05-16-24 LEACH REPORT

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This Bingie beef Jerkey podcast of theLeach Report is also presented by Boons Butcher
Shop, one hundred old Bloomfield Pikein Barnestown, fresh meat cut on location
daily and they're family owned and operated, have been since nineteen forty six.
Godday, everybody, welcome you in. It is the Leach Report, presented
by Bob Kat Enterprises on a bigsports weekend here in Kentucky gets cranked up

(00:25):
today with UK Baseball, UK Men'sTennis and the PGA Championship starting at Valhalla.
Then tomorrow you're adding a little UKsoftball to the mix in the NCAA
Tournament. Then Saturday, even thoughit's in Baltimore, it's still a big
deal for Kentucky. It's Preakness Dayat Pimlico, and so just a great

(00:48):
weekend to be a sports fan lookingforward to this one. We'll talk about
a lot of this stuff today.Goose Givens will join us for his Thursday
visit justin Rowland from Cats Illustrated,and we'll lead off with Pat Talent,
who is a Kentuckian by birth andback helping out golf at Eastern Kentucky,
and we'll talk to him about thePGA being here in his home state.

(01:12):
One of the most accomplished golfers everin Kentucky, so that's the guest lineup.
Wildcat News of the day is theservice of Giuseppes of Lexington, Kentucky
baseball number two in the country hostingVandy in the first of a three game
set tonight six thirty Eastern time.First Pitch UK Radio Network will have a

(01:34):
call with Darren Hedrick and coach KeithMadison. SEC Network Plus will have the
TV side. I assume that willbe Dick Gabriel and Doug Flynn and an
SEC title on the line for Kentucky. If they sweep Vandy, they cannot
lose it. If they take twoout of three, then at worst they'll
tie for the SEC championship. AsArkansas and Tennessee each remained one game behind

(01:59):
them. I think the Hall haveTexas A and M a real tough opponent
this weekend. Believe Tennessee has SouthCarolina this weekend, So good luck to
coach Benngeon and company. Men's tennisnumber five in the country out in Stillwater,
Oklahoma taking on TCU and the Eliteeight. Coverage of that will be

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on ESPN Plus at two thirty Easternor also the YouTube page for Cracked Rackets
coverage of college tennis UK football.Couple of game times have been announced and
TV coverage. The September seventh gameagainst South Carolina will be at three point
thirty Eastern on ABC and then atnine the nine to fourteen game September fourteenth

(02:43):
against Georgia that will be seven thirtyon ABC. Those are the only two
that have been set thus far.And as we said, Day one of
the PGA Championship at Valhalla links tothe stories that we talk about each day.
You can find those on the budLight Leach Report page at Tom leachky

(03:04):
dot com. Our opening segment alwayspresented by Giuseppes of Lexington, and if
you are looking for a really justspecial dining experience, there's no place better
than Giuseppes. Homemade pasta, freshseafood that they ship in handcut steaks,
all prepared in a fantastic manner,and then you've got just a wonderful ambiance

(03:25):
there at Giuseppes. A fantastic selectionof wines and bourbons too. Scott makes
a killer martini. Check it allout. At Giuseppes Lexington dot com or
open table to make your reservation.We'll be right back. Start at show
off a little golf talk on theday of the Day one of the PGA
Championship. It's the Leads Report presentedby Bobcat Enterprises. Sir Je Pass the

(03:50):
top of the hour. Come toyou from the Clarks Pumping Shop studio at
Lexington, Return, Refresh and refuelat Clark's all across the Commonwealth. Download
their app. Monthly specials for Maygo to the Club Blue and hotline.
Bring on Pat Talent. He isone of Kentucky's most accomplished golfers. Remember
of the National Senior Amateur Golf Hallof Fame, one, the US Senior

(04:13):
Amateur and the British Senior Amateur insuccessive years. And Pat, we appreciate
you jumping on with us. There'sa major in Kentucky this week with a
PGA Championship starting today at Valhalla,and that's exciting for our state. Tiger
Woods is in the field. Therewas a time when it was Tiger versus

