Welcome to the Big Blue and Sider Dick Gabriel with you on a Monday, And no it is not Mark Pope Night, because that show is going to be on Wednesday. Wildcats are on the road even as we speak down in Oxford, So the Coaches Show and the state wide shows with Darren, Heddrick and Me will be on Wednesday night.
So we've got the BBI for you tonight. Following a weekend that it was really historic when you think about it in so many ways, and there were a couple of things that happened over the weekend that ordinarily we would be talking about right off the top in depth. But because of that Kentucky Arkansas game, we got to shuffle the East. At the next segment with no disrespect, Georgia Amore with a game for the ages, literally forty three points in the win on the road at Oklahoma.
And it wasn't a one woman show either that Kentucky needed everybody to pitch in because Oklahoma's a good team, a top fifteen team just like the Wildcats. But it just seemed like whenever Kentucky needed a bucket, Wildcats get off to a big lead. It almost entirely evaporates, but Aymore came through either on offense or defense. We'll talk
about that. We'll hear from her in the next segment. Also, the NBA trade, just the blockbuster between the was a three team deal Lakers, Jazz, and Mavericks, the team that I kind of rooted for because my buddy's the playbook play guy and I was a season ticket holder down there. But Anthony Davis, the former Wildcat, now goes to the MAVs, who get rid of Luka Doncics. And there's so much
debate online about that. If you're an NBA fan, you're you've you've already, You're already in up to your ears with this coverage, and so many commentators have checked in on it, and some think the MAVs got the best of it. Some think the Lakers got the best of it. That's why it's fascinating, but lost in a little bit in the shuffles, d Aaron Fox finally gets to leave Sacramento. He was traded as sand That's a good landing spot
for him. He'll play with Victor wembin Yama now who just instantly got better because Fox will be feeding him the basketball. So we'll talk about that in the next segment as well. But of course we start with the Wildcats and the Razorbacks, and I've just kind of soaked in some of the social media. You go crazy, you know, if you try to follow all of it, And some of the takes are well reasoned and some of them are just nuts, including the one clown on Twitter he said,
now's the time to get rid of Pope. Do it now? Come on what happened? Well and again, and somebody else tweeted, you know, I don't go. I'm paraphrasing. I don't care. If they were missing two players, they should have won. Really, you cannot look at the way Kentucky lost this game and blow off the fact that there was no Lamant Butler and no Andrew Carr for the most part. Look when you look at how Pope constructed his roster, think about how vital those two guys were in the process.
Andrew Carr was a huge get literally and figuratively for Mark Pope. Lamont Butler was the lynch pin. He was the guy who pulled it all together. He's your floor general, whatever you want to call him. You're on court coach. Why well, because he's a really good point guard and he's one of the best defenders in America. What is the weak point of this Kentucky team. It's defense and we saw that on Saturday again, We've seen it all year. Kentucky, like last year, Oh my gosh, you're comparing him to
last year, has outscored teams this year. Now, I think this Kentucky team is a little bit better defensively than last year. Last year's was one of the worst in America, but it still has problems. This year's team and with Nolamont Butler and all due respect to everybody who has played point guard, they're just not the same defensively. And Arkansas got good looks and I know a lot of people wondered why no zone, and my man Jay Scheidler
tweeted it, you know, absolutely called for zone. Well maybe, but after the game Pope talked to somebody asked him about that, and this caught me by surprise. Giving up poorly Arkansas's played this year and giving up poorly it seemed that not last year, but in years gone by, Calipari's teams didn't play well against zones. The ball stuck and dragged last year, not a problem. With Reed, Shephard
and Dillingham and Wagner penetrating stuff like that. But against zones, Pope said, statistically, Arkansas this year has been markedly better points per possession. That shocked me. Now. He also said, and I'm paraphrasing, I probably should have tried it. He was second guessing the crack out of himself after the game, especially when it came to rotation substitutions. He was trying a little bit of everything, and everybody complains, not everybody,
but a lot. No Trent Noah. Honestly, during the game, I thought, huh, we haven't seen Trent Noah. But as I watched the game unfolded and I see Chandler getting more minutes, it made sense because they couldn't stop Arkansas. In fact, I turned to Mark Mathis of the Owensboro newspaper, sits next to me with ten minutes ago, and it was a ten point game, and I said, they can't win. They kind of looked at me and said, they can't get enough stops. They can't put enough stops together to
go on the run. It takes to erase this lead. They've done it before this year. But Butler was a huge part of that if you cannot string stops. Kentucky was doing a good job on the boards, relatively speaking, but they could not stop Arkansas did his best to slow Janelle Davis, who picks a great time to have his best game. He had been a disappointment after transferring in from Florida Atlantic. He was one of the best
guys in the portal, but hadn't played that way. Well he did Saturday night, and the three former Wildcats played superbly. And I see grumbling about that, just to finish up on Trent Noa. No, I wouldn't have helped him on defense the way he needed the way they needed help. But the former Wildcats, especially Thierro Wagner, had a great game, and so did Big z.
Old.
Wagner never played that way when he was here. No, he's a year older, stronger, smarter, spent the year working on his game. He still obviously believes he belongs in the NBA, and the NBA guys told him, here's what you got to do, and he did it in the postseason. And here's the other interesting thing. The guy who is considered by me and a lot of other people their
best player is done. Boogie Flan but having watched Arkansas, that looked to me like a team that was sitting back and waiting for Boogie to fix things, to take care of things on offense. Now without him, they're sharing the load, and that's what they did Saturday against Kentucky. Yes, they had the emotional advantage in my opinion, because you know, their coach was under fire, they were under fire. Those guys heard the booing and they fed off of it.
I wasn't aghast or disappointed at the booing. It happened. I knew it would. I wonder what happens next time Cali Perry shows. Won't be for a year or two, I guess. But once the game began, it wasn't an issue anymore, and that's the way it should be. There was some booing, you know, when early in the game
other former Wildcats would touch the ball or whatever. What concerned me more than anything was the booing by Kentucky fans in the last couple of minutes where I sit upstairs, way at the top, and from up there I could hear the booing. And I've always been adamantly opposed to booing college athletes until now. Now I'm torn on it because they're pros. They make good NIL money. Some of them make great NIO money. So now I'm not heated
about it. I'm lukewarm about it. And you know the nonsense. Well, we're not booing them, we're booing the coach. You're booing everybody especially and it didn't happen the other night. But when a coach puts a player in and people boo, we're not booing the player, we're booing the coach. We're putting in the player. It's the same thing. So anyhow,
you know, boo if you like, that's your prerogative. But to finish off this segment, people are upset now with the former Wildcats who spoke out on behalf of Caliperi on social media, including Reed Shepherd who did the john Y Brown thing. Part of him was blue, part of him was red. Somebody was upset that the shirt was red. It was over a trun whatever. But it made me understand that this is all a press, not new number one.
The Kentucky players who played under Patino rooted like crazy for him, and as he was coaching Louisville, unless ul was playing Kentucky, and you can draw a line right there, I get it, but he's there guy. And with Caliperry, it's even more pronounced. With the guys who were being criticized because how long were they here? Not very long at all. They didn't have the opportunity to build a relationship with the fan base the way older players did.
