Welcome to the Big Moins Cider. Dick Gabriel with you Monday edition of our show. That's right, no Coaches Show tonight. That's gonna happen on Wednesday because the Wildcats are on the road on Tuesdays, meaning Monday is a travel day and it's not a long trip down to Knoxville, but it could be a long night tomorrow as the Cats take on the volunteers in Kentucky, coming off that loss, as you know, to Vanderbilt and going into the Tennessee
game very likely shorthanded. I don't really expect Andrew Carr to play. We don't know that right now. We will probably not know until just before the game tomorrow night. But also Lamont Butler is he's not half speed, but he's not himself. We're gonna talk about that with John Clay a little bit later on and the show. John was down at Vandy and witness the Wildcats lost first hand. Also gonna hear from David Sisk at the bottom of this hour. The Coach Works, of course for the Rivals
Network covers Kentucky and North Carolina. Cats Illustrated is where you see and Vinnie Hardy, our old Buddy from a catch Talk Wednesday to podcast and to Believe in Kentucky Podcast. Busy Man will join us in our number two. I want to talk first though, about the super Bowl coming up. All Right, Kansas City and Philly likely the two best teams.
We say that now because Kansas City dispatched Buffalo. This certainly looked like it was going to be the year for the Bills, And it looked last night now and then like it was going to be the year for the Bills, especially when it seemed as though Josh Allen had run for a first down. Run is a loose term.
He was shoved what looked like about, as Jean Sarator said, about the third of the length of the football passed what was needed for the first down, but after a lengthy review on fourth down, the ball went over to Kansas City. Look, if you listen to me, we appreciate it. I like a good conspiracy as much as the next person.
I don't believe there is an NFL conspiracy involving the referee simply because of this, and I know there have been cricket officials in games in different sports, because it's
been exposed, never in the NFL. That I know of, But for the NFL to have a league wide conspiracy to promote the Chiefs, imagine all the people who would have to stay silent on this and also know this, if there were, their games would not show up on the betting boards in Vegas because Vegas the sports books have their own investigators and they are the best at spotting when something is fishy enough to take things off the board. But what we're seeing is games that are
becoming more and more poorly administered. And they've been It's happened in the past, but it hasn't been exposed as much. Because of the quality now of instant replay, freeze frame camera angles, we can see it better now. And to me, it's not entirely the official's fault because they're doing the
best they can with what they have. They're asked to officiate the games with what they have at their disposal, and I don't care if they mark first downs with sticks in a chain, But when it looks on a replay to the point where Jeens Saratore says that's a first down and they rule that it's not. And yeah, I was rooting for the Bills. I didn't have any money on it, but there needs to be more accountability. To me, is this is what cried out in this situation.
There should have been the white hat, not the head of officials who's going to take up ninety nine percent of the time for his guys. The white hat should have been made to come out and say, or somebody who made the decision, this is what happened. Even if it's after the game and it didn't happen and it tainted the game, all hail Kansas City. And in fact, here's what Nate burleson a CBS said after the game to the people who always complain if a team wins too much, and Burlston said this on CBS.
If you're not a Chians fan, that's okay, but resist the urge to fall for the narrative that we're tired of seeing them win, that we might be fatigued to watching Case go to the Super Bowl over and over again. You are witnessing greatness and just be happy that you are alive to be there to see it.
And of course he's right, but you can't expect fan bases, especially the Bills. But you know, let's exclude them, the Buffalo mafia. If you're like me. If you're a Packers fan and you're frustrated that your team didn't get to the Super Bowl. Yeah, tip your cap to the teams that did. You can still be frustrated and angry and whatever. Maybe in the off season you think about that kind
of thing, but not right now. It's still the wound is too And if you're Buffalo, especially the players, you just got to shake your head, why are we having these great seasons? At the same time as Patrick Mahomes over in Kansas City and Burger McFarlane talked about that with regard to the Bills QB Josh Allen who played well, just not quite well enough.
There was this cat that played basketball named Michael Jordan, and during his time there were a lot of great players. Malone Stockton Ewing, a lot of great players. They were just born at the wrong time. I don't know if Josh Allen is in that situation now with Patrick Mahomes, but he's run up against this guy. He's changed his game over and over. They said, well, he turned the football over too much. He didn't turn the ball over this year. They said he needed to get help. He
still needs more help. Josh Allen in the back of his mind has to wonder, what do I have to do? And I think Josh Allen has to ask himself, was I born in the wrong era? Because Mahomes is not going anywhere? Boom, He's not going anywhere whatsoever. This is number five and he's going for three in a row.
And thought about it that way. Think of all the great players trying to win NBA titles while Michael Jordan was dominating the league. You can say that, but a lot of players. I think of the college players that didn't win when UCLA was dominating. That's just the way it rolls sometimes, all right. Talking about the Wildcats, Kentucky committed sixteen turnovers, forcing only five. Mark Pope really disappointed with the way his team failed to take care of the ball.
They did a good job getting us on our heels.
It's super disappointing.
This is a this is a style of play that we love for teams to play, and it's a part of the game that we It's like when we're at our best offensively, and for a bunch of reasons that I know and some reasons that I don't, Man, we were just heavy on our heels and the credit to Vanderbilt of course.
Of course, and that number might swell tomorrow night because of the way Tennis See plays defense and Pope knows it.
Yeah, I mean, everybody's good defensively, right, That's the great thing about this league. I mean, it's it's a it's such a it's such a fun, beautiful league, and every night is going to be the biggest challenge of your season.
It's it's nice because you don't actually have to convince your guys that it just is every single game and and and so it's it's it's you know, and I think every team is probably feeling some uh some fatigue and frustration and some some you know, everybody's dealing with injuries for sure, and and we're we're we're not far away. We are we have some you know, we have some some some real issues that we have to find some
creative answers to. But but we're not far away, and our guys are you know, we we did some really positive things tonight.
Kats have lost too straight and might stretch into three. Darryl Byrd asked a great question I wanted about this myseself. It comes tournament time, could teams be puned just because of their one loss record now that they're beating each other up in the sec No, No.
I think it makes us better. Like I would I would choose this league this way, this year, the way it is this year, every single year. I think it's I think it can like it can.
It can rip you to.
Pieces, for sure. But but our job is to is to keep finding.
A way to get better.
And I have a I have a really good locker room of guys that are that are going to keep focused on getting better. Like they're We're not gonna lose our confidence. We're not gonna, you know, question each other. We're not gonna, you know, we're gonna doubt what we're doing. We're just gonna use all these experiences to get better.
And and and there's really specific things that that we talk about to our guys all the time, but our guys actually experience together as a team today for the first time where they're like, oh, those words actually really mean something, and it's really painful if we don't if we don't actually do that, and and so it makes us a better team.
I'm I'm not worried about that at all.
I think it's it's it's I think we're really blessed to you fax this competition every yet, and.
Of course we'll have a game for you right here on six thirty WLAP. Up next, Kenny Brooks on his team's victory over Arkansas yesterday. The UK women got back in that win column and Red's manager Tito Francona was in town with the Reds caravan. We'll hear from him on the other side of the break here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Coming up at the bottom of the hour, David Sisk of the Rivals Network. Part of his work you see on
Cat Illustrated. He'll break down the basketball Wildcats, the men by the way, the women with a huge win yesterday and easy win over Arkansas. Schedules starting to get tougher though. Coming up Thursday, Alabama comes to town. The Crimson Tide yesterday lost a tough one at home to Vanderbilt, a good Vandy team, banding now eighteen and four, Alabama seventeen and five, losing its sixty six sixty four at the time. The Tide rank nineteen, so dropping a little bit this week.
