Welcome to the Big Blue in Sider. Dick Gabriel with you on a Friday, A frigid Friday. It's supposedly warmed up a little bit yesterday, but that's that's a relative term, isn't it. We're still it's kind of chilly down here in the garage. I can tell you that got the space theater going. I'm bundled up, but you know, this is the best acoustics in the house here in the garage,
So we're gonna we're gonna stick it out. Coming up tonight, we're gonna talk, of course, Kentucky basketball, the Wildcats taking on Vanderbilt tomorrow at two thirty down in Nashville. You'll hear that game right here on six thirty WLAP. We're gonna talk about the UK women last night. Oh, just a bad shooting night at Texas A and M. They hung on, they hung on, but just couldn't hold off the Aggies, who did make just enough shots to hand Kentucky its first conference loss and only his second loss
of the season. So we'll hear from Kenny Brook's coming up in just a few minutes. Maggie Davis of BBN tonight will join us, and we'll talk with her about Kentucky basketball and other things. And in our second hour, James McCoy a, the UK baseball team will be alongside. We'll talk about what it was like going to the World Series, looking ahead with a brand new it seems like at least half of the roster this year, but
a lot of talent back from last year. And James, of course a veteran outfielder and a pitcher, so we'll talk to him about playing two roles. A lot of that goes on in college baseball. We're also going to shamelessly plug the documentary The Team that will air on Sunday. I had Cameron on the other night and worked on Tom Leach's show This Morning Talk with Tom a little bit. Cameron was on with Tom yesterday, but that, of course is the show that we produced man eight years ago.
I think it was when the team got together for a reunion down in Miami. Cameron got permission for us to go down with a Cameron camera crew, Jason Epperson and his guys, and we gathered a lot of great stuff, set up a suite, set up our cameras and lights in a suite. We had rented and interviewed almost every player.
A couple guys didn't make it to the room, but we eventually got up with him and put together a one hour documentary that airs once again on WKYT Channel twenty seven on Sunday at five o'clock in and around the NFL games. And if you're going to just stay on football, just record it. But I guarantee you, if you haven't seen it, you will enjoy it. If for no other reason, Mark Pope. He was such a great part as you might expect of that documentary and was
I'm telling you because I did the editing. He was the toughest guy to add it because he said so much good stuff. He's a really good storyteller, as you've learned by now, and was just really, really entertaining. But they were all great, and at one point we kept trying to round everybody up and we could not get individually Walter McCarty, Derek Anderson, Ron Mercer, and so finally Cameron was like, guys, this is the last chance we
have to talk to you guys. The way that the schedule worked out that weekend, so all three of them came in and sat together and it turned out to be great. We had multiple cameras because they fed off each other and they reminded each other of different stories, and so Mercer, Anderson and McCarty did their interviews together and that was entertaining as well. So we'll have some
clips from that coming up and our number two. But I urge you to watch it if you haven't seen it, and if you can't, you can get it on vimeo. Go to Cameron Mills's Twitter page and he's got information there on how to get the link. I think he's only charging like four ninety five or something like that for it, but you're gonna want that, and obviously you can keep it forever. But the team comes up Sunday
at five on WKYT. Pope and his Wildcats down in Nashville tomorrow and Mark talked to the media as he always does on Thursday, and of course he has talked in the past about working on fouling, on what are we doing? How can we not do it? When does it pop up? Is it more prevalent in this situation
as compared to that situation. You know, they break everything down, But as he said yesterday, that's only one element of the Kentucky game that they've had a chance to work on this week because there was no midweek game.
Two point field goal percentage is a real problem for US. Rim Shot percentage are a real problem for US. Rim Shot selection is actually pretty good for us, but it's an offset because because we're fouling right and and so you know, you have those numbers of base and then it's figure out how to do it a little bit better. And so certainly our guys focus will be good and it'll be up. You know, this is not you wave a magic wand and all of a sudden fix some
of this. But we're gonna make progress. We'll make progress throughout the season.
So yeah, pull all that together and you're gonna have a pretty good looking team. You already have one. But that's a lot to work on. But we'll see. We'll get a chance to see tomorrow just how well the Wildcats have improved. And again you'll hear it right here network beginning at one o'clock local covers beginning at noon here on six thirty WLAP two Kentucky Wildcats named starters
for the NBA All Star Game. Shay Gildis, Alexander Carl Anthony Towns announced last night as starters for the upcoming game, the All Star Game February sixteenth at the Chase Center, the home of the Golden State Warriors. And what a season gildess Alexander is having his third All Star selection overall, second consecutive starting nod. He is one of the great players now in the NBA, averaging thirty two points a game, leads the league, and also six assists, five and a
half rebounds, two steals per game. Just incredible. He played here the one season in twenty seventeen eighteen, and you might call he wasn't even a starter when the year began, but Caliperi worked him into the starting lineup and it was magic from that point on. Unfortunately, that was the season that ended up in the South Regional semifinals with that lost to Kansas State when the Wildcats lost sixty one to fifty eight and hit only twelve of twenty
three free throws. Now Shay went eleven to twelve, not to be pointing fingers, but PJ. Washington missed twelve out of twenty. Otherwise, the Wildcats had an open path that seemed to the final four. You might remember that but Gilgius Alexander is having a great career and Karl Anthony Towns having a huge season in New York. Is first with the Knicks after being traded after ten years or
nine years in Minnesota. Twenty five points a game, a career high fourteen rebounds, and three and a half assists per game. He's hitting a career best fifty four point five percent from the field. From the arc, Karl Anthony Towns is hitting forty three percent. That's a career high. So he's making New York Knicks fans very very happy. No word yet on the reserves for the All Star Game. I got to think at least a couple of former Cats we'll hear their names called as well, including Tyler Hero.
That word, as we said, came down last night. So did the word that Kayla Wilson will be a North Carolina tar Heel. We kind of knew that going in, but he made the announcement on Inside or rather the NBA on TNT with Charles Barkley, Saquille O'Neill, Ernie Johnson, and former tarhel himself, Kenny the Jet Smith.
What's going into your decision and how'd you even get there.
I just looked at who the coach was, you know, I was able to put a good relationship with him, you know, looking at the roster and also just seeing how much the coach believed in me over the time he knew me.
So what I looked at. You got how many people here?
About thirty people here and it's in here.
Yeah, thirty people.
Man, excited times are you?
Are you ready? I'm ready, I'm ready. I'm excited.
So wait waiting to see man. I'm hoping.
Oh, I got two figures crossed, but I'm.
Gonna let it go.
I'm hoping that you go awhere, I think you're going, but we're gonna let it go.
It's all you, but floors all yours.
I just I want to thank God. I want to thank my family for sure, all the people that supported me, my coaches, Coach key Ky, coach Swaying, coach Pack, everybody that's really supporting me and helped me make this decision and get to love on met today and I'll be taking my chant to Chapel Hill.
Man, you can't just say it.
You gotta guarantee it got you. Gotta hit the button, Chuck, you got a guy, how you.
Have to say that my man Caleb is going to you n see and that is ga run.
And if you haven't seen that show, when Charles Bark, they guarantees something.
He smacks a button that they put up to prop that they put up on the desk and then the confetti falls and all kinds of special effects. And last night it was you know, the tar heel blue confetti, blue and white and then the North Carolina mascot runs out and hugs everybody.
