2025-01-23 - BBI

Southeastern conference. And what a wild night last night it was. I don't know if you got to see it. We watched use playing cards as usual on a Wednesday with my friends. We had an eye on that Arkansas Georgia game. Calliperri wins one. How about that do Thierio hitting the winning free throws at the end, And in fact I hit one, missed the second Georgia. They only had it like one and a half seconds left. They had no shot Georgia head of winning that game of trying to

pull off a missed free throw. So they stood there and Thierro grabs the rebound and lays it in, ends up being a three point margin, but Florida comes all the way back from double digits down and beats South Carolina in Columbia, leading only for the last four seconds of the game. Texas A and M comes all the way back, hits a three pointer at the buzzer to beat Ole Miss sixty three to sixty two, and Peter

Burns of the SECRE posted a great stat online. Georgia, South Carolina and Ole Miss led for a total of one hundred and fourteen I'm sorry, one hundred and nineteen minutes and fourteen seconds out of one hundred and twenty total against Florida's Texas A and M and Arkansas, and all three of them lost. Can you imagine losing like that? So just incredible come from behind wins and give Caliperry credit without his best player. We talked about it my buddies in me prior to the game. You know, do

they have any shot? I said no against Georgia, not with that boogie, but everybody else just sort of do they like to say, stepped up and maybe minus boogie the other team. Georgia didn't quite know how clearly Arkansas would react, but it was a grinder of a game obviously with that kind of score. At least Cali Perry's got that monkey off his back. And yeah, I'm gonna mention Cali Perry why I'm not obsessed with watching him. I don't care if he fails to succeeds. But it's

a story in the SEC. It's one of the art rivals for Kentucky. It's the brand new, high profile coach rebuilding the program. The way Mark Pope has done not quite as big a challenge because he did have I think a couple players but similar and really the bigger story was how badly they've played. They've they've stunk it up up until now. So he finally wins one in a weird ways. So Wildcats have to make sure they

don't have that happened down in Nashville. I don't think they will because I like what Mark Pope is doing right now and in some corners he is getting mentioned or midseason I should say for Coach of the Year honors, and he should be mentioned. However you feel about the award, his name should be in the mix. In fact, Gary Parrish for cbsports dot Com in a show he had the other day with the four to three of his colleagues.

He unveiled his top three candidates number three John Shire of Duke, number two, Bruce Pearl of Auburn, and then came number one.

doing great work. Pat Kelsey at Louisville, Darren de Freeze at West Virginia, but nobody's doing more than Mark Pope at Kentucky right now. He would be my National Coach of the year.

hard to say. I know I'm biased, but I would vote for Pope simply because when you talk about what his team has accomplished, I think strength to schedule plays in here. So I think some of the wins for the Wildcats and how tough the SEC is this year, I think that factors in. Now, some of the panel members kind of dismissed fact, Well, you know, Duke's got these great players, and you know they're not crazy about Pearl.

But as Parish pointed out, this award should take into consideration putting the teams together, recruiting, developing, and then winning on the floor. So you can't argue with Duke, you can't argue with Auburn with Bruce Pearl, and certainly you cannot argue with Kelsey. But I thought it was interesting that Gary Parrish at this point says it's Mark Pope and we'll see it could change, could change by next week. Mark Pope already has a pretty good recruiting class put together,

as you know, including Malachi Marino and Jasper Johnson. Maybe it gets better later tonight. I mean later tonight, which is when we're gonna hear apparently about the five star recruit Caleb Wilson. Now, a lot of the experts are saying this kid's gonna go to North Carolina. But the fact that Kentucky's in the mix along with Ohio State is good news for Wildcat fans because for the longest time,

Kentucky wasn't in the picture. But Katen lewis signing or committing at least perhaps brought Wilson a little closer to Mark Pope and his program two four seven Sports. Travis Branham and his Crystal Ball is saying that it will be North Carolina. We will not hear about this until after tonight's Celtics Lakers game on TNT, So either stay up late or check it first thing in the morning. Probably North Carolina, but the Cats are in the mix. And what Carolina could use him right now? I know

everybody could use him. Really, he's that good. He said he likes Kentucky's style. He said he likes the spacing. Said, I'm a guy who can shoot, but I can also get to the rim. And he wants to be able to show off his entire skill set and says Kentucky's a place he could do that, and likes the fact that Mark Pope is friendly. Of course, all recruiters are friendly, but I think he probably knows that Pope is the

