Welcome to the Big blon Sider to Gabrielle with you. Thursday edition of our program. Coming up tonight, we'll talk with Daryl Bird of the Cats Pause. He is the editor and publisher and a guy who every year goes down to the SEC meetings in Florida, down in Destin, and as far as I can tell, he's the only journalist from the UK beat who makes that trip. And I could be wrong about that, but I mean, Daryl goes down there every year and he always comes back
with a notebook chock full of information and stories. He posts from down there and calls upon the information and bangs out story and column after column after story, uses it within the upcoming preseason yearbooks, both football and basketball. Just a lot of info and of course not just UK people, but the Commissioner talks to everybody you can
down there, and this year is no different. And had to sit down with Mitch Barnhardt, had to sit down with Mark Pope exclusive because you know he's the only guy there. He'll talk to Mark Stoops, he may have already done it. He always talks to his troops, I think when he comes back and they have a sit down when it comes to what they need for the preseason magazine. But Mark Pope has talked about different topics regarding basketball, what he would like to see, you know,
the forty game schedule and things like that. But among the changes Mark Pope would like to see, and he talked about going to quarters four quarters, he wasn't all that excited either way about it. I have constantly said there is zero reason, none, zip for US college basketball to be the only form of the game that plays
two twenty minute halves. Is that big a deal? Not really, But I agree with anybody who says it would improve the product, it would improve the fan experience, It would improve things for everybody really because and if you follow women's basketball, you know this in the NBA as well. It resets the foul situation overseas. It does as well unless you like a steady parade of free throw shooting at the end of the first and second halves, then leave it the way it is, but otherwise change it up.
And you know one of the first arguments as well, the TV timeouts or no no trust me. After a career in television, TV executives will figure out how to get their commercials in, how to get the brakes and how to get their money. Nobody's going hungry, trust me on this. Nobody's missing a payday, nobody's missing a paycheck. Get it done. But one of the other topics that came up, and it's on the cast Ball site today, Darrel's got a story and we talked to Daryl coming
up to the bottom of the hour. But one of the things that Mark Pope was pushing forward. He mentioned this at a news conference here in lexinon not long ago. He would like to see that same rule they use in pro ball and in the women's game, where in the closing moments of a game, you're under your own basket. The other team's drained a bucket. Now you're behind. If you call time out, you get to put the ball in bounds at mid court. I'm not crazy about that.
And by coincidence just the other day, because every now and then he'll tweet about it. Mike the course, he had the Sporting News, for my money, the best college basketball writer in the country. He's a regular guest on the Leach Report. And I was sitting in for Tom a week or two ago and I talked to Mike about this and got him going on it, among other things. But I had Mike de Corsi explain his passionate feelings about this. He is absolutely told opposed to this rule change.
I don't think I'm being logical here. I don't think I'm taking this to extremes. Right, what if in baseball? Okay, so we want the great finish. So if you get you know that ghost runner thing they do to make the game as faster. Well, here we're gonna make it even faster. We're gonna bring in a batting practice pitcher to pitch to your best hitter, and then we can have this great finish where the guy hits it in
the in the seats that everybody walks off. I mean, that's that's that's the logic that we're talking about it. It's it's unbelievable to me that people who love the sport of basketball don't love it enough to see what what garbage? The the the advanced the ball timeout is.
Here's the thing that really.
Drives me, uh that that that's the number one thing about it, the the uh, the obliteration of competitive logic. That's the thing that drives me craziest about it. But the secondary thing is you don't even pay a price, because like if if they said, Okay, here's the deal. We're gonna take your time out, but you guys got to go run a play without talking to your guys like nobody they because you're you're getting the timeout and the forty five feet, so you should get one or
the other. If you're going to try to defend this rule, you should get the timeout so your guys can rest, or you should get the forty five to fifty feet whatever it is, and then you run a play. You better have run it well in practice, because you're not getting any help from the sideline that like, I don't I don't like that rule at all, but I'd like it a tiny I'd hate it a tiny bit less if you get it that way.
I got you Mike the course of the Sporting News talking with me in a recent edition of the Leech Report, and quite frankly, I knew that was low hanging fruit because I knew that that would get him really cranked up. And I love it. Mike. To me, what I really like about him, beyond just his writing ability, is he can have a hot take. He'll come up with something almost immediately as far too many people do on social media.
But he does not subscribe to herd mentality. If everybody's piling on when it comes to one particular topic and it's not just for the sake of it, Mike can dig through all the nonsense and see the logic immediately and present his side. And every now and then I'll retweet by saying, simply, there you go, using common sense again, or on Facebook or whatever. And that's one of the many things I like about Mike de Corsi, just the fact that he uses common sense so often. But it's
fun when he gets cranked up. And I'll tell you what, he had a great reason to get cranked up. I don't know if you follow such things, but the Pittsburgh Pirates are struggling so badly right now in Major League Baseball, and they're making all kinds of dumb moves, and they say they're not going to trade Paul Schemes, but who
knows anyhow. One of the things they did recently, and this just shocked me, befuddles me, is they were doing some kind of renovation or something and they dug up, basically. And I've been to that stadium. It's a great ballpark. But this pathway, this runway that was lined with bricks that had been purchased by Pirates fans, you know the way that they do it at the YMCA. If you want to contribute, you can purchase a brick and either put your name on it or in memory of or
an honor of whatever. And so they had this walkway lined with bricks of Pirates fans, and they dug them all up and threw them away, and oh man, Mike went after him on social media, and I don't blame him. What possible reason do you have with it? That is the absolute epitome of corporate thumbing its collective nose at fans. So anyway, yeah, my thanks to the leech. And you can read Darryl's story at two four seven sports dot com Backslash College Backslash Kentucky. Subscribe to the cash Boss
if you haven't already. While we're talking Kentucky coaches, the former UK coach, Mark Pope's coach, the guy he will face or at lease his team will face down in Atlanta later this year, Saint John's Rick Patino, naturally his name floated in New York City about a potential replacement for Tom Thibodau. And this does not mean he's a candidate for the job. I say this over and over.
Just because a writer or broadcaster or you know, Twitter author floats a list of candidates quote unquote, that doesn't mean they are. That's just people supposing who might be out there. And of course Patino formerly coached and that coached the Knicks for two years before he left New York for Kentucky, and Patino said he is zero interest in becoming a head coach of the Knicks. He was on a broadcast last night of the Yankees and the
Guardians and they asked him, would you be interested? He said, I think whoever comes in, if he doesn't get to the finals, it's going to be deemed an unsuccessful season. So whoever comes in has got so much pressure on them to take this team to the next level, because that's why they're doing it obviously in their minds. Of course, they fired Tom Thibodeau on Tuesday, even though he had taken the Knicks to the Eastern Conference finals for the
first time in twenty five years. And cbssports dot com on Instagram today they have a great graphic. They went back and looked at the Chicago Bulls. He was there twenty fourteen and fifteen. They went fifty and thirty two in his final season, fired him the next year. The Bulls without him forty two and forty the next year on one and forty one. A couple years later, he was the head coach in Minnesota with the Timberwolves for two seasons, forty seven and thirty five in his final season.
