Speaker 1: We're here to win, like this is Kentucky. The first
Speaker 1: time we don't win a game, you guys are going
Speaker 1: to go burn my house down.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, we always knew Mark Pope was a smart guy,
Speaker 2: got it right, didn't he? That is the new UK
Speaker 2: coach followed me last night's blowout win over Kentucky Wesley
Speaker 2: and welcome to the Big Moonsider. Dick Gabriel with you
Speaker 2: on a Thursday. Basketball season is here. Yes, it was
Speaker 2: just an exhibition game, but wow, one twenty three to
Speaker 2: fifty two over Kentucky Wesley and the Kentucky Wesley and
Speaker 2: coach Drew Cooper apologized. You may have heard that already,
Speaker 2: saying he wished his team had given Mark Pope and
Speaker 2: his team a better game. He apologized to Mark Pope
Speaker 2: and told us that in the media gathering after. But
Speaker 2: I don't know about the effort by Kentucky Wesley, and
Speaker 2: of course he knows his team so much better than
Speaker 2: I do. All I know is what I saw last night,
Speaker 2: and he saw a lack of effort, or what he
Speaker 2: perceived to be a lack of effort. But Mark Pope
Speaker 2: saw and his team what he was hoping to see.
Speaker 2: We'll talk about that tonight. He didn't see enough of it.
Speaker 2: Of course, it's the first game for crying out loud,
Speaker 2: But fans saw what they loved, and Twitter, of course
Speaker 2: buzzing last night. It's still buzzing fans, of course, but
Speaker 2: national media chiming in about what they saw, and some
Speaker 2: of them kind of walked up to the precipice of hey,
Speaker 2: maybe I was wrong. Didn't quite jump over it. But
Speaker 2: of course, not much expected from this Kentucky team by fans,
Speaker 2: by the so called experts. But I will tell you this,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure there's a lot of overreaction to.
Speaker 3: This Kentucky game. When you shoot sixty.
Speaker 2: Three percent from the floor for crying out a loud
Speaker 2: fifty percent from beyond the arc, I don't care if
Speaker 2: you're playing Tates Creek Junior High pretty good, but we
Speaker 2: all know competition, with all due respect to Kentucky Wesleyan,
Speaker 2: will be much stiffer as the season goes on. Game
Speaker 2: was not real physical. I think it's going to be
Speaker 2: interesting to see what happens when Kentucky is caught up
Speaker 2: in a physical kind of game, but when allowed to
Speaker 2: roam and look for shots and move the ball, and
Speaker 2: this team's gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: Keep in mind at.
Speaker 2: Wesley And hit only four of twenty seven from beyond
Speaker 2: the arc, and a lot of those were good open looks.
Speaker 2: So there's so much work to be done for the wildcast.
Speaker 2: But what it did this was more symbolic than anything.
Speaker 2: What this did was basically put an exclamation mark on
Speaker 2: the statement that Pope, his style of play and the
Speaker 2: Big Blue Nation made when there was a change in
Speaker 2: the coaching status, and that is time for something new,
Speaker 2: time for something different, And ironically enough, it's kind of
Speaker 2: a return to the Rick Pattino era, not with the
Speaker 2: full court pressing. You're not going to see much of
Speaker 2: that from this Mark po team. I don't even think
Speaker 2: he's talked about that much. But what you saw last
Speaker 2: night is how they hope to get it done all
Speaker 2: ye that was the best case scenario, of course, you know,
Speaker 2: finishing the game of a fifteen to two run, even
Speaker 2: though they missed six of their last seven shots because
Speaker 2: they held Kentucky Wesleyan down. And again, defense is vital
Speaker 2: to this Kentucky team. So hey off to a good start,
Speaker 2: a lot of fun. And somebody asked Mark pope about,
Speaker 2: you know, did this kind of unfold in terms.
Speaker 3: Of the numbers the way he hoped it would.
Speaker 2: And he basically was holding up a stat sheet, and
Speaker 2: I said, and I'm paraphrasing, that what's on the stat
Speaker 2: sheet was inconsequential compared to what he wanted to see
Speaker 2: in terms of how his team played.
Speaker 1: We're deadly serious about winning winning matters. I don't spend
Speaker 1: a lot of time. I don't spend as much time
Speaker 1: on I know this sounds very contradictory. I don't actually
Speaker 1: know exactly how to explain it. But we're here to win,
Speaker 1: Like this is Kentucky. The first time we don't win
Speaker 1: a game, you guys are going to go burn my
Speaker 1: house down, Okay. But we don't spend a lot of
Speaker 1: time thinking about what this sheet is going to look
Speaker 1: like after the game. We spend all our time thinking
Speaker 1: about what we're trying to what we're trying to do
Speaker 1: in the moment, right, And so you know, I think,
Speaker 1: of course, there's all the nerves, right, it's our first
Speaker 1: time in this building, and this is Kentucky, and there's
Speaker 1: massive expectations and all those things. But you know, I'm
Speaker 1: really consumed with seeing how fast we can get better.
Speaker 1: And the way we get better is by just being
Speaker 1: dialed in on exactly what we're doing. So I wasn't
Speaker 1: really anticipating seeing anything on stat sheet. I was just
Speaker 1: curious to be how well can we coach our guys
Speaker 1: to be great decision makers in all the ways that
Speaker 1: we do it, How well can we get our guys.
Speaker 1: I was really concerned about our energy. This was the
Speaker 1: first time. You know, we try and keep it at
Speaker 1: like a four or five, very focused, but in terms
Speaker 1: of emotional energy, we try and live at like a three,
Speaker 1: four and five, and then we're trying to get to
Speaker 1: a nine and nine point five during games where we
Speaker 1: can still function and make decisions. This is a long,
Speaker 1: drawing out conversation we don't have time for.
Speaker 4: But but but.
Speaker 1: I was I was more thinking more about like our energy.
Speaker 1: I took a shot at the guys before the game
Speaker 1: in the locker room, and I was really trying to
Speaker 1: spend all my energy trying to gauge our energy. And
Speaker 1: the guys were probably better than I was in terms
Speaker 1: of the energy they came out with to be able
Speaker 1: to have great intensity energy but still be a decision
Speaker 1: maker and execute, and so we're spending a lot more
Speaker 1: time thinking about those things, and then this just happens
Speaker 1: because of what we're focusing on.
Speaker 2: When he said this, he was holding up the statuet
Speaker 2: with some pretty impressive numbers, and they're online. I'm sure
Speaker 2: a lot of you have already studied them and broken
Speaker 2: them down. Kobe Braa was one of the players who
Speaker 2: came out and spoke with us. He scored thirteen points
Speaker 2: in nineteen minutes. I have of seven from the field,
Speaker 2: three to five from beyond the r couple.
Speaker 3: Of assists, a steal.
Speaker 2: By the way, he had one turnover. This team had
Speaker 2: five turnovers. Five with all these guys coming and going
Speaker 2: and again Kentucky Wesley and didn't provide the stiffest of oppositions.
Speaker 2: But still, for the first time playing in a real
Speaker 2: game as a team, five turnovers is pretty impressive. As
Speaker 2: I say, that's impressive in the backyard, it's impressive against
Speaker 2: Tates Creek Junior High. And they got it done last night.
Speaker 2: And Bray talked last night about a lot of stuff,
Speaker 2: but primarily he was asked about teamwork and unselfishness, and
Speaker 2: of course he liked what he saw.
Speaker 5: Thank everybody does a good job. Was just you know,
Speaker 5: given what they're like, taking in what they're giving and
Speaker 5: trying to do the best with what they got. And
Speaker 5: I feel like everybody did a great job of just
Speaker 5: accepting their role and you know, trying to be the
Speaker 5: best at their row. And I feel like we did
Speaker 5: a good job out there. Everybody mesh really well, which
Speaker 5: is I'm not surprised about it because I've seen it
Speaker 5: in practice, but to see it against the ouside Comme says,
Speaker 5: it was really good.
Speaker 4: Nothing seemed forced on offense.
Speaker 6: Everything After the first couple of minutes, everything seemed to
Speaker 6: really flow out there.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean it's pretty easy when you know the other
Speaker 5: four guys on our team couldn't do everything that you
Speaker 5: can do too, So I think we just have a
Speaker 5: lot of options, a lot of weapons, and it becomes deadly,
Speaker 5: you know, when everybody stakes us their strengths and just
Speaker 5: plays together and does what they do well. And everybody
Speaker 5: got to see it tonight, So.
Speaker 2: Shit, everybody played the right way. What does it mean
Speaker 2: when his team's playing the right way?
Speaker 5: I think just like giving up a good shot for
Speaker 5: a great shot. I feel like there was many times
Speaker 5: that we saw that tonight and goes to speak about
Speaker 5: how in selfish we are as a team, because I
Speaker 5: feel like every one of us, you know, we all
Speaker 5: have a really good shooting ability, but you know, we're
Speaker 5: willing to give up a good shot for a great shot.
Speaker 5: And we saw that a lot tonight.
Speaker 2: It was Brian mile im asking about the flow, and
Speaker 2: he was right about that. It was just fun to
Speaker 2: watch an extra pass inside out guys who had a
Speaker 2: good looking shot, as he said, passing up a good
Speaker 2: shot for a great shot, and oftentimes that was an
Speaker 2: inside out pass. And they were a little cold to
Speaker 2: begin with, as you might expect, but man, when they
Speaker 2: heat it up, and boy, when Trendoa hit three threes
Speaker 2: in a row, we'll hear from him tomorrow night. But
Speaker 2: I had a chance to ask him about getting back
Speaker 2: out on that floor where he did so well for
Speaker 2: Harlan and the Sweet sixteen. It kind of brought a
Speaker 2: smile to his face. Last night's game brought a smile
Speaker 2: to a lot of faces, I got to tell you,
Speaker 2: and I don't know what the exact crowd was, but
Speaker 2: it was a good one and they were loud, no
Speaker 2: question about that. You know, you never get fully the
Speaker 2: turnover the turnstile count. But the crowd had showed up
Speaker 2: last night at a ball I will tell you that
Speaker 2: all right. When we come back, we're gonna shift over
Speaker 2: to Kentucky football. The Wildcats take on the Auburn Tigers,
Speaker 2: as you know on Saturday night.
Speaker 3: I want to come here on the big Blue and
Speaker 3: Sider six thirty wlap.
Speaker 2: Welcome back coming up at the bottom of the hour
Speaker 2: just a few minutes. Dicks Senior, the father of former
Speaker 2: UK wide receiver Dickey Lyons Junior, and a guy who's
Speaker 2: going to be honored at the SEC Football Championship Game.
Speaker 2: He will be one of the SEC legends. He and
Speaker 2: Randall Cobb were the two greatest all round players in
Speaker 2: the history of Kentucky football. You might give Dickey Lion
Speaker 2: Senior the edge because he was a kicker as well,
Speaker 2: but the great Jeff band Note, who was our color
Speaker 2: analyst for several years, played with Dickey Senior, but called
Speaker 2: games that Randall Cobb played in, and he eventually said
Speaker 2: he believed Randall was probably a little bit better than
Speaker 2: Dickie Senior.
