Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue on Saturday Gabriel with you
Speaker 1: Thursday edition of our program, and we are one day
Speaker 1: closer to game night both football and basketball. Of course,
Speaker 1: the football Cats played Tennessee Saturday night down at Nylan,
Speaker 1: and we'll have it for you right here at five
Speaker 1: point thirty pre game with Christy Thomas, Logan Stenberg, Jeremy Jarman,
Speaker 1: and Tom Lee. Jeff mccorl and I will take over
Speaker 1: as the Cats try to pull the upset against the
Speaker 1: seventh ranked volunteers in Kentucky. As of right now, is
Speaker 1: going to be down several starters when it heads down
Speaker 1: to Rocky Top. Maxwell Harriston once again on the availability
Speaker 1: list as out zero percent chance he'll play. Jansen Dunn
Speaker 1: a cornerback, Gerald Mincy again offensive tackle out, Josiah Hayes
Speaker 1: defensive lineman, ship train him the running back out again,
Speaker 1: JJ Weaver, the Eric Jackson two important linebackers out. Steven Soles,
Speaker 1: junior young outside linebacker will not play and Jordan Dingle,
Speaker 1: a tight end, will not play as well. DJ Waller,
Speaker 1: another cornerback, is listed as questionable probable Demi Sumo, carnbay
Speaker 1: Is and Dion Walker. So we likely will see them.
Speaker 1: Tennessee is going to be missing three players listed as out.
Speaker 1: But right now the Wildcats are really really banged up
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be a tough one down there. But
Speaker 1: we'll have it for you on Saturday night. Then on
Speaker 1: Monday night, women's basketball at five o'clock as Kenny Brooks
Speaker 1: team opens up, and then of course the men open
Speaker 1: up for real on Monday night as well at seven o'clock.
Speaker 1: So you'll hear the women's game on ninety eight point
Speaker 1: five FM. You'll hear the men's game as usual on
Speaker 1: ninety eight point one and on six thirty WLAP. So well,
Speaker 1: here a little bit later on from Mark Pope and
Speaker 1: Kenny Brooks. They talked to the media earlier today. We
Speaker 1: will tell you that Jackson Robinson is on a couple
Speaker 1: of watch lists for awards, not unusual at this time
Speaker 1: of the year, especially for Kentucky players to be on
Speaker 1: these lists. He is listed on the Jersey Mike's Naysmith
Speaker 1: Trophy Men's College Basketball Player of the Year watch list.
Speaker 1: That's a that's a handful. That's not new as far
Speaker 1: as it is as far as Jersey Mike's is concerned.
Speaker 1: But the Naismith Award is in its fifty seventh year.
Speaker 1: Two Kentucky players have won this through the years. The
Speaker 1: first to win it, believe it or not, was Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis twelve years ago. Back in twenty twelve. Now he
Speaker 1: was the first UK player ever to win the n
Speaker 1: Men's College Player of the Year Award. Oscar Sheeway jumped
Speaker 1: up and won it in twenty twenty two fifty players
Speaker 1: from around the country. Robinson is one of ten SEC candidates.
Speaker 1: Now he is also up for the Julius Irving Award,
Speaker 1: and that is named, of course after doctor j It's
Speaker 1: in its eleventh year and it recognizes the top small
Speaker 1: forwards in Division one men's college basketball. And you're asking yourself,
Speaker 1: is this kid a forward or a guard? Well, he's
Speaker 1: whatever the watch list or the nomination form says he is.
Speaker 1: Because schools nominate players for these awards. It's not a
Speaker 1: bunch of people sitting around and say, well, let's let's
Speaker 1: take this guy.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The schools nominate. And I didn't know that until cali
Speaker 1: Peri first got here, because if you recall, John Wall
Speaker 1: was the player of the Year in the SEC. DeMarcus
Speaker 1: Cousins was the Freshman of the Year in the SEC
Speaker 1: and you're scratching your head. How does that work? Well,
Speaker 1: the team or the school wisely nominated them for different awards,
Speaker 1: and that ensured that there would be no vote splitting.
Speaker 1: Plus how do you pick between Cousins and wall So,
Speaker 1: as I said, I didn't really understand this until that happened.
Speaker 1: But Jackson Robinson and these won't be the first list
Speaker 1: that he's on. And I guarantee you, well, whatever kind
Speaker 1: of defensively there are, Lamont Butler will be on them.
Speaker 1: Speaking up basketball, Kentucky pulls Mark Pope away from Brigham Young. Right,
Speaker 1: So who did Brigham Young turn to? A guy? And
Speaker 1: you may have seen his name, but a guy named
Speaker 1: Kevin Young, who most recently had been the associate head
Speaker 1: coach for the Phoenix Suns. But way back, like fourteen
Speaker 1: years ago, he was well, no, not that long back
Speaker 1: at whole five six, he was an assistant at Utah
Speaker 1: Valley under Mark Pope. But after that he spent most
Speaker 1: of his time in the G League, and then he
Speaker 1: moved up to the NBA with the seventy six ers
Speaker 1: as an assistant coach, and then a couple of different
Speaker 1: jobs with the Phoenix Suns before BYU hired him. And
Speaker 1: the reason I bring this up is because Brigham Young
Speaker 1: played its first exhibition game last night and drew more
Speaker 1: than sixteen thousand, So fans were excited about basketball. They
Speaker 1: became more excited when Mark Pope got there, and they
Speaker 1: remain excited despite the fact that Kentucky poached its coach.
Speaker 1: But they played Colorado Christian which is D two, beat
Speaker 1: him ninety three forty nine. And see tell me if
Speaker 1: this sounds familiar. Twenty four assists on thirty one made baskets.
Speaker 1: I don't know what system they're running, but those are
Speaker 1: numbers similar to what we've seen with the Wildcats and
Speaker 1: two exhibitions. But evidently Mark Pope had them loving basketball
Speaker 1: out at Brigham Young. So the team he left behind
Speaker 1: is doing a pretty good job right now as well.
Speaker 1: One more basketball note before we get on to the
Speaker 1: World Series is we've got to talk about that Kentucky connection.
Speaker 1: But there's a UK connection, and there usually is to
Speaker 1: an NBA game last night more than one. But last
Speaker 1: night there were two Wildcats in one game who had
Speaker 1: huge efforts as the Heat lost to the New York Knicks.
Speaker 1: Tyler Hero thirty four points, five rebounds, seven assists, hit
Speaker 1: sixty percent eight of thirteen from three point land, but
Speaker 1: his team lost to the Knicks, won sixteen to one
Speaker 1: oh seven. Why well, the Knicks got an even bigger
Speaker 1: game from Karl Anthony Towns, the guy for whom the
Speaker 1: Knicks traded. They traded Julius Randall, another former Wildcat, to Minnesota.
Speaker 1: And this is the kind of game. Maybe not every night,
Speaker 1: but this is the kind of game the Knicks fans
Speaker 1: have been hoping for. Forty four points and then went
Speaker 1: over the heat. All right, we got to talk about
Speaker 1: the World Series because Lexingon's Walker Bueller closed it out
Speaker 1: for the Dodgers. Let me tell you first about how
Speaker 1: this happened, because he was not supposed to pitch last night.
Speaker 1: He was not even in the plans for Dave Roberts.
Speaker 1: And we know this because that's what he said, the
Speaker 1: manager appearing on Fox Sports right after the game, talking
Speaker 1: about a conversation he had with Walker.
Speaker 3: You know, Walker Buehller sent me a text earlier today saying, Hey,
Speaker 3: I'll be available. He sent us in the GM a
Speaker 3: text and I just kind of patted him on the head,
Speaker 3: said no, thanks. But then in the seventh inning he's
Speaker 3: on his jack, gets to jacket and says, hey, I'll
Speaker 3: be there if you need me, And sure enough we
Speaker 3: needed him.
Speaker 1: So Buehller comes on in relieve. It's the first time
Speaker 1: he pitched in relief since June twenty eighth of twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: and back then he gave up five earned runs took
Speaker 1: the loss against the Chicago Cubs. Man was he sharp
Speaker 1: last night? Of course the Yankees or anything butt sharp.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that in a minute. But Buehller talked
Speaker 1: to Fox Sports right after they were still celebrating down
Speaker 1: on the field.
Speaker 4: Walker, when you woke up this morning, did you have
Speaker 4: any inkling you'd be closing out the clinching game of this?
Speaker 5: Said, I didn't.
Speaker 4: Throw balls on one out there, so oh no, after all,
Speaker 4: you went through this almost two years and helping down
Speaker 4: the season.
Speaker 5: Wasn't mean to you to do what you did tonight.
Speaker 4: Obviously for me personally huge two two years off to surgeries.
Speaker 4: It's a lot for our organization. We deserve this. We've
Speaker 4: been playing really good baseball for a lot of years
Speaker 4: and twenty twenty and whatever. But they can't say a
Speaker 4: whole lot about it.
Speaker 1: Now, How did you feel out there?
Speaker 4: I don't know, It's hard to explain. You know, I
Speaker 4: felt like I weighed about.
Speaker 1: Five pounds and.
Speaker 5: I wish I was in a little.
Speaker 4: Better shape so my heart could have handled it better.
Speaker 4: But it worked out Land the team guys were down.
Speaker 5: To one in the division series up to the Padres.
Speaker 5: You were down five to nothing tonight.
Speaker 4: What is it about this group that makes it so resilient?
Speaker 4: You know, there's just a lot of ways we can
Speaker 4: win baseball games. Obviously the superstars we have on our team,
Speaker 4: and then the discipline. This kind of all adds up
Speaker 4: and it's a big inning, you know, it's just wild Welkacongdas.
Speaker 1: Thank you for Walker Buller talking to Fox Sports. And
Speaker 1: of course Walker went to Vandy to not go to
Speaker 1: the UK, but is a product of Henry Clay High School,
Speaker 1: just like his wife Mackenzie. And as you made o
Speaker 1: by now, that battery, the Pitcher Catcher combo was all
Speaker 1: Kentucky will Smith behind the plate, a U OFL product.
Speaker 1: So as they celebrated the World Series, it was a
Speaker 1: cardinal and a wildcat coming together in great joy. There
Speaker 1: is no joy in New York, of course, because the
Speaker 1: Yankees have struck out metaphorically. Of course, what a terrible
Speaker 1: game they play. That was the worst performance in one
Speaker 1: inning in the fifth inning, as they blew a five
Speaker 1: nothing lead that I've ever seen. I haven't seen every
Speaker 1: inning of every World Series game, but I've read a
Speaker 1: lot about all of them, and I can't imagine in
Speaker 1: a situation like that, where you've got a big lead
Speaker 1: in a game you must have to stay alive. How
Speaker 1: poorly the Yankees played an error, a flub on a
Speaker 1: force play, a mental error as a pitcher fails to
Speaker 1: cover first and even if the first baseman should have
Speaker 1: been there, the pitcher should have been there as well
Speaker 1: instead of just pointing to the bag. You know, they
Speaker 1: work on this every day, starting in spring training, and
Speaker 1: that just opened the floodgates. It was terrible. It was
Speaker 1: a comedy of errors. Literally, Aaron Judge drops a fly
Speaker 1: ball in center field, had a home run in the
Speaker 1: first inning, but otherwise didn't do a whole lot for
Speaker 1: his ball club. And now what's going to be his legacy?
