Welcome to the Big Blind Sider. Dick Gabriel with you on a Tuesday edition of our program. It is exam week. Hope you're studying hard. What it means is no midweek basketball games. The women play on Friday at six o'clock at Historic Memorial Coliseum against Belmont, and the men, of course, will be in New York City for the Ohio State game about five thirty. It's the second game of that doubleheader in Madison Square Garden. And yes, I am going up. The wife and I are actually going to make that
trip Christmas in New York. I love it, and I've seen several games in Madison Square Garden. In fact, I covered the nit in nineteen seventy six start to finish all four games up there. The Kentucky Colonel crew. We went up. Gosh, there were four of us to have fun and have a long weekend in New York because we thought the Wildcats might win a game, Nah, maybe two, but we knew we'd be coming home. Nope. I just kept right on winning. I had to go to laundromat
and do some laundry to last out the week. But the Garden's a great place to see college basketball and it should be interesting. So we'll talk about the basketball Cats here in just a moment. Later on, we're going to talk with j R. Vanhus, who, of course was a Kentucky schoolboy legend went under a great career at Marshall,
his alma mater. Had to drop out of the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, a ten to three team, but their coach resigned to take a different job at Southern Miss and so so many players jumped into the portal with the head coach leaving, they can't feel a team. So now there's going to be a five and seven Louisiana Tech team playing in that bowl game. That's where it's come to with the portal and nil money. So we'll talk to JR about that a little bit later on
in the show. But basketball Cats, of course, coming off the big win over those Louisville Cardinals, Lamont Butler with just an incredible performance, a perfect night at the second most points thirty three ever scored against the Cardinals Derek Miller at thirty four, many many years ago. But Jack Gibbons talked to Lamont about the fact that, yeah, he came off the ankle injury. But Lamont assured Jack they would have won without him.
But I don't know how we win that thing to night without you out there. We were one to just like we won the last two games with that like that. Just you know, everybody steps up, you know when when someone goes down. You know, Kurt was out, so we all stepped up again. So, you know, a big credit to my teammates. They you know, continue to play with hard. You know, with me on or off the Corey, It's gonna take us far this year.
Those are noble sentiments. And at first I thought, yeah, Jack's right, But then I got to thinking, when you watch this Kentucky team, Yeah, you gotta worry if you're the opposing team about Lamont Butler, But you also have to worry about Jackson Robinson on the Arc. You gotta worry about Andrew car You gotta worry about so many things. And a lot of people have said there's no truce, Superstar, there's no true lottery pick or whatever that is. That
is a fact. I do agree with that, But I just think the way that Mark Pope has put this team together speaks well to the balance, teamwork, unselfishness for this team and in fact, speaking to Jackson Robinson. Somebody asked him after the game if it surprised him the Lamont butler, known for defense, jumped up with an effort like this on offense and before whoever was asking the question could finish, Robinson was shaking his head. No, not at all. I played Lamont last three years.
I know exactly what he's capable of, and just being with a coach like Coach Pope and just learning the system, learning how to playoff two feet, make plays for his teammates. He wasn't forcing anything, got all the great shots that he gets every single game. They were open and he knocked him down. So I mean, I couldn't be more problem. Puts them to work every day.
That last comment, Seeing him put in the work every day, that is so important. And I don't get to go to practice a lot, but what I have as a constant reminder of how much time these kids spend in the gym. They spend time working with the team, working with their coaches, but they spend a lot of time in there by themselves. John Caliperry talked about this a lot, and it was important when he talked about it. When
any coach talks about it. The work these guys do on their own as well as practice is so vital. And with Lamont Butler, it's clear he's worked on his shooting. I mean to work on defense. Of course, you got to have your teammates around. You can do slides, you can do all kinds of individual work, but when you're honing that skill it takes to read an opponent and to shoot passing lanes and things like that. Yeah, it's got to come in either full court practice or drills.
But it's the reps that make you a better shooter. And Jack Gibbons has talked about it on the air. Everybody who's ever played basketball knows that the more time you spend on reps doing things right. If you're jacking up shot after shot and you've got major flaws in
your shot, then it's going to hurt you, obviously. But the guys who spend time in there working by themselves, working with their teammates, it pays off, of course, And so that's why Robinson wasn't surprised at all that his teammate had such a big game shift over to football. For just a moment. We talked about this a little bit on the state wide show last night. Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson is stepping down and you might shrug and say, eh, so well, a couple things. Number One,
Brad White's a wake Forest alum. If you're Wake Forest, do you not take a good, hard look at him? Yes, I know Kentucky struggled this year, but if you're smart, if you're a smart ad, you look beyond that. You look at the body of work and you talk to other people who will tell you, not that I'm trying to push this guy out the door, but they'll tell you he's a tremendous defensive coordinator. And then you've got to sit down and talk to him to find out if he's a good fit, if he wants the job.
And again I haven't heard anything about it. It just makes sense to link the two and don't talk about the fact. I'm not saying he's a candidate. I'm just saying there's a connection. Clawson, what a great job. In eleven years, seven Bowl games, twice had them in the top fifteen. Wake Forest. That's the Vandy of the acc Due respect to Andy, but he wanted out. He's not happy as a coach right now. And one have you heard that before?
Thank you Nil, Thank you Portal. Want to come on six thirty eight WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Sider. Coming up at the bottom of the hour. WKYT's Brian Milem who is of course covering the Basthtsketball Cats the football Cats, but also has recently been named to the WYMT, the TV station in Hazard where Brian worked for I think a dozen years. Brian has been named to the WYMT Mountain Classic Hall of Fame. That's the basketball tournament
that's been happening for nearly four decades now. Crazy success in the Mountains and Brian's been a part of that, the coverage. Brian loved covering sports in the Mountains and did a great job. We've talked to him about that before. A little bit later on Jara Van, who's speaking of
the mountains. Paintsville High School legend mister Basketball, helped lead Paintsville to a Sweet sixteen championship in the mid nineties, went on to a great career at Marshall, and we wanted to talk to him about Marshall having to drop out of a bowl game. He's had some strong comments on social media, so we'll talk to him about that, and we'll put a rap on the Kentucky volleyball season with Hunter Mitchell, who covers the sport so capably for
On Three. In fact, he writes about it so well and takes really good photos for their website as well. But I did want to touch base on a couple of things. There's been so much fallout about Bill Belichick, and I join those who are skeptical simply because I just really wonder about Bill Belichick sitting in somebody's living room trying to beg an eighteen year old to come play for him. And I don't buy this stuff about all kids don't know who he is. Yeah they do,
Yeah they do. They know who Tom Brady is and kids who love football. If you want to be a college football player, you eat, sleep, and breathe a sport. So I guarantee you you pay attention to more than just what's happened in the last twenty minutes. So they know who Belichick is. If for no other reason, the Belichick story is front and center all the time, it was about the fact that he couldn't get an NFL job. Now it's about the fact that he's going to be
coaching college football. But yeah, Tom Brady's coaching. Why do you think Rick Patino at success when he first got to Kentucky. Well, this guy coach the Knicks. You know, this guy knows how to get me to the league. You think Belichick isn't going to sell that. He already is. He said it's going to be his program will be
a feeder system to the NFL. But it's interesting. He was on with Pat McAfee the other day, as he has been frequently, and McAfee was going on about his thoughts about it and you know what's gonna happen down in Chapel Hill, and Belichick interjected with some pretty good promotional ideas. Bill.
I want to let you know last week I spent a lot of time talking about you recruiting with a lot of people, you know, because cause you come on the show, because we did the draft together, because I'm considered an NFL person, All the college football people that I know are like, how do you think Bill's gonna do? I'm like, well, Bill's not gonna half ass anything like for He's not gonna He's gonna be very well researched.
