Welcome to the Big Blue and Cider. Dick Abriel with you on a Thursday edition of our show. We'll be abbreviated not too terribly much though, because we have UK women's basketball coming up, not at the top of the hour, but at seven point thirty because the Wildcats are playing over at Miszoo and Columbia. So Darren Hedrick's pregame comes up at seven point fifteen, with tip off just a minute or two after seven thirty sec plus has it.
But of course we urge you to sing things up with our radio call with mister Darren Hedrick coming up in just a few minutes. Of course, we're going to talk tonight about Kentucky's win over Vanderbilt last night. That was a must win anytime you play at home, of course you got to protect the home court, but especially now with postseason, with postseason coming up so quickly, both the SEC if you've got to get that at least one by one night by and Indian say, rack up
as many wins as you can, but protect that home court. Yes, tough for the Wildcats because as we all know, terrible terrible injury problems in the back court and we may not see any of these three by the end of the year. I'm hoping we see Lamont Butler, of course, sooner than later. You got to think Crisa would be back by now. But I have no idea what's going on from here with him. Don't know if Butler's gonna need postseason surgery, you know, if it's torn labram or
just a spring or whatever. And every time I think about what Pope has said about Jackson Robinson, I just really wonderful'll ever see him again this year in a Kentucky uniform. So he just got to move on. And Pope again last night called it a new season. He's called it that before, not just you know, hang in there,
guys till the troops get back. But regardless, last night was a big win, and it was tight in the first half and looked like the first Kentucky Vanda and saw actually Vandy jump out to a big league Kentucky came all the way back, took a nice lead, then blew it. But last night the Wildcats really exerted themselves and imposed their will in the second half against Vandy. Now, Colin Chandler had a big game, no question about that.
We're going to talk about him coming up after the break, specifically because there was a lot of postgame talk about him from Pope and his teammates and Colin. Of course, I hope you heard his interview with Jack Gibbons. But early in the second half, I mean, the first several possessions, it was obvious, it was clear. I tweeted as much. You saw it, you heard it, Tom and Jack talk about it. Kentucky went to the bigs. Kentucky went to
Amari Williams and Andrew Carr. And it's not as though Vandy didn't have any size of its own, but Kentucky's bigs played really well last night. Andrew Carr looked healthy for the first time in forever. I mean, he's played, but he had that back injury. And Pope talked about how well Carr played at a time they needed it the most.
You know, for the last month, we felt like we've been without three of our leaders in Lamont and Jackson and Drew. And he's been working so hard to find his way back, and I thought he was brilliant. He really did look like his old, physical, attacking self.
The last two days were the first time where he had back to back essentially full practices, and I think he felt much better jumping back into the starting lineup, and I thought he was.
I thought it was really really good tonight. I mean, we all know this Andrew Carr that performed tonight against a really imposing frontline. That's a terrific defensive team. This is a really special Manerbille defensive team, and I thought he was terrific.
Pope also gave credit both in the media session and with Tom Leech to Angley Almanor, who was the guy who had to sort of take a step back, lost some minutes because he was playing a lot more. In fact, he started a game or two, didn't he with Andrew Carr either completely sidelined or slowed by that back injury. But he gave Almonor full credit for accepting his role. And when he said he went and talked to him about the fact that Andrew's going to start, get more minutes, etc.
He just said, all right, coach, let's go. And it worked out, didn't it. Amari Williams man I was a man played huge and Pope brought up, of course, metrics that can tell us just how well Williams is playing.
Guys we're witnessing, you know, we're seeing all these metrics right now where Amari right now is top five all time in the SEC in terms of PR forty minutes, top five all time, Like that's insane what we're witness seeing him do. He is, he is a unique player, and he's just getting more and more confident, more and more comfortable. He's getting more and more confident around the rim, where he's all you know he was he was not unstoppable at the rim early in the season because he
would get rushed. Right now, he's just like, yep, I'm just gonna go to work down here, and I'm gonna get to two feet, just kind of go to I thought he was brilliant tonight.
And again that's something that Pope brought up on the radio, but he gave more of an explanation. I guess he assumed the media folks it would either look it up or knew what it was. Par looks at average points plus assists plus rebounds per game all right now, he's
playing about twenty one minutes a game, Amari Williams. So if you do just rough estimates and round down, let's say twenty minutes a game is so double it right average, he'd be averaging twenty points, sixteen rebounds, and six assists per game. That's as good or better than Oscar she Boy numbers incredible. So when you look at how Vanderbilt went after Williams last time they played and did a good job compared to this time, it was a huge difference.
