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Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel with you on a Thursday. We are one day closer to a big weekend as the Wildcats will take on Murray State College Football. It's a one thirty start. We will have it for you. Network covers begins at eleven thirty am. Local coverage to ten thirty. And keep in mind this game is going to be streamed. It will not be on any of the networks that you ordinarily would see
SEC football, like the SEC Network, ESPN, ABC, whatever. I need your computer or your iPad or whatever, So prepare if you want to see it. You're not sure how to do it, Grab a kid, grab your son or daughter or grandson, granddaughter, whatever. Some of you stubbornly refuse to watch streaming, which is unfortunate. Look, it is the future, and I say that as somebody who works for the SEC Plus streaming channel. But we also of course urge
you to listen to your radio. Christy and Jeremy and Logan will have pregame for you on the network side, and then Tom, Jeff and I will have to call for you at one point thirty as the Cats take on the Murray State Racers. Look, Murray's is just quite frankly, not very good. Trying to rebuild a program that used to be really good in the Ohio Valley Conference but just this year not quite getting it done and has been overwhelmed almost the entire season. It is what used
to be called one DOUBLEAFCS. And the Racers have won one game. They beat Mississippi Valley State, and in every one of their losses with the exception of Butler. They lost their second game of the year to Butler nineteen to seventeen. They've given up at least thirty one points, and then their last three losses the North Dakota State, South Dakota State, and then Missouri State, they've given up at least fifty points. They've lost to all the Dakotas
the states and then North Dakota and South Dakota. Those are really good. One Double A teams. It should be a walkover for the Wildcats, obviously not having a great year, but still an SEC team much much better than Murray State. And coming up in our next segment, we'll hear Mark Troops and Brad White talk about what they expect to see from their respective squads. Of course Brad White the defensive coordinator. Before we get started, I got to tell
you that tonight we're gonna hear from Cameron Mills. He's going to join me here in the garage. That'll be at the bottom of the hour and it'll take the rest of the show. But if you listen to us, you know that oftentimes that's how Cameron and I do things. We just talk about the basketball, Wildcats and a lot of other stuff. But it's always a special occasion when he drops by and you hear him on the pregame
show with Dave as well going into basketball games. But I want to talk obviously specifically about that Duke game, but just about how this Mark Pope era has begun to unfold, and we talked to Cameron more than once about it right after Mark was named the head coach, and of course CAMRA's terribly biased because He and Mark are close. They were teammates. They won a national title together in nineteen ninety six. So Camera's going to join us at the bottom.
Of the hour.
Before we get there, though, I need to talk about recruiting. Yesterday was a big day across the country and some of the highlights for the Wildcats. Michael Moreno made it official he is the six to eleven center from Georgetown and officially signed the agreement to attend UK this coming fall. This was part of the NCA's early signing per Malachi is rated as a top three center in the class of twenty twenty five by all the major recruiting services.
He plays over a great Crossing High school in Georgetown and of course helped lead the Warhawks to the Sweet sixteen state tournament last year. Got him to I think the semifinals and averaged sixteen points, thirteen rebounds, and on more than three and a half blocks per game. He scored a double double in all but three games in the state tournament, averaged seventeen points and sixteen boards. Yeah,
two got them to the state semifinals. I will tell you this, I watched him a couple times in the Sweet sixteen well you talk about all kinds of potential. He is not as dominant as you might think a big guy of his stature would be right now, But as you know, big guys develop more slowly than players,
and he'll get there. He doesn't have a great arsenalal low post moves offensively, but he does have a decent touch, good hands, pretty good feet, and again I'm not an expert, but just watching him out there, he's a good basketball player obviously, and a lot of size and bulk. He's not a skinny guy with a long neck. He is a legit broad shouldered six ' eleven guy, so he
will help tremendously. And if Pope likes him and obviously is recruited and signed him, that means they connected the way that a player needs to connect with somebody as heady as Mark Pope. So keep an eye on him this year. Rivals right now has him number twenty five overall. ON three has him thirty two overall, two four seven, twenty seven overall. ESPN has him rated the lowest at thirty seventh overall, and each one has him either second or third at center. They all have him with four stars.
If you care about that, kind of thing. But just keep an eye on and go see him play. See for yourself. This year it's got a good chance of taking the Warhawks back to the Sweet sixteen, but that's no guarantee. Reminder, Rex Chapman one of the greatest ever to come out of the state of Kentucky, but was in a wicked, tough region with Owensboro. He got to the Sweet sixteen once playing for Apollo High School, so it ain't easy. But get out and see Malachi play.
Don't wait until the Sweet sixteen rolls around, because he might not be there. Kenny Brooks and his team, the UK Women, picked up a commitment signed Kaitlin Carroll, the overall number thirty two prospect in the class of twenty twenty five power forward from Massachusetts, chose Kentucky over Villanova, Minnesota, Ohio State, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia text So I gotta think Kenny Brooks had forged a relationship with her back when he was at Tech and now she's
coming to Kentucky. She's a six ' to two, six ' three power forward. I'm sorry, six to two, and that's what you need in the SEC these days. It's all about well, it's all about everything really, but if you don't have legit front liners anymore, you're not going to be able to compete in the Southeastern Conference. South Carolina has set that standard and everybody else is trying to live up to it. Speaking of standards, Kentucky Volleyball
seven time defending SEC champion. Three signees for Craig Skinner, a senter Cassie O'Brien from Katie, Texas, six ' to one, good size for a setter, a defensive specialist again out of Louisville, a Libro Trinity ward played at Holy Cross, and an outside hitter named Georgia Watson from Hontlely, Illinois. They have all formerly agreed to play for Kentucky, and again size is vital and Watson herself is six ' one. Kentucky getting it done right now at times with Asia
Thigpen on the front line. She was signed as a defensive specialist. She's five ten five eleven, but because of injuries they've had to play her on the front line and she's doing incredibly well all things considered. But Craig Skinner went out and got himself more size, and some future Wildcats are on the way. Now that's the good news. The bad news, and this happens. Jakayden Ferguson, he's a wide receiver from Missouri City, Texas, has de committed after
he had taken a visit to LSU. He committed to the Wildcats back in June. This primary recruiter is receiver's position coach to Kill Schwartz, the kid recruited by the Wildcats committed to the Wildcats. Bod kept on taking visits, and you know you should if you're a player. But if you say you're committed and again, I wass go back to Mac Jones committed, as he said, one hundred percent to the Wildcats. Bod, I'm going to visit Alabama.
Guess what happened? Big time scoring night in the NBA last night, including a former Wildcat Three players with at least forty five points. That tied for the most in a single day in NBA history. Happened seven other times, but Karl Anthony Towns had forty five points even though the Knicks lost to the Chicago Bulls by a point. But that was not the biggest scoring explosion That went to Giannis onto the combo of the Bucks he had fifty nine. Victor Wimbanyama of the Spurs went for fifty.
So these guys went off last night at virtually the same time. And while we're talking about the Spurs, if you follow the NBA, you know Greg Popovich has been mia the head coach of the Spur as well. The Spurs finally announced that he is recovering from a stroke he had back on November the second. He is expected to make a full recovery. So far, he has missed seven games, but they finally explained what had happened and
why he has been absent. But the team's general manager, Brian Wright, said Popovich is doing well, winning his head coach in the NBA with nearly fourteen hundred victories.
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What's up, everybody, My name is Sammy John tune in every weekday morning at nine am Pacific Standard time and hear my show called The Bridge. And what I do every weekday morning is I bring you the best of South Asian music and culture from around the world, and that includes some of the most exclusive access to the South Asian music industry. I'll bring you world premieres and I'll bring you exclusive interviews only on Ruckus Avenue Radio.