Next year they fire him. Next year, they fired him mid season after a nineteen and twenty one start. They finished thirty six and forty six. The year after that, nineteen and forty five. So now the Knicks, after a fifty one and thirty one season they fire him, And now they got, of course next year question mark after that question mark. But that just goes to show that'd be careful what you wish for when you're getting rid of your coach. But the next coach of the New
York Knickerbuckers will not be Rick Pattino. Up next, more bad news for the Cincinnati Reds. Bottom of the Arradaryl Bird a little bit later on Ryan Black of the Louisville Courrier Journal, and then we'll kind of go deep on the hiring by Eku, a former Wildcat player and assistant coach Jan Weisberg. That's next on the Big Blue and Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big
Blue Insider. Coming up, Darryl Bird of the Cats pause talking about his trip to Florida to the SEC meetings and his conversations with Mitch Barnhardt and with Mark Pope. If you're a Reds fan, well, you're having another tough season. I know. Every time you get something to be excited about, it seems well, something bad happens. And of late it's been Hunter Green and he was the former first round draft pick who finally looked like a first round draft pick on the mound, but he needs an MRI and
now he has a groin injury. Was pulled five innings into Tuesday Nights game against the Milwaukee Brewers, and again he was pitching well, but spent fifteen days on the injured list since then. Made three starts because of a groin strain back in early May, and was warming up for the fourth inning when he summed the athletic trainer on Tuesday Nights. That is not as bad as it felt in Atlanta, but it's still as he said, grabbed.
But this was a guy who made his first All Star appearance last year and this year in eleven starts four and three two point seven two ERA. That's big league stuff man twenty five years old and was pitching well against the Brewers when he went down. He faced twenty three Milwaukee batters and threw first pitch strikes to
all of them. And according to one of those outfits that keeps track of such things, sports Radar, he is the second pitcher to have one hundred percent first strike rate when facing twenty three or more batters since they began keeping track of his stuff in two thousand. There was a guy for the Tigers who did it back in twenty seventeen. But that sounds like one of those animalytics where you're like, whatever, no, this is such a key.
And if you followed UK baseball, you know what it looks like when a team you're watching, following rooting for has a pitching staff that cannot get ahead of hitters. You got a guy who can beyond routinely throw a first pitch strike. Man, that guy is going to be good and is good, and now he's got to sit for a while. So if you're a Reds fan and I root for the resimen, I don't root for the Cardinals. Hang in there. I don't know if better days are ahead,
but they are for Hunter Green, that's for sure. By the way, speaking of college baseball, and if you follow the Cats, you saw Jack cagleone play against the Wildcats. He's a former Florida Gator. Well now, he was one of the fastest rising players in the minor leagues in
the Kansas City Royals organization. Hell, he's been called up now he's a big Fans got excited, media got excited, except for some of the media types who scratched their heads overs because when you're talking about baseball, you can only bring a guy up or send him down so many times, and it's all about timing oftentimes. And of course the Royals wanted to bring him up, get the fans excited, sell tickets, and maybe he can help Kansas City.
Right now in the American League Central is in fourth place, eight games behind the Tigers. I don't know if Caglion can help him make that up, But as more than one reporter has pointed out, they may end up losing him in the long run because of this move, and one reporter called it the single most irresponsible move I've seen in a long time. Evidently, if they had waited until after the middle of June, they are portration clock would have started a year later because they brought him
up relatively quickly. Now he gets to go to arbitration a year earlier, where the Royals will either have to pay up or say goodbye to him, and of course they'll have to fight off the Yankees, the Mats. The Dodgers. Royal is a small market team that did win a World Series some years back, proving it can be done. But they might have screwed up with Jack Hagleon. He was a two way guy at Florida pitcher and hitter, but was signed by the Royals as a position player
as a hitter, and this may be a mistake. Maybe it works out for him, could be a mistake. If you listen, you know I'm a Charles Barkley fan. I pulled clips from what used to be the Inside the NBA on TNT show, and we'll keep doing it whatever they end up, whatever they end up calling the new show. Barkley on his podcast has talked about how terrible the NBA All Star Game has become it's a waste of time unless you like seeing guys throw down outrageous dunks and all that. It's not as bad as the NFL
All Star situation. But again, the only really good All Star game is baseball because they play defense. That's what makes for a great game. Well, Adam Silver has announced there will be a change to the NBA All Star format, and I bring up Barkley because he's been stumping for this for a while, but Silver confirms that in twenty twenty six it will be the USA versus the World.
They're not entirely sure what the actual format will be, but of course there are so many foreign born players in the league now that if they actually go at it, this could be a really great situation. And by the way, remember your reigning NBA MVP, former Kentucky Wildcat Shay Gilgris. Alexander would be on the World team from Canada, so he would be part of the squad that faces the
American born NBA players. And one of the things that helped prompt this was the NHL introducing the Four Nations face off in lieu of a traditional All Star Game this year and it was crazy successful. The first meeting between the US and Canada drew more than ten million viewers. The finale got nine point three million on ESPN alone. That's a hockey record for the network. You better believe they took note of that. So that's why the NBA is going to make a change, and it's a good one,
or should be. And you know who else might play for that world team if he's voted in. Jamal Murray Canadian born, I don't know, they don't make it, but Oscar sheib Way foreign born players. So yeah. Several out of UK and a lot in the NBA talked about bad news for Reds fans, some shocking news for Philadelphia Eagles fans, nothing immediately pressing, but Saquon Barkley, who carried that to what didn't carry them, but was the key,
I think to their Super Bowl Championship run. He told an interviewer the other day that he might retire in the next year or two or four, and when he does, it'll be just yep, that's it. I'm done. And he kind of referred to Barry Sanders who left early compared to some other great players, and Barkley, of course, he's got all the money in the world now says he might just do the same thing. Oh that is scary stuff if you're an Eagles fan. Also if you're a
fantasy football player. But we won't get into that. Up next, Daryl Bird of the Cats balls on six point thirty wlap Welcome back to the Big Blue in Cider. Let us say welcome back to Darryl Bird. He is the editor of the Cat's Pause and he is back from Florida. Darryl, you make the annual trip down there to the spring meetings. He makes a little pleasure with business, I know, but we talk every year about how that is such a
fertile ground for information and sometimes breaking news. What was it like this time?
Kind of the same, A lot of great information, especially with Mark Pope and Mitch Barhard. I get to do one on ones with him, which is really cool. But the last few years, as an entire group, it's been not frustrating.
That's not fair.
But we keep waiting for a resolution on this and I we thought, we know that we first talked about this like four years ago at that spring meeting, and here we are and still doesn't appear to be that much closer to having something finalized. It's in the chaos, and it's changed a lot from when they first introduced it and people were talking about it down there. We just everything keeps changing. We can't seem to get to a finish, finish line, which everybody wants. I think everybody
down there is in the opinion. I don't care what the rules are. Just tell me, you know, make it a level playing field for everybody, so we all know what's what we can and can't do, and then we'll adjust. We'll get on with it. But right now they're adjusting as best they can with with you know, no guardrails in place whatsoever.
Yeah, you know, when all this began, you probably recall that Barnhard was getting black because people thought he was dragging his feed and then they try to make it sound like he was fighting it. And all you had to do was ask him, and he tells you, we just need guardrails so we don't make any mistakes. And Kentucky did make mistakes with some football players who got in trouble, uh with you know, loosely or unsupervised in ilse situations. Uh. But those guardrails, like you said, if
they're out there. I don't even know what they might be.
You know, no there are any. And I had a really good conversation with Mark Pope about and it ended up being about guard rails, but it was about his He's been very public he wants the regular season to go from thirty one to forty. And at one point in our conversation, I said, have you always been a fun He said no, No, this is one hundred percent to do with the chaos we're in right now.
Really and he.
