Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel with you
Speaker 1: on a Wednesday edition of our program. It is tournament
Speaker 1: week for both the UK men and the women, and
Speaker 1: everybody who roots for either one of these teams in
Speaker 1: Kentucky Blue and White has been waiting for this week
Speaker 1: to see just when, where, and how their favorite teams
Speaker 1: would play. You know by now. The men play Troy
Speaker 1: on Friday in Milwaukee at seven o'clock. That's the first
Speaker 1: primetime game on Friday for CBS, and it's going to
Speaker 1: be interesting. This is a dangerous Troy team. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about that tonight here on the Big Blue and Sider
Speaker 1: with the Boyce Tom Leech. We'll also hear from Unforgettable
Speaker 1: Guard to Shawn Woods. It is Wednesday, and our Western
Speaker 1: Bureau chief Gary Moore joined us as well. The UK
Speaker 1: women open up with Liberty also on Friday. That's a
Speaker 1: noon game in Historic Memorial Coliseum. Now Auburn is playing
Speaker 1: in the NCA Tournament as well in the Lexington this weekend,
Speaker 1: and by coincidence, and I do believe in the conspiracies
Speaker 1: of the Selections Committee and matching up teams for TV ratings,
Speaker 1: I think this is strictly a coincidence, but Auburn baseball
Speaker 1: will be in town this weekend. So what that means is,
Speaker 1: of course on off days or a day, you're going
Speaker 1: to see a lot of Auburn fans. I'm sure at
Speaker 1: Kentucky Proud Park. Hey, we're in town for basketball. Let's
Speaker 1: go across the county, across city and taking the baseball game.
Speaker 1: For all we know, Auburn fans might outdraw Kentucky fans.
Speaker 1: I doubt If the weather's good, I think you'll see
Speaker 1: a good crowd. We saw a decent crowd last night.
Speaker 1: They did not see a decent effort by the baseball Wildcats.
Speaker 1: They lost to Murray State five to four. And Murray's
Speaker 1: a good team. Murray now has won thirteen games. They're
Speaker 1: well coached, They've got talent, and they showed it last night.
Speaker 1: They jumped on Kentucky early, jumped out three to nothing.
Speaker 1: Kentucky got a run back, Murray got the run back
Speaker 1: almost immediately, so it's four to one going into the seventh.
Speaker 1: Kentucky got a basis clearing triple basis loaded triple from
Speaker 1: Sean Montoya, tied the game and then fell behind five
Speaker 1: tofore and for the second time in the game had
Speaker 1: a runner picked off second. The first time Devin Brooks
Speaker 1: was on second was early in the game and there
Speaker 1: was a wild pitch or what he thought was a
Speaker 1: wild pitch, and he broke for third, but the Murray
Speaker 1: State catcher, who was preseason All MVC Missouri Valley Conference,
Speaker 1: made a great pickup, like a scoop, like a shortstop,
Speaker 1: and now Brooks is caught in no man's land. And
Speaker 1: if you kept running, you might have made it the third.
Speaker 1: But instincts takeover. When you see the ball in the
Speaker 1: dirt or bounced as it does in the artificial turf,
Speaker 1: you know ninety nine percent of the time kids are
Speaker 1: going to take off run, which he did. He's a
Speaker 1: good base runner. But the kid made a great stop
Speaker 1: and then fired to strike. The second picked him off. Well,
Speaker 1: that was early in the game. This one late in
Speaker 1: the game. There was a kind of a wild play
Speaker 1: and James McCoy was actually pitching. He made it. He
Speaker 1: got on base, he drew a walk and the hitter
Speaker 1: laid one down. McCoy makes the turn at second and
Speaker 1: nobody's covering third, so he starts to break for third,
Speaker 1: but the pitcher went over and covered and they were
Speaker 1: able to get him in a rundown and pick him off.
Speaker 1: So instead of having a man on second with one out,
Speaker 1: there was nobody on base but two outs and that
Speaker 1: was that. So anyhow, But the worst of it was
Speaker 1: nine strikeouts by the Wildcats, seven looking seven called third strikes.
Speaker 1: So not a great effort by the baseball Wildcats last night,
Speaker 1: but they have a chance to bounce back this weekend.
Speaker 1: You'll hear it on our sister station ninety eight point
Speaker 1: five FM, the UK Women again playing at noon. Georgia
Speaker 1: Amore is a second team All American, and as good
Speaker 1: as she is, this is the first time she has
Speaker 1: been recognized as an All American. She was a really
Speaker 1: good player of course at Virginia Tech, helped the Hokies
Speaker 1: and Kenny Brooks get to the Final four. But the
Speaker 1: job she's done at Kentucky with Kenny Brooks and her
Speaker 1: teammates Clara Strack and others in the league, in the
Speaker 1: SEC in a terrific platform, Georgia Aymore now is an
Speaker 1: All American. And I'm sure you've heard by now that
Speaker 1: some of the basketball Wildcats have been honored. Nobody made
Speaker 1: the AP All America team. But the coaches All Star
Speaker 1: teams are starting to come out. The NABC teams Otega
Speaker 1: Oway and Marii Williams and Lamont Butler making the All
Speaker 1: District teams, so you know their their efforts are being
Speaker 1: rewarded as well they should be. There are many, well,
Speaker 1: I think a dozen districts, and Amari Williams, who kind
Speaker 1: of caught fire midway through the season, began to realize
Speaker 1: what he could do and as Mark Pope said, what
Speaker 1: he could get away with physically what a year eleven points,
Speaker 1: eight and a half rebounds and for the big man
Speaker 1: three assists per game. Rebounds and assists are both career
Speaker 1: high marks, and he also hits fifty eight percent of
Speaker 1: his field goal tries, leads the team of forty blocks
Speaker 1: ten multi block games. I believe with Lamont Butler in
Speaker 1: the lineup that Maary Williams will represent the biggest problem
Speaker 1: for Troy coming up on Friday. Lamont Butler has got
Speaker 1: to be in the lineup and Troy's got a really
Speaker 1: terrific playmaker. So but assuming that Lamont Butler does his
Speaker 1: job and does it properly, I really think that Amari
Speaker 1: could have a huge game, and I do think he'll
Speaker 1: be the headache for Troy. And when you start breaking
Speaker 1: down Kentucky, you start with this guy. I've got to
Speaker 1: think obviously, Kentucky the coaching staff has been breaking down Troy.
Speaker 1: Mark Pope, though, appeared on the Field of sixty eight podcast.
Speaker 1: We had Rob Doster from the Field of sixty eight
Speaker 1: on our show and early in the year, and Pope
Speaker 1: jumped on with these guys right after the brackets were
Speaker 1: announced and talked about what he knows about Troy, which
Speaker 1: is not a whole heck of a lot, but just
Speaker 1: talked about prepping his team for the first NCAA tournament
Speaker 1: he'll enter as the head coach of the Wildcats.
Speaker 2: I don't know a ton yet. I know they're an
Speaker 2: elite level offensive rebounding team. I know they're number seven
Speaker 2: in the country and steals. I know that they played
Speaker 2: with a bowload of energy. I know Scott Cross, a
Speaker 2: big time coach that's been doing this for a long time,
Speaker 2: has had a ton of necessity. He's really smart and
Speaker 2: he's got a he he could really rally guys.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: I know that they were really, really competitive as some
Speaker 2: big games in the non conference, so I know that
Speaker 2: we're gonna have our hands full. It's the n LA tournament.
Speaker 2: Like if you if you want to have a right
Speaker 2: off game, just go to a different tournament. Don't come
Speaker 2: here like.
Speaker 4: This is this is where you.
Speaker 5: Come get this smoke.
Speaker 4: Man, Let's go.
Speaker 5: How's the health of you of your group?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well so, my my, my s I D told
Speaker 2: me today that we ranked three hundred and fifty fifth
Speaker 2: in the country and minutes continuity this season. I would
Speaker 2: like to fix that number in the postseason.
Speaker 6: I'd be great if you could do that. But but okay,
Speaker 6: Lamar Butler, can we can we start there? Let's start
Speaker 6: with Lamont and give us the update here. Obviously he
Speaker 6: said shoulder issue after shoulder issue, because he's about as
Speaker 6: tough as it gets and he doesn't want to sit out. You,
Speaker 6: my guess is Lamont's gonna tell you, like, I want
Speaker 6: to play that first game.
Speaker 7: How are you going to handle this situation?
Speaker 2: No, I mean that's the plan. The plan is for
Speaker 2: him to play, for sure. I don't think there's a
Speaker 2: lot of doubt in that. You know, in the SEC
Speaker 2: tournament he took a little hit and you know he
Speaker 2: probably wasn't going to be super functional to play. But
Speaker 2: if we had green lighted him, he would have run
Speaker 2: out there for sure. And you just kind of get
Speaker 2: in the space where it's tough decisions. You know, I'm
Speaker 2: not a load management guy at all, but we also
Speaker 2: have to have a little bit of sense about what
Speaker 2: we do. Uh, he's gonna be great. You know, he
Speaker 2: lives for March. You guys know, I don't know if
Speaker 2: he's if he's the most veteran March madness guy, but
Speaker 2: he's got to be pretty close.
Speaker 5: Hey, coach, a big picture question here.
Speaker 8: First year at Kentucky, you have to bring in basically
Speaker 8: a whole new roster.
Speaker 6: This has got to be pretty right to be able
Speaker 6: to get Kentucky.
Speaker 5: To the tournament in your one as a three seed.
Speaker 2: Guys, if I don't get Kentucky to the tournament, I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna be the head coach PROTUCTI.
Speaker 5: I mean, what are we talking about here?
Speaker 2: This is Kentucky boys. But I will say this, it's
Speaker 2: really rewarding.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I wish I wish you guys.
Speaker 2: If you guys could be in our locker room every day,
Speaker 2: you would be so in love with our guys.
Speaker 7: Man, Like what these.
Speaker 2: Guys have done from top to bottom, and the commitment
Speaker 2: they've made to each other and their ability to kind
Speaker 2: of withstand all the tortuous terms of losing guys. Every
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes you lose another guy and have to rewrite
Speaker 2: the roster, and the way that they've responded to that
Speaker 2: in the sec this year. You just gotta love them.
Speaker 2: And so the most rewarding part, you know, I'm not
Speaker 2: a big, big picture guy. I don't have time to
Speaker 2: get lost in the thirty to thirty thousand four of you.
Speaker 1: The rewarding part.
