Welcome to the Big Bluins Sider Dick Gabriel with your Thursday edition of our program. No women's basketball tonight, as the UK women Kenny Brooks's team doesn't play again until Monday, so full so for you tonight. Sean Woods, the unforgettable Guard and Gary maher R, West Coast Bureau Chief, West
End Bureau Chief now will join us. Usually they were with us on Wednesdays, but we had all the statewide shows last night, so they'll join us tonight, as will John Wong, an author, a blogger, a sports writer who asked it was a basic question but resulted in a really interesting answer from Rachel Lost and you might have heard or read about it since UK Softball Media Day yesterday afternoon. So we'll talk to John about that. We'll hear that comment here in just a minute by Rachel
the very fine Kentucky softball coach. But first up, Mark Pope, his radio show last night is press conference today. The theme was first of all, the latest on Lamont Butler.
I would like to get him back in a position where we have the best chance of not having another setback. I'm hoping that's where we are with Drew, where now he can just grow his way back into the game.
And so.
You know, I don't I don't exactly know what that's going to be. We're kind of taking in the data every day as it comes and kind of making game time decisions every day on what the next step is. But he is going to be on the court in a non contact situation today and we'll see how that feels.
Last night on our show, Aaron Gershan of the Cast boss that he was hearing that Butler will miss one more game and perhaps play on Tuesday. But with this shoulder injury, obviously they got to make sure that when they bring him back it's for the long haul. If you bring him back too soon, you won't have him perhaps at one hundred percent come tournament time. You got
to guard against that. But you got so any tough games coming up, including the next one against the South Carolina team that's really good on defense, not real good on offense. But what is Kentucky's weakness? Of course we know this. It is defense right now and that is why the Wildcats are struggling. And Pope talked about the fact that, yeah, he knows Kentucky fans are hurting as much as he is.
You know, it's super painful to be man. I did my radio show last night and I had a couple of callers in it. You can just feel the pain and their heart, man, and their voice. You just feel the pain. But it's the journey that we go on together that's incredible, right, And it's not and it doesn't always work out, you know, sometimes it just doesn't work out,
and that's never acceptable. But sometimes it doesn't work out, and that's why it is so incredibly intoxicating to be a part of it, and it's why it's so fun to be in the grind.
There's a lot more to that answer, and if you like to see the entire news conference, go to YouTube UK Sports Video.
It's on there.
But you know, he talked about basically the fact, and he touched on it there that yeah, this this stinks. Losing hurts and they'd much rather be rolling along though obviously the way they were early in the year, but just he just appreciates so much being a part of the process, coaching his team, coaching these guys, being back with a BBN. It's tough though, and of course a lot of the comments as this thing was going up live. We're pretty snarky by people that you know, obviously want
to see wins, but that's sports in general. I mean, imagine what it's going to be like during the Super Bowl when things aren't exactly going your way or whatever.
Team is up.
So uh, like I said, go to YouTube UK Sports video and Mark Pope's news conference from today. The entire news conference is up there now. Rachel Lawson excuse me, spoke yesterday and our man John Wong brought up the fact that she hadn't really talked about Oklahoma City. Like with baseball, everything's Omaha softball, everything's Oklahoma City. That's the goal. Get to the World Series. Got there in twenty fourteen.
I got to go with them and do the radio is incredible and they've taken runs at the World Series. But of late, Kentucky Softball has been kind of a mid, middle of the pack SEC, not a real contender. John talked about the fact that Oklahoma City wasn't coming up much on media day. Does that mean expectations have been lower? And Rachel said absolutely not, And in fact, she said I expect this team to be better than last year's even though there are a ton of new faces because
she's changing the way that she is coaching. And she admitted in her mind over the last few years, three or four, she's done a poor job.
Last couple of years, I think I've done a very poor job coaching. A couple of years. I think I've done a very poor job coaching. And like past the COVID era and the reason I think I've done a bad job.
And right about here she started to choke up and get emotional and kind of checked out a little bit emotionally for a few moments.
I know, I suck.
That was one of her assistants in the back of the room, trying to lend a little bit of emotional support, lost and finally pulled it together.
It's really hard.
To be loyal in today's day and age.
So in my attempt to stay loyal to the people I recruited, I took the team, took a step back. I'm no longer going to be that girl, So I had to change.
So with that, s said, I had to figure out number one that my loyalty is to the Big Blue Nation. My loyalty is to the University of Kentucky, and I have to make sure that I set the standards at this level, and any player who wants to live up to that standard is great. But there were players that I was allowing to live under the standard. They were being entirely too selfish. And last year you really saw it come to head because I tried to make it
mix and I couldn't. So I had young, really talented players who are bigger, stronger, faster, who probably should have been in the lineup all the time. And then I had the older players that I was trying to be loyal to and it just wasn't working. And to be honest with you, nobody understands the deeply flex role, so the older players just thought I was messing with them the entire time, where in softball you have a little
more flexibility to be a little more creative. In my attempt to be creative and to make it all work to be loyal at the same time as to try to grow the program and keep up with the super teams, I did a really bad job.
Now, I got to tell you, I really like Rachel lost In a lot as a person and as a coach.
I think she's tremendous.
And I got to tell you, and a lot of people have said that that was one of the great answers you'll ever hear a coach give. There are coaches who will admit to making mistakes, yes, but to go into it in such great depth and explain why and how she made mistakes. I mean, she and I had conversations a couple times after the College World Series. They lost a game that they shouldn't have lost because she
said she stayed with her starting pitcher too long. But she had conveniently, in my mind, forgotten the fact that one of her infielders booted a play that you make ninety nine times out of one hundred. I could have made the play. It was routine, and if the young lady makes the play, Kentucky wins the game. But Rachel
didn't see it that way. She believes she had blown it by over using her pitcher, her starting pitcher, so she's not averse to accepting blame, but the way she did it in this instance, and yeah, it took off. Now this is my first chance to talk.
About it tonight.
It happened yesterday and boy quickly made the rounds on social media. But imagine a coach standing in and talking about in this day and age being too loyal, and in my mind, this doesn't have anything to.
Do with the nil.