And Mark Byington, the Mandy coach, brought that up as well, or was at least asked about it.
Well, he's huge. You know, if he was six six, I wouldn't worry about it. But his arms are incredibly long.
He's tall.
We know he's going to his left hand. Everybody in the country knows he's going to his left hand.
Still tough to stop. And we were a little.
Undersized, and we didn't want to double because he's a great passer. So if you double, you know, then he gives up threes. And the first game we played him, I thought we did a good job of kind of keeping him from getting to a deep post position. Today he did a really good job, and like I said, especially in the second half. It was a problem for us in the second half.
Now, one of the things that Amari has done of late is play more physically and this has been a process, and Pope talked about this as well, because he's learning what he can get away with, essentially my words. You know, Pope talked about getting the whistle or whatever, but basically what he talked about was what can you get away with.
At Drexel, he was the biggest, the strongest, the longest, the toughest and planning in smaller guys, so no doubt within the eyes of the officials he had perhaps advantage. Disadvantage was throwing his weight around and they probably called more fouls. But in the SEC you can get away with a lot inside. My man Cameron Mills and I
argue about this. He hates the fact that, you know, they call hand checking out on the perimeter, fine, but that comes with officials looking at trying to stop a guy from getting where he wants to be in the middle in the paint, it's just about body on body contact. Those same guards who might be called for fouls for hand checking outside if they're inside, as Colin Chandler was banging around the rebound, that's not a foul, at least
not at the SEC level. So Marii talked about the difference now and what he knows he can do physically.
In that conference, it was like, you know, the charges, if you keep banging too much, they'll just droping. That's something I was always worry of my four years Batu, Like, now, no big is really going to do that. They kind of go pride and taking stand. So just knowing that and just knowing how to get around it is something.
I'll tell you.
It's got to be a lot more fun for him to be able to get in there and be as physical as he needs to be and make things work. Before the break, I did want to share with you comments from Pope about whether or not this team is where he needs it to be. Defensively, you know, just how good are they right now? They're better than you were. How good are they?
Well, there's a lot of roomment for improvement because we're not great, so but we're we're getting better, and with this new group, we're getting better. I thought, you know, Travis Perry had a really really hard job tonight and I thought he stood in there admirably, right I'm talking about on the defensive end. And Colin Chandler I thought was really really good on the defensive end and still you know, has a ton of room to grow up, and he's able to catch move time time. And you guys,
think about this. I have Trent Noah. I know Trent didn't make any shots tonight, but I have Trent Noah guarding Jason Edwards, their leading scorer a microwave score like five eleven. Jet guard for four and five minutes stretches during the course of this game. And if you had asked me at the be of the season if that was going to be the game plan, I would have said, no, never. But but it's been forced, honest, and these guys are
stepping up into do it. I thought Trent Noah gave us a really really special defensive effort.
I thought it was really great and that is what will take them where they want to be here as far as they can go in the postseason. They're gonna score. They're gonna run into a night though, and you've seen it where the shots that starn't falling. Can you get through by winning with defense? Early in the year, the answer, but this team was no. It was one of the worst defensive teams in the country, just like Caliperi's team
last year. It's getting better with every game basically might not look at always, but they're not giving up one hundred points a game right now. And we'll see what they do against Alabama. They're gonna need to control tempo against Alabama. Can they do that and can they win doing it? Obviously that's the question. And if they don't, well, you know, they may have a little bit of fun in the postseason, but it won't last long enough before
we get to the break. Comments from Mark Pope about the charity drive from last night, Don't Any Can Goods and raising money for the flood victims in Eastern Kentucky.
You know, giving supplies and giving donations a cash to the people of eastern Kentucky is really important right now. The website is UK Athletics dot com forward slash flood Relief and I've been in contact with Governor for share several times and and the the donations there one hundred percent, there's no administrative overhead. One hundred goes to serving these people.