Speaker 1: Well in New York unless they turn around and win
Speaker 1: a World Series and win one soon, he is not
Speaker 1: going to be remembered fondly by Yankees fans four for
Speaker 1: eighteen and five games against the Dodgers. And look, we
Speaker 1: all know how pitching handles good hitting, but man, that
Speaker 1: error really opened the gates. That was one of the
Speaker 1: things that opened the gates. And now a lineup that
Speaker 1: included Wan Soto, Gian Carlo Stanton just didn't get it done.
Speaker 1: Soto and Stanton did, okay, but Aaron Judge. I mean,
Speaker 1: people were in the middle of debating who's better him
Speaker 1: or Otani, And ironically enough, a lot of people, and
Speaker 1: myself included, I'd give a slight edge to Judge because
Speaker 1: he plays defense. We didn't play it very well last night.
Speaker 1: And fans all over New York are just sick to
Speaker 1: their stomach right now, including my New York City Bureau
Speaker 1: chief Mike Saffo. Oh Man, his tweets the worst. And
Speaker 1: by the way, the Jets, if you think there's going
Speaker 1: to be some respite tonight, they played the Texans on
Speaker 1: Thursday Night football. Somehow the Jets are favored. Amazing, They're
Speaker 1: favored by a point and a half. Maybe because they
Speaker 1: beat the Texans last year thirty to six at Medlife Stadium,
Speaker 1: But that was last year. Now they got a new
Speaker 1: interim head coach and they're circling the dream. Tough time
Speaker 1: to be a fan in New York unless you've already
Speaker 1: shifted your attention to the New York Knicks and Karl
Speaker 1: Anthony Towns. When we come back, we'll hear from Mark
Speaker 1: Pope a little bit later on Kenny Brooks as they
Speaker 1: prepare their teams. At the bottom of the hour. David
Speaker 1: Sisk from Cats Illustrated part of the Rivals Network. He
Speaker 1: has been already breaking down UK basketball video that's gonna
Speaker 1: be fun. It's coming up here on the Big Blue
Speaker 1: Siders six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big bluon Sider.
Speaker 1: Coming up in just a few minutes. David Sisk of
Speaker 1: Cats Illustrated covers Kentucky and North Carolina for the Rivals Network.
Speaker 1: He's been breaking down UK video from both the Kentucky
Speaker 1: Wesleyan and Minnesota State and and Cato games. So we'll
Speaker 1: learn more of what the coach thinks of the Wildcats,
Speaker 1: who open their season for keeps for real under Mark
Speaker 1: Pope Monday night against Wright State seven o'clock start. We'll
Speaker 1: have pregame for you at five thirty. Now, the women
Speaker 1: play at five o'clock, so that means our pregame begins
Speaker 1: at fourty with Darren Hedrick, so we'll have that on
Speaker 1: our FM station ninety eight point five, and then of
Speaker 1: course the men's games, we'll be right here on six
Speaker 1: point thirty WLAP. Mark Pope and Kenny Brooks both spoke
Speaker 1: to the media earlier today, and we'll start with Mark
Speaker 1: Pope because he told us a little bit about the
Speaker 1: fact that and he followed up it was actually a
Speaker 1: question I asked him about the fact that they got
Speaker 1: off to that cold start, and he told fans don't
Speaker 1: worry about it. I ran a little bit of that
Speaker 1: on the show last night from the postgame show, but
Speaker 1: I followed up with some of his comments about it's
Speaker 1: going to be okay. If shots aren't falling, things are
Speaker 1: going to be okay, and everybody needs to just basically
Speaker 1: get used to this. Don't worry. Shots are going to fall,
Speaker 1: and when they do, you will see a streak the
Speaker 1: likes of which you saw against Minnesota State when the
Speaker 1: Cats turned the game into blowout.
Speaker 6: We hope that's a defining feature of our team. And
Speaker 6: it's two things about it. One is the first part
Speaker 6: of that is that our guys are super resilient, and
Speaker 6: we have a team that can go fix things, like
Speaker 6: we're a veteran team. We see the game, we understand
Speaker 6: the game, we can go fix things. And then and
Speaker 6: then the second part is we know it's always common man.
Speaker 6: As aggressive as we are offensively and as solid as
Speaker 6: we can be defensively, we always know that it could
Speaker 6: be in the first five minutes of the game, it
Speaker 6: could be in the last seven minutes of the game.
Speaker 6: There's gonna be a two or three minute run that's
Speaker 6: kind of a death knell where our guys where we
Speaker 6: get it done. And so I like those two features
Speaker 6: of this team, that this group is really really resilient,
Speaker 6: like we're good at fixing things. And then and then
Speaker 6: we know something, something really fun is just around the
Speaker 6: corner for BBN and and for our team the way
Speaker 6: we play.
Speaker 1: I asked Pope how long did it take him to
Speaker 1: get used to that notion as a coach who embraces offense,
Speaker 1: and he took us back to his NBA days. He said,
Speaker 1: the guy that he likes to emulate in this situation
Speaker 1: the most is George carl who he said, could be
Speaker 1: in the middle of a huddle when you're down twenty
Speaker 1: six to eleven, but he would say, don't worry, guys.
Speaker 1: The energy is good. We're doing good things. We just
Speaker 1: haven't a shots yet, but everything's going well. Conversely, they
Speaker 1: could be up big, but he'll say, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't really like the way things are going. So he
Speaker 1: tries to embrace that element of Carl's coaching, which is
Speaker 1: why when the shots unfalling, he's got to know the
Speaker 1: streak is on the way.
Speaker 6: I actually think the game asks us for that. The
Speaker 6: game is asking us to don't be distracted by the
Speaker 6: It's kind of like the stock market. Right if you're
Speaker 6: if you're an incredibly wise investor, as I am, which
Speaker 6: is not true, you know, then you know that your
Speaker 6: you know, long term, you're ready to roll with some
Speaker 6: of the blips that happened in the stock market, but
Speaker 6: over the over the ten year, you're kind of watching
Speaker 6: trends and and that's how we try and act with
Speaker 6: our team. It's really hard to do because because it's emotional,
Speaker 6: and it's intense, and you know, and and BBN is
Speaker 6: is you know, we're all gonna fret together. But but
Speaker 6: it works and our guys feel it. And that's this
Speaker 6: idea of like knowing, hey, the energy's right in this building.
Speaker 6: We're going to fix some things and then this this
Speaker 6: is gonna be a big time run coming and let's go.
Speaker 6: Let's go be prepared to enjoy it.
Speaker 1: And again the men open up, as you know, with
Speaker 1: Wright State on Monday Night. Now the women who take
Speaker 1: on USC Upstate, you'll hear it here. You'll see that
Speaker 1: one on SEC Plus. The men, by the way, are
Speaker 1: on ESPN you if you want to watch and listen
Speaker 1: at the same time. The women are on ESPN Plus
Speaker 1: with Jeff Picorrel and Christy Thomas. We talked to Kenny
Speaker 1: Brooks about this brand new team and somebody asked him,
Speaker 1: just how good can this team be? And he said, yeah,
Speaker 1: the potential is there.
Speaker 7: A couple of weeks ago, you know, we were still
Speaker 7: a little raw and where we were trying to go
Speaker 7: a little bit more clarity and what we're trying to
Speaker 7: do now the way that they're able to work well
Speaker 7: together in those positions. You know, we I've put some
Speaker 7: very uncon conventional lineups out there where we're huge and
Speaker 7: they've handled it extremely well. And so you'll probably see
Speaker 7: that line up quite a bit during during the early stretches,
Speaker 7: you know, as we head into SEC play. But you know,
Speaker 7: I think we have the potential to be a very
Speaker 7: good basketball team. What we do, we have the pieces,
Speaker 7: you know, in some areas where we needed to be.
Speaker 7: We're very experienced, we're older, you know, I've joked about it.
Speaker 7: We may have the oldest backcourt in the country. And
Speaker 7: I have to treat them that way because, you know,
Speaker 7: Dejah Lawrence and Georgia Amore, They've blogged a lot of minutes,
Speaker 7: played a lot of great basketball. So we have to
Speaker 7: make sure it's kind of like the vintage car. You
Speaker 7: don't want to take it out every day, you know,
Speaker 7: but you want to make sure you take care of it.
Speaker 7: And then we have young post players who who are
Speaker 7: just thriving and getting better each and every day. So
Speaker 7: I think that's a good recipe.
Speaker 1: Clara Strack, a young post player, was there, and I
Speaker 1: asked her about the fact that teams often good teams
Speaker 1: reflect the personality of their coach. So I said, what's
Speaker 1: the personality we are going to see from this team
Speaker 1: reflective of Kenny Brooks.
Speaker 8: I would say our attention to detail. We very methodical
Speaker 8: in the way we run, like our offenses and this stuff,
Speaker 8: and I think that's how he coaches us to be.
Speaker 8: So I think that would be a good reflection of him.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty good sign if he asked me, because
Speaker 1: it's the little things that will carry you to victory,
Speaker 1: and it's ignoring the little things or not paying enough
Speaker 1: attention that will get your beats. So we'll find out
Speaker 1: just how well if that works on Monday when the
Speaker 1: UK women take on usc Upstate. You will hear it
Speaker 1: here and see it on SEC Plus. David Sisk of
Speaker 1: The Rivals Network is back on six point thirty. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Big Blue and Sider joining us now
Speaker 1: to talk basketball as a guy we love talking basketball with.
Speaker 1: He is David Sisk of the Rivals Network. You see
Speaker 1: his work at Cat's Illustrated Coach.
Speaker 2: How you been I've been good, been good. Getting ready
Speaker 2: to get into that crazy time of the year, and
Speaker 2: not just people think crazy time to get into basketball,
Speaker 2: and that's the case, but as you know, there's not
Speaker 2: a whole lot of downtime once I know you do
Speaker 2: all kinds of different sports, but we get into the
Speaker 2: winner for what I do. There's just not a whole
Speaker 2: lot of downtime, So just gearing up for a time,
Speaker 2: get your winks in when you can.
Speaker 1: Well you keep an eye on the recruits as well
Speaker 1: as the teams that are actually playing. So I know,
Speaker 1: like you said, there's not a whole lot of downtime.
Speaker 1: But you've had a chance to peak at Kentucky. David
Speaker 1: of course covers Kentucky and North Carolina for the Rivals Network,
Speaker 1: and you've had a chance to take a peek at
Speaker 1: the Wildcats under Mark Pope of late. From your tweets,
Speaker 1: it seems like you're pretty impressed. Am I right about that?
Speaker 2: Well, I like to watch the action and that they do,
Speaker 2: so when I'm looking at it, I'm looking at it
Speaker 2: from a strategic point and x's and those point of view,
Speaker 2: and then just try to see with you know, the
Speaker 2: talent that they have, you know, how it fits what
Speaker 2: they do into that and uh, you know, this is
Speaker 2: kind of basketball really Dick, that we've been uh really
Speaker 2: after for the last couple of years and kind kind
Speaker 2: of banging for. And I said, it was just it
Speaker 2: was released to me just the last night. To watch
Speaker 2: a team when you go down the floor and you
Speaker 2: don't get what you want, let's say, and transition, it's seamlessly.