As she put it, these were highly rated players who really weren't performing as well as they should have been with other people behind them who were pushing them. And think about the times Marktroops has talked about recruiting players as good as you can get and then going out and trying to replace them, trying to recruit over them. That's what great coaches do. They have to do that or else they build no depth. Somebody gets hurt, who
do you turn to? This kid can't play. You've got to have somebody ready to go who's pushing them and capable of stepping in. And if they take their job, they take their job. That's how you get better. And I thought that was a remarkable answer by Rachel Lawson. So they start play this weekend. We'll talk more about it tomorrow night. But up next a former basketball wo okay with an incredible night on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Moon Sider. Coming up at the
bottom of the hour, Sean Woods, the unforgettable guard. We'll talk I know about Kentucky defense. He is all about that defense. As Sean was a really, really fine defender at the point guard's spot, and we all know how Kentucky is lacking that right now in general, and with Lamont Butler being out. John Wong of Wong's Whinings will join us in our number two to talk about the SoundBite you heard earlier with Rachel Lawson breaking things down on a personal level for those of us at media
day yesterday. Also our West ENDBUA chief Gary Moorehe and Sean are usually with us on Wednesday, but at the state wide show last night, so tonight we will get caught up with them. Because there is no UK women's basketball. In fact, they play on Monday. They've got the entire it's like an eight day stretch where they're off. It's there bye week basically. So that's why we're with you
tonight with a full show. And again we've talked a lot about through the weeks, and I'm sure even if you're not an NBA fan, you've heard about former Wild Kate Anthony Davis being traded to the Dallas Mavericks. And at one point I want to give my buddy Chuck Coopersteen, who was the voice Cinemavericks, get him on with us because that was a huge trade, not the biggest in history, but it was huge. But here comes the second part of that story. Now makes a little more sense. The
Lakers have traded for a guy named Mark Williams. And I do like the NBA. I don't follow it a lot. I used to when I lived in Dallas, but I follow a lot of college basketball. I have to admit I didn't remember this guy. He played at Duke, and he played on a Duke national championship team. And he's a pretty good player, quite frankly, and getting better in the NBA, as most big guys do. He's a seven footer with a wing span of somebody who is seven
to seven. And he's no stranger to double doubles. He's no stranger to big rebound numbers. In fact, last year he averaged nearly ten rebounds a game for the Hornets averaged more than twelve and a half points, so they almost averaged a double double. And when you think about now, if you're a Lakers fan and a lot of you out there are, you think about Lebron on one side of the court, dnsis on the other side of the court, and this guy, Williams in the middle. Well, now it
makes more sense, doesn't it. So lots going on in the NBA. One of the great headlines from last night was Shay Gildess Alexander, another former Wildcat, making news. And even if you're not an NBA fan, but you just keep an eye on sports, you've heard his name all year. Fifty points again for Shay. And I say this because he scored fifty or more three times this year, all coming within the last seven games in the past fifteen days. He said, three fifty point games and get this this
and he did it against Phoenix. They're terrible, and they've tried to make moves, but they don't want to lose. Devin Booker obviously, Gilgis. Alexander outscored the Suns thirty seven to thirty four, beginning at the six thirty six market the second quarter until he made his last bucket by the way eighteen of twenty nine sometime in the fourth quarter seventeen of twenty seven off the dribble, ten of
sixteen on contested attempts. According to ESPN, that seven game span is the shortest by a player who recorded the first three fifty point games in his career. He'd never done it up until now, and only eight others have scored fifty three times over seven games in NBA history.
And you'll know these names, Kareem alb Dul Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Luka Donsich, James Harden, Michael Jordan, Damian Lillard Man and you remember Sga for when he was here, rode the bench for a little while, played but didn't start, and then Caliperi began to put him in the starting lineup and good things happened. Amazing good
guy too, at least from what I remember. While we're on basketball, bad news for U of L. I know for some of you that's good news, But if you're a U of L fan, chucky Hepburn out last night, left the game, then went over Boston College eighty four to fifty eight, and Louisvill's got it going not playing the schedule. I know that Kentucky is, but based on what they've been through the last couple of years, they wanted eighty four to fifty. But hepburn left about midway
through the game and they won ten straight. Now they're seventeen and six ten and two in the acc but this occurred in the second half, with about fifteen fifteen to play, he went up for a layup and according to Jody Demling's story, on two four to seven sports grabbed his groin area after he landed. Notes contact with other players, and of course the U L people are saying, we'll know more tomorrow, which is today, so by the time you hear this, they may have more information.
But he is the guy. He's there.
Lamont Butler makes things go for U of L. So you hate to hear that, and played well against Kentucky, but I thought Kentucky held him in check fairly.
Well.
You know those guys who were robbing or burglarizing the homes of NFL players, including Joe Burrow. Three indictments. They arrested two in and around Manhattan's Diamond District. They arrested a couple of guys and were charged with conspiracy to
receive stolen property part of an alleged fencing operation. And these were tied to South American theft groups who were making all this happen, and the suspects allegedly bought stolen property from Brian Leandro Herrera Maldonado, who apparently is accused of committing sixteen residential robberies across the US from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty. So cops have the Feds for the most part, but local as well have done a good job on this. They've been chasing these guys for five years.
Of course, the.
Super Bowl coming up to me, one of the bigger headlines, maybe bigger than anything that's come out of New Orleans pre Super Bowl is Cooper Cup tweeted that the Rams are going to move him, They're going to trade him, get rid of him. I mean, this guy is one of the best receivers in the NFL. He's been dealing with injuries, but he's the best receiver at least he has been that the Rams have.
But it all comes back to contracts.
And every time there's a story like this, you can bet on that Cup schedule to make twenty million bucks, five million guaranteed, seven and a half million paid as part of a roster bonus. So they'd love to get rid of him and have somebody else have to pay that. And it's been described he is on the wrong side of thirty. That's an NFL analyst saying that with injury issues and actually he may not be the best receiver on his own team anymore. Who kin Nakua perhaps is
the best butt man. When the Rams were rolling, it seemed like every time they needed a first down, every time they needed a big play, it was Cooper Cup. So your favorite team may end up getting him, but if they do, they're going to have to pay up next. Sean Woods get able guard here on six thirty w welcome back to the big Leonsider and joining us now as he does each and every week, is the unforgettable guard.
Sean Woods, his jersey hangs and the rafters of rupp and he has been keeping an eye on the Wildcats like everybody else has. And Coach, it's amazing that the hot topic for the last couple of weeks now has been defense. That's your wheelhouse, and of course not having a defender on the point who's strong with the ball, which sounds familiar, that's you has really had quite the
adverse effect on this team. But I think we're all surprised to just how badly it's it's unfolded over the last couple of weeks.
Am I right, defensees will defenses is effort. But defense, also from a team standpoint, has to be part of your culture. And right now, the only knock I have against Mark Pope is his culture. From a defensive standpoint, there is not because you can even even if if defense is your culture and you got a subpar athlete who's not as quick latterly or whatever, he still would be better and would give you more effort than what our guys, some of our guys are giving us on
the court. But with that being said, you know, it's a want to, it's a will, and I don't think these guys and that's the most disappointing factor that's glaring so much is the effort, like not even trying. Like we got guys that are giving Blne angles to the basket. No coach teaches that. You know, you got a few seconds left to go on the shot clock and you open up and give a guy Blane to the basket.
I mean that's unacceptable. And me as a coach, you know, you recruit to you to your strengths and what you like in a player, and me you could be a prolific scorer, but if you soft and don't like to compete on defense, you're good enough to get me beat
And that's what's happening now. You know, you take you take the probably the best defensive point guard off your team, who literally you know, if there's an MVP in the SEC and the MVP is supposed to be you know what you mean to your team and the success that you have on your team. Lamar Butler is the MVP of the SEC.
It's yeah, because.
When he's in the game, Kentucky is the one is probably the best team in it or one of the top two or three teams in the in the SEC. When he's not, they may be the worst team in the SEC or at the bottom half of the SEC, which they are right now. That's how much he means to his team. But unfortunately, and pretty much, I just don't like the tone defensively, you know what I'm saying. You know, I don't like the tone as a team defensively.
I don't like the fact that you got to score one hundred points or ninety some points just to have a chance to win a game. That's not championship DNA. That's great entertainment basketball, but that's not winning basketball in the long run, because if you don't defend, and that's the weakest part of your game. It's hard to put three four games in a row again because you're not going to shoot great three four games in a row.
