Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel with you in a frigid Thursday. Yeah, we knew we weren't done with this weather yet, but it's still a bracing slap in the face. And I thought I was done with my space heater here in the garage, but no, it's cranking.
You might hear it in the background, but that's okay.
We love being here and we love chatting with you. We wish that we could tell you what was going on in women's basketball with the SEC tournament, but we have to pre record. Not my choice, but we have to pre record, so I can't tell you who Kentucky's going to play tomorrow. We do know the game will be at two thirty and you'll hear it right here on six thirty Wlap it will be I believe two thirty is right. I think that's the first game of the session. Anyhow, just keep it right here and you'll
hear it. We'll chime in after the game's over. Of course, we won't know who won, because again pre recording, but Darren, we'll have the call for you and pregame will start at roughly two fifteen March. Madness is upon us. The high school playoffs are happening. It's a great time of year, there's no question about that. And overlap time, you know, you've got college baseball. Though the Wildcats game last night was called because the weather's actually called at ten am,
so good decision. Man, was it nasty last night? Not much better today, but yeah it is. It is a great time of year. And Kentucky men's basketball, as you know, wraps up on Saturday against Missouri. It's a noon start time. Although I'm already hearing people saying, well they're playing at eleven am. Well that's Central time. And look, when teams travel, their body clocks and it's.
Same for you.
Your body clock doesn't change in twenty four hours. The team will get there late Friday afternoon, and yeah, they'll have to get up local time, earlier than they get than they usually get up, but their body clock will be where it always is. The problem is, even if they were playing here at a noon start, so sometimes teams are sluggish in noon, Kentucky cannot afford to be sluggish at noon because Missouri is going to be playing its butt off. Yeah, they'll have a great crowd. Last
game of the year. But and whenever you know what happens when Kentucky comes to down. But Wildcats need to win. They need to try to keep that seating on the rise. They got to help last night a little bit from Old Miss, which beat Tennessee an incredible finish. And I was at our weekly card game, and there was a big Tennessee fan with us, and he had already resigned himself to the fact that a they weren't going to win the game, even though it looked for a while
like Tennessee would win. And B he said, it's absolutely not a Final four team, whereas early in the year some thought it might be. But you know, Tennessee just says a hard time scoring. And last night, ironically enough, you might.
Have seen it.
They had about six or seven seconds left and ole Miss had taken the lead, advanced the ball in a half court called time three seconds left, got a great shot from Millisic. He drove the ball into the lane, took the ball in the wing and didn't immediately jack it up as some kids would have done. Went into the lane, but one of the defenders for ole Miss swatted at the ball and it popped out of Millisic's hands.
Momentarily he was able to regain it but not necessarily control and kind of lobbed it up at the basket and it fell off the side of the rim. It was a heck of a finish of a really ugly game. But that's where we are right now. So I'm not going to go through all the possibilities like if what has to happen, then you know, I don't see. Really it's mathematically possible for Kentucky to get a five seat.
It ain't gonna happen because so many things have to happen that are very unlikely, but Kentucky could move up to a six or seven. So it's just that time of year. The key, of course, win more games during the season, you don't have to worry about that kind of thing. But really, we all thought Kentucky would be about five hundred in the conference this year, right, and given the injuries and Mark Pope has had to juggle,
I think it's amazing that they finished that well. But of course, before the injury started to pile up, Kentucky picked up some really impressive wins, including two over that Tennessee team and one over Florida, which last night won at Alabama. I didn't believe in Florida for a while. I do now that could be a Final four team that that was a really good exhibition of basketball, and Florida won it.
Last night.
While we're talking about the basketball catch, Jackson Robinson is on the finals list. And I'm not sure of the voting schedule, but the Naseman Hall of Fame conducts the voting for various and sundry awards named after the greatest players in the history of the game. And the Small Forward Award is named after doctor j. It's the Julius Irving Award, and Jackson Robinson is on the finals list, and even if he were healthy, there's no way he
wins it. With all due respect, that's going to go to Cooper Flag, but also Chad Baker Mazara from Auburn, Ace Bailey of Rutgers. Rutgers has two really good draft pick players.
Everybody else's mediocre. And then R J.
Lewis junior at Saint John's and if you watch that Red Storm Rising documentary series, you know he's become a heck of a player under Rick Bettino. So yeah, Unfortunately for Jackson, his time as a Wildcat is over.
But impressive that he's on the finals list for the Irving Award.
Some people are now chiming in quietly or loudly ken Pomeroy, who of course rates the offense and defense of all the teams. Maybe he's just looking at analytics. I don't know, but he believes the SEC is overrated, and he tweeted at and Danny Knell of course picked it up. He's a sportscaster for Serious XM, and I kind of like Canal because he's not afraid to speak his mind. I think obviously there's many times I believe he goes for clickbait listeners just to try to stir.
Things up and be different.
That's okay, I mean Skip Bayless got rich doing that. But obviously I don't agree with him, and I know I'm biased, but it was really interesting that none other than Greg sank clapped back at him. And this was before Florida beat Alabama on the road. But SANKI tweeted back at Canel and Pomeroy by way of Canal, and I know he has a staff of people helping him
with it. But Saki tweeted the fact that there are thirty wins against four losses against the ACC, and then he put wow, fourteen wins against two losses against the Big twelve, oh my ten and nine against the Big ten, and a thumbs up emoji, and then one hundred and eighty five wins against twenty three losses in non conference games, and then the emoji with the smiley face with the sunglasses, and then he goes with the stat that people threw out there, and since then they've had a lot of
fun with it.
He said.
I confess SEC teams have a five hundred record in games after January fourth, laughing emoji, he said. But then he said, sure, let's go with overrated. This is after Knell had tweeted following Kim Pomeroy's tweet, the smartest man in basketball is saying out loud what I have been thinking for the past three months. Thank you, Ken Pomeroy. Well, if you're going with heads up competition, they are wrong. And yes I cover an SEC team. I'm sitting here in SEC country.
But what more do you need. It's all about heads up competition, isn't it.
Speaking of competition, the ACC man, it ain't much but tip of the cap to U of L. They just keep on winning. They keep taking care of business. Eighty five sixty eight winner over Cal last night needed a spurt at the end of the first half and then they pulled away in the second half. They're going to be trouble in the NCA tournament. They're playing really well and obviously they have Chucky Hubbard and they're a team that has completely bought in to their coach the way
Kentucky has here, so got fun to watch too. Again, that's a quality win, and I know you hate it UK fans, but every time Louisville wins, that helps your cause when it comes to seating and things like that.
So when we come back, we're going to share the comment. You may have heard it.
Already, but I just really think it's great. The story Mark Pope told about the walk on who got in for half a second against LSU, the backstory on that, plus Jay billis on rule changes that need to be made, and I know you agree.
With at least one of them.
That more coming up at the bottom of the hour. We're here from Maggie Davis from BBN Tonight Hour number two. Darryl Bird of the Cats Pause wrote a great story about the anniversary fifty years since the Kentucky Colonels won the ABA Championship. And my man Brian Milin from WKYT and Hour number two as well here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big One Cider Dick Abriell with you coming up in just a few minutes. Maggie Davis of BBN mentioned before the break the zach Taus story.
That's the walk on who got in one of three at the end of the game, and I mean less than half a second left. And I hate it when coaches do this. John Caliperry used to do this as well. Mark Pope should have put those guys in. I'm thinking he had to do it again. He would have just to know the thrill, you know, and give them just something for the hard work they put in. That game
was decided, you know, the midway point of the second half. Anyhow, I'm not saying put him in then, But zach Taw was the kid.
