It's stick Gabriel taking a little bit of time off, so we thought we would replay some of the best interviews from over the last several months. Please enjoy the best of the Big Blue Insider And man, I don't know what it is. Kentucky gets to host a regional and gets one of the toughest draws in the regional and has to be the visiting team twice in his own home ballpark. I can see that once, but twice?
Come on, Well, now here comes Oregon State. Really good program which has won three World Series titles within the last well since six was it six seven and twenty eighteen, it's been to the World Series nine times. So the Beavers come across country and they will play at six o'clock Saturday, nine o'clock Sunday. It's best out of three. Then if they need the third game, of course, they'll play it on Monday. But the Sunday game is at
nine pm and both games are on ESPN. You so you got a smaller audience for the number two seed now and a nine o'clock start. Well, if they're trying to accommodate people on the West coast, that is a TV programmer's way of thinking, because of course that's six o'clock out there, but it's a slap in the face to the host team. The other thing is, and I get this from me, and we'll talk to our West Coast Bureau Chief, Gary Moore about this tomorrow, who lived
in LA for more than twenty years. One of my closest friends lives out there, and they have both told me that West Coast people don't worry about East Coast times for sporting events nearly as much as we think they do. In fact, this Gary has told us when it comes say to the NFL, they like it because let's say your team will be it a West Coast team or a team you follow has got a one o'clock start in the NFL, it's ten am out there. You watch the game, then you go on with the
rest of your day. If you're an Oregon State fan, if the game were a three in the afternoon, which would be six o'clock here, win or lose, you got half your day left or a great part of it. So it's just man, it's very frustrating, but at least your home you're playing in a super regional for the
first time in program history. By the way, there was something that came up and I just made mention of it last night on the show, but I wanted to spend a little more time with it because this team, this Kentucky team with the dugout antics and the personalities, is so interesting and fun to follow. And as many of you know, I've gotten to travel with the team a little bit through the years, filling in on the radio, first for Neil Price, now for Darren Hedrick. And this
year this is new. This year I noticed that, I think when I was on the bus with a team down in Round Rock, Texas. But I believe they've been doing it all year, and they've done a lot of stuff in the dugout. This is not a dugout thing. This is when they're all kind of bunched together. They might do it at other times, but they definitely do it on the bus. And the bus is like a rolling locker room. You know, they're laughing, they're joking, they're
cutting up. They're using some language you might not want your kids to hear. And Nick has said, and Nick is not that kind of guy when it comes to language, but he has said he kind of turns a death bear to it because it's their locker room. It's not horrible, it's just, you know, nineteen twenty twenty one year old guys get together and say things sometimes. But one of the things they do is they mimic what Dak Prescott
does for the Dallas Cowboys. Just before the ball is snapped, he'll call his audibles, he'll set protection, but just to make sure the team knows everything's good, we're ready to get going, he'll yell here we go, and he kind of chants it. It sounds like this, here we go, here.
We go, Here we go, Here we go, Here we go, here we go, Here we go.
That's a bunch of them I strung together. But Nick Benione made direct reference to this after the game. On after the championship game the other night, in the postgame press conference, when people Aaron Gershan asked Mason more, the pitcher who had been so sick, when did you know you could pitch? When did you know you'd be physically up to it? And because he had been out skipped the game, went back to the room and had an
IVY and was just trying to recover. Nick jumped in with a story about a text message you got from Mason. That night at.
Seven thirty six, my phone goes off. It's a text message for Mason.
This is what he said, here we go.
So if you didn't get that right away, that's what that was all about, was how that's one of their deals on the bus and probably elsewhere is every now and then. I don't know why I didn't want to ask, but at times somebody will just yell here we go. And evidently that was the battle cry for Mason Moore when he texted his coach to let him go. No, he'd be ready to go, and certainly he was putting up nothing but goose egg. It's going to be tough to do that against Oregon State. We'll talk more about
the Beavers as the weekend gets closer. We'll try to talk to some folks from out there in Oregon as well, and a reminder small world. Before he became the athletics director at the University of Kentucky, Mitch Barnhardt for four years was the ad at Oregon State. So I'm sure there'll be some chatter about that throughout the week as well. We're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider. More to come here on six thirty WLAP. It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome back to the best of the Big Blue Insider.
That is the word of the day in the Big Boe Nation because their baseball team is heading for the College World Series for the first time in program history. Welcome to the Big Boon Sider, Dick Gabriel, with you still a little bleary eyed after last night's nine o'clock
start and then a postgame press conference that ended. I think we walked out of there at about about two point fifteen am, you know, and by the time you get home and get unpacked and try to get some sleep, it's three o'clock in the morning, at least for me. But we're up and around and we're thinking about the
College World Series now. For the first time, the Kentucky Wildcats win a Super Regional and beat a really good Oregon State team by holding the Beavers to two runs that they got last night without benefit of a hit, and three hits over the two games, which is a record for the Super Regional format, which now is in his twenty fifth year. The previous record one of the Vandy Great Vandy pitching staffs held an opponent to five
hits over two games. So the Kentucky pitching staff, which had been I don't want to say much maligned, but somewhat maligned down the stretch, came through in a huge way in both the Regional and the Super Regional. So now the Wildcats will go to Omaha. And they shut it down last night on a call third strike delivered by relief pitcher Johnny Hummel, who picked up the save. And here is how Darren hedrickcalled it on the UK Sports Network.
Hummel's pitch colt strike three.
Ball game over. The wait is finally over.
Roll out the big blue carpet and Omaha, the University of Kentucky Wildcats are headed.
To the College World Series.
Kentucky defeats Oregon State three to two. They flood the field from that third base stugout and dog pile to the right side of the mound.
And it's worth noting there was no dog pile after the regional. There was last year and Nick menze own back in twenty seventeen when before really before the season began, one of his goals was to see his team in a dog pile. He said, I love dog piles because it means They've just accomplished something, something great. So there was a dog pile. Then in seventeen when they won the regional, there was one. Last year when they won
the regional. There was not one this year because they knew they wanted so much more and they knew they were going to host a super regional. And it was on this day in twenty seventeen today, seven years ago, that Kentucky opened Super Regional play at Louisville and got spanked a couple times by the Cardinals. Really good U OFL team, But I covered the game and I sat there thinking, you know, you've got to get a super
Regional of your own. I mean, it's just so hard to win on the road in a super Seventy percent of a time the host team wins in the super Regional, which is as it should be, I think. I mean, the home team ought to have an advantage. They've earned it, so obviously did Kentucky, and they did not have much of a shot last year when they were sent to the Baton Rouge Superregional to play top ranked LSU, which
went on to win the national championship. So they earn the right to host this year and they make it payoff with a win over really good as I said, Oregon State team and the winning run last night. Of course ten nothing the night before, but the winning run last night scored on a bizarre play. Some people say, have never seen it before. I've seen it, but I've seen it like at the little league level. And this is not to demean Oregon State. It was just a
bizarre play. A strike three, swinging strike by Grant Smith frankly on a bad pitch. It was a great pitch, but bad for Grant down and end and the catcher couldn't handle it and then bounced away from him. But it bounced at such an angle that the catcher had to go so far to get the ball. He couldn't make it back to the plate. Nolan McCarthy on second base. Meanwhile, round third runs through Nick Minsi and yelling stop. Didn't
have his hands up, but he yelled stop. But McCarthy could see that the catcher was still busy chasing down the ball, and he saw that the pitcher failed to cover the plate. If you're a pitcher, and this happened to me many times because I threw a lot of bad pitches, if there's a guy on third and the ball you saw a bad pitch, he gets away from the catcher. You race to the plate, hoping that you
can keep the guy from scoring. Well, runner was on second, so the pitcher obviously didn't give it a second thought at first that he needed to cover the plate and that's all McCarthy needed. In fact, the catcher beat the pitcher to the play. He was closest to McCarthy when Nolan slid in, but Nolan took flight. It wasn't as much a slide as it was a dive. Here's the way Darren called it at Keith Madison, the Hall of Fame coach alongside.
