2025-05-30 - BBI

Kentucky scoring three runs in the top of the fourth, but give up two runs unearned in the bottom of the fifth, another run in the sixth, and then it remained scoreless until the ninth, when West Virginia leads off the inning with a double, runner, moves to third base on a pass ball, and then scores on a sackfly. Griffin Cameron made a tumbling catch in center field and came up throwing, but never had a chance to nail

the speedy West Virginia runner from third. So the Wildcats open tournament play with a four to three loss in the Clemson Regional. It's double elimination. They'll play again tomorrow against the winner of Clemson and USC Upstate, and got to win from here on now. Kentucky has won a couple of regional titles under Nick menjeone, having lost a game coming out of the bottom bracket, the losers bracket, but they won their opener, then they lost the next one.

This is gonna be much much tougher. As the Cats missed opportunities, they gave West Virginia new life with mistakes. Kentucky with a couple of errors. West Virginia made mistakes as well, and the Wildcats took full advantage. Now, the first run scored by Kentucky came in Kentucky fashion, the Wildcats dropping down a bunt Cayas Gargett, but it was not a great bun. He popped it up. And we have seen that all year. Too many times Kentucky called

upon to bunt, they pop it up. But this time the Cats got a little lucky because Gargets pop up didn't go very far, and the West Virginia pitcher tried to make a diving catch, couldn't come up with a ball cleanly. Eventually handled the ball, but by then the UK runner had broken for the plate and scored the game's first run. Here's the way Darren Hedrick called it.

twenty eight to thirty one games. So now if you're throwing this one twenty nine of thirty two games. Wildcats get the early lead, but then just can't hang on. They make too many mistakes in the field and a couple of mistakes on the mound, a pass ball by Devin Burks, and the Wildcats fall four to three to West Virginia. This is not the same Kentucky team, nor

is it the same West Virginia team. But these two programs met two years ago in the NCAA Tournament in Lexingon and Kentucky won by a total of ten to nothing. So the Cats aren't out of it yet. But now Ben Cleaver pitched today. Was good, not great, was good, should have won and at times he was great. But now he's their best starter. He had been their Sunday starter, but he's done. Simon Gregorson came in, ran into trouble, gave way to Jacksonoviy the ninth inn and Gregorson gave

up the double Novie gave up. It was just a flare off the fists into center field. But it was just one of those in betweeners and there's no way Kentucky could have kept that guy from scoring. So anyhow, another tough loss for the baseball Wildcats. They'll play tomorrow and we'll have to let you know a little bit later on about what time they play. Keep an eye on the internet if you will. Tonight on the show, coming up, we're gonna be from Mark Pope as he

talks about otego oh way. We got more information about the Wildcats and what they've got coming back and what they're looking at this coming season. But some interesting comments from Pope earlier in the month about otago away. And we'll take a look at what Kentucky has coming back, and we're gonna look at some interesting comments offered by Mark's story at Harold Leader, who is wondering about the UK offense coming up this season, So we'll talk about

that as well. Also coming up at the bottom of the hour, Kenny McPeak, the trainer of last year's Kentucky Derby winner and Oaks Winter Torpedo Anna Derby Mystic Dan my day started at three am. I got up early. My partner and I the exec producer of our show, Tim Francis, We drove to Churchill Downs today and we were going to watch both of those horses work. They galloped. We saw Anna gallop in a driving, absolutely driving rain

with Robbie Albarado up. So afterwards we talked to Kenny about those two horses, and we also talked to Robbie Albarado. The jockey won more than five thousand races before he retired and and now is working for Kenny. He galloped torpedo Anna today, So that's coming up at the bottom of the hour. A little bit later on Billy Rutlers will join us. We'll talk about Kentucky football and Kentucky

basketball as well. Billy you hear him on this very radio station every morning after the Leads report at nine AM on the KSR pre Show, and we'll top off the week with Heroes, fools and flakes. That's all ahead here on the Big Moon Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider. It's been a good week for Kentucky basketball fans. Of course, former Wildcats, say Gildris Alexander Sga is the MVP of the Western

Conference Finals. He has led the Thunder into the NBA Championship Round, where they will face either the Pacers or the Knicks. The Karl Anthony Towns led Nicks now down only three to two in their series, but it's going back to Indy and right now the Pacers look like the team that's going to play Oklahoma City for the

NBA Championship. Also, of course, for UK fans, it was a great week because Otega Olway announced as expected that he would return, but he needed to get as much information as he could from the NBA and now he will tackle his second season as a Kentucky Wildcat. And earlier this month, Mark Pope answered a lot of different questions about his team, his program as players, and you might recall this is what he said about what Otega

Oway brings to the table as a ballplayer. He was talking specifically then about what NBA scouts would see in a way what Kentucky fans already see, and it's kind of the starting point for a way to improve his game.

