Speaker 1: Oh, oh, guess what day it is? Guess what day
Speaker 1: it is? Huh?
Speaker 2: Anybody, It's hump Day.
Speaker 3: Yes, it is hump Day. Welcome to the Big Blue Sider.
Speaker 3: Dick Gabriel with you on a Wednesday, and it is
Speaker 3: one day closer of course the college football Thanks to
Speaker 3: Corey Price and his account on Twitter, we know we
Speaker 3: are eighty days away. I'm glad Corey is doing that,
Speaker 3: and he's not the only one. There are countdowns out there.
Speaker 3: I will take credit for being one of the first
Speaker 3: to start this several years ago when I was working
Speaker 3: at KYT and we had the website up for the
Speaker 3: Big Blue in Sider. We don't anymore, reason being Curtis
Speaker 3: Birch actually was so instrumental in our website and we
Speaker 3: never were able to find another Curtis after Curtis became
Speaker 3: a full timer. So anyhow, there are plenty of websites
Speaker 3: out there, but on the KYT website, on the Big
Speaker 3: Blon Sider website, we counted down actually from fifty days,
Speaker 3: and on that particular day, we would provide you with
Speaker 3: a corresponding group of nuggets, Like if there were the
Speaker 3: fifty a day, we would have all kinds of things
Speaker 3: pertaining to the number fifty and UK football. There's a
Speaker 3: lot of fun to put it together, was labor intensive.
Speaker 3: I'll share some of that information with you as we
Speaker 3: get closer to kickoff, but our thanks to Corey for
Speaker 3: getting that work done. And coincidentally enough, and of course
Speaker 3: he uses a photo online of a corresponding number from
Speaker 3: a player and I'm not sure which tight end it is,
Speaker 3: but today's number, number eighty was a Kentucky tight end
Speaker 3: scoring a touchdown. And again quite the coincidence, given the
Speaker 3: fact that Vince Merrow has really been taking up a
Speaker 3: lot of space on social media if you follow such
Speaker 3: a thing, you've seen the comments from Kentucky fans responding
Speaker 3: to him. He has come out a couple of times
Speaker 3: said well, we'll you know, say something you know pretty soon,
Speaker 3: words to that effect, and man, the bitter Kentucky fans
Speaker 3: to follow in and I don't blame him, you know,
Speaker 3: going to U of L Are you kidding me? A
Speaker 3: month before camp begins. The tone, the least of which
Speaker 3: was don't bother. The worst of it was you know
Speaker 3: you've been terrible here, which is not true, and that's
Speaker 3: what got me. Somebody tried to zing him about bringing
Speaker 3: in inferior running backs, and come on, he brought in
Speaker 3: two of the all time greats, two guys who carried
Speaker 3: this program, help carry this program to a lot of wins,
Speaker 3: and that's Benny Snell and Chris Rodriguez. There were other players,
Speaker 3: but if you're going to go after him on a
Speaker 3: specific position, I would lay off running back. I mean,
Speaker 3: both of those guys went to the NFL, and Rodriguez
Speaker 3: is still there, and Benny, of course set new records
Speaker 3: and took this team to one of its health takes
Speaker 3: his team to one of its greatest wins down at
Speaker 3: the Citrus Bowl. So yeah, be mad at Vince Merrill,
Speaker 3: no problem, but be accurate. I mean, there's a lot
Speaker 3: of stuff you can use if you're looking to sling
Speaker 3: accusations and whatever, but I wouldn't go with running backs.
Speaker 3: We're gonna talk basketball, yeah, I know, and football fans
Speaker 3: get on me because you know it's not even basketball
Speaker 3: season or coming up in football whatever. But there's so
Speaker 3: much happening right now. Number one, Number two, they gave
Speaker 3: us access to a couple of basketball players, and we'll
Speaker 3: come back to that in just a moment. We'll take
Speaker 3: it away yesterday, Brandon Garrison today. But the biggest story
Speaker 3: that came out from the NCAAA was the fact that
Speaker 3: the NCAA is approved again. This is the member institutions.
Speaker 3: These are committees comprised of people from the member institutions,
Speaker 3: not the guys wearing the suits up in Indianapolis. But
Speaker 3: the NCAA approving multiple major rule changes in men's college basketball,
Speaker 3: and the greatest goal, or one of them, was to
Speaker 3: improve the flow of the game. Now, some of it
Speaker 3: involves reviews, replays, challenges, things like that. And there are
Speaker 3: plenty of stories out there on the web right now
Speaker 3: about the NCAA Playing Rules Oversite Panel. If you want
Speaker 3: to look for it, just google that NCAAA Playing Rules
Speaker 3: Oversight Panel. And they released information late yesterday afternoon on
Speaker 3: things like the coaches challenge you like in college football.
Speaker 3: The teams have to have a time out to request
Speaker 3: an instant replay review, and if it's successful, you can
Speaker 3: be granted an additional review challenge for the remainder of
Speaker 3: the game, including overtime. If unsuccessful, you lose the ability
Speaker 3: to challenge any other calls in the game. Now, challenges
Speaker 3: will not impact an official use of instant replay for
Speaker 3: timing mistakes, scoring errors, shot clock violations, two point versus
Speaker 3: three point field goal tries, flagrant fouls, things like that.
Speaker 3: But officials can initiate video reviews on basketball interference in goaltending.
Speaker 3: That's the Kentucky rule. Remember three or four years ago,
Speaker 3: Wildcats lost a game in rup to LSU on a
Speaker 3: bucket by the Tigers. It was clearly basket interference. There's
Speaker 3: no such thing as offensive goaltending, and I heard a
Speaker 3: network commentator use that term, but basketball interference, But the
Speaker 3: officials could not review it. Everybody's screaming and yelling and
Speaker 3: they were like, hey, nothing we can do. It's not
Speaker 3: in the rules. They can also initiate video reviews and
Speaker 3: restricted arc plays in the final two minutes of regulation
Speaker 3: and overtime. There's a lot to it, and they've studied
Speaker 3: the data about game interruptions and game flow and things
Speaker 3: like that. NSA refs still are not allowed to conduct
Speaker 3: video review on out of bounds calls unless first prompted
Speaker 3: by a coaches challenge. Those are the ones that seem
Speaker 3: like they take forever. So again, just type in if
Speaker 3: you want to read the whole thing. NSA playing rules
Speaker 3: Oversight Panel, and you'll get more information on that. The
Speaker 3: other basketball related news out there, of course, is about
Speaker 3: the brand new, essentially salary cap. J Billis has sounded
Speaker 3: off as you might expect. The ESPN commentator and longtime
Speaker 3: advocate for paying players and one of the loudest critics,
Speaker 3: maybe the loudest of the NCAA. He has said that
Speaker 3: this new deal will allow players. Not everybody's going to
Speaker 3: get money, by the way, that's up to the schools
Speaker 3: who gets what. But he says the new deal will
Speaker 3: allow players to get their money and will allow schools
Speaker 3: to lock them down. How do you like that? I
Speaker 3: know you do. Twenty point five million dollars per school,
Speaker 3: the amount likely rising each year as revenues increase. But
Speaker 3: it is a salary cap. Schools don't have to spend
Speaker 3: that much, but they can. Players still can earn quote
Speaker 3: unquote fair market additional money from endorsements and other endeavors.
Speaker 3: But Billi says buyout clauses probably will lock them down.
Speaker 3: So when you sign a player to a multi year contract,
Speaker 3: this annual amount that's going to keep going up because
Speaker 3: revenues keep going up in the negotiations, but you can
Speaker 3: put buyouts in those contracts, and when you do, those
Speaker 3: players aren't going anywhere. And he says other streams for
Speaker 3: players will be police. He said, you put your contract,
Speaker 3: your name, image and likeness in the marketplace, subject to
Speaker 3: review by an accounting an auditing firm for fair market value.
Speaker 3: And he gave an example. Suppose there's a local car
Speaker 3: dealership that wants to pay your third string quarterback four
Speaker 3: million a year to do commercials for a dealership that
Speaker 3: grosses only a million dollars a year, and the firm
Speaker 3: is likely as ay, nope, that is not fair market value.
Speaker 3: So a lot is changing right now. And Billius, of
Speaker 3: course weighing in. I don't blame him. Everybody else is
Speaker 3: That's what I'm doing right now, all right. We mentioned
Speaker 3: Brandon Garrison. He spoke to the media yesterday and I
Speaker 3: asked him about the fact that Mark Pope can't wait.
Speaker 3: He's excited about seeing where players go and his system
Speaker 3: because they've always done fairly well, apparently from year one
Speaker 3: to year two.
Speaker 2: Learning things that he teaches us that he did as
Speaker 2: a player, all the knowledge he knows, pouring it into us,
Speaker 2: taking a bentice of it, and uh actually doing it.
Speaker 2: And just stuff like that.
Speaker 3: What sort of things is he shared as a guy
Speaker 3: who was a big in the NBA, that can help you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just doing things right all the time, being the
Speaker 2: hardest worker, being the leader, because you know, he led
Speaker 2: that team to championship, so that's his biggest thing, just
Speaker 2: being the leader, being a great teammate, and things like that.
Speaker 3: Garrison was asked about defense, basically team defense, which was
Speaker 3: a point of inconsistency last year, got much better down
Speaker 3: the stretch, but he did allow us how I believes
Speaker 3: that'll be a point of emphasis.
Speaker 2: Hitting on that, like the summer leading into the season. Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, just telling the guys that that that really
Speaker 2: means something to us, and just you know, applying that
Speaker 2: into games, not just talking about it.
Speaker 3: Is that tough for a freshman to come in and
Speaker 3: say I.
Speaker 1: Didn't have to play defense?
Speaker 2: Yeah, as much, I mean, conder, but not really just
Speaker 2: because like you got lotes, Like you're not a high
Speaker 2: school no more. You move into the Big boy League,
Speaker 2: you know, so you got to sit down and play defense,
Speaker 2: and you're going to play.