Speaker 2: You you you just do into a flow and reverse
Speaker 2: the ball instead of screen and keep it moving, instead
Speaker 2: of having a coach jumping up and down and screaming
Speaker 2: all over the gym that you could hear pointing around
Speaker 2: trying to get everybody in position, and then when you
Speaker 2: finally run your players, eight seconds left on the shot clock.
Speaker 2: And I think that's kind of that's not a knock
Speaker 2: on coach cal as a coach, but that was his
Speaker 2: style and just to set it up and get these
Speaker 2: half court sets and it just you know, last year
Speaker 2: was more free for Roland obviously, but you know we've
Speaker 2: seen a lot we've been waiting for this what we're
Speaker 2: seeing from Hope, you know, coming in and uh just
Speaker 2: enjoy watching her actions. And like I said, I think
Speaker 2: they got some shooters. It's hard to tell from who
Speaker 2: they've played, really playing two Division two teams that were
Speaker 2: overmatched physically, but quite a bit of just how good
Speaker 2: it's going to be. You know, it's not going to
Speaker 2: work as easily its do obviously, but so we really
Speaker 2: don't know. But like I said, I like to watch
Speaker 2: what they do, and we do know they're gonna push it.
Speaker 2: They're going to shoot a lot of threes. And I
Speaker 2: think they can make threes and they can shoot them.
Speaker 2: So I think what he wants to do they do
Speaker 2: pretty well. The question's gonna be, well, a whole new team,
Speaker 2: how do they mess together? They seem to be doing
Speaker 2: that pretty well. I think there's a lot of basketball
Speaker 2: IQ out there could learn on a fly. I think
Speaker 2: we saw that last night. I was impressed with some
Speaker 2: of the decisions they made, no matter the competition before
Speaker 2: they play, you know, get into the season, you know
Speaker 2: they are. They made some really good decisions last night
Speaker 2: on the move. I think they know, Uh, he's teaching
Speaker 2: how to play basketball. I think he's got some guys
Speaker 2: that know how to play. Now we're gonna see how
Speaker 2: athletic they are. That's gonna be an issue. But like
Speaker 2: I said, he wants to push it. He wants to
Speaker 2: get up threes, he wants to run certain kind of style,
Speaker 2: and you know, it's been enjoyed to watch them do
Speaker 2: it through the first two exhibition games.
Speaker 1: Well, you talked about the fact that, yeah, they weren't
Speaker 1: having to look to the sideline for for instruction. And
Speaker 1: Jack Gibbons talked about that as well on the Postgame
Speaker 1: Show on Tuesday Night, that seeing veterans out there able
Speaker 1: to make their own decisions because of their experience, And
Speaker 1: to your point, it's it's for most of them, it
Speaker 1: is a new style. It's not like they're making it
Speaker 1: up as they go along. But they, I'm sure, and
Speaker 1: I've seen a couple of practices. They're able to absorb
Speaker 1: things quicker.
Speaker 2: Right, that's right. And I know, and I know we're
Speaker 2: talking apples and oranges. It's a different thing. But even
Speaker 2: though as a high school coach, you know, I have
Speaker 2: I ran into that. We were saying, Okay, we're running
Speaker 2: sets and we're putting stuff in, and are my guys
Speaker 2: learning how to play on these sets or are they
Speaker 2: learning how to play basketball? And I've heard a lot
Speaker 2: of different really successful coaches that asked that question of themselves.
Speaker 2: I think one compliment that you could always give a
Speaker 2: good high school coach was, Hey, his kids knew how
Speaker 2: to play basketball. They just didn't. They just didn't go
Speaker 2: through the set planes. And that's what they did. They
Speaker 2: weren't system players. So yeah they are and they were
Speaker 2: there were two or three plays last night and some
Speaker 2: of the teets that I put up where I had
Speaker 2: the videos up. Uh, they bring the ball down the floor.
Speaker 2: They're trying to get something to transition. It doesn't work,
Speaker 2: and they don't pull the ball out. I think, Uh
Speaker 2: the player Uh Andrew Carr was uh the player on
Speaker 2: the floor at the time, and you know, he just
Speaker 2: pops to the top and a hymn and he reverses
Speaker 2: the ball and go into a ball screen action and
Speaker 2: Uh they have a little pop there to garrison for
Speaker 2: a little mid range and then they had another deal
Speaker 2: or they hit car on a roll. Uh. So that's
Speaker 2: the thing they know. Like I said, even when they're
Speaker 2: running stuff in half court, if they don't get what
Speaker 2: they want, it never bobs down the player movement to
Speaker 2: keep it going, to keep the the movement going. I
Speaker 2: kind of watch them. They know car On in one play,
Speaker 2: he understood that there the hedge was at. So we
Speaker 2: went straight into the post and knew the defender was
Speaker 2: going to be on the top side and the guards
Speaker 2: recognized it. So they threw the ball to the top
Speaker 2: and then they had the high low. They knew exactly
Speaker 2: what they wanted and like I said, when they're doing
Speaker 2: it most some of the options when they don't get
Speaker 2: the early shot, and it may go from a transition
Speaker 2: into the half court, but it flows. And I've done
Speaker 2: some of this stuff on the North Carolina side too,
Speaker 2: and Roy william said that one always do that too,
Speaker 2: And I always admired, as great a coach as he was,
Speaker 2: how his teams could go from running and when they
Speaker 2: didn't get a transition bucket they should go to half court.
Speaker 2: And it looked like once flowed right into the other.
Speaker 2: They didn't have to pull it out, call a play,
Speaker 2: and everybody run to a spot. So you know, if
Speaker 2: I can say that I see Mark Pope doing a
Speaker 2: lot of the stuff that Roy Williams did, I think
Speaker 2: that's probably a pretty good compliment.
Speaker 1: Talking to David, the rivals work covers Kentucky and North
Speaker 1: Carolina for Cats illustrated MARII Williams goes down early, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure that that had something to do with the
Speaker 1: rebounding battle being almost even. We'll get back to that.
Speaker 1: But Pope talked about this as well in this post
Speaker 1: game David. It forced him to play some different combinations,
Speaker 1: different rotations, and it forced his players to make adjustments
Speaker 1: on the fly, and that kind of fists right into
Speaker 1: what you've been saying.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, and that's what you want to do. I
Speaker 2: would not want to go into these exhibitions and say, Okay,
Speaker 2: everything's going to be perfect, we're going to play this
Speaker 2: set lineup though game and we're going to do this.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't want that. I think right now, you've got
Speaker 2: the tinker. Yeah, you've got the tinker, and see what
Speaker 2: you've got. And you've got to work on different combinations.
Speaker 2: You've got to those things. You've got the small lineups,
Speaker 2: big lineups, you've got to do all those different things.
Speaker 2: So you know, you can look at Kentucky the last
Speaker 2: few years. It's death taxes and a bunch of injuries.
Speaker 2: That's what it's been. And hopefully it won't be that
Speaker 2: this year. But you're going to have some guys. You're
Speaker 2: going to get nicked up and banged up, and you're
Speaker 2: going to have guys who are not going to be available.
Speaker 2: So and it may be bigs, it may be perimeters.
Speaker 2: I mean, they may be some games they don't have
Speaker 2: Amri wheels, I may don't have Friend of Gears. They
Speaker 2: may have some guards out, So you want to get
Speaker 2: these guys experience. I think you want to give them
Speaker 2: as much time playing on each other and different lineups
Speaker 2: as much as possible. It's not really a next as
Speaker 2: those things. It's just getting guys used to playing with
Speaker 2: each other.
Speaker 1: David Sister, I guess we'll come back and talk more
Speaker 1: with the coach in just a minute here on the
Speaker 1: Big Boom site. Welcome back to starting w L. That's
Speaker 1: Illustrated part of the Rivals network. He covers Canentucky and
Speaker 1: North Carolina for Cats Illustrated or rather for Rivals, and
Speaker 1: talking of course about the two exhibition games. Of course,
Speaker 1: in a way, David, with all due respect to Wesley
Speaker 1: and I kind of throw that one out because they
Speaker 1: were sobermatched. We all know the Minnesota State was a
Speaker 1: D two national champion last year and forced Kentucky to
Speaker 1: work a lot harder, I thought last night, and part
Speaker 1: of that was rebounding when the Mary Williams went out.
Speaker 1: They had a streak there in the second half and
Speaker 1: they were hitting almost everything they put up. So it's
Speaker 1: a reminder that it is so early. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: so much work to do, isn't there?
Speaker 4: There is?
Speaker 2: And I will say this, when I watched Minni State
Speaker 2: of State early, I was like, man, they're not very athletic. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I mean they did they were skilled. They should
Speaker 2: really shoot the ball. So there were not a lot
Speaker 2: of D one athletes out there. So I think the
Speaker 2: big question right now that we were going to be
Speaker 2: offered is, you know, how athletic is this team. I
Speaker 2: think that's going to be one of the outlying questions
Speaker 2: early on. But one thing that I did notice as
Speaker 2: Kentucky got going, they looked more athletic. And this game
Speaker 2: went on in Minnesota State got tirer, they looked even
Speaker 2: more athletic, but they started making mistakes. I started noticing
Speaker 2: them making defensive mistakes. You know, on the pick and
Speaker 2: roll that car had two guys went with Robinson Jackson,
Speaker 2: Robinson cutting to the top so there wasn't a vocal
Speaker 2: call on the switch, and then Toby Bray I had
Speaker 2: that kind of step back three off the dribble and
Speaker 2: both guys went on there. He came off of all screen.
Speaker 2: Both guys went with a role on that one, and
Speaker 2: he just pulled the dribble back and shot it. So
Speaker 2: those things happened, But like I said, I'm going to
Speaker 2: tell you this for Kentucky, and they are going to
Speaker 2: the way they can shoot the ball and the way
Speaker 2: they move, and it's a beautiful thing to watch. They
Speaker 2: are going to force other defenses on every cut and
Speaker 2: every screen, in every roll and every bit of action
Speaker 2: because there's all this moving and screening. You are going
Speaker 2: to have to be on top of your game on
Speaker 2: how you guard this stuff because if you don't, and
Speaker 2: as well as they shoot the ball, they can really
Speaker 2: just scorch you. If let's say, two guys go with
Speaker 2: a roll, two guys go with the cut instead of
Speaker 2: the row. They don't communicate it, they don't have backside help,
Speaker 2: you don't have the tag guy. You don't switch this
Speaker 2: action the way. If they're going to switch it, you
Speaker 2: don't do it. You don't do it aggressively. I mean,
Speaker 2: they're going to put pressure on teams to do the
Speaker 2: right things defensively.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I saw it last night.