His team is obviously going to be held to a standard the way they're going to operate, Like, I think he's gonna win. And everybody was like, well, how's he gonna recruit, how's he gonna recruit, how's he gonna recruit? You think he's gonna recruit? And it's like, I think it's gonna be a little different for him. I think it's gonna bet. And I literally spent the entire week saying that to a lot of college football people. So to hear that it's all kind of happening the way that we thought it was.
Can I jump in there?
It's like, why don't you come down and talk about it in person?
How about if we do game day down here? See already gets yeah, gets it?
Yeah, Hey, we love that. Uh And I would be honored to go down there. Lombardi tells me it's the most beautiful place that he's ever been, and obviously he told us about you guys taking the off seasons down there when instead of watching film in Cleveland.
We can't wait to get down there. I can't wait to get down And again that's Pat McAfee and Bill Belichick. Courtesy of ESPN. I heard Sally Jenkins talking to Tony Corneiser. Jenkins, of course, is a tremendous sports writer for the Washington Post. She talked about the fact that Belichick's parents were we're educators, and of course his dad was a coach but was tenured at the Naval Academy, and she thought, she said, well, maybe he has belonged on a college campus all along.
I don't think so. I think the way Bill Belichick, with all due respect to Sally Jenkins, he was a great NFL coach and GM and manager whatever it took to build that program. And yes, things, you know, fell off the table after Brady left, but that team was so much more than Brady. And yeah, you've got to have a good trigger man, but of course if you don't have the guys around him like the Julian Edelmans,
you know. And of course Belichick coached the defense and the Patriots won as much with their defense as they did with Brady. So will he be successful in North Carolina? It depends on who surrounds him, depends on who he hires. If he hires people with extensive college experience and then listens to them, that's the key. Will he listen to them and take their advice. Yeah, he could be successful,
no question about that. A couple of other notes from the national picture Adam Schefter, who I'm not a huge fan of his, nothing personal, but I think ESPN bends over backwards to make it seem like he's got the inside view on everything, when in fact they'll run a crawl stating a story someone else has broken, and then I'll put a Schefter confirms, well, so what. But anyhow, he's going at it with Doug Gottlieb, who was a
radio personality for CBS Sports Network and CBS TV. I'm not a huge Gottlieb fan either, but Gottlieb is now the head coach at Wisconsin Green Bay and he took issue on the interweb with Schefter tweeting the fact that Sacramento State is talking to Michael Vick as its new head coach and said the school plans to move up to FBS building a new stadium with over fifty million dollars in nil, and Godlieb took a shot at him, saying, Jesus with a zz shifty edit, what agents tell you
zero points zero percent chance? Sach State is fifty million in nil? And Schefter fired right back at him, saying the school has already announced it has reached its initial goal of raising fifty million in NIL funds to strengthen the school's case for an invitation to the PAC twelve or Mountain West Conference. That I'd be debies at a
number as well, but Schefter is quoting school officials. God Leaves to bind a skepticism, said they have to raise money for a stadium, coaches, and then nil, saying it's fifty million in nil as Disingenuos was. But Schefter came back and said, Jesus Doug with a Z A seven game losing streak and last place in the Horizon League, less time on social media, more time in the gym, ye Green Bay right now two and ten overall, zero to three in the conference. So we'll just leave that
right there. One other note before we hit the brake. If you're an NFL fan, there's a chance you have the red zone, and I do have it. Although I did not watch last Sunday. I was working on something at the TV on in the background. In fact, I looked up because I was waiting for my Packers to come on Sunday Night Football. By then, the red zones wrapped up, but whatever I was doing, it sort of distracted me, so I didn't even dial up the red zone.
And so now I'm reading that there were commercials throughout the seven hours, and fans took to the interweb to social media happy about it. Because Scott Hansen, who hosts that day long festival of NFL highlights it, does a tremendous job. He always comes on with the promise of quote, seven hours of commercial free football, and I've always wondered,
are subscriptions enough to make this channel work. Well, evidently the answers know or somebody got greedy upstairs because now, and admittedly they did it with a split screen, they were dropping in commercials on the red zone. So if that bothers you, they ain't going away. And again fans made a big deal. Fans let people know it did indeed bother them that they were seeing commercials on their beloved red zone. And somebody told me. I was skeptical
about it. Somebody told me it'll change your life, and it did. Indeed, another NFL story that's out there, this is interesting to me. Actually, it's double sided. Bone Knicks, the rookie quarterback for the Broncos. He might be the rookie of the year, leads them to a comeback win over the Colts. Right, he throws three interceptions for the first time in his career, but he kept grinding. He hung in there, and he leads the Broncos to a win. And a lot of people thought the Broncos would stink
this year, at the very best, be mediocre. But because of Nicks. And remember now, the Broncos got rid of Russell Wilson handed the car keys to a rookie. This is a guy who started his career in the SEC. He was a much ballyhooed quarterback at Auburn. He was going to be the guy who led Auburn back to the mountaintop. Well, fans turned on him. He struggled for a while. Beat Kentucky. It was the open air for the COVID year. Remember the year that Kentucky played nothing.
Everybody played nothing but conference games. That was Kentucky's opener at Auburn and Kentucky got out of a touchdown, ends up losing. Bo Nicks had a great game be Kentucky as much with his legs as his arm, but later in the year struggled and people turned on him and he left. Which quarterbacks are doing that a lot? As you know, goes to Oregon, has an incredible career at Oregon,
and now he's doing great things in the NFL. And you got to wonder, if you're an Auburn fan, just how badly did we screw up letting that guy get away? I mean, one of his veteran teammates said, he is so tough, smart and put together. He's everything you want him in that moment, didn't even blink, just kept going and kept at it. And it's a team football game. Now balance that against what's happening in San Francisco with
Devondre Campbell. He's done. He's the guy who walked to the locker room in the second half during the game of their twelve to six loss to the Rams and his locker now empty, and his teammates have basically said good riddance. One of his teammates said, to quit in your team. That just sucks. Nick Bosa said, I think he's gonna have a hard time finding somewhere else to go when you act like that. He believes this guy's
career is over. He's only thirty one, nine year veteran, but he was moved to a backup role for this game because another guy made his season debut after tearing his achilles in February, and he just wasn't happy about it, complained about it before the game, during the game, left, and now his locker's empty. So things like that matter both when you're hanging in there and getting the job done for your team and when you turn your back on your team and literally walk away. Ryan milms up
next from wyt here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider, joining us now as a buddy of mine and a longtime friend of the show and now a Hall of Famer, mister Brian Nylem. I'm teasing you before one on the air, but it is what an honor. You were named to the Mountain Classic Hall of Fame, and you and I have talked before about your love for the time you've spent in the mountains and you still spend time in that part of the state. Congratulations, first of all, thank you.
It is a nice honor when you can be in the same company, at least by name with Bobby Keith, Richie Farmer, Jr. Van Hoos Clay County, Paintsville, you know in the list at Jay Crawford, the list goes on and on. So I'm at the special. It was a special moment and it's.
A great coincidence I have Jr. Coming on in the show a little bit later on, so it's kind of a hall of Fame sort of show, the host notwithstanding. But well, let's talk a little bit of course in Mountain Classic, Brian goes back how far and by the way, I think I told you this. I was in the building the da wymt you went on the air. Our late Gray GM Ralph Gabbard, who built that place, leaving the
ground up. He wanted all of us department heads, all of his management team from Lexington to be there for this historic occasion. So we saw the sun come up over the mountain where the transmitter is and we saw it go on the air. But tell us about the history of that basketball tournament.
