1: he said, very likely, and they bring in Jan, who
Speaker 1: was a former UK Wildcat as a player and as
Speaker 1: an assistant coach to Keith Madison. But that's not how
Speaker 1: he became known nationally. Jan was an assistant in UK.
Speaker 1: Then he went down the street and coached I think
Speaker 1: for a year at Transylvania and then left Transie and
Speaker 1: eventually ended up at Birmingham Southern, which is a Division
Speaker 1: three school, or should I say was a Division three
Speaker 1: school in Birmingham, Alabama. The athletic stra at the time
Speaker 1: was Joe Dean Junior. You know him as first of all,
Speaker 1: the son of Joe Dean, the guy who evented stringing music.
Speaker 1: But Joe Dean Junior became a really exceptional broadcaster. I
Speaker 1: worked with him many many years at the SEC Tournament
Speaker 1: for the SEC Radio Network, but known primarily for TV
Speaker 1: and of course once a game, once a game, as
Speaker 1: an homage to his late father. He would yell string
Speaker 1: music in whatever city he was in Nashville, Tennessee or whatever, Lexington, Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Joe became a good buddy. Sadly he is struggling with
Speaker 1: his health right now, so best thoughts to to Joe.
Speaker 1: But he made a great move when he hired Jan Weisberg,
Speaker 1: and he remained the head coach at Birmingham Southern for
Speaker 1: seventeen years. He won five hundred and forty four games,
Speaker 1: fourteen conference titles, nine regionals, three trips to the Supers,
Speaker 1: two College World Series, fourth winning his baseball team in
Speaker 1: D three during the twenty tenths, and he would still
Speaker 1: be there except for the fact that Birmingham Southern closed,
Speaker 1: not just shutting down athletics, it closed. The school just
Speaker 1: ran out of money. I mean, that's where we are
Speaker 1: in this day and age. And you might remember the
Speaker 1: story because Birmingham Southern, you know, just such a tough
Speaker 1: time for anybody, their students, faculty, staff, and of course
Speaker 1: the athletes. And the last athletes standing that this is
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four were the baseball players. They were in
Speaker 1: postseason play. Well, they started to win and win and
Speaker 1: It's like they didn't want it to end. Obviously, nobody
Speaker 1: does when you're playing in the tournament, but this was unprecedented.
Speaker 1: This was a team that was trying to keep the
Speaker 1: school's name alive at least for another week or two,
Speaker 1: or month or whatever. And Birmingham Southern won its way
Speaker 1: to the championship game of the D three World Series. Sadly,
Speaker 1: the Panthers lost to Wisconsin Whitewater in the finale. But
Speaker 1: Jan Weisberg, the former Wildcat, talked about that. You know,
Speaker 1: he talked about his vision and his philosophy, and he
Speaker 1: thanked everybody and introduced his family. He did a great job,
Speaker 1: spoke for about twenty minutes, but it was really interesting
Speaker 1: when he got to the part about what it was
Speaker 1: like as the head coach to be leading his team
Speaker 1: through that really difficult time.
Speaker 9: It was the darkest time for a lot of our
Speaker 9: players' lives, and it was the hardest thing I've ever
Speaker 9: done in coaching, was guide these young men through this
Speaker 9: pain and this uncertainty. And in this day and age
Speaker 9: where they could just thought about themselves and bailed and said, man,
Speaker 9: what's next for me? Yet they dove into each other
Speaker 9: and guiding them through that and getting him to the
Speaker 9: World Series was probably.
Speaker 8: The most satisfying thing that I did.
Speaker 9: The most rewarding thing as a coach was the last
Speaker 9: news about Birmingham Southern. We had dealt with negativity, sadness, pain,
Speaker 9: the last graduation, the last class, the door shutting, and
Speaker 9: we're all playing in the World Series, and the national
Speaker 9: media and the local media the last light shined on
Speaker 9: Birmingham Southern. It was a positive light.
