Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This bingie beef Turkey. Podcast of the Leech Report is
also presented by Boons Butcher Shop one hundred old Bloomfield
Pike in Barnestown, fresh meat cut on location daily and
they're family owned and operated have been since nineteen forty six.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The Leech Report Radio Network is on the air with
the Voice of the Wildcats, Tom Leech. It's the daily
gathering spot for the Big Blue Nation to hear the
latest news and views on the Cats. If you have
a question for Tom, email Leech Report at gmail dot
com or send a tweet to add Tom leech Ky.
(00:35):
Now here's Tom.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Good day, everybody, and welcome in to the Leech Report,
presented by Bobcat Enterprises. And if you can't tell already,
I am not on my a game today voice wise,
battling a nasty cough and headed to the doctor today,
so hopefully good to go by tomorrow night down in Atlanta.
(00:59):
But coming up on the show today, we're going to
talk about the big matchup between Kentucky and Duke tomorrow night.
I think that's what's foremost on everybody's mind right now
in this part of the world. Ben Roberts, who covers
the Kentucky basketball team for the Lexington Herald Leader will
join us in the first half of the show, and
Mike de Coursey will join us in the second half
of the show from Sporting News dot Com, and we'll
(01:19):
start our weekly visits with Mike coming up here on
the show Today, Wildcat News of the Day presented by
Joseppies of Lexington, and first of all, Happy Veterans Day
to all who served.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
A big thank.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
You can't you can't be thanked enough for what you have,
what you did, and what you are doing. But for
all the veterans, we certainly give a great debt of gratitude,
and especially so on this day. Let's get to the
(01:58):
Wildcat News of the Day presented by Just set Piece.
Kentucky beats Bucknell one hundred to seventy two, and Shannon
is actually producing today. I forgot to tell you this, Shannon.
There's a SoundBite there Mark Pope three on rebounding that
we want to talk about here in just a second.
Kentucky made a big emphasis on rebounding after the first
(02:21):
couple of exhibition games and the opener against Wright State.
Pope was not thrilled with what Kentucky was doing on
the glass, and they came out and won the Battle
of the boards to the tune of fifty seven to
thirty five and had twenty two offensive rebounds. And he
was telling Jack and I had shoot around on Saturday
(02:41):
that he thinks this will be a really good rebounding team.
It's not like that's going to be something they'll have
to deal with all year long.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
He thinks.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
He just believes they had a little bit of slippage
from where they were earlier and working on a lot
of things, and they put a big emphasis on it
this week. He was quite pleased that the emphasis resulted
in the substantially improved production in the rebounding column. This
was Mark Pope after the game.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
It's a blessing. I'm telling you, it's a gift as
a coach to have guys that are curious and guys
that are humble, and guys that want to get better.
We don't use the words curious very often, and we
don't talk about humility very often, but we have a
ton of that on our team, and for these guys
who respond to a challenge. Were kind of sit on
(03:33):
this for maybe ten days, like, ah, we're just not
getting where we need to get on the glass. And
for these guys to come almost put up sixty rebounds
today is It's incredibly gratifying as a coach. It's a
really important stuff for us as a team, and we're
trying to get to one hundred. Has there ever been
a game with one hundred rebounds?
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Is that true? A hundred rebounds? Oh? Man, I thought
I was.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
I'm usually really good at being hyperbolic, but apparently that
wasn't even close. Well, I was kind of being sarcastic
about one hundred. But maybe that needs to be our.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Goal and maybe they'll hit it someday. But that's asking
a lot. Because I showed him the stat box from
John Scott's site online of a Kentucky ole Miss game
in nineteen sixty four, I think where Kentucky had one
hundred and eight rebounds and ole Miss was twenty four
(04:31):
of eighty four. Kentucky was forty nine of one hundred
and twenty five. So I don't think you're going to
have games these days with that many misshots and that
many rebound opportunities. But who knows, maybe they can pull
it off someday. Probably not tomorrow night, though, Kentucky will
take on Duke Duke's in early six and a half
to seven point favorite. From what I'm seeing, I watched
(04:55):
a little bit of the Blue Devil's win over Army
on Friday night. Cooper Flag there star freshman had some
cramping issues in the second half of that game. Didn't
get to play much in the second half. So we'll
see if Kentucky can maybe get into his legs a
little bit in this game tomorrow night in Atlanta. Kentucky
has fifty three assists through two games. That's the most
of any team in the country. There's a couple of
(05:17):
teams that have a higher per game average, but they've
only played one game to this point. Kentucky scored one
hundred or more in back to back games to start
the season. That had not been done since nineteen seventy nine.