Who joined the team.
Really it was kind of a surprise, people like, who's this guy, But because we knew about the other two walk ons, they had a tryout and he's the one guy who survived it.
And this is the only game he got in and Mark Pope told the story after the game, and it was great.
We randomly held walk on tryouts especially night, so a name that most people don't know is Zach Town and Zach Taw actually came to walk on tryouts. We randomly held tryouts, and he showed up and fought through sixty guys in a bunch of workouts and then earned the right to come to practice and be on a one day contract throughout the entire course of the season.
And he came and.
Battled every single day, never said a word, never missed a rep, never missed a practice, never was an issue, never asked for anything, just came fought every single day. And one of the highlights of the night was you know, I had some of the guys come to me about a month in fact. Lamon Butther came in about a month ago. He's like, man, I think Zach deserves a jersey. He hadn't got a jersey all year. He was on
a one day contract. And so in our pregame speech, Lamont had the pregame speech before the game today and he presented Zach with a jersey. The guys lost their mind. Zach was in stunned wonderment and that it's like I'm telling that story is a long way around your question about you spent spend one day in this jersey and BBN embraces you for life.
So now that kid has a story to tell.
But it won't be that he'll think about it in years to come, but we'll think most of all is any trips he was able to make, the practice sessions, the locker room, and the spent time he spent with his teammates. But I do love that story that guy you talk about defining the odds and getting into the game. So I just wish he'd had a little bit more, you know, and the opportunity to hear fans yell shoot when he got the ball. Jay Billis had it again last night he worked the Tennessee Alabama game.
We mentioned to you last night that he and.
Shulman will work the SEC tournament the entire tournament, so for the first time he usually worked the ACC But at one point, after another insufferable replay, he and Shulman were talking about rule changes that need to be made and I agree with all of it.
And a time out called by nadeoats.
One point seven seconds left.
Would you like to see them eventually change the rule where when you have timeouts in college basketball, you make it like the NBA and you could advance it to have fot same time. I would absolutely like to see that, but that's one where there's a lot of resistance to that among the college basketball traditionalists. They think you have to earn that real estate. I'm not one of those, but I'm in the reasonable minds can differ on that, but I don't think it's going to be changed anytime soon.
That the rules that need to change.
We need to go to quarters.
And where the only game of basketball played in the world that doesn't have quarters men's college basketball. And the reason I like it is if you can reset team files at the end of the first and third quarters, it's just a smart thing to do. And we have to change the replay rule, make it like the NBA. Give each team one challenge. If they get their first one right, they keep it for one more, and then that's a pit because we're the referees and it's not
their fault, it's the rule. They spend more time watching TV than they do officiating the game.
I have to admit I'm torn on the advance to the ball with a timeout rule. They do that women's basketball, they do in the NBA. It adds to the game, yes, but I am torn about having this billis said that earned that real estate. I could go either way on that, but replays, Yeah, we all agree. It's ruining the game right now. But as he said, the referees, they're not in charge of this. They follow the rules set up
by the universities at the direction of their coaches. If the coaches could get together somehow at their convention and figure it out, it would be best for everybody. But they've got to accept the fact, and so do the schools and the fans, that if you do away with all the reviews, there are going to be some calls that are not reversed and cost teams games. And as a friend of mine said last night, well there's going to be some of that where you actually win games too,
And he's looking at it from a fans perspective. I said, yeah, but coaches don't get fired for winning games. There will be games that they lose that ultimately could maybe not directly lead to them losing their jobs.
But they head.
Up, don't they If you can accept that we can move forward because now you're going back to human error in the human element in the.
Game if you do that.
So I'd be in favor of that, if everybody would agree.
Hey, Sometimes, like the Kentucky LSU game four or five years ago, LSU won on a tip and it was clearly basket interference and.
They couldn't review it. That's not part of the that's not on the list anymore now. It is.
That's a Kentucky rule. Not that they had anything against Kentucky or for Kentucky. It just so happened to kill Kentucky in that game. That's the kind of thing that happens. And as for quarters, yes, I tweet that every year at the first women's game. I attend over UK every year. I've done that since they went the quarters in the women's game. It makes zero sense, no sense none to stay with halves. It's so much better with quarters, simply because, as Bill said, you reset the foul situation.
What coach wouldn't want that? And you shoot fewer free throws? What coach, what fan, what official wouldn't want that? It makes too much sense. I don't know if there's one person or a committee or whatever in standing in a.
Way of this.
But it's stupid not to do that. Not the first time somebody in college athletics has decided.
To do something stupid. But why they don't I don't know. And he's right, billis is right.
Everywhere in the world they play like that except for men's college basketball. All right, A couple other notes before we hit the break. There's going to be a Happy Gilmore two. It comes out this summer, So congrats for all you happy Gilmore fans. I am happy about this. Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan are teaming up again. They're the brilliant minds behind thirty Rock, which I just finished binging for the third time. If you haven't seen it, get it, find it, watch it. It is literally laugh
out loud funny, not an LOL thing. I mean, I told my wife, did you hear me laughing in the other room because I was watching Tina face.
Show thirty Rock?
Apparently it's going to be a sports related kind of Eastbound and Down Show, a football version. Tracy Morgan will play a disgraced former football player, and Tina Fey is the brains behind it. And I'm thankful for that because she is brilliant. Michael Jordan's race team being sued by NASCAR, which calls it part of an illegal cartel, accusing his longtime business partner Curtis Polk, of threatening teams that consider leaving the conspiracy. Wow, that is a big headline when
it comes to the sport of Nascar. I mean, getting Michael Jordan involved was huge, But if he's part of something.
Like that, that's rough.
The Bengals are losing a veteran defensive end. Sam Hubbard is retiring at only aged twenty nine, but he's had a bunch of injuries and his season ended when he suffered a torn pcl against the Titans. And he did it when he made his first career reception. He caught a two yard touchdown pass in a win over the Titans, but on the play tore a ligament. He had other injuries,
so he said, I'm done. You might have seen his story last night that Jay Lucas is going to be the next head coach of Miami is Apparently he's already signed the deal, leaving Duke and leaving before the tournament. But you got nil and portal deadline's coming up, so you got to get.
On it right away.
He can't wait till postseason is over. That's just where we are right now in college athletics. Up next, Maggie Davis of BBN Tonight. A little bit later on, Darryl Bird of The Cash Boss talks about the Colonel's anniversary on six point thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Bluonsider. Joining us now is miss Maggie Davis from LAX eighteen BBN Tonight. You know, and I'm watching the coverage Maggie of Senior Night, and.
It's always special.
Of course, this one was unlike any that we've ever seen, we've ever covered, And when you think about it this season, and I know how much you've enjoyed covering it and covering these guys, and you all have done some really interesting feature stories. But we I don't believe will ever cover another season like this. In Kentucky basketball, when you think about the coach they hired, the former player, the reception, how he had to put this team together, the way
came together. It's really, you know, for a sports cliche, Lightning in a bottle, isn't it it is.
I'm just sitting here letting the wait of all of those words kind of sit on me because it is incredible when you think about it like that. And I had somebody tweet me during the game the other night and say, you know, just thank you to these seniors. This year has been like a religious experience for me. And obviously that's kind of an extreme example, but you know, I understand what that person is saying because of everything
you've just said right there. I mean, it really is that lightning in a bottle season, the culmination of so much that's happened over the last decade plus. Really, you could take it back two or three decades. So when Mark Pope was a player here, his rise to become a coach fit for a position like this, this program being in a position where it desperately needed that breast of fresh air. The fan base needed to feel that
connection to the players. They wanted to feel that connection from the players to the state, the name on the front of the jersey.