Speaker 1: It was kind of a story that flew under the
Speaker 1: radar that year, but I thought it was one of
Speaker 1: the best. Yeah, I'm a big college baseball fan. I
Speaker 1: knew Jan a little bit. He actually finally remembered me.
Speaker 1: He hadn't seen me in years when he saw me,
Speaker 1: and the last time he saw me, i'd had my beard.
Speaker 1: You know. He's one of the few people left who
Speaker 1: from my past still haven't seen me. I shaved it
Speaker 1: off in twenty oh seven. But if I bump into
Speaker 1: somebody I haven't seen since around that they don't recognize me.
Speaker 1: It's kind of fun anyway. And Jane said, I hear
Speaker 1: you all the time because he watches the Kentucky games
Speaker 1: on the SEC streaming channel with yours truly and Doug Flynn,
Speaker 1: and we're only on camera for like the first you know,
Speaker 1: fifteen seconds. It's really criminal. I know we should be
Speaker 1: on camera more. I realize that, and I agree with you.
Speaker 1: But anyhow, that's it. But when you tune in and
Speaker 1: you listen and we identify ourselves once in a while,
Speaker 1: Jan follows the Wildcats of course, and why not because
Speaker 1: he played here. He was from California. I forgot about
Speaker 1: that and went to Juco and then Keith Madison found
Speaker 1: him and brought him to UK. He was a first
Speaker 1: baseman and a catcher. We'll hear from Coach in just
Speaker 1: a moment. But it was really interesting when Jan talked
Speaker 1: about what got him into coaching. He was actually working
Speaker 1: in a restaurant going to graduate. He had one more
Speaker 1: year academically. It was out of time athletically, but was
Speaker 1: working on his degree in finance or something. It was
Speaker 1: going to be a banker or something, and he was
Speaker 1: working at a restaurant here in Lexington and got a
Speaker 1: call from Keith Madison.
Speaker 9: I had a year to finish school after I finished
Speaker 9: playing for Coach up in Lexington, and I think it
Speaker 9: was flipping burgers and cooking hot browns at Dchase while
Speaker 9: I was paying for school and going on banking interviews
Speaker 9: and just thinking I'm going to go back to California.
Speaker 8: I'm to get back into banking.
Speaker 9: And he just called me one day and he said, man,
Speaker 9: I'd really like to have you come out next semester.
Speaker 9: And I was like, sure, that'll help bridge the gap.
Speaker 9: And I thought I would just do it for a semester,
Speaker 9: and he hooked me.
Speaker 8: The passion was there.
Speaker 9: It was instant that I knew this is what I
Speaker 9: want to do the rest of my life. And then
Speaker 9: he put up with a young coach and his faults,
Speaker 9: and he stuck with me and it was a pleasure
Speaker 9: coach to serve you until he retired in two thousand
Speaker 9: and three.
Speaker 8: I love you.
Speaker 1: How cool is that? I mean, you're going back to
Speaker 1: the early nineties. But some of you out there may
Speaker 1: have dined at T Chase on something prepared by now
Speaker 1: the guy who's the head coach at Eastern Kentucky University.
Speaker 1: And it took a phone call from Keith Madison to
Speaker 1: bring him back into the UK family, get him into coaching,
Speaker 1: and he has been wildly successful. He's one of the
Speaker 1: winningest coaches if you look at all three levels in
Speaker 1: all of college baseball. And now he's the new head
Speaker 1: coach at EKU, and he again he explained a lot
Speaker 1: of his philosophies.
Speaker 9: What makes certain organizations thrive, what makes some survive, and
Speaker 9: what makes them fail.
Speaker 8: And I think.
Speaker 9: Ultimately, as a leader, our job is to provide clarity
Speaker 9: and vision, and then it's to set up processes in
Speaker 9: place that make that vision and that mission reality. But
Speaker 9: then the most important thing is to surround yourself with
Speaker 9: great people, whether it's players, support staff, assistant coaches. But
Speaker 9: surround yourself with great people.
Speaker 1: Bingo. That is exactly what the most successful coaches do.
Speaker 1: Some coaches, very few are good enough to overcome hiring mistakes.