Said, he said, it's all about He said, I've got these guys. Every every coach has a brand new team every year. We barely get to know them before the season's over and they're out the door. We're not preparing them for the NBA playing thirty one games where they've got up to one hundred depending how long the playoffs last. He said, we've got to speed it up. He's like
he pointed out to me. I thought it was hilariously And you know what, it's been around forever, the stupid rule that right now they can only players can only work out four hours a week with something. It's really restricted. That rule has been around forever. These guys are getting really well compensated. You might want to get a little more for your money than restricting it, he said. And the funny thing is he didn't call him employees. I do these guys making this money want the extra work.
They want to work put in a little more work to earn their their pay, and they can't.
He said.
It's just that's the stupidity of said. I want to push this thing out the forty so we get more time, we get a better team, you get a better bang for your bucket from a fan perspective, and you get to experience it more. And he said, and then the very bottom line, this is a revenue sport and we've got twenty million plus. Staring at uson richhair, he said, we had six extra games. We could almost cover that six extra home games. He said, that's how crazy it is.
That thought that was really interesting. I was looking at it. Oh, he just wants to play forty more games, he said. You know, he's thinking much a much grander speed.
That which is explained a headline. It explains the headline on your website about your your interview with Pope, the forty game regular season, and the headlines is prepared to be convinced, and it is very convincing. Although it's ironic they instituted that that four hour or twenty hour whatever, because Mark Pope's college coach was one of the guys who would work for these kids twenty hours a day if he could, I find out rather c Yeah, I love that. I also wonder he's talked about the forty
game regular season in the past. How in the world would they squeeze that into the college calendar.
It's a little different, I said, it's nine extra games. I said, okay, you want nine more SEC games? He said no, he was really fast. No, maybe one or two. Let's talk. Let's talk he had because we all been around Mark Poper and he is fascinating boy his brain work. He said, how about they allow us an exhibition game two weeks into camp, just so we get a sneak
peak of what we look like. Yeah, that exposes our team to our fan base a month earlier than normal, so they can start to get to know get get a peak of these how about we get an exhibition like that. We had another exhibition towards the end of it. Let us do that. And then he said this also, they're so restricted on their schedule right now. I said,
we can get this out to forty. We can bring conversations like malle back into it, we can we can play these games, and we can do the rips that everybody, the fans want to take. So it wasn't just nine regular season games in his mind, it was spreading it out a couple maybe a couple of conference games, maybe a couple of exhibitions, and a few more non commerce to open up some of these trips.
And I want to take talking to Daryl Bird of the Cats polls. He was down in Florida, sat down exclusively with Mark Pope and Mitch Barnhardt. And you can read all about it. As a kid, they say at two four seven sports dot com backs slash College Kentucky. I just type in Cat's Balls, It'll take you there and subscribe. He not only wants to wanted to talk about expanding the regular season. You talked to both Pope and Barnhart about expanding the NC tournament. I don't know
where you are on that. I'm afraid they're going to screw it up. They what do these guys have to say?
I'm with you, I leave it alone. Mitch Barnhart was. Of course, he was on the committee five years. He was over it. God bless him. He was over He was a chairman during the COVID year when they had to do it all in India, and how he worked that out is a miracle and kept all that. I mean, there weren't really any hiccups at all, aside in fact, the UK was nine and sixteen and never got close
to it. That's the worst part. So he has a fun He says, I think there's something special about sixty eight, right, So he's he's more allowed to leave it alone. Hope had an interesting take. He said, I keep hearing talk conversations of we'll add more, we'll have the automatic qualifiers kind of play each other and advance that way. And he said, you do that and suddenly the number one seed is getting a much stronger opponent than maybe they
would have gotten. He said, I think you work all season long to get the best deal you can possibly get as a one seed. He wasn't He wasn't shining to the idea that it would become a much harder game for a one seed because of who advanced from earlier playing games. Kind of I guess like the NBA does. But he was he kind of he said never say never, because again, we need more revenue. So he sees that argument, but he I think just in his heart, he preferred to leave it alone the way it is.
Yeah, let's love with him. My cynical take is, why don't we add let's add some more mediocre teams and get a few more mediocre games. But does that serve your public? No? But does it serve the bank Bakers? Does it serve the bank accounts of the people who want the money? Right?
That's what I call it is. Charlie Baker's argument was weak in that, well, everybody knew there were some sixty eight to seventy two's that probably should have been what are you saying exactly?
Really?
And there's no way you don't see the was then the report come out that ESPN was gonna throw a lot of money at the SEC if they'd add another conference game. I haven't seen the networks strown a lot of money college basketball. If you have just increased this tournament from sixty eight to seventy two or six or whatever.
No, No, it doesn't make sense.
Some of you you know it doesn't.
If it ain't. It'll happen exactly right. I mean, it may not be the Golden Goose, but they've got a pretty good thing going.
But yeah, they do.
There are just some people that just can't leave well enough alone. By the way, doubling back to exhibitions for basketball, and there's talk about that. We'll talk about it on the other side of the break. For football. You know who plays exhibition games and the world doesn't crumble. Baseball, they play exhibitions. They play a couple of them in the fall, and they may play one or two in the spring, and that helps guys like Nick Minngeon and
whoever figure out what they've got. And really, with all sports, Darryl, back to your point in the day and age, as Mark Pope said, we barely get to know these guys. You know, it seems like every team is replacing anywhere from a third to half of their their roster every year.
And that's not changing changing any time.
It's only going to get well, it's kind of a qualified term, it's only going to get worse or let's say more profound.
Am I right, yes, yeah, you're right with it again. We'll popos some with our guardrails it's just gonna craziness is going to continue.
Yeah, did Barnard talk anything about getting a handle on the portal and limiting the numbers of times kids can step in and materialize elsewhere?
No, that never came up during during our conversations. I know it's a big topic, the portal windows in football especially. It makes no sense that the way they when they open it when they close it. So I know the coaches are in favor of changing those days. We'll see how that plays out.
Darrel Bird is my guest. He is the editor of The Cat's Clause, and we'll come back and talk more Kentucky basketball and football on the other side of the break here on six thirty WLP. Welcome back. We're chatting with Darryl Bird. He is the editor of The Cat's Pause. He made the trip down to Destin, Florida for the SEC Spring meeting. He's got a chance to sit down
exclusively with Mark Pope and Mitch Barnhardt. And before I shift you over to football, your lead story on your website coming out of the weekend was Mark Pope and a what if scenario? Without giving away the store, because we want people to subscribe to your website, But is it eating at him? What happened this past season. It was a great year, uh, you know, in terms of what people expected, but as you point out, two of the four teams in the final four, Kentucky beat.
Yeah, that was the first question. I kind of we settled into it, and I said, I'm just curious, does it because you beat Duke? And Flora said does that haunt you? And He's like, I try not to think about it a lot. And I was like, except when I bring it up. He just started laughing. Said, no, it pops in my head a lot, but not for a reason you think. He said, it haunts me that Lamont Butler didn't get a full year healthy. Yeah, he said.
Andrew Carr was off to such a fantastic start and then the back spasms and those issues it injured for weeks. That's what haunts me, that those guys didn't stay healthy and didn't weren't able to take it. As far as who knows, I mean, they took out Duke in Florida, took out Duke when they were healthy, took out Florida when some of the injuries are starting to pop up, So who knows? You know, he said that it bothers
me for them. You know, he'll get another chance. They won't. Yeah, yeah, and you don't really very insightful that way.
Well, and he makes a great point. And you know, Jackson Robinson, same situation. And it was interesting to me, especially with all this this postseason chatter about Otaka Away and the NBA and all that. But people, I won't say they forgot Jackson Robinson, but Otaga Oway became so prolific that he kind of replaced Jackson Robinson in the mines. I think of a lot of fans because remember the beginning of the year, when they need a bucket, who
are they going to go to? Jackson Robinson? And at times, yeah, he showed that he would be the guy, especially when he got over whatever doubts he had lingering, but then when he got hurt, Yeah, but that's another guy. Just think if that team had been healthy a year, what if? Right?