(04:33):
the field in the golf world.Is it better now that there are multiple
leading contenders for majors and instead ofhaving Tiger be like the Yankees. Oh,
well, I'm happy that they're allwell, good morning, Tom.
I'm happy that they're all back playingtogether, you know, the other guys
from the l IV and the regulartour, and it makes it much more

(04:56):
exciting when you get guys I keptDestin Johnson and d Chambeau to be able
to compete. But yeah, it'sgreat watching them and they all seem to
be pointing and peaking at the righttime. You know, you got McElroy
just one and kept to just one, and and Cheffer won four out of
five, and you know, sothere's there's a lot of anticipation for who's

(05:17):
gonna win. How do you thinkit's going to shake out with live in
the PGA Tour and eventually hopefully gettingeverybody back under the same tent. Well,
I was disappointed that Jimmy Dunn resignedfrom the board because I know Jimmy
and he's astute a businessman and I'msure that he would have added a lot

(05:40):
to the negotiations. Plus he hadthe relationship, I think with the guy
that runs the l I V.So that's probably a setback, but I
think inevitably they all get back together. There's you know, they got to
figure out a way to get theseguys all playing against one another. You,
I said, played all throughout youryour life. A great basketball player

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too. We'll get to that ina bit. But when you just watch
golf, who do you most enjoywatch watching play? Well, that's a
good question. My wife asked methat all the time, and who you're
rooting for? I said, well, honey, I just like to watch.
It's amazing to me the level ofplay. You know, I was
just looking yesterday at the stats fromback in the days when I was,

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you know, a young guy inthe eighties and Norman was the was the
best player in the around. Andyou know, he hit the ball,
he never drove it. His averagenever exceeded two hundred and eighty yards off
fatigue and McElroy he's been he hasn'tbeen less than three hundred and ten yards
in his career. So, youknow, the golf ball and the technology

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has really changed the game dramatically.And watching these guys play today, I
mean how far they hit the ball? You know, I see it.
I played in you know, sixSenior opens and a whole bunch of tune.
I guess Usam's and I played withthese guys and it's amazing how much
further the ball goes now than itused to and how much better they are.

(07:09):
Yeah, golf is such the dividingline is so fine. You know,
a good friend of mine's an excellentplayer, shooting the seventies, and
he always would talk about if heplayed in the tournament, he could play
the same course and shoot eighty twowhere he shot seventy two the day before,
just playing, you know, byhimself at a practice round. The

(07:31):
managing the mental part of it is, so is it greater in that sport
than in others? Well? Ialways compared it to shooting foul shots.
You know, when you play basketball, which I did, you getting up
with getting foul shots to win gamesor you know, or to keep games

(07:54):
close, and you have time tothink about it every single shot. You
know, when you're just playing basketballjump shots and that it's more of a
reaction and everything. But when youactually have a foul shot to shoot,
you have time to think about it, think about the bad set stuff and
the good stuff, you know.And golf is like that, except every
single shot is that way. Soit's like every single shot is a foul

(08:16):
shot, and you have to thinkabout what you're going to do and why
are you going to do it,and you know what the repercussions can be.
So there's a lot more pressure,I think in golf NonStop throughout the
round. You're also in the KentuckyHigh School Basketball Hall of Fame. Your
brother Bob played the UK for atime, and I think there were four
brothers that were all great players.You played at Maytown and I remember Maytown

(08:41):
High School, Floyd County, butI had forgotten this. I was just
doing a little research yesterday and Icame across a highlight where Maytown upset Clark
County in the nineteen sixty nine statetournament. Clark County was number two in
the state, up in the tenthregion. So I know about the Clark

(09:03):
County history, and that was thatwas quite a moment for a small school
in Floyd County. Well, nineteensixty nine, you know, that's that's
what is that fifty four fifty fiveyears ago? You know, that's a
long time ago. And yeah,I was a sophomore that year. I
ended up making the All state tournamentteam and we Maytown. That's the best

(09:28):
may Town ever. Did you knowmy brother had been on the team four
year two years earlier that went tothe state tournament. That was the first
time Maytown had ever gone to thestate tournament, my brother Mike, and
they won one game, I believe, and lost a second and then we
uh we went two years later.You know as a I was a young
guy. I was a sophomore,but we were able to be Clark County.

