Welcome to the Big New Insider. Dick Gabriel with you Tuesday edition of our program. And maybe we should be surprised we have a Tuesday show because this time of year it seems like there's so many basketball games on Tuesday. Well there's plenty tonight anyway. But Kentucky plays tomorrow night against Colgate. That's an eight o'clock start, so that means our coverage on the network will begin at six thirty, local coverage at five thirty. UK women played last night.
They destroyed Queens, which is not from New York. Queens is actually a program that had been Division two moved up to D one. It's down in Charlotte and if you've seen any of the scores from any team D one teams playing Queens these days, it gets ugly, and it did last night for the visiting team Kentucky. Rompt we'll tell you a little bit more about that in just a minute, but that means the UK women are off until Saturday. The men again tomorrow night, then Louisville on Saturday,
and they should beat Colgate. You wonder are they looking ahead? I know fans are, but this is a roster with a couple of exceptions full of kids who have never experienced uku of l All they know is what the people around them have said. Hey, you got to be Louisville. You know. And these guys do go to class. I'm sure they've heard it from people in their classes. Hey, you got Louisville coming up. Got to beat them. But they don't know the emotions yet. They might by the
end of the game. But you know, this is not in the YOUM Center start to say Freedom Hall. It's not the Young Center. It's in Upperena. So this will feel like another home game, but there will be an additional level I think of not so much stress in Rupperina, but shall we say spirit because how much the fans
want to win this game. But remember this now. You know UK fans didn't like Denny Crump because Denny was always poking it at the Wildcats in the program and Joe Bun till they became friends and started doing that radio show together. But remember when Denny Crumb got here in the early seventies, took a team right away to the final four, and he signed a freshman class that was crazy talented, just as Joe b had. You know, the super Kittens Kevin Grievy and Jimmy Dan and Jerry
Hale and Mike Flinn, all those guys. Well, he signed a class Crumb did with Junior Bridgeman and Alan Murphy. Junior Bridgeman still is my all time favorite UFL player, Great great player, great man. But anyhow, Denny said, I take my class over those guys any day, so you know, And of course he was pushing like the play Kentucky, although I remember after a while Kentucky was thumping Louisville regularly, and Denny at one point wondered, was this game worth
playing anymore? It's like, be careful what you wish for. But again, these Kentucky players now, they have no feel for that. But that's okay. They'll know by game time how much it means. And their coach, Mark Pope, lived it, loved it, and he'll explain it to them. But until you experience it, and sadly some of these guys will only get to experience at once, you just don't know. But last night on his radio show, talking to Tom Leach and somebody called in to talk about the u
of L game, Mark Pope shared a story. I had never heard this. I know what this game meant to mister Wildcat, Bill Kyteley and eventually to Rick Patino and Toby Smith and really anybody who coached here. And he had Eddie said with his comment called him a little brother. You know that still resonates with U of L fans
and some UK fans pull it out at times. But last night Pope talked about a moment that he wouldn't hear yet, but it was basically the window for Rick Patino into this world of UK versus U of L basketball, and he shared it with Tom Leech and again, I never heard this story. It's terrific.
Coach Patino has shared this story many times, and he shared it with me actually as he was recruiting me, just talking about what Kentucky was. But the great Bill Kiteley, one of won the best ever.
Was.
You know, he welcomed Coach Patino here and was kind of one of Coach PE's trusted allies from day one when Coach Patino first got here to Kentucky, and I don't know what they were, five or six or seven games of the season, and they had a routine where when coach sent the players out of the locker room the last time before the game, Bill kite would walk in and make sure the coach had everything he needed and then they would walk out on.
The floor together.
And so this game five, six, seven, eight, somewhere early in the season, and and Coach p sends the team out and he's like, there's no Bill Kitely. Where is Bill Kiteley? And so coach is walking around the locker, He's like, man, we gotta go. He looks out in the hall. He finally goes back in the showers, sees the great mister Wildcat Bill just.
Sitting on the floor.
He's dressed in his suit. He's sitting on the floor, tears streaming out his face, with an open bottle of Urban in his arms, just feeling the stress and the pressure of this Kentucky Louisville game. And that's when Coach Patino was like, Okay, this is different, Like this just means more.
Yeah, the s SEC doesn't have total DIBs on that come and it just does mean more. And by the way, Patino and Kylie, he became so close. And I remember when Rick got here and there were people looking for ways to pick at him. They were saying, yeah, he wants to get rid of Bill Kiteley never the case. And I will tell you this the first time Rick Pattino had to come out to WKYT to shoot his TV show. This is before he made us start coming
to his office to shoot the show. But he came out to KYT and got on the wrong road, you know the roads a lead out of town. I think he got on Paris Pike. Somebody said, yeah, get on this road and just keep going instead of Winchester Road. He ends up on Paris Pike and got way lost. They finally, I'm as late, but we finally got the show done. From that point on, Bill Kittee drove him to the TV station. And you might recall at one point Bettino bought a new pickup truck for Bill Kytee.
That's probably why. But oh Kitlee just love beating Louisville. Hated the notion of losing to Louisville. And I'd never heard Tubby Smith do impressions of anybody, but more than once I heard Tubby kind of chuckling about Bill Kitely's obsession with Louisville, and Tubby would start doing his Bill Kittee impression, and he started going, you know you got win this one, Tubby, Oh boy, you got one. You gotta win this one. You know, I'm doing Tubby doing Kylie.
And Tubby's wasn't any good, and neither was mine, but it was so funny. And Tubby said, like, I need more pressure, He said, I got all the fans on me, the Big Blue Nation, and now Bill Kyee, I gotta win this one more, you know. So I just loved that moment last night, and Tubby loved Bill Kye as well. I had never talked to Bill about uo. L never heard much about it. But here's the thing, and more than one person told me, you need to do a
documentary on Bill Kiteley. And I can tell you I and dozens and dozens of people asked Bill Kyee through the years for an interview, and I know he probably, in fact, I'm certain he did. I didn't do anything on him, as you know, the guy who hands out the towels and the sneakers. But that's because I wanted so much more, you know, I wanted to know so much about Bill and his relationship with the coaches. I
was nosy, you know, the players. He was the father confessor to them, how he got them through tough moments in their lives, both the players and the coaches, and he was not going to share that. You know, he made that clear he was never going to talk about that kind of thing. So I respected that and I quit asking. But man, you could tell how much he wanted and just I would look at him every now and then during a Louisville game and you could see
the pressure all over his face. But I was so happy Mark Pope shared that story with him about him last night. Coming up tonight on the show, we're going to hear from Tim Couch a conversation I had with him back in the fall. He is in Vegas as we speak, getting ready to be inducted formally into the
College Football Hall of Fame. Was notified earlier this calendar year, and then UK honored him on the field pregame back in September while the season was young, and I had a chance to get him on the show and had a nice conversation with Tim. So we'll hear from him coming up in hour number two. At the bottom of the hour, Jimmy Diykes will join us. Jimmy worked the TV game Kentucky Gonzaga, as you know, a lot of
you listening to radio, I did too. I listened to both and it was so great because Jimmy did a tremendous job working with John Shamby. I don't know if I've ever heard John Shabby. He's a great baseball announcer. I believe he's now the regular voice of the Chicago Cubs. But he's really talented. I thought he and Jimmy were a great team. And of course Tom and Jack did an incredible job. And when we get the melt, we
will share that with you. The stretch call for Kentucky Gonzaga, but to hear Gibvens talk about Kentucky dropping into a one to three one that was so much fun, and hear Jack talk about the comeback. But we'll hear from Jimmy at the bottom of the hour. A former UK assistant coach now an analyst. Those of you who don't like him, I don't get it because he understands UK basketball better than any analyst working today for obvious reasons. David Siske will join us as well from Catch Illustrated
part of the Rivals Network. We'll hear from him and he'll break down Kentucky and Zaga and talk about what he saw. Should Bill Belichick be the next head coach in North Carolina, that would be intriguing. That would be a lot like should Parcels or what if Parcells had come here? I think it would have been. It'd be more of a challenge with Belichick, you know, because you got to be that ambassador in North Carolina. Not so much for football's basketball, but you still have to create
and work on that link with the fans. I don't think Belichick would have any interest in doing that, but he built a heck of a program, hire a heck of a staff. Imagine recruiting he could do. But now another name evidently has entered the picture. Within all the speculation, Steve Wilkes, former head coach of the Arizona Cardinals and former head coach of the Carolina Panthers, wasn't successful, but evidently, according to On three Sports, he interviewed for the head
coaching job, So that just made things more interesting. Coming up on Thursday, the volleyball wild Cats will take their next step in the NCAA Tournament. They play Missouri, a team they've already beaten twice in the SEC. In fact, Missouri was the team Kentucky beat to close out the regular season and clinch out right another SEC championship. Up next, we'll talk volleyball. Bottom of they were Jimmy Dikes here on six thirty. A big Bill insider coming up in
just a few minutes. Jimmy Dyke's ESPN. We'll go back over the Kentucky again Zaga game that he worked up in Seattle. Mentioned earlier that the UK women with an easy win last night eighty seven of forty five over Queens out of Charlotte, North Carolina. Twenty points for Georgia Amore,
nineteen for Amelia Hassett, including one thousand career points. She started her career at a junior college in Florida and decided to play for the Wildcats, signed on with Kenny Brooks, and after the game said she's glad she did.