Speaker 3: So yeah, playing in the big boy League, and you
Speaker 3: got to think Dad really hit home with Brandon Garrison
Speaker 3: as well. He played, you know, for a D one
Speaker 3: team prior to getting here, but the SEC that's a
Speaker 3: different issue, as you well know. Coming up at the
Speaker 3: bottom of the hour, we'll talk with Aaron Gershan and
Speaker 3: the Cats balls and it being Wednesday, Shawn Woods, the
Speaker 3: Unforgettable Guard will join us as now our number two,
Speaker 3: as will our Western Bureau chief Gary Moore. That's all
Speaker 3: I had on the Big boon Sider here on six
Speaker 3: thirty wlap. Welcome back to the Big Bluon Sider. Coming
Speaker 3: up to the bottom of the rara and ger Sean
Speaker 3: to the Cat's pause. We'll talk with him about the
Speaker 3: Vince Merrow situation and the impact it may have or
Speaker 3: already have had on Kentucky football. We'll also talk of
Speaker 3: course UK basketball and about these NSA rule changes coming
Speaker 3: up and of the house settlement. Naturally our number two,
Speaker 3: Sean Woods, the Unforgettable Guard, now the head coach at
Speaker 3: Scott Kenny. I will talk to him as well about
Speaker 3: the these rule changes because Sewn worked and coached and
Speaker 3: played at the D one level as well, and then
Speaker 3: West End Bureau chief Gary Moore joined us in our
Speaker 3: number two as well. NBA playoffs resumed tomorrow night and
Speaker 3: Shay Gilgess Alexander had a huge game in Game number two,
Speaker 3: had a big game in Game one, but shot it
Speaker 3: way too many times and his team blew it. His
Speaker 3: team let a huge lead get away and lost to
Speaker 3: Indiana in Oklahoma City, and then they came back blew
Speaker 3: them out in game two. So tomorrow night it moved
Speaker 3: to Indianapolis and SGA with a chance to lead his
Speaker 3: team to its first NBA championship really since the franchise
Speaker 3: was the Seattle SuperSonics, that goes back to nineteen seventy
Speaker 3: nine when that team beat the defending champ. Chance the
Speaker 3: defending champion the Washington Bullets led by Wes Unseled and
Speaker 3: Kevin Greevy. Back in the day, the Bullets were favored
Speaker 3: to win the championship, but the Sonics jumped up and
Speaker 3: won it. But then many years later moved to Oklahoma City.
Speaker 3: This is their second trip to the NBA Finals and
Speaker 3: their best chance to win a title, and that's primarily
Speaker 3: not the only reason. Because of Shay Gilders Alexander l
Speaker 3: league's MVP, and he had a couple of big games
Speaker 3: and a chance to become the playoffs MVP if indeed
Speaker 3: he can lead his team to a championship. If he doesn't,
Speaker 3: my guess, of course easy it would be Halliburton. But
Speaker 3: they got to keep the Pacers from coming back, and
Speaker 3: other teams have had an extremely difficult time doing that.
Speaker 3: Here just in this year's playoffs, they came back. They
Speaker 3: were down nine with two minutes and fifty two seconds left.
Speaker 3: They were down double digits most of the game in
Speaker 3: Game one, and Halliburton hits a shot to win it.
Speaker 3: They led forer point three seconds. But in the conference
Speaker 3: quarterfinals they were down seven against the Bucks with thirty
Speaker 3: nine seconds left. They come back and win. At Game
Speaker 3: two of the conference semifinals, Indiana had a four percent
Speaker 3: chance of winning the game, down seven with fifty seven
Speaker 3: seconds to go against the Cavaliers, and they win it.
Speaker 3: Then they come from as many as fourteen down with
Speaker 3: a little less than three minutes to play in the
Speaker 3: conference finals and beat the Knicks in overtime. Karl Anthony
Speaker 3: Towns missed a key free throw and open that door.
Speaker 3: So NBC News essentially NBC Sports, did a survey, did
Speaker 3: some research, crunched the numbers, and went back to try
Speaker 3: to figure out what were the odds of the Pacers
Speaker 3: winning all four of those close playoff games. And you
Speaker 3: know you can crunch numbers and get them to say
Speaker 3: this and that, but it's just for fun. But according
Speaker 3: to the NBC Sports research, there's a one in ten
Speaker 3: million chance of the Pacers winning those four close playoff games.
Speaker 3: Other rare events are more likely. For instance, the odds
Speaker 3: of you pitching a perfect game in the major leagues
Speaker 3: are point zero zero zero ninety eight three e to
Speaker 3: like one to one thousands of a point. Your odds
Speaker 3: of competing in the summer Olympics basically two to one
Speaker 3: thousands of a point being dealt a Royal flush and
Speaker 3: poker just a little bit better than your odds of
Speaker 3: competing in the Olympics. Okay, now, being hit by lightning
Speaker 3: this year zero point four zeros eight to two. So
Speaker 3: your odds of being hit by lightning, relatively speaking, are
Speaker 3: greater than the Pacers winning those games. But wait, there's more.
Speaker 3: The odds of you being attacked by a bear. And
Speaker 3: you hear about these grizzly attacks this time of year, right,
Speaker 3: but the odds of you being attacked by a bear
Speaker 3: are point zero zero zero zero four zeros four to eight,
Speaker 3: less than one half of one thousandth of a percent. Okay,
Speaker 3: as for the Pacers, five zeros zero point and then
Speaker 3: five zeros nine percent, so that's what like less than
Speaker 3: ten a tenth of a ten thousand percent. I think
Speaker 3: of the Pacers winning all four of those games, and
Speaker 3: yet they do it. They do it. They come back,
Speaker 3: they grind, they hit three pointers, they steal the ball,
Speaker 3: and if the and if OKC goes on to lose
Speaker 3: this series by a game, they will forever and they
Speaker 3: should and the fans will remember Game one when Indiana
Speaker 3: came out, turned it over twenty five times, shot poorly,
Speaker 3: and got to hang around because OKC began to play
Speaker 3: with an eye on the clock. And that to me
Speaker 3: is truly playing not to lose. I get tired of
Speaker 3: people saying this team came out and mostly in football,
Speaker 3: the way they call plays, they play not to lose. Well,
Speaker 3: in football, you can play not to lose by not
Speaker 3: throwing the ball down the field all the time and
Speaker 3: putting it up for interception or pitchouts. They could end
Speaker 3: up in fumbles and things like that. But in a
Speaker 3: game where there's a shot clock, and we've seen Kentucky
Speaker 3: do this. That was one of the complaints I had
Speaker 3: about Calipari and you did too. They tried to sock
Speaker 3: games away with nine minutes to go and start to
Speaker 3: play more deliberately and run that stupid weave out front
Speaker 3: and now at eight seconds ago, look for a shot.
Speaker 3: It was terrible and you can see that in the NBA.
Speaker 3: I cannot let Indiana work back into that. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm rooting for OKAC. I can't. I can't root for
Speaker 3: the Pacers. Gary Moore is coming up. He's a big
Speaker 3: Pacers fan. His wife's from Indiana. Can't do it. They
Speaker 3: beat the Colonels too much. When I was a kid,
Speaker 3: that was my number one enemy team. That was the villain.
Speaker 3: If you're a Colonels fan, the Pacers, well, Roger Brown,
Speaker 3: Bob Nettlelickey, Oh no, I couldn't. I couldn't take him.
Speaker 3: George McGinnis. No, So yeah, I'm rooting for OKC. I'm
Speaker 3: rooted for Oklahoma City. Wellever it happens or not, I
Speaker 3: don't know, but they can't let him stick around and
Speaker 3: come back. ABC Chaneral thirty six tomorrow night starts at
Speaker 3: eight thirty. Another honor for Tyler Bell, the Kentucky shortstop
Speaker 3: now named the first team Freshman All American by the
Speaker 3: Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Perfect Game had him second team.
Speaker 3: He is the first freshman to get that honor since
Speaker 3: John Rose was named co Freshman of the Year in
Speaker 3: the COVID year in twenty twenty. Rose is still part
Speaker 3: of the Orioles chain. Tyler Bell was the only UK
Speaker 3: player to hit better than three hundred in conference play
Speaker 3: wow at three eighteen, and led the team in doubles, homers, RBI,
Speaker 3: and slugging percentage in those games. So you go back
Speaker 3: to the Rhodes at the outfielder in twenty twenty. Prior to that,
Speaker 3: Zach Thompson, left handed pitcher with a freshman All American.
Speaker 3: He's on the injured list with the Cardinals right now.
Speaker 3: By the way, the year before, Sean Jelly, another pitcher
Speaker 3: developed by Gary Henderson, and Justin Lewis two right handed pitchers,
Speaker 3: both freshman All Americans in twenty sixteen, and you go
Speaker 3: back to twenty twelve oft aj Reid, who is the
Speaker 3: College Player of the Year. Austin Kuzeno, currently in Kentucky
Speaker 3: coach a freshman All American in twenty twelve and Chris
Speaker 3: Wade shortstop back in twenty year eight. All right, we're
Speaker 3: gonna step out, come back and talk with Aaron Gershan
Speaker 3: on the Cat's Balls here on six point thirty WLAP
Speaker 3: Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Joining us as
Speaker 3: he does each week on our Celebrity Highline is Aaron
Speaker 3: Gershan of the Cat's Balls, covers baseball, football, basketball, anything
Speaker 3: on the UK Beat and boy the headline this week
Speaker 3: and it was a stunner, Aaron. Although there were some
Speaker 3: rumblings a while back about merriw and Ul and then
Speaker 3: apparently within the last week or so people had heard rumors.
Speaker 3: How surprised were you?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I was very surprised to happen now. If you were
Speaker 4: to tell me it was going to happen in December
Speaker 4: or shortly even late November, shortly after the Governor's Cup,
Speaker 4: even January, I wouldn't have been that surprised. But the
Speaker 4: fact that happened now June, which is prime high school
Speaker 4: recruiting season, like tons of official visits, the camp visitors
Speaker 4: like it is both busy off the fields, not even
Speaker 4: off the field camp. It's just the busiest high school
Speaker 4: recruiting month on the calendar, and your recruiting coordinator who's
Speaker 4: been you know, the childhood best friend of your head coach,
Speaker 4: and then you know they come together and build this
Speaker 4: thing up, and you know it's obviously taken some steps
Speaker 4: down the last three years, but leads for the arch
Speaker 4: rival right in the middle of that, just a few
Speaker 4: you know, six weeks or so before fall camp and
Speaker 4: a month away from SEC media days when you're gonna
Speaker 4: just get absolutely torched with questions about it. Just just brutal,
Speaker 4: there's no way around it. It's a massive hit for
Speaker 4: Kentucky pr wise, it's a massive hit on the recruiting show,
Speaker 4: you would think. And it's also just another tough look
Speaker 4: for you know, Mark Stoops. And again there's probably a
Speaker 4: lot more to the story, but this is just what
Speaker 4: the public reception is going to be. It's a tough
Speaker 4: look for Mark Stoops because this program is taking three
Speaker 4: steps back. He hasn't. It's kind of similar to toward the
Speaker 4: end of cows Time, where he has been very visible
Speaker 4: this summer and I get you know it doesn't talk
Speaker 4: that much in the summer, but you didn't see him,
Speaker 4: you know, invested on the Paul Fine Mom Show, which
Speaker 4: is something he does sometimes. You know, he hasn't done
Speaker 4: I think he did one or two press conferences during
Speaker 4: the spring, which is normal, and then one after the showcase.