Playing for three or four years, the most intense relationship they had was with their coach, the guy who brought them here and in some instances was the biggest factor in their lives for no more than nine months, not even a full calendar year. You know. Had they stayed here throughout their careers and maybe moved here after their pro career was over or whatever, they might approach it
a little differently. But to expect them to be upset with Caliperi because Arkansas be Kentucky is not realistic in my opinion. And they took the social media like everybody and weighed in, and they all said I had not heard one remark or read one remark from any of them saying I'm no longer a UK backer. They're going to back their guy as well as the Wildcats. Maybe they didn't word it the way cousins. All of those guys did they root for Caliperry, But I guarantee you
they were rooting for Kentucky to beat Arkansas. I didn't see any of the guys who are under fire right now, ty Tye or Reed Shepherd, whoever, prior to the game saying Josh Sheeryl Parkinsaw Wins never saw that. But now it's behind us and Kentucky is in a tough spot. Foreign four in the league, hitting the road minus Lamont Butler and for the most part Andrew carrt We'll see if he gets better this week. Tom Leach is next
the voice of the Cats. Later on Mike the Corsi of the Sporting News and Christy Thomas of the SEC Network, who covers the UK women. Back in a minute six thirty WLAP welcome back. Coming up, Tom Leach's the voice of the Wildcats. Mike de Corsi from The Sporting News, pre eminent college basketball writer in this country, my opinion, and Christy Thomas from the UK Sports Network and SEC Plus.
We'll talk to about the UK women And as I said, only the Caliperi comes back and upsets the Wildcat storyline was big enough to kind of obliterate in this part of the world, the rest of the news, because Sunday was all about reacting, social media and all that. As I said earlier, But on the professional front, you had the blockbuster trade involving the Lakers and the Mavericks and Aaron Fox has traded. But you also the UK women
picking up a big victory out at Oklahoma. And this was a game that you could have understood if the Wildcats came up short because Oklahoma's really good, and Oklahoma was ranked if you put stock in this twelfth or thirteenth, depending on the pole you favor. Kentucky was ranked thirteenth or twelfth, depending on the pole you favor, and the Wildcats blew off to a big lead, Oklahoma came back. I listen to most of the game with Derek or Darren,
Sorry Darren, Darren Hedrick. I watched the last quarter and Darren was pretty upset about the officiating. So I can't comment because I didn't see it. I just know that Darren was pretty upset. Of course, he gets mad at the rest of a lot. But the biggest story, of course, with George aymore forty three points, tying a UK program high and was just phenomenal absolutely incredible. She'll be an All American. I don't know, first, second, third team, whatever.
But if she's the best point guard in the best conference, what does that tell you. She was phenomenal to the point where you wondered, is Oklahoma going to change anything? Because she had forty three points on only twenty two shots, seven to twelve from beyond the arc. And here's the other thing that I really impresses me. She drew seven fouls,
committed one, drew seven. I always look at that, and that's a great stat that's in these box scores now eight assists, only two turnovers, and played thirty nine minutes. And again, if you put any stock in plus minus, you know this is one area where it doesn't make much sense. Her plus minus was nine. She had forty three points. The highest plus minus total was Amelia Hassett was thirteen, and she had only five points. But all that means is Kentucky jumped out to its biggest leads
when she was on the floor. Doesn't say who was the best player on the floor at a certain time, but it was Georgia Aymore all day long. And somebody asked her after the game about working her way to the best situations possible offensively, and she spoke of keeping an eye basically on the scouting report on substitution pattern and knowing her opponents, opposing defenders as they come and go, because they switch off a lot in every game she plays. And then head coach Kenny Brooks chimed in after.
She spoke, people rotate their gods, and I think I'm aware of that when they send people to the to the benches coming in, who's leaving, and I know exactly where I can what I can do with those type of people. You know, I'll give you an example. Three today was playing so aggressive that I knew I could take it downhill. Todd was a little bit more relaxed and sunk it in, so I knew I was going to get a shot. So that's the mind games I'm playing when I'm out there.
She does a really good job.
She wants to be a coach, and so we're coaching her differently, and we watch film differently. She watched it just like a coach does, and we talk about, hey, you know, they're probably going to do this, is probably going to do that, And the benefit is is that she comes over to me, you know, during a time a stoppage and play and she says, hey, you know such and such is on me. They're going to play
me to ice of screen. Why don't we run the and you know previous you know, when she was younger, I'd probably would say, Okay, that's great, but I'm going to do something different now. And I just go with it, you know, she says it, and I'm like, okay, go with it.
I do think it's fascinating that he coaches her differently because she wants to be a coach number one and number two. Maybe this is number one. They've been together for so long, they know each other so well, and he knows obviously just how good she is. But to me, the most telling sign And Kenny Brooks talked about this when somebody asked him earlier this year about scheduling because
the non conference scheduling was kind of weird. Early Kentucky had a hard time putting it scheduled together, and one of the reasons was Georgia Aymore because when Kentucky was struggling a bit, yeah, i'll play it, sure, we'll come to town. Yeah. But when they heard the Georgia Aymore had signed on with Kentucky. Well, I don't know if we can make a election in this year. I thought that was fascinating and that flex as well on a
player as anything I have ever heard. Teams don't want to come here and play US coaches say because we got this kid, one kid point guard and she is the biggest reason. There are many, many reasons and several reasons Kentucky won yesterday, not just her, but she's the biggest reason. In nineteen and two, eight and one in conference play they won three in a row, undefeated at home. Yeah, they've got the toughest part of their schedule ahead. They got to play at Ole Miss next week. This is
kind of their bye week. Next Monday, they play on the mission. No game Thursday, no game Sunday, but they're kind of the prime time game on Monday to tenth at seven pm. Then after that, man, you got Texas coming to town. I've talked about this before, Georgia, which is struggling a bit, Miazoo, and then you close out with LSU, Tennessee and South Carolina and the only one on the road is South Carolina. That game they can somehow get past to LSU and Tennessee, which would be massive.
Wouldn't it be something that the South Carolina Kentucky game decided the SEC or at least to share the SEC regular season championship. So tip of the cap Kenny Brooks, and a big tip of the cap to Georgia Amore, the Australian who is absolutely getting it done. I don't know what the Australian term is for that. Had Amelia Hassett on the show the other night, and she talked about they throw around some of the Australian jargon, the slang and confuse their teammates, but on the floor, man,
they're all on the same page right now. Asset at five point six boards. Clara Strack was huge, nineteen points six rebounds. She did foul out. Tony Key did not have a great She was in foul trouble a lot. She only had two points and six boards for them to win with her. Having modest numbers like that is unusual, but Dojah Lawrence had a big game fourteen. Kentucky hit seventy five percent in the first quarter and then after that thirty five percent, thirty one percent, but in the
fourth quarter sixty four percent from the field. When the Wildcats needed it the most, and it was a three point shooting contest. Basically, Oklahoma stayed close. Oklahoma erased what a seventeen nineteen point deficit, got it down to one in the third quarter, hit some key triples and hit twenty free throws out of twenty three attempts. Kentucky fifteen to twenty. But the Wildcats were fourteen of thirty four from the stripe the arc rather and Amore seven of twelve.