Obviously, it was a great feeling hitting out milestone. Obviously, props to my teammates for obviously helping me get there and stuff. But yeah, this team is obviously we can be great. We just have to put the work in. Yeah, I feel like it was a great fit, great choice, and I just obviously loved the coaching staff and coach Brooks.
So yeah, so the wildcatch now eight and one after they lost to North Carolina, bouncing back, and as I mentioned earlier, next up is Purdue coming up Saturday, and it's going to be obviously a much tougher contest, and it is on the road. You'll hear it on our sister station ninety eight point five FM with Darren Headrick. Coming up this Saturday, Thursday, it's Kentucky volleyball Wildcats taking on Missouri, trying to beat that team for the third time this year and move into the Elite eight. So
they're into Sweet sixteen. And of course this is a Kentucky team that struggled early in the year, played a brutally tough schedule a lot of nashally ranked teams, and in the early going lost them all. But after the win over Minnesota the other night, Brooklyn Delay talked about the fact that that rough schedule early, which of course morphed into the SEC run that Kentucky made with eleven straight wins twelve Now that resulted in an SEC title. Those early lumps are paying off now, Yeah, I.
Think at the beginning of the year we were just trying to get our groove put some new pieces in play, and I think throughout the season we have done that really well, where other teams may have peaked at the
wrong times. And I think going into this tournament and going into the next final stretch, I think we really are just still improving and getting better, where other teams already know what they're doing, and I feel like we have that edge and no one really can tell what we're going to bring out because I feel like we have so many different plays that others just don't do, and I think it's just going to be really scary to play us.
That's Brooklyn Delay, the SEC Player of the Year, are All Conference teammate emmcgrom, the Kentucky setter, had similar thoughts about getting beat up and knocked around early, but it's paying off now.
The reason that we play the tough non conference schedule is to be prepared this time of year, and we might have lost those games, but we learned a lot from those games. We learned how to battle, we learned what it takes, and now we've just seen our growth the whole season. We've just been going up and up, and I think we're playing really well right now at the time that we need to be and we've got that edge that we've been talking about. We've got the greatness.
So I think we're ready and we're just going to have to go in and take some chances.
Emma Groham sitting next to Brooklyn Delay when she made that comment, which is kind of fitting because a couple of years ago, Emma Grome was the SEC Player of the Year and coincidentally the one who won it. Last
year at Georgia, Sophie Fisher transferred there from Kentucky. So you got Emma Grome one year, a former Wildcat the next, and in Brooklyn Delay this season and Craig Skinner talked about Emma, who became the all time assists leader in the Rally scoring era by passing current assistant coach Madison Lily Groame needed fifty, she got fifty one, so she's the record holder now. Just an incredible mark for somebody who's been an All American every season in Kentucky. She'll
be one again this year. Craig Skinner talked about just looking at a five to nine kid and decided this is the one who's going to get the keys to the Cadillac.
Yeah.
I mean they were recruiting, we saw something in em and I think that some people didn't see, and you saw a passion and love for the game that very few people have. But the joy and the passion and the work ethic that she has is different because every single day, you know she's gonna play hard.
You know that she's gonna try and get better.
She's got an edge to her that you know allows her to compete under pressure. And you know, I think this year you saw a growth in her to see the value and everybody on her team. And and so when you have that and the player that continually wants to be better, it motivates others around you to be better. So you know, certainly proud of her growth, and you know the best is yet to come.
And if indeed that is the case, that's good news for the Wildcats and their fans because next up to Missouri, a tough team, hard to beat, a team, as you know, more than a couple of times in one year. But that's going to happen at one o'clock. It's going to be on ESPN two Thursday afternoon, and the winner most likely will get Pittsburgh, which is not just the number one seed in the region, but the number one seed
in the entire tournament. Before we go to break, a Happy birthday to my buddy Cameron Mills, part of our crew on the UK Radio Network coverage of Kentucky basketball. You know him from this shot for the time.
Sit down, Mills goodly. They've been waiting on it.
That's his first basket of the tournament, Cameron Mills.
And of course that's the TV call because we're not allowed to use the radio call. Westwood One owns those rights, so we have jim Nanton Billy Packer calling that place. So Happy birthday to my buddy Cameron Mills, who always reminds people it was Scott Paget's three pointer that put Kentucky ahead to stay. But that is the shot heard round the Bluegrass and you've seen the picture in the video dozens of times. Coming up next Jimmy Dike's ESPN analysts.
He called Kentucky gun Zaga. Next on the Big Boon Cider six thirty w l A p Welcome back joining us on our celebrity Hoighline is a longtime friend of the show and a guy I really enjoy his work. Jimmy Dike's color analyst. He worked Kentucky and Gonzaga for ESPN. He and John Shambi, Uh Saturday night and Jimmy, I know that was a long trip out there for you guys. You were rewarded with one heck of a game, weren't you.
Goy He's one of the one of the great games so far this year. And uh, you know, anytime you get a chance to do a game between two of the great national brands out there, obviously Kentucky, but don Zaga is also you know, one of the one of the strongest brands in the college game right now, you jump on the chance. And did delivered And it didn't. It did not look like at halftime it was going to deliver it because our producers, I mean the halftime, ourdu literally asked me to me, what do you see
anything changing this game? I said, no, oh, like, I didn't see any I saw nothing in the first half. That said, Kentucky has an answer for this, but uh man, they did, and man, what a what a great game to watch. I'm sure from the second half through that overtime.
Oh yeah, before we break it down a little bit, just quickly give me I don't know that we've talked in a while, and I'm just curious about your reaction, and I follow you on Twitter, of course, But when Kentucky hired Pope, when all this happened and he had to cobble together a team like a jigsaw puzzle, Well, what was your reaction? Because I always talk about the fact that you know, of all the analysts out there, of course you know Kentucky better than anybody because you've
lived it and you appreciate the tradition and all. But what was your what was your response when all this happened here in Lexington.
Yeah, well, you know, because you guys are very aware of the names that were thrown around, and a kind of out out of left field comes Mark Popees and next of you're like, hump, that's an interest seen higher. But then as the twenty four hour period went by, and I kind of dug into to what he's done and started listening to all the things that he understood
about Kentucky basketball and like big Blue Nation. And within twenty four hours, that's think flip man, how they went from this is not a great hire to we hired the guy that's going to put us back on the map and then so far, so good. They they have they've been right, and you know he was. He's exactly what Kentucky needed right now. The guy that comes in and and completely gets the value that Kentucky Jersey, the ure, that team's the state, the expectations. He hasn't ran from it.