Speaker 2: Of this is these guys made a decision to come
Speaker 2: here knowing that there was no guarantee for them individually
Speaker 2: and knowing that there was no guarantee for a first
Speaker 2: time first run at this is a program. And they
Speaker 2: came and said, we're gonna go do this. We're gonna
Speaker 2: go make some waves, we're gonna make the country pay attention.
Speaker 2: We're gonna put on this jersey with all the stress
Speaker 2: and pressure that's involved in that, and we're gonna go
Speaker 2: find a way. And they've done it, and now we
Speaker 2: go to the like, this is the truth moment, right,
Speaker 2: This is where you go try and put yourself in
Speaker 2: a record books.
Speaker 8: Well listen, man, we're happy for you. You know we're
Speaker 8: gonna be rooting for you and hopefully we get a
Speaker 8: little bit of healthier for you.
Speaker 6: Guys.
Speaker 8: You deserve some good health luck here. So congratulations man,
Speaker 8: But you haven't done anything yet. Three seed in the
Speaker 8: tournament is a three seed in the tournament.
Speaker 2: Best luck.
Speaker 8: Go start prepping for Troy.
Speaker 5: You gotta figure this theme out.
Speaker 7: We gotta get a win here.
Speaker 6: Let's go.
Speaker 1: Boys.
Speaker 2: Appreciate y'all.
Speaker 1: Say that's Mark Pope appearing on the Field of sixty
Speaker 1: eight podcast. It is a good one. They do a
Speaker 1: great job. One of the members of that esteemed panel,
Speaker 1: Jeff Goodman, it was really funny when he came on
Speaker 1: with Pope saying, you know, Kentucky fan like me. Now,
Speaker 1: you know he came on the show two or three
Speaker 1: years ago. He was actually at UK Immediately. I give
Speaker 1: him credit because he and Cali Perry clashed and when
Speaker 1: he came on the show, he said, you know, John
Speaker 1: and I are good now, but he did try to
Speaker 1: have me fired and I went back and checked that out,
Speaker 1: and yeah, Cali PERI had problems with him. When when
Speaker 1: Cali Perry was at Memphis. I can't confirm or deny
Speaker 1: that he tried to have him fired, but they definitely clashed.
Speaker 1: And now he doesn't make any bones about the fact,
Speaker 1: Goodman that he still doesn't regard Cali Perry very highly.
Speaker 1: So anyhow, UK fans don't have to worry about that anymore.
Speaker 1: And now they can like Goodman all over again, because yeah,
Speaker 1: he gets along with Mark Pope. Hey, who doesn't. I'm
Speaker 1: sure somebody out there doesn't. I like to hear about it.
Speaker 1: I'd love to know why. All right, when we come back,
Speaker 1: West Virginia's governor, according to two of the highly placed
Speaker 1: talking heads, needs to shut up and sit down. Bottom
Speaker 1: of the hour. Tom Leach joined us later on Sean
Speaker 1: Woods and our West End bureauchie Gary Moore here on
Speaker 1: six thirty WLA. Welcome back to the Big Blue and
Speaker 1: sider coming up in a few minutes. Tom Leach's the
Speaker 1: voice of the Wildcats, and he is, of course prepping
Speaker 1: for Kentucky and Troy the tournament already underway last night.
Speaker 1: You may have tuned in for a little while to
Speaker 1: watch first Alabama State beat Saint Francis on a touchdown pass,
Speaker 1: basically a play similar to the Laytner play when a
Speaker 1: passer who was lightly guarded. I sat on Tom Leach's
Speaker 1: show this morning that they didn't guard the passer, and
Speaker 1: somebody corrected me, and they were right. But I saw
Speaker 1: the play more than once and I just remember thinking,
Speaker 1: it really wasn't much defensive pressure on the passer. He
Speaker 1: had plenty of room to make his throw. But anyhow,
Speaker 1: this kid who threw the ball for Alabama State was
Speaker 1: a quarterback in middle school. That doesn't mean that he
Speaker 1: was a great passer in middle school, but he's used
Speaker 1: to throwing a football like that. Threw a great pass
Speaker 1: to the high post, but it was heavily contested. You
Speaker 1: may have seen a highlight of already loose ball. Alabama
Speaker 1: State picks it up, throws it in at the buzzer,
Speaker 1: and beats Saint Francis. So then they follow that up
Speaker 1: with a horrible North Carolina San Diego State game where
Speaker 1: nothing went right for San Diego State. Everything went in
Speaker 1: for North Carolina. And what I took away from that
Speaker 1: I felt bad for the announcers because all they could
Speaker 1: do the entire game, for the most part, was talk
Speaker 1: about North Carolina. They every now and then they'd say
Speaker 1: something about San Diego. So this isn't what we ordinarily
Speaker 1: see from them, and you know, you could tell they
Speaker 1: felt bad about it. But everybody who talks about announcers
Speaker 1: rooting for this team or that, no, we root for
Speaker 1: a good game. I just worked the Girls Sweet sixteen
Speaker 1: on radio. Some of the games were really good. Some
Speaker 1: were just not They just were not competitive. A Sacred
Speaker 1: Heart beat Johnson County Central by you know, a zillion
Speaker 1: points and going into that game, you know it's going
Speaker 1: to be a tough one. Johnson said, Central just wasn't
Speaker 1: that good, and Sacred Art was four time now five
Speaker 1: time defending champion. It's really hard. I'm not bad mouthing
Speaker 1: or poor mouthing, but I will tell you it's hard
Speaker 1: to broadcast games like that and make them sound interesting,
Speaker 1: even for the teams that are winning. But generally in
Speaker 1: a situation like that, such as I was working some
Speaker 1: of the games, Greg Statomeyer, the voice of EKU, working others.
Speaker 1: If people are listening to you, the odds are they
Speaker 1: are not fans of the teams that are playing because
Speaker 1: they're listening to the hometown radio. Right. Same thing last
Speaker 1: night with CBS and overwhelming majority of the people watching
Speaker 1: were not North Carolina fans or San Diego State fans,
Speaker 1: just because of the sheer normality of the audience. So
Speaker 1: these guys are trying to hang earrings on a pig,
Speaker 1: and they just spent the night and it almost sounded
Speaker 1: like they were trying to make a case for North
Speaker 1: Carolina being in the tournament. I know that wasn't what
Speaker 1: was going on because very few people side of that
Speaker 1: room of the selections committee believe that North Carolina belongs
Speaker 1: in that tournament. And I do not believe that what
Speaker 1: happened last night justifies the selection. But meanwhile, West Virginia,
Speaker 1: what should have been in, you know, is getting support
Speaker 1: from the governor of West Virginia who's talking about suing
Speaker 1: and getting the attorney general to investigate. The state Attorney General,
Speaker 1: Stephen A. Smith, said he needs to sit his bleep
Speaker 1: down and back away from it, and Jay BILLI said
Speaker 1: the same thing. And I agree politicians for the most part,
Speaker 1: sometimes yes, but ninety percent of the time they need
Speaker 1: to stay out of sports. They have bigger and more
Speaker 1: important things to do. And I get it. This is
Speaker 1: an emotional situation. I grew up a West Virginia fan
Speaker 1: because my dad went to school there. My grandparents settled
Speaker 1: from Italy in Fairmount, West Virginia. I used to wear
Speaker 1: a West Virginia T shirt under my baseball uniform. But no,
Speaker 1: you know, just just stay out of it. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going to happen. You can make
Speaker 1: the best argument now for taking the bracketology away from
Speaker 1: people who were involved directly in the sport, as in
Speaker 1: committee members who either play with or against the teams involved,
Speaker 1: and go to an independent source like bracketologists. But that
Speaker 1: ain't gonna happen. You know, they have vested interest, yes,
Speaker 1: but North Carolina had a financial stake in it. And
Speaker 1: I do believe that the chairman of the committee ad
Speaker 1: for North Carolina, got up and left the room when
Speaker 1: they talked about North Carolina. But so what the people
Speaker 1: who sit next to him and work with him closely
Speaker 1: all year long on that committee, sometimes for multiple years,
Speaker 1: they're still in the room. You cannot make an argument
Speaker 1: for North Carolina. You just can't. And they lost so much.
Speaker 1: Some say all of their credibility by putting the tar
Speaker 1: heels in the tournament. And I'm not a tar heel hater.
Speaker 1: But they just don't belong. And yeah, they beat San
Speaker 1: Diego State, but that happens. I commend you to the
Speaker 1: second half of the Kentucky Georgetown game in nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 1: Who saw that coming. Kentucky have double digits in the
Speaker 1: first half of nine at the half, it goes three
Speaker 1: for thirty three in the second half. I mean, things
Speaker 1: happen in games, but the governor of West Virginia just
Speaker 1: needs to stay out of it. Speaking of stay out
Speaker 1: of it, Dan Shaughnessy is a Hall of Fame baseball writer.
Speaker 1: He wrote a skating column in The Boston Globe about
Speaker 1: why he is sitting out the tournament, and it's essentially
Speaker 1: because of Nil and the portal. He thinks it's ridiculous
Speaker 1: all the player movement, which is prompted by the money
Speaker 1: they're making. I don't know this for a fact, but
Speaker 1: I'll guarantee you Shaughnessy was probably one of the guys
Speaker 1: banging the drum for more player freedom and the fact
Speaker 1: that coaches could move around and players couldn't. It is
Speaker 1: ridiculous right now because coaches at least are bound by contracts,
Speaker 1: and yeah, they break contracts all the time, but there
Speaker 1: are buyouts involved? Is that what's coming next for players?
Speaker 1: Contracts and buyouts and college sports? It probably needs to
Speaker 1: but now you're talking about collective bargaining or things like that.
Speaker 1: It's got to change. You can't have guys who are
Speaker 1: in school for five, six, seven years at five or
Speaker 1: six different schools. It's gonna kill the sport. And not
Speaker 1: just basketball, but it seems to be more prevalent in basketball,
Speaker 1: but football and baseball and even now women's basketball. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but Shaughnessy says, I'm out and there may be more
Speaker 1: on the way. Tom Leach is on the way next
Speaker 1: six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Cider.
Speaker 1: Joining us now is the man who is the radio
Speaker 1: voice of the Wildcats. Plus you hear him every morning
Speaker 1: on this very radio station to Leach, who is is this? Which?
Speaker 1: Which tournament is? Is for you? Twenty twenty five?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I should see the first one was two thousand
Speaker 7: and two season. Yeah, so this is twenty twenty three
Speaker 7: minus twenty twenty minus twenty twenty one minus twenty thirteen, yeah,
Speaker 7: minus two thousand and nine.