So yeah, that's a big deal. But again not a surprise that this kid goes to North Carolina. But you know, Mark Pope still has a pretty good recruiting class going and there are other guys out there. I can tell you this. If you've been following along, you know North Carolina needs help right now. This is not a team that will be a factor in the postseason at all,
lest they turn things around dramatically. One other note before we get to the break, and we'll talk about this more in our number two, but Liam Cohen will be the new head coach in Jacksonville, and this comes after he turned down a huge offer from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Billy Rutledge's team he would have been the highest paid offensive coordinator in the NFL. Is a three year deal, which is almost unheard of as I understand it for
OC's in the National Football League. But he had turned down an opportunity to talk for a second time with Jacksonville. But then Jacksonville turned around and fired its general manager. Went back to Liam Cohen. I said, would you talk
to us again? And he said yes, And then the next thing you know, he's the head coach of the Jags and he'll be coaching I assume if he stays there, among other people Josh Allen, the former Kentucky Wildcat, and Luke Fortner, who is now a backup old lineman for Jacksonville. So we'll tell it was a weird timeline. We'll tell you more about that in our number two. Up next women's basketball, we'll talk about that on six thirty. Welcome back to the Big Moonsider. Coming up in a few minutes,
Maggie Davis of BBN. Tonight, we'll talk Kentucky basketball, and in our number two we will once again talk more about out the Team, the documentary that we put together a few years ago about Mark Pope and his teammates who won the ninety six National Championship. We're also going to hear from James McCoy of the UK baseball team, an outfielder who was actually pressed into service as a pitcher last year and he's going to pitch some this year as well, part of the team who went to
the World Series. So we'll get started with baseball covers with James coming up in our number two. As we mentioned earlier, the UK women you probably know this, last night, lost down to Texas A and M. And that is not a great Texas A and M team, but Kentucky just could not hit a shot. Wildcasts lost at sixty one fifty five. They had a double digit lead on
more than one occasion, but they couldn't extend it. They couldn't go on those extended runs and really put away A and M. Because the Aggie said just enough shots to keep fighting back, and Kentucky just could not buy one.
I think they missed their first twelve three pointers or whatever, but they went one from eighteen from beyond the arc and Georgia amore just a nightmare of a game, zero for eight from three point land, five of eighteen from the floor and played thirty eight and a half minutes, and you got to tip your cap to A and M. They were relentless. They face guarded her all night. They put I think they switched people off on a couple of occasions and just made sure she could never get comfortable.
She's gonna have to get used to that in the SEC. But yeah, she couldn't hit. Nobody could really. Clara Strack two for twelve had great looks two for twelve. Really. The only person who had a nice game statistically was Tony Key, which probably isn't a surprise. She went eight for sixteen and pulled in nine rebounds, hit one three pointer, the only one of the game for the wildcast, so she finished with twenty and Yet and once again, if you believe in plus minus, you know, sometimes they do,
sometimes they don't. Hers was minus ten. She leads the team in scoring and rebounding, but she also leads the team in negative plus minus numbers. One person had positive plus minus. It was Clara Silva, who played sixteen minutes, and I'm not belittling her at all, but she had four points and four rebounds. But plus minus is basically about how does the team fare while you're on the floor. And I think when Clara was in is when Kentucky made a couple of mini runs. But otherwise it was
just a nightmare of an evening. And A and M hit thirty three percent in the first half, forty percent in the second half. So it's not like Kentucky was playing bad defense. But something else that hurt Kentucky was twelve offensive rebounds. Now A and M only got six, but the Cats weren't getting much done in the department of putbacks. So it was just a bad, bad night. And you know, it's the first conference loss for the
Wildcats five and one, sixteen to two overall. But as Kenny Brooks said after the game, that's life in the Southeastern Conference.
This league's tough.
You know, you can't hang your head. You know, we got, we got. We're fortunate.
This was our fourth game on the road out of five and so we're gonna be happy to be back home and get an opportunity to play in front of our home fans. And but this Leak's tough, and this is a tough place to play, and they play really.
Hard, yeah, he said, A and M. Well, they played hard. The Wildcats didn't up and down the line up and down the roster, he said, didn't exactly give it their best effort. He said he felt like some of the players were not exactly giving it there all. So it's something that cannot happen, especially when your shots aren't going down, because that just compounds the problem.
Yeah, we had, we had some good looks early, you know that I thought we didn't capitalize on. I think it really changed our attitude. I thought they you know, as you mentioned, you know, one way of staying it is pressing. I thought we were aiming some shots and you give them credit, you know, they did contest some murber shots, but we had some that could have fallen. And then that's a big part of our offense is to step up and knock down those shots.
And we didn't.
And I thought we still gave ourselves a chance to win. We played well in other areas other than shooting the basketball.
We wanted to win the rebounding battle.
We did and we just didn't do some of the little things to overcome the bad shooting.
But that's something we got to learn.
Just like Mark Pope's ball club, you know, the book on this UK women's team is run them off. The three point line, and why not they average making nine per game. They've got really good shooters. But Texas A and M fully sold out to taking away good three point looks for the Wildcats. They tried Kentucky moved to basketball, but A and M did a great job. So what's left for you? Well, shots inside generally, that's where Clara Strack just cleans up. And I'm not placing a lot
of blame on her whatever. She worked hard and she got good shots. They just weren't falling, and a lot of people, you know, they're cutting to the basket and things like that. But it just didn't work last night. It was just one of those games in the Southeastern Conference. So now the Wildcats get to come home back to back games. They play host to Arkansas Sunday at noon on January twenty sixth, and then on Thursday they play host to Alabama. We'll have that one for you as
well with Darren Heddrick. That's a seven o'clock game. So Sunday noon, Arkansas Thursday at seven pm they take on the Alabama Crimson Tide. As the Cats now four and two in road games. They other loss at North Carolina,
first road loss in Conference play for Kenny Brooks. It was UK's first loss as a ranked opponent against an unranked opponent on the road since twenty twenty one, when the Wildcats lost at Ole Miss, back when they were ranked number fifteen in the country, And of course, at broke Kentucky's nine game winning streak overall and a five game streak in the SEC. The Wildcats had started off
the league at five and zero. And this is tough because Kentucky, as I said, I blew a couple of double digit leads, had a halftime lead of about five points. But Kentucky's got a score because when the Wildcats are held to less than sixty, they're zwe and two. So it's not that they have to outscore their opponent. I mean, technically they do, but of course this team is much better off when it's throwing in threes, getting up and
down the floor, and getting offense out of transition. All right, Coming up next, Maggie Davis of BBN Tonight here on six point thirty WLAP welcome back to the Big Moon. Sider joining us now. Someone who knows UK basketball inside announced she is the co host producer. I was called him the chief cook and bottle washer for BB and Tonight Yankee Farmer pop up on your TV set every night, Miss Maggie Davis and Maggie first of all, congratulates this Kentucky sportscaster the year.
Thank you so much, Thank you so much.
It has been like just the coolest thing in the world to be recognized in that way one, but more importantly.
To hear from people like you and people in our industry.
Who have won the award in the past, who are part of it and who are people that I look up to and admire and try to emulate in my own work. So to get to hear some of that from the people that I idolized in that way has been really cool, and I really appreciate all the kind things you've had to say over the past couple of weeks since the news came out. I'm really excited, but mostly just honored.
Yeah, well, you know, it's nice and hard work pays off, but the work itself, I know, is reward and if nothing else, one of the bonuses, one of the real pluses from our job, as you know, is it can be fun. And how much fun have you all had you and your crew covering this basketball team, because obviously, you know, we kind of hoped we would have something fun to cover this year. We didn't know, and man, it's been a lot of fun, hasn't it.