So Oklahoma didn't guard the arc very well and Kentucky took full advantage. Well, they're still chattering in the NBA world about the trade Anthony David to Dallas for Luka Doncis and the wild card, and all this is injuries. Davis has been hurt a lot. If you follow the NBA just passively, you know that Luka Donsich has been hurt. And there are also criticisms about his lack of conditioning and the fact that he doesn't play much defense. And you can cynically say, oh, I don't play any defense
in the NBA. Yes, they do, but Donsich is not the greatest defender. Davis is excellent when he's healthy. But part of this, too, had to do I was reading with Doncid's contract situation coming up, and the mav didn't want to pay him max money. But you've also got the fact that where Mark Cuban is no longer the principal owner, he still owns a chunk of the team, but from whatever, he's not making all the decisions, and I don't know if he makes this decision on his own.
And obviously the Lakers had given up on the Anthony Davis and Lebron situation. They did win a championship in the shortened season. So now Davis goes to the Mavericks and puts them right back near the top of contenders in the NBA. But you also got to look at the Aaron Fox finally getting out of Sacramento. He did,
I think everything he could for Sacramento. He goes to the Spurs, the Kings get Zach Levine from the Bulls in a three way trade, and as I said, Fox did his best in Sacramento, played at an all star level. So now he teams up with Wimby and Popovich the head coach, and maybe this drag san Antonio front center. I mean, Victor Wilman Yama is the future in San Antonio and in the NBA. But right now the Spurs are twelfth in the Western Conference standings. See if they
can make a playoff push this year. All right up next, Tom leachs the voice of the Cats. A little bit later on Mike the Corsi of the Sporting News on six thirty WLA, Welcome back to the Big Bones. Sider Joining us now is the voice of the Wildcasts, mister Tom Leech. You hear him each and every day on this Ferry radio station, and of course calling the basketball games. And you'll hear Tom and Mark Pope on Wednesday, as I mentioned earlier, because the Wildcats are on their way
to Oxford. But Tom, let me jump right in following Saturday's loss to Arkansas, and I guess we shouldn't be shocked by anything that happens now in the Southeastern Conference, but this is I think, given the injuries that Pope is dealing with foreign four in the league, you know you're not going to win the conference out right, but you got to play for postseason seeding. I think this
is a real turning point. This is a crossroads, I think for Kentucky basketball, given where the roster is and where the schedule is do you see it that way?
Yeah? I mean then got a spot here in their schedule where I don't know, as tough as this league is, you don't want to say it's it's soft, but it's it's a little lighter. You know, you had Arkansas at home, one in six in the league. You know you figure you'll get that one. You got South Carolina at home. You know, three of starting with the Arkansas game, three of the next four being at home. You feel good about that, and one of them is Tennessee. That'll be hard,
but still it at home. Then you go to Texas and you know that it's any of the acts are hard, but still it's easier than going to Alabama the next week. And then then you got Vandy at home. So that's a stretch there where you feel like you've got a chance to make a little hay. The problem is that Kentucky is now in a situation and that I said this after was on my show this morning with John Clay.
Arkansas lost Boogie Flann, and ironically I think he's better, and I think that would have been true if they had lost DJ Wagner and kept Boogie Flan. Either way, they had two dominant point guards and John L. Davis was getting lost, so you get rid of one of the point guards, and all of a sudden, Davis fits
into position better and they're a better team. And I think conversely, Kentucky's down to its third point guard, Andrew Carr is still working his way back in, and you know, you're the pieces aren't fitting together quite as readily right now for Kentucky, right And.
I think number one on the list there is Laman Butler's defense because they could not stop Arkansaw obviously enough, you know, to put a run together and get back into that game.
Yeah, second half when Arkansas broke it open. DJ Wagner had all seventeen of it points and probably most of his eight assists, and he yeah, you have to think if Butler's playing that, that doesn't happen and you disrupt. And the thing was Arkansas their office never seemed to get disrupted in the second half. They were just kind
of getting whatever they wanted. And you know, if you defended one thing, you know, even the one possession, and Kentucky had cut at the sixth and they played really good defense for most of the possession, but then they let him kick it out to Zee on a picking pop and he hit the three and that was just a kind of a gut punch kind.
Of a shot.
And uh, that was one of the more difficult possessions Arkansas had and they still still scored off that one. So Kentucky didn't have the ability to that day anyway to make Arkansas uncomfortable.
Something that speak, something that, yeah, exactly that Cali Perry said. They kind of hung in the air a little bit for me, but I jotted it down. Mental was he said that he told Wagner that he wanted Wagner to run more stuff as the point guard, as opposed to him running the stuff from the sideline. You remember how you know, the young guys would always looked to Caliperry.
It's kind of like it's very much like, and we've talked about this before, what the Wildcats do where Pope, you know, just lets them work things out on their own because they're veterans, especially when when Butter is playing, and you didn't have that luxury, and it was a luxury when they were at Kentucky because they were all so green. But Saturday night, Wagner ran the stuff. He thought they should have been running, which oftentimes meant either
him or Thiero getting to the rim. And I thought that was a huge difference. Did you see it that way?
Yeah? And you know, a dude figured to be a difficult matchup for Kentucky coming in. They didn't really have a good match for his skill set. Uh. And then uh Wagner, you know, without having Butler. I mean, Robinson is a solid defender, but he's not Butler in the Butler's four K and so Wagner and it got what he wanted, and that led to Zero getting what he wanted and Kentucky. I mean, those two guys pretty much did most of the damage. He had a couple of threes,
but you know those two guys. You know, it's a little like you know that Auburn game in nineteen and the Elite eight where those two guards just kind of took over the games, or even further back Arizona in the ninety seven title game with uh Simon and Bibbie. It's like those two guys. Now, Uh, Zero's not technically a guard, but really it's just kind of a wing.
But you know, DJ Wagner running the show and then Zero and they just you know, attacked over and over again, and a dude got what twelve free throw attempts and that's kind of bean who he is this season. But Uh Kentucky and that's where you know, I know Mark Uh was second guesting himself after the game. I suspect that they run into that situation again. He might try to do sometimes just change for the sake of change, even if it's not your best pitch. Uh. They needed
to do something to, you know, disrupt Arkansas. The analogy ale was used as if you're shooting free throws with a buddy and you know, you know, best out of ten, and if he makes seven in a row when you throw it back to him for the eighth shot, you're not going to throw it right back to them, Maybe said his seat. Maybe he has to. You're gonna have to move and get out of his you know where his feet are, and get out of his comfort spot if he's going to keep eating you.
That's exactly right. And anybody who's done that, has played either a horse or a free throw shooting contest. Yes, has done just that. As we talk with Tom Leach's the voice of the Wildcats. He'll be behind the Mica alongside Jack Gibbons when the Wildcats take on All Miss tomorrow night. Getting back to our original point, as you mentioned, the schedule in air quotes manageable over the next couple of weeks, but Nola mont Butler, and as we said,
Mark Pope juggling that roster. And he mentioned this this word to you in the postgame, and he mentioned it a little bit to the media before he talked to you, guys who are stretching their roles, which I thought was a really interesting way to put that. In other words, guys who might be a two now are playing some one, and guys who might be a four to hour plan some three, and vice versa. I've not heard it put that way, Tom, but that's pretty accurate, isn't it. And it's quite a.