Speaker 2: And here's the thing, anybody, So we're talking about Minnesota
Speaker 2: State not being Duke, and I just released the story
Speaker 2: at Cat's Illustrated and I said this the very last paragraph,
Speaker 2: Duke and missus switch just not Minnesota State and that
Speaker 2: has nothing to do with athleticism on the way you're
Speaker 2: a high level D one athlete or a D two
Speaker 2: athlete has nothing to do with it. So Minnesota State
Speaker 2: mississ O switches. Well, all that happens, man, they just
Speaker 2: knocking down threes. Jackson Robinson when you put him in
Speaker 2: the stagger action and the zoom action. Let's say you
Speaker 2: set a pick a roll at the top and you
Speaker 2: have Jackson Robinson coming off the wing to fill up,
Speaker 2: so we call it roll a place and fill You
Speaker 2: had to pick. You have to roll by the big
Speaker 2: and then the wing comes up on the other side
Speaker 2: behind it. So if the tag guy goes takes the roll,
Speaker 2: you just kick it to Robinson up and he shoots three.
Speaker 2: So if you have Robinson's got he decides to stay,
Speaker 2: then there's no back line help against that role. If
Speaker 2: you try to head, your help on the of sprint
Speaker 2: on the guard. So Robinson comes up and I'm watching
Speaker 2: guys last night. They said, hey, we'll give you a
Speaker 2: roll of the dunk. We're gonna say, I'm staying with Robinson.
Speaker 2: I am not giving up free. We'll let you dunk
Speaker 2: it before you give up the three. So those kinds
Speaker 2: of decisions. So you put him Kobe Brush at forty percent,
Speaker 2: Chris s they hit some deep ball. So you've got
Speaker 2: those three point shooters out there, who's just it looks
Speaker 2: like the rims as big as a barrel when they're
Speaker 2: shooting it. They're putting pressure on guys to make decisions.
Speaker 2: They're all of a sudden team defenses taught. I've got
Speaker 2: a tag on this roll. But I got Jackson Robinson
Speaker 2: filling up on the outside. He's made eight threes tonight.
Speaker 2: What am I going to do? So there they can
Speaker 2: put you in a and that those kind of predictables.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and yet at times, Coach, they passed up would
Speaker 1: looked like some really easy, makeable twos. To throw that
Speaker 1: one extra pass and fired off into the corner for
Speaker 1: an attempt at three.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Yeah, I'm interested to see
Speaker 2: how much at Kentucky his formula will be kind of
Speaker 2: like a Natos where they you know, don't really shoot
Speaker 2: the mid range. And so now now he'll tell them
Speaker 2: he doesn't want you if you're at the ram passing
Speaker 2: the ball out for the three. Now, that's going to
Speaker 2: be one thing. But you know they'll pass up that
Speaker 2: open twelve further for a guy outside. So that I'm
Speaker 2: really interested to see on a shot selection because I
Speaker 2: mean they're coming out now. I mean they're shooting forty
Speaker 2: three's a game. And if you look last year, so
Speaker 2: let's take Alabama for example, you know we think about
Speaker 2: them the second up all these threes. They averaged twenty
Speaker 2: eight game last year, the the lead, the lead NCAA
Speaker 2: leaders shot thirty one per game, so they're you know,
Speaker 2: they're about eight over that. I think it was thirty
Speaker 2: ninety CAF I find numbers right, so they're right, they're
Speaker 2: eight above that. Now I know it's exhibitions the more
Speaker 2: athletic teams too, And as you scout, they're going to
Speaker 2: run them off the line. I thought Minnesota State last night,
Speaker 2: I watched them all that. I said, you know, they're
Speaker 2: not trying to slow it down. They play all this
Speaker 2: zoom and stagger and their actions look a lot like popes.
Speaker 2: If you watch them and they're getting quit shots up
Speaker 2: and I'm like, man, this may not work out too
Speaker 2: well for them. They're gonna try to run with them.
Speaker 2: So uh, you know, teams will scout, teams will start
Speaker 2: trying to take stuff away. But you know right now,
Speaker 2: I mean Kentucky, it's as Mark Popees is advertisment. You know,
Speaker 2: he's team shoot threes and they're shooting a lot of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they were cold to begin with and they
Speaker 1: got super hot and put that game way uh and
Speaker 1: pok on to tease the audience after said major nervous,
Speaker 1: didn't we uh, but he said he basically told the audience.
Speaker 1: The fans who waited around to see his postgame show
Speaker 1: and listened to him on the radio said, he basically said,
Speaker 1: on paraphrasing, get used to that, you know, because it's
Speaker 1: all about them getting good threes. But sometimes they're going
Speaker 1: to miss a bunch in a row and they're gonna
Speaker 1: make a lot and.
Speaker 2: It happens because it's it's high risk y reward. You know.
Speaker 2: It's like if you're a golf fan, you watch a
Speaker 2: PGA tour, it's like one of these two hundred ninety
Speaker 2: yard parts horns of water on those sides. You know,
Speaker 2: you can drive the grain and get some eagles and
Speaker 2: you may. You know, it's fun to watch, you know,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of intrigue to it's definitely not boring.
Speaker 2: And he yeah, his teams are going to shoot us,
Speaker 2: and that's what happens. But you think about it, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, you just keep shooting them. And I think
Speaker 2: that's what the coaches who play this kind of style
Speaker 2: will tell of guys. You don't even think about them.
Speaker 2: It's this, you just keep shooting and everything will even up,
Speaker 2: you know, on the numbers eventually. And they did start
Speaker 2: out slow, but then they get heated up. So you
Speaker 2: think about if you make Jack to Robinson makes eight threes,
Speaker 2: he would have had to make twelve twos even up
Speaker 2: with that twenty four point So you know what you
Speaker 2: can get what you know, we'll pray threes for twos.
Speaker 2: And you know where I grew up, there was a
Speaker 2: coach back in you know, in the early eighties, like seventies.
Speaker 2: His name is Chris Jones Carson Newman, and Chris Jones
Speaker 2: was really kind of started this stuff running. And then
Speaker 2: when they put the three point line up. His thing
Speaker 2: was he didn't care about defense. And there he had
Speaker 2: a lot of players out of Kentucky. One of them
Speaker 2: was named Steve Adams and some of the listeners may
Speaker 2: know that name, and he was from Kentucky and he
Speaker 2: was a great player there. He said. Coach Jones didn't
Speaker 2: even call deep, never used the word defense, called defense
Speaker 2: it you know what, had never addressed. And he said
Speaker 2: his defense strategy to let the other teams score as
Speaker 2: quickly as possible, so we needn't get the ball back.
Speaker 2: And his thing was, we'll let you have all the
Speaker 2: twos that you want. We're gonna go down to make threes,
Speaker 2: so we're gonna trade our threes for your twos. And
Speaker 2: I think Mark Pope wants to put more on defense.
Speaker 2: And what coach Jones did that just gives you an example,
Speaker 2: you know that that's just kind of like was the
Speaker 2: philosophy and analytics is such a big part of it
Speaker 2: where you say, hey, we've got the numbers to prove
Speaker 2: that if we make threes, you just can't keep up
Speaker 2: and beat us. And I'm sure he knows. I'm sure
Speaker 2: he knows the analytics of everything that's going on, the numbers,
Speaker 2: how many in the style he needs to attempt. It's
Speaker 2: really fascinating those coaches can tell you how many threes
Speaker 2: need to take per game, what percentage of threes, and
Speaker 2: how many they need to make based on I have
Speaker 2: douging card and the numbers will work out.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no question about it, and just an FYI.
Speaker 1: I will have to talk about it next time. But
Speaker 1: a guy that was in my freshman dorm and played
Speaker 1: freshman ball at Kentucky transferred to Carson Newman. But that's
Speaker 1: a conversation for another night.
Speaker 2: David Sisters played Jones played with Oscar Robertson for the
Speaker 2: Cincinnati Royal, So that tells you yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: He had a lot of guys. He had a lot
Speaker 2: of guys. He had a lot of guys out to
Speaker 2: touch and play a lot about credibility.
Speaker 1: Followed David on Cats Illustrated part of the Rivals Network
Speaker 1: on X. He has coached David Sisk and looking forward
Speaker 1: to talking to you next time.
Speaker 2: Coach Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Up next Cameron Drummond of The Hero Leader to talk
Speaker 1: about the basketball and football Cats and Ellis Star The
Speaker 1: uber Kapper looks ahead to the Breeders Cup That's all
Speaker 1: next year. On The Big Bulling Siders six thirty.
Speaker 5: W la Per.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider joining us
Speaker 1: now in our celebrity outline as a guy that covers
Speaker 1: men's basketball, horse racing, soccer and a lot more for
Speaker 1: the Hair Leader, Cam Drummond, Cam, how are you, sir?
Speaker 9: I'm doing good, you know, still shaking off the cobb
Speaker 9: leeds after being in Louisville last night for a United
Speaker 9: States women's soccer match, but nonetheless excited to shift gears,
Speaker 9: talk a little basketball, and really any of the other
Speaker 9: things that I do over at the Herald Leader.
Speaker 1: Well before we get to that, though, tell me about
Speaker 1: how that played out. Because they got a friendly win
Speaker 1: over Argentina, first time in twenty years that the US
Speaker 1: soccer team has played in the state of Kentucky. What
Speaker 1: kind of crowd did they get?
Speaker 9: A spectacular crowd was a sold out crowd of more
Speaker 9: than thirteen thousand, five hundred people at Louisville's Lynn Family Stadium,
Speaker 9: which is, of course, where both of Louisville's professional men's
Speaker 9: and women's soccer teams play. It was the largest crowd
Speaker 9: ever to see a women's soccer match in that stadium's history.
Speaker 9: They even had some temporary bleachers in the area that's
Speaker 9: normally standing room only to house the crowd and really
Speaker 9: just kind of an example of the growing influence that
Speaker 9: Kentucky is starting to have on the American soccer team.
Speaker 9: He's got four professional teams in the state now, between
Speaker 9: the two in Louisville and the two under the Lexington
Speaker 9: Sporting Club umbrella. Obviously, I've see Cincinnati and Major League
Speaker 9: Soccer not too far away, just across the Ohio River.
Speaker 9: So I don't think it'll be twenty years before another
Speaker 9: United States national team makes the trips of the Commonwealth.
Speaker 9: I'll say that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's a great stadium. Isn't a great facility?
Speaker 9: Oh yeah, excellent, you know, really Christine's views of the
Speaker 9: Big Four Bridge, some of the Southern Indiana and downtown
Speaker 9: Louisville skylines, and also just a great time that they've
Speaker 9: set up that stadium in a really engaging way where
Speaker 9: there's great site lines, great atmosphere. You know, it's kind
Speaker 9: of a bowl design with one end open. It's pretty
Speaker 9: easy to get to from the highway that connects Blessington
Speaker 9: in Louisville. So yeah, they definitely have done a great
Speaker 9: job with that, and you can see that usually with
Speaker 9: pretty high supporter turnouts for all the activities they have there.
Speaker 1: Any idea if and when they're coming back.
Speaker 9: No news yet. Obviously, there's a couple of major events
Speaker 9: coming up soon with the twenty twenty six World Cup,
Speaker 9: which Louisville is a nominee or a candidate to be
Speaker 9: a host city for. That doesn't mean that they'll host matches,
Speaker 9: but it means they could be the base camp for
Speaker 9: a couple teams you would still have to go. I
Speaker 9: believe Atlanta is the closest city to the Commonwealth in
Speaker 9: terms of hosting matches in the twenty six World Cup.