I heard Jack Gibbons talking to Tom Leachs this morning and he said it as much on the radio broadcast, and I think everybody probably knows this, and I think it holds true for every sport. You gotta really want to play defense. You got to just have that desire, because Jack said, you know, you just got to get dirty. And maybe from where these guys had been playing before, clearly they haven't faced the level of athleticism they're saying
now in the SEC. But other than LaMotte and Amari Williams, who is in a mid major conference, let's let's face it, they were really called upon to play defense at this.
Level, were they?
Well?
I think Mary Williams is a competitor but here and he's tough. But sometimes, you know, you get mid major guys who have mid major mentalities, if that makes sense. There's levels to this, not just physically but mentally. And the reason why some guys aren't high major players is
because they don't have high major IQs. Sometimes and I'm not knocking Wins because he's a warrior and a beast, but you know, you got to have high major instincts, yeah, at times, and I think that's where we You know, when you get a bunch of mind mays, you're getting a bunch of men major guys, you're not there's a reason why they didn't get recruited high major and now you because they were pretty good at the men major level. Now you ask them to come up and be a
complete high major guy. That's unrealistic. And if you don't have a lot of other guys or more high major guys around you, you get kind of exposed a little bit. And that's what's happening right now. You know, Lamont Butler is probably the most experienced point guard in the country because he's the only point guard in the country that's back that was at the Turn Florida that techn me into the Firm four last year. So he steps he
steps above pretty much everybody on this team. That's why he sticks out like a sore thumb on our team because he's grind it enough to get to the mountaintop. Nobody else on his team has been to a Final four, not even close. So his warrior mentality is he's been there before. He knows what it takes. Nobody on our team has been to that level, not even close to that level. So that's why he's so important to not only Kentucky, but that's why he's probably the toughest and
most relentless point guard in the SEC to me. And that's why he's so important, you know what I mean. So but from here on out, if me, if that's me, and this is what's keeping me from being good, I've never let this happen again. I got to get to Lamar Buters. Some times you gotta have three point guards on the team, and if they're not, they can maybe shoot the basketball do some things, but if they can't defend at this level, they're only gonna be good enough
to get you beat. And that's what's happening right now.
Yeah, and their backups hurt as well. I mean, it couldn't have it couldn't have turned more poorly for the Wildcats. Uh yeah, Now you know you've got Kentucky coming out kind of flat or not kind of flat. They were definitely flat down there at all, miss And I know Pope has tried to zone did you play much zone at all? I can't imagine. Well, maybe you did as a head coach.
No, I didn't. I did not. I switched one through five, which people are doing now to Kentucky. I did that. You know what I'm saying. I never ever got caught, you know, because I had to coach against Rick Bird, who's one of the most dynamic coaches in America at that time at Belmont, and it took me a year or so to get used to coaching against that type
of action. So I worked for Ronnie Errow who taught me about switching, and I didn't like it at first, but man, I loved it once I became a head coach.
You explained the benefit of that, Sean.
Well, from when you're switching, okay, you're always everywhere that ball goes, somebody's gonna be there on the ball. Okay, when you're switching, especially with ball screen actions, people say, okay, we don't want to get our point guard get caught on a big Well, the game has changed so much because everybody's trying to shoot threes. They run places to get three off. So if I'm switching up, you're not getting that three. Now I'm gonna take you. I'm gonna
make you take tough twos. But I'm never out of position. I'm never ever getting caught those screens on down screens, floor screens. I'm switching everything, staggers. I'm just just tattling up. Boom boom, just just just you know, it's almost like tag team. He comes off that screen. I got him, then the next person got him. You know, so nobody's ever opened. And that's what's giving Kentucky problems. That's what gave me. That's why Arkansas beat Kentucky. They switched everything. Yeah,
you know, that's what happened the other night. All you got to do is switch against that stuff. And now they're having a hard time. They can't get thirty threes off anymore.
You guys give that much. When Patino was here, did.
You no, we didn't switch at all? No, no, no, very seldom did we switch unless it was four or five. But we didn't switch once. You know what I'm saying, we didn't. I had this, you know, the old Bob n ideal. You know a lot of people won't switching back then. You know, it's tough it up and get through the screen. Now kids are so soft. They don't
want to you know. And look, here's the deal. That's what's hurting them Butler right now because he's trying to get over those screens guarding that ball and he keeps jamming that shoulder. Why make it? Why make it tough. I'd rather make it easy for my team to be successful and then let my pride in it says you want to get through that screen, You get to that screen. No, no, no, no, no. Just simplify the game because it's it's positionless basketball now.
Guys are so long in athletic A big pretty much is decent enough to guard to guard. Yeah, yeah, So it's making the biggest calling the guard out there. Everybody's up in the gaps and you make him go side to side. You just don't give b line drives.
Got to watch for that, Sean Woods, is my guess. We'll come back and talk more with the unforgettable guard here in a moment on the Big Bloon Sider six thirty WLAP.
Welcome back. We're talking with Sean Woods.
As we do each and every week as Jersey hangs in the rafters of rupp as one of the unforgettables and of course we're talking about Kentucky defense or lack of saying, because well that was so evident against a miss which you know, Sean, they had kids throwing in three pointers, guys who ordinarily don't make three pointers at that kind of rate. But the defense was soft or times non existent. They're wide open and practically every kill and every college roster can hit an open three.
Right exactly, you know against our defense that you know people are on darts, you know, they're just there's no pressure, there's you know what I'm saying, so it you know. And and then now everybody in the in the country who they're playing, specially SEC, that's the their mo. So what they're gonna do, they're gonna put their head down and just drives. So these dudes a soft defensively. They don't want to guard one o one, take that extra dribble,
they'll give up. And then they're so worried about you driving them, so they are soft in their cover, especially guarding the all that they're giving you enough space without resistance to shoot threes.
And now you've got South Carolina coming in, which is hungry, is all outdoors who's hungry, and.
They watched they're watching film too.
That's right, that's right, and they.
Know that Lamon Butler's not out there to give them problems. Shoot me a fifty five. I think I can get buy a couple of them dudes right about.
The way they go.
They got nothing to lose. And we've seen teams play like that.
Well you got defensively, when you've got guys that are great on ball defenders, there's got to be a connection. You know, you got to go back to the Tubby Smithson, the coach Patinos about fe line basketball. You know, like you know, up the gaps, you're not not giving gaps. Our defense is not even connected. So you're on the island by yourself like like we're almost playing like it's it's a legal defense out there. No, there's no help
side ever, you know, there's no ever, not ever. When you when a guy drives to the basket from the wing, he gets buyas man, there's no help side. It's supposed to.
Be a guy in the midline.
