Speaker 1: That being said, I'll always take my talents to the
Speaker 1: University of Executive.
Speaker 2: That was the announcement earlier today at Great Crossing High
Speaker 2: School as Malachim Moreno decides he will be a Kentucky Wildcat,
Speaker 2: and soon the fight song followed. His teammates came up
Speaker 2: to the stage as he made the announcements to everybody
Speaker 2: sat or stood and clapped a wrong cheer along with
Speaker 2: the fight song. This is not a huge surprise, but
Speaker 2: he could have gone anywhere. Really, when you're six ten
Speaker 2: and a half that's what he is officially listed at,
Speaker 2: with a wingspan of seven foot one. Everybody wants you,
Speaker 2: but chose to stay home, and unlike most kids these days,
Speaker 2: instead of hats, Moreno chose to use jerseys. So the
Speaker 2: table was all spread out with all kinds of jerseys.
Speaker 2: But when he made the announced, he unzipped his jacket
Speaker 2: and he was wearing a UK jersey or T shirt
Speaker 2: rather so, Malachi Moreno next year's get another year of
Speaker 2: high school basketball, will play for Mark Pope and the
Speaker 2: Kentucky Wildcats. Look, he is a work in progress. Like
Speaker 2: most big guys, he is slow to develop. Most big
Speaker 2: guys have to kind of grow into their body, learn
Speaker 2: what they can do. Put on the way because they're
Speaker 2: going to get beat up. But he does have the
Speaker 2: athletic ability I think to get it done. I watched
Speaker 2: him in the Sweet sixteen last year. He did not dominate.
Speaker 2: You know who dominated last year in the sweet sixteen
Speaker 2: literally Trent Noah and Travis Perry because they can handle
Speaker 2: the ball, shoot it and go get it, especially Trentoah.
Speaker 2: But Malachai Moreno is a very good player and has
Speaker 2: a chance to become a very good college player at Kentucky.
Speaker 2: Averaged eight rebounds plus per game on the high school
Speaker 2: level and a couple of blocks per game. So as
Speaker 2: I said that everybody wanted him. His finalists were UK, Arkansas, Indiana,
Speaker 2: North Carolina, and Ohio State, And for a while there
Speaker 2: it looked like he was heading for Indiana. But now
Speaker 2: he's a Wildcat. I don't know if it was Darryl
Speaker 2: Bird or Aaron Gershan or whoever posted on the Cat's
Speaker 2: pause Twitter site. The recruiting timeline going back to October
Speaker 2: the twenty eighth, that's when UK offered Moreno. He made
Speaker 2: unofficial visits, made like four of them between January seventeenth,
Speaker 2: and August tewond just a couple of weeks ago. Within
Speaker 2: that time, back in June, late June, he named his
Speaker 2: top eight, his final eight, and of course UK was
Speaker 2: on the list. And now he is a Kentucky Wildcat.
Speaker 2: So that's basketball news for today and football. With football
Speaker 2: season coming out as fast, I will say that there
Speaker 2: is a little more news in that UK has announced
Speaker 2: October eleventh for Madness. So can't get in line now,
Speaker 2: but make your plans for Mark Pope and Kenny Brooks
Speaker 2: their first night, their first appearance officially with their teams
Speaker 2: in front of them. Now you know who's on their teams.
Speaker 2: They've been the head coaches for quite a while, but
Speaker 2: we didn't know who was on their team. Now we
Speaker 2: do and October eleventh will be the night for Big
Speaker 2: Blue Madness. More basketball information, and this one slipped by
Speaker 2: me the other day. I didn't have time to talk
Speaker 2: about it, but Frank Selvy passed away the All American
Speaker 2: guard from at Furman. He's the guy who scored the
Speaker 2: nca Division I record one hundred points in one game
Speaker 2: back in nineteen fifty four. Later went on to play
Speaker 2: nine years in the NBA. He was ninety one when
Speaker 2: he passed away. The word came out of Greenville, South Carolina,
Speaker 2: that's where Furman University is, but his family announced that
Speaker 2: he died it his home in Simpsonville. He was originally
Speaker 2: from Corman, six foot three and obviously went to Furman
Speaker 2: and not Kentucky, but was a scoring machine down there
Speaker 2: twice led the NCA in scoring in his senior year,
Speaker 2: averaged forty one points seven points per game, and of
Speaker 2: course that's the year he scored to one hundred minus
Speaker 2: a three pointer, forty one field goals, eighteen free throws
Speaker 2: that came in a win over Newbury one forty five
Speaker 2: to ninety five. This guy scored forty points or more
Speaker 2: twenty two times in seventy eight collegiate games and was
Speaker 2: the number one pick in the draft in fifty four
Speaker 2: by the Baltimore Bullets. It was a two time All
Speaker 2: star in the NBA, played for five different teams, came
Speaker 2: back and coached at Furman for four years. And if
Speaker 2: you've never been to Greenville, South Carolina and the Furman campus,
Speaker 2: I urge you, if you're in the area, to stop
Speaker 2: buy and take a look. Gorgeous. The town is great,
Speaker 2: the campus is won full and Frank Selvy Proud, son
Speaker 2: of Corbin, is dead at the age of ninety one.
Speaker 2: Before we shift you over to football, I do need
Speaker 2: to mention that the athletic season has begun, the collegiate
Speaker 2: sports season, at least in UK with soccer. Women's soccer
Speaker 2: kicked it off last night against Central Michigan with a
Speaker 2: two to nothing victory at the Bell, third straight year
Speaker 2: for head coach Troy Fabiano with an opening win, season
Speaker 2: opening win since he took over in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: Sidney Fink and Alexis Telenda two of his four new
Speaker 2: players scoring for Kentucky last night. And you always forget
Speaker 2: about the fact we think about football as the sport
Speaker 2: that kicks things off literally for college athletes, but truly
Speaker 2: a lot of times volleyball begins before football, and soccer
Speaker 2: begins before anybody. So the Wildcats now want to zero
Speaker 2: going into their match coming up at the Bell Sunday
Speaker 2: this Sunday at seven point thirty with Morehead State. And
Speaker 2: if you've never been to a soccer match at the Bell,
Speaker 2: men's or women's, I recommend it. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: They have great atmosphere there at the Bell. For men's
Speaker 2: and women's soccer. So Kentucky off to a good start
Speaker 2: now one to zero after the win over Central Michigan.
Speaker 2: One other basketball note before football, the Blue White Game
Speaker 2: this year. You may have seen this already. It's going
Speaker 2: to be in the coliseum. Proceeds going to the Nil Fund,
Speaker 2: which is kind of weird, but it's a chance for you,
Speaker 2: the basketball fan to get in and see the Cats
Speaker 2: in action if you haven't already been in there. Remember now,
Speaker 2: the volleyball team opens up August thirtieth in Memorial Coliseum,
Speaker 2: new and improved with air conditioning. So there's a heck
Speaker 2: of a lot going on on campus and it's coming
Speaker 2: up at as fast. Shifting over to Kentucky football and
Speaker 2: coming up after the break, we'll have even more comments
Speaker 2: from some of the Cats from practice earlier today, but
Speaker 2: it's an other day. So it's another preseason award watch
Speaker 2: list once again. This one's for Dion Walker. No surprise,
Speaker 2: he is on the watch list for the Lombardi Award,
Speaker 2: announced Thursday afternoon by the Lombardi Award Committee. This award
Speaker 2: goes back to nineteen seventy. Of course, it's named after
Speaker 2: legendary packers coach Vince Lombardi to the outstanding lignman who
Speaker 2: best epitomizes values of leadership, courage, performance, discipline on and
Speaker 2: off the field. Here's what's interesting about to me this award.
Speaker 2: If you look it up, go to Wikipedia. It talks
Speaker 2: about how it goes, as I just said, to a
Speaker 2: college football player, primarily alignment, because that's what Vince Lombardi was.
Speaker 2: He was one of the seven blocks of Granted they
Speaker 2: called him at the Fordham. But for four years the
Speaker 2: committee expanded the criteria. The rules basically say you've either
Speaker 2: got to be alignment or a linebacker who lines up
Speaker 2: no more than five yards off the football. But for
Speaker 2: whatever reason, maybe they weren't getting enough pub or whatever,
Speaker 2: they expanded it to anybody. So for four seasons you
Speaker 2: saw Bryce Love or running back get it. In twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2: Then in eighteen, not Josh Allen, but Ugo Amadi of Oregon,
Speaker 2: a safety Joe Burrow. In twenty nineteen, that's right, the
Speaker 2: quarterback for LSU, now with the Bengals, won the Lombardi Trophy,
Speaker 2: best known for going to lineman. Then in twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: Zevan Collins, a linebacker from Tulsa. Then after that they
Speaker 2: switched it back and said, now now this has got
Speaker 2: to be either linebackers or lineman. So it's when I
Speaker 2: went to look it up to see if Josh Allen
Speaker 2: had won it, I'm like, wait a minute, twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: That guy's a safety. So anyhow, I think Dian Walker's
Speaker 2: got a big chance because he's a big guy and
Speaker 2: he'll make a big impact. And in fact, he talked
Speaker 2: recently about some of the things he believes he needs
Speaker 2: to improve on to get even better this year, to be.
Speaker 3: A better pass rusher. I feel like just working on
Speaker 3: my full work, working on my handout coordination, just getting
Speaker 3: reps in, you know, working on my pad level, just
Speaker 3: working on my get off. I really watch I mikeser
Speaker 3: Khalais Campbell, Myles Garrett, Max Crosby, so I'd just like
Speaker 3: to study them guys.
Speaker 2: Those are the comments down at the SEC media day
Speaker 2: in Dallas, and somebody was making the rounds asking each
Speaker 2: player what it was like to play for Mark Stoops,
Speaker 2: and uh Walker had a heartfield answer.
Speaker 3: Mike Stills, he liked the uncle that you always wish for.
Speaker 3: You know, he's a great coach and a great person.
Speaker 3: You know, he's a big loyalty guy. I'm a big
Speaker 3: loyalty guy. He's not going to lie to you. He's
Speaker 3: going to tell you the truth, no matter if it's
Speaker 3: happy sad. You're gonna make you mad if it's me
Speaker 3: because you know, like everybody knows that he's saying it
Speaker 3: from a point and I want you to be the
Speaker 3: best version of yourself.
Speaker 2: Somebody else asked Walker, how'd you get out of Detroit?