Speaker 9: But there'll definitely be some cycles not only for the
Speaker 9: women's national team, but the men's national team as well,
Speaker 9: maybe even some youth national teams down the line. So
Speaker 9: nothing's set in stone, but I do think before too
Speaker 9: on we'll see another national team match here in Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Good well, let me shift over to basketball because Ben
Speaker 1: Roberts talk about this the other day with me, and
Speaker 1: he said, you were kind of keeping track of offensive
Speaker 1: possessions against both Kentucky Wesleyan and Minnesota State man Cato
Speaker 1: and basically with an eye on the shots that went
Speaker 1: up the pace of the game. Was that something you
Speaker 1: decided you would do ahead of time or tell me
Speaker 1: about your curiosity when it comes to something like this.
Speaker 9: Yeah, certainly, Well, obviously something that was a pretty big
Speaker 9: storyline and continues to be a big storyline, you know,
Speaker 9: during the early stages of Mark Pope's first season. Is
Speaker 9: just the offensive philosophy that Kentucky has. You know, they
Speaker 9: talked in the off season about bringing the ball past
Speaker 9: half court within three seconds on the shot clock, getting
Speaker 9: a shot up within fourteen seconds on the shot clock.
Speaker 9: So this wall results in an article a bit down
Speaker 9: the road, you know, once we get some real regular
Speaker 9: season game data to basis off of talking to a
Speaker 9: few more people, talking to some opposing coaches as well.
Speaker 9: But just through the first two exhibition games, I did
Speaker 9: a very rough hand, rudimentary counting of how many of
Speaker 9: those Kentucky basketball offensive possessions resulted in a shot within
Speaker 9: the first fourteen seconds of the shot clock, right, And
Speaker 9: so there were some parameters in place. You know, obviously,
Speaker 9: if a possession, you know, results in the turnover, that
Speaker 9: doesn't count. I kind of filter out some noise in
Speaker 9: the data in terms of if an opponent fouls them
Speaker 9: within the first couple of seconds, or you know, if
Speaker 9: they get the ball in it's a reset shot clock
Speaker 9: or the end of a half or whatever. But basically,
Speaker 9: through two games, both of the exhibitions Kentucky basketball more
Speaker 9: than sixty eight percent on both During both games, of
Speaker 9: those countable possessions resulted in a shot attempt within the
Speaker 9: first fourteen seconds of the shot clock. That percentage worth
Speaker 9: seventy eight point four percent for Kentucky Wesleyan and sixty
Speaker 9: eight point eight percent for Minnesota State. So obviously a
Speaker 9: small data set, but you know, for all the talk
Speaker 9: in the off season about Kentucky trying to get into
Speaker 9: those offensive actions early on, to let the ball fly
Speaker 9: from deep, to get those quick shots, it's certainly happening
Speaker 9: and you were seeing that reflected in three point numbers.
Speaker 9: Obviously the point totals as well, especially once Kentucky y
Speaker 9: got going against Minnesota State. So this Markope offense is
Speaker 9: going to operate fast, it's going to operate quickly, and
Speaker 9: if it's operating efficiently, it really can overwhelm opponents.
Speaker 1: Not surprising that the number was down just a bit
Speaker 1: against Minnesota State. It's a better team than Wesleyan, and
Speaker 1: the Wesleyan coach after the game apologized first team not
Speaker 1: giving a better effort, But that slow start, I guess
Speaker 1: had something to do with those numbers. Can but that's
Speaker 1: still pretty impressive.
Speaker 9: Oh, definitely, yeah, And especially when you think about the
Speaker 9: Minnesota State game. And I think one of the storylines
Speaker 9: that my colleague Ben focused on after the game for
Speaker 9: his article on Kentucky dot Com was just the fact
Speaker 9: that this is going to continue to be the way
Speaker 9: the style in which Mark Pope's teams play, even if
Speaker 9: the shots aren't necessarily falling. I mean, it felt like
Speaker 9: the basket had a lid over it when it came
Speaker 9: to three pointers and just general offense for the first
Speaker 9: ten to twelve minutes for Kentucky against Minnesota State. And
Speaker 9: then the next thing, you know, you look up in
Speaker 9: Kentucky's gone on a twenty three to two run in
Speaker 9: like a three minute span to create you know, incredible separation,
Speaker 9: put the outcome far beyond, far beyond halftime. And I'm
Speaker 9: not saying that's going to be replicated every single night
Speaker 9: out against a Division one opponent or an SEC play.
Speaker 9: But when you look up and all of a sudden,
Speaker 9: Jackson Robinson makes four to three pointers in a six
Speaker 9: minute span, you know, even what we saw Trent Noah
Speaker 9: do against Kentucky Wesley and with a barrage of late
Speaker 9: three pointers and just the depth and the waves with
Speaker 9: which this team can come at you. We've seen some
Speaker 9: great stuff from Otegaha early on, just in terms of
Speaker 9: driving to the basket, forcing the issue, putting pressure on
Speaker 9: the rim. And this is with us only being exposed
Speaker 9: to sixteen minutes of the Kerk Crease, a fast paced,
Speaker 9: breakneck experience off the bench. So you know, this Kentucky
Speaker 9: basketball team is going to have to win offensively with
Speaker 9: depth this season. You know, they still probably kind of
Speaker 9: lack that one true, number one alpha option on that
Speaker 9: side of the court. But because they can go nine
Speaker 9: to ten, maybe even eleven players deep, and they come
Speaker 9: at you in these waves, and they have such a
Speaker 9: high potential to get hot from three point range, to
Speaker 9: be making shots at a consistent clip, then all of
Speaker 9: a sudden, it might be very difficult for teams to
Speaker 9: not only prepare for this within the course of the
Speaker 9: season when you only have a couple of days before
Speaker 9: before a game excuses a scouting opponent, but also adjusting
Speaker 9: on the fly, especially when a run like that happened.
Speaker 9: I believe the Minnesota State coach spoke post game about
Speaker 9: how it can deboralize a team when you know four
Speaker 9: to three pointers go in in a sixty second span.
Speaker 1: And how do you prepare for a team with so
Speaker 1: many guys who can shoot, I mean willing to shoot.
Speaker 1: They all have the green light, even the biggs. Garrison
Speaker 1: tried one the other night for crying out loud, and
Speaker 1: they can hit him. So that extra pass is going
Speaker 1: to be deadly this year, at least in theory.
Speaker 9: Right, certainly, Yeah, and you think about the bigs as well.
Speaker 9: I mean, the first two exhibition games really haven't even
Speaker 9: shown the full versatility of Andrew Carr, who is expected
Speaker 9: to be one of the most efficient, if not the
Speaker 9: most efficient player on offense for Kentucky. I believe he's
Speaker 9: combined for two to three point attempts through those first
Speaker 9: two exhibitions. Don't think he made either of them. You
Speaker 9: referenced Brandon Garrison, who didn't take a single three pointer
Speaker 9: all of last season as a freshman big at Oklahoma State.
Speaker 9: He's finally letting one fly from beyond the arc. And
Speaker 9: to say all that, you know, and that's without knowing
Speaker 9: you know who's going to prop up for a certain game. Again,
Speaker 9: we've seen otega Oway have some big score and performances,
Speaker 9: even though Jackson Robinson has eased into that leading score
Speaker 9: role throughout the first two exhibitions. But it's not just
Speaker 9: three pointers either, you know. I spoke to Andrew Carr,
Speaker 9: I think it was last week before the Minnesota State game,
Speaker 9: and he talked about how Kentucky also has a set
Speaker 9: number of transition opportunities that they like to hit each game.
Speaker 9: I think he said the number was thirty two, although
Speaker 9: he told me not to quote him on that. So
Speaker 9: somewhere around that range is where Mark Pope, you know,
Speaker 9: thirty to thirty two transition opportunities. That obviously flows from defense.
Speaker 9: We've seen a great look at how intense some of
Speaker 9: that on ball pressure, especially from Lamont and Butler, can be,
Speaker 9: but even in those transition opportunities as well. I was
Speaker 9: referencing kind of that hand of charting offensive possession thing
Speaker 9: I was doing throughout the two first exhibitions. There are
Speaker 9: times where Kentucky was making a block or getting a
Speaker 9: steel or just coming up with a loose ball in
Speaker 9: the defensive end of the court. I would go down
Speaker 9: on my piece of paper to write a tali mark
Speaker 9: to signify that an offensive possession was about to begin.
Speaker 9: I'd look up and the ball would already be in
Speaker 9: the basket. You know, in Kentucky, Wesley and our Minnesota
Speaker 9: State would be taking it out of bounds because that's
Speaker 9: how fast in transition Kentucky is moving, how fast they're
Speaker 9: getting that shot up in transition. And again, even if
Speaker 9: that SHOT's not necessarily going in, oftentimes that's resulting in
Speaker 9: a foul or just draining an opponent. You know. I
Speaker 9: think the other thing to think about, especially as the
Speaker 9: season goes on, is this style of play, how fast
Speaker 9: they're moving, you know, just how much you know mentally,
Speaker 9: how much that takes out of a team to be
Speaker 9: defending x amount of offensive possessions per game. Kentucky may
Speaker 9: just wear teams down physically and mentally because of how
Speaker 9: fast this offense in tends to operate.
Speaker 1: Talking to Cameron Drumming to the Hero Leader about the
Speaker 1: basketball Wildcats, we'll come back with a few more questions
Speaker 1: for Cam on the other side of the break here
Speaker 1: in the Big Boon side Welcome back, We're talking with
Speaker 1: Cam Drumming of the Hero Leader. He was charting Kentucky's
Speaker 1: offensive efficiency. How quickly did the Wildcats get up shots
Speaker 1: against both Minnesota State Man Cato and Kentucky Wesleyan. I
Speaker 1: really got a kick out of Mark Pope. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you were still in rupp Arena, or you
Speaker 1: might have been back in the back, or he might
Speaker 1: have said the same thing back there. But when he
Speaker 1: said to the fans talking about that two for thirteenth streak,
Speaker 1: he said, we made you nervous, didn't we? And he
Speaker 1: said that doesn't phase me, So I guess we all
Speaker 1: need to get get ready for streaks like that. But
Speaker 1: as you pointed out and everybody saw, they went on
Speaker 1: that run that turned a nervous crowd and the one
Speaker 1: that was going nuts when the three pointers began to fall.
Speaker 2: Right Yeah.
Speaker 9: And again I think this might be the case for
Speaker 9: at least certain games this season where it might infuriate
Speaker 9: Kentucky fans as they continue to see the catch put
Speaker 9: up three pointers or take quick shots and they don't fall.
Speaker 9: But that's the whole recipe here, that's the whole secret.
Speaker 9: And especially in that Minnesota State postgame press conference, Mark
Speaker 9: Hope was pretty clear that you know, hey, BBN, this
Speaker 9: is exactly how we're going to play. You know, he
Speaker 9: still did a couple questions about just how he keeps
Speaker 9: his player's confidence up. You know, the message, the mentality
Speaker 9: that he preaches to them even in those difficult moments
Speaker 9: when shots aren't falling, and you know, the crowd might
Speaker 9: get a bit uneasy or a bit worried or or whatever,
Speaker 9: but the whole mentality and the whole approach is to
Speaker 9: continue taking those shots. I mean, one of the most
Speaker 9: popular refrains we heard from Kentucky players this offseason during
Speaker 9: media opportunities was that Mark Pope was going to get
Speaker 9: mad at you if you didn't take those open shot.