It's going to start. The first bunch of money is gonna is going to be dedicated to to paying for funerals to the fourteen I think that's still the number, the fourteen people that passed in the flood, and then every dollar after that is going to go to immediate emergency services for these families. So we're just asking everybody if they can jump in. And I couldn't be more
grateful to BBN. We put a giant truck out there and it's full, and that just is man, it's an incredible commentary on just what Kentucky is and what BBN is.
I get the rupp Aerna fairly early when I go and last night I brought them can goods and I went upstairs to drop them wherever I was supposed to drop them, and there was a little hand cart there right outside the front door. Nobody e been let in yet, and I was just about to drop mine on the handcart. But who was ahead of me but Deb Moore, who's in charge of the pr for the basketball team, So she went ahead of me. I said, no, no, you by all means you got to go first. Because she
had a huge, huge bag. I had a smaller bag with three or four things in it, but she had a huge bag on behalf of Pope and the team she was dropping off to take out the truck. There were people already putting stuff in the truck. So it was really impressive what the Big Boe Nation did last night. All right, we'll talk about Chandler on the other side of the break here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back
to the Big Blullonsider. Coming up at a few minutes, Sean Woods will join us and break down last night's win over Vanderbilt. Sewn usually with us on Wednesday, but obviously we had basketball last night, and I will tell you he liked what he saw from the Wildcats. Then at seven fifteen pregame Kentucky women's basketball Darren Hedrick's got it katz in Missouri coming up at seven point thirty. Colin Chandler had his best game as a Wildcat last night,
no question. Only one of four from beyond the arc, but seven points, six rebounds, and a couple of assists, a couple of steels, two turnovers in what fifteen minutes. I mean, he was obviously playing with a lot of confidence, a lot of smarts, and a lot of heart, and he was happy that he played well and talked about the fact that his fellow freshman Travis Perry and Trendeou have had a little bit of success and they've kind of helped him along.
Yeah, I mean it's it's tough. I mean it's tough stepping in and especially in a league like the SECS and playing at Kentucky, there's a big adjustment to it. And I think we're all we're all in it together, and it's nice to have people to to relate to and and to talk to and to feed off of each other. And and so those guys have been a big blessing in my life eric Kentucky, and I'm glad to go through this journey with them.
It's been fun.
Andrew Carr, as we mentioned earlier, looking healthy, looking much better, also very happy for his young teammate.
I'm really proud of me that he really didn't know. Man, super proud of him. We're super super proud. You see how much he how hard he works and everything, and you know, it's the same thing for him.
It's kind of similar.
He really obviously wants to be able to step up and step into that role, and we knew it was gonna happen for him. He's been a great done a great job and practice for us. And so being able to see, you know, like you're talked about seeing those results on the floor is really special, and I'm really proud of me that he really didn't lost some job tonight.
You have to remember a couple of things. Chandler, for whatever it's worth, was rated higher as a high school prospect then both Perry and Noah. I mean, he had a terrific high school career Player of the Year in Utah and all that, but hadn't played organized basketball, especially at this level for two years. Did his church mission, right, So now he comes back and he's just trying to get back in the swing of things and like everybody,
trying to learn his new teammates. He's a really, really good athlete and he showed it last night, but it didn't surprise his coach, I guess. And leave it to Mark Pope to come up with an interesting analogy to describe just how well Chandler has been coming along college.
Chandler, you know, we talk about these bamboo trees. You guys know the deal about these bamboo trees. So if you think about a bamboo force, you know, a bamboo tree can grow up to I think the Guinness Will Book of World Records, it's thirty six inches in a day. I think thirty five inches in a day. What happens is they grow over time. They go these massive networks
of roots growing, grown, grown, growing, growing. You don't see it right, and then all of a sudden they shoot up out of the ground and they're going a yard a day almost, which is almost incomprehensible. That's a little bit of Colin Channel, like he's been growing big time roots and the place he made today he's been making in practice, and he is going to help us in a huge way. As we moved down the stretch. I was really proud of him tonight.