Speaker 2: How'd you get away from Michigan and get to Kentucky,
Speaker 2: And once again, he fell back on his relationship with
Speaker 2: Mark Stoops.
Speaker 3: He's big on loyal to how I am. You know,
Speaker 3: That's one thing that I was looking for because out
Speaker 3: of anywhere in my top five, top ten scores, you
Speaker 3: could go and get developed. You know, you can go
Speaker 3: get bigger, faster, stronger. Everybody's going to get your technique right.
Speaker 3: Everybody's going to get you enough reps so you could
Speaker 3: be ready in game. But I didn't just want to
Speaker 3: be a number. I wanted to be somebody who I
Speaker 3: know the head coach cares for you know, and he
Speaker 3: cares for everyone, no matter if you're a walk on
Speaker 3: scholarship guy. He if you need something. His door's always
Speaker 3: open and that's one thing that I was looking for
Speaker 3: in the score.
Speaker 2: So that's Dion Walker coming up. Hear from some of
Speaker 2: the players on the offensive side of the football and
Speaker 2: coming up tonight. As we said Chris Doring at the
Speaker 2: SEC Network. That's at the bottom of the hour. Jack
Speaker 2: Gibbons and hour number two, along with Mark's story of
Speaker 2: the Herald Leader, stay with us here on the Big
Speaker 2: Bloon Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big
Speaker 2: Bloon Sider. Dick Gabriel with you on Friday tomorrow the
Speaker 2: football Wildcat scrimmage for the last time, and at that
Speaker 2: point there'll be two weeks away from their season opener
Speaker 2: with Southern Missic game. You will hear right here on
Speaker 2: six thirty WLAP. And a week from this Monday is
Speaker 2: the first Mark Stoops Radio show, so it's coming at
Speaker 2: you fast. Yesterday we talked to and talked about the
Speaker 2: Kentucky defense. Well today we'll talk a little bit of offense,
Speaker 2: including some words from Rock Vandergriff who has spoken since
Speaker 2: he arrived about his decision not just to come to Kentucky,
Speaker 2: but to leave Georgia. He gave it everything he had
Speaker 2: down there, or so he says, and was beaten out
Speaker 2: for the starting job by Carson Beck. I think he
Speaker 2: was there too when Stetson Bennett was at the Helm,
Speaker 2: and so now he was looking for a place for
Speaker 2: Rock Vandergriff. He was the company man. He was a
Speaker 2: good teammate. He was a good backup quarterback, at least,
Speaker 2: he says, as good as he could be. But when
Speaker 2: the upcoming season his last began to appear on the horizon,
Speaker 2: he believed he had to get out of there and
Speaker 2: go someplace where he could actually play football. And as
Speaker 2: a quarterback, you as well as I know that there's
Speaker 2: only one who's going to start for the most part.
Speaker 2: So he wanted to go someplace where he was wanted
Speaker 2: and needed, and that place is Lexington.
Speaker 4: Sir Koach Smart's hand told him I was going to
Speaker 4: come play for him. I played for him. I did
Speaker 4: what I said I was going to do, come there
Speaker 4: and got my degree, and obviously came to get my
Speaker 4: degree and play football, and didn't play any football. So
Speaker 4: I just decided it was time to get play football.
Speaker 4: But just the culture that they have said at Georgia's
Speaker 4: was good. I mean I never tried to come into
Speaker 4: the facility of being able to just hey, hey, yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm a bad up this year. All right, awesome, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna learn everything I can to be the best quarterback
Speaker 4: I can be if at the backup quarterback position. Your
Speaker 4: year one ankle away. So I was all right, I
Speaker 4: got to prepare every game like I'm the guy. If
Speaker 4: something happens, I got to make sure my team knows
Speaker 4: I'm ready to go. So that was kind of my
Speaker 4: mindset going into last year. But just being able to
Speaker 4: stick around and stuff like that, and just being uh,
Speaker 4: being true to your word with something that was pretty
Speaker 4: pretty important to me and just valued those relationships there,
Speaker 4: and I was thankful for my time there, But this
Speaker 4: is time time for a new chapter.
Speaker 1: Was there ever a moment where you questioned that even
Speaker 1: yourself in those three years ago.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I mean there's definitely times when the question that,
Speaker 4: but uh, basically just said a lot of prayers and stuff.
Speaker 4: I felt like I was right where I needed to be.
Speaker 4: I was growing my faithful lot, was able to go
Speaker 4: to the same church I went to all through high school,
Speaker 4: being able to go see my parents on Sunday, stuff
Speaker 4: like that. Uh, but you know, basically, I guess the
Speaker 4: Lord was just preparing me for my next journey, which
Speaker 4: has obviously led me here. So just being stronger in
Speaker 4: that and just being able to hang out a couple
Speaker 4: of extra years with with Bowers, Cash Jones, guys like that.
Speaker 4: So maybe I mean, I think everything happens for a
Speaker 4: reason and wouldn't change for anything.
Speaker 2: I like that off the top, he said, I shook
Speaker 2: Coach Smart's hand and said I would come play for him,
Speaker 2: and he did. But yeah, Rod Vandergriff now has to play,
Speaker 2: and he's playing for his Wildcat teammates as well. But
Speaker 2: this is his chance to play college football. He's got
Speaker 2: the one year now, assuming he'll be the start. They
Speaker 2: haven't made it official yet. I'm wondering will they make
Speaker 2: that official after tomorrow's scrimmage. So we'll be there and
Speaker 2: we shall see. You got to wonder now about the
Speaker 2: Kentucky offense and how the Wildcats intend to run the football.
Speaker 2: Are there going to be any changes in terms of
Speaker 2: the designs of the game plan With Chip train him
Speaker 2: out injured with that hand. He walked by me on
Speaker 2: campus the other day. It's all bandaged up, and they
Speaker 2: think he'll miss at least two games. But he was
Speaker 2: the power guy that they're used to having. And maybe
Speaker 2: there is a power guy on that roster who can run,
Speaker 2: maybe the next Benny Snell or Chris Rodriguez or even
Speaker 2: Ray Davis. But they got to have somebody who can
Speaker 2: move the change. Demi Sumour Karanbay is a veteran. He
Speaker 2: believes he can be one of those guys. He has
Speaker 2: shown flashes of moving the ball of big plays. He's
Speaker 2: got speed. Don't know if he has the power it
Speaker 2: takes to consistently move the change, but I chatted with
Speaker 2: him the other day about what he hopes to bring
Speaker 2: to the offense. You have shown some flashes. You're you're
Speaker 2: a playmaker. It looks like you'll get a better shot
Speaker 2: this year. I'll see that grin on your face. You're
Speaker 2: thinking the same thing, aren't you.
Speaker 5: Yes, sir, Yes, sir, I can't wait. I can't wait.
Speaker 2: Tell me about the offense and where you fit. Man.
Speaker 5: The offense is so it's so talented and you know, versatile.
Speaker 5: We got many different ways we can attack. You know
Speaker 5: what I'm saying. So that's where I fit. You know
Speaker 5: what I'm saying. That's like the perfect offense for me,
Speaker 5: I would say, because, like you say, I'm so versatile,
Speaker 5: and you know what I'm saying. I can run, I
Speaker 5: can catch, I can go catch plants or you know
Speaker 5: what I'm saying, kick returns or whatever. You get to
Speaker 5: do all that kick returns. Yeah, I was there back
Speaker 5: last year. You know what I'm saying, I'm gonna continue
Speaker 5: to do that special team. I was all over the
Speaker 5: field on special team. You know what I'm saying, Just
Speaker 5: trying to get my team that winning is he just.
Speaker 2: Might be a part of that winning edge. Demi Simour
Speaker 2: carn Bay, you just got to figure out where the
Speaker 2: Wildcats gonna put the football without a power back, and
Speaker 2: they will probably maybe throw it a little bit more.
Speaker 2: A reminder that one of the names you're probably going
Speaker 2: to be hearing a little bit or a lot is
Speaker 2: Jamari Macklin. He'll be the slot receiver. You already know
Speaker 2: about Barrion Brown and Dane Key, but Macklin could be
Speaker 2: a real key because keep in mind, he'll be playing
Speaker 2: I'm not saying he's as good, but he'll be playing
Speaker 2: the same position as Wandel Robinson, playing in the slot
Speaker 2: there with a chance to get off the line of
Speaker 2: scrimmage cleaner than the whiteout. You know, they get chucked
Speaker 2: at the line, and same position that Dicky Lions played,
Speaker 2: that Derek Abney played, So maybe he can wreak havoc
Speaker 2: while the guys on the outside are doing their thing
Speaker 2: as well. He's on the Bolitnikoff preseason watch list, as
Speaker 2: you might expect after a couple of really good seasons
Speaker 2: at North Texas and he transferred there from Missouri, so
Speaker 2: a lot of football. He's played twenty nine career games,
Speaker 2: thirteen starts, and a chance to be part of that
Speaker 2: winning edge, as Demi Sumour Carnbay has said he would
Speaker 2: like to be. So we'll find out more coming up
Speaker 2: very shortly as a Wildcat season opener comes up two
Speaker 2: weeks from tomorrow. The scrimmage tomorrow. Will have comments after
Speaker 2: the scrimmage from Mark Stoops, we assume and some of
Speaker 2: the players. But it's coming up on us fast, Isn't
Speaker 2: it all right? Coming up next fast? Chris Doring of
Speaker 2: the SEC Network and Nour number two, Jack Gibbons and
Speaker 2: Mark's story on six thirty Wlap joining us down our
Speaker 2: celebrity hotline is one of our favorite guests, and we
Speaker 2: love seeing Chris Doring on the the SEC Network, hearing
Speaker 2: him on SEC Radio, and Chris got a chance just
Speaker 2: to say hi down in Dallas and SEC Media Days.
Speaker 2: But you did a little globe trotting in the summertime
Speaker 2: your time off, didn't you, I did?
Speaker 1: You know, it's a fun time. Like by the time
Speaker 1: the season's over, And I think I've talked to you
Speaker 1: about this before, but my schedule during the season, I
Speaker 1: leave games till every Thursday night to fly up to
Speaker 1: Charlotte for our studio shows Friday morning, Friday night, Saturday
Speaker 1: all day, Saturday night, and then Monday morning before flying
Speaker 1: back on the road four nights a week. And by
Speaker 1: the time the season's over, I'm ready to just be
Speaker 1: home and chill out. And then when I'm home, I'm restless,
Speaker 1: ready to go somewhere. So I start traveling for vacation
Speaker 1: and other things, and at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: you know, here we are again, the seasons ready to go,
Speaker 1: and I don't feel like I've been home at all.
