Welcome to the Big Blue and Sider Dick Gabriel with you Friday edition of our show. But because we were bumped on Wednesday, or basically had to adjust to the scheduling with the Coaches Show and then the state Wide Show on Wednesday night, we have moved our usual Wednesday lineup to Friday. That means we'll be visiting with Sean Woods, the Unforgettable Guard, and West End Bureau Chief Gary Moore.
That all comes up in hour number two a little while, we're going to talk to Hunter Mitchell about Kentucky volleyball because tonight at seven, the Cats played Texas A and M and Kentucky with a chance if it wins out to win an outright again SEC championship, it would be the wildcats eighth straight. And yeah, I'll be working that one on SEC Plus. But also keep your radio on because this is pre recorded so you will hear the
rest of our show. But Haunter, who covers volleyball for on three, will be a chatting with us about the Wildcats. Of course, Kentucky men's basketball takes on Bucknell tomorrow. The UK women won last night over Northern Kentucky. We'll get back to that in just a minute. But Mark Pope talked to the media yesterday about what he liked so far about his team. One thing he is concerned about, though, is rebounding and offensive rebounding in particular. They only got
seven and then went over Right State. Right State actually got eleven. They out rebound a Kentucky did Right State forty one to thirty two, but not nearly enough offensive rebounds to satisfy the head coach.
You know, if we could be a fourteen offensive rebound a game team, it'd be extraordinary, certainly above ten. We're just not living in that space at all right now, and so that's part of We didn't really make much progress last game either. But it's something we're really focused on and we will make progress. We're just trying to figure out how to get there. But it's very important how we play. It's really important how we play. It gives us staying power and gives us confidence in all
the other things we do. Our presence on the offensive glass, in our can see on the defensive glass really important for us.
I may have mentioned this before, but for many many years, John Wooden, the late Great, believe that the single most important stat in the box score was rebounding. Now late in his career he changed his mind on that and decided it was shooting percentages, but he still kept rebounds way up there. So, yeah, if you don't go get the ball, you're not going to win many games. And the way Kentucky shoots it, you got to think offensive rebounds are going to be vital. They are to every team,
but maybe especially Kentucky. I asked Pope about game slippage, which means how much from practice floor to game floor did your team leave behind? And apparently there was a bunch.
I thought we started the game with unbelievable focus and energy and exactly the right amount of force. It wasn't overly emotional. It was still really really intentional, but it was incredibly physical and intention that's probably my favorite.
Word right now.
Right and then you know, at various points in the game we had massive, massive slippers. We had slippers and communication, we had slippage and decision making. We have slippage in execution, we had we had uh, you know, slippage in our reads, We had slippers in our energy.
Which is it?
Which is you know, that's pretty normal and natural and it's going to be determining factor of our team of how successful we can be as we limit that. And that's not unique to us, that's universal.
Okay. His favorite word is intentional, So I followed up, what does that mean?
It's a it's a feel. It's a good question. I'm not going to give you a great answer. It's a feel where you're actually seeing the game, You're communicating the game with your teammates. You're doing it with unbelievable force, wearing that gain stood up by physicality, but you're actually getting to where you need to go when you needed to get there, how you need to go, get there,
regardless of what's happening. And still, you know, with all of that kind of force the game, still still being able to read and and make decisions on the fly.
I thought that was really interesting, But then again, it seems like every time he talks to us, there's something else interesting that comes up about the way Mark Pope sees the game of basketball and coaches the game of basketball. So the Wildcats will try it again tomorrow against Buck. Now it's a four o'clock start. Local coverage at one thirty,
network coverage at two thirty. Tom and Jack have the call at four o'clock as the Wildcats take on the Bison, and Pope pointed out that this is a really veteran Leyden ball club, which he said was super cool. But I think what he meant by that was guys are stuck around. You know buck Now. Remember buck Now made a run in the NCAA tournament not that long ago. But teams that stick around, in other words, with good players who aren't poached by other teams, that says a lot,
and that tells you they'll be ready to play. So we'll see if Kentucky can overwhelm and overpower buck Now tomorrow afternoon. The UK women did just that over Northern Kentucky last night, although that's a pretty good NKU team, and in fact, Kenny Brooks talked about the value of coming up with a win over an in state team, especially playing well as the Wildcats did.
It was a really good test for us. They were undersized, so our post players are going to have to move their feet. We talked about that Garden three point shot was something that we focused on, probably a little bit too much, because we were running them off the three point line and sometimes we were getting beat off the line.
Drive.
So we know there's a lot we have to work on. We know there's a lot to be had, but you know, you still have to celebrate in these situations. And although our defense wasn't as good, you know, schematically the communication, we blocked a lot of shots. We use our strength. You know, their height in or length.
They use that height to the tune of nineteen block shots. But that's because Northern just kept challenging the Wildcats trying to hit from the outside. But that didn't work for Northern Kentucky nortionally at three or four three pointers. That's how you're going to steal a game from a team like Kentucky. But they were so overmatched because of Kentucky
size and of course in the middle. Clara Strack six foot five, what a player she is, and she joined Kenny Brooks at the news conference and they talked about the fact that it's so vital for her to play defense obviously without getting into foul trouble.
You have to play smart obviously when you have follows, but you still have to be aggressive and still like be a presence out there. So I think just being smart and not jumping on doing things like that or like really trying to block shots I was trying to do.
She's gonna have to learn, you know. With Elizabeth Hitley, we sometimes we would tell her, you know, if you get in a situation where it could be a foul and could put you in a foul trouble, I'd say, live to play another play, you know, almost like don't let it go, but make sure you don't foul.
Track finished with fifteen points, thirteen boards, four blocks, eight assists, and most of those coming to Clara Silva who came off the bench and they played together because taony Key was in a little bit of foul trouble and a Silva had a huge game. Of course, she so much bigger than the kids from Northern She ended up with eighteen points, only four rebounds, but five block shots just phenomenal.
And the passing from those two Clara's high low. That's going to be tough for a lot of SEC teams now as they start facing teams that are bigger, more physical, more athletic, won't be quite as easy. But it's a good foundation that Kenny Brooks has been building here in Lexington. Next up for the women is Wafford on Tuesday. You will hear that right here on six point thirty WLAP with Darren Heddrick. That's a six pm start at Historic Memorial Colisecene and his pregame show will start, of course
at five point forty five. After that, it gets really interesting. They take on the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday in the Coliseum, sixteenth of November. Mark your calendar. That's a six o'clock start. After Purdue Fort Wayne, Kentucky goes to Nashville to go back to back against Arizona State and then Illinois. We'll
talk volleyball next week. Back to the big new insider coming up at the bottom of the hour, Hunter Mitchell of on three dot com, we'll talk Kentucky volleyball because the Cats take on Texas A and M. Coming up at the top of the hour. We will have it Leah Edmond and I on SEC Plus. Now. The radio show will go on as well through the miracle of technology, So keep your radio in one air, your TV in the other. As the Wildcats play A and M. Kentucky
now with six matches left, all of them winnable. Of course, they're always winnable if you're one of the best teams in the country. But Kentucky now getting some people healthy again and with its fade in its own hands, as they like to say. If the Cats went out they win the SEC title, it would be eight in a row for Kentucky and boy back in September, which was the last time I did a match for SEC. Plus
of course I've been watching ever since. They're on the mother ship, and they've been on the road quite a bit as well. They just didn't look like they were gonna get there because there were just injuries and tough losses and things like that. Tough, wicked, tough non conference schedule, and they lost more than they won, which means if they went out, they'll host an nca eight tournament site. If they don't, they're gonna have to go on the road, which is rare for this team in the first round
of the NCAA tournaments. But things are falling into place, chief among them, Texas has lost three straight. They swept the Long Orange, swept the Wildcats earlier in October, and that's when it just things just weren't happening for Kentucky. Since then, the Cats have turned things and Texas has not. So the Cats, if they win tonight. That's a huge step because this is an A and M team that beat Texas but then turned around and lost to Mississippi State.