Speaker 3: But that's keeping pretty good company.
Speaker 2: And someday Randall Cobb will be an sec legend at
Speaker 2: the championship game. But this season for Kentucky it's going
Speaker 2: to be Dickey Lyon Senior. And I've interviewed him before,
Speaker 2: back before Young Dickie was even in high school. But
Speaker 2: he was my first childhood college football hero. He was
Speaker 2: a guy who played for the Wildcats at one of
Speaker 2: their worst periods in the late sixties, when they just
Speaker 2: couldn't win any games, but he just had It was
Speaker 2: so exciting to listen to the games. Never got to
Speaker 2: see him play on TV, but just listening on the
Speaker 2: radio as I did.
Speaker 3: I remember everything.
Speaker 2: Every time he touched the ball his team like something
Speaker 2: good happened, but they just couldn't win. But he was
Speaker 2: such a dynamic player, and so was his son. That's
Speaker 2: what was great about it. And Dicky Junior committed to
Speaker 2: the Wildcats without ever having set foot on campus. Why
Speaker 2: of course, he grew up a Kentucky fan growing up
Speaker 2: outside of New Orleans. That's where Dicky ended up playing
Speaker 2: pro football briefly before he blew his knee. We'll ask
Speaker 2: him about that as well. So Dicky Junior, who was
Speaker 2: Richard back then, he decides, I'm going to be a
Speaker 2: Wildcat just like my dad, and it was Joker Phillips
Speaker 2: who said, Nope, you're going by Dickey. He's the guy
Speaker 2: who recruited him. And he said, yeah, you're going to
Speaker 2: be Dickey Dickey Lyons junior when you get to Kentucky.
Speaker 2: So we'll talk to him a little bit later on.
Speaker 2: We'll also hear from our West n Bureau chief, Gary Moore,
Speaker 2: and from Shawn Woods, the unforgettable guard. Usually we talked
Speaker 2: to them on Wednesdays, but last night, of course, was
Speaker 2: a basketball night, so we slided them over to Thursday.
Speaker 2: The Pro Football Hall of Fame class of twenty twenty
Speaker 2: five is down to eligible's fifty modern era players. Eli
Speaker 2: Manning probably the best known. A couple of Kentucky connections,
Speaker 2: if you will, including Shawn Alexander running back played at
Speaker 2: Alabama but from Boone County High School. And I'll never
Speaker 2: forget talking to Bill Glazer, who was on Bill Curry's
Speaker 2: staff and was assigned to that part of the state
Speaker 2: as a recruiter, and he said, the first thing that
Speaker 2: Shawn's family said to him was we're not coming to Kentucky.
Speaker 3: We're going out of state. And that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 2: Had a great career at Alabama, had a great pro career,
Speaker 2: won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks, and now
Speaker 2: is up and I got to think he'll get in
Speaker 2: at some point for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: Antonio Gates is nominated as well at tight end. Now
Speaker 2: Gates played at kent State, but there is a slight
Speaker 2: Kentucky connection. Gates actually in college played basketball for Kent State.
Speaker 2: He was like a six to six post player, much
Speaker 2: like Chuck Hayes was at Kentucky.
Speaker 3: And the Kentucky connection here is.
Speaker 2: Kent State in twenty oh two made the Elite eight
Speaker 2: in Lexington. That's where the regional was and the Golden
Speaker 2: Flashes became kind of the darling of the Lexington crowd
Speaker 2: because they were the Cinderella. Stan Heath was the head coach.
Speaker 2: He ended up at Arkansas. They went thirty and six
Speaker 2: that year. They upset number seven seed Oklahoma State. Then
Speaker 2: they shocked Alabama, which was the number two seed, and
Speaker 2: Pittsburgh which was the three seed, before they lost.
Speaker 3: To Indiana and the regional final.
Speaker 2: That was the Indiana team that eventually played for the
Speaker 2: national championship. So Gates was not a candidate for the NBA,
Speaker 2: but a lot of people said, you know, this guy
Speaker 2: should play pro football, and he did.
Speaker 3: He went on to the San Diego.
Speaker 2: Chargers, had a great career, and now he is eligible
Speaker 2: for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. So it's going
Speaker 2: to be interesting. I think Eli probably gets in on
Speaker 2: the strength of two Super Bowl wins. His overall record
Speaker 2: not that great, but go back and look at the
Speaker 2: number of fourth quarter game winning drives he led us,
Speaker 2: like nineteen or so. I think put that together with
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl win wins plural, and I.
Speaker 3: Think he does deserve to get in.
Speaker 2: Kentucky football the Wildcat's taken on Auburn Saturday night, seven
Speaker 2: forty five, kickoff, five thirty pre game of Christy, Jeremy
Speaker 2: and Logan, Tom and Jeff and I have a call
Speaker 2: for you as Kentucky tries to snap this two game
Speaker 2: losing skid and a game the Cats have got to
Speaker 2: put away here at home. Going to need a great crowd,
Speaker 2: should be great weather. They're going to need to control
Speaker 2: of the clock like they have when they've played their best,
Speaker 2: but when they get close, they got to punch it in.
Speaker 2: Mark Stoops talked about that the other day.
Speaker 4: You know, we have to finish place, you know, finished drives.
Speaker 4: I think once again, you know, as I mentioned, it's
Speaker 4: not quite as magnified if we have with the opportunities
Speaker 4: that we have, if we get them in the end zone,
Speaker 4: you know, and you know, there's no excuse for not
Speaker 4: getting in on third and short and fourth and short.
Speaker 4: You know, we got to get the.
Speaker 3: Ball in the end zone.
Speaker 4: We're close, and you know, we've got to finish drives
Speaker 4: a little bit better and we'll have an opportunity to
Speaker 4: score more.
Speaker 2: I firmly believe the Vandy game goes the other way
Speaker 2: if they're able to punch it in. I don't know
Speaker 2: if the Florida game turns around if they can punch
Speaker 2: it in as well. But I don't think it ends
Speaker 2: up a blowout. I think it's a much closer game.
Speaker 2: And I think Kentucky would have given itself a chance
Speaker 2: to pull that one out down in Gainesville. And it's
Speaker 2: amazing to me that we're even talking about this, given
Speaker 2: ol Well, Kentucky has run the football this year much
Speaker 2: less over the last few years. Getting inside the one
Speaker 2: or two and come away with nothing. That's his recipe
Speaker 2: for disaster, and it cannot obviously cannot keep happening.
Speaker 3: Auburn's had its problems.
Speaker 2: You got to force Auburn into more problems and take
Speaker 2: advantage when you can. How about some short fields once
Speaker 2: in a while. We'll see up next. Dicky Lyons Senior
Speaker 2: here on six point thirty WLAP.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Join us now.
Speaker 3: I have to admit I'm going to be a fanboy.
Speaker 2: Here was one of my childhood heroes and a guy
Speaker 2: I really enjoy getting to know. When we did a
Speaker 2: feature story on you, Dicky Lyons, sr U a few
Speaker 2: years ago for a coaches show.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 2: And then I had the pleasure of watching your son
Speaker 2: play at Kentucky.
Speaker 3: How are you?
Speaker 6: Oh, I'm doing great. All my children are doing good.
Speaker 6: I got fifteen grandkids and one great grandchild.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, goodness, that's awesome.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, let us start by by congratulating
Speaker 2: you for being named an SEC legend.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 3: What was your reaction when somebody called you with that news?
Speaker 6: Uh? Kind of a shocked you know that expected anything?
Speaker 6: It's uh, you know, I'll play back in the sixties
Speaker 6: and I'll thought everybody forgot about you know, Nope, no way,
Speaker 6: But it was really nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you your teams unfortunately did not have a lot
Speaker 2: of success.
Speaker 3: You did.
Speaker 2: I know you would have traded a lot of the
Speaker 2: accolades for more wins. But I always think about a
Speaker 2: guy like you.
Speaker 3: I mean, you did it all.
Speaker 2: Punt return, kick return, you kick, you punted, d back,
Speaker 2: offensive back, receiver. It's like you were playing in the backyard,
Speaker 2: wasn't it.
Speaker 3: I mean you got to do a little bit of everything.
Speaker 6: Well, that's right. And I always loved I loved football
Speaker 6: so much. And I didn't have any regrets about going
Speaker 6: to Kentucky because my mother and dad they got to
Speaker 6: see me play all the time. If I'd have went
Speaker 6: to Notre Dame or Alabama, they would have never got
Speaker 6: to see me because my dad's car had barely got
Speaker 6: him to work it back. So and you know, back then,
Speaker 6: nobody had any money. Yeah, and so you know, it
Speaker 6: was really nice that him and my mom were able
Speaker 6: to see me play. And and my mom lived in
Speaker 6: ninety five and she got to to watch a little
Speaker 6: Dickey pots that's great. So it was, it was wonderful.
Speaker 6: I never great it ever, going to the University of Kentucky,
Speaker 6: and uh, my buddy kind of convinced me. My senior
Speaker 6: year in high school. Uh, I got a call from
Speaker 6: Colonel Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken, and he sent a limbo
Speaker 6: to get me, and he brought me up to Shelbyville
Speaker 6: where he was living. And uh, he gave me a
Speaker 6: whole bag of Kentucky Fried Chicken coupons, and me and
Speaker 6: Mom and daddy we had a ball.
Speaker 8: Man.
Speaker 3: Well, tell me tell me.
Speaker 2: A little more about your recruitment though, because he wasn't
Speaker 2: the only dignitary who tried to influence you.
Speaker 4: Was he?
Speaker 6: Uh? Actually no, they you know, Paul Horning and my
Speaker 6: brother were real good friends. They went to school together,
Speaker 6: of course they were. They were trying to get me
Speaker 6: to go to Notre Dame, you know. And uh, but anyway,
Speaker 6: I knew that I was going to go to Kentucky,
Speaker 6: like I told you, because I knew Mom and dad
Speaker 6: wanted to see me play, and they watched me play
Speaker 6: in grade school at Saint Pis and then Saint xt
Speaker 6: and so I wanted them to be able to see me.
Speaker 6: And then my best friend of Bob Robert, we were
Speaker 6: real good friends. He went to Bishop David and we
Speaker 6: were buddies. And that was the only school he was
Speaker 6: offered with Kentucky. So I told him, I said, we're
Speaker 6: going to go have fun, man, And we did. We
Speaker 6: had a ball.
Speaker 2: What was it like for you after a game where
Speaker 2: you you did everything and again, you did it in
Speaker 2: high school, you did it at Saint Pias, but big
Speaker 2: boy football, as you know, is different, so you had
Speaker 2: to be just totally exhausted. I would think after a
Speaker 2: college football game.
Speaker 3: Is that true?