Challenge it is for Robinson in particular, Yes, And I heard a couple of his comments after the game, and he just you know, he's he's doing his best to be a good leader and to try to take on this new challenge. But it's seems clearly, even for what he says, that it's not his favorite thing to be doing. And Pope told the story about him last year. B
yu how much he hated playing the point. But he's doing it, and I mean he's he scored well, and but you know, I think he's you know, I wonder if he's not a little easier to to limit his shots offensively, if he's you know, being the primary ball handler as opposed to try to you know, make cuts and things. And maybe that's part of it. But you know that's so they're they're just again that kind of go back to right now, there's struggling to find a
way to make the pieces fit together better. And I'm not they'll they'll, you know, they'll come up with some kind of plan, but you know, it had worked well obviously at Tennessee, so there wasn't any reason to do anything drastically different. But maybe he'll do some different things now because obviously everybody's going to look at what Arkansas did and try to, you know, approach it the same way.
Tom Leech's the voice of the Cash. We'll talk more with Tom on the other side of the break here six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking to the voice of the Wow Cats, Tom Leach. He will call the action as the Cats take on Ole Miss tomorrow. Night down in Oxford. And when you talk about the SEC, the strength, the depth, you don't look at the Kentucky's and the Auburns tom you know, you look at the teams like Old Miss that are, with all due respect, kind of off and on have nots. I don't want
to say perennial, but this is one dangerous team. Played Auburn tough and is capable of beating anybody. And that's just life in the league, now, isn't it.
You know, here's they're a good example of what this SEC is. They went into Tuscaloosa and beat Alabama and then have lost three or four since then. Yeah and uh yeah, I watched the game set they just get a little bit like Kentucky and Arkansas. They couldn't get Auburn stopped. Yeah enough, second half they kept hanging around and they would get it to Ford and Arkansas score and push it back out I think, or auburt would score and push it back out of I think Alburn
eventually won by about ten. You know, and they had some issues with the brooms. So maybe you know, Williams, who's playing really well, can continue the success that he had Saturday. But you know, they got really good guards. They forced a lot of turnovers, and turnovers have been an issue of late for Kentucky. They've had I think it's like the last three games forty four turnovers and thirty three assists. And you know that's not who they who they are, so they should do who they want
to be. They want that number to be a lot more heavily in favor of the assist column. So they've got to find a way to get that trending back in the right direction. And but this is a team that you know feeds off turning you over and scoring that way, and that certainly was a big factor for Arkansas to score off Kentucky. They had fourteen points off turnovers. It wasn't like it was, you know, twenty five points, right,
but it got them, you know, out in transition. And you know, Kentucky's third in the country in offensive efficiency. Every time you turn it over is the one time you don't get to shoot, and they're really good typically at shooting and scoring.
What do you make of that tom that's been I don't want to call it a phenomenon, but a problem that's popped up really toward the second half of the schedule this year.
Well, I think you look at Butler, I mean, he got hurt in that Texas A and M game multiple ways, and so maybe he, you know, was you know, playing a lot less than one hundred percent. Then we realized yeah, and then you know, you look at the Vandy game. He was you know, that's the last time we played, and he had a usually high number of turnovers. And then now they're playing with a guy who's not a
not normally used to playing point guard. And so that would figure, at least in the short term, to affect you over time. You know, you kind of if you're Jackson Robinson, you get learn to get more comfortable with it, and if you're Mark Pope and his staff, you learn ways to you know, help out your team to do things maybe a little differently because of how it's composed at the moment. And but all of that takes a little time, and you know this, this is a very
unforgiving league obviously. This year.
You know, we talked about some of the individual players and the point guards and things like that, but I tell you one thing that surprised me and and he touched on it with you a little bit. Mark Pope did not a whole lot from Otega Olway, and I really thought Saturday's game kind of set up for him to have, you know, a good evening, but he was just kind of quiet, wasn't he.
Yeah. I mean he got to double figures barely at the end. But yeah, he's been a guy that has been a real second half force for them. He's and he and Kentucky you know, has been a very good second half team, and both were not the case on Saturday. Hopefully getting car back helps a little bit just with the overall flow of things, because Aldanor has has played really well, but he's kind of one of those guys
stretching his role. His role was to be, you know, off the bench, instant offense, you know, three point shooter, and and so he's a guy that had I think going into the Arkansas game, I want to say, he had four assists and five turnovers for the year, so basically he's just you know, catching and shooting, whereas Andrew Carr had forty two assists and fourteen turnovers. So that's you know, a you get that's maybe where you get your assists boosted back up. As he starts to work
back into the mixed more. They really could use something, you know, a growing contribution from one or two or all three freshmen. Noah didn't play the other day, And hope they can find a way to work him in because I think he kind of just kind of seemed like a guy that gives them some intangibles. But I understand the other day he was he'd been playing the four and so co with car back. You know, those
the most minutes are taken up there. Chandler I thought was really good defensively, and for a team that is struggling defensively, he could help them. But he's got to be able to give him something on the offensive end, and they've got to you know, that's something you just kind of work with a young player and at some point it clicks to get him his his confidence on
the offensive end. And you know, he's you know, but I was really impressed with his defense and he's physical, and so you know he then that's something obviously they're missing. So he could help them if but you know, you a thought seventeen minutes you know, the other night, probably a little more than you would want to play him if because he's not giving you anything offensively. He can.
I mean, he's a good shooter. But one of the best illustrations of it was late in the game he made a nice move to penetrate into the lane down to the right block. Just go up and shoot a six footer. Yeah, but he tries to throw it around to Arkansas players to make a wrap around pass to almonor right, and it's like, you know, if you want to make that pass, be a love but number but number one, don't make the pass. Just shoot the ball.
You're six people from the basket. But he didn't have the confidence to do that, and so that's where he's got to find a way to get that. You know, they're gonta give him a little bit of that Trent Noah confidence. He seems to play loose and free.
Oh yeah. But there was one play in particular as well with with him where he he took a fifty to fifty ball away from Arkansas and I thought, all right, that's yeah, that's gonna keep him in a game, and it will it will fit him well.
So you're a charge.
Yeah, No, he's a He's a really good athlete, there's no question. And I know people are upset they didn't see Trent. But you know, things Trent gave them in Knoxville, they didn't need so much as what they gave Chandler with Chandler. But again Pope's second guess himself about that. So we'll see if changes happened tomorrow night in Oxford. Whatever happens, Tom Leach will call the action alongside your man Jack Gibbons, and we will be tuning in Thomas.
Thank you so much, and safe travels sounds good, Thank you, And of course you can follow Tom on Twitter at Tom Leach Ky. Listen to him each and every morning on this very radio station. It's the Leech Report at eight am. I will actually be sitting in for Tom on the Lee's Report on Wednesday morning, as he will get back late or early, depending on how you look at it, coming back from Oxford. Not a tough trip,
but a man needs his rest. Coming up an hour number two Mike de Corsi of the Sporting News and a little bit later on Christy Thomas of the SEC Network, and we will talk with Christy about a great name at Georgia Amore and the UK women. That's all ahead here on a big bullom.
Side of six thirty Wlaper.
Welcome back to the Big Blue. Insider joining us now is one of my favorite guests because to me, he is the pre eminent college basketball writer. Terrific writer period, but especially college basketball. That is Mike de Corsi of the Sporting News. How's your season going, young man?
Oh, so far, so good.
I haven't here's the key. I haven't gotten any wrong on my bracket yet. Only I do two brackets a week, and they're always perfect. No one can ever say otherwise.
