Welcome to the Big Blue and Sider. Dick Gabriel with you on a Monday edition of our show. This is the usual Big Blue Insider, not the state wide because of basketball. Tomorrow on the road, the Wildcats take on Clemson part of the acc SEC Challenge. It is listed as a.
Nine to thirty start. You know what that means.
It'll be closer to ten o'clock. But just stay up a little later, you know, pot of coffee, all that stuff.
Catcher seven to zero.
Just an incredible start for Mark Pope's team. Maybe not that surprising given the schedule. With all due respect, but I don't know how many people expected the Wildcats to be duke or to average one hundred points a game at home ninety five plus overall. Don't know if the Cats will get that at Clemson. But whatever happens, you'll hear it right here on six thirty WLAP tomorrow night with Tom Leach and with Jack Gibbons, who's having the time of his life watching these kids shoot the basketball.
It's just so much fun. And I've I've teased him here on the show. I just love hearing Jack giggle when when the shots start going down and you know, he's never met a shot he didn't like. So yeah, it's been a lot of fun so far. So yeah, that's that's the man. Now. The women play an ACC team. They play at North Carolina. They go to Chapel Hill on Thursday, and we'll have that one for you right here as well. Darren Hedrick as the action for you
at five pm, four forty five pregame UK women. Kenny Brooks his team off to a great start as well. Volleyball begins on Thursday as well. The Wildcats last night learned that they will indeed host. They'll play Cleveland State coming up a little bit later on. We're gonna hear from Craig Skinner. We'll have more on from the players tomorrow. But we got a lot to do tonight, a lot to talk about, So we'll hear from Craig Skinner later on.
About drawing into the seam they call it a quarter the regional whatever, with Pittsburgh top seeded, top ranked, and guess who plays Pittsburgh to open up Morehead State.
That's right, So you got UK.
In the tournament, u OFL hosting Morehead State, and Western Kentucky is back in the tournament, so the state of Kentucky well represented when it comes to college volleyball.
Need to get the football.
And we're gonna keep talking about football for a while because there's a lot to do. If your Mark sto if you know this, but an embarrassing performance against the Cardinals of Louisville on Saturday, very disappointing, and I picked Kentucky by one point in the harrowd Leaders survey. But what I said was presuming Kentucky goes plus two or better in turnovers, otherwise it could be a long afternoon. And guess what they turned the ball over.
It was horrible.
The way Kentucky turned the ball over never gave itself a chance. Plus, it couldn't stop the run. Even if the Wildcats don't turn it over, I don't know that they win because they could not stop the run, which is something they did so well early in the years. This has been an incredibly frustrating, as you know, and confusing team compared to what Mark Stoops.
Has had in the past.
And that in mind our friend Mark's story asked a great question in the postgame press conference. I wasn't there, but I watched it after the fact, and he talked about the fact that Stoops teams have been known in the past for discipline and finishing games. That's why one of the reasons his program has been so successful. And we didn't see it this year, did we? And Mark Stoops admitted as much.
Oh, I think this year, you know, we didn't do a good enough job in an in any area. You know, there's just no ways around it. You know, we we failed in that area. You know, we didn't have the discipline that we needed. You know, we didn't play as good as we needed to. We didn't have a you know, as there's every level needs to improve, you know, an accountability needs to happen.
You know.
I think again I've mentioned it.
I think you've seen that, you know, throughout the sec the difficulty of just just constantly thinking.
You're going to go to a bowl game every year. Again, it's good.
I think it's three of sixteen teams have gone to eight straight. So we've we've been pretty consistent, you know, to that, I'll defend you know what I mean this year there is no defense on that. You know, I agree with you. It's just not good enough. You know, It's not like you know, we don't know how to how to do it. You know, we got to have good players, we have to have good coaches. We got to all do our part, and you know that that part excites me.
Toward the end of the news conference, somebody asked Duops about the fact that the fan frustration is really whipped up now on social media and elsewhere, and Stoop said he understands the frustration. He is as frustrated as the fans are.
I could promise you that we're going to get back to work. We'll get it fixed.
And you know, the the misery index, you know, goes around.
You know, it goes around.
And you know, for myself, you know it.
You know, I've been around a long time, and I'm.
Really concerned and concentrating and excited about the rebuild.
Fans got to wait a long time.
You know, I get to go to work tomorrow, and for that, I understand it, accept it, and I could promise you we'll go to work to get the team back to being a team that they could be.
Very proud of.
After the news conference, Stoops comes upstairs. This is the way it works every day or every Saturday and does as ready show with Tom. So that's why sometimes on the radio. He refers to his news conference, but he's already got his thoughts in order, and he's been talking about changes for quite some time because well, they have to be made obviously, not just in the way they do things, but personnel. They've not done a great job lately within the portal identifying players and you know, doing
the best you can with them. So he talked to Tom about the fact that almost immediately changes would begin within the program, but don't look for a change at the top of the coaching staff.
There's going to.
Be you know, new you know, incoming freshmen, there's going to be incoming portal, and there's probably going to be some surprises, let's be honest, and and and there's going to be a surprise and uh and you know again, we won't flinch. It's not like we're gonna like it or anything. If you lose somebody, you don't want to but it's not the end all be ah. It's like, you know, there's ways to replace you know, everybody, And you know, I don't want to say that about.
Me right now, because everybody will jump on that bandwagon.
Tell me if it.
Replaced me, everybody wants to replace me, right now, but I'm not going anywhere. My butt is going to work tomorrow and I'm gonna try, and I'm gonna be motivated as hell to get get this thing fixed and get better. So anybody that's wishful thinking that I'm not gonna be able tomorrow's has got the wrong wish because my butt will be in my office and we will. I can promise you we will attack this offseason and there's nothing for under lighthearted about it.
But I know, you know, if you can't laugh at.
Yourself for a moment, you know what I mean, then heck, you know I know, I know it's I know it hurts.
You know.
I said it in my press conference. I so appreciate the fan base.
And I have to admit Big Blue Nation. I was surprised and delighted and then mortified all in one afternoon on your behalf because I just didn't think there'd be much of a crowd.
I thought there would.
Be more Louisville fans quite frankly, but I know from talking to my friends and relatives over the Thanksgiving weekend that they were bracing themselves for another major letdown against Kentucky. They are so tired of seeing their team lose the UK. They weren't nearly as confident as Harry Douglas was. I saw him on one of the shows, probably ESPN. But basically, Harry Douglas was a terrific receiver in college and played a long time in the pros and I had forgotten this.
But in this Stev got a loose game in seven Harry Douglas caught three touchdown passes. So that game still frustrates him, and naturally he was going to predict when they asked him, Yeah, it's a big Louisville win. But I didn't hear much of that from Louisville fans because, as I said, Kentucky's owned Louisville of late plus every year. Jeff Brohm's team every year's only been there a couple of years. But it happened to Purdue. They pull off
a big upset and then lose to a weaker team. So, as one of my relatives said, we don't know which Louisville team is going to show up. Well, the good one did and the bad Kentucky team showed up. And Stoop's talked about discipline lack. He's talked about it for the last several weeks, lack of on field discipline, lack of leadership from older players, and I had heard some whispers about that coming from practice.
It was a bad mix. That's what happens with.
Teams sometimes, and that's on the coaching staff because they're the ones who mixed it up.
They have really no perfect way of knowing.
