BBN Radio presented by Clark's Pump-n-Shop with Kentucky Women's Basketball

Join Darren Headrick for BBN Radio, presented by Clark's Pump-n-Shop. We are joined Kentucky Women's Basketball Head Coach Kenny Brooks and players Clara Strack, Amelia Hassett, and Tonie Morgan.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Across the forty coming here side ty five mets.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
A monk he side, He's got off, dun fuck touchdown Kentucky.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
From the UK Sports Network. This is Clark's Pumpin' Shop,
Big Blue Nation Radio.

Speaker 4 (00:26):
Second for one, take the turn, got him. Game's over, Kentucky.

Speaker 5 (00:30):
Wam interact with the show by calling eight five nine
two eight oh cats that's eight five nine two eight
oh to two eight seven, or state wide at eight
hundred six oh six game that's eight hundred six oh
six four two six three four, or tweet the show

(00:52):
at UK Sports Network.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Hi.

Speaker 6 (00:54):
For the eighth time, Colin's Best in All National Championship
Trophy is coming.

Speaker 4 (00:59):
Home to Kentucky.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Now, your host Taron.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
Hendrick, live from Drakes here at Brandon Crossing. We welcome
you into a special edition of BBN Radio presented by
Clark's Puppin' Shop. Over the next hour, we'll chat Kentucky
women's basketball as we're hanging out with the team here
at Drake's. Tonight, head coach Kenny Brooks is in the house.
He'll be with us for the next couple of segments,
and in the second half hour will be joined by

(01:23):
a trio of Wildcats. Tony Morgan, Amelia Hassett and Clara
Strack will be on with us in the second half
of the show. We appreciate everybody being with us here
at Drakes tonight and for those of you tuning in
stick around over the next hour. It's gonna be a
lot of fun talking about this team. They're ten and one,
number fifteen in the AP poll and they'll be on
the road. That's right, They'll be on the road at

(01:45):
Belmont this Sunday at three o'clock eastern tip off in Nashville.
Will be on the air at two forty five with that.
Coach Brooks will join us when we come back here
on the UK Sports Network the new DQ Chris.

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Speaker 4 (05:05):
Welcome back into BBN Radio, presented by Clark's Puppins Shop.
Coach Brooks joining us in the house here at Drake's
at Brandon Crossing tonight and Coach Big Blue Nation out
in full force with us this evening.

Speaker 17 (05:16):
What a great looking group right here. I tell you what,
I got a little bit excited. I came in and
people were clapping, and I thought they were clapping from me.
But the team's here, so I guess everyone's really excited
to I succeed the team.

Speaker 4 (05:27):
Yeah. Well, you and I talked a little bit about
this before yesterday's game. That's a month into the season now,
a little over a third of the way through in
terms of total games. What's this journey been like for
you with this group?

Speaker 18 (05:37):
Very pleasing, it really has.

Speaker 17 (05:39):
And obviously you have to understand it's going to be
a process and when you go in and obviously you
want to be clicking on all cylinders from day one,
but that's not reality, and the reality is that you're
gonna have to work hard at it. There's gonna be
some great days, there's gonna be some tough days, and regardless,
you're gonna have to continue to work through it. And
this group has done everything that I've asked him to do,
and maybe not as fast as I wanted it to

(06:00):
be done. But they listen, they learn, they apply, they
get along, and I think one of the biggest compliments
you can get. I was talking to the opposing coach
yesterday from Central Michigan, and she said, your kids get
They look like they get along so well.

Speaker 18 (06:15):
In warm ups.

Speaker 17 (06:16):
They look like they're having fun. They look like they're
celebrating each other. And you know when you can get
to that point that chemistry is like that. This early
in the season, you got a chance to be pretty good.

Speaker 4 (06:25):
When you talk about learning your team, how do you
balance your time across the season because it's a marathon,
not a sprint. Although you've played so many games in
November it felt like a sprint at times, But how
do you balance that that time to grow and continue
to build to where you want to be at your
best in March?

Speaker 18 (06:40):
Well, you have, you have to learn them.

Speaker 17 (06:41):
And you know, it's been fun getting to know each
and every one of them and trying to learn, you know,
what makes them tick. Right now, If I went out
from day one and just started yelling at them and
screaming at them and expecting them to know our philosophy,
our system, you're not going to have much success. So
I took it upon myself this year more so than
any because we have so many new players. I had
to learn them, you know, and you know, coaching them

(07:04):
as individuals to make them into a.

Speaker 18 (07:06):
Team is what you have to do. And we talk
a lot.

Speaker 17 (07:09):
This is gonna be a fantastic week for us because
not only do we get a couple of days to
you know, just take care of our bumps, our bruises.
Some of them have the sniffles a little bit. But
you know, we're gonna have a lot of meetings, you know,
sitting around talking and just understanding where they are, how
they're feeling, and what we need to do to move forward.
And you know that's why you coach, you know, it
really is. And I know that the landscape has changed

(07:31):
a lot, but when you can get a great group
of people together and they want to learn and they
want to get better. It makes a lot bit makes
it very enjoyable. So that's what we're experiencing right now.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
I don't know if you do this intentionally, but the
way the schedule plays out this year, you have some
time in between games in December. How critical are those moments,
especially on school is over to get them in the
practice gym and just continue getting better.

Speaker 17 (07:52):
You know, our schedule all year long has been very intentional,
even you know, the road games that we've had. If
you look at it, because we had to go away
a little bit, it was very intentional. Not that we
didn't want to play all of our games immemorial, but
we've benefited from it because of the way that we
played our schedule on the road, beating the teams the
way that we have beating them. And I think you

(08:13):
look at our net ranking, which is very very important
to the NCAA seating, I think we were like seventh
in the net this week. Uh, And that was very
intentional on what we wanted to do. And now we'd
love to play every game in Memorial, uh, you know,
and we've got a lot of great things going on
in Memorial right now we have volleyball teams doing wonderful.