Well, the tournament was started in nineteen eighty eight and it was to raise money scholarship money for four students, I mean basically, and at the very at the inception, it was eight scholarships, I think, one to represent each school involved in the tournament. Well now here we are thirty eight years later, and that scholarship a lot is more than five million dollars. And wow again, from eight thousand and year one to a totality of more than
five million, that's pretty incredible. And oh yeah, by the way, you've seen some great basketball over the years too. But the premise was to raise money to send Appalachian students to college that may not have had the means to do so, or at least give them a jump start into thinking about college and rewarding students who had done the work.
And it has survived, it has thrived, it has grown, which says everything there is to say about the pride of the mountains really, and I don't know how to how to better put it. I mean, there you know people who've lived their all their lives. They love it, even though it's it's sometimes a rough place to live, but it's theirs, and they live it, don't.
They they do? And you know, and just to show you the impact, I came across the story you did with st Roach, oh yeah, twenty five years ago maybe, and you asked him, who treated your dunbar bearcats better than anybody else? And he said all the people in the mountains, Wow, and you said really said, yeah, Breathitt County, Pikesville, those people treated us better than any other place in the state of Kentucky. And if st Roach can say that, what's that mean for? I mean, that's just the ultimate
sign of affirmation about Eastern Kentucky. If sd roach Conte says.
A lot about the sport of basketball, too, doesn't it?
Sure? I mean with John Bill Trivett, who was coaching at Pikeville for those years and helped raise money for schools, you know, if dun Bar's having a tough situation, hey, come on over here. We'll feed you, we'll house you, and we'll play some great basketball. And man, I would have loved to have lived in that era that Bob White and Earl Cox got to live through. We just lost Bob lastly, but they saw some They saw the foundation really and the explosion of high school basketball in this state.
Well, I'll tell you what I did. I mean, I was a kid, but I'm a little bit older than you. And yeah, I mean back back when you know basketball, high school basketball was a king in the state of Kentucky. They would talk about New York Chicago, LA, and Kentucky. You know, in terms of young kids coming up and playing ball. I think there's still a lot of that in the mountains, don't you.
I think there is. But obviously, with the decline of population in the mountains, the Tallepool is going to dwindle. And that's why the nineteen eighties for me from college and high school in this state may have been second to none at least when you compare decades throughout this state's history. But it is tough to see the dwindling population again. The Tallepool is going to suffer a little bit.
But one thing that doesn't suffer is the pride and the way these communities show up for their teams, not just basketball, but football as well. And it's really something special. If you've never been there to experience and said, you need to. Devin Jackson, one of our guys at KYT, he was down there. He goes, man, this is all right, shod and this is nothing compared to what it was twenty years ago when you'd have five thousand strong and twenty five hundred on each sidy to kill each other.
We're talking to Brian Milem, sports director WKYT and now a member of the Mountain Classic Hall of Fame, the WYMT Mountain Classic Hall of Fame. You're talking about the eighties, I got to think that it it. I don't know if it peaked, but certainly it culminated in Richie Farmer versus Alan Houston, that game in the Sweet sixteen where they both went for a thousand points.
Yeah, it was. That was in many ways the last. In some ways it felt like maybe I'm just being I'm overlooking something, but that was the last great rivalry that pitted city versus country, small town team versus an enrollment of two thousand. You know, it had to have a great rivalry. You must have contrasting styles. Oli Frasier. Yeah,
Ballard and Clay County. You've got the tall, beautiful looking athlete in Ali and you got the short, kind of clumsy looking guy who's just coming straight at you, the Rocky Balboa guy. Yeah, you know. And that's what Clay and Ballard was in eighty seven and eighty eight, And I think people forget they met in the Louisville Invitational Tournament in Clay County won there and eighty eight finals.
The eighty eight state finals was the culmination of Clay County winning the year before and then Ballard and maybe it's coincidence, irony, I don't know. Clay County wins it in rough Ballard wins it in Freedom Ball.
That's a great point. I hadn't thought about that either. But I remember Terry Hatton, who of course had to walk on UK and he's since written a book. His dad's verned and wrote a book about being a ticket scout for He was an intern at KYT and he and a young Steve Moss so I think was an intern then as well, went on to become executive sports producer,
you know, one of your colleagues. They argued all season about Richie and Allen, and of course Terry's game was much closer to Allen's than Richie's, and Steve kept telling him, I'm telling you, and I remember getting to that game, and it was in the early stages of that game at Freedom Hall and Terry looks up at me and all he said was, you know, I believe it now. You know I get it when you see Richie Farmer play. But then again, you know, Alan Houston went on to
have an incredible career for Bad teams at Tennessee. But also I think you'll agree, Brian, because you grew up following U of L as I did. If he goes to Louisville instead of Tennessee, I think the trajectory of Denny Crumb's career, his career ends on a much higher note, don't you.
Absolutely When Wade Houston left, he was the main recruiter, and he went the Vince Marrow to Mark Stews at that time. And when he left, so did that pipeline, maybe the Camden, New Jersey, and maybe the pipeline to other places that had made Louisville so successful, And unfortunately it did not follow to Knoxville for Wade. Now Allen had. He may still be the school's all time leading score, maybe behind christ Oh gosh, how can I forget his name? Yes,
Chris Laughton. Maybe he's two behind him or maybe still a head I don't remember. But he had an individually spectacular life in Knoxville, but as a team they didn't make it. And Diddy Crumb goes to at least in my opinion too, maybe three more final fours of Allan Houston as a global cardinal, and he'd like to think with his track record of getting to the final four that he could have won at least one of those.
Yeah, we're talking to Brian Milam WKYT is the newest one of the newest members of the WYMT Mountain Classic Hall of Fame. When we come back, we'll talk some baseball and some Wildcat Wildcat basketball that is here on the other side of the break six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Brian Mylam of WKYT as the sports director. I often call him Mister Baseball because he just absolutely
loves baseball, played it in college at Morehead State. And before I get to the basketball cats, Brian, I texted you the other day about this the Golden Rule or whatever they're calling it, that the suits who run Major League Baseball are actually considering this some kind of rule tweak where at a certain point in the game you can send up to the plate your best hitter whoever you want, which would just be an a just an
aberration of the worst degree. I know you hate that as well, but what we talked about in text is the fact they're even thinking about this. Nuts.
It's called the Golden at bat that's it. And this tells you all you should need to know. It was basically it was brought up a decade ago by someone within the MLB commissioner just a you know, just a pipe dream, hey, just a brainstorm. But the Savannah Bananas are the ones who put it into play. And Savannah Bananas, yes, they played base but their number one objective is to be entertaining. It's not about winning championships and doing you know whatever. I mean, at what point are they trying
to make Major League Baseball just backyard baseball? Hey? Ghost Runners? Second? Sick? All right, I'm here, you know, then you go listen. I just can't understand how anybody in their right mind would say this is a great idea. I just I can't understand it. And uh, you know, I thought the pitch clock rule for the pitch I thought that was a great idea because the game was being slowed down in ways it was not meant to be. Yeah, uh that And at first I thought, well, the umpires have
allowed this to happen because they should never. They should always and say hey let's go, let's go pick it up, pick it up. But they didn't, So I don't mind that rule. The ghost Runner at second needs to go. I mean at some point just for the just to speed up baseball, what are they going to inherit a three to two count next year? And he's all right, you're on the beauty of baseball. For me and for many was that it was there was no time, there was no clock. You may play all night if you
don't get that lashed out. And I love Thomas Boswell, the great writer for the Washington Post for all those years, and he even mentioned one time he's he wrote in a in an article about just basically an impairphrasing. Just when you think you understand baseball, there's an illusion that can almost be understood. You can almost see what's going on, but you really don't know the intricacy things. And if this happens, I mean, you talk about driving Billy Martin
and Earl we were crazy. They'd have great arguments. It just doesn't make any sense as to changing the game is one thing, enhancing it as another. And this would change it and it would not enhance it at all.
