Uh.
Oh, guess what day it is? Guess what day it is?
Huh anybody, It's day.
What better way to start off hump Day than with the way the Kentucky fans were showing their appreciation or take a oh Way down the stretch. This happened in the closing moments. It was right after Kobe Bray. I think it hit him with a lob pass and Ohway throws down a dunk and really sealed the game to win over Tennessee. Welcome to the Big Boon Sider. Dick Gabriel with you on this Wednesday following the Wildcats crucial
win over Tennessee. And this was I've heard the Way chant before, but this was the best example of it. And in case you're wondering, and you might already know this, if you're a soccer fan, you hear this at soccer games. It's it originated in Spain. I had to look it up. But what the soccer fans are chanting as olay, which means bravo. But where you hear it as often as not from what I've read, you hear it from some of the fans in Great Britain. You hear it from
Irish soccer fans. They like to chant olay olay, olay olay. Here's what it sounds like from an Irish soccer game. So it's only natural that UK fans pick up on it, especially when Oway does something terrific like he did last night. Coming up tonight, we're gonna hear from Sean Woods, who joined us every week, the unforgettable Guard. He'll break down the Wildcats win over Tennessee. We'll hear from Gary Moore, West End Bureau Chief. I know we'll talk Cats in
balls with him. Also going to hear from the Wildcats from the seven twenty four to seventy five team who hated Tennessee, love beating the balls. They were honored over the weekend. During that went over South Carolina, which seems
like it's too far back in the rearview marror. That was a great performance by Kentucky against one of the have nots, maybe the worst have not of the league, but a team that had given other SEC teams fits South Carolina, and the Wildcats put everything together and destroyed
the game Cocks. And during that game, the seventy four to seventy five team that made the Final four was honored and They had a reception after the game, friends and family, and I was actually invited to join them, which was very I was very appreciative of that, and we talked to some of the players, so we'll hear from them coming up in our number two. But last night's win, I will admit, surprised me because there was
no Jackson Robinson. And you remember he had such a great game over Tennessee down in Knoxville when the Wildcats pulled off a surprise win there, when Kentucky went down there and played a really good Tennessee team. How good, Well, I don't know, but I will tell you this that Kentucky put it all together down there, and Jackson Robinson was a big part of that. And as you know, he could not play last night, didn't play at all. And then with eight minutes and forty one seconds left
to go, the Wildcats lost Lamont. Butler had played so well opened the game with a steal, I mean just strips of Kai Ziggler stole the ball, took it in instead, a defensive tone for the Wildcats. They played one of their best defensive games. Then he goes down hard on that shoulder. He was an absolute agony. And left the game, and I tweeted about it and I marked it on my computer. You know, remember this point in the game
because we didn't know obviously what would happen next. We just knew it would happen and without Lamont Butler, and you know what, the Cats went on a tear and closed out the game. Depending on where you want to start measuring what it was basically seventeen to four to twelve to two, and it won the game for the Wildcats.
And after the game, Mark Pope is opening comments talked about, of course how much they respect Tennessee, but what it meant to him to get this win and complete the sweep of the balls in this his first year.
We have so I mean, I personally have so much respect for coach Barnes. He's one of the best in this business. He's got a great team. They're playing amazing basketball. They're a top five team in every statistical you know, the net, the ap the whole thing. They play hard, they played right, they played together, and it was really great to be a part of this epic, epic game tonight.
It just was like it was awesome. I'm so proud of our guys.
We have guys that that I just want to fight and compete, and and and we got ballers, right, They just want to be ballers, man, They just want to come play, and we have guys step up and make huge plays. We had some of the young guys step up to make huge plays. Really really proud of our guys, really happy and just grateful beyond belief that we get to be on this magical, incredible journey that you only get to do at the University of Kentucky.
It's pretty great.
Coming up in a couple of minutes, we're gonna hear from Trent Noah, who was one of the stars last night and this was the Kentucky Kids game. This was Travis Perry and Trent Noah just coming up huge for the Wildcats at just the absolute right time when Kentucky needed big buckets or big plays. Those guys came through true freshman and there were guys who have gotten minutes in the past and had some moments, but this was really the first game where they did it together in
such spectacular fashion. With so much on the line, Wildcats need to keep pace, need to play for bracketing and seating in the SEC Tournament. In the NCAA tournament and Travis Perry three for four from the field, two for three from outside, Trent Noah three for four from beyond the ark and a couple of free throws, so he knocks down eleven points, Travis gets eight. They combined for nineteen points on six of eight shooting five of seven
from distance. And in case you're wondering, Travis had a turnover, Trent Noah had none. So true freshman playing like that for the hometown team. We all know the backstory. Perry was a late ad for CALIPERI didn't really want him, but took him. Noah was going to South Carolina and when Caliperia leaves, he decommits and then commits to Mark Pope Anita. One of these guys is going to be
a first round draft pick. Very likely, maybe they would well, who knows, but they fit the style of Mark Pope's team. And what did they come in handy last night? So did Kobe Brea, who has played much better defensively more minutes because Jackson Robinson's out four of nine from the field, three of six from distance, scored eleven big points at a couple of assists, zero turnovers, two steals in thirty three minutes and a guy who has improved that defense.
But after the game, somebody asked him about the dead eye shooting of Trent Noah true freshman.
His preparation, you know, just so the fact that he's coming every single day since he's been here, and he's putting like the hardest work, you know, like something that every single day you know what you're gonna get from him. And it's like not just in games, but the practices. Man Like, he goes hard all the time. And it's like things like that, you know, they go a little bit unnoticed, but it sounds like this, this is where you get to light.
On that a little bit.
And Mark Pope after the game talked about how hard Noah and Perry had been working. In fact, he told the story about how the night before the game, he's in his office and it was after ten o'clock and he might have been meeting with Aim at the recruit But the bottom line, I think he did say that
he was well. He didn't mention him by name, he couldn't, but he said he looked out the window his office, of course overlooks the Joe Crab practice courd and there's Travis Perry after ten o'clock at night down there getting up shots. But he just said that's just normal for that kid, for this group, for him, for Noah, for Colin Chandler, the other freshman who played last night played well.