That's just life in the Southeastern Conference. As you know. For Kentucky. What's amazing is that part of this turnaround, and it's a big part, came on the road. I mean, the Wildcats lost to Texas at home, but then had a majority of their games away. They beat Tennessee in Knoxville, they beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa, they beat Ole Miss in Oxford, they beat South Carolina in Columbia, and then Georgia in Athens.
So this win streak they're on, all of them came on the road, which means, of course you got home matches to close out most of the season with a in MLSU, Georgia, Mississippi State, Arkansas. Then at the end of the year you got to go to Missouri, which is gonna be tough. It's always tough, but it's right there in front of the Cats and it begins tonight.
Question was, and I put this to Craig Skinner at his news conference yesterday, how do you explain the fact or what was there an overriding factor as to why this Kentucky team has played so well of late.
On the road A good question. I mean, you know, getting closer to healthy helps. I think that our offense has become a little bit more balanced. We be able to score in several different positions. Some of our freshmen have got some experience, you know, they're playing, and you know, our upper class we were doing a really good job of not getting too high, not getting too low. So you know, it's hard to pinpoint one particular thing.
I guess you know. Mark Stoops was talking about this earlier this season. Kentucky played really well at Ole Miss, played well against Georgia too, but probably its best game of the year came against Ole Miss because it was a win. But it was on the road, and any coach will tell you that when you're on the road, there are just on as many distractions. Number one, you
don't have many, if any family members hanging around. You have a few every once in a while, but not like you do at home games, and not people bugging you for tickets and all that. I mean, and you're sequester. Basically, you're in a hotel and just about for football at least, all the meals are at the hotel. Other teams will get out to a restaurant or whatever, but everything is just centered in the hotel, so you're right on top of each other and all you've got is each other.
And on the road you've got a roommate, so it's every man for each other. You know, it's always that way in sports, but it's kind of driven home on the road. And I'm sure that had a lot to do, was Kentucky. Kentucky's success in volleyball in road matches. Well, now you're at home. You should have a good crowd, and can you make that success that you found on
the road translate back to your home court. Well, the last time you played, you got wiped out by the long So we're all going to find out about that together coming up in just a few minutes. And again it's on SEC Plus, but we urge you to keep that radio right where it is. You got two ears, use both of them. While we're talking. We kind of
bumped into college football there for a minute. But one of the bigger stories in the Southeastern Conference in fact, I think it was the biggest story yesterday last night was the statement released by Scott Strickland and Scott's apal. He was the sports information director at Kentucky as such, an assistant ad under Mitch Barnhardt, and then left here for his alma mater, Mississippi State, where he became the athletics director, and then made a huge step up to Florida.
He's now the AD at one of the richest schools and most powerful schools in the country. And he has been under fire because he fired Dan Mullen, which was a popular move at the time because of course Gator fans one of their coach punished. He was not doing
well enough, and he made a popular hire. He hired Billy Napier, who was at the University of Louisiana and he used to be losinga Lafayette but now it's just the University Louisiana and was successful there and was a good recruiter, and everybody this is almost like a Billy Gillespie deal. Practically everybody who waged in said, yep, that's a great hire. Grand slam blah blah blah. It's not worked so far. They are really struggling under Napier, and
again Fan's won him punished. They want a change already, despite the fact that it would cost the university gazillions, and that's a school that has gazillions. But I'll guarantee of the budget does not include let's put let's put aside twenty five millions in case we need to get rid of our coach. So Scott Strickland released a statement last night basically saying he's our man and we stand
by him. He said, in these times have change across college athletics, we are dedicated to a disciplined, stable approach that is focused on long term, sustained success for Gator athletes, recruits and fans. So he's basically saying he's our man for now and pointing to stability, which is not a bad thing to do. But it's not just stability within the program, it's stability within your budget because and I mentioned this before, Mitch Barnard said this to me once.
People have no idea For those of you out there who want stupes punished, people have no idea, nor really, in my words, do they care how expensive it is to fire a coach, because not only do you pay him off because they have buyouts, you have to pay off any assistant coaches who have more than a one year deal. Plus you got to turn around and hire the new guy and pay him as much or more as you were paying the old guy. If you want
somebody that you really covet, it's incredibly expensive. But fans don't care because it doesn't affect them except that makes them feel good if they liked a new hire. But think about this, if every time you fired a coach and had to pay off a huge sum of money, what if you raise ticket prices, or what if you made one more game pay per view or something like that, in other words, forcing fans to pay the freight. How
would fans feel about that. They'd be angry. They would probably in a lot of cases refuse to put two and two together. But that's where we are right now. The money is so nuts right now in college football, and you know Napier's trying to get it done. You've got three verbal commits in the current top rankings for the class of twenty twenty five, a total of eleven actually, and they're right now fifty first in the two four seven Sports Composite Team recruiting rankings. So they're trying to
get it done. And now tough Break DJ Lagway goes down injured their backup quarterback, Mertz goes down, Lagway goes down, but fans don't care about that. They want to win. They want to win now. They're angry now. But Scott Strickland came out in favor in support of his head coach, and it reminded me of when rich Brooks was struggling here and in the middle of the Old five season, there was a news conference where we talked to Barnhart.
Mitt said, we'll evaluate like we always do at the end of the year, but it wasn't strong enough for rich Brooks. Rich Brooks wanted to hear essentially what Strickland said, and that really fractured their relationship and Barnhart, to his credit, stuck with Brooks and it worked out. But it's rare. My point is it's rare for ads to make that kind of statement. And as to why, well, that varies from a to ad. I think some of them just
don't want to be pinned down. You know, hey, you said it was your man, then you fired him six months later, that kind of thing. But that's where we are now in college athletics. I think people are demanding coaches be fire and media members the coaches be fired quicker now than they used to and it's tougher now than it used to be because of the money. But it's online if we want to read it. The entire
statement made the rounds on social media. Scott Strickland, former UK assistant ad making headlines as the Florida Athletics director had a chance to say hi to Scott down in Gainesville a couple of weeks ago. We didn't talk at all about his football coach, but they got a much needed win over Kentucky that night. As you know. Up next,
we'll talk volleyball with a Hunter Mitchell. A little bit later on a former Wildcat with a new team in the National Football League joining another ex Wildcat in a run for the playoffs. We're back in just a minute here on sixth Welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider. As I mentioned earlier. Coming up in just a few minutes, actually it's Kentucky Volleyball's Wildcats take on Texas A and M, and once again, turn your TV on to SEC Plus. You'll have Leah Edmund and yours truly calling the action.
Leave your radio on, because to the miracle of digital technology, you can hear us and see us hear the rest of the Big Blue Insider and iur number two, but need to talk about what's going on with this volleyball program. But the guy who really passionate about volleyball and has covered this program for a long time, and it's Hunter Mitchell from on three dot com and Hunter. A few weeks ago, when Leah and I did our last streaming match or all the other matches, it seems like I've
been on the mothership, as we say, to Kentucky. Yeah, but Kentucky was struggling back then, and I said, you know, next time we do a match, which will be in November, they may just be, you know, hoping to get in the tournament. So much has changed since then. Not only are the Wildcats viable nationally, they could win out and win another SEC title. How surprised are you by this because it's all about Texas stumbling.
Yeah, I mean, it's it's wild how different the season looks today than it did three weeks. Like you said, you know, Kentucky all season long when they were playing in that non conference schedule, they were playing teams that were ranked in the top ten. I think they finished playing five teams that are currently ranked in that top ten, and to their credit, they really hadn't looked bad against any of them. I mean every game. The only game they've lost by a sleep this year was to Texas,
who they later played in the conference. But all of those top ten matchups that they played in the non conference against the likes of the Nebraskas and the Louisville's and Penn States, those were all close matches that either went four or five sets. It looked like Kentucky could be something. They just weren't able to finish matches or put it all together. I think injuries were a big part about two. Obviously losing Aaron Land to that medical injury.