Speaker 1: So it's it's kind of an interesting dynamic that I live.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but all that traveling for fun, doesn't that help,
Speaker 2: you know? Burn the time in between the end of
Speaker 2: the season and the started the next one, because it's
Speaker 2: times that seems interminable.
Speaker 1: You know, it definitely does. And then you know, the
Speaker 1: the ultimate old guy thing to say is how fast
Speaker 1: time flies? But it certainly seems to be that way
Speaker 1: as we get older and kind of hard to believe
Speaker 1: we're already, you know, here, ready to go and about
Speaker 1: to have some football on our plates.
Speaker 6: Again.
Speaker 2: Well, I mentioned that we bumped into each other in Dallas,
Speaker 2: which was not unexpected, But what did you think of
Speaker 2: the setup? And we have media people from Texas already
Speaker 2: from A and M, but you know, the people from Boston,
Speaker 2: the people from Oklahoma. There was a lot of sizzle
Speaker 2: down there.
Speaker 1: Jick. I thought it was awesome, you know, getting to
Speaker 1: go to a new market. I think that's one of
Speaker 1: the great things that Commissioners thank you, has done and
Speaker 1: rotating media days, you know. I know, the tradition of
Speaker 1: being in Hoover was great, but having been in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: Nashville and now Dallas, you know, I think it's kind
Speaker 1: of cool to take that on the show, take that
Speaker 1: show on the road, and it makes it have a
Speaker 1: much bigger feel, you know, it relates to going to
Speaker 1: that part of the country really cool to to, you know,
Speaker 1: get a chance to be in that state. With all
Speaker 1: the anticipation of Texas entering into the conference, watching OU
Speaker 1: in Texas contingents walking around, I mean, you know the
Speaker 1: things that it kind of resonated with me, Dick. The
Speaker 1: statement multiple times from Commissioner Thanking about how important the
Speaker 1: contiguous footprint is of the Southeastern Conference, the regionality of
Speaker 1: this conference being important. I look at the the the
Speaker 1: the logos, the Texas Longhorn logo, the OEU logo. Those
Speaker 1: are iconic blue bloods in college football, and uh, you
Speaker 1: look at the head coaches that lead to those programs
Speaker 1: and talking with them, they fit into a group of
Speaker 1: of of alphas in this league. So everything about it
Speaker 1: seems to fit. And I think my biggest takeaway, Dick,
Speaker 1: was in the off season, we were dealing with so
Speaker 1: much heavy stuff, whether we're talking about the congressional ruling,
Speaker 1: when the settlements, the future of the football nil transfer portal,
Speaker 1: all of this negativity that has you know, has fans
Speaker 1: talking about turning them off on football college football. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, my feeling there was
Speaker 1: like this is the most anticipated season that I can
Speaker 1: remember in a long time, whether it be because of
Speaker 1: OU in Texas, whether it's the twelve team playoffs, whether
Speaker 1: it's just the general excitement of football. Like, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's been dampered at all, And it seems to
Speaker 1: me like this is one that fans are looking for
Speaker 1: forward to, even despite all the negativity of the off season.
Speaker 2: I agree. And in terms of the newness of it,
Speaker 2: I kind of go back, Chris to nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 2: when you know, we had a structured national champion. Of course,
Speaker 2: Alabama won the r SEC champion and Alabama wins it,
Speaker 2: and you know, it was just changes in college football
Speaker 2: that people maybe thought never would happen, never would come.
Speaker 2: And I agree with you. I think it's it's uh
Speaker 2: And it's also a year that I think is going
Speaker 2: to be pivotal for Kentucky. With the last couple of
Speaker 2: seasons that by Mark Stoop's standards, I don't say they're
Speaker 2: a mediocre, but a little bit disappointing. And you know, now,
Speaker 2: well the spotlight's pretty hot on him, now, yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: It's it's the things that I noticed from from media days.
Speaker 1: There were multiple teams that I didn't feel like we're
Speaker 1: being talked about very much. You know, I felt like
Speaker 1: my alma mater was not being talked about very much,
Speaker 1: particularly on the day that they came in. You know,
Speaker 1: not a lot of expected from Florida. Typically in the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, there's been a lot of Kentucky talk,
Speaker 1: and I've been leading the way on that in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways, and I think what we experienced this
Speaker 1: year was maybe a little backlash to you know, the
Speaker 1: disappointment of not living up to the expectations in recent years.
Speaker 1: I think coupled with what we've seen in terms of
Speaker 1: teams like Tenness two years ago, Missouri last year, you know,
Speaker 1: making these unexpected jumps to double digit wins. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure Kentucky fans feel like this a little bit. It's like,
Speaker 1: why not us? Why haven't we been able to really
Speaker 1: take that next step. I think one of the great
Speaker 1: parts about this season, though, Dick, is that success is
Speaker 1: going to be redefined. What does the successful season look like?
Speaker 1: You know, I know Kentucky has had you know, two
Speaker 1: ten win seasons in the last six years, but now
Speaker 1: they're finally gonna have an opportunity you win ten games
Speaker 1: in this conference, you could be playing in the college
Speaker 1: football playoffs, and so you know, you may not have
Speaker 1: been able to get to Atlanta before, you may not
Speaker 1: have an official SEC championship in the last couple decades,
Speaker 1: but if you can win ten games, you got to
Speaker 1: chip in a chair and a chance to play in
Speaker 1: some really meaningful postseason games. And so I do think Kentucky,
Speaker 1: you know, has an opportunity to reassert themselves. The pattern
Speaker 1: of those ten win seasons every three years would tell
Speaker 1: you it's time for another one of them, and this
Speaker 1: would be a great year to be able to accomplish that.
Speaker 2: See, well, you mentioned expectations and the Florida teams you
Speaker 2: played for. I remember, Chris. Of course, you know we
Speaker 2: didn't know each other, but I was watching your teams
Speaker 2: take Kentucky apart back then. But uh, you know what's
Speaker 2: interesting to me is watching this Kentucky program involved. And
Speaker 2: you have been one of the voices telling people throughout
Speaker 2: the years you and your partner Peter Burns, watch out
Speaker 2: for the Wildcats. But now with so many expectations. Back
Speaker 2: in the day, any Kentucky win was celebrated for four
Speaker 2: days before people even looked at the next game, and
Speaker 2: now it's expected and if they lose a game, most
Speaker 2: people expected them to win. It's a little bit of
Speaker 2: a different dynamic. And you got to carry that, don't you.
Speaker 2: And I know you felt that as a player at Florida,
Speaker 2: and it's it's kind of new for Kentucky fans, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think success. With success comes higher expectation,
Speaker 1: and I think I think that's a good thing. You know.
Speaker 1: I think Coach Stukes welcomes that. He's the longest tenure
Speaker 1: coach in the conference now. Have to talk to him
Speaker 1: on Wednesday night on our ten year anniversary show on
Speaker 1: the SEC Network. He's been here for the entirety of
Speaker 1: of our seni year run. And you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: kind of crazy to think about because for a while there,
Speaker 1: you know, I think Kentucky was a nice story. You know,
Speaker 1: everybody you know patted him on the head, Oh good job.
Speaker 1: But they become a legitimate game on the schedule. In fact,
Speaker 1: my alma mater, we've lost three in the row to
Speaker 1: to Kentucky here and and that that balance of power
Speaker 1: has significantly changed. So I think I think Kentucky in
Speaker 1: general should be very proud of what their team has done.
Speaker 1: I know the Kentucky fan even back when I was
Speaker 1: at Florida and we were kind of dominating that series,
Speaker 1: they would still show up, they would still be loud,
Speaker 1: they still support their team. But now they're they're at
Speaker 1: a point where, hey, we've had a taste of some
Speaker 1: some some really big wins. We've been really close. When
Speaker 1: can we take that next step? And I think that's
Speaker 1: that hunger and that that drive to experience that that
Speaker 1: apparachelant of winning in this conference is something that is
Speaker 1: a positive.
Speaker 2: Talking to Chris Doring of the SEC Network, we'll come
Speaker 2: back and talk with more. Talk with it Chris, a
Speaker 2: little bit more about the Wildcats. Here on the Big
Speaker 2: blon Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're chatting with
Speaker 2: Chris Doring of the SEC Network. We love talking football
Speaker 2: with Chris. He is one of the national guys who
Speaker 2: pays close attention, obviously to the SEC, but pays more
Speaker 2: than just lip service to Kentucky. If you have followed
Speaker 2: his work through the years. I know, Chris, there are
Speaker 2: so many questions about every team in the league, but
Speaker 2: and you were an offensive guy. You played with some
Speaker 2: pretty good quarterbacks. You got to start at QB with Kentucky,
Speaker 2: don't you In terms of what to try to figure
Speaker 2: out for this season. I mean your thoughts on assuming
Speaker 2: Brock Vandergriff wins the starting job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm hearing that not only is it going to
Speaker 1: be Vandergrivet, Bush Hamdon is a tent on using two
Speaker 1: quarterbacks this year. So I'm actually you probably know better
Speaker 1: than I do, but I'm anxious to see what, uh,
Speaker 1: the the rotation may look like and utilization of two
Speaker 1: quarterbacks that test position. But I go back to the
Speaker 1: acquisition of Rock vander Griff. You know, it is in
Speaker 1: line with what we've seen in coach Stukes's ability to
Speaker 1: attract really top talent in the transfer portal. I mean
Speaker 1: you go back and look one Dale Robins even before that,
Speaker 1: the the LSU cornerback, I'm going blank on his. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Calvin Joseph looking at Tavon Robinson, like they've been able
Speaker 1: to get a bunch of really high quality talent that
Speaker 1: typically I don't think Kentucky would have, you know, been
Speaker 1: considered as a legitimate landing spot. Getting Doumas Johnson in
Speaker 1: with vander Griff as well, two former Georgia guys like
Speaker 1: I just think it speaks to how the program is
Speaker 1: perceived these days, how how the support of of the
Speaker 1: the the alumni and boosters and putting together and I
Speaker 1: packages that make sense for these guys, and so you know,
Speaker 1: I think this is an important season for Vandergriff because
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago Kentucky struck gold with Will Levitt.