And another one hundred that's regular season, one hundred and seventy postseason wins, five NBA titles, twenty nine years now in San Antonio. Incredible run. Finally, this is bizarre. The FBI is involved now and the break ins of the
homes of Travis Kelcey and Patrick Mahomes. The FBI reportedly joined the investigation of to TMZ after mahomes property in Belton, Missouri was burglarized back in October, while the tight Ends Leewood, Kansas home was hit just a day later in the middle of the Chief's Monday night football game on October seventh. Why the FBI Well, apparently other homes in the area have been hit as well. There is a possibility organized crime is involved, meaning the crossing of state lines that
makes it federal that brings in the FBI. The only thing TMZ reported as to what was taken twenty thousand dollars in cash from the home of Travis Kelce. So I guess he'd actually have a little tip money around for you know, when the door dash people arrive. All right, we'll step out, come back to Kentucky football in just a minute. Cameron Mills at the bottom of the hour here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Cider. Coming up at the bottom of the hour.
Cameron will join us here in the garage. We'll go over the win over Duke and talk about what he has seen and practices and in games from Mark Pope's ball clubs. Cameron, of course has been banging the Mark Pope drums since really the rumors began that Pope was
on Kentucky's list. So we'll hear what he has to say and talk a lot of Kentucky basketball, but more football to talk about, because the Wildcats take on Murray State Saturday, looking to get well against the really poor Murray State team, one of the in state clubs Kentucky has played through the years. Last time the Cats played the Murray State Racers was back in twenty eighteen, and that was a fairly easy win as well, everybody expecting
as much. But Mark Stoops, who was asked about the possibility of getting a good win, a feel good win, and also playing young guys, getting younger players into the games maybe early, something they haven't been able to do all year obviously. But again once again Stoops not taking anything for granted.
I'll never you know, we don't ever assume anything. I think you know our team, I mean, we need to go play or we've shown that we can play with anybody, but we can also loose to anybody, and there's a lot of teams like that. So we always respect our opponents. But anybody will tell you it is truly about us and our mentality and how we prepare and how we play and all those things that go into it and turnovers and just different things. But Jody Wright is one
heck of a football coach. I know he's not having the year that he wants. Is his first year there. He has work to do, but he's been in player player personnel at some of the best places in the country. He's coached with some great coaches. He knows what he's doing. He's a good football coach and he will build that program the right way. And I'm sure it's been hard for him like it's been hard for us.
Been a tough year, which is why he doesn't expect to just be able to go out and throw helmets on the field and win. And a year like this, you never know what's going to happen. Maybe you go out and you play your butts off against Georgia and you pull off an upset win over Ole Miss which is looking better and better every week, and then you just lay eggs against Auburn, then Florida, and then you
play tough against Tennessee. It's just that kind of year, and in terms of wins and losses, we haven't seen that from a Mark Steuf's team since he got here. Now, his very first game was against an inste opponent, Western Kentucky, remember that down in Nashville. Really steamy kind of night, hot, muggy, and Western Kentucky kicked the Wildcats, but I mean it
was Western Kentucky all the way through. That game. Score was closer than it indicated, really, But Bobby Petrino, that was his first game at WKU and Hilltoppers one of thirty five twenty six. So you take nothing for granted when you play another team from instate. Of course, Western Kentucky's Division one, Murray State's the equivalent equivalent of one double A. But you got to play well. That's what Brad White's looking for the defensive coordinator. Yeah, would he
like to be able to get young guys into the game. Sure, and clearly you want to win, but you want to play well. He talked about games where they're not moral victory, you play well and you just fall short, or games he said, where you win but you didn't play well so you don't feel good. What he wants to see is quality from the UK defense.
But there is a pride and performance you know level to it. And the key focus this week for us.
Is we got to take pride in our performance.
Everybody that's on that field next needs to take pride in and performance in the standard that we've set. So from the first nap to the last, Like, I want to see guys for straining, finishing, you know, you know, pinning ball carriers to the ground. I don't want it sloppy, you know, I want it high energy and execution.
You know, at a at a high level, they should be able to hold off the Racers, who have scored a lot of points from time to time, but generally when they've put points on the scoreboard, they've been involved in track meets. So what they're looking for, of course, is scoring on just about every possession if you're Kentucky and keeping the Racers out of the end zone completely,
that's the optimum situation. But more than anything, it's going to be interesting to see how many Kentucky defensive players make it back to the field after all these injuries they've suffered. They've had the extra week to rest and heal. But you've got the huge game coming up. You don't overlook this one. But you've got Texas and Louisville coming up, and if things play out the way they should, you need both of those wins to get to a bowl game. And by as it should, I mean you beat Murray.
That puts you in a position to finish six and six with two of the toughest games for any team in a country left on your schedule, going to Austin but then playing Louisville in the Lexington. A good Louisville team that is going to be looking for revenge. So yeah, this game is vital not only to get a win, but to play well. And as I said, when you play an in state team, Hey, remember EKU came to town coach by Dean Hood and it took last minute
heroics by the Wildcats to win that game. If Eastern had pulled off that, up said, Dean Hood might still be at Ekau. You never know. But do you remember one of Joker Phillips's last games in Jokers last year? Kentucky lost to Western Kentucky in twenty twelve on a trick play in overtime, And I had forgotten about this.
I know Kentucky didn't play well obviously. The Cats fell behind seventeen to nothing in the second quarter, made it seventeen ten by halftime, but then fell behind twenty four to ten in the second avenue started grinding started coming back. Maxwell Smith had a huge game and that one thirty
seven of sixty. Remember that Kentucky was spraying the ball all over the field back then, three hundred and thirty two yards and a couple of touchdowns, but he threw four picks and Western Kentucky made him stand up but Kentucky still managed to drive for the tying touchdown in the last couple of minutes made it twenty four to
twenty four. They go to overtime. Wildcats go first. Western Kentucky wins the toss, right Kentucky scores and kicks the extra point and now it's Western Kentucky's turn and the Hilltoppers score a touchdown. Catchers still up thirty one to thirty, but Western Kentucky goes for to two and remember how the Toppers did it. They scored on a throwback, pulled off the two point conversion, and the upset thirty two to thirty one. So playing an instate team is no
guarantee of a win. Obviously, I don't see Murray State pulling off any kind of shocker on Saturday. But the biggest question will the Wildcats play well after that? How many of the young guys get in the game. That, as much as anything, is what I want to see. I want to see some of these new faces, but you want to see everybody come out of the game healthy as well as they head down to Austin, Texas.
And while we're talking about players we'd like to see, I think everybody would like to see more ja Mary and will Cox and Stoops talked about him at his news conference. Somebody asked about him specifically and he mentioned the fact that there were plays designed for him. That's what happens. There are packages of plays for different running backs. And of course the run that opened the Tennessee game was spectacular, maybe all things considered, the best one of
the year. Definitely, I think the best one of the year. So wouldn't you love to see more of that against Murray State. They ought to be able to get stuff like that against the Racers, but you just never know. So that'll be somebody to keep an eye on, as well as Cutter Bowlie and some of the utter names of the young guys. You've seen him here and there. Maybe some of the guys you haven't seen yet because they're trying to preserve red shirt status and all that.
But remember you can play in four games and protect your red shirt availability. So those are some of the guys we're all hoping to see. Coming up on Saturday afternoon, Camera Mills in the Garage next six point thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. As promised, Cameron Mills has joined us here in the garage. He of course the two time national champion.
Almost three part of it.
It's don't be bitter, part of our pregame coverage, and you see him online with the practice reports. You enjoy those prouts. You do a great job.
Thank you.
You know what.
It's one of those things where I look when it comes to this media stuff. And you know this because as I have rightfully called you my media mentor for now thirty years, we have to thirty twenty five years.
Golly, how are you still alive?
It's you.
I want to see my scar.
No, I didn't mean that. I don't mean that. I just meant, like age, I'm forty eight, So where are you now?
Sixty nine?
Good lord? Are you about to turn seventy?
Oh? Man, I have more than you.
Well, I just yeah, you do know it still looks good. I'm on the inside. My look.
Mine happened when we were doing the bottle signing few years ago and they were taking pictures once yeah yeah, yeah, well no, no, no, but but my moment where I realized.
I just gotta get rid of it.
Actually, when Susan I started dating, it was like, this is this weird thing. Where I was like, you know, Susan, I were falling in love, and it was in the middle COVID too, so it was like COVID hair don't care kind of thing where I.