real deal. And I'm not knocking Hubert Davis or anybody, but this is just one of the things that has made Caleb Wilson keep Kentucky in his list of final school. So, like I said, we'll find out late tonight. We'll talk about it tomorrow night right here. Up next, the passing of a great Kentucky iconic high school football coach and a big anniversary for yours truly as well. A little later later from Kenny Brooks on six thirty WLAP Welcome

back to the Big Blue and Sider. Coming up at six forty five pregame coverage of Kentucky basketball the women taking on Texas A and M down in College Station, and Darren Hedrick will have a call for you right here. Pregame at six forty five, tip off at seven o'clock. It's the Wildcats look to stay perfect in Southeastern Conference play. There five and zero and sixteen and one overall, so it's going to be important for the Wildcats to win another one on the road. It always is. We'll have

it for you right here. A couple of personal notes. I did not know Philip Haywood, but I certainly knew of his work. He of course, is the guy who was the Belfrey head football coach for the longest time, and sadly he died this week after from injuries he suffered in a serious crash Saturday morning. They took him to the UK hospital and he passed on Wednesday afternoon. He is the winningest high school football coach in Kentucky history. Brian Milin texted me yesterday that Heywood had died from

his injuries. But just what a remarkable story. He comes to Belfrey in nineteen eighty four and settled in for forty one seasons with the Pirates. It took a little while, but he got him to their first ever state title in Class two A in twenty three. All right after that, seven more state titles in four and then what a run thirteen, fourteen, twenty fifteen, sixteen, nineteen and twenty one. In twenty thirteen, USA Today voted to him the best

high school football coach in America. Just phenomenal and just a real tragedy that he's taken. At this point, wrote a couple of books, one called Faith, Family and Football. The second was called Climb the Mountain, and the people who have chimed in about him on social media just remarkable. WSAZ and Huntington did a sit down interview with him a few years ago, and one of the questions is why so long at Belfrey. I mean, forty one years. It's a long time to stay in anyone spot, especially

for a coach. And he talked about how it just felt right.

And why not because they are successful and when they think about what it's take to get there and they just reflect on it and they share their thoughts and opinions with you, and yeah, hey, it works for them. But generally it's fairly simple. And he also talked to w Sez a little bit about his philosophy on handle how to handle kids and coaching.

when you run into problems. So I don't know how long it took him, And again I never got a chance to Sinamua man, But how long it took him to instill that sort of value system at Belfrey, I can't imagine it took very long, because again, he got there in eighty four, didn't start winning state championships for a while, but they became successful and he was much beloved in that community. And he will be missed, there's

no question about that. But just the tragic losses. Philip Haywood dies on Wednesday, and that's a big that's a big hole in that community. On a happier note, and again a personal note coming up, and I wrote about this on Facebook today. Coming up, during the South Carolina Kentucky men's game next month, the nineteen seventy four to

seventy five team will be recognized. That's the team that went to the Final four, beat Bob Knight's undefeated Indiana team and went to the Final four in nineteen seventy five. As a student at UK, covered that team for the Kentucky Colonel. I was there in Dayton when they pulled off that upset of Indiana. Talked to Jack Gibbons about it on the air the other day. Amazing, it's been fifty years, my gosh since that team comprised of a really great senior class of Jimmie and Connor and Kevin

Greevy and Jerry Hale. Had Jerry on talking about it the other night as well, Mike Flynn, Bob guy They were the Super Kittens, Bob Guyett. They I think were originally a class of seven. Joe Hall went out and landed when he was recruiting for Adolf Rupp, and then they played their varsity careers under Joe b They were his first varsity team. They couldn't play as freshmen, but the Super Kittens and again Jerry was talking about this the other night could beat the varsity and they had

freshman games. They played a freshman schedule. They were undefeated. They're the best freshman team team in the country and so they were expected to win multiple national titles after that. Well, they won the SEC as sophomores, but they fell short in the NCAA tournament. They lost to Indiana in the second round. It was the Mid East Region finals. There weren't sixty four teams that year, so they just needed to win two games to get to the Final four,

but they lost to IU down in Nashville. Quinn Buckner and Steve Downing both had double doubles for Indiana. Jim Andrews had a huge game and what turned out to be his finale for Joe B and the Wildcats. Jim had twenty three to ten in that game, but the Wildcats only got to the free throw line believe it or not against that rugged Indiana defense four times. Kentucky three of four from the line. That's it. Indiana was

ten to fourteen. I didn't see the game, don't remember much about it except reading about it, but Kentucky was down thirteen at the half and came back but ended up losing seven. So going into the following year, we're all thinking, well, you know, they'll they'll be contenders again. But Jim Andrews moves on and Joe B was not