Were still winning from her on what's going on with that, But they just were really struggling with some injuries that happened in the preseason or even in the non conference season that really put them behind. But I think it's telling that the NC Double A or the at Pole I should say they never actually pulled Kentucky any lower than like fifteenth in the country. Even when Kentucky had a record that was below five hundred, they still very
clearly saw this team has something. Their age is playing a conent of a schedule, and b they're just getting really unlucky with the injury bug. And I think once Asia Stagepin has come back into lineup, they seem to have settled into a rotation and they look more comfortable and now you're starting to see them developed some of that consistency. But they were just missing early they could
They couldn't get a healthy lineup consistently. That was always on the floor, and you just were seeing, you know, misconnection with Emma and the other hitters, just weird transition routes that just seemed off time. They just really couldn't get it together. I think in large part because of those injuries going up against that tough competition. You mentioned
Texas stumbling. I think that's something that also no one was expecting that We all kind of thought with Texas coming in with Maddie Skinner and Reagan Rutherford obviously to Kentucky legends that coming off of back to back national championships, that they would maybe run a table and maybe coast in the SEC. That has not been the case. And look, we've known the SEC has improved substantially in the last five years, but Texas is finding out very quickly that
this is not the Big Twelve anymore. I mean they've lost three matches now to unranked opponents in five sets in the SEC alone, and a team that you know, they were two games ahead of Kentucky in first place comfortably. Now Kentucky's in the driver's seat if they went out. One of the teams they play is Missouri, who are currently tied with tide Wis for first. If they went out, they win that title outright, which again seems absolutely absurd given where this team was a month ago. But you
really should never doubt Craig Skinner. So I guess we should probably just stop doubting Craig Skinner.
Well, it always helps to get a little bit of luck and get some help from the other teams in the conference. But as you say, that's pronounced parody, and Craig talked about that yesterday at his news conference because I asked him about the portal, and of course there's nil money involved as well, but he also talked about Hunter and you know this about how much the sport has grown and quickly it has grown, especially in the state of Kentucky, but throughout the South nationally, yes, but
especially in the South. The talent pool is so much bigger now than it was, as you say, five years ago, meaning more and more college teams are getting well with their recruiting, aren't they.
Yeah, And you really can't again, you can't take a night off in any league, but especially in the Southeastern Conference. Now again, that's the same thing skin right right back when LEEA. Edmond and Ali Summer were playing in the league. There was that year where Kentucky started i think one and four in a non conference and then they got to the league and they went eight and o, right, and that was just kind of a quick coast to
the to the title. That doesn't happen anymore. Every single game you're seeing, you know, teams that are ranked in the top ten or top fifteen, they're still having to go to four or sometimes five to beat these teams that are not ranked in Texas. Again, they lost these matches on their home floor like these are that this league is a lot deeper now, and I think you're just seeing so much parody because of NIL, because of
that transfer portal. It's not just every recruit or every you know player is going to the Kentucky to the Texas is now you're seeing teams like Oklahoma and Texas, A and M and Auburn. These teams that weren't really anything, you know, five seven years ago, now they are, you know, the ones that are making ways in the instably termed I mean Auburn itself. Auburn has been great in the last several years and the instable terminent. It's pulled off
upsets almost every year they've played in it. So you know, that's just one example. In Kentucky has a big match tonight against A and M. That's one of those teams that just beat Texas. That's going to be a hard game, and especially now that Kentucky is in the driver's seat of that title race, they need to come out sharp to make sure they don't lose that lead because Texas is still right behind you. You want to keep that lead as much as you can.
It's gonna be tough with A and M because they the Aggie's coach in his second year, has a lot of international experience, but he preaches defense. I mean, they were the number ten team in the country in blocks last year with a record of sixteen and twelve last year, and in fact, at one point late October they led the nation in blocks, so it's gonna be tough. You're gonna have to go through them. You're not gonna go around them to get this win. Tonight we're talking to
Hunter Mitchell of on three dot com. He'll be covering Kentucky, Texas A and M volleyball tonight. You mentioned Aaron Lamb out with a non athletic related injury, and she is a big swinger, very powerful. It's tough to replace somebody like her on the front line. Of course, Brooklyn del A's having another incredible season, but you mentioned Asia Thig Penn and Craig talked about her as well. She's remarkable given the fact, as you know, on her I don't
even know she's six feet tall. But she's playing there on the front line and has made a huge difference, hasn't she.
She has, And like you mentioned, Aaron had had one of those arms that was just heavy. You know, you think about the outsides that Kentucky has had here, you know, the Leah Edmunds, the Avery Skinners, those that just had like a pop on the ball when they swung. That was erin. She's had a heavy arm, so when they lost her you saw they struggled to score points just because they were missing a really big, a big weapon on that outside. Asia has come in off that injury
and has filled that role and more. I mean, I've been really impressed with what she has done being thrown into a six rotation role as a freshman in the heat of the Southeastern Conference. Like she didn't get this, Like let's warm you up through preseason against teams that you know are in small power conference.
No.
She was thrown into the SEC and coming off of an injury, no less, and has been excellent. I've been really really impressed with her ability. She's just a high flyer. Like Leah mentioned it in the preseason talking to me, just you know, hey, Leah, how's practice look and she highlighted, like man, Asia looks really really good. She's got an explosive arm and she can jump out of them and you're seeing that now. I think she's really smart too. She knows when to rip at the ball and I
think she also knows when to tool it. Now. She still has trouble at times, getting blocked a lot. In the most recent match, she had a few too many errors for my liking, but that's to be expected with a freshman. What I like about her is that she doesn't lose confidence. Whenever she swings and gets blocked, she goes up and swings harder and smarter the next time, which I think you really need as a young freshman. Outside that's going to do her well as she progresses
throughout her career. You mentioned Brooklyn Delay. She is playing her way into SEC Player of the Year as a sophomore. What she is doing already this year again is if she wasn't great enough last year, what she's done this year is outstanding. And again when you're looking at a league that features the likes of Maddie Skinner, Reagan Rutherford, Kennedy Martin from Florida, like, these are big hitters, and she is, if not outperforming, competing with them just as well.
What she's done from behind the service line has been really improved. I've just been so impressed with how good offensively she's been because she's averaging over five kills of set and se play and that is an astounding number, especially for a sophomore. So kill she just keeps getting better.
Her kills percent or higher in the SEC than it is overall. I mean it's amazing, you know.
Yeah, she last year she did this too. Last year when she got to sec play her play ratchet up even more so. This is what she seems to like to do. Leah always talks about every team needs to have a dog that just says, hey, give me the ball and get out of my way. Brooklyn is becoming that, and I think if that continues, Kentucky's going to be in good hands going forward.
A few minutes left, Hunter Mitchell, he's going to be covering Kentucky volleyball tonight as a Wildcatt take on Texas. A and m talk to me about Molly Tuzzo. I don't know that she's been a surprise because I think people knew she could play, But I don't know how many people expected to see her at this level this season.
Yeah, I don't think any of us expected to see her take that libero spot from a senior and Olmer Bevan and Evan's been a great libero in her time at Kentucky. She's been a very good passing liberta. I don't think she's gotten the recognition that some of Kentucky's other great liberos have gotten. Bevin just because She's not a flashy libero. Molly tells that was a flash of libero. She is just such an athlete and Craig will tell you she's one of, if not the greatest athlete they
have in the gym. She can jump out of the gym and she she gets to balls that not many other liberos.
Can get to.
She's a really great passer too, which I think she's been anchoring Kentucky's servicey this year and that's why they're having so much success now offensively. For her to take that libero spot as a sophomore was really really impressive, and to start the season, Craig kind of said they were going to let Bevin take the first three matches and then Molly take the second three and then make a decision from there. And I think she and Eleanor, to her credit as well, have both handled that with
a lot of grace and taking their respective roles. Obviously, Eleanor taking a substantially smaller role as just a standard defensive specialist compared to where she was last year, but is coming in off the bench and doing really well from in service eve and that fourth rotation, and then also just digging a lot of great balls for Kentucky.