But you know, people keep asking on social media about the substitution patterns, and look, put that out of your mind because there isn't a pattern. This isn't the NBA. Well, there is definitely a substitution pattern for every team, at least early in the game. But what happens with this team, especially giving the injuries, is Pope is subbing as needed. You know, maybe Trentonah doesn't belong in a certain game with certain matchups, maybe he does. Maybe Perry fits better
here or there. And plus Pope's still learning about these guys, and these guys are getting better every week, so they're proving the Pope. Hey, I'm ready, I can go play. But that's what's really I think difficult about this Kentucky team. You take away Jackson Robinson, they still play well. You take away Lamont Butler down the stretch, they close out the game. They don't win every game. They played poorly at Ole Miss but since then, defense much much better
and that will carry this team late Final fourteen. Probably not a team that can do some serious damage in the postseason. You better believe it and you sell why. Last night, we'll hear from Trent Noah. Next six point thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Coming up in just a few minutes, we'll hear from Sean Woods, the Unforgettable guard. He will break down last night's when over the Tennessee Balls. We'll talk a little bit about the South Carolina win as well, and look ahead to
the Wildcats next outing with the Texas Long Orange. But I will tell you guarantee Sean like what he saw last night, not just because of the windy bike, but because the defense was better and Lamont Butler was back. And if you were with us last week and really all year long, you've heard Sean Wax poetic about Lamont Butler, the Kentucky point guard and an outstanding defender, and both of those labels matched Sean Woods during his playing days
as an unforgettable at Kentucky. In our next hour, we're gonna hear from some of the members of the seventy four to seventy five team. They got together. They were honored over the weekend at the South Carolina game and then they had a reception both before and after the game. But I was invited. It was very kind of Jerry Hale, who was a guard on that team and one of the super Kittens, to invite me to come to that get together. He said, you know, you were one of us,
and actually it was very touching to me. But I was in school at the same time as these guys. It was my second year at UK and I was writing sports with the Colonel. I covered that team, and I've stayed in touch with so many of those guys since. And Jerry's great wife, Pat is a tear and now is retired teacher at Henry Clay High School. She taught my children. So a lot of those guys stuck around
part of the community. You see him at games. Of course, Jack Gibbons on that team and now the color analyst for UK Radio. So I just loved that team, and really a lot of people did. And they got to the final four. They got to the championship game where they should have played Louisville for the NSA championship, but Louisville blew it against UCLA, had a lead the entire game, and John Wooden out foxed his former assistant Denny Crumb, and UCLA pulled out the game. And then you know
the story. He announced his retirement right before the Kentucky game and they go on to beat the Wildcast for Wooden's last national championship. So coming up, we'll hear comments from some of those guys who were after reception, and I guarantee you they like what they saw last night. Also next hour, our West End Bureau chief Gary Moore will talk about the win over Tennessee. After the game. He heard comments from Mark Pope. But Trent Noah did
media after the game. One of the Wildcats. You don't get everybody, but he was an obvious choice. And then he sat down and talked on camera privately with Jeff Goodman, who works for the Field of sixty eight website, among others. Jeff's been on our show before. He is a national college basketball writer and if you know his backstory, you know that he and John Calipari clashed and I had Jeff on my show. I think it was three years ago.
The Kellen Grady team whenever that was preseason, basically right before there, just as the season began, and Jeff admitted that he and Cali Perry had had some problems, but he claimed they had smooth things over. I don't know that they were or are or ever will be completely smooth, because, as Goodman said, he tried to have me fired. This is back when Calipari was at Memphis. I never did
hear Cali Perry's side. If it never will, not that I wouldn't mind it, but let's just leave it at Goodman is not a huge CALIBERI fan, but he was in Reperena last night and I think his daughter was with him, and he did an interview with Trent Noah after the game and talk to Trent about what it was like for a kid from Harlan County, Kentucky to be such a big part of such a big win.
Tell me what's going through your mind because you've waited for this a little bit this year and you bang those three threes in the first half. What's going through your mind? And how much did you want to smile through that?
Yeah?
I mean it was awesome. I mean growing up a Kentucky kid and Kentucky I mean leaving blue all my life getting to watch the Kentucky Tennessee games, and now that I'm in it, I mean it is super cool and be able to hit a three in front of Reperena and it was like the roof blows off. I mean, you got to take a second and make sure you can still hear after the crowded RUPs. I mean it's so special to me. It's really cool.
You got the biggest salvation to night. And I'm watching it and I'm asking.
People around there, like, well, it's cuz he's a local kid, right, I mean could you feel it?
Could you feel how much? I mean this was crazy tonight?
Yeah, I mean it was awesome. I mean we had the best fans in the world. I mean, I mean, this is the mecca of college basketball. I don't know why anybody wouldn't want to play here. I mean it's great. I'm so grateful. I'm glad to be able to play and where Kentucky across my chests.
And you weren't supposed to be here for a while, right, You're going to South Carolina and then coaching change and you.
Go with Pope. What was that like?
And how appreciative are you with how everything kind of went.
Yeah, I mean I was just just trusting God's plan. It was a little tricky situation, but just trying to have on waivering faith and just to trust in him because his plan is bigger than mine.
So you hit the three threes, but you can't get the n one laying the game.
What happened there? Yeah, I gotta work on that.
I think I've been shooting a little to me threes. I need to go back to the fundamentals and work on my touch off the glass.
All right.
So Kobe's known is maybe the best shooter in the country.
Where do you?
Where do you stack up here on the shooter chart?
Here on the team? Where are you? I don't know.
I mean maybe if I can start getting some switches and drawing the big out to the logo and hitting the contested three, we can rethink it. But I mean, Kobe's phenomenal. He's literally the best shooter I've ever been around. I mean, it's lucky if it hits the rim half the time.
That's Jeff Goodman from the Field of sixty eight website, and if you love basketball, you might want to subscribe. I've had a couple of the writers on the Big Blue Insider and it's a fun read. So Jeff Goodman with a video interview as you were last night with Trent Noa. Next up of the Cats is a trip to Texas tomorrow night. The UK women take on the Longhorns, but this is at the coliseum, his historic Memorial Coliseum.
This will be historic as well. Third ranked Texas eighth rank Kentucky, although the Wildcats, unless they upset Texas, likely will drop a little bit after blowing that game down at Ole Miss Kentucky blew a double digitally and lost sixty six fifty seven. Kentucky just fell apart down the stretch. So a chance to bounce back for Kenny Brooks and his team At the seven o'clock Star Darren Heddrick has the call for you at six forty five with pregame. It will be on ESPN two. It's on the deuce
and it's going to be big. And now you're looking at the stretch run for the women because as always, the SEC tournament pops up earlier for the women than it does for the men. Six games left for these Wildcats after this, it's Georgia at home. It really gets tough now down the stretch. A trip to Missouri always difficult. LSU comes to town with Kim Maulke. That's on Sunday
to twenty third. Then Tennessee comes in the following Thursday, and they wrap up to the women with a trip to South Carolina on March second, and then it's a CEC tournament time. So it is stretch run for Kentucky. That's why that lost to Ole miss was damaging. Could hurt them, well, it might hurt them depending on what happens next in the bracketing, the seating, et cetera. Still been a great season for Kenny Brooks and the UK women, and it's a big one coming up tomorrow night with
those Texas Longhorns. We'll have it for you right here. Up next, Shawn Woods, the Unforgettable Guard, breaks down Kentucky's went over Tennessee on the Big Blue and Siders six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We are joined now by the Unforgettable Guard, Shawn Woods. He joins us every Wednesday schedule permitting. His jersey hangs in the rafters of Rup and the Coach. Last week we talked a lot about point guards and since then Canentucky manhandles South Carolina and you know you
kind of expected to win, but not like that. And then last night, of course, the win over Tennessee. Let's let's work backwards a little bit. In fact, let me fast forward to eight minutes and forty one seconds left to go in the game and Lamont Butler takes a bad spill. You and I spent a lot of time last week talking about point guards. What makes him good, what makes it tough when you don't have him. He came back the first and you had to love this.
He steals the ball first play of the game, but the next thing you know, he's down, writhing in agony. What were your thoughts?
Wow?
Just you know, I was looking at Mark Folk like not again.
You know, I've been there as a coach when one of your key players get hurt, you don't have him, and.