Of course, who are the Wildcats who played in every game Besides Oway and Williams, Well, there are only a couple. Kobe Brea played in every game, Ainsley Almanor played in every game. Brandon Garrison missed a game to injury. Andrew Carr missed the game to injury. Jackson Robinson only played in twenty four games. Lamont Butler missed nine games to injury. By the way, Andrew Carr started twenty nine games. Brandon Garrison and missed the one game he never started, so

he played in thirty five games without a start. Kerk Creaes only played in those nine games. Now, as far as the guy's coming off the bench are concerned, Travis Perry played in the most games he played in thirty one, started four. Of course, he's now at O miss. Colin Chandler played in thirty games without a start. Trent Noah played in twenty four games without a start. So again, Oway and Amari Williams the only Wildcats to start every game this season. And Oway led in minutes played at

twenty eight point three per game. Jackson Robinson averaged twenty eight point one, so did Kobe Brea average twenty eight point one. Lamont Butler only twenty six minutes a game. Remember, he had the ongoing injury situation, so they had to sit him in some games and he got into some foul trouble. Amari Williams sharing the time in the low Post averaged twenty two point eight minutes per game. Car

averaged twenty four. Brandon Garrison averaged a little more than seventeen minutes a game, So very similar to the kinds of numbers that and again, this team not nearly that good, similar to what Rick Patino's national title team in ninety six was like because Antoine Walker led that team in minutes played somewhere between twenty six and twenty eight minutes per game. Really really unusual. Now the guys coming back, now, you've got Oh Way, You've got Brandon Garrison, you've got

Colin Chandler. Those are the guys that it's going to be really interesting to see what did Owen Trentoah, what do they do in year two? Because Pope was talking about this, the fact that because his system is so unusual and you could see it this year, it took a little while for these guys to figure it out and to play without thinking so much. Well, now, Pope said, second year guys make huge strides, huge improvements because they've already mastered, my word, what he's asking them to do.

And understand why and where and how and the skill set actually do it and so and what works and what doesn't and what works for you as an individual player with your skill set and what doesn't. And so the guys coming in second year for me, almost without failed, they take massive leaps. And so we expect all these returners to be much much better than they were last year, which is saying a lot, because they were really good last year.

So it's going to be really fascinating to see what these guys are like coming right out of the block. Bad news on the basketball front is it looks like they're gonna screw it up. They're going to screw up the NCAA tournament. Charlie Baker, the president of the NCAAA, said one of his top priorities, and he was at the Big twelve spring meetings, was talking about expanding March Madness, which could come as soon as twenty twenty six. He said that would be the goal. To try and do

it for this next do this for next year. We've been talking about seventy two and seventy six. Stop it, Stop it now. He said, if you have a tournament that's got sixty eight teams in it, we're gonna have a bunch of teams, probably among what most people would consider being the best sixty eight or seventy teams in the country, that aren't going to make the tournament period, because you get a whole bunch of people who win their conference tournaments who aren't in that group. Sow what

stop it. Stop screwing with it, because what you're gonna do is add more mediocre games. Quit screwing around with what has been fantastic. You're just gonna mess it up. How can adding more and more teams that don't belong there playing mediocre games improve anything except and here's the answer, to put money in your pocket for the schools, for the conferences, because there's more commercial inventory out there. I get that at some point you gotta think about the fans,

don't you. Well, apparently not, because everybody's looking to get by now, but they are going if they're not careful, they're going to wreck March Madness. They did it. I realize this is different in the high school ranks in Indiana, which rivaled Kentucky for the greatest tournament in March, and they screwed it up, and they've tried to get back to it and they can't. Bad decisions. Here's another one. I can't say this is a bad decision, but it's

going to really be untenable. SEC Commissioner Greg sank Down in Florida announced that the conference is moving away from the escalating fine system and now they're going to be charging each school half a million dollars for each court or field storming. He said the motivation was field rushing. Is field rushing the first time or the eighteenth time? He said, the random nature of it. If you're the

one getting rushed, it doesn't feel good. He said. It might be the first time it's happened, but it might be your sixth time in a row. Literally, No, I didn't know this, but evidently the conference could wave the fine, but only if the opposing team and staff members and the officials can get off the field and in their locker rooms before the storming happens. That's not gonna happen anywhere.