Speaker 6: Well, you know, when you're when you're nineteen twenty twenty
Speaker 6: one years old, dick, you don't get exhausted. I'm telling
Speaker 6: you I was. I was in such good physical shape
Speaker 6: I just couldn't after the game. I mean, we would
Speaker 6: take off me and Probert all my buddies and we'd
Speaker 6: have a ball. You know, I don't ever remember getting
Speaker 6: tired at all. You don't think about that.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: That's good? And yeah, I know.
Speaker 6: And even when I was playing pro ball, when I
Speaker 6: was went to think, they had me running back bucks kickoffs.
Speaker 6: I started on safety. Uh, the head coach wanted to
Speaker 6: put me running back and everything, and then I got
Speaker 6: then I got my knee hurt and ended it all. Yeah,
Speaker 6: it was it was I never have any regrets. It
Speaker 6: was It was a great life and football was Uh
Speaker 6: it was a lot of fun, and that meant a
Speaker 6: lot of great people, and so we really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: You were the first player in SEC history with a
Speaker 2: thousand yards rushing, one thousand yards and punt returns and
Speaker 2: a thousand yards and kickoff returns. What was it about
Speaker 2: the return game that you enjoyed so much?
Speaker 6: Well, I really just enjoy at all. I mean I
Speaker 6: just loved I didn't want to ever come off the field.
Speaker 6: I mean I wanted to play defense. I wanted to run, back, punch,
Speaker 6: kick off. And of course, at that time at Kentucky,
Speaker 6: we didn't really have a lot of big time players,
Speaker 6: you know, and you know we and you I think
Speaker 6: they were limited to the amount of people they could shigne.
Speaker 6: And of course, you know Alabama and you know Tennessee
Speaker 6: and all those teams they were getting all the big
Speaker 6: time players. And but you know, the guys played hard
Speaker 6: and all my teammates I loved them. We had you know,
Speaker 6: we did as good as we possibly could, but you know,
Speaker 6: competing in the shu receive was just really tough for us.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if you knew this because I didn't
Speaker 2: know it until a few years ago when the great
Speaker 2: Oscar Combs told me this. But Bear Bryant worked up
Speaker 2: or at least he took responsibility for it, this policy
Speaker 2: about not recruiting out of state players. I mean he
Speaker 2: he had some tremendous teams with kids from all over
Speaker 2: the country, you know, Pennsylvania, Ohio, you know, all over
Speaker 2: the place, the South. But for the longest time they
Speaker 2: severely limited uk. UK limited itself to kids who were
Speaker 2: for the most part, in state, and that really I
Speaker 2: felt like sid Kentucky football back.
Speaker 3: Were you aware of that. How frustrating was that?
Speaker 6: Well, like I say, you don't think about that when
Speaker 6: you're in college. You know, I've never thought about being
Speaker 6: frustrated or anything. We you know, we had kids from
Speaker 6: up in the mountains, and you know, they didn't have
Speaker 6: a lot of football up in the mountains. As a
Speaker 6: matter of fact, they played six man football, that's right,
Speaker 6: you know, Mike Ranada and the guys came from in
Speaker 6: the mountains. They were we had some good players. And
Speaker 6: then of course in you know where they had you know,
Speaker 6: that was the biggest down word where they could you know,
Speaker 6: get players. But it was all the hard getting them
Speaker 6: sometimes to go to Kentucky. If they were real good,
Speaker 6: they go to Notre Dame or some Indiana or someplace
Speaker 6: like that. But you know, I, you know, I really
Speaker 6: didn't think about anything. When you're in college, you're just
Speaker 6: going there. I mean, look, there's no way I could
Speaker 6: have went to college if I didn't play football, right,
Speaker 6: I mean I didn't have no money. My dad had
Speaker 6: no money and nobody. So I was so happy just
Speaker 6: being there and I had people, I had free lunch,
Speaker 6: I got free dinners.
Speaker 3: You know. Yeah.
Speaker 6: We lived in a you know, we lived in the
Speaker 6: in the dorms, you know, the football players had a
Speaker 6: freshman door and then a senior dorm. And we got
Speaker 6: food all the time, and it was like being in heaven.
Speaker 3: Man, you know, what's up?
Speaker 6: I never had any regrets.
Speaker 3: What did your dad do for a living?
Speaker 6: He worked for rentals of loose okay, way back and uh.
Speaker 6: And then just right before I went to Kentucky, rentals
Speaker 6: Aluminum shut the plant down, and so he was out
Speaker 6: of a job. And he came and told me, he said,
Speaker 6: let me tell you something, son. He said, you go
Speaker 6: up there to Kentucky and you better get a job
Speaker 6: on the side because I can't said you nothing, wow
Speaker 6: and did you but then but you never believe this.
Speaker 6: Jeff Van Note he was at Kentucky you know, ahead
Speaker 6: of being year and his daddy had a business and
Speaker 6: he hired my dad until he retired. Did not know
Speaker 6: that that was really Yeah, Yeah, Jeff's dad hired my
Speaker 6: dad and that's safety man and he worked there for
Speaker 6: until he was sixty seven years old and retired.
Speaker 3: You know, wow, it was not Note was part of
Speaker 3: our broadcast crew forever. He's a dear friend. I did
Speaker 3: not know that. That's a great story. We're talking with
Speaker 3: Dickey Lyons Sor.
Speaker 2: He is part of the SEC Football Legends Class of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four. You'll be honored at the SEC Football
Speaker 2: Championship Game coming up in December when we come back
Speaker 2: with Chad Moore with the SEC Legend Here in the
Speaker 2: Big Moon Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the
Speaker 2: Big bon Sider. We're chatting with Dickey Lyons Senior, who
Speaker 2: is known for not just being the father of Dickey
Speaker 2: Lions Junior, the standing slot receiver for Rich Brooks's teams
Speaker 2: back in the mid adds, but the Dickey Senior was
Speaker 2: one of the greatest all around players in the history
Speaker 2: of college football, not just UK football.
Speaker 3: He did it all.
Speaker 2: He was an offensive back, a defensive back, a punter,
Speaker 2: a kicker, a return specialist. Still holds at least one
Speaker 2: record for the longest punt return in UK history ninety
Speaker 2: seven yards. But he has been selected as part of
Speaker 2: the SEC Legends class. Each school has a former player
Speaker 2: or coach introduced at halftime of the SEC football Championship game,
Speaker 2: and in my mind, it's about time that Dickie Lyon
Speaker 2: Senior will be introduced in Atlanta coming up in December.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you had a chance to look
Speaker 2: at this list, because it's pretty impressive.
Speaker 6: I did look at it, Uh, not really really, you know,
Speaker 6: I didn't see everybody, but you know, I didn't even
Speaker 6: know they did that. Yeah, you know that's how out
Speaker 6: of the out of the pocket I've did. And uh
Speaker 6: but when they when they called me and told me,
Speaker 6: you know, I was lik in shock, you know. But
Speaker 6: it's it's really great because we're looking forward to going
Speaker 6: coming up to Lexington. They want me to come up
Speaker 6: for the Louisville game. Good and they're going to introduce
Speaker 6: me at halftime. And then the next weekend we're going
Speaker 6: to the championship game in in Atlanta for the SEC.
Speaker 6: So my wife's happy. We're getting to go someplace, you know.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, yeah, it's gonna be fun. Man.
Speaker 2: I was the producer for the SEC Radio network for
Speaker 2: fifteen years producing a championship game, and so I always
Speaker 2: went to the banquet on Friday when they introduced the legends,
Speaker 2: and it was so much fun.
Speaker 3: I got to take my son with me several times
Speaker 3: to that.
Speaker 2: And I know you and I waived and probably and
Speaker 2: we talked a little bit when your son was playing
Speaker 2: at Kentucky. I'll tell it's such a great story with
Speaker 2: Dicky Jr. And I don't know if you remember when
Speaker 2: videographer and I we came to your house in Laplace
Speaker 2: and interviewed you for a story for the Bill Curry
Speaker 2: Coaches Show.
Speaker 3: And Dicky was a baby at that time. I'm pretty
Speaker 3: sure I remember that.
Speaker 6: I remember that. And yeah that was in the late eighties, huh.
Speaker 3: Or early nineties, early nineties, Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, yeah, he.
Speaker 6: Was probably seven or eight years old.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then he comes to Kentucky without ever having
Speaker 2: visited the campus.
Speaker 3: So you raised him, right, didn't you.
Speaker 6: That's exactly right.
Speaker 3: You know, what was it like for you? What was
Speaker 3: it like for you as a parent to watch him play?
Speaker 2: And he had unfortunately had a terrible injury as well,
Speaker 2: but he not only played, Dicky, but he excelled and
Speaker 2: his teams won a lot of football games. As a dad,
Speaker 2: I was a high school football dad. But what was
Speaker 2: that like for you, as a former player to watch that?
Speaker 6: It was just it was unbelievable, just you know, it
Speaker 6: just was just fake all the time. And just can't
Speaker 6: believe that my little boy was out there playing for Kentucky,
Speaker 6: you know. And but like you said, Rich Brooks, I'll
Speaker 6: tell you one of the greatest guys that I've ever met.
Speaker 6: He was so good with with Dicky. As a matter
Speaker 6: of fact, he he's the reason why he did good.
Speaker 6: He he knew how to how to take care of it.
Speaker 6: You know, he disciplined the him and and you know,
Speaker 6: he wasn't going to school a lot when he first
Speaker 6: went up there. So I went up there one time
Speaker 6: and me and Coach Brooks was in the office and
Speaker 6: he looked at me and he told me, he said, Dickey,
Speaker 6: he said, I'm going to kick him off the team
Speaker 6: and he's not doing anything. And this was like in January.
Speaker 6: He said, he ain't doing anything till he get the
Speaker 6: school work done.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 6: And I said, I said, go to a coach. I said,
Speaker 6: take care of business. And that was the best thing
Speaker 6: that ever happened to Dickey because he was a smart kid.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, and he got and he was He did
Speaker 6: great the rest of the time at Kentucky. But coach
Speaker 6: Brooks really knew how to hand me, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know it's funny.
Speaker 2: I remember when Rich was hired and hearing all these
Speaker 2: so called experts saying, all those kids won't play for him,
Speaker 2: he's too old. But I produced his Coaches Show, I'm
Speaker 2: telling you, man, And you know this, those players loved him,
Speaker 2: and part of that was his brand of tough love.
Speaker 2: You know, players seek discipline. I know you had fun
Speaker 2: playing college football, you had your share of fun, but
Speaker 2: you knew what kind of discipline it took as well,
Speaker 2: didn't you.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, and coach Brooks knew how to handle people. And
Speaker 6: you know that's why I hate to really call these
Speaker 6: guys coaches, because there's so much more than that. Yeah,
Speaker 6: you know, I mean the guy we have now, he's
Speaker 6: probably one of the best we've ever had. And you know,
Speaker 6: I know he handled these kids. It's just that's what
Speaker 6: they do. You know. You think about it. You got seventeen, eighteen,
Speaker 6: nineteen year old kids, they're going all over. They got
Speaker 6: to get him to go to class, You got to
Speaker 6: keep them straight, you got to get in shape. I mean,
Speaker 6: it's more of a father than it is a coach.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you got you gotta make them do things
Speaker 2: that ordinarily they wouldn't do. One.