Well, it has been, and I think back. I talked to a journalism one oh one class earlier this week at UK my alma mater. Jen Smith is the professor there. Worked for The Herald Leader as a writer for years and years. I adore her work. She's a great professor now. So I love going back every semester and talking with some of her classes. And I have somebody ask me about a student maybe along the lines of what my best interview moment was, or something that was really cool
that I've done recently, or something like that. You know, like, you know how it is. You're getting into journalism one oh one and just kind of getting a taste, and you and I have been doing it, you know, this all season long, and you kind of get used to Mark Pope and the players and the fans of this season.
And obviously you can buy in and kind of get stuck in a little bit, but it's different when you take yourself out of it and look at it like an outsider who is a student at UK just getting into journalism and can't imagine getting access that we're able
to get in our job. That is very fun, like you said, So I had to kind of think about it, and I was like, you know, at the end of the day, when you realize that the Kentucky men's basketball program is hiring a men's basketball coach and it's something that they've really only done eight times in the modern era of college basketball, it's crazy and it's groundbreaking and it's historic and it is the big story in the sport and we get to be at the center of it.
And like you said, sometimes you kind of go into that season and just that as the overarching story might have been enough. You have the new coach, the new staff, the new roster, a new culture.
A new environment.
Everything over there is completely different with the program, and so there is a big picture story to it that has been fun in and of itself. Then you throw in the fact that we've seen this team play a style that I think Kentucky fans have been hungry for for quite some time.
You see them.
Scoring a lot, shooting a lot, fast paced offense. Guys that are in their fourth, fifth, sixth year of college basketball, who are experienced, who come in, who know the game, who are so appreciative.
I mean, you think.
About some of the comments these guys have made over the course of the year about wearing a jersey and just wanting to do anything for this team, and it just sort of brites itself. But at the end of the day, we get to be the one to help write it, which is definitely not something I ever ever
take for granted. So I think, just earlier this week, kind of putting that in perspective for myself based on this journalism one oh one question, reminded me of just how special this season has been, not just because of all of the newness, but the combination of that with what we're actually seeing in these games.
Yeah, and each season obviously is unique, and each game represents basically a new page or a new chapter. And what I think has been really fascinating about this season is, for the most part, it seems like every game has been a different kind of story simply because it's not you know, player A's going to score the majority of the points. Everybody else helps out. There are just different plot lines for each game, and there will be this
weekend obviously and moving on. But I think that's been part of the fun, you.
Know, oh absolutely, And that's true, you know, in a sort of more general sense of every season.
And I think.
Sometimes the disappointment of last year in the NCAA Tournament, the SEC tournament, it kind of muddles a little bit of the fun we did have in the regular season, and so I don't want it to get lost in the shuffle. That Read and Rob and Reeves and they had some great wins and some big moments, and that UK North Carolina game in Atlanta was one of the best games I've ever seen in person in my life.
And you know that there were some great moments. But there is certainly something to be said about a new start, a fresh page, and I think it's something that everybody ultimately seemed ready for.
And if you had any.
Doubts, Marts popa that has done everything in its power to erase those doubts with the way that he's handled himself and this job and this season so far.
We're talking to Maggie Davis. She is the co host and a producer for BBN. Tonight covers the Wildcats and really they cover every sport on campus, and we'll talk a little bit more about the women's basketball and baseball coming up. Well, right now, we're talking about that. You came in tomorrow night or tomorrow afternoon. Actually they take on Vanderbilt, and you got a piece that's coming up shortly on your show tonight about Andrew Carr, really beyond
Andrew Carr. Right. Car. The car's plural, Yes, the car's plural.
And this is one of those stories that kind of evolved over time. It's my favorite kind of story because you don't necessarily go into it thinking, well, this is exactly how it's going to go. I can pre write the questions, I can see the script in my head already, and I haven't even done the interview yet.
Right.
It wasn't necessarily like that.
It started all the way back in the fall semester when I realized that Andrew's younger sister, Lizzie was playing volleyball at Purdue. Early on in the season, Purdue and Kentucky actually played against each other. I believe in Texas. It was not here in Lexington, or maybe I would have put the pieces together a little sooner. But I remember after that volleyball game, looking at the box score, you know, the next day or the next Monday, so bb and tonight and seeing the name car and looking
her up and oh, she's from Westchester, Pennsylvania. Like I feel like there's a relation there, right, So putting those pieces together and sort of coming up with this story idea along with Deb Moore, the men's basketball sports information director, kind of helps talk through it with me of like, what's the story, how can we get to it? And I came up with this idea of car trips, right, like kind of a dad joke, but car trips ar are because their younger brother is also at Virginia Tech
playing basketball. He's a freshman at Virginia Tech. So there's three of them at this point in three different states, playing three different sports, you know, and there's only two parents to go around. So how are they getting to these games?
What are their travels? Like, how are they managing to.
Follow all of the the seasons that are really overlapping quite a bit. So that's how the story started. That's sort of how it began. And then all of a sudden, pretty volleyball just gets hot at the right time, starts to make a run of the and c DOUAA Tournament. They end up in the Louisville Region. They're playing against the Cardinals the same week that Kentucky Basketball's playing against Louisville.
So we do a whole series of stories that week, Right, We talked to Andrew, we talked to the parents at the Young Center, we talked to him again at rapp Aerina, and it's sort of coming full picture of here's their semester and review. And then all of a sudden that weekend, it comes out that Lizzie's entering the transfer portal and one of the coaches she's talking to will be Craig
Skinner at Kentucky. So obviously that changes everything again. Right, so we evolved the story a little bit farther, and now, all of a sudden, these siblings who they say they fought and hated each other the most growing up. Out of the four brothers and sisters, Lizzie is the only girl.
Andrew and Lizzie where the two in the.
Middle, and they just fought and fought and fought. But as they've gotten older, they are the two that are the closest. And this is the first time since he was in high school that they have lived in the same town, and so for them to be back together again, they're.
So excited about.
Obviously the parents are thrilled to be making fewer trips at least this semester while they're still in the same city, and so it's awesome. They were kind enough Andrew and Lizzie to invite us over a little bit earlier this week hang out with them, spend like a couple hours after class after practice, just see what a normal night in the life of Andrew and Lizzie carn't looks like. And so appreciative of their time and hospitality and hosting
a camera crew to come into their home lives. But it's cool you kind of see their relationship of all you see kind of their parents talk about it over the course of its semester, and then it culminates in them ending up in the same place again, so excited
to keep cheering each other on. So it goes in a lot of different directions, which wasn't necessarily how we knew it was going to go, but it turned into a great story and I'm really excited for the fans to see how it all came together behind the scenes and how it's impacting them now that they're actually in Lexington together.
Well, and as you know covering volleyball as I do, I've watched as a couple of really good players, more than a couple have used the portal and left Kentucky and gone to help other programs, and the door swings both ways. And now she'll come in and you'd think help Craig Skinner's program, which was one win from the final four last year.
Oh absolutely. I mean, if I didn't say it already, I know I just gave you like a ten thousand words on this story. But maybe all I need to say is Lizzie Carr. It's six foot six, So she's going to bring a lot to this team, playing that middle position in a way that they haven't really seen the last couple of years. Skinner's gone with an undersized middle the last few years. Johnnie Teeler was an incredible athlete, but she was, you know, certainly on the undersized scale
of that position. Yeah, just see it though a little bit shorter than your typical as you've seen middle. I mean, you think about some of the other women we've seen play that position across the league, and that's been a match up issue for Kentucky, So certainly excited to see what she can do next semester once volleyball season.