And Mike, with basketball, if you've got a lot of security people, it's not gonna happen with football because just as the clock expires, fans are gonna come over the wall and rush the field, and the other team will not have a chance to get out of there. I've always maintained this is a made for TV situation. Fans storm the field and the courts because it looks good on TV. And I reach out to my brethren and

say stop showing it, and that would help. Might not stop it, but that would help here's the other thing that's gonna stop it. If your school is penalized half a million and another half a man and another half a man, you're going to force the athletic department to raise your ticket prices. And people like to joke about, Oh, put buckets at the at the gates and people can donate. Yeah, it's going to take a lot more than that to

absorb this kind of cost. But if you start jacking up ticket prices, and if you do that, if you're the schools, you should say your tickets are going to cost you an additional five dollars per this season because of the court storming and the field storming, that would go a long way to putting a stop to it. You cannot stop it at football stadiums unless you hire

an army of security people. A lot of places have already stopped it when it comes to basketball, and it doesn't happen at Repperena because the configuration of Rupperina and they've got enough security people there to short circuit it. But hit them in a wallet, hit them in a checkbook. That'll bring it to a club up next. Saggy trip to Churchill Downs today here on six thirty wlap Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. I hope you and yours made it safely through the weather we had earlier today.

My business partner and I, Tim Francis basically the execut producer of The Big Blue Insider and a guy who was quite active with the group that stages the Mark Stoops event in the summertime, Coaches for Kids event. We took a trip over to Churchill Downs to watch Torpedo Anna and Mystic Dan training and also to get the trainer Kenny McPeak to sign some items for the Silent Auction, and it was obviously a terrible day to do that. We knew that rain was in the forecast, just not

this kind of rain. We drove through a monsoon which well, it was still there when we got to Churchill and I spent a lot of early morn a Churchill Downs covering the Kentucky Derby and Breeders Cup and things like that. Never have I encountered rain like this. And then when Kenny McPeak showed up, it is born. We actually get those barn a few minutes before he did. Well, he showed up, and of course he is driven back and

forth between Lexington and Louisville for decades. Literally, he says, I've never seen rain like this coming to the racetrack. And I told my partner, I said, I bet they don't send these horses out. Well they did. They sent them out to gallop. We watched Anna gallop. They didn't gallop Dan until later on in the morning. But in the driving pouring rain, a lot of trainers had their horses out and Thorpina Anna was one of them. And

of course she's a pro. She's a pros pro. Robbie Albarrato, who works now for Kenny McPeak three, he's retired as a jockey. He galloped and this morning we're gonna hear from Robbie coming up a little bit later on. But I had a chance to chat with Kenny after the champion Philly galloped. And remember now Torpeda Anda won the Kentucky Oaks last year for Kenny McPeak, and the next day Mystic Dan won the Kentucky Derby. Such a rarity for a trainer to win the Oaks on Friday and

the Derby on Saturday. But Kenny McPeak, a UK product, a Tates Creek High School alum, did that and we had a chance to chat about it. I talked to him a couple of days after the race. He was on the show the Monday after Kentucky Derby. Well we caught up this morning between the rain drops. How bad was that rain this morning?

that's well, it's obviously it's always good. But I think this sport needs more openness, more information out there, and the more people understand it, I think the more they can appreciate what we do.

up to. And and I think horse racing really does need to be much more open, and I wish more guys did.

you know, Mystic Dan's probably my proudest moment. I don't know if you know all the backstory on that, and I don't know people out there do. But so I bought his mother. Actually the ownership wasn't going to keep her as a mayor, and I convinced him to and then I did the mating and then we fold her at Magdalena and Lexington and he's subsequently born. We raised him, Yeah, we raised him at Magdalena, We broke him to saddle.

We obviously raced him and win the derby. And then I mean all that that most people are happy to have their fingerprints on just one stage. We had her fingerprints on every stage. That's probably my proudest moment is as a as a horseman. I mean, there are people that are very proud to have fold a mayor or made it a mayor and raised a Derby winner, And I mean, look, I probably should have quit on Sunday

after that weekend. Anyway, it's all good you doing. He's doing great, He's in tomorrow, and he's a horse that I think we made some mistakes with him coming out out of his Derby win. We maybe shouldn't run in the Belmont in hindsight, his two races late in the year, late three year old, early four were in hindsight, I wish I could kind of have a do over there.