Speaker 1: Most aren't. And I look back at coaches like Rich Brooks,
Speaker 1: who it seemed like every year would lose an assistant
Speaker 1: coach right because they would get a job that was
Speaker 1: better than where they were and upgrade basically, which is
Speaker 1: how it should happen if the guy's any good at all.
Speaker 1: But Rich would end up hiring someone as good or better.
Speaker 1: I always felt like Tubby Smith's a riginal staff at UK,
Speaker 1: and Cameron Mills has backed me up on this was
Speaker 1: really really good, and when some of those guys left,
Speaker 1: premarily Mike Sutton, things just began to sag. And you know,
Speaker 1: I think one of the best examples of that, believe
Speaker 1: it or I was Rick Patino at Louisville for a
Speaker 1: while there. He had some assistant coaches and weren't doing
Speaker 1: him any favors, and it was one assistant coach down
Speaker 1: the road who ultimately got him in trouble with that
Speaker 1: FBI sting and all that. I don't want to get
Speaker 1: into that, but you got to hire good people, and
Speaker 1: Keith Madison has done that. Nick Menngione has had a
Speaker 1: lot of coaches come and go off his staff, and
Speaker 1: it looks like he settled in to a pretty good stab.
Speaker 1: But I just thought that was interesting when Jan brought
Speaker 1: that up yesterday, and finally he got into and we're
Speaker 1: gonna hear from Jan and Keith Madison here after the break.
Speaker 1: But to me, one of the most interesting things he
Speaker 1: said was it was about his coaching philosophy and how
Speaker 1: he kind of had to change it and he realized
Speaker 1: that this was born of the way Keith Madison coached players.
Speaker 1: And I always wonder about coaches, and they're out there.
Speaker 1: One of them is a US senator right now, I
Speaker 1: don't want to get into that, but who treat players
Speaker 1: strictly as though they're commodities. And I bring up that
Speaker 1: said senator used to coach at Auburn because one of
Speaker 1: his former players talked about how he had a meeting
Speaker 1: with him one morning and they talked about that summer
Speaker 1: work as summer workouts, that upcoming season, this and that,
Speaker 1: and then he's in his car later that day and
Speaker 1: here's on the radio that he the player has left
Speaker 1: the team and turn up the coach needed a scholarship,
Speaker 1: and you know, and they're out there. Coaches like that
Speaker 1: are out there because they treat athletes as commodities. Now,
Speaker 1: you can't keep everybody. Mark Stoops has had guys come
Speaker 1: and go. I get that, but what happens to those guys?
Speaker 1: Do you just cut them loose and ignore them or
Speaker 1: do you cut them loose at all? There are some
Speaker 1: coaches Seam Newton used to say, you got to eat
Speaker 1: your mistakes when it comes to scholarships. You sign a
Speaker 1: player he or she is not very good, seem Newton
Speaker 1: believe you got to eat it. Seam was big on
Speaker 1: doing the right thing, you know, and some people think
Speaker 1: that that's kind of a milk toast Pollyanna way to
Speaker 1: do business. Ultimately in the long run, though, it is
Speaker 1: the right thing. But Jan talked about that as well.
Speaker 1: Kind of made me sit up straight.
Speaker 9: When I start to look at players or Chase Wins
Speaker 9: or look at players just for what can they do
Speaker 9: for me, that's when it's a reminder of all these
Speaker 9: guys that turned my life around, that impacted my life.
Speaker 8: It's more than that. It can't just be transactional. What
Speaker 8: can you do for me? You can have success in
Speaker 8: the short term, but you people won't go to bat
Speaker 8: for you.
Speaker 9: They won't fight for adversity for you unless they know
Speaker 9: it's relational. If it's purely transactional. If you could do
Speaker 9: something for for me.
Speaker 8: Great, If you don't get out of here, this is
Speaker 8: not it.
Speaker 9: And all those guys and what they did in my
Speaker 9: life just reminds me of that, And I thank him
Speaker 9: most of all for that.