Speaker 1: The sad years. But this season has been anything but
Speaker 1: this season has been a season of joy. And yet Tom,
Speaker 1: there have been so many ups and downs for a
Speaker 1: a fan base that has overjoyed with the coach and
Speaker 1: so looking forward to the tournament. It is amazing that
Speaker 1: the roller coaster ride that this season has been, hasn't it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you just wonder what could have been with their
Speaker 7: full lineup intact, because you know they're sitting there at
Speaker 7: fourteen and three when they played down at Georgia. After
Speaker 7: they lost the game down at Georgia, excuse me, after
Speaker 7: they beat Texas A and M. They lost, so they
Speaker 7: had you know, they lost the road game to Cleinson.
Speaker 7: It's no great shakes there. But they played awful against
Speaker 7: Ohio State and didn't play a whole lot of at Erganst. Georgia.
Speaker 7: But you know that's twice in seventeen games they had
Speaker 7: off nights. And you know Jackson Robinson that you know,
Speaker 7: really started to heat up after Mississippi State. I mean,
Speaker 7: he was averaged four to three is a game when
Speaker 7: he got hurt in early February. You know, he's probably
Speaker 7: an All SEC guy if he finishes up at that pace.
Speaker 7: And you know then Butler in and out of the lineup.
Speaker 7: Car now I think is finally I'm sure he's not
Speaker 7: one hundred percent, but he's playing at the level that
Speaker 7: I think we all expected and saw early in the season,
Speaker 7: maybe even a little better with how well he's scoring.
Speaker 7: So you know, if it just if they had, you know,
Speaker 7: a full strength Butler and a full strength Robinson, much
Speaker 7: less Cresa, I mean, he put together a really nice
Speaker 7: group of guys that really fit together well. Yes, and
Speaker 7: it's you know, it's if this analogy works. Remember the
Speaker 7: game Jinga. Yeah, he keeps pulling pieces out and there
Speaker 7: have been times where they pulled one out and the
Speaker 7: hel something fell down, and then they built it back
Speaker 7: up and then you know, you pull a piece out, Okay,
Speaker 7: still stand up. So it's been a little bit like that.
Speaker 1: That's a great analogy. And if Andrew Carr, I mean
Speaker 1: he's going for loose balls, he's rebounding, blocking out and
Speaker 1: this after coming back from a back injury, and everybody
Speaker 1: somewhere knows somebody or has had problems with a bad back.
Speaker 1: And if you're a collegiate athlete playing I mean, I
Speaker 1: remember when Kenny Walker hurt his back as a rookie
Speaker 1: with the Knicks. I don't know if he ever really
Speaker 1: got over That probably took him quite a while, but
Speaker 1: Carr is active again, and he's the guy I remember
Speaker 1: tom early in the year, people were saying this team
Speaker 1: will go as far as Andrew Carr takes it, you know,
Speaker 1: before we really knew about this blog club, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean.
Speaker 7: Yeah, last five games, it just run some numbers here,
Speaker 7: fifteen points a game, seventy six percent on two point shots.
Speaker 7: So he's been deadly right around the basket and that
Speaker 7: can be a very hell and yeah, and he's had
Speaker 7: like I think it's like six blocks and five steals
Speaker 7: in the last four games. So yes, very you know,
Speaker 7: active on that end, you know, very lethal as a
Speaker 7: scorer on the other end, and both of those things
Speaker 7: are a big plus for their postseason chances. They you know,
Speaker 7: with a butler on the floor, you're not going to say,
Speaker 7: you know, a fully healthy long pullery close to that probably,
Speaker 7: But if he could go out there and just be himself, yes,
Speaker 7: and whatever the best version of himself is right now,
Speaker 7: something that we you know, saw down the end of
Speaker 7: really when he came back against Oklahoma, he was getting
Speaker 7: better each game. Yeah, and then he got hurt again
Speaker 7: in the Oklahoma game. So hopefully. I guess maybe they
Speaker 7: don't see Oklahoma again. But he the version that we saw,
Speaker 7: and say, those last couple of regular season games, that
Speaker 7: last week of the regular season, he was back to
Speaker 7: his best and not surprisingly, probably the ever ninety three
Speaker 7: points a game in those twos.
Speaker 1: That's true. But you know, you you bring up how
Speaker 1: well Jackson Robinson was playing. Man, you know, you play
Speaker 1: the what if game, but he had he had struggled
Speaker 1: a little bit with mental issues like getting down on
Speaker 1: himself and worrying too much, and Mark Pope literally coached
Speaker 1: him through that, you know, and it was just so
Speaker 1: I remember the first game he came out, and I
Speaker 1: remember Pope telling you in the postgame show that he
Speaker 1: had had a talk with Jackson don't stop worrying so much,
Speaker 1: and he was like a different player. And all, you know,
Speaker 1: you let your mind go crazy with what might happen.
Speaker 1: And yet Tom, there's still a three seed, there's still
Speaker 1: a thread. You know, a lot of people haven'ten a
Speaker 1: Sweet sixteen or whatever. So it's just it's amazing what
Speaker 1: this team's overcome.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and you know that there's no good to really
Speaker 7: again play the what if Game's just be grateful that
Speaker 7: the latest injury to Lamont Butler was not the reaggravation
Speaker 7: of the main one inside that you know, shoulder somewhere
Speaker 7: and you know, this is apparently I don't know what
Speaker 7: you call it, whether it's like a bruise or you know,
Speaker 7: a football coaches and players call a stinger or something,
Speaker 7: but it's something that he's able to quickly bounce back
Speaker 7: from with some treatment.
Speaker 1: Choos used to call him Ali's Yeah.
Speaker 7: So you get him out back on the court playing
Speaker 7: his game. And Troy's best player is their point guard.
Speaker 7: So you know, if he's at himself, he you feel
Speaker 7: good about winning that matchup, and you know, win that matchup,
Speaker 7: you probably got a great chance to win the game.
Speaker 7: And then you know, you move on and you know,
Speaker 7: after the last three years, you don't take the first
Speaker 7: one for granted.
Speaker 1: No, no, sir. I'll come back to that in a moment.
Speaker 1: But one other note about the improvement on this team,
Speaker 1: and you've got numbers and you crunch them, the dramatic difference,
Speaker 1: the dramatic improvement in defense for this team, or Pope
Speaker 1: basically said, you know, they had to either go back
Speaker 1: to work or amp up what they worked on in
Speaker 1: practice and you go to practice and shoot arounds, and
Speaker 1: I thought it was incredible how much improvement we've seen
Speaker 1: in this team defensively, and as we all know, that's
Speaker 1: that's going to carry a long way in the nca
Speaker 1: Tournament if you can get back to that.
Speaker 7: I don't think they played to that standard against Alabama,
Speaker 7: and again that was with that Lamont Butler and Alabama's
Speaker 7: very guard heavy and you know, guard dominant, and so
Speaker 7: they took advantage of the experience they had at the
Speaker 7: perimeter and then o take away being knocked out for
Speaker 7: an extended period, so knocked out of the game. So
Speaker 7: getting you know, Butler back having away, I think their
Speaker 7: defense likely does get back to what we had seen previously.
Speaker 7: And it's not like they became a lockdown defensive team,
Speaker 7: but they just became. They improved some percentage from that
Speaker 7: Ole Miss game, and it was significant. I don't know
Speaker 7: what the percentage was, but it was it was significant.
Speaker 7: The main thing is the number that I tracked was
Speaker 7: that they were averaging about four more turnovers forced a game,
Speaker 7: and that's four extra possessions for a team that's really
Speaker 7: good on hafense.
Speaker 1: Tom Leach is my guest the radio voice of the Wildcats.
Speaker 1: We'll come back and talk more NCAA tournament with Tom
Speaker 1: on the other side of the break here on six
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with the voice, Tom Leech.
Speaker 1: He'll be calling the action when the Wildcats take on
Speaker 1: Troy in the nca Tournament. We talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about Lamont Butler and defense, and he just makes everybody
Speaker 1: better that on ball pressure enables his teammates to step
Speaker 1: up their defensive game. And it's it's so evident, isn't it.
Speaker 7: Absolutely? And I think back to the second time they
Speaker 7: played Tennessee and I thought gonna set the tone for
Speaker 7: the night when he picked Ziegler's pocket at mid court
Speaker 7: very early in that game. And you know, and that's
Speaker 7: one of the top point guards in the league. So
Speaker 7: Lamont Butler is a guy who can you be that
Speaker 7: tone the center for your defense. You hope that you know,
Speaker 7: he he's the guy that's in to him in three times,
Speaker 7: but he's fouled out more than anybody else. Yeah, I
Speaker 7: think of late they when he was back playing, they
Speaker 7: would if he picked up an early when they get
Speaker 7: him out, and I think that's wise because you want
Speaker 7: to try to get him to halftime with say one
Speaker 7: vowel regularly to you could live with, especially one or
Speaker 7: none is a big plus because you don't want to
Speaker 7: you know, sometaly don't want to have to play without
Speaker 7: him because of injury, but you don't want him to
Speaker 7: get into foul trouble. Was just you know, either way
Speaker 7: you lose.
Speaker 1: Him, and if he does, then you'll see Colin Chandler
Speaker 1: or Travis Perry or a combination of both. And you
Speaker 1: and I have talked about this before and I have
Speaker 1: been pretty outspoken. I don't buy that they're not freshmen
Speaker 1: anymore arguments because the three freshmen who have played significant
Speaker 1: minutes at different times are going through everything they're about
Speaker 1: to go through for the first time on and off
Speaker 1: the floor. So how much do you think we can
Speaker 1: expect from them? In all fairness remembering that Reed Shephard
Speaker 1: and Rob Dillingham last year did not play well in
Speaker 1: the NCA tournament and yeah, you know, and pressure is
Speaker 1: on and this is all brand new.
Speaker 7: It is, and you know they have taken on a
Speaker 7: greater role with the injuries to Robinson and Crisa, and
Speaker 7: Goose says I think he puts the number at fifteen.
Speaker 7: If you can get fifteen points a game collectively from
Speaker 7: the bench, that's you know, that's three of the three
Speaker 7: freshmen plus almon Or and Garrison and all those guys
Speaker 7: get minutes, but you know the freshman. I go back
Speaker 7: to that Missouri game again, excuse me, which was you know,
Speaker 7: an outstanding performance by Kentucky to win out there Missouri,
Speaker 7: and we lost once the freshman had a three in
Speaker 7: the first half. I think they had nine points combined
Speaker 7: at halftime. And I was doing some prep and one
Speaker 7: of the interesting numbers and those the three freshmen, Well,
Speaker 7: actually the bench, it's not just the freshman, as the
Speaker 7: bench collectively made three of sixteen threes in the SEC tournament.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 7: If you go back to when Jackson Robinson was hurt
Speaker 7: for the South Carolina game, in every game Kentucky's won,
Speaker 7: the bench gave them at least fourteen points in the game.