Speaker 9: You know, it seems like the one way to guarantee
Speaker 9: that you don't play for Mark Pope is that you
Speaker 9: pass up open opportunities or you're hesitant to take the
Speaker 9: shot when it presents itself. So I think from all
Speaker 9: corners here, Mark Pope is teaching both to his players
Speaker 9: both to the fan base that hey, Kentucky basketball is
Speaker 9: going to play this three point heavy, fast paced offensive style,
Speaker 9: even if it's not going great, They're going to stick
Speaker 9: to their guns, stick to their principles on that. And
Speaker 9: if you're not willing to be a part of that
Speaker 9: and flow within the offense and take that open three
Speaker 9: pointer or take that high percentage two pointer when it's available,
Speaker 9: then you're not going to be seeing the court much longer,
Speaker 9: right right.
Speaker 1: You know what's also curious to me, I want to
Speaker 1: really see how this team. They talk a lot about
Speaker 1: turning defense into offense quick you kind of alluded to
Speaker 1: that a few minutes ago, but how quickly can they
Speaker 1: turn offense into defense? Because we saw what happened last
Speaker 1: year with the Kentucky team that was brilliant at times offensively,
Speaker 1: but just couldn't get it done on defense. And Pope
Speaker 1: basically drafted his team at first with defense in mind,
Speaker 1: didn't he.
Speaker 9: Yeah, that's a really interesting thing and something that we definitely,
Speaker 9: you know, hit on a couple of times this offseason
Speaker 9: at Kentucky dot Com. Was just, you know, for a
Speaker 9: coach whose offensive philosophies are so championed, and that's kind
Speaker 9: of the calling card when you think about Mark Post teams,
Speaker 9: especially the ones in recent years at BYU. This was
Speaker 9: a team that was drafted with a lot of defensive chops.
Speaker 9: I mean, I mentioned Lamon Butler a second ago, just
Speaker 9: with how much pressure he puts on opposing point guards,
Speaker 9: how tenacious he is when doing that on ball defense.
Speaker 9: But Amari Williams, you know, obviously, who had a bit
Speaker 9: of an injury staer against Minnesota State. Three time Conference
Speaker 9: defensive player of the Year at Drexel, you know, a
Speaker 9: guy who can really patrol of paint, has good shop
Speaker 9: locking tendencies, rebounds well, and that pairs with some of
Speaker 9: his offensive skills in terms of the touring abilities, the
Speaker 9: passing ability as well as you've seen a couple of
Speaker 9: times as well, or take it away again, another kind
Speaker 9: of big bodied guy in the backcourt who can really
Speaker 9: wall up on defense. And Brendan Garrison, who I talked
Speaker 9: about a little bit earlier in terms of being a
Speaker 9: McDonald's All American just a couple of years ago out
Speaker 9: of high school. Even last year. You know, he started
Speaker 9: as a freshman big in the Big Twelve, which was
Speaker 9: the consensus best conference in the country, although that looks
Speaker 9: like it'll be the SEC this season. But he more
Speaker 9: than held his own as a defender. And you get
Speaker 9: some of these guys who are maybe offensive first players
Speaker 9: to improve on the margins on defense. You know, make
Speaker 9: sure that Kerkkrisa can stay in front of his guy,
Speaker 9: Kobe Brea, even a guy like Colin Chandler as he
Speaker 9: continues to round back into basketball shape. He has the size,
Speaker 9: he has a basketball IQ, to sniff out passing lanes,
Speaker 9: to have active hands, all of those things. I think
Speaker 9: what's really interesting too, is we saw, especially against Minnesota State,
Speaker 9: Mark Pope trying some really interesting lineup combinations. I believe
Speaker 9: there was at one point where Kobe Brea was the
Speaker 9: tallest guy on the court as Kentucky went ultra small,
Speaker 9: and there are probably going to be some other moments,
Speaker 9: at least earlier in the season where he tries to
Speaker 9: pair you know, Brandon Garrison with another big you know,
Speaker 9: or tries to pair Amari Williams his help with another
Speaker 9: big you know. Try and figure out those lineup combinations
Speaker 9: is still a pretty inexact science. Mark Pope still hasn't
Speaker 9: really committed to having that rigid of a plan in
Speaker 9: terms of always having this starting five, always bringing a
Speaker 9: couple of guys off the bench, and I know that
Speaker 9: drove some Kentucky fans crazy last year, but I think
Speaker 9: they'll see a little bit more of a fluid situation
Speaker 9: this year in terms of who plays with who, who
Speaker 9: starts games, who closes games, And that just speaks to
Speaker 9: the versatility that Kentucky has really on both ends of
Speaker 9: the court to cause potential problems for opponents.
Speaker 1: I've only got a couple of minutes left, but you
Speaker 1: brought up a great point in that, and Pope talked
Speaker 1: about this. The injury to Williams forced him to play
Speaker 1: some rotations and combinations that they weren't quite ready for.
Speaker 1: But there were veteran players able to adjust on the fly,
Speaker 1: and compared to some I'm not knocking him, but compared
Speaker 1: to Caliperi's rosters of the past, that's a luxury to
Speaker 1: have guys who don't have to look to the bench
Speaker 1: every time they come down the floor.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 9: No, that's a great point you make as well, because
Speaker 9: you think about putting these players in these situations, it's
Speaker 9: obviously asking far more of an eighteen year old a
Speaker 9: nineteen year old to assimilate to a different role on
Speaker 9: the court, perhaps one that they've never played before, versus
Speaker 9: having a twenty two to twenty three year old, a
Speaker 9: guy who's played three, four, sometimes even five years of
Speaker 9: caused basketball previously to come in to know how to adjust,
Speaker 9: you know, not only because they've probably had to deputize
Speaker 9: in an unfamiliar position before, just because there's so much
Speaker 9: more mature physically, mentally understanding the game, and even you know,
Speaker 9: from that mentality aspects. Knowing conversations with players this offseason
Speaker 9: and during the preseason, everyone does seem laser focused on
Speaker 9: banner number nine, winning as a team, producing those team results.
Speaker 9: And that's not to say that, you know. You know,
Speaker 9: to their credit, a lot of the even highly touted
Speaker 9: freshmen that came in during a John Caliperry era, would
Speaker 9: say the right things, you know, talk about wanting to
Speaker 9: win for the team, win for Kentucky, playing within that
Speaker 9: team basketball concept. But it's hard when you're you know,
Speaker 9: when you know that you have a one and done
Speaker 9: player on the roster, or a player who's thinking one
Speaker 9: and done, to not think in the back of your
Speaker 9: mind about, Hey, they're worried about how their role, how
Speaker 9: their usage might affect their NBA draft stocks. You know,
Speaker 9: about how public or NBA scats excuse me, perceive them.
Speaker 9: But on this Kentucky team, these are guys who have
Speaker 9: stuck around college basketball a long time. You know, there
Speaker 9: are many reasons now, especially with the portal and with NIL,
Speaker 9: why guys may elect to be in college three, four
Speaker 9: or five years instead of jumping earlier to the NBA.
Speaker 9: But as you mentioned a great benefit of having a
Speaker 9: veteran laden team is that Mark Pope is probably far
Speaker 9: more comfortable asking, you know, for example, Jackson Robinson, a
Speaker 9: guy who's been with all these years, to do something
Speaker 9: a little bit different on the sport, or even a
Speaker 9: Kobe Brea, Kurk Crista and Ainsley almanor because they have
Speaker 9: that basketball acumen and because they're they're smart enough, seasoned
Speaker 9: enough to know how to, you know, kind of manipulate
Speaker 9: their games to fit whatever square peg in a round
Speaker 9: hole type thing that Pope may have to fit them
Speaker 9: into due to injuries.
Speaker 1: And it all starts Monday night. Cam Drummond or the
Speaker 1: HEROLD leader will be there to help Ben Roberts cover
Speaker 1: things in John Clay and Mark's story and or wait
Speaker 1: a minute, you're going to be covering a women's game Monday.
Speaker 9: No, no, no, I'll be. I'll be straight up there
Speaker 9: at Jeff Arena. You know, the whole gang will be there.
Speaker 9: We'll have our women's reporter, Caroline mccowskis out for the
Speaker 9: LEA team opener. But it's it's all going to be
Speaker 9: happening at once now. As I, as I keep joking
Speaker 9: to people in the Herald Leaders sports chat, you know
Speaker 9: the offseason was great. Hope we got a lot of sleep,
Speaker 9: you know. John Hale got started early up on there
Speaker 9: on football coverage. But things are back to go. Is
Speaker 9: there to sixty real fast, real quick, right now? And
Speaker 9: Duc will be here before we know it for the
Speaker 9: men's team as well.
Speaker 1: Follow him on Twitter see Drummond ninety seven.
Speaker 9: Thanks Cam much, appreciate it, Dick, Thank you.
Speaker 1: Cam. Trying to chart shots that were going up so
Speaker 1: quickly reminds me when I was the stats guy for
Speaker 1: TV covers, when Marty Brenneman was doing our games and
Speaker 1: there was no computer. Trying to keep up with Patino's
Speaker 1: Bombinos nearly impossible. Lstar next on six thirty Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Big Blue Insider. Joining us now is a
Speaker 1: longtime friend of the show and a guy I love
Speaker 1: talking about horse racing with Ellis Star, the Uber Capper,
Speaker 1: and he of course is preparing as are all racing
Speaker 1: fans for the Breeders Cup Big week. Ellis, this has
Speaker 1: got an excited guy like you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you've.
Speaker 10: Got this many racist for every division, the males, females,
Speaker 10: sprints and routes, grass, dirt and just all the various factors.
Speaker 10: And you know, with the Derby is such a cool
Speaker 10: event as well, when you've got twenty horses all bringing
Speaker 10: their A games. But now you've got thirteen races with
Speaker 10: horses all bringing their A games. Maybe it's fourteen I
Speaker 10: lose track all bringing their A games. Needs division and
Speaker 10: it's a masterful puzzle and a lot of fun to
Speaker 10: try and decipher it and then hopefully be right a
Speaker 10: few times.
Speaker 1: Del Mar Racetrack at in San Diego. I've driven by there,
Speaker 1: never been there, but everybody I know ls who's been
Speaker 1: there just raves about it. So that's on my bucket
Speaker 1: list to spend a day donating money at Delmar. Is
Speaker 1: that one of your favorite stops?
Speaker 10: It is absolutely The backdrop is great, the beach and
Speaker 10: people walk in, you know, some people walking into bikinis
Speaker 10: and then they get suits and you know, it's just fantastic.
Speaker 10: And during the summer, of course, the weather is phenomenal.
Speaker 2: In the eighties.
