Uh.
Oh, guess what day it is. Guess what day it is?
Huh anybody, It's hump Day.
Welcome to the Big Blue and sidet ar Dick Gabriel with you on a Wednesday. Yes, it is hump Day and that means that on a Wednesday, we talk with our unforgettable guard Sean Woods. Also Westend Bureau chief Gary Moore. That's coming up in our number two. We usually talk with Aaron Gershan of the Cat's pause midweek. He is
traveling on vacation. He'll be back with us on Thursday, so a little bit later on we'll talk with the head coach, or the Hall of Fame head coach, Keith Madison, who of course coached the Wildcats for so many years and now remains active in college baseball and as such, was that the College World Series for a while. He's just back. He does have a tale to tell about coming home, air travel, cancel flights and all that stuff.
But more than anything, I want to hear him talk about his interaction action with the Murray State Racers, who of course have been eliminated, but they were a great story in Omaha. Now the great story is the fact that you've got Coastal Carolina still alive, and they don't like to be referred to as Cinderella because they've been there multiple times and they won the championship a few
years ago. They're in the final four, and in fact, they are playing the Louisville Cardinals this afternoon in an elimination game that would maybe over by the time we take the air. My apologies, we do pre record. As you know, Louisville has to beat Coastal twice. So if the Cardinals do manage to beat the Chanta Clears this afternoon, they'll play again tomorrow. Coming up this evening Arkansas LSU. That's another elimination game because LSU beat Arkansas earlier in
the tournament. The Razorbacks have to beat LSU a couple of times. They'll play again tomorrow if necessary. The finals are Saturday, Sunday, Monday, depending on what happens in a three game series. But Coastal Carolina again is a team that's chock full of confidence on a long heater right now, I think it's twenty five straight games. Arkansas is in great shape, first of all, beating UCLA last night seven
to three. It was seven to nothing to the last inning, UCLA put up three, but Arkansas cruised for the most part. But Arkansas pitching has been cruising since the kid threw the no hitter and saved the bullpen. Save the entire bullpen. That's such a key in tournaments like this, and again Arkansas cannot lose again. Arkansas has already lost once in w LIMB. Same with Louisville, which beat Oregon State another
crazy game. Oregon State was down six to three, put up three in the top of the ninth, and then Louisville loaded the bases with nobody out, got a sackfly from Eddie King, the hottest player in the tournament, and walked it off against Oregon State. But that inning began and I'm texting my buddies in the text Shane with a walk. You just can't walk the leadoff hitter, especially in a situation like that. But it was not a clean game, both teams making errors. But Louisville wins it.
Louisville survives and like I said, could be eliminated by now, but if it beats Coastal this afternoon, it will play again tomorrow night. We'll talk a lot of college baseball coming up with Keith Madison. But I also want to talk to Sean Woods about Colin Chandler, who spoke to the media this week. And he, of course is a guy who is going to make a jump from year one to year two that I think is going to be really terrific. But where does he fit in to
Mark Pope's ball club. So we'll talk about that with Sean coming up a little bit later on. Speaking of Mark Pope's team, Trent Noah talked to the media this week. They're bringing the players to us now here in the off season, which is great. And Noah talked to assembled reporters about what it's like now that pre season pre pre preseason practices have begun.
Now it is ramping up on early impression. I mean, I feel like it'll be just like last year. I think the BBN will fall in love with helping new guys, especially coach Pobru again excellent human beings once again, so that always makes it even better and more enjoyable to play with.
That's such a great comment. Now the BBN will fall in love with these new players, And of course it's a guy who grew up at Kentucky fan grew up in Harlan knows the BBN inside and out in Trentoa, who I really believe will be kind of the Swiss Army Knife for this team. He can play in the backcourt, he's strong enough to play in the front court, he can shoot it, and of course instantly a fan favorite. But I think he's a guy who will really really
produce in a number of ways for Mark Pope. I don't know if he'll ever be a starter at Kentucky. He might be, He'll get bigger, he'll get stronger, but I think this coming year, as I said, he'll be a great uti player for Mark Pope. He was just as popular as Travis Perry, his buddy, his roommate, the guy he faced off against in the Sweet sixteen championship game a couple of years ago. Travis Perry chose to leave, even though he had said or indicated he was staying.
Trent Noah immediately said I'm coming back, and he talked about the fact that it never occurred to him to leave UK.
No no this is this is the greatest place on earth. And I love coach Coach Poe's vision for me, and he sees kind of the same path that I see. So that's what we're looking to do this year and on the way win number nine.
The greatest place on Earth, says Trent Noah and the vision mark Pope has for no He's talked about him more than once. It's been in general generalities basically, but you know, he just talked about how much he loves Trent Noah and is excited about his future. And as I said, Pope is basically said. He didn't use the same term, but he's basically said he looks at at Noah as the all around player. He can guard a little bit as well. He's got to get better at everything,
so does everybody. But I think that he is a guy who will keep paying dividends to the Wildcats. And I do believe again, when he was in high school the great advantage he had. He's a bigger guy, taller than most of the kids he's playing against, but with so much stronger physically stronger. He could bring the ball up the floor and work his way to the rim as well as anybody I saw in the Sweet sixteen that year. And that's saying a lot. So yeah, I'm excited to see what Trent Noah can do. The UK
women have released the schedule for upcoming SEC games. For the upcoming year, Kentucky's home and away opponent is Vanderbilt. That's a plus, it's not Tennessee. Home games include South Carolina which will be huge, Florida, Georgia, Ole, miss Missou, A and M and Oklahoma. But on the road now, you got to go to Texas, Gotta go to Tennessee. The other ones are the A teams Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn,
along with the LSU and Mississippi State. Kentucky last year under Kenny Brooks, who's going to be on the show with Us tomorrow. The UK head coach Wildcats win eleven and five in the SEC, and Kenny Brooks's first year in the league. Of course, he had Georgia Amore who was gone, but he's had Clara Strack, who's coming back. UK had the best scoring margin in SEC regular season action, winning by an average of eight and a half points.
That was the best since twenty twelve thirteen, and the best scoring defense in the SEC regular season, giving up only sixty five point eight points per game. Wildcats won eight SEC games by at least fourteen points, second most in a single season in program history about that. You got to go back to twenty oh nine to ten for a team that had eight such wins. So this team could score, this team could defend, had its best field goal percent of defense and SEC regular season action
since at least two to three. But new faces. I talked about the kids who were gone, specifically Georgia Amore. But when you talk about defense with Clara Strack in the middle defensive Player of the Year for the SEC, I mean you're well ahead of the game right there. So we'll talk more about that with Kenny Brooks tomorrow on the Big Blue Insider up NEX. Speaking of women's basketball, what's going on in the WNBA is quickly getting out of hand and it's just gotten ugly. Yes, and involves
Kaitlin Clark. No, she's not innocent in all of this, but they got to figure this out or else they're going to kill the Golden Goose. Look, it's a popular game right now, it's it's in't popular, but even more so because of Caitlin Clark, and she's bringing attention to all these other great players they have in the league. But as I said before, the players who are attacking Caitlyn Clark literally are cutting off their respective noses or
collective noses. Despite their face, she is the rising tide that's raising all the boats. Everybody's looking at a better life, better money, better salaries, and they got to figure out how to peacefully coexist and still be competitive. We'll talk about that on the other side of the break. We'll talk about it with Shawn Woods as well. Here on the Big Blue Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back to
the Big Blue Insider. Coming up in hour number two, Keith Madison, the Hall of Fame UK coach, just back from Omaha where he had a chance to interact with the Murray State Racers. We'll hear about that also. West End Bureau Chief Gary Moore coming up as well. In just a few minutes. We will talk with Shawn Woods, the Unforgettable Guard, about a number of things. I'm I'm gonna ask him as well about the WNBA, and he is a fan and of course Sean, being an Indiana native,
he is a Kentuckian at heart. But we have talked before about the the Caitlin Clark situation and the fact that things have gotten pretty messy within the WNBA, and it really, really took hold. Last night, there were some ugly moments when the Indiana Fever were playing the Connecticut Sun and in the third quarter, Clark was fouled. She took a finger to the eye, got poked in the eye by J. C. Sheldon. I mean it was pretty flagrant.