That was a really entertaining analogy. And I only know this about bamboo trees. Number one. When I lived in Dallas, there were houses that backed up to these busy thoroughfares like Northwest Highway is a big one in Dallas, really expensive homes. So in order to cut down on noise, people planted bamboo because it grew so thick and so fast, it was almost like a green wall of vegetation behind their homes. But a friend of mine used to live next to a noisy apartment complex, so he planted bamboo
to try to cut down on the noise. And all that well, it worked, except it grew so fast he had to cut it almost every day, had to cut it back to keep it at bay in his yard. So if Chandler's coming along as fast as bamboo, I thought that was a really interesting place for Mark Pope to go, describing Colin Chandler's growth as something that you might see in a bamboo forest. And remember, now, bamboo is not just like those fishing canes. It can grow
a foot around and really strong and thick. So you know, maybe that's the proper analogy. Who knows? All right? Coming up next, Sean Woods. We'll talk with us about last night's went over Vanderbilt later on at UK women's basketball Wildcats and the Tigers at Missou here on six thirty. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider this Thursday. Boy had basketball last night, so tonight we talked with the Unforgettable Guard showing Woods' jersey hangs in the rafters of RUP.
Last night, Sean Vandy comes to town, a Vandy team to beat Kentucky. As you know down in Nashville, I don't remember much of the game except I remember watching the ticket how is this happening? And then last night the first half of it kind of looked like a similar game. What changed at halftime? Do you think?
Well? First of all, Kentucky came out more aggressive defensively, I thought. And then two, you know, it's hard winning at Bandy. I don't care how good you are. I don't care how good we as a Kentucky team. They always find a way every so often every year, two three whatever to beat us at Bandy, and that happens. I don't care how good your team is. That just
happened at Bandy's. It just does. And you know, I didn't panic with that one, because you know, you never can't get used to that arena, You never can't get to the dynamics of it and things like that. So that wasn't big for me. I just wanted to make sure that we took took care of business here. Even though we're hurt and injured, we still got good enough to beat Bandy at home, and we were last night.
I felt like at one point Kentucky missed like eight of nine or nine a ten three point shots. I felt like they were working, they were hunting three pointers preps a little too much, just you know, my opinion. One man's opinion uh. And in the second half, clearly they thought let's attack the rim. They used the size, they used Car, that use Williams and and really went out and established things.
Did you see it that way, Dick, I'm gonna say this, It was like that. And the reason being because when you're scouting Kentucky you already know that they want to shoot thirty threes. Okay, So what you do is you get delusional on the fact that Alway can drive you. You get delusional that Williams is better than what you think he is off the bounds, taking it from coast to coast, or even just getting to his left hand. He's so strong, you know, to get that car can
score when he gets to his spot. So I think from a defensive standpoint, you put so much coaches and other teams put so much emphasis on the three point shot that they they really they don't really respect. They disrespect the fact that Alway and those guys can get to the rim and finish better than what you think. And like I told you last week, Dick, it's not a surprise that we're better defensively. We can play defense when we want to individually, and now that we've been
smacked in the face. We've been embarrassed a few games going that they can compete, you know what I'm saying, and and and that's what's happening. And I'm not seeing be the best defensive team in the country, but my god, compete. And that's what they're doing right now, and it's given them chance to win. And I thought that was a major part in the game last night.
We talked about the fact to your point, that they have stepped up the amount of work that they've done in practice on defense and it's paying off, isn't it.
Well. I think Pope has grown up a little bit too and realized that defense is more is just as important as that offense. And you know, you can't just practice all day shooting threes. You got to really defend, and you got to have defensive principles. You know, I wasn't seeing team defense. I wasn't seeing up the line defense. I really wasn't seeing just fundamental defense like help side and things like that. I saw it last night. And that's what you gotta work on, you know what I mean.
And I'm sure next year from summertime, whenever he gets you know, gets this team back together, with all the transfers and everybody, I would hope that defense would be a significant part of his workouts. Uh. And two, all you got to do is watch coach Patina. I'm just being honest with you. You know, you come in here and you say we're gonna be worked as hard and we're gonna be the hardest working team in America. Well that that goes on the defensive end, and you know, and
now you're doing it. But you you know what I'm saying, Hopeles, it's not too late, but you know it's one your game or two. But next year you got to really hone in playing defense teams defense, you know, really concentrate on that because Coach Patino is one of the worst shooting teams in the Big East, but he's the best, one of the top five to six teams in America because how tough they are.
And we'll talk about we'll talk about Patina a little bit more in the second half of the interview here because Sean and I have both been watching the documentary series about the Saint John's and the Red Storm. But where does where does this put Kentucky right now? I mean, you got two brutally tough games coming up. You got Alabama on the road, You do have Oklahoma which is struggling, but then Auburn comes to town. Uh, we're gonna learn a lot more about this team pretty soon, aren't we.