Excellent. Mike not only works for the Sporting News, but for the Big Ten Network as a studio analyst, does insa brackets for Fox Sports, also covers the NFL and soccer, and if you follow him on Twitter, which you should at TSN, Mike, you see all of this. But let me get your response. Your reaction as a guy who covers the sports nationwide to the Caliperry back to Kentucky's story before and after, because there was so much of the walk up to it and then he pulls off
the upset. What was your reaction?
Well, I will have to say that I was amazed. I did not anticipate them being able to Arkansas, being able to come inter rupt and do that, and I thought there was some really good analysis after the after the game that for everybody involved on the Kentucky side, it was just another home game against the ninth place, tenth place, fifteenth place team in the league, whatever it is. I mean, they're way down there, right and it and you're coming off a great win against Tennessee on the road.
And and maybe it was an advantage to Arkansas that that that so many of the players on that squad had that little extra juice to put to come and play there. And I and and and understandably with with John and everything, I mean Big Zy and and especially Yadu and H and DJ, those guys all lived through last year.
And know how it went.
And and I'm sure that they probably had a little bit of extra juice because it was until the final game. It was a fine season. It wasn't a great season, but it was a fine season. I don't think it was ever treated that way. And then of course it turned into a major disappointment with the game up in Pittsburgh against Oakland, and.
They got whatever juice they had. Probably the exclamation point game came the moment they walked out for shoot around and then the booze cascaded, then they came out again for the game and more booing. So that's got to drive a kid, wouldn't you may.
Oh I think it would. Yeah, absolutely, a competitive young man is going to respond to that. You see those things all over in sports. You saw Iowa yesterday, Iowa women's team, how they jumped on USC, which I mean, I don't think it's breaking any hearts to say that USC is a better basketball team on the women's side this year.
Than Iowa is.
But they were not going to let that occasion go without their best effort. Now, whether it's be enough or not, they were going to put it out there and they did, and they jumped up twenty to four and ended up winning the game. And that's really what you see, and that's one of the things that makes college sports wonderful. You don't see that as much in pro sports. It's pretty rare, true, and college sports it's it's not it's not uncommon. Let's say, it's not something you see every week,
or it wouldn't be special. But when it does, it makes an impact.
Is it because do you think, Mike, there's more emotion involved?
Oh?
Yeah, I think so. I mean I think that also. I think it helps to be if you're looking for emotion when the game schedule is as compact as it is. When you're playing eighty two NBA games or eighty two hockey games or one hundred and sixty two baseball game,
it's hard to be emotional about just about any of them. Yeah, but when you've got thirty some college basketball games and about sixteen or seventeen of them at home, and maybe one of them is an unusual occasion like this one for the Arkansas players, then you're going to You're going
to get that extra fire. And I kind of thought, I wrote about this going into the Duke's came against North Carolina, and I had seen North Carolina on Tuesday at TIT and they were not very good, and I thought, Okay, like this is your last, this is your last shot, go out against Duke and at least put some fire on the court. And they didn't, And so that sort of tells you where it's going. But Arkansas, they said, no,
we're going to give what we have. And it was on this night enough and I'm not sure, honestly, Dick enough as being made of the absences for Kentucky and it's Lamont. Butler made my All America second team at mid season and practically hasn't played since. And it was it was amazing what Mark was able to do by putting Williams at the point, so to speak, and playing out of that. But it was only going to be
as effective as it was one time. Now it could still be effective, but the level of effect and this was going to diminish because it wasn't a surprise anymore.
That's right.
Arkansas had time to prepare for that, and so they were able to do some effective things to mitigate it. And when Kentucky gets Lamont back, and the sooner the better because the terrific young man. I wrote about him at the two thousand and three Final four, really enjoyed him and would love to see him back out there healthy so that the Wildcats can take their best shot.
You know, we're talking to Mike de Corsi of the Sporting News, and you follow Kentucky as much as any of the national writers, as we call you, and I keep reminding myself that big New Nation. For the most part this year, expectations were fairly modest back in April when they first hired Mark Pope, and you know, if we can just finish in the top half of the SEC and maybe win a game or two in the
ANNG tournament. But you know how Kentucky fans are, Mike, especially as the wins pile up, so did the expectation. But if I had told the BBN okay mid season, your All American point guard is going to be out indefinitely and Andrew Carr is going to be playing on one leg, how do you feel now? But right, that's all part of it, isn't it.
It is It's how the season goes sometimes. And honestly, last year John had terrible injury luck. The Wildcats were constantly getting guys hurt, and although that probably wasn't an excuse for them losing to Oakland, it was a part of the reason why they wound up in the Oakland games. It may not have been they might have been a one or two if they had been healthy all the way through, but they certainly should have done a better defensive job on Jack Golkie. It took much too long
for them to adjust to what they were doing. And I think in the end, you have to be aware of everything going on with your season, and what you have to hope is that whatever issues you have along the way, that they get resolved in time for the biggest games, which will be played in March, in the SEC tournament and in the NCAA Tournament. You have to hope that's all behind you. And I don't know the answer to that. I suspected it's pretty pretty obvious that
Andrew should be back soon at one hundred percent. And then I know Mark was talking about Lamont and wasn't giving any specific so that's not the best news.
But you know, the.
Problem is that you already lost an excellent backup point guard in kerk Creasa, and now you're down a second. I mean, imagine having two players at the most important positions that are both capable of playing at a high level and then being stuck in the start of February with none of them.
You know, when we talk about football teams and what they might accomplish, it's always smart throwing the caveat if they stay healthy. You never think about that with basketball. But that's there's there's less depth on a basketball team than a football team.
Absolutely, that's one hundred percent true. And again, especially when I mean imagine that, like I said that that all the injuries happen for the most part, at the same position, and the most important position on the floor, the one that differentiates the teams that go a distance to the teams that don't. If you don't have that guy, it's
really hard. And that's why, like I said, the Tuesday game against against Tennessee was remarkable, but it wasn't going to be something that was going to always be.
As effective as it was against ut.
And they don't take those wins away. I mean, you got it and it's in your bank, and it looks looks just clamorous on the resume, but you have to try to find a way now to fight on without without your most important player, and and I think you're best player because he's on a team that is really effective on offense, I mean as good as anybody at their best they are, but on defense it's it's still
a struggle. And Lamont gave them a fighting chance in every game because he could foul up the ball, yep, make it, you know, protect the ball from going where it wanted to go. Because he could deny penetration. He's an excellent at that, and that's why. That's the biggest reason why in twenty twenty three, San Diego State was able to make it all the way to the championship game. And I think that if he's healthy, Kentucky has significant possibilities.
SARCH, We're talking with Mike de Corsi of the Sporting News and the Big ten Network. More to com here on the Big boone Sider six thirty WLAP. We're talking to Michael de Corsi. He writes the college hoops column for the Sporting News, Big ten Network, studio analyst in say bracketologist for Fox Sports, covers the ENF and soccer. And let me shift you over real quickly to the NFL. First of all, who do you like in the Super Bowl?
And secondly, I love it. I've complimented you before about your common sense and enough of that in the media and on social media. But I am not a Steelers fan. I am a shareholder of the Green Bay Packers. But I admire the Steelers. I admire their head coach. But isn't that just a product of where we are really in sports period?
Mike?
That what have you done for me lately? And there are people who want to see him gone. It's amazing to me.