What it's going to be like when you pull players out of the portal, mix them with veterans, throwing some freshmen. In the past, they've had tremendous success, ten wins success. You get a guy like Courtney Love from Nebraska, didn't get to play a whole lot of Nebraska, played really well at Kentucky. They get a former All American, well once on an All American always Pops Johnson from Georgia.
He spends much of the year injured, so never really got a chance to play the way we expected him to play, with the kind of skill set that brought him to Georgia and made him an All American. And by the way, you got to throw in the fact that Eric Jackson was hurt, and I know it sounds like an excuse, but he was the pivot man when it comes to the run defense, communicating and making plays. That was a big, big setback losing him at first we thought for a week or two, then the rest
of the year that's what happened. But to me, one of the biggest problems and it will keep up on being a problem with Mark Stoops and his staff unless they figure out a better way to evaluate talent in the portal, is the fact that we're now in the portal era. That's not going away. There may be some guardrails put up for nil, but the portal's not going away. They may tweak it a little bit, but you're going to keep on seeing player movement like this, and it's
going to be vital to college sports. And what that did, in my opinion, was.
It removed one of the.
Great advantages that Stoops and company enjoyed as they built this program. You saw it when he arrived.
They weren't very good. What were they no?
Then they started adding players, good players, and they got better every year after that second year they improved. They got better and better and better because as they were adding good players whom they had evaluated properly as high school recruits, and many of them were two and three stars. But they started landing some four stars thanks to Vince Merrow and Mark Stoops. The bottom line was the talent level grew, and as the talent level grew, the ceiling raised, and so did the floor.
They rebuilt this program, they rebuilt the culture, and it took a while.
But they did it the way good programs do. They brought in. People would always ask me, what's going on in Kentucky? Why are they so much better now?
Now?
I see, I shrug, better players, better players, and more of them depth because they could go out and make it happen with recruiting, evaluation, coaching, game plans. Well, how do you put together a game plan every year?
With the new OC.
Stoops talked about quite a bit with Tom Leech and in his press conference a lack of continuity on offense at times that was crippling, and not to put everything at the feet of a group, but the offensive line has come nowhere near the quality of the old big Blue wall. And there were two or three big Blue walls that had really good years and then injuries and coaching changes and misevaluations and the old line just could
not keep up. Some guys did, some guys didn't, and that is the heart of your team because obviously it decides how long you're going to be on the field offensively, moving the change, scoring points, but it also dictates how long your defense will be on the field, and Kentucky's defense this year spent way too much time on the field. The best defense is less defense, and you go back and look at the most successful stoops teams, Fewer minutes on the field for the defense, and better field position
for the offense. I would love to break it down, and I'm sure somebody will field positioned consistently. This year for Kentucky was terrible, and with an offense that was sputtering. That's why you're averaging, That's what it's amazing if they got more than twenty points in one game.
There's a lot to do and we're going to talk.
About it over the next few weeks, you and I and we'll have a lot of guests on to chat about it as well. But here I'll leave you with this thought, if you go to the break, I came to realize that people talk about it's Kentucky just a basketball school. No, you know why it's a football school now? Because you had a clunker of a season right. That
followed a lot of success. Eight straight Bowl games, back to back seven wins seasons that back in the day people thought was absolutely impossible, and prior to those, a ten wins season. And yet Kentucky fans want to fire their coach. Now that's what happens at football schools. If you don't win eight, nine, ten games, fire the coach. Now you know you're a football school. Back to talkson volleyball live here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to
the Big Blue and Sider. It is tournament time for the UK volleyball team, and I'm sure you know by now they will host. The Wildcats will a subregional Kentucky at number three seed in the Volleyball Championship Tournament and the Cats will host Western Kentucky, Minnesota, and Cleveland State this week. Matches are on Thursday, beginning at four thirty
with Minnesota and Western Kentucky. Then the Wildcats at seven o'clock take on Cleveland State, and the championship match for the sub regional the next night at seven point thirty. If you can't get the historic Memorial Coliseum, well, the Wildcats will be on ESPN Plus and the ESPN app twentieth consecutive tournament appearance under head coach Craig Skinner, who, by the way, is the SEC Coach of the Year once again. Brooklyn Delay is the Player of the year.
Last year she was Freshman of the Year. Now she's Player of the Year. This is twenty five trips now to the NCA Tournament for the Wildcats, and of course, back in the COVID year twenty twenty which stretched over into the spring of twenty one, the Wildcats won the national championship. Each of the last two years they got to the sweet sixteen, and quite frankly, last year a lot of us thought the Cats would go farther than the sweet sixteen. They did too, but it didn't happen.
They're looking to go farther this time. Oh and I told just seven seven thirty whatever on Friday that could potentially change based on what they call TV selection. So I'll have the information for you here and on Twitter so well. UK Volleyball on Twitter and at UK Athletics dot com. Craig Skinner and his team meeting last night at the Coliseum to watch the selection show, and it was not one of the teams that had a live camera pointed at it, like, for instance, Morehead State, which
got the short straw, the shortest straw of all. The Eagles will play Pittsburgh in pittsburgh opening game. Pittsburgh, top seeded, top ranked Moreheads say, look, just take a set off the Panthers and go from there.
But that's gonna be tough.
Pitt is really really good. But you know, you got to see Moreheads kids celebrating some of the other teams as well. But Kentucky's become such a fixture now in the nca tournament that they don't burst into chairs. You know, they applauded, they were happy, they smiled, They knew they were gonna host, they knew they'd be in a tournament, and now they want to get down to business.
You know.
Craig Skinner talked to us afterwards and told us how Kentucky's first opponent he knows the coach pretty well.
Well, it's cool because a guy used to play against in college is the head coach at Cleveland State, so we get to relive a little rivalry here. But Chuck Voss is a friend of mine and we played against he was at Ohio State. I was at ball State, So we had some rivalries, but I mean it's every team in this tournament has a challenging draw in one way or fashion or another, and you know ours is no different. And you know, get the chance to play at home, which is awesome, and be in front of
our crowd again or a home crowd again. And you know, on the other side with Western and Minnesota, both have proven to be good team. So the challenges is beating Cleveland State and then then moving on to the next tough challenge.
So Chuck Voss, the head coach at Cleveland State, leading his team to its sixth Horizon League Tournament championship. On Sunday. Cleveland State be Green Bay three to two to win the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It was the first for the Since the twenty seventeen season. Voss has coached Cleveland State to all six of its Horizon League Tournament titles. Liebro Emma Walker for Cleveland State was
named the tournament MVP. So we'll, I'm sure say that name a lot, including Niah Hall or Nia Hall and Lake and Voss both made the All Tournament team. Kentucky should win, but you just never know. In a sport like volleyball, where momentum changes so quickly. It's unlike any sport I've ever covered. So again Thursday and Friday, we'll have it for you in ESPN. Plus the Wildcats opening up with Cleveland State after Minnesota, and Western Kentucky, which has a really good team.
Square up, a boy, the Big ten is really really good. Up next.
Ken Spencer of WHAS six thirty WLAP welcome back to the Big Blue in Sider joining us now is a longtime buddy and friend of the show. And as I always say, a guy knows what it's like to get hit in the mouth and a foot college football game. That is Ken Spencer of whs over in Louisville formerly WTVQ here in Lexington. And as I mentioned before, Kid, in your job, you cover both ends of the interstate, and you and I have talked all season long about how this Kentucky football program.