No, And like you said, the next thing you know is that you know leftfield's closed. You know that kind of stuff like in a bankard. No, it's nuts. Well, let us get over to the basketball catch. You've seen a lot of those uku of l games, and to me, what surprised me the most was the fact, and this is not a knock on Kentucky. Oh maybe it is, Kentucky goes up ten and couldn't pull away. I don't know if you had the same sort of feeling, But
what did you make of that? What did you make the way that game was played?
Well, I think it depends on how you look at it, because you know our job, your job, my job is to look at it from both both angles. And yeah, Kentucky could not pull away, So that means you got to credit Louisville a little bit. And it's been tough to credit Louisville at anything over the last five years and four years. So you've got to credit Louisville for
having a belief in what they're doing. And you also got to remember, for Louisville, they were without two of their players who were lost to the year for medical reasons. They've been gone for a couple of weeks now. But Kentucky could not pull away, and I think if I'm Kentucky a little bit, the only thing that bothers me is, you gave up eighty five points. You scored ninety three. But at some point down the road, you're going to have to stop giving up these these bursts. And for
Louis to score eighty five, louisles much better. It's amazing what an attitude adjustment and a culture culture adjustment can do for a program. But if Lamont Butler is not perfect, who knows what outcome we've got.
That's true, that's true. A few minutes Levet with Brian Mylin from WKYT, you and I talk a lot about were both old schools. You know, you're an old soul like me, even though you're younger. And the big picture on this Kentucky team, I think is incredible, given the fact that the new coach comes in and has to build a roster literally from the ground up, due respect to the walk Ons. Never been done at Kentucky, rarely
done in college basketball period. I remember Max Good had to rebuild the EKU program when he got the job. He was an assistant and was promoted, but he had two scholarship players to start with, you know, none, and this is of course one of the blue bloods. Where do you put this in the Annals of College Basketball History, Brian, And I'm not saying this team's going to win the national title, but just the fact that it's thriving says so much.
You know, I don't remember what it was like, and you would when Patino took over the first that first year. Yeah, when he gets your tickets are going to be more valuable than hastains and oil and all that stuff. That great New Jersey Boston active that he had. But what he did at a fourteen and fourteen clip coming off of a dumpster fire that he inherited. But he had scholarship guys on the team. Now they weren't. He would have gone out and saw it had he been the
head coach for the previous three years. He said, Yeah, I mean Richie, Richie Farmer is not on that ball club. Pelfrey might be, Beldhouse might be. I don't know if Sean Woods is. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe he is, maybe isn't. But I think when now, for the first half of this season of the regular season, Cope has been perfect almost. I don't think anybody saw this team with one loss at this juncture. You thought Pagan zagad. They've got three losses, maybe four if there's
an upset at the halfway point. Mark Pope has got to be the SEC coach of the year, the national coach of the year. He has got to be in my opinion. I'm not being biased in this. Bruce Pearl would have something to say. Rick Barnes would have something to say about it with the way their teams are playing, But Mark Pope has done He's got to be the halfway point, the national coach of the year.
Yeah, yeah, I can't disagree with that, all things considered. Uh yeah. And now we're going to see just how well this team fairs. Can it survive in the SEC, which it is early, but I heard another talking hit earlier today saying it could be the best conference in the history of basketball. And that's got a lot more to do than just adding Texas and Oklahoma.
You know it is, but I think but still, and I had this conversation with someone the other day, but the more teams, the more schools rather that you put into a conference, especially with the histories, the athletic histories of Texas and Oklahoma, and then the rumor mill that in the next three years of Virginia could be there, or a Clemson or North Carolina. I mean, when you gobble up all the smart kids in the room, you better have the smartest room in school.
Yeah.
This case, you're getting the majority of the great talent across the country, you better be the best conference. And what, in my opinion, what's always made the SEC better than everybody else? It's not Kentucky because you expect them to be there. You expect the horses of the conferences to
be there. But when Tennessee comes and doing what they're doing and Auburn doing what their it's always and I don't mean this in a bad way, but it's the it's the schools that don't have a crazy basketball reputation. When they're better, it raises everybody else. Though, that's right, and uh, you know when Kentucky's great in football are very good in football, it raises the SEC.
Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
Now, just the same thing for basketball when your Tennessee's and Auburn's come up and then LSU. I've always thought the conference is at its best when LSU was there, But now you throw in Texas and Oklahoma and they've made runs before and have had great individual talent. This, Yeah, this could be the greatest, This could rival this could rival the eighties Big East a little bit. And maybe they're pack We will see, because you know the eighty five Big East did put three teams to the final.
Four right here in the election. That's exactly right. What I was going to say was I remember John Cohen talking about and he didn't use his phrase back then, but it's now. It's you know, not just raising the ceiling, but raising the floor. And when he got to Kentucky and Kentucky was starting to become relevant, he said, that's what's making the league tougher. It's not that LSU is going to be great again this year or whatever, but he said, it's the Kentucky's and whoever else was good
that year, you know, getting better. When the league gets better, when the teams in the lower half get better, That's exactly what's happening with the SEC right now. Brian Milin, sports director w KYT and one of the new members of the Mountain Classic Hall of Fame, congrats again, thanks so much.
Sir, Thank you, buddy, appreciate you.
And as I mentioned up next, JR. Van, who's former mister Kentucky basketball went onto a Hall of Fame career at Marshall. We'll talk about what's going on with the portal nil, how it's getting into the high schools, all of that and more. And now number two here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue and sider joining us down our celebrity hotline as a guy I've known for a while, but JR. Van, who's to believe this might be the first time you've been in our show.
Welcome, Thank you.
Yeah, this is the first time I've been on your show. I do appreciate it well, Jr.
As most sports fans around here, I would hope No was Kentucky's mister basketball in nineteen ninety eight at the Paintsville High School led him to the ninety six Sweet sixteen state championship, went on to a Marshall University Hall of Fame career playing for the Thundering Herd. And the reason I wanted to reach out to JR. Besides just chatting with him at ball games was I wasn't aware
of this, JR. But you're alma mater apparently has had the back out of a bull game because you won't have enough players, Is that right?
Well, that's I think that's what's been reported on the internet. But from what I hear, I think there's somewhere around thirty thirty five players that are in the portal as of right now. Yeah, I mean that's that's a lot. But you know I and I believe three or four of them are quarterbacks. So you know, you definitely, I don't think you could show up to a ball game with maybe one quarterback and no backup.
You know, Marshall was slated to play Army and Independence ball and now apparently Louisiana Tech will play. But as a former college athlete and you're an educator, that's got to hurt your heart and being a Marshall alum, I've got to think that's a what a terrible feeling.
Well, you know, anytime that you know, something like that happens to a school, especially your school, your sports team, it's a it's a big blow because you know, you always want to see your modern football teams win championships, playing bowl games, you know, do all those things that teams talk about doing. But you know, the landscape of college sports today, just for some reason, these things happen and they happen quite often, and it's just it's really, it's really sad to see.
This is happening in the wake of the head coach resigning to take the vacant job at Suttern, Miss Charles Huff. So in a way, I mean, as a former athlete, can you blame these guys for saying, well, you know, if he's gone, so am.