(09:52):
Then we lost to Louisville Central.You know in the finals. The
Central had one of the best teamsever in high school. They had Ron
King and I do open you thoseguys. Yeah, they went on play
for Hugh Durham down at Florida State. Yeah, and they were a great
They were a great team, andthey beat us and then they won by
forty I think in the finals againstOhio County. Yeah, And we always

(10:13):
said, well, we must havebeen the second best team because you know,
they didn't beat us by forty.So anyway, I can I can
understand that claim real quickly. Wantto talk about what you're doing in eastern
Kentucky trying to elevate the game ofgolf in that part of the state through
building up the golf course at Stonecrest, and something that was very important to

(10:33):
you from your background there in easternKentucky. Well, you know, having
grown up down there, and Igrew up actually playing sand greens at Allen.
My father was a member at Allen. I don't know what they call
it as a public course, andit was the membership was thirty dollars a
year for a family, so itwas a dollar a day, was the

(10:56):
green fees. And they had sandgreens and they would rake them in the
mornings and then we had a drag, which it's long story to explain what
that is. But yeah, Igrew up down there and I know a
lot of people, and it kindof just stell in my lap. My
buddy, Johnny Ray Turner, whowas a state senator, and he kept
trying to get me to come backto Kentucky. I've been gone for forty

(11:18):
years, you know. My parentsmoved to Florida, and I came back
and bought a house. And thisup here in this new development that didn't
have a Stonecrest. It's on thetop of the mountain, a former coal
mining you know, mountaintop mining site, and they got money and they built
this golf course. It's like,it's sort of the strangest things you've ever

(11:41):
seen in the eastern Kentucky that theyhad something so nice. You know,
Normally down there you got coal trucksand you know, and little towns.
But this, this is a reallygreat development that they've built. And the
golf course is fantastic. It's justthat the city has didn't have enough money
to continue to maintain it. Andso it was, you know, going

(12:03):
to see and when I got downthere, they told me, oh,
you know, another couple of theirreal estate agents are telling the local residents
they better sell because it's only amatter of time. They're gonna they're going
to put this you know thing,they're going to stop doing it. And
I said, well, I can't. We can't let that happen. You
know, we have to have allthe money they spent on this golf course.
We have to figure out a waythat we can keep this going.

(12:24):
So I went to the city andI said, listen, I'll put the
money in it too, to bringit back to life. You know,
if you let me manage it,and if I if I'm ever successful making
any money, well split it.And so I put two million dollars in
it so far and probably probably goingto put more. And uh I have

(12:46):
you know, been for the lastyear. We've been clearing trees and and
redoing bunkers and building mounds. Andyou know, I really in my mind,
i played golf all over the world, and I've seen great golf courses.
I won tournaments on great golf courses. And I can tell you or
any of your listeners, if youcome to Eastern Kentucky and you play this

(13:09):
golf course, you're going to beamazed by the views and the setting that
you have there. It's in it'snow in great shape. We've worked real
hard to get everything back in shape. Jimmy the Master came down the other
day, said yeah, and hesaid, you know, I think your
your fairways are better than mine.He's you know, he's a green superintendent

(13:33):
or that he advantages to the greensat Lexton Country Club. And I said,
well, that's a tremendous complim becauseyou know, Lextern Country Club is
one of the finest golf courses inthe state, if not the country,
and uh so, you know,I think we're doing really good things down
there. And uh you know,I recommend anybody that has time to drive

(13:54):
down the Mountain Parkway and go toPressburg and play around the golf. You
know there's it's really a spectacular placeand you ought to see it. Good
luck with it. Pat, appreciatethe time, appreciate the the chat about
golf. And it's gonna be afun weekend watching the PGA play out here
in our state. Yes, itwill be. Who you picking? Gosh?