Speaker 7: So that speaks to how significant a contribution from the benches,
Speaker 7: and that if you're getting it from the bench, most
Speaker 7: likely that's going to include at least one of those freshmen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly what do you know about Troy? All I
Speaker 1: know is up tempo. They like to press a little bit,
Speaker 1: and they got some shooters.
Speaker 7: Actually not as up tempo offensively, but yeah, they will press.
Speaker 7: They changed defenses a lot, yea zone, some zone, some
Speaker 7: man and Spradlin on Monday Show. Yeah, who coached them
Speaker 7: against them twice at James Madison And that's one of
Speaker 7: the things he talked about. He compared them to either
Speaker 7: Ole Miss or Mississippi State in terms of, you know,
Speaker 7: extending the pressure on the perimeter, which brings us back
Speaker 7: to the importance of having Butler back to be able
Speaker 7: to handle that and get Kentucky into offense and not
Speaker 7: be trying to you know, down like they were done
Speaker 7: at Ole Miss when they didn't have Butler trying to
Speaker 7: start the offense from you know, thirty five feet out
Speaker 7: on the floor. So that you know that it just
Speaker 7: adds to the significance of Butler. Connorway is their best players,
Speaker 7: the player of the year in the Sun Belt. He's
Speaker 7: their point guard, high turnover guy. They're a high turnover team.
Speaker 7: He's turned it over eighty nine times this season. But
Speaker 7: primary ball handler, yeah, primary score. But they are a
Speaker 7: team that you know, they force a lot of turnovers,
Speaker 7: but they also make a lot of turnovers. The other
Speaker 7: thing I found interesting You look at their numbers and
Speaker 7: they're like a thirty three point shoot but they've taken
Speaker 7: only two fewer three point shots than Kentucky in the
Speaker 7: same number of games. So that means if this happens
Speaker 7: to be the night they make them, they could hurt
Speaker 7: you with that. Ye, no doubt, not like they don't
Speaker 7: take them. They It's not like they don't take them
Speaker 7: because they don't make them. They keep taking them. So
Speaker 7: if you know this is the night, but the again,
Speaker 7: the games they played power forward teams in a non
Speaker 7: conference they played Arkansas, played Oregon, played Houston, and they
Speaker 7: struggled to make threes in all three of those games.
Speaker 1: Well, you know what Kentucky's goal is when it comes
Speaker 1: to three pointers. You know Troy will try to run
Speaker 1: the Wildcats off the three point line if they're either
Speaker 1: not hitting from the arc or if they are not
Speaker 1: getting the shots they won from beyond the arc. How
Speaker 1: do you think Kentucky wins this game, assuming assuming you
Speaker 1: think it will.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I do think they will. And if they are
Speaker 7: struggling to get looks at three and make a higher
Speaker 7: percentage of them, and they have been shooting as well,
Speaker 7: save for the Missouri game especially, I've been shooting as
Speaker 7: well last two or three weeks. So hopefully this little
Speaker 7: break can recharge the batteries and help them. Yeah, I
Speaker 7: wonder how it's going to look not playing SEC teams
Speaker 7: game by game, outlets breaking down so much tape on
Speaker 7: them and haven't seen them. And Porter Mooser after the
Speaker 7: Oklahoma game talked about how, you know, hard Kentucky is
Speaker 7: to prepare for because they played differently with most people
Speaker 7: with the five out and the things they do with
Speaker 7: their five man. So I hope some of that will
Speaker 7: enable them to get back to the team that's scoring,
Speaker 7: you know, eighty five plus in a game like this,
Speaker 7: even though Troy didn't you know, give up eighty very often.
Speaker 7: If Kentucky can find the formula they get to eighty plus,
Speaker 7: they're chances of winning are very very high. I would
Speaker 7: think car I mentioned Carr, you know, he's scoring for
Speaker 7: the game last night games, scoring around the basket. You know,
Speaker 7: I don't know that they have a good matchup for him.
Speaker 7: They are a good shot blocking team, even though they're
Speaker 7: not tremendously tall, so they do defend the basket pretty well,
Speaker 7: but you know, Carr and Williams are bigger by two
Speaker 7: or three inches than anybody Troy had, right, so you
Speaker 7: would hope maybe Kentucky could do a little damage. They're
Speaker 7: not a great offensive rebounding team, but maybe they could
Speaker 7: do a little damage in that area in.
Speaker 1: A game like that. That's the thing that I keep
Speaker 1: coming back to is that I, with all due respect
Speaker 1: to Troy, I don't know that Troy is seen in
Speaker 1: Amari Williams. And then when you add in you know,
Speaker 1: Andrew Carr in the paint, you know that's a batman
Speaker 1: and Robin they haven't really come across.
Speaker 7: I'm guessing right, right, And you know they hopefully can
Speaker 7: take Kentucky can take advantage of that. If you think
Speaker 7: about you know, the like the Oakland team that up
Speaker 7: said Kentucky last year, they had a you know, got
Speaker 7: to go off for thirty two, an incredible three point shooter.
Speaker 7: Doesn't look like Troy has has that guy. You know
Speaker 7: he goes for thirty it's Connorway but likely, but you
Speaker 7: know he's not likely to do it on threes and
Speaker 7: against Lamont Butler, I would guess he's not likely to
Speaker 7: do it period. You know, uh, they think back to
Speaker 7: the Saint Peter's game that was they had a guard
Speaker 7: that went for twenty seven. I think so you want to,
Speaker 7: you know, keep their best player in check. And again,
Speaker 7: a lot of this keeps coming back to the value
Speaker 7: of having Lamont Butler back in the line.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well, I'll let you go with this. We
Speaker 1: all know that there were naysayers when Pope was hired.
Speaker 1: Some have either come around or they're kind of laying
Speaker 1: in wait, how much pressure do you think there is?
Speaker 1: I doubt if Pope stays awake at night wondering or
Speaker 1: worrying about this, but he still needs to win that
Speaker 1: first n say tournament game, you know.
Speaker 7: Yeah, No, I think that's the valid point. If they
Speaker 7: were to get upset, it would you change a lot
Speaker 7: of the first year narrative. I think if they can
Speaker 7: get two wins and get to the Sweet sixteen kind
Speaker 7: of you know, just the opposite in the other direction,
Speaker 7: where you know it'd been that far in a while
Speaker 7: and that's not normally Kentucky standard. But when you factor
Speaker 7: in having to put together a team late at from scratch,
Speaker 7: and to have the injury issues that they've had on
Speaker 7: top of that, you know, I think anything beyond there
Speaker 7: is kind of I would think viewed very favorably. So
Speaker 7: and you know, and there's obviously when they beat Troy
Speaker 7: one game in between there, and you know, if that
Speaker 7: didn't go well, you'd somewhere on the spectrum of approvability,
Speaker 7: it would it would land. I don't know where that
Speaker 7: would exactly be. But the bottom line is, I think
Speaker 7: everything he's done with this program has been very well received.
Speaker 7: Other than just you know, they have more losses in
Speaker 7: Kentucky's used to and I don't think they would have
Speaker 7: as many had they been able to have their full roster.
Speaker 1: Right, exactly right, Thomas, thank you so much. We will
Speaker 1: be listening. Have you made out your brackets? Have you
Speaker 1: got Florida like everybody else?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 7: Probably just because of you know, the trendy pick, I'll
Speaker 7: probably lean another direction. It kind of feels like the
Speaker 7: ones and two's are really strong, but that maybe uh,
Speaker 7: you know, stay from and then the threes are you know,
Speaker 7: pretty solid. But maybe from four on down, certainly from
Speaker 7: five on down that I think, you know, we'll probably
Speaker 7: see a fair number of surprises. I would think it's
Speaker 7: just trying to to find them. I think San Diego
Speaker 7: is one that I like over Michigan. Yeah, I think
Speaker 7: I had a couple of SEC teams Ole miss and
Speaker 7: Missouri getting out to the Sweet sixteen, as that would
Speaker 7: be a little bit of an upset relative to siting.
Speaker 7: So I think the SEC strength is legit, and I
Speaker 7: guess I don't know that there's I can't imagine any
Speaker 7: scenario in which whoever wins the national title doesn't be
Speaker 7: at least one SEC team to get Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, Absolutely right, Tom. I hope you have
Speaker 1: a long trip to Milwaukee. Of course, uh Packers Country Show.
Speaker 1: You'll love it up there. Thanks so much. Have a
Speaker 1: good one.
Speaker 7: So I shouldn't wear my Bears gear.
Speaker 1: Wear it. It's your own risk. Have fun.
Speaker 7: Might not be your longest day in Milwaukee for me
Speaker 7: if I.
Speaker 1: Do, let me know how that goes.
Speaker 7: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: I remember two with Sean Woods and or Western brochief
Speaker 1: Gary Moore next six thirty w.
Speaker 9: I then any such tact, anything can anything to anything.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the big Blue in Sider joining us
Speaker 1: now as he does each and every Wednesday, is our
Speaker 1: unforgettable guard. Sean Woods. His jersey hangs in the raptor
Speaker 1: of rupp Aerna where the boys Sweet sixteen will happen
Speaker 1: next week, Sewn worked the girls Sweet sixteen. We'll talk
Speaker 1: some high school hoops here in our next segment, we
Speaker 1: got to talk about the Wildcats cranking things up in
Speaker 1: the NCAA tournament. You have been there, Sean, What goes
Speaker 1: on inside the mind and the gut, the butterflies or
Speaker 1: whatever of a young man going into the nca tournament.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, they know what's one and done and
Speaker 3: being you know what is going to be interesting with
Speaker 3: these guys because they're all new playing for Kentucky going
Speaker 3: into the NCAA tournament, so they understand the magnitude. I
Speaker 3: hope they got used to it, just you know, with
Speaker 3: going to the SEC tournament, what type of atmosphere and
Speaker 3: magnitude that was. Now with times seeing and I'll tell
Speaker 3: you what, Dick, I love the draw, you know. And
Speaker 3: and the good thing is if the mont butler can
Speaker 3: just sustain because he has more experience and more success
Speaker 3: than any point guard that's even in the nc double
Speaker 3: A tournament besides the point guard at Alabama. Ye, so
Speaker 3: having him and just like having him throughout the season,
Speaker 3: you know, they they're a different team when mentally, when
Speaker 3: he's not there, they're a different team mentally when he
Speaker 3: is there. It's gonna be the same situation going into
Speaker 3: the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 7: I truly believe, and you.