But like I said, the schedule getting tougher and tougher. Oklahoma looms ahead on Sunday in Norman, an old good old miss team next week along with Texas, which is what's seventh in the last poll. After a home game with Georgia. Then you got Miszoo, which is that, but then LSU, Tennessee and South Carolina to wrap up the season.
So it's a challenging grid for Kenny Brooks and his team, and of course the Wildcats losing that ice cold shooting game down at A and M. So Brooks happy with the way, of course his team bounced back, Proud of our kids.
You know, we came out. We didn't always play great, but we had some flashes. We looked really good and it's really good to get back into winn call them. I'm very proud of the way we always tell them in life is ten percent of what happens to your ninety percent is how you deal with it. And there was nothing we could do about the Texas A and M game, but we could do a lot about what the future was going to hold, and they came out.
We had we had really two really good practices where they were loose, confident, and I think it showed today.
Brooks always says that tianni Key for all the great things Georgia Amore does and all the great things that Clara Strachanale do. He said, tianni Key is our swag. Basically. She had another double double, her seventh of the year thirteen and eleven yesterday for Key, and she said the difference between this game and Elosity A and M was as a whole, the Wildcats were a lot more active on both ends of the floor.
I think today we would just all came out with a more energy, more focus, just more like togetherness. I think just being connected and confident with what we're doing as individuals that helps everyone really get to their spots, so what they're.
Doing and stuff like that.
So I think obviously we had some ups and downs, but I think that was the biggest difference was just being out there together, being confident as an individual and as a group.
That's tianni Key who had the double double. We had Amelia Hassett on the show last week and it agreed with her. I guess she had fourteen points, seven rebounds, four assists, four block shots and only one turnover in thirty five and a half minutes. Amore brilliant as usual, nineteen points, eight assists, did have five turnovers, but two steals and clever Strack was seventeen points and ten boards. So two Wildcats with double doubles?
Is he?
Higginbottom was the only player who did much for Arkansas. She had thirty two points, ten of twenty five from the field, three out of seven from beyond the arc. She had more than half of Arkansas's points. But you know I've talked about how plus minus can mean everything or nothing. Is he Higginbottom in terms of plus minus was the worst player on the floor for Arkansas minus eighteen and plus minus. So again the way you look at it, and shows had four blocks and three assists,
So take it for what it's worth. You know, it's fun to look at, but oftentimes it's meaningless. Right, let me shift over to baseball now, because Tito was around Terry Francona making the rounds with the Reds caravan and we've got some soundbites courtesy of WKYT. But he is now the manager of those Reds after leading the Phillies Red Sox and the Indian Slash Guardians for about ten years. But he was with the Socks from four to twenty eleven, and he led them to a pair of World Series titles.
Stepped away from the game for a year, came back in Cleveland, stepped away from the game for a year. Now he's in Cincinnati. It's a great hire, I think, because he doesn't come back unless he's convinced, unless the Reds have convinced him that they are going to make good moves, smart moves and give themselves a chance to compete even though they're in a smaller market. It can be done. We've seen it happen just INSINCEI It's been a while, but Kansas City's not a huge market and
they compete. Yeah, it's tough to compete with the Yankees payroll and the Dodgers payroll, but the players still have to play. It can be done. So Francona talked about getting the energy back in himself and in the team.
I mean, anytime there's a new year, everybody feels it. But when you come to new organization, you're only new ones and it does give you a little extra pep in your staff and that's a good thing and I'm enjoying it.
Red last year finished fourth in the division. They fired manager David Bell after a seventy seven and eighty five finish, and of course Tito Francona is going to know more about his team when they break camp down in after spring training, but he believes that they've got a pretty good idea of.
What they need to do things that we know for us to make a move in the stand, we have to be better defensively, you know, you give teams extra outs or extra opportunities that doesn't bode well really too often, and then want us to remain aggressive because our guys are really they do a good job. They're aggressive, they run, but we want to make less outs on the basis if we can couple being aggressive and being intelligent, that's got a chance to get pretty special.
I am a Saint Louis Cardinals fan. When I don't root for the Cardinals, I root for the Reds, and I do believe this was a great hire. This guy is one of the best in the game, one of the best ever, I think, and I think if the Reds do smart things by him for him, with him, they're going to prosper. I do firmly believe that. I also love the fact that he of course he kept
calling cal Gill. Former Kentucky All American was part of UK's twenty oh six SEC championship team, went on to a career in the majors, kind of curtailed by injuries. Then it became a minor league manager, a major league coach. I ended up lately with the Reds, and Francona kept most of the coaching staff, including Dolin Calgill, so he came.
Over to Cleveland for a couple months, so I did know him, not not a lot, but a little bit. We actually retained about six of the coaches, and the reason being is one the guys felt like they were good coaches, and being new, you certainly want to have some people that know how you want to do things, but being too new isn't necessarily the right thing either.
I had forgotten that Colin played a few games for the Indians back when they were still the Indians. Back in twenty sixteen. He came over into trade from Los Angeles. The Angels traded him and he played a little bit for the Indians. Went free agent at the end of that year after he had been sent down to the Miners.
Then he bounced around to the Miners with the Padres, the Phillies, the Washington Nationals, signed a contract with the Mariners, and was named as the manager for THEBA Arkansas Travelers back in twenty twenty one, and then he joined the Reds as their first base coach before the twenty twenty three season. So he and his wife Allison and their two kids are closer to Lexion now and they're staying there at least for the time being. So another reason
to like heet old Francona. All Right, when we come back, David Sisk of Cats Illustrated, part of the Rivals Network, we'll talk about Kentucky basketball here on six point thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Lewinsider joining us now is the guy who's been on with as many many times. He is the guy who covers Kentucky and North Carolina for Cats Illustrated, and that is part of the Rivals Network. That is David cis coach. Kind of got your hands
full these days. North Carolina is trying to fight its way through a tough season in the ACC and Kentucky and his first year under Mark Pope. Since we've spoken to you last, I know the Wildcats have stumbled a couple of times. Get to that. But what have you seen in the way this Kentucky team has developed under Mark Pope.
Well, I think developed right now. That's in the eye of the beholder. I think the more they play together obviously that they do develop. But there's a lot of things working against them right now. Injuries are the big one.
Oh yeah, And you know, I was at Vanderbilt Saturday, and you know, as I watched the game, there were times on the floor I'm going, gosh, just doesn't even look like the same lineup that you know they had earlier in the year when they're scoring one hundred against Florida and then even the week before when they scored ninety nine against Alabama. But it's not I mean they were going to line up and I'm talking about critical stages of the game, going to the lineup we've not
seen all year, and the freshmen played. I don't have the number in front of me I think for combined twenty six minutes. So you developed, maybe as far as developing those youngsters and now and you line up that's trying to get used to playing with each other. So there's development there. But you know, as far as it going into wind lost column and developing toward the team's selling, you know, until they can get people healthy, that's kind of been put on hold, and you just try to endure.
Right now. I think the other thing is too very tough league. There was a question yesterday in the press conference tomorrow Pope I was at it about basically the league just feasting on each other, and you know, he said there was nowhere he would rather be. We expected that answer, but it does and it doesn't let up. You know, you get out there, you've lost two in
a row. Just what you get to go to Knoxville for that route canal so and then you know, on top of that team scouting and I just noticed that there were some actions that kentake you in earlier in the year for a good part, just like on her Zooms where you go over to the top and you curl and you read. I'm like, how in the world and you guard this stuff? I don't know if you can. But Vanderbilt guarded it well. They had they really Uh well,
you've got to watch it live. You've got to see how teams were, what they're going to do, who are going to play off of who they're going to get up in who they're going to go ver the top up. You know the switches. They've been through this and so many people run zoom. They know what's coming, but personnel is different. So that's what makes it hard to guard.