He knows the pressure. But there's it's a it's a perfect fit, you know, for a for a Kentucky program that is desperate to get back to being who Kentucky basketball is supposed to be. And so far they have this year.
What do you think of what he runs and how his team runs it?
Well, they have a great belief in their system, which is a great starting point. You know, they understand exactly how they're supposed to play. If you're gonna shoot thirty or more three point shots the game, then you have to make ten or eleven the game to make it pay off. And they have not shot the ball well over the last three games. Now. They they delivered in the second half against Gonzaga, but more importantly, that offense got things done on the inside. And I talked about
it during the game. You don't jump shoot your way back from sixteen downing. It's the top ten team basically on their floor right and Mark started calling play. Then he went heavily with Andrew Carr and then when Chris went out, it kind of worked out for their benefit because Kentucky became bigger on both ends of the floor, and now the matchup problem that was really something for Gonzaga to have to work to on both ends. And you know, Mark does what a great coach does. You've
got to find a way to change the game. And he changed the game with that one three one zone that it really just it was a one three one to start with, but after the first pass or once the ball got blowed the free throw line then went Manda. Man, but it's completely through Gonzaga off of their rhythm and change the game.
I felt like in the first half, Jimmy Gonzaga was more aggressive, more physical, kind of played Kentucky out of his shoes a little bit. Did it seem that.
Way to you, no doubt, Man, that was the you know, that was the blueprint watching the Clemson films. Yeah, from Bike from Gonzaga's standpoint was We're just gonna be physical these guys and blow up all that dribble hand off and make sure We're out on shooters and bumping them and it worked. It worked to a sixteen point lead, and Gonzagua was doing anything they wanted, especially off that ball screen action with nem Hart and the Grahamy k.
Kentucky had no answer for it. But man, the things changed within that first two minutes of this of the second half. And because Gonzaga is really good, I mean, they're ranked inside the twelve and this week's ap pole. I mentioned that during the game, But this week's ap pole, your national champion is somewhere within that top twelve. It's
been that way for twenty straight years. And it's not a guarantee but about as close to a guarantee as we have in the college game predicting a national champion. And thankfully for Kentucky fans and gonzagab both they're both inside that top twelve this week in college basketball.
You talked about it on the air, you mentioned it a minute ago. But Mark Pope started calling plays and changed the game a little bit. Obviously going to Andrew Carr, and he tried to get a little bit done in the first half, but I felt like he just kind of, as the expression goes boat his neck. He just went to work, didn't he in the second half?
Yeah, and yeah, he had the game. That's kind of hard to it's it's kind of hard to defend. He's I'm not going to say that it's an awkward game, but he's so big, strong, physical, you know, you can move him around different spots on the floor. And you're right. I think he was the first one early in that second half that kind of drew a line and said no more. Yeah, and if we go down, we're at least going to go down with pride and fight and
be the aggressor. And it went from him to Jackson Robinson and he had to move to the point and everything clicked. So, I mean, that was a really I mean, it's hard to say like which win really establishes a head coach with a program, but that might be the one when you look back on his hopefully long career as the head coach of Kentucky that it kind of solidified we got the right guy.
I tell you what you mentioned, point guard. I was listening to the pregame show and heard Tom Leech talking with Mark Pope. When Pope anounced Nola mont Butler, I just kind of dropped my shoulder. I said, well, there goes that game because I didn't see honestly anyway, Kentucky with Numhart are so good. How are you going to disrupt Gonzaga add all and then get into your offense with that Butler? At what point did you guys find out on TV side that Butler wasn't going to play?
Yeah, we pretty much knew it to shoot around, you know, we're yeah, we're privy to obviously a lot of information, and they trust us, and we're not going to say a word that's not that's We're not into breaking news like that. But I was like you at halftime, I was like, well, that's that's kind of what we thought. We don't have a little Butler the best defensive point guard out there and them Hart's doing whatever he wants. But it's funny how you kind of fall into things
sometimes as a coach or a team. When when Kirk Crisa went out and he was forced to put Jackson Robinson up up top as a primary ball handler, Kentucky got really big on both ends of the floor. They had matchup problems working to their advantage, and they just kind of fell into it. I don't think Mark will play a heavy lot of minutes going forward with that lineup, but it sure is good to know that, man, if we get if we get in that pinch, we have
a bigger lineup we can play. And it worked really well.
You know, when Kentucky fans were studying this new roster and they were so relieved, frankly, when Jackson Robinson wasn't a real shock tested the waters. But I think they may have expected and this is for lack of a better term, you can help me with this, but I think maybe they were looking for a flashier game man, maybe from a guy who you know might be NBA ready. That's not his style. But I think what we saw against a Gonzaga is what I mean. That was him at his best, wasn't it.
Well, the second half was the best he's played in the Kentucky jersey. You know, he did not start at BYU. He was the sixth Man of the Year and led BYU in scoring. He's not just a guaranteed next level NBA guy, but he showed signs in that second half that he can handle the ball, he can make some tough shots. Obviously, Kentucky needs him to continue to shoot better from the three point line like the team does overall.
But I think it's a cool story that once he withdrew his name, there was no question where he was going. And he told us before the game that Cody Feger, this thin coach, and Mark Cope changed his life. And you like guys like that that that will just believe in the head coach. The head coach has great belief in him, and Uh, it was it was a really good coming out party for him in the Kentucky jersey in that second half.
Jimmy Dikes have ESPN is my guest. He wore Kentucky Gonzaga last Saturday night. More with a coach when we come back. You're on six thirty w l a P. We're talking with Jimmy Diyke's basketball analysts for ESPN. He has written the film Doesn't Lie and hosts the Coach Me Up podcast. And of course Jimmy, Uh, just a few years ago an assistant coach at Kentucky. Wow. I hate to think about how many years we go back there, but.
A few.
But Uh, I know and you you you've done some coaching since then, but you're enjoying what you're doing.
Uh.
For ESPN, how far ahead do you have your schedule? Do you have Kentucky coming up at all?
Uh?
Yeah, so I have him. I think my next time I have him is in early in conference play when Texas A and M comes to RUT And that's about as far as my schedule goes out. I think that's like it makes the tenth of the fourteenth of January somewhere in there we send it. We team tend to get about a month out, you know, just based upon the matchups and how teams are playing where they want us to go. So but I'll certainly be following Kentucky.
It's you know, it was a great two years of my life there and there's nothing like Kentucky basketball and Big Blue Nation and the passion that they have. And you know, there's a there's a small percentage of Kentucky fans that get after all of us on Twitter sometimes, but that doesn't represent to the true Kentucky fans are.
Man.
They they love their team, but I think they appreciate honest analysis on their games. They want to be told the truth and I try to do that and call the game down the middle. When Kentucky's good I'm the first one to say they're good when they think I'm the first one to say they stink. And but when people ask me when I'm traveling, where's your favorite place
to go to a basketball game? I say Kentucky just because of all the dynamics of rupp Arena and the fan base and always sold out, and you know it's the big game. When you're doing Kentucky on national TV.
Well, you made reference to the Kentucky fans in Seattle. I mean, I say, Blue gets in and when Kentucky was doing well, you know your director was picking up shots of the UK fans. I know that didn't surprise you at all, did it?
Now?
I said, Kentucky can play in Russia and let's go. Let's go. Blue chants gonna break out at some point. That's just that's who they are.
It was.
It was a great atmosphere. I mean, a lot of times you watch games, they say, hey, it feels like an Elite eight. No, not really, that one did, because it wasn't fifty to fifty. But there's a lot of Kentucky fans in there. Obviously a huge amount of Gonzaga fans. Both were loud at the time that they you know, had the momentum going. But you just saw, like I said, two teams that are legitimately Final four contenders going at it in early December, and it's great to be a part of that game.
Well, getting back to that second half and you you touched on this, and you guys talked about it of course on the air, and Jack Gibbons was delighted to see the one three one because job hall uh snuck that in every now and then. Of course with Jay Scheidler running the baseline, it was such a great athlete. But uh, did you have any idea that that one three to one was coming? Did you see it and shoot around? Because I have to admit, I don't get
to go to practice much. I've been to a few, but I've not seen them work on that.