Speaker 3: Know, we only as go. We only gonna go as
Speaker 3: healthy as he can sustain and stay. So he's a
Speaker 3: major key. Unfortunately it's riding on one specific guy. But
Speaker 3: that's the way this team has, you know, been made up.
Speaker 3: And I'm hoping, praying because I knew in my gut
Speaker 3: and we talked about it, were you know, as long
Speaker 3: as he was good, we were gonna be good. When
Speaker 3: he went down, we went down. And it's gonna be
Speaker 3: the same situation in the NCAA tournament. I'll tell you what,
Speaker 3: if we were totally healthy with the draw we got, man,
Speaker 3: I like our chances at least getting to the final eight,
Speaker 3: if not the final four. Wow.
Speaker 1: Well, I've talked to some people about it, just in general,
Speaker 1: all the reporter types, but you can speak to it directly.
Speaker 1: I keep saying it seems like, and I think it's
Speaker 1: true that when Butler's on the floor defensively I mean
Speaker 1: clearly on offense as a point guard, but defensively makes
Speaker 1: other people better. How does that work because you were
Speaker 1: a guy known for defense as a point guard, Well.
Speaker 3: He dominates the point guard on the end, so he
Speaker 3: distracts the point of emphasis from the jump. You know,
Speaker 3: you can make the other point guard, the point guard
Speaker 3: on the other team uncomfortable, then that means that their
Speaker 3: team's uncomfortable. And that's what he does to the opposing
Speaker 3: point guard. And that's what makes him so effective. He's
Speaker 3: you know, coming up the court, you can't get into
Speaker 3: your stuff if your point guard is rattled. You know,
Speaker 3: your office is not gonna run a smooth if your
Speaker 3: point guard is rattled.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: And and the good thing is, as that shot clock
Speaker 3: is going down nine times out of team, it's your
Speaker 3: point guard that has to make the play at the
Speaker 3: end of the shot clock. Well, if he can't make
Speaker 3: the play because of Butler, then that make Kentucky that
Speaker 3: much of that much of a better team. So that's
Speaker 3: where it starts at. You know, it's not alway guarding
Speaker 3: the wing. Yeah, you may be stopping their score, but
Speaker 3: you're stopping the fluency of the team by distracting the
Speaker 3: other team's point guard. And that's what he's great at Yeah.
Speaker 1: Speaking of point guards, one of the game's first game
Speaker 1: and election in is Louisville Crayton, which I think is
Speaker 1: a really difficult matchup for both should be a great game.
Speaker 1: Creighton gave Saint John's all it wanted in the Big
Speaker 1: East in a Big East tournament final. And speaking of
Speaker 1: point guards, Chucky hepburn. I know he's wearing a Louisville jersey,
Speaker 1: but you were friendly with U of l guys, and
Speaker 1: I know you respect him, don't you.
Speaker 3: Oh, no doubt about it, you know, I really do.
Speaker 3: I think he's really good. I think he has a chance.
Speaker 3: But I'll tell you what the sec Louisville. I mean, Creighton,
Speaker 3: it can be a bracket buster. But I don't call
Speaker 3: them a bracket buster because they're always a fixture in
Speaker 3: the NCAA tournament. There's always been a dangerous team. I
Speaker 3: think they're one of the most well coached teams in
Speaker 3: America night in and night out, year in and year out.
Speaker 3: So you know, yeah, they could be They can hurt
Speaker 3: Louisville right off the jump because of who they are
Speaker 3: and who they been. And I thought that, you know,
Speaker 3: they lost a tough game to a team that I
Speaker 3: think is one of the hottest teams in America.
Speaker 1: That Saint John's oh yeah, yeah, definitely Saint Jansas's kind
Speaker 1: of a trendy pick right now to go to the
Speaker 1: Elite Eight, if not the Final Four.
Speaker 3: I mean, shoot, I don't see why not. I think
Speaker 3: Coach Patino is one of the most dangerous teams in
Speaker 3: America right now, and there's not a team in America
Speaker 3: that really wants to play him. I mean, I know,
Speaker 3: Cal's talking a bunch of stuff and this and that
Speaker 3: about yeah, we got this. You know, he's lucky to
Speaker 3: even being there, but man, you know, I just can't
Speaker 3: see him having much success against that tough, hard nosed
Speaker 3: juggernaut coming out of Queens, New York. I just don't
Speaker 3: see it.
Speaker 1: I agree. Plus, he's got to get by Kansas. Getting
Speaker 1: back to the Wildcatch. Troy is a team that is
Speaker 1: not a great three point shooting team, but they shoot it,
Speaker 1: and they get up and down the floor. They got
Speaker 1: a really talented playmaker, so obviously that'll be important for
Speaker 1: Lamont Butler. But Troy has to guard Kentucky, and I
Speaker 1: really believe Sean that if he stays out of foul trouble.
Speaker 1: Amari Williams could be one of those guys that people
Speaker 1: across the country are talking about after this weekend. Does
Speaker 1: that make sense?
Speaker 3: Oh, no, doubt about it. I don't think Troy has
Speaker 3: an answer for Mario Williams. I don't think Troy can
Speaker 3: score enough points to give Kentucky problems. I mean they
Speaker 3: may come out, you know, the first five minutes and
Speaker 3: be okay, but as the game goes along, I don't
Speaker 3: think Troy can keep up with Kentucky scoring. I really don't.
Speaker 3: And this could be a game I said. We had
Speaker 3: a bracketology deal in Louisville with the Louisville UK alumni. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and Jack and I and we were just going, you know,
Speaker 3: we had a panel and we were just giving our
Speaker 3: opinions and things. This is a And I told him,
Speaker 3: I said, let's just you know, we're all talking about
Speaker 3: Lama Butler. Let's just go ahead and talk about the
Speaker 3: elephant in the room. And the elephant in the room
Speaker 3: is Perry. And I said, Kerry, this could be a
Speaker 3: game where he gets some confidence. This could be a
Speaker 3: game to where Lamont Butler does not have to play
Speaker 3: a whole bunch and Perry can get some coup because
Speaker 3: he's there. We gotta play him. We gotta play Parrys
Speaker 3: because of Lamont Butler situation and Mount Butler can't play
Speaker 3: forty minutes a game. I'm just I mean, I wish
Speaker 3: I told everybody to just send messages whatever and try
Speaker 3: to give this kid as much confidence and let him
Speaker 3: know that he belongs. You know, you're a kid that
Speaker 3: scored five thousand points, there's no way, and you're from
Speaker 3: Kentucky and that that thinks, and that that brand that
Speaker 3: says Kentucky is across your chest. You should be drooling
Speaker 3: with confidence. I think that's been his biggest part, more
Speaker 3: so than anything else, is not ability, not athleticism. He
Speaker 3: doesn't he doesn't come across as a confident player. When
Speaker 3: he comes in, he has that look like he's scared
Speaker 3: to mess up. You know, he's a much better shooter
Speaker 3: than what he's shown. I mean, I've seen in the
Speaker 3: last game. You know, he's rushed, he's shooting bricks when
Speaker 3: we know that he can really shoot the basketball right,
Speaker 3: But he's not comfortable because he's not comfortable in his
Speaker 3: own skin. And you're not a freshman anymore. You're a sophomore.
Speaker 3: You've got enough games under your belt to where you
Speaker 3: got to know that you do belong. How many kids
Speaker 3: that's playing college basketball right now score five thousand parts
Speaker 3: in high school? You know what I'm saying. How many
Speaker 3: kids have success And you've gone across the country and
Speaker 3: played against some of the best players in America at
Speaker 3: your age or whatever, and you've had success. It's no different.
Speaker 3: Now we need your confidence and when if you come
Speaker 3: in there with confidence, you're going to play like you're
Speaker 3: supposed to play and the way you're good enough. I
Speaker 3: think he's good enough. I just think his confidence level
Speaker 3: has not matched what it needs to be in order
Speaker 3: for him to have success and and be a major
Speaker 3: part with the minute that he's getting for this team.
Speaker 1: Interesting, although I remind people that, yeah, they've played a
Speaker 1: ton of games and they've practiced more than they ever
Speaker 1: have in one year moving from high school to college.
Speaker 1: But the NCAA tournament's a different animal. And even Reed
Speaker 1: Shepherd and Rob Dillingham struggled mightily in the NCAA Tournament
Speaker 1: last year for whatever reason. Now, you guys, you had
Speaker 1: a veteran team when you played, but you weren't allowed
Speaker 1: to play for a couple of years, so you built
Speaker 1: up to that. You were guys. You guys were like
Speaker 1: caged animals by the time you got to the tournament,
Speaker 1: weren't you.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we were.
Speaker 3: But the job that the best job that I think
Speaker 3: Mark Pope has done this year is to get a
Speaker 3: bunch of strangers to buy into becoming people that they
Speaker 3: act like they've been knowing for four or five years. Yes,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. He has done a great
Speaker 3: job of taking all these different type of players coming
Speaker 3: from all these mid major places and built their mentality
Speaker 3: up to be a stroll Kentucky mentality. I truly believe.
Speaker 3: I think that's the best part of the job he's
Speaker 3: done this year is creating a mentality that you do
Speaker 3: play for Kentucky and you know this is unlike any
Speaker 3: place you've ever played, and play like you from Kentucky.
Speaker 3: And they've done that. Unfortunately, you know, injuries have plagued them,
Speaker 3: and as bad as they've been or you know, the
Speaker 3: problems that they've had defensively, they've still beat big time
Speaker 3: people and been in every single game that they lost.
Speaker 3: So they've been battle tested too at every sense, from
Speaker 3: every sense of the word. You know, Kurt Carrezo, he
Speaker 3: hadn't played enough to make even making them impact. Well,
Speaker 3: stop saying we're missing him. You know, We've got every
Speaker 3: one of these guys that played enough and have had
Speaker 3: enough success as a team together to still be dangerous.