Is just sagging. Can I assume you weren't surprised by the outcome Saturday?
Actually I was a little surprised. My final score prediction was Louisville twenty eight fourteen, okay going into the game, so I was not surprised that Louisville won. I was not surprised that they were. They won by a couple of touchdowns, but I was generally surprised with just the complete physical dominance in the game by the Cards over the Cats.
And look, I.
Didn't think that Louisville was going to win despite Kentucky being the much more physical team. Like I just if you never really see that out of this Kentucky football team, can't expect them to show that kind of dominance over anybody. I mean, think about how many times Murray State got for the quarterback, let you know, to go yeah, and so so I wasn't surprised about that, but I was.
I was certainly surprised by that dominant physically in the game and just how easy it look like we kind of talked about like, look, Kentucky just kind of looks like a team that's just ready for the season to end.
Yeah.
They played like it, yeah, looking for a place to fall down.
Yeah, and you know through the years, and I was, I've talked about this last week. Buddy of mine and my brother always look them up in Louisville at the U of L game, and they.
Always said the same thing. Your linemen are so big. I don't know if size was the difference, but certainly execution.
And attitude were the difference in the trenches on Saturday, were they not.
Yeah, And I think that's kind of been a I think that's kind of been a sign of a lot of things over the course of this season in for this Kentucky football team. I mean, you know, we make so much out of you know, the cast offensive line and not being able to protect the quarterback. I think, you know, generally speaking like yards per rush, you know, I think they were fine this year in that department.
There was a couple of things. You know, they didn't break big runs, and they were really poor on short yarded situations, you know, And those two departments I think that they were they were lacking. But you know, in the in the general like down and distant stuff. I mean, I think they were fine getting the three the five to six yard runs and maybe you know, just a little bit longer than that every now and again. But those two departments they just weren't good. But you know what,
like the defensive line wasn't very good this year either. No, I mean, you know, in case in point, and I think Louisville and I mentioned and I after the game, I think I asked Louisville conning back to Duke Watson and true freshman running back at that I said, did you see anything from their game against Texas that allowed you that made you think you could have some success?
And he was like absolutely, because if you look back at that Texas game, I mean that defensive line and linebacker corps was just absolutely dashed the entire game into the running game. And in fact, when they got close and made it a game, Texas just ran the football all the way down the field. I mean we're talking like, you know, seven, eight, nine, ten yard runs each and every play, and that's just not something that you're accustomed to see from this defense.
Just was the case this year.
And you know, after that game, Van Hiles, who you probably know, I don't know if you've ever talked to Van, but former Kentucky d back analyzes a video on the internet. He said, that Texas game really illustrated just how much, to your point, they missed Eric Jackson. You know, not that one guy's to stop everything, but as you know, there's a ripple effect. You know, he knew he knows where to be or at least knew where to be and when, and he could execute.
Uh.
You know, I thought Kentucky's tackling against Texas and at times against Louisville was so poor. You know, Texas running back to bouncing off people that didn't happen with Jackson.
So plus they're worn down as well.
Yeah, and think about think about this. You know, sometimes it's football can be a game of a half a second. Yeah, and Derek Jackson is somebody who's who's seen it all. And so if you're there, you know, a second or you know, not even a second, but if you're there like a half second sooner, yeah, you know, the plays completely stopped. If you're a half second lay, the game's going for ten or more yards. And so you know,
I think you you probably saw a lot of that. Yeah, I mean Derek Jackson not being in the lineup absolutely, you know, completely stuffed him. But you know, even even him not being there at line backer, like you know, the front four, I mean, it just it wasn't a good day for them, you know, at all. And it really wasn't a good season for that unit.
No, no, And you know the craziest thing was after the Old Miss win, for the next week or two. Can I heard some of the regional and national talking heads speaking of the Kentucky defense and using words like elite and when you go back and look at what they did against Georgia in ole, miss, I think that was fair. And then the bottom just fell out. Injuries took their toll. Uh, the offense left the defense out on a field.
For so long. So yeah, it was not clearly not a typical mark shoots defense.
No, not no. And you're right, you know you mentioned national talking heads. I mean honestly, like I said that about Kentucky's defense.
Familiar national you're big.
Time, Yeah, but I would say that about kntective defense after the old Myth game, you know, one of those things where you know, you don't know if they can score enough points to win a bunch of games, but they're at least going to stop people. And they they stopped. They stopped people, and to be honest with you, sometimes like they were their own worst enemy on that side
of the ball as well. Fifteen yards, you know, with penalties and mistakes and different things along that, like like you know, all of the stuff about you know, there's so much there, but this just wasn't a disciplined football team from the from the penalties, from the assignments. Like you know how many times you know, after I always say this after the Old Miss game, how many times did this team just not look prepared and focused?
Exactly? Yeah?
And so like to me, when you don't have a team that's prepared and focused, man, that's that that starts at the highest position and then it works its way down like if you're not prepared and focused, it starts at the top.
Looking.
What did you make of Mark Tup's postgame comments.
I made of the postgame comments? I mean it was I think it was much of the same that we've heard pretty much all year. Not good enough, not going anywhere, going to put in the work. Like I've said this, and I've said this to my kids, and I've said it to other people. And this has nothing to do with about Kentucky football. This has everything to do about everything. But I think it still stands true here. It's easy to use words. It's easy to say I am competitive.
It's easy to say we're going to go back to work and we're going to get this fixed. But do your actions back.
Up your words?
Yeah?
Like like when the hours that you're putting in each and every week to get this right, to get this fixed. Are they matching the words that are coming out of your mouth. Nobody's at you know, we're not in that complex. We don't see the things. But the proof in the pudding on the field doesn't match the words that are coming out of the mouth.
Yeah.
You know, I got to thinking about everything Stoop said, both on the radio and in the postgame news.
Conference, and I thought back, kent to.
When he first got here, a young, younger decoordinator looking for a chance to prove himself in a big boy league.
And he did that.
And he came in and he was a dervish, a buzz saw, whatever you want to call him. Brought a great friend and Vince Merrow built a good staff.
He's had some issues there.
But you know, he knew he had a plan, the blue collar, youngstown approach of coaching football, and he did it.
But now that approach would work to a point.
But when you mix in the two things he abhors and every coach does the portal and nil, It's just I can't imagine him, you know, trying to throw himself back into this job the way he did twelve years ago because everything has changed so much.
Yeah it has. And you know, you mentioned, you know, twelve years ago when he got the job and he came in and the mindset that you have when you've tasted success, and you know, let's be honest, when you win, you know, what is it ten games and three years or you know what I mean? When you had ten win seasons or whatever a couple and that many and that timeframe at a place like Kentucky that's just not used to ten win seasons and then all of a sudden, you know, and look like it's all this is all
part of the conversation. When you're making nine million dollars a year like now at this point, you're living on the yacht and can you have the blue collar mentality when you feel like you're on the yacht now? Some people can't. Some people keep it?
Did he keep it?
Like I said, I'm not in that. I'm not in that facility. I don't know, but what I'm seeing on the field says it seems like somebody took the foot off the gas.
Yeah, don't know how, when or why, but it was pretty evident this year and a lot apparently it will be happening fairly quickly in terms of personnel, according to Stoop's players, and he's hoping.
To keep his staff together over the next year three weeks.