And I just noticed, you know, they had a lot of success Kentucky has the last couple of game and running the flex and getting away in on the block or the smaller guard after they switched. But Vanderbilt was ready for that and they jumped into an automatic front. They just waited and no way had to get behind. They didn't have to loop. So you know the scouting reports that put out there, they know how to defend, and they're want to see as good defense. I seen
all Europe not the best so far on Tuesday. So right now they're just trying to work through those things.
You don't want to make excuses, but there are reasons. And Andrew Carr is a big one. And early in the year when he was playing well and they were trying to figure things out, there were folks who thought, well, uh, they can win with that Andrew Carr. Then the pretty soon as well, they can't win without Jackson Robinson and really, the truth is they need all the pieces together, don't they. It's not it's not a superstar driven team. It's it's more about the combination.
And you made the point there where your last sentence right where I was going, it's not. It's a system oriented team. Yeah, and when you lose parts of that system, you know, you suffer as a whole. And you know the difference. I said this after the Alabama game. Some people ask me, what's the big because you have offensive minded coaches, you have modern day basketball. What was the difference besides you know, Alabama bigger on the perimeter defensively
and that causes some issues. And I said, you know, to me, the big difference was Alabama when it comes down to it will ten seconds left to go on the shot clot and they don't have anything and those those are rare, but Mark Sears and one of those guards are just going to break you down. And Kentucky really doesn't have that. Now, Oh way, I see more and more o tato Oway starting to turn into that a little bit. You's had two nice games in a row,
but Kentucky really doesn't have it. You don't see them spread the court and go one on one when it's late in the shot clock. They just keep running through their system and the stuff's hard to guard, you know, when you turn it over for thirty seconds and they keep coming off cuts and they keep turning it up, and just all the movement and the ball movement and the screening, and you have to guard every bit of
it perfectly. You know, sooner or later there's going to be a breakdown, and it's tough, but they have to stay in that, whereas some of these other teams just have guards who are going to you know, clear it out, are going.
To go yeah, you know, and we're used to seeing it, aren't we in Lexington. Yeah, because the previous administration they had generally had at least one guy could do that, right.
Yeah, and you go back. I mean, you know, I'd go back farther than that, you know, I'm old enough some of my earliest teams that I remember. The first Kentucky player I ever remember was Kevin Greedy. Oh and I don't know if I don't know if Kevin Greedy could have you know, broken guys down and got but he was he was an NBA player for a long time. I don't remember enough about him to know his style.
But then you go on to Goose Gibbons, who had the huge NC DOUBLEA championship game its dukes scoring the forties. But you know, even when you go from there, you start you get into the potent. You know, you think about Rex Chapman, you get into the Patino era with Mercer and Anderson and Delt and all these guys, and then you go into John Wall and the Darren Fox and and all these players to call a Perry Head and it's just it's been one after another and like
I said, these they're not that kind of team. And I think it's very interesting when Mark Pope. If you asked me what is the most interesting thing or what are you most intrigued about? With Mark Pope? You could sit down with him for a day. I don't think it would be X's and O's. He said. You know, last last spring, when he brought players into the portal, some of them were sight unseen. He did not go by the highest ranked players who passed the eye test.
He went by analytics. Whoever fit the analytics the best, that's who he brought in. So in other words, he's saying, whoever fits our system best They may not be the most athletic, they may not be breakdown guys. You know, you may not have a chasel a near in it as far as somebody can provide that ad or some of the others that's come out of the portal. But you know, he wanted the system players. So that's what
it is now. But if he gets there, or rather his tenure expends and he recruits, it's not spur of the moment where he has to put together a roster of it two or three weeks, I think you see it become more athletic and you start to see those kind of guys come in.
Talking to David Siskey, of course covers Kentucky and North Carolina for Rivals dot Com, you see he's working Cat Illustrated and he's based in Nashville, so he was there when the Wildcats lost to Vandy. Frustrating for the Big Blue Nation coach because Wildcats fall behind, which they've done a lot this year, come all the way back and take the lead. But it's Vandy executing down the stretch. Did that surprise you? And mind you, as you've already
pointed out, this is a pretty good Vandy team. This is not one of those sad sack Vandy teams we've seen through the years, even though Vandy has had some contenders. But this is a well schooled team.
I go back to when they had Riley the Chance and those guys been a decade ago. Kevin Stallings, I mean there are three coaches removed, Kevin Stallings, our quick time flight. So uh, you know, so we got to go back to a decade. This is the best team that they've had in ten years probably, So you know, I'm not surprised that they're good because and this is kind of a I've kind of gone on this hill, uh for the last couple of days. But you know, when you look at at at Byington and Pope coming in,
they were in similar situations. They went to the transfer portal. Now Kentucky went all in. Vanderbilt went about as deep as you could go without going on in. They've got maybe one or two more high school players and recruits, but a lot of those guys on the roster are ones that don't play, so they rent really what the guys that play. These are new names to the Vanderbilt fans.
So if you looked at the transfer portal, rankings. Kentucky Vanderbilt were both in the top ten and by people who get paid to do this, who know the portal better than anybody. They were apart by a lot of these guys by one to two spots, so they were almost equal. The difference is Vanderbilt's not as big, but man, I think they missed car yesterday. That difference. But when you look at that and the year started, I'm like, Okay, hold on, Kentucky is top fifteen? Are gonna be top fifteen?
After a couple of games, Vanderbilt still picked fifteenth in the SEC. What is There's something there? And I do think you have brand by us. We don't have office in Vanderbilt, and it is Kentucky. But I think if you take the names off the back or off the front rather and it's just five guys, ten guys out there playing five on five at the rect Center at the WY, it's going to be a really, really, really close game.
Now.
I picked Kentucky by four or five, and when I thought Carr was playing, it was a total crap shoot without him. But am I surprised no? Because Vannerbelt for they're a good team, man, really good team and Kentucky fans went in there and it was there was over half Big Blue Man. It looked like the Old Blue
Miss back from the nineties. But I just wonder when they left, and you know, I think a lot of us went in and thinking, Okay, Kentucky's just going to feed on them here, and it didn't turn out that way. So I'm curious across the board how much has that changed? You know, what's the confidence level and the team from the weekend going now to Tennessee and Old Miss and some of these games is coming up here in the next few days, especially.
Without Andrew Carr. We can talk about that on the other side of the break with David Sisk of the Rivals Network. We're back in a minute here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're talking to coach David Sisk, who covers UK and North Carolina recruiting for the Rivals Network. Can see his work on Catch illustrated. Before we go any further. North Carolina grabs a recruit that Kentucky wanted. I think towards the end, just the fact that UK was in it was a little bit of a surprise. David.
So although some people say it's still a bad loss on a recruiting trail. He's having a pretty good recruiting year, Mark Pope. So that wasn't a real shock that the kid ends up at North Carolina, you know.