Is really in full swing.
But you know she's getting into it this semester. They do some spring games, spring practice, getting to know the new teammates and all that stuff. She brought Eva Hudson with her from Purdue. They're coming together and Eva a phenomenal player as well. So really excited to see how that changes Kentucky volleyball next year.
Maggie Davis is my guest from BBN Tonight. We'll talk more with Maggie on the other side of the break here on six thirty back. We're talking with Maggie Davis of BBN tonight. We talked about the men's team, the basketball Wildcats, and that's been fun, but so is Kenny Brooks team. I mean, and he had basically the same assignment, a little bit of talent coming back, but he had to rebuild the UK women's program and that's been one of the headlines in nationally in women's basketball, hasn't it.
Oh, it has been. And I think I saw a could the other day. I don't know if it was from esp IN or Fox Sports or something.
Like that.
But they kind of called Kentucky the best team that no one is talking about. And I think you see that at first and you're kind of like, what we are talking about them? What do you mean? But you kind of take yourself out of it and you're like, Okay, fine, I get you know, in the national sense, it's not a team that's necessarily getting the headlines of a powerhouse like Stuth, Carolina, LSU some of these top teams that have been in the national conversation for years and years
and years. But when you think about what Kentucky is putting on paper this year, resume wise, statistically, just the players that they are putting up and the numbers of these players are putting up puts them in that conversation.
And the jump between where this program has been in the past five plus years to where Kenny has turned it around to and this very first season is very, very, very impressive, and just starting to get involved in that conversation, I think is really what you have to be asking for at this point, and then you see how he
continues to grow it from here. I mean, this is very similar to Mark Pope's men's team, a roster that was put together in a span of weeks, not months, and the staff that was really assembled the same way. He had a few more pieces come with him from Virginia Tech, and Hope necessarily had right off the bat from his days at BYU. But to the same extent, there's so many changes and he runs a very different system than what Kentucky was running before and from what
we see most other SEC programs run. So for all of these players to come together and play this well, especially with two preseason injuries who took out two players we thought were going to be contributors, I think this has been a very, very impressive rookie campaign for Kenny Brooks. If you want to call it that. He should certainly be in conversation for Coach of the Year.
I can't imagine how much better they'd be it with those two kids in the lineup. But it's fun. We keep talking about fun. But watching Georgia Aymoor, she's one of those kids, Maggie, I like to talk about kids. I would pay to see you, and I get to go to these for free, we're blessed, but I would pay to see her play. She's phenomenal.
Oh my gosh, it's We have Christy Thomas on our show every Saturday morning on d in Game Day, and she.
Always says this.
She always goes, Georgia A. Moore is worth the price of admission, And every time she says that, I just get this big smile on my face because it's like, what else do you have to say? Once you see this girl play, you see the rest of the team around her, the way these pieces fit together. This is not a roster you look at on paper and you're like, Wow, you got a really short point guard, you got a really short two guard, and then you've got all these big trees in the middle, like how are they going
to play? But then you really watch them and you realize that Kenny Brooks is running a system where a six foot five or George not George Amore, Clara Strack or kianni Key, even the North Carolina transfer. I mean, these girls are over six three six four sixty five. They're bringing the ball up the court like there's a point guard, and they are fast, they're sharing the ball. They have some of the best A sist numbers in
the entire country. And so yes, all preseason we talked about the hype and how powerful that was going to be in an SEC that really values that and that physicality. And yeah, this is not a Kentucky team that's hanging their hat only on that. They are playing a style that you would imagine a much shorter, quicker, faster team would play. And yet you have all these pieces that are six foot five and can dominate you off the block as well. So it's been really exciting.
If you minted up with Maggie Davis a BBN tonight, you guys are already covering baseball because the baseball team has been working hard. They've been practicing this indoors, of course, but this is a crucial time and a crucial stage for this team, this program which is coming, as you know, off the College World Series. I got James McCoy on the show tonight talking about what it's been like, you know, with new teammates but the same goal and they got a lot of talent coming back. But we know how
tough the SEC is. But again, this should be an interesting season for Nick Minngeon.
Oh of course, and you have to be excited for it anytime you come off a campaign like one the UK baseball team was able to put together last year, there's naturally going to be more excitement and a lot of extra juice just surrounding the program as a whole. I mean, I don't have any numbers to fact this,
that's what I would imagine. They're having a pretty good time and to ticket office, Like if you didn't have season tickets before, did last season not convince you that you want to be a part of it?
Right?
Like last year was so much fun, and like you said, there are some good familiar faces returning, like Devin Burke is such a cornerstone of what this program is all about, and to have him back at catcher is going to be phenomenal just from a leadership persessive. But I mean, I think the number is something crazy, Like I think there's like thirty newcomers on this roster, whether they're freshmen or transfers, and you know, there's a couple of big
names that stand out. But I think for me, it's hard to get past that big of a number of new places or new people, new players to start getting to know. So we'll dig into that.
A little bit more a face off.
You think it's closer, and I know you will too. I was talking to Darren Hedrick not too long ago, and he said that, you know, it's a lot of work from a broadcaster's perspective to get to know all these new guys, new names, new hometowns, like what they do, what they're good at, what they want to get better at. It's a lot of conversations we still need to have, but I'm excited to see all these pieces start to come together.
Yeah, and just the basic baseball elements, you know, who is he, what is he doing? But then you get into the backstory a little bit, as we did with guys like Amelian Petrie and Grant Smith and those guys, you know, it becomes even more interesting. Plus, you know, being part of the TV broadcast crew, it helps when you're kind of filling in the blanks throughout the game, as you know, because of the pace of baseball games.
But again, that's that's what makes them enjoyable, is learning about these guys.
Yes, I don't know how much you know about this this nice man they call Big Biscuit, but I'm excited to get to know Big biscs a better and bring that story to VbN. I know that's something we will probably hear quite a lot about on the broadcast this year to fill some that time you were talking about. But yeah, Dylan could starting at first base, I think is where he's big projected, and obviously they shoot to fill there Ryan Nichol Finn and before that Hunter Gillum.
I mean, they've had a lot of success.
There, So we'll see what Big Biscuit can bring to the table.
Pun very much intended.
Well, he looked good in the fall. I got to see some of their fall games and yeah, that's that's maybe the best nickname this year in the SEC. But you're right, and by the way, that what Ryan did last year after struggling just a little bit early, but he was a testament to what a lot of guys do.
And McCoy was telling me the same thing. You know, they get in the cage, they work with the coaches, they tinker with their swing, they figure things out, and Ryan turned out to be one of the best sluggers in college baseball last year.
Yeah.
Absolutely, And I think there's you know, there's going to be a lot of stories and a lot of talk about that.
This season as we looked forward the future of.
What do they look like early on, but at the same time, what can they look like months into this season, because baseball is a long season, but it goes very quickly.
Those midweek games kind of.
Stretch it out, and then all of a sudden you've got these like three game weekend series lining.
Up, just one after the other after the other, right, and you know it comes quickly.
But at the same time, I think what we've seen from nickmon Geones, his teams traditionally have gotten a lot better as the season's gone on, especially in the last two or three years or so. So for me, I'm excited to see like the starting point and then start to talk about the potential from there.
That's what's so great when you're covering a team that's and I've been fortunate enough to cover several Kentucky teams that have been in the race, and they've won two SEC titles since I've been covering them. But scoreboard watching, you know, you know what did this team and that team do? All every team in the league and every weekend,
it seems like the standings are turned upside down. Unless you've got a team like Tennessee a couple of years ago, or one of those great vanity teams, it just dominates from day one, but every weekend the SEC standings sometimes they're literally turned upside down. And that's what's fun when the team right in front of you is a part of that, isn't it?