I No, you know, I don't. I don't. I definitely don't blame the players at all. I think the system that exists today allows them to do that. And you know, like I said, being a being a former player, I don't blame players for looking for better opportunities for them. I just think there needs to be some type of system in place to prevent things like this from a team not being able to participate in a ball game from happening.
Yeah, because it costs the kids who want to play in the ball game now they don't get that experience.
Yeah, exactly. I mean, you know, I think when you play college football, I think your goal is to always playing a bowl game. It's like going to the NCAA tournament. You might not have a chance to win a national championship, but you sure want a chance to play in that tournament or that bowl game.
Yeah, and as you pointed out on your tweets and your social media posts, the history of Marshall University football is one of course that it includes the terrible tragedy. Some friends of mine, former colleagues, worked the story of the plane crash that wiped out the football team. But you know the fact that Marshall came all the way back to win championships is phenomenal.
Yeah, you know, you know, you go and have a school that experiences a tragedy like that, where seventy five members of your community, your football team, your coaching staff are killed in a tragic plane crash, and you know, the administration and new coaching staff that was brought in fought to have a season the next year, you know, and when you look now and you win your conference championship, you finished ten to three, and you're invited to a
fairly prestigious bowl game against an army team that you know had been in the top twenty five whijor recently, and you know that's the opportunity you want. And so yeah, it's just it's just sad to see something like that happen, and like I said, you know, I definitely don't blame the players that I think the system just needs six.
Yeah, it needs more these better guard rails, doesn't it.
Yeah. I mean, I think there could be things in place, like you can't transfer to after the ball season, and I think that should be the same for coaches too. I think contracts should remain in place. That's if you make it to a ball game, you have to coach that game, and then you can you know, maybe they can push back the hiring date for coaches or I don't. I don't know. I think there's a lot of things that can be looked at.
Yeah, and you know, it is still in the early stages. I have a feeling that several year years from now, we'll look back at this period of time and say, wow, that was crazy back then. It's hard to believe that the guard rails were not in place. But you know, after that at obandoned lawsuit situation where they they kind of rushed everything into place such as it is, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that things are just kind of messed up right now, you know.
Yeah, Yeah, I mean, and again I'm all four players having the best opportunity for them to make money off their image and likeness and you know, all of those things. I just think if you're going to pursue those opportunities, I would definitely like to see some guardrails in place that won't hurt you their teammates if they choose to stay at at university.
That's right. Have you talked to other Marshall lums about this?
Yeah, well, some of my former teammates. Of course, we're in you know, a tech a text group, a text chain, and you know, we talk about it, and I think most of them have similar sentiments. You know, we are definitely not the players. We just would like to see something in place that doesn't hurt the teammates that stay behind or choose not to leave.
Yeah. We're talking with Jared Van who's the former of Kentucky Mister Basketball and a member of a Hall of Famer at Marshall University after a terrific career there. And we're talking, of course about the fact that Marshall's had to back out of a bowl game because it just basically won't have enough players because there's so many in the portal. After the head coach decided to take a new job. There is a player on the Marshall roster
right now. I don't know how much you keep up with the basketball team, but a kid named Creighton theenem and from Louisville. His father went to Trinity High School, graduated with me. Phil was a great player for US,
went to Virginia Tech, played pro ball in Europe. Now he is back in Louisville, and we were talking at a reunion a year or two ago about the fact that Marshall, as you know, Jr. Went to the NSA tournament a couple of years ago and and pulled off at least one upset, as I recall, But then the bigger schools came calling with the big money and poached
a couple of their best players. And like you say, you can't really blame them, but it really kind of leaves a school like Marshall in the dust, doesn't it.
You know, it does and and and that's that's exactly what happened a couple of years ago. You know, Marshall finished second in the Sun Belt Conference in the regular season. I mean it went down to the last game of the season and they finished second. Our our one player that did graduate was the player of the year in the Sun Belt and he's still he's still playing professionally in the G League. And uh, you know, we had
two other players that were all conference performers. One with a four year point guard who left to an SEC school, and one was a seven foot freshman who was the freshman of the year, you know, and average close to
a double double and he went to another SEC school. So, you know, you lose three players like that when two of those players could have been returning, that definitely just hurts your prospects going into the next season, because not only do you have to find pieces that fit your team, you really have to rebuild your roster after losing three
players like that. And it is sad to see. You know, I think I think schools that you know, maybe aren't in the SEC, the Big Ten, you know, all these bigger conferences, it's almost like they're a breeding ground for those schools, Like they're almost like a minor league. To
give like a baseball example. You know, you you sign and you develop players for one or two years, and then when they get really good, they're off to more money, a bigger school, you know, a better opportunity, whatever you want. To call it, and then you're here just kind of left holding nothing and hoping to replace that player, which sometimes that's hard to do.
I've heard a lot of former Kentucky players talking to each other like, hey, can you imagine what we would have gotten and things like that. As a guy who played at a so called mid major, do you think about that much that how your life might have been different if and you you were a kid with skills and size. I got to think that you would have been attractive to a lot of other schools. Do you think about that much?
Yeah? I mean, you know, when you have when you have these situations happening like they are now, you kind of almost put yourself in that spot. You know, what would I do? How would I react? What decisions would I have made? I mean, it's you know, it's easy to look back now and say, well, you know, I loved my time. I'm thankful for everything that I did
at Marshal, everything that I accomplished. But at the same time, you're like, man, you know, even if I wouldn't have had the opportunity to maybe playing in the Nbay, you know in Europe, you know, who knows if I would enjoyed that or not. But if I would have made four hundreds, five hundred thousand dollars in college, that'd have been a nice start to my life. You know what I mean? I may you know, I mean once you graduate and you get an entry level position in a job.
For me, you know, a first year teacher making eight hundred and sixty dollars every two weeks. Money like that that you could have made in college just by playing sports. It's life changing. Top money that you're talking about. It's almost like you're signing professional contract and still playing collegiate sports.
And at these kids who are not only helping themselves but helping their families.
Yeah, yeah, And so who's to say that I would have not played at three different colleges and all these different things, you know, I mean, it's just money talks, and money talks a lot. And again that's why I don't blame the players for entering the transfer portal. I just think there needs to be rules in place that kind of allow them to do those things while not hurting the university and the teams that they're leaving. You know, when they're playing in a tournament, a bowl game, championship,
you know what whatever, whatever it may be. But yeah, I mean it's just a it's a different landscape. I can't imagine what it would have been like when I when I played. I've had, you know, some of my former college coaches and people that coached against me, you know, talk about how much money they would have offered me
and all this stuff. And I mean it's just as an adult, as a forty five year old adult now, it's just kind of unbelievable to hear things like that, like you would have gave me how much just to just to play and go to you know. I mean, it's just it's unbelievable. So I can't imagine what these kids have to deal with today.
Marw Kentucky high school basketball legend Jared Van, who's after to break here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with j Van who's he was mister basketball at Paintville High School back in the nineties, went on to a Hall of Fame career at Marshall. And we've been talking, of course about the portal and nil dollars see and now it's kind of creeping into the high school ranks.
And you've coached at Paintsville. You've coached at Johnson Central, do you talk to other coaches about what it's like now? I got to think there's more pressure from parents, you know, to get their kids to a situation where there may be some dollars out there for them.
Well listen, I mean, you know, especially there's not a lot of college high school age players that go on to play college yep. And so like, if you think that you may at least have an opportunity to make a little bit of money, you you are probably going to have to look at different situations and see how
things work out. Now. I hate that that has come to that, but again, I mean, who knows what families are experiencing behind closed doors, right, you know what I mean, especially financially, And so it is almost like the recruiting and the stories that you've heard of college recruiting, like in the seventies, eighties, and nineties, that's almost gone down another level to the high school level now. And you
know now that those college players are getting paid. You hear the I'm getting offered this from this school, and this opportunity and these different things you're hearing at the high school level two, which you know I'm sure that's that's always been the case for the most part, but I mean to hear it as often as we're hearing it now, that's that's kind of crazy.