Yeah, that's it's all right. It would drive me crazy. But he's he's trying to digest at all and move forward.
But I did ask, I.
Said, did you even watch the championship game? He said, I don't even remember where it was. I think I saw bits and pieces.
Wasn't he at the convention or don't the coaches get together?
Yeah, yeah, he was at the convention and to trying to recruit, you can't really recruit at that point in person, so he's doing some work in that regard. But yeah, I could see where a coach would not want to watch that game. Especially it's like you're looking at Florida the coach you used to compete against at San Francisco, and then here you beat them and you knew what your team was capable of when it.
Was healthy, and you beat Duke when in Yeah.
Yeah, they shot up ten spots and I forgot I was in little research. They went from number nineteen to number nine with that one victory.
Wow.
Man.
Yeah.
Talking to Daryl Bird as the catch posse, he is back from the spring meetings in Destin, Florida, had a chance to sit down with Mark Polpe and Mitch Barnhardt. We mentioned all the way he comes back. So now when you look, I've really been studying this a little bit. I think it's fascinating and Pope might have the best roster in the country in terms of the different components and how he mixed them you've got the returning veterans and now especially with Oway, who could be pre season
Player of the Year. You've got the transfer portal post on as good a job as anybody, and then you've got the freshman. He said, a terrific recruiting year. And you know people will mark Pope be able to recruit that was ridiculous. You know, he's got Kentucky for crying out loud. But each one of those components, people like to break them down and rank them. You know, I think Pope's done as good a job with those three components as anybody in the country, you know what I mean.
Yeah, his ranking as far as when you combine two four seven, does the ranking where they combine the high school class and the portal class. Yeah, I think there's number three leave. Yeah. And I was trying not to ask the question, trying to ask the question carefully because you don't want to insult his first team. I said, but it appears you guys purposely wanted to get more athletic this time. And he's like, oh yeah. I was like, well, I guess I was worried about nothing. He said, There's
no doubt he said, we wanted the versatility. How was he put it? The versatility that my guy can guard multiple positions or play multi you know, I don't. They didn't want to be tied down to you know, I can only got guard the shooting garden. I'm not I'm not value to you. And maybe because of the injuries they just went through that, you know, if they do take a hit, that they've got someone versatile enough to pick up and not miss the you know, not miss a beat on that regard.
It's going to be fascinating to see how he cobbles is together and it's going to be a fascinating read if you will only subscribe to the cats ba's website and read Daryl's interview with Mark Poop and Mitch Barnard. Now you're back from Florida, and I know you've never really quit working on the yearbooks coming up. You know, our man Aaron Gershan has kind of kept us up to day on what he's up to. But what's going to be the overall theme of this year's college football yearbook?
I know you guys are hard at work on that.
Yeah, we are coming. We'll go to Preston unless actually the cover is pretty much done it's all about the puzzle pieces. And I know it's human nature, but it bugs me a little bit because they've got forty two
new faces. And if you just sit down right now, say who's you gonna put on the cover of yearbook, You're like, I don't know, I don't I don't know the quarterback, I don't know the running backs that well, there is no name player that just jumps off that's returning, and that again, that's part of this environment we're in, and it bugs me a little that. I guess it's human nature, especially in this day and age. I've never heard of these guys. Therefore, I don't know that they're
any good. Yeah, versus they could be much better than last year's team, you don't know, So it's it's more from that regard. And then got the schedule. They could be much better than last year, and it not showed because of the brutal schedule that they're staring at. And I don't know who they angered at the SEC or for who Missouri. Have you seen Missouri's SEC schedule? Now, Oh my goodness, it's there is no cake walking SEC. But if there was, this is as close as it gets.
Is that right, Oh yeah, it's it's worth looking up there. I'll do it based on who they they don't play. It's it's like, oh you you got a kidding me.
Yeah, that's that's really what it's about. It it's you don't it is? Yeah? Yeah, Well, and you and I have covered this program long enough to where how many times have we said that they could be better but the schedule won't allow it to show. But as Mark Stoops made improvements to this program, they kind of pushed through that. Now they've fallen back and they just got to figure it out. Obviously, I'm sure you'll write a lot about the O line, the D line, really all
of it. But yeah, you're right, it's it's gonna be in terms of the returning players, and the new face is the most mysterious preseason I think we've ever covered.
You know, oh, there's no doubt. Forty forty two I think it was new faces. But then now I look around and I'm like, oh, this is driving that's crazy. But then you look at West Virginia where Rich Rodriguez is back as coach, seventy two new players, what yeah, geez, like, oh my goodness, I'm gonna shut up wanting. It's like a covering West Virginia is going.
What it's like with coach Prime did the Colorado?
Yeah, man, it's it's crazy.
How do you scout that?
You don't know, we're gonna do what I said?
How would you scout that team? You can't.
Yeah, the coaches can't scat it.
We did.
Nobody could write about it. Be very difficult, but it's it's one of those wheres you just got to learn them. They need they need to get some couple of bigger they be. You know, obviously they're the opener, but they need to get a big SEC win early. Oh yeah, it's kind of to change this momentum that they'll.
Have a chance based on that schedule, will a chance they will well shamelessly plug the publication day when people can pick up their their football magazine.
We always are out the week after July fourth, The week of July fourth, it comes out like the fifth, sixth. We try to avoid the holiday crush and just get it up immediately after fourth of July. It will be around.
Well. I know in this daye that the internet people still scoop up the preseason magazines and the catch to have thanks to Darryl and Aaron Gershaan and their crew. Thank you so much, sir, and we'll chat again before the summer's out.
I appreciate it.
Up Next, our number two is Ryan Black of the Courier Journal and the new head baseball coach at Eastern Kentucky. Dan Weisberg gets all they had on six thirty w M P.
Takes Do.
Welcome back to the Big Blue and sider joining us now as a guy who's been on the show several times. Welcome back Ryan Black at the Courier Journal. It is the off season, of course, but Ryan, thanks to the portal, thanks to the interweb, which you most endeavor to fill as we all do. Uh you never really you get to take some time off now and then, but uh it does, Kid. The beat keeps you busy. Ryan covers the basketball and football cats. But you really don't get to slow down much, do you.
No, It's I mean, can't feel like we've talked about this so many times any time to have me on and thanks again for having me. Honest is yeah, I feel like there used to be, you know, prior to the transfer portal and prior to so many changes that have up into college athletics in the last you know, decade.
But there used to be a little bit more of alone, a little bit more time to catch your breath, and now it just seems like it's just constant roster shuffling and then all these other offseason events that go on. Now it's like you kind of there's just not as much time to catch your breath as or what that's right now.
But on the other hand, for fans, it's kind of fun because now it's the way way too soon preseason top twenty fives and the rankings of the portal classes, and you still got the recruiting cla classes that people like to rank. But does it seem to you like the portal classes were for obvious reasons Now Our front and center used to be who had the best recruiting class, now is who's got the best portal class? Right?
Yeah?
And I mean, I know I wrote about this, you know, a few weeks ago, just about the fact that at that time Kentucky football only had one commit you know, for twenty twenty sixth class, and I kind of let off with just saying that, Hey, I mean, there are certain schools like Ole Miss, for instance, that they just prioritize the portal over you know, over high school recruiting because you know, Lane Tiffin is kind of used like, hey, I'd rather bring in a guy already know who has
been through the rigors of college and knows how to pick up a college playbook versus this is just a little bit more of a risk, you know, projecting a high school guy to comes to college level. So I think you're a hundred cent of right, dick it. And here's the other thing too, And I think you would agree with this for as long as you've been around it. Man, National Signing Day in February used to be this just massive bonanza of an event in the college sports calendar.