Absolutely and honestly I'm thinking sitting here thinking about it, like that's what's fun about college sports, Not that that doesn't happen to an extent in the pros, but just thinking about you know, we talk about what a team looks like from day one to the College World Series, and the growth and the change that a team can can make over the span of a couple of months. I mean, once you get to the pro league, you're not seeing drastic changes, drastic improvements to how a season
is going. Obviously, teams get hot, go on a run, have a big injury that affects things. Of course, all these things are true, but the year in and year out, you don't see the same Like they come in as these new guys on campus who are just trying to figure out the college game at this level, and by the end of it, they are playing at the team, they are playing together, they have earned the buy in of the fan base, and everything along the way goes to what you were just talking about.
Of what big the.
Standings upside down every weekend, and you remember some of those all time great teams that kind of withstood that right to Tennessee's and the Bandies over the course of decades. But I think if you think about Kentucky fans specifically, like last year's team is one they're going to remember forever because of the way we got to watch them grow up and grow together.
And that's what makes college so fun.
She is Maggie Davis Abban tonight. Follow her on Twitter at Maggie Davis TV. Thank you, ma'am. We'll see you at a ballgame.
Thank you so much. I'll see you soon.
Coming up next and now number two, we are going to shamelessly plug a little bit more of the documentary of the team that airs on Sunday on WKYT at five o'clock. We'll have some clips from that show, and we'll also talk Kentucky baseball with Wildcats veteran outfielder slash pitcher James McCoy, part of last year's College World Series run and a super regional championship team. All that coming up on six point thirty.
Wlap Man Man than Welcome back to the Big blue Cider. I remember two as we wrap up the week, and coming up in this hour, we'll talk Entucky baseball with the Wildcats outfielders, slash pitcher James McCoy. In a few minutes, we'll talk about the bizarre timeline down in Florida that has found former UK offensive coordinat Liam Cohen as now
the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. After leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to believe that he would become the highest paid offensive coordinator in the history of the National Football League, a little subterfuge went on, so clearly when he got here it was not going to be for the long haul, even though he had indicated to Mark Stoops that he would stay awhile.
But now he's a head coach in the NFL. But I did want to talk about the reairing of our documentary coming up on Sunday shameless plug time. But it's a happy topic for Kentucky fans, and of course the documentary is the team which was shot down in for the most part down in Miami. One of those guys in twenty sixteen had their twenty year anniversary and Cameron Mills, who was part of that team, a little used reserve, of course, but a good buddy. Now. He decided that
somebody should shoot video and kept thinking about it. Thought this might make a good documentary, so he approached me. I said sure. He approached Jason Epperson, who was a very skilled and experienced filmmaker from Winchester, and we hired a crew and we went down and we shot interviews, and we also went to the first night cocktail party, which was on a small boat in a marina. They had another function the next night on a huge boat.
We were not allowed to shoot that. They just wanted that to be players only, and that was a boat that included a big dinner and they went up the inter Coastal Waterway. There are photos from that get together. But we shot our video at the cocktail party, you know, the guys all getting to see each other once again and hug and backslap and shake hands. But eventually it turned into kind of a round table discussion centered around Patino,
of course, on that season, how it came together. At one point, Anthony Apps asked, Patino, when did you know we had what it took to win the title, And I'm not gonna spoil the surprise. There really a surprise, but it kind of was to me what Patino said. But it's just one of the really fun elements of that documentary. I will tell you this that I edited and produced it for the most part, Jason did the
post production work on it. Cameron did the legwork. Cameron raised the money, made the arrangements, you know, set us up with the plane tickets, all that stuff, and did a great job there, got it on a w KYT, which it will air again on KYT this Sunday at five o'clock. So it was a team effort for us, and Cameron actually came up with the name the team right away. He told me that was the name of
the show. I'm really bad at naming things, and I've done so many specials in documentaries, but that's my weakest element, his names. And this was perfect because to Cameron had drove home the notion that it was, yes, a collection and probably the best ever collection of talent, skilled players in the history of Kentucky basketball, and yet it was
a team. And that's all credit to Rick Patina. I went back and looked at the numbers again this morning, and I remembered correctly that Antoine Walker led that team in minutes played with slightly less than twenty eight per game. Can you imagine fewer than twenty eight minutes per game? Antoine Walker and Tony Delk led the team in scoring
at seventeen per game. But this was a team that was just a matchup nightmare, you know, Delk on the outside, Walter McCarty and twine Walker, Derek Anderson doing his thing. Ron Mercer, an incredibly talented freshman, only averaged eight points a game, and he was a hero of the championship game. Walker, by the way, averaged fifteen a game. Tony averaged almost eighteen. In fairness, Mark Pope came off the bench for that team.
He was a key Rick Patino. The year before, I don't know if you remember this, that team fell short in the regional losing to North Carolina. But all that year, whenever there was a rebounding issue, Rick Patino would say, oh, that won't be a problem next year. Mock Pope's on the way. And Mark Pope was a very very good rebounder for that ball club. But he only played like eleven minutes a game something like that. The key for this team and They talk about this in the show.
Was when Anthony Epps was inserted into the starting lineup, and Patino talked about that, we tried to make Tony Duck a point guard. Tony's a little sensitive there. Tony takes pride in the work he did as a point guard. He wasn't bad, but when you're point guard is also your best backcourt scoring guy, your best shooter, that that can be a little tenuous. So once he moved Anthony into the starting lineup early in the year, I can't isolate which game it was, and then Tony slides over
to the two guard. This team took off, no question about that. You know, he had Wayne Turner as a backup point guard. He tried to play Jeff Shepherd as a backup point guard. That didn't work either. Apps made it go, and they talked a length about that. Every player, to a man gives Anthony EPP's credit for making that team really really mesh. I'll play a couple of clips for you from the show. This is the opening sequence.
It's basically the collection of a lot of these players and Rick Patino talking about the pressure that was on this team and what it faced going in because that was preseason number one, lost immediately almost to Umatz, and was number two for much of the year. It was number one by the end of the regular season and was the odds on favorite to win it all. But here are some of the recollections from these guys as to what they were facing when we.
Built that ninety sixteen we knew everybody knew we had a championship basketball team.
Now were we going to beat ourselves?
We are so close to the final four, never really winning that championship at the Universe of Kentucky.
I think he wanted that, you know, this was the year, this was the year, like this was the year that had to get done.
There was so much pressure on us in ninety six honestly because there was no option to fail.
All the tension would be on us like the other crowds, like it was like the Beatles.
And we felt it and that just fed our egos.
I think we clearly knew that our job was to win a national championship.
We knew we were going to be preseason number one.
We knew that.
I don't think we understood at that time when being right number one the country.
Meant, you know, they had to feed their own monster.
And they they knew if they walked out with anything short of a championship, they would have felt that coach careers were wasted.
Like when he sold something to us, we bought it. I don't care what it was. We bought it.
It was his way or the highway, no matter who he was, and you had to buy in.
The team wasn't built around one person. It was built around fifteen guys that can play together. And we had to figure out how we're gonna make this work.
You know, from that fifteenth man to the number one player.
He wanted everyone to compete at the hotest level.
Even though people would say that we had a lot of pressure on us, but everybody was still looking at him.
You know, he is this great coach. He't he hasn't won the big one yet.