Here's I Here's what I would also say, Dick. This is my opinion, and you may agree with it and you may not, But like, this isn't this isn't a this wasn't in my opinion, This wasn't a twenty twenty four problem. This was this was. All of these things that we're talking about now they took place in twenty twenty three. But the biggest thing that happened that masked everything was they beat Louis at the end of the year.
Yep.
And if they don't win that game, everything that we're talking about right now we would have talked about last year. But that mass and it was a band aid over a lot of stuff. And so instead of all of this coming to light after one season, now you've had two seasons of erosion. So it's probably, honestly, it's probably worse now than if it would have taken place last year.
Ken Spencer, my guest sports director whas formerly WTVQ, We'll come back and talk basketball with Kent on the other side of the break here on six thirty WL, Welcome back my guest, Kent Spencer, sports director, whas over in Louisville and worked for several years here at WTVQ in Lexington.
And being in Louisville, Kent covers both ends of the interstate.
As I said, so now Kent, Kentucky basketball fun. Everybody's happy, Louisville basketball fun. I don't know if everybody's happy over there, but they got to be happier than they were because good things are happening on both ends of the interstate, which means means all is right with our world when it comes to covering college basketball.
Right.
Oh yeah, look, look I think I think Louisville fans and the Battle for Atlantis had so much fun, right, Like, first off, they beat the Brakes off of Indiana, and then they come and win a hard fought game against West Virginia. They're in the championship game of that tournament. And what a nice response for them after getting blown out at home by Tennessee a couple of weeks ago.
So you know, like there are they're already starting to match like win totals under the Kenny Paint era and certain and certain points right like like this is this is like there they are. They're on cloud nine. And I think for for Kentucky fans, like yeah, I mean, you know, I've been asked this a couple of times and I would say this, like, has anything gone wrong for Mark Pope Yet Nope, Like he said all the right things, He's done all the right things. They've had
the results on the court. You know, there's the video of the Duke game and him calling what Cooper Flag was gonna do? Like you know, all of these things are are are are happening and in the right way, and it really feels like this is a team that people really like as far as personality, how they play, the style. You know, it's just it's all it's all really well right now.
You know I mentioned this more than once, and forgive me if I'm if I'm boring people with it, but I just think it's vital. Jack Gibbons made this point. And by the way, if you haven't had a chance to listen to Jack, because I know you work a lot, but he is there's so much joy in his voice watching this team, especially because they're always jacking it up. You know, Jack was a shooter, unabashedly, unapologetically, and he loves what he's seeing. But he made this great point,
Kent in this third or fourth game. He said, it's so refreshing to see this team working when the shot clock is winding down and a play has broken down and they fix it among themselves. They don't stop as freshmen need to do and turn to look at the bench, so their maniacal coach can wave his arms and scream and yell and direct traffic. They know what to do, and it's it's kind of fun to watch, isn't it.
Oh yeah, I mean, you know sometimes it's it's changing the way that a game is played. You know, I thought, going back to a couple of weeks ago, right like in the first half, Duke's physicality was almost overwhelming to them in the first half, and they really struggled with it because up until that point, you know, when you're playing directional team U, there's not a whole lot of that going around. So they they had to adjust to that, and at halftime they adjusted to that, and they just
kept chipping away. Like in the NCAA tournament or in college basketball in general, I think you have to your way just can't be the only way. You're going to have to win different ways. And for me, it proved that that team can win a different way. They still scored seventy seven points and they had not a very good night offensively at all that game, and you found a way to win that game. And so there's one thing.
You know, some some national folks out there will tell you that this Kentucky team and they're breaking down like other teams and stuff like that, and they're like, this Kentucky team is close to their ceiling. And I would I would push against that because this team has a new coaching staff that's only like Jackson Robinson is the only dude who's played for Mark Pope, and they've got
so many new pieces. Yes, are they older, absolutely, but are they close to their ceiling in my opinion, when it comes to getting used to each other and this system on a court in the heat of the moment
in games, absolutely not. I think it's a lazy take to be, to be quite honest with you, because they can, you know, being comfortable with each other and knowing what somebody is going to do in the fight and the fire is completely different, and so I think that this team still has a long way to go as far as you know, reaching their ceiling. But watching them right now has it's been a lot of fun.
I was gonna say that's the next thing out of my mouth. You can tell these kids are having so much fun. They were all either good or very good players at their previous schools and they have a chance to do something great and they're really enjoying it.
Best best person I think to look at in regards to that, there's actually two people that I would actually try to point out here. Number one is honestly like Kerk Crisa, Like I mean, think about like the player that he was at Arizona and I didn't really watch it much at West Virginia. As the player that he was at West Virginia. I mean, he is almost like
th thrilled. I wouldn't call it taking a back seat, but I would say he's thrilled to be unselfish, yea, Like he has completely given himself to this team to the point where like sometimes I think like he's too unselfish, And I mean, look that doesn't say like every now and again he pulls a forty five footer. But you know, but like I think like he's been almost like the ultimate team guy coming off the bend, you know, all of that stuff. And then you know another guy is
is Jackson Robinson. You know, he's the guy who's been in in Mark Pope system and clearly, like you know when when Pope talks about you know, like being unabashed and making sure that you've got to take the shot when it's there, you've got to take the shot. He does it without hesitation and not in a selfish manner, but he just does it because he knows how this offense is supposed to run. And that's what other guys are still, in my opinion, still still figuring out a
little bit. But in that Duke game when he struggled, you look at the clips and you look at the stuff of him down the stretch and them getting stops defensively, and how engaged he wasn't in the game because it's not about him. Member he came back to to improve his NBA stock in part well, that game he didn't really probably improve his NBA stock, but he didn't care. He was fully invested in the moment.
Man.
That's that's the good stuff.
Hey, I guarantee you it's some NBA Scotts. Notice that, and you know and why wouldn't you?
So?
Yeah, it's Ken Spencer, sports director whas follow him on x or Twitter or whatever you call it at WHS Elevan Kent. You can follow his work at WHS eleven dot com.
Thank you, brother seed down the road.
Hey, thank buddy.
Up next Tour.
Number two with Maggie Davis of BBN Tonight and doctor John Wong.
Author sportswriter. Back at just a minute.
You're on a big one sider six point thirty w l APERG. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider joining US Center Celebrity Highline is a fixture on our program. Here in a fixture on UK sports. Maggie Davis, who is an anchor, reporter, producer, editor, writer.
She does it all for BBN Tonight.
Of course all of you all do everything right, I mean it's good old mid market TV.
Everybody has to pitch in.
Yes, it is good old fashioned teamwork.
Right about that.
There's a seven person sports department at LA eighteen and we do not take it for granted, but we also don't take any little piece of this job lightly. And so yes, all seven of us can pretty much do every other person's job as well, so we all can sort of bleed together in that way, which is very good, especially this time of the year, as you know, although oh yeah, it's looking up a little bit with football season unfortunately in the horizon of for Kentucky.
Yeah, no ball game, so you can concentrate on basketball. Let us start with basketball. I've been kind of going football heavy a little bit in this show. But when you started making plans, just kind of daydreaming a little bit about this basketball season, because you guys have the nightly show and a show on Saturday, did you ever think did you ever dream that the start would be this? I don't know how they're going to finish, but I think this start has caught a lot of people by happy surprise.
I think that's absolutely fair, and yes, it has certainly taken me by surprise.
I think the.