(14:16):
Uh. Probably kind of feels likeit might be a time for John
Rahm to get his game back.I know, Shuffler's the trendy bar.
Oh yeah, I'm going to gowith I mean, everybody's going to pick
the top three, you know,right, I think Oberg, I think
he might be just might be histime coming out. I can't wait to
see it play out this weekend.Uh, Patt, I appreciate the time.

(14:39):
Okay, come see me. We'lldo That's Pat Talent and Stonecrest Golf
Course down in Floyd County. It'sa beautiful facility. I remember the stories
when they built it and seeing somepictures and glad somebody's bringing it back to
life. We're gonna get to aquick break. The goose Jack Gibbings coming
up next justin Rowland a little lateron. It is the Leads Report and

(15:00):
and we are coming to you fromClark's Pomp and Shop studio. We'll be
right back. Sport's presented by BobcatEnterprises, four locations around Kentucky. The
latest one opened up in Walton,the Indo grand opening last Friday. Google
to find the one closest to youwhen you need to rental buy heavy equipment
like Forkliffs excavators, Bobcats tractors zeroturn more for your home. Maybe they'll

(15:24):
take great care of you. BobcatEnterprises, the Ghost, Jack Gibbons joining
us in the club Blue and IleHotline to UK Sports and we'll start with
baseball. Goose, you're a baseballplayer. Do you play all the way
through high school? No? Iplayed up through my sophomore year of high
school and after that just decided tofocus more on basketball. It was hard

(15:50):
to do both and put the timein that you needed to put in for
both of them. But yeah,I love baseball, love what coach means
doing with the baseball team where theyare. Man, I tell you,
it's just amazing how well so manyof the sports uh, different sports are
doing at UK when you think abouttennis and yeah, uh, you know,

(16:15):
baseball, everything else going on.That's really really neat for our university.
Yeah, Nick's great story. Iwould think he'd be maybe the leading
contender for national Coach of the Year, especially if they could wrap up the
SEC title this weekend. And acouple of years ago there was the you
know talk is he on the hotseat? You know, how can he

(16:37):
survive? And now they've put togethertwo back to back fantastic years and I
was impressed when somebody's kind of gotthem. Maybe they're back against the wall
a little bit and they come outfighting like that. And I think what
he did that was really neat ishe stuck to his game plan. I
mean he he had to make somechanges and maybe recruit a little bit differently,
used the portal a little bit,which has affected everybody. But you

(17:02):
know, he still requires the samekind of go get him and hustle and
we're gonna be just a good,solid baseball team. We're going to do
things right and it's paid off.But yeah, it's really interesting how it's
changed. And you know, ifyou meet Nick and you just have to

(17:22):
love the guy. I mean,he's a really good dude, and you
just it's a feel good story forsure. You just like what he's doing
and you like the way he's doingit. Very true. We're coming up
on the heartbreak here at the bottomof the hour. We'll keep Goose for
one more segment. Make sure ifyou don't already have it, to get
your copy of they call me Goosethat Jack's book with Doug Brunk could be

(17:45):
a great gift for Father's Day,which are not too far away, and
follow at Goose Givens on social mediaon Twitter x and you can keep up
with upcoming book signing events throughout thesummer. We'll take a quick Slrea come
back with more with Jack and thenjustin Rowland. Also in the second half
of the Leaves Report presented by Bombcatinterested Jack Evans joining us on the Club

(18:07):
Blue n IL hotline. Club Bluehad a successful launch leading up to the
New Era Men's basketball event. Thatevent's actually coming up next month, but
yesterday was your deadlines. Hopefully manyof you were able to sign up and
join Club Blue. Part of theNIL initiative for UK Athletics, you get

(18:29):
to designate what sport you would liketo support with your membership fees for Nil
membership packages started twenty five bucks amonth. All members are entered into the
monthly Club Blue giveaways, so there'ssome exciting things that will still be coming
up. If you can't join untila little later, go to Club Blueenil
dot com find out more. ClubBlunil dot com an official partner of UK.