Yeah, And there were some smoke screens in that one. And I got word Saturday week ago that he may have already it may have been AJ Debanca tot deal. So let me explain. AJ Debants went to Chapel Hill. There were three schools for Ajdabanson BYU, North Carolina, and Alabama. He signed with Alabama or excuse me, will BYU like
five to six weeks before he made his announcement. Went to the Alabama Alabama North Carolina game in Chapel Hill a week before he had signed, and about our before he announced, and five weeks after he signed to watch that game, and all these rumors were going out that Alabama was hot and heady, and I believed that I fell for it and he had already. I mean, you talk about playing it, you go watch North Carolina, Alabama and Chapel Hill after you signed, w BYU and nobody
knew you had sign So this one was similar. I'd heard that about a week before Saturday week ago that there was a very good chance that he may have have done the same thing that Wilson may have signed with North Carolina weeks ago. I was told last Monday from another source that indeed was true. They had true of that, and so it was. But North Kentucky was in the final two. But there was something there that made them pick North Carolina. And hey, they're a blue
blood too. It's not like you lost out of you know, it's not like you lost out in Virginia Tech or somebody. So they you know, that just goes with it. But yes, a very good recruit recruiting class so far, it's a top five recruiting class. But I'll be honest with you when you start getting nowadays a big time in il Gosh, I'll be honest with you what it takes to get them.
I would rather save that money, go into the portal and get me two to three guys, because we can see right now with Kentucky's roster where injuries really hurt their them. Yeah, what if they had one or two more pieces, And I would rather do that next year. I'll be honest. In today's game, I would not want to and I've said this before. I would really not want to go any deeper than three signees on high school each class. That would be it. If you and
show me you're going to go five or six or seven. Now, I don't care. Give me somebody liked Banta and you have the rest, but I would rather have I would rather go into the portal because you can get more players. I would rather have a twenty one year old that's proven than an eighteen year old. You're not spending as much. There's more contract maintenance, roster maintenance with the contracts there. That's what I would rather do, and I think you
can build it better that way. So now if I'm Kentucky, then I would shed in tears over that whatsoever.
Man, it has really changed the face of college ass in it especially he's more pronounced with basketball because there are fewer players, so the spotlight burns a little hotter, doesn't it.
I wouldn't care, if I'm being honest with you now, I wouldn't care if I ever got any high school kids. Wow, I would. I just wouldn't.
Uh.
Now, I know you want to develop in there over time, and it can at times. I think it can reach out and so I'm being a litters a little hyperbole there, But over to the most part. I remember a coach told me about four or five years ago when also, so North Kentucky's going through this slide, you know, And that's the thing. And I'm probably hard into it because I watched John Keller Perry for years bring start to bring in six or seven guys out of high school.
And I've told you this on this show. His team never could get old because he brought in so many freshmen. He just couldn't go getting up guys out of Portal Cree already had seven presiments done in and he said he wasn't going to do that anymore, but he couldn't. But he did the same thing this year. So if you look, if you're down about your Kentucky team, look at Arkansas because the team they've got would have been your team lost down to the man one in six
from the SEC. So I would rather just watch him so much, and I had I had a very good friend of mine who's an assistant coach in the Big East tell me like five six years ago, he said, you have to find a way for your team to get on. I know one had done there was a time there Kentucky and Duke would take all freshmen could compete for the national championship and win them. But you cannot do that anymore because you can just put in
older players. So yeah, it has changed. It is totally different than it was ten years ago.
Oh yeah, And that is all over the last three or four years. That has been a point of contention or a point of interest around Final four week is just how older these teams are, the veteran teams. And Lamon Butler was part of one of those. You know, said Caliperry tried it with that Kellen Grady team and it might have worked except for injuries. But you're right, his pattern was to always be young.
Now you got to remember, I'm getting older here, so my mind doesn't work too used too. But I'm trying to go back and remember these numbers from from ten months ago. But if I'm correct here, and if I'm off, I'm just off by one or two. Of the final four teams, I think there was like one Top twenty player, yeah, and like one up the final eight. I believe there was like two or three Top forty players and maybe two five stars. They just did not exist. On those
teams was it was guys who had stayed through the process. Now, if you talk about what kind of high schoolers you want, I wouldn't spend the money on the one and done. Now, the guys I would go get are the guys who I feel like could stay in that program and develop and get bigger and stronger, and then they turn into those twenty one year old guys. And keep those guys and bring those into portal. That's what I would be looking for. So you never know, Man, what is a
Travis Perry and the Trent Noah gonna look like. Don't judge them right now because we've got caught up in this Calipery stuff over the years, and we judge them to be successful failures by what they are as freshmen. Let's look at those guys down the road and see what they are.
It's a different world right now, David Sisters, it's on top of it for rivals and the cat's illustrated website. Do you see his work there. We love talking hoops with the coach. Thank you so much.
I'll say this yeah, and I'll say this quick. I'll give you example. North Carolina on the other side, thirteen and eight, they're not a good team. I don't know if they get in the tournament or not. But you look at North Carolina, They've got three five They've got three guys ranked in the top fifteen coming out of high school that start on that roster, and that is a bad team. And they've got two freshmen and a sophomore.
And then they bring you in Caleb Wilson. So if they stay in that vein and just bringing in t they've got these five star freshmen. Well, Wilson's going to be wanted done. Ian Jackson's wanted done this year. And people said, what's it going to do for North Carolina next year? And I said, I don't know if it changes anything much because they I mean, they've got three top fifteen kids out of high school right now, and I wouldn't be surprised if you look up two weeks
from now and they're not about thirteen and ten. So man, it's interesting.
Well to your point, how many of these kids on the Arkansas team that were expected to carry that squad found four are going to be back next year.
So yeah, and you look at Arkansas too. I think Cala Perry where he didn't go into analytics. He goes and gets the best athlete and and a lot of these rankings are based on athletes, especially when they come out of high school. So he's always got the best looking teamil on coming off the bus. But he's got another team that can't shoot the ball and they're just doing overly skilled.
Yeah, it's it's amazing, and this is going to be a fascinating, fascinating run to the NCAA tournament, not just for Kentucky fans, but for college basketball fans everywhere. Coach, thank you so much, and we'll talk to you soon. And you can follow the coach at coach David Sisk on Twitter and the X.
We'll talk to you soon, all right, buddy, thank you.
Up next, I remember two with John Clay and the Harrow Leader Vinnie Hardy Kat's talk Wednesday here on the Big boone Side or six thirty w lap.
S.
Welcome back to the Big Blond Sider. Joining us now is a longtime friend that the show, mister John Clay, sports columnists for The Herald Leader, back from Nashville where he covered Kentucky. Vanderbert and John you wrote about for The Herald Leader in Kentucky dot Com. The fact that there are issues that Mark Pope and his to have need to fix and better sooner than later with Tennessee coming up. But without giving away the store, what kind
of issues are you looking at? Obviously they've got health issues. It's nothing they can fix, but it's severely affecting his team.
Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously, you know, Andrew carr Out did not play on Saturday, been dealing with the bat back for at least a couple of weeks. And when we talked to Mark after the Mark Pope after the game, he said, you know that he they felt like that, you know, every time he was making progress and then they played him in a game and then
he was back to zero with him. So they thought that for this game they would sit him helping the rest with you know, help, and that he would when he does come back, he'll be able to better, you know, kind of survive though wear and tear, playing in a game without getting a set back as far as his back is concerned. But I think they kind of you know, I think in this particular day, manager obviously could have helped them. Kentucky has size advantage. He would help Kentucky's
size advantage over Vanderbilt. Banderbilt was not particularly is not a particularly tall team. And also, you know, the big thing coming out of that Bandy game is the seventeen turnovers. That's what Bandy does. They force you into turnovers and they don't turn the ball over themselves. And that's what they did Saturday, forced Kentucky into seventeen turnovers, and wow, they only turned the ball over five themselves, five times themselves. I think Carr, with his leadership, he's kind of a
calming influence. He's a crafty player, not that he's a guard, but I think he could have helped out, you know, on that end as well.
Yeah, and you know, experienced their best inside player. When you talk about consistency and the different things he does well, he definitely I think would have been the difference. But you know, that's where you are and you got to figure it out, don't you.