No, I didn't.
I did not see it and shoot around in the four or five practices i've actual practices I've seen in the Kentucky this year, I haven't seen it. But you got to do something to change the game. And at times it was at times to confuse Gunzaga. In times, Kentucky was confused a little bit running it like who's gonna be where and they let the guy wide open in the corner on one miss assignment. But that's okay,
that's the beauty of the game. And for your guys to believe in something when you at halftime say okay, this is what we're gonna do defensively, and they go out and execute up believing it. And that's that's all you can ask if you're a fan of Kentucky basketball, is how much do they believe in their head coach? And I got to think to a man that they think that Mark Pope is the greatest coach right now in college ball. And that's exactly what you want, right Yeah.
And you know, it's interesting people. I think I've talked to some folks who it seemed like they had this impression of Marcus this neophy, you know, this this kind of a newbie head coach. He's new to the UK job, of course, but he has a solid resume. I mean, what he did at Utah Valley State, what he did at bring him young, both programs overachieved. And so it's not like in terms of just his basketball acumen, it's not like he came in here all wide eyed, you know what I mean.
No, doubt. I mean, I just I'm just reflecting back in the first half that comes back what was going away. He didn't look any different than the first half, and he did the second half when it was going his way. He just has a calmness and a belief and a confidence about who he is and how he coached and how he sees the game. And you know, he took his BYU team into ball Gallon Fieldhouse last year Kansas in the one Great Canas wasn't a great Kansas team, but not very many people go in there and get
a win. No, he would never phase at Gonzaga and he will not be phased this year. And you know, Kentucky's coming off of a two game road swing that's going to be exactly what they're gonna face in the SEC high high level games. Competitive, physical, loud crowd. And this week was the best. This past week is the best thing Kentucky could do for himself. Go play at Clemson and basically at Gonzaga, and now you know, going into SEC play, Hey, we've been down this road before.
We know how to handle it well.
And I think you mentioned that during the first half what happened at Clemson. You know with that atmosphere down there here, Kentucky's coming to town. You've been a part of that as a member of the coaching staff. It's like the circus arrives and Clemson just hauled off and punched him in the mouth. And and that paid off, didn't it.
Yeah, no doubt. And yet you've got to be knocked around a little bit to understand how to play through it right. Because Gonzaga had the same game plan. They're not as physical as Clemson. They tried to be, but they're not. And I think that's a big part of why Kentucky said, you know, we've seen this before. We can handle this unless they got rolling. Many they got rolling.
They they played a great second half and Jackson Robinson had a ton of confidence when Mark puts the ball in his hands and everybody's kind of fed off of it. So now they got I don't think I think they're off. All we can tell to play Louisville on Saturday, and I don't have to say anything about that game. It doesn't matter.
Louisville is not.
Louisville is not what they're going to be under Pat Kelsey. I think he's going to be a great fit for that program. I was with him in Atlantis during Thanksgiving week. Kentucky will be heavily favored. But man, you take nothing for granted in that game. And Mark Cope, he understands that game better than anybody else out there. So Kentucky should be fine in terms of are we read.
They've actually got Colgate on Wednesday night? But come on, yeah, but you know they can work some things out there. With all due respect. A couple of minutes left with Jimmy Didyke's of ESPN worked at Kentucky again Zaga game.
Uh.
You know, we've been talking about Mark Pope, the head coach, and he has talked about the fact that he changed his tone as a coach. He went from being you know, the kind of war you down kind of guy. There's no way he's going to be another Rick Patino, but he went to the more of the uplifting, positive style. And Jack Gibbons in the postgame interview talked to one of the players about the fact that Jack and they sat opposite from you guys, they were on the on
the bench side. He could hear Mark even when they were down, Pope keep yelling we're okay. We're okay. I don't know if you if you could hear any of that. And that's kind of rare, isn't it.
Yeah?
It is, But I mean that's who Mark is at his core. He sits to this positive energy, stable, competent guy and who he is and as a dad, as a husband, as a coach, and I think he realized about ten years ago that trying to be maybe something that he's not wasn't working, and then his players were playing out of fear and trying to please him and not for the right reasons. And now he's, uh, you know,
he's changed. He's he will still get on him some I've seen him do that, but he does it with that tenderness and a tone that that you have to have in that balance between toughness and tenderness. So, uh man, it's it's all good right now with that put your basketball program and uh miss Barnhardt knocked it out of the park with his hires.
Are there gonna be some tough times?
You know?
That SEC coming up Tennessee is awfully good. I don't know if you've seen them yet, but uh, I mean this this league has gotten so competitive. Jimmy and the money. Now they're spending up facilities, coaches, staffs, that kind of thing. It's finally what the SEC thought it was for quite a while. But now, uh, it's a grind, especially with Texas and Oklahoma joining.
Yeah, I was, I was the lone soldier there for a while.
Last year.
I kept saying the SEC is the best conference in college basketball. I got a lot of pushbacks and I but, but but I stood firm because I knew what I saw and I knew what was coming. And it is clearly this year, through the first week of December, the most dominant league in college basketball, and maybe historically one of the most dominant league. Now they have to finish
out non conference like they've done. But when Joelnarredi who's pretty good at his job, project twelve teams the SEC for the NCAA Tournament, that that would that would be a history, that would be a historical.
Year for this league.
So if you're Kentucky, you know you're going to get knocked around some and SEC play. That's that's that's just part of it. Yeah, I don't know, Dick, if the SC champ SEC champion is going to have four or five six classes. I don't know, but it's not to speak. It's not going to be a tour of lost champion. This year the league two good, yeah.
Because I mean Alabama and Auburn are out there. That's gonna be fun. I remember one year Kentucky ander Joe b had five won the conference with five losses, but the depth wasn't there the way it is now. So tell everybody where they can see you on Saturday.
Yeah, I'm next. My next team is at the former number one team, Kansas. They lost two in a row, which has announced your life seriously, like you're number one and then you go lose two in a row. But still Paul Gallon is one of the great great places do college basketball. And they take on inc State, who got hot last year made it to the Final Four, and then actually stayed the next day and do the women's game Kansas versus Penn State. So yeah, two games
in two days and then come home. I think after that, because it's finals week for a lot of teams, I'm off again until the next Saturday with Wake Forest at Clemson. I go right back to Clemson, who I think is really really good. That's not a damaging loss to Kentucky's resume a Clemson, they could end up being in the top two or three in the ACC. So good team, I know.
Well, enjoy the rest. We'll be watching for you. I enjoy your Christmas holiday as well. Jimmy Dikes. Follow him on Twitter at coach Jimmy Dikes or listen to him as well on the Coach podcast. Coach always a pleasure. Thanks for the time, looking forward to seeing you.
S Yeah, Merry Christmas to you, and I think we make to thank for ham me on.
I'll say it again. Of all the college basketball analysts working today, Jimmy Dikes has the most insight into the UK basketball. Some of you out there don't like him. I don't know why, because he knows and respects his program. I believe more than any other analyst out there, because he worked here and lived here for a couple of years. So all right, every number two is coming up with my conversation with Tim Koutch from a little while back.
He's going into the College Football Hall of Fame tonight, and David Sist from Cat's Illustrated part of the Rivals Network. We'll get his thoughts on UK again, Zaga and what's ahead for the Wildcats. That's next on the Big Blue Sider six thirty WLA. Welcome back to the Big One Cider. Tonight, Tim Couch, Kentucky's own, will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame out in Las Vegas. The announcement came back in January, and then Tim was recognized at
a UK football game back in the fall. That's when I talked to the UK Hall of Famer about to go into the College Football Hall of Fame. Here's part of my conversation with Tim Couch.
I'm super excited, Dick. I mean, you know, it's a tremendous honor, very humbled by, you know, being recognized in this year's twenty twenty four Hall of Fame class, going in with a great group of guys, and you know, just very thankful for my time at Kentucky and for the coaches and teammates that I had an opportunity to play with, and you know, just just a great thanks felling the place for me, you know, with coach Mommy coming in and putting in the air raid offense, and
you know, very it suited my skill set perfectly and was able to have a great run by my time at Kentucky.