Two two game in the seventh the two and he struck him out, but the ball got away from Weber. McCarthy to third. There's nobody at covering the play. It's a foot rice height times across safe. Nobody covered home for Oregon State and McCarthy scores from second as graft Smith arrives at first. What's a three to two Kentucky lead.
What a heads up play by McCarthy. The pitcher was lackadaisical about covering home and McCarthy never slowed down. He was barely around third base, made a beautiful slide well ahead of.
The throw, and after the game in an early morning news conference, here's the way Nolan described it.
And I saw it squeaked by and I was running a third and immediately I saw their picture wasn't covering. I think I ran through a stop sign. But it ended up working out, so, uh yeah, no one's covered home, so might as well take what they're gonna give you.
Were you worried that you dive?
No.
I told Robert before the game that I was gonna I was gonna Pete Rose dive today. Yeah, and that ended up happening.
I mean, he's crazy.
There's Robert Hogan at the end there where uh Nolan had said to him I'm going to do a Pete Rose dive. And I really liked that or Pete Rose slide because it's obviously an homage to Pete Rose, and it's a reference to a famous photo of Pete Rose diving slash sliding into third base, and I'm sure you've seen it, but it sort of personifies and exemplifies Pete
Rose hustle. Somebody got a great photo of him from really ground level of Rose sliding in that head first slide into third base, and Pete was one of the first guys. He didn't invent it, but to make it popular. Sliding head first. I thought it was crazy because you could break bones in your fingers and hands. But Rose did it, and that famous photo he's about a foot off the ground, and it seemed like McCarthy was as well. And then somebody asked Devin Burkes how he saw the play,
and Hogan chimes in again because he was watching. He was still in the bullpen.
I had it.
I see that happen.
I mean, like he's always being crazy as sent as the ball went by and the picture was I don't I don't know what he's doing. He was like looking around or something. I was like, I hopped over the fence and I was like knowing, like you're going, and he like, I was already on it. He was already like at home slotting. I was like, let's go.
Yeah, we were, we were in the bullpen, and I was like I was I was watching when we were all like, oh my gosh, no one's doing it. The pictures on cover and go and and all of a sudden I see him die. I'm like, oh my gosh, he just did the Peter ros die like that was awesome.
I'm like, I remember that. You know.
It just shows how gritty we are and how we're willing to do everything it takes to win. I mean, I mean, he's also he's crazy.
So and again that was Robert Hogan at the end and what a performance he had out of the bullpen, along with Cam O'Brien, Johnny Hummel, Ryan hagen Ow. The bullpen absolutely came through this weekend and really during the regional So that's why the Wildcats one of several reasons the Wildcats are going to Omaha. A big reason last night is you all the fans BBN showed up and you had to wonder. At nine o'clock start, you knew there'd be a great crowd. I didn't anticipate a bigger
crowd compared to the night before. Obviously a lot of people came back and clearly with even more people, some new faces there last night who wanted a witness history and nobody left. I mean, you knew it was going to be a late night. Got chili too. Nobody left for the most part, they wanted to see the celebration. They were treated to a great game. Not a lot of offense. I mean, they loved what they saw the night before, ten to nothing battering Oregon State, but last night.
It's the best kind of baseball really, when both teams are in it and every pitch matters, as it did last night, and the crowd was rewarded. And the crowd did its part, clapping along with the walk up music and trying to help their players, trying to influence the opposing players, throw it in the turf, that kind of stuff. So it was a great night for UK fans and obviously for the program, which got off to a great start this year. Fifteen to one in conference play. You've
heard now about the hiccup. In non conference play, Kennesaw State came in. If you're a Kansas State player, you're watching Kentucky celebrate going to the College World Series and you're thinking, and we kicked their butts. We took two out of three in Lexington and outscored him twenty to three. I think it was or twenty one to three, something like that. But that's where the reset began for the Wildcats and helped them make history this year with another
SEC championship. Another I say, another second SEC championship, a third NCA Regional title, and now our first Super Regional championship, and coming up a little bit later on, we're gonna
hear from Mitch Barnhart. I grabbed him right early this morning after that press conference just to get his thoughts on how this program has come together, and basically I didn't ask it in as many words, but we talked about the fact that Mitch didn't fire Nick Benjie on when a lot of us thought he either might after that twenty two season, or you know, Nick might be
walking on eggshells, and Nick knew it as well. He has talked a lot, and he went deep last night on his faith and how it helped him get through the toughest times after that year where they were one game short twenty twenty two of getting to the postseason. Basically he had lost two of his best pictures, Cole Stupp and Darren Williams, who's going to be with us on the show tomorrow night. So Mitch and I talk
about that. That's coming up in hour number two. And on a personal note, I'm so happy for Keith Madison, who worked alongside Darren. As I mentioned you're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider. More to come here on six thirty WLAP. It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome back to the Best of the Big Blue Insider. After the news conference early this morning, and I mean, like you know, two o'clock in the morning, I was walking out and
who was standing there congratulating people with his family. Mitch Barnhardt, the Kentucky athletics director who oversaw the construction of the stadium, hired nickman Gione and did not pull the trigger when a lot of ads might have when his baseball coach was struggling, but he stayed with him and now they are reaping the rewards, the benefits. And I had a chance to talk to the UK athletics director about the school's first Super Regional championship.
Truly remarkable for a group of young men that found every possible way to win a ball game. And we've seen him from every different way to win this way tonight, as Nick described in his press conference, probably pretty remarkable and pretty accurate. To scratch out a win with four hits on a play that was destined for failure and it turns into success by attacking and understanding the game and playing it at a high level.
How fitting is it that that play puts you guys, I mean, there are a lot of players that's the winning run. That kind of play puts you guys in a world series. Yeah, no, I think it's great fitting.
I mean, and it fitting for it comes from a guy like Nolan McCarthy who's just so gutty and gritty and and loves this program and so happy for him. But you know that the guy sitting behind the plate sort of the captain of the ship, if you will, out there is an amazing young man and Devin Burks. And when you think about us being up the middle, think about up the middle. You always talk about up middle in every sport. Devin Brooks, p d Grant, Nolan.
It doesn't get much better up the middle than those four and just super super amazing. How you when you build it that way, you're intentional about it, it works. And then you trust your players to play the game really hard and understand that the team is the team and you've earned victory every day and you attack And those are things that Nick talks about it. I'm us as administrators, we're run and we hear him talk about it,
so it doesn't change. He's what you heard tonight was that's Nick and that's what makes him beautiful and and he is real when he says the things that he says. And so he has built this program with some intentionality about about that. And super proud of him and what he represents and his walk with the Lord. And but at the end of the day, he he worked so hard at it, and it's it was a it was a tough spot two or three years ago, and he flipped the script and it's just awesome.