Speaker 4: But you know, no local radio interview, not just haven't
Speaker 4: heard much from him and then this happens. It's just
Speaker 4: it's been a rough offseason. It's been a rough couple
Speaker 4: of years. And gets adds to it.
Speaker 3: He did do an interview with the SEC this morning,
Speaker 3: which they replayed I think over there yesterday. But yeah,
Speaker 3: you're right, not nearly as much as he's done in
Speaker 3: the past. And there's so much to unpack, as you
Speaker 3: kids like to say, with the mirror move. Yes, losing
Speaker 3: the recruiting coordinator, the guy who brought in so much
Speaker 3: talent from Ohio, and then at Stoops's behest lockdown Kentucky,
Speaker 3: oh when they were getting beat a few times. You
Speaker 3: cannot diminish what happened there. Well, he will not be
Speaker 3: the recording coordinator at Louisville. He'll be there. Quote to
Speaker 3: woe GM. I'm curious to see. Maybe it's halready been
Speaker 3: reported Aaron if he will be cleared to recruit off
Speaker 3: campus Number one, but even if he's not. I mean
Speaker 3: you they can only an x amount of as you know,
Speaker 3: only an X amount of assistant coaches and head coaches
Speaker 3: can be clear to recruit off campus. Otherwise you've got
Speaker 3: fifty thousand recruiters out there. But you know as well
Speaker 3: as I do, he's got some charm to him. And
Speaker 3: if they can get a kid on campus and they
Speaker 3: sit down and talk, here's our GM, Vince Merrill, to
Speaker 3: tell you about our nil program. That's going to go
Speaker 3: a long way, isn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's going to have that. And basically my understanding
Speaker 4: of it is he's kind of going to run point
Speaker 4: on where everyone else is recruiting and who the players
Speaker 4: they're focusing on, the areas they're focusing on. And again
Speaker 4: I'm not exactly sure how if he's the one who
Speaker 4: can go make phone calls to kids, if he can
Speaker 4: go visit them, or if it's something where, like you said,
Speaker 4: you can't talk to him till on Vel's campus. But yeah,
Speaker 4: he's gonna make it, make your impact if he's the
Speaker 4: Vince Marrow that Kentucky has had for most of his
Speaker 4: tenure here. And you know, I'm not gonna put anything
Speaker 4: out there I just it's interesting when you see Louisville
Speaker 4: already starting to clean up in the state of Kentucky
Speaker 4: before this move, and I don't I know, Vince Marrow
Speaker 4: was still recruiting in my half of Kentucky as of
Speaker 4: last weekend. It's just like, did they say, hey, we're
Speaker 4: trying to make this happen and try to get like more.
Speaker 4: I mean, they got the top kid at the North
Speaker 4: Pard and that hasn't happened in quite some time, so
Speaker 4: it's already getting interesting.
Speaker 1: They've had more.
Speaker 4: Success in Ohio this cycle than ever before, where Kentucky
Speaker 4: has hardly been recruiting Ohio. So yeah, I think I
Speaker 4: think Marrow, if he's again, if he's the same Vince
Speaker 4: Merriw and that motivation is still there, which you know
Speaker 4: we haven't, we have no reason not to believe. I
Speaker 4: think he's going to clean up. I just think Kentucky,
Speaker 4: from what I understood, was doing things a little differently
Speaker 4: where Marrow the in years past and most of his
Speaker 4: tenure here, basically he didn't even have to ask permissions
Speaker 4: to take a commitment. He obviously went in and dominated
Speaker 4: in state. He dominated in Ohio, and you know the
Speaker 4: last couple of years they've kind of taken a different
Speaker 4: direction both high school wise, as who's seen you know,
Speaker 4: the numbers just it's part of it's the portal and
Speaker 4: you have to have more portal kids. But you know,
Speaker 4: you look at what they're doing in this twenty six cycle,
Speaker 4: even before Marrow departed, and you know, one kid from
Speaker 4: Kentucky only three overall, but the kids they're recruiting, a
Speaker 4: lot of them are from Texas and Louisiana in Florida.
Speaker 4: It's not it's a little different. And it makes me wonder,
Speaker 4: was Vince Marrow kind of script of some of that
Speaker 4: power and some of that handed to the other assistance
Speaker 4: on staff and Eddie Grant who's serving as the GM.
Speaker 3: Basically we're talking, Aaron Gershin, of the Cat's Pause, and
Speaker 3: of course we're talking about the move by Vince Marrow
Speaker 3: to take the job over at u of L. And
Speaker 3: I do wonder that myself, Aaron, because it looks like,
Speaker 3: in like every school in America, Kentucky's had to change
Speaker 3: the way it does business. Yes, when it comes to
Speaker 3: building its roster more from the portal than and Stoops
Speaker 3: has made no bones about the fact that he wants
Speaker 3: the mix of the young guys, the true freshman coming
Speaker 3: in and the transfers. But that really, I'm guessing change
Speaker 3: the parameters of Merrow's job here, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would think it has. And it's interesting because
Speaker 4: Louisville has been a very much a transfer portal program
Speaker 4: the last two years. But maybe that you could attribute
Speaker 4: some of that to just having a new head coach
Speaker 4: and having to rebuild things. As you see again, they're
Speaker 4: cleaning up on the high school trail of this cycle.
Speaker 4: And I think they're not just in state and in Ohio.
Speaker 4: I think they're like tenth overall in the country right now.
Speaker 4: So you know, they're obviously maybe now that Bram has
Speaker 4: laid some roots and it's kind of established himself, that's
Speaker 4: going to change a little bit. But it's interesting to
Speaker 4: see how they continue doing business as far as you know,
Speaker 4: the portal and high school and the balance there. But yeah,
Speaker 4: it's just a different sport than it was even three
Speaker 4: years ago, let alone last year, and let alone five, six,
Speaker 4: seven years ago. In the heart of when Merrow was
Speaker 4: getting the big names from Kentucky. I mean, you had
Speaker 4: the one high school class whereas Cash Daniel Land and
Speaker 4: Young and Drake Jackson, and he's got all of them.
Speaker 4: Like those days are just not those that being a
Speaker 4: massive win. Those days are unfortunately over. And I'm sure
Speaker 4: that's been tough for Mary to accept because that is
Speaker 4: what makes him special as a recruiter. But at the
Speaker 4: same time, you know, Kentucky has fallen behind for whatever reason,
Speaker 4: and you know, you have to just wonder where Meryll
Speaker 4: plays into it and maybe where they could have utilized
Speaker 4: him more if he feels like he needed to make
Speaker 4: this type of statement move. I mean, this is a
Speaker 4: statement that he's making. It's not to do this in
Speaker 4: June and to go to the Art Trival. And I understand,
Speaker 4: you know he played with Jeff Brown and Brown in
Speaker 4: the XFL and he has a good relationship with him
Speaker 4: and Brian Brahm, But like, make this move to the
Speaker 4: Art rival in the middle of June during that high
Speaker 4: school recruiting period. He's making a statement here, and it's
Speaker 4: gonna be really interesting. We know he's going to go
Speaker 4: on radio at some point. It's gonna be really interesting
Speaker 4: to see what he has to say.
Speaker 3: Well, I wonder will there be a news conference where
Speaker 3: he basically you would say talking to one radio reporter
Speaker 3: talks to everybody you know that's gonna.
Speaker 4: Be fast, might talk to you all, yeah it will
Speaker 4: be fascinating, and yeah it will be And you know
Speaker 4: he'd love to get Mark Stoops.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 4: I think he's on vacation this week, is what I heard.
Speaker 4: So I'd love to hear what he has to say
Speaker 4: when he gets back, because you know, there needs to
Speaker 4: We'll hear from Mary, we know that, but I think
Speaker 4: there definitely needs to be something from UK side eventually.
Speaker 4: I know this hasn't been official yet, so I'm not
Speaker 4: getting on them for not doing anything yet, but there
Speaker 4: just needs to be answered. There's there's too much speculation
Speaker 4: out there for Kentucky to let it go unanswered.
Speaker 3: One think about that within the last two years, he
Speaker 3: gets he gets a Stoops gets a surprise call from
Speaker 3: Liam Cohen. Hey, I know I just got here, but
Speaker 3: I'm leaving again.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: I can't imagine this was as much of a shock
Speaker 3: the Stoops as close as he has been, you know,
Speaker 3: with Vince Marrill, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't know we heard on I'll say, because we're
Speaker 4: already out there, but I know someone else put it
Speaker 4: out different outlet, but you know, Kentucky really didn't hear
Speaker 4: about it till the Pete Tamil treat. Wow, like that
Speaker 4: is the word that's out there, and that was out there.
Speaker 3: Imagine that. I'm imagine that's you're the final the final word.
Speaker 3: But I mean the vibe, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, probably, yeah, yeah, you could definitely sense the vibe.
Speaker 4: There's no question and clearly there had to have been
Speaker 4: a drift there. But again like Vince Merrill as a
Speaker 4: Sunday was recruiting for Kentucky. Yeah, our site learned. And
Speaker 4: then also, uh, Kentucky posted picture from I think it
Speaker 4: was either Friday or Saturday of some little you know,
Speaker 4: team get together thing they did, you know, team bonding
Speaker 4: drills and whatnot, and Vince Barrow was there shooting basketball.
Speaker 4: So it's like, what the heck happened?
Speaker 1: He must have just the.
Speaker 4: Bombs, must have just pushed it across the finish line.
Speaker 4: You know, it's it's going to be fascinating once the
Speaker 4: full truth comes out. There's just too much to speculate over.
Speaker 4: But no matter how you slice it, it's just the
Speaker 4: brutal pr look for Kentucky.
Speaker 3: Was the Tennessee quarterback that was at the team QB
Speaker 3: bonding event one night and at UCLA and x so
Speaker 3: he is Aaron the Cat's Paws. We'll come back and
Speaker 3: talk basketball with Aaron on the other side of the
Speaker 3: break here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking
Speaker 3: with Aaron Gershawan on the Cat's Pause. He covers baseball, football,
Speaker 3: basketball for the Cat's Paws. And you had a chance
Speaker 3: to talk with a couple of the basketball cats this week.
Speaker 3: Brandon Garrison will take away not a lot of shocking,
Speaker 3: not a lot of revelations coming out of that. But
Speaker 3: what did you take away first of all from your
Speaker 3: conversation with Oway that you enjoyed maybe more than anything else.