Was like, just shave it off.
And so I I saw, you know, I'm with Susan. She and I are are growing our relationship. And it's like I had the self confidence like all right, I'm going to do it. So I shave it off. And then but I didn't shave it all the way off, and so and because I was afraid to. And then I thought, I'm just gonna go bald. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna do a Rex Chapman and go ball.
It looks good on and it looks good on racks and looks.
Good on I am. I'm happy with the way. So anyway, but I just.
You talked about not going all the way. You and I are Seinfeld nuts the episode, you know what, Yeah, Elaine.
A great Yeah great? What was a great civilization of hair?
And Elaine asking George, why don't you just shave it up hanging on to these scraps.
No, that's what she says.
He goes, this was once a great civilization of hair, right, and she goes a bunch of scraps.
Yeah, where are you hanging on to a bunch of scraps? That's tangent number one many Yeah, yeah, in the next ninety minutes or so. But back to your practice report, than you have done so much public speaking, well beyond your radio show. I mean, you got stuck in the radio show. You could turn to whoever else of the you know, twelve or fifteen people in the studio with you, but and I know there's more than one take or whatever, but putting your thoughts together on camera, so it's not easy.
It's not because there's no teleprompter. Right, That's not something I'm used to. But I'll be honest, and this may sound a little arrogant, and it probably it's not arrogance for me.
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What's up, Everybody, My name is Sammy John. Tune in every weekday morning at nine am Pacific Standard time. And hear my show called The Bridge. And what I do every weekday morning is.
I bring you the best of South Asian music and.
Culture from around the world.
And that includes some of the most exclusive access to the South Asian music industry. I'll bring you world premieres and I'll bring you exclusive interviews only on Ruckus Avenue Radio.
I'm thrilled with how they've turned out. I'm thrilled with how easily I can I can take a thought or and and look. The first time I did with those, I wrote out a script and I knew I wasn't going to read it word for word, but I wanted to kind of commit some up to memory to know where I was going. And at this point, honestly, I just feel like I need an idea, Yes, like I need an idea, and I can take that idea and look.
A lot of this comes from knowing Mark for thirty years, and I think more importantly playing with him for two knowing who you know in a Bible study with him and Shep. I mean, because the you know, the three of us, including Walter McCarty, a lot the three of us were, I mean, we were in Bible study every week together. And honestly, our bond, you know, to the point where I would even call Jeff Shephard my you know, one of my best friends now and closer now.
Than we were when we played.
Came from that Bible study with Max Apple, who's the at the time was director of Fellowship of Chrision Athletes for Kentucky, and Mark was in there too, and I mean we just we did things together all the time. It's like, you know, the three of us were always doing stuff. And so I just think the knowledge of who Mark is as a person truly is a person because and and this goes for any of my teammates,
because you know this. I mean, you can present yourself to the world one way, but when you live with somebody, when you live with fourteen idiots, and I'm including.
Myself in this, you you get You can say every.
Anything you want about who you are as a person, but everybody else knows the truth that you live with.
You can't hide that.
And so I think honestly a lot of that coming from just knowing Mark enables me to kind of share in practice support what I think sometimes he's thinking. What is you know was mine because and you know this about him too.
I mean he is. I mean, he's a genius. I mean, I don't know.
I don't know if he's you know, genius level IQ test genius. But he's got to be not far if he isn't. I mean, he just no one in the country. And I think Coach Patino said this about him. He is the most intelligent college basketball coach in the country. And if people don't realize, if Kentucky fans at least don't realize that yet, just from the way he does his press conference, I mean he's using Look, I played basketball for twenty two years. I played basketball for one
of the greatest coaches ever. Right, He's using I know the game. He's using words basketball, words that must have been invented in the last twenty years. Because I have no idea what he's talking about.
I have no idea what He's also using words.
And applying them to basketball that you rarely, if ever here applied to basketball. That's what as a word talking guy, that's what Lionel huts Simpsons, Uh, that's what. That's what interests me.
I mean, it all interests me, Like Philosty and the like.
Just you know, he talked about I asked a question last week about about a certain way they were playing, and he said, yeah, most of our possessions we were really intentional that but but and then I raised my hand follow up, it's what what do you mean by intentional? And he did, you know, obviously, So I just find that fascinating.
So that so intentional. So Mark had some markisms. Be careful, I say that, not some Marxisms. Some markisms.
So we're all Marxist.
Let's call him popisms.
Mark had some popisms back in the day that he was because again he is he is not just frick no, no, no, no no.
That was that. That was the fun one that everybody the first time I heard it, I'm like, what what's he saying? What's that?
Turned to a manager over on the sidelines, price like
what is he saying? That's his cuss word? So anyway, but Mark has some things that he's that he says that that, you know, like being being intentional, right, I mean that was that was that was a specific one when back back in the day, like what you know he would be like if he was remember he was captain, try captain, but captain the year w went the championship ninety six, and so you know, he was constantly felt the uh, he felt like he was in the position,
which he definitely was too, you know, you know, right for practice in the locker room.
Before we took the court.
All right, guys, we need to we need to be real intentional today about practice.
All right, real intentional. Now we all knew what he meant.
Focused, not not not fooling around, not no, you know, don't be sloppy today. We got we gotta, we gotta. We have zwn in so that one I've heard, I have helped you with that one in a moment. But he also uses one. He also uses one. And this one he always said with a smile on his face, leading me and I presume my teammates to believe this was either something that it was just a joke to him or more more than likely because I think there's
some truth to this. It was a truism for him, but he always he said it so much that he knew it became funny does and that was this life and and I'm putting my I'm putting my hands together in a circle. Everything was about the circle. Everything's about circle. It all comes back around and to be honest, a lot of us wasn't. We weren't exactly sure what he meant by that, and we kind of made up our
own stuff. But it was like everything comes back to the circle, which was when we had a bad practice, right he.
You know, he he, you know, he, he.
Would know it and we'd all have to admit it because Coach made sure we understood it.
And then we'd walk out of there.
And you know, you know, because Mark is impossibly positive and and and it's still the same way today with the players.
But he'd come back to the circle.
Guys, listen, it's all gonna come back around, right, It's it's about the circle. But then he would use it in ways that it would make no sense. It would make no sense. You know, Yeah, somebody somebody got somebody got sick from eating something, and he would go, you know, life is about the circle. I mean, it was just and that that's not a true story, that part, but that's how he would use it, just in bizarre ways. But well, and that's that's that's the thing in his
mind is always work. He is never not thinking about basketball and about UK basketball. I mean, he just and I think that's what's exciting to me because if you can't, if you couldn't, if you can't tell so far, and I'm talking about you, I'm telling you, just talking about fans in general. He and his staff do not miss a thing, right, Oh, yeah, we're gonna talk to do not miss a thing.
Because that's what helped him beat Duke.
Yeah, all right.
When we come back camera Mills in the garage, we're going to talk about that Duke game and the fact that Mark Pope made quite the splash, but through his team there was a assistance Innis players here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Cider here in the garage with Cameron Mills. Last time you were here was just before the season began.
I think it's before the first exhibition.
Yeah, and we were talking obviously, we had already talked about how excited you were about Mark Pope arriving. But then on your follow up visit, like you were some sort of doctor, you told us what to expect.
Yeah.
And as it comes to and you've worked all the games for radio, I think you work one for TV? Is it two two? Two?
Yeah?
Is it? In terms of the way they play style of Planet what you expect because you go to practice all the time. Yeah, as we said.
Well based on what I saw in practice, yes, because I mean the way they play. Yeah, because there were moments in practice where like the passing the ball movement, like you would see that in practice, and then in my cynicalness, I would sit there and think, looks good, right, and not that I thought specifically this, but let's see
what this looks like against Duke, so to speak. You know, it would be like it looks good in practice, but in practice, You've always got that dichotomy of Okay, well, if offense looks.
This good, the defense doesn't.