And then Clark threw an elbow at Sheldon, you know, trying to I guess, protect herself or just not take it laying down. Well, that escalated and Tina Charles came in, tried to mediate the situation, but a player named Marina Maybray came flying in and kind of cross body blocked Caitlin Clark knocked her to the floor, so they finally,
you know, a separated everybody. Sheldon got a flagrant one. Maybray, Clark, and Charles all were given technical fouls, but Maybury was not ejected from the game, and later on the crew chief told the Indianapolis Star that the actions did not warrant her being ousted, said that it did not rise to the level of an ejection, did not meet the criteria for a flagrant foul penalty two. But that's not where it ended. Forty six seconds left to go in
the game, there was a breakaway. And by the way, at this point, Indiana was up sixteen points with sixteen seconds left, and there was a breakaway by Sheldon. She's driving in for a layup. Sophie Cunningham of Indiana comes running in from behind, throws her arms around her upper body, her shoulders, and yanks her hair and pulls her to the ground. So now another scuffle, three ejections happening. It got ugly. Here's what it sounded like on Indiana Fever TV.
And the analyst is Debbie Antonelli, who's been on our show before. I worked with her early early in her career. She's a former UK sports marketing director, now a member of the Hall of Fame as a broadcaster, as a player at nc State, and obviously a big fan of Caitlin Clark, but more than anything, a fan of the WNBA. And she hates what she sees. And here's we got another.
Great us here as Jessey Sheldon goes right after Sophie cunning games.
There was a hard found, no question.
He claimed to be all on the officials tonight. It is totally their responsibility. That's a heart foul, that's a flavor.
Found and if they had.
Taken care of the business earlier, we would be in this situation right now. Well, you can't object her because he didn't detect Favery.
Twelve players were rejected, as I said, but it never should have gone to that. And once again, there's always been physical play, there's always been you know, smack talking in the WNBA, but it has been heightened because of the awareness of Caitlyn Clark. But also we've talked in the past the jealousy of some players, the resentment. But again this goes back to before Clark played her first
game in the WNBA. Diana Tarassi, who was a great, great player and a great smack talker, she warned Caitlin Clark quote reality is coming when she basically said doing it against college players is one thing, but doing it in the pro league is another. And she's right. And let's get this straight. Caitlyn Clark is a trash talker. She was a trash talker in college, a good one and a great player, one of the all time great and she brought that to the pro game. So there's
going to be back and forth like this. Look, Larry Bird, she has compared a lot to Larry Bird being that she is playing in the state of Indiana. She's white. She's a great outside shooter and a trash talker. And Larry Bird wasn't the only trash talker in the NBA.
He was one of the best. Now, what's kind of fun on the internet is to hear NBA venterans tell stories of Larry Bird and his trash talking was such that he would tell a guy, I'm going to take the ball, dribble twice, and go up and shoot, and there was nothing they could do about it. It's a great story out there about a key game where the Celtics called the time out, tried to call to play for somebody else, and Larry Bird stopped and said, just give me the ball and get out of the way.
And when he came out of the huddle, I think Barkley told his story. He told them what he was going to do and went out and did it and won the game. So Clark is not innocent of all this. But what happened in this game, poking her in the eye and then a blind side hit from out of nowhere, It's all there on the internet if you want to go look for it. Is ridiculous and I bring this up simply because that I've said before. These players are
independent contractors and they're stupid for doing this. I don't know if this offends them, but to think of Caitlin Clark as the golden Goose is not out of line because ever since she joined the league. And you can resent her, you can be jealous. What you should do is take advantage as a professional contractor take advantage of the situation. Make more money, get better deals. You've already got charter flights now thanks to her. Don't just resent
the fact that now the league's getting more attention. Look, the league, the NBA wasn't getting enough attention before Bird and Magic took cold and they had great players, but you know, the championship round was on delayed television. Believe it or not, the NBA Finals run delayed TV. Magic and Bird changed all that was their resentment. Probably did people attack them physically, not just because of that. I mean they did it because that was part of the game.
That is part of the women's game. But you got to stop of this nonsense. It is ridiculous. Before we go to the break, a note from two four to seven Sports In the cast pause, the Wildcats get a commitment from a linebacker from Pennsylvania, Max Mooring. Sixth commitment of the month of June, seventh overall, and a tip of the Big bullon Sider Cap two of the Florida Panthers. They have won the NBA Championship, Sam Reinhardt four goals leading the Panthers past the Oilers in Game six. This
makes back to back titles for the Florida Panthers. Yes, that's right, a team from Florida winning once again the NHL title over a bunch of guys from Canada. Thus concludes our award winning coverage of the NHL here on the BD I thank you, thank you very much. Shawn Wood's next on six point thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider, joining us as he does each and every Wednesday, schedule permitting, is the unforgettable guard Shawn Woods, his jersey hangs in the raptors of Ruppy. Is also
the head coach at Scott County High School. And we got a lot to talk about coach, even though we're in the middle of June. But of course the NBA Playoffs are still going on. But basketball is three sixty five here in the state of Kentucky and Indiana your home state, and let's start with that. You're Indiana Pacers, and I love seeing ABA teams doing well, but I just cannot root for the Pacers. I hated him so much when I was a kid. But I'll be okay
with it if they win. However, Tyrese Hallibert is hobbled, Sean, I don't think they can win unless he's one hundred percent. I don't know if he can get back to one hundred percent, you know what I mean.
Yeah, it's gonna be tough day. I mean, he's the straw that stirs their coffee, and right now, you know he's not healthy, and I don't think the Patiers have a chance, Like you said, if he's not one hundred percent,
I mean they struggle with him just beating sixty percent. Yeah, he has to be on it for them to have a chance against Okay, see, if he's not, we may be looking at a new world champion in the NBA coming out of Oklahoma and two more guys from the universe of Kentucky that's gonna get rings.
That's right, speaking of speaking of him not one hundred percent you're you're struggling a bit today, I know, but I appreciate you playing hurt.
My boy, my voice, my voice is kind of down a little bit. I'm trying to get it back in shape from coaching. So it's all right, But no.