I mean, all of.
That has just been building and building and building, and then the clash of the transfer portal, and when Mark Pope gets hired and now all of this is allowed you can pay players now, So all of this has happened and it results in seven seniors all deciding to come to one program to play for a brand new head coach, but probably the best known, widest brand program in the entire country, the absolute most established fan base, and all of this is this fascinating, Just the position
to me of deciding, hey, we only have one year. All of us could be the star at our particular school, but instead we're going to spend this last year together to put it all in one place under one guy, and we're just gonna see what happens. And that's It's just been amazing to watch. And I'm not normally a dramatic person, but I am a sentimental person. So I've been a cry baby on senior Night since i was like eight years old at Rubberina, crying about just, oh
my gosh, the gravity of playing your last game. I can't fathom it as you know, a little eight year old, and so for me, you know, I'm a little older than eight now, but it still really gets me every year. I don't pretend that it was unique, that it kind of sat a lump in my throat the other night
when they played my old Kentucky home. Marlena Van, who's saying that at the game, which she's always fantastic, but to hear it in that way for these seniors on that night with this coach, I mean, it's just it's incredibly emotional, and I don't judge anybody who was emotional about it. Hopefully they don't judge me for that either.
Now, be honest, when when Pope handed to Mike and said to seniors they want to say something, do you think that they went to him and said, hey, coach, we like to say or d you say, fellas, why don't you talk to the crowd.
That's a good question. I say good question because I asked this question after the game, so putting myself on the back a little bit, but uh yeah, I had the chance to talk to otega O way after the game as part of the media scrum that everybody goes to, and we got to talking about his perspective of watching it.
He actually didn't get to see it. He said he was doing other media, so I don't know if he's gotten pulled off to a radio broadcaster or the TV broadcaster or what it was, but he actually was not in there on the court, so he didn't hear exactly what every senior said, but he did tell me that Mark Pope told them in the huddle when there was about a minute left the game, obviously far far far out of reach at this point, like hey, guys, as soon as this is over, we're going to talk to
BB and I'm giving the mic to you. You know, come up with what you're going to say. So Otega was just impressed that they all came up with some sort of coherent, motivational, short and sweet thing to say to twenty thousand people, because you know, I was joking about this with some of the guys after the game, like, man, you play in front of all these people all the time, but it's a little different talking to that many people.
Right, And they all kind of laughed and nodded like, yeah, I was a little nervous. I was, of course a little nervous, but I thought they did great. I love that they kept it short. You know, you just you need about twenty five thirty seconds.
That plenty of time.
And Mark Pope set them up perfectly with the comment of like we beat Lobull or sorry he started with Duke, We beat Duke. It was great. We came back against Gonzaga. It was special. And obviously we beat Los bull we all knew that was going to happen, and all the l's down. I mean, it was just it was such a great senior night. You couldn't have written it any better.
You know what else impressed me is the comments that the kids made after the games, the seniors and you know, we were all there when when they introduced themselves to us back in the summer, and we were all given access, which was so great.
Uh.
So we get a chance to just meet them, get a feel for them, and and you know we all asked the same or similar questions, why did you decide to do this?
Uh?
And all they did after this game last night or Wednesday night is reiterate, you know what they said, just the chance to to where the jersey, just a chance to be a part of this program, which they all, in one way or another said they had admired from Afar for so long. And and you know, none of them use the word, but you could tell they envied the kids who were part of it. And you know, I'm guarantee you that that some of them, for lack
of a better term, maybe even fantasize. But what must it be like to be a part of that basketball. Here I am at a mid major program, or even Lamon Butler. Here I am at this really cool campus. I've been to San Diego, SA. I don't know if you have. That would be a great place to go to school. And he goes to the final four, you know, and yet, golly, what if I could play for Kentucky And all of a sudden, as one of the players said,
all of a sudden, here I am, you know. And it was the same sentiment in August that it was Wednesday night, wasn't.
It It was?
And I love that point. I think it reminds all of us why it was so emotional offt sight. I mean, it's easy to say, oh, it's the last time, right, the last time anything is tough, right, the last day at your job, the last day of school, any last is tough. If you're moving if you're just moving on, it doesn't matter. Everyone experience is that, in one way or another, that's very common. That's a very understood experience.
What's not a very commonly understood experience? And exactly what you're just describing guys who dreamed at their whole life. I mean, I remember talking to some of the guy you brought it up over the summer about specific players they'd watched, and I remember Ansley alma Are rattling off all these players from New York that he loved, the New Jersey area, Otega, It's the same thing. And you know, Laman Butler's like, man, I just love John Wall and he was the point guard here and now I'm the
point guard here, Like that's crazy. And I actually I talked to Kobe Breyer this week about just this, and he kind of shook his head. He might have said this previously, I'm not sure, but he told me this insane story that you know, he was at high school trying to get recruited, trying to figure it all out, and his high school coach was basically asking him, you know,
where would you like to go? And Kobe says, well, I'd like to play at Kentucky and his high school coach just looked at him and said, man, you're never going to do that. We're going to try to get you a D one offer that's as good as we can do. You need to be realistic, you need to lower the bar. And may we all say thank you to Kobe Brea and everyone involved that he has never lowered that bar for himself because you know, it wasn't possible for him as a freshman. It didn't work out
right out of high school. As coach was right about that, but his coach was absolutely wrong that he wasn't going to be a good enough player to eventually earn a spot on this team and be a real contributor, not just in a game or two here or there, but consistently all year. And they're going to need him in
this postseason two. So to hear that story in this context right ahead of Senior Night, I think made Kobe really emotional to kind of reflect, I'm like, man, like I knew he was wrong, but now everybody can know he was wrong, and I just I love that story. We got to tell some really great stories this week on BBN tonight about all these seniors, and obviously, Big Blue Nation has just fallen in love with these guys. I mean, you and I could just sit here and
talk about it all night, and they're great. There's so many stories like this because they've been so open and transparent and personable really all year long, and I think that's part of the reason why this fan base has just fallen in love with these guys. But what we
wanted to really showcase that spirit. Right, it's easy to sit down with the players and talk about it, and we hear from them so much, and we're grateful for that, but I wanted to kind of put spaces and names with some of the fans who admired these seniors so much. So that's what we were able to do on VbN tonight.
We found one senior or excuse me, one fan or one family that really had been impacted by each senior that was honored the other night, plus Kirkrease that we included him too, even though we didn't go to the festivities, but included all seven of the seniors who are technically listed as seniors on the roster, and it was just incredible to see all the different ways, big ways and small ways that these guys have really made a very lasting impact even though we only got him here in
the Bluegrass for one year.
Talking to Maggie Davis of BBN tonight, we'll come back and talk a little more basketball and some football with Maggie in just a minute here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Maggie Davis, the ghost co anchor, co producer, just a little bit of everything for BBN tonight. You see it on LAX eighteen and BBN Game Day, and I'm wondering, we all got a big kick out
of the LSU game. That is not a very good team we know, I don't know if it will be again in the near future, but we know Auburn's pretty damn good and we saw that the other day. I've got to admit I was doing baseball. I come home, I watched the game, the recording of it, and I remember thinking, Man, these guys look rattled. These guys look a little intimidated. Did it look that way to you? You know it did.