Speaker 18 (08:31):
Uh, you know, we're holding our own.

Speaker 17 (08:33):
Gymnastics is about to start up here soon, and so
you know, we're just glad we're doing our part. But
it is good to be able to have this week,
you know, because, uh, sometimes we forget they are student
athletes and and exams are coming up. You know, they
got a lot on their plate right now to make
sure they finish out this semester.

Speaker 9 (08:52):
Uh.

Speaker 17 (08:53):
You know, last year our cumulative GPA was the three
point five, So they are all about the student part,
and we want to make sure that they they go
into this break, you know, on a good note and
they finish themselves with the academic part. But also, like
I mentioned before, you know, they've got some bumps in
their bruises.

Speaker 18 (09:09):
They're not robots.

Speaker 17 (09:10):
They go out there and they get beat up a
little bit, and they have some knicks here and there,
and so this is a really good week for them
to take care of all of that and then we'll
get some practice time. You know, we get some practice
time because we've got ten games in and now we
understand how teams are starting to try to scout us
to play us and now we'll make some adjustments so
that we can get better in that aspect.

Speaker 4 (09:30):
I was going to ask you what are some of
the focal points of those practices coming up this week?

Speaker 17 (09:34):
You know, Number one, get them healthy, keep them healthy,
and then we just need to get some reps. We
haven't had reps a lot because we had so many
games in a row then you had to rest. So
we get some reps, you know. We you know, with
Clara a lot, she's seeing that she's being double teamed
a lot now and she really can't do a lot
on the block because they're sending two or three people
at her. And you know, Jordan and Tiani are beneficiaries

(09:57):
of that. They're learning how to dive.

Speaker 18 (09:58):
To the floor.

Speaker 17 (09:59):
Clara's probably best post passing post player in the country. Uh,
we've been able to see that. And so just a
lot of different things. Tony is learning, me h, the
philosophy what we want. We'll be able to watch some
film and get some practice time with that, and and
all of them, all of them are just you know,
learning to adjust to what we want and they're applying
it and they look pretty good right now.

Speaker 4 (10:20):
Speaking of Clara and also Tianni, You've talked the last
couple of games to me about on defense them starting
to float a little bit. Can you expand on that
and the responsibilities that come with it.

Speaker 17 (10:29):
You know, sometimes you stumble on something a philosophy by accident.
And what we did with we played against the University
of Miami and they had they had a familiar foe,
which was the kid Kyle. Yeah, Kyle who played at
Florida last year. And she's about six foot six and
I don't dare say how big, but she was very

(10:51):
big person, strong and very strong.

Speaker 18 (10:54):
Good that that that's very good.

Speaker 17 (10:56):
And so for one of them, for Clara to have
to battle with her for forty minutes, it would have
worn her out. And so Clara and Tianni have both
done a really good job of uh, they'll they'll switch off,
We'll switch them off, and sometimes Tianni would take the person,
and it gave Clara a chance to, uh to float
a little bit. And and while we were while Clara
was floating, I think she got like three steals right

(11:17):
in a row. And then she's able to come from
the weak side and be a secondary defender. And uh,
we saw that and we liked it so we were
playing the other night and uh, and we rotated them again,
and Clara became a secondary defender a couple of times,
and Tianni was a secondary defender and uh. And when
they when you have to deal with one of them
primarily and then here comes the other one. It's kind

(11:37):
of like hunting in packs. Like I'm a big dinosaur fan.
I love raptors. Uh and they hunt in packs and uh,
and that's kind of what we want to do. We
want to hunt in packs. It's not just one on
one defense. If we played one on one defense, we'd
beat awful, you know we They they're just not very
good one on one defenders. But as a pack, as
a group, as a family, they they will force you

(11:57):
into areas that you don't really want to go and
then all of a sudden one will ambush you and
blocking shot or do whatever they have to do. And
that's why our defense is one of the best defenses
so far in the country. And that's the way that
we're going to play.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
I think we got to do nickname for the defense,
the raptors. There we go, But you go back to
that Central Michigan game. You also made a great adjustment
in the second half, allowing Tianni and Claria to float.
But you also put Jordan Obie on their post player
and that really locked down their offense when they couldn't
get it to Darrington.

Speaker 17 (12:25):
Yeah, I don't I don't Dare take all the credit
for for that with the adjustment.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
Uh.

Speaker 17 (12:30):
I think they adjusted their attitudes in the in the
locker room. And obviously Darrington was was a local, local kid.
I think she played at Frednis. Yeah, and she has
she has some very boisterous fans up in the stands
who were very excited that she had a really good
first half.

Speaker 6 (12:47):
Uh.

Speaker 17 (12:48):
And I think that they heard that a lot and
they took it upon themselves to adjust their own attitude
and make sure. I think they held her to what
one point in the second half one point the second half.

Speaker 18 (12:58):
So I don't dare take all the credit for that.

Speaker 17 (13:00):
You know, we did switch a couple of you know, matchups,
but they had a different attitude in the second half,
and that was one of the things we talked about
for this team. If we want to be great, we
always talk about energy, effort and attitude and you know,
I always have to make sure I clarify what I
mean by that because I don't want to dare think
anyone to think that they have bad energy, bad attitudes,
or their effort is not good. But you have to

(13:22):
have the rights mindset. And you know, we want to
be champions. We want to be champions of the FCC,
We want to be champions.

Speaker 18 (13:28):
Of the college basketball world.

Speaker 17 (13:31):
And if you want to be that, you have to
have a different mindset that no matter how or who
you're playing or when what the situation is, you have
to win the win the possession. And if we can
get to that point where we're consistent for forty minutes.