You know, and sometimes this team has shown miraculous character because every time when la Mott gets hurt, they put their head down. But then they just rallied, and you know, it never stops them from making shots, it really doesn't. They just do so many dynamic things from the offensive end, especially in South Carolina. I just think South Carolina was just a you know, that's the reason why they hadn't won a game in that sec. But you know, last night, shoot,
you know, we show some resilience. You know you had you know, Tyler per I mean Perry and Rust the name come in and you know, makes a shot. You know, they're still not good on the defensive end. I mean, as soon as they made a shot, they came back down on the other end and got taken to the rack. But you know, at least they they they're contributing in some some form of fashion. And never whenever Kentucky is scoring the basketball, it helps the morale of their team
on the defensive end. It's just I watched you know, you get excited. Yeah, they hit a shot and next thing you know, the next play, their man takes them to the basket, either off a cut or you know what I mean. So they've got to drop you nuts. But you know, you got other players that are stepping up, and that's that's that's the true sense of a team. And you know, last night was a character win. I really believe it's a character win. And this team has
shown great character all year. You know, we knew that there was gonna be some games you know lost. You know, they weren't run the table and go und see them. But they've shown me some resilience after losses, you know, and dealing with some adversity with injuries and finding a way to win tough SEC games under the circumstances. That's big.
Yeah. And you know what I've always tried to remind myself and other people, and you know this because you lived it. SEC teams are not afraid of Kentucky. They're not intimidated by Kentucky. They may come in and get a little intimidated when Rupperna explodes like it did last night, but these are guys who have spent a lot of their career preparing to play not just in the SEC, but against Kentucky and measure themselves against the big boys.
You know, non conference games, you may have teams come in for the first time. Wow this is Kentucky.
Wow.
You know SEC teams are like, okay, yeah, we played you last year and the year before that. We have you at our place. You know, we got you at your place. Let's go. And that makes it a bigger challenge, doesn't it.
Well, that's what makes conferences much more different than pre conference, you know what I mean, it's a whole new ball game because everybody knows everybody, you know, and anybody can get beat on any given night in conference, no matter if you're the worst team. You know, lookal was won and whatever, and he beat two major fos. You know, he comes into Kentucky wins, he wins the other night, you know, So you know that's that's the beauty of
conference basketball. And guess what, Kentucky's in six or seventh place in the SEC and they're still ranked fourteenth in the country.
How about that?
So you know that that that that lets you know that you know, those ko every every win in the SEC is the quad one win for the most part.
Yeah.
Well, you mentioned when you lose, you don't drop, you don't drop a.
Whole You mentioned Arkansas refer to them, uh And we talked before about how without Boogie Flann they've kind of had to go to a more balanced attack, and honestly, it's helped them. And that's one thing, Sean that has impressed me about this Kentucky team. As you said, when they've needed that resilience, they've made shots. But as an opposing coach, you know, how do you prepare? Yeah, you know Kobe Bray can shoot it. You know, this guy
can do this and that. But while they don't have any superstars or first round draft picks, they've got balance. And now you've got two freshmen coming in off the bench, scoring crucial points, making huge buckets. What an advantage, isn't it.
Well, it's a It's a great addition and a welcome edition because you need somebody on that bench to come in and contribute because of the injuries and things that you're going through. But sooner or later, you got to get better. And this is this is this is sooner, this is later. Now, you know, sooner we weren't getting that contribution. Later we are, and thank god they're coming.
Their confidence is rising at the right time. I'm talking about the two freshmen because you know, you go all year, you're practicing against these guys, you get a little taste of game experience. You don't play as well, but if you're a basketball player and a competitor, you're gonna get better. And I just think the two freshmen are getting better. I think they realize, Okay, if we get the chance again,
we're gonna make the best of it. And really their thing is everybody's saying, you know, they only play well when they make shots. Well that's the truth for the most part, because they're not great defenders, but they're contributing. And that's all you want from a person coming off the bitch, give me something until we get our guy back. We just need you to not turn the ball over, be serviceable, and do what you do. And your biggest attribute to this team is making a shot. Just do
your job. And both of them did their job. They hit wide open shots, they kept them arale going, and they had a major part in them beating Tennessee last night.
We've talked before about how when you got here you are a guard who took pride in defense. You actually wanted to be good defensively, and that's at least half the battle. As you know, you know, you can't be a good defender if you don't want to be a good defender. But what is the toughest thing for most high school kids who really, quite frankly, probably aren't expected to play much defense in high school because if there's the team's best player, you don't want them in foul trouble.
So when a kid comes to college and you handled many, many true freshmen. What's the great challenge in getting a kid to learn how to play defense at this level.
It's not only learning how to play defense, it's really competing on the defensive end when you never had and you never had to do because you were the best player on your high school team. Your face then want you to get a foul, trouble, so on and so forth because he needed you on the court. It's that it's something that's missing, Like, man, I got to compete this hard to play at this level defensively, and my coach is demanding me to do that. You know, it's
a it's a different mindset. I don't care, you know, I don't buy the thing. He's not good enough to play defense. He's not athletic enough to play defense. That's blowny. But defense is hard and grit and determination and competitiveness, and whether you are step slow laterally quickness or whatever, you got to have some type of pride and a guy that's not going right by you and you're just giving up. And then when these scores you throw your
hand up. That drives me nuhing, you know what I'm saying. It does it you know, and and and and and and and and and and I'm not and I'm not giving nobody excuse. I hate it. I don't like it as a coach that you don't compete on that level. You hit a jump shot and you come back down, your man just takes you without giving you a move straight to the basket. That's that. That's you know what I mean, And that you're good enough to get me
beat as a coach. Yeah, yeah, you make a shot, but but you come back down on the other end and you get taken. That ain't good enough. You know what I'm saying. It's not yep. And you know we still got to get better on that end. Yet you come in, you make shots, you got a guard on the other end. You got to give us something that's right, and you're not giving us nothing. The minute you scored, they come right back and come right at you. And
you scored, they scored. Nah, that's that's, that's no excuse for me.
Well, they couldn't come back, couldn't come back on Arkansas because they couldn't string stops. But they were able to get enough stops against Tennessee last night justin enough. We'll talk about that more on the other side of the break with Sewan Woods, the unforgettable guard here on the Big Moon Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Seawan Woods, who is a Jersey hangs in the
rafters of roup. We talk with the me each in every week, and of course we're talking about the Wildcats went over Tennessee, which came a few days after the blowout, went over South Carolina, which, as Sean points out, the worst team in the league, although it's a team that played several teams, had Florida beaten into the last three seconds, played Auburn tough, but Kentucky. Everything went well for the Wildcatching in South Carolina, but then no Jackson Robinson against Tennessee.
But everybody else comes through, including two of the three freshmen. Can't forget about Colin Chandler. He's a talented freshman as well. But we have been talking about defense, and this is the time of year when it really gets crucial, as you know, Sean, because that's how you make your runs in the tournaments by stopping other teams at crucial points.
Something that has puzzled me about Kentucky, and maybe it's just that I don't understand what they're trying to do defensively, but I feel like, and this is just to me a civilian, there's not enough help side defense. You know what I'm saying. What am I missing here? Why am I right?
Okay, you're exactly. When guys drive, there's no help yeah, you know, And those are defensive principles that we got to get better at. You know, kids are too good now and then they can carry the ball to really be great on ball defenders. But you gotta have up the line defense. You gotta have help defense on the other side, week side defense, and we struggle with that, you know. So that's something that we got to work harder at and pay more attention to, especially in practice.