Speaker 3: No one can push themselves as hard as a.
Speaker 6: Coach can, right, That's exactly right. And that's the biggest
Speaker 6: thing about being a coach is you know, to mentally
Speaker 6: get the kids ready to play, you know. And so
Speaker 6: and I think that this guy we got now is
Speaker 6: one of the best, and Coach Brooks was, you know,
Speaker 6: I think they they're gonna do well.
Speaker 2: You know. Well, getting back to your your honor as
Speaker 2: one of the SEC legends, as we talk with Dickey
Speaker 2: Lyon Senior, he'll be honored at the he's coming up
Speaker 2: for a game for the Louisville game, as he said,
Speaker 2: and then he'll be honored at halftime at the SEC
Speaker 2: Football Championship game, and of course the league now includes
Speaker 2: Texas and Oklahoma. Texas Vince Young is is he quote
Speaker 2: unquote SEC legend from Texas, Barry Switzer from Oklahoma. But
Speaker 2: there have been so many changes now in college football,
Speaker 2: and we could talk all day about that. But tell
Speaker 2: me about SEC football now compared to where when you played.
Speaker 2: And first of all, I know, the facilities at Kentucky
Speaker 2: were next to nothing. They were next to nothing when
Speaker 2: I got there in seventy three, much less when you played,
Speaker 2: and now they're they're palatial compared to that. But tell
Speaker 2: me about the SEC now versus when you played.
Speaker 6: Well, you know, it's that's all we needed is get
Speaker 6: Texas and Oklahoma, right, you know, it's just you know,
Speaker 6: we've got Alabama, Tennessee, you know Alburn, you know Florida
Speaker 6: and all those teams. I mean, it's got to be
Speaker 6: the dupest league in the world. You don't get a break, man.
Speaker 6: And now Vanderbilt is playing play lights out. You know,
Speaker 6: their quarterback is playing he is something else, and so
Speaker 6: I mean you just don't ever get a break. It's
Speaker 6: like being in the NFL. I mean, every week you
Speaker 6: got to tee it up, you know. I mean, you
Speaker 6: can't you can't take a break, you don't get a breathering. Yeah.
Speaker 6: And unfortunately right now, you know, because I watched Kentucky
Speaker 6: every time they play in our injuries. It's just saying
Speaker 6: that we've had so many injuries and it's hopefully they
Speaker 6: can get everybody keeled after this or most of them.
Speaker 6: We had a bide week, so and we're playing against
Speaker 6: Auburn coming up, so that's and they're not, you know,
Speaker 6: doing real well this year, so hopefully we can get
Speaker 6: on the winning track again, you know. But it's just tough, man.
Speaker 6: I mean, all the teams now, you've got so many
Speaker 6: good players, and I mean it's just amazing to watch
Speaker 6: these games, you know. And so I know that we're
Speaker 6: in a position right now that you can recruit nationwide
Speaker 6: now and you can pick up kids off of other teams.
Speaker 6: I mean, there's so many ways to do it. Yeah,
Speaker 6: and it really helps teams like Kentucky Vanderbilt, you know,
Speaker 6: the teams that were lower years ago I played, you know,
Speaker 6: I mean, we we would always like Vanderbilt was always dark.
Speaker 6: We knew we were gonna win that, you know what
Speaker 6: I mean. Yeah, but it's not like that anymore.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 6: You gotta see it up every week.
Speaker 2: It's like I said the week at the Vandy game,
Speaker 2: Vandys people knew they could be Kentucky. I mean, that
Speaker 2: series has been so even through the years. It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2: Got a few minutes left with Dickey lyon Senior SEC
Speaker 2: Legend this season. I talked to you about this when
Speaker 2: we interviewed you many many years ago, but I got
Speaker 2: to ask you again about you were turned a punt
Speaker 2: against Houston in nineteen sixty six ninety seven yards for
Speaker 2: a touchdown. I don't know if that's ever going to
Speaker 2: be broken as a UK record. It was an NCA
Speaker 2: record for a long time. Somebody broke it with ninety nine.
Speaker 2: But why did you decide on the three yard line
Speaker 2: to field a punt where you know, we'd always been
Speaker 2: told inside the ten you let it go to the
Speaker 2: end zone, but you decided otherwise.
Speaker 3: Do you remember that play? I'm sure you do.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, yeah. Well my attitude was this, it didn't
Speaker 6: make any difference where that ball went. Had to get
Speaker 6: it and score, you know, And that's what I tried
Speaker 6: to do on ever play. If they'll win the end zone,
Speaker 6: i'd of got it ran out. You know. I hated.
Speaker 6: I used to tell coach Bradshaw, I said, I hated
Speaker 6: to make those fair catches. You know, it just didn't
Speaker 6: make any sense to me. And even when I got
Speaker 6: into pro ball. They the first game we played against
Speaker 6: the Falcons, the coach got mad at me because I
Speaker 6: was catching ever football and trying to run it. I
Speaker 6: told him, I said, what the hell is the difference
Speaker 6: if I gave one yard or four yards? You know,
Speaker 6: at least I got a shot. You know, if my
Speaker 6: fair catching, I got no shot. So my attitude was
Speaker 6: get it and go. And so I'm glad. I'm glad.
Speaker 6: I was like that.
Speaker 2: Well, we talked about the changes in college football, and
Speaker 2: I always hated for players of your generation that the
Speaker 2: knee injury you suffered, I'm not exactly sure what it was,
Speaker 2: but I'm willing to bet they could have fixed you
Speaker 2: up and had you back the following season if that
Speaker 2: had happened today as opposed to way back in the day.
Speaker 3: I know you don't linger on stuff like that, but
Speaker 3: that's just where we are, isn't it.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, well, see, they didn't have the arthoscopic surgery
Speaker 6: and so when you got a niece. I tore cartlage
Speaker 6: and then my ligament was partially torn, and so I
Speaker 6: had to get surgery and I was on crutches for
Speaker 6: two weeks. And so it's such a difference like if
Speaker 6: it would have been today. They fixed it in a
Speaker 6: couple In a couple of weeks, you're going to be playing,
Speaker 6: That's right, That's right. But I remember being on crutches
Speaker 6: and I was standing in the end zone when Tom
Speaker 6: Dempsey kicked a sixty three yard field for Detroit. Is
Speaker 6: that right? I was, Yeah, there was no crutches in
Speaker 6: the end zone. I couldn't believe it. That ball is
Speaker 6: just barely made it over the thing. And of course
Speaker 6: back then we played to the stadium, you know, yeah,
Speaker 6: and the dome wouldn't build. Yeah, it's the injury. And
Speaker 6: you know, look, Dick, I look at these every day.
Speaker 6: How many injuries there are pro football, college football. It's
Speaker 6: it's a it's a tough game, man, you know, and
Speaker 6: if you can play for a long time, you're just
Speaker 6: really lucky, you know. I feel very fortunate they've got to.
Speaker 6: I went thrown through grade school, high school, college and
Speaker 6: play pro ball. I mean so many guys I saw
Speaker 6: in college get hurt and it was it was over.
Speaker 6: I mean they were done, you know, and it's really sad.
Speaker 3: Well, but you're still you're still you're still sharp.
Speaker 2: You had a career as a private investigator working for
Speaker 2: insurance companies. Your kids are healthy, grand kids are great
Speaker 2: grand kids.
Speaker 3: So life is good.
Speaker 6: Yes it is. And let me tell you something. Dick
Speaker 6: I got a little one called Dickie Lines the third,
Speaker 6: twelve years old, and that's a little son of a gun.
Speaker 8: Was that right?
Speaker 3: That's great?
Speaker 6: Yeah, matter of fact, I'm going to see tonight at
Speaker 6: five o'clock. Plays right here and him and not far
Speaker 6: from where I live. Of course, they play that flank football.
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, But I'm gonna tell you we ain't believe
Speaker 6: that he can run, he can catch, he throws the ball.
Speaker 6: He's gonna be a good one.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll keep an eye out for him up up
Speaker 2: this way. Because Dicky Jr. Who went by Richard as
Speaker 2: a youngster joker, Phillips said, nope, you're gonna be Dicky.
Speaker 2: He committed to the UK without having seen the campus
Speaker 2: and it worked out pretty well. So hey, it's great talking.
Speaker 2: You're looking forward to seeing you when you come up,
Speaker 2: and again, congratulations on being an SEC legend.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Dereck. I appreciate the call, buddy.
Speaker 2: Coming up an hour number two, we will ship back
Speaker 2: to basketball. We'll talk to unforgettable guard Sean Woods and
Speaker 2: to our West End Bureau chief Gary Moore. Usually do
Speaker 2: all this on Wednesday, but we were bumped last night
Speaker 2: of course a UK basketball. So that's all I am
Speaker 2: on the Big Blue Siders six thirty LA. Welcome back
Speaker 2: to the Big Boon Sider. Joining us now as he
Speaker 2: does every Wednesday, but preempted last night by basketball is
Speaker 2: the unforgettable guard Sean Woods. His jersey hangs in the
Speaker 2: rafters of rupp Uh. Coach, it was kind of predictable
Speaker 2: last night, and of course that Kentucky would be Kentucky Wesley.
Speaker 2: I don't know if anybody saw a seventy one point win.
Speaker 2: But in a matchup like that, You've played in games
Speaker 2: like this, you coached in some games, in exhibition games.
Speaker 3: But what can one get What can a coach get
Speaker 3: out of a game like this?
Speaker 9: Well, uh, it actually gives you a chance to go
Speaker 9: play against somebody else, because you know your guys get
Speaker 9: tired of being up on one another, So you know
Speaker 9: that that's one thing. And then also you know, you
Speaker 9: go from coaching all ten guys or twelve guys guys
Speaker 9: all that once to coaching five guys at a time
Speaker 9: against somebody else. And because you don't have you know,
Speaker 9: like a Scotter report. More so because that team you know,
Speaker 9: hasn't played a game yet unless they got a bunch
Speaker 9: of guys back from their year pre you know previously.
Speaker 9: You will just want to see where your guys are,
Speaker 9: you know, how they how they respond to different things,
Speaker 9: does your stuff work from you know afterwise you know,
Speaker 9: rebounded margins, you know, you know you want to see
Speaker 9: how bad you know, how much you can you know, uh,
Speaker 9: if you're if, if you're if, if your plays work,
Speaker 9: how good you are defensively? It just gives you a gauge.
Speaker 9: But sometimes you know you can be full because of
Speaker 9: the competition. But at least you can see how some
Speaker 9: guys are falling.
Speaker 2: The lights come on, Yeah, and all these guys have
Speaker 2: played with a couple of exceptions with the bright lights on.
Speaker 2: You know, you got three true freshmen out there, so
Speaker 2: I can't imagine that would be an issue. But the
Speaker 2: bright lights at Fairleigh Dickinson are different from the bright
Speaker 2: lights and election and aren't they.