But then we backed up and we regrouped, and his last race was superb, and so we'd like to think we're getting back in the winter circle tomorrow.

to the Belmont. That's would have been similar to Bill, and I respect Bill for his decision.

and to just that. But you've got to get into these like Pimlico to agree and Valmont to agree and how does that happen? And that's somebody with a higher pace scale than me.

little bit. Actually facetiming over another deal about a week ago and we were chatting and Gino's formal affairs got some some suits, took some formal suits for the basketball team over there, and I reached out to Mark and let him know that. But yeah, I'm gonna My goal is and how you know this is to do the widet mid court.

the Bellmont. He's picking Sovereignty. He's picking Sovereignty to win the third leg of Racing's Triple Crown, the Triple Crown winner this year, of course, But yeah, he knows his stuff and in fact I got to know him fairly well in nineteen ninety five when he trained a horse called the Hanul Run. He picked the horse out of a sale for six thousand dollars, purchased the horse for the Monroe's Roy and Joyce Monroe and trained him up to the Kentucky Derby. And you might recall us if

you're a racing fan. He trained at Keenland all week long. Didn't bring him over to Churchill Downs and people were throwing their hands up and scratching it. You can't do that. Well he did it and Awadors ran second in the Kentucky Derby in nineteen ninety five. That was as close as Kenny got until he won it with Mystic Dan this past year, and Donald Run, by the way, went

on to be a successful stallion up in Canada. So despite the whether, we had a good time talking to Kenny and coming up next with you from Robbie Alvarado and by the way, we enjoyed being around Sonny the big Yellow Lab was excited about something this morning and let us know about it. I want to come on six thirty wlap Welcome back to the Big Moons sight here. As we mentioned earlier, we were at Churchill Downs this morning in the monsoon to watch Torpedo and a gallup.

We were gonna watch Mystic Dan, but they kind of held off on him for a little while because of all that rain. But I had a chance to talk to Robbie Albarado. He is one of the winningest jockeys of all time. Of course, he retired back in twenty twenty one, about a year after he little more than a year after he won the Preak Mistakes on Swiss Skydiver for Kenny McPeak. So he works for Kenny now, and he's a guy who has known so much success

at Churchill Downs. In fact, he is third all time as a jockey at Churchill Downs in victory, behind only Pat Day and Calvin Burrell. He's won more than five thousand races. But now, as we said, working for Kenny galloping horses in the morning, thinking that it is still about becoming an agent. But we talked to him right after he got off Torpedo Anna, because before and after he galloped that horse, he told us she is the smartest horse he has ever ridden, Robbie, this rain is

something else. What is it like when you're out there galloping in weather like this?

what happens. They're like athletes, ball players, right, they see, they see a play about to happen. They adjust.

She'll be facing the gate here this morning, with.

the horsemuck. A bad part is when you get half a three smile ago and you're out of goggles. That's the bad part. What do you do want a doubt you will out?

two races. Never did win a Kentucky Derby, but twice won the Preakness and won three different Breeders Cup races during his career, and of course was the regular jockey for Curlin. It was third in the Kentucky Derby, but then went on to win the Preakness that year in twenty seven and the Breeders' Cup Classic Board Curland later that year, and those two followed up the following year to win the Dubai World Cup. I remember two is up next year on six point thirty packing Welcome back

to the Big Blue Insider. Joining us now is a familiar voice. You hear him every morning on this very radio station, Billy Rutledge, who also joins us during the seasons basketball and football. But Billy and a dude every day at nine am. He and Shannon the Dude following the lead's report. We even't had a chance to really chat with Billy on the air since the season ended, so we thought we would find out what's up. And of course, you know you hear him giving his opinions

and his outlooks on his own show. But mister Rutledge, first of all, we need to talk about the fact that an assistant coach whom you kind of questioned a little bit, has just received a new contract from UK, Eric Wolford, the Kentucky offensive line coach, and you've got issues with this guy, don't you.

winning ten win seasons again. And that might be a pipe dream when we go to nine conference games, but for now, you know, it's I guess it is still a possibility. But you know, I didn't love the contract extension of Eric Wolford, to say the least. But you know, I like to remain optimistic. I'm not out on this Kentucky football team yet, So let me try to give

you the positive. Let me try to give you the spin here, because I don't see any offensive line play with Eric Wolford as the offensive line coach that justifies a raise in the offseason. But what we do know about Eric is that he is a great recruiter, and he's somebody that's brought in a lot of position players

outside of the offensive line in a year's past. So, Dick, in the new world of name, image and lightness and the transfer portal, if your goal is not to develop talent, then I think This is a fine move, but Eric has shown that he plays only the starters. He didn't have a great rotation of the backups that hurt Kentucky in the past. He's also somebody that left at the drop of a hat when he was still in the

rental car for Kentucky football. You know, there's just been some warning signs for to me, that does not justify an offseason race. Now, the thing about Soups over the past few years, he hired his brother, He's hired his college roommate. Maybe you could liken that to Cal and how he maybe he got complacent in the final years at Kentucky basketball. But I want to hold out hope,

Dick that Eric is the guy. He is a great recruiter that was able to bring in the offensive linemen that are going to do a great job this year.