First moment I started thinking about it was actually at that Mark Pope press conference at Ruffereo. I'll never forget what he said. We'll never forget he said. Last season my team was second in the country and three point shot attimpts over the course of the season. You know, everyone cheers and almost kind of drowned out what he said next, which is, but at Kentucky, we don't like
coming in second place. And just that was really everyone's big introduction to Mark Pope, right, and you could go back and you know, the diehards can read all this BYU stuff and sort of read about his coaching trajectory and the kinds of teams he's had in the past, and obviously that offensive philosophy starts to take shape. And you hear him make a statement like that before he even has a roster put together, and you're like, all right,
this guy is dicking with this plan. He's taking it very seriously, and no matter what the roster looks like, it sounds like he's building a program that's going to be completely different than the one we've gotten to know over the last decade plus. And that system works for
a very long time here. But I think that statement by Pope at that first real big press conference of we don't like coming in second place, even in the context of a percentage and number of three point shots taken throughout a season, well, that's really when it started clicking, at least for me in terms of all right, that's what this team's going to do. Now can he build
a roster to do it? And then you saw all the pieces sort of trickle in, one by one by one, and every single piece on this roster really with the exception the only exception being Amari Williams as a guy who you didn't expect to come in and take three pointers or a bunch of jumpers or anything like that. You're like, all right, well, he's brought in the pieces to fit that statement, and the real question mark is
just how does it all fit together? And that's the part that surprised me, although maybe shouldn't, just because of the experience. I think you see that, you know, across the nation the last couple of years, really since the explosion of the portal, some teams said better than other teams, no doubt, But the experience factor and the maturity that comes with it, I think is a big part of that equation.
I agree, And I keep thinking back now to the preseason interviews we all got to do because you know, as you recall, now they can have workouts in the summer, so now we can have access, and they were nice enough to make them available because we were bugging the
crap out of them. But I just felt like these these players because of the maturity level, you know what I mean, Maggie, they you know they they've they've done interviews before, maybe not a scrum of reporters like they see in Lexington, but you're not a little bit older and wiser, and they were a little bit more relaxed. And I think that that's one reason they've come together like they have.
Does that make sense absolutely?
I think it also gives way to how unselfish this team has been so far, and that's really been the defining feature to this point in the season. That's what Pope has preached the most. That's what in all of those scrums that you're talking about, the players have talked about the most. And when you look at their numbers just throughout the course of the first real love of games here, that's what really stands out. Obviously it's easy
to say, shoot it. You could talk about percentages, but let assist the turnover ratio has been a huge talking point and it really goes back to exactly what you were saying, that maturity, the understanding of coming becauther. Most of these guys really for their last season you know, a big chunk of them as fourth, fifth, sixth year seniors, and they understand the magnitude of what they're doing, they
understand where they are doing it. This is a theme that talks so openly about the start of the Jersey and everything that Pope has said that he took the job. He has built a team that understands and respects this program as much as he does, which is hard to do when you are plucking guys from all across the country, from different hometowns, from different programs, different walks of life.
A couple, you know, Amari Williams is from another country and he comes in and understands what it means to play at Kentucky. And I think you're seeing that. I think we saw it in the Duke game. We saw that experience in the fight really come out, maybe to a lesser extent in some of these non conference games, but you even think about the Western matchup, and that was a tough game for these cats. That was a
physical game. They didn't get into a rhythm, they weren't able to play like how they wanted to play, but they still were able to just gut out of win. And I loved what Pope said after the game about this kind of feeling like a first round in CAA tournament matchup, like maybe it's not perfect, but all that mattered was you were able to realize that you had to get this done. This wasn't one you could just let slip away. And Kobe Braya had talked about this too.
He said, we understand what we're doing right now, and we understand what a loss will change, and we don't want to feel that yet. We're not ready to feel that. We're deep into this schedule and we're not ready for a letdown. And I love that perspective from him too.
Absolutely. People talk about winning streaks and pressure. I know it's a modest seven games, but you know it's a great way to start, and you can understand why they want to protect that now. Tomorrow Night's game on the road later in the evening, And I don't know, honestly that much about Clemson, but it's an ACC team, so another and they've already beaten one ACC team, so you know the challenges are beginning to pile up, aren't they.
Well, I'm excited for this week. This is a week I've had circled really since the beginning of the season. I think Kentucky fans generally speaking, looked at this schedule and said, all right, Duke, all right, first week in December, all right, locull and those are the first, you know, couple of big games that stand out, and you want to see him take care of business in every game in between. You'd love to see him continue to win
by thirty. Right, But these tests are really the ones that get circled before the start of the season, and they're the ones where we truthfully learn the most about this team and its potential. And we saw such a good picture of that against Duke and the Champions Classic, which I don't remember honestly, Bick if you were there
or not, But that was a rowdy environment. But I would say it was probably fifty to fifty, maybe sixty forties just Kentucky fans, Like there were certainly Duke fans in that building that will allow, but it was still an environment that chanted go Big Blue, and there were plenty of Kentucky fans making noise in there. I don't know what it's going to look like in climbs in
on a true road test. This seem's first real taste of that and you know something about that Orange, I think it just might be a little crazy in there. So I'm excited to see how they handle that. And then of course, I Daga has looked really, really good to start the year, so I'm excited to see how they handle not exactly a true road test, but for all intents and purposes, basically a true road test, flying all the way up to Seattle, and how they handle that.
And it's just a new wrinkle, And that's what this time of the year is all about. That's what makes it fun. And you know that there's still a good chunk of the season left regardless of what happens. But if you can come away this we's feeling good, looking good with two good wins. That continues to build this momentum much.
Yeah, and you're right, it's not the home arena for Gonzaga. But whenever you make that job made that flight more than once to Seattle. It's a road trip, trust me, you know your body has to adjust. But yeah, that's all part of it. We're talking to Maggie Davis BBN tonight you see it on l Exa team. We'll come back and talk a little more basketball and some football with Maggie on the other side of the break here on six thirty WLAP here's Maggie and three two welcome back.
We're talking with Maggie Davis. He is the anchor, co anchor and the producer, just does it all for bb and tonight BBN Game Day along with came in Keith Farmer and the crew they have over there at l e X eighteen. Kenny Brooks not to be outdone by Mark Pope. You talk about a fun style of play, and he cobbled his team together. Maggie, much like Mark did I need a piece here, a piece there, I need this, I need that, And I don't know if
you got to everybody you wanted. But thanks to the fact that he got Georgia Amore and a couple others that he really needed.
What a great start.
Absolutely and the one thing I will say that, unlike Mark Pope knock on Wood to this point is Kenny Brooks has had to deal with some serious injuries to start the year. They are down two players that they really felt like would be contributors on this team. You know this preseason talk, practice, early summer whatever. You don't know exactly how it's all going to shake out how
many minutes those two pieces would have burned. But regardless, those are two valuable pieces to a roster that, like you said, really had to come together quickly and maybe isn't as big or as deep as a typical roster would be. If you had a full cycle to add in freshmen, you'd have a big chunk of returners. You
maybe grab a couple from the portal. You don't have the luxury of that when you're hired over the offseason and you're tasked with building a roster in such a short amount of time, and then to lose two key pieces between that time and your first game, I think it's absolutely dutch, a devastating mark on a program, and Kenny Brooks has really I mean, he talked about it a little bit early on.
But he's not harped on it.