(18:52):
Let's get back to the Goose andJack. I was thinking when Trentoa
joined the Kentucky programs, you getNoah Travis Perry coming in, two Kentucky
boys. They played squared off inthe state championship game for Harlan County Lion
County, respectively. I don't knowif there's been something like that at Kentucky
since since you and James Lee camein having been guys that went up against

(19:18):
each other. I mean, youwere in the same the eleventh region together,
so you if not, if you'dbeen in different regions, you guys
might have played for the state titlein those days. But that's gonna be
fun to watch those two guys nowteam up as it was to watch you
and James team up. Yeah,you know, those were obviously great days,
you know, I talked in thebook about how I actually started out

(19:45):
at Henry Clay and James and Iwere trying out for the same team.
I mean we were trying out forthe team at Henry Clay that first couple
of days of tryouts. So Ithink a lot about some of the teams
we might have had at Henry Clayhad that worked out that we stayed together.

(20:07):
But I changed schools. I thinkon that Wednesday we moved and I
started school at Brin Station on Thursday. So I had the first two days
of that week trying out at HenryClay and then the last two days of
that week trying out at Brian Station. So I'd like to think I made

(20:27):
two high school teams in the sameweek back then, but uh, but
that would have been fun. Butyeah, we had some huge battles,
and of course these two young guyscoming in now. I think it's it's
gonna be. I hope it's goingto be a sign of things to come

(20:48):
where Marcus Mark Pope is going tobe recruiting the state and trying to convince
the better players in the state tocome to the University of Kentucky. And
man, I hate saying those guysgo to other SEC schools and then that
seems every time we play them,they come back to bite us and we

(21:11):
think, man, why didn't weget that guy? But both of these
young guys are both of them aregreat players, They're good athletes, they
shoot the ball extremely well. Sothat shit fit right into what Mark Pope
is going to be doing here atKentucky. Yeah, he was a coach.
Pope was on an interview this week, I think maybe with John Rosstein

(21:33):
of CBS where he talked about howchallenging it was to come into the situation
and have to kind of build ateam from scratch, but also how it
was maybe beneficial in that they youknow, sometimes you come in as a
new coach and you inherit players andyou try to, you know, get
them to fit into what you wantto do. But he was able to
go out and find the guys.You identify guys that would be a good

(21:56):
fit and now they just have toget them all the mesh once they get
here. But at least he wasable to, you know, find guys
that he believes will be a goodfit into what he wants to run.
Yeah, you know, as muchas we uh we always talk about not
liking the portal. You know,I don't know what would have happen had

(22:18):
not had that available to us.I mean, it's obviously a lot easier
to build a team nowadays than it'sever been. And I think what Mark
did was he he he understood thatthere were needs, and obviously, when
you start from scratch, a bunchof needs. And but he didn't panic.
He went and got the guys hewanted. I mean, he he

(22:41):
got a couple of bigs, He'sgot some great shooters, He's got guys
who fit the system, and stillhas a couple of scholarships left to offer
to a three left to offer,so he could even enhance what he has,
and I'm sure he will there.I mean, man, he's getting
caught every day from from players whowant to come be a part of what

(23:03):
he's doing here, so he's havingto be really selective with these last two
or three. But man, Iwould hate to think where we would be
without that transfer portal to the NBAFor a second. Dallas won last night
to go up three to two onOKC, and uh the Western Conference Finals

(23:25):
is definitely going to have a Kentuckyflavor. Whoever gets there, because in
this series, in particular, PJ. Washington on the Dallas side, Shay
and Casey and Wallace on the okC side. And you know, Shaye
has had a tremendous year second inthe MVP voting, but PJ has has
really blossomed since going over to Dallas. Man he has played some great ball

(23:48):
and had double double last night andI knew, yeah, I had another
double double. I mean, hehe is shoot. I mean, I
know they teach you and they werewith you in the NBA to get you
to become the kind of shooter hehas become. But I don't know that
I saw that coming. Tom Hewas a good athlete and ran, he