Right, Yeah, because you've got you've got guys on the defense playing defense. Who these are the guys that are
gonna be playing for us too? So and I always found that fast thing, you know, during my time under coach Patina, just in just in basketball general, specifically under at UK under Patino and Smith whereas you know, because they're doing a lot of yelling, you know, and Mark doesn't do a lot of yelling, but they're doing a lot of yelling, and so they're yelling at you know, the blue team because the white team just whipped them.
To two possessions in a row. Well, I mean, so I can remember one time when Patino was happy with both at the same time. Huh, one time in three years and my three years with him where we ran and ran and ran, and he.
And and I thget about it.
This way, offense didn't score and they still had the ball. You know, Now Shocklock had probably run out by this point, but it was like he blew the whistle and he said, all right, move it on to the next way. He goes that was great offense, great defense. Never heard him. I mean, that's the only time I ever heard him say that. And I'm like, how can that be? I mean, the defense, you know, stopped offense from scoring. Offense didn't turn it over, but they certainly ran out to shock clock.
And it was just always fascinating. But so watching practice, yeah, you see flashes. But I'll say this, they look they have looked better in the games than they have in practice. Really yeah, And I think a lot of that goes down to something that surprised me the other night against Duke, and that was our defense. I did not know. Look, I am not prone to recognize good defense myself personally. I can tell when someone gets to steal. But you know, I just don't. I am a ball watcher, right, which
means I am not a student of the game. The students of the game like Mark at all. They see it all. Coach Patino always amazed me. And Mark is the same way where he can watch a just and I think I've used this example with you before where it can be a standard you know, initiation to the right or or even before the initiation we're doing downscreen pop outs. Point guard throws it basically a motion offense. Point guard throws it to the right wing, meaning he
screens away. Big men screen away. So now we've got two guys coming to the ball. I mean, just just basic standard motion offense. He could watch that run for thirty seconds and then he had the ability to in fifteen seconds dissect and communicate everything that the offense did wrong and everything that the defense did wrong, and then communicate the corrections. And that's the way Pope is. And then you add this staff and this staff, I mean, we heard, we had all heard they were man, he's
putting together. And I'd hear this from you know, national pundits or you know national people in college basketball. I would hear this that this is I mean, I know you all may not have known who this guy was before now, but this is a guy. Yeah, this is a guy. This is this is the guy you want. Coach Figer, Coach Figer, Coach Hart, Coach Brooks, even Coach Fox.
I mean, with Coach Fox, you've kind of got that senior statesman of you know, he wasn't necessarily wildly successful in his college career coaching, right, but.
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What's up, Everybody, My name is Sammy John. Tune in every weekday morning at nine am Pacific Standard time and hear my show called The Bridge. And what I do every weekday morning is I bring you the best.
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He's still coached D one, So he.
Made a name for himself prior to getting to George. Georgia didn't work out for him. Yeah, but prior to that, he was well known, well respected. I hope he didn't lose respect. What happened to Georgia.
I think wrote well respected.
I think is the key now because I think he is to me, to the guys, to the players, I think he's the one.
I think he's the.
One because I've told you just four we always had the assistant coaches, coach O'Brian Kochobi. We would go to Ka Chobe to complain about coach Patino, of course, and I have a feeling, right and not not that, not that any of players to complain about Coach Pope because he just has a way of Now, he'll he'll push you. I mean, you know there are moments where the guy, you know, they're running and running and he's just like, I mean it's it's like, hey, guys, we'll be here
all day, right. I Mean, he's got that attitude that Patino has of you know, get across the line, stop missing the stop make sure you're getting you know, I mean he is. He is a stickler for details, which he should be. But it's it's just fun watching him take the take the best parts of Patino and the best parts of as you said earlier, and and I appreciate you saying this, and I think it was all air, uh, but of Larry Bird, George Carl you know all I mean because in my world Mark Pope was coach by
Rick Patino. I'd forgotten about the fact he spent what nine years in the NBA.
Yeah, I mean, you know. And then Turkey.
We gotta throw Turkey in there, because Turkey came one of the greatest stories ever uh to us his former teammates of his. But uh, it's just interesting to find him take you know, bits and pieces from these from these mentors and become a mentor himself.
And he put it all together the other night, did plan the sideline, the halftime adjustments.
The last play that last underneath out of bounds. Oh my gosh, who thought that was coming?
And now we didn't we'd all seen it before. What you're talking about, the throw of the long throw. Yeah, I mean, I've talked about it and those of us old timers. Joe b used that you know who caught that ball on that play? Jack given Jack.
I was going to guess Jack because head.
Yeah, that play was called Rick Rick the name for Rick Roby.
Do we know what it was called the other day?
No?
Okay, but Roby?
Because Tom brought it up to Mark after the game. He yeah, and uh uh so, yeah it was that. I was. I was laughing when I saw that play. I had such a smile on my face. But anyway, coming back, we've only got a couple of minutes left in this segment. But did you sit there through the second half and did you just kind of nod and grin like I knew it? Or were you jumping up and down like a.
Maniacor both both jumping up and down like a mania. Look, I have struggled to watch, and this is this is nothing to do with cal Perry. This is how I am. I've struggled. I don't care what happens in the regular season. I don't care when we hit March. I become an idiot fan like the rest of us. Okay, I become I'm I get superstitious. I get like, oh, well, I walked in the room and we weren't doing well, so I'm walking out of the room, so we do well.
I mean, I become an absolute idiot. But the other night and the other night, even though it wasn't tournament atmosphere to me, because there was nothing on the line, There was nothing on the line. There is nothing on theline meaning win or go home, it wasn't that wasn't there. Now everything else was there that looks like a tournament except for the Michigan State Kansas game, where the heck
was everybody that was embarrassing. But I just I mean I sat there Washington, and I've watched it twice since then, and I mean, I'm like, if anybody, if anybody had doubt that, and a lot of people did that first twenty four hours that we were getting one of the best coaching coaches in college basketball, one of the most mindful coaches, one of the most motivating coaches. If anybody was gonna become if anyone needed to be the next coach at Kentucky, it was this guy. And a lot
of people doubt it. And I get it, and I've even had my You know, I know he's gonna be good here. I don't know how quickly he's gonna be able to be good and to me, even though the assignment wasn't completed against Duke, And I think that's important to remind everybody. Mark is the one talking about the assignment. The assignment is banner number nine. Not to beat Duke in the third game of the twenty twenty four to twenty five season.
That doesn't matter.
However, what did matter about that game is that no one knew how good we were, and I think that includes Mark. And now we know what we're capable of, right, and now we know how much better we might get. All right, I'm gonna even say that so much better we will get minus injury and things that are out of his hands.
And the great thing is he and his staff can break down his video pick it apart already have I'm sure they already have maybe four or five. That's what that's what coaches do, That's what great State is, right exactly. Yeah, we're going to talk more, of course, about how this happened. Kentucky's went over due with Cameron Mills. He is right here in the garage. You hear him on the UK network every game pregame show back in just a minute with our number two six thirty.
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What's up, everybody?
My name is me John.
Tune in every weekday morning at nine am Pacific Standard time and hear my show called The Bridge. And what I do every weekday morning is I bring you the best of South Asian music and.
Culture from around the world.
And that includes some of the most exclusive access to the South Asian music industry. I'll bring you world premieres and I'll bring you exclusive interviews only on Ruckus Avenue Radio.
Welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider. I re number two of our program. We were in the garage with Cameron Mills of course talking well so far we've kind of skirted the issue.
Well we always have to talk sient.
That's true. Yes, but we are going to break down Kentucky and Duke and Moore as we talk college basketball with Cameron part of our UK Sports Network coverage of the Wildcats. Well, let's go back to the game as it began. Kentucky gets off to the good start thanks to I'm sure this touched your heart three point shooting. But I thought Billis made a great point. I was bounced back and forth between the TV and radio. Sure,
Jack Gibbons down the stretch was giggling. It was so great here having a great time.
I like, I think we all were. Yeah, I mean yeah.
But at one point Bill has talked about and I had just thought this that Kentucky was really working hard to get buckets and everything was coming so easily for Duke. Did you see it that way?
Yeah?