Speaker 3: And so I really think that, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: the key is now going into the tournament with a
Speaker 3: chip on your shoulder and with great confidence because everybody
Speaker 3: in the first round, I don't care if you're the
Speaker 3: number one team, number one seed, number two seed. Everybody's
Speaker 3: coming in here nervous. There's not one team gonna come
Speaker 3: in the real loose. Yeah, and they have a chance,
Speaker 3: you know, because they're still they're still explosive, they still
Speaker 3: can score different ways. I think going forward, I don't
Speaker 3: see anybody that can match up with Amari Williams. I
Speaker 3: don't see if Butler can stay just stay healthy and
Speaker 3: stay out of the way that he still can create
Speaker 3: enough havoc to give them. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: enough stability defensively, and you still have guys on the
Speaker 3: team that can make shots.
Speaker 1: He is Sean Woods, the unforgettable guard. And we will
Speaker 1: talk more hoops on the other side of the break
Speaker 1: here on six point thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're talking
Speaker 1: with Sean Woods as we do each and every Wednesday,
Speaker 1: the un Forget Guard. Let me shift you over to
Speaker 1: high school hoops because people, more and more people are
Speaker 1: tuning in to watch you and Crystal Barr and Keith
Speaker 1: Elkins calling the high school games on tell everybody where
Speaker 1: to find you.
Speaker 3: You can go to YouTube. Go go to YouTube and
Speaker 3: punch in Glycoyd like l I c O D liked,
Speaker 3: or you can just go straight glycod dot com and
Speaker 3: you can catch the high school games.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: I don't know just yet if we're gonna be doing
Speaker 3: the Sweet sixteen boys. We did the Sweet Seas six
Speaker 3: Sweet sixteen girls, but we did all of the eleventh Region,
Speaker 3: some of the ages we did even up north, you know,
Speaker 3: southern Indiana. So we we we've been we've been rolling
Speaker 3: a little bit. But I'll tell you what. The eleventh
Speaker 3: Region championship we had over twenty two thousand, almost twenty
Speaker 3: three thousand viewers. Nice, so it's been hot. And and
Speaker 3: tell you what the eleventh Region was just like the
Speaker 3: SEC and High against the basketball men that before. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was the toughest region man in the state bar none.
Speaker 3: And I'll tell you what not just because Malcamorino is
Speaker 3: in it and they won it.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: You know in McDonald All America going to Kentucky, but
Speaker 3: he had they they you know, brand Station was tough,
Speaker 3: Douglas was tough. Henry Clay beat up.
Speaker 1: I mean that was you know.
Speaker 3: And and and I'll tell you what Great Crossing got
Speaker 3: out of that regional tournament by the skin of the.
Speaker 1: Now they play now they played Davis County on Thursday
Speaker 1: in the six o'clock game.
Speaker 9: Uh.
Speaker 1: And I mean you can talk about the draw and
Speaker 1: it's a blind draw, but man, you got to play
Speaker 1: everybody to win that state championship. And I think Great Crossing,
Speaker 1: Sean and I think you agree it is better equipped
Speaker 1: to make that run this year than they were last year.
Speaker 3: Well they're they're they're they're more season you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying. I think they to stand now, they've been there,
Speaker 3: done that, and shoot, they're loaded, man. And you know,
Speaker 3: but they got a piece that they didn't have last year.
Speaker 3: And he's grown older. And that's the kid LJ. Man,
Speaker 3: who's l J Holman, the sophomore guard who has a
Speaker 3: chance to be really good at the lefty, and he
Speaker 3: took on the pressure of Brian's station's tenacity, and he
Speaker 3: took on Douglas's tenacity, and he's the one who hit
Speaker 3: the big free throws down the stretch to actually steal
Speaker 3: the game against Douglas. So you know, they got their
Speaker 3: work cut out. You know, Clark County and Montgomery County
Speaker 3: gonna go at it tonight to decide who's coming out
Speaker 3: of that region to go to the Sweet sixteen. But
Speaker 3: I look forward to a very exciting Sweet sixteen. But
Speaker 3: you know, it's always big when you got a big
Speaker 3: time Kentucky recruit that's playing in it makes it makes
Speaker 3: it more of a MUSTYTV type of situation. But I
Speaker 3: really like this Douglas's team because they got they got
Speaker 3: about three or four Division one players on that team.
Speaker 3: That's pretty good. But that same next team out of
Speaker 3: Louisville has been the darling of Kentucky basketball this year,
Speaker 3: and they're gonna be a tough out too. And the
Speaker 3: good thing is I don't think neither one of them
Speaker 3: are going to meet until the championship.
Speaker 1: That's right, they're on the opposite side, so that could
Speaker 1: bring Lexing to it and Louisville together. But of late.
Speaker 1: I mean, look at Lion County last year jumped up
Speaker 1: tiny little school and won it all with a future
Speaker 1: UK Wildcat. So there are so many different storylines. Like
Speaker 1: you say, Danville Christian, I mean a time seventy eight
Speaker 1: students made that they went to the girls tournament, They've
Speaker 1: made it to the boys tournament. George Rogers, Clark might
Speaker 1: get there. The girls got to the championship game and
Speaker 1: let it slip away. They had Sacred Heart beaten, but
Speaker 1: Sacred Heart came to like the champion that it is.
Speaker 1: But there isn't a school in the boys game right
Speaker 1: now that is this dominant as Sacred Heart.
Speaker 3: Is there. No, no, no, And I'll tell you what
Speaker 3: you know, even you know you talk about Sacred Heart
Speaker 3: and you talk about Clark County boys and girls. You know,
Speaker 3: Douglas was that type of situation too. They lost in
Speaker 3: the regional finals, but their girls made it three sixteen
Speaker 3: in the second round. So yeah, So I'll tell you
Speaker 3: what high school basketball is on the up and up.
Speaker 3: And to be honest with you, Dick, there are more
Speaker 3: promising players on the women's side right now. Than never before.
Speaker 3: And they're young. I mean, there's some seventh and eighth
Speaker 3: graders that are magnificent that are leading their teams. And
Speaker 3: there's a young lady that I talked about all the
Speaker 3: time at Douglas. Her name is tomil Wade, you know,
Speaker 3: eighth grader, and she's just as good of a guard
Speaker 3: as anybody I've seen in the state and could be
Speaker 3: one of the best head grades in the country. Yeah,
Speaker 3: no doubt about it. So it's it's gonna be fun
Speaker 3: and exciting. I was so proud of DJ and what
Speaker 3: he did with his team at Douglas. And the thing
Speaker 3: about it is they didn't have one senior that was playing.
Speaker 3: They had a Kate Baker, who's their own long senior
Speaker 3: and the best three point shooting, probably the best three
Speaker 3: point shooting in the region. She got hurt right before
Speaker 3: its stake her heart, So yeah, they lost his sacred heart,
Speaker 3: but went on a run and they got all those
Speaker 3: kids back. You know, they got it. They I mean, shoot,
Speaker 3: they they got some girls over there, and and he's
Speaker 3: doing a great job and they're only gonna get better.
Speaker 3: So this region high school basketball is it's really good.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: Brad station's got you know, players and Amari Williams, I
Speaker 3: mean a Mario Owens and and uh Tayshaun Adams was
Speaker 3: George Adams's grandson, you know. And then you got you
Speaker 3: got everybody coming back from from from Douglas, you know.
Speaker 3: So you got stan T I mean not san Tea,
Speaker 3: forget the kids name, but you got a couple.
Speaker 7: Of players over there.
Speaker 1: So it's it's gonna be fun.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be fun, man, and six team is gonna
Speaker 3: be really good on the boys side. So can't wait.
Speaker 3: Hopefully we're doing it, and I'll get to sit right
Speaker 3: below you again.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 1: Follow him on glycod dot com, watch the telecash or
Speaker 1: on YouTube. Sean Woods unforgettable guard. Thank you brother, We'll
Speaker 1: see you in rupp Arena.
Speaker 3: Take care looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: Western Bureau Chief Gary Moore is up next to here
Speaker 1: on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Bullingsider
Speaker 1: Joining us now he does each and every Wednesday when
Speaker 1: we're not bumped by basketball or baseball is Gary Moore.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of that this week. Gary. Of course,
Speaker 1: we love it uh tournament time in college baseball. He
Speaker 1: of course is our West End bureau chief. But so
Speaker 1: much overlap baseball has started a lot of football news
Speaker 1: out there. It's kind of a fun time. And uh,
Speaker 1: the Kentucky Derby not far away.
Speaker 5: I know, this confluence of all these great sports things
Speaker 5: come like October. You know, we always love October when
Speaker 5: all that stuff happens.
Speaker 1: And here we are again.
Speaker 5: Well, it's two guys in a six pack, you and
Speaker 5: me and six things to talk about, and we shall
Speaker 5: lead with of course college basketball. But ladies first, why
Speaker 5: because more women's teams are repping the Commonwealth than men
Speaker 5: this year in March of madness. Because the men of
Speaker 5: Murray State, Morehead, WKU, e k U, n KU all
Speaker 5: failed to win their conferences in advance. But UK women
Speaker 5: number four seed Friday high noon ESPN versus number thirteen
Speaker 5: seed Liberty, U of L women seventh seed versus number
Speaker 5: ten seed Nebraska. That'll losto be Friday on ESPN. And
Speaker 5: how about my hometown Murray State Racers, number one women's
Speaker 5: scoring team in the nation eighty seven point eight points
Speaker 5: per game. That's better than that ugly orange school down
Speaker 5: I seventy five. That's better than LSU, Notre Dame, even
Speaker 5: yukon Southern cal Ucla and South Carolina. How about that
Speaker 5: the eleventh seed Racers will be taking on six seed Iowa,
Speaker 5: thankfully a year after Caitlyn Clark high noon Saturday at ESPN.
Speaker 5: So give me the Cats cards and those fired up
Speaker 5: Phillies from Callaway County to win their opening games.
Speaker 1: I just worked Murray State, Kentucky baseball last night, Racers
Speaker 1: get to win. Only scored five runs. But that's a
Speaker 1: team that scores a lot of points. They scored nine
Speaker 1: and a half runs a game. So what is it
Speaker 1: down there in Murray? I don't know.
Speaker 5: Something to water down there.
Speaker 1: Someth's going on, how about that? But yeah, Kenny Brooks
Speaker 1: the job that he did, and of course the key
Speaker 1: transfers he brought in, and of course he took Virginia
Speaker 1: Tech to the final four, so he knows what a
Speaker 1: tournament team looks like.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we'll talk more about the baseball that's going on
Speaker 5: in the state. Yeah, that's pretty great.
Speaker 1: And by the way, seven seed for Louisville. A lot
Speaker 1: of teams would love a seven. That's way down for
Speaker 1: U of L. Yeah it is.