We don't have that. That means we're not working on it. We gotta work on defense. This has got to be evident. I know we want to be a prolific offensive team. Score a lot of points. Well, look where it's getting this right now. And every time that my butler goes out the game, when he was in the game, that's when teams really got their runs. He can't play forty minutes his body, you're not going to let them. So you got to have something else. You got to have
team defense. You got to have team defensive principles. And right now I don't see team defensive principles. I just see a bunch of guys that are quick latterly who really doesn't have defensive DNA inside them, because evidently it's not what they're doing every single day, and it's not demanded now, it's evident it's come to fruition as far
as a weakness. Now everybody's talking about it. Well, if you just start doing this day one in June, especially when camp starts in October whatever, it's too late to do it now. You mentioned you know now you want to wait to Jackson Robinson his last year, and you're gonna say, Jackson Robinson, you got to play defense, man,
you got to sit down and guard. Well, Jackson Robinson's looking at you like, well, yeah, I've never had to do this before, and we were you know, you know in the guy from Dayton, he won't play defense at all, and that's the reason why he's one of the most prolific scores in college basketball. But you can't play more than twenty minutes because of how he defends.
You mentioned Bob Knight a minute ago, and then coincidentally enough, the seventy five team is having its reunion, the team that went to the final four. And I've said Indiana in that regional final, and one of the key elements and they love telling this story and I've heard it. You've probably heard it one hundred times, is that Joe Hall used to be infuriated by the fact that he said Bob Knight's offense was predicated on illegal moving screens
that the officials just wouldn't call. There either buffaloed by Bob Knight or they happen so often they just didn't call them all.
And Joe b going.
Into that regional final told the first thing they worked on in practice is driving right through them. So the first time they throw up one of those screens, I want you to go right through it.
They might call a foul, and sure enough, Bob Guyett.
Knock some guy over a few seconds into the game and got called for a foul. But once they started beating up on those moving screens, that stuff stopped and Kentucky turned things around it and pulled the upset. That's That's an amazing mindset, isn't It says a lot about Joe B, doesn't it.
Well, Joe B had a tough mindset, and because he had a tough mindset, that's what his players hid. You only you're going to have the same mindset as your coach. Yeah, if your coach is a bulldog, then you're going to be a bulldog because that's what he's driving every single day. You know, if you're not a bulldog and your team's not gonna be a bulldog basketball team, it's part. It's whatever your culture is. You go to Connecticut, he's a bulldog.
His tough. His teams are tough defensively. You go to Houston, his teams are tough defensively. I'm telling you right now, the most impressive team in college basketball is the Saint John Redman. You're talking about some dogs, huh yeah.
Yeah.
And and Mark Polpe knows how coach Patino gets down now, and that's that's where you know it's okay to be nice. I get that. And and Mark's he's a great coach. It's workie a little bit. But at the end of the day, to be at to get to Mount Rushmore, you gotta make your team uncomfortable in some type of way on a regular basis. So when those episodes occur, you got that fight through. You've been through it because
this is what you do every day in practice. When we get it hit in the mouth here lately we're getting when we get beat, we get beat bad.
Ye, you gotta get you gotta punch back.
Well, you know what the last night on his show, he talked about some furniture being destroyed perhaps at a halftime, and he had cut on his hand when he came out for the second half. So, uh, maybe maybe there is some of that fire uh in the locker room that his team needs to see.
Yeah, but you know what I'm saying, don't wait to don't wait till the house catches on fire to put water on it. You know That's what I'm saying. Now he knows I think now, Okay, he was trying to please everyone. He's trying to come in with a different outlook. You know, everybody saying the game has changed. You can't coach these kids like he used to. Bah blah blah blah blah. Rick Partino has not changed. What he has done.
What you have to do is you have to communicate with these kids more often off the court, so and and and establish more of a trust instead of just meeting them on the court. And in practice. You know, you see him in passing. You know, you may have a meeting or two, but you got to really get to know these kids and make them understand you and what you're trying to get across. So when it does get heated, it's not as extravagant as it would be
if they don't trust. If they're trusting you and they know what's at state, then you can get them as much as you possibly can, you.
Know, I mean, see, in all fairness, somebody listed the defensive ratings for Pope's teams at his prior schools, and they weren't. They weren't terribly great at Utah Valley, of course, but at Brigham Young at one point he had the number I think thirty rank defensive team with guys who are not going to.
Go on for the most part to the NBA.
So whatever they were doing there was was working fairly well. And I'm thinking if he gets an upgrade in talent at Kentucky and does what he was doing at Brigham Young, then those teams are to be top ten, top fifteen.
Defensely, I don't know what he did at bringing me on.
Clearly he wasn't stuck in a situation like he is now though, minus his best defender.
Well, that's true, and we we're talking all this, you know, breaking things down at the end of the day. I always say, you can have all the x's and o's, but it takes jim and Joe's to make it work. And right now, unfortunately I'm not knocking those players, but we're not. Our jim and Joe's aren't compared to the other Jim and Joe's in the SEC right now, especially at the guard position.
That's exactly right.
Yeah, the Bob Butler is that important to our program's Let's just face it. I don't know Kirk Kurry.
He I don't.
I played against him, I coached against him when he's at the zoner. I don't know from a defensive standpoint, if he would be I don't think he's just a mob butler. Matter of fact, I know he's mat Butler. On the defensive end. Okay, we might say, okay, well we got two of our point guards are out. I don't know if Kurk Kurr is that type of guy that that can withstand the SEC, especially on the defensive end. I don't. He didn't show me that he was that
great on the defensive end. I'm keeping guys in front. He was. He was a rawiye guy. He would have competed better than what we got right now. Yeah, that's where he comes in to play. But as far as dominating a game like Maman Butler, no, that's that's not what he's known for. You know, he was a good piece and a good backup, much better than what we got now. But as far as him being the guy right now, no, no, no, no, no, that's not that's not he.
Was a good twelve to fifteen minutes guy because.
You can't Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly. Not knocking him, but I'm just saying, you know, the moth Butler is is unique mot Butler really because this SEC is grindy and some of the toughest point guards physically, mentally and talent wise. Are some of the best point guards in America. That's why this league is so tough because we got great point guards in this league. We got tough point guards in this league.
You know.
And you know we not DJ Wagner last year. But DJ Wagner has shown right now now the Boogie plans out that he can shoot. He dominated us. Yeah, he's much from the defensive end, you know what I'm saying. And and they're tough enough to get downhill. They really put pressure on you because these guards in the SEC are strong. Now, we don't have an SEC point guard on our team right now outside of Lamon Butler. Right now, we don't.
And he is the unforgettable guard. He talked to him each and every week.
Coach. We'll talk to you next week. Thank you. Okay, up next hour number two. John Wong of Nolan Media.
Group and West n chief Gearymore that they hit him six thirty.
W lap.
Man sat, welcome back to the Big Blue Sider.
Join us now as a longtime friend of the show, John Wong. He is a freelance writer and author. Wong's Whinings is his blog. He's written the co written several books. We will shamelessly plug them a little bit later and we'll talk a Kentucky basketball But John, you cast some
ripples in the media world yesterday. You'll ask the occasional provocative question basically coming from the fans standpoint, But you had Rachel lost and pausing and getting a little emotional, and I played the soundback earlier in the show the UK softball coach. But I'm sure you didn't expect that kind of response you asked her about lowering expectations.
I believe right, Yeah, Dick, you know, it's one of these things that you don't go into it intentionally trying to evoke any sort of emotional response like that, but especially with Rachel, she does tend to get emotional on many occasions, and you feel like it could happen. So
whenever I asked the question, You're absolutely right. It is strictly from a fan standpoint, And I was just wondering every year Rachel talks about Oklahoma City and World Series, and for some reason this year she didn't mention it, and a lot of the scuttle butt early on this season has been about maybe this could be a rebuilding type year, just so many unknowns you don't know about the pitching staff. I just wanted to know if the fans should kind of set the bar a little bit lower.