Speaker 9: Oh no doubt about it, you know. And uh, I
Speaker 9: don't know what the crowd was like, but but you
Speaker 9: know it's still reperena, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 9: the anticipation is unbearable.
Speaker 3: You know, I remember my.
Speaker 9: Freshman year, my first Yip playing at least I set
Speaker 9: out and got I got a good taste of it.
Speaker 9: But still, you know, leading up to your first game
Speaker 9: playing in Rep. Aernas is you know a lot of
Speaker 9: people don't get a chance to do that. That's why
Speaker 9: it's so special.
Speaker 2: Well, when Mark Pope came out, the ovation he got
Speaker 2: was greater than any player, and they players got a
Speaker 2: nice ovations.
Speaker 3: I guess that was to be expected.
Speaker 9: Though, right, Oh, no doubt about it. You know, everybody's anticipating, excited.
Speaker 9: You know, I can sect the fans other appreciation is
Speaker 9: off the change. So with saying that, you know, they've
Speaker 9: they've gotten used hopefully they've gotten used to it. But
Speaker 9: because they played a couple of games in front of
Speaker 9: some people and things like that already, now it's the
Speaker 9: real deal, you know, and you got to really really
Speaker 9: produce and that you know, everybody in that program is
Speaker 9: under the gun because of so much anticipation and so
Speaker 9: much not knowing, because it's a new staff and pretty
Speaker 9: much a brand new team.
Speaker 2: More than half of their shots were three point attempts.
Speaker 3: They put up.
Speaker 2: Seventy six total, forty two from beyond the yark and
Speaker 2: yet sean because they hit so well, thirty two assists
Speaker 2: on forty eight made baskets. Now, you're a guy as
Speaker 2: a coach who appreciates a good assist, and you were
Speaker 2: the coach on the floor racking up assists as a
Speaker 2: point guard.
Speaker 3: You got to like those numbers.
Speaker 9: Oh, I love those numbers that you know that that's
Speaker 9: beautiful basketball. I don't even have to watch the game
Speaker 9: and you just tell me, you know, they'll give me
Speaker 9: those numbers right there and I can just say it's
Speaker 9: a few. There was a beautiful game, especially from the
Speaker 9: offense side of the ball.
Speaker 2: Probably can't expect that in the regular season. But that's
Speaker 2: a good start, isn't it.
Speaker 9: Oh, no doubt about it. You know, let me tell
Speaker 9: you something like a wins and wins a win, Yeah,
Speaker 9: and if you can win and continue to grow and
Speaker 9: get better, that that's even better. You know, I'd rather
Speaker 9: go in that locker room, in that film room, you know,
Speaker 9: really going over some things, correcting some things after win,
Speaker 9: more so than the lost.
Speaker 3: US you mentioned earlier, running their stuff, running their offense.
Speaker 3: I love how coach you.
Speaker 2: Say, just just run your stuff, this analytics driven offense
Speaker 2: that that Mark Pope Favors has worked at prior stops
Speaker 2: at Utah, Valley State, at Brigham A lot of schools,
Speaker 2: UH lean on analytics quite a bit.
Speaker 3: They like to put up a lot of threes.
Speaker 2: Realistically, what do you think Kentucky fans can expect from
Speaker 2: this team hitting putting up those those three Because the
Speaker 2: early Patino teams shot a lot of threes, but I
Speaker 2: felt like those teams had to shoot a lot of
Speaker 2: threes to mask other problems.
Speaker 9: You know, well, right now, I think that that may
Speaker 9: be the case for this team. You know, from a
Speaker 9: talent standpoint of not having the guys that you really want,
Speaker 9: you know, you got to do something to put up points.
Speaker 9: You know, each team is different, you know, from a
Speaker 9: personnel standpoint. You know, you may have guys that you
Speaker 9: may you may crew the kid that's a pretty a
Speaker 9: really good low post player, you know, and he's probably
Speaker 9: your your most consistent scorer. So you you know, you
Speaker 9: favor to you know, the personnel that you have on
Speaker 9: your team right now, the best way for them to
Speaker 9: score points. And that's the way he recruited so far
Speaker 9: with his team is is getting shooters, and uh, threes
Speaker 9: are more than two's, but threes are a lower percentage
Speaker 9: than a two, So sooner or later, you know you're
Speaker 9: gonna have to come up with something to get higher
Speaker 9: percent of shot and uh, you know, hopefully he can
Speaker 9: figure that out as the year goes on.
Speaker 2: We were talking about point guards, and of course it
Speaker 2: appears to Mott Butler will be the guy who spends
Speaker 2: the most time and put the ball in his hands,
Speaker 2: but not a lot because Pope favors the attack where
Speaker 2: there isn't a lot of dribbling, of course, and he
Speaker 2: doesn't want the ball to sit in anybody saying I
Speaker 2: can't remember the term that Caliperi used to use for
Speaker 2: when the ball would would spend too much.
Speaker 3: Time in some of these hands.
Speaker 2: Uh, but Butler is a proven commodity, a kid who's
Speaker 2: played in the Final four, who uh played well at
Speaker 2: San Diego State. I don't know how much a chance
Speaker 2: you've had to watch him in action.
Speaker 3: But that's that's a huge plus, isn't it. To have
Speaker 3: a guy like that as the head of the snake, Oh,
Speaker 3: no doubt about it.
Speaker 9: And to have the experience that he has, you know,
Speaker 9: at the point guard spot. You know that that's one
Speaker 9: position that can't go bad. You know, that has to
Speaker 9: be solid for you to have a chance. And you
Speaker 9: know that's one of the reasons why Kintucky does have
Speaker 9: a chance, because they do have a veteran point guard
Speaker 9: that could play both sides of the floor. He's a
Speaker 9: he's a really good defender. You know, he's he's been
Speaker 9: at the you know, he's helped his team reach higher
Speaker 9: heights of San Diego State. You know, the experience he
Speaker 9: has is impeccable, and you know that that's a plus
Speaker 9: for us. You know, now I don't know leadership qualities,
Speaker 9: but man, a person of that stature that has that
Speaker 9: type of experience, in that type of talent, you have
Speaker 9: a chance. And I mean that was a good not
Speaker 9: a good get, but a great get.
Speaker 2: But that well, I'll rattle off his stash for you.
Speaker 2: And again, if you're if you're just going blindly into
Speaker 2: this game. You hear about a guy who played twenty
Speaker 2: five minutes, hit five of eight, eleven points, six rebounds,
Speaker 2: six assists, six steals, a couple of blocks, and was
Speaker 2: tied for the team lead if you're a plus minus
Speaker 2: guy at forty six. Again, it's against Kentucky Wesleyan in
Speaker 2: an exhibition game. But man in the backyard, those are
Speaker 2: great numbers.
Speaker 9: Yet it is and it's promising, you know what I mean? Now,
Speaker 9: you know, we just got to be consistent with it
Speaker 9: no matter who we play. But you know, he's a grinder.
Speaker 9: He's a tough kid. Like I said, he's been through
Speaker 9: the wars, and hopefully he can get everybody else to
Speaker 9: settle down and have his tough mental state. Uh when
Speaker 9: they start playing some guys, some heavy hitters.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and no disrespect to the conference he played in.
Speaker 2: And again, as you said, he played in big games
Speaker 2: in the NCA tournament. But he's about to run into
Speaker 2: some meet grinders will shoot. Playing against Duke is one thing,
Speaker 2: but getting into the SEC with her. They're not afraid
Speaker 2: of Kentucky anymore. In the SEC, they can't wait for
Speaker 2: you k to get there, can they.
Speaker 9: I'll tell you what just talk on the street. They're
Speaker 9: they're licking their chops to play for Kentucky. Some of
Speaker 9: these coaches that I know, not only because it's a new, new,
Speaker 9: new guy, is just the fact that, you know, I'm
Speaker 9: gonna be honest with you, it's even playing field anymore.
Speaker 6: Dick.
Speaker 9: Yeah, you know, you know all these other schools are
Speaker 9: getting just as good a players or even better uh
Speaker 9: than Kentucky right now. And uh, you know, you can
Speaker 9: say all you want. You know, I'm a coach, and
Speaker 9: I think i'm a pretty dog on good one. But
Speaker 9: like I said before, it's not a about the exit
Speaker 9: and those about the Jim and Joe's. You can see
Speaker 9: some of these some of these other coaches are kind
Speaker 9: of stepping down a little bit because of the landscape
Speaker 9: of college athletics. You know, you can't keep a kid,
Speaker 9: you know, how can you build a tradition? How can
Speaker 9: you build culture right when a guy's leaving? So you know,
Speaker 9: it's about stay power and it's just not a not
Speaker 9: a lot of that in college athletics anymore.
Speaker 5: So.
Speaker 9: And the thing about our team, the makeup of our
Speaker 9: team here is I think he got some good guys,
Speaker 9: you know, from you know the time he took the job.
Speaker 9: But he's going to have to do it all over
Speaker 9: again next year because of you know, all the upper
Speaker 9: classms that he has. So that's not fun, you know,
Speaker 9: you know, trying to sign you know, two or three pieces,
Speaker 9: that's one thing. To sign pretty much seventy percent of
Speaker 9: your team every year, that's that's no fun.
Speaker 3: Sean Woods does my guess.
Speaker 2: We'll come back and talk to the Unforgettable Guard in
Speaker 2: just a minute here on the Big Blue Sider six
Speaker 2: thirty WLAP. Welcome back for talking with Sean Woods, the
Speaker 2: Unforgettable Guard. We travel to meet you in every Wednesday day.
Speaker 2: And of course the Wildcats have blown out Kentucky, Wesleyan
Speaker 2: and Cato. State of Minnesota is next. That is one
Speaker 2: of the better small college programs. And again, Sean, it
Speaker 2: will be a chance for Mark Pope to as you
Speaker 2: said one of your opening comments, was looking at combinations.
Speaker 2: And he's got a lot of data, as he said,
Speaker 2: a lot of video to study, and so much of
Speaker 2: that is vital in these games, isn't it where you
Speaker 2: can plug and play, it's not the same as it
Speaker 2: is in practice. Is it trying to figure out which
Speaker 2: guy to match with, which which combinations of lineups to play.
Speaker 9: You're right about that, Dick. I mean it's you know,
Speaker 9: when you got a bunch of new guys, you don't
Speaker 9: know who's who. You know, you've never only you probably
Speaker 9: coach maybe a couple of them, but that's it. So
Speaker 9: you don't know who's who, how they're gonna respond in
Speaker 9: certain situations, so and so forth. So you know that
Speaker 9: whole program is learning each other in top to bottom.
Speaker 9: You know, you're learning, I mean beyond with I mean,
Speaker 9: you learn your coach, his staff, you learn your player.
Speaker 9: You know, you're trying to establish a culture, and you
Speaker 9: got to keep your eyes wide open to every little
Speaker 9: detail until you establish that culture and get it going
Speaker 9: the way you know you really wanted to go on
Speaker 9: a regular basis. And right now, you know, I took
Speaker 9: my hat off to him because you're still trying to
Speaker 9: find out. It's like when coach Patino first got us.