(24:11):
jumped at some good stuff, butI didn't think he would be able to
shoot the ball like he's shooting it. And you're talking about between what he
has done and you know, myfavorite guy, Tyrese MAXI. You know,
I know they're out, but thoseare my two favorites of all the
guys in the league because of justhow they have become. But I never

(24:36):
thought you would see PG shooting theball the way he's shooting it and playing
as effectively. It's all about man, where you are. I say that
all the time in the NBA.Man, if you can get with the
right team, you can become areally important part, just as he has.
But it's been fun to watch theplay I mean, they've had some

(24:59):
great game, oh really really goodgames throughout the playoff series. And whoever
advances out of that, you're goingto get either you know, Jamal Murray
or Karl Anthony. On the otherside, looks like the Nuggets are trending
to get it on that side,not as much of a Kentucky flavor and
headed in the Eastern Conference. Butwe'll see how it all plays out.

(25:21):
Goose, thank you as always toI'm good talking to you. That's the
Goose. Jack Gibvens and I wantto take a second remind you about the
Committee of one oh one. Thoseare the men and women in the blue
coats at games and they are lookingto add some depth to their team.
If you'd like to be a partof a great organization of big blue fans

(25:45):
that want to do whatever they canto help the UK athletics programs, you
can email UK one oh one Membershipat gmail dot com or go to their
website. The Committee of one oone dot org and get additional information application
on how to join and what theprocess looks like, so that if you
are looking for a way to getconnected to UK Athletics, no better way

(26:07):
than the Committee of one oh oneQuick Break Justin Rowland and Cats Illustrated coming
up next here on the Leach Report, presented by Bob kat Enterprises. Justin
Rowland joins the program on the ClubBlue Nil hotline. You can read him
at Cats Illustrated dot com, followon social media X or Twitter at Roland

(26:29):
Rivals start with a little football Justinand Kentucky picks up a transfer from Tennessee
Martin who was All America at theFCS level as a punter but also had
field goals and kickoff specialist. AndKentucky has a solid guys as far as
the field goal kicker. But Ithought, I think the punting and the

(26:52):
kickoff rolls could certainly use some competition. So I thought that was a big
pickup. Yeah, Aiden Lauros,And it had gotten far enough into this
last portal wave that you're starting tokind of wonder, Okay, well are
they going to make a move ornot, And to come out with an
FCS All American and you just lookback at last year. Eight punts fifty
point two yard average at Georgia betweenthe hedges last year, So he's at

(27:15):
least got it in him, andhe's got a track record, and you
figure if he can do it atthat level, there's no reason why that
won't translate to the SEC. Sothis seems like a big pickup. I
agree, yeah, Kaseecky. Ithink always one of the best examples was
Andy Smith in ninety nives a yearafter Couch and Yeaston, those guys left
and Kentucky got to a Bowl gamewhen it wasn't expected to and a big

(27:37):
part of it was the field positionbattle that they won with an all SEC
punter, And Kentucky's likely going tobe most years in a lot of games
that get decided, you know,in the fourth quarter, and you know,
a few extra yards of field positionedthroughout the game is huge. Absolutely.

(28:00):
I don't have any any like statsor anything to back this up,
but it feels like growing up itwas more common to see the kicker talent
kind of just more widely distributed.You'd see kickers that want to go places
that maybe aren't the best school wherethey're going to kick a lot of field
goals and opportunity, And it feelslike Alabama figured out a few years ago
that they need a great kicker everyyear, and all of these factories prioritize

(28:22):
it. And you see how Kentucky'sthrown scholarships at these specialist spots over the
last few years. You kind ofget yourself in a little bit of trouble,
but you know what you're getting withthis guy, and that's a big
help. They lost a running backcommitment Isaiah wes Is was that because of
the one they'd picked up from Davis. It certainly didn't make it any easier
to hold on to him. Now. I think anytime you're talking about Ohio