It's not been an excuse and it really hasn't dampened to anything. At this point in the season. This team has looked so good, like you said, a fun style
of play. I loved what he talked about this a couple of weeks ago, I think it was right before the Louisville game, and he got asked about the crowd and you know, maybe not the attendance they were expecting or hoping for the first couple of games, but obviously felt like there would be a great turnout for that Cats versus Cards matchup in Memorial Coliseum, and obviously there was. But beforehand he was talking about the fan attendance and he's like, listen, we get it, like we have to
prove what we are, what we do. We are fun to watch. And he said, as soon as you get somebody in this building and they say, oh my god, he has a six foot five girl bring in the ball up the court and then she can pull up and shoot it, well, maybe I'll buy another ticket and I'll come to another game too, And I'm locking in from the teeth and because this team is fun to want. And I loved that perspective, and I think he is absolutely backing up everything that he's saying to this point.
It's making a fun to watch volleyball opens up at home.
You knew they were going to host.
They happen to be in the pit regional or quarter or whatever they're calling it. But I wondered how many people who followed UK Volleyball thought Kentucky would a win the conference championship and be get to host again. Player of the Year Brooklyn the Lake, Coach of the Year, Craig Skinner. It's incredible what he's.
Done over there.
It really is. And you talk about surprise, etc. You look at this early time or non conference part of the schedule. We talk about it on our show almost every season, Dick. I'm sure you do too, and you call so many of the games. You know this as.
Well as anybody.
But every year, Craig Skinner schedules like this and some years ago is better than others. Right, a couple of years ago they were able to really go on a run through that non conference and you're like, all right, this team is really good because they handled that like champions and then could just sail through the SEC. That's not what this season has been like. This season was tough. At the beginning of the year was a grind, and
they truthfully did not handle everything. While they were changing a lot about how they're running their offense or defense they're serving has been so tough. I mean, they were really struggling just with service errors. The start the year was really the defining sort of statistic in so many of those early season matches that you just felt like, man, this team can be good. They have great pieces. You
brought up Brooklyn Delay. I mean, you have an offensive weapon like that, how are you not winning some of these games? But they just were making so many errors and so many mistakes. You didn't know how they'd be able to pull all the pieces together. And I think the culmination of a couple of pieces around Brooklyn Delay stepping up. And obviously you have the coach of the year at Craig Skinner, who has shown his magic and
his word season after season after season. I don't know why anybody doubts him at this point because he's always able to figure out a way to get his team to be playing their best volleyball at the right time of the year. And that's exactly what we're again this season.
Well at the other end of the campus, of course, is Kentucky football, and man again, high expectations by all of us, and I'm sure the coaches and players did too. You had a terrific defensive line, you had the transfer in a quarterback, you had a transfer in an All American linebacker, and after that, old Miss upset and everybody said, well after that South Carolina lost, now they're back on schedule.
Then it all fell apart, and I know injuries had a lot to do with it, but and you know, I've been around for a while.
This is one of the more puzzling seasons I've ever covered. How did you see it?
Well, you know, just sitting here thinking about our conversation about the volleyball team and how they're playing their best at the end of the year, and that's really what we've come to expect with that program. And then you
contrast that to this new conversation about football. I just think about some of the conversations we had in Week two South Carolina, we three Georgia, some of those early season games, and like the potential we saw, but also the issues that were a parent right from the start, especially in that matchup with the Game Cops early.
On in the year.
And then you look at the back half of the schedule and I don't think that Kentucky made the appropriate changes to say that they were playing any better at the end of the year than what we saw early in the season. And absolutely injuries is a big part of that, but that also comes down to your program. Your culture, your coaching staff, and your ability to adjust. And I think this program, historically, speaking under Mark Stoops,
has done a phenomenal job of adjusting. There have been devastating injuries on this program in years past, and I mean the Lend vote in season is the perfect example, right. I mean, that's the very obvious one of you have a devastating series of injuries, and yet by the end of the year, you do feel like you're playing your best football because you just have guys out there who want to win, who are working hard, and you really felt like one cohesive unit. I think that was the
missing this season. It never felt like this group got it together as a cohesive unit. And think about the offensive line issues. I didn't see a lot of improvement there by the end of the season. You think about the wide receivers and the guys that you thought this team would be built around, I'm not sure that they got better by the end of the year. The defense,
I think, really struggled as the season went on. I mean, in some of those early season games, like they were stopping the rush at every point of attack, and the D line it Fit in particular, was dominant and by the end of the year, it just wasn't that force anymore. And so I think that is really, when you look at it from top to bottom, that's the most frustrating,
like you said, puzzling part of the entire season. It's because you did have all of these great individual pieces and maybe you say, all right, we don't know exactly how they're all going to fit together at week one, but surely by the end of the year, you've had weeks and weeks and weeks to get this together, to put these pieces in place and to be playing your best football, and they just works. And that's the issue for me and so many others.
I think, what did.
You think of Mark Stoop's comments both of the media and I don't know if you heard the comments he made to Tom Leech, but he tried to, I think, reiterate the fact that he's got the energy and the willingness to turn this thing around. Like he's trying to convince the big Blue Nation, which for the first time is complaining about a coach who is the all time winning his coach and led his team to a couple of ten win seasons.
But the Natives are unhappy.
And that's the hardest part of the whole situation is because he is the winning.
His coach here.
He has taken this program to places that had never gone before and for a lot of years never dreamed that it could go. And then to go to eighth straight bowl games, to really compete in the SEC, and to take care of business year in and year out against teams like Florida and Louisville and Missouri and Lord, I mean Vandy and then here recently, that has not
been the case. It is disappointing, and I think you can appreciate everything that's happened over the past decade while still saying, hey, these past couple of years haven't quite lived up to that. And the status for the college football landscape is only getting harder. The SEC is only getting better. Our schedule next year is just as tough. You know, you need to hear a little bit of reassurance from your head coach. I do think that's what
Mark Scoops was doing after the game. I heard his comments, like you said in the media to Tom Leitch, I understand what he's saying. I think that's what he had to say. I don't know what else he could have said to be honest with you, I don't work in pr I'm sure there's another way you could spin it, But for me, from a reporter standpoint, I mean, he says he's coming back. I take that at face value, and it sounds like that's the man who was unhappy with the season and who says I'm going to be
motivated to change it. And if you're a Kentucky fan, you have to hope that he's right and.
That he will.
Yeah, the thing that hangs over in the entire situation is a portal in the nil And I said it earlier in the show, and now I'll keep saying it in that you know, he loves building a program the old fashioned way, and now college football is anything but old fashioned. But that's a topic for another discussion. I do appreciate your time, and again, you and I were talking before we went on the air.
You tailgated. You survive the cold as you tailgated, didn't you.
I did listen. One thing no one could ever say about me is that I'm not dedicated, not loyal. Because I was out there in the same tailgate spot I've been in all season long.
I didn't care. I mean I did care.
It was freezing. It was twenty degrees yeah at eight o'clock, eight thirty in the morning when we rolled up. But we had our hot chocolates and we had our little tailgate breakfast food, and we put the sides of the tent up to block the winds and we got it done for a couple of hours there. I did not have to work this game, which was very nice. I worked the Texas game the week prior and had so many basketball games in between. It was nice to have
a Saturday off, no doubt about it. And obviously with a Saturday off, what else am I supposed to do other than go stand in the cold and watch a football.