The crowds start pouring into this place in Earnest really for Tennessee and the vandying in the regionals. When you who were instrumental in building this place and hiring him and all, when you see all this come together, what was going on inside of you?
Oh, I'm just so happy for Kentucky. You know, I say it, you know I say it all the time. I Uh, I'm super happy for our program and our players. I'm super happy for our fans, our fans. You know, you hear when you come to Kentucky. Hey, and Nick's right, they say things you can't do that you're you'll never get there. You guys don't. You're not in the conversation. And so I'm happy for our fans. You know, I'm
tired of hearing the graphic. We're the only sc school never to have been check that box and get it rid of it.
You know, we're done.
We don't need to hear that anymore, you know, And so I'm happy for them. You know, I'm an older guy in this thing. Nick referred to my age in a nice way.
I had a lot of.
Wonderful things to celebrate in my career. One more thing is a really nice one more thing. This was special because it meant so many things to such a variety of people in a place where you know that loves this university very very much. And uh, it was so evident tonight. It's a nine o'clock star, for Pete's sake. And it was packed, I mean packed.
Record crowd.
Yeah, other people, other people, other people are announcing record crowds and anything like that. They didn't have our record crowd, you know. And this is you know, you hear about LSU in the box. Unbelievable place, pretty stinking good here tonight. The crowd was into it. Amazing. I thought our staff, And I want to commend my staff. They have worked tirelessly.
They've had ns double a's, they've had high school championships, they've had track meets, they've had tennis championships, they have been all over the place. Our staff has worked so hard. So thankful for them. They're exhausted as much as the player's died. I know that they're absolutely exhausted with them. That was beautiful, and that was beautiful. That's what it meant. And then you did it for them too, and that was really special. But you know, I feel super super thankful.
People forget that you were at Oregon State. You had some good years out there. It's kind of ironic and coincidental that they were. I mean, you hired their playbook, play guy, their head coach played when you were the A D there. But as much as anything, you know what the culture of winning baseball is like because you experienced that firsthand out there. That kind of comes together, doesn't.
It, does.
You know?
Pat Casey taught me a lot about you know, I was fortunately, I had been to the World Series. I was on the baseball committee right and I was also at Tennessee when we went a couple of times, and so I had a feel, but never you know, you're not as invested in it at that point in time, and do you get to a spot where it I say, the program's mind, it's not mine, but you know we're working with it.
And so.
Never forget going to my first baseball game at Oregon State in nineteen ninety eight and I was going up the press pot stairs and the wood split and I fell all the way to the ground. Fellow and Pat goes, see, I told you we needed a new stadium. I said, yeah, buddy, So we began to So we began to raise money for a stadium. In case was far ahead of me. He was already he was down the road. He knew we needed it. So he was doing such amazing work and an amazing guy. I talked to him this week.
I said, are you coming out? And he says, no, I'm not going. I said, I'll miss you, man, And so a lot of good friends I saw tonight. That was really nice, and it was nice to see some people and they thanked us for what we had done
at Oregon State. But that was the precursor. I learned a lot in those first four or five years as an athletic director, and that I was able to come here and next right after a couple of decades worth of being here, you sort of get a little scar tissued, but you never want to lose the reason why you do this thing. And in this age of transfer portals and everything else that people are talking about nil and what's my deal and all this stuff, those dudes.
Just play.
Yeah, they just.
You refer to the tough times. And I mean Nick was was struggling, and he talked about that tonight and he had to do a lot of self reflection. Uh sometimes for an eighty though. And you and I have talked about this, the best movie you make is the when you don't. And you you've done that with coaches before. Looking back on that time, I mean, what are your thoughts on how he came through that, how you guys came through it together?
Yeah, I know, I think that there. You know, I hope over time you know when it's right to just hold them and when to fold them, you know, And I traditionally you know that I've traditionally tried to hang in there. You're conservative, yeah, and you know, and it's there's certainly some there are some hard times. And I'll say this, a lot of people won't take feedback that that man. He will take feedback and he absorbs it. He's a great learner, he's a great listener. And there's
no pride in that deal. He prideful people usually fail people that are willing to accept feedback and accept and our good listeners and learners. That's what he is. He's a ferocious learner.
And you do that, you.
Will if you only if you're the smartest person in the room all the time, that's a problem, yep.
And he is.
Yeah, and he will candidly admit he wants to learn from other people. He does it every day and that's what makes him great. Congratulations, thank you, great fun. Let's go to Omaha.
And they are going to Omaha, and so is the Big Blue Insider. I will be there as well. You kidding me. I wouldn't miss that for anything. After covering this program since well since the seventies, you're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider. More to come here on six thirty w LAP It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome back to the best of the Big Blue Insider.
Here's a swinging of drive today. Blaft Beck goes Nixon.
Looking up daily win It, Daily wins It, Daily wins It. Kentucky defeats it Ceast five.
To four on a walk off home run five.
Mitchell Dailey, Welcome to the Big Blue in Cider. Dick Gabriel with you on a Monday. It is all about o Maha, my friends. The Wildcats winning their opener in the College World Series, first time they've ever played here, and they went it in dramatic fashion. The Big Blue Nations had a couple of days to digest it. Next game is coming up in just a few minutes. Darren Hedrick is going to have the pregame for you at six forty five, and then at seven o'clock it's Kentucky
and Texas. A and M. Will set that matchup for you in just a minute. But I thought we would relive some of those moments from the other day when the Wildcats knocked off came from behind for the first
time in postseason, and beat NC State. It was a game to saw Kentucky take the early lead and then went up three to one after State came back and tied it at one, and then State takes the lead on a wild pitch man ninh thinning, Kentucky dramatically ties it up in the bottom of the ninth Ryan Nicholson with a home run and then Mitchell Daily with a home run and the tenth inning to send the Wildcats back to the hotel. They got to walk back to the hotel through the fans as winners. And it's so
incredible the way this thing happened. With Ryan Nicholson hitting a very unlikely pitch out of the ballpark in an unlikely way down the line, hits the foul pole. Nicholson was brought here to hit home runs, and as you may know by now, really struggled at first to hit him out of the ballpark for the Wildcats, but then found his stroke and now he's hitting home runs as well as anybody in the Southeastern Conference, at least the
teams that are left standing. But as Nick Minzione pointed out at his postgame news conference, Nicholson was like third or fourth in the league in just league games in home runs a league he did, of course, had Charlie Condon and Christian Moore and guys like that, So not only a home run hitter, but a clutch home run hitter. And then Mitchell Daily transferred in from Texas. Nicholson from Cincinnati,
where he was a home run hitter. Daily comes in from Texas where his career had just kind of fizzled a little bit. Freshman All American in the next two years he struggled. They recruited over him, even though he did play in two College World Series with the Longhorns. Well, now he's back and has a memory, of course, that the Big Blue Nation will never forget. We're gonna hear all the highlights coming up from Darren Hedrick a little bit later on. Highlights from the entire game, and of
course Nick Lopez and an RBI single. Just a phenomenal performance in a really good baseball game. Both teams played well, and the Wildcats survive in Advance A and M survives in Advance. So these two teams play tonight. We'll go over the entire schedule coming up a little bit later on as well, but we need to hear from the Wildcats. You may have heard some of this over the weekend, but Mitchell Daily talked about his home run and it
was pretty interesting. I thought that he got a tip from an assistant coach and he made it work.