And now especially because it's kind of just sandwich THENTO December with all the early andlies and juco transfer, it's nasal Sunday favorite, that seems like a complete after thought.
So it's just yeah, and like, it just used to be one of the biggest things to me in the college sports calendar, especially if you were ready a big time football school where the football recruiting wasn't a big deal that But now it just seems like it's just that they just throw it in there and there might be a couple of guys who were signing in February, but the ninety percent of your classes signing in December.
Now, yeah, it's exactly.
It's just a different deal. It's a different deal for sure.
Well, to that end, that presentation of Recruiting Day on the web by UK, it evolved from me sitting in a chair in front of one camera if I had something to report, Okay, they got a new signing or is it a podium or something. They asked me to come in and do that. Uh, and then you know I would walk off camera and it would just be the video of an empty podium, you know, until somebody
else signed. Well, that quickly evolved into one of the biggest and most intricate and involved broadcast events I've ever worked. We had you know, six or seven people on the broadcast, you know, and all these lights and camera. I don't know if you ever attended one of those things, because a lot of media people came, but it was a huge production. Christy Thomas ankered and you know, he interviewed
stoops in Maryland, every coach we could find. And now, like you said, it's like, oh, by the way, here's what's happening.
So yeah, like that, it's literally just like I feel like it's just an email in February, like, hey, you know they they've added maybe one or two guys to the you know, eighteen to twenty five. They signed back in December, you know what. And I'll I was like to say, I do kind of miss the one signing day in February simply because right there was always those crazy twists and turns of like, well, hey at three pm, and every other member of the tries to sign, but
the superstar, we haven't seen his facts come through. And maybe because his mom didn't want to go there or is there some other school making a laugh that there was just so much kind of a circus at in the you're doing. I really enjoyed all the twists and turns and drama and like that. Now that's just it's just it's it's very much like, uh, it's cold, rootless efficiency. Now, well, you know, everything everybody signed still delivered. It's good to go a different time.
Back when you were a little fella and we recovering. Well that's how that's what recruiting was. Like. They would issue they would fax us uh, or or even hand deliver a mimeographed list of play here's our recruits. Okay, thanks, and that was it, you know. Uh So, Yeah, it's kind of the pendulum has swung back in the other direction.
We're talking with Ryan Black of The Courrier General covers of football and basketball gats since we started with football, you are there when Mark Stoops speaks every week and of late, when he is spoken about how they intend to do business this coming year, he has made it very clear you don't even have to read between the
lines that he wants to get this thing back. Obviously in terms of wins and losses to wear was but the way they do business, you know, and I really think he made portal mistakes and he made management mistakes with regard to how he ran his team. He also had some tough breaks with injuries, you know, new coordinator, all that stuff. But it sounds like he is gonna put all of his energy into making this the Mark Stoops program. It was back four or five years ago. You I get that read, don't you.
Yeah? I think you know. When I kind of did a season interview after last season ended, as you kind of have mentioned that he's kind of gone, and he's been pretty open about like, hey, you know, the way that we won and that we built this program. It wasn't flashy. You know, a lot of times it was like a very you know, run heavy ball, control, pass enough to Kief Monis and played great defense and hold
on to leads. And certainly that has not been really the offense they've really tried to put out there, you know, in the last few years. And so I think it's kind of like what you're saying is they returned to the earlier years when they were still ascending, you know, obviously, because and then you know, I mean they were in a rough place before he got here, and it took a few years to get it on track, and then we know what happened after that. I mean, they had
the longest streak of bowl appearances in program history. And I know some people say, well, again, I know it's a lot easier to make bowls now, but back for fact, and uh, and I think that, hey, all the matters, you know, Dick, at the end of the day's winning. So it doesn't matter if you're if you're flashy while doing if you're losing. Yeah, So it's like as long as you know, you win, that's that's what fans here.
Well, people can dismiss the bull streak, but Mars troops always had at the ready the numbers that backed it up. And again, if it's that easy, why aren't more schools doing that? Not even Alabama had a bull run like that. Uh yeah, you can schedule yourself wins, but you've still got to win enough to get the ball games. And not a lot of schools were doing that the way Kentucky was back then. And I know fans got a little restless when they weren't going to some of the
bigger bulls. But what is it three trips now of the Citrus Bowl. That's not too bad, right, And uh yeah.
Go ahead, I would just say that. I mean, for the longest time, you know, the Citrus always have been considered really the biggest bowl that was not one of against the Roads Orange Cotton, right. Uh And now of course even now, I guess say they dropped the name ors come back to the Peach. But it's like it's always been a like the biggest bull payout for the
outside of those bowls. I mean, I think like that's that's nothing, that's Nothing's golf at I mean a Citrus Bowl, the heck of a heck of a good game if you're not able to get kind of in the mix for those kind of traditional kind of January first time games.
Never heard anybody complain about the Citrus Bowl. People kind of began to grumble about the Music City Bowl because the weather wasn't obviously is great, But I never heard anybody complain about the Citrus Bowl. We're talking to Ryan
Black of the Courage Journal, covers of football and basketball Cats. Obviously, line play is going to be the focal point really every day leading up to and through the season, and I don't think it's oversimplifying it Ryan to say that is going to be I think the key to their success this year. You got a second year with Bush Hampden, You've got a brand new quarterback, you got new guys carrying the ball on a backfield, Your star wide receivers
have moved on. But none of that matters if the old line doesn't do a better job than it has over the last three years. Do you see it that way?
Oh well, I mean, Dick, one hundred percent, I think it. We've we've kind of talked about this before, but at the end of the day. I mean, yeah, you can have a quarterback or running back, your receiver, you know, who can get the ball in their hands and make guys miss, but they can't do it every single play for you know, sixty seventy eighty however many snaps in
a game that they're gonna get. And so you know, if you don't have guys up front who can just move the you know, opposing defensive guys out of the way, you know you're gonna have a long day. And that's why we saw Kentucky struggle just so mightily on offense last year, you know, kind of ranking either at the bottom or among the bottom court courtile of the SEC and pretty much every every major offensive category. And as you said to me that they say that that it all starts up front.
He is Ryan Black covers the wild Cat for the Career General. We'll come back and talk some basketball in just a minute here on six thirty w l a P. Welcome back with Chatting with Ryan Black. Heid is the UK beat writer for the Career Journal. Covers both football and basketball, and with the football in our rearview mirror, let us turn to basketball. What was your responsor your reaction, I should say, when you had to write about Travis Perry leaving the program.
Huh, Well, it was certainly a surprise to me, Dick, you know, simply because you know, I asked him, you know, point blank after after the lost in the scene in Sweet sixteen year that well, first I mentioned I hate that I even have to ask this, you know, the old days you didn't have to write. But it's like, hey, you know, are do you at this point in time? Are you planning on being back that season? He's like, well, he's a straight up yet like, of course I'm planning
on being back. And so I kind of thought, you know, to myself, Dick, that really, of the guys who would you know you would think would come back, the two, for certain would be the two the two Kentucky guys, the two Kentucky native him and Trent Noah. And so certainly, when I when I found out he was he was
transferring it, it certainly caught me by surprise. But I guess it just I mean, it's just if we just go back to this all time that it's just the state of modern college athletics right now is you cannot bank on anybody saying at any school for the entirety of their career.