Speaker 18 (13:43):
Will be a dangerous basketball team.

Speaker 17 (13:44):
So that's some of the things that we harp on
and what we're working towards each and every day.

Speaker 4 (13:48):
Defense communication is big, especially in your system. Where's this
team at in the communication and what is it you're
preaching to them right now?

Speaker 17 (13:56):
You know they're getting there. I think first you have
to know the philosophy before you can can communicate and
you feel good about it. We don't want to just communication.
We want our precise communication. We want to be very decisive.
And when we're talking about so and what I mean
by that is if a screen.

Speaker 18 (14:11):
Is coming to a particular person.

Speaker 17 (14:12):
If Tony is a screen is being set on Tony,
we don't want to just say screen, screen, screen.

Speaker 18 (14:17):
We want to say screen right Tony.

Speaker 17 (14:20):
And then now she knows where it's coming from, and
then we can say switch Tony switch instead of just
saying switch switch switch. If you're saying switch switch switch,
Tony doesn't know it's her or Clara doesn't op it
to her. But if you say her name a we're
one step ahead of it. When we're one step ahead
of it, we become a much better defensive team. So
that's something that we're working towards. We lacked in that

(14:41):
area on the first half. We were much better in
the second half yesterday doing so.

Speaker 4 (14:45):
One other note on defense is we go to our
first break. Kentucky has held their opponent to five field
goals or less than a half four times this year.
Six field goals are fewer six times. It's hard to
win games when you can't score on the defense. There
you go, get to our first time out. We'll have
another segment with Coach Brooks when we come back. This
is the UK Sports Network.

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Speaker 4 (19:42):
We are live tonight at Drake's Brandon Crossing for this
special edition of BBN Radio presented by Clark's Puffins Shop.
Coach Brooks in the house with us along with the
Kentucky women's basketball team and coach. I thought we'd talked
about some individuals that have been playing some terrific basketball
for you recently. Let's start with your point guard Tony Moore.
She's coming off her second double double of the season,

(20:03):
eleven assists, more importantly, zero turnovers in the win over
Central Michigan. It's all right, you can clap how about her?

Speaker 11 (20:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 18 (20:16):
You know what?

Speaker 4 (20:17):
Love?

Speaker 17 (20:17):
I love Tony, I love coaching Tony, and you know,
full disclosure, since we're all here with family, I'll let
you know that she was the only one that got
yelled at after.

Speaker 18 (20:28):
The game yesterday. You how about that?

Speaker 17 (20:30):
Twelve points, eleven assists, no turnovers, and Coach Brooks is
on her.

Speaker 4 (20:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 17 (20:35):
And the only reason I'm warner is because only I
only have a small amount of time with her. And
when Tony came here, Tony chose to come to the
University of Kentucky to play here. She wanted to be
the best point guard in the country. And so for me,
I said, okay, if you want to be the best
point guard in the country because last year I got
to coach the best point guard in the country.

Speaker 18 (20:53):
So I know what it takes.

Speaker 17 (20:55):
And you have to, you know, submit and understand that
anything and everything that I tell you is so that
you can be the best point guard in the country.

Speaker 3 (21:02):
And uh.

Speaker 17 (21:02):
And we talked about a few areas and what she
needed to do. And she's becoming one of the best
leaders on our team, and we need her to be
even better than that, you know, in order for us
to get to where we want to get to, for
her to get to where she wants to get to.
And the thing that I love about her the most,
it doesn't matter what I say to her.

Speaker 18 (21:19):
I can mention Georgia's name, and she's okay with that.

Speaker 17 (21:22):
She's receptive because she wants the blueprint and how she
can be the best point guard in the country. We
watch film and if I say something that doesn't really
make sense to her, she wants clarification. She got her
degree from Georgia Tech in three years, so she's a
smart kid.

Speaker 9 (21:36):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (21:36):
And so.

Speaker 18 (21:39):
But she she has she has so much.

Speaker 17 (21:41):
She has so much that she can give that we're
unleashing U and you know what one of the things too.
And I don't know if you guys noticed this, but
it was very impressive because I didn't know how it
was going to go. She had the pressure of playing
with her new coach while her old coach was doing
the commentat in the game that versy of Miami. So

(22:01):
you're talking about pressure and what does she do her? Yeah,
what does she do? She goes out and she gets
I don't know, twenty some points and really controls the
basketball game. But it just shows you what kind of
a young lady she is. She doesn't she's not afraid
of the moment. She's embracing anything and everything, and she's
very happy to be here and leading this group of
young women.

Speaker 4 (22:20):
Let's talk about your staying in the back court. Your
other point guard slash shooting guard, Asia Boom. You called
her a sixth starter.

Speaker 17 (22:26):
Yes, yeah, yeah, she's like a sixth story. I know
we can't have six in one game, but she has
starter minute, starter shot starter mentality. And you know, Asia
again had to do a lot like Tony. She came
from a system where she only played the off guard position,
and right from the beginning I told her that we
were going to you know, have her play some point guard,

(22:48):
which she has not played since high school. And I
think she has selective hearing because she acts like she
didn't hear it. And when she got here, she acted
like it was a surprise when I was like, okay,
played the point guard and and and to be very
honest with you, she moped. You know, she pouted. You know,
she didn't want to do it. But I think what
she found out was that, you know, if she can
play multiple positions, it gives her more of an opportunity

(23:09):
to be on the floor.

Speaker 18 (23:11):
And she's becoming more and more comfortable with it.

Speaker 4 (23:13):
Uh.

Speaker 17 (23:13):
She provides something that we desperately need, you know, with
really good outside shooting.

Speaker 24 (23:18):
Uh.

Speaker 17 (23:18):
And her defense has gotten a lot better. You know
her her she wasn't known for a defense, but she's
gotten a lot better with her defense. Uh here while
she's been at Kentucky and uh and and she's been
a very bright spot for us. And UH, I know
she's going to continue to get better.