Speaker 9: You know, he didn't know what to expect, what the
Speaker 9: lights came on. You know, he didn't think John Pelford
Speaker 9: be be as good as he did was you know
Speaker 9: those guys, but we you know they food him and
Speaker 9: hopefully these guys can do the same thing, you know,
Speaker 9: coming from their respective place in major places that they
Speaker 9: came from.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I heard Seam Newton talk about this first,
Speaker 2: and a lot of other guys chimed in. But when
Speaker 2: Patino inherited you, guys, what he inherited were kids who
Speaker 2: might not have been five stars. Are guys ready for
Speaker 2: the NBA draft, the unforgettables plus Reggie, you guys knew
Speaker 2: how to play basketball. I mean, it sounds overly simplistic,
Speaker 2: but that's a huge plus, isn't it.
Speaker 9: Big huge plus? You know, as a coach, I much
Speaker 9: rather take a kid that's not as athletic, but he
Speaker 9: has to have some type of athleticism. But give me
Speaker 9: a good basketball player that loves the gym. I'll take
Speaker 9: that kid over a highly talented kid that hasn't been
Speaker 9: coached that's very raw.
Speaker 3: In a New York minute, yeah, good choice of a
Speaker 3: New York minute.
Speaker 9: Yeah, in a New York minute. I mean, and seriously,
Speaker 9: because you know, sometimes these kids, now they may get
Speaker 9: frustrated because they're not picking up as as quick as
Speaker 9: they want to. And then you got another kid that
Speaker 9: is picking up as quick but not as talented. It
Speaker 9: pisses you off. You know, it makes you mad, it
Speaker 9: frustrates you. Yeah, and all of a sudden you're looking
Speaker 9: bad because that kid that wasn't as caulid as you
Speaker 9: is playing better than you. He's playing more and you're not.
Speaker 2: I got to think too that in a situation like that,
Speaker 2: if if you are one of those heady, well schooled players,
Speaker 2: if you're not picking something up right away, you know
Speaker 2: you're going to get it that there's got to be
Speaker 2: just some nuance you're missing. And and if you're if
Speaker 2: you just stay at it, you're going to get it
Speaker 2: as opposed to you know, being frustrated and and kicking
Speaker 2: the floor and that kind of thing. Am I right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you are?
Speaker 9: You know it's it's it's just I told you we
Speaker 9: live in a Microwaves sociy, you know what I mean. Yeah,
Speaker 9: And you know, you know you came and got this kid,
Speaker 9: he's a McDonald Americans.
Speaker 3: This is that.
Speaker 9: But when he gets to your place and you have
Speaker 9: a you know, a system that you know, you got
Speaker 9: to think a little bit. Or it's something that he
Speaker 9: he's unfamiliar with, uncomfortable win and he's having a hard
Speaker 9: time picking it up because he played for a guy
Speaker 9: in high school that just rolled out the balls and
Speaker 9: let him be him. Yeah, it's an adjustment.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 9: And you know, look at some of the kids that
Speaker 9: the Cow had last year, how frustrated they were when
Speaker 9: they got you know, their highly talent and you know,
Speaker 9: played for some high school coaches just rolled the ball
Speaker 9: out and things like that. Now when you come to college,
Speaker 9: it's more strategic, it's more of a business, and it's
Speaker 9: less fun because it's not just hooping anymore. It's actually
Speaker 9: studying film and doing scout of reports and having having
Speaker 9: a strategy as far as you know, playing against the
Speaker 9: other team is concerned, it changes.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm flashing back on a story from Gosh,
Speaker 2: it had to be in the eighties maybe when when
Speaker 2: when Patino recruited Carlos Tumor, when he signed Carlos Tumor,
Speaker 2: and that really surprised hell ha surprised coaches in Mississippi.
Speaker 2: But Kentucky had been looking at a kid who was
Speaker 2: on Tumor's high school team, and Rick ended up liking
Speaker 2: Tumor more than he liked the other kid, and quite frankly,
Speaker 2: he scattered him on video. Uh, the other kid everybody wanted,
Speaker 2: and he ended up going to Whole Miss and was
Speaker 2: a raw talent but didn't really understand the game of
Speaker 2: basketball and never really turned into much at Mississippi. And
Speaker 2: I obviously that can happen, but that's got to drive
Speaker 2: a coach crazy. I would think, did you ever run
Speaker 2: into that kind of situation? I know you didn't coach
Speaker 2: it at that level as.
Speaker 9: A head coach where I thought a kid was much
Speaker 9: better than what he was. He got my place, you know,
Speaker 9: and I started doing things differently. You know, I stopped
Speaker 9: looking at just the talent and au game. I had
Speaker 9: to do other things, like, you know, how is he
Speaker 9: from a character standpoint? Is he a tough enough kid
Speaker 9: to handle my coaching? You know how Cerebro is he?
Speaker 9: Is he a smart basketball player? You know what I mean?
Speaker 9: You know, is he not just in the good athlete?
Speaker 9: You know, it's a lot of things come into play
Speaker 9: with that type at the deal And now, like Nick
Speaker 9: Saba said, you know, you look at a kid, he's
Speaker 9: highly talent, talented, and you know he wants X amount
Speaker 9: of dollars and such and such, and you get him
Speaker 9: and you pay him a million dollars and he's good
Speaker 9: enough to get you beat Yeah, right, you know, and
Speaker 9: it's more relevant now than anything you know used to be.
Speaker 9: Just bring the kid in and say, hey, you know,
Speaker 9: you may not be good enough. You might want to
Speaker 9: you know, transfer, it's not working out for you, blah
Speaker 9: blah blah blah blah. But you're more invested now with
Speaker 9: these kids because the nil situation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again I'm flashing on a conversation with Leonard Hamilton.
Speaker 2: There was a big that Kentucky really wanted and the
Speaker 2: kid ended up going to Creighton.
Speaker 3: And I asked Leonard about it, and.
Speaker 2: He said, that kid's the kind of player who gets
Speaker 2: coaches fired because he was a big was in all everything,
Speaker 2: and he just wasn't very good. As it turned out,
Speaker 2: he probably would have developed a little better. It can
Speaker 2: Tucky playing against better competition. But ultimately, yeah, that coaching
Speaker 2: staff got fire. But I mean, you know, look at
Speaker 2: Ben Simmons, look at some of these kids of late
Speaker 2: who chose to go to you know, LSU or wherever.
Speaker 9: Then Simmons, you just brought up a name as a
Speaker 9: prime example. YEA, a guy who was just touted as
Speaker 9: the next you know, up and coming. That's right, and
Speaker 9: he's gotten every coach that he's ever played for a Fire,
Speaker 9: starting with Johnny Jones. It's a good friend of bars.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, it's it's not. I don't envy you the profession,
Speaker 2: but I understand why you love it. He is Sean Woods.
Speaker 2: He is an unforgettable guard who joins us every Wednesday
Speaker 2: when we're not bumped by basketball like we will be
Speaker 2: next week, so you'll hear him on Thursday here, thanks.
Speaker 3: Coach, have a great week you two Dick.
Speaker 2: When we come back, Western Bureau Chief Gary Moore will
Speaker 2: join us right here on the Big Moon Sider six
Speaker 2: thirty wlap. Welcome back to the Big Bloon Sider. As
Speaker 2: we mentioned earlier, it is Thursday, but bumped last night
Speaker 2: for basketball, and what a game it was, So we
Speaker 2: have slid our Wednesday guest over at one evening, including
Speaker 2: our West End Bureau chief Gary Moore.
Speaker 3: How is he loves the overlap?
Speaker 2: I know you do, because not just football and basketball,
Speaker 2: but baseball, your beloved Dodgers.
Speaker 3: At the series. Yeah I know.
Speaker 7: And you know there's Premier League soccer in the UK,
Speaker 7: which which I love the other UK. Yeah, all sorts
Speaker 7: of good stuff going on. We have two guys in
Speaker 7: a six pack that means you and me and six
Speaker 7: fun things to go over. And finally we'll kick things
Speaker 7: off of our first wig here after forty three years,
Speaker 7: not since Reagan's first year in office and when you
Speaker 7: had this intimidating, imposing looking beard, we have finally another
Speaker 7: Yankees Dodgers World Series.
Speaker 3: You remember that, I'm sure.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah.
Speaker 7: And by the way, I've got two I've got some
Speaker 7: cool Kentucky connections for the World Series at the end
Speaker 7: of this in our sixth wig. But there's a twist
Speaker 7: to them that you won't see to at least one
Speaker 7: of them that you won't see coming.
Speaker 3: So that's going to be in our sixth wig. Here.
Speaker 7: We also have the two best teams in baseball who
Speaker 7: are also playing the best baseball.
Speaker 3: For this year's Fall Classic.
Speaker 7: Doesn't always work out that way, like last year with
Speaker 7: Arizona when they got hot and then faded pathetically to Texas.
Speaker 7: The Yankees' first trip back in fifteen years four years
Speaker 7: for the Dodgers in that shortened but still official twenty
Speaker 7: twenty season, some people have said, well, you know it
Speaker 7: wasn't it was the COVID year. It wasn't an official season,
Speaker 7: it wasn't legitimate. Well, somebody had to win it, you know.
Speaker 7: If LA didn't, we'd hear like, well, they couldn't even
Speaker 7: win it in a truncated year. So that's like every
Speaker 7: time I hear that's like a no win win for
Speaker 7: the Dodgers. You know, if you want a really illegitimate series,
Speaker 7: go back to twenty seventeen and the Lion cheating dirty filed.
Speaker 7: The Astros cheated all year, all year.
Speaker 3: It was worse than the Black Sox.
Speaker 7: I don't mean to go, oh, Michael Wilbon here, but
Speaker 7: if we had a Baseball commissioner like a Bart Giamatti,
Speaker 7: for say, and one who wasn't an invertebrate, that twenty
Speaker 7: seventeen crown probably would have been redacted by now. But hey,
Speaker 7: upward and onward. Friday Tomorrow, Game one, Dodger Stadium, first pitch,
Speaker 7: eight h eight pm, with hours of pregame before that.
Speaker 7: Vegas likes LA thinks it's gonna go at least six games,
Speaker 7: though I say Dodgers in seven games.
Speaker 3: Wow, Well I've decided.
Speaker 2: Even though growing up I was a Yankees fan because
Speaker 2: in the backyard I was Mickey Mantle. I need to
Speaker 2: root for the Dodgers, not just for your sake, because
Speaker 2: my buddy Darren Hendrick's a big Yankees fan. Aaron Gershaan
Speaker 2: are one of our regulars, big Yankee fan. But when
Speaker 2: there's a player on the Dodgers, on any team whose
Speaker 2: wife grew up next door to my children, they get
Speaker 2: my support.
Speaker 3: And that's the Dodgers. It's amazing to me.
Speaker 6: Gary.