So I also think it's it's important of how good Molly has been as at ceter secondary setter whenever Emma takes that first contact because the double contact is not called anymore, Mollie is a lot more comfortable studying with two hands and her and Brooklyn has a connection with her backset when Emma takes that first ball, but is lethal. Which again, to have that as an added weapon out of a sophomore levero to another sophomore outside hitter is
a really really important thing. Kentucky's got some great young talent that's going to serve them well, I think for the next two three years, and we're seeing that in Molly, Brooklyn and in Asia.
So Megan Wilson transferred in from Oklahoma, and she's another one who's kind of surprised me Hunter. I didn't know that we would see this kind of productivity from her, but one hundred and sixty four kills going into tonight's match, and she has been vital for this team.
Yeah, and you know what's interesting about Meghan is Meghan's You can argue that Meghan's impact on the game is even bigger Decento that it is. Offensively, she's an excellent right side blocker, she really is. She knows how to time the block well, she lines up well, and she's been the goal at the net. Even if she's not actively getting blocks that go down for points, she's touching a lot of balls, which has been really important for
Molly and eleanor in the back line. You know, she's still, I think, is trying to develop that connection with Emma. There are still times where I think sometimes she's expecting a different set than what she ends up getting. I still think that they're still trying to work out the timing and some of the setting choices. But but when she's on, she is another added weapon to an offense
that's really beginning to take into gear. We saw this last year, right, I mean, Kentucky started so slow offensively, and truly last year was one of the worst offensive teams in the country and then became one of the best offensive teams by the end of the year. Statistically, that's happening again this year. I mean emmacgrom's assist numbers were really low start the season, and now there there she's at last I checked, she's up to twelfth nationally.
Now in assists per set, which, again, like we know, Emma's great, but the offense was not doing well early in the year. It was you know that that would have been a surprise to see that. So I think Megan's been a big part of that. I think they're still trying to get a few more points from her behind the center behind Emma, But even when she isn't scoring offensively, she brings so much value on the defensive end that she really has become a really valuable part of what Kentucky's trying to do.
Yeah, just a couple of minutes left with Hunter, but as you said, you just can't kind of out of Craig Skinner team. This guy knows how to run riad a team, rit a roster, and then just keep things together. And this despite as you said, over the last couple of years, losing two of the best players he ever recruited who are now playing for Texas. Plus you had a kid to transferred to Georgia and became SEC Player of the Year. So they just keep grinding, don't they.
They do, And I'm sure you saw the SEC network put up that stat last Friday about their record over the last seven seasons. Kentucky is now sixty eight and five in road games and road game over the last seven years. That's a crazy stat again, especially considering how much this league has improved. And you're playing on the road at Florida. I mean again, ten years ago, playing Florida was like, oh gosh, that's the big one. How
are you going to beat Florida. Now that that's like regularity, like it's now to beat Florida the way you'd beat anybody else. Just their their road record in this in this conference is really an impressive feat and I think again goes to show how great of a coach Craig is. We always talk every year. It seems to be a common thing now. He always schedules so hard in the non conference early and it's like, oh, man, Kentucky looks
like their show. They look they're bad. And then but you see when they get to this conference, like all of a sudden things click because they spent you know, their non conference playing all of these top teams, and they get in the league and it's like they're coasting and I don't again, coasting is the wrong word, because you don't coast in this league. But I simply mean like, you know, sixty eight and five over seven seasons on the road and SEC play is a really, I mean, honestly,
an unbelievable stat. Again, I've been covering this program for ten years. I didn't even know that their road record was that.
Good like that.
I saw that and thought that has to be a typele Maybe it's sixty eight and fifteen, not five.
But no, it's five.
They've only lost five road matches in the last overs in the in the league. That's just it's a crazy absurd stat And when you talk to Lea or any other former athletes that played for Craig, they all say the same thing. That's just how Craig is. He just instills that mentality, that championship mentality in the team and that's why they have so much success on the road in a league like the SEC.
This league used to be the Florida Invitational, but after Craig Skinner arrived, that's slowly transformed and now for seven straight seasons, if you're going to win the league had to go through lexingon and with a couple of exceptions, nobody did. They shared a couple of titles and now Craig is a hunter said, Kentucky's got its own destiny in its hands, but it starts tonight with Texas A and M.
Hunter.
Thanks to you at the ball game anytime. Thank you, Dick Hunter Mitchell from on three dot com. And we're back in just a minute on the Big Blue and Sider six thirty WLA. Welcome back to the Big Blue and Cider, thanks again to Hunter Mitchell and again coming up in just a few minutes, it's Kentucky Volleyballs. The Wildcats take on Texas A and M. Kentucky's fate right
there in front of it. The Wildcats were I won't say they were left for dead, but it just didn't look very good when it came to, you know, protecting their run of SEC championships, either sharing or owning outright the title over the last seven seasons, because, as we mentioned earlier, the Cats struggled a bit, not just because of the non conference schedule but losing to Texas swept
by the Longhorns back on October to thirteenth. But since then five straight wins and now three more regular season four more a half a dozen regular season matches left, and if the Cats went out, entirely possible they'll be the outright SEC champs, but it starts tonight with A and M a really good team, although the Aggies upset Texas and then fell flat against Mississippi State last time out, so you never know what's gonna happen, but we'll have
it for you in SEC. Plus, keep your radio handy though, because coming up in just a few minutes Sean Woods, the unforgettable Guard, and our West End Bureau chief Gary Moore. We didn't have a show Wednesday night thanks to the coaches show lineups and the statewide BBI, so we moved our Wednesday guests to Friday. The NFL trade deadline came and went love Elvid Packers didn't do much, but the team they're trying to chase and just lost to. If
I may dangle that preposition, the Detroit Lions. They made a move, and a good one. They hired signed a former Kentucky Wildcats, a Darius Smith. So he's an edge rusher and he replaces Hutchinson, their outstanding edge rusher who broke his leg a couple three weeks ago. Zadarius is not as good. He's a little bit older. He is accomplished as an NFL player had some great seasons in Green Bay, but he was with the Browns most recently,
but now down the stretch run. He's a Detroit Lion, and he gives Detroit not just another outside rusher, but a second in Kentucky wildcat. That's right, Josh Pascal. Remember him? You bet you do.
Uh.
He is a key part of that Detroit Lions front line. And when the war got out that the Lions had traded for z Well, media went to Josh Pascal, and of course he gave it a thumbs up.
Yeah, he's a great player. Kentucky do it too, So good to have another Kentucky guy on him. He actually played with my brother back in college, so I know him a little bit from the past. So I'm excited to have you What do you think he had to the to the just a uh, not only as a pass rusher, but just all around player. He's a great player, a veteran of course, I've been in the league for a while, has a lot of knowledge and he'll be able to help us out a lot.
I'd almost forgotten, no disrespect, but yeah, Josh's brother, Trayvon Pascal, was a linebacker, signed and played first for Joker and then played the first what two or three years of the Marx Stoops Earrah, and that's when Johns came in. And you remember Josh's story. They found that little mark on his foot turned out to be a very serious form of cancer, and the surgeons and the oncologists helped him beat it to the point where he came back and enjoyed a really good career with Kentucky and now
is playing in the NFL. I was fortunate enough to be asked by UK Sports Video to help produce a sort of a mini documentary on Josh. It was actually nominated for an Emmy Award. But what a great, great person and a really good football player. And now he's got a teammate who's going to help those Lions hold off my Packers in the NFC North. So you're not supposed to root for other teams in your division, but I'm going to root for them if my Packers don't
get it done. So stay tuned for Hour number two coming up next Sean Woods, and then we'll talk with our West End Bureau chief, Gary Moore. That's all I had here on the Big Blue and Siders six thirty wlap.