Speaker 1: A lot less drama there. Yeah, he was.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was really interesting to hear. He didn't really
Speaker 4: want to, which I thought was interesting go into too
Speaker 4: much detail about exactly what the scouts kind of laid
Speaker 4: out for him to work on. A lot of the times,
Speaker 4: you know, you ask these players that and they'll kind
Speaker 4: of give you the rundown of what the scouts told them.
Speaker 4: But he kind of seemed to want to. He didn't
Speaker 4: not give an non answer, but he kind of danced
Speaker 4: around it. So it was interesting that you know, maybe
Speaker 4: he wants to keep that close to the vest. Maybe
Speaker 4: he doesn't want to let h you know, put that
Speaker 4: on on video and then have the opponents kind of
Speaker 4: key in on what they what he's working on. Obviously
Speaker 4: that will you know, tab will be out there eventually.
Speaker 4: But I thought that was interesting. But you know, he
Speaker 4: said he just said all the right things that you know,
Speaker 4: he sounded like a mar Pope player. You know, he
Speaker 4: talked about how you know, yes, I could have definitely
Speaker 4: gone to the draft, and you know, all the all
Speaker 4: the word out there was he had a really good
Speaker 4: workout and he had a good combine and you know,
Speaker 4: probably still wouldn't have been a first round pick, but
Speaker 4: maybe worked in my worked his way into early second conversation,
Speaker 4: maybe mid second to where it would have been a
Speaker 4: little more interesting. But he said it just came down
Speaker 4: to wanting to win a national championship.
Speaker 1: And be the leader of this crew.
Speaker 4: And that I mean that's just you know music to fansiers.
Speaker 4: There was no yeah, yeah, he mentioned like I could
Speaker 4: come back and improve my stock, but the fact that
Speaker 4: was like the fourth thing he mentioned, you know a
Speaker 4: lot of the times the players innocently, he'll be like, yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, I'm.
Speaker 1: Not there yet.
Speaker 4: I want to boost my stock. I want to come back. No,
Speaker 4: he said, I want to come back, be the leader,
Speaker 4: win a national championship. And he brought up the stock
Speaker 4: later on. So I thought that was really interesting and probably,
Speaker 4: like I said, music to Sans Eers.
Speaker 3: You know what was interesting as well to me was
Speaker 3: that when when somebody asked him specifically about his game,
Speaker 3: he mentioned three point shooting and I thought, exactly not
Speaker 3: not accuracy. He said, they like, they liked the way
Speaker 3: I shoot it, but they want to see more. And
Speaker 3: I thought, well, okay, you know that you're in the
Speaker 3: right place, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's for sure.
Speaker 4: And he brought it up too that Kentucky did not
Speaker 4: take as many threes as they wanted to last year.
Speaker 1: The goal is thirty five a game.
Speaker 4: They were at twenty five a game, even Dyu. You
Speaker 4: look at his mark post last year at YU they
Speaker 4: finished second in the country in three attempts at thirty
Speaker 4: two a game, So you're seven off from what they did.
Speaker 4: So they didn't Obviously, the injuries and the roster, the
Speaker 4: lineup shuffling with the injuries, had something to say about it,
Speaker 4: but still they didn't want to shoot as many threties.
Speaker 4: And you know take away, Yeah, I mean he did.
Speaker 4: He's not wrong. I mean he shot thirty five point
Speaker 4: five on ninety three attemts. That's not at all a
Speaker 4: bad average. He shot, you know, thirty seven percent on
Speaker 4: around sixty issue attempts at Oklahoma the year before, also
Speaker 4: not a bad average. So yeah, you can definitely see
Speaker 4: why they want to see the volume increase a little
Speaker 4: bit because he's making them. And at the end of
Speaker 4: the day, if you're making them, that's all the matters.
Speaker 4: The hitch should look off and we could, we could
Speaker 4: analyze it and criticize it all we want. If the
Speaker 4: SHOT's going to go down, who cares. The NBA won't
Speaker 4: care as long as he's making it.
Speaker 3: The question I have and I will perpetually have, is
Speaker 3: why do you seek thirty to thirty five threes? I
Speaker 3: know the numbers, I know the arithmetic, I know the math.
Speaker 3: But everybody knows this, including the other team. And you
Speaker 3: saw teams, Aaron, you covered these games. Yeah, down the
Speaker 3: stretch last year working their tails off on running Kentucky
Speaker 3: off at one point. How does that work? You know
Speaker 3: what I mean?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think there's some chest to it, Like I
Speaker 4: don't think it. You saw Kentucky, you know, get creative
Speaker 4: when they had to and get in the paint. Obviously
Speaker 4: it's say, oh, it was really good in the paint.
Speaker 4: Mary Williams was dominant that they're in the paint at
Speaker 4: times last year. I mean I go back to that
Speaker 4: game ahead against the Inner Belt where he was I
Speaker 4: think six or six from the field and five for
Speaker 4: five from the line and just dominating in the paint.
Speaker 4: They could not slow them down all So, you know
Speaker 4: they have they had different ways they could beat you
Speaker 4: last year. But you know, they make it no secret
Speaker 4: that they hope they can just the threes they hope.
Speaker 4: I think a lot of that comes from, yeah, you
Speaker 4: can if you have a slower possession, you can definitely
Speaker 4: lock down the three point line. But Kentucky wants to
Speaker 4: fly up and down the court, and they did not
Speaker 4: go as fast as they wanted to last year with
Speaker 4: Lamont Butler in and out of the lineup, with Jackson
Speaker 4: Robinson being the guy who was most comfortable with it
Speaker 4: out for the last month of the season, with Andrew
Speaker 4: Carr's back injury, like they just could not go as
Speaker 4: fast as they wanted to. They had to reinvent the
Speaker 4: wheel a little bit. So I think their thought is, hey,
Speaker 4: if we're at our best, you know, if we run
Speaker 4: a gun, Yeah they can. They can stop the they
Speaker 4: could hawk the three point line if we have a
Speaker 4: slower possession, but they can if we get up and
Speaker 4: down the court at warp speed. And that's kind of
Speaker 4: what Alabama does right where. They were number one in
Speaker 4: the country in temple last year, and I'm sure I
Speaker 4: think they're I want to say it was the SEC
Speaker 4: in three point attempts, but no one could catch up
Speaker 4: to them to slow down.
Speaker 1: The three point attempts.
Speaker 4: So you know, if that if Kentucky runs at the
Speaker 4: taste they want, I think that's the line of.
Speaker 1: Thinking, man.
Speaker 3: And what's fascinating though, is Florida wins the championship and
Speaker 3: leans so much and maybe not primarily on size and
Speaker 3: depth of the bigs, so more than one way to
Speaker 3: get the job done.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they had that Florida team. I think Kentucky, really,
Speaker 4: if you've got Mark Mark, buff's never going to stay
Speaker 4: out loud. But I think if you got and maybe
Speaker 4: he would.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 4: He kind of says what's on his mind. But I
Speaker 4: think if you were to ask him, Okay, what was
Speaker 4: kind of a model. If there's a team you were
Speaker 4: modeling your offseason playing after, who was it? I think
Speaker 4: he would say Florida, because Florida just had depth everywhere. Yes,
Speaker 4: in the front court, they had the five five capable
Speaker 4: guys in the front court and they bring four of
Speaker 4: them back this year, by the way. And then in
Speaker 4: the back court they had four to five guys as well.
Speaker 4: You know, obviously they had you know, the trio with Martin,
Speaker 4: Clayton and Richard that got the headlines and Aberdeen as
Speaker 4: the four man in that spot, but just loaded that
Speaker 4: whole roster and Kentucky that's kind of how this roster feels.
Speaker 4: I'm not saying they're gonna be as good or have
Speaker 4: the same season Florida had, but I think that's exactly
Speaker 4: what they wanted to model. If you go look at
Speaker 4: their front court, they have several capable players. You look
Speaker 4: at the fourth spot, several capable players, the three spot,
Speaker 4: you know with Cam Williams, there a backup, you know
Speaker 4: to Otega. Maybe if Otega's not playing the two. I mean,
Speaker 4: they just they have so many different ways they can
Speaker 4: beat you. And I really think he looked at what
Speaker 4: Florida did and it's like, well that that seemed to
Speaker 4: work pretty well. Let's try to replicate that.
Speaker 3: Speaking of bigs, we've only got a couple of minutes slept.
Speaker 3: And I know you also talked, as we all did,
Speaker 3: to Brandon Garrison, who seems excited to get the year
Speaker 3: number two, carry a bigger load what he learned from
Speaker 3: Amari Williams, and he's comfortable with being a leader, or
Speaker 3: at least the thought of being a leader this year.
Speaker 3: Did you get that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure, I mean, and it was interesting. He
Speaker 4: definitely was more of You could hear it just from
Speaker 4: being near the court during the postseason, and you know,
Speaker 4: he was definitely more vocal by those by the end
Speaker 4: of last year, like he was starting to take that
Speaker 4: leadership role on with all the injuries they had. He
Speaker 4: was very, very emotional in Norman against Oklahoma. And you
Speaker 4: know Mark Tope saw that story afraid it was right
Speaker 4: after the gam Wars and Express conference, how he wanted
Speaker 4: to break the team down and kind of be the
Speaker 4: leader that day and he took that. So, you know,
Speaker 4: I think building on that and bringing that into this
Speaker 4: year will be big. And you know, I asked him
Speaker 4: about you know, obviously the Amari Williams relationship was kind
Speaker 4: of like a big brother little brother thing last year
Speaker 4: and he has a chance. It's so the strike the
Speaker 4: similarities between you know, Quainton's obviously this guy is going
Speaker 4: to have an NBA career Between the two, but the
Speaker 4: similarities between the two are kind of startling. Where they
Speaker 4: both come from the Big twelve, their year removed from
Speaker 4: being McDonald's all Americans, they probably felt like, well, Quainton's
Speaker 4: couldn't be.
Speaker 1: But both of them.
Speaker 4: Probably like we're one and done talent, like we're going
Speaker 4: into our second year of college.
Speaker 1: What's next?
Speaker 4: And you know, it's very interesting how similar their backgrounds are.
Speaker 4: And Brandon gets to use what he learned from Amari
Speaker 4: Williams to kind of be that same big brother figure
Speaker 4: to Gaben Quaintons, and you know, he gave a pretty
Speaker 4: good answer on that as well. So I think it's
Speaker 4: a really interesting dynamic that you know, his experiences from
Speaker 4: Rocky should kind of step.
Speaker 1: Into that Amari role.
Speaker 4: I don't know if he's gonna be as good as
Speaker 4: a Marii, but he could definitely bring some of that
Speaker 4: leadership stuff.
Speaker 3: He is Aaron Gershawan. He is the beat writer for
Speaker 3: the cast. Bass covers baseball, football, and basketball. We talk
Speaker 3: with him every week. Thank you, sir anytime, and you
Speaker 3: can follow him on Twitter or x if you like.