I'm glad you said it like that, because I had the same feeling. I was in reperrena for that game, and it didn't necessarily feel like that from the jump. I've seen a lot of people sort of, I guess, speculate that they felt like the players came in with that feeling. I didn't think that was the case. The first five minutes, six minutes or so, I really felt like KA touched right there. Auburn obviously scored the first
points of the night. But it was back and forth for the first half of the first half, but it just got out of hand toward halftime. But even with that halftime deficit, you said, all right, it's not looking good. Aubert is clearly a very good team, like Kentucky's going to have to make some major moves if they want to come back in this one. But anytime we've said that this year, the obvious but is that's exactly what
happened against Condega. And so there's a real concrete example we point to every single time Kentuck's staff at half times, and it's really easy for everybody to say, well, they were down eighteen in Seattle, and what's what happened there. So I think even though there was that deficit at the half, there was sort of this consensus of Auburn's a better team, but you never know, we've seen it
happen before. And then the first five minutes of the second half were just an actress and there was there was certainly no coming back from that. So to me, it was that was the part of the game where to meet the cat boots rattled because and Mark Pope said this himself right after the games, or maybe the day or two later when he did media sort of follow up media that it was because of Auburn's pressure. It wasn't takeaways. There weren't steals. It wasn't something that
Auburn was doing defensively. That Kentucky turned the ball over six times before their first made field goal in the second half. It was just mistakes that you don't typically see guys at this level making more than one in a blue moon, and Kentucky was dribbling out of bounds, throwing it where there was nobody positioned. I mean, it was just mistake after a mistake at a mistake, and so to me, that is emblematic in my opinion, of
a team that was in fact rattled. And now in hindsight, we know that they had just found out that Jackson Robinson was likely out for the entire year. I think you know that's maybe was on their minds a little bit, But at the same time, it was disappointing to me to not see them respond better, specifically after halftime.
Yeah, let me shift over to football, because I don't think you were there when Mark Stoops spoke and I'm sure you looked at the video that was manner from heaven for you guys to fill your show. But what did you think of Stoop's mood, his attitude, the vibe that he gave off at that news conference, at his first news conference.
Of the spring.
I think he did what he's supposed to do. I think that's the attitude you bring into a new season. You have to be uplifting, you have to be excited about your team. There is a little bit of raw raw that's always necessary. I think that's especially going to be the case this season. There's no doubt about the fact that the fan base down. I mean, he won four games last year. They didn't win a single SEC
game at home. And that's disappointing, not just for the season ticket holders who sat there and supported them every week, but for the fans who tune in from home, or who listened to you on the radio, or who watched bb in tonight week night to seven thirty. Shape of plug as you like to say, but it's the whole fan base was disappointed by last season. And I think that it's good that Mark Stoops is acknowledging that because you can't hide from it. So I think it's fair
to say, yes, we were disappointed in this. I also think it's fair that now, as we do look ahead to the next season, you eventually have to make a concerted effort to turn the page. And that is easier said than done, because there is always holdover. There's always what about this? What about this? I don't want to hear about the new quarterback because I heard that about
the last one. Or I don't care what Mark Stops says about the schedule being tough, because the schedule was hard last year and it will be hard the year after that. Absolutely, all that's fair, All that's valid, and I can't take that away from fans who feel that way, coaches who feel that way, media who feel that way,
et cetera. But I do think that in order to truly fairly cover a new season from our perspective, and for March Stoops to fairly discuss it as the head coach, there's an element that's needed of just truly saying, okay, let's talk about what we have this year, what's on the schedule, who's on the roster, what do we need to see from the spring specifically, and then we look ahead to the fall springs. Football is so tough in general, I think because we don't see them that much. There
are no games. We do get a little bit of a view at the team and some sort of if there's an open practice or some sort of spring game, but we all know that that's pretty watered down. If the public is viewing it or the cameras are coming in, you don't have a really good look at what is here. Yeah, you hear a lot, but you take that with a grade of thought regardless. I think people are going to
take it maybe with two grains this year. So that's going to be interesting to follow just how the fan base reacts to the spring season as a whole, when it really has always been about talking about the team, talking up the team, pushing you know, these freshmen are going to be great coming in. The new transfers have been awesome. He's gonna say all that again because he has to. What else is he supposed to do? And we have to cover what the coach says. You know,
we don't have to agree with everything that happens. We have to bring that information to fans to do with it what they will. That's what I'll be interested in the reaction that springs specifically.
Yeah, and you know, even if there were a spring game, you're not going to get an accurate, like you said, not an accurate depiction of what the team's going to be like. But I always like to say the one thing I can tell and I'm still waiting for the chance to play and coach Division on college football.
I'm sure you are too.
Uh, but when you go to practice or a spring game or whatever, you can see who's throwing the ball well and who's.
Catching the ball without dropping it?
Uh, you know, and that's a lot, that's a lot, but just it's another it's another restart, you know. Although the bright news is you've got a year under your belt, year plus with bush ham Dan with the OC. He's not rushing in here learning people, and they're not, you know, scrambling to learn his offense.
That's big, it has to be.
And honestly, like they all need to have a good season on the offense. And we can talk I just this and I'm just going to counterdict myself right here. But it is a tough schedule and yet you still have to find ways to take advantage of it because another year with four wins is it going to be acceptable? Really? Top to bottom, especially when you've just I mean, you've
said it perfectly. You don't have that. Oh well, the offensive coordinators knew again, and we didn't know that we were going to have to replace Liam Cohen, or we didn't know that this was going to happen, or this is going to happen. Like you fully know who's on the staff, who you got out of the portal, who you have coming back. The freshman you have coming in
is an enormous class again. So it's just going to be interesting to see how it all plays out once all of that kind of settles, and I think what the offense specifically needs because the defense has been settled for a long time. That's a whole different conversation. But for the offense to settle and really just be what it is, we're not going to get that in the spring, and so it's just going to be starting to put
the pieces together in whatever way we can. And I hope that Bush Hammon is open and honest and transparent about how it is going and how it is looking, so that there's not another year of let's talk about how much better the offensive line's got, how great all the wide receivers are the quarterback is the next well Levis you know, there is an element of excitement and being positive and motivational without just setting up these expectations if that's not going to be how it shaped out.
Of course, injuries happened, change has happened, whatever. But I do think there's going to be a balance to this spring, specifically on offense of building some excitement while also being realistic and finding somewhere in the middle for the fans to really settle.
Well, and you mentioned it, I mean when you look back on it at how close Kentucky came. Seriously it was last year to having a decent season, not ten wins, but a decent season. Those two seven wins seasons should have been more and they were closed. But and I'm not pointing fingers with anybody specifically, but it all goes back to the old line in my opinion, and there are other areas you can point at, but it starts
with the old line. I thought we expected too much this past year, maybe the last two years from them, and now it's.
Going to be probably four out of five new starters.
Yeah, I think so too, And I think that was the major focus. If you want to look at it this way in the transfer port walk, and that's where they've got the bulk of this transferportal roster. I don't know that for sure. I would assume Chunk, Stubby and il budget went just fixing that room and buffing up not just the starters, but adding some depths that was really lacking the past couple of years. And again it goes back to consistency. Having the same offensive line coach,
Eric Woolford is expected back this year. She'll be working under the same offensive coordinator once again, and even though we have so many different pieces in theory, they're operating under the same offense, the same system, the same big picture, and it's just helping develop guys into the big picture, regardless of whether they're a freshman that you want to start building that depth with from the beginning, or they're a tradesfer that's coming in maybe with just one or
two years left. How do you make them most of the time that you do have with that guy? All that's going to be important this year. Big Blue Wall absolutely a huge piece of that.