Speaker 10: It's gonna be a little cooler in November, just like
Speaker 10: it is here in Lexington. About the same Mother actually,
Speaker 10: which is kind of interesting in the sixties, but it's
Speaker 10: a great track. Sandy's also beautiful, the mountains in the backdrop,
Speaker 10: and nothing is really keenom just because you're just looking
Speaker 10: out not just the airport but the whole area of
Speaker 10: central Kentucky and looking at Calumet and going east and
Speaker 10: just at west and just a beautiful view. But Delmar
Speaker 10: is a great track. It's a wonderful course, and they
Speaker 10: don't run that much, so it's still kind of a
Speaker 10: niche and people I get excited about it, even the
Speaker 10: regular meat when it's not Breeders Cup.
Speaker 1: This is the fortieth year. The fortieth anniversary was last year,
Speaker 1: but in the chronologically the forties two. It started in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four. John Gaines was one of the driving forces.
Speaker 1: They were just looking for a big event. Derby Day
Speaker 1: was great, but you know, the Triple Crown was only
Speaker 1: great if you had a horse going for it. The
Speaker 1: classic races. But it's interesting to me going back that
Speaker 1: far Alice that it was a great idea that came
Speaker 1: to life, and I think everybody will agree that it's
Speaker 1: been a success.
Speaker 10: There isn't success on a lot of least. Let me
Speaker 10: give a shout out to another person responsible said we
Speaker 10: just turned at one hundred and three last week. God
Speaker 10: bless him, and he was with mister Gaines and also
Speaker 10: President Keemlan and the execut State Police and just a
Speaker 10: fantastic guy, and that they had a lot of foresight.
Speaker 10: And now it is. You know, they call the Biggest
Speaker 10: Cup World champions just for so many years and it
Speaker 10: kind of was, but it really is now because now
Speaker 10: you've got horses coming in from the Middle East and
Speaker 10: from Japan specifically, a lot and a lot of Europeans,
Speaker 10: and some of these races have horses bred in all
Speaker 10: kinds of places in South America, in Europe, and of
Speaker 10: course in North America and primarily in Kentucky. But it
Speaker 10: is the World Championships now, so it's really taken it's
Speaker 10: really taken hold around the world.
Speaker 1: And I al would like to say that it's like
Speaker 1: the All Star Game and the World Championship rolled into one,
Speaker 1: because everywhere you turn there's a really good horse, if
Speaker 1: not a great horse. And when I was working at
Speaker 1: the Channel twenty seven and covering whenever breeder I could
Speaker 1: breeders' cups, I look at the list of horses some
Speaker 1: of the storylines were pretty obvious. We had a limited number,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, where do we turn? Who do we
Speaker 1: talk to? I mean, you could talk to anybody and everybody.
Speaker 10: Right, Yeah, that's true because you've got the greatest trainers
Speaker 10: in the world coming in, and the O'Brien and oh An,
Speaker 10: the jockeys of course, Aiding O'Brien and Ryan Moore and
Speaker 10: their team, Charlie Appleby and William Buick coming in from Europe,
Speaker 10: and just all the American invests are out here. And
Speaker 10: again every horse is bringing you know, should even the
Speaker 10: babies in the two year olds are bringing their eight
Speaker 10: games into this rate.
Speaker 1: That's right. Well, let's talk about the Classic, and there
Speaker 1: are some names that are if you're just a casual
Speaker 1: racing fan, maybe around the derby, you'll recognize some of
Speaker 1: these names. Sierra Leone is a horse I liked early.
Speaker 1: I like fierceness as well. Sierra Loan is a great
Speaker 1: value bet right now twelve to one. But again, the
Speaker 1: Classic is such a tough race to handicap because these
Speaker 1: are more of the mature horses, and City of troya
Speaker 1: right now is five to two. You won't make much
Speaker 1: betting on him elis, But that's a heck of a field.
Speaker 1: Fierceness is three to one.
Speaker 10: Yeah, no, it's a great field. You've got the fierceness
Speaker 10: who missed the Derby or actually missed the Instrmt, paving
Speaker 10: him at fifteenth, and then won the two big three
Speaker 10: year old races they call it the Midsummer Derby travers
Speaker 10: Sierra Leone, who was Mike got picking a Derby I'm
Speaker 10: sure was yours and just was his own worst enemy,
Speaker 10: brushing with for every young down the stretch, and mister
Speaker 10: Van snuck up the rail there and tear rallied from
Speaker 10: eighteenth to lose my inches in that race. He's kind
Speaker 10: of been his own worst enemy since then. He's got
Speaker 10: some bad habits. He gets going late, he kind of
Speaker 10: loses focus. He hasn't won since the Moo gramd Stakes,
Speaker 10: but he's always there and certainly there is value as
Speaker 10: I mentioned Fierceness of course those two and then for
Speaker 10: every young who ran the Derby then basically pointed for
Speaker 10: this race. He was off for five months. He wont
Speaker 10: to race Japan called Japan Dirt Classic at the classic
Speaker 10: distance of a mile on a quarter and he's back
Speaker 10: so he fits in the race. Senior Buskador who won
Speaker 10: the twenty million dollars Saudi Cup in February as another horse,
Speaker 10: even though he was seventh in the last year's Classic.
Speaker 10: Bob Effort always has a horse, horse named Newgate, who
Speaker 10: was a horse that is the older horse. This year
Speaker 10: won the Sanday the handicamp at they call it the
Speaker 10: classic distance. Ushmittsoro, who was one of my picks in
Speaker 10: the Bretish Cup Classic last or the only man's fifth.
Speaker 10: One of the other horses Dermosot Tadak. He was also
Speaker 10: back by the Japanese who ran second to Classic at
Speaker 10: twenty five to one last year. He's back and just
Speaker 10: tremendous stories.
Speaker 2: I will talk.
Speaker 10: About well Sex, we talk about City of Toury. You
Speaker 10: mentioned who a lot of people haven't heard of, and
Speaker 10: it's interesting because he's a Kentucky bred horse by champion,
Speaker 10: undefeated champion Justify, who of course won all quarter as
Speaker 10: part of his crown. He's out of the European mayor
Speaker 10: behind one of the best siders the world called Galileo,
Speaker 10: and it's just a question whether he can transfer his form.
Speaker 10: He's faster than any horse in the rights based on
Speaker 10: speed figures which kind of normalize for all the various
Speaker 10: tracks around the world. But the question is whether they
Speaker 10: can run on dirt. And I've seen some pundits this
Speaker 10: year saying he still looks like a turf force, et cetera.
Speaker 10: But he's been training on the dirt all week since
Speaker 10: he arrived, and he's a three year old. Three year
Speaker 10: olds do very well in this race because they're just maturing.
Speaker 10: They're like eighteen to twenty year old boys and they're
Speaker 10: just getting there, so they don't have an edge on
Speaker 10: older horses, but they still have maturing where the older
Speaker 10: horses are really physically as mature as they're going to get.
Speaker 10: So he's certainly interesting to five or two, he said,
Speaker 10: no value. The horse I'm most interested in, and this,
Speaker 10: of course is on my analysis at echo bay dot
Speaker 10: com and other places you can can find it. For
Speaker 10: the for the Classic, which is free, is a horse
Speaker 10: named Next, and he's got some buzz to him. He's
Speaker 10: eight to one on the starting odds morning line. This
Speaker 10: horse is one thirteen twenty three. It's interesting. Is a
Speaker 10: lot of horses, just like people find out what their
Speaker 10: careers are later in life. And Next was claimed back
Speaker 10: in twenty twenty two by really good trainer that trains
Speaker 10: in Ohio, Kentucky named William Kallens Doug Kalns, and he
Speaker 10: was an exclaimer. He was in a claimer race. We
Speaker 10: started out as really highly regarded and he was in
Speaker 10: a lot of good races and then he they said, well,
Speaker 10: you know, we dont know what he's going to amount to,
Speaker 10: and so we're going to put him in for a
Speaker 10: I think it was an allowance and optional claiming price
Speaker 10: race back then, and they put him in for sixty
Speaker 10: twenty five hundred and I'm trying to find the date
Speaker 10: right now to be sure because it's it's on the
Speaker 10: it's passed the twelve lines that are most pps, but
Speaker 10: I have access the lifetime. So he was claimed in
Speaker 10: April twenty twenty two, eighteen loan. So he won a
Speaker 10: couple of races before that, three races he had won,
Speaker 10: and he'd won one by almost twelve lengths. He was
Speaker 10: well regarded and Collns claimed him for sixty two thousand times.
Speaker 10: It was the only time he was ever in for
Speaker 10: a claim and then he put him back in a
Speaker 10: turf race because he'd been running on dirt and turf
Speaker 10: and about mile mile to an eighth and he won.
Speaker 10: And then three races later, late in September of twenty
Speaker 10: twenty two, they put him in a race in Delaware.
Speaker 10: It's a mile and a half race as scheduled for
Speaker 10: grass because again he'd run really well on the grass,
Speaker 10: and the race was taken off the grass, and they
Speaker 10: left him in the race because of weather, you know,
Speaker 10: And he won by eighteen lengths. And then all of
Speaker 10: a sudden they said, well, this is what he likes
Speaker 10: to do, and he has won. He had one third place,
Speaker 10: finished two after that actually at a Derby Day or
Speaker 10: devery week on in twenty twenty three. But after that
Speaker 10: he's won seven in a row and he's won by
Speaker 10: a combined ninety lengths.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 10: And people will say, you know, what is he beaten?
Speaker 10: Et cetera, because these are all they're good races, but
Speaker 10: they're all not ninety dollaries. But the fact that is,
Speaker 10: it doesn't really matter what he's beaten. He's one from
Speaker 10: distances from milen three eights to mile and three quarters
Speaker 10: and he just runs near the lead, doesn't have to
Speaker 10: have the lead, and very very sustained. One of the
Speaker 10: things that's very cool. I think you and I may
Speaker 10: have talked about is the GPS data which is now
Speaker 10: available horse racing through partners. And he doesn't slow down
Speaker 10: in the last five eighths of a mile. In his
Speaker 10: last race, for example, next ran thirty seven miles an
Speaker 10: hour and did not slow down the last quarter, which
Speaker 10: a lot of horses do. He just runs the same speed,
Speaker 10: and that's the kind of horse you wont he's cutting
Speaker 10: back again from mile and three's to a mile and
Speaker 10: a quarter, so it's a quarter mile less. But he
Speaker 10: seems like the kind of horse that just doesn't matter.
Speaker 10: He'll be in a position and he just runs the
Speaker 10: same race. He doesn't get tired, and he can run
Speaker 10: all day. Whether he can run to this level and
Speaker 10: grade one with these horses, I don't know. But he's very,
Speaker 10: very interesting because you never knock an undefeated horse defeated
Speaker 10: in his last seven So he's really the horse I'm
Speaker 10: really interested in. And he offers value at eight to one.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he's on the outside. He's in a fourteen hole,
Speaker 1: but again that's not like being on the outside with
Speaker 1: a derby. And are you am I'm Prob'm sure I've
Speaker 1: asked you this to the yours. Are you much of
Speaker 1: a post position guy?
Speaker 10: A lot depends on the horse's running style and the
Speaker 10: distance of course. So you know, a mile and a
Speaker 10: quarter they've got a little more than a quarter mile
Speaker 10: to get to the first turn, right, So a horse
Speaker 10: like this can can drop over and be maybe two
Speaker 10: or three wide at the most going into the first turn.