So I'm very, very thankful and grateful for it.
You were talking last night briefly on the show with Mark Stoops and Tom Leech, and I could tell what you really wanted to say is you would love to take all your teammates in there with you, wouldn't you?
Yeah? Absolutely?
You know, you know this is you know, we played the ultimate team sport, and you know, so to get an individual recognition is you know, just something that I'm kind of kind of uncomfortable with, to be honest, because there were so many people that helped me get there, and you know, I wish I could take all those guys with me, and I certainly, you know, when I'm on that stage, I'll be thinking about my teammates and and very appreciative of you know, having them, you know,
to play with in my time at Kentucky, and you know, hopefully they feel part of this as well.
You know, what was part of how Mummy's genius with the passing game, and obviously he had the right man pulling the trigger, but you also had the right guys catching the footballs and Craig Yeast and Anthony White and Michelson and all these guys. You guys made it look so easy on offense. Why is that with the air Raid when it's run right, you can't have a bunch of rum dumbs out there. But when when you've got the right people running it, why does it look so simple?
You know, I think the offense in itself is very simple. You know, the concepts are simple. It's it's not a very complicated system to learn. It doesn't take very long to install. But like you said, Nick, it's you know, you can have the greatest, you know, scheme in the world, but if you don't have a quarterback who's who's accurate with the football, make quick decisions. You know, can can
get your process information quickly. And then you have receivers who were great with run after the catch, you know, because a lot of the air Raid is the short intermediate passing game. So you're relying on those guys to break tackles, the quarterback to be accurate, to put the ball in a spot where receivers can catch and run.
And you know, so we had all those guys, like you said, we had Craig East, who was you know, one of the best receivers in the history of the sec you know, Lance Michelson, Quinn mccoor, James Whalen, Jimmy Robinson, you know, so many guys, Kevin Coleman. You know, obviously Anthony White was unbelievable out of the backfield. It's uh, we we just had a perfect, perfect set of guys for to run that scheme.
It was.
It was just a match making heaven with with coach Mommy coming in and the guys we had there on campus.
Okay, I've got you on the phone, so I got to ask you is because I have Anthony White on He's on every Sunday morning. But I always bring up the fact that his nickname was aunt b and you hung that on him. Why did you call him?
Uh, you know, I can't remember exactly. It seems it seems like somebody in practice said that, you know, we called him aunt and then somebody said aunt be Ballad or something, because you know, they couldn't stop him. You know, he was uh he was, you know, running for one hundred catching for one hundred some games, and he was just he was just a you know, all around kind
of guy. So we just started calling him aunt bee her short, and it just kind of stuck but what what what a commnual football player?
He will.
Oh, now that helps me because I had the mental image of ant B from Andy Griffith. Now it's a short for Anthony. Okay, that helps me so much. But I also bring up the fact tim and you may embarrass him a little. I don't think it does that. When he left UK he was a top five all time combo back, wasn't he. I mean he was a perfect guy for that offense.
He really was.
I mean, if you're going to run that type of system, you know you need a running back. You know, Anthony had wide receiver skills. You know, he could have been a wide receiver, but he also had great running back skills as well. And he could and he could block. You know, he could pick up flitzes. You know, he was unbelievable catching the ball out of the backfield. You know,
third and third and medium, third and short. When we were in a passing game and I saw man coverage, you know, it was either you know, Craig one on one on the outside. If Craig didn't win, I was coming underneath to to Anthony because I knew he was going to be matched up with a linebacker. Or potentially a safety maybe, and he was going to win that match up every time. You know, with the option routes and the angle routes we were running, uh, some of
those things. He was just literally a perfect fit for this game.
Yep. And you mentioned Craig and his speed, and of course he not only caught passes but return kicks in the NFL. But people, somebody said this to me the other day, you know, Tim Kasch didn't throw deep Berry off and I said, yeah, because they dropped two safeties back because they knew Yeast could.
Kill it back there.
But Craig could still, as you said, catch and run. I mean, he was just the greatest.
He was. He was, you know, in my opinion.
I know there's been a lot of great players at Kentucky, and no disrespect to any of those other guys, but obviously I'm biased to Craig. I think he's the best receiver ever played at Kentucky. You know, he was just the guy was incredible, man. And you know, like you said, teams, that was how they tried to defend us with keeping two safeties back because they couldn't leave one on one on the outside with Craig and when they did, that's
when we took our deep shots. And but you know, as much as we were throwing the ball as kind of a ball controlled passing attack, So a lot of those screens and things, we considered those runs, to be honest with, you know, those were just tall sweeps us get on the outside, you know, get the ball in Craig EA's hand in space, or you know, throw a screen to Anthony or something like that. Those were extension
of the run game for us. And if teams wanted to sit back and play cover two, cover four, and we just had to kind of you know, take our you know, you picking choes underneath and just take what the defense is given us.
You're one of three quarterbacks going in with the class of twenty twenty four. It also includes Alex Smith, who helped you talk to the top of the polls, and Urban Meyer, and I was really pleased to see as well, the kid from Appalachian State going in. Gosh, Harmani Edwards. Right, when you get together with guys like that, do they ask do you guys talk about the systems you're in. Do they ask you what it was like to run the air raid?
Yeah, we always talk about you know, schemes that we were involved in, players we played with, you know, things like that, and you.
Know, it's it's a great class.
Like you said, we've got Randy Moss going in, Larry Fitzgerald, Warwick Dunn, Julius Peppers who just went into the NFL Hall of Fame as well, So it's a very strong class loop. You know, it's just you know, list goes on and on, and you know, we just just you know, we got to take a look at that list. It's
very humbling to go in with those guys. And you know, I think Paul sent me some information on the Hall, and I think they said there's been something like five point five million people play college football and there's a little over a thousand guys that have been selected to the Hall of Fame. So obviously a very selective group of guys. And you know, completely honored to be going in.
Talking to Tim Kuch of course, UK Hall of Fame quarterback and now the College Football Hall of Fame going to be honored at the game on Saturday. But yeah, what a class. And I love seeing Danny Woodhead. It was a running back at Chaddin State, you know, a small college player, but man, what a great player. And then it kind of makes me feel a little bit old because I grew up watching the Nebraska Oklahoma series and Dewey Selman part of the Salmon family going in
he played at Oklahoma back in the early seventies. The game has changed so much, though, Tim, through the years, and now it's much more about offense, isn't it.
Yeah, it's changed, you know, so much. You know, I think, you know, when I was coming into the SEC, the SEC was really, you know, very much a running conference. You know, it was known for having great running backs. Really the only team at that time that was kind of throwing the ball quite a bit was Coach Spurrier down down in Florida. And then you know, Coach Mummy and Leach came in and just completely you know, kind of revolutionized the game.
And you know, you know, I was doing.
Broadcasting for several years after I was done playing, and it was it was always amazing to me to go to all these campuses and meet with these coaches that had different spots, and how all of them, you know, would come to me and say, hey, we we came to Kentucky in ninety seven or ninety eight and saw what you guys are doing, and we're still running a version of that even today, you know, twenty years later.
So you know, it was pretty cool to be on the ground floor that thing, the air raid, and to make it popular and to see that it's still very prevalent across the country today.
You didn't get to spend as much time, I know, as you like with Mike Leach because he just went on to great and greater things in college football, helped Oklahoma win the national Thailand and then made a name for himself. But what was it like, Tim? I mean, he was such a free spirit and a unique kind of guy, wasn't he.
Yeah, he was, you know, the most unique coach I think.
I ever played for. And he was Mike was one of.
Those guys that you know, you go in his office and talk to him, and you know, he would talk to you about anything except football. You know, he wanted to talk about pirates and and you know, wars and every in history and all this kind of stuff. And he was just a very different, very different guy. But
he was also extremely intelligent. He was ahead of his time as far as the passing game goes, and he had a very clear vision for what he wanted an offense to look like and how he wanted to install it.