She is Maggie Davis.
She is the co host and producer and just does everything along with Keith Farmer. And all the gang overy X eighteen for BB and tonight BBN game Day. Thank you so much, ma'am. And we will see you at a ball game somewhere.
Absolutely Nashville, here we come. Will I see you down there now?
I'm here doing baseball.
Well, what's support man?
I love the overlapt weick. Thank you so much for having.
Me all right, see you up next to nowur number two Darryl Bird of the Cat's Pause on his great story about the Kentucky Colonels of nineteen seventy five fifty years ago, AB eight champs and Brian Milem of WKYT that's all I had on six thirty Wlapata.
Tact tact showing then backed OUTSI.
Welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider and joining us now in our celebrity hotline is a guy who it seems like every time I talk to Darryl Bird, it's about something cool that you've written again.
You know, you wrote the book Onlon County.
You wrote the book on the seventy five season anniversary a few years ago. You and I talked about that great Mike Pratt, Dan Issel, Mike Casey team that might have been and now you take aim at the fiftieth anniversary of the Kentucky Colonel's ABA title. It's the only essentially major league championship in the history of the state of Kentucky. And I, you know, I grew up in Louisville, as you know, and what the Colonel's games. Love seeing that team play showing my age. But I like how
and the piece ahead of it. You mentioned the fact that it takes more than nine thousand words to tell the story, but that's.
Worth it is.
Oh, it was.
It was.
It took easily north of nine thousand and for those listening, a typical game story might be four or five hundred.
Yeah.
Yeah, and it was easily north of nine thousand and gave Kenny you can appreciate this. It was two things. As a reporter, I was scared to death. Someone else is going to figure it out and write about it and beat me to the punch. I was terrified the whole time because I did the interview with dan Is on in October and I was sitting on it, waiting at it. And number two, you know, I realized said, Okay, it's a fifty the anniversary's really cool. I remember when
I was a kid in high school. So I called Dan Infel and I said, this is the deal. I want to do it. He said, come on, So I loaded up. I went to Denver and spent three over three hours in his house at his kitchen table, and I had a copy of the book that Gary West wrote I think early two thousands, Kentucky Colonels took it with me. He hadn't seen it, or he hadn't seen it in a very very long time, and that's basically
how the story unfolded. He's flipping through the book and every photo he's like, oh my gosh, I remember, and just story after story after story kept coming up from that, and that's and I had to At the time, I didn't have a copy book. I borrought my friends here and love now and Dan had asked about getting coffee, so I was texting him and I'm texting so surreal. I'm sitting at Daniszel's kitchen table, and he was so gracious with his time, and just the stories were great
and the best part of me. You ever had those one where you're doing the interview and you're like, there's my lead, no doubt. It happens a lot if You're lucky it happened. He's slipping through the pages pretty early on. Look at it. There's a lot of photos in there. He goes, oh, my god, my sword and my refrigerator. What he said, my sword and my refrigerator. I said, okay, that's what I got for being MVP of the ABA All Star Game. It was a four foot warrior sword and a refrigerator.
I never knew that.
And I was like, okay, there's my lead. We're gone from here. And that's how it just ripped off from there. And it was so much fun and hard. But you know, the ones that are really really hard to write always ended up being the best ones.
You know, I can't think of another team, and I'm sure there may be one or more out there that were more perfectly constructed or suited for the state of Kentucky and the city of Louisville.
When you've got and they were smart. The ABA was really smart about this, uh.
And you know the NBA used to do it, but basically, if there was a really great player in your area, they did everything they could to make sure you got them draft or no draft, and you know, you got Louis Dampier Darryl Carrier.
Uh, you know, and and dan Issel, I mean, who's not going to go watch that team? It was great.
Yeah, Danissel made sure he went to the Colonels. Yeah, because he said And when he was at UK, he got a call from Cliff Hagen, of all people, another Kentucky connection, who was player coach of the Dallas Chaparral. He called Danny, said Dan, just want to let you know we have your draft right. And he said, well, I appreciate that, but I'm only playing for one team in the AVA and said two weeks later, I get to call him. The colonel said, congres Dan, we have your draft right.
I love that.
And you know, of course Hagen was was part of a similar situation, you know, when he was in Saint Louis round the Boston at his draft rights and but he's part of that trade for Bill Russell. You know, it wasn't exactly by the book, but he worked out for Saint Louis, they won a championship and clearly worked out for the Celtics. So, uh that that's one of the great side notes to pro basketball back.
Then and beyond.
But uh, yeah, I'm so envious that you got a chance to do that with Dan. He's one of my favorite people. He was my first childhood college basketball hero.
He and West Sumship, you know who was a little prejeting him a little bit.
I remember the first time I met danil So. He was talking to Ralph Hacker and a couple other people at Memorial Coliseum and I went walking past him and he reached that big arm out and grabbed me and up my hand, and you know how strong his handshake is, Oh yeah, yes, and he says hello, mister Gabriel. And I'm thinking, Dan Issel knows my name and it's just and has turned into a bit of a pal through the years. So I envyew that that opportunity. But what
else did you pull out of that interview. I know we've only got X amount of minutes, but people.
Needed the thing that was little. I was making sure I had a University of Kentucky connection, and you dig into it, and yes, he had Dampier and Mike Pratt was with him for a while and so forth. And I didn't realize at the time the original Kentucky Curls their uniform color was Shartreu's green. Yes, and when they got Issel. When they got to Isle, they changed to blue and white. They're idiots.
Yeah, there were no.
Idiots at all, and there almost wasn't was no Kentucky Curls that year because they sold the team to a group in Cincinnati. And that and the next day he told me that the next morning, John Y Brown comes down for Brett, he's one of the five alerts. Came down for breakfast and his son is crying that He says, he's got the morning paper. And the son was distraught
that the colonels were leaving and John why. He said, John White looks it and he went and bought him back, got it back just because of that.
Wow.
And that's kind of how I ended that. He realized. You know, the more you go through it, you think, well, that was fifty years ago, but it touched a lot of people and still does to this day. I see a lot of people can relate to that. It was really cool story.
I seem to recall a story that his son suggested that they go get ted McClain ted the hound McLain right here at Tennessee State. It was like the final piece of the puzzle for the Colonel's championship team because he was such a great defender.
M Yeah, there had a couple of lockdown defenders.
Oh yeah, you're right.
Yeah, yeah, you're right.
And more recently it was a bad boy kind of guy. But now with the Colonels, you know, I mean, he was an enforcer, but a general giant. So many great names.
Yeah, no, kid, and got that. Asked, I did take the opportunity, I said, okay, I said, was the ab Aba really as crazy as as everyone led? He said it had tame down a little by the time that I got there. He said, but yes, I said, I said, the Miami Floridians, the cheerleaders were in bikinis. He said, absolutely, that is true. My worst shooting Knights were we're at Miami, let's put the ballgirl directly under the basket with the
opponents were shooting free thrower. Yeah, it was crazy. And I said, okay, there's a Will Falls movie semi pro yes, about two that crazy wrestling bears and all this stuff. I said, factor fiction. He said, that's the whole lot, closer to a documentary than it is entertainment. He said, Yeah,
there was bear wrestling in Indianapolis. There was there was all these crazy things, and I didn't realize or maybe I wasn't paying attention that there were so many fights like every he said, it was more like a hockey match. Every every team. I said, you're kidding, Dan, He said, no, every team had an enforcer and it was their job when a fight broke out to come out and help. And if they were on the bench or on the floor, there was their job. Ron Thomas, Louisville player was was
the Colonel's enforcer. And Dan told me that he got into a fight one night during the season with Linder Ladder, of course, and he said he punched it, hit him flush on the jaw. Sid. I don't know if I hurt him, but I hit him hard. He swung by kim me in it put like three or four cut that made the three or four stitches in Dan's jaw. Wow, and said, And after it's over, he came over to Ron Thomas. He basically, quote unquote, what the hell were
you when the fight broke out? And he said, didn't you hear the ABA is going to find us twenty five dollars for leaving the bench?