But my thing is Tennessee is contrasting styles. The Tennessee style of play Kentucky style of play is always going to outscore a Tennessee because Tennessee doesn't shoot the ball great at all, right, you know what I mean. So, no matter what, Tennessee always going to have a problem with a high scoring team unless they turn them over a lot, which they didn't do last night. And two,
you're not gonna be Kentucky at home. If you're not a good shooting team, I'm just telling you're not not interrupt, You're not going to And I I thought that no matter how good Tennessee is, they can beat everybody else. I just think they can't beat Kentucky because the style of play. They don't shoot it good enough to beat Kentucky.
And you know that's what happened at Tennessee. No matter if Butler didn't play or not, we have enough scoring still without Butler to outscore Tennessee because of their lack of shooting.
Speaking of shooting, I really felt like first of all, and I mentioned Butler stealing the ball at every beginning of the game, but I felt like that absolutely it did.
And then from the start he's like, okay, I watched you last game and on from the bench, I know how to get you, and he got him the first time. And that's techa tone. Oh my god. I couldn't watch it because I had to do the Henry Clay Douglas game last night. But I came, I rushed home and my wife had it waiting for me. I put it on and I watched it because I knew they won. Yeah, and the first play I said oh, I said, I
see why they want my man. My favorite player in the country, the Mott Butler is my favorite player in all the basketball. And he posed his will on my on one of the better guards in the in the in the sec from the jump, and that was it. My man was broken.
And I felt like, especially early in the game.
Uh.
You mentioned setting the tone, I thought Kentucky was better defensively, more active with their hands deflections that didn't always work out, but you guys charted deflection. Rick Patino made that popp He still is at Saint John's charting deflections. Uh. I felt like Kobe Bread took another step forward defensively.
You know what I mean, Kobe Bred. He's not because he's been labeled as a bad defender with some times he is, and I just think it's effort more so than anything else. But he's crafty. You can tell that he's older because he's got old hands. And what I mean by old hands is he steals balls when you least expected. He's a good stripper, he's a good deflection guy on the ball. He's a good guy ripping the
ball when you're going up or bringing it up. That that comes with experience, so the lack of everything else. When he that tells you that he can play defense when he really wants to. That that's what it tells me as a coach. I've seen you play defense. It's a matter of want to because you're too valuable to our team on the offensive end to not give us the effort that we need from you on the defensive end. And I thought last night may have been one of
his best defensive games. And that tells me right then and there where it told me a while back, you're capable, you just don't do it like you're supposed to.
You know. Yeah, Kyle Macy told me a long time ago, uh not long after he had retired from the league, and he played in the league with six or seven years. And we know, Kyle not the quickest guy in the world, not the fastest guy.
In the world.
But he said, you learn how to play angles. Yeah, it's it's you, just it's the smarts. You refer to this right at the beginning today as we were talking about learning what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. And I think these guys, you know, they'll never be one of the best defensive teams. In America. But they're getting better, right.
They're playing good enough defense to offset their offense. They just got to continue to But what like I'll tell you before matchups makes games and contrasting styles and the way Tennessee's team is built and the lack of shooting, consistent shooting. They will always have problems with this Kentucky team this year because they don't score enough from the three to be Kentucky. That they just don't. And we
have enough three point shooters. One guy like Jackson, Okay, he was out, but Brea, you know, everybody else joins the party. From a shooting standpoint, that's one thing that that this Kentucky team does. They shoot the basketball every day.
That's the most important thing that they do. But in order to win a national championship, but get to where you're trying to get to in the postseason, you gotta tighten that defense up because if you don't, okay, you know, three games, you gotta win three games, and and and and at the SEC tournament, can you stay hot for three games? If you don't, you're not winning. You got to win four games in the NC Double A Tournament. If you not hot, one of those games you're going home to.
Get to the.
To get to the final, just to get to the final four. So can you stream those type of games in a row from a defensive standpoint, not an offensive standpoint, because offense is gonna come and go. Do you have the dig in you to string along three games in the STEC tournament, four games to get to the final four in the in the NT double A tournament. That's the question that I have right now. And you know what, You've shown me that you're capable. Last night. You showed
me that you're capable. Now can you do it on a consistent basis? And That's what I'm asking our cat to do. You are good enough Kentucky defensively if you just buy in and and and show grit.
Is it that.
Important to you if you go ahead? Because other teams are coming at you and even though you score points, the very next played, they knew where to go.
Yeah, you know.
And I'm not ticking on the two freshmen, but as I'm a coach, sure and I'm looking at it. Yeah, y'all score boom the very next play they can scored on us, right, not for three I'm talking about layups? Yeah, that gotta stop. You know what I'm saying. You hit a jumper, you man, you hit a jump shot. You're supposed to be fired up like you ain't getting this. You know what I'm saying. That that that helps him around defensively. That's where we got to get to, you
know what I'm saying. And Tennessee just doesn't score enough from the three to keep up with Kentucky on an assistant basis, but the other teams do. If you play there.
If you put much stock in Ken Palm, Kentucky has moved up. There were one hundred and something defensive rating. It's already up after last night to eighty second, which is good, not great third offensively so, but but generally teams that play in the Final four and the Ken Palm ratings defensively you're in the top forty at least. So Wildcats with a lot of work to do. Big game coming up this weekend to Texas, and whatever happens, we'll talk about it with the unforgettable guard Sean Woods.
Tell everybody again where they can hear you doing high school games.
They can go on YouTube and go to Glycodd dot com. And we got all the I do all the eleventh regions, all the Fed County high school basketball and it's been some great ones. Last night Henry Clay upset Douglas. Douglas has won twenty something in a row, was twenty three and two, and Henry Clay popped them the other night. And you know, now you got a big one on Friday night with Brian Station and Henry Clay at Brian Station.
You got Douglas at Stair, which you know, Sair has never been a major player at Sad County High School basketball and now they are. They are super competitives now as far as that's concerned. So you know this this district and region here and locally is gonna be a barm burner.
And it's similar to the SEC. There's no easy game out the game for excidy and there's some great players, you know, and the Jergger nut right now everybody's trying to get to is the team to beat is great Crossing who has a Kentucky sinee.
So that's right, uh haikaim Reno. And you got Henry Clay Bryant Station Friday.
I got Hereriy Klay Brass Station and also and uh well I may have Sayer and Douglas. But either or it's gonna be two dandies.
Like cod on YouTube.
Check it out, g l id O D.