Yeah, And next year it's going to be even crazier when the schools can flat out pay players. But they're going to change, for instance, they're going to cut way back on the number of baseball players, for instance, who can be on a roster. They are gonna be kids, and it's going to have a ripple effect all the way down to high school recruits who won't be playing Division one college baseball or Division two three whatever. So it's incredible.
And listen, I think, you know, I think what the lady that I look at is, you know, you have a lot of Olympics they're getting shut down because they can't And that is really that that's not only hurting the university, that's hurting opportunities for kids to compete at those levels in a sport that they chose to play, you know, because they were good at it, you know. And so it's almost like, well, if you're not playing football or basketball or even baseball, we're sorry about your luck.
You know, we don't have a team a roster spot. You know, you're gonna have to think about doing this at another place and maybe not even going to your dream school. And it's just because a kid is good at or chose a sport that's not considered to be a money making sport, which is real and that's really sad. And when you look at it hurting the collegiate level, I mean, shoot, it may hurt the Olympic level. Yeah, you know, you don't have players developing in college that
are playing golf, swimming, track and field. You know, what's that going to do to the Olympics in a couple of years. Are there going to be enough people to compete? I'm sure there will, but will it be at a higher level like it has been? You know, I mean there's all kinds of unknowns that that people are talking about. Man, it's just kind of blows your mind to hear them all.
Talking to j Aravan, who's a few minutes left where a former Kentucky Mister Basketball Parade All American at Paintsville High School went onto a Hall of Fame career at Marshall And we've been talking about the portal, and of course Nil and I don't know if the word is plagued, but it's certainly affected sports up and down the level, from college down really to middle school with kids bouncing around. But let me get back to your career at Marshall.
As I said, I have a couple of friends who cover the tragedy and I'm wondering on campus there, Jay are, when you got there, how cognizant of it did you become? How much did you know about it when you got there, Because it was about twenty years after the accident that you and it's been another what twenty years or so, But I've not been on that campus in a long time, but I wonder what it's like to be an athlete on that campus.
Well, I'll tell you this. You know, in the recruiting process even you know, there were a couple of people from the area who had played football at Marshall.
Yeah.
I actually graduated high school with a girl whose dad was on the Young Thundering Herd. He was he was one of the players that Marshall brought in. He was from Buffalo, New York, YEP to continue the football program. So it's kind of ironic, but I did know the story. One of the gentlemen killed on the plane crash. Roger van Over he was actually from Van Leer, which is in Johnson County, but had gone to high school in Russell,
and so that that story was always around. The story was always around, and so it was a big part of the culture at Marshall. I mean, you honor those people. Some of my very best friends were impacted. You know, Keith Morehouse, who still does sports for w SEZ lost his father in the plane crash, you know, and his wife lost her parents in the plane crash. And so you know, you meet these people throughout your time there at Marshall and you're just like, I can't believe that.
You know, you're actually meeting people that this tragedy affected the way it did. And you know, when they hurt, you hurt, especially when your friends and so you know, you just always think about them, especially when that time rolls around every year, and you know, it's just it is a big part of Marshall's a big part of who we are because you know, we came back from that moment and our football program, I believe at one time was called the winningest Division I program in the
nineteen nineties. You know, we had more wins than even in Alabama.
Yeah, and so.
You know, to go from that moment to national championships, conference championships, I mean, that's that's just astonishing to me.
Yeah, Marshall became a real power. In one double A was a rival of EKU. I covered the playoff game over there is one of the best games I ever covered, and that was special. He is Jr.
Van, you know, And and we had Hosman finalists too, Dad Diennington, Randy Moss, right, you know the list of players who have come through there. I mean, it's just to go from that tragedy and all of the things that had happened to what Marshall football he is, it is just it's amazing in mine.
Jr. Van, who's former mister basketball and Marshall Hall of Famer. I appreciate your time. We'll call back and check with you. We'll talk some more basketball during Sweet sixteen. How's that?
That sounds good? That sounds good. And in the meantime, if I can get some in ile money from me, body, you know, please please don't hesitate to contact me.
I'll see what I can do. All my best to your wife.
All right, thank you, we'll come.
Back and take a look at the Kentucky volleyball season on the other side of the break here on six thirty, Wlap join us on Celebrity Heartline as a longtime friend of the show. You've heard him well, he used to hear him on Cameron Mills' radio show regularly. Hunter Mitchell joined us now and then to talk Kentucky volleyball. Hunter, Unfortunately the season is over. But I got to ask you if you and I had spoken back when Kentucky was losing to the likes of you know, well, let's
not even talk about Auburn. I thought that was a real surprise. But you know, Stanford, Louisville, Purdue, the opener against the over in Louisville against Nebraska. If I had told you that they would have won SEC and made it to the Elite eight, would you believe me?
Not even a little bit, especially the SEC part with Texas joining the league. I don't think anyone thought. I mean obviously no one day Kentucky was six third in the preseason in the league. But I don't think anyone thought that the SEC championship was going to come back to Lexington, and certainly not in Elite eight. So for all intents and purposes, the Cats very much exceeded expectation.
I think this year, how did they do that?
You know, when we looked at it, the way the team was playing early in the year, their problems were very similar to what happened last year. If you remember. Offensively, they started really slow last year with Brooklyn being a freshman and just all the new pieces, it just took
a while to get the offense going. Ben Josephson came in and I think utilized a lot of stuff that we see in the mind game, with the idea of resetting the block, you know, by intentionally throwing the ball into the block to get the point recycled, and then also just how fast the offense he wanted to bring it in. So I think it took a while for the offense to adjust last year. I think you saw
that again this year. Even though a lot of those players came back, you had some freshmen mintal blockers that had to get used to the tempo behind Emma, and so there was just a lot of stuff that they were early in the season really struggling to figure out. And again we know how Craig's schedules, he schedules, the likes of the Nebraska's and the Penn States and the Stanfords. All that comes early, and so unfortunately, when you're learning, you don't really get to learn during a lot of wins.
And so they showed slashes. If you think about it, Kentucky was not swept except for Texas and obviously yesterday against Pittsburgh all season long. And you mentioned they played Nebraska and Louisville and Stanford and like all these teams and they were only slipped twice. So we saw, yeah, Penn State had they were up two zero on Penn State. Yeah, like we saw flashes of how good this team could be,
but they just couldn't put it together consistently. And then sec play came and it seemed like they really settled into who they were and their identity. And once they did that and they got the offense rolling, you started to see this team really click and really lean into who they were and leaning to each other. And I think that's a big reason why they were able to run off that success in the Southeastern Conference.
Yeah, and that Pittsburgh match, you know, Pittsburgh wins set one. I'm thinking, all right, Okay, Kentucky is up twenty two to sixteen, and Set two in that run that Pittsburgh makes is gonna haunt Craig Skinner's dreams, I know and all those kids. A nine to one run by Pittsburgh. Kentucky, it had its way in your eyes. What the heck happened there?
You know?