You're right, shake Yelgas, Alexander Case and Wallace and you know what's great as SGA gets the headlines. But I just read a big article on the Athletic about the defenders for OKC and each guy has individual skills, individual trade. Two of them were free agents. Now, Wallace was a first round draft pick, but when he was here at Kentucky he started to blossom. He got through some injuries and started to bloss him a little bit late. May have been misused, as it turns out, by Caliperry, but
that's easy to say in hindsight. But I don't know Seawan that anybody who looked at him at Kentucky. We knew he could play defense. There were times he's at their guard in the other team's point guard. I didn't know that he could be this effective of a defender in the NBA. But that's just something they've got to learn, don't they. At the next level.
This defense is a mentality, and you got to be an ultimate competitor. And in the NBA, everybody can't be the man. So how do you get a check? How do you get how do you prosper in the NBA if you're not the guy? The easiest and the most proficient way to stay on the NBA roster is to be a lockdown defender. And he's found his way to be that, and he's become elite. And those guys are hard to come by. And there's if you show me the teams there are big time teams. I'll show your
team that has big time defenders. And that's one of the main reasons why Oklahoma City and the Indiana Pacers are in the finals, because they're two of the best defensive teams in the league.
That's right, which flies directly in the face of college basketball fans. You'd like to see, Well, they don't play defense in the NBA. You know, it's a different style and a different brand of basketball. The rules are different. They get away with more physicality in the NBA. But I always say, and I didn't make this up. If you want to see NBA basketball no defense, it's the All Star game, and yeah, I'm sure if you watch
bad teams play, you watch bad defense. But I told a friend of mine the othernet, I said, you know, good teams play good defense. It's easy to say, difficult to do, but yeah, you know, Okay and Okac came in rightfully so with the rep of being a great defensive team. I thought Indiana was underrated defensively, didn't you.
I never thought Indiana's underrated because I watched them. They were underrated as far as offensive efficiency because they're not fun to watch from an offensive standpoint. Yeah, but they win because they're solid as a route on offense. But they're very, very tenacious and super solid on defense.
I think that one of the reasons people might say that as well is when the Warriors were having their run and they were so much fun to watch with the extra pass and the three point shooting, and that's what stood out they I felt like their defense was underappreciated. Started with Raymond Green, and say what you will about him, but he was a real key for them. So keep that in mind when you're watching the regular season, not just the playoffs. When it comes to defense in the NBA,
these guys are just so good. They can get to the rim. But it's just you got to pick your spots when you're playing defense, and these two teams in
the finals are doing just that. While we're talking pro ball in Indiana, we got to talk about Kaylyn Clark and you and I have talked about her before about how some of the NBWNBA players are going out to sing all wrong that she is is raising everybody's level in terms of the money they're making and charter flights and all that stuff, and yet they keep beating the crap out of her. And the most recent dust up involved multiple players and it started with Kaylyn Clark getting
poked in the eye, you know. And earlier on the show, Sean, I played a clip from the one of the broadcasts, just the most recent one, with former UK Sports Marketing director Debbie Antonelli doing the color laying it on the officials, and I agree with her. I think the officials have got to get together into WNB and say, you know, this starts with us, with the referees. They got to do something to clean this up.
You know what I'm saying, I'm gonna be devil as an advocate. Okay, Caitlin Klark ain't no Angel No, I agree. Okay, she talks more crap. Okay, she gives it too, She gives it all right. Angel Rees got the blood of that altercation. But Kitlyn Clark knocked the crap out of Angel Reese and different. Anytime you get hit like that, another player is going to retaliate. Okay, Angel Rees, it became the bandit in that situation when Kitlyn Clark is
the one who clocked her first. Okay, then they talk about Angel Rees got up and was gonna cheap shot her of somebody. Uh, give her a puncher in a face if if she wants somebody wouldnt to grab her. That's that's that's blowning. Okay. The other day the other night, when that little girl was defending Caitlyn Clark, she was frustrating and straight and frustrating Kaitlyn Clark in that possession and she was turning her bumping her. That was great defense.
Caitlyn Clark got frustrated in that situation and Kitlyn Clark threw an elbow in her face. That little girl retaliated. But as a team, when that little girl got a fast break and Kaitlyn Clark's teammate rightfully, so clarked her foul. Then that started an altercation. That is just basketball. That's at every level, your teammate's supposed to take up for you. I remember, I remember h Call Malone when Isaiah Thomas got pissed off and rightfully so that John Stockin made
the Olympic team before him. There was no way John Stockton was supposed to be on the liper team before Isaiah Thomas. But it was because of personal issues, things like that with.
Maddie Johnson and Michael Jordan's. Okay, So, Isaiah Thomas the first time he played against John Stockton, he torched John Stockton, I mean embarrassing. So what did Karmlone do? Isaiah Thomas came in.
There, Carmlone gave him a cheap shot, elbowed him in the head, gave him I don't know how many stitches. Okay, that was taking up for his teammate. Okay. Now, is Clayton Clark become the darling of this WNBA, No doubt about it. Is she probably is she the faith and making a lot of things happen for women basketball, no doubt about it. Does she the first? No? Okay, but does she talk a lot of crap, Yes she does. Tarrossie was the same way, maybe more. Tarossie was nasty
and she'd give it and tell you about it. Caitlyn Clark is I watched Kaitlyn Clark and I love Caitlin Clark. Don't get me wrong, I love her. But Caitlyn Clark is getting away with things. And then when everybody, anybody retaliates against her, they're the ones who are wrong. Clayland Park Clark, excuse my language. I would say she's got some s h I t tour, but she's got some crap tour now, trust me. I like it. But ain't nobody going and nobody nobody's gonna bow down tour. No, Okay.
When Larry Bird first came in the league, doctor J and all of them went at him, but Larry Bird would talk crap too under nobody saw. But what doctor J goes at him or whoever else. Doctor J's the mad guy. See. Kayln Clark has the Larry Bird syndrome. She can she can uh kiss you on your sheet and pee down your leg at the same time.
Yeah, but nobody was poking Larry Bird in the eye. Nobody was nobodyd to strong.
Yeah, but what they could do was they can get under his skin. But he was. He was getting under their kay Clark is getting under these these women's skin. And is there jealousy?
They're humans, yeah, but they scrumps man, they got it. They got to stop the tackling, you know.
Well they got to stop the tackling. They do they don't. Don't get me wrong, but it's musty TV. Okay, there's something to talk to me. And you are talking about.
Exactly right. Sean Woods is the unforgettable guard. He's on every week with us. We'll take a break, Sean can rest his voice for a moment and talk more basketball here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're talking with the unforgettable guard, Sean Woods. He joins us each and every week, and let's talk point guards. That is your area of expertise, well, all of basketball obviously, but that
was your position. Colin Chandler talked to the media this week Sean, and he was a guy who really blossom him down the stretch. And you talked about this last season, shaking off some of the rust from imagine putting the ball down for two years basically and coming back and then not only playing D one ball, but playing for Kentucky. And he said, I'm not sure when you know the rust came completely off, but you know he took minutes from Travis Perry, and I think he showed that he
can help this team this coming year. He may not be in the starting lineup, but how important do you think he will be?