Mana manager, welcome back to the Big Blue Insider and joining us.
Now he does it every Wednesday, but of course we were bumped by programming. So on Friday we present our unforgettable guard Sean Woods. His jersey hangs in the rafters of rup former Wildcat coach at the d one coach himself. And let me ask the former player, Seawan Woods about and I'll ask the coach as well, about these made for TV matchups where you have high profile teams going at each other teams and might not see each other
Sean until the NCA tournament. But but now TV being what it is, you see more and more of these North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky duke coming up as a player. Uh. Taking us back aways, you guys played in at least one of these big events, right, Yeah.
We did.
We played in the preseason n I T where we played, you know, two games at our play and then the winner that goes to New York to play in the n I T in Massive Square Garden and unfortunate for us, unfortunate for us, we got upset by Pitt that year and wasn't able to go.
And I recall that they knocked in a bunch of threes, beating Rick Patino at his own game, and that was not the scouting report on them, was it?
I can't remember, but I can remember he was so hot because he was you know, he made all these predictions and he's saying he's gonna take Pelfrey Farmer and fell House and drop him off from Massterquorks. I mean drop him off in New York City and make them walk back or find their way back or whatever. But it never came about, and he was so devastated because he wanted to take his team back to New York.
Oh yeah, yeah, did you guys be honest? Now? Do you do you remember? Do you guys do you think he looked ahead?
I thought we were so much better than them, just looking at him on tape. But man, that they come out like gangbusters and Jamal didn't play well. Jamal got a file's trouble and we couldn't buy a basket and they hit everything.
Yeah, you did play in the Big Four. That wasn't quite the high profile event that we see now, but I thought it was very cool back then. And you guys played Notre Dame that was a high profile.
I think it was your second We played Notre Dame one year and we play Indiana one.
Year's exactly right, exactly right. I gotta think you you, being an Indianapolis kid, you must have really enjoyed that.
It was great for me for all my family and friends to be right there watching us play against you know, especially those two in state teams that recruited me. It was great. And you know, I think I remember saying on television that, you know, my mom and dad would go to work and then that their son came home
and beat Indiana that one year, which was cool. It was fun for me, you know, playing against those teams that you normally don't get to see until the NC DOUBA Tournament was big for us because I never we never got a chance to go out west and play the USCS, the Arizona and things like that, and never took a trip like that. But the fact that you know, we were playing Indiana, which was still a rival, playing Notre Dame, which was still you know, a tough game
that we would play every year. It's unfortunate that they don't play Indiana anymore. They don't play Notre Dame, you know, and the Carolinas. You know that those were you know, I think it's big. You know that all the powerhouse. It was getting up the opportunity to play against one another instead of just playing cupcake teams every year, which you know, I was one of those cupcake teams, and I got in the coaching rank and I and I needed the money, so you know, it helped my budget out.
But you know, UK fans and UK ticket holders, so they want to see Kentucky play against the best. And I think I'll be glad when they get back to that, because that's what college basketball is all about.
I remember you guys played Georgia Tech down in Atlanta, and it wasn't as high a profile. It was a cupping Copenheimer. That's exactly right. Wasn't that the game where Rick got tossed?
Yes, Coach got tossed and played very much because I got food poison. I remember that too. I got food poison the night before.
You only played six minutes.
I only played, yeah, because I was I got food poison. Then coach got kicked out and he told Coach sind not to not to not play me the rest of the game.
Really, could you have played? I mean I'm sure you wanted to, or did you.
I could have played, Yeah, I could have. You know, the minutes I played once I got to you know, got the feathers off. You know, I was back and groove. But you know, coach totally not to play.
Yeah, yeah, and you lose it by a point. But I remember they were they were really good. They were ranked thirteenth in the country, Georgia. You guys were eighth in the country, and uh, yeah, you I think you came back, you like made a big deficit disappear or something like that, right.
We did. And I thought Derrick Dale Brown at that particular time, played out of his mind and he really carried us down the stretch, and unfortunately we ran out of time, and unfortunately I didn't get to play at all. In that game.
For the most part, Dale had twenty one points four steals. I honestly believe that he was one of the most underappreciated players you guys ever had, and you were gone by them. But in ninety three when they went to the final four, Jamal fouls out and I thought they still had a shot against Michigan, and then Dale got hurt and that was the end of that, but I know you had a lot of respect for him.
Oh yeah, he's my backcourt made and we were considered the best defensive tandement of the country.
That's right.
You know, two big dogs in the back court six ' two, you know, one eighty plus, so we you know, he was fun to play with. He could shoot the basketball, excellent on ball defender, and a winner. You know, he's a junior college transfer and he came in and you know, really after the first month of practice, once the game started to my senior year, he came out like gang busteres the first few games.
And in fact, Batino was ejected for complaining got the two technicals because Matt Geiger allegedly elbow Dale in the head. And I don't know if there was no foul called or whatever, but that's what led to Batino being ejected. Do you remember that.
I don't remember what for, but I remember coach getting adamant and they kicked him out. I remember that. And he did get the chance to come in the huddle, and I was mad because he told coach Sindy not to play me. So I was like, oh man, so it was a it was a we did get a free suit out of it, Harberclassic as a couple with a suit company, and uh, you know we did get a nice you know, some nice threads.
Yeah.
And we're not talking about basketball shoes either, You're talking about like dress shoes.
Right, Yeah, we got nice that we got. Everyone got a suit out of it, you know suit tie.
Yeah.
That that was that was part of the deal that.
Every was that the place where all the NBA guys would go because they could get tailored suits, you know for bigger guys and that kind of stuff.
I guess I guess it was. It was based out of Atlanta, so.
Yeah, yeah, Well it was a game that supposedly sent Herb Syndeck on his way as a head coach, or at least marked him early as a head coach. Well, you talked about Dale Brown, he's like you. So he went into coaching as well in some places that were really challenging, didn't.
He They did. He ware chance coach at Pipel College. Then he got a chance to you know, go to Atlanta and coach at Clark Atlanta. Then he had a few high school jobs too, went back to the Moss Point coach there, came back to Kentucky coach at a couple of places, so yeah, he's been a raft a little bit.
Yeah, we were talking about the sort of pre conference games that were a little bit of a higher profile and for Kentucky oftentimes at least once a year, you guys used to play over in Louisville. Did you guys like those games because it was a bit of a change to your routine, but it was a different vibe and a different kind of crowd that showed up at those games, at least back in the day when you were playing.
We didn't think it was fair because you know, we played North Carolina there, Yeah, time, so we played Indiana. The fact that we would have to go to their place and play in the ding Dome in a simill, but then they wouldn't play us in RUP. You know, I didn't think that was fair, you know what I mean?
Yeah? What was it that they wouldn't play you? Or that just happened to be the game you can't put in Louisville.
No, I was told that they wouldn't plays something. They wouldn't play us in rough. Wow, we never played Carolina in RUP. We always played there, So we never played Carolina in rup and then after the nineteen eighty Night, after the Fall of eighty eight, Indiana stopped playing Kentucky by Knight wouldn't come playing Rough either.
Yep, he thought the officials were too influenced in Rugh. But you know, I can tell you why exactly. I can tell you why North Carolina agreed to play you guys. After after the NSA thing happened in the late eighties, Sam Newton was trying to help rebuild the image and he went to Dean Smith and called in a favor and said, look, would you please play us because that
would help. I know you're going to have a better of us, you know, for the first few years, maybe every year, but uh, and I'm paraphrasing, you know that would help bring back credibility to our program. And Dean Smith said yes. But evidently I didn't know this until you just told me that. One of the one of the caveats was we ain't playing you in Lexington. And one of the great games I think was one of
those games. And god, what year was it, nineteen, I don't know, eighty nine, you're right, and it was one twenty one to one ten. I mean, Derek Miller at twenty six. He hit three eight three pointers and Darren Feld out said, I think that was a career high for him. He at twenty seven, and that was a wild game. You remember that one.