No, No, it's a sign. Other times there's no question about that. And if somebody stays somewhere for their entire career, they might have stayed two or three years only because they've left early. Are they there for the whole the whole shebang? Uh? But another guy coming back otega Olway, I got to think you weren't surprised by that, But you can't blame the guy forgetting all the information that he.
Can, right well, I wasn't surprised that he's he's, you know,
coming back. What I would say that I was surprised about was that that it kind of took as as long as it did, And if you kind of have read and seen things, is that it really it came down to the wire with him in terms of that that he had made enough progress in the eyes of of NBA talent evaluators that it made it a much suffer decision for him then originally was thought because I at least know that, you know, when he when he decided to go through the draft process, it was more
kind of like what Jaalen Lowe, his now new teammate, was more about going there and getting feedback about, hey, what should I work on in my senior season? It was and so the fact that it kind of that, that it came maybe as close to him staying in the draft as it was, that surprised me. But I think, you know, Dick gaug, you know, you got to look
at now. I mean, Kentucky was what with him coming back essentially the preseason SEC Player of the Year, very possibly a preseason first team All American and then everything else they've got on this roster. I mean, Kentucky, you know, you don't have a heck of a team on as we're looking at on paper.
Had he ended that, and of course everything's on paper now, and you kind of answered my next question, what do you foresee for him this coming year? And I keep going back to what Antonio Reeves did his last year at Kentucky after getting all that info from the scouts, and he did it within the framework of what Taller Perry's team was doing that year and what they needed him to do. I don't see and or take a away going crazy jacking up as many shots as he can.
I don't think that's what the pros need to see. From him. You know, I think they probably need to see a better handle and as good as defense as he can play, and he's pretty good. Uh so, I you know, there's concerns some might be concerned that he's gonna go out and just play for himself. I don't think that happens.
What do you think I agree? I mean, I think, as you mentioned Dick, I mean he's already shown, I mean, he can get to the rim with you know, with these he as he said, he also tied to the team lead and steals, So I mean he's already a pretty good defender. I think the two really primary things are, you know, showing that he can create for other teammates. And the number one thing that, because of the way
the NBA emphasizes, is more consistency on his three points. Yeah, if you can lead, and I don't think he'll ever be, you know, on the level of like you kind of mentioned Antonio Reeves or obviously a couple of the guys
last season who were such incredibly good shooters. But at least if he can make if he can make it more consistently than he has to this point his college career, I mean that that really unlocks a lot of things for him because he's kind of got all the other tools that you would want for a pro player.
I've seen Kentucky ranked in the top ten preseason and it's jugg in just for fun in the top fifteen. So high expectations, which Mark Pope obviously is known and which fans know now are being thrust upon his team, which is still, for the most part, a brand new roster. What do you think of what you've read so far from from your national colleagues about what's expected of Kentucky this year.
Yeah, I mean, I think I'm a little surprised a few of them have Kentucky ranked a little lower than I would expect. I feel like I've seen a lot of like nine, ten, eleven, twelve rankings with really I kind of feel like they seem much closer to the top five than fifteen. Just from and again, Dick kind of like that we're literally talking about hypotheticals here. At
the end of the day, everything play itself out. But to me, I just feel like, man, seeing what Mark Pope did in year one, overcoming the injuries they did, get winning some of the games, they did, you know, get to the final four teams. I guess I'm a little bit prised it doesn't seem like he's getting a little more of the benefit of the doubt already heading
into year two. But I don't know if that's part of it is there's still people who who still want to see more from you know, Mark Pope and his staff to maybe give them that benefit of the doubt that so many other programs already get because of a long time, you know, coach who's been in you know, in place.
I thought some of Pope's comments were really fascinating when he talked about the improvement from years one to two for his returning players, and of course he has you know, kind of an intricate approach offensively, but also for his staff, which was not just a cookie cutter lift, you know, copy and paste from from BYU. He has new assistant coaches.
I'm really curious to see how this team functions this coming year compared to last because of what Pope said about year one of year two, It's like, you know, people always talk about freshman to sophomore year you make your biggest jump. It's that That's what it sounded like to me, you know.
Yeah, and as you said, I mean, the only the only person who previously built his staff who came with him was with Cody Seeger how he had worked with with Mark Fox. That Mark Fox was his boss at Georgia, So a little bit a little bit different kind of
dynamic there. But I think that's honestly what I'm most interested to see, you know, Dick is I'm I mean, I think we just know, uh, the team's gonna score points because the offense, the way that is they are going to I'm just I'm mostly interested seeing what improvements do we see defensively, because you know, there were definitely some times last year they were they were rough, they
were pretty bad. You know, they did show improvement as he went on, but I'm kind of curious see how quickly from the jump can they be better, you know, especially with and Aca. What I love one thing I do love, you know, in college efles, it's gonna get to play real teams in these exhibitions, and you know, and I don't I don't. I don't want to take away from them playing Georgetown College or Transylvania or whoever. I know at least that that that that gives those
guys an experience of playing ROP. But I guess, as as a sports writer who's kind of being asked to make observation by a team, you learn a heck a lot more from them playing Purdue and Georgetown University than you do from playing you know, like, like I said, some of these smaller schools that are in state. So well, he keeps I think that's a little bit of.
Yet he keeps pushing for forty regular season games, So I guess maybe this is a start, but he's not afraid to share that opinion. I'll let you go with this. It's going to be a fun season. Uh, the schedule is going to be really incredibly fun. I think I don't know about you, but I can't wait for that Atlanta matchup with Saint John's.
Oh.
I think, like you said, there's some great, great, great, great great, you know matchup, And of course we don't even know what the SEC scipts gonna be yet, but may and you know, I think of all the games they've got that we know of right now, that the one that get the circle is the one against rich Tino Saint John's Atlant at the CBS Sports class, that that could be a bar burner of a game. Hen't wait for that one.
Yeah, me too, And when it happens, Ryan Black will be there covering, presumably for the Courier Journal. He is the beat writer for the CJ, cover in the football and basketball cats. Thank you, Sarah, and we'll talk to you. I'm Sue. I'm sure soon this summer. But have a good one.
Hey, thanks so much having me on. Dick always enjoyed.
Up Next, Eastern Kentucky has a new head baseball coach. He is one of the winningest coaches in all of college baseball, and he was part of the greatest story I think in college baseball a couple of years ago about a small college team's run to the World Series championship game after its school had shut its doors. Jan Weisberg, deformer Kentucky Wildcat. We'll hear from him and Keith Madison on the other side of the break here on six point thirty WLAP.
Please welcome the night head coach of EKU Baseball, Jan Weisberg.
That's what it sounded like when EKU Athletics director Kyle Moss, himself formerly a UK staffer, introduced eku's new head baseball coach Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. You heard a few days ago if you follow college baseball at all, that Jan Weisberg was named the new head coach at Eastern Kentucky. The colonel's really struggled this past year with the first year head coach in a little bit over, he said, very likely, and they bring in Jan, who was a former UK Wildcat as a player and as
an assistant coach to Keith Madison. But that's not how he became known nationally. Jan was an assistant in UK. Then he went down the street and coached I think for a year at Transylvania and then left Transie and eventually ended up at Birmingham Southern, which is a Division three school, or should I say was a Division three school in Birmingham, Alabama. The athletic stra at the time was Joe Dean Junior. You know him as first of all, the son of Joe Dean, the guy who evented stringing music.
But Joe Dean Junior became a really exceptional broadcaster. I worked with him many many years at the SEC Tournament for the SEC Radio Network, but known primarily for TV and of course once a game, once a game, as an homage to his late father. He would yell string music in whatever city he was in Nashville, Tennessee or whatever, Lexington, Kentucky. Joe became a good buddy. Sadly he is struggling with his health right now, so best thoughts to to Joe.