Speaker 5: Well, they've had some ups and downs this ye we'll
Speaker 5: see what happens our second swig. We go to swig
Speaker 5: number two of the six pack, and appropriately I have
Speaker 5: two emphatically raised middle fingers with a vengeance, one for
Speaker 5: the NCAA Men's Selection Committee as a group, and one
Speaker 5: especially reserved with extreme prejudice for Bubba Cunning, the committee
Speaker 5: chair and coincidentally North Carolina's athletic director and perhaps the
Speaker 5: committee's number one enraged avenger, because in my mind, did Gabriel.
Speaker 5: Here's what this guy's been thinking and scheming and boiling
Speaker 5: over at night and thinking, rolling over and over. In
Speaker 5: my mind, he's saying, how dare this reconstituted Louisville program
Speaker 5: that was so relentlessly in f the last two seasons,
Speaker 5: how dare they beat my Belovitar heels this season? And
Speaker 5: also in my mind he's thinking, well, we can't pay
Speaker 5: him back this year at Chapel Hill, can't pay him
Speaker 5: back in the ACC tournament. So I shall extract revenge
Speaker 5: another way. First, I'm going to get my heels into
Speaker 5: the dance, even a play in game if I have to,
Speaker 5: even though West Virginia and Indiana are far more worthy
Speaker 5: f them. Second, it's obvious to everyone UFL deserves a
Speaker 5: five seed, no lower than a six with those fifteen
Speaker 5: quad one and two wins to our paltry nine. But
Speaker 5: I shall scrub them to an eight, pit them against Creighton,
Speaker 5: who gave Saint John's a tough game. Then then if
Speaker 5: they get pass game one, they shall face not just
Speaker 5: a one seed, but the number one overall seed in Auburn.
Speaker 5: That'll teach them, Dick. That's not a seating. That's a
Speaker 5: vendetta in my book. So you know what, like a
Speaker 5: certain chief executive picking on somebody, they shouldn't be picking
Speaker 5: on starting a fight. They don't need to start a fight.
Speaker 5: You want to start one, Bubba, you got one here
Speaker 5: in Louisville. Every time you come to town. Pal you know,
Speaker 5: say what you will.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he had to leave the room when his team
Speaker 1: is discussed when acc teams are just I get all that,
Speaker 1: I get. No, I firmly believe it. I had long
Speaker 1: conversations with Seam Newton about it when he chaired the committee.
Speaker 1: But the people he has sat with and had lunch
Speaker 1: with and hung out with for really the better part
Speaker 1: of a year is not just that one weekend. Right,
Speaker 1: They're still in the room, and there is absolutely positively,
Speaker 1: no way to justify. And I'm not obvious the first
Speaker 1: person and the only person to say this about North
Speaker 1: Carolina and I couldn't care less what they did last
Speaker 1: night in San Diego State. No, there's just no way
Speaker 1: they should be in. And the argument for removing any
Speaker 1: sitting ad from a committee like that gets stronger by
Speaker 1: the year, you know. And I think the committee has
Speaker 1: done a much better job through the years. They've done
Speaker 1: a better job of seating and bracketing, and they've tweaked it.
Speaker 1: They came up with the pods system and all that.
Speaker 1: But then you have a situation like this, and my
Speaker 1: question is did nobody in the room. I got to
Speaker 1: think some did raise their hand and say, folks, this
Speaker 1: just smells bad. They put North Carolina in with Bubba
Speaker 1: sitting here, and of course they put them on TV
Speaker 1: and put the number two guy could say, Bubba wasn't
Speaker 1: that that did nothing That's satisfied nobody. Although I read
Speaker 1: one article that said they put that to rest, I'm like,
Speaker 1: what are you smoking? You know, it was just oh
Speaker 1: Man again, just really bad optics. And we've talked before
Speaker 1: about robot umpires. You know, I can't defend umpires anymore
Speaker 1: because they've done such a poor job that they're forfeiting
Speaker 1: the right to call balls and strikes. These committee members,
Speaker 1: if they're not careful, they will forfeit the right to
Speaker 1: pick these teams. And I don't know what will happen
Speaker 1: after that.
Speaker 5: Speaking of those optics, guess what it gets worse? Third
Speaker 5: swig Speaking of Bubba or should we say big bonus
Speaker 5: bucks Bubba? Is it true? Cunningham pockets an extra one
Speaker 5: hundred four thousand, one hundred and sixty six dollars and
Speaker 5: sixty six cents for his heels just making the tournament.
Speaker 5: That's what twenty four to seven Sports is reported. Plus
Speaker 5: he could rake in another thirty five grand if you
Speaker 5: and see he gets to the sweet sixteen, which they won't,
Speaker 5: but that's on the line. What if they got to
Speaker 5: the final four, well he pocketed another fifty thousand and
Speaker 5: if they want it all, which is impossible to happen.
Speaker 5: Five k on that being selection committee chair boy and
Speaker 5: you n c Ad as you mentioned, and wanting and
Speaker 5: just wondering how his heel somehow weaseled in, especially over
Speaker 5: West Virginia team that of all people, Joe Linardi among others.
Speaker 5: Joe had them as a ten seed and as he
Speaker 5: and others have said, were royally robbed. You tell me now,
Speaker 5: how bad are the optics.
Speaker 1: Well, you are closely related through marriage to an indianagrad
Speaker 1: that's another school that could make that. But no, you
Speaker 1: talk about a conflict of interest that more than anything,
Speaker 1: should disqualify him for even being involved in the in
Speaker 1: the in anybody who has a financial interest. You bring
Speaker 1: up a great point, and I don't doubt that it's accurate.
Speaker 1: It's easy to check. Those contracts are public record, public's
Speaker 1: coaches contracts with some private schools and all that are
Speaker 1: our public record. So yeah, it just looks bad, smells bad,
Speaker 1: and that ought to prompt a change. I don't know
Speaker 1: that it will, but it certainly should. And uh again,
Speaker 1: either just qualify yourself from the money or from the process.
Speaker 5: Well, there's a lot of backslapping that was going on
Speaker 5: before that. You know that as well as I do. Yeah,
Speaker 5: fourth twig. So let's go on to the men's field
Speaker 5: of sixty eight, my final four bracket in just a second.
Speaker 5: So just as a reminder, Louisville and Creighton from just
Speaker 5: down the street from you, Rapp Arena, Yeah, buddy tomorrow
Speaker 5: twelve fifteen and CBS cards tough draw for Louisville. Yeah,
Speaker 5: that shouldn't have happened. Again, for the seeding and the
Speaker 5: draw itself, both of those things are wrong. Cardoso are
Speaker 5: still two and a half point favorites over Creighton. Then,
Speaker 5: of course the Cats in Milwaukee against Troy on Friday
Speaker 5: seven to ten start. Cats are eleven and a half
Speaker 5: point favorites last time I looked, So now I got
Speaker 5: Florida from the west facing, and I hate like hell
Speaker 5: to say this Auburn from the south in the first
Speaker 5: bracket that I do have the cards beating Auburn in
Speaker 5: one of these scenarios, because we do obviously two or
Speaker 5: three or four in my case, twelve brackets. And I
Speaker 5: have Houston out of the midwest facing, and I hate
Speaker 5: saying this four letter word Duke out of the east.
Speaker 5: So Houston beats Duke, Florida beats Auburn, Florida beats Houston
Speaker 5: for the Natty. And on the women's side, I will
Speaker 5: take my postgrad alma mater Ucla.
Speaker 1: Wow, some people I know, Ucla rising up against Juju
Speaker 1: and USC which had beat earlier. Yeah, my final four
Speaker 1: is the same, except I've got Michigan State top ofing Auburn.
Speaker 1: So you're very chalky, but a lot of people are
Speaker 1: because that's how good these schools are. But I do
Speaker 1: have Florida beating Houston to win it all. This is
Speaker 1: just a Florida team that has I think the best
Speaker 1: guard in America and a preponderance of depth at the
Speaker 1: on the front line, and they are playing their best
Speaker 1: clearly when they need to the most.
Speaker 5: It's kind of a flip a coin between Duke and
Speaker 5: Bama to go up against Houston in that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Bama's hitting shots.
Speaker 5: Yeah right, that's the if. Yeah, exactly are Let's see here, Fitzwig, So,
Speaker 5: being the Bonzie baseball fan that you've always been, I
Speaker 5: am certain you were up before dawn the last two
Speaker 5: mornings to catch every bitch of the Dodger sweeping the
Speaker 5: Cubs to open the twenty twenty five Major League Baseball season.
Speaker 5: Enjoy play by play from broadcasters.
Speaker 1: Not even there.
Speaker 5: We'll have more on that than just a bit. Actually,
Speaker 5: opening Day on American soil was one week from tomorrow,
Speaker 5: three or five pm in the Bronx.
Speaker 1: Yeah right.
Speaker 5: The Yankees be hosting the Bridge Well, it's easier for
Speaker 5: the commissioner, Dick to take the limo up Manhattan and
Speaker 5: get over there. You don't want to have to fly
Speaker 5: in the Covington go over the bridge, you know, and
Speaker 5: keep tradition going in Cincinnatis. And what about the Reds
Speaker 5: who still should have opening, Well they've been relegated to
Speaker 5: the four to ten pm slot with five other teams.
Speaker 5: That's how much respect this commissioner has. So you want
Speaker 5: to make it easy. He want to make it easy
Speaker 5: on himself, and you know he wants to make it
Speaker 5: easy on himself for some of these owners. Yeah, go
Speaker 5: ahead and play in minor league parks, you know, down
Speaker 5: in Tampa and in Sacramento. Well Tampa wasn't really his fault,
Speaker 5: but he there's no excuse for what went on with
Speaker 5: Oakland and in Sacramento and that craziness. And also it's
Speaker 5: easy for him not to have a floor for the
Speaker 5: owners not to spend. In other words, did you know
Speaker 5: nearly a third of the teams this year are more
Speaker 5: than fifty million under the average payroll, which is one
Speaker 5: hundred and fifty six point nine million. I don't think
Speaker 5: we'll have a salary cap anytime soon, Dick. But do
Speaker 5: you think they'll ever be a salary floor.
Speaker 1: I think that's up to the players union, and it
Speaker 1: definitely needs to be one. There's no question. They owe
Speaker 1: it to the fans, not just the players. They owe
Speaker 1: it to the fans to put in the salary floor
Speaker 1: and show, hey, we're trying. There are teams, as you
Speaker 1: well know, most teams cannot compete at the top with
Speaker 1: the Yankees and Dodgers. But how many times have you
Speaker 1: seen a team like the Royals jump up and win
Speaker 1: without needing to do that? It can happen, and we've
Speaker 1: seen teams like the Dodgers and Yankees fall short even
Speaker 1: with those bloated payrolls. But if you've got no hope
Speaker 1: of getting there because you're not paying anybody anything, it
Speaker 1: ain't right. It ain't fair to the people who are
Speaker 1: footing the bills, There's no question about that.