You know, I was just trying to back the ball up. I was just trying to see the slider up. And Kuzie said, you know, he leaves it up sometimes, and I saw it up and I just went for it.
So Kuzzi is assistant coach. Austin cousin of the former Kentucky All American outfielder, joined the staff as an assistant. This is his first year, and gave him the tip watch for the slider up. And that's exactly what happened. All of these fireworks happened, as I said, after NC State had taken the lead in the top of the
ninth inning. So just before the bottom of the ninth inning, Nick Amuratti, the bench coach, the hitting coach, offensive coordinator, pulled the Wildcats together and the dugout had a quick word and had paid off.
Yeah, Emo just brought us together and he was like, Hey, this is what we play for.
You know, let's let's let's have some fun.
Let's do this.
You know, don't try to.
Do the whole message throughout the entire day from coach managing, from the rest of the coaching staffs, don't try.
To do more.
Just keep being us and I like, like Ron said, we got so much confidence in each other. And when he hit that home run, nobody was surprised.
There were three home runs in the game. Of course, don't forget about Nolan McCarthy's. He got Kentucky on the board first. But you've got Nicholson a rather daily batting in a five hole, Nicholson in the six hole, and McCarthy batting seven. And those are the three guys who went yard throughout the course of the ball game. And in fact, they produced seven of Kentucky's nine base hits. And Nicholson talked about that, about the fact that they've got talent at the top of the order, but they've
got talent at the bottom of the order as well. Well.
I think it just happened to be us today. Our lineup, man, it's so deep. You get so much production, you know, from everyone up and down the lineup. Like I don't even like Waldly probably would tell you he didn't have his best day. I mean, just wait till he, you know, gets hot. But you know, it just happened to be, you know, just the string of guys today, and it could be so many different tomorrow, like I Orchell could not have it the next day, but somebody else is
going to pick up a slack. And I think that's what this lineup and ball club do really well. And you know, everyone has the utmost confidence in the guy behind him and the guy in front of him, and I think you know that votes well for us.
Since we've been in Omaha, there's been a lot of chatter out here among other media members and some of the coaches about the way Kentucky plays, you know, and it's wrong to call it small ball, but there are so many different ways this Kentucky team could hurt you. And Nick Minjione after the ball game reminded ever he talked about it before the game in Kentucky's first news conference out of here. He's talked about it all year, really,
but that's what's been really about this ball club. One of the special elements to this team is the many different ways it is capable of hurting the other team. And we saw that on display in the win over NC State.
Look, we bought it, we stole some bases, we hit homers, and you have heard me say this over and over.
We are whatever it takes type of offense.
And I thought today showed that buns, homers, two strike, hitting, walks, you name it, it was, and that when a park plays like this, now you got.
To be able to do all that. So I was proud of them for that effort.
As I mentioned, nicksmon talking about this all year, and I've got to disclose to you a conversation he and I had early in the year. This was right when they got into conference play, and I believe it was yeah, it was going into it as the first Georgia game.
Doug Flinn and I did the game on the SEC Network streaming channel, and we had the conference stats in front of us, which were primarily non conference games for all the teams, and offensively, Kentucky was added near the bottom in many many categories, added near the top in pitching. Wildcat pitching was tremendous preconference. It was good throughout conference play.
But offensively, the Wildcats weren't racking up, you know, the video game numbers that some of the other teams had, and frankly some video game numbers types of numbers that Kentucky's had in the past, because the Wildcats were creating offense. But Doug and I did call it small ball and we talked about the fact that the Wildcats were winning by playing small ball. Yeah, Georgia was hitting a ton of home runs, Tennessee was hitting a ton of home runs,
but Kentucky was creating ways to score well. I get a text message from Nick, I don't think he mightd be telling you this, and asked me to come see him before the next ball game. I can't remember which one, but I thought, Man, did I say something that that was off color or offensive or something like that? They got back to him. While the entry was no, it was simply that Nick had heard that we were talking about the team, and sometimes the players go back and
watch the games. But Nick, in fact knew that we were talking about the offense that way, and he simply pointed out to me. He said, we're an offense that scores in so many different ways. You know. It was essentially what you just heard him talking about. He said,
We're a do whatever it takes kind of offense. And I got to thinking, you know what this was after the Georgia series was over, and I said to him, you know what, come to think of it, You guys out Homer Georgia, which was the big, bad home running home run hitting team that up to that point and really was all year long thanks to Charlie Condon, who out here in Omaha won the Dick Howser Trophy from being Player of the Year. So I said, yep, okay, we will talk about your offense in a different way.
He wasn't mad at me, but he just wanted to remind me that they could score with doubles, they could score with home runs. It wasn't always bunts and sackflies. And sure enough he was right. And so I asked him, as a follow up question of the comment you just heard about, how proud he might be because his team has been able to accomplish so much with this well rounded offense.
When we get production up and down our lineup, that's us at our best, and we can do it in all different ways. And you know what, there's a lot of coaching that goes into that.
But for the.
Players to be able to execute all those different things, we have to be very intentional. And I just want to make sure that everybody knows it's not all about bunting, like the whatever it takes type of offense, like please, because bunning is a small piece to it. But to your point, we can hit homers two And.
He told the story of a quote. He loves quotes that fits situations, and he brought up Oral Hersheiser, who broke the Major league record for consecutive innings pitch scoreless in pitched and he loved what Herscheizer had to say about his mental approach to that streak.
And I think it was at the time, I don't even know I is it fifty nine consecutive scoreless innings? And they asked him how did you do that? How did you do that? And he says, I didn't worry about the results. I focused on the execution, so he wasn't. And if when you have a team and you have a season like we've had, and the reason why we were able to go fourteen and one in the league is because as soon as that win was over, it men not expired.
As soon as they throw a pitch, it's over.
As soon as you take a pitch in that bad it's over, and you have to move on as fast as possible. And this goes the same for life, right, I mean, if you are struggling. I had a sports psychologist tell me one time, if you struggle with the president, is because you live in the past, and there's times where you just keep reliving moments and if you struggle with anxiety, maybe you're.
Living in the future too much.
And in an age where everything in social media and everything's in front of their face. It's just we have gotten them to a spot where they can just move on. So what like so what what now? Do something else? So this team they have this unbelievable ability to just move on to the next thing, regardless good or bad. And then when you're able to do that and you can move on quicker, you're able to do things like today.
You're listening to the best of the Big Blu Insider. Our number two is next year on six point thirty WLAP. Hey, it's Dick Gabrielle. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Our number two taking a little time off, so please enjoy the best of the Big Blue Insider. And I wanted to share with you some of the comments that we heard from members of the nineteen eighty four Final four team guys who were honored at halftime. And if you were watching on TV, of course you didn't get
to see much, if at all. If you were at Ropperina, it was a great event, although they only of course have a few minutes at mid court to be introduced. Sam Bowie made some great comments, and they had the trophies out there, the SEC Tournament Trophy, the Regional Championship Trophy, which to me, it's always interesting that the SEC Tournament Trophy is like three times the size of the Regional Championship.
But I kind of liked that the trophies you get for going to the final four and for winning it are kind of understated, but I think they're kind of elegant. And of course, that was the team that went three for thirty three against Georgetown in the second half in the semifinals. And you know, there was a point in twenty well, I had to be twenty fourteen, back in the day, not too long ago, that I was working on a documentary about that team and about that game.