level had dropped off. Now, you know, you could make the argument that that that he did not do anything to help develop it by by simply in his first year here playing the starters, but you know how much was on the roster in terms of talent. The one thing that John Schlarman did while he was here, and he was a good recruiter and and really helped develop

that line. And you know, we go back to the best Kentucky offensive lines when I think you'll recall, because we talked about this on the show, they would sub out everybody but Drake Jackson the starting center for an entire series, no matter what was going on, even even when the Wildcats would get into the red zone, they would leave those back up old lineman in there, and of course they would build depth. But as those guys moved on, I felt like, for whatever reason, Kentucky just

didn't move to rebuild the roster. They either made mistakes or missed out on recruits. So when Wolford got here, and I know it sounds like a bit of an excuse, the cupboard wasn't bare, but it wasn't as fully stocked as when John Schlarman was here. So uh yeah, I'm still I'm still like you, I'm kind of holding out hope. And now the picture is really different given all these transfers who have come in. I mean, you talk about

totally rebuilding that offensive line room. It seems like they've got what they need right now, does it not?

Vince Marrow is integral to what Kentucky does. But the tight ends have been done anything in a decade, right, So I mean I think you can you can categorize it that way. But also at the same time, they do much more for the program than just those positions. But the lasting image I have of the offensive line last year, Dick is Gerald Mincy at the concession stand. I mean, Brock Vandergriff eventually quit football because he got injured so much from this offensive line, and fair or not,

I mean, that's the reality. And so the number one thing that's going to help this Kentucky team get back to seven, eight, nine, nine game winning winning seasons is that offensive line. And will it ever be the big Blue wall again? You know that's going to be tough to recreate. John Schlarman was one of one, right, But you know, can they find success by adapting to how the college football landscapes that today, like the transfer portal.

Maybe Eric Wilford is a better recruiter than he is a position coach, and maybe that's what Kentucky needs right now. But just pr department optics of it all just could not be worse. I think.

kids from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty two. I think it was for three only thirty two percent, where old Lignement's sixty nine percent, which was predictable was quarterbacks, which kind of surprised me a little bit, Billy, because you know, and D linemen, we're almost we're just a little bit more, a little bit higher than old lineman. But it would seem to me that those are the more valued commodities, you know, quarterbacks aside, that's always going to be the

highest number of transfers. But I was really surprised by that loan number. Does that surprise you.

in college football because those are the valuable positions. But it seems like offensive line, if you've got a good one, you need to hold on to them, you know, and when it comes to the quarterback, there's only one slot really available, and so I can understand if you're if you're not the guy, you're going to look elsewhere. Offensive line, you've got to have five and maybe even six or seven you just keep up with that depth in rotation.

So I mean that means the numbers are going to dwindle even more so when there's a good guy out there. So you know, it does surprise me a little bit. But at the same time, those big, you know, big guys up front are going to be those valuable commodities that people are going to emphasize and probably spend more of their budget on. And when you compete in the SEC, Dick,

you have to have the offensive lineman. So you've got to go to one of these two schools of whether you know, recruit your guys from high school and develop them, or to go to the transfer portal. So we have it feels like the entire state of New Mexico transferred in to be on the offensive line. And then the guy from Western Kentucky as well, Jagger Burton, is hopefully

somebody that has improved from last year. So look, I mean there's a lot of Debbie downers on the Kentucky football team coming up, just with how tough the schedule is. I mean, if you look at Power four teams, I think Kentucky has the fifth fifth worst odds, are the fifth lowest win total when it comes to four and a half. Is just the people are down right now.

So I mean it's it's tough, but you know, I think the you know, with the Eric Woodford contract extension and a second year of Bush Hampton, there's never been more pre for Mark Soops to get to that six one month.

We're talking with Billy Rutlids. You hear him every morning following the Leads Report on the KSR pre show, he and Shannon the Dude. I like to call him Billy and the Dude. I think that that name just kind of rolls off the tongue. Billy. I can't I can't get any traction on it, but unofficially that's what I call your show.

the fan base that hadn't seen in a while. I gave him a solid A. And when somebody asked just this week what I would give the grade for Mark Pope for this off season, and I said A again, Dick, I mean, just to get some of these guys like Mo Diabat from Alabama and Denzel Aberdeen from Florida. I mean, this is a national champion, sixth Man of the Year that's going to be in a starting role with Florida and he ends up going to Kentucky and is already

talking about winning number nine. You know, to get the wealth of talent and the depth of talent that Mark Pope did when you finally gave him a full recruiting cycle to get to work and he's not driving a six shift in South America. I mean, he really filled out this roster. And I hated to see Travis Perry go, but you're continuing the Kentucky tradition with guys like Malachai Moreno and also Trent Noah who's expected to gain eighteen pounds.