Speaker 4 (23:31):
As fun as it is to watch your guards bring
the ball up in transition, it's also fun to watch
opposing defenses melt down when they see Tianna Key bring
the ball up to and take it coast to coast
after a steal or a rebound. What has she been
doing that really stands out in the last handful of games.

Speaker 18 (23:47):
You know, Tiani is probably her hardest critic.

Speaker 17 (23:49):
Uh, you know, I think she'll admit that, but she
she's one of the She her, at Clara and Jordan,
they're all like unicorns. They're not like typical post players
that you guys are going to see night in a
night out from the opposing teams. They offer something that's
very unique. They all can play multiple positions. You know,
Tiani has done a really good job and uh, when Tany,
when Tianni plays well, we're very very hard to be,

(24:12):
very hard to be. She does so many different things
for us. She you know, offers us, you know, a
lot of versatility. She's long, she's athletic. Like as you mentioned,
she can bring the ball down and be as fast
as anybody with it. Kind of gives Tony a little
bit of relief. But you know, her and Clara, you know,
and Jordan.

Speaker 18 (24:28):
They all play off of each other very very well.

Speaker 17 (24:31):
And uh, it's been a lot of fun to watch
them morph because last year that they were they were
similar but different, and then this year they've had to
try to figure out what they're going to be and
it's fun watching them do it organically.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
How about the offensive execution finishing around the rim for
your team, because we've seen the fadeaway shot, but we
also see the inside move, the reverse your team finds
different ways to score the ball.

Speaker 17 (24:51):
They do, and you know, sometimes, you know, like our
fans or a lot of people want us to get
as close as we can to the basket, and I
would love that, but you know, sometimes we feel like,
you know, if they can shoot a uncontested, you know,
four footer as opposed to a contested two footer.

Speaker 18 (25:06):
They practice those shots and they're very good at it.

Speaker 17 (25:09):
And as a matter of fact, we get a lot
of other coaches really trying to dive into what we do,
how we do it. We get a lot of other
coaches come and watch us work out the post players
and how we're able to get them into space.

Speaker 18 (25:22):
As you look at them, they're not there.

Speaker 17 (25:23):
They're not the they're strong, but they're not the biggest
of post players.

Speaker 18 (25:28):
They're tall.

Speaker 17 (25:29):
They're tall, but they're they're very they're finesse, and that's
what we recruit because basketball's kind of going that way
as a positionless game, and we have players on our
team that are positionless basketball players, so we can move
them around. It works to our work, to our advantage
their versatility.

Speaker 18 (25:45):
We can put them all around.

Speaker 17 (25:46):
And you know, people are trying to double Clara when
she gets down on the on the block all the time,
so no problem. Will move her out a little bit
more and she's still as effective in those situations.

Speaker 18 (25:55):
So we're really hard guard for a lot of people.

Speaker 17 (25:58):
Because we don't have traditional position and players, they're actually
positionless players.

Speaker 4 (26:02):
Before I get to some other topics real quick, Lexi
Blue has been giving you some critical minute the couple
of weeks.

Speaker 17 (26:08):
Yeah, you know, bless her heart. I don't know which
game it was. I think she got all excited because
they were going back to Florida and then she caught something.

Speaker 18 (26:17):
I don't know what it was.

Speaker 17 (26:19):
And uh, she hasn't been looking like herself lately, but
she's pushed through all of it and and does a
really good job for us.

Speaker 18 (26:26):
And uh, and you know she's.

Speaker 17 (26:28):
She like like ab that she's getting a lot better
on the defensive end, and that's something we've been talking
about and gets her more and more minutes.

Speaker 18 (26:35):
But I'm very proud.

Speaker 17 (26:36):
You know, we tell her all the time. Kids don't
want to hear it, but she's one that's understood it.
Your freshman year is difficult, you know, your freshman year
is difficult. There's a big adjustment the speed, the amount
of time that you're out there. Everything goes a little
bit faster, is a little bit stronger, and it just
takes a little bit of time.

Speaker 18 (26:54):
Everybody has to go through it. You look at that table,
at both tables.

Speaker 17 (26:58):
All of them had went through that frame freshman year
where they really you know, their head was spinning and
they were trying to figure things out. And the thing
with Lexi, Lexi came in on a team that was,
you know, a top ten team, you know, so there
are a lot of good players around you, so you're
gonna have to work and she's done nothing but work hard,
and you know, waited her time and waited for her opportunity,

(27:18):
and once she got it, she she's taken advantage of it,
all right.

Speaker 4 (27:21):
I know. For folks that saw us promoting tonight show,
originally Coach Hicks was going to be on with us,
and some schedule. Things happened, so you're here with us instead.
But just talk about Coach Chicks and what she's meant
to your program over the last several years.

Speaker 18 (27:34):
Well, you know, I can talk about all of them.
Coach Chicks.

Speaker 17 (27:37):
Coach Chicks came to me and I actually hired her
during the pandemic, and I wasn't in a hurry to hire.
We had a position open, and she did things exact
right way. She was very persistent, but she wasn't pushy
and so much so she kept sending me a little
tibbits about herself, and every now and then I would
look her up because I didn't know her before I
hired her.

Speaker 18 (27:56):
And and we we did a.

Speaker 17 (27:57):
Zoom and we were five minutes and the zoom and
I knew I was going to hire her and U
and it has been. It's been a tremendous hire for
me every since. She she understands me. She's a tremendous
role model for each and every one of the young
women over there.

Speaker 18 (28:11):
You know, she she gets tickled with this. Not I'm
not doing anything that she doesn't like.