Got it coach. Thanks, talk to you next week, okay, Dick Up next hour number two, we'll hear from some of the members of the seventy four to seventy five team that got together over the past week, and that's the team that made it to the Final four in San Diego. And of course, our Western Bureau chief Gary Moore joined us here on six thirty w LAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Our number two of our program coming up in just a few minutes at
the bottom of the hour. In fact, our West End bureau chief Gary Moore will join us and we'll talk about all things Kentucky football, baseball, basketball. But I wanted to share with you, as I mentioned earlier, so of the conversations I had with members of the seventy four to seventy five team honored at the Kentucky went over South Carolina. They didn't all make it back. Some sadly
had passed away. My man Reggie Warford, Mike Phillips, GJ. Smith, Kevin Greevy apparently took a fall and hurt himself and couldn't make it, but they were kind enough. Actually, Jerry Hale did to invite me to the postgame reception they had over at Malone's and it was fantastic. So I had a chance to sit down and talk to a lot of these guys. And I mentioned earlier I was in my second year covering sports at UK sophomore. My freshman year, I covered rugby and soccer, but I also
covered freshman basketball. That was the last freshman team they had. Patino had a JV team, but my first year at Kentucky was the last year that freshman could not play. The following years when Gibvens and Lee and Roby and Phillips came along and thankfully for Joe Hall, they were able to play as true freshmen and they The addition of those guys to the super Kittens, who a BYuT Enver seniors is why Kentucky made it to the final
four in the championship game. And you know the story blown out by Indiana and Bloomington in December, the head slapping incident by Bob Knight. Kentucky turned it around upset the Hoosiers in the regional championship game in March in Dayton. I was there and made it to the final four, where they lost to UCLA in the championship game after
beating Syracuse. But the super Kittens who came in and there were I think eight in that class, including mister Basketball from Indiana, Mike Flynn, Ohio, Kevin Greevy Illinois, Bob Guyett Kentucky, Jimmy dan Connor, Jerry Hale who was a prolific scorer in Indiana, GJ. Smith, a great shooter from Laurel County, and a couple other guys. Ernie Whitess who never who was hurt that year and transferred to iow
you never even practiced with a team. He came back for the reunion, but they just had a great time getting together telling stories. Don Atkins, who went on to coach Lafayette to a state championship, KHSA championship and now runs the shot clock at the thirty second clock at UK games. He was a grad assistant on that team, so he had stories to tell as well about Joe B and the team. Dick Parsons was there, of course.
Joe B passed away a couple of years ago. So it was a great time, and I had talked to most of these guys since then. We hadn't talked to him in a while, And I don't know that I ever did a sit down interview with Jimmy dan Connor. I'd interviewed him before Hit and Run for TV and stuff like that, but never for a documentary, never in a situation like this. See him at the games all the time. Jimmy from Anderson County and he had a chance to play for the hometown team and became a
true hero for the Wildcats. And we talked about his fond memories because I mean, and what does this meant to you to get together on this particular anniversary.
Well, it goes back quick, that's the first thing. But great to see as many of us to be able to get together and some friends and people who were involved back way back when it's like having your family reunion again.
I've talked to several of the players about this. But you guys had so many ups and downs as freshman and the conference champs. You struggle for a year, then the final four, but you did it together for four years and so many kids now are going to miss out on that in college basketball, aren't they?
Well, they really do. And we went through the highs and lows from like, as you say, our freshman year. I remember the headlines and Lexon Harold after we went thirteen thirteen's when does football start?
And uh?
And then to be able to come back our senior year and enjoy it like we did and uh. But the valleys and the.
Mountains and you could appreciate the highs of.
Absolutely and and to be able to be around your people that you did all that with.
Makes it great.
You played with Jim Andrews Jim's last year and he likes to tell the story about it. Coach Hall's the last days he he had a conversation with the coach about you all winning that conference championship when Joe was really under the gun, and Joe said he thought that may have saved his career as a coach a Kentucky Looking back on that, I mean, you were just a kid, but still that was that was a big time, wasn't it.
Well, how would you like to have the greatest basketball coach in the history of college basketball? With maybe Coach Wood? And it's an exception sit behind you ever game, so had his own TV show, had in his own TV show, and it good for Joe Hall, and you know, he persevered, and I think we're all it didn't kill us, so we all got came out stronger.
How much fun was it after that thirteen and thirteen year when you were one of the power guys on that front line of what's six or four? But suddenly you got Rick and Mike and Jack and James and now you're one of the best teams in the country. What was it like that that dramatic turnaround.
Well, I spent most I sophomore year. I was kidding Kevin Greevy. He wasn't the greatest defensive player, so I always had to guard their scorer on the opposite end, and you know, I'm guarding guys six eleven, six ' nine, And it was very nice to get back out into the guard position and not had to do that.
Joe b though, I know, appreciated your toughness. Did you guys bond over that?
We did? We fought a lot and but it I think Joe appreciate the fact that not only me but my teammates. The ball went on floor, we went after it.
One of your best games, but that North Carolina game, your senior you kind of caught fire and things weren't going so well early in the game. What are your your memories on.
That Well, I told the story, and maybe I'm not told it to you, but it was two days after we got humiliated at Indiana and the famous slap and all that, and so we were down by fifteen and Joe was not happy and he benched all the starters and maybe this is what happens when you've been there and your heart headed. I got in his face and said, what are you doing. You got to put us back in, and one or two things were going to happen.
It was.
And I was expecting a fistfight, because you didn't talk to coaches like.
That at that time.
And he got this look on his face and you know, so we'll get back in. I think he said get out on my sight. But thankfully we did and we were able to come back, and I think that was kind of a turning point. And we hadn't declared the captain for the season, and I came in and Bill Kighley, I said, what's the star on my pants?
Next game?
He said, were you a new captain?
I remember that story as well. Everybody knows the story now about the turnaround. I was there in Dayton when you guys beat Indiana and I think the Catspaus wrote about a Daryl Bird about Joe's message to you guys prior to the game about what to do after we win. What do you remember? But did you think he was crazy or what were your thoughts going back then?
And he approached Mike Flanner me and he said, I want you to shoot the ball every time you get it, which was not something that he told us, but he early offense. Yeah, and I was five for twelve at halftime and normally would have not said very well with Joe, and he said keep shooting it, but he saw something that we had to loosen it up a little bit. But the greatest memory of I think you've watched a lot of games, but I think I hope that it
would rank in the history of Kentucky victories. But to see the look on the guys who didn't grow up in Kentucky when we hit the state line and ever overpast had people and you know, I get teary eyed thinking about.
People asked me, obviously been around for a while, what's your favorite. That is still my favorite game. And I was a student when I covered that game, but just the enormity of it and driving back behind the buses when you guys did Kevin says that, yeah, you hated to lose in San Diego, but that was sort of your national champions It was, was it?
Yes? Yes?
And I got to know coach Wooten on a couple of occasions. What a fine gentleman. And but I told him, and I believe that if we played him ten times on a neutral court, I think we would have beat him eight times. And he disagreed, he didn't agree, but.
It it.
I mean, he did the ultimate coaching mood to announcer's retirement hours.
Before the Teppa.
Yeah, well, how much fun was it to get together with the guys and watch the Wildcats win?
Thank you?
It was great and it's always great to be back in family mode. And what separates UK from any place I've seen is whether it's fifty years or whether it's five years, the people are still appreciate it.
I's had a chance to talk with Marion Haskins, who was a reserve on that team and has always been one of my faves. Well, Mary, How much fun has this weekend been for you guys, because this kind of anniversary doesn't roll around very often, does it.
No, it does not.
I was really surprised when somebody said fifty years about fainted, and I said, I still only feel forty five.
How can it be fifty.
You guys experienced so much the ups and downs when you were at Kentucky, and kids don't get to experience it now they're not there. How long enough, Arley?
For four years exactly?
I think that we were able to come in, spend the four years, enjoy the four years, and be able to understand the program better what Kentucky basketball really means.
It's just state of Kentucky.
What did it mean to you as a Kentucky kid to come in and you know, I'm sure you wanted to play more minutes, but you were really a part of something special.
It's tradition.