No sense pulling our airs out if there's no chance of making it to Oklahoma City. And not only did she come right out and refute me and say, no, you should not set the bar any lower. In fact, we're probably going to be better this year than a lot of people think. But then she went into the reason why she thought the team would be better, and
that's when all that emotion came out. When you have all that vulnerability, when you have all that transparency, and in my mind, that's what makes for a really, really good an answer from a coach. She actually said something that people not only believe but also wanted to hear. It was very very refreshing from my standpoint.
Well, her emotion aside. What did you think of her readily available admission that she did a poor job and why she did that poor job essentially misplaced loyalty.
I think that's true for a lot of sports nowadays, and it goes back even before the NIL era, but I think it's even more of a factor right now, where you have all these coaches, and just take Kentucky basketball last year with John Calipari, or even football with Mark Stoops, where you had these high falutin five stars or transfer portal heroes that have been recruited into the system and the coach feels some sort of loyalty to them.
That was part of Calipari's recruiting pit. Try come into Kentucky. I'm going to take you to the NBA. And we saw on so many occasions, especially last year, where he ended up playing those guys the Dewan Wagner's, the John d J. Wagner and Justin Edwards over guys like Reed Shephard and Rob Dillingham. It was very, very readily appearent
that those loyalties were divided and conflicted. And I think Rachel just came out and said what we had all all kind of thought anyway, But to have her admitted in such a form, I mean, this is the UK Softball media day. She knows that this is going to go out there. Oh yeah, And that was I think what was the most surprising to me. I loved it. I thought it was a great answer and from some
of the responses that I've seen on social media. There are a lot of coaches who are really rallying to to her defense.
Oh yeah, not that she needs defending, but yeah, you know, and a lot of fans as well who think there are, as you said, a lot of instances where coaches have stayed with people just too long or you know, it jumped to my mind was Billy Gillespie and nothing against the kid, but Mark Corey in the starting lineup EV game after a game and wouldn't even talk about to us, you know why that was the situation. So, yeah, it was.
It was interesting.
You do wonder, though, how much equity she had built up. I mean, here's somebody who's been with the program eighteen years and has been to the College World Series. You do wonder how if somebody was just coming on board, if you're a young coach trying to get established, I think you'd be a lot more reticent in being able to admit something.
Like no that no question.
Yeah.
And one of the first things Nick Bnji owned did he went first this year generally see the way around. But as you know, Nick said down he's a big fan of Rachel Lawson and vice versa, and Nick listed her accomplishments and basically saying, how many do you know how many times her team's been to the postseason and
it was I believe seventeen. And how many Super Regionals they've been to, you know, and I think it was seven or eight something like that, you know, and they've been able to break through the one time to the World Series. They came close a couple of other times. But yeah, she it's amazing the job she's done. Well, let us shift over to the other sport that's getting most of the headlines on campus right now. We'll talk about women's basketball in a minute, because you cover that
as well. But if I had told you at the you know, let's say back in late November, John Kentucky's gonna have a bunch of quad one wins, but by the time they get to the teeth of the SEC schedule, they don't have their best two point guards. Would you have expect did a record any better than this?
You know?
To me, I think expectations began to rise, maybe too quickly.
What do you think?
Yeah, I think those wins against Duke and Gonzaga and even just recently Tennessee on the road that kind of set a little bit of a false expectation. You might even want to call it fool's gold. So if it is fool's gold, then Kentucky and Mark Pope has really overachieved this year. If you said what would be their record at the beginning of the year, back when Mark Pope was first hired, I would have probably predicted about this,
maybe even a little bit worse. But all these surprising wins that they've had have really ratcheted expectation into the stratosphere. And I think for that reason, they're almost the victim of their own success right now. But I don't like the way they're trending. You know, they've lost for the last five That's one of the reasons why I love coming on and talking with you. Did This is great therapy for me, and I was pretty down, But just a couple of minutes with the legend dig Gabriel has
kind of gotten my spirits back up again. I'm not giving up on them, But really, the narrative of this team has to be the injuries. You lose your two point guards. What teams out there after losing their two point guards would be able to form any semblance of a cohesive team. Nobody and this team is able to do it, then, of course, the other narrative is defense. They've got to learn how to play some defense. The effort the other night against Old Miss was very, very
discouraging and disappointing in that first half. I don't think i've seen and you know me, I've been following Kentucky basketball for a long time. I'm not sure I've seen a worst defensive effort out of the gate from a team like that.
And they just didn't seem interested. Did They would shock.
Me, no, Ole Miss, but they could pretty much do anything they want, whether it was three point line from beyond the arc or driving it inside. They just seemed like Kentucky was a step slow. And they're not the most athletic and talented a team, but they should not be lacking anything effort wise. That was a little bit concerning to me.
Yeah, I agree, and again any night at the SEC.
But you knew this.
The other thing you knew about Old Miss going in they needed it when they were as hungry as a team in the SEC could be. And you know what it's like and these kids had, you know, talked about learning what it's like to be Kentucky and go on the road, So they should have been surprised by that.
Now we've heard it all before. Everybody, Everybody's super Bowl, and that's the way it is. How fun it is it this year Dick be watching SEC basketball every night. There's a great day. Last night I was watching Arkansas and Texas, and look, Arkansas now at three and six, they're only a game behind Kentucky in the standings and the SEC standings, and of course they've got the head the head tiebreaker. Now, who would have ever thought that after the starts of both those teams.
Yeah, I listened to a lot of that game on the radio, Arkansas in Texas, and you know, they just went out and did again did the Texas what they did to Kentucky. And you know we talk about Kentucky losing two point guards. You're absolutely right about that, not an excuse where they played defensively. But I find it fascinating that Arkansas lost a kid who was maybe the best freshman in the league in Boogie Flann, because you know he was supposed to come here. But then that
forces Caliperry to figure out another way. And now it's a better way to kind of balance things out and make things difficult. So I think that's a great lesson.
Isn't it. Isn't it amazing how sometimes less can be more?
Yes?
And ironically, I think this kind of circles back to what Rachel Lawson was talking about. Maybe this loyalty to somebody like a book Flann was to the detriment of the loyalty to the program itself. It's addition by subtraction, and I think a lot of sports are feeling that right now. It really is the cohesiveness of the unit. It's still a team game. The last time that.
I saw, yeah, yeah, Arkansas beats Texas seventy eight to seventy.
Missouri blew a lead, looked like Tennessee was going to lose.
I was watching. I was watching that game, and Missouri is going to be tough, and Kentucky has to go to both Missouri and the Texas. They got another Oklahoma team. When you start counting victories, you're you're starting to wonder. You figure this this weekend? All right? The fan base right now, I would say, is that deaf Con two. You lose this Saturday to South Carolina, It's going to be all out panic deaf Con one. But you figure you ought to be able to take South Carolina, you
ought to be able to take Vanderbilt at home. You should be able to take LSU. So I think the victories are are there. I don't think we need to sweat yet about making the tournament right, but with this team, you just never ever know. I'm not putting any victory in the books just yet.