Speaker 17 (28:16):
But she always gets approached, uh and people ask her
what position do you play? And she gets tickled when
she tells them that she's in her forties and uh,
you know, she looks marvelous, you know, And and we
try to we try to ask her what the secret is.
And the only thing she can tell me she's a pescatarian.
And I didn't know what that was for a long time. Uh,
but but it's working. It's working. But you know, her

(28:37):
her basketball, and she's a tremendous asset to us, as
all of my assistants. You guys have heard me say it.
I have the best coaching staff in the country. And
it's not just because they're great at the x's and o's. Uh,
they're tremendous role models for our kids. That they work hard,
they're great recruiters, they're great basketball minds, they're great people.
And and we were like one big family. And and

(29:00):
when you're a big family, you can kind of circle
the wagons a little bit and you can take on whatever,
you know, challenges come your way. Rad Vlay does a
tremendous job. Josh Peterson does a tremendous job. You can
keep continuing going down to Tim Clark, who has been
with me for twenty years, to imagine that and you
know Will BK. Kendall Brooks, who's in the in the building,

(29:21):
Sierra Gregory. They all do a tremendous job and the
way they work together really helps us operate as a unit.

Speaker 4 (29:27):
Coach. Last thing for you before we turn the show
over to the ladies in the second half hour, I
have to ask you about play calls. Now, I'm not
going to ask you to betray king and country and anything,
but I get to come to practice and I hear
you go through walk through with your plays, and I've
heard plays named after food, huh, after states, after schools.
How do you name your plays?

Speaker 17 (29:47):
You know what, if I tell you, You're probably not
going to be as excited whatever I'm thinking of at
the moment, but I'll make sure I'll talk to them
about it. Like like we put in a play the
other day, a right before the game, and I said,
we'll call it blue. We'll call it blue because Kentucky
is blue. And if I keep saying it, then it
means something to me. Our famous play calls. We have

(30:09):
a play called spaghetti.

Speaker 4 (30:11):
Uh.

Speaker 17 (30:11):
And you if you guys hear saying spaghetti, yeah, we
are saying spaghetti and uh. And the reason that its
spaghetti was because I liked it, but I didn't know
if it was going to stick.

Speaker 18 (30:21):
So you guys know the old you know, the old thing.

Speaker 17 (30:24):
When you cook the spaghetti, you throw it up against
the wall, it sticks, then you like it. So I
didn't want to name it, so I said, we'll just
call it spaghetti. And it's been ten years later and
now we have spaghetti spaghetti two we have. I wanted
to run spaghetti the opposite way, so I said, we'll
call it maybe Alfredo. Uh, you know, so my my
my brain works very differently, and I'm just very fortunate

(30:46):
that I have a group of smart young women who
are smarter than me, and they just kind of jump
on my bandwagon. And whatever I call it, they understand it,
they know it, but some of it doesn't doesn't make
sense to me.

Speaker 18 (30:58):
And just whatever I'm thinking of that day, that's what
we'll call it.

Speaker 4 (31:01):
As long as it works. As long as it works, coach,
thanks so much for joining us here tonight at Drake's.
We're gonna let you. We're going to turn you loose,
and we'll bring on some of the players and talk
to them a little while.

Speaker 18 (31:10):
All right, Thank you.

Speaker 10 (31:11):
I gos Cats.

Speaker 4 (31:11):
We'll see at Belmont. All right, that's coach Brooks. We'll
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Speaker 4 (34:32):
Welcome back to Drake's here at Brandon Crossing BBN Radio
presented by Clark's Puppin's Shop. And we've got the players
joining us up here now. Coach just signs a couple
of posters. We've got Amelia Hasset directly to my left,
and then Clara Strack and Tony Morgan down here on
the other end. And Tony, I want to start with
you just a quick question. The light in the mood,

(34:53):
get everything rolling. What was your first reaction when Coach
called out spaghetti?

Speaker 10 (34:57):
I was like, what.

Speaker 18 (35:00):
Spaghetti is crazy?

Speaker 10 (35:02):
You know this Coach's play, So we do it.

Speaker 18 (35:06):
Ladies.

Speaker 4 (35:06):
You're coming off a nice win over Central Michigan. I
asked coach first question, what's the journey been like? Amelia?
What has this year been like for you second go
around with Kentucky?

Speaker 29 (35:16):
Yeah, I mean second year. Obviously you kind of have
a little bit of understanding about coming off the first
year playing in the SEC. But No, it's been really great.
Go ahead, senior year, super fun. The girls are amazing,
obviously coming back with coach books and all the coaching staff.
I think it's it's been a fun.

Speaker 10 (35:33):
Year so far.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
Clara, what's the journey been like for you? Especially becoming
a focal point of opposing scouts? I mean.

Speaker 29 (35:42):
Instead in my leadership. So I think that's like what
my journey looks like right now. Obviously continuing the basketball
side of things, but I think really just picking up
on the leadership and working there.

Speaker 4 (35:53):
Tony, for you, first year under coach Brooks, brand new team,
brand new league, what what's it been like, absorbing so
much all at once.

Speaker 10 (36:02):
It's been fun. My teammates and coach that made it
easy for me.

Speaker 30 (36:05):
But it has been a great experience so far, and
I can't wait to see what the future.

Speaker 10 (36:08):
Holds for us.

Speaker 4 (36:09):
Building chemistry being on the road so much early in
the season. How much, and this is for any of you,
how much has it helped being on the road where
you basically have to come to it's forcing you to
come together and build that chemistry. How much? How important
has that been?

Speaker 10 (36:24):
I think it's really important.

Speaker 29 (36:25):
I think it just like gives you like an early
look at like how we're gonna handle adversity being on
the road and having to come together, like you said,
and like in environments like Louiso, where like we face
a lot of university and there's a big crowd. So
I think it's been a lot for us so far,
and I think it will help us and as.