Speaker 3: At A gershawn g E R s h O N
Speaker 3: ninety nine A Gershan ninety nine. Coming up in hour
Speaker 3: number two is the Unforgettable Guard Sean Woods. We'll talk
Speaker 3: about rule changes in college basketball. He played and coached
Speaker 3: college b ball and Western Beer chief Gary Moore here
Speaker 3: on six thirty w LAP.
Speaker 5: Then any such such tact taping.
Speaker 1: The show.
Speaker 5: Can anything, then.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to the Big One. Sader joining us as
Speaker 3: he does each and every Wednesday, is the Unforgettable Guard.
Speaker 3: Shawn Woods is Jersey and the Rafters of RUP. It
Speaker 3: was a wildcat back late eighties early nineties. Much has
Speaker 3: changed coach since and and by the way, he is
Speaker 3: the head coach now at Scott County High So much
Speaker 3: has changed since you played. You might look like a youngster,
Speaker 3: but you know the years have gone by. The NA
Speaker 3: Playing Rules Oversight Panel I talked about it earlier in
Speaker 3: the show. They are proposing changes expected to enhance the
Speaker 3: flow of men's college basketball, including coaches challenges to review
Speaker 3: out abound calls and goaltending or basketing interference and things
Speaker 3: like that, rules on the continuous motion on shot attempt
Speaker 3: stuff like that. As a guy who has coached at
Speaker 3: the D one level, I got to think you welcome that,
Speaker 3: am I right?
Speaker 1: I welcome it, Dick. But you know, just like everybody
Speaker 1: else we're looking to we're trying to manufacture the game
Speaker 1: of basketball on too much anymore. You know, we're trying
Speaker 1: to control it and create the pace instead of just
Speaker 1: letting everything be natural, you know what I mean. I
Speaker 1: think we're putting too much emphasis with referees to where
Speaker 1: they're controlling the game too much. It's almost like, you know,
Speaker 1: you have human talent and it's it's governed and refereed
Speaker 1: by humans, right, so you can't you know, so you
Speaker 1: got to let humans make human decisions instead of you know,
Speaker 1: overseeing everything going to a monitor or changing the way
Speaker 1: referees rep the game. You know, when they've been referend
Speaker 1: this a certain way for so many for so long,
Speaker 1: and now you're allowing more mistakes to come into play
Speaker 1: because this is not a natural reaction or natural thing
Speaker 1: that they've been doing their whole refereeing career. So now
Speaker 1: now there's going to be mistakes there, Coaches gonna try
Speaker 1: to gonna be mad because you know, referees aren't used
Speaker 1: to this, so that you're allowing more mistakes. Okay, Now
Speaker 1: everything's going to a monitor where you might as well
Speaker 1: just throw the referees out of the game, take them
Speaker 1: to throw them out, and just feel and and and
Speaker 1: call your own foules. Then if you call a wrong
Speaker 1: foul and the other team challenges that go to the monitor.
Speaker 1: You know that that that's what we're going to now,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And you know we we
Speaker 1: we always saying you know that they're trying to take
Speaker 1: great defense and physicality out of the game. Would flow
Speaker 1: and freedom of movement? Well look at the NBA. Now
Speaker 1: you know you and and and and you can't you
Speaker 1: get punished for hustle toughness. You know that that that's
Speaker 1: not even you know, legal anymore. You know, you know,
Speaker 1: stopping a guy from from from getting to a spot, well,
Speaker 1: that's the strategic part of playing defense. Not letting the
Speaker 1: guy go to where he wants to go so they
Speaker 1: can't score. You know, So when is it going to end?
Speaker 1: You know, Uh, you're gonna give like now, you're gonna
Speaker 1: give oas you know what I mean by that. Just
Speaker 1: open up and let guys go and not form a
Speaker 1: sense of wall to not let them go and and
Speaker 1: and and be and do wherever and whenever they want
Speaker 1: to go. I mean, that's that's not basketball. That's not competitiveness.
Speaker 1: That's just you know, and you're thinking that's helping the game.
Speaker 1: You're thinking that's you know, creating more awareness and and
Speaker 1: and and attendiveness to the game of basketball. No, the
Speaker 1: reason why the game of basketball, especially in the NBA,
Speaker 1: is going down is because there there's no more passing.
Speaker 1: One guy is drilling the air out of the ball.
Speaker 1: You know, you can't be physical, you can't play defense.
Speaker 1: You know that that that's the reason why the game
Speaker 1: is changing and people don't want to watch anymore. But
Speaker 1: don't kill the purity of high school and college basketball
Speaker 1: by doing all this, because you know, the game is
Speaker 1: good where it is. The only problem with the game
Speaker 1: now is the transfer potal and how much money is involved.
Speaker 1: And guys trying to get to it from the NBA,
Speaker 1: but not the rules. You know, every year you want
Speaker 1: to change the rules and reinvent the will no, let
Speaker 1: the game of basketball be what it always has been,
Speaker 1: you know, and stop trying to be so idealistic and
Speaker 1: changing every year of how we do this and how
Speaker 1: we do that, thinking it's making the game better. Fans
Speaker 1: aren't complaining about the game, you know, coaches really not
Speaker 1: complaining about the game. But you're you're trying to put
Speaker 1: so much in it, so now you're confusing referees and
Speaker 1: now they don't know how to ref and govern the game,
Speaker 1: which allows more mistakes to happen.
Speaker 3: You know, it's funny, that's the same complain about the
Speaker 3: NFL now, is they let so much go because they
Speaker 3: can go back and fix it on review, which by
Speaker 3: default slow down the flow of the game, no doubt
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 1: I mean, look at the last five minutes of a
Speaker 1: college basketball game. It takes an hour. Yeah, yeah, because
Speaker 1: every every play is got to go to the monitor
Speaker 1: to make sure you get it right, and then it
Speaker 1: takes what three to four minutes at least to figure
Speaker 1: that out.
Speaker 3: So you know, the problem is the problem is, coach,
Speaker 3: the toothpaste is out of the tube. They've already gone
Speaker 3: to the video review. There have been mistakes that can
Speaker 3: be rectified by that. Losses turn into wins, wins turn
Speaker 3: into losses. So how do you move away from that?
Speaker 3: How do you you know, can you do less of that?
Speaker 3: Because anytime there's a mistake that's not reviewable, people are
Speaker 3: going to be screaming. They ought to be looking at that.
Speaker 3: They've got the technology, you know, why not you review this?
Speaker 3: Why don't you review that? I feel like it's too late.
Speaker 1: You know, it is too late, you know, And like
Speaker 1: I said before, you know, referees have been you know,
Speaker 1: blow a car here there since the beginning of the time,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, and you know, to try
Speaker 1: to get everything right, slowing the thing down, making sure.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know it's a lot of money, and
Speaker 1: you know, guys are losing jobs because of winning, losses
Speaker 1: and and everything. And you know, because here's the one
Speaker 1: thing I can say now, referees got the best gig
Speaker 1: in the business because at the end of every game,
Speaker 1: no matter who wins or loses, they gonna drink their
Speaker 1: beer after the game. They're gonna get on their plane.
Speaker 1: They're gonna go to the next one and make that one.
Speaker 1: While that's that coach Winna lose is gonna be sitting
Speaker 1: there watching take miserable because he didn't do this and
Speaker 1: do that. So that's that they get off too easy.
Speaker 1: But then again, you're you're you're you're confusing them too.
Speaker 1: You know, when they're going to these camps and doing
Speaker 1: these clinics, doing these AU tournaments. You know, there's not
Speaker 1: too many monitors there. They just got to get it right.
Speaker 3: Well, I'll push back a little on behalf of well
Speaker 3: from one thing my brother who's a referee. But uh,
Speaker 3: and I've done it a little bit. Not at the
Speaker 3: college level, of course, but those guys are held accountable
Speaker 3: and women are held accountable by supervisors and they're fired
Speaker 3: at the end of the year. It's not public, it's
Speaker 3: not a headline press conference thing. But many of them
Speaker 3: simply are not invited back. Uh, you know, so there.
Speaker 3: I think there should be more accountability. Uh, there should be.
Speaker 3: If there's a questionable call at the end of a game,
Speaker 3: they should be forced to talk to a media representative
Speaker 3: and not just give well that's the call we made.
Speaker 3: And that's that. No, that's nonsense.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: But yeah, they're paid pretty good money to these days, too,
Speaker 3: aren't they.
Speaker 1: Yes, they are. I mean, you got referees making three
Speaker 1: or four thousand dollars a game. Yeah, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean they're doing. You know that, that's the sick
Speaker 1: Most referees at that level are hot, six figure guys.
Speaker 1: And they got other jobs besides that. Most of them
Speaker 1: are attorneys or whatever. You know. But yeah, they get
Speaker 1: to go home and and and no worries, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, from no scrutiny, you know, if they
Speaker 1: make it back call. Yeah, yeah, they scrutiny from there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but not like you do. Yeah no, well, actually
Speaker 3: that's not true. They get holy hell from fans.
Speaker 1: Uh but yeah, that's.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But then a coach, But then a coach gets reprimand
Speaker 1: to make a comment about a referee, right, you know,
Speaker 1: come on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got you, all right. There is also more
Speaker 3: going on, of course, with the House settlement. I talked
Speaker 3: earlier about some comments by Jay Billis and the NAL.
Speaker 3: Sean and I have spent a lot of time talking
Speaker 3: about that, and we will talk about that on the
Speaker 3: other side of the break here on six thirty w
Speaker 3: l A. P. Welcome back to the Big bluon Sider.
Speaker 3: We're talking to Sean Woods, the unforgettable guard. His jersey
Speaker 3: hangs in the rafters of rupp. He is the head
Speaker 3: coach at Scott County High School, but also a veteran
Speaker 3: of D one basketball. And since you and I chatted last,
Speaker 3: the news was breaking about the house settlement and now
Speaker 3: the new salary cap. Jay Billis has weighed in as
Speaker 3: he often does, and he believes that the nil will
Speaker 3: bring about, you know, the money that goes to the
Speaker 3: athletes in a regular basis. Most athletes, they're not all
Speaker 3: going to get it, but there will be essentially contracts
Speaker 3: in place, and he believes that will severely limit the
Speaker 3: amount of movement by these players. I know all these
Speaker 3: rules are so new right now, Sean, but does that
Speaker 3: give you cost for optimism?