You know, I was thinking about this this morning, and I can take it back to college basketball. Cincinnati lost another game in the Big twelve over the weekend. I think they're two and something, and it reminded me that in twenty nineteen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, Mick Crolan had gotten to the point in his career where he had made I think at that point, nine consecutive NCAA tournaments and at that point, and he goes Bill self, Mark
Few and Tom Izzo that had matched that. That's how rare what they were doing at Cincinnati was.
Now.
They had not advanced to the sweet sixteen at that point in seven years, I believe, and they had lost in twenty eighteen, they'd blown a twenty one point lead in the final dozen minutes or so and missed as a number two seeds. And so Mick was looking at it, and he'd been approached by different people, and he said, Okay, I want to be in Cincinnati.
I'm a Cincinnati guy. I grew up here, born here, and.
Only at time I was ever gone was when I coached at Louisville Murray. And then he comes, so he goes to the administration or's agent or whatever, and says, here's what I want. I don't need a big race, but I want ten years. If I'm going to stay here, if I'm going to turn down big money from all these other things, I want security. I want to know that I'm going to be here. And the school, the AD at the time, said no, here's what we'll do. We'll
give you four years. And now all the incentives that you get from making the NCAA tournament are now.
If you make the sweet sixteen.
Wow.
So I was basically telling them it was a pay cut, the way I described it in my article was a functional pay cut, and and and so he's declined that. And the next thing you know, you see Ali knocks on the door and now he's you know, he's living in SoCal and he's been to the final four in a couple of sweet sixteens, and Cincinnati has not.
They have not been back to the tournament.
Since That's that's what happens when you think really good is not good enough. I just I believe in success, and I can and I and there are coaches out there who warrant firing. And it's really easy to tell who they are, they're the ones that lose more games than they win. I mean, it's really that simple.
There you go in that common sense again, Mike, come.
On, they're not hard to find, uh. And So that's the way I feel about Tomlin that if you change from him, you're going away from something that has been successful now for eighteen years and the most difficult, most balanced league in all of sports. Yeah, he's never had a losing season, and people mock that now, but it's just it's an amazing I mean, it's an amazing record to have. Chuck Ole couldn't do that. Bill Kward couldn't
do that, Vince Lombardi didn't do that. No matter who you want to name, the only one that's ever done that from the start of his career is Mike Commons.
Yeah. Plus, the players love him, or at least seem to, and he seems like the perfect fit in that town, in that market, which a city you know pretty well. So I don't know, I know we kind of got off on a tangent there, but I wanted to get your thoughts because I've enjoyed, as someone who's not hip deep in it by a friends who are Steelers fans
and it's just it's just really interesting. A few minutes left with Mike the Corsi of the Sporting News, this just popped into my head, speaking of coaches, what do you make of what's going on up at Yukon with coach Hurley up there? I mean, people are asking me, do you think he lost his mind? I think he's pretty He's wrapped pretty tightly, wound up pretty tightly. But what do you see?
You know, when he is just away from the floor, he's the calmest, most normal person you ever meet. I mean, I know I'm not living in his house every day and all that, but like being around him. I do this inside the Big East program for Fox every week, and he's often you know, he's always willing to talk if I need something. He's a really good guy. And there's just something I've been I used this analogy. I've been seeing these commercials the last couple of weeks from
the new Captain America film. I'm not the biggest superhero guy, but I see the commercials and I see Harrison Ford turn into like an older Hulk, and that's sort of how it works for And when he gets to the floor, he gets onto that bench, and it's just he's just different. And I think that it's I don't think it helps him. I think he feels like it does, because I think he feels like he if he doesn't do it, he's not competing, he's not battling for his guys. But I
don't think it helps him. I don't think it helps his public image. We've seen different coaches over the years who were that person away from the floor, and I don't think I have to mention any names, but people like Geene Katie, who everybody had a negative impression of until you find out like this guy's like the sweetest person on the planet. And when I first met Gene, I was like, wait a second, who is this guy?
And so I don't think that Dan does himself any favors that way, and it's probably and it has cost him games. I mean it certainly was in difference when he played in Maui and got TechEd, et cetera. I would like to see him bring it down a notch, because once he brings it down a notch or two, he's where everybody else is more or less. Yeah, I mean, there aren't any John Woodens anymore just standing there with
their arms folded, everybody gets involved. So I would like to see him do that because if he brings it down, then then there's no problem.
And to bring this full circle, I don't know Mike that he would have been the best fit at Kentucky. I mean, as long as he's winning, anybody's a good fit here. But and you can't really compare him to what happened with the hiring of Pope. But I just don't know that that would have worked here. What do you think?
Well, I think if he was able to do what he's you know, something approaching what he's done at Yukon, I think people would have gotten used to it. But I think that if he'd gone to Yukon to Kentucky, I think the pressure from the fans might have pushed it up a notch. And up a notch is like there's no room for upp notch. So that's so that's
what I would worry about. This transplanted to Kentucky, it could be okay, But if the Kentucky pressure, and there is more pressure at Kentucky than there is most places, if the Kentucky pressure had had made it more intense, that could have become significantly problematic.
Yeah, well we don't have to worry about that, obviously, because the story went in another direction with Mark Bope. Have you had a chance to sit down with Mark ed I know there's a long list.
I have not, no, and I would love to because if you'll recall, I was the one who on the night of the Sunday night before Championship Monday that when I got word that John was leaving, I put out my list and I had Mark number one on the list. You did, And I'd like to remind everybody of that, because I took a lot of heat that night and in the subsequent days until it came out that Mark
was hiring. Was the hire and he's done wonderfully and he has been He has been the kind of person that Kentucky wants to embrace, one of theirs, truly one of theirs. Although he grew up across the border, he's definitely a Kentucky guy, and he's really I always say, and have said many times that a job like Kentucky's, there's the coaching part, but there's also the senator part, oh, you know, and you can embrace that in different ways, and John did, especially early before things got a little
rugged ly. He was always you know, leading the charity drives and all that. And Mark has done that personal touch type senator where people get interact with him and they come away beaming, and that's just wonderful to see.
Tubby did a good job. Cali Perry did a great job at being the ambassador, if you will. Billy Gillespie from day one not comfortable with it and its show, but that's certainly water under that big blue bridge. We think. Mike the course, he is always a busy man, but he spent time with us. Uh. Follow Mike on Twitter. You really should at TSN Mike and in the pages or online at the Sporting News. Mike. Thank you so much. We'll be watching and reading.
It was my pleasure.
Dick, thank you.
I love talking to Mike and you're hearing periodically on with Tom Leach. But he is you. Absolutely if you love college basketball, you should follow Mike. He's a big soccer guy too. He really likes the and I am not so I didn't even get into that, but he likes the Premier League soccer and all that and uh, but a big Steelers guy is a Pittsburgh guy. Uh.
And he is steadfast his admiration for Mike Tomlin. But as I said to him, and I've texted him and I've hit him on Twitter, you know, Mike is one of those guys who is quick with a take, because that's what everybody wants these days. But it's always well reasoned, based on common sense, not emotional. It's it's it's logical.
Uh.
And like I said, I kind of tease him every now and there you go with that common sense again on on social media. So yeah, TSN, Mike is where to find him on extra Twitter and trust me, you will be glad that you did. And he really admires UK basketball. Christy Thomas is next on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider, joining us down our celebrity hotline. One of my favorite people. Former colleague at wkby Team, now a colleague on the UK Sports Network.