No.
Now it's about brackets and seating, and you've got to have an eye on that.
There's no question. We're talking to John Wong, freelance writer.
Will come back and talk a little bit more with John on the other side of the break here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with author and sportswriter John Wong. Wong's Whinings. This is blog writes for Nolan Media Group, has a number of books out there that he has written and co written, and his daughter has written a books. We'll talk about that in a minute.
But spring football is coming up, John, and I have talked to more people who it's fairly evident this is such a crucial could be a pivotal season for Mark Stoops, which I believe the spring practice coming up will be just as Pivot want it. I mean, they've got so many new faces. They're building a new offensive line on the fly, another quarterback competition. You know, you might have thought they had an incumbent, but no, you know, there's a lot that has to be settled.
Right.
The more things change, the more things stay the same. And I hate saying this because I really love Mark Steukes. He's been a neighbor of mine for many, many years and I just love him as a person. But sometimes things just get stay or I don't care when you do. And the bar may be set so high for him this year that there's almost no way to succeed. You say, Okay, let's set the bar as low as we can. Let's at least make a bowl that's not unrealistic, Right, Let's
get back to six and six. You go six and six. Who's going to be real, real happy with that? Probably nobody, right, because once again he's a victim of his previous past success. Twelve years in the SEC that's a long time. Yeah, I've said it before. It's like that bag of potato chips. No matter how good it is, no matter what brand it is, it'll tend to get stale if it's been open a while I think this is the case with Mark Steus, I'm not saying they need to get some
fresh blood in there. I'm just saying it's almost impossible for him to please this ravenous creature that he's created over the years now where people are expecting more than just a trick to a bowl game.
Yeah, oh yeah, there's no question. And we've talked before about how you and I go back didn't know each other in college, but we were there at the same time, and they were one for a couple of years when Kursey was there. But we know what happened after that, and we go back to when people said, boy, seven wins a year and they put up a statute to whoever. But yeah, he moved the bar, didn't he, And it's his I don't know, miss for or whatever that Now the sec is as strong as it's ever been. But
the expectations now seven wins. They turned in back to back seven wins season, John, and everybody was disappointed, you know, and rightfully so, because they did not accomplish what they should have accomplished. So you're right, he's kind of a victim of his own success, isn't he?
You talking about that has brought back just a boatload of memories of how bad Kentucky football really has been over the course of time. And this is why I refer it to you as a legend. Dick, you are longevity means something and Stoke's twelve years long time in the SEC Dick Gabriel, however many years that you've been doing this, but you realize the history. And that's a big, big part of how the mindset of our fan base
is right now. Guys like you, I would put on like the Mount rushow a media that are still.
Out rockhead, that's for sure.
No, No, you've been doing this for for a long time.
You.
I'll put Cutler on there, I'll put Dave Baker, Larry Vall. You guys know the history and I'm almost there with you in terms of age and experience as a fan, but as a media member, I'm still a babe in the wood. So I am learning, but it's it's hard to channel the expectations. I almost almost want to take my fan hat off and and and put my media had on and look at it objectively. But no, in terms of this year, I can't see I can't see anybody really be satisfied with the final result.
Well, John, before I let you go, how is the novel going? As I said, John has written a number of books and co written books with guys like Kyle Macy and Derek Ramsey, but prior to Christmas, he really he's a basketball themed murder mystery.
Has it been the way you hoped?
It has? Locally a lot of people who have read it have really said they really enjoy it. And this this is the time to read it, right in the middle of basketball season, because there are the plot has so many things that people will uh, it'll it'll kind of touch a nerve with them. I write with a little bit of a whimsical style. I write with a little bit of an edge, but it's it's a murder
mystery overall. It's called name, Image and Murder. And I take a lot of all that's good, bad, and indifferent about this new landscape of college basketball, and I kind of twirl it into this murder mystery, basketball action thriller that has a lot of Kentucky references. If you're a Kentucky fan, you'll love it. If you're a basketball fan, I think you'll also really really enjoy it. I need your help though, Dick and kind of ratchet and into the national level.
You know.
I sent Paul Finebaum a copy of this thing. I didn't hear anything from him. So maybe when these big weeks come in, I'll have some complimentary copies and then we'll really be able to get the word out on that name image of Murder Amazon, go on Amazon, Barnesandnoble dot com. How's that for the shameless plug?
Great, that's very well done.
And I got thirty seconds left and plug your daughter's book.
Yeah, she's doing she's a real author, she's got some real publishing companies behind her. It's called shadow Work Journal. It's one of these things. It's a self reflection book. If you enjoyed that Rachel Lost and clip, then this is something for you and it allows you a lot of introspection about yourself. I think I've learned a lot about myself just by reading the thing.
Sounds good.
John Wong Wong's whinings k Y h U A n G on Twitter. John, thanks so much, and we'll see you at the next game anytime.
Look forward to it. Let's get this thing turned around. No deaf Con one this weekend.
West n Bureau Chief Gary Moore up next here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big bullon Cider. Joining us today. It is Thursday, but we were bumped yesterday by the state wide show, so let us welcome in our West End Bureau chief Gary Moore.
Hey back from California.
We missed you last week, but just in time for the super Bowl and.
More and more.
It's right, you know, And I did watch the game on Saturday night from out there.
I'm sorry. Were the boos.
Really that loud in there to you?
Yeah?
Yeah, and they're actually at the end some booze toward Kentucky players, but not as much as the ones hurled at Caliperry.
What the hell? What is with that?
I mean, oh, I used this isn't a talking point for today. I used to be dead set of posed, but now these guys are pros man, you know.
Yeah, I get that part of it.
But I mean, look, Caliparia left on his own. You should be applauding that if you were that pissed off Adam to begin with, and it didn't cost you a.
Buyout, so why not clap for that?
Yeah?
Well, the America our March.
He ruined our march, all right, first sip two guys in a six pack, our first swig.
Here.
Two Big Bowl games this Sunday, but not at the same time, so you can watch both of them. As you mentioned, there's that super sized one that's six thirty our time between two NFL teams. I neither like nor care about. Then, before all of that hypapalooza, it's the twenty first Puppy Bowl about two o'clock. And not just on Animal Planet Dikets. Pups are going to be on, well, they're gonna be simulcast on a bunch of plays TBS, A Discovery Channel, True TV Max and Discovery plus the
biggest Puppy Bowl ever. One hundred and forty two rescued dogs from eighty shelters in forty states, including two as we mentioned before right here from the Kentucky Humane Society, Colonel the Beagle on Team Rough and Julee Up the first ever Saint Bernard in Bold history on Team Fluff, going for the Lombardi Trophy. In fact, I'm wearing my team, my colonel, I'm part of that. Locally, you see this convinced in camera, where's our buddy, Vince?
He's not working. Get a shot of that.
Kyhumane dot Org has got more about it if you want to go into these shirts, they're really very cool.
Look.
Super Bowl pregame coverage blabs on and on and on and on for hours. So for the love of dog, watch the Puppy Bowl instead before it all on Sunday. And remember, don't shop for your new best friend. Adopt shelter. Dogs are the best, aren't they.
I agree, we have two right here in our house, and uh, they need us and we need them.