No doubt about it? And you know, not only we better defend, we bet it tough enough, and we bet a man up and we better hit that that that that weight room a little more, uh, these couple of weeks, because these guys are strong, they're massive, and they're relentless at chasing that ball. And then it's gonna be You think the beginning of the year was physical, now there's saying a lot of things on the line as far
as seating things like that. Guys are desperate and you see how hard these other teams are playing, you know, spec you know a lot of Texas, you know, desperate and were in that desperate mode too, of you know, trying to make a good run going into the postseason, and not only that, creating a defensive mentality and identity going down the stretch, because if we don't, uh, this postseason is not gonna be as good as we would like, and it's not gonna last as long as we wanted to last.
Either I did think I saw more health side defense last night, or was I imagining that.
You saw a little better defense, a little more health side defense, you know, And I thought I thought Vanderbilt really got out of character a little bit. But to to Kentucky's credit, they were trying ISOs on on Perry and whenever there wasn't help, they went right by him. And you know, Kentucky, you know, kind of a little bit, but it's got to be you know, it's got to
be often and all the time. You know, it's we got to be like that up the line, doing what our defensive principle should be doing in order for us to have a chance. And I thought, for once we were plugging up the lanes. We were hedging up the lane far as taking away driving lanes. And thank god them being on the road, they didn't shoot as good as they would have. Especially.
Uh, let's talk a little bit about Colin Chandler, a guy who had been away from basketball, if you can imagine, for two years from organized basketball. Uh So it's taking him a little longer, I think, to come around. Uh, but he clearly had his best game last night. He looks to me a civilian. Uh like his quart awareness. You know he's got he's got good physical skills, he's quick, and I think he's got a pretty good basketball IQ.
But from where I sat, his best game and it came a good time, didn't it.
No doubt about it. His best basketball is ahead of him, thinking, you know, we can't ask a kid. That's the one thing about having to take those Mormon trips and things like that. You can't sit out in today's they are college basketball man for two years and expect to come back and be a big time contributor. You know, it's already hard enough to train every day and still not be good enough when you're out for two years. Come on,
you know you're time off. You know, you really come out of high school so you haven't been coached and know the nuances of college basketball. The game's fast, guys are more stronger, So you know he's behind. But after this year, he's in a summer. I look for him to be a major contributor next year for this Wildcat team.
Yeah, you make that jump from first year to second that's pretty substantial, isn't it.
And I think Perry's going to be better next year. Too, just because he's better now. I don't know if he's gonna be a starter, you know, but he's going to be a more He's gonna be better defensively. I think I think he's gonna play with more confidence because I still think he's a little shaky out there with getting pressured because he gives the ball up too early. I mean, you get in him. He gives the ball up before he gets to Havelf court. That lets me know that
here to death. So he's got to get more confident in the off season, and they need to start playing pickup more. Yeah, you know made us in the off season. You know, these guys don't play pickup as much, you know, with their individual workouts. And that's one thing we're gonna talk about with coach Patina when you watch his documentary.
Individual instruction is key, and that's got to be just as much influenced in your day to day from a college basketball program standpoint than anything else because skill development is where it is. And I'm sure that coach Pope and those guys are going, uh, you know, put their individual instruction thing together and and and and make him a more confident guard to where he can withstand pressure and get across half court and sometimes, you know, fool some people and get by him and get to the
rim a little bit and finish better. So you know that there's a lot of growth with these young guys. But in the midst one thing they can do is if you leave them open for the most part, they can make a jump. So that them a chance, because if they couldn't shoot, they wouldn't you know what I mean, it wouldn't be the worst, wouldn't be touched on this team. So thank god they do that, and I think they're
getting better. I just hope that they can withstand and I hope Butler from what I'm hearing that maybe he can come back on Saturday. I don't know, but you know that Laborim deal that showed it there is it's tricky. And do you want him now against Alabama or do you want a long haul round a week or two longer to get ready for what's really, really, really important.