You also see her work on SEC Plus with Jeff picoryl covering UK women's basketball and be the end game Day on Laxaighteam, Miss Christy Thomas. Christy, I'm gonna start with the UK women. Well, then we're going to backpedal through Calipari's return. Because you guys talked about that on game day in Kentucky Football, because of course you anchor our pregame coverage. But Georgia Amore, I mean, come on, and she talked a header on earlier talking about how
different guards guard her in a different way. But you know, the one girl from Oklahoma gartered her snugly and she drove past her. The other one gave her a little space to try to cut her off. You shot over her. I mean, how good is this kid? Come on?
Well, I've been saying, and I think I've said on your show before, this young lady is worth the price of admission. And if you haven't seen her play, you owe it to yourself to do that. And that doesn't mean you have to see her play live, because she's just as impressive on television as well. So you know this will be her final year playing collegiate basketball, and you owe it to yourself, if you are a basketball
fan of any kind, to watch her play. I think it's because of there's so many things that I'm so impressed with about this young lady, and you know, one of them is certainly her ability. But the reason why her abilities are so good, I think it's because of how smart she is, and that comes with experience. She has. Everything has come together for her in such a way that is exactly what you would expect or hope from
someone who's had a stellar career already. But to kind of go out on top in a way that she is playing, I can't imagine the young lady could play any better than what she is. She just makes great decisions. She is an excellent shooter. She knows how to create space. She's only five six okay, so she's not and I
think that's on a good day. She's five to six, so she doesn't have a ton of size, but she knows how to use her abilities and her smarts to her advantage to create space and get shots, get open looks. And you know, there's as impressive as forty three points is against Oklahoma. You know, there's not a game that goes by that. I don't look at her assist stats
and go, yep, that's about what I expected. So you know, she's anywhere from eight to ten assists per game, so you know she knows how and when to distribute and is just so fun to watch play. It's so refreshing. I think to see her game and what she brings to the table for women's basketball.
Any Brooks after the game, and he talks about it just about every game or every radio show with Darren Hedrick. The fact that she's a coach on the floor, as you know most good point guards are. But I mean literally, she'll come over to him and say, hey, they're doing this or they're going to do that, why don't we run this? And he said, you know, when she was younger, he said, uh huh, right, and then they run. You'd run what he wants to run. Now he's like, all right,
go with it. Whatever you think. You know, incredibly valuable ro I mean, Kenny Brook's a good coach anyway, and to have an extension of his brain out there on the floor. And by the way she can knock down shots, that's that's so so great for Kentucky.
Well, the only way you can have that is to trust a player like that. You don't have that kind of relationship or you don't give that kind of a player like that that kind of freedom to do those kinds of things unless you really trust her. And the only way they've been able to do that is to
establish a relationship. So I said, you know, in a world of the transfer portal and players kind of coming and going from from programs, the only way they can build that trust is through the relationship they've had over the years. And to his point, you know, early on in her career, she's not really he's not really listening to that or saying yeah, okay, okay, and but she
she has earned his trust. And that's the only way that that kind of thing works is that you believe what she says because she sees it and she understands that she speaks your language. Number two, right, I mean, you all have to be on the same page and speak the same language in order for those kind of things to work. And then you go out and prove that you're right, and she does that time and time again.
So two things have to happen. You have to have an excellent relationship a player coach relationship, and then you have to have some trust. And they've been able to build both of those things in a way that is really very special and you just don't see in the game very often.
Last time I was at a game and at the Collegeum, you guys were working. You and Jeff I have a couple of seats down from you, sitting next to Carolina, and I'm just watching the ball movement and this is not just about Georgia, but it starts with her. And the one thing I noticed that it never sticks. I mean the ball. Not only does the ball always move, but everybody moves with purpose. And this is an experience,
This is a product of an experienced team. How much, of course does that factor into their success.
It's everything, And I think you hit the nail on the head is moving the ball with purpose. It's not just about Okay, well, the plays to do this, so that's what we're supposed to do. I think I'm teaching or trying to help my sixth grader understand that right now is yes, I know that the play you're supposed to go here in set a screen there, and then
this player cuts here and the past goes there. But it doesn't always have to be that way, right, I mean, you have to start to read the defense a little bit, and you have to start to understand what they're giving you and how they're playing you. And there's a real understanding of basketball to be able to sort of get
to that point. And I think that's it. Moving the ball with purpose means that you really understand how an opposing defense is defending you and what they're doing and what they're giving you, and then what's available to you, and then if it's not available to you, one extra pass will make it.
So.
So I think that's the thing that is so impressive about this team is I think that that we're seeing and understanding they really understand the game and they really get it. And then when you can also create a culture of making the extra pass because it's the right thing to do and because it's the best thing for the team and not necessarily patting your stat line, then you've really got something. So I think that's somehow, some way.
Kenny Brooks has been able to do that with almost an entirely new roster in a very short amount of time. If you think about it, I mean, this is he's had, He's had a few months before the season started to be able to try to pull all that together, and it's really happening well.
And that said, and I've talked about it before, it's a brutal schedule in the SEC. We all know this for the women, not just the men, but the tough those games lay ahead for the Wildcats. How do you think this team is shaping up with regard to how they just might be able to compete, because you know, you're talking about the most physical teams in the country lay ahead.
Well, I think oftentimes, you know, you consider teams seem to play really well at home and maybe struggle a bit on the road. And we've really only seen Kentucky struggle on the road once. And you know, so I think them going to Norman, Oklahoma and getting a win over a thirteenth ranked team in the country and scoring ninety five points and coming from behind and dealing with some foul trouble, you know, Dick in that game, they had three players foul out. And this team does not
go deep. They don't play a lot of players, so that's facing some real adversity there to try to navigate that and figure out how to handle that. So I think that was huge for this team to be able to do something like that, To go on the road and play so impressively and get a win, grind it out, gut it out, but then score ninety five points, I think is is huge. So you know, this this team certainly understands what they're doing and how and what lies ahead.
I mean, I think you know, to go to Ole Miss on the road, tough place to play, and then you come back home with Texas. I mean, this thing doesn't it doesn't get any easier. And oh, by the way, Tennessee and South Carolina are still on the schedule.
Oh and LSU.
I mean, what a what a crazy way to finish out a schedule. I mean their last three games go L s U, Tennessee and South Carolina. So I mean, that's that's pretty incredible to think about. But I do think this team was built for it in a way that you know, you have to have. I think you have to have some real mental we talked about and being really smart in terms of basketball, but you have to have the mental wherewithal to kind of be able to withstand, you know, some adversity and play through it.
And this is a team that I think, starting with Georgia Amore, you will never know whether she's rattled or she doesn't really get rattled, but you will never know how frustrated she is. She had a couple of games ago, you know, when they actually lost a little earlier to Texas, A and M where she didn't play. She didn't shoot very well. Wasn't that she didn't play well, she just didn't shoot very well. There's never a moment that you would look at her face and be able to tell
that she's frustrated. And that's a gift. I mean, that's something that takes real discipline to be able to do, and I think this team does that well. So they handle adversity really well and they can fight through it and play through it, and that'll definitely serve them well in a tough portion of this schedule that I think is That's why I say they're built for it. Kenny Brooks is very much that way, cool, calm and collected.
He stays pretty even keeled. He coaches that way. His demeanor is that way, and I think his team is reflective of that, and I think that'll serve them well down the stretch.