It's funny you same question if you would have told me yesterday going into that pit match that they were going to out hoold Pit to less kills than them, that it wasn't going to be Alivia Babcock going off. She's only going to have like thirteen kills, like I would have thought, Oh wait, Kentucky might have won that game. But Pittsburgh is just one of those teams that if you've watched them at all this season, they don't They only lost one game that was to SMU. They're just
a team that they've been together forever. They've got some fifth year seniors. Olivia Babcock and Tory Stafford are two of the best hitters in the country and they're only sophomores. So that was already going to be a tall order. And you're also playing in pit. That first set, though, Kentucky early it looked like they were overmatched, and then they settled into it again. They said, they started playing
their game, and they made it a game. They made it a one point game late until Pit closed it out on a little two oh run there at the end. In the second set, it was all Kentucky service pressure, right, which going into the match, the only way Kentucky was going to win that game is if they applied ridiculous service pressure on Pitt, and they did in the second
set and twenty two to sixteen lead. Actually, it back today and watch that part of the match, only that part of the match when they went up twenty through sixteen. Just what in the world happened? And if you watch it, Brooklyn only got set one time in that run. Now, part of that is she was in the back row, so obviously when you're in the back row, it's a bit harder. But Kentucky has gone off of the arm
of delay all season long. It's one of those things where you know, when you're playing a team like Pitt, you want to make sure your offense is balanced that way, the block can't just camp on Brooklyn. But you also have to make sure that you just ride your best player, and so I think unfortunately Kentucky tried to get a little bit too cute, They tried to get the others
involved too much. And when a team is coming back like that, at a point you just have to say, you know what, we're going to ride with delay, and if we go down with delay swinging, then we go down with delay slinging. And unfortunately she just didn't get the ball enough. And I think that was a really big part of it. The crowd came back into it, and with Brooklyn in the back, they just they couldn't side out terminally, which is a problem that they had
had at points in the season against good competition. It's still kind of felt like at times they were missing a second left side hitter. And unfortunately Aaron Lamb just she struggled yesterday against that big pit block. So they just they especially in that rotation when Brooklyn was in the back, they just could never really sat out.
Yeah, and a healthy Asia thig Pen I'm sure would have helped, But at five ten, I don't know how much damage she could have done against them bigs for Pittsburgh, you.
Know, Yeah, And it would be hard to throw her into her really her first instill of the tournament game against it. She played a little bit in some garbage time in the previous rounds, but that would have been like, hey, this is it. We really need you to go, and so that would have been tough. But you know, some obviously in hindsight's twenty twenty, so you think, well, maybe we should don't know what to tig pin and see what would happen. But I do think that it's helpful
looking towards next year. What Stigpin showed you this year is really really encouraging. And that's obviously not looking at what Hannah Benjamin could be. It's not looking at what Georgia Watson could be as a freshman coming in. Like, Kentucky's got a lot of really good pieces on the
outside next year. Obviously, this year, with all the injuries like that is a refreshing thing to see if you're Kentucky fan, because there's a actually hopefully going to be a flew of talent there on that left pin.
But they do say goodbye to Ammigrom the best now statistically set her in the history of the program. But they've said goodbye to Madison Lily. They said goodbye to Morgan Berg. So you know who's next.
Yeah.
So it's funny because when Madison left, that was the big question, right, like, oh my gosh, how is this coaching staff going to replace Madison freaking Lily? You know, at the time, the best setter that Kentucky'd ever seen, one of the best collegiate setters that we have seen play the game anywhere the year, the national player of the Year, who won the team that the program's first title.
Like all of those things were true, there was a lot of questions, who on earth is going to replace you know, Madison, whether that was a transfer portal player, whether it was a freshman coming in and Emma came in and really from the minute that she was on campus was superb. She just carried herself with that kind of confidence. And that's what you need to cetter. You had a confidence setter that is sure of where she's
setting the ball. A The fact that Matison Lily is now on your coaching staff, regardless of who is your setter, is an incredible asset. Like the fact that she is over there. Whoever she's training next year is going to be in good hands. But secondly, keep in mind Ava Sarafa was supposed to come in as a freshman and actually challenge Emma grown for that starting spot. I think there was a little bit of some some confidence problems when she came in, just trying to figure out the
college game. It's obviously very different. The speed of the game is very different. You're playing the SEC, so she really didn't get there. But I think we saw her in that serving specialist role, and as the season went on, she looked like her confidence was through the root. Even yesterday she was setting balls in transition when Emma was out and she was serving or Emma was taking that
the first ball, excuse me, and she looked good. So I think there's some hope and some confidence that Ava could could buy for it.
And then Cassie.
O'Brien the freshman coming in. She's a six to one setter. That's a big setter, right, so they have some size coming in now in the setting position, who I think is also going to challenge for it.
Well, Madison was a tall setter.
She was I think Madison was five to eleven, so, you know, a little taller than Emma and a little shorter than Cassie. So we'll see again, I think with Ava and Cassie, they've got a nice little battle. We'll see who wins it next year. You know, I haven't gotten to watch Cassie play a whole lot, and I haven't really gotten to watch Ava play in the setting
position a whole lot. But I think that again, with Madison on the coaching staff, the setter position is going to be well taken care of it and we'll figure it out. There might be some growing pains, There probably will be, and so it's gonna take some adjusting. But again, we've seen Kentucky the last two years now have those growing pains early in the season and they've overcome them. So you know, I think there's reason to be encouraged given the setting position and what's coming.
In talking to Hunter Mitchell, he covers UK volleyball for on three dot com and has covered the Wildcats for a long time, taking pictures written about him, tweeted about him. You don't see anybody covering volleyball the way you see Hunter do it. You mentioned Brooklyn delay twenty two kills yesterday. Not a surprise, you know, I guess we should have seen this coming in that she was freshman of the year. Last year, Well, let me put it to you this way.
Were you surprised she did win Player of the Year, not Kennedy Martin from Florida?
I actually was, Yeah, I really expected Kennedy Martin to win it, just because Kennedy has had so many thirty bomb games. Yeah, and as the right side, thirty kills is hard because you weren't always getting as many opportunities as the outside is because it's harder to set the right side in transition on nouns system ball. So I was surprised to see Brooklyn get it. But when you look at what Brooklyn did this year, it's hard to
argue that she didn't deserve it. You know, I'm not surprised by what Brooklyn did, but at the same time, a little bit like she was ridiculous. That she was ridiculous as a freshman. I didn't think she could get that much better as a sophomore, and we hear about sophomore slumps all the time. Brooklyn doesn't even know what that means. She just she was superb this year. I mean, she was averaging darn near five six kills per set.
Me install the tournament, you think they're playing Minnesota, they're playing Pittsburgh. I mean in Pittsburgh they played three sets. She had twenty two kills, so she averaged over seven kills a set. And she also hit three forty five against the pitt team that's one of the best blocking teams in the country. Like, she is just a ridiculously talented left side. And I was texting Edmond yesterday and I said, you know, Leah, I hate saying that you're
right because I'm just I'm tired of telling you. But you know, when Brooklyn before the season last year, she said, you got to watch out for Brooklyn Delay now, like she's really good. She could make a viye for my kills record depending on how much she plays. And I thought she was crazy. But if Brooklyn keeps this up, she could I don't know, they might need some some
deep tournament runs. But if she keeps bombing twenty plus kill games, and you got to think she had a thirty kill game this year, which has only been done by like three other players in Kentucky's history. So and when you look at that, serve how much better from behind the service line she got, like the room for improvement. The fact that Kentucky still gives her for two more years, and they already made an Elite eight with her as
a sophomore. Like, there is a lot of reason to be really excited about what Brooklyn can be as a junior and even as a senior, because because this guy is the woman with her. She is a ridiculously talent outside.
Well, you know, and when you look at stats, you look at kills. Yes, but I think her overall game may have pushed her to the top when it comes to player of the year. Plus you know, playing for the team that won the SEC championship that helps.
Yeah, yeah, it does.