Speaker 1: Transfer last year was I think part of the big
Speaker 1: disappointment was that Devin Leary didn't live up to kind
Speaker 1: of what we expected in the preseason, a high level
Speaker 1: of expectation again this year for Rock Vandergriff. So I
Speaker 1: think this is an important year to show that they
Speaker 1: have more hits in the portal when it comes to
Speaker 1: acquiring quarterbacks than they do missus.
Speaker 2: No, I couldn't agree more. And I don't know about you,
Speaker 2: but in your research into the Georgia Bulldogs over the
Speaker 2: last two or three years, we had heard that vander
Speaker 2: Griff was really pushing for that starting job. It's not
Speaker 2: like a guy who was just buried on the bench
Speaker 2: because he couldn't cut it. He was just playing behind
Speaker 2: Carson Beck. If that indeed is the case, he has
Speaker 2: a real opportunity here with this new offense, doesn't.
Speaker 1: He Yeah, I don't. I'm not a huge hand me
Speaker 1: down guy, but if I'm getting hand me downs from Georgia,
Speaker 1: I'm okay with that, you know. I think, Uh, it's
Speaker 1: like that that rich cousin that outgrows the the new
Speaker 1: golf club because it's even better you set it out there.
Speaker 1: You know that that's some good stuff to get. So
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, taking taking them with chouts
Speaker 1: and taking Vandergriff. Those guys are are good players. I've
Speaker 1: heard the same things that you have about Brocket at
Speaker 1: Georgia and how competitive he was. You see it all
Speaker 1: the time. I mean, I go back to to Florida
Speaker 1: when when when my champ was there, it was you
Speaker 1: remember Jacoby Brisset, I beat out. He ends up transferred
Speaker 1: to in C State as a great career there and
Speaker 1: then it's still in the NFL now. So you know,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of quarterbacks unlike every other position,
Speaker 1: there's only one of them on the field, and there
Speaker 1: are some really good players that for whatever reason don't
Speaker 1: get the opportunity. And I think, you know, those are
Speaker 1: the stories about guys in the transfer portal that that
Speaker 1: makes you feel good about what that does. I look
Speaker 1: at Graham Merts. Graham Mert didn't live up to the hype.
Speaker 1: Wisconsin comes to Florida and had a great season last year.
Speaker 1: It's an opportunity to get to play at the opportunity
Speaker 1: to be in a different system. And I think that
Speaker 1: vander Grif's gonna thrive in what bush ham is trying
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 2: Well. You mentioned Levis. Of course he couldn't beat out
Speaker 2: Sean Clifford, but now Letis is starting QB and Tennessee
Speaker 2: and Clifford's a backup for my beloved Green Bay Packers,
Speaker 2: sitting by a pretty good quarterback. But that's just the
Speaker 2: way things work. Uh. Speaking of bush Hampton, I don't
Speaker 2: recall who was the OC when you were at Florida,
Speaker 2: but everybody knew that what you guys ran on offense
Speaker 2: was precisely what Steve Spurrier wanted to run. But here
Speaker 2: Kentucky now is and I know Cohen had two terms
Speaker 2: of duty, but I think four straight changes at OC
Speaker 2: new verbiage that kind of thing. Do you foresee that
Speaker 2: as as maybe being a problem, because so far everything
Speaker 2: we hear is you know, it's going.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's a big concern to me, I think, but
Speaker 1: this is the fifth straight year that they've had a
Speaker 1: different offensive coordinator, right, So I mean I know that there's,
Speaker 1: like you said, two cents for Liam Cohen. You'd like
Speaker 1: to have some continuity. You'd like to have, you know,
Speaker 1: some as a as a receiver. You know, sometimes when
Speaker 1: I was in a new offense, it was translating what
Speaker 1: does this mean? You know, you're out there trying to
Speaker 1: instead of speaking it fluently, it takes you a second.
Speaker 1: You'd like to be able to have your players be
Speaker 1: able to just read and react on their keys. I
Speaker 1: do think that's a bit of a concern, but I've
Speaker 1: heard the same thing as you have again, that everybody's
Speaker 1: acclimated really well. I do think that there's going to
Speaker 1: be some unique recals, But I also think that that
Speaker 1: one thing that coach Stops does really well is understands
Speaker 1: who he is, who he is, who his team is.
Speaker 1: And that was one of the things that going back to,
Speaker 1: you know, when they got rid of Eddie Grand they
Speaker 1: brought in Liam Cohen because they wanted to retain the
Speaker 1: physical run while still being able to push the ball
Speaker 1: down the field. Become a little bit more current in
Speaker 1: the posting game. And I don't think Kentucky will ever
Speaker 1: lose under coach Stoops the desire to run the football
Speaker 1: and to be physical. But I do think they'll beat
Speaker 1: some more modern type wrinkles that Bush Hamden brings. That
Speaker 1: should be fun to kind of watch.
Speaker 2: A few minutes off with Chris Doring of the SEC
Speaker 2: Network looking at the other side of the ball, one
Speaker 2: of the people that you had a chance to talk
Speaker 2: with down in Dallas. I assume he talked to everybody.
Speaker 2: It's hard to miss Dion Walker, yeah, and which and
Speaker 2: you know I asked him about this and he kind
Speaker 2: of agreed. I'm sure you remember there was a huge
Speaker 2: hit that he made a couple of years ago on
Speaker 2: the Florida game. It was kind of him introducing himself
Speaker 2: to the SEC and this guy, and I guess people
Speaker 2: around here Chris are a little surprised he's still at
Speaker 2: Kentucky and that people didn't make a teams didn't make
Speaker 2: a run at him with nil dollars and let's not
Speaker 2: get ourselves. I'm sure he's doing okay here in Lexingon,
Speaker 2: but boy, when you can build around a guy like that.
Speaker 2: How huge is that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's another one of those statements kind
Speaker 1: of things that shows that a we're legitimate landing spot
Speaker 1: for all top tier talent. And let's be honest, like,
Speaker 1: one of the things that has been great for Kentucky
Speaker 1: is like how many times I've seen coach stops at
Speaker 1: the NFL Draft the first round guys being selected in
Speaker 1: a lot of the drafts of the last five six years.
Speaker 1: That's a great statement as well. But Dean Walker does
Speaker 1: not look like what we would have traditionally thought Kentucky
Speaker 1: defensive players would look like. This is a guy that
Speaker 1: you know you typically see at Georgia or Alabama, and
Speaker 1: you're right, Getting him is one thing, Retaining him as another.
Speaker 1: And you know they've been able to, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: hold off anybody. I'm sure there's roster tampering going on,
Speaker 1: as there is everywhere else. But I think him coming
Speaker 1: back having an opportunity to play in the defense that
Speaker 1: will return nine starters this year, I think was big
Speaker 1: for him. After having a chance to to speak to
Speaker 1: him in Dallas, And I don't think people are talking
Speaker 1: enough about what this Kentucky defense can look like this
Speaker 1: season with so much experience and so much talent and
Speaker 1: so much size that typically has not necessarily been what
Speaker 1: we've expected from a Kentucky tea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we talked with a defensive guys Thursday, primarily d lineman.
Speaker 2: We talked with the D line coach Anowar Stewart and
Speaker 2: an Octavius Oxen. Dine talked to Brad White about the
Speaker 2: D line. Uh, they've built depth there, Chris, And you
Speaker 2: know how tough that is to build in any league,
Speaker 2: much less the SEC.
Speaker 1: It's the most important thing, you know, building building depth,
Speaker 1: depth of talent on the defensive line. I think just
Speaker 1: really it defines the amount of success you're able to have. One.
Speaker 1: I've already seen a bunch of injuries in the preseason now,
Speaker 1: so sustaining you know, the inevitable injuries is important. But two,
Speaker 1: defensive line wise, especially in early early portions of the season,
Speaker 1: you've got to be able to roll in two and
Speaker 1: freeze in there and not have significant drop offs. You know.
Speaker 1: I was with coach Napriert practice a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: ago in Gainesville and they were talking about the amount
Speaker 1: of plays that they were asking their starters to go
Speaker 1: up front. You just can't get the significant push that
Speaker 1: you need up front. You know, with the guys that
Speaker 1: are that size, you're asking them to play. You know,
Speaker 1: fifty to sixty seventy plays a game that they're gonna
Speaker 1: wear out, and you're gonna lose games in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: So I don't care how conditioned you are, you do
Speaker 1: have to have a number of guys that you can
Speaker 1: roll in there in Kentucky. You mentioned you know a
Speaker 1: couple of those names. I mean these are household names
Speaker 1: in the conference, between Walker and auxen Dyne and J. J. Weaver.
Speaker 1: I mean, these are guys that Again I don't want
Speaker 1: to keep being repetitive, but you don't typically see that
Speaker 1: sort of player at Kentucky and your Stave.
Speaker 2: Oh and that's how Stoops has turned things around with
Speaker 2: great help from Vince Marrow and all the recruiters. Well,
Speaker 2: I'll let you go with this. We talked about your
Speaker 2: Gators who may be looking, especially the back end, at
Speaker 2: the toughest schedule in the league. Kentucky's is no picnic.
Speaker 2: It never really is if you're in the SEC. But Chris,
Speaker 2: what I've said all along, it's not the teams they
Speaker 2: have to play, and granted they have traded you know,
Speaker 2: Mississippi State for Texas and now Auburn's on the schedule.
Speaker 2: But it's the calendar. You know, facing South Carolina so
Speaker 2: early that's a huge game, and then facing Georgia so early,
Speaker 2: you know, you can't play a couple of non conference
Speaker 2: games and kind of not that this is the right word,
Speaker 2: but ease into it. It's going to be a hell
Speaker 2: of a challenge. But then again, everybody in the league
Speaker 2: can say that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're right. I think we're splitting hairs
Speaker 1: when we talk about how difficult schedules are of teams
Speaker 1: in the SEC. I think a couple of things come
Speaker 1: to mind. Obviously, the at of conference games are important.
Speaker 1: So I look at Florida schedule, having to play Miami,
Speaker 1: having to play Florida State and THEBF is really challenging.