Yeah, And to be honest, I kind of expected it that way. That was that was well, I think because and and I'm I felt I fell into the trap that a lot of other people do.
This is why I hate hate.
One of the reasons I hate preseason polls or polls in general, is because just because Duke is ranked sixth and we're nineteenth. We're the underdog. No, there's no such thing as an underdog until you get to March. There isn't because in March you've had a year to go by. You had a year for the media or more importantly, the committee to really evaluate these teams. And now we can more accurately put in one through seventy.
Whatever it is.
So, I mean, and not to get too sidetracked here, but the mere stupidity, arrogance, cockiness, self interest of bracketology and you know, well, I mean, we're in January and.
You guys suggest one thing. What for the average fan, which you are not. Stop It's fun.
It's fun.
So these people, so, these people, So these fans that come up to me after a loss to a team that was ranked behind us and can't sleep for three days.
That doesn't sound like fun to me.
No, some take it, you're right, Some take it away.
Some Look, we live in Kentucky. The reason our basketball program is what it is is because those fans, God love them, as much as they can drive me crazy with the importance they put on this I mean, ultimate life important some of them. If it wasn't for that we become an Indiana. We become a Louisville. I mean, we become a U C.
L A. I mean, yeah.
I mean, I mean when look Gillespie, we gave him two years, which is unfair in normal circumstances. But here and that, and that's I think why I've been so excited about Pope, obviously for a thousand reasons, but also nervous because I'm like, I mean, other than and and it's got to work and this and this is because he's our guy. I mean, for those of us who played with him, for all, for former players in general, that he has done an incredible job of embracing.
Back into the guys got off the bus and more.
Oh and a lot more.
For all of us, it's like, this is the first time we've got a guy I know, coach a Coach Hall played here. But I I read the other day he didn't graduate here. I didn't know that, But this is this and Coach Hall played years ago. Right for those of us that have played in the last forty fifty years, you know, hey, this is one of us.
He gets it.
He understands what it's like to be in this glass house, and he also has a love for this program that.
We all have. But now he's he's like, he's at the very top of it.
I mean, and for him, as he said, this is his dream job. I mean, when he quit Columbia Medical School and went into coaching. I mean, I honestly, I don't know this for a fact, but I honestly think like if he did his dream board, this was at the top and he got.
Here in eleven years.
Yeah, it's stupid, But what does that say, I mean, what does that say about how he climbed the coaching tree or to the coaching ladder and what he had done right to lead Mitch Barnhardt to his door?
You know the other thing, though, You're right, it seems like a pretty quick climb, except for the fact that look at all the things that had to fall into place for him to get here, for the people that had to say no or I can't talk right now, that kind of thing. But it because of all that, it was interesting that Barnhardt recognized, look, it's time for this guy. You know. Sometimes, you know, we all thought
Billy Gillespie. Ninety five percent of the people who weighed in on it thought Billy Gillespie was the right choice.
He was an up and comer totally.
However, there was that one person I've told you that and you know who it is who called me the day of the announcement and said.
You all just do you all just? And I'm like, I didn't make the decision and.
Found that out much later. Who that was.
I'm not going to say no, no, no, but.
But but I mean they were everything workout?
Oh yeah on day one, I know.
But everything fell into place for Mark. But there's a reason for that.
Well, it's one of the It's that thing where even though I don't believe in luck, it's like I do believe you make your own luck kind of thing, and that that has pope to a tee and always has been yeah, work, not just hard work.
But yeah, that's probably a majority of it.
Same thing intelligence in basketball. Intelligence. But I think this is the key for him is that. And I think this is what I've learned since he's been here, is that because he's so intelligent, because because he's so thoughtful. I mean, this guy's in his head in a good way constantly.
He is.
He is always thinking. And when I say thinking, I don't mean just about basketball. I mean thinking about other people's feelings. That story about Deb Moore and Pope in the article we were talking about just fe minutes ago, the New York Times article, the Athletic article. That story is Pope where you know Deb gives him some advice posted what was his first press conference.
She thought she had stepped over a line.
Well, because he reacted in a way apparently that yes.
And then the way I read the story, and tell me if and tell me if I read it wrong, But the way I read the story is he kind of popped at her, maybe a little bit.
It's kind of how I imagine.
But Deb was worried she'd overstepped her bounds, which I don't think she had. I think she was doing exactly what she should have done, which was to give the coach advice about dealing with the media.
And then Mark in the.
Article right, it says over the weekend, and it even mentions going to church, So that entire weekend, Mark has been thinking, I'm sure about other things, but including yeah, it was, and you know what, and it weighed well, I know it weighed on her because this is boss, this is my boss, and so but it weighed on Mark probably what she said and I think to be fair.
And again I wasn't there obviously, I don't know how he said it to her, because Mark's gonna be on with these coaches, like because he never yells when he never like you know, gets on you. When he does get on you, you're you are just I mean, you turn white, because he's not like that usually. So but he spent a week in thinking about it, and I think he was. I think he was as thoughtful about what she said as he was how he said it.
And and I could be making that last part up. I don't know.
I think on what I read, Yeah, that that's how I read it, is that he basically went back to her. However he did it and said not only you're right, but I think and maybe that's maybe that's all he said. But even doing that to me, that that shows self awareness. That shows and and and again I'm saying these things
knowing that's who Mark is. But it's just fun to see it come back out again, right, because that's who Mark was when we played it was it was apology if he needed to apologize, It was respect if he if he needed to be respectful, which he was always respectful. He was silly when he wanted to be silly, and we needed to be to be silly, like when we were all down, Mark would be the goofball and you know, kind of lighthearted, make the room more light heart. He
always had this ad. I've told you the story before. Lafter my very first practice, we're walking and I am like, before practice, I'm like, I don't know if I mean everything I've been told. I'm I'm going to be dead in thirty minutes, right, I'm not gonna be able to survive this. And my body is not prepared for this, even though my body had been preparing for this for at that point four or five months longer than that.
Maybe even we're walking out of that practice, my very first one, the beginning of the ninety four ninety five season, and Mark is walking in front of me as we leave mister Kyle's office and he says, and I'm desperate for some feedback, And I said, Mark, Mark, can I talk to you from Matt hey Man? I said, is that about as bad as it gets? And Mark being Mark, before he did anything or said anything, he thought about it. Yeah, that's about as bad as it'll get.
Man.
And I remember walking up all the way to the lodge getting lunch, thinking I can do this.
I can do this. If that's it, I handled it.
But I needed Mark in the position he was in after being here for a year, to tell me this is this is how bad it'll get. But I survived it so I can take more.
Cameron Mills in the garage, we're talking, of course, about Mark Pope and the Wildcats. We kind of got into the Duke game. We will get more in Wesson Bolts when we come back. As we talk about Kentucky's win, I'll call it an upset win, but Camera doesn't like.
We'll find out the end of the year.
Martacom six thirty w LAP Welcome back to the Big lewins Sider. We're in the garage with Camera Mills talking about Mark Pope, the Duke game, Kentucky basketball in general. As I said, we kind of flirted with actually talking about the game before we.
Get off imagines.
Hey, I'm supposed to run this show, but I don't let you exactly right, Yeah, through all these years I should know better, But all right, I started talking to you about how the game unfolded with three pointers.
Yeah, uh, and then.
It was it went Duke's way in the fron first half. Now, I've said this many.
Many times, the first half.
Yeah, yeah, And I've said this many many times. I always go back to something Steve Brown, former Kentucky defensive coordinator, said to us the assembled media just one day off the coffee sit. People simple make such a big deal out of a quote unquote adjustments at halftime. YEA, Ordinarily adjustments are just.
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What's up, Everybody?
My name is Sammy John. Tune in every weekday morning at nine am Pacific extent of time and hear my show called The Bridge. And what I do every weekday morning is I.
Bring you the best of South Asian music and.
Culture from around the world.
And that includes some of the most exclusive access to the South Asian music industry. I'll bring you world premieres and I'll bring you exclusive interviews only on Ruckus Avenue Radio.