Speaker 1: It does, because now you're starting to put rules and
Speaker 1: regulations and stipulations into these situations. Now. I mean, first
Speaker 1: of all, it was just straight money, no contractual situations,
Speaker 1: so nothing that's right now. Since now since we it's
Speaker 1: not amateur anymore, it's professionalism. Whenever you start to get paid,
Speaker 1: it's got to be some type of contractual. You know,
Speaker 1: there's got to be some some things in there to
Speaker 1: protect the school and to protect the student athlete too,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And it's got to be
Speaker 1: something in it when you when you're under a contract,
Speaker 1: now everything is guaranteed. So these things hadn't been guaranteed.
Speaker 1: That's why a lot of kids it's not been said,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of kids around the country who
Speaker 1: are going to schools thinking that they're getting their nil
Speaker 1: money and a lot of them aren't getting it at
Speaker 1: the end of the day. So now it's holding the schools,
Speaker 1: the institutions accountable, and also it's holding the kid accountable
Speaker 1: because now you got to be you know, if you
Speaker 1: miss class, you know what I'm saying, you need to
Speaker 1: be docked. If you know it can to be. Can
Speaker 1: you make it a situation where it's got to be
Speaker 1: a two year deal and the only way you can
Speaker 1: break it there's.
Speaker 3: A buyout, yes exactly.
Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, so you know what if you know,
Speaker 1: because the thing is coaches like, well, what if we
Speaker 1: don't want the kid to come back? Well, here's the hill.
Speaker 1: There was a runoff. There's always been a runoff rule.
Speaker 1: In n C two A. Now it's not it's skill
Speaker 1: in the bylaws, but nobody's nobody's talking about it anymore.
Speaker 3: What do you mean?
Speaker 1: What what rule a runoff rule to where you can't
Speaker 1: just can't just cut a kid anymore. You remember how
Speaker 1: it used to be you had to have calls, You
Speaker 1: had to have calls to not renew a kids scholarshipmore. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: you know. So you know from that standpoint, you got
Speaker 1: to do it with the kid too, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. You know, if that kid leaves, you know
Speaker 1: there's a buyout, you know, if you want to transfer
Speaker 1: and you want to get more money. Just like a
Speaker 1: coach got buyout in his contract. Kids got to have
Speaker 1: buyouts in their contract. Yeah, you know. Kids got to
Speaker 1: have rules and regulations on you know, going to class,
Speaker 1: being laid, having a great attitude, being docked, just like
Speaker 1: a pro. If you're we're paying these guys like pros.
Speaker 1: Put in their contract there's stipulation that you got a
Speaker 1: vibe by and if you don't a vibe by him,
Speaker 1: either you getting dot a certain amount, okay, or that
Speaker 1: contract can be voided. So all that's got to be
Speaker 1: in your verbiage when you put these contracts together, and
Speaker 1: if I'm back coaching, I'm putting everything in there, not
Speaker 1: only to protect me, but to protect my institutions too.
Speaker 1: So now it's going to be more control. And it
Speaker 1: makes more sense because the last two three years has
Speaker 1: been like the wild wild West.
Speaker 3: Yes, and all of this player movement goes toward trying
Speaker 3: to maintain and build culture. What some people say is
Speaker 3: an overuse word now, but it's a good word within
Speaker 3: college athletic programs. And you sent me a tweet from
Speaker 3: barstool with the John Gruden Chucky who's staying in the
Speaker 3: public eye while he tries to get another their head
Speaker 3: coaching job. But his concern, and it's a good one,
Speaker 3: and he's talking specifically about football, Sean, but you can
Speaker 3: appay to any sport is how do you build culture
Speaker 3: within your program? And I can't imagine what it would
Speaker 3: be like for any coach at any level, high school, college, pro,
Speaker 3: with so much traffic, Now, how do you instill that
Speaker 3: in your players? And I know that's a main concern
Speaker 3: of yours.
Speaker 1: Oh, not trying to bring up a can of worms.
Speaker 1: You know what's open up a can of worms? Our
Speaker 1: football coach, our football coach is dealing with that right now,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking I'm just looking at.
Speaker 3: It from a far doubt.
Speaker 1: He's being realistic and nobody else is being realistic. Okay,
Speaker 1: if you ain't got the funds. Okay, First of all,
Speaker 1: Kentucky has always been seventh or eighth as far as recruiting.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna out You're not going to out recruit Alabama.
Speaker 1: You're not going to out recruit Florida. You're not going
Speaker 1: to out recruit some of these schools in the SEC.
Speaker 1: You're not We've never had, right. Okay, Now, you throw
Speaker 1: money into the situation. Okay, now it sets them that
Speaker 1: far back. Now you throw Texas in here, Oklahoma in here.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. Now, that sets you back
Speaker 1: because Kentucky has never been that on a regular basis
Speaker 1: as far as football is concerned. Okay, So he's just
Speaker 1: being realistic on how we can overcome this. I'm sure
Speaker 1: Mark Steups did not want Oklahoma and Texas to come
Speaker 1: into the SEC. If I'm a coach, I don't want
Speaker 1: all those teams. That's just like when I was in
Speaker 1: the OBC. They brought Belmont and a couple of others
Speaker 1: in the OBC, and that was that wasn't cool, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And it's set more head back
Speaker 1: a little bit. But same in football, same in athletics period,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So how can you create
Speaker 1: culture when these kids are up and running every other year?
Speaker 1: It's impossible, exactly. You know, Florida has always been a
Speaker 1: main stand in SEC. Florida took a back seat the
Speaker 1: last years, you know what I mean. So this thing
Speaker 1: is is affecting all schools. It's affecting every coach.
Speaker 3: Walked the way of all people. Nick Shaven walked away.
Speaker 1: LSU. I was down there, I lived down there five years.
Speaker 1: How can that be a consistent situation when you got
Speaker 1: guys coming in and leaving all because of the almighty dollar.
Speaker 1: No one is going to on a consistent base. Connecticut
Speaker 1: had a run okay in basketball for two years now evenmore.
Speaker 1: You don't think that runs over? Really, that run is
Speaker 1: over the way that from a dominating standpoint of owning
Speaker 1: the Big East and get to get to the NCAA
Speaker 1: tournament every single year. Now, how can you because the
Speaker 1: force of his will, well, he's gonna give you everything
Speaker 1: he's got but guess what, his job is getting more complicated,
Speaker 1: just like everybody else is too because of the way
Speaker 1: things are. You know, you can't, you can't. You know,
Speaker 1: Mark Pope is are we better this year? We don't know.
Speaker 1: We know he's got more some more players, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Everybody's getting more players. But they're all different,
Speaker 1: they're all new. Everybody's going through the same thing again.
Speaker 3: And you worked, you worked in South Texas for a while. Uh.
Speaker 3: And one of the great examples of just this, this
Speaker 3: whole situation going nuts and going bust, it's Texas A
Speaker 3: and M. You know, they went out and bought that
Speaker 3: huge recruiting class and boy Saban raised a red flag
Speaker 3: and everybody gave him hell for and he backed away
Speaker 3: from But uh, you know, Jim Bow's gone, and A
Speaker 3: and M went eight and five last year.
Speaker 1: A and M.
Speaker 3: You know what kind of money those Texas schools have.
Speaker 1: But and M may be the richest school in all
Speaker 1: of college sports, maybe, And they can't get over the
Speaker 1: Hull being a national powels. When's last time and M
Speaker 1: played for a national championship in any sport?
Speaker 3: It's been a while.
Speaker 1: They may have the richest. They may they may be
Speaker 1: they may have the richest athletic program for one of
Speaker 1: the richest schools in America, or at least potentially.
Speaker 3: But here's the other thing that's crazy. Alabama last year
Speaker 3: spent two hundred and sixty two point eight million dollars
Speaker 3: on football alone and lost twenty eight million dollars. Now
Speaker 3: a lot of that was some of that was tied
Speaker 3: into the savings buyout, but that just tells you where
Speaker 3: the money is so insane.
Speaker 1: You know, it's about money now, it's not the purity
Speaker 1: of the game anymore. And that's what's becomes. That's what's sad, Dick,
Speaker 1: is Win's enough enough? When is it about purity of
Speaker 1: amateur athletics in college basketball or football or whatever? You know, Like,
Speaker 1: I've never watched softball. I watched almost every every every
Speaker 1: softball game in the NCAA tournament. Did you really yes?
Speaker 3: Wow?
Speaker 1: And because I'm looking at women who are just playing
Speaker 1: for the pure passion of being a softball player. Although
Speaker 1: I'm not saying any although they are getting paid, but
Speaker 1: just the mentality. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: But you did have a you'd have a picture of
Speaker 3: Texas Tech make a million dollars, But no doubt, that's uh,
Speaker 3: that's rare. That's that's the only picture who's made a
Speaker 3: million dollars in softball. But now I'm with you on that,
Speaker 3: and I'm glad baseball is finally going to get what
Speaker 3: it deserves. But for years, those of us who covered
Speaker 3: the sport were involved with it in any way, it
Speaker 3: was infuriating Sean that you had kids on the field
Speaker 3: at the college World Series who had to pay more
Speaker 3: to be there, or their parents had to pay for
Speaker 3: them to go to school. They've paid more than the
Speaker 3: people sitting in the stands who had to buy tickets.
Speaker 3: It costs the kid more to be at the World
Speaker 3: Series the than the fans. Yeah, at least some of
Speaker 3: that straining out of hope.
Speaker 1: Right, yes, yes, you have no doubt about it. It's
Speaker 1: just you know, I hope this works. I think it will.
Speaker 1: I think it's handing in the right direction. Uh that
Speaker 1: what came down the pipe. Just control it, Just control it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's got to be some type of control.
Speaker 1: You know, you got eighteen nineteen year old kids who
Speaker 1: are becoming you know, who are generating generational wealth right
Speaker 1: out of high school. Yeah, you know, and it's it's
Speaker 1: and you got guys that won't would never make the NBA,
Speaker 1: never make the NBA, but are getting millions of dollars
Speaker 1: you know to play college athletics.
Speaker 3: Crazy coach as always a pleasure. We could go on
Speaker 3: all night, but I thank you for your time and
Speaker 3: we will chat again soon.
Speaker 1: All right, Dick, take care about it up next.
Speaker 3: West End Bureau Chief Gary Moore here on the Big
Speaker 3: Moon Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big
Speaker 3: Moon Sider. Joining us down. Our celebrity hotline is none
Speaker 3: other than our Western Chief Gary Moore. That's right, celebrity highline.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: He joins us every week from LA the Louisville area,
Speaker 3: after joining us for several years from Los Angeles. And again,
Speaker 3: the rule is why you're on the celebrity highline. You
Speaker 3: are a celebrity, so make the most of it. And
Speaker 3: you always do.
Speaker 6: Two guys in a six pack for what it's worth, Dick,
Speaker 6: here we go.