I know that we was able to continue the tradition that was already had been going on here, but do we started a newer tradition that we saw that was needed for the state of Kentucky and Kentucky basketball, particularly with the minority players starting to come into the program. It was an asset for the home, the state of Kentucky, for Buffalo, for the university, and it created opportunities for US minorti players.
Well, the last time you and I sat together in a situation like this, we were putting together the documentary on Reggie and his son is here at the reunion with Ruth Reggie's warm up jacket on. That's got to bring back some memories.
Yeah, bring back some memories.
Well, I looked at that jersey over there, and actually I gave mine to my to my grandson. Yeah, my grandson, So did Dell share I have. I have four grandsons and they'll share that jacket.
But yeah, that was a difficult time. And Leonard Hamilton just now announces he's retiring. And of course he was a guy who talked Reggie the day he interviewed for the job into not transferring. So just the way things turned out is just really strange.
Is It's really strange?
You know, Coach ham You know he played a very important part of our seventy five team. He was pretty new coming into it to Kentucky's I think it might be in his second year, first year, I can remember, but he was a defense specialist and some of us played good defense, some of us didn't. I think you heard about the accolation day about Kevin today.
But anyway, it was great.
But yuh, Leonard is a great guy, great coach. We're going to see him play this year down in Louisville now when they played Little this year, a lot of us guys are getting together for the game, and he meant a lot to us, and he bought a lot of different things to the table for us, and so it was a fantastic actual.
I know you guys you missed Joe B. And I've been around you guys in the past when you got together, and he always talked about how he would hear new stories every time you got together. But then you guys heard stories from him, didn't you.
Joe B has all the stories.
He had all the stories, and we have a lot of story that we couldn't tell. Well, job By was alive and we can tell him now, But jo was job But it was great. He was a great coach. You know, at the time you're a young man. You just learned to grow understand what he was all about as you get to be older.
So he was good when you look back on that period of Kentucky basketball and now compared to where it is, knowing what it all means to the BBN, tell me about your appreciation for Joe taking over, for rupp amping up the recruitment of black players, dealing with that kind of pressure. It was unlike anywhere in the country. I got to think much greater appreciation now than back then.
Yeah, it was much greater appreciation.
But if you look at the times and the adjustments that these coaches have to do, it's probably not much more different. If you look at it, you know they're adjusting to this nil stakes. The stakes are higher, the programs are higher. You know, the states are different, but they are still very difficult for these coaches. They're very difficult and there's no way I want to be a coach.
Tomorrow night, in my conversation with Mike Flynn, who had a great NCAA tournament for the Wildcats in seventy five, to come on six point thirty WLAP, Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Thanks again to the guys from the seventy five team for including me, and again tomorrow night we'll talk with Mike Flynn, who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated after the Wildcats upset Indiana, and the headline was, and I've got this. I bought that
cover said the Wildcats crashed the Final four. And as Jimmy and Mike both told me, you know, Joe b talked about early offense against Indiana, don't wait for those big guys to get down the floor. You guys just keep shooting. And they did, and they both had tremendous games. And Mike, of course was an Indiana native, one of several you talk about Mike Flynn from that team, Jerry Hale from Indiana, Kyle Macy was from Indiana, Jim Master from Indiana, and Moore who came south to play for Kentucky.
You rarely, if ever saw anybody from Lexingon going north to play for IU. They might have played for Purdue if memory, but I know Michael Scarce did. But I don't remember anybody from Lexingon of any consequence going north to play for Bob Knight or any other coach at Indiana. It may have happened in basketball, football, maybe baseball, but not in basketball. A quick segment here, because we did go a little bit longer with Jimmy Dan and Marion Haskins coming up next as our West End Bureau Chief
Gary Moore. Tomorrow night, we will have a shorter show because of the UK women's basketball, the Wildcats taking on Texas in Historic Memorial Coliseum, and on Friday were from Jack Gibbons going into the men's game with the Texas Long Orange down in Austin. And we'll talk to Jack as well about the seventy four to seventy five team reunion.
He was such a vital part of that season. More to coom here on six thirty Wlap Welcome back to the Big Moon side of joining us now as it is Wednesday and the schedule is fairly normal, we have Wednesdays to ourselves. That means our West MBRCHI Gary Moore is with us and surviving this weird weather over at the other end of sixty four or at the west end of sixty four. What you got going on there, sir?
Two guys in a six pack, you and me six things to talk about?
Boy?
How great was it Reparena last night? On Man I loved every second of that except for the bad calls, but we won't get into that.
Winning the game, you know, Dick I don't know.
Maybe it's growing up in Kentucky from cradle through college, and maybe it's that fugly kumquat color that they wear, that awful He'll Billy song that incidentally has never been played at a men's final four. Imagine they signed promoting that last night.
I don't know if people knew that.
You know, it's all of that and more that makes beating no, sweeping that school down I seventy five in Knoxville such an absolute joy. I just can't see that enough. So just don't make us play him again in the tournament, all right, it's even kind of work around that. But number fifteen Cats five and one versus the Bowls in the last three seasons, why, I'll tell you why, cat guts.
Next guys up, next stud up. You're talking about a team that has been wounded for a lot of the season, but then the next guy's up, like, well, you got the Mountain Mamba last night.
Yeah, Trenton Noah doing his thing. The other guys.
It was a great team, team effort. And now UK gets to travel twenty one and thirty eight miles around trip to Austin to take on the Longhorns. Got blown out last night, and it'll be Saturday night, eight o'clock ESPN CAT. I love this stat. Cats have won five games already against AP top ten teams. That's the most in thirteen years since that twenty eleven twelve season. And I believe you and every Cats fan recall how that season ended up. It worked out well UK over KU championship game.
Yeah. And it's just interesting too with this team that the losses have come against teams that Kentucky should have beaten. I think that's that's a sign, of course, of a team still learning and trying to find its way, not just in the Mark Pope's system, but a team, like you said, that has had to show guts more than once because guys have left with injuries, guys have been left out of lineups, and guys who uh, well, like last night when Butler went to the floor injured, I thought,
here we go. You know, how's this one gonna end? And Kentucky goes on a tear and wins it. That's gutty, That's.
What Jay BILLI said. Now Mark mark it down here at eighth at the eight something when when he goes up, Yeah, thank you, we did.
Mark it, I said the same thing.
Beautiful.
Uh And by the way, U of l playing tonight. On the other end here, they're gonna be at North Carolina State. That will be I believe seven o'clock ESPN.
You talk about injuries with a team.
There you go again. Yeah, guys stepping up, got a guy knocked it, had some teeth knocked out. The other night.
He's gonna play man. Did you read about that?
Yeah?
How badly he was injured and waned again in a the next morning while he was while he was being.
Do you want to go back in the game because not five?
Well, while they're trying to fix his mouth, he's texting his strength thach, can I get a lift in tomorrow?
That's great?
Our second swig in the six Pac. Speaking of frequent flyer miles, last night, UCLA traveled twoenty twenty one miles one way to lose in Illinois eighty three seventy eight and the Big Ten. Now they're going to be playing Indiana on Fox on Friday night, but they could have stayed and played Northwestern. They're coming back in two weeks to play Purdue and Northwestern. Yes, how screwed up is I tell you how screwed.
Up this is.