Yes I do, Yes, I did. And you know we enjoyed playing in Freedom all because I did like playing there, you know, on that floor court. You know, it's just so fortunate that those teams would never come into rough and play that. We didn't play Notre Dame. We played in the in the in the in the in the shoot, in the Hoojiah Dome. They didn't they want to come
back to up. You know. It's like all the big time coaches at that particular time, Jigger Felt, Bob Knight, Dean Smith refused to come play us and rup Yeah, and then you can go my time anyway.
Yeah. And then the following year nineteen December and ninety, you guys go to North Carolina. They're ranked tenth, your twenty fifth, and they beat you by three And there were some pretty questionable calls there, but nobody expected you guys to hang with North Carolina in that game, and you damn near beat them.
But well after it was after we beat Kansas pretty good here for the payback game. Yeah, yeah, right after that. So we were feeling pretty good about ourselves and you know, going in there, we were confident and you know, gave them all they wanted and we were winning the game for the most part, yes, most of the game, and you know, a couple of questionable calls, you know, gave them an opportunity to get a run and they got away from us a little bit and time ran out on us at the end.
Well, it was after that game that Beatino canceled the rest of that a six year contract and then Rick said, we're not We're not playing them anymore. Uh So that put an end to you guys having to play them in Louisville. But you know, for for a while there, I do think it helped you guys rebuild, didn't it.
Well it was another game, you know, playing against a power five school, a blue blood on national television. You know, That's why I came to Kentucky, you know what I mean. I was against those guys. You know, I wanted to play on national television against the best, you know, and I was familiar with those guys as we come up through the high school ranks, you know, nationally. And Rick
Fox is the Indiana guy from Warsaw. And you know, I knew King Rice and you know what I mean, they were loaded, Kevin Madden, you know, I mean, they were a peat chill cut I mean, and they were good, you know, King Rise. So it was, it was, it was. It was a very good chance for us, and all they did was build up our confidence and I don't think we lost too many more games after that.
Sean Woods, the Unforgettable Guard. My guess we'll come back and talk more basketball with Sean on the other side of the break here on six thirty. Welcome back. We're talking with Sean Woods, the unforgettable guard. We talked to him each and every week, and we've been talking about Marquee matchups and going back to when you were playing. Of course, the Louisville games coming up, are going to find out more about U of L tomorrow when the
Cardinals take on a good Tennessee team. But the last year you were at Kentucky, you guys hammered Louisville, which was a good team under Denny crim had Dwayne Morton, Everick Sullivan, those guys. But they came in mash had twenty five. Pelfrey had twenty six. I think he had a throwdown in that game.
He did, he did.
But you know, you guys love to say that those games in Louisville game meant more to the fans than the players. Was that true?
We knew the rivalry, you know what I'm saying, and I had to take the guys on my team, so they really look forward to it. They understood the rivalry. You know, Kentucky Louisville game. You don't have to even be from Kentucky as a Kentucky basketball player to understand
the mystique and the ribbalry of that situation. I didn't know that it started back in nineteen eighty three, I think, or yeah, you know, the Dream Game or whatever, right, And you know, you would think that Kentucky louisverll played more times than that before then, and they did, unfortunately. But you know, it's just like it's just like North Carolina Duke. It's like you know, uh, any other major rivalry, and it's one of the best. And I'm glad that
they're going to continue to do that. I think it's going to be very interesting this year because two new coaches to rebuild rosters, to rebuild rosters, and they're trying to make their mark, and what better way to win in state credibility than that game right there.
Yeah, you were in a little foul trouble that last time you played against him, so you only played twenty minutes. You still had five assists. But with Mash and Pelfrey going off, I guess assists were I won't say easy to come by, but there were a lot of them.
All, no doubt about it. The year before I had one of my better games, you know, I had twenty points in one half. And when we beat them at level of the year before that, and then coming back in, you know, they thought that they were better enough. And I'll tell you what John Pelford put on the show, uh course, for he had a ten minute spell right there where he looked like he was a you know, an All American. So you know, he was always fired
up to play against Louisville. You can imagine they recruited him. He took a visit there, and so on and so forth, and then you know, we knew how good Mash was, and I just think that they didn't have no answer for Mash, and they underestimated Pale, and Pale let them know it to.
The year before. You're right, you had twenty points, you had four assists, you were perfect from the line, six for six and Kentucky won that with ninety three to eighty five over in Louisville. Man, those were some fun games because back then, you know, Denny Crumbs still had it going back then, didn't he.
He did, you know, and he always you know, he had good players. You know, we lost a little bill one time in my tenure, and that was my first year. We came I came back to play my sophomore yearah, and they got us. They were really really good though.
I mean they were loaded.
With Felton Spencer and all those guys, Tony kim Brow and Jerome Harbor and le bradfa Smith. You know, those guys were good and we got him the next year though.
They only beat you by seven that you know talking about. But le Bradford, he had twenty two, ended up being Michael Jordan's punching bag in the pros about that unfairly, Uh, Before I let you go there, we've talked a lot, and we had before about pel and Richie and Darren and John and I remember people saying, some people saying, well, those guys, you know, they weren't all that good, but they ended up at Kentucky and blah blah blah, Like
they're wrong about that. Those guys, they might not have been super athletes, although I think they were better athletes, of course than people thought. But they were really good basketball players deep down, weren't they.
They were the most underrated basketball players in America, and they showed it, you know, all the way up to March twenty eighth, nineteen ninety two. You know, Darren Fellhouse is one of the most underrated players to ever play at weverse Kentucky. People don't understand how good he was and his After we got Jamal, Darren started coming off the bench and it didn't matter. Yeah, Darren average more
against Shaquille lit Neil to anyone in the SEC. Really, yes, Darren average at least over over twenty three twenty four points the game against Shock.
Everybody didn't know that. Well, you know what, I'm looking at the box score from that one loss, and Darren had only and I'm quoting air quotes, nine points in thirty seven minutes. Johnny had sixteen rebounds and twelve were on the offensive glass. That's incredible. Yeah, yes, I guarantee you that's why you guys were in the game.
Man. I'm just telling you those three guys right there, I don't care what nobody. I'll take them right now and I'll go against anybody in America, any team that's ever played, and I still and will hold our own. I'm just telling you those those guys could play. Yeah, and people forget how good Jeff Bratto was before he got hurt.
That's right.
People forget about Reggie Hanson. Man. You throw Reggie Hanson in the in the in the equation and sprinkled Derek Miller and let that. Let us grow with those two guys, we win the national championship.
Red no has that Reggie six six sixty seven And there's still video out there him blocking a shot by Shaquille O'Neal. I mean right, yeah, yeah. And you know what Eddie said and told me before I let you go when he signed Jeff Brasso, we were having a conversation and he said he was kind of saying, you're gonna like this guy goes, He's gonna remind you a Rex Chapman the way he jumps. I'm like what he said.
Oh yeah, he said. I'm not saying he's gonna be as good as Rex, but that's what kind of player he is. Then he blew his knee and still a good ball player and a good dude.
But yeah, well before he got hurt, I think he played three four games our senior year he was I think he was leading us in scoring or our second league score before he got hurt.
Is that right?
Yeah, Brad, Brad play the pass and lane. He can. He was a great athlete jumping off one foot and he can shoot. He I mean, you know he really shoots the basketball too, so you know, bad and he's a competitor, you know what I'm saying. He would do anything the coach says, you know, Rock Oliver total rough through that brick wall, or time rat try to run through that brickwall for that.
He had twenty three against West Virginia in the preseason. N I t uh, yeah, you're right, you could get it done. Uh Well, the time is flown by. It always does when we talk about the good old day. Sean, thank you so much. We'll talk to you next week, all right, Buddy, Western Bureau Chief Gary Moore. Next here we mentioned earlier this is the Wednesday guest lineup because we were preempted on Wednesday this week by the Coaches Show.