Speaker 1: I do like the outa conference schedule for Kentucky, chance
Speaker 1: to play Southern miss playing Ohio, you got Murray State,
Speaker 1: and finish up with the Governor's Cup against Louisville. You know,
Speaker 1: I think that's a more favorable out of conference schedule
Speaker 1: than some have. But you're right about it's not about
Speaker 1: who you play, but when you play the order in
Speaker 1: which you played. I think it used to be a
Speaker 1: three game stretch on every SEC team schedule that was
Speaker 1: going to define the success of the season. I think
Speaker 1: it's actually becoming a lot of cases a four game
Speaker 1: stretch now with the way that that Oklahoma and Texas
Speaker 1: have come in the way that they've eliminated the divisions,
Speaker 1: and it is it is a grind. And so you
Speaker 1: look at I'm with you, man, having to play that
Speaker 1: early portion of schedule with South Carolina in Week two
Speaker 1: in Georgia, the week after you get Ohio and then
Speaker 1: have to play against whole MYSS September is going to
Speaker 1: be somewhere in that August thirty first game, those first
Speaker 1: five games, if you can, if you can get to
Speaker 1: if you get to three to three two, I feel
Speaker 1: that's probably a pretty good win given the fact you
Speaker 1: gotta play Georgia and you gotta go to Oxford. But
Speaker 1: I do I do think it's important to remember this
Speaker 1: is a two by season and what that can do
Speaker 1: to break up some of that that grind the teams
Speaker 1: find themselves having to play in. But I look at, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, in musition to that other run they Kentucky
Speaker 1: has Florida, Auburn and Tennessee in succession too, which will
Speaker 1: be a bit of a stress there in the middle
Speaker 1: of the year.
Speaker 2: Get used to it, SEC fans, because that's where we
Speaker 2: are now. Chris Doring of the SEC Network. Watch for
Speaker 2: him on TV, listen for him on the radio, follow
Speaker 2: him on Twitter or x at just at Chris Doring
Speaker 2: d E R I n G. Thank you brother, talking
Speaker 2: to you soon and have a great season.
Speaker 1: Yeah all great to do with you big, thank you
Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you later down the road.
Speaker 2: Our number two with Jack Gibbons and Mark's story next
Speaker 2: here on The Big Blue Siders six thirty w L A. B.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Big Blues Sider, joining us now
Speaker 2: as a longtime friend, a former classmate and teammate on
Speaker 2: the UK Sports Network. Mister Jack Gibbons. You hear him
Speaker 2: each week talking to Tom Leash. But Jack, we haven't
Speaker 2: talked in a little while. How has your summer been.
Speaker 7: Summer has been great, Gab. I mean, just trying to
Speaker 7: keep up with the kids and especially trying to keep
Speaker 7: up with the grandkids. It's not all that easy. I
Speaker 7: mean it's fun, but man, they always have something going on.
Speaker 7: That they want Papa could be yet, So I'd try
Speaker 7: to try to be at every one of their functions,
Speaker 7: certainly as many as I can. But it's been a
Speaker 7: great summer, been really really good.
Speaker 2: That's you, Papa, Yes, yeah, Papa. Yeah, it's just anybody
Speaker 2: who has grandkids. We grandparents talk to each other about
Speaker 2: what we're called, and it's it's as often as not
Speaker 2: just something unusual. But Papa's pretty good. I like that. Well,
Speaker 2: you've talked a lot. I've heard you all with Tom,
Speaker 2: but I know you're happy with what direction Mark Pope
Speaker 2: has taken. And I know as well that you appreciate
Speaker 2: the challenge man of putting a roster together basically from scratch,
Speaker 2: and a lot of coaches have to scramble almost every year, Jack,
Speaker 2: but just completely start over is a chapter of Kentucky
Speaker 2: basketball that none of us thought we would ever see.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's it's been interesting, no question about it. And yeah,
Speaker 7: I think Mark's done a great job of kind of
Speaker 7: riding the ship, getting it going in the proper direction.
Speaker 7: I think he's done a uh, he did a great job.
Speaker 7: I know, he did a great job putting together his
Speaker 7: coaching staff. He's got some folks on there who are
Speaker 7: are good recruiters and can bring in players. He has
Speaker 7: some good basketball knowledge, guys, so he has some input
Speaker 7: from people who have kind of been there and done that,
Speaker 7: which is good. And and of course he's He's put
Speaker 7: together a group of guys who I think are going
Speaker 7: to be fun to watch. We're all going to be
Speaker 7: pleasantly surprised, I think with what what this team is
Speaker 7: capable of doing. I like the fact that we're uh
Speaker 7: for the first time in a long time, flying below
Speaker 7: the radar at this past year, and everybody's not talking about,
Speaker 7: you know, first five in the country and or maybe
Speaker 7: number one or all of that kind of stuff at
Speaker 7: this time of the year, which obviously has proven to
Speaker 7: mean nothing at the end of the year. So I
Speaker 7: like where we are, Gabe. I'm really really pleased with
Speaker 7: the way things are going.
Speaker 2: When you guys, when all the ex players got off
Speaker 2: the bus, when Mark was introduced, it was it was
Speaker 2: a real signal. Not that John Caller Perry ignored you guys,
Speaker 2: but this was a true commitment to Kentucky tradition. And
Speaker 2: I'm wondering Jack in this day and age, with crazy
Speaker 2: money out there and the lure of the NBA and
Speaker 2: all the player movement and everything. Mark one of his
Speaker 2: goals is to try to see to it that we're
Speaker 2: in that jersey means as much to the kids he
Speaker 2: brings in as it did to him and as it
Speaker 2: did to you. And I don't know that anybody can
Speaker 2: match it, you know, for guys like you and Jane
Speaker 2: teams in the Kentucky guys that are from Kentucky. But
Speaker 2: you think that's possible in this day and age to
Speaker 2: find kids who will really buy into that. You cannot,
Speaker 2: you know, ignore the fact that that they're playing for
Speaker 2: generational wealth or at least a shot at it. But
Speaker 2: can kids appreciate the name on the front of that jersey?
Speaker 7: I think they can, and I think they do. I
Speaker 7: think what Mark is trying to do and gave I'm
Speaker 7: on the I'm on this uh UH text chain with
Speaker 7: I'm telling you we get this. I get pinged on
Speaker 7: my phone every two minutes from UH a new guy
Speaker 7: who chimes in and says, hey, I'm here, guys, it's
Speaker 7: good to be connected. I mean, you would be shocked
Speaker 7: at some of the names UH young and old, which
Speaker 7: is really neat because us older guys. We haven't had
Speaker 7: a direct chain, a direct link to a lot of
Speaker 7: the younger players, A lot of the guys, even from
Speaker 7: Mark's era, we and and younger, we haven't had a
Speaker 7: direct link to those guys. Now we're I'm getting on
Speaker 7: this email chain. I'm getting shout outs from man. I mean,
Speaker 7: just unbelievable number of guys, and that all is generated
Speaker 7: by Mark and he wants. I think guys played for
Speaker 7: that name on the front if they understand what that
Speaker 7: name on the front means. And I think having all
Speaker 7: of us, all of us former players involved being seen
Speaker 7: around them, I think, I think it's going to be
Speaker 7: huge and it's going to prove to them that man,
Speaker 7: it have something special. We're in Kentucky. They have all
Speaker 7: these guys around, different age groups, different backgrounds, different professions
Speaker 7: now and it tells them we can beat just like
Speaker 7: these guys for a long long time, and that is
Speaker 7: going to be special. Kentucky on the Front still means
Speaker 7: a lot, and these guys know.
Speaker 2: It, you know what, I think as well as they
Speaker 2: hear it's an abstract before they get here. And then
Speaker 2: once they do get here and they start hearing from
Speaker 2: the fans, experience the BBN, see the illustrations on the
Speaker 2: walls of the Nutter Center, things like that, it becomes even.
Speaker 7: Bigger, you know what I mean, Yeah, you can't. You
Speaker 7: can't know what that's like until you see it. And
Speaker 7: you hear all kinds of stuff about how special Kentucky
Speaker 7: basketball is. But some of these young guys who you know,
Speaker 7: they they hear it, but they have no idea. Man,
Speaker 7: they have no clue of what all that means. But
Speaker 7: to see it up close and personal once they get here,
Speaker 7: it drives it home. And and that is one of
Speaker 7: the I mean, you can't get that everywhere. I mean,
Speaker 7: you just don't get that everywhere. So that's going to
Speaker 7: be huge.
Speaker 2: Have you had a chance to talk to many of them.
Speaker 7: The current guys, just the guys that, yeah, I've talked to.
Speaker 7: I've talked to most of them. I was in practice
Speaker 7: one day and Mark had me come up and and
Speaker 7: uh and talk to him as a group, and and boy,
Speaker 7: they were respectful. They you know, they each one of
Speaker 7: them individually after I finished shook hands with me. I've
Speaker 7: I've talked to guys like Trent and Noah and Trent
Speaker 7: is is wanting to be a golfer, so trying to
Speaker 7: get a date where we can go out and played golf.
Speaker 7: He's taken. He's already had lessons from my uh from
Speaker 7: my good ballet buddy, uh, Wally Langley, and Wally and
Speaker 7: I coached golf together. Whalley coaches. I'm uh, you know,
Speaker 7: I kind of hang out and make sure that you know,
Speaker 7: but uh, you know, I talked to him, I've talked
Speaker 7: to a bunch of the guys. Uh Kerr. He's a fisherman.
Speaker 7: He wants to go fishing, and we've tried to set
Speaker 7: it up a couple of times. And it's only a
Speaker 7: matter of time before he and I get out there
Speaker 7: on the on the water together. So yeah, it's been
Speaker 7: fun getting to know him. And as we get more
Speaker 7: and more into practice and I'm in practice more often
Speaker 7: and traveling. Uh, We've we've gotten going, gotten everything going
Speaker 7: on in a really good way. That's far on such
Speaker 7: a short period of time.
Speaker 2: I've only seen the video clips, but I think it's
Speaker 2: interesting that, you know, mar is right there in the
Speaker 2: middle of the drills, teaching his way like like all
Speaker 2: coaches do. But boy, what an advantage Jack in that
Speaker 2: he's got so many veterans on this team, the guys
Speaker 2: who've transferred in, almost just about all of them. I've
Speaker 2: got to think that they're soaking things up a little
Speaker 2: quicker than a younger team would. Did you notice that?
Speaker 2: Is that a parent?