He said.
He said, the next time there's a fight, you get your ass out there and I will pay you one hundred dollars.
Ironically enough, Ladder ended up a Kentucky colonel for a while.
Yeah.
Yeah, and it's great and just there's so many stories like that. And Ellie Brown was when they bought the team, was thirty three and the owner, first female owner, her entire board, of her entire board, all women, and they offer up was actually an advisor to that, to that group. And yeah, it's just so many, so many really cool stories in the games themselves were We're insane. The one my favorite one was they met. It was like the it's like a uk U of l the Colonels and
the Pacer. Yeah, huge rivalry. And say he said, some of the games we would play in San Antonio or Dallas and me and Louis Drew would count the crowd during the national anthem when to pay the Colonels. It was usually a packed house. They rival tenth. I don't know if you remember, but Colonels won Game one of the championship. In Game two, Billy Keller hit a shot from half court at the buzzer to win it for the Pacers, but the referee waved it off too late
and they of course there's no video review. You can't go to review the monitor. So they protested, paid the two hundred dollars fee of protest, and four days later they determined after the already played Game three played Game four, they determined that the original call was correct. Because what they had to do. They sent Bill Olsen to the WLKYTV studio the morning after and they started watching tape. And they did have tape of the final shot. They did not have a frame showing the clock and the
shot at the same time, so they used math. They calculated, at twenty four frames per second, it took forty eight second forty eight frames for two seconds, sixty six frames for the shot to happen, so they calculated it was too eight wow, and I don't know. And then they presented to Dave de Busher, who was the commissioner, all in one week and he finally ruled, and by then the colonels were, you know, you go into it all way up? Two oh? Is it one to one?
We don't know?
When they went a hitad and played to me, there's so many crazy stories here that it just goes on and on and on. So that's really cool stuff.
Daryl Berta The Cat's Pause.
Mike, guess we're talking about his story on the fiftieth anniversary of the Kentucky Colonel's ABA title Back with more in a minute, Herond six thirty WLAP Welcome back. Daryl Berta is my guess. He is the editor of The Cat's Pause and has a great story. It actually just published late February, but you can find it if you are a subscriber in the VIP section on the Kentucky
Colonel's fiftieth anniversary of their ABA champion ship. Daryl flew to Denver, where Dannisill lives now, and sat with Dan, who told me, and I'm sure he told you that the nostalgia, I don't know what it is. Dan believes the ABA is more popular now than it was when they were actually playing, you know what I mean?
Yes, absolutely right, and he's he's, well, probably it isn't a nostalgia. And as those of us who followed it back there and get older, we tend to brighten things up a bit. And but the game's more ntaining. Oh yeah, he said they did.
They didn't.
They knew they were onto something because the NBA was really boring. Yeah, yeah, and he said it was pain was walking down the floor, throw it to a big man and get your two points. There was a three point shot in the NBA, like there was an ABA, and said we we When they took the four teams into the NBA, they took almost.
Every ABA rule with them except the ball.
Three point three pointer up temple, all except the ball read our back. So experience then say that he hated the A B A and said that that basketball red white, blue basketball had no place in the game that belonged on a seals nose.
Yep, I remember that. I'll tell you what I went growing up in Louisville. I went to the occasional college basketball game. I either went to Bellerman college games or I went to U of L games in Freedom Hall when we could get a ticket for a dollar at Conveyed Food Mark.
And set up in the end zone seats.
Going to a colonel's game was I mean, it was so fast, you know, and you know we were sitting closer to the court, so you know that the house lights were down, so it looked like the court was bathed in a spotlight. And those guys there were flying.
Through the air. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
It was like Century overload and it was, as you said, really great basketball. And then artist Gilmour joins the colonels for crying out.
Like Dan's contends to stay jelie the It is the best that's ever played.
I don't doubt it.
And he thinks and he thinks his glory days were spending the ABA before the merger.
Yeah, he said.
He would say. I would find myself playing against him and he would do something and I would think, did I really just see what I think I just saw? He said it was ridiculous. And there's a great story in the book that Gary West wrote that there's one game where Doctor J went off for forty and Huge Brown, who was the first year coach, believed it or not. That's another great at right for Huge Brown. It was his first head coaching of his first year led him
to the title. He told the team. Pinky Gardner heard it, told z went the next time he has a wide open breakaway layup, you grab him around the waist. You don't hurt him, don't do anything delicious, but you've got to stop him because he's turning our own fans against us. He's so good.
Yeah, I'll tell you that's crazy.
The Colonels as a team in Kentucky Athletic Call of Fame while I was still a part of it. So I got a chance to be around Hubey Brown and listen to some interviews and things and.
Uh and as we all know, he just retired.
But you can tell because you know, as people did retrospectives on his career, that was one of the greatest moments of his life, leading the Colonels to a championship. And I know how much the Colonels respected him.
Yeah, Dan said, you check it to the I mean English ninety one still calling in. He said, you watch closely. He still wears the ABA champions to bring that's right, always has it on as as always for the last fifty years, always has it. Yeah, yeah, I thought, that's really that's really cool. And I didn't realize I'm dealing researching it and always I said, that can't be right. And it was the Spirit of Saint Louis was a
big rival that year, a lot of heating games. And I'm reading it and their broadcaster play by play is a twenty three year old Bob Costa.
That's correct.
I'm like, you'd kind of be kidding me.
He was a year out of Syracuse.
Yes, and he had famously said he took his audition tape and sweetened it, you know, and put a whole bunch of basins.
His voice sounded bigger so he wouldn't sound more like a kid. And yeah, there he is doing ABA games.
Isn't that amazing? Man?
So envious the.
Colonel's games, And uh, you know, I said, ah, you know pro basketball. He said, hey, these are the best athletes in the world. An he wasn't wrong.
Yeah, yeah, the Colonels were. It's so many. It was the first, at least in the Louisville market. It was the first basketball game broadcast live was in that seventy five seasons, the road trip to the Pace. Until then it was just HS radio and AHS TV went with them the Indian They kind of simulcast first one. Yeah, dance dancit. You won't believe this. Of course, Dan was Biggin's motioning said you won't believe this. But back then,
it's in a lot of markets. The NBA Championship Series was tape delayed at ten after the ten o'clartment on tea Yeah, absolutely, So that's why they knew they weren't that formidable. We knew we had something instead of had they not been they relegated to all small markets and had that not you know, they had no TV. The AB All Star Game was it to at his fonded you started buck hasting like game just did it on their own to do it, and I didn't wanze. They played, Yes,
they played it for you all. They played a handful of games and memorial that year they did played a handful of games, Bowling Greene Delireen and Bowling Green. They played a few games, played a few in Cincinnati, So it was it.