Speaker 2: This is the first time these teams have squared off
Speaker 2: in forty three years, simply because they are, if not
Speaker 2: the top to of the top three teams when it
Speaker 2: comes to spending. But as you and I have talked
Speaker 2: many times, that doesn't always translate to wins. But each
Speaker 2: is put together to really really good teams. We're gonna
Speaker 2: find out which one is great.
Speaker 7: Cashman has mentioned that it could have been happen It
Speaker 7: could have already happened in twenty seventeen, but he already
Speaker 7: went there.
Speaker 2: And by the way, it's Walker Buehler's wife who grew
Speaker 2: up next door to my children.
Speaker 7: Absolutely second swig in the six pack. Hey before the
Speaker 7: Dodgers and Yankees, also from La we got football vikings
Speaker 7: and rams back Next Hour, Thursday ninth Football Minnesota. Three
Speaker 7: point favor there, and then on Sunday. A lot of
Speaker 7: meh games, not that many as we had like the
Speaker 7: last couple of weekends. Your Packers, though, should win in Jacksonville,
Speaker 7: with or without the White helmets. You got the Bills
Speaker 7: and my Seahawks. That should be a fun game. Same
Speaker 7: with the Eagles up I seventy five at the Bengals.
Speaker 7: Maybe the game of the day. Four and two Bears
Speaker 7: coming off of bye week, winners of three in a row,
Speaker 7: and they're going to be at five and two Washington, Washington.
Speaker 7: They've won five of their last six, but the Bears
Speaker 7: are still a two and a half point favorite. And
Speaker 7: then and then Sunday night, the beleaguered Cowboys at the
Speaker 7: reeling forty nine Ers. Here's hoping that Frisco runs it up,
Speaker 7: so Jerry Jones will take it out on the radio
Speaker 7: guys on Monday when they add, Hey Grandpa, what happened?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Vikes Rams Once upon a time was a cool game.
Speaker 2: But the Rams just, you know, with Cooper Cupp being injury,
Speaker 2: it's just they're just not good.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 2: It's amazing how quickly they have they have slid there,
Speaker 2: and the Vikings I have to fear them in my
Speaker 2: division in the NFC North, which I still want to
Speaker 2: call the Central.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 2: They're good man and and good for Sam Darnold, you
Speaker 2: know you feel good for him. I don't know what's
Speaker 2: up with the Bills, why they aren't better. It wouldn't
Speaker 2: surprise me if your boys beat him. And boy, you
Speaker 2: talk about a traditional game in the past, Cowboys Niners,
Speaker 2: both teams limping into this one.
Speaker 3: How disappointing is that?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'll still probably watch it. Oh yeah, can't stand
Speaker 7: watching because it's on right exactly. Don't need another reason
Speaker 7: other than that our third swig in the six pack.
Speaker 7: By the way, while we're talking NFL, you as somebody
Speaker 7: who been in telling you you've forgotten more about television
Speaker 7: and production than I'll ever know. So so, what would
Speaker 7: you say is the over under on how many more
Speaker 7: games Tom Brady gets to commentate for Fox?
Speaker 3: We already know.
Speaker 7: Too many network executives have got this hero worshiping, jock
Speaker 7: sniffing attitude with very little regard for the quality of
Speaker 7: the broadcast product. Too often it's oh, well, just get
Speaker 7: some famous jocks in the booth. They'll be fine.
Speaker 3: It's only TV.
Speaker 7: Boy, they sure were a great player, so boy, I
Speaker 7: can't wait to talk to them after the game. And
Speaker 7: Fox seem to have such little regard for sports credibility.
Speaker 7: They went ahead with Brady's ten year, three hundred and
Speaker 7: seventy million dollars deal, knowing his bid to have a
Speaker 7: stake in the Raiders ownership was not only in progress,
Speaker 7: but was probably just all but a slam dunk at
Speaker 7: that point as well. Now that he's been approved, check
Speaker 7: out some of the restrictions they put on Brady from
Speaker 7: the NFL. Tom cannot be in any team's facility. He
Speaker 7: cannot witness practice. He cannot attend broadcast production meetings. Kind
Speaker 7: of an important deal before you go on television for
Speaker 7: a game in person or virtually. Tom is subject to
Speaker 7: NFL gambling and anti tampering policies and the biggie. If
Speaker 7: you're a commentator, radius prohibited from criticizing game officials and
Speaker 7: other clubs. And that's certainly a great area. When what
Speaker 7: was that a critique of a call? Or is it
Speaker 7: a critique of a pass or a play? But hey
Speaker 7: have fun commentating Tom. I ask you, Dick, is this
Speaker 7: a doable thing still going forward? Or is it just
Speaker 7: an unfixable mess.
Speaker 2: There's going to be one thing that determines the answer
Speaker 2: to your question, and that's ratings. Quite frankly, you're right.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know they will weigh that against quality
Speaker 2: of the product. And how many times have you ever
Speaker 2: heard at the highest level. I've seen it at the
Speaker 2: local level, But how many times at the highest level
Speaker 2: have you heard an executive say, you know, yeah, we
Speaker 2: got to take this guy off the air.
Speaker 3: We're making big money. Our ratings are great, but he's
Speaker 3: just not up to our standards. That doesn't happen, y'all.
Speaker 2: Comes It always comes down to the to the dollars
Speaker 2: and cents, which dovetails off ratings.
Speaker 3: But I had read a lot about this. You you
Speaker 3: did a deeper dive.
Speaker 2: I knew about the broadcast meetings and the officials and
Speaker 2: all I didn't even I didn't know he couldn't even
Speaker 2: go into the facilities.
Speaker 3: Now that is stunning.
Speaker 2: And so the question is going back to my original point.
Speaker 2: If if you were up for a job as a
Speaker 2: as a broadcast analyst, and you went in saying, oh,
Speaker 2: and by the way, here are a list of restrictions
Speaker 2: that come with me, they would have turned you around
Speaker 2: and showed you at the door.
Speaker 3: With a boot.
Speaker 2: They never would have thought about hiring you. But he's Brady,
Speaker 2: he's a name. He brings viewers, he brings eyeballs. So
Speaker 2: I hate to sound so calloused and cynical, but if,
Speaker 2: and unless you know, the numbers drop, and they well might,
Speaker 2: you're going to.
Speaker 3: Keep seeing him.
Speaker 7: I think Bob Costas had a stake in the Yankees,
Speaker 7: would he still be doing MLB games?
Speaker 2: You know what, though, Costas would remove himself. Not that
Speaker 2: he's a saint, but good point.
Speaker 7: Fort Swigg On the college football, Well, Dick, if you
Speaker 7: told Jeff Brahm his offense would ring up forty five
Speaker 7: points against the number six team in the nation before
Speaker 7: last Saturday, he probably would have been elated for about
Speaker 7: ten seconds before he told him, Oh, by the way,
Speaker 7: your soft, porous defense will give up fifty two points.
Speaker 7: So I won't be surprised that if the Cards, by
Speaker 7: the way, have a new DC, not only by this
Speaker 7: time next year, maybe by the end of the season.
Speaker 3: Who knows up next? For U of L.
Speaker 7: Louisville plays Friday night. Friday Night against Boston College there
Speaker 7: in Boston. ESPN two Cards currently a seven point favorite.
Speaker 7: Then you got your cats. They were two and a
Speaker 7: half point favorites at Florida, as we know, losers by
Speaker 7: twenty eight to a Gators team freshman running back, five touchdowns,
Speaker 7: freshman quarterback two hundred and fifty nine yards, five passes
Speaker 7: more than forty yards. UK's a two and a half
Speaker 7: point favorite over Auburn at home Saturday night. You'll be
Speaker 7: there course at seven thirty sec Network. Obviously, this is
Speaker 7: a winnable game, but so is last week, at least
Speaker 7: until kickoff and then they got bullied and pushed around.
Speaker 7: If UK and UL needed bounce back games to try
Speaker 7: and salvage seasons with super tough road games ahead, these
Speaker 7: would be them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you make a good point about Ul's defense. Although
Speaker 2: watching college game day, because it's being a night game
Speaker 2: in Gainesville, I got to lay around the hotel and
Speaker 2: just watch football all day when I wasn't at the pool,
Speaker 2: which was great. But one or two of the talking
Speaker 2: heads picked Miami because of Louisville's poorest pass defense. I
Speaker 2: don't know enough about their team, haven't watched them much
Speaker 2: to say whether it's the decordinator or personnel in the
Speaker 2: defensive secondary, I have a tendency to think it's the latter.
Speaker 2: I think what you'll see maybe before you see a change.
Speaker 2: And the coaching staff is more action in the portal
Speaker 2: with Jeff Bromm and his staff trying to pull more
Speaker 2: talent through there. But you know how tough it is
Speaker 2: to find quality defensive backs at the pro level, at
Speaker 2: the college, at the high school level. So they're gonna
Speaker 2: have to hit a couple of home runs there. As
Speaker 2: for Kentucky, I've said it all week. They're in that
Speaker 2: Florida game until a couple things happen and then they
Speaker 2: just kind of collapse. So we're gonna learn a lot
Speaker 2: about this team this week, and they're gonna have to
Speaker 2: force Auburn turnovers because that's what's done in the Tigers
Speaker 2: this year. If the Tigers play a clean game, it's
Speaker 2: up for grabs.
Speaker 3: Bittswig and the six Pack.
Speaker 7: Continuing to college football, Dick, the number one college football
Speaker 7: team in America is in our commonwealth of Kentucky this
Speaker 7: very weekend. That would be number one North Dakota State
Speaker 7: in the FCS rankings, formerly one Double A in my
Speaker 7: hometown of Murray to play the one and six racers
Speaker 7: one in six racers who's who are actually worse than
Speaker 7: the record edicates they're really really awful. In fact, Dick
Speaker 7: the other North Dakota North Dakota University the unranked win
Speaker 7: rang up seventy two at Murray three weeks ago. There's
Speaker 7: not even a line on this North Dakota State Murray game.
Speaker 7: We could see maybe even eighty points before it's all over.
Speaker 7: Final horse whipping of this. But along with the Cats
Speaker 7: and the Cards games this weekend, I've picked six to see.
Speaker 7: First of all, noon Saturday on the Big ten Network,
Speaker 7: Number thirteen Indiana hosting unranked Washington. Bright and I were
Speaker 7: in Bloomington last Saturday for the Nebraska beat down homecoming weekend.
Speaker 7: Fox Big Noon was there. So now ESPN's game day
Speaker 7: is that I've never seen that where they follow up
Speaker 7: each other, but that's going to happen this Saturday. Sold out,
Speaker 7: by the way, the rest of the Indiana games are
Speaker 7: sold out for the rest of the year.
Speaker 3: In Bloomington. Also at noon Saturday.
Speaker 7: Number twelve Notre Dame twelve and a half point favorites
Speaker 7: at number twenty four Navy.
Speaker 3: That's going to be on ABC.