On Saturday, Utah, the Big Twelve traveled across country nineteen hundred eleven miles for a Big Twelve loss at West Virginia. They stopped off on the way back to lose at Cincinnati last night. Now, you commented on a tweet over the weekend by a terrific writer who we like a lot, Dane O'Neill, who said, quote, I do love the irony of Fox and other networks on the insane travel that
teams endure for conference games. When it the networks is very hunger to create super conferences and content that created the insane travels. So Dick, I propose this every single time somebody on one of the networks just happens to mention during a game how tough travel is now for schools, and it's entirely because of the TV nets, Then said network of that announcer has to donate one hundred grand to every school in the conference that they're televising at that moment. That sound fair to you.
Sounds good to me, although they would just move quickly to shut people up. But yeah, I did retweet Dana's comments, and it's a shame you can't spell her word hunger with a dollar sign. But what drives me Nutscar and you and I have talked now for several years about stuff like this. I hate it when problems like this pop up. And my first response is didn't we see this coming? I mean the moment they talked about those teams even looking at switching conferences, especially a conference this
far east, is it was the travel. And you know Mick Cronin as you well know because you covered him out there and you're wearing a UCLA jersey right now just for fun. He can be a chore, there's no question about that. But he wasn't wrong right when he complained bitterly about the travel and the fact that the team's going west to east have it far worse than the team's going east to west. It's not easily fixable, but you know what, everybody involved in this formula has
a college degree. Figure it out. You've got to do a better job.
It was like hit and run with the administrators. The administrators who are making these that's right things for years down the road are going to be gone. In fact, one more, he is at UCLA who has engineered this with us season third swig and the six packs. So forget about all this snow and ice we're talking about that just passed through again. Forget about your heating bills. Forget about what that fat gopher in Pennsylvania predicted a week ago with all those creepy guys and top hats.
It.
Here's the surest sign, springs around the corner and headed to your face.
Dick.
Pitchers and catchers are reporting they're back.
They're already to hear.
In fact, Cubs pitchers and catchers showed up in Arizona on Super Bowl Sunday because they have an earlier start date because they're going to be facing the Dodgers in that Tokyo MLB season opener on March the eighteenth. They also play the nineteenth as well, so the Dodgers batteries
reported yesterday. Team we Like Cards pitchers and catchers reported in their Great Fruit League home of Jupiter, Florida today, all hurlers and catchers will be in camps by tomorrow, the first full squad workouts no later the next Tuesday. In the first spring training games coming up, Dick a week from tomorrow, February twenty through the Cactus League Dodgers Cubs, and then a day later in Florida for Tampa Bay and the Yankees. How ready are you I ask for baseball?
Yeah? Yeah, And you know, people who love baseball, especially in Major League Baseball, those are the sick words pitchers and catchers report.
Yep.
And somebody tweeted, almost like clockwork today, a clip from the movie Major League of Jake Taylor played by Tom Berenger, the weak need catcher, getting out of the cab at the spring training site, not knowing what lay ahead, and just say today somebody tweeted that last scene or the scene from the last game where he called his shot the home run and then lays down the say of the suicide squeeze and on those terrible knees runs the first base and sprawls out across. I mean, just a
great baseball movie. But just the scene from him getting out of the cab and that whole extended scene where all the guys were reporting, that just sets the tone, doesn't it.
It does our first swig. Also this week, Talking Baseball UK and Louisville officially begin their twenty twenty five seasons for baseball lovers on Valentine's Daymber twenty, UK twenty in the Baseball America rankings. I have my Baseball America, the latest copy here with me with all these preseason fun things to read about Cats. Nashville Cats this weekend the first of three in Music City with lipscumb Friday at
four o'clock. Then we got unranked Louisville jumping into the fire against a bunch of ranked teams, just kind of like the basketball team this year, unranked Louisville in Arlington, Texas not far more used to live Globe Live Field down there home with the Rangers. College baseball showdown up first Friday for the Cards number fourteen Texas. They get number thirteen Oklahoma State Saturday, and then they wrap up the weekend Sunday morning, eleven thirty with number twenty two Arizona.
And just like in basketball, SEC is pretty tough in baseball, UK is one of ten SEC teams in the top twenty five for Baseball America. So I ask you, how do you think the twenty twenty five Cats compare on paper to last year's World Series teams? Got a lot of new faces there this year, and also what happens Dick if U of l doesn't make the postseason again this year.
Wow, that was a shocker because we know what kind of job Dan McDonald's done over there. If anybody knows how to dig out, it's him. But your first question, it's hard to say, obviously, with thirty seven new faces, we don't know, no, but they seem to have the pieces in place, including an excellent shortstop. I mean Ryan Ritter for two years, Grant Smith for two years, and now Tyler Bell who was a second round draft pick and chose to go to college. He was the highest
drafted player who chose college, and he chose Kentucky. So everybody now who is a Wildcat, of course, wants to be a part of a team, a program that can return to Omaha. And what came through last year and really the last two years, teams have won regionals and last year won a piece of the SEC. They talked about how much they worked and how hard they worked in the fall and how they knew after fallball that
they were going to be good. And that's what the differences between one of the many between college and pro is. As we said, the pros are reporting right now. With the colleges, they were all working, including Louisville back in the fall. So you know, they've got a pretty good idea of what they have. Now they got to put
it together. And to your point about Louisville reminds me of when Nick min Jump first got here in seventeen and he scheduled a top ten team North Carolina right off the bat so he could see what he had, and he realized he had a really good group, and he spent the first half of the season convincing them, hey, you're good enough, let's get this done, and they did.
Fitzwig and six Packs seventy fourth NBA All Star Game this Sunday night, San Francisco, eight o'clock on TNT, rivaling the NFL Pro Bowl for irrelevance. This series NBA All Star Game is actually split up into a mini tournament with four teams three games. First team to hit or surpass forty points wins in each game. Game one as Kenny Young Stars against Charles Barkley Chuck's Global Stars. Then you have Game two with Shacks Ogs versus Candace Parkers
Rising Stars, Game one winner versus Game two winner. Obviously for some championship dough one hundred and twenty five grand for the winning players each, fifty grand for the second place winning players, and you get third and fourth place players with twenty five grand each, and after California taxes, it'll be but they'll get about twelve bucks to take home with them. Two questions for you, is that enough
of a financial tweak for players to actually play? And the other question is that enough of a tweak for a usually lame game for you to actually watch?
No? In a word, no, I don't watch the NBA All Star Game anyway. We've talked before about how baseball is the only really true all Star game worth watching because they play defense. I appreciate the All Star games because anytime people say, well, the NBA they never played defense to the playoffs, that's not true. And you can always point to the All Star Game that's NBA ball
without defense. But I credit them for recognizing the fact that number one, it's not going to be a competitive game because you know you're not gonna play d and back in the day when they did, it's because they needed the money. They didn't make generational wealth in the NBA. So any additional page, it's like the World Series in baseball. There were guys who made more by winning the World Series than they did their entire year's salary, so that's
going away. What I do like is the fact that they're exggituating the skills competitions, and that's what people want to see. They want to see the three point shooting, the dunk contests. Even though the days of Doctor J and Michael are well behind you, you'll still see an occasional great performance from a dunker. But it's a fun weekend. I give them that, and they celebrate their game, so you know, due respect to them, but I won't.
Watch sixth and final swig one last look at Sundays.
No.