It's a matter of who rescues who. And plus they know dogs know when you're they just know. I'll convinced that they know ye that you're rescuing them. Second swig in the six packs. So, as you mentioned, I was out in La last week. I was overseeing this Luca trade for a UK great a d thumbs up by me.
Don't you love Dick?
How the NBA just kind of pretty much dominated and still does the sports headlines this week instead of the Eagles and Chiefs for most.
Of the week.
It's kind of like payback for scheduling the NFL games on Christmas Day that the NBA used to own for TV. I'm not the biggest NBA fan in the world, but I love all of this, and you know, you can tell how young or how inexperienced some of these sports. The ackers are saying, this is the biggest trade in NBA history, and I was here to cover it for you. First of all, it wasn't. And second of all, it's not even the biggest trade in Lakers history.
Yep.
That would be a nineteen seventy five Kareem to the thirty and fifty two Lakers with a guy named Walt Wesley for Lowvell's junior bridgeman, Dave Myers, Elmore Smith, Brian Winners, two draft picks and some cash. How that turnout? And of course you could also say the Lakers getting Anthony Davis from New Orleans was a bigger deal because.
He got them a ring, right, Yeah, absolutely.
And of course there's probably those two trades involving Wilt Chamberlain to Philly from San Francisco and then from Philly to the Lakers. Those would be high up on that list, no pun intended. And if you really want to dig into it, maybe the best trade ever in the history of all basketball was when Red Houurback traded for the rights to Bill Russell. That's right, involving a guy named Cliff Haagen.
Isn't exactly.
And that trade did bring Saint Louis it's only championship NBA title because the Hawks won.
It nineteen fifty eight behind Cliff hay.
Now, Russell was hurt that year, but the city of Saint Louis still very proud of that title as well it should be. But you know, it's all about recency bias. It's the biggest trade in the history of social media. What he got it was a stunner. Yeah, and now they follow it up last night. I talked about it earlier with the Lakers part of their madness. They make another trade and among the people leaving Dalton Connect who is having a big rookie year, but he goes to
Charlotte for Mark Williams. Well, I don't even remember being at Duke like this guy could turn out to be the key figure in his trade.
Connect supposedly had a bad well he had, he did have a bad shooting drought, but then he's picked up on that as rookies will. But they didn't like his defense, so he was expendable. I still think he's a good player, all right. Third, swig, let's talk about that other Professional Basketball Association college the SEC Tournament Dick thirty four days
away starting March twelfth in nash Vegas. Of course, all sixteen teams will play at least one game, and you know it's going to be the usual upsets, maybe more this year because word has it that as many as thirteen SEC teams could make the field in March. Now, you may be too young to remember this, but I can recall when the SEC was a football conference. Okay, that was with seven People say that you might be
too young to know this. Given the schedule, with nine games left, four with ranked teams and thirty four, there are days to go, I ask you that, Gabriel, is that enough time for UK to A get healthy and B fix the hemorrhaging, especially on defense.
Well A leaeds to be.
If they don't get healthy, and that is to say Lamont Butler, then I don't see their defense getting much better. It will get better even without Lamont, because they'll work on it for obvious reasons. But if you don't have somebody who is capable of pressuring the basketball as soon as it crosses mid court, then everybody else on your team. Is it a disadvantage? And I'm not pointing fingers at anybody that just says.
How good Lamont Butler is maybe.
The best in the country, and his defense begets better defense for everybody. So minus that, they are going to have to really knuckle down on what they work on in practice, you know, preparing or the rest of the games. Because right now, Gary, as you know, you're playing for seeding, you're playing for bracket space, and you've got to take care of yourself, take the worry out of the hands of the committee and force them to give you a high seed.
Only way to do that is to win. Amen to that fourth swig in the six pack.
And coincidentally, my four reasons why I couldn't care less about yet another Super Bowl this coming Sunday, I mentioned it before. I don't like the Eagles or the Chiefs. Eagles have the most obnoxious fans in football, and I'm tired of guys and stripes helping Kansas City. I'm fine with Taylor Swift, She's cool, but I'm enough already. Second reason, I'm so tired of suffering through the pronounced team of Kevin Burkhart and Tom, I'm still learning on the job, Brady.
The last few games that they've done, including the NFC Championship, reminded me how far behind they are to Joe and Troy that they lost to ESP and even the New Yorker magazine It Hardly Ever, comments on Sports piled On a couple of weeks ago, saying, quote, Brady's not so great at his new gig, and he settles for a stock phrases.
Yeah, we know.
Third's the third reason for that. As you know, I hate commercials with the passion. That's why I love the Red Zone especially.
Most of these are.
Overproduced, underwhelming commercials and spots that they overpaid for always and they always show you that the golden age of mad Men advertising age is long gone, never coming back. And the fourth reason for that the halftime show of rapper Kendrick Lamar, which brings us to our fifth swig.
And by the way, you're gonna need SIPs from a fifth if you watch this entire halftime show because Kendrick Lamar and singer, songwriter and occasional rapper Sizza will be the halftime entertainment of the Super Bowl for anyone over forty
and not really into rap. Be advised that Lamar has a song that won two Grammys, well at least two in the biggest categories, the Song of the Year and Record of the Year, not like Us, which is if you don't know a profane disc of rap rival Drake, which you might say, who gives a crap about a feud between two rappers, especially when the piece sounds like silly gibberish with and I'm like to check my notes here.
According to my count, it has seventeen in words, six F bombs, six b female references, and one S word, which I don't think anybody is reporting on this. It's just sort of like the Emperor's new Lyrics. There is a clean version of this out there, but it was digitally made. They just edit out the words in shop with the computer. So I'm gonna definitely tune in Dick to see how in the world fox A is gonna maybe muzzle this guy and be see if he edits himself.
Who knows.
If it gets to be so bad, Apple Music won't be producing these anymore, and we'll get up with people back here at halftime with Al Hurt from the first Super Bowl.
You know, I was in up with people. Glenn close Way really back in the day.
Yeah, yeah, halftime, I'll due respect, I'll be walking the dog. That's not for me, and I get that, But to go in reverse order. The commercials have taken on a life of their own. Some of them are brilliant. My favorite is still Terry Tait Office Linebacker. But you know, it's amazing to me the money they spend. But with a friend of mine, and you've met him who works in Hollywood, I always remind myself a lot of people got jobs because of these commercials.
They got paid a lot of money. But are we paying for it in the store.
The answer is yes, yes, we're gonna pay higher prices so they can spend money on their production value. Some of them are great, most of them are not. The Clydesdell's will always went out, you know, and now they're releasing them prematurely. You know, you get this the sneak preview. You know, what's the fun in that? Agree on the announcers. I really like Burkhart Brady's man. You know, he's not great. Is he worth the money?
Who knows? That's up for the bean counters to say.
But I always tell you the way I judge a color analyst in any sport. Can you teach me something about the game that I don't know? I haven't heard that much from Brady and a lot of it is just the obvious stuff. But it's his first year, you know who. Like we talked before, who of us would put up stuff from our first year and say, there it is, that's the good stuff. The one storyline I like in this game, two of them. I want to see Saquon I have a big game, but we're going
to talk about him a little later. Darien Knard, the former Wildcat, won two rings with the Royal, over the Royals with the Chiefs, and then signed with the Eagles, so he can join Ken Norton Junior as a guy with rings from three straight Super Bowls. If the Eagles win, how about that?