Was crazy, yeah, trying to you know, we'll we'll bring it to you if you don't want to come to and you know, I was disappointed the game in the Coliseum was not a sellout. And now to this day people tell me about it. I was there and there was people hanging from the raptor know they want you doctor It was against doctor j but you know, and then finally they're all just a shamed that they couldn't say that because they were the best team in ball.
To you, they were easily better, well maybe not easily than the Golden State Warriors who won the NBA, and of course they played an exhibition, but by then they weren't the same Colonels the following fall.
But as I was gone and John White and he was right.
It wasn't a great deal immediately, but down the road it would have been, you know, incredible if they had stayed in the league, and they've tried to bring it back. I don't know if Louisville'll ever get the NBA, but man, if they just could have held that team together, what might have been. Right.
Yeah, Dan told me that John Wat told him before he passed. He made two mistakes. Warren was not paying the four million to put the Colonels in the NBA, and the other was trading him. Because once he ross he wasn't going to go, he started selling off his pieces and he sold traded Dan sold Dan to the Baltimore claus And that's how I started laughing, and he said what I said, you guys, you're the only person
in humanity has ever traded to the Baltimore Clause. And they never played, well, they never been played a couple exhibitions and that was it.
That was good.
So you know, that's why Why I have one more story? Even though John Why traded dan Is and fans went nuts. Oh, they turned on John Brown fiercely, and Dan hated going to Baltimore, but the league was falling. The parts he just he did. He said, I have to find the quote. He said, I'm in a hotel in Baltimore. It's me, Sherry, Sheridan, a parakeet, and a cat. We're all living in a hotel room. And he said, Cherry's coming home every night looking houses, coming home crying because they can't find him.
Draw me and he gets said, I get a call in the hotel room from said Jehan Role. Brown said, Dan, if I can get you out of Baltimore, would you please say something nice to the media. And Lord, they're killing me, he said. He said, John, you get me out of here, I'll say anything you want. And John Walls says, good, I'm gonna ring two Let two eleven, come on down.
Guy.
He blone to Baltimore, determined to get him and make that deal happen.
You need to subscribe to The Catch Balls if you haven't already, to read this great story about the Colonel's written by Daryl Brod Darryl, thank you so much, and I'll see us somewhere down the road. Man Jonnal twenty seven is Brian Milem next on six thirty WLAP joining us on the Celebrity Hotline. Now is a guy I like to call Tuesdays mister Baseball and mister Softy, And it's Brian Milem And sir, you are a guy who loves a good, sympathetic kind of sports story. How are
you on UKSE Senior Night? You've seen enough of them? Does it tug at you?
Well?
It has to.
And I even mentioned in my one of my live shots, when you hear my old Kentucky Home, if you are a Kentuckyan, I think it you should kind of pause for a moment and reflect and just think that's our song. Yeah, And it just hit different in two places, Churchill Downs
on Derby Day and rup Arena on Senior Night. And I remember the late great Jim McKay on ABC Sports doing the Derby decades ago, and he said, if it doesn't tug at your heartstrings a little bit when you hear that song on this day, meaning Derby Day, you need to get yourself checked because it does something to you emotionally when you hear that song on those two occasions.
I actually had the privilege of working stats once in a while at UK games when NBC had college basketball, So I was standing there when dick Enberg was doing Senior Night for the seventy eight team and his you know, tearing up. I mean he was mister softye as well as you know, and it got to him. So there's nothing wrong with that obviously. And on the show last night, I played I guess it was two nights ago, I played, No,
it was last night. I played the Happy Chandler version, which I think was his last go around with Miles Kentucky Olmans for the eighty eight team.
I don't know why that one gets to me.
Maybe it's the bow at the end, all the way to his waist.
I don't know, man, I think it's something.
Yeah, I think it's that. And the fact you also see rob Lock and the shed a tear.
Yeah.
And because Happy Chandler was in his upper eighties, however old he was, he hit that broken note on a couple of occasions, which is kind of reminiscent of the JFK when they performed taps, and there's the broken note at his.
At his.
Procession when he was killed, and but yeah, when Happy Chandler had that rendition, it was it took you back to a different era. And we used that as the close to the job Hall special when he asked away a couple of years ago.
Yeah, you sure did. That was great, man, that was great coverage.
Uh.
I've talked to a couple of people about this. I just find it really interesting. I tried it and you do too, to take note of historic moments or situations or whatever. And this season is literally one for the books in that in the way the coach was hired, in the way the fans reacted, in the way they.
Alarm going off started and stuff.
That okay, in a way the coach was hired, in the way he pulled the team together, in a way they've played. And it's been up and down, great quad one wins, puzzling losses. But man, this is one season I'll never forget.
Same for you, Oh absolutely, it was. You know, our job in the media, and I think fans forget this. We would, we want you k to win, but our job is not to be a fan of what we do. Now there are a lot of media people who call themselves they're fans. They're not fans. Yeah they are, and that's okay, but we must still be critical and we're
not supposed to show quote unquote fandom. I have been a fan this year, and I will say that on the record because the last since COVID, I got tired of the message, you know, no tournament in twenty twenty, and Cal said, well, this team was poised for an actual championship. Well, a lot of people could say that that's right, And it always.
Felt as if.
Cal was buying time. You know, we're built for March. It's December, we're built for and then March comes and nothing.
What happened?
And the thing with Hope and these players, what's so refreshing is it is just straight up honesty. They're not buying time. We played like crap tonight. We played great tonight.
We did this tonight.
You got answers from mature kids. Yeah, we could think kids.
Because we're of the agent.
But Amari Williams and Otaga and Braya and Andrew just all of the guys are so easy to talk to and have a conversation with, and they're so self deprecating. Yes, we were not good here. You didn't You don't hear those canned answers, Yeah, that we hear so often from athletes, and and that part just reinvigorated me. And and also the fact that this is an older team. I mean, this has got six seniors and if Kerkkrisa had walked
through the senior ceremony, that would have been seven. We've not had seven seniors on one UK team since nineteen sixty two. Wow. And it just takes you back to an era of Man, these guys want to play. They don't. They're not going to be first round draft picks. Yeah, maybe maybe a late first round of something weird happened. These are ballplayers, They're not corvettes that have been bought for a years.
And the level of appreciation that they have for being here, and I'm not knocking the kids who were here before them, but it's just an interesting take on, you know, what it's like to be here, because they all admired Kentucky from various parts of the country, from Philadelphia, from San Diego, from North Carolina, you know, and hey, what must it be like to be a part of that. Then all of a sudden, Hey, would you like to play yes please, you know, I just think it's it's just been so
much fun to cover. And now I do wonder about the NCA tournament. That's a huge stepping stone for Mark Pope and it's going to depend on, as you know, the bracketing, the seating, who they play.
So it's a new season, it always is, it is, And I'm not asked several of the players. Over the last you know, a week or so, we've seen what the injuries can do to this team. Yeah, now you don't have Jackson Robinson. And it's so important for UK to get that number eight seed because if they want to win an SEC championship, you do not want to
play on the opening day. And I've asked them, does this team have enough to play four days in a row and try to win this thing, or even five days if they had to play on Wednesday, And you know that answer has a tough answer. Of course, the kids are going to say, yeah, we can do it. That would be almost Yukon esque from twenty eleven. If this UK team could run the table with the limited roster they have.
I hate to say this, I just don't think they have enough, you know, because and look they're good enough on a given night, I think even at least compete with all and we saw that for fifteen minutes, you know, and then they led Gola Rope for whatever reason. But man, and I go back, I remember that that team in seventy nine, it took Tennessee to double overtime, you know, the year after given to them and graduated right. Trying to win that many games in that many days, that's brutal.