I think he'll be a good piece, He's for sure. You know. I don't think he's a point guard, but I think he'll be a good piece. No, he's not point guard. He's not a playmaker. You know he's a basketball player, but he's not He's not a point guard. He's not a guy that you you put the ball in his hands and say, go run my team. He's not that that. He's not that that type of player. What he is is he's a very complimentary player that
is more athletic than you think. I think he'll shoot the ball better than he did last year because he's been out, so he was out so long. I think he'll be I like him because he competes. I think he plays hard. I think he'll do whatever the coach asks him to do. I think he's he's gonna if Mark Pope runs more and gets out and transition more. I think you'll see more of him. I think he's much better in transition, going up and down than he is in the half court because he's not a break
you down type of guy. I don't know if he's a not down shooter yet, but I think he's he's got length from the guard spot. I think he's competitive. I don't know how elite he'll be on the defensive end, but because he plays so hard, he'll be good enough. But you know, I think he's a four year player that with great personality, and sooner or later he's going to become a leader on this basketball team and maybe one of the faces just because of who he is.
But we got to continue to get better players, for sure, But he'll always be in the mix because he's solid enough and tough enough, and I think those type of people you win championships with when you bring other people in. Because he'll be able to sell Mark Pope to the new guys that's come in, especially transferst.
Clearly, Jalenlow will be, you know, the man with the ball as long as he stays healthy, and the point guard he transferred in from Pittsburgh. I was thinking Chandler in terms of being a backup to Jalen Low. I see what you say about him being a playmaker, but you know he is still evolving, is Chandler as a college player. But just like last year, they got to make sure the point guard stays healthy and stays out of foul trouble, right right.
I mean, as you saw last year, he wasn't the guy they put at the point. They put Williams at the point. You know, he's not a point guard, so let's not say he's a point guard. He's not not even close to being a point guard. He's a good guard that could come off the bench and give us some energy if he's hitting shots. I think he could be really good because with his athleticism, he's kind of got an electric game. And I see him more so as playing passing lanes, you know, doing those type of deals,
bringing energy. That's the type of kid I see him.
Got you, I got you. Let me ask you a little bit about summer basketball. About AAU ball when I was in high school one hundred years ago. I don't know what it was like when you were, but back in the seventies, there was a rule prohibiting AAU teams from having I think any more than three kids from the same high school. If you can believe that or not. Is that right? Okay?
Yes, you can only have two. Actually you can only have two.
Okay. So somewhere that changed, which was a great obviously a great advantage for you know, entire high school teams to compete at the AAU level. That's one thing. But the other is the AAU teams that are essentially constructed like all star teams and Caliperi used to joke about it. You know, I'd have to tell my kids, this is an AAU ball. You got to play defense or you know, you got to want to win. You're not going to play another game in a couple of hours. That kind
of thing. As a guy who is recruited at the D one level, coached at the D one level, and now you're coaching high school kids who are involved with AAU ball, where do you come down on that? On the value of it, it's never going to go away, of course, too much money involved. But you know, we talk all the time about kids who are AAU YouTube All Stars, but then there's something missing when they get to college you know, where are you on all this.
Dick AAU. Okay, In these tournaments in the summer May and July are super convenient for college coaches because you can bring them all in together and you can watch and you only have to be a one, maybe two or three spots maybe four in July instead of going to every high school in the country trying to find a player. So it's made college recruiting more convenient. Okay.
Now because of that, all right, there is money involved, because these AAU tournaments are charging college coaches for five hundred dollars just to get the packet of the information and the rosters, and half the time the rosters aren't right, or the numbers are right, so on and so forth. So it is a racket and it's not organized, okay, But it's a way to a symbol a bunch of talent for days on end where everybody could be in one place and watch. Okay, So that's one thing. Two,
there's no coaching involved. It's just showcasing talent, rolling the balls out there. These AAU teams meet up on weekends. They don't practice during the week, they meet up on weekends. You may have a kid, two three kids coming from this date to come join this team only on weekends to play. Okay, So there's no practices, there's no fundamental deals going on. Nobody's playing great defense. And that's what I call prep schools glorified AAU. So they're not getting
any coaching. They're just showing their individual talents. So kids, okay, they're not being coached and not getting constructive criticism, they're not being called out. So and they got college coaches, you know, recruiting them. So then when they come to high school, all right, and the coach tries to coach them or don't coach them, it's it gets boring because now you're going over the little things instead of just hooping and playing. They their their their attentions, pay is minute.
Wow.
Okay. So now you go to college okay, and it's more high stakes, and it's more coaching okay, and you're playing against better players, and the older and better players have been in those systems. They know what it's like, and so that young kid gets exploited no matter how talented they are. So then they get frustrated because they run into a road block and they're being told that they're not as good and the coach tells them, I don't care what you did in high school, this is
college now. Just don't want to hear that, So they get deflated, and what they do they go on to transfer portal because they want to be glorified. They want to be told how good they are, instead of it's being told the truth and get better. They thinking that just going to a workout guy who's taking their money, making them go against cones and working on their ball handling and shooting. Okay, those are guys that they want to go to because those are guys that are telling
them what they want to hear. They don't want to go to a guy that's going to tell them the truth and this is how you play the game of basketball as a team because that coach is is depending on wins and losses, so he's got to make sure that that kid knows everything that he needs to know about what they do on that particular team for that coach and that school to be successful. Kids don't want
to hear that anymore. That's the reason why they jump from here to there to there because kids don't like the truth.
Kind of vicious circle, isn't it?
Vicious is not even the words. And now you're throwing money on top of it. Now you see what I'm saying, and you can move. College basketball is like AAU. You don't like this team if they're not giving you these amount of shoes or this and that, you're going to go to the next one. Same with transfer portal. If I'm at this place, they're only giving me thirty thousand, and another school can give me one hundred and fifty two hundred thousand a million. What do you think they're
gonna do? But it starts at the AAU deal because they're allowed to. There's not too many rules, okay, And so they looking at school just like they look at AAU. And it's even in the high school rates. So when does it stop? I don't know. It's a mentality. And these parents are atrocious.
Everybody I know.
We get to the P word, go ahead.
Oh yeah, And everybody thinks their kids are pro and the parents don't want to hear the constructive criticism and the truth no more than the kid does. That's right, So that makes it even worse.
Yeah, well, I have clearly a scratched an itch for you, and that leaves us off at a spot where we're out of time, but we will certainly pick this up next week. But it is fascinating when we talk with Sean Woods, unforgettable guard, head coach at Scott County High School. Coach, hope your voice recovers in time for your kids to hear you in full throat.
Hey working on it right now and getting it back into shape out to two years, Dick.
Sounds good to see you.
Take care Up next that we're number two with our West End Bureau Chief Gary Moore and the coach Keith Madison, Hall of Famer Fumber Wildcat mentor who's just back from the College World Series.
He got stories to tell. He was hanging out with those Murray State racers. We'll talk about that and more on the other side of the news break here on six thirty l eight feet. Welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider joining us now one of our favorite guests as part of the chain Gang. We had him in the garage not too long ago. But since then, Keith Madison, the Hall of Fame coach, has been to Omaha and back, which is an annual tradition. One it's a true labor love. But man, coach, you were keeping
us up to speed. We in the textchain gang about your travel just in nightmare, tell everybody what happened to you, because everyone's had something similar, but it's always unique.