really able. Jim Andrews is a great player, averaged a double double, underrated finally got into the UK Hall of Fame, but Kentucky didn't have anybody that good to put in the middle coming up after jim So Bob Guyett, a power forward, ends up playing in the middle for Joe B. And Bob was six seven six ' eight, not a classic post player back then, and that meant Jimmy dan Connor had to play power forward at six foot three

six foot four. So this was a small UK team and it cost the wildcit They were thirteen and thirteen, Joe B's second year and everybody wanted to get rid of him. So what does he do. He goes out and recruit size three guys who were six ' ten six ' eleven and Rick Roby, Mike Phillips and a guy named Danny Hall who later a transfer, as well as two kids from Lection and named Jack Gibbons and

James Lee. So you add those guys to the seventy four to seventy five team and now with Roby in the middle and or Phillips in the middle and Bob now playing power forward and Jimmy Dann playing the point guard spot basically with Mike Flynn alongside. It was a really good shooter and a really really good defender. That was a fun team and nobody thought though they'd get to the Final four, because well, they drew in against Indiana, an undefeated team that had beaten Kentucky by twenty four

points early in the year. But you know by now what happened. They pulled off the upset, they go to the Final four, they lost to UCLA in the championship game. Well, that year, that spring of the seventy four to seventy five team is when I stumbled into broadcasting because I was at a game working for the Colonel, sitting in the end zone at my press table seat where I usually sat next to WBKY, which was the campus station, and they would broadcast the games, at least I thought

they were. They had equipment there in an announcer, playboy, play guy, and they can't do it now. But back then, the contracts stated and Jim Host made this happen, that the campus station could broadcast games and help develop young announcers. Tom Hammond did it for that station, Keith Elkins did it for that station, several people, Paul Rodgers now the voice of the u OFL Radio network. And one night

I look up and they're not broadcasting. It's just the station manager, Don Wheeler, sitting there by himself, and I said, not doing the game tonight? He said, no, I lost my announcer and I was just looking straight ahead watching the game, and I just kind of muttered, you know, I've always wanted to try something like that or words to that effect, and he's like, call me. So I did, and I auditioned a week or two later, and wouldn't

you know, I got the job. He said, all right, next year, you'll be our guy, one of them at least, and I, along with the guy who turned out to be a close friend named Mike Connley, He and I broadcast every home game for the next three years, football and basketball, and Don was so happy with us that he looked for other opportunities for us, and we actually broadcast I think three or four high school football games. When UK was on the road, we would do a

high school game that week. And in fact, at one point, I think it was Lafayette played a game at oak Ridge, Tennessee, and we went and did the game, did a game in Danville, I think in Somerset. Our senior year is when Kentucky went to the Final Four again when they beat Duke behind Jack Gibbons. And because the games were relatively close to lexing in Knoxville, Dayton and Saint Louis. We did the games. I broadcast the final four in

nineteen seventy. Nobody listened, of course, they were all listening to k Wood. They had a very modest audience, but hey, you talk about great experience. And that's how I ended up in broadcasting and non newspapers. It was coming out of school. I thought I'd be a newspaper guy and had some offers, but also had an offer to be the sports director WVLK across Town. Took that job, wound up on the UK network and here we are. I'm

the longest tenured member of the UK Radio network. But that all happened fifty years ago, stumbling into a broadcasting career which has led me right here to my garage and the Big Blue Insider. We'll talk about UK women's basketball next on six point thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue the Cider final segment of our program, as we're gonna make way for Darren Hedrick in his

pregame coverage of Kentucky women's basketball. The Wildcats tonight are in College Station Texas to take on Texas A and M. You'd think the Wildcats would be favored in this game, because Kentucky is, you know, still undefeated in conference play at five and oh, just a half game back of mighty South Carolina, which is six and o. LSU likewise is five and oh A and M middle of the pack nine and eight right now two and three in SEC play. But the Aggies are coming off a win.

They beat a Georgia team that is not great. Kentucky destroyed Georgia the other night, but A and M beat Georgia last time out. Prior to that, back to back losses the tenth ranked Oklahoma and an absolute butt kicking by South Carolina the game Cocks winning ninety to forty nine. A and M did beat Ole Miss, which is a decent team, but prior to that lost to Tennessee ninety one seventy eight. So A and M's had its ups and downs. Wildcats would just add one loss to North Carolina.