I know what I would say, but I don't have a vote, So we'll leave it at that and we'll come back and talk more with Sean on the other side of the break, including our thoughts on Red Storm rising that's the documentary series on the Vice Channel about Saint John's and Shawn's former coach Rick Patino. Back in a minute here on six thirty WIP Welcome back. We're talking with Sean Woods, the Unforgettable guard whose jersey hangs in the rafters of RUP and he and I have
both been checking out Red Storm Rising. It's the Vice Channel series documentary series. They got one going on John Caliperi, but also on Rick Pattino year old coaching. Before we went on the air, I asked you if you were having flashbacks watching because I remember once you told me that you thought Rick had mellow just a little bit, but eastounds pretty salty to me. What are your impressions of that series, Dick, I'm just.
Gonna be straight with you. That's coaching. That's why he's the best. Yeah, Nope. Long as he's got breath in his body, as long as he's got his core is good to where he can roar like he roars, as long as his mind is as sharp as it is, he can coach till he's on a hundred years old, and he'll still be the best coach in America. That is the best coach in the United States, bar none, and all he's doing is just giving you a taste of education on what makes him great. That voice when
it roars, Oh my god, brought back memories. You know, the f bombs that come out of his mouth, hot mouth, and he's spitting in your face and things like that. We used to put towels over our face all the way over our nose. Just the only thing was showing was our eyes because he becoming at you. And so sometimes those those those little bombs, those you know, spit bombs, hitting you dead, but he's dead on point. Everything comes
out of his mouth. His own point is strategic, and he challenges you and he hits you in the core and go ahead.
Coaching is more than just dropping F bomb. So what is It's not so much how he said, what about what he is saying? Not so much how he said. I know he drives it home with decibel levels and creativity in his language. But you know, I can't get out there and then try to teach people how to play basketball and think I'm you know, coaching, Well, if I'm cussing a bluestorm, what in fact does he say? What does he see? And how does he break the game down.
So well, Okay, what he does is he challenges you. Okay, he makes everybody uncomfortable about losing. That's his magic. Okay, when he's miserable, everybody's miserable. I'm talking about from the janitor to the s I D Person in the build to the assistant athletic director. Everybody is miserable. So and everybody feels that rap when he's taken a loss. So what he does is is just from day one, losing is bad. You know. Losing is like saying, you know,
I'm a gast god or something. I don't know, but he just yeah, And you know what, That's why he's the greatest because he doesn't accept losing at all, and he's going to find a way to challenge you and he's going to put you on the spot. He can talk to everybody, but he can be talking to you. It's like going to church and everybody's sitting in church and a preacher's preaching, but you thinking that this preacher is only talking to you. He's not just talking to you.
He's hitting everybody. And that's Coach Patino man, and that's why he's the best. He can get guys to play harder than any coach in America. This team is talented. Yeah, they got two guys that are really really good. He can get talented guys to buy in on that defensive bench to where their ball is the most important deal. And it's like train wrecks every single night when you play those guys and to be down as many as
he was. And if you watch that documentary and when he went in there and he said that speech, sixty five percent of kids today would that quit. He's got the guys that he wants and they can take him. Everybody can't. And that's a shame. That's where this world is coming to. That's why this team, as Saint John's is one of the top five or six teams in America because he's got one of the top five to six teams character wise who can take coaching in America
that can take him. You know, he doesn't dance around a kid, you know what I'm saying, because he can go in to transport, portal and things like that. So he is what college basketball, college athletics, and what young men need. They need constructive criticism, They need to be told the truth. They need to know that underachieving and being average is not acceptable, and that's who he is. We're buying it, it's not buying it.
And yet the portal has changed that to a degree, hasn't it. And if a kid doesn't like it and yelled at well, I'm leaving. You know there's somebody over here. He's got some nil money and he's going to be nicer than me.
Yeah, but you know, you in a basketball you in war. College athletics is for athletics is war. And when you ask the kid to play defense, come on, you think they will give you everything. Nobody, but but if there's a fear factor, you're gonna play defense. And you saw the kid I forget. The kid's name is from Africa. The kid that theyn't hardly ever played last night. I watched him play last night after Kentucky. This kid hardly ever played. He had double figures at halftime.
You're talking about the kid who transferred from kid Zubie what's his name? He transferred from Kansas because he wasn't Yeah no.