He was the best coach at that moment in time not to win a national championship, and he had the team to do it, and he had the.
Program to do it.
The pressure really melted on this basketball team. We really didn't enjoy it until over.
You know, we were under a lot of pressure. There were incredible expectations.
You have to win it, even if you losing the greatest game ever played in the finals.
It's going to be a major disappointment.
We was chasing the national title. Once we got to playing really good, we were chasing the national title, be to be one of the greatest teams.
That's Anthony F's there at the end. You heard Patino, you heard Mark, Pope and Cameron, A lot of these guys, they had great memories of what they were facing, that uphill battle for this team. Even though they were so talented. Yeah, they carried a lot of pressure and they knew they were going to be good starting with the summer pickup games. And they talked at linked about how competitive they were because obviously so many talented players that Patino would put on that roster.
He had experience with Delk, mccaudy and Pope.
You know, then you had you had Ron Mercer in the young class, you had to transfer Derek Anderson. You had guys that can shoot, You had guys that were tough, guys who were The.
Pickup games were unbelievable. I thought they were the best and most competitive basketball I ever played in my life. Guys had something to prove to each other. We were playing for playing time, in the summertime.
You know, we jumping in these pickup games in the summer. In fact, Ron was actually Ron was saying this last night in the car. He was like, I came here and you know, had these plans like I'm gonna start, and I'm I'm gonna score, you know, score a ton of points. And I come to pick up and I'm like, what is every single guy in here can really really play?
Coach showed me a bill of goods. What is happening?
Right?
We were an all star team, but the first day on campus, uh, Coach Patino and his staff kind of stripped you away from all of those high school accolades.
This is the time now you guys read the press clippers about each other. So this is our opportunity now to go at each other. And that was some of the best basketball games you ever wanted to be a part of.
They went on to talk about and by the way, that was of course Antoine Walker along with Mark Pope talking about Ron Mercer being surprise and Jeff Shephard. But they said that in practice, when Patina would always finish up or usually with five on five scrimmages, and the team that would lose would say one more. They didn't want to stop one more. They hated to lose to each other, and of course that helped forge that team. Five o'clock Sunday on WKYT the encore presentation of the team.
I want to Call Him on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. I mentioned earlier in the first hour, Liam Cohen, who came back to Kentucky briefly and told Mark Stoops I'm your guy, and then suddenly left and Stoops was not happy about that quite frankly. But Cohen goes back to the NFL, got a good opportunity, winds up as the OC and Tampa does a great job with Baker Mayfield, and now he's the head coach
of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Such as the life for a young assistant coach, You kind of become a nomad a little bit, traveling around. He's got a wife and a young kid. But you know that, again, that's the life. That's what you sign up for. But this is what's nuts about this whole story. Cbsports dot Com. It's an interesting timeline of how this search kind of went off the rails for a while in Jacksonville. Back on January sixth, the Jaguars fired Doug Peterson, the head coach. He just
didn't get it done there. Guy won a Super Bowl in Philly, but just didn't get it done there. So they say, well, we're keeping Trent Balki. The owner says, I'm keeping my general manager. But people who watched the NFL, we're kind of surprised that they kept Balki in place. And word was, you're gonna have a hard time finding a new head coach if this guy stays there. So five days later, the Baguars interview everybody's favorite, Ben Johnson, THEOC from Detroit, and it seemed like that was a
good fit. They have a franchise quarterback, and it seemed like that was gonna work down there, but he moved away from the job. So now they bring in Liam Cohen for an interview on January fifteenth, his first interview, and the Jaguars apparently interviewed a wide range of candidates, but it was pretty evident they were going to go with an offensive guy. And because you know, you've got
Trent Lawrence, you've got a good quarterback. So they were gonna, you know, either Cohen or Johnson would have made more sense. But on the twenty first, Johnson passed on the Jaguars job and ends up signing actually on a January twentieth, the same day he signed with the Chicago Bears, and apparently in the Athletic Reporter, Johnson had no interest in the job because they didn't quote like their setup, polite way of saying, I don't I don't think I can
work with their GM. Cohen was supposed to come in for a second interview but turned it down. He backed out of the interview in said I'm staying with the Bucks. So they start negotiating right now. They come up with that three year deal. According to Sports Illustrated, he's gonna make him the highest paid coordinator, not just in the league, but in NFL history. But there was a catch, according to SI, if he wanted to sign it, he wouldn't be allowed to go to Jacksonville for a second interview.
So you combine that with the fact that he didn't want to work with Trent Balki, so he calls off the meeting with the Jaguars. Well, just hours after that, the owner Shod Khan realizes, Man, this Jam's holding us back. He fires Trent Balki, which at the time was a stunner because he decided to keep him. Then he goes back to Liam Cohen and says, would you talk to us again? And he did. Now here's another catch. Cohen agrees to the second interview, but never told the Buccaneers
about that. He goes back to negotiate with Jacksonville. Meanwhile, the Bucks are trying to reach him for several hours yesterday, but Cohen ghosted them. He eventually talked to somebody with the Bucks last night and has signed on with the Jaguars as their head coach and by the way, Robert Sala, who had been fired as the head coach by the Jets. He was supposed to interview yesterday, but that goes out the window once Liam Cohen is back in the picture.
Crazy timeline for Cohen and the Jacksonville Jaguars, but apparently now he's the man, so again a couple of former Wildcats we'll be working for the former UK two time offensive coordinator. Up next, We're going to talk Kentucky baseball with James McCoy and I don't really talk scheduling with James, but anytime you look at the SEC schedule whenever it comes out. Keith Madison, Darren Hedrick, Jeffiicor and I on
our chain Yang Doug Flynn. We talk about it, but you know what, every year you can talk about how tough you talk, you think the basketball schedule stuff. Every
year SEC baseball is brutal. One of your home or away and Kentucky opens on the road this year against Georgia's had a really good team last year, but their best player was the player of the Year Charlie Condon, one of those guys who just came out of nowhere in his career and worked on himself, worked on his game and became the College baseball Player of the year, power hitter number three overall. Picking the draft of the Colorado Rockies, led d NCA and home runs last year.
So he's gone, but Georgia will be talented. The home opener in the SEC. I'm not going to go through the non conference schedule for you. Auburn is the home opening SEC schedule. That's March twenty first three game set. These are all three game sets. The following week they visited Texas, A and m not an easy place to play. Nothing's easy Ole Miss comes to town the week after.
Oh Miss has been struggling, so we'll see if they can pull themselves back to the kind of form they showed what three years ago when they won the national championship. Texas comes to town in early April. Wildcats do play at Louisville Tuesday, April eighth. Mark your calendar. It's always a great crowd. Cats one in Louisville last year. Then they come home to play Texas. That's gonna be so
cool to see Texas here playing against Kentucky. But the following week, more Orange in Knoxville and defending national champion Tennessee. The Cats play down there in the middle of April. Again, not the same team, a lot of guys have moved on, but they'll be good. Then it's home for another game with Louisville. All right, they always played Louisville home and home,
which is great. After that, South Carolina here in Lexington, then on to Starkville in Mississippi State, and Oklahoma comes to Lexington and the first week in May that's going to be great as well. Actually second week of May to see Oklahoma, one of the new members come to town. Then the Wildcats wrap up with a trip to Vanderbilt to close out the season. So it's always challenging and
always will be in the SEC. But Western Kentucky's on the schedule, Miami of Ohio's on the schedule, and so is a home and home set in March with Eastern Kentucky. And they did this last year. This season, it's the first week of March on Tuesday to fourth, the Wildcats go to Richmond and last year EKU No hit Kentucky for like seven innings for the Wildcats, jumped up and won it the next night, same teams in Lexington. So on March fourth and fifth, it's a two game series
with EKU. I really like that and they always do play one another. But now with EKU improving its facility over in Richmond, it's an easy road trip obviously for Nick ben Jones team. So we'll talk more baseball on the other side of the break with James McCoy. You're on a Big Bloon Sider six thirty. Welcome back to the Big Bloon Sider. Joining us now is a guy who is a veteran of the UK baseball team. He was a key to the Wildcats March to the College
World Series last year, looking for more this season. He is James McCoy Richard junior outfielder and a pitcher. James, how's your off season been.