So our Western Burea Chief Gary Moore joining us. How he is at the other end of I sixty four used to be to the other ends of the country out in LA, but he joined us each and every week, Sup man, Hey.
You know, we got two guys in a six pack. I was just thinking that, you know, from Louisville to LA, it's not that big a deal because the Cards are going to do that. They're gonna go to Louisville Palo Alto in a couple of weeks. So basically, I was just kind of ahead of the time, you know, in top of those game conference it was a conference call game exactly. Two guys in a six pack, you and me and six things to talk about our first swig
here and we've been talking about this as well. Instead of another kickoff Saturday, it's a kickback time for UK and number twenty two Louisville both have bye weeks going on.
But Dick, we got ourselves some hoops and high noon tomorrow over here in the Ville Downtown, number twelve, that school from that ugly Orangeville plays the Cards and at four tomorrow over there, Rop number twenty three Cats host Bucknell, which should be I think it'd be nice little warm up before facing number seven Duke Tuesday night down in Catlanta. Also tomorrow night, my hill Toppers take on Grand Canyon University. Remember them guys from last March twelve Seed beating Saint
Mary's and given Bama game. Not quite the same bunch, but that's who the Top is going to be playing tomorrow out there. And even before those three, how about number nine North Carolina at number one Rock Chalk Jayhawks KU tonight Kansas A nine a half point favorite ESBN two in fact about right now, and my hometown Murray State Racers also playing this hour, the pitt Panthers. I think UK should go to and Oh, but what do you think the Cards can do tomorrow?
The Cards can show us the beginnings of who they are. Uh, this is a good Tennessee team they're gonna face, and they got to be obviously, Louisville's gotta be ready. So if they've made the strides that we think they have, they'll give Tennessee a good game, but also see who Tennessee is because a lot of people like them in the SEC. This is a good early season matchup.
Yeah, I'm probably sing the video of coach Kelsey running around campus, Yeah, urging the kids go on the game. You're gonna be they We're gonna need you come on down.
It's a great video, shades of James Franklin's days at Vanderbilt, right, exact same thing.
It's a cool move. Yep, number our second swig here on the six pack. Speaking of Murray State, they will be of course, the UK's next football win a week from tomorrow. Let's not mince words here. UK is gonna win this game. The Racers are beyond awful. First fourth worst total defense in the FCS. Racers are number one twenty out of one hundred and twenty three teams, given up four hundred ninety one yards a game, the third worst scoring defense, giving up forty three points a game.
In fact, the Racers last weekend went oh for the Dakotas of the Missouri Valley Conference, losing to all four of the North and South Dakota teams by a combined score of two hundred and forty two to forty seven oh Man. Basically, the Cats are gonna have a scrimmage with pads against essentially a Division three team coming up, hopefully will help them out before the next weekend hits.
Speaking of being a heavy favorite against the lousy teams, I mentioned the number twenty two Cards come off their bye week next Saturday, out West, out west in an Atlantic Coast Conference game two and seven Stanford Cardinal. Yeah two, three hundred and forty six miles from here in Louisville. And after that UFL's got one more home game against number eighteen pitt and over to you on the thirtieth
of November for the Governor's Cup game. Injuries, of course, have played plagued UK all season, so I'm asking you how is the healing going, and how do you think they're going to do two weeks at number five Texas Well, I.
Would have thought that they wouldn't have much of a shot until they went down to Tennessee and played well in a challenging situation with so many players injured. But Kentucky, for whatever reason, has played fairly well on the road and if you can get some people healed up, especially some of those guys on the D line. Then yeah, you know they got a puncher's chance. Texas is finding
out about SEC football, and you knew it would. But it's going to take a couple of breaks here and there, which they got against Tennessee with missed field goals and a drop touchdown pass. They just weren't able to take full advantage of it, and they they might be able
to take advantage of it at Texas. You mentioned Murray State, and gosh, I remember back in the late seventies early eighties when Murray State was was a tough OVC opponent, but the likes of Eku back when Mike Gottfried was coaching there before he left for UC in Kansas and Pittsburgh. It's it's just amazing and sad, but it's a how do you recruit to your hometown Gary? You know how tiny that sound is.
Yeah, so wonder they got a guy like Godfrey or another guy named Frank Biember who oh, yeah, Gottfried.
They were even better under Beamer.
Yeah he kind of did. Okay, Yeah, that's a good question. They're finding out. It's not easy to recruit there a third swig in the six back. So no football in the eight five nine or five oh two, but up I sixty five in the eight one two Bloomington, Indiana the number eight and nine and O Hoosiers host unranked in five and four of Michigan. Indiana's a fourteen point
favorite on that. That's tomorrow afternoon, three thirty on CBS. Now, besides that one, there's three I want to see, especially number three Georgia, number sixteen Old miss Dogs three point favorites right now. Of course, the Rebels lose, there's no way they'll get into the field of twelve. That's a three thirty on ABC. Same deal with number twenty Colorado at Texas Tech on Fox at four. I don't think
that they've got a much of a shot anyway. Twelve Colorado and number let's see tomorrow night seven thirty baton Rouge Number eleven Alabama, number fifteen LSU huge, huge game in the SEC. Both are six and two, and obviously the loser will also lose a shot at the playoffs. My Hilltoppers are playing at two and six New Mexico State. The shot and the top should end up being seven to two at the end of that one. Then again, he got the Holy War number nine BYU at Utah,
South Carolina Vandy. Those could be fun. But the first four of those that I mentioned give me IU, Georgia, Texas Tech, and LSU. What do you like?
I like Georgia over ol Miss. I do because or just strength, of course is its defense. But it's like one in one a offensively put the ball in the hands of Carson Beck and he can take control. And that's how Kentucky beat Ole Miss by taking control offensively and keeping the oll Miss offense off the field, and I think Georgia can do that. I'm not crazy about Bama this year. Why would we be. You know, they've proven to be proven to be mere mortals. And I've
said it before. I've gone to Death Valley many times to cover Kentucky games a handful of times. I've never seen that place at its full effectiveness because it's never been a huge game like Bama at LSU. That crowd is going to be in full throat starting from noon on, and I think it's going to be one you can't miss. I do like your toppers out there in the desert against New Mexico State, and I'll tell you one of the most entertaining games could be that Brigham Young Utah
game right about that, and I was way yeah. I will also say and Andy beats South Carolina.
That's gonna be fun too now in Music City. So let's go to the pros. It starts early Saturday or Sunday morning, nine thirty two and seven Giants and the two and seven Panthers in Munich, German people got to be thinking, what do we do to America to deserve these two stiffs except maybe drawm into two World wars? But other than that, why would we have these two?
After that?
My top five on Sunday. I got the Bills beating the Colts up at up I sixty five in Indianapolis. I got the Niners beating the Bucks. I got the Steelers beating Washington they're in DC or Maryland wherever it is. And I got the Eagles beating at winning at Dallas, and the Lions all the road teams winning here at Lions at Texas as well. But let's go back to
last night. Last night in Balmer, yet another prime time game ends with a clear personal foul on a quarterback not called, and even defensive holding in the same play. I'm really starting to lose a lot of faith in the NFL, and it's really starting to color a lot of these games. For me, We've seen so many of these these things happen the NFL. I think Dick has
got to do something about this. Can they do a booth call on some of these things at some point, like in the fourth quarter, like they like they've done for personal fouls and stuff, you know, targeting or whatever the nature may be in something like that, It just seems to be really egregious. Now, you know, you can also say, well, the Bengals had a two touchdown lead at one point and they blew that, and the defense
does have some holes. But on something like that a play is where, you know, you got to have a guy saying, look, there's two fouls both on the defense, and then call it otherwise. Don't call holding during the game, don't call off side, don't call anything.