And he was very precise. You know, he coached our wide receivers and was the offensive coordinator when I was there, and what he was all those wide receivers every single day about you know, just doing the little things right where you know, if you're split is supposed to be, you know, inside the numbers, and that's where you better line up. If you're supposed to run at twelve yards, I don't want you at thirteen, don't want.
You at eleven.
And you need to be precise. And you know that's what made our offense so successful. We were all so dialed in and locked into the to the little detail which which made everything work.
It was also shocking when he left us way too soon that that it'll be a punch and a gut for you.
Yeah, you know, I really hated to see that. And you know, Mike and I have we kept in touch over the years and would and would talk and you know, I just talked to him a few months before that and was completely shocked by the news and saddened by it. And you know, I really wish it. You know that
he was around. I know he would be uh, you know, in Las Vegas in December celebrating with me going into the Hall of Fame, and uh, you know, really really just take that for his family, and he was such a great guy and surely he's very missed when we come back.
More from my conversation back in the fall with Tim Couch. He'll be inducted tonight into the College Football Hall of Fame. Say what us here on the Big Bloom and Siders six thirty w LA. We'll be back to the Big Bloom Sider tonight. Tim Couch inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. The ceremony at in Las Vegas. Wouldn't we all love to be there? At least I would?
Uh.
Back in the fall, Tim was recognized before a UK football game. I had a chance to chat with him here on the Big Blue Insider. When you set foot you come back quite often, when you set foot on that field, inside that stadium. How does that make you feel?
You know, I think the very the first thing I feel is a sense of pride, you know what we were able to accomplish, and and just how fun that the game was when we were there, and you know how how into it the fans were. And you know, because Kentucky football was kind of in a rough point there when I first got to UK and and they weren't winning many games. They were running the option. It
was wasn't a very exciting style of football. And then we came in and you know, we were going spread offense, four or five wide receivers and throwing the ball all over the field, and uh, you know, it's just just you know, a great time to be playing at Kentucky and and you know that coaching staff we had, you know, you talk about coach Mummy and Leash and Hatcher and Sonny Dyke and Tony Franklin and and all those guys. We had so many creative minds on the offensive side
of the ball. And you know, like we talked about earlier, we had a great fit of players to run that system as well. So, yeah, just to set the pride when I'll walk into the stadium about what we were able to accomplish while while I was playing there.
You know, you mentioned Mummy and it was You're right. He was such an interesting individual as well. You could see why he and Leech were so tight. But it was interesting to me Tim when things went went south for how here and of course the fans were all over him. And then when Kentucky was looking for a new coach a dozen years ago, people were lobbying like crazy for how Mummy disciples somebody to be the next Tow Mummy. So you know, as long as you win,
that's what it's all about. But that people want to be entertained too, don't they.
Yeah, I think so, And you know, it's just a you know, I think people see, you know, how teams have been very successful with that system across the country and other places, and and you know, it was a fun style.
Of football to watch.
I think it was very popular obviously with our fan base here a Kentucky and people didn't want to see that come back, you know.
And Coach Jukes did bring it back for a little bit.
He brought Neil Brown back here for a couple of years, and of the Neils went on to do great things.
He was a head coach at at West Virginia.
And uh so it's you know, it's uh it was a great, great, great offense to play in and it's very popular, like I said, with the fans and obviously with cornerbacks and receivers love it, and you know, it's just it's just a lot of fun to play in that type of system.
Yeah, I got to ask you, being a father, do you have to queue up video to show your son what you do? Because I remember Jamal Mashburn when he wanted to the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame, he said his kids didn't really believe that he was a great player at the NBA. He had to show them video. Do you have to do that?
I've done it before. Yeah, yeah, when they when they were smaller, I had to do that. And uh, you know, they used to love to watch those videos when they when they were little. And you know, now I've got a I've got a freshman in college and a freshman in high school. My oldest son is he signed a scholarship to play for Holy Cross up in Boston, so he's, uh, he's playing defensive end up there. And then my youngest
son is a freshman it's uh let Christian Academy. So you know, they're they're both good athletes and good students and you know, certainly very proud of them defensive ends.
So you got to You've got to talk to him about what it's like to go attack a quarterback.
I told him, you know, he was playing quarterback up until like eighth grade when he switched over to the defensive end. And I was like, I can't tell you anything about playing defensive end other than I don't like those guys. That's all I know about it.
He's going to relish the licks he puts on quarterbacks. You mentioned broadcasting and you stepped away from that, and you and your brother now very successful businessman. And a tip of the cap to your brother. I always love what he did at ek I keep reminding people that Greg Couch was the last QB to lead EKU to an undefeated OVC record and an OVC title, so and always will be now that they're out of the league. But anyhow, you were on your way to a pretty
good broadcasting career when you stepped away. Now, Tom Brady, a guy you know, a little bit has started and it kind of got lukewarm reviews. But for crying out loud, he's a rookie. But if you could give him some advice, you giving Tom Brady advice on broadcasting, what would it be?
You know, I think the biggest thing that I had to learn is you know, you do have to prepare like you're playing, you know, I mean, it is so much prep work as far as you know, watching film, understanding schemes and systems and game plans, and talking to coaches and players throughout the week to get a feel from what they're going to try to do that week,
so you can go on TV and explain that. And you know, for me, you know, I don't want to say dumb it down, that's not the right word, but I wanted to talk like I was talking to like maybe like my mother at home, Yes, who knows who watches football, but she doesn't understand like the you know, really inside of x's and O. So you can get on there and you know, obviously Tom could talk about you know, the game as in depth as anyone who's
ever played it. But you know, you have to make it simple for the people watching on TV so they you know, you can say, oh, it's cover two, but you know, no one, no one really now what cover two is unless you you know, you've studied the game, played the game, so so you make it, you know, you make it simple for the fans watching at home so they can follow along with you and understand what you're talking about. But you know, Tom, you know he's
going to be great in whatever he does. You know, it's it's very difficult to walk in that booth and and call a game that if you've never done it before. He's just going to get better and better with with with refs in each game he does.
Yeah, they keep comparing comparing him to Greg Olsen, who was not great when he started.
None of us was not that I know.
No, Yeah, before I let you go, I got to ask you. I'm sure your heart went out to the what your Wildcats and a rock Vandergriff. He had a rough day at the office against South Carolina. But that's life in SEC, isn't it.
Yeah, that's the way it goes, you know. I mean this, Uh, in this league, anyone can embarrass you quickly if you're not on not on top of your game. And obviously we didn't play well. You know, I'm not going to make any excuses. We didn't play well up front. Uh quarterback didn't really have many opportunities to play well. And uh, you know we just in South Carolina played great. Give
him credit. That's a good defense they got after us and know, things can go go go south on you pretty quickly in this league if you're not playing well, and you know, I think we'll bounce back. I think we've got a very talented football team. I love our coaching staff. Obviously, you know, coach Stepson is the winning his coach we've ever had here, So I have all the faith in the world that he's going to get this, get these guys to rally rallied up, and get them
going back in the right direction. And obviously we've got a tough one this week with Georgia. But you know, it doesn't get any it doesn't get easier, you know, I think I saw we played five of the top seven teams in the country coming up over the next several weeks. So those schedules just brutal. But you know, we've got the guys that can go turn it around, and you know, I'm still confident in those guys.
People knocking the offense, of course, that's what fans do, but it's too soon that I have no idea what to make of this offense yet. And I'm sure you know more about this stuff than I do, but it's it's going to be tough after this week, isn't it.
Yeah, you know you said it didn't get any easier, you know, with with Georgia and that defense coming into town. So you know it is it is kind of hard to see what what we have yet offensively, you know, because you know we got to you know, a little over half a game in week one with the weather and then you know didn't play well at all, you know,
only thirty yards passing or so in Week two. So you know, these guys, you know, just have to get it gone, get it to you know, get everyone on the same page and executing a game plan, and you know,
and it takes everyone. You know, it takes the you know, the offensive line given protection and brought making quick decisions, receivers, you know, getting that out of breaks, catching football is getting separation from the defenders, and you know, it takes all eleven guys on that side of the ball to make it, make it work and make it look good. So you know, hopefully they can bounce back a little this week and get a little momentum and build on that.