It's only been done what once.
Yeah, I mean, it's it's just the perfect storm that you don't want. And if Kentucky can get that eight seed, that's why if they were to beat Missouri, oh my gosh, or even get the help they need from old Miss Tennessee game and all the other scenarios, and then there's also a moment where they could be the five seed if weird things happen over the next over this weekend.
So but it has been a great ride, and I think the NCAA Tournament, I just hope for their sake they are in a mental fit situation, and I think they will be because they are so old by college standards, they will embrace the fact. And we have to remember all of these guys also have played in the NCAA tournament somewhere along the way or most of them have, Yeah, and so they understand the pressure of what's about.
To get well. Look at lamon Butler's experience in the NCAA.
Yeah, he didn't do bad.
If you can't lean on him, who Kenny Lena, We're talking to Brian Milam of WKYT. We're gonna switch to women's basketball as he is either already in or on his way to Greenville as we speak around six point thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with WKYT sports director Brian Mylam, who is covering not just the men but the UK women's basketball team. And you know, what a joy to cover this men's team in the way it's
come together. I so enjoy covering Kenny Brooksty, watching them play, hearing him speak, you know.
Just his take on how he does his job. Brian, to me, has been fascinating.
I don't know how many of the news conferences you've been at, but I know you handle all the video for your newscasts.
That guy, he knows what he's doing.
He does and the demeanor he has is so almost stoic at a press conference. But it is again what you see with the mend what you see with the women. They are interchangeable here in the fact that they have an older team, they have some some and some young some young blood also that can that can play. But to see the demeanor of Kenny Brooks, I even asked a couple of people, I said, does he ever blow up?
You know, like in practice? Does they go not? You know, you kind of wonder as someone who is so calm and reserved and uh in public. But you know what, every team I think needs a coach like a Kenny Brooks, even if it's not a head coach. You need assistance that can counterbalance the head coach. But Kenny Brooks has the pulse of this team since day one when we got to speak with him, and you kind of just
listen to him throughout the year. I don't know, he's just one of my favorite coaches and we don't really know him know him, but I just love his demeanor. I love the way he handles the team. And again he expects so much, and he has Georgia Amore with him, who he says is my mini me, which is great. And he's got coaches on the floor with her, he handles the sideline. It is just a perfect recipe for continued success for UK women and a time when they desperately needed it.
And her presence when she got to Kentucky instantly jumped there. Not just their credibility but their ability because without her, I don't know where they are. But with her, men and I know their thing them win in the SEC tournament what you're covering in Greenville, South Carolina, and we talked about the men. I think it's even a bigger challenge for the women given their lack of depth because they got those two key players out injured.
You know they've been out all year.
But we also know how good this team is if and when they hit shots, especially Aymoors hitting like she did at Oklahoma.
Right, if she hits if she is the key. I mean, let's be honest, she is the key to the ignition. She's the gas in the tank, she's the radios on the wheels. I mean, she runs this ball club and as Kentucky goes, she goes. As she goes, Kentucky goes, she is the chief in charge. And when you think about what she has done at the point guard spot, and to be, you know, a finalist for the Nancy
Lieberman Award. If you figure that Kentucky can will play, you would think at least two games in the tournament in the SEC tournament, they can make a run in the NCAA. I don't know how many UK women's players or UK players in general have scored six hundred points.
In the season, but she can do that this year.
I think she's at five twenty five somewhere in there right now, and with a few games of twenty points the way she can fill it up. I mean at a six hundred point scorer who also hands out assists all of the time and plays defense, and she's just a complete player that at the guard spot, especially with the point guard spot we I don't know if we've seen ever or certainly in a long time.
I keep trying to compare her to Patty Joe Hedges a different time, different era, shot clock, three pointer. Both just incredibly great ballhandlers. PJ used to go to the blue courts and you know where those are on the UK campus, Yeah, and compete against the guys and it was great before they knew who she was, and she would just destroy them. There's no way Georgia Amore is going to be able to go to a pickup game
now because everybody knows who she is. But oh man, then when you factor in Kentucky has the defensive player of the year, oh in, Kentucky's dal the way Kenny Brooks teaches defense that puts them in the picture in any game they're playing. To come up with them, I don't care who they're playing. I know Texas handled them pretty well, but man, they had LSU down. They had South Carolina on the ropes for a little while, so I kind of like their chances.
Well, I think, yeah, when you have clearistract blocking every shot that comes their way. I remember thinking when we got a chance in the late summer to or maybe even early fall to speak with the women, and the first thing immediately which jumps out at you as wow, she's six five, she's six seven, she's six five. Wow, that guard six three, that guard six to two. The height immediately knocked you over. And yeah, you're going to be defensively minded. If you're not quick, well guess what
your height and linked can make up for it. And Strack has been awesome and I'm so happy for coach Brooks, and I know he is that. Hey, Clara, you want to come on over to Kentucky. It's the great place from Virginia Tech. Sure, coach, I'm on my way. Yeah, you know, it's the new world of the portal and Mark Pope and Kenny Brooks have crushed it in year one.
Well, and that is how much those kids love playing, absolutely, you know, and obviously vice versa. But you know his success, I mean taking Virginia Tech to the final four, and as we all know, Kentucky flirted with it but kept running any Yukon, you know, and now he's got a couple of kids, if not more, who could play for Yukon.
That's how I judge teams.
Right, that's a good point. I hadn't thought about that. But yeah, you know, the the in the conference for decades, and you know this Tennessee was the standard. Yeah, can
Kentucky play with the standard? And they even get close to the standard in the early eighties, Yeah, they did, And then there was a drought of two decades when you just really weren't close to winning at all until the mid two thousands when Mickey DeMoss said, hey, yeah, we can win, we can do something and it took a Tennessee assistant to show Kentucky out to beat Tennessee.
That's right.
But now Kentucky, along with South Carolina and now Texas coming into the fold, they are the new standards. And Kentucky, I really believe, with Kenny Brooks, can't help be that upper tier of that standard for a long time.
And speaking of Tennessee, I mean I was courtsied. I don't know if you were in the studio or what, but man, when they destroyed Tennessee, oh my god.
That was surreal. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
And they clearly learned from that was prior to South Carolina, right after LSU.
They clearly were stinging from that LSU game getting away and they made it. What didn't they? They did?
And you know when with the exception of the SEC Tournament run a couple of years ago, when Kentucky completely stunned the basketball world while winning the SEC Tournament, but to be in the game with LSU the whole way, to be in the game with South Carolina the whole way, and to completely annihilate Tennessee in a way they have never I mean, they took the Orange right out of the school Colors of Tennessee. And that just shows you in one year what the right coach, the right schemes,
the right kids, the right everything can do. And you know, neutral court I was told a long time ago, coach told me, when you're at home, it's worth ten points. Well, if you take ten points away from South Carolina, that's the sixty eight to sixty six game. And if you take certain other close law us as the Cats have had this year, this has been one one of the darndish years for men's and women's basketball at the same time because of the unexpected nature of everything colliding at once.
Ran WK with you.
Watch for his coverage out of Greenville, probably already has started as we speak.
But safe travels, movam.
Thank you so much, Dick, Thanks to Brian, thanks to Daryl Board and Maggie Davis.
That's you.
A good night from the garage in Lexington.
Wait, let me let me explain something to you.
I am not mister Lebowski.
You're mister Lebowski.
I'm the dude.
Tact the ship doing then.
Thing to.
Take that stinks from time to time in contacting too