Speaker 1: And again he got that from Keith Madison. We hear
Speaker 1: more about that on the other side of the break
Speaker 1: here on the Big Blue Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Big Blues Cider final segment of our show,
Speaker 1: we're talking about Jan Weisberg, the new head coach at EKU,
Speaker 1: formerly a baseball Wildcat player and assistant coach, and again
Speaker 1: one of the winningest coaches in the country. It was
Speaker 1: at the D three level for the most part. Also
Speaker 1: coached the year at Baldosta, coached at Traansy as a
Speaker 1: head coach. But that great story about Birmingham Southern, which
Speaker 1: had shuddered the institution. It had closed the entire school,
Speaker 1: but the baseball team just kept winning in the College
Speaker 1: World Series, got to the championship game but lost to
Speaker 1: Wisconsin Whitewater. So Jan was on the move again. And
Speaker 1: now he's back in Central Kentucky and I and some
Speaker 1: other reporters had a chance to talk to him after
Speaker 1: his news conference. Here's part of our conversation.
Speaker 8: Very excited professionally.
Speaker 9: This offers great opportunity and a great challenge, which I enjoy.
Speaker 9: But getting back to one where a lot of family
Speaker 9: and friends are is really good.
Speaker 8: And we felt good about the decision to listen.
Speaker 9: I did, but you know, in the twenty four hours
Speaker 9: after it was announced, I had no idea what we
Speaker 9: would get with all the former players that had reached
Speaker 9: out and just people in Lexington in this area.
Speaker 8: So no, we're excited as heck to be back.
Speaker 1: This is one of the most challenging times for college
Speaker 1: sports with the house settlement, the portal nil. What's it
Speaker 1: like being in the middle of that, just wanting to
Speaker 1: coach baseball?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 9: And when I took the Valdosta State job, I turned
Speaker 9: down a couple of Division One opportunities and everybody thought
Speaker 9: it was crazy, you know, but I said, here's the
Speaker 9: deal is, I can make a regional every year.
Speaker 8: Probably create a program.
Speaker 9: In my mind it'll be on to the top ten
Speaker 9: in the country, and I don't have to mess with that.
Speaker 9: But when this opportunity came up, it was worth it
Speaker 9: to get back in that. And I think the biggest
Speaker 9: thing is just like with our players, you know, within
Speaker 9: a game, it's not about what happens to you.
Speaker 8: It's about what are we going to do moving forward?
Speaker 9: And I do hear so many coaches that all they
Speaker 9: do is complain about it.
Speaker 8: Well, complaining is not a tactic.
Speaker 9: And as much as I may not like it and
Speaker 9: I wish it wasn't here, to some extent, you have
Speaker 9: to embrace it and say, Okay, within this system, how
Speaker 9: can we make it work? So it might mean, you know,
Speaker 9: recruiting guys now with even being open and honest of
Speaker 9: saying yes, if you really blow up and have a
Speaker 9: talent to go play at the next level, higher than
Speaker 9: this and possibly make some money.
Speaker 8: Then we'd be open to that.
Speaker 9: But I think the coaches that fight that they forget
Speaker 9: about development. You know, I want our guys, if they
Speaker 9: left here after two years, to still consider this home.
Speaker 9: And I think we'll create a culture where it will
Speaker 9: not be easy for them to leave. But if they do,
Speaker 9: I don't want it to be one, you know, just
Speaker 9: pay goodbye. We're still going to invest in those guys
Speaker 9: and we're still going to grow them. And I think
Speaker 9: if you embrace it like that, it can be okay. Jane,
Speaker 9: how much does it help you You've been in Trancy, Yeah,
Speaker 9: you've been at UK.
Speaker 8: You know a lot of the high schools in the
Speaker 8: areas of around. How much does that help you here?
Speaker 9: I think it really helps because, you know, especially with
Speaker 9: the house settlement and all that you're talking about, if
Speaker 9: they're going to go to thirty four, that a lot
Speaker 9: of those kids that we used to develop, say it's
Speaker 9: a picture that's throwing, you know, eighty seven to ninety
Speaker 9: miles an hour, but he's not quite ready.