Yeah.
After two two board meetings and four great baseball games, I was scheduled fly back Sunday afternoon. The flight was delayed first for six hours, and then after about seven hours they decided to cancel the flight. The airline did not have a hotel room available for us, So basically I'm homeless. I'm homeless in Omaha for a while there.
And all the rooms are full because of baseball exactly.
Not only do they have a College World Series, but as you may remember, Dick, they have dozens and dozens of teams, youth league teams that come in from a major youth tournament. And so it's just it's just a baseball crazy week in Omah, which is fun and beautiful, but we're looking for a hotel room. At the last minute, not so much. I was able to actually get back to the Marriott and five hundred and ninety nine bucks.
Probably you'd probably get that room in January in Omaha for about one hundred and eighty nine bucks, no question, No question. But anyway, I've spent many hours and my connections were tight. I'm having knee surgery Friday, so you know, hustling through the airports was no fun at all. Oh, just trying to get all this but everybody had. You know, if you travel very much, you're going to experience that. But it's just a nightmare when you when you have to go through it.
Oh man, Well, I'm glad you're back safe and sound. You did see some really great baseball out there, and you were dealing with it and interacting with the Murray State team. Excuse me? And uh, you know you've seen them play in lexing In they pulled off a win here, pull off a lot of wins. What was it like being around that energy?
It was tremendous. Uh. And and I tell you these guys, uh just really really believed. And Dick, you've been around sports so much in many different sports, especially football and baseball, and you can see when a team believes, and Murray State really did believe. Uh. And then and then to watch Coastal Carolina, I mean, they've got some really special
things going on with their team right now. They're such a role and are playing so very well in a year that most of us, including myself, thought, hey, you know, the era of mid majors making it to Almaha is probably over because of the transfer portal and in il and all that. And now we you know, suddenly we have a team like Murray State that's never been there before, and then a team like Coastal who wanted a few
years ago. But you know, everybody kind of thought teams like Coastal would maybe get squeezed out because their players would be transferring to the bigger schools. But man, Coast of Carolina is right there with LSU and Arkansas right now in Louisville. I mean those, you know, all those teams are very good, but Coastal Carolina has that special something that going on right now. And these kids just don't believe they're going to lose.
Yeah, and it's more than just you know, passion. I believe these guys can play. I mean they're really good.
Yeah, yeah, they're they're very good.
And and and you know, you and Darren on the radio dugging me on TV, we talked. You know, it's it's it's baseball one on one. It's it's pitching in defense as well as offense. And and we have seen that, We've seen the breakdowns. You know, U of L almost let one get away, and they did let one get away because of defense. Oregon State, you know, which made a terrible mistake late in the game. Uh in the super regional last year here made some late any mistakes
and let games get away. So you got to have it all and Coastal does.
Yeah.
And and it's uh, I mean what you just talked about, Dick is magnified, you know in Omaha. And uh, when I mean hit every error, every mental error, is it seems like it haunts you. Yeah, because the other teams are so good they're going to take advantage of that. But yeah, it's it's been a it's been a really good series. It's been a except for those errors that you talked about, it's been well played. And the pitching is it just seems like the kitching just keeps getting better.
Uh.
The kid that threw for Arkansas against Murray. But I mean when you're when you're hit ninety seven in the ninth inning, oh man, that's pretty strong. I mean, that's that's major league caliber right there.
And what's amazing is the most challenging ball, and this is a really good Murray State offense average eight plus runs a game exactly. But there was like a hard hit ball of the first basement who barely had to move to make a play, you know, hit the one kid actually hit who I did not care for that call where Murray State kid lay in the game was hit and they called him out, you know, even though the ball hit him while he was in the batters by anyway, But no, that that that kid for Arkansas
was tremendous. But again getting back to Murray State, we were talking just about, you know, how this might affect that program, and I wondered too, coach, you know, going back to when you had your best teams at Kentucky. This was back before they had as many teams in the NCAATE tournament. You know, you guys were scrambling for facilities and funding at Kentucky when a few other schools were really pouring it into baseball. Could you relate much to the hill Murray State was.
Trying to climb, No doubt I really could. And also Dan Skirka as a young coach, and you know he's been there for six years. I think he's only forty years old now, right, You know I started at Kentucky at twenty six years old, and so I know that that clime. And he's just had tremendous points for a young coach, and his teams have a tremendous or his team has had a tremendous approach at the plate.
Uh.
They really had a plan when they when they would go up to the place. And even though a lot of people say, well, you know they finally caught up with the merch, they got no hit, but think about what they did in the super regionals. They pounded the ball against Duke and UH. And then when they get to Omaha and the first and their first loss, Dick, I think I counted nine hard at the ball that just didn't ball. They really were swinging it well in that first game. But they You know, baseball is a
cruel sport. Sometimes you can do something perfectly, square the ball up and hit it perfect and it goes right into someone's club.
Yeah.
Yeah, if you shooted basketball perfectly, it's going to go through the basket.
Or you make you make a great pitch that dives away from the hitter and it fools him, but he sticks his bat out and it drops in over the first base.
Yeah, that's right. It's it could be a tough game, but at the same time it's a beautiful game. And I thought Burry State played extremely well. They only everybody talks about the no hitter. Arkansas only scored three runs against Murray State. And Murray State, I mean Arkansas has a really really good off there.
Yeah. Yeah. Keith Madison is a Hall of Fame coach and coach the wildcast for many many years. You hear him now now every now and then with Darren Hedrick on the UK Radio Network. We'll come back and talk more baseball with a coach on the other side of the break. Here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're talking with Keith Madison, hall of Fame coach from the University of Kentucky and you hear him on the UK Radio Network with Darren Hedrick. He is just back from Omaha,
where you are part of. What is the organization you're at You said you're out there for meetings the Baseball Coaches Association.
Yeah, it's the American Baseball Coach Association. It's a great organization. I'll put a shameless plug in. We have over fifteen thousand members.
Wow, and.
Mostly high school and college coaches. Now travel baseball coaches are getting involved. So it's a great organization to be a part of. And we wisely have our we have two board meetings a year. We wisely have one board meeting every year in Omaha during a college World Series. And so I get to go out every year and watch some great baseball and also try to do some good things with the American Baseball Coaches Association, or as baseball coaches called the ABCA.
Yeah. Well, and now you've got so much happening in college sports, and you and and Darren and Doug and I have talked about the portal and I on all that, and now you've got the house settlement figuring in. You've got I don't know if you ever thought you'd see today, but no longer do you see the eleven point seven scholies. They have the opportunity to fully fund baseball scholarships. But that means no more walk ons. There's so much going on.
What did you guys at the college level, what are they talking about these days?
Yeah, they were talking a lot about the you know, the roster clemouth and uh and and the way that and the way that baseball programs are going to be funded so much better than they have been in the past, and and uh and then you know, quite frankly, we talked about the negative side of it is, you know, you're already seeing other sports being.
Great, all right, that's right.