I hope they do.
Actually, if I watch any of it, if I have a pick on either one of those teams, our sixth and final swig and estimated, speaking of all of this, one point thirty nine billion expected to be wagered legally on Sunday Super Bowl, not counting the squares and offices and houses.
Points spreads are boring, so go for the prop.
Bets folks such as, what are the odds of Kelsey proposing to Taylor Swift on the field and will she say yes? What color will the gatorade be that's dumped on the winning coach? So far purple is leading the pack in the net? What will Kendrick Lamar's first and last songs be during the halftime?
Now?
I haven't seen a prop bet for if an nword or an F bomb makes it past the sensors, that may still but the week is still young, right, The odds of Dick Gabriel sitting between Taylor Swift and Caitlin Clark have now been updated at infinity to one. You're saying, so you're saying there's a chance, that's right if you have a gambling problem, one eight hundred gambler like the Kenny.
Right there you go.
Prop bets have been around forever. It's just we hear more about it now that betting is legal relatively speaking. But prop bets have led and will lead even more to issues with athletes placing bets, either directly or indirectly. Yep, that they shouldn't be placing And who didn't see that coming? I know the NCAA is trying to work through this because, well for a number of reasons, but it's just to
Fixing a game is one thing. But a player who knows that there are prop bets out there as to whether or not he gets twenty, well he has a lot to say about that. So I think they're fun, but I think everybody involved has got to get a handle on them, or something really terrible is going to happen, both in pro and college sports. Does that make sense, Yes, it's been happening to already.
NBA.
Yeah, we've seen that in the last month. We had a player take himself out of a game. Yeah, you know, And who didn't see that? That's what I always say, Who didn't see that coming? That's what makes you That's what drives you nuts. So we're talking to Gary, speaking of driving us nuts, we're talking to Gary Moore.
He's our Western bureau chiefs. And we'll come back.
And talk more with Gary on the other side of the break here on six point thirty WLAP, Welcome back. We are chatting with our West End bureau chief, Gary moorees at the other end of a sixty four.
He used to be on the West coast, but now is in the LA the Louisville area.
We've gone through two guys in a six back time for a couple of hot reads, and uh, let's go back to the Super Bowl. Gary, it's always a hot ticket. Did you ever cover a Super Bowl?
Did not?
Did not either, And I always kind of wanted to, just to see what it feels like to be in that crush. But I don't know about buying a ticket because they're crazy expensive.
However, now comes.
The word that Super Bowl secondary ticket prices. They're high, but much less then last year's game. Average price at tick pick as of Tuesday sixty five hundred and fifty two dollars, which is pretty high. But last year same site Chiefs Niners average price was nine one hundred and thirty six dollars.
Because you got all those tech guys with billions of dollars out in San Francisco, apparently, apparently.
You also had a pretty hefty cost back on the COVID year, but they were only twenty five thousand fans, that's why they paid seven thousand plus.
But do you think that's the reason.
Because you don't have as many tech guys you trying to jump in and buy ticket.
It could well be that.
And the fact that we just saw these two teams put two years ago, three years ago, whatever it was.
Yeah, and to repeat.
And those ticket prices you just mentioned that are going for it now are way down from where they started, like I guess, two three weeks ago, whatever it was. Yeah, they've really been discounted a lot. And what do you think. I think there's gonna be some empty seats. There may be some ball spots in the Superdome. If you're waiting to go, you might get a bargain.
On a Saturday, some say the best thing to do is wait until game time if you're not too picky about where you sit, and that might be.
The thing to do.
That happens with concerts, that's that's the same deal with concerts too. By the way, a lot of people wait for the day of the show, especially when they're setting things up, and say, oh, we got some more tickets here, we'll just discount those and throw them out. They have shows good. I know you can't plan if you're coming in from out of town, it's hard to do that. But if you're local, wait till the day of the game.
You mentioned Sequon Barkley in our second hot read, he probably will become the most productive or will complete the most productive season in NFL history for a running back. Between sixteen regular season games and three playoff games, Barkley's rushed for twenty four hundred and forty seven yards, second most as we know in NFL history. The overall record Terrell Davis of the Broncos ran for twenty four to seventy six in the regular season and postseason.
So Barkley needs.
Thirty yards to break his record, and his lowest output of the year has been forty seven yards, so you gotta like his chances. He's even closer to breaking the record for yards from scrimmage that also is held by Davis. He needs just three yards there. You know, we're talking about catching the ball, and Davis did all this back in ninety eight when the Broncos won a Super Bowl. But I'll put it to you, I just think these records since they're now playing so many regular season games
and more playoff games. I went back and looked up Jim Brown's record nineteen sixty four. He rushed for more than a thousand yards in every game base for that season. More than one hundred yards in each game, and the Browns made the playoffs one game and they won the NFL Championship. Right, so he had he played a total of thirteen I think it's time for an asterisk in the NFL record book, don't you.
Yeah.
Eric Dickerson thinks that too, I believe, Yeah, he's not happy about the record being approached at all. Yeah, in the regular season, Yeah, I think you could. I think definitely, because there there's enough of a discrepancy now with that. I don't think baseball wants to be part of that kind of a conversation anymore. No, No, we go back with the home run record and all that. But I think at football there's some validity to that. And Jim think about it.
Eighteen games they want to play, all right, They used to play twelve. Yeah, so I mean now you're playing half again as many games, and everybody gets excited about always a thousand yard rusher, so you know, one hundred yards a game that's still big.
Especially with the rules the way.
They are now, They're not going to have eighteen games. I don't think in our lifetile, I don't think we're going to see eighteen games they just seems to be too much pushback on it, and that's brutal. Seventeen's already tough enough.
Yeah, I agree, But you know, if it means more money in the players pockets, you could see them agreeing to it, couldn't you, and doing away with preseason games and playing more of those scrimmages.
That allow you to set your ball club.
Yeah, and you'll see more of those padded helmets too, because that's you know, that's really starting to take a lot of present. They've seeing a lot of things, especially when you read about Conrad Dobler. You know, he's the latest one that had some problems in that that category. But yeah, I think you're you're onto something with that, just to kind of say, hey, look, just so you know, he did this with this many games and now we've got this many games.
Well. He is Gary Moore and you can find him on Twitter at.
At nine to five five Gary, same fabulous joint you're found.
At at Big Boo Insider one. Enjoy the super Bowl and the can and the puppy.
Boll and that'll do it.
Thanks to Gary, Thanks to Sean Woods and to John Wong.
Tomorrow night, we're gonna have kind of a special edition.
We'll talk about the events of the day going into the weekend for the basketball Cats, but we're also going to talk uh extended a conversation with Jeremy Jarmon. I haven't had a chance to talk much football with Jeremy, so we'll do that in Hour number two tomorrow, and I'll probably take up the entire hour talking about Kentucky football, looking ahead of the spring and to a pivotal season with Mark.
Stoops and the football Wildcats. So it'll be with us tomorrow night. But for now, that's it. Good night from the garage in Lexington.
Is there someone else up now we can talk to No now, go away, or I shall talk to you a second time.
Bang Bang, Belie