It's been good, you know, going in making such changes to the swing and uh a little bit on the pitching side too, you know, just kind of getting a little reset and uh, looking at strengths and weaknesses and just growing in all aspects of the game. Really, it's been, Uh, it's been fun.
Well, you already answered one of my first questions, and that is will you be both playing outfield and pitching again? Are you looking forward to two different roles again?
Ah, yes, sir, Yeah, I'm excited for the year on both sides of the ball. You know, I think, uh, I think we'll be good, uh really in all areas and just playing like Kentucky.
Baseball, well Kentucky baseball last year and meant finally getting to Omaha. As you look back on it, I know you got to look forward. You're you're you're looking to improve and and you know, work on this season. But it's it's fun to look back on what you guys accomplished last year, isn't it? What what does that mean to you.
I mean it means a lot going in and you know, working our butts off all year, and you know, we see it in practice. Not everyone sees their practice and everything, and you know, just grinding all year and getting to the point where like almost proven guys are other people wrong and showing them that what we're made of in that Kentucky Baseball does deserve to get to Omaha and then eventually getting there, and you know, just having really fun playing together with a great group of guys.
You know, what I think some people may overlook is the fact that, yeah, you want to regionally, you want a super but you guys are also SEC champions, So now you're the defending champs, or at least you shared it. So now people are going to becoming at you, aren't They get a target on your back?
Oh yeah, certainly. You know whenever, whenever you're on the top, you're you're always got a target on your back. And every year is different. You know, you never know who it's going to be each year. But of course we're gonna try and go out there and do the same thing as last year.
Well, let's get back to what you're working on now. First, of all, did you play here in the summertime? Did you play in one of the summer leagues?
Not?
This past summer, I went back home, got a little reset. You know, we played through the end of June, so really you get you get like a month a month between the end of this season and then school starting and fallball and everything. So talking with the coaches and and everyone, just kind of take a little reset, get a little time off, and then kind of just hit the ground running instead of you know, just plugging away
all summer. So it was it was nice to get a little mental reset and physical reset, get the body back nice and rested and back in shape. So it was good.
Well, as I said, you're you're a Richard junior at least I think you are now Or are you a Richard senior?
Now Richard junior?
Okay, another word, You've played a lot of baseball, So, yes, sir. You know yourself pretty well, don't you, Yes, sir, So tell me a little bit about last year and how the season developed for you, and how you can play off of that this year, because you actually had better numbers in the Southeastern Conference, including all five of your home runs. How will that serve you this year.
Yeah, it seems like, like like you said, I tend
to do a little bit better in SEC play. So really just knowing that, like, hey, like I'm doing good in SDC play, might not be doing as as good in like the midweeks or non conference play, but it's something to build off of, looking at what I've struggled with, not only in the SEC, but also in non conference, working on that with the coaches, creating like a game plan to attack those weaknesses turn them into strength, and just you know, baseball as always game of adjustments, so
I might need to adjust a little bit to those non conference or even the SEC pitchers. But the coaches are really good with like our individual development programs and just trying to get us better in all facets of the game and just just developing us not only as players but as as as people. So that of course, you know you've heard this all the time, a big mantra for the program as student person players, and of course not only on the field, but off the field.
Nick Mangione really has built quite the culture, has any when it comes to Kentucky baseball.
Oh yeah, and culture is a big thing with baseball. You know, I think that also played into how well we've done the past couple of years. You know, I kind of remember some some media and like some other you know, people just talking and saying like, uh, like on paper, we're not like the best or anything like that. But it's that culture of hey, like no one really no one. Everyone writes this off and you know, we're
going to go out and prove them wrong. And that kind of like mentality and culture of hey, we're going to play our ball and we're going to show them how uh how how we can uh you know, being the best, be one of the best teams at SEC like we were last year.
Why do you think you guys were able to accomplish that? Looking back on it now given more perspective.
Uh, not only the talent that we had, but how how well we played together and how much we trusted each other. It was it was like I knew, uh, the pitchers were going to throw the ball in the zone and that if the ball was hit to second, short, first third, you know, I knew Mitch Grant, p Ryan Nicholson or wald or Nolan. You know, it's just trusting in each other and like those guys will make it play and that the pitchers you know, will pull through for us. And then it's the same one on the
flip side, you know, the pictures. They can't they can't really do anything when we're when we're hitting, but they trust us to go out there, get get our jobs done, and you know, give them, give them runs to.
Work with you and Nolan and Waldi gave Kentucky one of the fastest outfields in the Southeastern Conference defensively, not a lot fell in. Of course, you may be the only starter out there from last year. I don't know who's going to get the other starting positions. But how confident are you in your outfield defense this year?
I'm feeling pretty confident with like you said, kind of like the only starting returner, you know, kind of kind of leading away in like our outfield practice and everything. But we have younger guys who who know it looks like also with Griff and Cameron then you like, you know, they're out there all the time with us. Patrick Carrera too, he's doing a little bit more infield, but still he could come out there and tell you every single drill,
every single like, every single step. We've pretty much taken offense and are our outfield defensive practice. But those but those new guys, they're all so bought in and they're all they were always asking questions, you know, looking looking for ways to get better and and kind of like learn how we play in the outfield.
You mentioned the new guys. We'll talk about them in a minute. But you do have a lot of guys coming back from last year. You've got a little bit of playing time to Kayas Gargets and Ethan Smalls and people like that. Uh, how vital is that because they've been around, they know Kentucky baseball. Now they have a chance to play more and uh, but but they know what's expected, right, Yeah.
I think you said it best. They've been around, they've seen Kentucky baseball, and they know what's expected. So even with like new guys in the infield or anywhere like they can they can help those new guys and how Kentucky baseball and how that kind of culture is built. And you know, they they were able to travel with us too. So they were also a key part in our Omaha run because when you're on the field, you know,
nine innings baseball, it can get along sometimes. You know, we've had games where it's three and a half four if not four and a half hours, and so you kind of neet those guys in the dugouts to almost pick you up. And they they did great with that role last year, and you know, I'm excited to see them step up and, like you said, get a little bit more of a playing role this year. But it's valuable that they know what it looks like and what's expected.
Well, I have more with UK outfielder slash pitcher James McCoy on the other side of the break here on the Big Blue Sider six thirty wlap. We're talking with James McCoy, Kentucky outfielder and a pitcher. He is a Red Shirt junior and three years ago, James, you were the guy in the dugout waiting for a chance to throw a red shirting. You were choreographing some of the musical numbers. He did a great job at that. But once you finally got a chance to play, you were
all business. Not that you weren't business in the dugout, but that's one of the things that that that Doug Flynn and I enjoined Darren Hedrick looking down from the press box and seeing what goes on in the dugout, and that's that's important. Nick man Jonas kind of explained that to the Big Blue Nation over the last couple of years, how vital he finds it, you know, the body language and and what the guys in the dougout are doing throughout the game, whether they're playing or not.