I mean, they could become guys that well, Brandon Garrison is going to have to be that guy early on as they wait for jad and Quaintance to come back from injury. Finally, Jaden Quainton as people look at him as a top ten pick in one of the NBA drafts coming up. So I mean, if he can fill out to his potential, and these guys that who are staying in the system for a second year can become,

you know, playmakers. I mean, Colin Chandler was playing important minutes late into the year last year, so and now you bring back maybe the preseason SEC Player of the Year in otakea Oway. If he's not that, I think he's close as he was somebody that was an All American and on SEC Award list last year. That guy surprised me so much, and really I think still has some room to grow.

roster is gonna be different. Look, they're not going to have the shooting prowess that they did maybe last year. It's not Kobe Brayer on this roster, but they're deep and if you looked at the weaknesses of the roster last year, I think they got noticeably better in all categories, whether it be athleticism, whether it be defense. Mark Pope after one year in the SEC and by the way, may have been one of the greatest seasons ever in

the SEC conference for basketball. That's not the best. I think he now realizes what he needs on his roster, and then you throw in a Croatian dick. I mean it's a big d all over again.

to have someone direct me to it. People like the list who had the best transfer portal class, who had the best recruiting class. I want to see overall roster when it comes to building an off season roster, who has done as well or better than Pope and company when it comes to portal transfer, transfer, portal returning roster and incoming freshmen. Because you know you've got Patino up

in New York strictly doing portal work. You got other places that are strictly doing not entirely recruiting, but kind of lightly going after the portal. But I just think Kentucky with whole has done the best job of blending all of it, you know what I mean?

recent years. But Dick, you know, I think Mark Pope struck a chord with some of the fan base recently when he said, we do want to be the team that spends the most money in nil you know, we want to be the team that's known as doing it the best when it comes to college basketball because we are Kentucky. In Kentucky is the pinnacle of the sport.

And so Cal has always had that mindset too. You know, I always thought he was great at saying, you know, we can't hide you here, and I think even Hope said something to that regard, is that you don't come here to hide, right. But at the same time, you know it had shifted into maybe an NBA factory where you know, one and done. Freshmen come in and you try to cobble it together to go on a run in the NCAA tournament, and sometimes that kind of comes and bites you at the end. Now it just feels

a little different. The philosophy feels different. You know, you've got guys staying for a second year, You've blended the transfer portal with freshmen and then returning guys. Like you said, it's just a much different ecosystem. But you talk to anybody around the program, they're nothing but excited as well, right, I mean even us in the media having to work with the media relations teams and the sids. I mean it seems like their quality of living got a little

better too with the change. So I think, you know, it's Pope checked all the boxes. It's it's and it's a hard job to do that for especially year one, and uh, you know, I'm just really excited to see who's starting because with all the guys, you know, you got to think those practices are going to be really competitive, and you know who is going to be on the bench, who's going to be that starting five, who will play the most minute? You know, it's the great thing about

the state. We'll talk about it for six months, right and leading up to it.

you brought up, Calip Perry. One thing I think people need to take a good hard look at when now with some perspective, given the joy that you reference from the Mark Pope debut season was just how I don't know what the word I'm looking for is, but the second half of the Caliperi era versus the first half I mean, it was nothing but highlights those first six years, final four appearances, national championship, but then it, you know, it became so brittle in the second half, when an

injury here and there, a missed free throw here and there, and everything it seemed was going wrong. I still say, if the twenty fifteen team had finished things up the way people had hoped, Caliperiu might still be here. If North Carolina doesn't hit the shot that sends the Tarios to the Final four instead of bam at a buyo on to Aaron Fox in that bunch, he might still be here. If they close out against Auburn when they blew it in the second half, he might still be here.

So you know, it can really be, you know, thin ice when you're trying to get things done. But that also underscores the pressure, now, doesn't it? On Mark Pope? There wasn't as much pressure this past season that there is going to be this year and in the years to come. Is that fair?

he was. He's a great ambassador for the state. But when he's on his coaches show talking down to the fan base, or he's calling out media members or you know, like he's you know, I think deliberately felt like he was flighted at some point. I don't know if it was the Wisconsin game that broke him, Dick, but he just I think he was a completely different person personality wise. And it goes back to what I was saying with

Soups a little bit. You know, you hire a Bruiser Flint and a chin Coleman and a Brad Calipari, and this is this is fine when you're winning, but these are your boys, and so when you start to lose, I think people look at it as like why not, why not you know, retain a guy like Robic, you know, why not get a why did Welch only say for one year?