Well, I'm glad you had fun before the game again, and thank you as always Maggie Davis. She is the anchor reporter. You see her on BBN tonight on LAX eighteen and follow her work through the volleyball tournament and basketball as well.
Thank you, young lady. We'll see you down the road.
Thank you so much for you soon, and I hope you had a great Thanksgiving coming up next.
Doctor John Wong blogger, writer, sportswriter, that is, author. He has written several books, including one that is a murder mystery. He hopes to move that product for just in time for Welcome back to the Big Moon Cider thirtieth now, as a longtime friend of the show, He's an author, a columnist, a blogger, a sportswriter, doctor John Wong. And before we shamelessly plug your book, I've seen you back on social media, John, but let's go in reverse order. You covered the Bengals yesterday.
What a crazy game here. The Steelers have.
Been chugging along, scoring, you know, eighteen twenty points and it was a track meet.
Did you expect that kind of game?
No.
In fact, I did a little preview beforehand, and I was telling everybody that this was going to be a game in which the Steelers were going to try to control the clock, they were going to try to run the ball, and it was going to be very very brutal, low scoring, typical AFC North type game. And afterwards, I think Tomlins said, yeah, that was actually the game plan. But it just so happened that the Bengals defense kind of invited them to go ahead and throw the ball.
So of course Russell Wilson takes advantage of that and he just tears them up. Yep, Dick. I think this has probably been one of the I've been following the Bengals a long time. I've been covering him for probably eight or nine years. This is probably the most disappointing season based on what the expectations were. This was a Super Bowl contending team, and not only are they nowhere near that, but they're not even sniffing the playoffs and they're going to end up being at the battom of
their division. JO weak out, what in the world happened when.
They made That's what I was going to ask you. When they made the Super Bowl, which you covered, everybody knew about Burrow and chasing all that, but they had a terrific defense and just for short of winning it. And yet I know players come and go in the NFL, but coaching staff has remained intact.
But what do they lack?
Do you think, Yeah, it's they've had some tough luck in terms of injuries and so forth, but there's just a lack of cohesiveness. It seems like you've heard the term complimentary football being thrown about everywhere. Now. They just haven't played that. They haven't had a game in which both the offense and defense have put it together a critical plays. Their record is a heck of a lot.
They're better than their four n eight record, But as Bill Parcell says, you are what your record says you are, and they just haven't been able to put it together the critical times when they've had to make the big play, they haven't come. If you look at him, especially offensive wise, statistics wise, Burrow, he's had an MVP season, him and Chase. You look at all their numbers and man, oh man, you figure, how in the world can this team be so bad in terms of their record. But it is
what it is. What a disappointment.
Yeah, wasting this kind of year by Burrow, who I had parenthetically is one of my fantasy football quarterbacks and he's done well by me, I can tell you since he kind of turned a corner a few games into the season. But they've also got a running back who was I was pleasantly surprised at the way they ran the ball.
Yeah, they've got all the pieces in place, at least on the offensive side of the ball. I think. I think having Higgins in and out during the course of the year also hurt him quite a bit a lot more than people be willing to admit because he just provides that huge target right in the middle of the field. It just opens up space for everybody else, even for that running game that you're talking about. Yeah, pleasantly surprised at all that. But yes, the window, the window is closing,
and it's a wonderful window. The Bengals need to take advantage of it. But unfortunately it's this idea of mediocrity that's going to start sinking in again, and I'm afraid that, hey, we may have seen the peak.
Well, speaking of mediocrity, let's go back another day as we go into reverse order with doctor John Wong. You were there when the Wildcats absolutely laid an egg and flopped everyone to say it against Louisville. I wasn't certain Kentucky could win. I did not think Kentucky would play that poorly. I was amazed John at the turnovers, were you.
Yeah. I like to say they got their butt kicked. Happened, and it was a little bit surprising because I think there was enough excitement generated with Cutter Bowley starting. The crowd was there, they were into it, and Kentucky if you remember they started out, oh well, you know the first couple of plays and on all of a sudden that Willcox fumble. Well it wasn't actually a fumble, he just got bar ripped away from That kind of turned
the tide and set the dominoes in action. After that, it just seems like all the energy was kind of zapped out and they just sworen't in it. It was It was kind of embarrassing.
Jeffiicorro talked about the fact that U of L unlike Texas, had the week to prepare for Cutter Bully. I don't know what the difference they might have seen and Cutter versus Brock Vandergrift maybe more of a pocket passer.
Than Brock, who can throw on the run. But you know, Brock, I think down down.
The stretch so banged up happy feet just just wasn't himself.
I went back John and.
Looked at video from first of the year, and admittedly it wasn't playing against Texas, but Brock Vandergrift played some pretty good football when he had time to throw, and that just kind of withered on the vine. And then Cutter comes in and uh and has a terrible day.
Well, I think you hit on it. It all comes down to that old line when they were just provided no protection for either Brock or eventually Cutter and Vanda Griff he just lost confidence. I mean he was a mental case at the very end because he was constantly When you're constantly running for your life, when you don't have trust in the guys ahead of you providing the blocks, opening up holes, providing any sort of protection, then your mind just just goes downhill. It's hard to recover from that.
I felt bad for Cutter. He's put in a position being his first start as a true freshman.
Who well, I'll tell you what it reminded me.
And Jeffercorrel's talked about this as well more than once.
And I think you might have been here. You might have been in dental school when Randy Jenkins played here.
Yes, I remember, and he was.
A tremendous athlete and he just was so beating up that he just got the.
Happy feet, you know.
And you know in the athletic field, confidence is more than fifty percent. I mean, you have to have talent, but everybody, I don't care how good you are, you need you need that backing up of knowing that you can do it in certain situations and when their confidence isn't there, then you see what happens. Things go downhill very very quickly.
Yeah, and the defense could not stop the run again, amazing did it so well most of the season.
What happened there?
Yeah, I think we need to kind of circle back to now the elephant in the room, Dick, and that is what's going on with Stuts and his legacy and everything from that standpoint, because he is a defensive type guy and the one thing that we could always count on was the defense coming through. He would kind of be a little bit well hands off maybe the wrong word, but more hands offish in terms of the offensive side
of the ball, but defensively he was always there. And to not have the trust on that side of the ball once again, we talked about complimentary football. When it's not there, then you can see what can happen. What are your thoughts on Stoops. I know I'm never one to ever advocate for anyone losing their job, but there's so much going on behind the scenes. I figure you're the guy in the know. You ought to be able to give us some nuggets, those of us in the peanut gallery on the outside.
I have an opinion like everybody else. But look, you and I we've talked about this before. We were on campus at the same time going to school. Yeah, you know, I went in journalism. You foolishly went into dentistry. But no, anyway, we know what it's like to watch a program that had false starts and sputtering and set back by penalties. You know, he comes in and provides an element of consistency at one point, and now he's taking a step or two back. I think he's earned the right to
clean up his mess. But as I said earlier at the top of the show, John I said, the portal, I think this era has taken away a bit of an advantage. That's Tubes and Vince Marrow and their staff have had in that they could beat other teams. And they did this by evaluating talent, signing kids, recruiting, developing, and putting together a good plan to go out and win. Well, now the portal door is spinning and on top of that, offensive consistency has been terrible.
And Step said as much yesterday, didn't he.