And the reason was it looked like Kentucky wasn't gonna do much that year in the postseason. And there was the Julius Randall team, and you might recall they were kind of, you know, stumbling about, but they caught fire
at the end. But I didn't think and when none of us thought they were really going to go anywhere, and I was a WKYT and we always made some extra revenue as the station in the postseason selling specials, you know, pre tournament specials, and I produced them and we had one each week, you know, depending on how long they were in the tournament. Well, this team was gonna last very long, so I thought, well, let's try to make up some of that revenue and I can
put together a documentary on that eighty four team. And yeah, they lost, but they were a much beloved team and then they jump up and go to the Final four. So I put that documentary on the shelf. But I had talked to coach Hall. I had talked to Sam and Jim Master and maybe one other about that game in twenty fourteen, or rather the eighty four team, and they came back this week. They had a reception and
a dinner for the guys on Friday night. They all got together at the game on Saturday, but prior to that, they brought in Bowie and Kenny Walker and Jim Master to talk to us, to talk to the media, and Kenny talked about the fact that that game, Yeah, it was a long time ago, but it all kind of came rushing back.
Man, I can't believe that it's been forty years ago. Doesn't seem like it, you know. Unfortunately, you know, I've seen some of the guys over the court for the last few years, when Melvin Turpin passed away and Brett Barup, you know, passed away, and then of course losing Coach Hall, you know, about a year or so ago, and then of course Melvin.
A.
Lake Kelly, who was an assistant coach on that team as well. So I want to recognize all of those people because obviously they can't be here, but they were part of a special team. Nineteen eighty four were supposed
to be our year. Coach Hall told me several times after his coaching career is over with, he thought that was going to be the team to win it all and he would ride off into the sunset, you know, led by the Twin Towers, Sam Buie, Melvin Turpin, myself on the front line, Dicky Bille, Jim Masters in the starting lineup, Winston Bennett, James Blackman, Roger Harden, Brett Barup coming off the bench. I think we had about eight
or nine McDonald's all Americans on that team. And this was supposed to be the team and to get that close to realizing your dream. Even forty years later, I still can't believe it. Played a great first half against Georgetown and then unfortunately somebody put a lid on the basket. It's like a strange episode of the Twilight Throone or something where you just just couldn't get out of the funk, and still hurts to this day.
Kenny's been recognized at Rapperina before more than once. He made the y and all that, but he told us how much he was really looking forward to going out there with his teammates and being recognized at halftime.
Glad to be with these guys and can't wait to share more stories with him, but more importantly to walk out on Rupperena one more time. You know, getting chill chill bumps thinking about it right now.
And as you might expect, Kenny got a great ovation from the crowd, and it was well deserved. Of course. Somebody asked him about beyond the final four, beyond winning that regional title, his favorite memory from that eighty four season.
I got it.
I got a big smile on my face because you all probably know what I'm thinking. You Turme up from the nineteen eighty four season. Oh that's an easy one. I mean we had a lot of good games. You know, the Dream Game, you know, the series had just started. We beat Louisville twice that year.
That was fun.
We beat Houston in a game right before you know Christmas. We beat Illinois in Ille Champagne. Illinois didn't beat him again here.
In Elite eight. So those games were fun.
But for me personally, nineteen eighty four SEC Tournament, Nashville, Tennessee. I've been doing sports talk radio here in Lexington, a postgame show with Larry Glover of the for a long long time.
And if I had a dime.
For every time that I get asked this question, what did it feel like to make the shot to make Charles Barkley cry? And they said, You're the only guy in the history of the SEC that made Charles Barkley cry. So for me, I really do appreciate that moment. And every time that I see Charles Barkley always let him know, don't forget about this six foot eight skinny kid from Robert and Georgia made you cry.
I've heard him tell that story before. It's always great one of the things that he left out was he was shocked when Joe Hall told him in the huddle, you're going to take the shot. He obviously, as most of us did, I was watching on TV when I lived in Dallas. He expected the ball to go to Bowie or Turpin and Joe Hall first thing he says is Kenny, you're going to take the shot. Kenny said, here, I'm a sophomore, but I'm like, okay, And the shot hit the front of the rim and rolled in. It
was obviously a moment to remain. I'm sure they talked about that a little bit, but as Jim Master pointed out, it was just funny, said, seeing all the guys, just seeing.
Him a lot of fun for me. And it's a camaraderie. It's like a fraternity back then. Also, being as as you get older, being a very small part of an unbelievable tradition in Kentucky basketball, you get more and more pride of that's what I did.
So a lot of pride, a lot of great.
Friends, a lot of great memories, a couple bad ones, but all in all, it's been beautiful, I think for all of us and for our families to come back beautiful.
I think Jim's going to be remembered most for the shody hit against Louisville that put the game into overtime, and he talked about that game as being part of the bittersweet memories he had at Kentucky. But they took a lot of pride, he said, and taking it to Louisville that game. He just couldn't get over the hump in the overtime, just like in Seattle, they couldn't get over the hump and start knocking down shots against Georgetown.
Talking to Sam Buie, one of my questions to him was about the fact that well expected Sam to be a high volume shooter and scorer, but instead because of all that talent and at least in the eighty fourteen, he was more of a facilitator.
I was just telling somebody thirty minutes ago that I was a second pick in the draft and I only averaged ten points a game. I was talking to Coach Oh we were out on the floor, and I was trying to tell him that these kids got to realize that if you do what you're supposed to do, you can do this thing for a living and get compensated at it, but I took the fourth most shots of that team. I averaged ten points a game, but we as a group had a lot of success.
So but that's a good point. You don't have to go out and put up thirty points to be noticed.
And I wanted to follow up with a comment that I've made on the show more than once that Trey Mitchell reminds me with his passing ability of Sam standing there in the high post, looking over the defense or in trace case, around and finding his teammates. Sam was so great at that, and that's why he didn't take that many shots. He was too busy passing to Melvin
and Master and Kenny and people like that. So Sam also talked about the fact that even though this team did not get to the finish line, it is still a much beloved squad according to the Big Blue Nation.
The fact that we did come up short and did not get a chance to put another national championship banner up there. All through my pro career, every time I saw Patrick Ewing, I used to tell him he's walking around with my ring because not you, Patrick, or anybody can tell me that we were not the best team in the country. We just happened to come up and have a half the way we did in Seattle. But I think the people are thinking, like mister Bowie, that we still were the national champions.
So Canny talked about the great memory of winning that SEC tournament game. Somebody asked Sam, I think Jef Drummond did. Does he have memory of another moment from his career at Kentucky, And Sam right away went to his last home game in rap Arena senior year.
When you come through the hoop, the memories, the emotions knowing that it's coming to a close, all the relationships and all the.
Love that we had as a unit.
A lot of times the general public they just see the ball thrown up and the game begins, but there's so many people that make it happen. And I knew after being here for five years that that was coming to a close. So my last game here will stick out above. I was us to play on the make the nineteen eighty Olympic team and played double digits in the NBA, but Kentucky my last game in rupp Arena by far.
You're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider More to come here on six thirty WLAP It's Dick Gabriel, welcome back to the best of the Big Blue Insider. I mentioned the other day when we heard comments from members of the eighty four Final four team that was honored this past weekend. Bowie and Kenny Walker and Jim Master spoke to the media, and I said that I would hang on to this information and comment till later
in the week. We were talking so much basketball the other day, but I did mention the fact it didn't get a lot of media play. But Tony Neely, who introduced all the players, made the announcement that Jim, who's a financial advisor for Hilliard Lyons, had made a donation to the University of Kentucky in the sum of one million dollars, half two athletics, half to the general fund.