But you know, you could be right, you know. I mean, we could be four or five years into the Mark Pope experience and he hasn't gotten past the Sweet sixteen, and you know, the fan base it'd probably be sooner than that. Bick, It's probably be three or four years. But you know, how he's been able to connect to the fans is similar to Calan ways, but also I think a little different, and you know, being the captain with Patino and Rick being welcome backed in the way

that he was. It just I think that, you know, hopefully it never gets to that point. But you know, cal said no lies when this is about a ten year job, I mean, and I think that was probably one of the main factors of why Cow left. Even though you had some bad losses with Saint Peter's in Oakland. Could he have still been the coach of this team if he had won those games?

push forward. And I guess my really only regret is that Travis Perry isn't on the roster anymore. I hated to see that he's going to come in and score twenty two.

he will at Florida. You know, Arkansas showed that once he came back, he was better as a complimentary player. The team was better when Boogie was a complimentary player. But Kentucky's still going to have to deal with him at least twice a year. Billy Rutledge co hosts with Shannon the do the KSR pre show after the Leachs Report on this very radio station. Good talking to you, Sarah. We'll talk to you again.

But he brings an interesting question. You know, we've talked about this roster, this Kentucky roster. But as he points out and in the headline at states or asked a question should Kentucky fans have a counterintuitive worry about Mark Pope's upcoming basketball team? And what it's based on is, of course the offensive ability of Oh, take a Oway coming back, no question about that. But where else is

the offense going to come from? Because only Oway and transfer point guard Jalen Lowe have average double figures at this level of college hoops. Of course low average nearly seventeen a game for Pittsburgh. I'll take away average sixteen a game for the Wildcats. So question Mark is posing is where's the offense going to come from? There's a lot of athletic ability on this team, and you've got the Mark Pope's system in place, and we talked earlier and we heard from Pope talking about guys who go

from year one to year two. But it's a legit question, and it's one it's kind of fun to think about it. I don't think it's going to be a problem. Will this Kentucky team score the way it did last year? Maybe maybe not. Should be better defensively, should be better athletically, but will it put up points? As Mark pointed out, UK finished tenth in adjusted offensive efficiency last year? Seventh in the nation and scoring at eighty four points per

game eighty four point four. Remember early in the year when Kentucky was leading the nation twentieth and assists at seventeen per game, twenty first and fast breakpoints. Will we see that this coming year's legit question. That's something to think about and something to ponder as the season draws near. Where will the points come from? Now? The Cat's pause.

Whoever handles their website or their social media has pointed out that now that the old way is returning, Kentucky will return only twenty percent of it starts, thirty percent of its minutes, thirty percent almost thirty one of its points, nearly thirty percent of its rebounds, twenty six percent of its assists, forty four percent of it steals, thirty percent of its blocks, and twenty percent of its made three. Some of those numbers are good. Some of those numbers

can give you pause. But it's just going to be up to new people to make things happen. So again, I don't think it's anything to fret about, but I do think it's interesting and I'm curious as to where this is, this new found offense will come from. Otaga Oway is that rare Kentucky player to average sixteen points or more and come back for another year since nineteen ninety two. The Twitter account Rare Rookies hashtag BBN pointed

this out. Otago Oway joins Oscar Sheebwey, Patrick Patterson, Keith Bogans, Tayshawn Prince, Tony Delk, and Jamal Mashburn as the only players dating back to nineteen ninety two who have returned after averaging at least sixteen points per game. That is an interesting, interesting number. I also like the site that pointed out how crazy it is when you look at the NBA. This was on a site or a Twitter account called Hoops the UK Guards And if you follow the NBA at all, if you just glance at it,

you can't miss it. I mean, you start with Devin Booker. He is a true NBA superstar. He is becoming and if he's not already one of the greatest players in the history of the Phoenix Suns. Jamal Murray in Denver, He's already got a ringd Aaron Fox Is in San Antonio,

He's gonna get one. Playing with Wemby. I gotta think Malik Monk in Sacramento, got off the kind of a false start in Charlotte Lands in Sacramento, played with Fox for a while and this past season averaged seventeen a game, nearly four rebounds, five and a half assists, and hit forty four percent of his shots. Alik Monk solid now in the NBA. Ty Ty Washington's on a two way

with Phoenix Tyrese Maxi approaching superstar status in Philly. They need to win more for him to get there, but I think he will a Tyler hero Hughes in Miami. Apparently he's grown up to the point where pat Riley wants to keep him around. That was touch and go for a little while there. And of course, Shay gilgis Alexander your current reigning NBA MVP and the MVP of

the Western Conference finals. UK guards in the league and you can say, if you care, thank you, John Caliperi something else on Twitter today or ex if you will from Kat's Classics, whoever runs it posted a photo of Mark Pope and his teammates from the ninety five to ninety six team, including a young Rick Patino. Scott paget Is in uniform. Athough he did not play for that team. Jeff Shepard and Twin Walker and Walter McCarty. It is them celebrating a win in in Italy. Back in August