Speaker 4 (36:41):
We go forward, bring the mic a little bit closer
to your mouth. Okay, there you go, there you go.
Let's talk about Puerto Rico a little bit. Let's talk
about Puerto Rico a little bit, Amelia, first time on
the island. What was it like for you seeing San Juan.

Speaker 29 (36:58):
Yeah, I mean it's beautiful, the weather, coming from Lexington
where it's obviously snowing, I thought, going to the sun
it was nice to get out and get some sunshine.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
Being from Australia and now basically a world traveler coming
to the US, getting to go to Puerto Rico. Did
you ever think that basketball would take you on this journey.

Speaker 29 (37:16):
No, I didn't, actually, I mean it was kind of
cool coming to us for the first time, so I
mean that's the experience in itself, and then getting the
opportunity my senior year to go to Puerto Rico. I mean,
Bazzboall can literally take you anywhere.

Speaker 4 (37:29):
I've got to ask, how would you describe SEC basketball
to friends and family back home in Australia who may
have never seen it or experienced it firsthand?

Speaker 29 (37:38):
Yeah, I would say, I mean, obviously everyone talks about
it being the best conference, but I would just explain
as physical and fast.

Speaker 4 (37:45):
Yeah, yeah, passionate, definitely. I want to go back to
something Clara we touched on a little bit, adjusting to
defenses making you a focal point. You're getting double teamed
a lot. How have you kind of grown as a
player to maybe neutralize that or turn that into an
advantage for you and your teammates.

Speaker 29 (38:03):
Yeah, I mean I think we work on that a lot.
We've been working on a lot in practice, Like anytime
that happens, like having someone like cut to the basket
or things like that. I think it just expands my
game more, like my passing things like that, making me
more versatile, and then just having me play like outside
of just like down in the post every time because
that's where it's easiest to double. So I think it's

(38:24):
definitely helped me a lot expanding my game, and I
think it like benefits their teammates, like you said, because
if they double me, someone's open and so Tony.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
You bring a lot of experience obviously to the point
guard position. But how have you learned this year and
over the years to balance knowing when you need to
go score the ball versus facilitating your teammates scoring.

Speaker 30 (38:43):
Yeah, I mean I have played a lot of basketball,
but it's still a learning experience on every team. I'm
still learning that balance. Coach Brooks's helping me. My teammates
helped me. But as we go on, I'll get to
know what this team needs and when they needed.

Speaker 4 (38:56):
How much did you help your teammates when you played
Louisville and Miami familiar opponents alive.

Speaker 10 (39:01):
Because we play them every year and man, they're sick
of me.

Speaker 4 (39:07):
That's a good thing. Leadership. I know that's something Coach
has talked about a lot, but I wanted to kind
of dive in with all three of you just exactly
what is leadership what it means to this team. Amelia,
I'll come back to you. What is leadership? What do
you look at? Is it vocal? Is it emotional? What's leadership?
To you.

Speaker 29 (39:26):
I mean, obviously leadership can be obviously vocal, but I
think also just being there by showing your example, like
showing I guess how coach Brooks wants things to happen,
and just kind of leading by example in that way too.

Speaker 4 (39:39):
Clara, how have you embraced it in What does that
role mean to you?

Speaker 29 (39:43):
Yeah, I think I've definitely been working on my vocal leadership.
Like you said, I think I've always been naturally like
quieter and like more leading by example. But I think
I'm trying to push myself out of my comfort zone
a little bit.

Speaker 4 (39:55):
And be a little one coaches in the background. By
the way, for those listening on radio, Tony will come
to you and leadership. Is it vocal? Is it emotional
for you? What's leadership?

Speaker 10 (40:10):
Oh? And my position has to be all those things?

Speaker 30 (40:13):
Yeah, coach both till it I'd be so good that
he doesn't notice anybody else's messing up. But it's been fun, though,
But it's just lead by example and vocal and just.

Speaker 10 (40:22):
Do the right thing.

Speaker 4 (40:23):
He's coached you hard, But I would imagine a point
guard gets coached hard a lot. Right, You're used to it. Yeah,
we're chatting here on BBN Radio presented by Clark's Poppinshop.
We've got Amelia Hassett, Clara Strack, and Tony Morgan joining us.
I wanted to talk with you guys and get your
perspective on your teammates. And all three of you can

(40:44):
answer this if you want, but let's start with Jordan
Obi and how she makes this team better. We want's
to go first.

Speaker 29 (40:50):
I mean, Jordan obviously, she's an amazing player. I think
she contributed so much obviously to our game, from like rebounding,
cutting hard, like just doing the little dirty workers.

Speaker 10 (41:00):
Well, so yeah, having her.

Speaker 4 (41:01):
Is great, I would imagine too. It helps because she's
got post experience, so with you and Tiati, it helps
having basically a third post that can also be a guard.

Speaker 14 (41:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 29 (41:11):
I mean, I think it's crazy having someone like Jordan's,
like Bill, like Jordan has the skills of Jordan's starting
at the two is just something that's really hard to
match up with for opposing teams, and it just gives
us another like threat from for ourselves.

Speaker 4 (41:24):
One thing that's impressed me about this group overall is
I get to come to practice and shoot around and
I'll see coach or one of the assistants giving individual instructions,
and the whole team is out there watching. Now, sometimes
you're engaged, sometimes you're doing whatever, but the whole team's
out there together. Tell me a little bit about that
chemistry and why this group seems to do everything together.

Speaker 30 (41:48):
This team, well, we amed everything together because we play together.
We are a team, and chemistry will take you four
especially when it comes to postseason and conference play. So
when one person is getting instruction, everybody needs to pay
attention because you never know if you'll be that person
in that moment, so we all have to be attentive
and know what's going on.

Speaker 4 (42:04):
I see you both out there, Emilia, I've seen you
out there too, Clara. Why is that so important to
get that individual time with a coach before the practice
even starts.