Yeah, And I also kind of mess with Mark's substitution patterns. He ended up playing Colin Chandler, Trent Noah and Trento had not played a minute an SC game before Saturday. You know, I thought Trent when he first came in gave him a lift. He had I think four rebounds in twelve minutes. But then at the end of the game when he was in at the end of the game, I thought he got caught in a couple of really tough defensive matchups, especially late when he was trying to
guard aj Hoggard Band. He's a veteran guard transfer from Michigan State, played four years for time as a Michigan State and Harder was able to get the ball to the basket on Trent and he didn't make the basket. Mcloughin, Devin mclock and the transfer from Boston God was able to clean it up and that was a big basket in the game. So hopefully they can get Andrew back. But yeah, turnovers had not been a problem until lately. They had seventeen turnovers against Texas A and M, even
though they were able to win that game. So you know, La Mott. Butler is another guy who you know he hasn't missed time, not lately, but he's he's as many times as he's hit the floor as we've seen him hit the floor, I think have taken their toll. I think he had two assists, six turnovers Saturday. I think it's just a second game all year where he's had more turnovers than assists. He's another guy that I think, you know, they wish they could get He could be
a little you know, could get a little healthier. And I think also because you know, uh, you know, we kind of I don't know that we've forgotten about it, but the fact that they haven't had Kerk Crisa for quite a while since the Gonzaga game. I think Travis Perry has done an admirable job for a freshman filling in as a backup. But I think that's another guy they could really use if they could get him back, And there seems to be questions about if and when they'll get him back. Is Kirk criesa Yeah.
No question, And I forget about it until I watch Travis Perry struggling on defense and he's you know, I was doing the best he can but but teams are making no secret and why would they. They're going right at him. Okay, here's eleven. Uh, we know what we can do against this guy. Let's get at it and getting better. But he's just not quite ready. So yeah, I mean Kerk Crisa and the other thing, what you said about Butler's exactly right, And I'm watching. I wasn't there.
I know you were, but I'm watching the game, and I'm thinking they've got Butler. But they don't have Butler. You know, that's not the guy we saw early and here because he is so beat up, you.
Know, right right, and.
And that's you know, obviously affected him on both ends of the floor offensively and defensively as well. Like I said, the only forced Fandy into five turnovers, and Butler's that kind of guy who can force turnovers and get a lot of steals. You know, It's interesting. I think he Tucky ended up winning the boards, but thirteen, but they got twelve twelve less shots than Vandy, and I think and Fandy had three more field goals. And I think
that goes back to the turnovers. And I think Bandy coming in the game, led the nation and turn turning turnovers into points and they had a fourteen to seven advantage in that one as well. And I think, yeah, you that's that's the way you put it. I think is exactly right. They have Butler, They have Lamont Butler. He's out there on the floor playing, but it's not the real Lamont Butler, not the Lamont Butler that we've been used.
To up to this point.
That's not the guy who's stepped through the portal who materialized on campus. And maybe we'll see that guy again, you know. But like Pope said in his postgame, everybody's banged up, and you know as well as I from covering football more than anything, there's no substitute for rest, you know, and just letting your body heal. So we're talking to John Clay of the Harold Leader. He was down at Memorial Gym, which is a bit of a misnomer. I mean, Memorial is one thing, but it doesn't feel
like a gym down there in Nashville. I've been down there a bunch, as you know, you have two through the years. We must say, and you've said this without saying it, this is not the Vandy of late. And there had been some really good Vandy teams, although I think you got to go back to the seventies for Vandy's to win an SEC title. But still they've had some good NCAA tournament bound teams. This one might be,
so you've got to give them credit. And the job that Byington's done is the head coach there.
Uh, you know, like ro last Seek, you know Jerry Stackhouse, who Mark Byington replaced. He was a household name as far as basketball people were concerned. You know, a great player at North Carolina and NBA All Star and then he was named the Vanderbilt coach. But he just never could quite get it going. And when they let him go at the end of the last season and they Mark Barrington is head coach, I'm sure a lot of
people are like, who's that? Who's Mark Barrington? Even though he had led James Madison to a thirty two and four record last year. And he's kind of like he was in the same situation Mark Pope was in. He had to put a roster together and Pat Kelsey I wrote about that last week. He had to put a roster together from scratch. I think they've got like eleven trans players out of the transfer portal. He's got one or two freshmen that sit on the team. And I think he's a yeah, I think he's done a really
good job. You can tell he he you know, he seems to know what he's doing. He knows how he wants to play. He said, they're not a real big team, but they play really good defense, force a lot of turnovers. They do take a lot of three pointers, and you know they've been hit and miss on their three pointers. But already they're off to a you know, a much better start than I think what they won nine games all of last year Vanderbilt, and I think what the
win on Saturday was fifteenth or sixteenth. I don't have it in front of me for Vandy, so they're way ahead elected I think they only went four conference games last year, and I think that was their fourth conference win on Saturday, So they're already way ahead of last year's schedule.
You know, I'll always wonder with stack House what might have happened, and it's all everything's would I could have, should have in sports. But if Darius Garland stays healthy, you know, they win a lot of games. They win more games. This guy was was an incredibly highly rated recruit, but as you know, it got hurt almost immediately and never really got to play. And I think that I think if he stays Selsey, they win games. Maybe Stackhouse
can can build on that. But you're right, Byington was a proven commodity, and you know, I talked to somebody who works down at Vandy and they said, you know, the portal's all well and good, he said, but we can take a lot of kids through the portal because of academics, and they're not going to talk about that for obvious reasons. It makes it sound like they're poor mouthing. But Vanderbilt is not a program in any sport where they can get instant help out of the portal, you
know what I mean. That makes it more impressive if you ask me.
Right.
No, No, I think he's doing a really good job. I heard Dame Bradshaw's say on Tom Leech's show last week that you know, he did the Bandy Tennessee game, and he said, I know there's going to be a lot of Kentucky fans there on Saturday, and there were. There were a lot of Kentucky fans and we get there there they were loud.
He said.
The big thing about Bandy now is they're back to have and they have a home court advantage again, which they haven't had for quite a few years. And that place was packed on Saturday and there were a lot of Kaducky fans, but the Bandy fans got loud, especially there at the end of the game when Bandy ended up pulling it out. I think what They scored the game's last six points to pull it out, and they
stormed the court. And I just saw before were talking to you, Dick, I got a five hundred thousand dollars fine from the from the sec over. And I know I saw pictures or I saw a video of Vandy's ad talking to the students pleading with them. He was either before the game or during the game. Do not storm the court. You're gonna cost us money. Money we could use for nil, money we could use for athletic to make things better. But they did not heed the
AD's admonition there. So yeah, so they're gonna have somebody there. Baby's gonna have to write a big check.
And those are the smart kids, they should know.
Better, right, that's right, yeah, right, No, it's uh.
And some of it.
Does the money go to Kentucky?
I think that, you know, I don't know. I want to say it goes to the conference office. Maybe the other team gets some of it. I don't know.
That's a good question.
I have to find the answer to that.
I don't know, And I'm glad to hear you say, I know there were a lot of Kentucky fans. But I saw a tweet from Andrew Marinus, who went to Vandy's the author and his dad's a Pultzer Prize winning author and very proud Andy commodore. You mean know Andrew, and he tweeted that he was disappointed with the crowd. Really. Yeah, so it was packed.
To me, it was a sellout. They that's before the game, that it was a sellout. It looked pretty packed to me.
Sounds good. John Clay and my guests from The Hero Leader in Kentucky dot Com Back in a minute. Hair on the Big Boon Sider six thirty w l a P. Welcome back. We're talking with John Clay, sports columnists for The Hair Leader back from Nashville.