That's my conversation with Tim Katsch back in the fall, and he was recognized prior to a UK football game that was back in September when things were still looking looking better for the Wildcats. But life is good to Tim. He's got his healthy family and he's going into the College Football Hall of Fame tonight. It is out in Las Vegas, and it's going to be somewhere on ESPN if you want to check it out. Coming up next, David Sisk if Cats Illustrated, he'll break down Kentucky and Gonzaga.
That's all I had here on the Big bon sid sat joining us now as a guy we love talking basketball with David Sisk of Cats Illustrated, and he was on you might hurt him a little bit with Tom Leach yesterday morning talking about Kentucky Gonzaga coach. I appreciate you joining us.
Yeah, one or two.
I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into that game. David. Of course, basketball recruiting writer for both Kentucky and North Carolina. We'll get the recruiting a little bit later, but uh, I'm going to pick up where you kind of left off with Tom. Let's go to the first half of that game and tell me. And you posted a bit on Twitter what was going wrong for the Wildcasts beyond just not making shots, but there were defensive breakdowns and problems like that.
Defensively, Gonzaga is one of those teams and there's a lot like them. They're very talented and when you let them get happy, that snowball turned into an avalanche, and it did the first half, and a lot of it came and they made some shots. Let's start out with that. Yeah, And it was funny because the way Kentucky looked in the first half was the way Gonzaga looked at the second, and you know, and then Kentucky made shots that they didn't make in the first they made in the second,
so you know, the script was flipped there. You know, they missed an easy shot. I think Kentucky had a little bit to do with that. But in the first half, I just felt like number one day go so much with nim Hard and he is predominantly getting to his right hand and they allowed him to do that, and then I thought the help side was really bad and
he saw those clips. I'm just you know, at one point Gonzaga was three for twenty four from three, so I can't figure out when he turns the corner how he can have a straight line drive down you know, one side of the lane and you're looking at the back. Guys can help and they're stretched out seven eight feet outside of the lane on really non shooters, So you've got to be able to provide more help. You talk about North Carolina. North Carolina is really bad defensively, and
that's what I've seen from them this year. And that's one big thing I've seen backtag guys just letting the driver go to the rim and not stepping in. It's like they stayed glued to the shooter. And Kentucky's not a bad defensive team, and you know, if everything I've seen this year, you know, that was their total outlier. Because I've said, Kentucky, I feel like they're tough. I feel like they're competitive. You know, they're willing defenders, and
I think that stuff travels. So that was by far the first or the worst defensive half that I've seen this year. But they made adjustments and then showed that toughness in the second half. You know, they give up fifty points in the first half, tweety nine second.
Yeah, I'm glad you brought up toughness because I'm watching that first half and I'm thinking, man, Gonzaga, as any school obviously would do any team. They studied the heck out of that Clemson video, and not as physically strong as Clemson, but just in terms of the way then Zaga went after Kentucky, I mean, tried to go right through them. And it worked for the first twenty minutes, didn't it.
Yeah, it did. On offensive end, it did. Like I said, so much of that was around them hard. And then you know, Graham I k looked like, you know, the second coming of a kim Olajuwon or somebody you know
in the first half. But in the second half you could see he missed some shots around a rem Uh you know, they jumped into the zone into one thirty one, and uh, you know, he really got tentative in the mid That was naughty strength, that mid post jumper, and you could see he's like, well, I wanted I've got the shot, I don't want to shoot it. I better shoot it. So and then, like we said, just miss some shots. He's a mechanical a little bit on his
turnaround jumpers. It's got smooth. And the one thing Kentucky was able to do was hit the boards. That was another big thing. First half rebounding, and that was one thing. You're able to get out and run when and I know this from my coaching experience in high school particularly, the best running teams you'll ever have is when your guards know that you've got a guy inside that's gonna grab every rebound. They don't have to stay they can get out to the races, but if you're not sure,
you have to stay in and help. Well, the second and a half, Kentucky just started keeping boards alive. And there was a lot of times they may not grab a clean rebound. They're just the ball comes off the rim and they're just tipping it, tipping it, keeping it alive. And then after about three tips that to get the boards. But that was huge. There weren't a whole lot and just Okay, I'm gonna go up, knock these guys out away, grab the rebound. I put him back. It was just
keeping balls alive. And I know even at the end of the game when Carr had the foul shot and there was four seconds left, and I said, you know, if he misses this, Kentucky's ability to keep the ball alive right here might take two seconds off the clock. You know, where they can't get the ball up before now it didn't, but you know, they battled for that board even if one guy didn't, so you know, that
was a huge issue. Then you get to the second half and we may go into that, but you know, Pope's adjustments and I feel like we're really spun on. And then the team played like we can talk about those adjustments if you want to, but they played a lot more fiscally.
Well, yeah, first of all in the second half of the biggest adjustment was just Kentucky's approach, you know, you know, psychologically or whatever. They just played harder, didn't They.
They did, And yeah, I think there was confidence. I think, you know, defensively and offensively both. And I kind of felt like there was a clip there and I'm not putting up yet, I'm going to, but there was a clip like six minutes in to the second half, and there was a possession where Gonzaga kept grabbing the offensive board and they missed three three pointers in one possession.
And that was the point that I was thinking, because Kentucky was starting to get it going off instantly a little bit, and I'm like, you know, Kentucky can win this game as far as face as that sounds, because Gonzaga has totally lost faith in the ability to make a shot and Kentucky was scoring easier than Gonzaga was scoring, and that's always the thing to look for. But you know, in the second half, like you said, they played harder, they defended better, they went to.
The boards more.
But I think they played with more confidence. But you know they've done that. I got down the dude who came back. They were down pretty good Glimpson and came back. So you know, this is a team that does that. They don't. They've got a lot of experience or older they don't. They're not gonna roll over, so you know, and that that's something in the past maybe a team's done,
but this Kentucky team won't do that now. The things that I noticed in the second and a half was they denied nim Hard getting to his right hand and that was huge. They made him go left, They asked him he never bought the ball down a mentally, always brought it upside. For whatever reason, it seemed like it was more and it makes sense he brings the ball down to the left side. That way he can go to his right hand and get to the middle and uh Kentucky iceed him and they just faced him up.
They faced the sideline and they made him go left. And when they went into the one three one zone, not only did it make uh gunzag a tentative, but one three why not the two three? Well, he can go wherever he wants to the two three. But when you have the one three one, you have that one defender up on top play in the middle. Guess what, he can't drive to his right hand in the middle.
You know, it keeps him pinned to his side. So I thought that just not only running aid zone, but these zone that they ran to one three one was very strategic. And then down toward the end of the game, I felt like, you know, watching it live, I said, well, Kentucky has going under all these screens, the non shooters, and but it was actually later in the game when
they did. When you watch when I watched the replay, it always looks different than it does live once you start slowing it down and running the plays back and forth and all that. But you know, late in the game, you could say they were going under every screen late, so they're gonna say, hey, we're just gonna make you bees from outside, So I thought there was some really good adjustments there.
How surprised, David, were you to see that? One three one? I didn't see that coming.
Well, it was funny because you know, you were talking about going over on Tom's show, and I told he said that. Coach Pope said afterwards that you know, he had really kind of nervous about going to the zone, but he didn't have a choice. It was out of desperation. That makes sense. So you know they're having trouble guarding them, so it makes total sense. A lot of times it could be a deal. I've done it in high school where you're like, we're not even practiceing zone, but this
other team is red hot. We just got to do something to get out out of the rhythm. You know, we might try to press, we might try to go to a zone, just nothing else, just just just to slow down to obvious rhythm that they have. And I think that was a big key there. But he said that he had kind of threatened to do it, but the zone had looked so bad in practice that he didn't.