Speaker 29 (42:12):
Yeah, I mean, obviously just extra reps, extra practice is
always helpful. But I think especially when you're like with
Coach brokesor with one of our other coaches, like they
know like what looks we're gonna get in the game
and things like that, So I think they're just setting
us up so exactly like any situation that you gain,
like you're used to because you've already practiced it so
many times.

Speaker 4 (42:31):
Everybody likes to talk about your offense, Clara, but your defense,
you've been spectacular SEC Defensive Player of the Year last year.
I told coach you're first in the nation and defensive
win shares. For those that are analytically inclined, Tell me
a little bit about working on your defense and how
you prepare for games on that side of the ball.

Speaker 29 (42:50):
Yeah, I think that's a lot like like I think
Coach was talking about it before, Like we play a
lot of team defense, so I think just knowing like
if I do something, if I mess up, like one
of my team's back, if they mess up, I'll have
their back. So I think that's where a lot of
it comes from. And then we do a lot of
defense in practice.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
So the last couple of games, he's had you floating
out there. Give me your perspective on that and the
responsibilities and how important maybe something like communication is when
you're sort of helping off a little bit.

Speaker 29 (43:17):
Yeah, I mean communication is always super important. That's something
that we talk about a lot. I think that's like
like he was talking about, like having Tianni or Jordan
be able to guard inside and like having another one
of us floating outside is just like it really clogs
it up for other teams.

Speaker 10 (43:32):
So I think it's like, I think it's fun to
do that.

Speaker 4 (43:34):
Yeah, playing alongside Tianni on that front line, I mean
if a player is able to slip by one of you,
it feels like you know there's help behind you in
the safety net with both of you.

Speaker 25 (43:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 29 (43:44):
Yeah, Like I said, like the team defense, like knowing
like I know, if something happens, Tiani's going to be
there to block it, and she knows like the same
thing with me. So I think that's really crazy, like
to have on a team, like.

Speaker 10 (43:55):
To just know that you have that behind you.

Speaker 4 (43:57):
Amelia, you've bought your share of shots this year on defense.
You've also been tasked with guarding some of the hotter
shooters in games, trying to lock them down. How much
aggressive do you feel you're confident in your aggressiveness? Can
you be because you know there's a Tiani or a
Clara behind you or your teammates that they're backing you up.

Speaker 29 (44:15):
I mean, yeah, definitely homes obviously having them coming out
like just blocking the shot. Like no, I mean, it's
it's great having them there. I think it makes you
want to like just get up and play defense. Like
if they blow by, they're they're like and you can
rotate and help for them. So I think just knowing
that they're behind you and just there and yeah, I

(44:36):
mean it's amazing.

Speaker 4 (44:37):
Well, and Tony, I guess from your perspective or Jordan
or Lexi or whoever, you got to be ready because
they don't block the ball out of bounds. Usually if
they get a hand on it, it's coming at somebody
and you got to be ready to grab it and
go right transition. Where do you guys feel like this
team is in terms of once you get a rebound
or a turnover, this team gets out and runs.

Speaker 10 (45:02):
I feel like we're pretty good. I feel like we're
a pretty fast team.

Speaker 30 (45:05):
Coachbrooks wants us to be a little faster, but we
get the ball that we go as soon as we
get a rebound. We're just trying to get out, find shooters,
find openly anything we can.

Speaker 4 (45:14):
Yeah. Really, we've asked Claire a little bit about adjusting
to defenses this year. From your shooting perspective, teams are
kind of keying as soon as you cross half court,
you're seeing the defense finds you. How have you kind
of adapted to that? And did you learn from the
way Georgia and Dasia played last year being a focal
point kind of how to figure out how to neutralize

(45:36):
an attack like that?

Speaker 29 (45:37):
Yeah, I mean obviously, I guess made people know that
I'm a shooting now. So I mean just like my
teammates being there and kind of setting those screens and
like just coming off hot and just kind of just
knowing my role. And I mean obviously, yeah, the defense
is going to be there all the time, so just
even just making that extra passe.

Speaker 4 (45:56):
So yeah, Yeah, we're chatting with Amelia Hassett, Claria Strack,
Tony Morgan here on dB and Radio presented by Clark's Poppinshop.
We're going to get to our last time out. We
got one more segment with these three when we come
back with Live at Brakes and Brandon Crossing on the
UK Sports Network.

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Speaker 4 (50:48):
It is our final segment Phoebe and Radio presented by
Clark's Poppin Shop. We are live at Drakes from Brandon Crossing.
We appreciate everybody from Big Blue Nation coming out tonight
to support the Kentucky It's basketball team and hang out
with these young ladies number fifteen in the Associated Press,
ten and one their record as they get ready to
take on Belmont. Yeah, we've got Amelia Hassett, Clara Straka

(51:12):
and Tony Morgan joining us here for one more segment,
and ladies, I wanted to talk about these second half
blitzes that you've been on here recently. They call them
the third quarter blitz where you come out and basically
just put an opponent away. What has been the key
halftime adjustment for this team coming out of the locker
room and going on a run, Tony.

Speaker 30 (51:33):
Okay, I would just say a mindset shift. We should
definitely come in the first half, but that second half
we're definitely locked in and we've changed our mentality to
put the team away fast.

Speaker 4 (51:45):
These home games, Clara, when the team goes on a
big run like that, what is it like? I know
you're locked in on the game, but can you feel
the intensity building when this team goes on a run
at the Coliseum?

Speaker 29 (51:55):
Yeah, for sure. I think it's a great place to play.
We have an amazing fan base, and I can they
feel the advantage like things like that compared to our
away games.

Speaker 10 (52:03):
It's a lot of fun.