Reinforcing what you practice, exactly, what you know you're supposed to be doing exactly. You're not doing anything new. People think it's like, all right, we're throwing out the game plan and we're drawn up a new one here in about eleven minutes. But that ain't the case.
It could be there, but do you know why what do you mean that the case?
We're not because you can't create an install a game plan in less than fifteen minutes, well, especially when you're playing a team like Duke. So my question to you is, what did Kentucky? What do you what do you think they talked about at the half? What did you see them do better in the second half that they did not do in the first half, thereby helping them win the game? Didn't do anything new, they just did it better. What did they do?
Well?
Let let let's talk about that first, because that that that that is definitely a pet peep of miment and because I think the adjustments at halftime, because I hear that from people a lot, and I don't know where that that and I'm not saying there are none but I mean they're minute, they're minute, they're like, Okay, maybe maybe we need to start, you know, on this downscreen, maybe we need to look at playing it a little different.
Right.
But the bottom line is you spent three days drilling into these guys' heads how we're going to play it, and then in the moment, on the in front of the big lives of national television, you're gonna change. That's not working, that's gonna make things worse. So if you believe in your game plan, if you have a plan to beat a team, you are sold out to it
through the completion of the game. What you do at halftime is you re emphasize and you make some minor adjustments, not to the game plan, but to how your guys are executing the game plan. It's like when Cow was here and everybody said his offense is antiquated.
That always bothered me, because look.
There's no such thing as antiquated. All you know what's antiquated. If we were still shooting into peach bass, that would be antiquated. That's not what we're talking about.
What we're talking about is everybody does.
It's just a different version of it. And the ones that excel at it, execute it. Yes, that is offense.
And look, there is very little difference between Pope's offense and Cow's offense, except Pope has got older guys who understand the game more just because they're older. They've been taught more, just because they're older. They played at this level more, just because they're older. And you've got a coaching staff that is drilling and drilling and drilling the same thing all the time, consistently into their heads about what our offense looks like. And remember the one last thing,
the bandwidth. He's got guys, because that's what he said, I'm good guys who can absorb this bandwidth that we're gonna get them. And then they go out and they've executed.
And what about the high volume three point shooting? How does that fit in? Because yeah, they might be running the same offense, just executing it differently, but they clearly shoot more threes than almost any team in the country.
Not yet they don't.
Not this year we shot we shot around twenty twenty five.
The first game.
Twenty five, we shot thirty five. We shot thirty five, but twenty five the first game too, Yeah, thirty five. The second game twenty five against Doo. Yeah we're not. We're not really coming close to leading the country in three point shots right now, not even close. Like if you and I know it's early, but if you look, you look at Kimpom. I mean there's one team out there, I think it's Wafford. Of all teams, like Wafford shot like I don't and it may not be so, but
I remember looking at Major, Yeah it was. It was a mid major that like, first of all, they had I think one team got up like eighty shots in a game, and I think it was Wolford. But like, there are other teams out there that are shooting more threes than we are. So I don't think at this point anyway we are shooting because Figure City wants thirty five threes a game. Yeah right, We've only done that once in two games and three games now and we've won all three of them.
So look there is here's the thing.
We're we are going to shoot a lot, and I think honestly it'll be a minimum of twenty five a game. But what matters more is not how many you shoot, it's how many you make. And with the exception of the fact that the mere fear of us getting off thirty five if you're scouting us, right, guys, we can't let them get good looks from the three, right, Okay, play us that way because once we are firing on all cylinders, which we're not yet, which is what's exciting
to me. Once we're firing on all cylinders, we're going to be the team where we're going to be able to hopefully beat you inside and outside, right, because that's what look if you are a three, this is why teams come in to rupt.
How did they beat us?
If it's an underdog team, right, if it's a team that we have no business losing to in the last twenty five thirty years, how did they beat us? There is one way, one way only that they beat us, and they lit it up from the three point line. Yeah, that's the only way they can beat us. So now you've got a team that is well should be if I believed in rankings, should be ranked in the top
five on Monday. Won't be, but should be especially considering well, let's see, and this is again the stupidity of the polls. Arkansas was one and one, We were two and oh and yet Arkansas still was one place in front of us in the eight people, duke, Now is what two and one?
We're three?
And oh why should they be in front of us, especially when when we beat them poul wise, just pole wise? Why are they better than us? We just proved they weren't, and we got a better record than they they are, and we won't leave frog them, We won't stupid.
I know better than to waste my time after all these years trying to explain what you mean to some people, mean to others?
You did you explained to it's fun?
No? No, no, beyond that, I mean, is it which team has the best record or which team is better than another? Oh?
Do they know which team is better than the other?
Guess work exactly right, exactly so.
Basketball is not a game of guesses.
That's why it hits double zero, and there are two sets of scores up on the court, up on the scoreboard.
Spend how we find out?
Too much energy.
Ing about this. I'm not venting. I'm converting the world.
I don't know anybody listen, By golly, he's right. I am never looking at it again.
Several that have at least told me that you know you're right. You know, why not not as many as I like.
Just to calm you down. That's the only they're taking the thorn out of your Pam. This is what they're doing.
I played in the at this at this place for four years. I won two national championship. I'm not saying I got everything right, but I'm telling you the things that I'm passionate about, I'm right about.
I understood, all right, we only got a couple of minutes back in this segment. But uh, tell me what impressed you the most about the second half and two minutes or less.
The consistency, the lack of panic. Good call, Yeah, I mean and again, upper classmen, upper classmen know we're down ten with five minutes to go.
We that's that wasn't our situation.
But nonetheless, we're down ten with five minutes to go, gay mid and over, we're up ten.
With five minutes ago came over.
That's what senior players, and I don't mean specifically, but upperclassmen, that's what they learn over their course of their college career. And we've got what twenty five of them on our team, right, I mean, it's absurd. The maturity le and I also think the maturity level is what leads to the unselfishness, the passing it is we not I. I think Marcus
drilled that into their heads. I think I think what he said about you know what was this quote of the press conference, we are you are not doing Kentucky a service by allowing them to wear right, uh, Kentucky cross their chest something like that. But yeah, the lack of panic in that game, the lack of emotion right until after the game. And I'm not saying they weren't celebrating in high five. I'm just saying there wasn't any
we're gonna lose this game. There wasn't Like I use myself, for example, my feelings on the on the bench against Duke in ninety eight when we were down seventeen. I was failing myself and my teammates with what I was thinking of feeling said that I was failing my teammates.
On the other hand, you were thinking, well, we've had a good run.
Well, I selfishly, I was thinking, well I've had a good run because who thought I'd win a national Who thought that.
This was my last? Well if we lost it in my last name, But you thought it.
Was going to be your last game?
Yeah, And that was the thing I was.
I was having a pity party in the meantime, Wayne jeff Nase, Allen Sheimu jamal Out. I mean, they're all out there fighting to get us back in the point where I can just step in there and hit a three that somebody did.
I'm wide open.
Somebody tapped out.
To that, Shemu tapped out to me. So but there was none of that in this Duke.
No panic, man, no worry, no we I mean, you know, I'm not saying there weren't self doubts in the moment, but man, it's a team. There weren't Yeah and that, that and that and the other thing real quick Andrew Carr and not just because of his points, but because he helped us to a degree.
And I want to come back to that because he's we haven't really talked about specific players in that game, but I want to get to that when we come back. There's so many you could go one through ten, which is what Mark Pope did. Of course, that death was was huge. It I don't back in a minut At six thirty w l A. P. Welcome back to the garage, where we find Cameron Mills sitting right across from me. We're talking, of course about Kentucky basketball and the Wildcats
win over Duke. All right, going into the previous break, you mentioned Andrew Carr. During the break we talked about three or four other guys, but everybody Mark Pope played had some effect on the game. You can make the argument Jackson Robinson, even though statistically not a great game, he forced Duke's hand defensively, he did some good things on defense. But you mentioned.
Well, I think number one. I feel bad because.
As we were doing the pregame show, kind of thinking about, all right, who who Who is shutting down Cooper Flag? Who's shutting down cone Ca Nipple? How are we dealing with these two freshmen right now? I'm not saying I'm not I'm not dismissing the rest of Duke's team, but at this point number one going into that game, Cooper Flag highly touted as he is deservedly so, he was not the number one score on Duke Steam. That was Conan Nipple.