Speaker 7: Oh it's very obvious, Gabe, very obvious. I mean the
Speaker 7: first thing I noticed when well, a couple of the
Speaker 7: first things. I know this number one, I noticed we
Speaker 7: had a bunch of men out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 7: Physically physically, you know, you didn't. You didn't have a
Speaker 7: big z out there who is seven whatever he is,
Speaker 7: and but he weighs about one thirty, dripping wet. You know,
Speaker 7: there were no guys like that out there. I mean,
Speaker 7: that was That was one thing that I noticed right
Speaker 7: off the bat. But then the second thing I noticed,
Speaker 7: and more importantly, is that I know that talk that
Speaker 7: chattered going on at practice really and one of the
Speaker 7: things coach Calipari complained about us a lot is that
Speaker 7: he didn't have guys who talk to each other. You know,
Speaker 7: we got to communicate better on the court. Well, that's
Speaker 7: not a problem with these guys. Mad They are in
Speaker 7: each other's ear, they're vocal, they don't mind. They've learned,
Speaker 7: so they don't mind taking a chance of saying something
Speaker 7: that is going to be a mistake because they know
Speaker 7: the game. So we're a young guy, you know, they
Speaker 7: don't want to talk because they don't know what the
Speaker 7: heck's going on, what they're trying to learn. So it
Speaker 7: was very obvious man to talk and patting each other
Speaker 7: on the back and and that kind of stuff. That's
Speaker 7: going to go a long way with making sure these
Speaker 7: guys turn into more from just a group of guys,
Speaker 7: talented guys, and it turns into a team. And that's
Speaker 7: what was fun as the practices I saw over the summer.
Speaker 7: That was some of the fun and stuff I noticed
Speaker 7: as I got to know and to learn more and
Speaker 7: more about these guys.
Speaker 2: Well, that goes back to what Marcus said when I
Speaker 2: and others have asked him, just how in the world
Speaker 2: are you going to do this? Figure out who to
Speaker 2: play and when and you know, the different rotations, and
Speaker 2: he said, I'm going to need the players to help
Speaker 2: me figure that out, you know, And that makes a
Speaker 2: lot of sense, doesn't it.
Speaker 7: Yeah? Yeah, And they will, I mean they will. That
Speaker 7: will make marks jobs so much easier, just simply because
Speaker 7: he doesn't have to go through that process like he
Speaker 7: would with a young team. I mean, these guys know
Speaker 7: how to play. They know how to play. They just
Speaker 7: want to make sure number one, they got to learn
Speaker 7: each other. But it makes the whole process go a
Speaker 7: whole lot quicker, whole lot smoother. Yeah, because they are
Speaker 7: what they are a bunch of experienced men who have
Speaker 7: been in about every situation you can go through and
Speaker 7: they've survived it. So that's going to mean a lot
Speaker 7: to them.
Speaker 2: Jack Gibbons is my guest, the UK All American color
Speaker 2: analyst on the UK Radio Network. We'll have more questions
Speaker 2: for the Goose when we come back here on the
Speaker 2: Big Boon Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking
Speaker 2: with Jack Gibbons. See of course, the UK All American
Speaker 2: Tom Leach's running mate on the UK Basketball Radio Network.
Speaker 2: Hear him each week with Tom. But Jack and I
Speaker 2: haven't had a chance to chop it up in a while,
Speaker 2: so I wanted to get his thoughts on what he
Speaker 2: has seen with Mark Pope's newball club. And I know, Jack,
Speaker 2: without even asking you, you love the style of play.
Speaker 2: We haven't even seen a game yet, but from everything
Speaker 2: we've heard he wants to see that ball go up
Speaker 2: from the outside, and to a young man like you,
Speaker 2: that's music, isn't it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean it should be to all of these
Speaker 7: guys because the one thing they want, I think when
Speaker 7: it comes to the way the game is being played now,
Speaker 7: is a realization that they can shoot at anytime they
Speaker 7: think they have a good shot.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 7: You know a lot of offenses you have to run.
Speaker 7: You have to make four or five, six, seven passes. Well,
Speaker 7: with this offense, if you make four or five six passes,
Speaker 7: you're running it wrong. You're just you're just not doing
Speaker 7: it right.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 7: You should be able to either get a shot as
Speaker 7: soon as the ball pass gets past half court. I
Speaker 7: mean I'm not talking about just from the logo, but
Speaker 7: that pass that might come from the back court into
Speaker 7: the front court around the three point line. If that
Speaker 7: shot is there, you take it. If you don't take it,
Speaker 7: then you make a dribble to the basket, and then
Speaker 7: you pass it to the other guy spotting up on
Speaker 7: the wing and that guy takes. So the quick offense
Speaker 7: is going to be a fun style. You can It's
Speaker 7: amazing you can run that and still shoot a lot
Speaker 7: of bad shots, which which is hard to kind of
Speaker 7: compute for me, but they are doing that and the
Speaker 7: shot look like good shots. And you know, there are
Speaker 7: full of guys that you don't necessarily want taking me
Speaker 7: the extended jump shot if you will, but you know
Speaker 7: at sixteen fifteen sixteen foot jump shot is a good shot.
Speaker 7: I mean, I've made a living doing that, and you know,
Speaker 7: everything worked out firme. So it's going to be a
Speaker 7: fun style to lot.
Speaker 2: So what you're telling me is we won't necessarily see
Speaker 2: every shot from outside the paint, from beyond the arc.
Speaker 2: We're going to see some mid range.
Speaker 7: You're going to I'm hoping we see a lot of
Speaker 7: mid range shots, because, yeah, the three pointer is good,
Speaker 7: and I know analytics and all of that make it
Speaker 7: such that, you know, thirty three percent of a three
Speaker 7: point shot a whole lot better than forty five percent
Speaker 7: of a two point shot, and you know I get that,
Speaker 7: But there's still a place in this game, I think
Speaker 7: for a two point shot. I'm not talking about a
Speaker 7: step inside a three point line. I mean, if you're
Speaker 7: that far out, you might as well be behind the
Speaker 7: three point line. But I'm talking about some of those
Speaker 7: when you're following up for offensive rebound, and you catch
Speaker 7: it at the long shots lead the long rebounds, and
Speaker 7: you catch it at the free throw line or just beyond,
Speaker 7: go ahead and shoot that thing right there. Sometimes it
Speaker 7: will be reversed or one more pass to the three
Speaker 7: point line. But there'd be some of those shots surely
Speaker 7: that you should be able to get.
Speaker 2: See. In my mind's eye, I'm thinking tempo and pace.
Speaker 2: They want to they want an up tempo offense. So
Speaker 2: if the other team give them credit, if they're playing
Speaker 2: pretty good defense, and you got to work at work
Speaker 2: and work it, you don't want to settle it point
Speaker 2: for a mid range shot. Is is that what I'm hearing?
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, you know, I mean I think you're gonna
Speaker 7: have to figure that out shoot. I mean, look, they're
Speaker 7: gonna be times when you know you've been defended well
Speaker 7: and you have teams out challenging you, which makes making
Speaker 7: that seventeen foot shot even more important because I remember
Speaker 7: Kentucky used to play Alabama, a team like Alabama who
Speaker 7: lived by the three point shot. I mean, their philosophy
Speaker 7: was to chase them off the three point line, right, So, yeah,
Speaker 7: they're gonna be some times when you fake and take
Speaker 7: two or three dribbles to clear some space, you still
Speaker 7: have to make that seventeen foot jump shot. So yeah,
Speaker 7: they're gonna be times for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, well I thought that's what I was hearing.
Speaker 2: A couple more basketball questions and then you're gonna shamelessly
Speaker 2: plug your book. But I do find it interesting that
Speaker 2: Kentucky is not an n any of the way too
Speaker 2: early top twenty five. I'm with you. I think it's
Speaker 2: going to be fun when the Wildcats crashed the top
Speaker 2: twenty five, assuming they have success, and see how quickly
Speaker 2: do the voters start to believe in Mark Pope's team,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean?
Speaker 7: Yeah, And look, I'm hoping. I mean, we're going to
Speaker 7: win games, that's not a problem. I'm hoping by the
Speaker 7: time the SEC schedule starts run the first of the year,
Speaker 7: I'm hoping we're about number fifteen something like that. And
Speaker 7: I'm thinking after the first three weeks of the SEC
Speaker 7: schedule and we upset some teams and we beat some
Speaker 7: teams that we weren't supposed, we now cracked the top ten,
Speaker 7: and see what happens the rest of the year. I'm
Speaker 7: looking for that kind of season and that kind of
Speaker 7: progress from this team.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 7: I mean, hey, we may never get to number one,
Speaker 7: but there's a lot of success for a team that
Speaker 7: we have, the veterans that we have from the number
Speaker 7: ten to number thirteen spot, which is where we should
Speaker 7: be by the end of the year, and then let's
Speaker 7: just see what happens from there.
Speaker 2: That sounds good to me. Well, before we go shamelessly
Speaker 2: plug your book, how are things going.
Speaker 7: Man, I am I'm just so surprised. I went out
Speaker 7: to San Diego last week for the San Diego Alumni
Speaker 7: Associate Southern Alumni Associate UK Alumni Association. They asked me
Speaker 7: to come out there bed and I'm thinking, man, I'm
Speaker 7: going all the way out here to sign books for
Speaker 7: two or three people. Well, we had our listin you know,
Speaker 7: we had our book signing at a couple of places,
Speaker 7: one with Warwards Bookstore, which was voted last year the
Speaker 7: number one privately owned bookstore in the country. I mean,
Speaker 7: from what I understand gave they have book signings for
Speaker 7: some of the best authors writers ever. I mean they
Speaker 7: have had there at that store. Quaint store beautiful located
Speaker 7: in La Joya, which is in itself worth seeing and
Speaker 7: spend in a few days. But it was right there,
Speaker 7: gave and Man, I walked out there, walked into the
Speaker 7: place and there were people sitting and waiting, and then
Speaker 7: as I stood around twenty minutes before and talked to
Speaker 7: the Kentucky fans who were out there, Man, they are
Speaker 7: passionate fans. And we ended up with a nice crowd
Speaker 7: out there to night event. Ended up with nice crowds
Speaker 7: that both of them, and was really really neat to
Speaker 7: see that happen. But I've gotten that kind of response everywhere,
Speaker 7: places like Henderson and you know, I did signing in
Speaker 7: Louisville and Frankfort and man, it's just been been so
Speaker 7: much fun to do that and to get out and
Speaker 7: to see people. Got a number of other ones coming up.