That's damned impressive. And a lot of athletes have come back quite frankly and made contributions, but I don't remember one like this. And so he took time in between answering questions about the Final Four and the big shot he made against Louisville. Master hit that huge jumper that sent the game into overtime and the Wildcats had blown a double digital lead and Louisville had taken a lead, but then Kentucky comes back and needed that bucket from
Jim Master. And as he put it, many times, people said, well, how could you take that shot? What was you know? He said, I had no choice. You know, he goes up, There's about two seconds left, maybe more. But as Jim put it, he knew he had to take that shot and he had to hit it. That is the definition of clutch right there. And we all know what happened in the overtime. But anyway, Jim, I think was an
undervalued player and it came to the coaches knew. But on the other side of this comment, I'll share some of the information about Jim and his career, because when you play with Bowie and Turpin, and you know, prior to that, Minifield and Dicky Beale and those guys, you're going to get overshadowed a little bit. But man, he had a hell of a high school career and a college career and now a professional career as well. But I asked him, you know, why make that donation.
There's really about six reasons. One, I've had good fortune and good luck. I talked to Mitch about a year ago. Uh even better things that happened to me during this time.
So I was thinking about it, Dick for a while.
And then I thought about education and all this and and uh so I live here, I played here.
I'm part of a crazy tradition. Small part.
I graduated in four years business, proud of that.
My brother Randy went to a business school there.
So the education part, the athletic part.
I'm a big Mitch Barnhart fan.
For not only what he does on the court, but what he does off the court.
My son, he didn't like basketball until last year, so that's fun. He's into it. We live here.
I said all those things, and I thought it was time to do something. How small it is, I hope it helps the university, not only athletically. I hope it helps shows all young men or women that you don't have to be a first round back draft pick, you don't have to be a first round baseball player football. You can still be successful in life with a degree from Kentucky and be a shot an athlete and move on and do good things. I hope that does something
for the university. Hope it does something for other people. And I'm proud to.
Do it pretty impressive, and so was his basketball career. He was mister Basketball in Indiana and he didn't really like it, but a lot of people compared him to Kyle Macy. Their games were different. I mean, Kyle was a facilitator. Jim was a shooter. He was a scorer and proud of his ability to shoot and score. And that's how he became mister basketball in Indiana. In nineteen
eighty second team Parade All American McDonald's All American. And I had kind of forgotten about this, but you wouldn't think that Jim, or you might think that Jim was torn between UK and I. You know, he was being recruited heavily by, among other schools, Notre Dame, and as we followed, and we didn't follow recruiting nearly as much back then as we do now, but we knew Can Kentucky was going after mister basketball in Indiana. And more than one mister basketball has come down here to play.
You know, Mike Flynn was the best player in the state of Indiana and played for that seventy five Kentucky team that went to the championship game. So Master came down as well, started for three years, was All Conferences sophomore and junior year, third team All SEC, and he had that huge game against Louisville, and he had a really good tournament, and he was named All NCAA Regional. In fact, he was named to the All Regional team the year prior. What people don't remember about Jim and
I ran out of time. I was going to ask him about this, but I was the only guy I think who really cared about it except for Jim. He was a member of the nineteen eighty three Pan Am team that won the gold medal. That I mean, he makes this team of course, it's like the prelude to the Olympics. And the best player on that team guy
named Michael Jordan. Yeah, but also on that team Michael Cage, Chris Mullen, Sam Perkins, Ed Peinakney was on that team, Mark Price, Charlie Sitton, I mean, Wayman Tisdale, Leon Wood, You're like who? Leon Wood was a player at cal State Fullerton, went on to a long Nbacre's first round draft pick, and he actually became an NBA referee after his playing career was over. But Jack Hartman coached that team and they won the gold medal, and Jim was
part of it. You know, had to make his way through tryouts and as you heard, you got to compete against a guy named Jordan. You've got Mark Price, a tremendous point guard, and Leon Wood a tremendous point guard. So Jim was playing four minutes at the shooting guard and won a spot there and won himself a gold medal. And I remember reading the story from somebody not from Kentucky who covered the tryouts and kept an eye on
that team. And Jim was also drafted in the sixth round by the Pacers, didn't make the NBA and chowse not.
To go to Europe.
But whoever wrote this story, and I was living in Dallas at the time, said Jim Master can do things other than shoot the basketball that you might not think he's capable of doing. But Kentucky didn't need him to do it. What Kentucky needed him to do was shoot from the outside and take the pressure off Melvin Turpin prior to Booie's arrival after the two years with the injury, and in that eighty four season helped loosen things up
for both of the Twin Towers. And he did that and he did it really well and obviously he enjoyed his time when he's proud of the time he spent at UKN As I told you the other day, Jim stayed right here when basketball was over, settled in, started a financial career, raised his family, and now has donated one million bucks to his alma mine. We're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider. More to come here on six thirty w LAP. It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome
back to the Best of the Big Blue Insider. Joining us down our celebrity hotline is a longtime friend of the show and a colleague, mister John Clay, columnists for The Arrow Leader and John. Things kind of slowing down for you a little bit, But it's been it's been quite the run with Kentucky baseball, that's been. That's been kind of fun, hasn't it. Oh?
Yeah, absolutely. I really got into the College even though it didn't make the trip to them all, but really got into watching the College World Series, obviously because you know, with Kentucky being in it. But even through the whole thing I watched. I think I watched the majority of every game in the World College World Series and Yeah, it was a lot of fun, of course to see Kentucky make it, but then to follow the other teams too. I thought it was a really good tournament all the way through.
Yeah, and you know, people are wondering now ken they do it again, and it's it's gonna be tougher obviously with Texas and Oklahoma joining up. But what do you see in the future, the near future?
Well, I mean I think, you know, I think I said this before. You know, they had a good year last year obviously, when a lot of people, myself included, thought that maybe, you know, Nick Minjion wasn't the answer for the job at Kentucky after having two or three bad years there. But he got turned around last year. But then you know, they made it to the super reason they lost the LSU and then LSU went on and won the whole thing. But you thought, okay, was that,
you know, was that a fluke? Was that an aberration? Can he keep it going? And then and then this year they took it one step further. So I don't obviously, as you said, it's going to be tough to get back. It's always going to be tough to get back. But I do think they are in a really good place. I think the ballpark has made a big difference. I think Nick has made some changes which he has openly
talked about about. How you know, during COVID or whatever, he talked to former players and they told him some things that he didn't want to hear, but there were things he needed to year and he made some changes. So I think they're in a good spot. And just the exposure that they got from making being there at the College World Series was a lot was made out of it being their first time being there. But I think the exposure they got, I think obviously will help them.
I think they're in a good place for the future.
Yeah, and they've done such a great job. And I've said it over and over minji On and his staff, because it is a staff wide effort to work the portal. You know, I think they've worked the portal as well as anybody. Getting the right guy not just the skills. It's not putting a fantasy team together, it's getting the right guys. And they've done as good a job as that as anybody in the country.