Speaker 10: But I do will say overall, yeah, I mean, if
Speaker 10: a horse has got a lot of herby speed and
Speaker 10: a two turn race and he's on the outside, he's
Speaker 10: got to use a lot of that speed. Or if
Speaker 10: they're on the rail, I mean a short race, they've
Speaker 10: got to use a lot of that speed, so horses
Speaker 10: don't cover him up. So's it's kind of positional and
Speaker 10: also based on style. In this case, the post positions
Speaker 10: doesn't matter a whole lok, because he gets himself in
Speaker 10: a good spot every single time. Very interesting, that's right.
Speaker 1: In a race like this, he's gonna have a top
Speaker 1: notch rider. I'm not worried. The only time I worry
Speaker 1: about post visition is really the derby when you're on
Speaker 1: the rail or the two hole, because you're just gonna
Speaker 1: get crushed going to the first term. But that's why
Speaker 1: jockeys make a lot of money. We're talking with Lstar
Speaker 1: uber Kapper. We're talking of course about the Breeders Cup,
Speaker 1: and we'll come back with a few more questions for
Speaker 1: Elis on the other side of the break here on
Speaker 1: six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Lstar uber
Speaker 1: Capper and of course the Breeders Cup is coming up
Speaker 1: at del Mar this weekend. Ellis is a public handicapper,
Speaker 1: a blogger, a speaker. You define yourself as well or
Speaker 1: describe yourself as a fan educator. That's got to be
Speaker 1: a fun part of your job. I would think sharing.
Speaker 10: Yeah, no, there's nothing more fun than Keeenland specifically and
Speaker 10: also Derby Week, but Kulin more often where I can
Speaker 10: get into some of the suites or the dining rooms
Speaker 10: or meet people by the cloth. A lot groups reach
Speaker 10: out to be in Kum's and extremely supportive of people
Speaker 10: coming in and question them all over the country, some
Speaker 10: of them never been in the race before and never
Speaker 10: been to Kimum and just chat with them about today's races,
Speaker 10: about picking their own horses using the program, getting a
Speaker 10: quick handicapping lesson, and also you know how to bet
Speaker 10: and how it works, so they understand how to have
Speaker 10: a better day of the races. It's a kind of fun.
Speaker 1: I so love the Breeders Cup as much as anything,
Speaker 1: just because of some of the great races I've seen
Speaker 1: through the years. The uh nineteen eighty eight well, and
Speaker 1: I'm going back, I know, but Sunday Silence was one
Speaker 1: of my all time favorite Derby winners and an easy goer.
Speaker 1: I mean, what great rivals. And they hooked up again
Speaker 1: in the Breeders' Cup Classic. But I think ellis personal
Speaker 1: ensigns winning the Distaff in nineteen eighty and again coincidentally
Speaker 1: the same year, But that was such an incredible race
Speaker 1: because winning Colors goes out as she did in the
Speaker 1: Derby and tries to wire the field. That was her
Speaker 1: running style, and that's the way Lucas liked it. Personal
Speaker 1: Linsign was undefeated and this was going to be her
Speaker 1: last race. Everybody knew it, and overcame her at the
Speaker 1: wire by a nose. I mean, I was screaming at
Speaker 1: the end of that race. That's what the Breeders Cup
Speaker 1: can bring out of this kind of competition, right.
Speaker 10: Oh, absolutely, And even though we did lose one of
Speaker 10: the best contenders in the female division. But this depth
Speaker 10: version of Idiomatic, who's now been retired to breathing shit
Speaker 10: because she has my injury. We still have Torpedo Anna,
Speaker 10: who was the you know who won the Kentucky Oaks,
Speaker 10: took on the boys, lost by a nose to fierceness
Speaker 10: or a head in the travers and now is back
Speaker 10: against the Phillies and Mayors and in the Distaff. And
Speaker 10: that's going to be exciting, even if there's no competition,
Speaker 10: which there might be, But even if there's not competition,
Speaker 10: I'm seeing a really good, good Philly the top of
Speaker 10: her game in that in that in that race before
Speaker 10: we moved to something else, and what else you're playing,
Speaker 10: but I want him to give one long shot out
Speaker 10: in the classics, please. So there's an interesting horse here,
Speaker 10: and those in you particularly will remember and those that
Speaker 10: follow racing. Last last twenty twenty three run to the Derby,
Speaker 10: a horse won the blue Grass Stakes by the name
Speaker 10: of Tapa Trice right, and he had won the Tampa
Speaker 10: Bay Derby and he was a favorite of the Bluegrass.
Speaker 10: He won by a next very exciting finish, and then
Speaker 10: he finished seventh in the Derby and he's actually after
Speaker 10: the blue Grass Stakes. He lost four races in a row,
Speaker 10: and then Todd Fletcher, one of the best trainers of
Speaker 10: North America, decided, for whatever reason, maybe he was injured,
Speaker 10: don't know, to give him time off. And he was
Speaker 10: awesome last August to twenty twenty three until July this year,
Speaker 10: so eleven months and he comes back. The first time
Speaker 10: he's facing older horses, and I'm guessing Todd's always been
Speaker 10: high on the horse that he Hod Fletcher wants to
Speaker 10: run him in the Classic, so he's plentying a method
Speaker 10: to do that, but avoiding some of the the fay horses.
Speaker 10: So he runs him in a race in New Jersey
Speaker 10: and Momus called the Mamoth Company, wins by five lengths.
Speaker 10: He really gets his head in the game, you know,
Speaker 10: gets the horse excited. And then he runs him a
Speaker 10: mile on a court in a Jock Club Gold Cup,
Speaker 10: which a couple of these are coming out of and
Speaker 10: the only manages fourth. So then he try to figure
Speaker 10: out how to get him to this race. He runs
Speaker 10: him in a race called the Woodwork, which is a
Speaker 10: really important race in New York on September twenty eighth.
Speaker 10: He wins a race by three quarters of a length,
Speaker 10: and now he's improving again. He's a very interesting horse.
Speaker 10: He's six for twelve, he's won a million, seven hundred
Speaker 10: thousand dollars. He's got again the top one of the
Speaker 10: top three trainers in the country year after year in
Speaker 10: top pletcher, one of the top three jockeys in the country,
Speaker 10: and I read OT's junior year after year, and he's
Speaker 10: going to be thirty one in the morning line. He's
Speaker 10: going to be twenty to one at post time, even
Speaker 10: though his his odds and his last three races have
Speaker 10: all been two to one. So if anybody's looking for
Speaker 10: some value for a horse, definitely to make a win
Speaker 10: ben On winplay show whatever you want, throw him an
Speaker 10: exotics tap a price I think isn't to surprise a
Speaker 10: bunch of people because similar. First of all, you've got
Speaker 10: the breathing from mile on a quarter, even though he's
Speaker 10: only got one third place finish in three tries. But
Speaker 10: he's by sire tapping out of a Dunkirk Mayor, which
Speaker 10: is a lot of a lot of stamina. He has
Speaker 10: the same almost same style as Next. I was talking
Speaker 10: earlier about the miles per hour and Next runs thirty
Speaker 10: seven to thirty eight. Well, Tepa Trice runs thirty five
Speaker 10: and thirty six and doesn't flow down. And his stride
Speaker 10: something else that we now are able to measure, which
Speaker 10: is really cool. He runs actually a bigger stride than next.
Speaker 10: His stride was twenty five and a half feet every
Speaker 10: stride for the last last half mile in the woodwards
Speaker 10: and so again a horse. I don't know if I
Speaker 10: ever said this before, but I'm sure you've seen a
Speaker 10: lot of horses coming from way way back you to
Speaker 10: win a race. Well, it's actually an optical illusion in
Speaker 10: case you don't know that, because the horses are all
Speaker 10: slowing down. Outside grasp it's an optical illusion because all
Speaker 10: they're doing is the horses are coming from last to win,
Speaker 10: are just slowing down less than the rest. Or they're
Speaker 10: running the same speed, right, the other ones are backing
Speaker 10: up into them. So Tapatrice is the horse that can
Speaker 10: do that. He might be the worst that looks like
Speaker 10: he's really, you know, coming from last to win. Reality,
Speaker 10: he's just not slowing down and the other horses are
Speaker 10: backing up. I consider that I.
Speaker 1: Have bet a lot of horses that have backed up.
Speaker 1: I only have a couple of minutes left. But I
Speaker 1: do have to ask you about the juvenile because it
Speaker 1: always produces, it seems, you know, the horse everybody likes
Speaker 1: for the Derby the following year. But is East Avenue
Speaker 1: the way to go there? I mean, a son of
Speaker 1: of a speed horse Medaia Doro and one of the
Speaker 1: breeders' futurity.
Speaker 10: He's a really good horse, and I like the fact
Speaker 10: he gets the ground saving rail. But there's two others
Speaker 10: that are just as good, and it's really gonna be
Speaker 10: a fantastic race if it turns out that way. Johnson's Way,
Speaker 10: who won the Iroquois at Churchill Downs even though it
Speaker 10: was a one turn mile, a son of news sire
Speaker 10: of a Coma. I'm really impressed by this horse because
Speaker 10: his debut he got pinched back to last and he
Speaker 10: came running and killed him and then he won the
Speaker 10: stakes race. So I like Johnathan's Way. I like also
Speaker 10: Chancellor mkpatrick, who comes out of the Champagne Stakes. You
Speaker 10: get three winners of the grade of the really important
Speaker 10: stakes preps coming into the race in East Avenue, Johnson's
Speaker 10: Way and Chancellor mcpatrick. East Avenue will have to probably
Speaker 10: rate or come from just off the pace, even though
Speaker 10: he's won both of his races. We can start to
Speaker 10: finish because Bob Baffort has three in the race, and
Speaker 10: I guarantee once we call a rabbit, probably get away
Speaker 10: Car which is basically the horse that's going to set
Speaker 10: the pace Toitizen Bull and get Away Car for Baffort.
Speaker 10: Both are horses that need the lead to win, that
Speaker 10: can't win without the lead. So East Avenue is going
Speaker 10: to have to relax. He's not as fast early as
Speaker 10: those two.
Speaker 1: So much information, but I'll tell you Ellis Star it
Speaker 1: can help you out, and I urge you to take
Speaker 1: his advice. I have made money with Ellis. Thank you
Speaker 1: very much. Equabase dot com is where to go to
Speaker 1: find out about the Breeders' Cup. Llis. Hope you have
Speaker 1: a great weekend, my friend. Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 10: Thanks Dick and everybody. Enjoy the weather and enjoy the
Speaker 10: great racing seeking at del one.
Speaker 1: I'm not kidding. Ellis always has a pick of the
Speaker 1: day out there, and I have made money several times
Speaker 1: with Ellis. I don't know how he does it, but
Speaker 1: he finds these races and he's able to give you
Speaker 1: a tip or two. They're always worth a couple of bucks.
Speaker 1: That's going to do it thanks to my guest cam Drummond,
Speaker 1: Elis Starr and David Sister that said good night from
Speaker 1: the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 5: Do you understand the words that are coming out of
Speaker 5: my mouth? Nay