He kind of holds everybody accountable. How much does that help the team entirely?
I mean, it's like you said, it's it's invaluable. They're picking guys up doing you know, crazy stuff in the dugout, and they sometimes they can even see things that we not we might not be able to see in the game.
Ruben Church last year he sat right next to coach Mine every every single game, just right right there with him, and he would pick up on things and you know, he would tell coach Minche and Mine would tell us, or he would tell you know, the guy's playing individually and it's and it seemed like every every game, it seemed like Mine would be like, yeah, Rubin, Ruben saw this, Ruben saw that, or another guy on the another guy
on the bench. You know, they they saw this, they saw that and ended up you know, leading to like a big run, a big out, like something important in the game happening. So there's more than just you know, cheering that happens in the dugout.
Ruben's a guy who played a lot of baseball in a Kentucky uniform and had a lot of big base hits through his career. Oh yeah, but he's moved on and now, as we mentioned earlier, a lot of new faces. The portal door was spinning, and it's not as unusual. People don't understand that, James, and I know you do that. In baseball, there's more personnel movement than has been for many many years. People go nuts when it happens in football and basketball. That's that's a way of life in baseball.
But now these rule changes, we may be seeing even more of that. But tell me about the new guys and how they've kind of assimilated, how they're fitting in.
I think they're fitting in well because coach Bene also, of course, you know, he wants he wants the guys coming in to be able to perform and you know, play it an sec level. But he's also big on the person So those guys are they in really well, you know, they're great people. They're awesome to be around, and we uh, you know, it's fun to hang out with them outside of the field too. So it's not
only like, you know, they're just here for baseball. They're they're here to be developed as a student and a person.
So you answered it again. My next question, you're you're roughly prescient today. Uh. I was going to ask about about chemistry. How everybody's fitting in, and uh, it's I know it's a challenge with so many guys and uh some downtime, but how's that been going.
It's been good.
Uh.
You know, like we said earlier, culture is a big thing in baseball and in Kentucky baseball, so building that culture and that chemistry uh is big. You know, some guys have mentioned already or I mean this is in the back in the fall, but they've mentioned, you know, I've never had like a team hangout this much outside of the field, and it's kind of like, well, this is that's just you know, that's just normal for us. You know, you're you're the guy who doesn't come around.
You're kind of like almost the odd man out. So you gotta you gotta pull those guys who don't normally come out and hang out with everyone. You gotta pull them out and you know, come hang out. Yeah, but yeah, culture chemistry, like you can build it on the field, but it's just taken to another level when you get to know everyone outside of the field.
I think I already know the answer to this question, But how valuable is it to have a Devin Burks come back both off and on the field.
Yeah, it's valuable because, like you said, he's played a lot of a lot of baseball and a lot of Kentucky baseball. So he's another guy who who knows what it looks like and knows what it takes. You know, he's behind the plate and buyers out out there with the pictures, you know, they they kind of corral the pictures and Devin with the catchers. You know, it's kind of like we have these pieces that are in each kind of group that kind of pull everyone together to
make this one big group. Because you know, outfielders are not always with the infielders, and certainly the position players aren't always with the pitchers. So it's it's nice to have those pieces kind of ringing everyone in together. So then when we do come when all of us do come together. It's just kind of like a well old machine just running.
Well, you're the older guy in the outfield group. Are you enjoying that role?
Yeah, it's it's also nice having guys like Griffin and Eli coming back. You know, they they they might be tagged as younger guys, but you know, you spend you spend pretty much a full year out there at the same same outfielders every single day. You know, you start to you learn pretty quickly. Even even if even if you might learn a little bit slower or anything, you know, you still learn pretty quickly. So it's also it's also good to have them there because you know, I think
we're not always all together. You know, sometimes we'll split up to right, center, left, so you know, I can't really yell the way across the outfield that easily. But yeah, not only that, but having those guys there to kind of help me with that.
I got a couple of minutes up with James McCoy, Kentucky outfielder, slash pitcher, and we've touched on pitching a little bit. But you've got guys like Robert Hogan is back, Bobby Spins and you mentioned Evan and Jackson Novy's back, so you got some veterans, but and Ben Cleaver. I think people are looking forward to seeing what he can do, but some new faces as well in the pitching group.
I don't know how you divide your time between outfield and pitching, but what can people expect from the pitching staff this year?
I certainly split all with the position players a little bit more, but I think our pitchers will be pretty good just from what we've seen in bullpens and these live at bats recently, you know, a lot of a lot of moving pitches and being able to spot it. So I think it's just another year of Kentucky baseball pitching where it's it's just, you know, throw whatever pitch and.
Whatever count and throw strikes which sounds you know people would think, well duh, but you know, yeah, I know, I know. Dan Roselle just pounds that into into the heads of the pitchers and they did that James last year with such consistency, and my my broadcast partner, Doug Flynn, it was a gold glove shortstop has talked repeatedly about how that helps the defenders stay in the game mentally, you know, when when they're always and the pitchers are
ahead in the count. It keeps the defense sharp. You think we'll see that more of that this year?
I would think we would, Yes, sir, I think so.
All right, well, just a minute or two left. But tell me about this weather, and you guys have been able to hang in there with it because it's gonna be a while before you can get outside. Are you chomping at the bit to get outside, get outdoors?
Oh?
Yeah, of course, you know, splitting our time between nutter and the cages and everything, but trying to stay warm between walking to classes and everything. Found found some extreme warmth bibs on sale there. I had to get those, and yeah, coming you know, I went, I went home to Florida for uh Christmas break and I think the cooldest day there was fifty And I came back here and it was like ten. So I was like, oh, yeah, I might need a little bit a little bit more closed.
But yeah, splitting our time between nutter and the cages and everything. Guys can extra work in whenever we can, you know, just doing doing what we can, uh with what we got.
Yeah, and you're from Florida, so and but yet they're getting snow in Florida, Ut, i'd imagine, can you.
Uh no, not at all. My parents we don't Oh jeez, we upstairs.
We don't have heat. So, oh my god.
Right now my parents have like a kind of like a tarp setup to separate the upstairs from the townstairs.
My gosh, that's incredible. Are they still in Port Saint Joe, Yes, sir, wow, Well, bless their hearts. I just hope they got a space heater as well. That would come in handy form or maybe send in some bibs.
Yeah, I know, my dad's got a heater laying around somewhere. If not, he broke out the duck hunting ways.
Oh there you go, There you go. Well, let's I'll let you go. I guess, I guess it. It kind of happens organically. But last year there was the pink hat, there was the uh, the Saint Patrick's Day song that caught on. I guess we'll I just have to wait and see what the dougout antics turn into this year. Oh yeah, yeah, like.
You said, it happens organically. Some will pop up in the middle of the years.
Has to just happen naturally. Well, I'm looking forward to it and James will be out at the ballpark watching you guys. Take BP before long, I hope and best of luck this year and we'll see you at the ballpark.
All right, thank you.
And in case you're wondering, Opening day is Valentine's Day, February fourteenth, but it's on the road at Lipscombe down in Nashville for the Baseball Wildcats. They come home on Tuesday, February eighteenth and take on morehead states. So mark your calendars. That'll do it. Thanks to James McCoy, Thanks to Maggie Davis. Don't forget watch the team on WKYT at five o'clock on Sunday as we look back on the ninety six championship team led by a lot of guys including Mark Polk.
That's it. Good night from the garage and Lexington us.
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