So you'd think Kenny Brooks's team would be favored to win this one tonight. I believe they are, but you never know what happens on the road. Still, what a job he has done. Good hire by Mitch Barnard did his homework. Kenny Brooks had a really strong reputation in the ACC and was kind of fighting an uphill battle a little bit at Virginia Tech, although as you probably know, he did take Virginia Tech to the Final four. That's the one thing that UK women's basketball hasn't been able

to do is break through to the final four. Matthew Mitchell had a couple of really good teams that had really good shots at it, but then fell victim to the seating and the bracketing in the NCAA tournament twice running into a Connecticut team that will go on to win the national championships. So the Wildcats get to the Elite eight, but haven't been able to break through. I don't know if they'll do it this year or not.

But Kenny Brooks knows how to get the job done, knows what it takes, and he has done a terrific job putting this team together. And he talked earlier this week about the fact that when you break down what's happening with UK women's basketball, it's more than just the wins and the losses.

themselves for the betterment of the team. And they've done so, and I've been very pleased with them the way that they've been performing. And obviously, you know, the record is good sixteen and one, five and zero in the conference. But we're just taking it day by day, and when we take that approach, I think good things really happen.

like to listen to what Darren has to say. Sometimes I split it up one half TV, one half radio. But my point is if you've seen this team play on TV or in person, and we urge you to do that. If you haven't yet made it to the renovated, all new and improved, it's brand new, the historic Memorial Coliseum. It's phenomenal. The job they did more than just a facelift. They basically rebuilt the inside of it. They may change so much of what made it great, especially on the outside.

Of course, she couldn't change a whole lot there, but just the renovations they did for both women's basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, it's tremendous. But if you've seen the team play, it's interesting to me how efficient the Wildcats are. And again that's a nod to Kenny Brooks, but he'll tell you that's a nod to the way the players have embraced what they're doing. They're still learning from him and from

each other. But the fact that he's got Georgia Amore the point guard is just She is one of the best in the country. She's one of the best UK's ever had. I said before, I'm not ready to put her ahead of Patty Joe Hedges, but she's up there with PJ. She's up there with Stacey Reid, just watching her play direct traffic. And this group, when they have the ball on offense, constant in motion, everybody knows what

they're supposed to do. The ball doesn't sag or lag, and it's just interesting watching them work through their offense and get the best shot they possibly can. And Brooks admitted it's pretty evident. Really, the chemistry is a huge key for this team.

better teams in the league. Then it's Oklahoma on Sunday, February second out in Norman, and of late that's a top ten team. After that, it's at Ole Miss and it's Texas here on February thirteenth at the Coliseum, and then Georgia with me in Texas by the way, eighteen and two. So that's going to be a tough one. But if you want to skip ahead, and I don't blame you, LSU comes up. You talk about a murderers

road to end the regular season. LSU on February twenty third in lexingon tennessee in Lexnon the following Thursday, and then the following Sunday in Columbia. As it just so happens, South Carolina the defending national champion. And wouldn't that be cool if that game decided maybe a share at least

of the SEC championship in Kenny Brooks's first year. And if he heard me saying that, he would probably well, he didn't know me well enough, but he'd want to slap me in the head to be looking ahead that far. But dah, you and I can do that, right, But that's what's interesting about this season. Did we even think we'd be talking about UK women's basketball in the same breath as winning an SEC championship. I know I didn't. I believed it was a good hire in Kenny Brooks.

I didn't know much at all about the players he was bringing in. I did know, just from what I read when the word came that Georgia Amore would be, to say the very least, a difference maker, and boy is she. Lord knows where this team would be without her. They would have a good quality point guard, I'm sure, but one who was on the exact same wavelength. And he talks about it with Darren on the Coach Show every week. He keeps saying, Georgia and I speak the

same language. We finish each other's sentences. Can you get much better than that when it comes to a coach's relationship with his point guard. I don't think so. And just watch this team and you'll see what I'm talking about. And again, I know it's cold right now, but when you can make a trip if you haven't to the Coliseum, trust me, you'll be glad you did. It's a great brand of basketball and this team is playing extraordinarily well, and up next they're gonna need to play well too.

Went on the road, they take on Texas A and M. In just a moment or two, Darren Hedrick with pregame coverage of the Cats and the Aggies. They tip it off at seven o'clock and we'll be back tomorrow night to talk about what happened and look ahead to the weekend. That'll do it for now, Thanks so much for joining us. Stay tuned for Kentucky, Texas A and M, and Darren Hedrick next here on the number one spot for sports six point thirty WLAP