Absolutely, and you know more about it than I do as far as Nick concerned. But you know, me. I'm a big Springsteen guy, and I remember reading in his memoir where he said that he learned early on it wasn't getting the best musicians for your band, it was getting the right musicians for your band. And I think that's true. You know, in all sports with about the athlete, it's not the It's got to be a good fit. It's got to be somebody who compliments the other players.
You know, we arend a little of that when talking to Mark Pope earlier this week in basketball, where he talked about team building and building players and relationships. That is so important, maybe even more important. Obviously, you got to have athletic ability. You got to have the talent and the skill level. That maybe more important. It's the chemistry and how the pieces fit together.
I'll get to Mark Pope in a minute, but I wanted to talk about the previous UK coach because you wrote about it leading up to the NBA Draft. Then, of course, Reed Shepherd, as you point out or somebody pointed out, was the first college player taken in the draft, and the Houston Rockets jam said they believe he was the best player in the draft. And then of course Dillingham goes to the Spurs, which was supposed to be a great thing. Then he goes to the Wolves, which
might be even better. John, they're so close to a title. But John Calipery, I guess this was his farewell to Kentucky, you know, two more first round draft. But you wrote the other day about the infamous statement that he made I guess after his first year at Kentucky about this being another greatest night in UK history. I'm like you. I believe that if he could, he would completely walk that back. It was clearly done for recruiting purposes. But I don't think he ever lived that down, do you no?
And that's kind of what I wrote the other day. You know, as we know what John, John can kind of, you know, get into the hyperbole and sometimes he gets carried away with himself over the years. And yeah, I think maybe he would walk that one back. He obviously was talking to recruits obviously, you know, recruits want to go to the NBA. That's there, your high level recruit, that's what they want to do. And he was speaking to those guys, but he took it a little too far.
The only the thing that annoyed me the other night was that all the people saying, and you hear it over and over. You know Cal didn't start. You know, he hit two guys going the top eight and he didn't start them. You know, it just shows what kind of coach he is. I wrote back earlier, and I retweeted the other night the same Colum and I got a lot of blowback from that. I think col was unfairly criticized for that reach. Shepherd was at the third most minutes on the team. They had a rotation going
that I think Cal was comfortable with. Those guys were in the game a lot of times before the first TV time out. If you go back and look, a friend of mine sent me a Texic or after the season saying, what was the score at the sixteen minute I'd like to know the score at the sixteen minute mark of those games. This was the person who was critical of cow. So I went back and looked at that. In the last fifteen games Sick, only six times were they behind at the sixteen and mark when Shepard million
into the game. And two of those games Shepherd actually started when DJ Wager was hurt and they were fine, so two of the six, So I thought, you know, and I also to say to this people, you know, Mark Pope did not start Jackson Robinson. He was the sixth player. He was probably by u's best player. He was the sixth man of the year in the Big twelve, and Mark Pope did not start him. You know, just because you do not start doesn't mean you're not a
good player. And a lot of people feel like bringing in a six man off the bench to give your offensive punch is the best way to go. So I think Cal was. You can criticize Cal for a lot of things. I can make you a list if you want me to, but I thought that one was overblown.
John I could not agree more. And I argued every week with my colleagues on air, Aaron Gershawan and Billy rut Ligion for a couple of reasons, one of them being we all get swept up in offense. And clearly these guys were the best offensive wing players along with Antonio Reeves, but with all due respect, they didn't bring a whole lot of on ball defense. Now, Reid could shoot gaps and backtip and all that, but you know, yeah, you might get a little more offensive punch off the
bench right away if they're rather if they're starting. But on the other hand, you're going to give up more points. So I and I you know, as you know, I lived a couple years in Dallas, and I went to a lot of NBA games, and they you know, there's in the NBA, there are automatic subs early on, and I will watch the Maverick subs get up, but not even the coach looking at him at some point. So
I kind of got used to that. Now it wasn't exactly the same thing, but the bottom line was, I really liked the infusion of energy that those guys brought when they came into the game. That was something that Kentucky had that nobody else had in the country. And you know, I'm like you, you could, you could pick at Caliperi for a lot of things, but but I will. I know, I'm an outlier. I'm stubborn. So but I
did fully, fully agree on that. You were there. When Mark Pope spoke to us the other day, did anything in particular jump out at you.
Just wrote about this too. I mean he didn't really you know, he didn't talk basketball. He talked about the things around the teams, the thinks we talked about earlier about chemistry. You guys, all new guys getting in the same boat together. The only thing in common is they all took that leap of faith to get in the same boat. They don't really know each other, you know, the process of getting getting them to know each other and get along, that's what you know, kind of the
summer is for. We talked about that before Cal when he brought in all his freshmen. You know, that kind of stuck out to me, and just you know, it's just going to be different with Mark. I think he's such a breath of fresh air. Nothing against Cal, it's just different. You know, the way Mark talks to the media, the way he reacts and so forth. As people tell me, and that's true. We'll see what happens when they lose a couple of games. But right now, I think he's
doing everything right. I think everything is going as well as could be expected, maybe even more than that. To this point.
Well, you know Kentucky fans as well as anybody. I think the word reasonable is one of those malleable words right now. But you also know that the closer the season gets, the hype and the hysteria will take hold. But what do you think fans, let's say, what's fair to expect this year from the basketball team?
Well, I mean, I think you know, they want a winning team, a competitive team, a team that you know, obviously when they get to March, can make a you know, not necessarily get to the Final four, but be a factor in March, which Kentucky has not been for the past few years, even though when they've had an I C. You know, it may be a little rough start now because as we said, these guys are have not played together before you got an all new team. They are older,
which obviously should help. But I think just that you get the feeling that he thinks he mark you know, he that he will I don't want to say up to the job because I think he's up to the job, but that he's going in the right direction and they can see in the future with recruiting and so forth, that he's he's going to bring, you know, do great things, going to get the job done. I think that's more so,
maybe even than the results the first season. You know that he gives them the confidence, which I think he will he is the right man for the job, and then he'll be able to do great things here.
I know people in this day and age wonder about his desire for incoming players to embrace Kentucky tradition. You know the name on the front of the jersey. You know what it means, know what the history means, you know, and you have a right to be a little cynical about that, I think in this day and age. But through pure osmosis, I gotta think John that anybody who plays for him is going to get that, don't you.
Well, yeah, absolutely, I mean, because that comes through through and through his love of the program. I thought it was interesting the other day when he talked about his favorite English professor at UK, yes, doctor Bli. And when I mentioned that to my wife, who was an English major at UK, when I got back from the press conference, I said something about that, she knew immediately who Mark was talking about because she had doctor Bly when she
was in school. So, you know, that kind of touch which we haven't had, you know, recently, because he is a UK guy. He went to school here, he played here, and you know, we haven't had that in a while. And I think that's kind of a nice touch as well. And I think I think you're right. I think some of that will carry over to the players, whether they're here one year or two years or you know, four years.
I think some of that His love for the school and his knowledge about the school and the program, I think will definitely help.
John Clay is my guest sports Columns for the Hero. Later we'll come back with more questions for John. You're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider. More to come here on six thirty w lap. Hey, it's Dick Gabriel and you're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider. John Clay is my guest in our celebrity hotline. We're talking sports. It is the talking season. John is Mark Stoops likes to point out, and SEC football media days are coming right at us. It's going
to be a zoo down in Dallas. I think I'm going to stick my toe back in the water, if nor for another reason, to reacquainate myself with some friends down there. But I'm wondering. I think we both know what it's going to be like for Stoops when he gets down there and his dalliance, whatever you want to call it, what Texas A and M is gonna come up front and center isn't it.