Uh.
Can I assume you're heading to Knoxville or's Mark going?
Yes?
No, I'll be heading the arch well.
Mark's busy counting ballots. I know that for the Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year.
Uh.
But Knoxville is going to be in tendency to be an entirely different kind of game. But this one is going to be a real grinder, A meat grinder, isn't it.
Yeah?
And I think Mark he may petition the SEC. What's the deal that every time Kentucky plays somebody there coming off of the tough wall. Yeah, where they want to go the one I had? You want to get back on the winning, winning side of things. You know that happened, you know with Alabama Alabama, just like Ole Miss Bandy had just lost to Alabama. So yeah, this is another one where Tennessee lost Auburn. I went back and watched yesterday because I didn't get to see much of the
Tennessee Auburn game the other night. One of the things, so if you go back and watch the Tennessee Auburn and every didn't start on TV anyway till it's thirteen to ten in the first half. I think there was only seven and a half minutes before ESPN because Kansas Houston before it went into overtime. But we can talk about the length of these games. That would be another discussion for another day, I guess. But yeah, definitely, I
mean that's the way Tennessee played. I thought it was interesting that after the game, Rick Barnes said that he was not unhappy at all. He didn't like the loss, obviously, but that Aarburn went but he thought his team fought hard, played really hard. They lost to a good team, and he seemed to be pretty happy with the way they played, you know, to me and watching the game. The kind of thing that kind of hurts Rick Barnes teams over the years, they hit that spell where they just can't
make a shot, and Auburn took advantage of that. But they you know, they're really good defensive teams. Kind of say, Brick Barns teams are always good defensive teams. It's going to be a tough matchup for Kentucky, no doubt about it.
But you know, when you go back and look at it, Kentucky's won some big games down there, right and especially through the year. I mean even when Billy Clyde was here winning down there or playing well and nobody thought they had a chance.
Right, No, No, that's true, that's true. And you know, yeah, you never know what's going to happen in these types, these types of games. You know, Auburn hurt. You know, John jenia Broom came back after there's another guy who been beat up in injury. He came back and had a big game. He didn't start for Auburn, but he had a big game. Was really kind of the difference in the game. But you know, it's just that physical style play. And that was a question about the Kentucky
team a couple of weeks ago. Uh, especially like in the Georgia game where they were kind of getting physical, kind of getting beat up, maybe bully and pushed around. I thought they answered that when they came back the next week against Mississippi State. Alabama was a different type of game Texas and in place physical and they were able to beat them. But then I don't know it was so much with Bandy's that they were physical, but they really put that pressure, defensive pressure. Mark Pope talked
about that after the game. He said, they really got us on our heels, which he said to me was super disappointing. And Tennessee is going to be the same type of team. They're gonna put a lot of ball pressure on try to create turnovers and try to win off their defense.
It's been interesting with this team. John that going back to when the word was and I admit that I wondered aloud, was this team a little soft? They heard it, you know, for all the times, and you've heard this throughout your entire career, coaches and player. We don't listen to that. We tune out the media, we don't read. You know, we live in a bubble, We live under
the covers. We don't. You know they do. And the players admitted to us after the game, didn't they that you know, we heard that talk and they responded, which I thought was really interesting. And you got to wonder, do they have enough juice in the tank to answer this time?
You know, well, all the right, right, right, obviously, but I'm sure you know that after a game like this against Fanny, that's going to be a point of emphasis there that much time. Obviously turn around with Tennessee, uh, you know, the ball pressure, being able to handle that and defensively and not turned the ball over, which you know Tennessee is going to try to do. Another big thing with Tennessee is Chas Lanier, the transfer who came in.
He did not have a particularly good game at Auburn, but when he's he's their offensive threat when he's and obviously we all know about Ziegler. Seems like he's been there ten years instead of five years. The point guard. Obviously, he's a really good player. But if Lanier is on, they're tough to beat. But if he if he's not hitting, Tennessee sometimes has trouble scoring points. So that's I think that'll be another key to the game on Saturday.
Yeah, I just think Butler versus Ziggler is going to be key. And if you know, if i'd have Butler in a what do you call this chamber? You put somebody in a you know, or Myko Jackson slept in every night.
Right, you know, just ojo think coach ed Johnson.
That's tuperbolic.
That's it.
That's it, thank you. Yeah, I'd have him in that thing twenty two hours a day. But yeah, it's it's going to be it's going to be tough. But uh, it's always interesting to see how many fans get in, how Blue gets on down in Knoxville, isn't it.
Yeah?
And I think that that may have been what our friend Andrew D. Vandy may have been disappointed by all the Kentucky fans that got in. That's probably they're not as many fans get in at Knoxville as they used to remember the years where Kentucky they dominated the crout there and Tennessee changed their ticket policy, and that's when they were struggling in basketball. That started to change when Bruce Pearl came in. Maybe took a little bit of a dip after that, but it's back with Rick Barnes.
And and I want to say, and I'm gonna write this, I'm gonna write a column that this too. You know, Dick, we go back a long way. We go back all the way to you know, as a kid remembering Ray Mears. And there's been a lot of Tennessee coach over the years that the UK fans have loved to hate. But uh, you know Rick Barnest, and he's a rival. But I really like Rick Barnes. I think he's a really good coach. I think he's a really good person. He's won Tennessee coach. I think have a hard time hating.
Oh listen, I've talked about it before and written about it that if not for the fact that he wanted to wait on Kevin Durant, he probably would have taken the Kentucky job. But you know, Barnard needed an answer right away, and and and Barnes wanted to wait, and Durant went pro and the next thing, you know, here comes Billy Gillespie. So yeah, it's just another one of
those would it could have, should have? Uh, John, before I let you go, I don't know how frustrated you are, but I was, and I you know, I don't hate the Chiefs. I was rooting for Ray Davis and the Bills. The Chiefs I rooted for growing up in the AFL, But I sure wanted to see the Bills and what that fourth down call? That that boss spot. I mean, if ever anything calls for a computer chip, it's that, you know what I mean. I don't believe the NFL's rigged,
but it's not. It's not administered very well.
Now, especially in this age of technology, seems. I mean, there's so many things that they could do that would help the officials out that they don't do. But I mean, you got to hand it to the Chiefs. Uh, you know, they keep finding ways to win obviously. Uh you know, I thought, you know there everybody talks about Mahomes, but their defense Steve Spagnol, their defensive coordinator, that blitz call on that fourth down for they have the ball back.
I mean, just a great, great defensive call. But you know, it should be a good Super Bowl Chiefs and Eagles. You got Chiefs going for a third title, nobody's ever done that before. And the Eagles, you know, obviously a dominating win over the Commanders. But yeah, you got to feel feel badly for the Bills fans. So to get so close so many years and have the same team knock them out every time. It's not like different teams are knocking them out. It's the Chiefs and they come
so close again and not get it done. I mean, and and you know, you hear people say all the time there are no better fans in the NFL, no more loyal fans, no more.
Passionate fans in the Buffalo Bills fans.
So yeah, you got to feel for them, same franchise that lost four Super Bowls. John Clay the Hero later, Thank you so much, John Clay Ivy, John Clay four of the Roman Numerald. Just like a Super Bowl. You can find him on Twitter. Thanks so much, John, and will see you at the Knicks ball game. Appreciate it.
Ok, thank you, Dack.