Speaker 7: The first Big Test for the Midshipman three thirty number
Speaker 7: twenty one MISSOO will play at number fifteen Alabama. Yes,
Speaker 7: Indiana is ranked higher than Alabama. That's the world we
Speaker 7: live in right now. Bama is a huge favorite on
Speaker 7: that's on ABC three thirty. Also CBS number one Oregon
Speaker 7: hosting number twenty Illinois, who, by the way, had the
Speaker 7: coolest throw at least helmets last weekend. Yeah, Ducks are
Speaker 7: twenty one and a half point favorites in Eugene four
Speaker 7: or fifteen SEC Network number five Texas at number twenty
Speaker 7: five Vandy Trap game, Trap Game, Texas a nineteen point
Speaker 7: favorite in that one, and then at seven thirty you
Speaker 7: got ABC number eight, LSU number fourteen Texas A and M.
Speaker 7: The Aggies are a favorite in that one. I still
Speaker 7: like the Penn State at Wisconsin game also, and SMU
Speaker 7: at Duke. A lot of good ones this weekend. So
Speaker 7: besides the Cats and Tigers, you'll be seeing. What else
Speaker 7: do you want to watch?
Speaker 3: Personally?
Speaker 2: Well, obviously I'm curious about Indiana. I'm hoping that Hoosiers
Speaker 2: are real. That's a great story in there, because the
Speaker 2: sellout of numbers. You and I have talked about this
Speaker 2: before they had Bowl teams. Back in the I think
Speaker 2: it was the mid to late eighties or early nineties,
Speaker 2: they had a couple of ball teams and nobody cared,
Speaker 2: nobody showed up. Yeah, Sam Weish had a couple of
Speaker 2: decent Indiana teams. But I love the fact that they're
Speaker 2: drawing now. But that's the power now of college football,
Speaker 2: and I think it's TV saturation, which in this case
Speaker 2: helps them with their gate. Notre Dame Navy is really
Speaker 2: really intriguing. I do like the Irish there, but tough
Speaker 2: to prepare for teams well, any of the Service academies
Speaker 2: that don't run traditional attacks. Missouri Alabama wouldn't surprise me
Speaker 2: if MISSOI wins that one.
Speaker 3: I had to eat it on Oregon.
Speaker 2: I told you confidently that Ohio State would destroy the Ducks,
Speaker 2: and boy was I wrong. And I am, of course
Speaker 2: curious to see what the fighting Diegos and now the
Speaker 2: Nashville do with Texas. So, yeah, that's going to be
Speaker 2: a lot of fun. And again night game for a
Speaker 2: wild Cats, so I can watch a lot of football.
Speaker 7: Indiana's fifth in overall offense in the nation, seventh in
Speaker 7: overall defense, amazing and Indiana also one of two teams
Speaker 7: that have not been behind at all this season Armies
Speaker 7: the other one.
Speaker 3: New coach and a new approach. And it all fits.
Speaker 3: Sixth and final swig.
Speaker 7: With one hundred and twentieth World Series set for Game
Speaker 7: one just over twenty four hours from right now, it's
Speaker 7: cool to note the Kentucky connections for LA and New York.
Speaker 7: We've mentioned many times here Dodger pitcher probable Game three
Speaker 7: starter Walker Bueller, Tates Creek High guy was Henry Clay, Yeah,
Speaker 7: got okay. And also Walker's battery mate Will Smith, Yeah,
Speaker 7: little Kentucky Country Day High. And U of l Alum who,
Speaker 7: by the way, he has done a great job with
Speaker 7: these bullpen games especially but every yeah, how tough is
Speaker 7: that on a catcher? About every inning a new pitcher.
Speaker 7: Maybe a lot of listeners already know that. Yankees general
Speaker 7: manager and architect of these New York teams since nineteen
Speaker 7: ninety eight, Brian Cashman lived in Lexington when his dad
Speaker 7: ran Castleton Farm, went to Lexington Catholic High, then on
Speaker 7: to college where he got a chance to intern for
Speaker 7: the Yankees. One problem Brian Cashman was an enormous LA Dodgers.
Speaker 3: Fan hated hated the Yankees.
Speaker 7: In fact, I've tweeted out a photo of Brian in
Speaker 7: a Dodgers cap and jersey with Tommy.
Speaker 3: Lesorda, who autographed it. Nice that his mom said us, you.
Speaker 7: Love that picture. But mucking the stalls at Castleton was
Speaker 7: a good preparation for Brian before he dealt with the
Speaker 7: horse crap of George Steinbrenner.
Speaker 3: Early on in those days and survived it.
Speaker 7: Took the internship with the Pinstripes in nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 7: seems to have worked out okay for Brian.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and his dad, John actually was the president of
Speaker 2: the Red Mile at one point and a.
Speaker 3: Really good guy. Interviewed John.
Speaker 2: Never have met Brian, but I've interviewed John more than
Speaker 2: once when I worked at WKYT. I love hanging out
Speaker 2: at the Red Mile, but yeah, I love the Kentucky
Speaker 2: connections and it's a it's gonna be fun, But like
Speaker 2: I said, I'll stay with the Dodgers.
Speaker 3: You ever had to you're a horse guy? You ever
Speaker 3: heard a muck stalls in your life?
Speaker 2: I mucked a stall once when I was doing a
Speaker 2: story about working at a horse farm, and I was
Speaker 2: told I did a good job, but was way too slow.
Speaker 3: Is that your sinuses, doesn't it? Oh? Yoh yeah. I
Speaker 3: would never survive as a stallmucker. We'll come back with hot.
Speaker 2: Reads for Gary in just a minute here on six
Speaker 2: WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Cider Tom for
Speaker 2: a couple of hot reaves for our West End bureau chief.
Speaker 2: Gary Moore talked about the Dodgers in the World Series,
Speaker 2: but it's kind of a tinge of sadness going into
Speaker 2: the series with the loss of Fernando Valenzuela died way
Speaker 2: too young. But boy, he took us back, or really
Speaker 2: the memories took us back, Gary, to the early eighties.
Speaker 3: It was before you moved to La just before I
Speaker 3: think you moved to La Is when Fernando had that
Speaker 3: incredible nineteen eighty one season.
Speaker 2: His whole career was amazing. But you look at the numbers,
Speaker 2: especially those first eight games that will never be matched,
Speaker 2: you know, all complete games, five shutouts, but throughout his career,
Speaker 2: but just in general in La with the culture and
Speaker 2: him being a hero from Mexico, it was just an
Speaker 2: incredible chapter in the history of baseball.
Speaker 7: Well, you think about how popular Dodgers already are you
Speaker 7: think about Okay, well, who were the big popular Latino
Speaker 7: pitchers before Fernando, right, there weren't any, so for him
Speaker 7: to come in there and you don't have to be
Speaker 7: I mean, I spent a lot of time in East
Speaker 7: LA and Boyle Heights and Huntington Park and all these
Speaker 7: places that are around there. But really it's the culture
Speaker 7: is all throughout Southern California, from in Fact LA, all
Speaker 7: if the whole state, but you know, it's definitely Southern California,
Speaker 7: even down in the San Diego and for him to
Speaker 7: come in and do that, you can see and hopefully
Speaker 7: there will be enough of those true fans from those
Speaker 7: areas in the bleachers because I know the ticket prices
Speaker 7: are crazy. They come out and support every single game.
Speaker 7: They're huge, huge fans for him.
Speaker 3: This was beyond big.
Speaker 7: This was the biggest thing that ever happened in the
Speaker 7: Latino sports community, I think in the whole Los Angeles area.
Speaker 7: He just represented so much. He was so good, He
Speaker 7: was so so good, yeah, screwballs and all that.
Speaker 2: Had a no hitter as well, so just just an
Speaker 2: incredible talent and that big smile. Our second hot read
Speaker 2: takes us to the NBA Opening week and the Detroit Pistons,
Speaker 2: who were terrible last year probably terrible again this year.
Speaker 2: Uh Dwayne Casey, my man is now in the front office.
Speaker 2: That happened about a year year and a half ago.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 3: JB.
Speaker 2: Bickerstaff is the head coach, and last night his team
Speaker 2: got teed up for having six men on the court.
Speaker 3: Here's what it sounded like on Pistons television and I
Speaker 3: got it. Got a guy just counting them off, So yeah,
Speaker 3: guilty is charged? How many you got?
Speaker 10: Three on one end of the court and three on
Speaker 10: the other end of the math all added up to
Speaker 10: a technical fight, even though Bickerstaff tried to defend himself
Speaker 10: and his team, Gary, But is there anything worse?
Speaker 3: Especially in opening night?
Speaker 7: Well, you got what are these guys in the clipboard
Speaker 7: with holding the clipboards doing over here holding clipboards? I know,
Speaker 7: I'm sure they're not math majors trying to count up
Speaker 7: to six?
Speaker 3: What are these guys? And I'll tell you what. I'll
Speaker 3: tell you one.
Speaker 7: Team that wish there was another guy in the court
Speaker 7: with the sixers? And where's Joel Embiide on Opening Night?
Speaker 3: What's all that about?
Speaker 6: Too?
Speaker 2: No, who's no longer going to play back to well
Speaker 2: play the first one then, Well, when he made that announcement,
Speaker 2: did the Sixers ask for part of their money back?
Speaker 2: I mean, he signed that huge contract and now he
Speaker 2: won't play back to backs.
Speaker 7: What was he doing in the last couple of months
Speaker 7: since the Olympics? Exactly wouldn't you be ready for the
Speaker 7: first That's really screwy. If I was a Sixers fan,
Speaker 7: I'd beat not happy at this point. One of the
Speaker 7: knocks the media knox is he's never been in shape. Yeah,
Speaker 7: I'm sure one can lead to the other. But even
Speaker 7: when he plays in a game, I promise you the
Speaker 7: Sixers will have only five men on the court.
Speaker 3: Probably all right. We can find our man Gary on
Speaker 3: Twitter knee.
Speaker 7: X at at nine to five five Gary, the same
Speaker 7: joint you're found at.
Speaker 3: I'm at Big Blue Insider one. Thank you, sir, enjoyed
Speaker 3: the series, same to you. Gotta do it for now.
Speaker 2: Thanks to my guests, Gary Moore, to Sean Woods and
Speaker 2: of course to Dicky Lyons Senior. Can't wait to see
Speaker 2: him when he comes up. He'll be an SEC legend.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna go to the SEC football champion and
Speaker 2: ship this year, but if I did, that would be
Speaker 2: probably the number one reason. But it was good talking
Speaker 2: to him again.
Speaker 3: I hadn't talked to.
Speaker 2: Him, like I said, since since Dicky was six or
Speaker 2: seven years old, way back in the day. But great
Speaker 2: to talk to him as well. Reminder, Kentucky football coming
Speaker 2: up some forty five kickoff on Saturday five thirty airtime
Speaker 2: right here with Christy Logan and Jeremy and then Jeff
Speaker 2: Tom and I will have a call the Cats and
Speaker 2: the Auburn Tigers.
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us. That's it. Good night from the
Speaker 3: garage and lexingon.
Speaker 8: Now the three two swing. Huh a pop foul, it's
Speaker 8: back here. How ow wow, it really hit me. I
Speaker 8: didn't know it was coming back that far.
Speaker 2: Fava yea