But he made a great move when he hired Jan Weisberg, and he remained the head coach at Birmingham Southern for seventeen years. He won five hundred and forty four games, fourteen conference titles, nine regionals, three trips to the Supers, two College World Series, fourth winning his baseball team in D three during the twenty tenths, and he would still be there except for the fact that Birmingham Southern closed, not just shutting down athletics, it closed. The school just
ran out of money. I mean, that's where we are in this day and age. And you might remember the story because Birmingham Southern, you know, just such a tough time for anybody, their students, faculty, staff, and of course the athletes. And the last athletes standing that this is twenty twenty four were the baseball players. They were in postseason play. Well, they started to win and win and
It's like they didn't want it to end. Obviously, nobody does when you're playing in the tournament, but this was unprecedented. This was a team that was trying to keep the school's name alive at least for another week or two, or month or whatever. And Birmingham Southern won its way to the championship game of the D three World Series. Sadly, the Panthers lost to Wisconsin Whitewater in the finale. But
Jan Weisberg, the former Wildcat, talked about that. You know, he talked about his vision and his philosophy, and he thanked everybody and introduced his family. He did a great job, spoke for about twenty minutes, but it was really interesting when he got to the part about what it was like as the head coach to be leading his team through that really difficult time.
It was the darkest time for a lot of our players' lives, and it was the hardest thing I've ever done in coaching, was guide these young men through this pain and this uncertainty. And in this day and age where they could just thought about themselves and bailed and said, man, what's next for me? Yet they dove into each other and guiding them through that and getting him to the World Series was probably.
The most satisfying thing that I did.
The most rewarding thing as a coach was the last news about Birmingham Southern. We had dealt with negativity, sadness, pain, the last graduation, the last class, the door shutting, and we're all playing in the World Series, and the national media and the local media the last light shined on Birmingham Southern. It was a positive light.
It was kind of a story that flew under the radar that year, but I thought it was one of the best. Yeah, I'm a big college baseball fan. I knew Jan a little bit. He actually finally remembered me. He hadn't seen me in years when he saw me, and the last time he saw me, i'd had my beard. You know. He's one of the few people left who from my past still haven't seen me. I shaved it off in twenty oh seven. But if I bump into somebody I haven't seen since around that they don't recognize me.
It's kind of fun anyway. And Jane said, I hear you all the time because he watches the Kentucky games on the SEC streaming channel with yours truly and Doug Flynn, and we're only on camera for like the first you know, fifteen seconds. It's really criminal. I know we should be on camera more. I realize that, and I agree with you. But anyhow, that's it. But when you tune in and you listen and we identify ourselves once in a while, Jan follows the Wildcats of course, and why not because
he played here. He was from California. I forgot about that and went to Juco and then Keith Madison found him and brought him to UK. He was a first baseman and a catcher. We'll hear from Coach in just a moment. But it was really interesting when Jan talked about what got him into coaching. He was actually working in a restaurant going to graduate. He had one more year academically. It was out of time athletically, but was
working on his degree in finance or something. It was going to be a banker or something, and he was working at a restaurant here in Lexington and got a call from Keith Madison.
I had a year to finish school after I finished playing for Coach up in Lexington, and I think it was flipping burgers and cooking hot browns at Dchase while I was paying for school and going on banking interviews and just thinking I'm going to go back to California.
I'm to get back into banking.
And he just called me one day and he said, man, I'd really like to have you come out next semester. And I was like, sure, that'll help bridge the gap. And I thought I would just do it for a semester, and he hooked me.
The passion was there.
It was instant that I knew this is what I want to do the rest of my life. And then he put up with a young coach and his faults, and he stuck with me and it was a pleasure coach to serve you until he retired in two thousand and three.
I love you.
How cool is that? I mean, you're going back to the early nineties. But some of you out there may have dined at T Chase on something prepared by now the guy who's the head coach at Eastern Kentucky University. And it took a phone call from Keith Madison to bring him back into the UK family, get him into coaching, and he has been wildly successful. He's one of the winningest coaches if you look at all three levels in
all of college baseball. And now he's the new head coach at EKU, and he again he explained a lot of his philosophies.
What makes certain organizations thrive, what makes some survive, and what makes them fail.
And I think.
Ultimately, as a leader, our job is to provide clarity and vision, and then it's to set up processes in place that make that vision and that mission reality. But then the most important thing is to surround yourself with great people, whether it's players, support staff, assistant coaches. But surround yourself with great people.
Bingo. That is exactly what the most successful coaches do. Some coaches, very few are good enough to overcome hiring mistakes. Most aren't. And I look back at coaches like Rich Brooks, who it seemed like every year would lose an assistant coach right because they would get a job that was better than where they were and upgrade basically, which is how it should happen if the guy's any good at all. But Rich would end up hiring someone as good or better.
I always felt like Tubby Smith's a riginal staff at UK, and Cameron Mills has backed me up on this was really really good, and when some of those guys left, premarily Mike Sutton, things just began to sag. And you know, I think one of the best examples of that, believe it or I was Rick Patino at Louisville for a while there. He had some assistant coaches and weren't doing him any favors, and it was one assistant coach down the road who ultimately got him in trouble with that
FBI sting and all that. I don't want to get into that, but you got to hire good people, and Keith Madison has done that. Nick Menngione has had a lot of coaches come and go off his staff, and it looks like he settled in to a pretty good stab. But I just thought that was interesting when Jan brought that up yesterday, and finally he got into and we're gonna hear from Jan and Keith Madison here after the break.
But to me, one of the most interesting things he said was it was about his coaching philosophy and how he kind of had to change it and he realized that this was born of the way Keith Madison coached players. And I always wonder about coaches, and they're out there. One of them is a US senator right now, I don't want to get into that, but who treat players
strictly as though they're commodities. And I bring up that said senator used to coach at Auburn because one of his former players talked about how he had a meeting with him one morning and they talked about that summer work as summer workouts, that upcoming season, this and that, and then he's in his car later that day and here's on the radio that he the player has left the team and turn up the coach needed a scholarship, and you know, and they're out there. Coaches like that
are out there because they treat athletes as commodities. Now, you can't keep everybody. Mark Stoops has had guys come and go. I get that, but what happens to those guys? Do you just cut them loose and ignore them or do you cut them loose at all? There are some coaches Seam Newton used to say, you got to eat your mistakes when it comes to scholarships. You sign a player he or she is not very good, seem Newton
believe you got to eat it. Seam was big on doing the right thing, you know, and some people think that that's kind of a milk toast Pollyanna way to do business. Ultimately in the long run, though, it is the right thing. But Jan talked about that as well. Kind of made me sit up straight.
When I start to look at players or Chase Wins or look at players just for what can they do for me, that's when it's a reminder of all these guys that turned my life around, that impacted my life.
It's more than that. It can't just be transactional. What can you do for me? You can have success in the short term, but you people won't go to bat for you.
They won't fight for adversity for you unless they know it's relational. If it's purely transactional. If you could do something for for me.
Great, If you don't get out of here, this is not it.
And all those guys and what they did in my life just reminds me of that, And I thank him most of all for that.
And again he got that from Keith Madison. We hear more about that on the other side of the break here on the Big Blue Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blues Cider final segment of our show, we're talking about Jan Weisberg, the new head coach at EKU, formerly a baseball Wildcat player and assistant coach, and again one of the winningest coaches in the country. It was at the D three level for the most part. Also coached the year at Baldosta, coached at Traansy as a
head coach. But that great story about Birmingham Southern, which had shuddered the institution. It had closed the entire school, but the baseball team just kept winning in the College World Series, got to the championship game but lost to Wisconsin Whitewater. So Jan was on the move again. And now he's back in Central Kentucky and I and some other reporters had a chance to talk to him after his news conference. Here's part of our conversation.