(28:47):
State, they're going to have alot of clout. But Kentucky was not
going to turn away Marquise Davis.Like he's one of the top ten running
backs in the country, one ofthe top probably five or ten players in
Ohio. He was very high onOhio State's board as well. And so
was a situation where you're not goingto turn away Marquise Davis because you want
to keep Isaiah West. And Ithink it's a situation where we're going to

(29:07):
look back and say, Wow,Kentucky had both of these guys on the
commitment list at the same time.That's pretty impressive. I think they're both
four star caliber, big time runningbacks. Got a couple of game times
set yesterday with South Carolina in Weektwo, Georgia in Week three, both
going to be on ABC, Andyou put a post up about what the
significance is for that South Carolina gamebecause he's lost three times to them in

(29:30):
recent years, I've thought, buttwo of those were kind of flucish.
They Tucky didn't basically have a quarterbackin two of those, you know,
any kind of an experienced quarterback.If they had played Lynn Bowden earlier,
I think they would have beat SouthCarolina that year, but he kind of
emerged in the fourth quarter of thatgame. And then last year it was

(29:52):
just a game Kentucky just kind ofkicked away. Really yeah, well,
I mean, what was the commontheme in how that's played out? Like
when Kentucky had the Big Blue Wall, Kentucky beat South Carolina and when the
last two years, when the BigBlue Wall has not been at the level
that it was at for a longtime, although it was better last year,
they didn't win that game, andso that's that's the very one.

(30:15):
I mean, they would get alead, they would get a seven point
lead, a ten point lead,and they would sit on it and they
would suck the air out of itand the game would disappear and South Carolina
would get eight or nine drives andit wouldn't be enough, and you never
felt like they had a chance.And so that's the efficiency angle. That's
the how good is the Big BlueWall going to be? Is Chip Tram
going to be able to run?Run on those guys? South Carolina's going

(30:37):
to run the ball out this year. They're going to mobile quarterback. They
bring in Rocket Sanders from Arkansas,though he missed half the season and wasn't
there in the spring. You figurethey're going to lean a lot more on
the running game this year, andI figure Kentucky's gonna have to run to
win that game this year as well. Shift over Tuggle basketball. Kentucky's trying
to fill out its roster. Theywere, according to os the Bar for

(31:00):
a while. He ended up followinghis coach from Utah State to Washington.
But so you had to post aboutthere were reports true or not that he
got two million dollars in nil togo there. You said, sort of
like when a pro team that isn'tvery good decides to go buy a really
good player to put some butts inthe seats. Funny, but that's where
we're at. But you're right,that's kind of where we're at. Yeah,

(31:23):
we've got this nil budget, wehaven't spent it yet. We don't
know how good we're going to be, but this is going to be a
splash get that'll keep the fans dialedin and get some season tickets sold and
there will be excitement and justification forwhat we did in the off season.
I'm not saying that that's specific toWashington, but yeah, there's some of
that. And you're kind of,I think in a situation now with all

(31:44):
with how the transfer portals, howbig it's gotten that you as a coach,
I think a lot of it isis kind of like you know an
NBA GM or coach where you knowyou're you're looking for, you know,
a rotation piece, a guy who'scan fill a roll coming off the bench
for you, and you go,you know, get him out of the
portal. It's Kentucky's you know,probably a guy they're courting right now from

(32:09):
the young man from alman or fromFairleigh Dickinson. Probably not going to be
a starter, but could be ayou know, a key, extra,
big guy in your rotation. That'sright. Yeah, that's the difficulty I
think for a lot of people inassessing the roster this year because you're not
you're not starting with eight guys andnow we fill out the roster. It's

(32:30):
it's one long work in progress whereyou're putting the whole thing together at once,
and so not every guy is gonnabe your leading scorer or a top
three score or even a starter.But once you look at all the pieces
together, that that's what you're lookingat. And I think you can fairly
say do they need a star?Do they need a star a guy that
can drop thirty you know when Kentuckyplays Tennessee. Man, it's fair to

(32:51):
say. And that's why they're recruitingsome of these guys that are out there.
But yeah, it's gonna it's gonnabe infuriating to some fans. I
think when they say, well,why doesn't this kid just go to Kentucky?
Why is he going to go toMinnesota State for instance, Well,
that's the nil era, and that'sjust something you got to deal with.
Pro teams have been dealing with it, so yeah, it's a very interesting
era. And some players are goingto be motivated primarily by chasing the dollars.