I heard you talk about.
Cooper has had cramping issues. He's played I don't think any more than twenty minutes a game, and he's he is going to.
Be the number one draft pick. He's an amazing athletic player, though, But he's a freshman. And we saw that win. When did we?
Is he seventy seven?
All right, I'm changing everything I'm saying about him. Then he's he's not a freshman, he's.
A reclassified Oh my gosh, should be a high school senior.
This is kid.
I know who's going to stop him, and Andrew make is the logical choice. But Andrew, I think, and this is what I said pregame, is one through five starting lineup, probably our weakest defender. And even though Cooper got twenty six points and twelve rebounds, I mean and not that this shows you that he played great defense.
But Andrew had seventeen points.
Yeah, I mean Andrew, Andrew played his best game of the year when I was not discounting him but discounting that.
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What's up, everybody?
My name is Sammy John.
Tune in every weekday morning at nine am Pacific Standard time.
And hear my show called The Bridge.
And what I do every weekday morning is I bring you the best of South Asian music and culture from around the world, and that includes some of the most exclusive access to the South Asian music industry. I'll bring you world premieres and I'll bring you exclusive interviews only on Ruckus Avenue Radio.
Can he shut down Cooper? Well, I don't know if he did, if he didn't, but he had seventeen points on his own. He came to play, and that was obviously. I mean, you look at our just good on our scoring. Oh I had fifteen. He's been consistent. Amari had ten, ten points with how many rebounds, Actually he got his third double double in a row. You know, Lamont had nine. But everybody else, I mean, everyone else has under double digit scoring. So you've got Andrew, Amari and Otega. Everyone
else has less than ten. You look at Duke, you got Cooper with twenty six.
You got.
Come on from I think he's the one from Sudan. He had he had ten and then you got tyrees with twelve and con Knipple with fourteen, and then is it I mean you got to do with four, do with four and do with two? Yeah, so I mean even though we.
Didn't have our balance, yes, well, and.
You know what, And I think that's where I go back to going forward. Who are you gonna stop, who's gonna scout, who's gonna focus on? Where I'm thinking we focused on Cooper Flag? And even I even had somebody call me and say, how do we deal with this? And I'm like, you know what, I don't know my job.
You know.
When I saw the matchup, my first reaction was, oh, man, Flag's gonna foul mark or Andrew Carr, it's gonna fail him out of the game. He drew nine Cooper Flag drew nine fouls, but only a couple from from Car.
Yeah, well, a lot of that could have been he got buy car into the lane of somebody else.
But but Carr.
Didn't foolishly grab him or try to block a shot.
Seniority, thank you wisdom.
Yeah.
And at the same time, and this is no offense to Cooper, because I cannot say enough about how incredibly talented and athletic he is, but what happened at the end of that game? Who made the three biggest mistakes At the end of that game, he got tired.
Now, he should not have had the ball in the corner. They should have the point guard hand right. But I thought Duke as a team, and a friend of mine last night just said to me, who was at the game watching with his wife. Middle of the first half, he turned to his wife, said, these guys are tired, Duke.
Why do you?
I mean, I think and I'm guessing, but look, he's had these cramping issues.
He's seventeen years old.
He never played this much.
He never played this much basketball practice. He's never gone this hard. He's never been pushed this hard. And I don't care how talented he is. And that's what's scary about him is that this year, this year at Duke, he's gonna be.
A my March, your favorite.
That's right, He's gonna be a monster. Technically April is my favorite. March's preparation. Hopefully you can get to April. But yeah, I mean, I just as a team, the team showed up for Kentucky.
Yes, the name of a weak documentary.
By the way, it is the name of a good documentary that hopefully bearing on Channel twenty seven here in the next few months, the next couple of months. It's also another fantastic documentary actually Immy nominated called Out of the Blue, but it's another story. But I just think going back to the fatigue thing that is a Rick
Patino special. And yet Mark Pope and his team was able to wear down Duke University and their number supposedly number six ranked team in the country without pressing full court for forty minutes and not to pat myself on the back, but pregame at least I hope I said this on air because I know I thought it, and I know I talked to Dave about it. But there's got to be a way. Is Mark gonna find a way because conditioning is as big to him as it is to coach b So Mark's gonna find a way too.
If we move the ball, you know what I think I did say this on there. If we move the ball the way we typically do, because it's what you learned this in elementary school, middle school. Make the defense work on defense, right, I mean the way we whip the ball around. I mean you're gonna have their big guys have to run out to challenge guards because the.
Way we move and I mean just the way we play.
I mean, you're gonna have fives on ones and fives on twos for them. And if we could wear them down by by by, you know, because look, we want the best shot when the best shot comes, but at the same time.
You don't.
You're not going down jacking up the first shot you get because you're not making the defense work. So the more you make the defense work, even in a half court setting, the better chance you have of especially when you're dealing with a bunch of freshmen. And they are right, I mean, we're not we're the experience, grown men team. They are a talented, apparently team of seventeen year olds, which is just baffles my mind, which I didn't know.
Well he's seven.
Well I know, I know, I know it, right.
Exaggeration, So that was I think probably the more I think about. The most amazing thing to me is that we wore them down without forcing them into full court pressure constantly.
And that is amazing to me.
There's a great football axiom. I just realized it works for basketball. The best defense is less defense. In other words, if your offense stays on the field and you're forcing the other guys to play defense longer than you are, you've got a great shot at winning. If you come down and you can get you know, you can keep the other guys from scoring, and then you get the
ball away, take the ball away from them. But there and you're back on offense and you're forcing them to play defense for longer, longer than Yeah, not that you want to choke things down and be so deliberate.
Right, it's a balance, right, but you've got.
To force them to work on defense.
It's the same thing as what I said about the shooting.
Yeah.
Look, if you come down on transition and you've got an open three, then you take that. But if you don't have it, don't force That's why you don't force bad shots, right, forcing bad shots.
Let's the defense off the hook. Eat, don't let the defense off the hook.
It's almost a relief to them. Yes, yeah, we'll give you that shot all day. Yeah, and you know what, you hear that on the blue courts.
Even if you make it a couple of times, keep shooting it, dude, you need to hit this all day.
You know.
The most amazing stat to me for the entire game turnovers one for Duke in the first half, right, and only six in the second half, but three down the stretch like you said, and Kentucky only had ten for the game. So it was a fairly cleanly played game. And yet to your point, with the game on the line, it was the kiddies who made the miss.
Well, now, according to what I'm looking at, Kentucky had nine, which is I'm not saying blow ten because you said ten. I'm saying that's the goal for Kentucky's blow ten turnovers.
I've got the official statu sheet in front of me.
I've got the I've got I've got the NC do bla stat cheat in front.
Of printed off would you print? Are you printing off ESPN? No?
I printed it off UK Athletics dot com.
I'm looking at the same Really. Yeah, your says ten, nine.
Mine says ten.
Mine usually is ten or nine?
Mine?
Okay, Mine says Kentucky had nine turnovers, it says Duke had fifteen. No, Well, then somebody needs to go back and see if we even won the game, because according to this, what was final score on your statu sheet?
Dick eight to six.
Anyway points into paint. Oh yeah, we drilled them points in the paint. By twenty you.
Were looking at a different, different statu sheet.
I don't know what we're looking at. Then I got I got the final statue. Unless this is Duke Kentucky got nineteen seventy eight.
I got points in the paid in Duke forty six, Kentucky twenty six.
I don't know what we're looking at. Then what what?
What in the world are you looking at?
You had me scared that I was even looking at maybe the Oh this is how many we had with eight, it's left to go on.
No, you're says the same thing. What are you you're says the same thing. Mine says. Under turnovers, it says seven for Duke.
That's what I said.
No, I was looking at points off turnovers, exactly right.
Oh, this thing's gone off again. All right, we're going to rally soft turnovers.
We're gonna rally here soft turn points of the paint. We okay, all right, I got a break. I'm completely in the gate everything I just said in that second.