Uh, and that's very sad, and you hope that doesn't happen very much. But I think it's inevitable because there's only so much money to go around and and so uh, depending on which sports are you know, have have good traditions, uh, you know, they're probably going to be safe. But some some maybe some of the newer sports in certain schools or leagues that you know, perhaps haven't been as successful as some of the other teams or programs. You know, there's a chance that they may do away with them.
And I just think that's tragic. But at the same time, it's also very difficult to raise money for enough money, uh, for each individual sports program.
This day and age.
I'm also wondering about junior college baseball, you know, because there's a as you know, there's a distinct ripple effect, and junior college athletes are more prevalent, I think in baseball than any other sport except maybe football, maybe more than football. Uh And now that's what kind of an effect is all this going to have on the jucos and on your your your former player Jan Weisberg coach for a long time at a D three level. Now he's at EKU, but had a really successful program at
Birmingham Southern, which of course no longer exists. But what kind of ripple effects that can I have?
Yeah, it's definitely going to have a ripple effect. And junior college baseball there's been a very positive thing for college baseball in general because it's been junior college baseball. If you you know, in the past, if you get in a bind and and you know, like for instance, if your catcher signed pro you didn't expect him to,
Yeah you can go. You can go into the JUCO ranks and find a good play And a lot of players coming out of high school that are maybe not as strong or as mature, you know, they choose to go to junior college baseball so that they could get playing experience and become more mature and get stronger and
then be ready for Division one baseball. So you hope that it doesn't have a negular effect on those Jucos because there are a lot of really good junior college programs out there, and the baseball players that go to junior college, it's not all about not having the grade. Yeah, some of them are, but most of the time it's about wanting to have a Division one opportunity and going to junior college and getting experience and improving as a player and then moving.
On to Division one.
A lot of those kids in juco baseball are good students. They just want a chance to play baseball at the highest level, and sometimes at junior college are out is the route to go a couple of.
Minutes lef with Keith Madison so many kids coming through the portal now, there are still opportunities for the Jucos, maybe at the schools that these kids left behind, you know what I'm saying. On the D one level.
One thing I've noticed about about both athletes and also their sports is they tend to adapt and survive. Is the rules changes happen, and a lot of times those changes are very uncomfortable for people. But the good programs and the good players they find a way to adjust and adapt and survive. And I'm hoping that's what will happen. I think, you know, the way that the programs like SEC programs, ACC programs, and I guess it's the power forward down. The way they're going to be funded is
going to be incredible. It's going to be it's going to be like a real really good level of minor league baseball.
Yeah, yeah, it will.
And yeah, and the talent level is is it's just going to keep And I think what's happening with Major League baseball really quick? Here? It is, you know, fewer, fewer players drafted. There are fewer rounds. You know, there used to be I don't know, fifty rounds and now there's so there's there's the talent pool out there. It's so much better for division on baseball than it was in my era. Uh So there's more good players to
be had and more good players to recruit. And that's why, you know, I see Nick nan Jones two three, four times a week during the school year. I haven't seen him since. Uh, I haven't seen him since you got back from the regional tournament because you know, because man, those guys are working, they are after it. Yeah, yeah, getting those you know, going into the transfer portal. And also recruiting, you know, the young guys in high school.
So I talked to many coaches Division one coaches while I was in Omaha, and every one of them said the same thing. I am working harder in the summer now than I've ever worked in my life.
Coach, I appreciate the time. Glad you made it back.
Yes, sir Dick, thanks for having me on, Buddy I Jordan.
Western Bureau Chief Gary Moore is next in six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the big blueing cider. As promised, it is Wednesday. That means we look to the other end of the interstate, to the western end, to our West end. Bureau Chief Gary Moore, longtime West Coast Bureau chief when he covered all kinds of sports for us when he was with Kalas Radio in LA. But now he is in LA the Louisville area, joined us each and every week with a lot on his mind.
Two guys in a six pack, you and me, buddy, And by the way, congratulations to your alma mater, Trinity. Yeah about that state baseball champs had no hitter in there.
Yeah, And a couple of former sham Rocks two or three on the UFL roster and yeah, ESPN with some Trinity shoutouts. I love it thanks to Chris Burke, who I've got to give him as props. He's a sane x guy, but he did bring up the fact that this guy, that guy, this guy, there were Trinity shamrocks and they tipped their caps to the new stage.
Champs Cousin Skeeter Davis Duggins. Skeeter Duggins was a footballer back in the early eighties. For your rocks, Well, get into our two guys in a six pack. We have six swigs here, the first wig. Speaking of no hitters, Dick, it could have been worse.
It really could have.
My hometown Racers could have been no hit twice if you think about it. Yeah, as we last talk, well, so much for wearing lucky horseshoes on their caps. Murray ran into, of course, Arkansas's fireballer and first round no
doubter in the MLB draft. Gage Wood had even better stuff than Paul Sken's in this College World Series, throwing only the third no hitter they're in the CWS and after a remarkable dream season, the greatest obviously in Murray State baseball history, complete with the Manager of the Year
in college baseball. The question is, now what someone once said, the toughest thing about being a success is to keep being a success, especially nowadays in college sports with the portal in NIL and all that stuff, and for a small D one school with limited financial resource, it's even tougher. So I ask you, what do you do if you're the ad at Murray State, Nico Yanko? Do you move more basketball money over to some baseball definitely, fix up
the facilities. Do you find some alumni with deep pockets? Do you win the Kentucky lottery? Murray needs to capitalize on this. This is really huge.
What would you do?
Well?
I think you mentioned it. You know, you can move money around. You've got to find some benefactors. Now with NIL, I'm sure they have some, but you've got to find more. You know better than anybody probably listening to this show the challenges there because you grew up in murray Land Grand Institution, so it's, you know, not the biggest city
in the state of Kentucky. They have renovated somewhat basketball and football, but you know, the stills in the video that were released once the Racers made not just the tournament, but the supers underscoring how modest their facilities are. That's got to help, you know, But you have got to strike while this iron is red hot, because it won't get any hotter. And here's the thing to follow up. We've talked again about how vital it is to be able to host not just a regional, but a super
trying to look ahead to Murray State someday. Hosting not impossible in a regional. But you've got to schedule a little bit better when you can because of your respective conference. Maybe play some more challenging opponents. Help your RPI. Do what Nick ben Jee Omee did as best you can. Strength the schedule and all that, but just try to raise your own profile and then be really smart when it comes to the portal. But the other thing you got to do, try to hang on to your head. Coach.
I gotta think folks are coming out of skirk coming after Skirka. Yeah, you know they are.
Well, sky's a limit because nobody thought they'd get this far. No, no, now your sky's limit for your Here.
Was the other thing, Gary, they were so good. This was not a fluke, No, not at all. They're good hit even more impressive by Woods no hitter. This was a great offense by Murray Stade sure was andy. They weren't even touching the baseball, and he was so close to a perfect game. It was scary our.
Second swig dealing with that. There's no shame in being no hit when a picture is flat out on and most of any player will tell you that Colorado Rockies found that out dick. Eleven years ago to night at Dodger Stadium, I was there June eighteenth, twenty fourteen, Clayton Kershaw threw his first I believe only no hitter so far, one hundred and seven pitches, fifteen strikeouts. Ato Dodger win and Kershawn went on to win the Cy Young that winter.