But the reason that looked bad practice, you're running against all these shooters, you know, you're trying to run zone on Kobe Brandt, so you know what's going to happen. But you know I made the quote to Tom. I said, well, it's funny. I said, John Caller Perry threat the coach out for twelve years and never did it. Mark Pope runs it apparently the first time he needs it, so it was a great move.
David Sis is a recruiting analyst. You see his work and CAT Illustrated and we love talking basketball with David more after the break here on The Big Bloom Siders six thirty. Welcome back to talking with coach David Sis, basketball recruiting writer for UK and North Carolina for the Rivals Network. You see his work on CAT Illustrated. You
touched on something there prior to the break. He talked about a team that really believed in its coach, you know, in that second half, and obviously that's important, David, But why bring that up, because it's funny you brought that up. Jack Gibbons on the postgame show, he kept talking about the fact that he just thought, among other things, the reason Kentucky was able to come back was they just kept believing they could. And you can't do anything nless
you believe in it. It was pretty obvious. But it's easy to say for you and me. But when you're in hostile territory a couple of thousand miles from home, they're almost the entire inter screaming against and you're down sixteen. That's easier said than done, isn't it?
It is? And I believe, like I said, they believe in the system. I think they believe in each other. And now things happen during the year and coach Pope's a pretty positive guy. But you'll see a lot of times coaches get into it with players in the alien eight and now a losing streak will kind of change some players' minds that they may not have confidence. But here's the thing. He's come in and had early success.
It's been a fun style for them to play. And you know, I think he goes in at the half and I could see him being pretty positive with him and saying, hey, you know this is we're not out of it. This is what we got to do, and I feel good about this. These are the adjustment That's one thing players want to know. They want to come in and say, Okay, what's the adjustments that we're going
to do. If the coach just sit there and say we're going to do the same old thing, it doesn't have any answers, then they would come begin to doubt him. But then you see, and you know, Kentucky got back into it early in the second half, so as they trimmed that thing down and they could see the effects of what the defensive adjustments were. You know, if you're
from you know, I play in days. If I'm playing against the guy and I'm defending him, I can tell all of a sudden, you know, players sense fear, and players sensed doubt in the opponent. So as soon as they begin to see that, you know, it's kind of like shark circling and bloody waters. So so yeah, I just think the whole I think they could see what
he was doing was working, His approach was working. I think they enjoyed playing for and I think they enjoyed playing will meet each other and and I think you know it was obvious Saturday, How in.
The world, in your opinion, did Kentucky manage this comeback without Lamont Butler from the start, and then they lose kerk Kriesa to an injury. But starting with Butler, you know, because you were talking about how good in them hard can be, and yet they were able to make defensive adjustments to help minimize him as best they could in the second half. But as soon as I heard David no lamant, Butler though, well there goes their chance and all win. So that bed even more impressive.
Yeah.
I'm not gonna sit here and begin like I know everything. I'm gonna be honest with you. You know, we had to do predictions. I cat illustrated, and I wasn't sure if he was going to play or not. And I'll picked on zag up about seven, right, But I think too, you have to learn what you've got. And you know, let's take, for example, take the college football playoffs, and you know, even the playoffs last week, you know, we
are in playoff games, conference championship games. Rather, I mean you kind of go in and you watch these teams and you really don't know what this and you's got, and you know, you go into the tournament play here and people are wondering, well, we really don't know who Indiana is and all these teams that have really not
played people, and you don't know. But I think this is a valuable week for coach Pope, because I guarantee you right now he's got a better idea of what he's got than you do a week ago, and you have to play these games to do that. So I think that's very, very important. So you know, I think he learns in this situation what he's got. Like you said,
I wouldn't have given him really a chance. Well I shouldn't say a chance, but I thought, you know that they were you know, it was an uphill battle yet about labat Butler, that's a better way to put it. But you know, then Chrisa goes down. But then you've got Jackson Robinson and you know they'd already cut into the lead some but a couple of things happened. You've got Jackson Robinson the ball in his hands more, and
he got really hot in the second half. I think maybe he had fourteen point or so second half of this one shot and you know, he really got hot from the mid range. So he's able to have the ball in his hands and come off that ball screen and pull up. But I felt too like as soon as he came in, Gonzaga kept trying to trap in a half court and he did a good job getting the ball out of there. And I thought one of the big factors of the game was when they got
the ball out of the double team. They had four on three and Kentucky was able to make them pay. Almost every time they got the ball out, they were able to score. So I think maybe, you know, Gonzaga might have got a little over confident with that. Robinson turned out to be a good point guard. And I'm going to say this, I just think that, you know, Chris that brings you some things. He's energetic, he's a
good pass for man, he's that discipline. Defensively, I mean he's bouncing around all over the place and reaching and and you know, he's always trying to come up at still and he's running himself out at the bad angles on screens. And Robinson was just a little bit more solid and like you know, obviously he had a hotter hand, you know, Offensively, I think he's a better defender, and uh,
you know, Robinson was the guy that they needed. I don't know if Chris stays in at the point guard, to be honest with me, if they win the game. I just thought Robinson was the right guy at the right time. And it's just you know, a happenstance that they found him. Now you want christ in the lineup, and you hated Hurt. I'm not knocking him at all, but I mean, I think Jackson Robinson was the guy that they needed for that game.
Before I let you go, we got to talk about Andrew Carr. He was literally the biggest difference I thought in the second half.
He is and I like him, and you know, you you'll hear. I'm on a couple of DM friends and if there's a couple of dozen on it, the guys on each one and they're die hard. So you know how that goes. You love a player in one minute, you hate him the next one. And but you know when you're a fan. But I love I love car I love the way he plays. And I was told by guys around Lake Forest, you know, when he left, he said, look, you're going to see a guy that
looks like him. It's about six or eleven, and everybody thinks it's a stretch. He's skilled, but he's not a stretch. He's a rugged guy. He's rugging down around the post. He likes to create contact and finish around the bucket, you know, and that's what you've seen. And Pope's done a really good job utilizing him. And I felt like Saturday night he got him into spots. I really thought he ran a good game plan to get him to his spots. It wasn't like, Okay, here's the we're going
to give you the ball. You go one on five and create something. It wasn't that they cross screened him into the post. They back screened him into the post. People think they look at Pope and they think, well, he runs a lot of five out stuff. You've got five guys behind the three point line checking up threees and that's not the case at all. I mean, he's playing two pigs on the flour. You know, well Williams and Pope and then Garrison comes in, so you've got
two guys almost all the time on the four. Six eleven are better. But they do a really good job, like I said, running some look to get that ball inside and then playing through the post. And you know, the announced team on ESPN realize that they gave Gonzaga a heavy dose of that and cars. You know, he's he's physical down there, and he finishes. He's a better finisher than the Mary Williams. Mary Williams misses a lot of shots around the real but you know Car's guy,
you can go too down in there. He can get your points.
He is coaching David Sisk. That's how to find him on Twitter. Basketball recruiting writer for Kentucky and North Carolina, part of the Rivals Network. Coach. It's a pleasure. Thank you so much for your time, and I'll be watching for you on social media.
All right, thank you, my friend.
That's going to do it for now. Reminder, Tomorrow night is Kentucky basketball. Kind of an odd Wednesday evening game and kind of an odd start time at eight o'clock, so that means local coverage begins at five thirty. Network covers at six thirty, and then Tom Leach and Jack Ebmans had the action coming up as the Wildcats take on Colgate. And then, as you well know, coming up Saturday, it's those Louisville Cardinals. That's a five point fifteen chip
off in rupp Arena. The women are off until Saturday they play up at Purdue. That's a five o'clock start. Darren Hedrick will have that one for you as well. Thanks to Jimmy Dikes. Thanks to David Sisk. That's a good night from the garage and Lexington number two.
Chicken sal sand all the butter, the letters, the mayonnaise.
And a cup of coffee.
Anything else. Yeah, Now, all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you have broken any rules.
You want me to hole the chicken, huh?
I want you to hold it between your knees.