You're right, the Bengals did blow a lead, but that should not come into play in a discussion like this. I always go back to a conversation I had earlier this summer with a friend of mine. In fact, I worked for Jim DApp when I was in college as an official or intermurals, and Jim ran that program. Meanwhile he was refereeing high school football than OVC. Then SEC worked his way to the NFL. Eleven years in the league, worked at Super Bowl, retired twelve years as supervised the
supervisor of officials they have more than one. Now he's fully retired, and so he spends a lot of time doing radio shows and talking to TV people about his take on NFL officiating. And he's not shy. He doesn't throw guys under the bus, but he's not shy. And one of the things Gary would stuck out with me is he said, with replay, he believes referees have become too tentative when it comes to making calls because many
times oftentimes they can sort things out with replay. But exactly to your point, they couldn't fix this with replay. So back in the day when officials might have been more I don't know, aggressive, not as I don't used the affraid, but not as hesitant to make a call, they would have Not only was there a holding call on their intent of receiver, there was one on the other on another receiver, it was nearly tackled and then yeah,
the smack in the face that Burro took. There were three opportunities, and yeah, I was rooting for the Bengals, but three opportunities to get that right, and they blew every one of them. And you know, certain areas, certain fowls belonged to certain officials depending on what their position in the field. But if you see something, Jim said, you can call it. Nobody called it. I don't know what the answer is. If you start, I think you
open a big can of worms. If you start making calls, throwing flags from the booth, it shouldn't come to that. I don't think they got to fix this somehow.
Let me ask you this that if those same things happened in Cincinnati, do you think they would have called it?
Maybe? Maybe so the vibe might have been different, who knows, But yeah, this was This was ridiculous. And by the way, the games that you listed the one I want to see the most because I agree with all the road teams winning. Frankly, I think Niners Bucks will be a hell of a game, but Pittsburgh get Washington into me is the most intriguing. Who are these commanders? That's what I want to see.
As Russell Wilson going to come through again. That's right, our fifth swig of the six packs. So the young man from Henry Clay High School who threw strike three to win the World Series for the Dodgers last week, Walker Bueller back there in Lexington's hometown and he's in fact heading to the Jelly Roll concert right now, rupp Arena, I believe he could be listening to us. Walker back home for their fifth annual celebrity charity golf outing at
Keen Trace Golf Club. That's Sunday at Monday. If you can't go, you can still make a donation, by the way, any amount to Bullerfamilyfoundation dot org. They serve local first
responding heroes. It's a great, great organization. And you and I have talked about before Walker being a free agent, and the big question is will or should the Dodgers re sign him after not extending an offer after the World Series, and Walker said he's happy to be a Dodger, loved to stay in La as long as they'll have him. I answer to my own question is emphatically yes, re
sign him now. He came back from his second Tommy John surgery had some mixed results in the regular season and one bad outing in the NLDS, but when it mattered against the Mets and the Yankees, he figured it out. He figured out how to pitch again, not just throw, but pitch again. And going forward, I think he's going to be durable enough and smart enough to be a pop quality starter for LA.
Yeah, I agree. I think you hit the key. He hitched well, you know, he set him up. They had a great plan he executed. I don't know about the physical stability of his arm, but they got people out there, I'm sure know every square inch of that arm, and if he can do it, yeah, they need to hang on to him.
Sixth and final swig Dick. With you and I both being dog lovers and caretakers, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the passing of Ben Herb Street yesterday at age ten, the faith companion and best friend of Kirk as the media credential issued for the September game his dad call between Oklahoma and Tennessee. It listed Ben as the goodest boy on the credential, and boy was he.
I posted that one, by the way, and the other one from the Georgia Obama game where he was identified as a line barker y, You and I and probably everybody listing knows about the heartbreak of losing a furry family. Remember, and I don't know if you've ever had to do a show for a few hours after saying goodbye that day to a pupper kitty, but I can tell you I have, and it's as gut wrenching a show as
they've ever had to do. So hats off to Kirk last night for doing a hell of a job with al while his heart was certainly broken.
A big group hug.
From all of us who've been following Ben's travels, and I know Kirk would be among some comforting colleagues and fans tomorrow down there in Baton Rouge.
Yeah, you know, And it was a great story. I mean, you know, following the dog with a camera and showing him on social media and of course the greatest breed in my opinion, Golden Retriever. I've had four my current as a retriever. You've met Star a Retriever, hear in the his mix, and uh, they're just they're just great dogs for that kind of thing, being around other people and uh just but yeah, that was such a great you know when you first heard about it, he who
is this prima donna bringing his dog? But but dogs like Ben, they they surpassed that kind of thing. They overcome it because they are They are the goodest boys.
He's always smiling, you know, he's always happy meeting and that's a gobo and all that stuff. I know they're the best ones.
Yep. We'll talk more with our West NBA chief Gary Moore in just a minute here on six thirty Welcome back. We're talking with our west en BUA chief Gary Moore. He is presented with us two guys and six packs and now for a couple of hot reads that we will throw at. Gary. You kind of sew this one coming,
at least I thought I did. Iowa fans, of course forevermore will look for the next air quotes Caitlin Clark and now early returns on Lucy Olsen, people saying, oh he could she could be our next Iowa beat Northern Illinois and it's opener as expected, ninety one to seventy three. Olsen had a good game, as you might think, nine of seventeen nineteen points, four boards, seven assists and a steal. She transfers in and immediately has some people thinking about CC.
We know that's not fair. It made maybe another generation before we see that. You gotta wonder, Gary, how's this kid gonna handle it? One game one, it's the first game.
They're like, oh, this is the greatest thing. Nineteen point settle down, Beavis.
Okay, just give her a chance.
Yeah, call me when she has a double double or a triple you know, triple double or something like that. Good opening. You know, it's nice, there's potential there, but holy cal talking about jumping, jumping really ahead and time on this sort of thing. Just sort of like, let it settle folks.
Last year she averaged at the Nova twenty three points, nearly five boards, nearly four assists. She's a really good player, and honestly, I have no idea who she's playing around at Iowa. But like you said, give her a chance to settle in there. And they're also, I think, doing a disservice to Caitlin Clark to immediately believe that somebody's going to step in to be the next one.
All Right.
I don't know how shaken to the core you were about this particular bit of news, but Raygun says she is not going to compete anymore in the world of break dancing. She is an Australian breakdancer who put up lost her three rounds of dancing in the Olympics by a combined score of fifty Ford to nothing, and there
were such backlash. She's out and gary. I kind of dismissed this until I read that there was a petition that circulated about her qualification procedure to earn her spot in Paris that garnered fifty thousand signatures was removed from social media after the Australian Olympic Committee requested it. This is a bigger deal, I think than you or I ever thought it might be.
Sure was for me. All I know is like I didn't know anything about I was gonna watch. First of all, you open yourself up to have that category in the Olympics, to begin with breakdancing. Really, while all these other athletes are working years upon years to perfect their their track and field and swimming and all these other things, and then you throw this kind of fun recreational thing into the mix, and then to hop around like a kangaroo. It was embarrassing to humanity.
Yeah, not to mention kangaroos, right exactly, it's a great play. Well, that run, mercifully is over, and so is our run. Today. You can find Gary on Twitter or xat at nine to five to five Gary, and you're at Big Blue Insider one. Go practice your breakdancing, have a good weekend,
and that'll do it for now. My thanks to Gary Moore, to Sean Woods, to honor Mitchell, and reminder of basketball coming up tomorrow, four o'clock local coverage, one point thirty Network coverage at two thirty tom and Jack with the call as the cast take on the Bison. That's it. Good night from the garage in Lexington.
A very good, very quick basketball team.
A guy that just went by is Michael Thompson. So you know the answer to that, don't you. He always seems to get involved, I'm telling you, too many coconuts and hit him right on top of the skull down there in the Bahamas.
He's in trouble, says er.