And Brooklyn, you know, you mentioned that she made a lot of improvements in her blocking game. She made a lot of improvements in the fit in defense. In the back row, she had improvements oftensively in the back row. She was almost as good, if not better, in the background than she was in the front row.
This year.
I mean, they started running her out of the middle back, they started running on the right back. They stared using her on the slide attack on the right back. Like, they got really creative with how they moved Brooklyn around and used her offense this year and again to be able to do that with a sophomore is really really impressive.
And I think, you know, especially as Kentucky loses some pieces that have been big leaders over the last several years and Aaron Lamb and mcgrome and Eleanor Bevin, having Brooklyn there now be as good as she has been and also kind of it seems like really settling into that leadership role and have the confidence that she's got is really really beneficial for what Kentucky's going to be the next two years.
More with Hunter Mitchell from on three dot com when we come back on six point thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Hunter Mitchell, who covers volleyball UK volleyball for on three dot com. You mentioned Texas and uh, you know, there's no sense crying over the proverbial spilled milk, but Kentucky loses two really good players and Reagan Rutherford
and especially Maddie Skinner to Texas. You think about the portal when it comes to football, baseball, and basketball, but boy, it affects every sport, doesn't it.
He does, Yeah, and Texas was a team that again I told Leo she was right about this. She told me coming into the year. Hey, don't just give it to Texas now or remember, the transfer portal affects everybody, So everybody's getting players like this, and I think the parody in the entire sport we've seen, you know, like Creighton this year for example, Crayton's been good, but they're top five good. You know, at least get Singer went over to Creighton and they just they're not. They knocked
Texas out this weekend. So the parody and the whole sport all over the place is really good. And that transfer portal has really really been a big part of that. Craig he uses it when needed, But Craig likes to develop his players as freshmen, which I think you've you've seen the the fruits of with Emma and Eleanor and Brooklyn. I mean just recently, like man, my goodness, their growth from freshmen to just sophomore and senior for mong them
has been superb. Yeah, the transfer pot is a big weapon, and you're starting to see more parody across the entire sport. Now it's not always just Stanford and Penn State winning it. Now you're seeing a lot more teams that have never won it before actually make national championship games and actually win it. So it's really cool to see.
Well, and I think it would be nice if Pittsburgh goes on to win it, right, I mean the team that a way to Kentucky.
Yeah, yeah, And I think Kentucky fans probably would probably like that if they knocked Louisville out. You know, you don't you don't really want to see louvill win it, do you? I mean?
Right?
But you know it's like you said, it's a new face. But ESPN, I guess was did a terrific piece on how close pitt has come. I mean you talk about a driven team against Kentucky. I mean they were absolutely focused because they were so bitterly disappointed each of the last two years.
Right, Yeah, Pitt's been knocking on the door for a very long time with this group, which also is a big part of it. And when you look at when you have hitters like Vasquez Gomez and Tory Stafford and Lyudia Badcock, a center like Rachel Fairbanks, like that team is just loaded at every position. And you mentioned it, they've been so close so many times. I would be very I thought before the tournament started that it's Pits
to lose. The pit is the overall favorite. They have looked the best in the country all season long, even games do they look quote unquote bad, like against Oregon for example, the round before Kentucky, like Orgon, exposed a lot of weaknesses in Pitt's game, but Kentucky tried to exploit right and Kentucky did to a degree, but pitt covered them. I mean, I thought that a lot of the things that Kentucky was trying again in that run in the second set when they went up twenty to sixteen,
pitt adjusted on the fly really quickly. And they just have so much confidence. That's a team that knows that they've been right there, and I think that they know how good they are, and they know their identity and their pieces. And when you have athletes that are a that good but we also know and play within their identity, it's just really hard to be a team like that.
And again I thought Kentucky played them closer than I thought they would, not that I thought Kentucky was bad and just going to get blown out, But again, Pittsburgh is just that good. I did not think that Kentucky would be up twenty two sixteen in one of the sets pitch, they just imposed their will on you, and it's just really really hard to beat that team. Obviously only one team half, so.
I thought Kentucky was extremely competitive with Pitt. Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised, and like you said, twenty two to sixteen, I thought, well, this is going to be interesting if they can finish this up and get it into a third and four set. But we know, like you said, I can't tell you how many times where I thought, well that's down, that's.
A point, but kept it alive and that was the game, Dick, Yeah, that was the game. When they lost that run, you knew that the it was over just because the confidence that you're up twenty two to sixteen, which in volleyball, like you have a six point lead. Really in any set, it's hard to overcome, especially when you're only three points away just be between service errors and hitting errors, like,
it's really hard to lose a lead like that. The other team has to play Basically, it's like being up fifteen with three minutes to go on basketball, like, it's very unlikely that it's going to be overcome. And so when they lost that lead, you just you knew, like what else do we have to do? Like we were just up six, three points away, and even that didn't
do it. And you think, you know, you'd like to think if that match gets tied one to one, you have all the momentum on your side, and you've exploited a lot of the things that you wanted to exploit, and you really didn't play well in the first set and you almost won that one. So you've got to think that their confidence would have been like, hey, we
got this. And so when they lost that lead, you just kind of knew, like, there's just it would take a herculean effort, in a miraculous collapse on Pittsburgh's parts for them to actually come back. And so that was the game that right there was the game when they lost that run on Well.
Chucky was out playing pitt It's not like pitt was playing poorly. Kentucky's just playing better. And yeah, it just happens. And that's that volleyball. Momentum changes in volleyball more than any other sport, quicker than any other sport. Is wild, yeah, but that's what helps make it great. Hunter Mitchell, you can follow him on Twitter. Where do people see your work?
You can follow me on Twitter at h Mitchell fourteen and then I've been writing on KSR on k sr's website.
So sounds good, brother.
Thank you see us soon, yes, sir, Thank you, Dick.
It really was a remarkable season when you think about all those losses back at the beginning of the year, and not surprising because they were playing just a brutally tough schedule, including Louisville, which is in the Final four now playing on its home court. But you know, you had to wonder was this the year that the streak would end when it came to Southeastern Conference championships. Turns
out no, they won their a straight. Didn't look good after they were swept by Texas, but then Texas began to falter and Kentucky took care of business and went on to take the championship with the ability to host for a seventh consecutive season. Craig Skinner, of course, was proud of what happened this year winning the conference title, but really proud, he said, of the way this team battled back after the setbacks early in the year.
Outside of this particular match, I couldn't be more proud of this team and doing this a long time, and there's been very few that have those resilient, tough understanding and seeing the value in each other and overcoming injuries, you know, all kinds of things to get to this point, and you know, each one of them maximize their abilities and maximize the potential of this team, and all fifteen on the roster made a difference in you know, us
having the success that we did this year. So as a staff and a coach, couldn't be more proud of of what we'll accomplished this year.
One of Skinner's building blocks next season will be Brooke Baltima, who was a force on that front line up at the net. She can score, and she talked after the match, and again this is her freshman year. She's a red shirt freshman after sitting at all last year injured. She talked about the late run that this team made.
I think those are the things that I'm most proud of this team because we went through a lot of hard things. There are a lot of things that we had to work through, and by the end, I mean we I mean we were so close, we were so bonded, Like our bond on the court was just the strongest it's ever been and something that I just will hold on to the rest of my life. That's I'm gonna remember that more than the wins, more than the accolades,
more than anything else. So I think just the little victories that we achieved together.
And I'll do it for now. Thanks to Jared Van who's Hunter Mitchell and Brian Milin. Back with you tomorrow night. That said good night from the garage in Lexington. That's a joke, son a flying waiver. You're built too low a fast ones go over your head.
You got a hole in your glove.
I keep picking them and you keep missing them.
You gotta keep your eye on the ball.