Speaker 7: You know, there is no guarantee.
Speaker 6: There was no guarantee when I was a bad boy
Speaker 6: at many Murray State games that one day I'd be
Speaker 6: on with the best sports host in America. You and
Speaker 6: say these words, Murray State is in the College World.
Speaker 7: Series, but you never know, you never know.
Speaker 6: And in the words of ex Laker Shaquille O'Neil, that
Speaker 6: still echo in my brain from that day when I was.
Speaker 7: Out there in LA.
Speaker 6: Can you dig it so I can hear the thinking
Speaker 6: already with some people in the sports world alleged know
Speaker 6: it all and maybe even a few cynical fans back home. Well,
Speaker 6: you know they won the conference, but you know they
Speaker 6: can't be Georgia Tech or especially Old Miss at Old
Speaker 6: Miss wrong then it was well, they surprised everybody, but
Speaker 6: you know, the magic's probably over. At Duke it was
Speaker 6: a nice wrong. Now they got to go beat UCLA,
Speaker 6: very doable. Then the winner if that happens, and I
Speaker 6: think it will, the winner of Arkansas and LSU, the
Speaker 6: two lone SEC teams remaining with the two best betting
Speaker 6: odds by the way to win it all. Murray and
Speaker 6: Louisville have the worst odds. But you know what, if
Speaker 6: I was a betting man putting money down, I would
Speaker 6: not bet against the racers. Not after this past week.
Speaker 6: Murray and UCLA Saturday, two pm ESPN, What say you you.
Speaker 3: Know I give Murray a chance in every game, and
Speaker 3: not just because Murray bea Kentucky earlier this year. But
Speaker 3: I was thinking about the Murray after they won, and
Speaker 3: I was remembering the ballgame, right, But what I remember
Speaker 3: the most, believe it or not. And you can try
Speaker 3: to call BS on me, but you can ask my
Speaker 3: broadcast partner. I said prior to us going on the
Speaker 3: air on SEC Plus, I said, you know what, they
Speaker 3: warmed up really well. And that might sound like something
Speaker 3: goofy to say, but coaches talk a lot about, not publicly,
Speaker 3: but you know, play the way you warm up. I've
Speaker 3: seen coaches stop warm ups at various levels. Good point
Speaker 3: and say, guys, get your mind on your business. I'm
Speaker 3: watching Murray warm up, and I mean, it's crisp, it's sharp,
Speaker 3: it's very professional. There were no wasted movements. They weren't slacking.
Speaker 3: They were working hard at their craft. And then they
Speaker 3: played that way and they kept playing that way the
Speaker 3: rest of the year. So nothing would not just because
Speaker 3: of that, Gary, because I watched them beat you, nothing
Speaker 3: would surprise me. They got popping their bats, yep, and
Speaker 3: they got some live arms.
Speaker 6: What you just said is sort of a relative to
Speaker 6: you play the way you practice, exactly just what I
Speaker 6: think John Wood and said many many times. Yeah, second
Speaker 6: swig and a six pack. Now, besides saying words, I
Speaker 6: never thought I would ever utter Murray States in the
Speaker 6: College World Series.
Speaker 7: Here's here's thirteen more.
Speaker 6: I never thought I would say Murray State and Louisville
Speaker 6: could potentially meet for the World Series Championship games.
Speaker 7: What are the odds of that?
Speaker 1: Ah?
Speaker 3: Cool?
Speaker 6: Well, what were the odds of Louisville even getting to Omaha?
Speaker 6: After A they lost their last three conference series, B
Speaker 6: finished tenth tenth in the ACC, and C they went
Speaker 6: one and done in the ACC tournament. Oh, then there's
Speaker 6: D they had to play the number one overall seed
Speaker 6: on their home field in Nashville. Eric Crawford over here
Speaker 6: at WDRBTV has an absolutely terrific piece you gotta read
Speaker 6: if you haven't seen it already about how Cards coach
Speaker 6: Dan McDonald turned to the good Book the Bible, how
Speaker 6: scripture helped him deal with not making the postseason the
Speaker 6: last two years in a row, and all the chatter
Speaker 6: and criticism that went with that. Which probably explains that
Speaker 6: look is in that Dan had on his face every
Speaker 6: time the camera was on him in the Miami Games.
Speaker 7: I don't if you remember that.
Speaker 6: But it was like every time was on him, he
Speaker 6: had this look on his face like he knew, he
Speaker 6: knew what was gonna happen. And we'll see that same
Speaker 6: look come Friday evening in Omaha seven o'clock, Louisville and
Speaker 6: Oregon State on ESPN.
Speaker 3: You know, it's funny because we talked to Dougs, Lynn
Speaker 3: and I before our baseball broadcast. We try to talk
Speaker 3: to the opposing coaches. Practically every one of them welcomes
Speaker 3: us into their dugout and then we chat, learn about
Speaker 3: the team and just you know, have a couple of laughs.
Speaker 3: Doug and Dan go way back, and it's because of
Speaker 3: SCA connections and just Doug talking to his team. Doug
Speaker 3: will go over and talk to the u of L
Speaker 3: team on Dan's best. He's a good guy. He's one
Speaker 3: of the good guys in baseball, and he doesn't beat
Speaker 3: you up with his Bible, but he does lean on it.
Speaker 3: And yeah, it was a big part of their success
Speaker 3: this year. It was just him because you had to
Speaker 3: wonder what's going on over there after all that success
Speaker 3: and whatever it was that was going on. He just
Speaker 3: kept us sitting now, he complained, not loudly, but enough
Speaker 3: to where you could notice about some things that were
Speaker 3: going on and not going on at U of L.
Speaker 3: But just kept grinding, and here they are.
Speaker 6: The third swig relates to that dick with the look
Speaker 6: with going back and looking at that what you were
Speaker 6: just talking about, and ufl back to the college World
Speaker 6: Series for the half dozen time. I would imagine that
Speaker 6: the better resources that Dan has been asking for are
Speaker 6: going to start to materialize a little bit more. And
Speaker 6: obviously high timed or an elite program, without question, But
Speaker 6: I ask you what about Murray What can reaching the
Speaker 6: highest of heights for college baseball program mean for all
Speaker 6: the seasons that follow? Is it more nil money, stadium improvements,
Speaker 6: more local sponsorships? Now UK went obviously its first World
Speaker 6: Series last year. You can tell me what ripple effects,
Speaker 6: if any, have you seen for the Cats so far
Speaker 6: this year?
Speaker 3: Well, I think fan interest number one and it starts there. Now.
Speaker 3: Will that benefit Murray State? Sure? But unfortunately, and there
Speaker 3: are a lot of the Murray State of lums out there,
Speaker 3: But there are people like you who don't live in
Speaker 3: Murray anymore. You know, Ken they pull crowds to that
Speaker 3: tiny ballpark. Will they get a new stadium because it
Speaker 3: is probably not, but upgrades improvements?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 3: Will they get someone to mow the field and so
Speaker 3: the coach won't have to do it? I would hope so.
Speaker 3: But you got to mobilize racer fans and it can
Speaker 3: be done. You just got to sustain it. That's the key.
Speaker 3: But if you know, you got to strike while it's hot,
Speaker 3: and it's never been hotter obviously or Kentucky Baseball for
Speaker 3: Murray Baseball, and it is now. We saw good crowds
Speaker 3: in election because last year we always talked about how
Speaker 3: many people are here at Kentucky prop Park for the
Speaker 3: first time and then having a good time watching the game.
Speaker 3: I hope that's happening over at Murray.
Speaker 6: Fourth sway, I get a six pack. Speaking of resources,
Speaker 6: since our last visit a week ago, Dick, that judge
Speaker 6: finally approved the multi billion dollar settlement YEP, the three
Speaker 6: anti trust cases against the NCAA and the power conferences.
Speaker 6: You've been talking about it. On July, the first d
Speaker 6: one schools can start paying players from a twenty and
Speaker 6: a half million per school pool of dough only. Now
Speaker 6: this very agreement has opened up the chance for even
Speaker 6: more litigation. Why well, because as of today June the eleventh,
Speaker 6: an NIL clearinghouse run by accounting firm Deloitte, which is
Speaker 6: called nil Go, will serve as what the Athletic calls
Speaker 6: a restrictor plate on NIL collectives and pay for play
Speaker 6: red flagging deals worth at least six hundred bucks that
Speaker 6: don't fall within a reasonable range of compensation. According to
Speaker 6: the Athletic, well what's reasonable? Are we about to have
Speaker 6: a salary cap here? What's going on with this? Let's
Speaker 6: see that argument hold up in court. The Athletic Stewart
Speaker 6: Mandel said that every legal expert he's spoken to thinks
Speaker 6: there's a little chance this clearinghouse deal will survive a
Speaker 6: legal challenge. And earlier this year the Athletics spoke to
Speaker 6: Cal Stein, a sports law lawyer, and he said it
Speaker 6: in an interview. The house settlement started with the goal
Speaker 6: of the NCAA putting an end to the losses it's
Speaker 6: taken in these litigations over the country. But the great
Speaker 6: irony is it's really just going to lead to more
Speaker 6: lawsuits if you think about it. They've still got to
Speaker 6: deal with Title nine They've still got to deal with
Speaker 6: all the other things that are going on with that,
Speaker 6: in terms of employment of athletes, the conflicting state rules
Speaker 6: and laws about all of this stuff.
Speaker 7: I'm asking you, has.
Speaker 6: The wild wild West in college sports suddenly got even wilder?
Speaker 3: It could be. I talked about this earlier though, and
Speaker 3: Jay billis, of all people, he likes the thought of Deloitte,
Speaker 3: the accounting firm what do they call it, accounting and
Speaker 3: affirmation looking into these things. I think it's going to
Speaker 3: depend on whatever papers that they essentially contract that the
Speaker 3: athletes signed with the university. Now, the revenue that comes in,
Speaker 3: that's one thing, and still, as you said, exists outside.
Speaker 3: But he gave the example of you know, let's say
Speaker 3: a kid signs a four million dollar contract with the
Speaker 3: local auto dealership that only makes a million dollars a year.
Speaker 3: That's bogus. You know, they can't afford to pay that kid.
Speaker 3: So I think it just depends on how it's structured
Speaker 3: legally going in. But you and I also talked about
Speaker 3: the fact that there are attorneys out there right now drooling,
Speaker 3: just waiting for a chance to get at this. So yeah,
Speaker 3: it's not going to lock anything down. In fact, it
Speaker 3: may just open the gates a little.
Speaker 7: More Fitthswig and the six Pack.