Not him, not the big fellow that wing that came okay, and he played his behind off last night just with toughness. You know, if you want to You tell me, Okay, I want to be a high major player. I want to be a Division on player. I want to play at Kentucky. Well, if you want to play at Kentucky, I grew up in Kentucky. I want to play Kentucky. Okay, do you want not? Just do you want to play at Kentucky. There's a price to pay when you come play in Kentucky. And what that is is you got
to play at a national championship level every single night. Now, if you can't do that, don't be mad because you're not playing. Don't be mad because they're going somewhere else and getting a kid that can do that. And that's where I'm at right now. Not knocking any of these kids, but man, what do you think this was? You can't guard, but you think you're good enough to play in Kentucky because you're a mester basketball. Come on, man, this is
a different level. If you're going against Jergen knots who don't care about that they're coming at your neck and you watch like Auburn and Alabama, these dudes don't care about that. They embarrass you, and Facatino's teams don't get embarrassed. They embarrass you.
That's extra motivation for the you faced it and the kids who play for Kentucky right now. It's taking them a little while, I think to learn it, but that's extra added motivation. And you know, everybody made fun of Caliperry, but he wasn't wrong when he said it's everybody super Bowl.
No doubt about it, no doubt about it, you know. And I'm so proud that finally these kids are are answering the bill a little bit because I didn't buy it. Don't tell me you can't play defense. Don't tell me you can't. You can't play harder than what you're playing. Don't tell me that a guy could just give you a straight line without giving you a move b line and he's beating you to the basket. You're not. Come on, I don't buy that as a coach, and there's no
excuse for me. You gotta have some will on your own as a competitor to play defense. You a competitor. It's like playing one on one. Okay, I'm not gonna let you score, but I'm gonna score on you. That's
just a competitiveness, and that's how you win. You can't you know just oh I want to play, you know, not playing no earn that deal because that guy that on the other side, you guess that could touch you across your chest and that means you're supposed to be better than that other team that got that name on their chests.
Well, we'll see if that plays out on Saturday when the Wildcasts play at Alabama. Whatever happens, we'll talk about it with Shawn Woods next week, the unforgetable Guard. And we can't recommend it enough. If you can find the Vice channel on whatever however you get your TV, it's well worth it. It's so good that Shawn Woods is having flashed Rick Patino flashbacks. But you'll learn a lot about Saint John's and uh, that's gonna be a team nobody wants a tournament time, am I right.
No doubt about it. Guess what else, Dick, he still makes those of minor suits look good too.
Don't Yeah, and he always will he always will. Sean. Thanks, we'll talk to you next week. Okay, coming up one more segment then we'll make way for UK women's basketball with Darren Hedrick All on the other side of the break here on six thirty, Wlap Welcome back to the Big Blue and Cider final segment of our program. We're gonna make way for Darren Hedrick pregame coverage of Kentucky and Missou Wildcats are in Columbia there and are behind us.
So that's a seven thirty start coming up some fifteen a pregame Darren and coach Kenny Brooks. Wildcats ranked fourteenth in the country right now coming off that win over those Georgia Bulldogs. Twenty and four. Now overall, Kentucky nine and three in the SEC, five and three on the
road in conference play. This is the best twenty four game start since the twenty twelve thirteen season when the Wildcats began the year at twenty one and three, and the UK Women on social media moved to graphic describing the success so far this year under Kenny Brooks and basically mentioned him as a Coach of the Year candidate nationally now if not SEC, and of course why not? And look, you can make the case for Vic Shaeffer Texas.