of ninety five. They went four and one versus some professional teams, averaging one hundred and sixteen points and won their games by a margin. This is a college team now beating pros by an average of twenty seven points per game. The reason it caught my eye, well, it was different, but I flashed on a moment that was not pleasant for me. I really wanted to make that trip. When I heard they were going, I went to my bosses at WKYT and I said, we need to cover

this team. They're going to win the national title. They're going to Italy. I can produce a series. I can produce a documentary. Whatever money we spend, we can make it back selling the advertising for this project. And they approved it. So now we had to get the ok from Patino in UK. So I very gently approached the UK and I got the approval. I was going to Italy, and I don't I think I was taking a videographer with me. These days they would just send one person.

But I mean it was all set. Then the next thing you know, I heard it was canceled. Why because the station in Louisville had the same idea. But and to sell Patino on it, it was basically, look, you won't even know we're there. We're just gonna shoot the video. We may do the occasional interview. Blah blah blah. Now the station in Louisville screwed it up. They presented a list of demands. They presented their plan. Here's what we're gonna do. Here's what you're gonna do for us, Here's

what we need from you. Here's how we're going to impose upon you while you're over there playing basketball, trying to learn your team, trying to see the sites and all that stuff. Patino took one look at it and said nope, and out the window it went. And with their request to accompany the team, out the window went. Yours truly in my videographer, Oh man, was I upset? It was all good. We were going it was gonna happen. But no, this high faluting station, I won't say which

over in Louisville. I think the people who were responsible are gone by now, screwed it up for the rest of us, meaning me and my shooter. No other station was going to go from Lexington just us. I mentioned the NBA second ago, uh as many of you know who listened to the show, and we appreciate that. I really love Inside the NBA, the TNT show, which is

sadly going away because they're losing the NBA contract. TNT is losing it to ESPN, and there's all kind of conjecture and speculation about what's going to happen to show. Shaquille o' neil, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson. It's probably the greatest studio show in the history of television. Well Shack had a message last night for anybody who might be wondering.

is still here, baby. You can never kill the four horsemen were coming and were coming to take spots, were coming to kick ass, and we come to take names doing it our way. Hey, okay, you got it. You know all this time, that's about that show. Were coming with a whole brand new show, and we don't care who went our way, coming to kick ass and ten names. I could play with this. That's why I wanted to play with him. Can I be Rickclaire? Yes, we got in that lasstake the last thing man changes, but the

boys are here that we did them. Boys, we don't ever forget it. We don't lost.

won the scripts National Spelling Bee age thirteen. He was the runner up last year and was the favorite going in this year because last year he never misspelled a word in the conventional spelling rounds. He only lost in a lightning round tiebreaker that he didn't really prepare for, so he was ready to win this year, but.

and he finally prevailed by spelling a claire systemon. I have no idea E C L A I R C I S S E M E N T. Had to look it up, no idea what it means. It has nothing to do with chocolate a Claire's. It's a noun French origin, which means claire vocation or explanation. And clearly this kid knew it, and he finally prevailed after almost blowing it. But he is your one hundredth anniversary Scripts

National Spelling Bee champions, so congrats to him. Our fool tonight is any of the cowards who issued death threats the Houston astros pitcher Lance mccullors Junior. He said to higher security after receiving online threats aimed at his family. I don't know why they happened. I don't care why they happened, but this is so cowardly. And he's not the only Major leaguer who has received death threats this year. And I always believe these things go back to gambling.

But he got some death threats, and actually the situation became public back when May the tenth, he had a rough outing against the Reds and quote unquote fans started threatening him online. He had to explain to his five year old daughter what it means to be threatened. Liam Hendrix of the Red Sox, a reliever, he got death threats.

Another Red Sox player, outfielder Jared Durant, also got death threats and got some really nasty comments sent to him because he's been public about his battles with depression and he had a comment about his suicide attempt that was hurled at him. It came out in a documentary on Netflix called The Clubhouse. People are being so ugly out there and I hate it. Our flake tonight, it's the SEC and the Big Ten. They are talking about head to head competition on a regular basis when it comes

to football. But the games could possibly be a play in style format that could decide up to eight bids for the college football playoff, So this this scheduling stuff is just running them up. Quite frankly, there's so many people weighing in about how the college football playoffs should be structured, and now two of the biggest conferences, the Big Ten and the SEC, are trying to make it

their own personal play thing. And unless the rest of college football rises up, it just well may happen sooner rather than later, that's going to do it. Thanks so much for listening, Have a great weekend. That said, good night from the garage in Lexington.