Very excited professionally.
This offers great opportunity and a great challenge, which I enjoy. But getting back to one where a lot of family and friends are is really good.
And we felt good about the decision to listen.
I did, but you know, in the twenty four hours after it was announced, I had no idea what we would get with all the former players that had reached out and just people in Lexington in this area.
So no, we're excited as heck to be back.
This is one of the most challenging times for college sports with the house settlement, the portal nil. What's it like being in the middle of that, just wanting to coach baseball?
Yeah, I'll be honest with you.
And when I took the Valdosta State job, I turned down a couple of Division One opportunities and everybody thought it was crazy, you know, but I said, here's the deal is, I can make a regional every year.
Probably create a program.
In my mind it'll be on to the top ten in the country, and I don't have to mess with that. But when this opportunity came up, it was worth it to get back in that. And I think the biggest thing is just like with our players, you know, within a game, it's not about what happens to you.
It's about what are we going to do moving forward?
And I do hear so many coaches that all they do is complain about it.
Well, complaining is not a tactic.
And as much as I may not like it and I wish it wasn't here, to some extent, you have to embrace it and say, Okay, within this system, how can we make it work? So it might mean, you know, recruiting guys now with even being open and honest of saying yes, if you really blow up and have a talent to go play at the next level, higher than this and possibly make some money.
Then we'd be open to that.
But I think the coaches that fight that they forget about development. You know, I want our guys, if they left here after two years, to still consider this home. And I think we'll create a culture where it will not be easy for them to leave. But if they do, I don't want it to be one, you know, just pay goodbye. We're still going to invest in those guys and we're still going to grow them. And I think
if you embrace it like that, it can be okay. Jane, how much does it help you You've been in Trancy, Yeah, you've been at UK.
You know a lot of the high schools in the areas of around. How much does that help you here?
I think it really helps because, you know, especially with the house settlement and all that you're talking about, if they're going to go to thirty four, that a lot of those kids that we used to develop, say it's a picture that's throwing, you know, eighty seven to ninety miles an hour, but he's not quite ready.
You know. Those are the guys now that have two choices.
Am I going to go to junior college or am I going to go somewhere that is going to development? And those connections in high school, you know, are more important. You know, the last few years maybe it's been less because we saw physicality.
And that's so important. It's like, we'll go get the junior college guy.
But no, first and foremost, we'll be finding those guys and that we can develop because I believe in player development. At a place like this, we don't have a luxury to give someone one hundred thousand dollars and you're a proven player, and it doesn't scare me because I know that we can develop.
Those You could probably talk all night on this topic. But what did you learn from Keith Madison as a player as an assistant? That's that you carried and that helps you today.
Yeah, and I'll be honest with you.
The biggest lessons that I learned from coach I didn't get until I became a head coach. They were as I sat in that office, and I would hear him talk about, you know, developing the whole person, and and he never would just cut someone and let him go because his philosophy was I invested in that guy.
That's my fault.
But but once I became a head coach, and I caught myself, you know, just looking at it as what can this guy do for me?
What can this guy do for me?
And then my first graduating class, I had a lot of I wish I had I wish I had spent more time with that kid. I wish I would have helped him, you know, figure out what he wanted to do after graduation. And that's when it all started coming back to me of oh, you know, I didn't even know. It's like Yoda, right, I didn't even know it, and he's he's working on me here. So it's probably later, but it's a huge impact.
Yeah, what are you most excited to teach these boys this year?
I think that the the most thing I'm most excited about teaching these guys is probably the fun in the pursuit of not being able to say, you know, our goals are extremely high and dive into enjoying like what it takes to get there. And it's not just are we excited after a win, but it's excited after a really hard practice because we know that we put that money in the bank, right and we've invested in it.
And I think that's going to be the funnest thing always is.
You know, I had the team of Valdosta State for one year and we started two and eight, we finished twenty eight and twelve and they finally got it.
You know, it's not just the wins, but it's everything that we do and it's kind of how to attack the journey, and that's what's that's probably going to be the funnest.
Lots of Eka you administrators there, current players aren't that many right now, and friends, family, and of course the mentor Keith Madison, part of the chain gang here and one of our guests frequently here in the garage for the Big Blue Cider. And Weisberg of course play aid for Keith and coached for Keith, and uh he's the one who broke the news of the chain gang when Jan was hired. You texted the text chain the night
Jan got the job. And you're biased, I know, but why was it such a great hire.
Well, first of all, he's a winner on and off the field. You know, he's a proven winner on the field. He's won numerous conference championships and he's been to the Division III World Series twice. And then at Valdosta State, he was already continuing a great tradition there and had a good year this year. And I just think that he is he's he's got the whole package, you know, he's he's he's a phenomenal leader. He's a very knowledgeable baseball man. Uh, and he knows every aspect of the game.
I remember, Uh, you may and Dick, you may remember Iam van Landingham. Yeah, that pitched for us, pitched a big.
Game up with the longest name in a major league.
Yes, well, he and Jan were friends, and of course Jan was a catcher first basement, and I spent a lot of time with Billy. We called him back then and we could not get.
Him to throw strikes.
And I said, I told him one of my assistants, I said, I've tried everything, and I know, take him for a while. He tried everything he knew and finally, even though Jan was a player, we said, Jenny's all yours. Even as a college player. He had a gift of working with pitchers, but he's also really good hitter.
He talked about how he was flipping burgers at the Shay's restaurant, and you reached out to him and said, you need to be an assistant coach here. What did you see in him? Did you see that knowledge in him when he was playing?
Yeah, I just the way he handled pitchers and a bullpen. You know. I would spend a lot of time with those pictures in a bullpen, and he was right there with me, and the insights that he had and just the way his brain works. He's a very smart guy. Yeah, and so he just picked up things really fast, and I thought, man, he's flipping burgers waiting for his next journey, and he needs to be on a baseball field. And
so that's how that worked out. But I'm sure glad he did because he helped me a lot over those many.
Years mentioned earlier. Kyle Moch is a former UK staffer. He was an assistant ad under Mitch Barnhardt. I ended up at U of L for a while. Then Missouri State came back not too long ago to Central Kentucky. Just like Jan and now the ad at Eku.
Really excited for us Eku the community. Jane's a good person, he's a good baseball coach, and I think he's going to really resonate with everybody in this community, in this area. So just really happy to have him back, and I think he's happy to be back, and his family certainly.
Is happy to be back. I'm sure you got a lot of calls and resumes. Why was he the guy?
Yeah, I you know, when these situations happen, you kind of have a guy in mind. It may not work out out the way you wanted to, but we did have a lot of interest. But Jan was someone that I thought of first, and I'm happy that it worked out because it probably would have taken a little bit longer if it didn't. But he was kind of my guy from the very beginning.
I realized that, with all due respect, this is probably the most we've talked about EKU baseball. On the Big Bloom side. We had broadcasts many games involving UK and EKU baseball, but just a great story with Jan Weisberg coming back in the fact that he led that Birmingham Southern team to the World Series final game and now a former Wildcat is the head coach at EKU. That'll do it. Thanks to my guests, to all the folks over at dKu, to Ryan Black, Darryl Bird that said good night from the garage.
And Lexington wants an orange Whip, Orange Whip, Orange Whip three orange whip statue.
Tact tact.
Anything one.
Touching the
Tops from typing donating to the