Three peaked no Three time NFL champions since your Green Bay Packers sixty five, sixty six, sixty seven seasons. I didn't tune in the game, Dick until almost like three minutes to go in the first half. Over I had had a movie to watch. I was over about that time, and well, you see, and we've talked about this before even happened. This is like one of the Super Bowls, like back in college days when it was always the
Steelers in them, or the Cowboys or Miami teams. I don't care about so I didn't have any kind of invested interest in that, and echo what you said about the halftime show last week. It was not for us guys. Oh, choreography was okay, but look, we're not the demographic for this, and I for one don't need, I have no need to pay attention to any kind of Rap stars feud that's kind of garnished with what sounded like to me
Scott Gibberish. So a much better halftime show, by the way, for all people was during Puppy Bowl twenty one when they brought out the kittens for Marty Cloth theme with DJ Scratch And you know, I appreciate all DJs no matter what color their fur is. Did I will always say that Puppy Ball itself was beyond entertaining Team Fluff over Team rough sixty eight to sixty six, all kinds of offense in that speaking of no defense, it's my kind
of middle paw. The Puppy Ball is always my kind of middle paw to that upp of the upp of the Kennel Club stuff that's going on or that just happened this week, by the way, watch Best in Show, oh, instead watching the Kennel Club Show. Okay, because it's such a great movie. It's what Christopher Guest and the gang do such a that may be the best one they've ever done. That in Spinal Tapper the two of the greatest things he ever did.
Yeah, and we're gonna talk about that here in a minute. But uh, yeah, I enjoyed the Super Bowl because I kind of wanted to see what Saquon Barkley would do after the Giants splitting get away and now you've got a ring my Packers. Yes still and actually Packers did it twice. They did it once back in the thirties I think or forties, Okay, and then they did it again three straight. But yeah, it's it's uh, it's it's not.
You shouldn't be disappointed by the game because it was really interesting the way it unfolded, with the way Philly just jumped out and blew out Kansas City early, which meant a minimal amount of a take of a cutaways to uh Taylor Swift. Travis Kelsey had a terrible game. He looks like a guy who should be ready to retire. One of the biggest plays in the game came, of course, when Mahomes threw a pick when he was hit as
he threw. Well, one of the guys who hit him Kelsey whifted on his block right outside edge.
Good point.
Yeah, so he needs he needs to h to step down. By the way, you may know this already. I think we may have talked about it last week, but it's been tweeted more than once. Now. Ken Norton Junior not the only player to win three straight rings. Darien Cannard, the former Wildcat back up old lineman for the Eagles, won two with the Chiefs, then signed with Philly and now he's got a third ring and I think he's played in three regular season games per Speaking speaking.
Of winners, the Clydesdale's top ad in USA today again.
Yeah it was great. There were some good ones, but that was the heart Wrencher. There's no question, all right. When we come back, some hot reads for our west End bureau chief, Gary Moore here on the Big Blue and Siders six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider. Dick Gabriel with you joined by Gary Moore. He is our west End bureau chief. We've heard two guys in a six pack. Time now for some hot
reads for Gary. You mentioned and I think I just planted this seed earlier when I was preparing you for today's show. The Best in Show winner at the Westminster Kennel Club Doug Show. If you don't follow it, there are winners for each category, each breed, of course, and then the overall best in Show. I don't know how you judge it, but yeah, watch the movie Best in
Show you get a little bit of an idea. But there are documentaries about the Westminster Kennel Club show, and there are there are dog shows all over the country. This just happens to be the best known. But the winner this year gary a giant Schnauzer named Monty, which I always find fascinating when it's a dog like that that wins it.
I knew there were Snauzers, but I never heard of a giant.
I hadn't either.
And it's not that much bigger. It's not like it's like a Great Dane size. You know, you stand it up and it's as tall as you are.
But but there's there's another runner up. Third time. This is this is he's becoming the buffalo Bills of the dog show. A whippet known as Bourbon. What a great name, and of course the names are all five miles long for breeding purposes, and I feed pure bed. You have to do the same thing. But they always have basically a nickname or a short name. Another finalist to be Sean Freeze called Neil An e Al, a sky terrier named Archer and it ships you called Comet who had
been a finalist before. A German shepherd named Mercedes who came in second last year to be the English springer spaniel named Freddy. So Uh, they judge on how closely they matched the breed. You get a trophy, ribbons, bragging rights. Uh, but there is no cash prize Gary, just the bragging rights. But if you really want to know more about it, about dog shows in general, read a book called dog Land. It's funny and tremendously entertaining.
We said Springer sprain. My dad had some of those, and some spaniels for hunting dogs. Yeah, you want to see how well they do. Let some squirrels loose in there and see how they do it. I want to see that, and I see I would watch that.
I would watch that. That's a great that's that's a great idea. Turn them loose and see and judge them on the merits of how they chase the squirrels. Our second hot read. Indiana coach Woodson is announced under pressure he will step down. He's just not done a great job at IU. Looked like he was on his way, but it all fell apart. But last night Indiana upset
in Sparteland Michigan State. Yeah, which was a team that a lot of people thought was becoming one of Izo's best, and it denied Izzo the chance to the bragging rights that he has moved ahead of Bob Knight. Three hundred and fifty three conference wins, one more, he becomes the all time winner leader in the Big Ten. Tom Is was a class act. And I don't just say that because he's been on this very radio show, but it's it's interesting that it shows you don't have to coach
the lay Knight did to be successful. But do you think that and you get the Indiana coverage over there in Louisville because the pressure was off the Hoosiers that they were able to relax and play their best against Sparty.
Well you know that because you know the wife here is, as you know, is an IU grad. So watch a lot of Indiana stuff and they probably should have won at Purdue. They probably should have won at home against Dusty May, former IU manager in Michigan. Now, and they were due to win one of these games and they hit their free throws late, which has been kind of
a problem for them. And in fact, when they lost to Maryland, had they hit free throws at the end, they probably would have won that game that Maryland ended up winning on the court at IU. If they can't get motivated now to do some things for Mike and again, yeah, I don't think Woodson has done a very good job. He just seems to be very tired, and he wants to do certain things. I don't think he's embraced the current style of what college teams are doing. But now
this is on the players. You want to go out there. You've got the talent. How bad do you want it? And they showed it last night, So maybe we'll see some kind of a sudden renaissance and get him into the tournament. He really wants them to go to the tournament and go out on a winning note.
Why not.
Yeah, to your point was since said I can't let him quit and they had just ended a five game losing skin. He so we just got to keep working, keep pushing each other and see where it leads us. We've still got a lot of season left, that is the case. And you've just pulled off an eleven and a half point upset your dogs by eleven and a half.
And if that doesn't launch you, what else can? He is our West End Bureau chief, Gary Moorey joined us each and every week, and you can follow him as you well should on X the Twitter at.
As if I know where I'm going at nine to five to five Gary, same joint you're at.
At Big Blue Insider one. Thank you, Sarah. I'm enjoying your sweatshirt.
Glad I have a little sartorial elegance here on our zoom call.
Have a good week.
Got to do it thanks to Gary, thanks to Sean Woods, thanks to the guys from the seventy four to seventy five team. That's a good night for the garage and lexing do that's.
A joke, son, a flying waiver. You're built too low. A fast ones go over your head. You got a hole in your glove. I keep pitching him and you keep missing them. You gotta keep your eye on the ball, then.
Stating the back station.
To the.
Thing it don't don