Speaker 8: You know. Those are the guys now that have two choices.
Speaker 9: Am I going to go to junior college or am
Speaker 9: I going to go somewhere that is going to development?
Speaker 9: And those connections in high school, you know, are more important.
Speaker 9: You know, the last few years maybe it's been less
Speaker 9: because we saw physicality.
Speaker 8: And that's so important. It's like, we'll go get the
Speaker 8: junior college guy.
Speaker 9: But no, first and foremost, we'll be finding those guys
Speaker 9: and that we can develop because I believe in player development.
Speaker 9: At a place like this, we don't have a luxury
Speaker 9: to give someone one hundred thousand dollars and you're a
Speaker 9: proven player, and it doesn't scare me because I know
Speaker 9: that we can develop.
Speaker 1: Those You could probably talk all night on this topic.
Speaker 1: But what did you learn from Keith Madison as a
Speaker 1: player as an assistant? That's that you carried and that
Speaker 1: helps you today.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 9: The biggest lessons that I learned from coach I didn't
Speaker 9: get until I became a head coach. They were as
Speaker 9: I sat in that office, and I would hear him
Speaker 9: talk about, you know, developing the whole person, and and
Speaker 9: he never would just cut someone and let him go
Speaker 9: because his philosophy was I invested in that guy.
Speaker 8: That's my fault.
Speaker 9: But but once I became a head coach, and I
Speaker 9: caught myself, you know, just looking at it as what
Speaker 9: can this guy do for me?
Speaker 8: What can this guy do for me?
Speaker 9: And then my first graduating class, I had a lot
Speaker 9: of I wish I had I wish I had spent
Speaker 9: more time with that kid. I wish I would have
Speaker 9: helped him, you know, figure out what he wanted to
Speaker 9: do after graduation. And that's when it all started coming
Speaker 9: back to me of oh, you know, I didn't even know.
Speaker 9: It's like Yoda, right, I didn't even know it, and
Speaker 9: he's he's working on me here. So it's probably later,
Speaker 9: but it's a huge impact.
Speaker 8: Yeah, what are you most excited to teach these boys
Speaker 8: this year?
Speaker 9: I think that the the most thing I'm most excited
Speaker 9: about teaching these guys is probably the fun in the
Speaker 9: pursuit of not being able to say, you know, our
Speaker 9: goals are extremely high and dive into enjoying like what
Speaker 9: it takes to get there. And it's not just are
Speaker 9: we excited after a win, but it's excited after a
Speaker 9: really hard practice because we know that we put that
Speaker 9: money in the bank, right and we've invested in it.
Speaker 8: And I think that's going to be the funnest thing
Speaker 8: always is.
Speaker 9: You know, I had the team of Valdosta State for
Speaker 9: one year and we started two and eight, we finished
Speaker 9: twenty eight and twelve and they finally got it.
Speaker 8: You know, it's not just the wins, but it's everything
Speaker 8: that we do and it's kind of how to attack
Speaker 8: the journey, and that's what's that's probably going to be
Speaker 8: the funnest.
Speaker 1: Lots of Eka you administrators there, current players aren't that
Speaker 1: many right now, and friends, family, and of course the
Speaker 1: mentor Keith Madison, part of the chain gang here and
Speaker 1: one of our guests frequently here in the garage for
Speaker 1: the Big Blue Cider. And Weisberg of course play aid
Speaker 1: for Keith and coached for Keith, and uh he's the
Speaker 1: one who broke the news of the chain gang when
Speaker 1: Jan was hired. You texted the text chain the night
Speaker 1: Jan got the job. And you're biased, I know, but
Speaker 1: why was it such a great hire.
Speaker 10: Well, first of all, he's a winner on and off
Speaker 10: the field. You know, he's a proven winner on the field.