Speaker 7: I'll be in Embracells here on the twenty third for
Speaker 7: the a function there. They have a I like to
Speaker 7: call them festivals but community thing going on. I'm going
Speaker 7: up to Ashland. I'm gonna fit of September and we'll
Speaker 7: be there. But got a lot of other signings coming up. Man,
Speaker 7: But it's been fun. It's been I've been pleasantly.
Speaker 2: Surprised, excellent, well keep us posted and we will help
Speaker 2: you seamlessly. Plug. I really enjoyed it. I need to
Speaker 2: read it again because you guys were kind enough to
Speaker 2: send it to me, gosh, almost two years before it
Speaker 2: came out, so I need to take another look at it.
Speaker 2: But it was very enjoyable read and I'm not surprise
Speaker 2: you getting the crowds man. I'm glad for you. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much for your time. Hope to see us soon.
Speaker 7: Always good to be on with you, Gabe, Thanks for
Speaker 7: keeping me in mind.
Speaker 2: Up next, Mark Story of the Herold Leader. He helped
Speaker 2: Tom Hammond write his book, and we'll talk with that
Speaker 2: and the Wildcats with Mark when we come back here
Speaker 2: on the Big Bloon. Siders six thirty is don Our
Speaker 2: celebrity Hotline is a long time colleague friend of the show,
Speaker 2: Mark's story, who of course is a calumnist and a
Speaker 2: terrific writer for The Herald Leader and now a co author. Mark.
Speaker 2: First of all, welcome.
Speaker 6: Back, Well thanks for having me Deck.
Speaker 2: You have helped Tom Hammond write his book, Races, Games
Speaker 2: and Olympic Dreams, A Sportscaster's Life. Is it correct to
Speaker 2: call you the co author? How do you describe your role.
Speaker 6: Well, we wrote it, so co author, I guess is appropriate.
Speaker 2: Tell me how this came about, because you know, I've
Speaker 2: always told you much I enjoy your work when you
Speaker 2: kind of look back and provide perspective on things that
Speaker 2: have happened throughout the years. So when I heard you
Speaker 2: were working with Tom on this, I thought that's a
Speaker 2: perfect fit. How did this come about?
Speaker 6: Well? Tom approached me and just said he had been
Speaker 6: thought across the years about writing a book and wanted
Speaker 6: somebody wanted a writer to work with him, and asked
Speaker 6: me if I'd be interested. And when I went out
Speaker 6: to Tom and Sheila's house and we talked about it,
Speaker 6: and we decided to do it. And when I told
Speaker 6: the first thing I told Tom is you know, one
Speaker 6: of the reasons that I was interested was from having
Speaker 6: written about him and the Herald Leader across the years.
Speaker 6: Those stories always tended to be well read, so I
Speaker 6: thought there would be an audience for this project. So
Speaker 6: that's sort of how we got going.
Speaker 2: So how did you help him? Because you know I
Speaker 2: had him on the other night and he was talking
Speaker 2: about how things came to his mind he had thought
Speaker 2: of and you tell me about that process.
Speaker 6: Well, what we actually did. We the way we started,
Speaker 6: we agreed to do an oral history project for the
Speaker 6: Louie B. Nun Center of Oral History right at the
Speaker 6: University of Kentucky. So I would go out to their house,
Speaker 6: and because of the way my schedule was set up
Speaker 6: the time, we usually did these on Tuesday afternoon and
Speaker 6: we just do interviews on various topics from Tom's life
Speaker 6: and Tom's career for the oral History project. And the
Speaker 6: benefit of from that beyond just sort of getting us
Speaker 6: rolling in terms of the interviewing, was that they would
Speaker 6: they had a transcription app and would transcribe provide us
Speaker 6: within transcripts of the interview, so I didn't have to
Speaker 6: do that myself. And I had I had to transcribe
Speaker 6: all the interviews that went into this, we would we
Speaker 6: would still be transcribing, there would not be a book
Speaker 6: at this point. So that that that's kind of how
Speaker 6: we got going. And then when we got to the
Speaker 6: point where we did the writing, it was basically a
Speaker 6: lot of times in the morning I would write as
Speaker 6: me for the Herald Leader, and then in the afternoon
Speaker 6: I would work on the book and sort of write it,
Speaker 6: write it from Tom's perspective, and I would send them
Speaker 6: the chapters and he'd go He and Chila would go
Speaker 6: through them and you know, this isn't this is you know,
Speaker 6: this is right, or this isn't exactly how this happened,
Speaker 6: and we would just collaborate and get until we had
Speaker 6: a chapter done.
Speaker 2: As a guy who grew up in Kentucky and of
Speaker 2: course your career writing about sports in the state of
Speaker 2: Kentucky and many events that Tom Hammond broadcast. Uh, what
Speaker 2: was that like for you? That that level of familiarity.
Speaker 6: Well, I think it obviously helped. There was a lot
Speaker 6: about Tom's life and Tom's career I didn't know, but
Speaker 6: I was. I was broadly familiar with the arc of
Speaker 6: the story. And I do think that helped. And I
Speaker 6: do think about, you know, the fact that I am
Speaker 6: a Kentucky writer, how that, you know, sort of impacted
Speaker 6: the way I told the story. Now, there's really two
Speaker 6: parts to this book. The first eleven chapters are Tom's
Speaker 6: childhood and sort of the lawn of his career here
Speaker 6: in Lexington, a Lexington media figure, you know, sort of
Speaker 6: culminating with you know, he goes to college, you know,
Speaker 6: planning to be a hoping to become a horse farm
Speaker 6: manager or work in the you know, the thoroughbred horse
Speaker 6: racing industry or breeding industry in some level, but never
Speaker 6: a thought of being in the media, being on radio
Speaker 6: or television. And then you know, just I'm sort of
Speaker 6: by accident almost he gets in the media game, and
Speaker 6: you know, has a great voice and a lot of
Speaker 6: talent and a natural affinity for it, and it sort
Speaker 6: of goes from there. Now, the second part of the
Speaker 6: book then is you know Tom's life is an NBC
Speaker 6: national high level sportscaster with his observations on you know,
Speaker 6: relationships with Dick Enberg and O. J. Simpson and Bob
Speaker 6: Costas and covering Hussein Bolt and Alison Felix and Sarah
Speaker 6: Hughes in that great Olympic ice skating upset in Salt
Speaker 6: Lake City and just know all the things he got
Speaker 6: to cover and all the people you know, he worked
Speaker 6: with and covered. And you know, one of the really
Speaker 6: cool stories in the book, you know, Tom showed up early.
Speaker 6: He's doing an NBA game in Chicago and showed up
Speaker 6: early and Michael Jordan's who had just returned from his
Speaker 6: baseball hiatus and had been struggling with his shot was
Speaker 6: out real early getting shots up, and Tom loosens his
Speaker 6: time and walks down and rebounds for Michael Jordan's And
Speaker 6: you know how you know, as I said, as I
Speaker 6: told said to Tom when he first told me that,
Speaker 6: So you know, that's the equivalent of the shagging fly
Speaker 6: balls for Babe Ruth. I mean, that's how many people
Speaker 6: are going to be able to truthfully say they've rebounded
Speaker 6: for Michael Jordans.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. I know there are so many great stories
Speaker 2: like that. But to your point about how he was
Speaker 2: heading in a different direction with his career and suddenly
Speaker 2: got an opportunity. He has such a great voice, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, really blessed and knows how to use it. Obviously, Well,
Speaker 2: it's hard to imagine him not doing this kind of work,
Speaker 2: isn't it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it is. I mean it's a case where you know, somebody,
Speaker 6: you know, somebody you know fade or whatever you know,
Speaker 6: sort of guides us through life and sort of guided
Speaker 6: him into what he was meant to be. Because you're right,
Speaker 6: his voice is, you know, really memorable. And you know,
Speaker 6: I've often said if we we need to try, if
Speaker 6: we could set up someway where people could open the
Speaker 6: book cover and just hear one of Tom's called you
Speaker 6: know what? You know, Tom obviously is very well known
Speaker 6: in Kentucky. I think nationally a lot of people would
Speaker 6: recognize that voice. To me, they say, oh yeah.
Speaker 2: Any idea of it would be an audiobook?
Speaker 1: You know that? That's that.
Speaker 6: I'm not sure. I need to check with the publisher
Speaker 6: that that. That's been asked a couple of times, and
Speaker 6: I don't know the answer.
Speaker 2: Talking to Mark's story of the hero leader, columnist, feature
Speaker 2: writer and now co author of Tom Hammond's book Races,
Speaker 2: Games and Olympic Dream Teams, A Sportscaster's Life. And if
Speaker 2: you would like to meet, I assume will you be
Speaker 2: with Tom at the book signings? I will, all right, well.
Speaker 2: August thirtieth is the first one in Ashland at the
Speaker 2: Broadway Books here in Lexing in September eighth at Joe Beth. Uh.
Speaker 2: You know, fate I think played a hand here, But
Speaker 2: this I think for Tom Hammond was the typical, if
Speaker 2: there is such a thing, instance of luck meeting up
Speaker 2: with hard work and leading to success. Because he never
Speaker 2: mailed anything in you could tell how much he prepared
Speaker 2: and how much he had to prepare Mark for events
Speaker 2: he did in the Olympics, where somebody at NBC, Dick Ebersol, whoever,
Speaker 2: said I think you'll do well, and Tom heads straight
Speaker 2: to the library to study, didn't he.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, Tom and Bob Costas wrote the forward
Speaker 6: for our book, and it is really good. I mean,
Speaker 6: Bob really did a good job. This forward. He's you know,
Speaker 6: he basically says, Tom is the you know, televised Olympic
Speaker 6: track and field you know what Den Scully is to
Speaker 6: baseball or Mark Albert is to you know, the NBA.
Speaker 6: In other words, the best to ever do it. Yeah,
Speaker 6: and and and and Tom started in that he had
Speaker 6: worked an NBA game on a Sunday and gets a
Speaker 6: call on Monday, you know, from Dick ever Saw, who
Speaker 6: was in the running NBC Sports and basically says, what
Speaker 6: do you know about track and field? And Tom said, well,
Speaker 6: not not much. I've gone to a couple track meets.
Speaker 6: And you know, you ever saw had made that call
Speaker 6: for a purpose. They wanted Tom to call a track
Speaker 6: and field and you know, if he was going to
Speaker 6: do the nineteen ninety one US and then the World
Speaker 6: Championships and if it did went well, then he would
Speaker 6: do the Olympics in Barcelona. And you know, that's sort
Speaker 6: of how Tom started and and and I think Costas
Speaker 6: is right. I think Tom is the best track and
Speaker 6: field announcer of of our you know generation. And that
Speaker 6: is a hard, hard job, especially the hundred meters dash.