Speaker 4 (52:04):
I know he's hiding in the background, but Emelia, I've
got to ask you, what is it like to play
for coach Brooks?

Speaker 29 (52:09):
Oh gosh, I mean, it's honestly I would say it's great.
I mean he's an amazing coach obviously outside of basketball,
Like he's like honestly like a dad, Like he has
three daughters. But I mean he treats us all our kids,
So I think that's really nice. But no, playing for him,

(52:30):
it's it's a great thing. I mean, he wants you
to be such a great person, like on the court,
off the court, Like he gives you so many life
lessons that it's just gonna take with you into the future.

Speaker 4 (52:40):
Clara House, he helped you not only grow as a player,
but a person in your three years with him.

Speaker 10 (52:45):
Yeah, I mean I think he's helped me a lot.

Speaker 29 (52:47):
I mean, like Amelia said, like all the things he says,
and he'll tell us like they're gonna stick with us forever,
and even if we don't notice them now, we will
one day. But I think he does a lot with
like not only like you said, growing us on the
corporate off the court, and like not only growing us
to help him, but like growing us so that like
when we get out there in life, like we're prepared
and we're ready for like whatever our next chapter might be.

Speaker 4 (53:09):
You get nervous when he gets quiet when he gets quiet. Yeah,
when he just kind of gets quiet. Yeah, Tony, first meeting,
what was it like meeting coach the first time?

Speaker 10 (53:22):
First meeting, it was it was cool.

Speaker 4 (53:26):
I mean when he wasn't opposite you, I should end.

Speaker 10 (53:28):
Yeah, Yeah, I mean he's a cool He's a cool guy.
I'll tell him I said that. But he's a nice guy,
great coach.

Speaker 30 (53:36):
It's been a short amount of time, but it's been
some of the best times I've had so far in
college though.

Speaker 10 (53:40):
This has been amazing experience.

Speaker 4 (53:42):
I want to go back real quick to what we
were talking about with communication on defense and he was
talking about that when he was on with us, and
why that's so important to Tony, especially with the style
in the way that this team plays defense. How has
this team continued to improve on that communication become more precise,
Like he was talking.

Speaker 30 (54:01):
About, we just have to talk in practice, you know,
we have to talk about what we ate for dinner,
what we have for lunch, just talk about anything, because
that's what I don't want to say we're lacking, but
that's what we need to prove on. Just keep communicating
and I'll fix all mishabs that we're having on the defensive.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
End, Amelia. I would imagine that's with this road trip
where you were in Puerto Rico and then on a
plane to Miami, you kind of had to talk to
each other because we were the only people together, right, Yeah,
so much time we were getting ready for a little
break here to study and then we go to Bellmont.
That'll be Sunday at three o'clock Eastern time. But what's

(54:40):
this team focused on, Clara? Where are some areas this
team just continues to grind and get better at every day.

Speaker 29 (54:46):
I think, like, like we've talked about a few times, obviously,
our communication is a big one. And then I heard
Coach Brooks talking about our energy effort, our attitude. I
think just being consistent with that always coming out like
no matter what the circumstances, if we're making shots, missing shots,
or whatever, like the environment is is that's something that
we can always control, even if we can't control other things.

(55:07):
So I think being very consistent in that aspect and
then just playing together, like continuing to build our chemistry
with each other is also a big one that we've
been working on.

Speaker 4 (55:16):
To sum up our conversation, I want to get the
thoughts of all three of you, But it feels like
everybody has fun playing in Coach Brooks's system because even
though it is a system, there is freedom and you
can kind of be yourself within the system. Am I right?

Speaker 10 (55:32):
Yeah, yeah for sure.

Speaker 4 (55:34):
Amelia, what's your perspective on that of just kind of
being yourself where yeah, you're running a play, but you
can also he trusts that all three of you can
improvise a little bit if you need to. Yeah.

Speaker 29 (55:44):
I mean, obviously there is a system and we do
have plays that we run, but also just like knowing
reading the defense and I mean reading each other. Like
if Clara ends up with a guard on her download,
obviously we're going to try and get her the ball
down there. So I think just reading the defense is
also helping within the kind of the system.

Speaker 4 (56:01):
Now it's as we wrap up here. We're here at
Drake's at Brandon Crossing. We're joined by Amelia Hassett, Clara Strack,
and Tony Morgan. We appreciate all three of you for
being on with us. We just got a couple of
minutes left, but I was just sitting here thinking about
this place is decorated beautifully for Christmas in the holiday season,
coaches is big on the Christmas holiday. So with that

(56:23):
in mind, what are some of your favorite holidays? It
doesn't have to be Christmas necessarily, but holiday memories, Tony,
do you have one or maybe a favorite part of
the holiday season, song, whatever this time of year? No
pressure because he is a fan of Christmas. So favorite memory, Yeah,

(56:44):
a memory or thing about the holidays, whatever you want to.

Speaker 30 (56:47):
I guess being a college athlete you get to go
home for like three days you can, so three days
of my family are pretty fun. Watched a Christmas Story
with my dad, I think every year, so that's always funny.

Speaker 4 (56:59):
Claire, imagine you getting to go back to Buffalo for
a tuple of days. It had to be special when
you went up there for the game at Buffalo. Yeah,
so we're just about out of time again, ladies, thank
you so much. Thanks to everybody for being here tonight
at Brandon Crossing, Drake's at Brandon Crossing and again the
Wildcats will take on Belmont Sunday in Nashville at three o'clock.
Will be on the air at two forty five. Special

(57:20):
things to Jim Barnhardt on the ones and twos, threes
and Ployers tonight and Bo Robinson back in studio. That's
it for us here at Drake's Tonight. This is BBN
Radio presented by Clarks Poppin' Shop on the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 3 (57:35):
Entucky, Entucky, You've been listening to Clarks Pumping Shop Big
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