In fact, that year, I went down from the press box and I sat behind home plate for about the last two or three innings just to watch his stuff, which was just electric. You knew something, You knew he was probably gonna get it. After about the seventh inning. I was also a Dodger Stadium dick fourteen months later when the Cubs Jake Arietta no hit the Dodgers two to nothing August thirtieth, twenty fifteen and route to his
cy young year. And you know what even happened to the defending world champion Dodgers in La by again the Cubs, who used four different pitchers to no hit the Dodgers June twenty four, twenty twenty one. And that was a Dodgers lineup that had Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger, Max Munsey and some guy playing first base he may have heard of. Albert Puhols was also in that lineup. So, like I said, there's no shame in getting no hit.
Happens to the best. And here's the thing, to paraphrase Tom Petty, at least Murray went down swinging, not much touching with the best, but they went down swinging.
And like I said, it was scary how close Wood came to pitching a perfect game. Didn't hit the guy, Yeah, he hit another guy. That was another thing we probably hang on. Let me cut that out. Something else we probably should talk about more was that he also hit a Murray batter what was it in the ninth inning, But he was called out because they said that he intentionally got himself hit, and uh, it was bogus. I mean, he was standing in the batter's box when the ball
hit him anyway. Yeah, this no hitter was clearly won for the ages, and to do it against a Murray State team that was so adept at adjusting to pitchers and doing what it had to do. Yeah, it was something that people are going to talk about for a long time.
Stings for a while, but it doesn't erase a great dream season. Yeah, our third swig. One last College World Series. Thought, before we get into some very good news from the major leagues, can we get a better trophy for these collegiate winners? These flat things look like a slab of wood paneling. I mean, Beer League Softball, Dick's got better trophies than what they're given these winners for this just
my thought. Okay, Now for the good news. Major League Baseball finally has come to their census, will again allow all Stars to wear their regular home or away jerseys uniforms instead of those regrettable Nike monstrosities that end up being nothing more than really eye pollution and the same cap too, by the way, put some stars on them this year, which is okay, fine, but of course home run derby and workouts Nike couldn't leave well enough alone.
So we've got lowercase NL jerseys for the Natty League and lowercase AL for the American League. Lower case in the tradition of the Braves throwback a since that's where the game is this year. But hey, if your name's Al, you got your own personalized jersey from MLB this year. But it's a win for fans like you and me who think All Stars should always rep their team and not their corporate costumer.
Yeah.
That's one of the things that I love about the Baseball All Star Game, or is the introductions. You know, when every player is introduced, they all come running out in their respective jerseys, you know, And it was even
better in my opinion. I know, I'm an old guy, you know, shaking my fist at a cloud, but pre interleague play, because there was that great mystery when you got the series, but it also existed in the All Star Game, you know, and here's an NL player facing an ALE pitcher that maybe they'll see each other in the World Series, but probably not. So that's what made
it so exciting. But it all starts with the player intros, when they all came running out in their respective uniforms, and our beloved Cardinals, of course have the best uniforms, but that's all part of the fun. I think it's always great too.
But if your team is crumming and you only got one guy there, at least when he comes out, he goes, there's a guy with our jersey right there.
Yeah. And by the way, while we're at that, I kind of like that rule. I think every team ought to be represented. And yes, I know that means a guy who might compare to somebody else be having a mediocre year, but he's the best that team can offer.
I still think they ought to be represented. I agree
one hundred percent. Fourth swig op ed peace in New York Times this week caught my eye, Dick with this header four thousand, seven hundred and eighty five dollars that's how much it costs to be a sports fan now, written by a guy named June Lead, a Korean American who, besides covering sports for ESPN, Bleacher Report and The Washington Post, is a longtime Boston sports fan who subscribes to nearly every service that there is for live sports for NFL, NBA, MLB,
had more. He wrote that in two thousand and four, a hardcore Boston fan would spend around one thousand, thirteen hundred or thirteen hundred twenty one dollars to follow his or her favorite team. That includes tickets, TV access, maybe some merch. Today four thousand, seven hundred and eighty five dollars,
a two hundred sixty two percent jump. This fall, I found out via Google AI that if you want to watch every single NFL game on all platforms, you're talking anywhere from six hundred and fifty seven dollars to fifteen hundred dollars. That's just for the NFL on a screen near you. There's so many platforms for the NFL, and now MLB's gotten into it with Roku and Apple TV and MLBtv local cable, which I'm still not gonna get. We've talked about that, I'm not gonna get Peacock, forget that,
I'm not gonna get Roku. I'm asking you, this is the NFL and MLB pushing it with too many, too many portals for their sports.
Well by pushing it, if you mean they're gonna lose fans, lose viewers, well yeah, because not everybody can afford that. A and others like you, on principle just are gonna, you know, stick their foot in the dirt and say no. But again, this is the kind of thing that drives me nuts about sports when we can say didn't we see this coming? And you and I talked about this
three and four years ago. You mentioned p and when Notre Dame said our first game of the year against I think it was coincidentally Toledo, which is what Kentucky opens with. You're only going to be able to see it on Peacock, not on NBC. And there were howls and screams, and my response was welcome to the future. Right, And then when you John Skipper, they were chilling words. But the former chief at ESPN said, someday the world
the Super Bowl will be on pay per view. They don't have any choice because the revenue streams are drying up and now they're out of hand, there's no question. But the other thing too is Gary there's a lot of freebies out there. You can follow your team if you want to be fully immersed. Yeah, you got to spend the money, but how about red zone. You know you can watch every game. There is all the good stuff, and there's a lot of free stuff on the interweb.
But If you really want to dive in, you got.
To pony up Fifth Swig and the six Pack games NBA Finals about twenty five hours from now. The Okies can win it all on the road, or the Pacers can force a Game seven back in Okac Sunday night in primetime. I'll tell if Halliburton is one hundred percent, there ain't going to be a number seven on Sunday. It's obviously not the TV ratings juggernaut. The NBA was hoping for two cities that smug East and West Coast people call flyover towns, but hey, there's been some really
good intense basketball being played here. In Game five peaked at thirteen point two million viewers. That's way above the nine million or so average for the first four games, still a far cry from the record twenty nine million viewers in nineteen ninety eight. Michael Jordan Bulls in Utah or you go back to even before that, the bird Magic viewers back in eighty seven. I think they peaked at like twenty four million overall. The for those games.
Warriors and Calves with Steph and Lebron brought in as many as thirty one million back in twenty sixteen. But I ask you, will we ever see those kinds of numbers, with those kinds of generational stars again anytime soon?
I think you could, You could match the Warriors numbers, because that, I think is a more accurate depiction of where we are now with television. Those Magic Bird series which were so great, they didn't compete with five hundred channels, they didn't compete with so much they had. The Internet was a live back then, but not the way it is now. You know, you look at entertainment show, look at I Love Lucy. You know sixty million people would
tune in things like that. When I hear old time TV people talk about the numbers they used to get when there were only three four networks without due respect to PBS, no, that'll never be there again. It doesn't mean there isn't as much interest. There are just more
choices now and so everybody has to adjust accordingly. But back to your original point, if snobs NBA snobs are not watching, they're missing out on a really good series with some really nominal performances, and not just by Halliburton n SGA. I mean, this has been a fun series.