(33:17):
Others might sacrifice. I don't haveto have the most money. If
I can be in the right spot, I think that's usually the better.
The way to approach it is tomake sure you think of it more in
a long term situation of you know, get what you can, but the
main thing is to put yourself inthe right spot to succeed long term,
right right. I don't put anystock into the money numbers that we hear

(33:38):
publicly right now for a number ofreasons. But it's interesting if a coach
knows what a player's offers are fromthe NIL side, it's going to tell
him something like if you would gohere for say one point two million,
but you know it's going to bea bad situation and you're going to be
a volume shooter and it's not goingto be kind of like a team apparatus.

(34:01):
Well, why wouldn't you just comehere for a million? Look better
for your future? It's going totell that coach something about how that player
is wired. So that's gonna bea part of the evaluation process. No,
I think that is an excellent point. Justin appreciate the time as always.
Thanks Tom, You're read them AcatzIllustrated dot Com You and his team.
David Sister does a great job ofbreaking down the games of the new

(34:22):
players that are coming in. Ithink the latest deep dive he did is
on Brandon Garrison. We're going toget back to playing some more of the
interviews I'm collecting with people who coverthe players that are coming in, the
new players coming into Kentucky, beit a beat writer or a play by
play guy, and we'll bring yousome more of those. We've already heard
about Brea and o Way so far, but we'll try to get connections for

(34:46):
all of them over the course ofthe coming weeks. Right now, got
to get to a break and thencome back with our final segment. Our
buddy Vinnie. By the way,Senna text reminding me Anthony Epps from Marion
County Cameron from Dunbar went up againsteach other in a championship game in ninety
three and then be game teammates atUK so that was a good one as

(35:07):
well. We're talking about Perry andNoah earlier with Goose. We'll be right
back. It's the lead report presentedby Bobcat Enterprises, Stay in Wildcat History,
a service of Kentucky road shows,sports cards and memorabilia there on Robbiey
Road at Lexington at a roadshowcards dotCom this day. In two thousand and

(35:28):
seven, Patrick Patterson signed to playfor the Wildcats and went on to have
a great career here at UK andin the NBA. Kentucky's game with Gonzaga,
according to reports, has been setfor December seventh this coming season.
It'll be in Seattle. It's partof that six year deal that will hit

(35:50):
the halfway mark in this coming season. It'll be at Nashville the following year,
and I think we're up after that, and then finally the arena on
Gonzaga's campus. It's got a notefrom a listener who's headed to Valhalla today
for opening around action of the PGAsand let people know it'll take one to
two hours from the time you parkuntil you see action on the golf course.

(36:12):
But his picture, he added,it looks like a fantastic crowd heading
in there. I think it's goingto be tremendous crowds this weekend at Valhalla.
Looking forward to following that action andall of the UK sports with baseball
and the Big Vandy Series this weekend. We're going to try to get out
tonight to see the opener of that, and if you can't get out there,
make sure you tune in Darren Hendrick'sCall on the UK Radio Network or

(36:35):
Gabe and Doug on the SEC Networkplus coverage. Tomorrow, we'll get back
into a little more coverage of thePreakness. Dick Girardi will join us.
Oscar Comb's going to join the programtomorrow as well. We had to reschedule
Oscar from last Friday, but Iwant to talk about his career going into
the UK Sports Hall of Fame,so that'll be coming up on tomorrow's show.

(36:57):
Have a great rest of your dayand enjoy the start of a great
sports weekend here in the Bluegrass.Thanks for listening to The Leech Report.
Anytime you miss a show, youcan catch the Mingy Beef Tricky Podcast.
Find them at Tom Leitchky dot comor on the iHeartRadio app. Interested in
advertising on the show email Leach Reportat gmail dot com. We'll see you

(37:17):
next time on the Leech Report.