All right, we'll come back and talk more to Kentucky Duke in just a minute. In the garage on six thirty w LAP. All right, welcome back. We have figured out the mystery of the statue. Cameron was reading the wrong Cari can't read the stat on the wrong table.
I got excited.
He was reading points off turnovers, so which it is interesting though only fifteen to nine a Duke advantage, huge advantage in the paint, but Kentucky was bench points. And again that goes to depth. As we all, we knew Kentucky had more depth.
We knew that, but well supposedly people didn't because I kept bearing before the game that Duke had more depth, which again death meaning more talent won through en or eleven. But talent does it always win game?
See if you also, I hate to hate to direct you back to the statue, which I don't know how to read it. But Duke for the game shot thirty nine percent, including twenty nine percent in the second half, one of eleven from the arc. I think again, Cameron, that goes back to conditioning.
Yeah, yeah, the the mistakes in the last what would you say, five minutes, five minutes, Yeah, mistakes in the last five minutes. Keep going down to that sid I'm gonna race that box. I stopped looking at it. But yeah, the three, the three point shooting, because it's it's all, it's all legs. Yeah, I mean, and and again, let me make sure I've got this right.
Duke Duke shot seventeen percent from three toy, get that right.
In the second half?
Yeah again, Yeah for game, Actually.
In the second half, seventeen have a change of the game.
Yeah.
Four.
Ah, there we go. Redemption, redemption right there.
But yeah, no, I mean, it looks it's all conditioning, and that's what that's what you ought to expect from a group of you know, especially from the stars of Duke, like from the talent to guys, the celebrated guys.
I don't even think they're I don't. I don't.
I don't think their bodies. I mean, the fact that Cooper's seventeen, I didn't know that in bowths of my mind. But I don't think his body is even capable of getting itself into the kind.
Of shape it needs to to compete with the kind of shape we're into.
And again, I'm not being dismissed about I mean, I'm just saying we got ten dudes, yeah that play predominantly, and then thirteen guys fourteen guys total on the team.
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What's up, everybody?
My name is Sammy John.
Tune in every weekday morning at nine am Pacific Standard time and hear my show called The Bridge. And what I do every weekday morning is I bring you the best of South Asian music and culture from around the world, and that includes some of the most exclusive access to the South Asian music industry. I'll bring you world premieres, and I'll bring you exclusive interviews only on Ruckus Avenue Radio who are.
Running their tails off every day.
And again that comes from among other people, I have to say at this point, but a head coach who was told in his time in college with me, just like I was told, you were going to be the
most conditioned team in the country. Teams will might work as hard as you do, but no one will outwork you, and you are going to have the cardiovascular and muscles to what Because again, remember so just for game days were off days to us, because on practice days, all twelve of us, myself and you know, some other bench warmers along with me less so, but you got ten guys going full court for two and a half half
three and out three hours. In a game day, you only got two hundred minutes period, two hundred minutes to divide between eight nine guys. So game days are off days, and of course they would be for Duke as well. But if you work it the right way like Patino
used to do it with the full court press. Was it intended to turn teams over thirty five times a game as much as it was intended to turn teams over five minutes left to go in the game when the game is quote unquote on the line, And of course a lot of times by that time we were up by thirty or forty and I was in the game, so it didn't really matter. Yeah, But I think the biggest thing to me, and the most exciting thing to me was I think Marcus said for the last few weeks.
What he's anxious about, my words, not his, is I want to know where we are.
Sure you can't tell.
Exactly where you are when you blow right, stayed out, when you blow Wesleyan out, when you blow Minnesota, stayed out, when you blow what's the other team we played out Wesleyan, I said, Wesleyan, there's the other buck. Now when you when you blow these teams out, you don't really know how good you are. Now we're and he said, we're gonna find out. Everybody was saying that we'll find out on Tuesday. We'll find out on Tuesday. We found out
on Tuesday. And what we found out is you look, because if we're honest, we and Duke are honestly right their neck and neck, right, their neck and neck.
Okay, they played again.
You might see the same kind of game.
You might you might see the same kind of game you might not. Because here's the thing, and this is why I think Mark's focus on the quiet stuff, the focus stuff, the intentional stuff, is so important because you can have the best team in the world.
You literally can have the.
Best college basketball team in the world without any debate. You can be receiving every single number one vote, and you can go out there and lay in EG one particularly not sure. Again, it's why the games are played, and I know that's cliche. But we went out on a big stage, though I don't know the stage was any bigger than any game we've had so far other than our opponent. We went out on the big stage
against the big opponent, one way or the other. Whether the Duke could have been ranked one hundred and fiftieth, it's still be a big game for Kentucky fans and probably for ESPN especially. But we went out and we we played a complete forty minute game. You know, I mean, and again I think I am looking at the right
stat line here. I mean as much as Cooper what twenty eight points, twenty six points, seven to nine from the foul shot, he he won't one to five from free throw from three You said that nine of nineteen, so he didn't shoot particularly bad overall. To assist, had three turnovers and two of those two of those turnovers were pretty big. Yeah, But is plus minus minus eight?
Yeah? Are you a plus minus guy? See? To me sometimes that I am Sometimes I'm not.
I agree because to me it's like saying, are you an analytics guy? Yeah, sometimes I am, Sometimes I'm not. I cannot, nor do I think you should.
Plus minus might be terrible, but it's because of two or three of the guys that are on the floor with you.
Yeah, so well, I think I think the bottom line is when you get to analytics, and and and Marcus said this as well, you can go too deep into it. You can, you can go down a rabbit trail, and and and I loved it when he said that because I was like, good, Well, because think of it this way. In nineteen ninety eight, when we were playing Duke in the in the Elite eight game, right, if we're going by analytics, Coach Smiths not have had me in the game.
I had not hit a shot up to that point. I had not had a.
Particularly great senior season, right, Yeah, for the tournament I had. I had not had a particularly great senior season. I shot better my junior year than I did my senior year. From three, got more threes up. I think I did my senior year my junior year than I had my senior year. So if you go by the analytics and how well I was playing, I shouldn't have been in
that game when we were making that comeback. I mean, I just have I mean, but sometimes you go with your gut, And I think that's what I want as a coach, that is that dives into the analytics and puts his team in the position to win.
But then sometimes you gotta go with your gut.
And you know what, And I know fans will criticize that on the back end, sure on the you know, because the hindsight twenty twenty, I don't care. I mean to say that, you know, I can't believe he had him in the game. Look at look at look at this, Look at this, look at this, look at this.
Come on, dude, or more accurately, why was so and so on the bench?
That's what we've heard more than anything. Yeah, why was so and so on the bench when he can do this?
Is this?
Well, here's the thing. What you see is not what the coach. He's in practice.
That's right. You only see five percent of these dudes play. Coach.
He's the other ninety five percent of these guys playing, And what picks he picks up in practice goes along with the analytics to help he and his staff make the decision.
People look at teams as other fantasy teams, their stat versus stat Yeah, when it's anything, but.
I mean, especially in you. It's a perfect example.
I mean we went stat versus stat on this we would have lost, oh yeah, because we had never played, but instead we played.
And is conditioning an analytic rao?
Nope, it they can break it down as an analytic, but.
How do they know.
Oh you know, they can measure heart rate and this and that, but no, it comes down to who's tired, who's not well.
But here's what they can't break down, the mental fatigue exactly.
That's a great point. And as always we leave you on a great point, fun because there are so many.
Can we go back and leave that one that once segment right up? The statue wrong out of the show?
No, we have to come. I get to uh, I get to hold that over here for the rest of the season. I learned a valuable lessons.
It was so bad.
What that im how to read a statue?
No, I think the lesson is I'm not want to take a class on how to learn a stat sheet. I know what that box is for. I just am reading it stupidly right now?
All right?
Or was thanks for coming by love you man, all my best to your wife and your steps.
Thank you big reading, Big Big Book awards she got the other day.
I know. Congratulations. It's all on Facebook to do it. Thanks so much.
Good night from the garage and the Lexingtonangang.
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