You know, while we're talking Tennessee, I went back and looked at John Scott's incredible Kentucky Statistics Big Blue History Statistics page at the Tennessee series, and amazingly, since the SEC Tournament championship game in March of twenty eighteen, which the Wildcats won, these teams have split the last sixteen games, including two SEC Tournament games, one in Nashville which Kentucky lost and one in Tampa which the Wildcats lost in twenty twenty two. You've got to go all the way
back to twenty thirteen. Really started in twenty ten through thirteen when Caliperry first got here for a winning streak by the Wildcat which reached six games, and there really aren't any long Tennessee win streaks or even longer streaks when Patino was here. But of late this has been brutally even. We'll find out what happens tomorrow night. Vinnie Hardy's next on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the
Big Blue and Cider. Joining us now in our celebrity hotline is a guy who hosts Cats Talk Wednesday along with Terry Brown and also the Believe in Kentucky podcast with our man Aaron Gerschad and former UK quarterback Jalen Wilow. That would be Vinnie Hardy and Vinnie. How's your basketball season treating it right now, well, right.
Now, the first I guess official roughcats of the season overall still fairly well, but little turtles right now.
Oh yeah, that's a good way to put it. And things get no easier, as you know, with Tennessee coming up, and possibly know Andrew Carr, I really do believe, and this is not an excuse, should have won that game down there in Nashville, as you know, but I sure believe he would have made a big difference because Vandy just didn't have a whole lot of size, and I think Carr could have been a real difference maker.
Definitely, And I you mentioned Aaron and I talked about that on the latest episode. We thought they might try to squeeze by without him, and it almost worked. Terrible first half, they overcame it, you know, should have should have closed him out. They just weren't able to close him out after you know, that great rally in the second half would have been nice to kind of steal that one without him and then maybe he's ready for Tennessee and hopefully rested, and you know, but it just
didn't work. And so now you've got a three game of the street looming. If you don't play better in Knoxville in in Nashville.
Yeah, but as you said, they almost pulled off that comeback. I thought they were careless with the basketball in the first chap, didn't play with a lot of fire. How did they turn your eyes? How do you think they turned things around on the second half against Vnderville.
Yep?
I think I think they were just you know, embarrassed. They got punched in the mouth and it was hey, let's punch back. Almon Or was huge. You know, he sits in that corner and he's locked and loaded and he you know, no hesitation. My hometown got Trent Noah got some meaning for minutes and he didn't do anything to hurt himself, much like Travis Perry has been doing progressively throughout the year. Just to turnovers overall kind of bit them. You know, we haven't seen that. That's not
being characteristic of them. And if Butler he beat up like Andrew Carr and for the most part, it's still been playing great. He had his struggle Saturday. A lot of people are on him for that, and you're not going to be follows every game, and it was just kind of a bad time for that. Happened, but that's what it was against Vandy and they beat Tennessee. They knew what they were going into it. He's always tough down there, tougher than it should be down there.
Imber.
I remember ninety three, mash burnon their right, number one and they lose at Vanderbilt. I'm like, man, you know, Kentucky still wins more than we think that. I think those losses stick in my mind when they should. You know, Billy g lost by forty down there.
Like that.
I don't know.
And you know what the Tubby team that won twenty sixth straight, that wasn't the first win, but that team caught fire in a win over Vandy. And then the first half, Vandy was punking Kentucky. I don't know if you remember that game or not, but in the second half, towards the end of the first half, Kentucky started coming around. Second half, Kentucky absolutely eviscerated Vandy. Weird things happened in that building.
Absolutely absolutely, And I don't know, it's just and Patino got rung.
It was it ninety three when Patino got ejected, don't I wish I could remember?
That was like it was like Billy McCaffrey was shooting the lights down those guys and they were, you know, in ninety three. Andi Kentucky has always been good, but I'm I'm a teenager, and this is the first really legit team because you know Patino's building and this this team eventually went to the Final four. So this is
the first legit good team. And I can remember I was too young for eighty four and all that, and so their number one, my dad had just gotten you know, do you remember the humongous for model big screen TVs? Oh yeah, he just got a big screen TV set up in the living room and we get it turned on and they lose the Vanda bit. Maybe that's why six wouldn't the first game on that TV. They lose a Vandy. I don't know.
Oh that's funny. Well, I I have covered many a game down there, and it is an odd place to play. And last week Jack Gibbons told me he liked that camera. Mills told me he liked it. Sean Woods told me he did not like it because, being a point guard, he did not like losing eye contact with his coach for half the game, you know, because you're running away from your own bench for twenty minutes of that game.
So it's just like you said, it's a weird place and weird things happen, but you know, you got to take the better with the better. Unfortunately, I think Kentucky fans were counting on that win. But you know what Vinnie I was taking earlier today, when Kentucky started the season, I think most fans believe the Wildcats might finish five hundred in the league or better, you know, maybe they would lose anywhere from you know, six to nine conference games.
So your knew conference losses were going to be there. Now, you don't count on losing a Vandy, but when it happens right in front of you, it just stings a little more, doesn't it.
It does, It does, And we've we've heard Mark Pope say, of course, you know, understanding Simon and here for banners and things of that nature. But he's also, at times, i think, in his own way, tried to temper expectations. He said, there's times that you think I'm the greatest coach in the country. There's times that you think I'm the worst coach in the nation. I think that's his way of saying, we're gonna have some spots. We're gonna
have some rough patches. Every coach in the league, you listen to all the post game pregame pressures, talks about what a monster the.
League is and it is.
So you combine that great job assembling this team. There's injuries right now. This team isn't freaky athletic. They have to play the some has to be greater than the collection of the parts. And if they don't play that way, they can kind of open themselves up to kind of get punks, as Jackson Robinson told Goose after the game. And so it's kind of where they are, like we mentioned in that rough patch right now, now you can easily cure it. It's gonna be tough to come to Knoxville,
but they can't score. So if you can get a little offense, the pressures on them. But they play so physical they choke everybody out. There's a fear that, you know, who will impose who's will and who Tuesday.
Night, Yeah, and I really think that that lost to Vandy. It was a bit of a wake up call for Tennessee. But you know, it's not like anybody needs one. When Kentucky comes to town, right. I mean, the Vandy fans stormed the court, which you kind of knew was going to happen with they went over the Wildcats. That's just something that these Kentucky players are in the process of learning about right now, isn't it.
That's true. That's true. All this veteran experience is great and we're having to get used to that. But they're, like you mentioned, really new to having that Kentucky level target on their back. They've heard about it, you know, they went to the TBT game at Kentucky and Louisville, but now they're having to live it game in and game out at Missippi State, at Georgia, at Van Build, at Tennessee Toudas on there. They're getting the dose now in real time. Yeah.
Yeah, And you can talk all you want, right. It's like it's like when Mitch Barnhart tried to prepare Billy Gillespie for what it's like being the head coach of Kentucky mis said. I tried and tried to, you know, and Billy acted like he knew what he was getting into. Nobody knows what they're getting into except Mark Popen. He signed up bit to be the head coach.
Right exactly exactly. He just can't know now next year, whoever comes back to his team and how this team looks next year, they'll have this these feathers in their cap going forward and then they won't be in this position that they're in now. You know, they can have the guys on the team that can impart the wisdom to the incoming guys. But they're all learning together right now.
We're talking to Vinnie Hardy. Vinnie you can hear every Wednesday on Cats Talk Wednesday as well as the Power along with Terry Brown, along with Aaron gershawan on the podcast Believe in Kentucky. Also Jalen Witlow is the former Kentucky quarterback. And we'll talk some football and more basketball after the break when we come back here on six
thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Vinnie Hardy and you can hear his work Kats Talk Wednesday with Terry Brown, the podcast at Believe in Kentucky with Aaron gershan I just Believe in Kentucky, but it's the Twitter handles at Believe in Kentucky, b l E A v in Kentucky. Of course we're talking about the basketball Cats the women
with a huge win Sunday afternoon over Arkansas. Not a great Arkansas team, but Kenny Brooks, you talk about a guy who put a pretty good team together virtually the same way Mark Pope did if you had a chance to pay much attention to them.