Speaker 6: And I think we saw in the just concluded included
Speaker 6: Olympics where the call went awry, just how difficult that is.
Speaker 6: You know, you've got a ten second event, and if
Speaker 6: you know you don't have time to look up, you
Speaker 6: know you don't know who's who. There's no time to
Speaker 6: look it up because if you look down or you
Speaker 6: try to think of something, the meets over. And I
Speaker 6: believe you know, I've watched most of Tom's calls from
Speaker 6: the Olympics, and I don't think he had any any
Speaker 6: mistakes in one hundred meters call. And the degree of
Speaker 6: difficulty on that is off the charts.
Speaker 2: Oh, you couldn't have said it better. I've had the
Speaker 2: privilege of doing a lot of different sports. I've never
Speaker 2: done horse racing. I've tried it once on my own.
Speaker 2: It's it's brutally hard, but I cannot imagine, like you said,
Speaker 2: trying to accurately depict and when you're obviously complimenting the
Speaker 2: video right in front. But that also means you can't
Speaker 2: screw that up. And Tom and I talked about that
Speaker 2: he was well prepared and fortunate enough to never have
Speaker 2: screwed it up. And he also Mark called some of
Speaker 2: the greatest performances in the hundred, didn't he?
Speaker 6: Well he he not only in the hundred, he called
Speaker 6: some of the greatest performances in sports history. Yeah, and
Speaker 6: you know Michael Johnson the two hundred and four hundred
Speaker 6: double in Atlanta. Yep, you Tom got the call. You know,
Speaker 6: all three of Usain Bolt's Olympics, you know Alison Felix,
Speaker 6: you know just you know, some of the giants of
Speaker 6: our athletic era, and you know Tom was the narrator
Speaker 6: of for their exploits.
Speaker 2: Did you enjoy uh kind of You had to have
Speaker 2: enjoyed that kind of that walk down memory lane because
Speaker 2: things that popped into Tom said, I'm sure start to
Speaker 2: pop it into your head as well.
Speaker 6: Well. The thing that was really fun for me and
Speaker 6: I think will be fun for people reading the book was,
Speaker 6: you know, Tom worked with a lot of you know,
Speaker 6: the kind of the famous athletic figures of of of
Speaker 6: the era. You know, Joe Namath was his first full
Speaker 6: time NFL analyst on NFL games. You know, he worked
Speaker 6: with Bill Walton and Steve Snapper Jones three three man
Speaker 6: NBA booth that I think other than the famous you know,
Speaker 6: Dick Enberg, you know, Al McGuire, Billy Packer, the famous
Speaker 6: three man booth, I think this was the second best
Speaker 6: one of those ever. And you know, a lot of
Speaker 6: times three men, you know, three announcers, it doesn't work,
Speaker 6: the dynamic doesn't work, but this one did. And actually
Speaker 6: Bill Walton submitted a blurb for us for the book,
Speaker 6: and being Bill Walton, it's it did not conform to
Speaker 6: the what the strictures of a blurb. It was, you know,
Speaker 6: very long and very stream of consciousness, and it's just
Speaker 6: a who It was perfect Bill Walton and Bill loved Tom.
Speaker 6: And this may be the last thing Bill wrote for Consumption.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: And to be honest, I wouldn't I didn't realize he
Speaker 6: was as sick as he was. I wouldn't even have asked,
Speaker 6: you know, but he was glad to do it. And
Speaker 6: like I said, Bill and Tom had a great relationship,
Speaker 6: and Tom says Bill would call him just every so
Speaker 6: often out of the blue and say, hello, Tom, this
Speaker 6: is Bill Walton. I used to work for you.
Speaker 2: Love it. I wondered about that as well when I
Speaker 2: heard that that Bill Walton had contributed a blurb, so
Speaker 2: I can't wait to read it. It's called Races, Games
Speaker 2: and Olympic Dreams of Sportscaster's Life Tom Hammond, along with
Speaker 2: Mark's story and again August thirtieth, Ashland's Broadway Books at
Speaker 2: seven o'clock, Cincinnati's Joe Beth at seven pm on September
Speaker 2: the second, then here in Lexington. Actually two opportunities September
Speaker 2: the eighth at two pm and then at the Keenland
Speaker 2: Library September twenty fourth at six pm. That is a
Speaker 2: ticketed event. Do you know anything about getting tickets to that?
Speaker 1: I do not.
Speaker 6: I think that's something I should be on top of.
Speaker 2: Well, when you find out, let me know and I'll
Speaker 2: share it with people as well. I know we will
Speaker 2: as well, social media being what it is. Mark, thanks
Speaker 2: so much for your time. I know it's a busy time,
Speaker 2: but congratulations on the project and getting it done well.
Speaker 6: Thanks Dick, Thanks for having me and thanks for the
Speaker 6: interest in races, games and Olympic drink.
Speaker 2: Definitely putting that one on the summer reading list. Right now,
Speaker 2: I'm juggling two books, both by media people, the late
Speaker 2: Dick Enburg. I'm reading his book. I've had it for
Speaker 2: a while. I don't know why I never started it,
Speaker 2: but I did and I'm really enjoying it. Also, and
Speaker 2: this came after the D Day anniversary Indy Rooney. I'd
Speaker 2: forgotten that the great commentator from CBS and a great
Speaker 2: writer had written a book about his experiences in World
Speaker 2: War Two. It is just called My War and it
Speaker 2: is fascinating. So juggling those two, and when I finish
Speaker 2: one of them, I will fold in Tom's book. And
Speaker 2: I haven't got my hands yet on John Walk's murder
Speaker 2: mystery with the background of college athletics. So it's been
Speaker 2: a good summer for books. I also just got Charlie Hussell,
Speaker 2: the new book about Pete Rose. The author was on
Speaker 2: the show a while back, so lots to catch up on,
Speaker 2: but it is enjoyable. When we come back, we will
Speaker 2: wrap up this edition. But Heroes, fools and flakes here
Speaker 2: on the Big Blue Insider six point thirty eight WLAP
Speaker 2: Welcome Back. We thank our guest tonight, Chris Doring of
Speaker 2: the SEC Network, Jack Gibbons from the UK Sports Network,
Speaker 2: of course, and Mark's story from The Hero Leader. We
Speaker 2: will close things out as we often do it Heroes,
Speaker 2: fools and flakes. My hero tonight, and I'm sure there's
Speaker 2: more than one person anybody who had anything to do
Speaker 2: with the Big Ten Conference and the Chicago Cubs getting
Speaker 2: together to plan a pair of college hockey doubleheaders at
Speaker 2: Wrigley Field. This is going to happen in January of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. It's coming January, and of course Wrigglely
Speaker 2: is known as the Friendly Confines, so they're calling this
Speaker 2: the Confines Big Ten Hockey Series. I'm not a huge
Speaker 2: hockey fan, but I really like playoff hockey A lot
Speaker 2: of you do. But I also like it when they
Speaker 2: play outdoors, especially if it's snowing. I just think that's
Speaker 2: really impealing and engaging. And what they're going to do,
Speaker 2: is we said, is play a couple of doubleheaders, three
Speaker 2: Big Ten men's hockey games plus a Western Collegiate Hockey
Speaker 2: Association women's game. It's the first weekend of January the
Speaker 2: third and the fourth at Wrigley Field. The Big Ten
Speaker 2: Network will carry all four games. So I don't get
Speaker 2: the Big Ten Network, but I'm hoping I can see
Speaker 2: highlights somewhere. So anyhow, Penn State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan,
Speaker 2: Wisconsin involved as well as is Michigan State. So as
Speaker 2: I said, whoever put their heads together made this happen.
Speaker 2: They are our heroes this week are full tonight and
Speaker 2: once again we'll have to give it out to more
Speaker 2: than one person, anybody who had anything to do with
Speaker 2: Rachel Gun appearing in the Olympics. She is ray Gun,
Speaker 2: the breakdancer. This is a story that won't go away. Sadly,
Speaker 2: she says, she is being harassed. She has been the
Speaker 2: topic of countless viral internet memes. You know, look, this
Speaker 2: is the chance you take when you put yourself center
Speaker 2: stage literally in a situation like this. She knew that
Speaker 2: she would be judged harshly. She had to know. But
Speaker 2: I also don't blame her as much as whoever it
Speaker 2: was with the Australian Olympic contingent. Somebody I'm reading decided
Speaker 2: not to send whatever breakdancer was best qualified and instead
Speaker 2: played special favorites with ray Gun and sent her instead.
Speaker 2: I have no idea what they were thinking. Clearly they
Speaker 2: weren't thinking ahead and now she is suffering for it.
Speaker 2: But she had a hand in this as well. So
Speaker 2: why do this and subject yourself to the kind of
Speaker 2: ridicule that your country, as well as this woman are feeling.
Speaker 2: Right now, our flake tonight back to the Olympics. This
Speaker 2: is just a weird situation with Jordan Shiles having to forfeit,
Speaker 2: or at least order to forfeit, her bronze medal because
Speaker 2: of some sort of mix up in the appeal process,
Speaker 2: and now the Court of Arbitration for Sports standing by
Speaker 2: it's ruling that the medals should go to the Romanian gymnast.
Speaker 2: There is controversy over whether the US appeal was turned
Speaker 2: in in time. The CIS says everybody agrees that it
Speaker 2: came four seconds too late. I have not read the
Speaker 2: US saying that that's the case. But now the US
Speaker 2: officials are saying that critical information about the process was
Speaker 2: emailed to the wrong address. And we've all been there,
Speaker 2: haven't we. They say the CIS sent them information that
Speaker 2: they desperately needed, but sent it to the wrong address
Speaker 2: or up against the gun to put together the appeal.
Speaker 2: It's just a big mess and it should never have
Speaker 2: come to this, so uh yeah, there's a fool in
Speaker 2: there somewhere, but that's our flake for tonight. That's going
Speaker 2: to do it. Thanks so much. We'll talk more Kentucky
Speaker 2: football next week. Have a great weekend. That's a good
Speaker 2: night from the garage in Lexington, fighting with.
Speaker 5: The album No Garlic.
Speaker 2: Clarkson E. S.