Yeah, it's a new era right now, Dick and I was reading a book about an American contractor who was held hostage in Iraq for three hundred and eleven days. And I never want to equate sports with real life and death situations, but there are some still familiarities. And one of the things that this guy said that helped him get over this idea of captivity was this idea of hope that maybe this very next day would be the day in which he would be rescued, and that
kept him going. And what I sensed with the UK football program, no matter who I talk to, even the die hard Stoop supporters, is this general lack of hope about him being able to turn this around, not only from the on the field standpoint, navigating the NIL portal and transfers and all this which he has loathed he's admitted it publishing, but also in terms now of this
idea of culture, where we've taken a backstep. You know, Stoups was always talking about the difference between climate and culture, and he prided himself on keeping this good culture. And ironically it seems like we've almost taken a complete one point eighty fore this idea of very very disciplined Stoop see everything in order, no nonsense, it's kind of metamorphosized
into this. Hey are the inmates running the asylum. Kentucky has essentially been the one that's been held hostage by these large nil funds coming through with the likes of a Brock Vandergriff or a barry On Brown, where they feel like they have to commit to these guys because they've invested so much money. It's hard to pull the plug.
Yeah, but here's the thing. Everybody else is in the same boat. That's the thing.
How well do you deal with it?
And here's the other thing, John, as we go to the break, this is all so new to Kentucky fans. I talked about this again off the top of the show. Are you a football school or a basketball school? Well, you're becoming a football school when you've got a coach who a couple of years prior, over a course of three years, won twenty four games and now you want him gone.
That is literally never happened here. But you know what. Welcome to the new SEC. John Wong as my guest.
We'll come back and talk more with John in just a minute, and then brace yourself. There's a seamless book plug coming up here on the Big Mossider six thirty WLAP.
Welcome back. We're talking with John Wong is a blogger.
Wong's Whinings works for Nolan Media Group, covering sports and also as an accomplished multiple published author, if that's the right word. And we'll get back to that in a moment, but let me talk a little basketball with you, John.
Brighter times on the hardwood for both men and women.
Got to be enjoying that, right, Yeah, it seems like the world has kind of tilted back on its proper access again. Stock up Kentucky basketball, Stock down Kentucky football. Boy, the more things change, the more things stay the same, don't they. Yeah, I'm super super excited with this pope and this philosophy, the bread, the fresh air that's come in.
I'm really pleasantly surprised at how well the team has played, because I'm like you, at the very beginning of the year, when he had all these new guys who had never played together at all, you kind of wondered, you know, is he going to be able to put this thing together? But not only are they playing team basketball, but they really seem to like each other, you know, especially they take up for each other when Williams got pushed during that last game. I love the way Kobe Braya kind
of responded, and then the team responded. You know, this is a team that really really looks out for each other. They have each other's back, and that's going to be so critical. This week is going to tell us a lot. Where cal Perry said Kentucky's built for March, he kind of made a little bit of a full of himself. But I think this week is going to tell whether we can legitimately say that this team is going to
be built for March or not. I'm I'm excited. I won't be a Clemson, but I'm actually heading out to Seattle for that. Yeah, that's going to be a bucket list side and for me, I want to I want to see him play those ags.
I thought about going to that one, but my wife and I are going to New York took to watch that game.
So yeah, a lot of opportunities.
And you mentioned being ready for mind A lot of Calipari's teams were not so much lately, but one of the teams that absolutely was was the twenty seventeen team, the Fox Bam and a Bio team, and this team statistically is keeping pace with that one in terms of being undefeated. Through seven games. It could be just a coincidence, but yeah, I'm with you. I like the way this team's coming together.
Yeah, I'd love to have a Fox Month or at a Byo on this team, but I don't think anybody can match that talent level. But I'm thinking Pope, he'll He'll make it up with this analytical approach. Now, of course he has this medical background, so he's speaking my language. When he's talking frontal cortex, Olympic system and he talks about after action autopsies. That brings a big, big smile off my face. I love that. How can you not win with talk like that?
John?
Could you have seen you yourself in what your third year in Denis I don't know what the equivalent is, but calling your folks and saying I'm going to go be a graduate assistant basketball coach.
I think I would have been disowned at that particular point. They would say, what in the world are you talking about? Although there were a couple of times when I was sitting there up in that co laboratory waxing teeth that I said, what in the world am I actually doing here? But after investing three years and thousands of dollars in tuition. There was absolutely no chance in France that I was going to back out of that, and plus things worked out,
I was going to say, hey, yeah, yeah, yeah. Not only did I do dentistry, but now I'm I'm back to my real love, doing what dig Gabriel War was doing all this time.
Well, you got to see the world on Uncle Sam's nickel as well. You got to do some traveling before I let you go. All right, time for a shameless plug.
I don't know.
I don't know if your book's going to fit in a stocking, but under the Tree you got more than one book though out there, man.
Yeah I do. This is actually my seventh book, but it's actually my debut novel. I've always wanted to write a fiction book, and I said, what better way to incorporate fiction than to also mixed in all the ongoings of my sports writing career. So this is an NIL based book. Believe it or not. It's called Name, Image and Murder. It's about a Hall of Fame basketball coach who gets brutally murdered during the course of a championship
season run. So it's it's part murder mystery, part who done it, but it's also part college basketball action thriller. My faith is super important to me, I throw and a lot of spiritual statire in there. So if you are a fan of any of those genres basketball, Faye, murder, mysteries, this has to be the book for you. Makes for a wonderful, wonderful Christmas gift. If you're around pal all, We've got Glad to sign it for you. This is
it name Image of Murder. Today's actually the last day for a cyber sale, so you can go on and get it at Ingram Sparks. A beautiful hardcover edition cost soft cover in terms of classy gift, but last day to go ahead and get that for a reduced price. Other than that, you can still go into Joseph Beth Wheeler's Pharmacy Amazon of course and grab that book. So that's my shameless plug.
Well, and I will follow up when you go into Joe Beth. And this is an unpaid endorsement. I just like the store obviously, but there's a table right up front devoted to Kentucky authors, and your book is front. I was pointing it out to my wife the other day, so it's front and center, you know, you and I have talked about this book. I think this is the third or fourth time, and every time you mentioned the
crime use the word brutally words brutally murdered. Is that a dust jacket phrase or is that just so has to come up?
It's it's pretty darn intense, and I don't I don't pull any punches, you know. I start out right of the out of the gate with uh with A with a big, big action scene. And my hope is I'm treating it like my sports writing. I want you to be able to see it in front of your eyes. And fiction, of course, is a little bit different. This
is all new to me. I didn't know whether this book would suck or not, but it seems like that a lot of the initial reviews that I've gotten back have been just real, real positive, And I don't think these are people that are just telling me things that I want to hear. So thank you to everybody who's purchased it, and and Istory, in a big, big smile on my face, just being able to promote this on your show, Dick, because I know I know sales are just going to go through the absolute ruth.
Right now, let's hope, so John, thank you so much. We'll see at the ballgames.
Hey, Happy belated Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas Day. Everybody go cat.
And that'll do it for now, thanks to my guest, Ken Spencer, John Wong, Maggie Davis. Tomorrow night it's Kentucky basketball. We'll have a short show ahead of that because.
It's a nine thirty tip. You'll hear it all right here, that's it, Good night from the garage in Lexington.
Wait, let me explain something to you. I am not mister Lebowski. You're mister Lebowski. I'm the dude
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