Absolutely absolutely in there, there's so fun to watch, Like you said, outside of Cassidy row and I'm blank on the other young lady, a lot of new faces, and he said, can take us with sleeping giant, and he's proven that to be the case with the start that they've gotten off to.
You know, it's funny because the SEC women's basketball race has been lsu in South Carolina over the last few years. But for the longest time it was just Tennessee and you're familiar with Tennessee. And one of the teams that started to help balance things out was Kentucky under Matthew Mitchell. And then Don Staley shows up at South Carolina. Now that league is about as brutal as it is in football and men's basketball too.
You know, it's unbelievable. I think I twitted the other day because you know, when Kirby Smart goes up in his knick thab and they show his record against everybody else in the SEC, and then his record against Alabama. Yeah, they almost have to do the same again for Kim Molky, show her wrekor against the rest of the SEC in her record against South Carolin because she is over five against the Gangcocks. So it's unbelievable. How you know, everybody
in that league is the same way. Kentucky has fought their way into being ranked. As you mentioned, South Carolina, LSU, Alabama coming in this coming Thursday their top twenty. So it's it's becoming the same kind of gauntlet on the women's side as it is the men.
Yeah, and really, more than anything, I think it's just become so physical, and I really believe you've got to credit Don Staley's South Carolina team for that. But you know, it's it's size, it's skill, it's everything. And I think this Kentucky team has a little bit of everything, you know what I.
Mean they do, and.
We're having to get used to seeing a team like this with so much size. And I'm not saying that as a NOx to Matthew Mitchell, but the Victoria Dunlap was six to one, you know, and she was the big for the Tuckey teams. We had Macy Morris on cass Talk Wednesday and before the season, she was not jealous or envious, but glad to see the sides because she said, look, when I was here, she said, I
was having to bang with Asian Wilson. So you know these you know, Claris Dragon, Clara Silva and Johnny Key and and all these all these sizes a welcome sight. And now they can go, you know, toe to toe with all these others from lines in the SEC.
That's right.
Uh.
Now, size is one thing, but physicality is another. So they're going to have to really get used. If do you think if they think they've been banging already, just wait till the last three games of the year with Tennessee, l s U and South Carolina. We're talking to Vinnie Hardy of Katch Talk Wednesday and to Believe in Kentucky podcast, which you co host with Jalen Wilow and former football cats.
Let's talk a little bit of football. Uh so many changes and changes were much needed in this Kentucky football roster. Mark popl Mark Pope, Mark Stoops talked about that, didn't he on a couple of his press conferences that you know, he needed some people to move on, and a lot of people did, and he's brought in a lot of new faces. How do you feel about the portal traffic when it comes to Kentucky football.
I hope we can get some good results. I'm just kind of waiting see mode. We see the names, we see the guys from the USC to Marshall and running back from Nebraska, and we just hope it all fits like we've seen it fitting basketball, which is much easier, but you just hope that they can come together. In football, they had so many holes and so many things that need to be fixed and addressed and so little time. Just hopeful that they got it right with this approach to constructing his roster.
From where you sit and you've observed a lot of Kentucky football, how do you think it got away from Stoop Center's staff.
You know a lot of you hear the discipline thing a lot. For me, I was just kind of disappointed with you know, we had all of this talent, this pipeline from Frederick Douglas, and to me, I don't think they got nearly as much out of that as they should have to call crowds moving on, you know, Dane Key, I mean I watched his dad. I watch Dante make tackles in place to Kentucky. Dante move, Dane moves on. Jagger's Jury's kind of still out on him.
But the local.
Talent here in the backyard, to me, I didn't think they got as many dividends as they would have hoped, or a lot of us would have hoped. From that standpoint. For me, that kind of maybe just kind of you let that window closed and didn't get the bang for your book that I think you should have.
Well, they definitely did not in terms of well some of those guys, But I mean Dane Key, I thought did about as well as he could all things considered. You know, with the team that has struggled really to put together a consistently good, sec caliber O line over the last three years, actually there have been some decent
performances individually and collectively. You cannot look back on last year without thinking about the upset they pulled down at Old Miss. That to me, Vinnie is the most puzzling part of last year. This team was good enough to put together a sixty minute effort and beat a really good old miss team on the road and yet just kind of flubbed its way through most of the rest of the year, you know what I mean.
Yeah, yeah, and I'm not you know, listen, like you said, a lot of stuff was beyond Bangs control and can't really blame him for, you know, wanting to explore his other options.
What he can do.
Yeah, exactly, And I think a lot of a lot of it too, is so much inconsistency at offensive coordinator. I mean we've had how many link cahim twice and that I think that plays a role. Are they are these guys able to work freely?
Are they not?
We keep hearing that they're not. Or is his suits kind of putting too much of a thumbprint on them? Wim Cohen's about to go coach the Jaguars now, So I mean, you know, so that you got to get some continuity there. We finally get Bush handling for a second year. So so that's that's you know, you're not
having to switch coordinators again. But I hope what we saw last year, you know, the Office of the line had a lot of issues and you know, poor Brock vander Griffin tired because he got beat up so bad, so not a lot of excitement coming back. So he's got a lot to prove coming forward to Hey, I can put together an offense, Wolford, I can put together offensive line that can protect that calls outa and cutter Bowlie or whoever we have back there, you know, calling signals.
So yeah, of offenses consistently from the coordinator spot, too, is a huge role.
You know.
I'm wondering if because of the problems they've had of it. You just mentioned the two quarterbacks, because of the inconsistencies and the problems, expectations will be lower, for better or worse. But could that mean lower individual expectations for the quarterbacks. Maybe that's a plus, you know, maybe that's means less pressure. There's always pressure on whoever wins the SEC quarterbacks starting job.
But I'm thinking within the Big Blue Nation. I remember how everybody expected a heck of a lot more from Rock vandergriff and like, like you said, he spent the whole season running for his life.
Yeah, and I'm not one that demands that you have to win throwing the ball and run. The spread offense is if you gotta you know, Benny sneal your way to eight nine wins again, if that's you know, lineup and just run it down. Teams throw, if that's what you know. You know, Hamdom has had a thousand yard rushers everywhere he's being If that's the formula, fine, you know I'm not Oh, you gotta throw it, you gotta you gotta look like Ole Miss and you know, no, as.
Long as you're winning, whatever works, whatever.
Your identity is, find an identity and then stick with it. It is just grasping for elite passing attacks isn't working, then quit trying to quit trying to do that.
Well, if you got the right personnel, yeah, if you've got a Will Levis and a Wandale Robinson sit you know.
Yeah.
But people weren't complaining when when Benny Snell and Chris Rodriguez were running over and through SEC defenses. So uh yeah, we'll see what Bush can come up with. Well, whatever happens, Vinnie Hardy will talk about it, of course on Kat's Talk Wednesday with Terry Brown and Believe in Kentucky with Aaron Gershawan and Jalen Witlow. We thank you, sir, have a great one.
Hey, appreciate you having meat.
I'll do it thanks to my guests Vinnie and John Clay and David Sisk. Tomorrow night is Kentucky, Tennessee. You will have that one for you right here. That's it. Good night for the garage and Lexington.
Unless, Sir Fisher, let me ask you something.
Six. Have you missed a play like that six when the ball jumped out of their Soon as we make contact, number tack. What's you were told about?
You be on the field now watch.
Sang every sea
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