Agreed, and finally a sixth wig in the six pack. This month we had two great local sports reporters announcing within days of each other that they're retiring. Right over there in Lexington, guy, you've had on your show many many times. Columnist John Clay announced his last day at the Herald Leaders June thirtieth, forty five years after his first byline in the Lexington Leader summer of nineteen eighty.
Thirteen years as the UK football beat writer, and then twenty five more as a columnist, John's covered twenty one final fours, forty four consecutive Kentucky Derby's, among countless other events, and then over here two days later, as you told me, John's friend and fellow Hall of Famer Rick Bosich announced
his retirement effective July the first. Rick's been at WDRBTV, of course since twenty twelve, but way before that I began reading him at your former employer, Louisville Times, and then he went under the CJ for thirty one years. Rix Palett WDRB Eric Crawford says Rick has covered thirty one final fours, fifteen Super Bowls, eleven World Series, three Summer Olympics and the NBA Finals. What can you say? To these two five star journalists after all of these
decades quitters, Seriously the kidding. I would say, thank you for your hard work, gentlemen, getting the truth and also sacrificing a lot of valuable time away from family for appreciative readers like Dick Gabriel and Gary Moore.
That's right, So much to unpack here. We had a great lunch this week. Ralph Hacker put it together. Essentially was to get us together with Tom Devine, our long time UK network engineer. But we had you know, Jim Host was there, Oscar Combs, Tom Leech, Wow, you know, Kyle Macy was on a UK network for many years,
you know, and of course Ralph Hacker. Uh But I said next to John Claty invited John, and John told us that after Kentucky was beaten in the Sweet sixteen by Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament, he said he texted his wife and said, I'm done. That's it, you know, because he knew that if he carried this to his you know, by the end of the fiscal year, he'll be done. But if he started in the UK football season, he would want to finish it and that would carry
to the you know, all that kind of stuff. But he had been thinking about it for a while, so had Rick and John was like a situation like there, but for the grace of God go I. You know, John wrote for the Kentucky Colonel, as I did, got out of school, took the job at the local newspaper. I might have done the same thing if I hadn't gotten into broadcasting at a station where you and I first worked together. And then, you know, John did what
you want to do. You cover the you do a little bit of everything, You cover the beat, and you end up with a column that was going to be my career path somewhere, if not accident, maybe the Courier Journal, because yeah, I was an intern at the Louisville Times. I remember when Rick started with a CJ. Rick, I didn't talk. I ran out of time. I didn't have
a chance to talk to him about this. But Rick left the Courier Journal for a couple of days, took a job I think it was in Minneapolis, a huge newspaper, and then he just turned around and came home. He had second thoughts, like like coaches have done, and yeah, and he turned around and he said, I'm sorry but I can't take this job and came back to Louisville,
you know. Uh, and that was our game. And I tipped my cap to wd RB over there, which has a great website when it comes to sports sports programming that is independent of the TV channel. They spent money on Rick, they spent money on Eric. They've made it work because they hired the right guys. He'll be missed, there's no question about that.
Absolutely, Absolutely, they're the best in this There's some good sports guys. Yeah, you've had him on your show.
Yeah.
Rick and Eric know this town in this state like nobody else.
And the biggest reason I think DRB is the best is because management it was smart enough to give them airtime and space where other stations don't have the courage it takes to do that. But that's a great business model DRB is. They're making money, you know, and sports is so huge here.
It's huge yware exactly, but especially here.
Yeah. Yeah, Louisville is one of the great sports markets in all of America. We're talking with Gary Maris, our Western bureau chief. We'll come back with some hot reads and just a minute here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're talking with Gary Mariy is our West End bureau chief. We talk with him each and every Wednesday. He presents two guys in a six pack. We counter with a couple of hot reads. For Gary, Kevin Durant wants a new team again. Uh, he's picking and choosing again. Got
to be the right team. Got to be a team that will give him the ball all the time. But also Gary, he wants to win another which he's done in the past. But now he's saying Spurs or Wolves. Maybe Phoenix is trying to accommodate. This to me gets a little tiresome, you know what I'm saying.
You know, he goes back to the Seattle SuperSonics days.
That is amazing.
Isn't that crazy to think about that? That's how long he's thirty he's gonna be with thirty seven? I think this fall and if he'd had stayed with Golden State, maybe, but no, you got to go to Brooklyn, you got to get with the guys, and how did that work out? Well, then okay, I'm gonna go to Phoenix. Well how did that work out? So now it's onto this other guy. Maybe if he'd even stayed at Oklahoma City. You know,
they got to the finals against the Heat. They did, and they had a three to one lead against the Warriors and blew it.
And then what does he do?
He goes to join the Warriors later that summer. I like him a lot, can't. I can't complain about him too much because great player. He's won of gold medals. You know, he's been a savior in the Olympics time and time again. So good lucke him. I hope he gets it. But it is tiring.
Yeah, and here's the other thing that puts me off of just a little bit. He could have stayed with the Warriors. He could have won, yeah, another title or two and chose to leave. Yep, that's what puzzles me the most. Speaking of titles, not sure which team is going to win the championship when it comes to the Jello Shots in Omaha, probably LSU, but I'm talking about Rocos Pizza and Cantina. I got a chance to visit that spot when I was in Omaha last year. They
host every year the Jello Shot Challenge. Fans from each respective team are urged to come in by a jello shot. What do you drink it? Or not, or do you drink it or slurp it? Anyway? Each shot five bucks proceeds go to food banks in the hometowns of each respective College World Series team and in Omaha. And in twenty twenty three, LSU's baseball team won the championship. They bought Gary a record shattering sixty eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty eight jell O shots. That's a lot of
money for food banks. You got to put this up there with one of the great promotional moves in all of sports.
How many did you have last year when you were there?
Probably just one?
Oh, come on now, you're you're you're with the guys here, come on now. And Skeens was doing it right, didn't I see him in his deans Livy and.
Todd Graves and LSU biomingo U. So yeah, that that that you talk about a built in advantage for LSU faithful.
I saw this, they were saying in at least in the Career Journal at ten o'clock Central time, Sunday, U of l was in second to last place. But you see who was in second place? Murray State. Yeah about that, I've got hit, But by god, we can slurp.
No, it's a it's a great uh promotional deal. And I want to point out as well Rocko's canteena is right next to the ballpark, so it's not as those fans are staggering out of the bar, getting in their cars and driving to the game. They've got a chance to walk around, go sit in the sun for three or four hours and sober up. But again, it's one of the great promotional moves in all of sports. He is Gary Moore. He is our west End bureau chief
and we talk to him each and every week. You can also follow him, which you should on Twitter or x at at nine five to five Gary and I follow you at a big Go Insider one. That's right that good week and how to do it for now Thanks to Gary Moore, Thanks to Shaan Woods and Keith Madison that said good night in the garage and Lexington.
I had no respect to day I was born, really no respect.
The doctor picked me up and smacked me. I found out the night she got a few.
In two.
Take that saying anything, can anything, do anything, back out stake that anything but facts.
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