Speaker 6: Last night in Atlanta, the Atlanta or the Indiana Fever
Speaker 6: played their fifth game in a row without Caitlin Clark,
Speaker 6: and they lost to the Dreams seventy seven to fifty
Speaker 6: eight Indies now two and three in those five games
Speaker 6: without her. But she slated to return Saturday at home
Speaker 6: against the nine to zero Liberty on ABC TV, and
Speaker 6: sure return not wearing her own signature shoe from Nike,
Speaker 6: which is still not ready after almost a year and
Speaker 6: a half after signing her, which has resulted in former
Speaker 6: marketing director for the Swoosh, Jordan Rodgers to post that
Speaker 6: Nike's blowing it, leaving millions on the table while their
Speaker 6: stock price has plummeted sixty percent since twenty twenty one. Meanwhile,
Speaker 6: Nike's rolled out signature shoe after shoe for a bunch
Speaker 6: of NBA players who don't move the needle nearly as
Speaker 6: much as Clark. For example, how many new Jahn Morant
Speaker 6: shoes have we seen in the past year. I don't
Speaker 6: know anybody, how to decide, of Memphis or Murray that
Speaker 6: would want one of those as Rogers said, quote, you
Speaker 6: have the unicorn, the chosen one, the one everyone wants
Speaker 6: to hear from, and you're just sitting around unquote. Hasn't
Speaker 6: been a problem for Gatoraders State Farm. They've been marketing
Speaker 6: her really well. So I'm wondering, is it me or
Speaker 6: is it Nike's lack of product for built in fan
Speaker 6: base ready to spend bucks, plus their disastrous MLB uniforms
Speaker 6: last year and these awful City Connect costumes that are
Speaker 6: still polluting the demands? Has Nike lost its mojo?
Speaker 1: Dick?
Speaker 3: I also wonder has Caitlin Clark been so many said Nope,
Speaker 3: I don't like that one. Nope, I don't like that one. Yeah.
Speaker 3: But it is curious, isn't it? Because man Nike literally
Speaker 3: wrote the book on this stuff.
Speaker 6: You thought that would have been out last year, especially
Speaker 6: in times of the All Star Game when she was
Speaker 6: really trending high. We'll see finally, Dick, sixth Wig Game
Speaker 6: three tonight of the NBA Game three really up to
Speaker 6: the third one at this rate, if there's gonna be
Speaker 6: a Game seven, they'll have like about a week off
Speaker 6: and then start the twenty five to twenty sixth season.
Speaker 6: But it resumes to night up at I sixty five
Speaker 6: at Indy, all tied up at a game a piece
Speaker 6: and the Pacers and the Thunders can thank former Pacer
Speaker 6: and Thunder player Paul George, now with the Sixers, who's
Speaker 6: by the way, yet to play in the finals on
Speaker 6: his own, for helping land the two biggest stars. Because
Speaker 6: let's go back to twenty seventeen, George was traded from
Speaker 6: Indy to Oklahoma City for two players, one of which
Speaker 6: would later be part of a package to Sacramento for
Speaker 6: the draft rights to Tada Tyrese Haliburton. Then in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 6: the Thunder traded George to the LA Clippers for UK
Speaker 6: star SGA, this year's NBA MVP. And in the words
Speaker 6: of a famous TV dad, Dope, I've got Indy winning tonight, Dick.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, this is such a great story
Speaker 3: because not only did they get SGA, but they also
Speaker 3: got a whole bunch of draft picks.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But I've read a couple of stories. This is so fascinating,
Speaker 3: and I'm glad you brought it up. But that was
Speaker 3: the pivotal point, was Paul George, And of course the
Speaker 3: SGA trade now being called one of the worst trades
Speaker 3: in the history of the NBA, the second only to
Speaker 3: the one between the MAVs and the Lakers. But really,
Speaker 3: if you want to connect the dots, and it was
Speaker 3: a great story out there, I think it's on the
Speaker 3: athletic This actually goes back to seven when moves began
Speaker 3: to be made and different people were hired for front offices,
Speaker 3: and the first move he made was this and that.
Speaker 3: It's quite the spider web of great stories. And it
Speaker 3: may come to fruition tomorrow night, really, but through the
Speaker 3: next couple of weeks, golly, probably for the next month
Speaker 3: as the's these playoffs move on. But it is fascinating,
Speaker 3: isn't it.
Speaker 7: I remember a pulse thinking I was watching this stuff.
Speaker 6: Am I gonna get traded from the Sixers now for?
Speaker 3: Because that's where it was. You got to open at
Speaker 3: some point, and by now I'm sure it hasn't. He's thinking, Hey,
Speaker 3: maybe it's me.
Speaker 7: Am I ever going to get that damn ring?
Speaker 3: Come on, man at a pawn shop. Maybe we'll step
Speaker 3: out and come back and talk more with Gary Reid,
Speaker 3: with coach, We'll step out and throw a couple of
Speaker 3: hot reads at Gary Moore in just a minute. He
Speaker 3: is our Western bureau chief here on the Big Moonsider
Speaker 3: six thirty WLAP Welcome back, We're talking with Gary Moore
Speaker 3: is our West End bureau chief. Now a couple of
Speaker 3: hot reads, Hey headlines, extra extra Aaron Rodgers got married Gary.
Speaker 3: We all we know about her is her name is
Speaker 3: Brittany with an I. Of course, I don't think she's
Speaker 3: a Hollywood actress, because we would know about this. He
Speaker 3: has dated high profile women in the past.
Speaker 6: Well, he said things like being in Pittsburgh is good
Speaker 6: for his soul. Yeah, not so much for the career
Speaker 6: or the pocketbook. Although he's not going to be eating
Speaker 6: spam unless he wants to with what thirteen million to
Speaker 6: sign or.
Speaker 7: Something in that neighborhood.
Speaker 6: But I hope he does well. I'm not a Steelers fan.
Speaker 6: I'm not Aaron Rodgers fan per se, but I hope
Speaker 6: the holy matrimony thing works out.
Speaker 7: He's going to be wearing.
Speaker 6: Number eight like he was well, first of all at
Speaker 6: cal Berkeley and then with the Jets, following in the
Speaker 6: great footsteps who also wore that famous number eight at Pittsburgh,
Speaker 6: Tommy Maddox and Kenny Pickett.
Speaker 7: So it's a legacy there, right, get.
Speaker 3: Your jersey now. And of course he couldn't wear twelve
Speaker 3: in Pittsburgh because Terry Bradshaw wore that. Unless you think
Speaker 3: Bradshaw has any thought of working, he's the guy who
Speaker 3: said they shouldn't even be talking to Rogers and he
Speaker 3: needs to go back to California and eat bark. He
Speaker 3: may have already done that. Maybe my biggest question about
Speaker 3: is is and again, congrats to him. I appreciate the
Speaker 3: Super Bowl championship in Green Bay. My question about his
Speaker 3: new bride is will she enjoy the hallucinis? Is the
Speaker 3: way he does? You know, maybe they were doing that
Speaker 3: when they got married. Our second high read for Gary
Speaker 3: involves more than nuts and bolts of the NFL. The
Speaker 3: Bengals and Trey Hendrickson cannot seem to get together. Gary.
Speaker 3: Here's a guy who has led the league in sacks
Speaker 3: over each to the last two years. When is the
Speaker 3: last time the Bengals had a guy like that? They
Speaker 3: backed up the Brinks truck to the bank for the
Speaker 3: wide receivers. How in the world, in this day and age,
Speaker 3: can you not do everything you can to come to
Speaker 3: terms with a guy like that? This could be your
Speaker 3: Reggie White. And I know it's a different time, but
Speaker 3: Reggie White settles in with the Packers, more defenders followed.
Speaker 3: They built a championship team.
Speaker 6: How can you not do this, especially after last season
Speaker 6: when Joe Burrow had to score, you know, had to
Speaker 6: lead the offense to score at least forty points, yes,
Speaker 6: to at least meet a chance yet have a chance
Speaker 6: in those games. They don't have any defensive ends right now,
Speaker 6: apparently signed because their number one draft choice from Texas
Speaker 6: A and M Shamar Stewart still hasn't signed this rookie.
Speaker 6: And he's a rookie that's slot money too. Yeah, and
Speaker 6: Burrow has already said this is a distraction. Your number
Speaker 6: one guys is saying on all this is a distraction.
Speaker 6: So they got to sign this guy. I predict they'll
Speaker 6: probably sign him. He came in to talk the other day.
Speaker 6: I guess what was a Monday.
Speaker 3: To Zach.
Speaker 6: But I don't They got to get this done. There's
Speaker 6: no way you can go through this season and then
Speaker 6: not even think about trading this guy. You have to
Speaker 6: have him in their period exclamation point.
Speaker 3: Now, because when you think about what happens if they
Speaker 3: lose him. He's in his last year. You know they're
Speaker 3: going to be two dozen teams lining up.
Speaker 7: Yep, pay him money. Watch The other thing too.
Speaker 3: Though, is he's thirty years old, not exactly a doddering
Speaker 3: old gentleman in the NFL, but his windows closing and
Speaker 3: plays an extremely physical, demanding position. So you got to
Speaker 3: tell you, I'm not seeing lock him up for eight years,
Speaker 3: but you got to take steps and then they can
Speaker 3: write contracts, as you all know, front end them things
Speaker 3: like that, front low, backload whatever. But when do the
Speaker 3: Cincinnati Bengals have the opportunity to lock up a guy.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying he's Aaron Donald, but they lost to
Speaker 3: a team that had Aaron Donald in the Super Bowl
Speaker 3: and Aaron Donald was a difference maker in that game specifically, wasn't.
Speaker 1: He he was?
Speaker 6: And the Lions lost their star defensive end last year too,
Speaker 6: and look what happened to them. Uh, you need to
Speaker 6: get this guy in there that make it a priority.
Speaker 6: If you don't want to own a pro football team
Speaker 6: or professional team and pay your players, then get out
Speaker 6: of the business, is the way I look at it.
Speaker 7: Pay him.
Speaker 3: He is Gary Moore, He is our West End bureau chief.
Speaker 3: We traveled him each and every week and if you
Speaker 3: want more of more you go to Twitter or x
Speaker 3: and search him at.
Speaker 6: At nine to five five Gary, that same fab with
Speaker 6: this joint.
Speaker 7: You're founder.
Speaker 3: I'm a big inside one. Thank you, brother. Have a
Speaker 3: great week, go racers, go cards.
Speaker 7: Happy Father's Day after everybody.
Speaker 3: That's it. Good night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 1: But I'm disturbed, I'm depressed.
Speaker 7: I'm inadequate.
Speaker 5: I got it all. Don't singing snatch pacing, don't have
Speaker 5: to back them from Tatton School, Colon Fumton School, Conco