Maybe he does deserve it. I don't think anybody expected Texas to win the SEC, but we all expected Texas to be good. He's a really good coach. Has a lot of good players. So does Don Staley at South Carolina, and we know how good they are, although they've struggled at times this year. Lsu Kim Maulky. She'll always be in a discussion. I like to look at teams that are overachieving. Where were they predicted to finish projected and
where are they now? Nobody who covers SEC basketball the women's side expected this patchwork team to be twenty and four. I will tell you that people who follow women's basketball knew that when Georgia Amore and Clara Strack, but particularly when Georgia transfer to Kentucky following Kenny Brooks, they knew that was a game changer, literally game changer, a game changing move that meant wins for Kentucky. But didn't mean
this many. Did it mean eighty four fifty five over Georgia, which is not a great team but not a bad team. But yeah, I mean Aymore an All American twenty one points and seven assists in that one her twelve to twenty plus point game this year. Fifteen times she's gone fifteen or more points and five or more assists per game, most of any player in the league since twenty two three. Tony Key is coming on strong. Jeff pi Corral on the show the other night. Believe she's kind of been
my words, the secret sauce for this team. She had fourteen and fourteen, her tenth double double of the year against those Bulldogs in her third straight. Melia Hassid comes alive. She'd been struggling a bit. Kenny Brooks talked to A Darren about this on his radio show Monday night. Amelia's confidence was down a bit, her physicality was down. She'd been sick, but they didn't say anything about it, but she looked like her old self against Georgia and Dojor
Lawrence has been terrific all year long, first time. The Wildcats have won twenty games since the twenty nineteen twenty season, and Brooks led their tied the late Terry Hall is the quickest head coach in program history to reach twenty wins at UK. Terry Hall was the coach when the Wildcats won the SEC title back in eighty two. A lot of people think it was Debbie Yo. Debbie built that team. She recruited those kids. She recruited Valerie Still and Lee Wise and PJ. Hedges and Lisa Collins, and
they won a lot of games under Debbie. But Terry was actually the head coach when they won the SEC title. So there's a there's a vote. I don't have one for Kenny Brooks. Wouldn't be surprised if he won Coach of the Year in the league or nationally. You win the SEC Coach of the Year, you're absolutely up there in the national picture. But again, I could see the guy at Texas winning it a lot. There's a lot
to happen the next couple of weeks. Before we leave you, I need to share a couple of things with you. One of them is making the rounds on social media. If you go to Awful Announcing on Twitter or x you'll see a lot of talk about it. But one of the headline making sports happenings over the last few days was the Hockey USA Canada fights breaking out. Within nine seconds, Mark Pope shows video to his team to
hire it up for the Vandy game. You know, whatever you feel about hockey, hockey fights to me are boring the same thing over and over. You know, there's no technique to it. They're just slugging away. They all look the same to me, people love them. I know when the Thoroughblades were here my own kids, we'd be sitting up in the stands when my kids would run, like a lot of people run down to the glass and press their nose against it to watch the fights. I
just think it's kind of dull. But that's me, and you could take it out of hockey today. Warner Wolf used to say, this institute of rule, drop your gloves. You're out of the game. Period. They don't have fighting any Olympics, and Olympic hockey is great, but it's it's sadly or whatever you want to call it, a tradition in the NHL, in all hockey, at least professional hockey, it is. But Molly Karum on ESPN called it hypocritical that some sports are allowed to fight and others are not.
And there are those who believe that she was trying to invoke some sort of discussion about the fact that the NHL is predominantly white, and that she is trying to draw racism into the discussion. Maybe she was. If so, it's idiotic, because look, the NHL governs itself. If the NBA wanted to allow fights and assigned penalties as one person on Twitter said they could do that socad baseball, so could the NFL. It's you for better or worse. It's been a tradition. It's just silly to try to
turn that discussion into something that it's not. In my opinion, whether she meant that or if she did, trying to turn it into something it's just a waste of time. So again, if you want to follow up on that, go to awful announcing. It won't take you far. It won't take you long, won't take you far, and you're scrolling to find out right around the Draymond Green comments about how the All Star Game is a joke anymore in the NBA, But that's been happening for a while.
Before I leave you, I got to share one other thing with you. This is the strangest thing I've seen in a while when it comes to injuries, and if it's been out there, I missed it, So I apologize. But Dustin May is a Dodgers pitcher who missed a lot of time on the injured reserve list. The announcement came in July of last year. That May he would have been out since the middle of twenty three with the
torn flexer tendon in his right arm. We missed the rest of the twenty four season because of a tear in his esophagus. Yeah, in his throat. And I'm only now reading how it happened. The team said he suffered the tear at dinner one night and required medical intervention. Apparently in the La Times just had a story about this within the last week May publicly now it's explaining
what happened. He choked on a piece of lettuce. He was eating a salad at the Dodgers rehab facility in Arizona and began to choke and a very tiny piece of lettuce caused a tear in his esophagus so badly he needed emergency surgery and for the longest time couldn't lift waste more than ten pounds. So that's set him back in his recovery. It's not funny, but boys are bizarre, man, all right. Stay tuned out for women's basketball next with Darren Hedrick Cats in Missouri. That's coming on next on
six thirty. W do LA for you.
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