Speaker 5: Look at the Pirates. Oh we got skeens, we got skins.
Speaker 5: What more do you want?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Oh, by the way, we're spending less this year than
Speaker 5: we did ten years ago. Man, amazing sixth and final swig. Well,
Speaker 5: so much for the majors. Let's head for campus and
Speaker 5: one down. I sixty five that I traversed on many
Speaker 5: an undergrad day. See what the Toppers are doing. We've
Speaker 5: mentioned them a couple of weeks ago. Well, WKU eighteen
Speaker 5: and a zero at home. Yeah, nineteen and one record
Speaker 5: the best D one record of schools here in the
Speaker 5: state coming into today's game at Eastern That one loss
Speaker 5: against the team that beat UK last night, Murray State.
Speaker 5: About that, Murray State's thirteen and.
Speaker 1: Four they beat Think it was extra innings too, probably.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was I think two to one. Yeah, they
Speaker 5: upset number twenty four UK five to four last night.
Speaker 5: Should have beat Ole Miss two weeks ago, they had
Speaker 5: them on the ropes in the late innings. This weekend, Cats,
Speaker 5: as you know, get number seventeen Auburn at Proud Park.
Speaker 5: Number fifteen Louisville. Like the basketball team seems to be revived.
Speaker 5: They're seventeen and three. They had to Va Tech this weekend.
Speaker 5: But WKU is going to get both UK and Louisville
Speaker 5: next month, as well as going down to number eighteen
Speaker 5: Vandy and number twenty one Dallas Baptist. I don't think
Speaker 5: keep the streak going. But how much fun is this
Speaker 5: in the middle of March? Madness, we get all this
Speaker 5: baseball fund with all four of the teams that are
Speaker 5: doing well.
Speaker 1: If Murray State, or rather if WKU wins tonight, which
Speaker 1: it should, I mean, UKU is having terrible trouble this year.
Speaker 1: They'll be twenty and one, matching to see not the
Speaker 1: same kind of record or team. I know, Tennessee out
Speaker 1: of the gates incredibly well with twenty straight wins before
Speaker 1: a loss last night the East Tennessee State. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that happened, I know. But if WKU can keep it going,
Speaker 1: man Postsen is going to be fun. And this Murray
Speaker 1: State team Gary is really skilled and well coached.
Speaker 5: I think they surprise even themselves. But you know, they
Speaker 5: should have beaten Old Miss. They have the relief pitchers
Speaker 5: kind of, you know. Ol Miss is obviously good that
Speaker 5: they're top twenty team as well. But I'm enjoying this
Speaker 5: because for so long they've just you know, just it
Speaker 5: was always Louisville, UK UK the powerhouses.
Speaker 1: Murray State off to its best start since the mid
Speaker 1: seventies under Johnny Reagan. How about that he is Gary
Speaker 1: Murray's our Western burea chief. That's two guys in a
Speaker 1: six pack up next some hot reeves for Gary in
Speaker 1: just a minute. You're in a big Moons Welcome back.
Speaker 1: We're talking with our Western Burea chief. Gary Moore joins
Speaker 1: this each and every week with a list of observations, gripes,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it. Two guys in a
Speaker 1: six pack, and then we throw a couple of hot
Speaker 1: reads at Gary to see what he has to say.
Speaker 1: Gary touched on baseball starting of course America's games starting
Speaker 1: in Japan seventeen hours away or whatever it is. And okay,
Speaker 1: if that's not enough, Fox Sports chooses to go cheap
Speaker 1: and doesn't send announcers man and they borrow from the
Speaker 1: COVID days and they've got the announcers doing the ballgames
Speaker 1: via remote bookups, which the SEC new working. Yes, I
Speaker 1: do work for them, still does that quite a bit
Speaker 1: with baseball, Thankfully, they don't do it with basketball anymore.
Speaker 1: There was a huge Kentucky game last year where one
Speaker 1: announcer was in Maine, one announcer was in Kansas City. Terrible.
Speaker 1: That was awful And it's not fair to the announcers
Speaker 1: because they obviously can't see everything. So but okay, that's
Speaker 1: the SEC network, Come on Fox. Yeah, digging deep. You're
Speaker 1: paying all this money, You're making a big deal out
Speaker 1: of opening up in Tokyo. What say you? As a
Speaker 1: guy who loves baseball and loves broadcasting, as.
Speaker 5: A former bat boy at Murray State games back in
Speaker 5: the day, I I hate it, And as a as
Speaker 5: a broadcaster for many years, I especially hate it. There's
Speaker 5: no excuse for that. There's no not fo no, not
Speaker 5: for fuck, not for major network who We understand you
Speaker 5: paid a lot of money for these rides, but you
Speaker 5: have to there. There comes a standard with all networks
Speaker 5: to have people there for a lot of reasons, to
Speaker 5: get the perspective to and to talk to some of
Speaker 5: the players. I mean, there was really virtually no kind
Speaker 5: of interviews and nothing going on within the game, and
Speaker 5: it just it's just cheap and you feel cheap and
Speaker 5: watching it, like, why could have done that? I could
Speaker 5: have been here at home and done that, you know,
Speaker 5: get to get a get a great former baseball player
Speaker 5: in here next to me. Hell, we could have helped
Speaker 5: hooked up the mics, you know, just.
Speaker 1: Sell another spot, sell another commercial, bringing another sponsor to underwrite, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, sell sell it to one of the airlines
Speaker 1: and score a couple tickets for your broadcasters. There are
Speaker 1: so many ways they could have gone.
Speaker 5: Well, here's the difference too, between the baseball team and
Speaker 5: a broadcasting team. All the Dodgers get an extra seventy
Speaker 5: thousand bucks just for showing up.
Speaker 1: How about them getting over there?
Speaker 5: Yeah, but Fox is not going to send announcers over there.
Speaker 5: So there's your disparity in between a team and a network.
Speaker 1: Speaking of big bucks, our second hid read Gary is
Speaker 1: a Seahawks fan, but keeps an eye on all things NFL.
Speaker 1: How about the Cincinnati Bengals, the skin flints of the NFL.
Speaker 1: Traditionally we can't afford to compete with, and now thanks
Speaker 1: to Joe Burrow, T Higgins, Jamar Chase. How about those
Speaker 1: former LSU players racking up the bucks and Daryl Stingley
Speaker 1: just got a big contract. But anyhow, three Bengals commanding
Speaker 1: among them half a billion with a B dollars. So
Speaker 1: my question to you is is it a new agent Cincinnati?
Speaker 1: And more importantly, is there enough money left to sign Hendrickson?
Speaker 1: All he's done is lead to the league in sacks
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. But build a defense, building
Speaker 1: O line while showing your fan base. We're serious about this.
Speaker 5: But I was sitting down when I read about those
Speaker 5: contracts getting signed, you know, I mean, we never you
Speaker 5: and I never thought we'd see something like that. Like
Speaker 5: I've thought for sure one of those guys Higgins or
Speaker 5: probably Higgins would have to go sure, yeah, to get it.
Speaker 5: But and and Burrow's credit, he wants hendrickson side. He
Speaker 5: really does want them to open it up as well.
Speaker 5: Now they got your guy TJ. Slayton from the Packers,
Speaker 5: a defensive tackle to kind of shore up. And Al
Speaker 5: Golden is coming over. He's the new coordinate because he
Speaker 5: was a rhymebackers coach before for about a year with
Speaker 5: the Bengals, so he's back as the as the DC
Speaker 5: over there. But they're gonna need some defense, you know.
Speaker 5: They they were one of those rare teams that scored
Speaker 5: four hundred over four hundred points and gave up over
Speaker 5: four hundred last year. And have you seen the schedule
Speaker 5: for next year? Who all they're getting. They got host
Speaker 5: the Lions, they're going to face the Bills on the road.
Speaker 5: Of course, he got the Ravens too. Then you got
Speaker 5: to go on the road to the Packers, Vikings and Broncos. Wow,
Speaker 5: you better shore up the d now.
Speaker 1: I really believe that what Higgins did it was brilliant simple.
Speaker 1: He fired one agent and hired Chases or out a
Speaker 1: Burrow's agent and so no, I'm sorry, hired Chase's agent.
Speaker 1: And so now it's almost like putting together a super team.
Speaker 1: You can't have this guy if you don't sign that guy.
Speaker 1: And I think Gary, we're going to see a lot
Speaker 1: more of that.
Speaker 5: I think so too. And you recall when Burrow and
Speaker 5: Chase and Higgins were all together healthy, the first time
Speaker 5: they played together, they went to something called the Super
Speaker 5: Bowl unbelievable. And that's what they need to do that
Speaker 5: if they just get there, whether they win or lose,
Speaker 5: it's gonna make all of this worth it, no doubt.
Speaker 1: He is Gary Moore. He is our Western Bureau chief.
Speaker 1: He joins us each and every week. And if this
Speaker 1: madness isn't enough, you can find him on Twitter.
Speaker 5: Or x at at nine to five five Gary, And
Speaker 5: you're there too at.
Speaker 1: At Big Blue Insider one. Love it all right, we'll
Speaker 1: compare brackets next week.
Speaker 5: My man, it'll be in tatters, but I'll be here.
Speaker 1: That'll do it for now, thanks as always to my guests,
Speaker 1: our West End Bureau chief Gary Moore, to the unforgettable guard,
Speaker 1: Sean Woods. And we will see him at the boys
Speaker 1: Sweet sixteenth coming up next week. It would be this week,
Speaker 1: of course, but we got n SA tournament action going
Speaker 1: on in r Arena, so the boys are just gonna
Speaker 1: have to wait. And Tom leads the Boys to the Cats.
Speaker 1: You're at Kentucky Troy coming up on Friday evening. That's
Speaker 1: a good night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 5: A very good, very quick basketball team.
Speaker 1: A guy that just went by is Michael Thompson.
Speaker 5: So you know the answer to that, don't you. He
Speaker 5: always seems to.
Speaker 1: Get involved, I'm telling you, too many Coca nuts and
Speaker 1: hit him right on top of the skull down there
Speaker 1: in the Bahamas.
Speaker 4: He's in trouble, tact tact.
Speaker 1: The ship.
Speaker 10: Then backed out like the statist conting