Oh yeah, especially in Dallas because there'll be a lot of Texas media there and there'll be plenty of questions and uh, you know, I think Mark will handle it fine. But yeah, that will definitely be one that will definitely be one of the questions and one of the storylines, if not here, certainly down in Texas and with A and M. We'll see how that goes. Well, Mark's been around for a while. I think he'll amble is fine.
Uh, you know, for him to be the longest ten year head football coach in the Southeastern Conference at one school, to me, John and just not a knock on him or UK, it's just that's just not the way things have gone right.
No, No, not not here, not anywhere. You know, you know, it's wild when you think about it. Uh, you know that we think Saban's retirement. He's the longest tendron coach in the SEC. Obviously, you know, be a different different year this year with Texas and Oklahoma coming in. I think that obviously got a really tough schedule, but they're always gonna have a tough schedule in the SEC. But I think it's a really tough schedule. I think, actually, I think this could be one of the more talented
rosters and Marcus had since you've been here. Obviously, there's some question Marchie got quarterback who's unproven. You got a new offensive coordinator, the third offensive coordinator in three years. You got some questions on defense, especially in the secondary, how that what's going to happen there? But I think overall, when you look at the roster, overall, I think it's one of the better rosters he's had since he's been here.
The scary thing is the schedule and how they're going to be able to navigate that.
Yeah, and I keep saying, John, because as you said, when you're in the SEC, you're gonna have a tough schedule. But they have traded more manageable opponents for others that might not be so manageable. But more than anything, it's not the schedule. It's the calendar, you know, those those challenges. So early will learn a lot, but this may really be a gut punch early in the season, you know.
Yeah, Now, I do think that it will help them from the standpoint that they will learn early. They'll learn, you know, after these first three weeks, so they're missed and then soath line in Georgia. He's going to have a better idea of what, you know, what kind of team he has, where his strengths and weaknesses are. But you could also take a couple of losses along the way. I mean, certainly the Georgia game, there'll be a heavy underdog in that game. So how they come out of
that's going to be key. Not so much from a win law, maybe not so much from a win loss situation, but you know how he feels about his team and what holes he knows he's going to have to shore up the rest of the way. But you're you're right, it's and you know it's it's easy to sit here and look at the schedule on paper and you never know how it's going to play out. Nobody thought at this point last year the Missouri was gonna end up twelve and two or whatever. Eleven and two or whatever
they ended up last year. So there'll be teams that do better than you expect, and they'll be teams that don't do as well as you expect. But obviously, you know, having to go to Texas, Texas is going to be one that they're probably going to be number three in the country in the preseason poll. They're gonna be one, probably one of the five teams all year long. That's
a tough game, Auburn. It's you Freeze's second season. You'd have to think common sense tells you that they'll be better than they were last year, you know, despite the trouble. If you Freeze got into in the past, I think he's a good obviously a good coach. So yeah, I mean those two games, plus you factor in they have to go to Florida. This is a make or break gear for Billy Napier. How are they going to react to that? You know, all those things fit in as well.
Yeah, Louisville's is going to be better. And I already saw way too soon not not a top twenty five that had Louisville ranked in Kentucky unranked. So yeah, it's going to be but it's going to be fun. A few minutes up with John Clay the hero leader. This sounds random, but I'll tie it in. When I was a kid, I don't know if you read sporting news, but I did. But then when the free agency began, and I'd look at a story and do I want to read this it was if it was full of
dollar signs, John, I would skip it. I want to hear I'm gonna read about baseball, not contracts. Well, I think when when we tune in or listen in or go to the SEC meetings, there's going to be so much chatter about nil and the portal and things like that, which I think is just grinding away at the sports. It takes it. It's vital, but it takes away a lot on of fun, doesn't it.
Oh yeah, and you know, really, you know, we we have our own metrics at the row Leader in Kentucky dot com. And the stories, you know, we write about it. My colleague Mark Story writes about it. John Albim, we write about it, but those stories don't get as many clicks or his pace views. It's just the stories about the roster or who's coming in, who about recruiting and that sort of thing. Obviously, they're very important you have to write about I have to pay attention to it.
But I think you're right. I think the fans they have their feel of that. Uh they want to know, you know, how good is the team going to be this year?
Uh?
That sort of thing. I heard a story Mike Lombardi, the former GM. He has his own podcast. He said that he worked with CBS. He was working at CBS and Jim Nance pulled him aside at one time and Jim Nance told him, Mike, you're doing a great job, but you're talking too much inside baseball football about general managers and about the inner workings. So the little old lady in IWA, who has her favorite team is the Pear.
She wants to know three things. Who's the quarterback, who's the coach, and are we going to be any good this year? So you need to talk more about that. So, and I think that's what the average fan, that's what they're that's what they're most interested in, more so than the dollar. Soiunds and the numbers.
I'm a Lombardi fan. I listened to his podcast. I actually bought one of his books, and I've had him on the show, and I remember that anecdote and absolutely correct. When he starts talking about our contracts are structured and you know option here and all that stuff, my eyes start to cross. But I'm like most people, Yeah, I want to know, even if it's not about the packers. You know what, I love it when he talks about
the different approaches from different coordinators. And that's why, getting back to your comment about the new OC, I'm really curious to see what this Kentucky offense looks like with Bush Hamden and can he and whoever's the starting QB, assuming assuming it's Vander can they capture I won't say recapture, but let's say replicate the kind of magic that they had with will Levis here. Yeah.
I mean from all the looks at the sound of it, he wants to continue some of those thing things, but kind of adapted more to the college game. And I
think one of the things is the running quarterback. Yeah, you know, I mean, I don't think they're gonna run a lot of his own read but I think one of the reasons they took the Orangeboro kid from Rutgers as a transfer whim Sat or however you pronounce his last name, but anyway, you know, at Rutgers he was a starter, but if you go by his numbers, he wasn't much of a passer, but obviously he was a
dual threat. He can run into a great athlete, and the fact that they took him, and I think you're going to see maybe him in certain situations run packages and so forth. I think that's going to be an interesting change. I thought that was the one thing with rich S Gangarello when he didn't want Will Levis to run, and I know he didn't want him to get hurt, and they were it be about their backup, and he thought he had an NFL future and he wanted to
get hurt. But if the year before, under Liam Will's first year, you know that the run was a threat. I mean, not so much running on his own read, but take off on a quarterback draw or even on a scramble, and they took that away from Will his second year, and I thought that hurt him more than anything. So but you know, we'll see how it goes this year. But I think Vandergriff, you know, I think I've said
on this show before. You know, I've got a lot of contacts in Georgia who were really high on Vandergriff and thought that he was neck and neck with Carson Beck. Last year during Paul Camp, they went with Beck, and Beck played so well. Vander Griff, you know, never really got in the game for not much, but they were highing him. The only knock was that he played at a small school in Georgia, was a five school for five school, a five star prospect, but he played as
a smaller school than wonder about his competition. But he looked he has the looks of a quarterback, and he has the looks of somebody who can run if you need him to run. What did him to say? We need the quarterback to get two first downs with his feet every game. And I thought that was a really interesting thing that Bush said.
John, Thank you sir, We'll see you down the road. Thank you, Dick that I'll do it for now. Thanks for joining us for this special edition the best of the Big Blue Insider. That's it. Good night from the garage.
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