Well, they got a chance to show just how well, as you said, every week starting with at least they got a week off coming up prior to the Old Miss game. We'll talk more of a Christy tom Us on the other side of the break here on six thirty WLAP Welcome Back. We're talking Christy Thomas of the UK Network is HEC Network and BBN Game Day. Let's let's start there Saturday morning. You know, you guys present BBN Game Day for a ballgame that took place twelve
hours later, nine o'clock Saturday night. But boy, the build up was literally like nothing else we had ever seen. You and I worked together a long time ago at KYT, but this this was unusual. And then Caliperry comes in and the guys from Kentucky who played there last year, played as well as they ever did. Of course, they had a year. That's what a lot of people don't get. Christy and you played, you know, DJ Wagner never played this.
Wee no, we had a year to get better, and so did Z instead of especially Ad Theerro.
Right, if those guys aren't better, then something's wrong.
Right.
This is how it works. Yeah, this is just how it goes. And this is why we all claimer and screen for these guys to stick around, right, I mean, we're all all saying, one more year in college. Can imagine what one more year in college to do for these guys? Right, Well, we're now seeing what one more year in college can do for these guys. What one more year you know, under a certain system can do for these guys, I would absolutely expect them to be better.
It would be disappointing if they weren't. So yeah, I mean I expected the the emotions to be really high, and I think, you know, for Kentucky it was. It was a tough go to not have a Lamont Butler. I say, listen to that when when this this game is different under different circumstances. But you know, I think that's one of those if you're Kentucky, you really wanted to get the win that I'll be honest with you.
As as a fan, Okay, let me take myself out of being someone who covers the team, but but just be a fan, I'm kind of just glad it's over with, Like you just want to get that behind you and get that done. And I think about that in a lot of ways, even as an athlete. You know, sometimes you just just just get that that game done and over with, regardless of outcome. So now we can say it's done because you know, these guys certainly feel the pressure and to talk and the build up. They get
it too. They understand what's at.
Stake, and that can weigh really heavy on you.
I mean that can really start to put a lot of pressure, undue pressure on you when there's already enough there as it is. So you know, if I'm if I'm Mark Pope, I'm like, I'm just glad it's done. I'm glad that game's over with. I'm glad we got it behind us, and now let's move on and focus. Are you disappointed you lost, absolutely, but let's move on well.
And he's got so many more problems to deal with, and they're starting with his roster, the injury list. You gotta Andrew Carr is just not the same, and he is a good Defender's not great, but a good defender. His best defenders Lamart Butler, and lord knows when we'll see him again. It's pretty cryptic Pope's comments talking about two games into a second season. It's like, boys, we got to adjust, you know, to the fact that we don't have our point guard. That sounded to me like
that's what he was saying. Yeah, you talk about a hill getting much deeper.
Well, and I think you just have to sort of prepare that way, because you know, anything can happen. A young man can come back into practice and re injure or just not be exactly where you need him to be and not be ready to go. So you have to you do have to in your mind sort of shift to say, okay, well what we got to go is what we got and what'sn't sure thing and what's one hundred percent And you know you mentioned it earlier where we're talking about players getting better. This this also
happens during the season as well too. So your first five games out of the gate that you play, you should be very different now in this part of the season and you should be playing better and you should be you know, doing things better. So you know, I think that's part of it as well too, is you've
got to have some of these guys come along. I mean, we talk about player development and that kind of thing, and this should be happening continually throughout a season and from one season to the next, so you know, and this is where you start to find out what guys are made of. When you've got to step up and and take the place of somebody that is you got a still avoid and whatever that is that you can do to fill that void is what you have to do, and you got to do it at a high level.
A few minutes left with Christy Thomas. I'm going to ask you a football question, but we'll talk about the more UK football spring practice draws near. But Kentucky got a late commitment another old lineman through the portal, UH six six three sixty, Jason at Perua from Tennessee. Eric Walford offered him back in June after an unofficial visit and he finally said yes to the wildcatch after a few other trips, which is fine. That makes Christy. Five
new old linemen coming through the portal. How optimistic, if at all, are you about Kentucky cobbling together essentially a brand new old line maybe four out of five new faces for a group that's got to act as one. That's the line that we always come back to when it comes to the offensive line. You know, five guys acting as one and these are these guys are getting annoy each other right now.
I would say cautiously, it would be cautiously optimistic only because you know, because of that exactly, and I think it doesn't matter the sport when you bring new players together in a new environment, in a new school, in a in a new with a new coaching staff, with all of it's new for them. That's tough. I mean, it's hard to do. And some of that has to be so organic. Some of those guys coming together has to be so organic, and if they're not willing to
do that, then you can't force it. And you know, I've talked to Logan Stenberg about this, you know, at nauseum, I think throughout the year kind of figuring out, trying to figure out what was what was going wrong with the offensive line at the time. And you know, a lot of what he talked about with them coming together was player driven. So you know, they spent all of
their time together, but that's because they chose to do that. So, you know, I think there has to be some decisions that are made by players understanding what their role is and how that works. It doesn't mean you have to eat, sleep, and breathe each other as part of the offensive line, but I do think you have to have some player leadership. You have to have someone in that room that says, this is what we're going to do and this is how we're going to do it, and now everybody get
on board. And sometimes that's hard to find who that leader can be when they are all new. It's got to be somebody that's willing to kind of step out of their comfort and maybe just a little bit, you know, in a new environment, to go, okay, I see what's ahead of us here. I know I'm new, but I'm willing to do this, and so you know that's my hope is outside. I love the size, I love the experience that we see coming in. I love all those things.
I think the biggest thing for me, then, is who in that room can be the guy to say I'm taking charge, this is what we're going to do, this is how we're going to just how we're all going to come together to be able to play well. And you know, we'll be interesting to see who that is.
And it has to be somebody, quite frankly, who can play it. Can't grind it. With all due respect, it can't be. It's got to be somebody who leads both by example and vocally, because I've heard many guys say, well I lead by example. Well, I means you're not really a leader.
You know, I think well, and leading by example is great. I mean everybody needs to see a guy doing something well and try to emulate that and go, oh, I see, okay, he's getting playing time because he's doing this, this and this on the field. And that's that's great that those kinds of leaders do exist. But I think ultimately what this offensive line has lacked and is desperate for is exactly what you're saying, someone that can do both and
can do it very well. And you know, I think that's especially considering that the fan base has been so disappointed in how this has gone. I mean, the expectations are going to be incredibly high, and we're also going to be critical, I think as well too, maybe even more so than we have been, just because we've been so desperately seeking some one and you know, so my hope is is that something that you know, the coaching staff has seen as being really necessary and that's the
kind of player that they've brought in. It remains to be seen. I think the spring game this year will be so annoying to kind of see, you know, how all this starts to shake out.
I can't wait. She has Christy Thomas listened for on the UK radio network, Watcher on SEC Plus and BBN Game Day and follow her on Twitter at Christi UK Sports Christie with an eye. Thank you, young lady. We'll see you soon, I hope.
Thanks for having me.
Thanks as well to Tom Leates, Mike de COURSI, that's a good night from the garage and Lexington.
That sounded like an explosion at the old Simpson place.
Forget it.
That's two blocks away. Looks like there's beer coming out of the chimney. I am proceeding on foot calling at code eight.
We did pretzels, repeat pretzels.
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