Speaker 10: He's won numerous conference championships and he's been to the
Speaker 10: Division III World Series twice. And then at Valdosta State,
Speaker 10: he was already continuing a great tradition there and had
Speaker 10: a good year this year. And I just think that
Speaker 10: he is he's he's got the whole package, you know,
Speaker 10: he's he's he's a phenomenal leader. He's a very knowledgeable
Speaker 10: baseball man. Uh, and he knows every aspect of the game.
Speaker 10: I remember, Uh, you may and Dick, you may remember
Speaker 10: Iam van Landingham. Yeah, that pitched for us, pitched a big.
Speaker 1: Game up with the longest name in a major league.
Speaker 10: Yes, well, he and Jan were friends, and of course
Speaker 10: Jan was a catcher first basement, and I spent a
Speaker 10: lot of time with Billy. We called him back then
Speaker 10: and we could not get.
Speaker 1: Him to throw strikes.
Speaker 10: And I said, I told him one of my assistants,
Speaker 10: I said, I've tried everything, and I know, take him
Speaker 10: for a while. He tried everything he knew and finally,
Speaker 10: even though Jan was a player, we said, Jenny's all yours.
Speaker 10: Even as a college player. He had a gift of
Speaker 10: working with pitchers, but he's also really good hitter.
Speaker 1: He talked about how he was flipping burgers at the
Speaker 1: Shay's restaurant, and you reached out to him and said,
Speaker 1: you need to be an assistant coach here. What did
Speaker 1: you see in him? Did you see that knowledge in
Speaker 1: him when he was playing?
Speaker 10: Yeah, I just the way he handled pitchers and a bullpen.
Speaker 10: You know. I would spend a lot of time with
Speaker 10: those pictures in a bullpen, and he was right there
Speaker 10: with me, and the insights that he had and just
Speaker 10: the way his brain works. He's a very smart guy. Yeah,
Speaker 10: and so he just picked up things really fast, and
Speaker 10: I thought, man, he's flipping burgers waiting for his next journey,
Speaker 10: and he needs to be on a baseball field. And
Speaker 10: so that's how that worked out. But I'm sure glad
Speaker 10: he did because he helped me a lot over those many.
Speaker 1: Years mentioned earlier. Kyle Moch is a former UK staffer.
Speaker 1: He was an assistant ad under Mitch Barnhardt. I ended
Speaker 1: up at U of L for a while. Then Missouri
Speaker 1: State came back not too long ago to Central Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Just like Jan and now the ad at Eku.
Speaker 7: Really excited for us Eku the community. Jane's a good person,
Speaker 7: he's a good baseball coach, and I think he's going
Speaker 7: to really resonate with everybody in this community, in this area.
Speaker 7: So just really happy to have him back, and I
Speaker 7: think he's happy to be back, and his family certainly.
Speaker 1: Is happy to be back. I'm sure you got a
Speaker 1: lot of calls and resumes. Why was he the guy?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I you know, when these situations happen, you kind
Speaker 7: of have a guy in mind. It may not work
Speaker 7: out out the way you wanted to, but we did
Speaker 7: have a lot of interest. But Jan was someone that
Speaker 7: I thought of first, and I'm happy that it worked
Speaker 7: out because it probably would have taken a little bit
Speaker 7: longer if it didn't. But he was kind of my
Speaker 7: guy from the very beginning.
Speaker 1: I realized that, with all due respect, this is probably
Speaker 1: the most we've talked about EKU baseball. On the Big
Speaker 1: Bloom side. We had broadcasts many games involving UK and
Speaker 1: EKU baseball, but just a great story with Jan Weisberg
Speaker 1: coming back in the fact that he led that Birmingham
Speaker 1: Southern team to the World Series final game and now
Speaker 1: a former Wildcat is the head coach at EKU. That'll
Speaker 1: do it. Thanks to my guests, to all the folks
Speaker 1: over at dKu, to Ryan Black, Darryl Bird that said
Speaker 1: good night from the garage.
Speaker 5: And Lexington wants an orange Whip, Orange Whip, Orange Whip
Speaker 5: three orange whip statue.
Speaker 6: Tact tact.
Speaker 5: Anything one.
Speaker 6: Touching the
Speaker 5: Tops from typing donating to the