And then there was no three boyd shot. And then
Corey Price came up with stat about Amari Williams with
thirteen rebounds or more in his first two games. Only
(05:39):
three other Kentucky players have done that, dan Issel, Julius Randall,
and Oscar Sheibwey.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
So pretty good company to be in.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
It's media day for Mark Stoops in the Kentucky football program.
He'll do his weekly news conference in the noon hour
and then the radio show tonight, and I'm sure the
quarterback question is going to be foremost on everyone's mind.
Don't know that we'll get any answer on that. A
lot of times he's not inclined to give out that information,
(06:10):
especially early in the week to the opponent.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
But we'll see. And then also a.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Question about Barrion Brown's status since he was injured in
the last game for the Wildcats. Volleyball Number thirteen. Kentucky
beats LSU three to nothing, seven in a row for
coach Skinner squad twenty consecutive sets. They've won Emma at
grom At thirty three assists to spark Kentucky to that win.
They're in quite a roll right now. Links to the
(06:37):
stories that we talk about each day, you can find
them on the bud Light Leech Report page at Tom
leech ky dot com. Head to the break as we do,
we'll tell you about Joseppies of Lexington. We were out
there with family on Saturday after the basketball game, had
a fantastic meal, went for the pasta special that they have.
They have homemade pasta every day.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
This had.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Some and Dewey sausage in it, shrimp. It was fantastic.
They have handcut steaks and they have fresh seafood that
they ship in every day at Just Setpies. And it's
just been a really cool, wonderful special atmosphere there at
Just Setpies off Nicholasville Road here in Lexington. Go to
open table to make your reservations. We'll be right back
on the Leech Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
If you played the right way, like the ball is
gonna find the right person, It's all about stampatient and
not forcing anything, you know. And so they Kerse showed
it a whole bunch of sounds and I felt like
he had an open shot and then he swing it
to me and I'm even more open. So it's just
a testament. So you know how we played together and
how together we are, because it takes a lot of fun.
It takes a lot of togetherness to make those players happen,
(07:48):
you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Kobe Bray came off the bench with twenty points, including
a personal best tying six three point baskets. As we
chat with Ben Roberts and the club bluinil dot com
hotline about Kentucky basketball ahead of this matchup with Duke
tomorrow night and the Champions Classic in Atlanta. And I
think fans were eating up the way the ball was
(08:11):
moving at times, especially in that second half. I mean
it was just whipping around the perimeter and uh, you know,
go in and out and just you know, kerk Crisa,
who had twelve assists, tying his personal best over times
he just touched the ball and moved it on to
somebody else.
Speaker 7 (08:28):
Yeah, Tom, I don't know how how you, uh you
keep up with with some of yeah, rapid rapid passing attacks,
especially the one where Kobe brought it up and then
Kirk kind of dropped it back behind the back to
him and that just kind of started a pinball game,
it seemed like, until until Kobe hit the three. But yeah,
you know, it's it's certainly.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Fun to watch. And you know, we we talked about.
Speaker 7 (08:51):
That, you know, the kind of lack of like like
five star lottery pick talent, so you're not going to
have a lot of the you know, the Anthony.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Davis type highlights.
Speaker 7 (08:59):
Some of the he's uh, some of these just just
highlights that are gonna make the Sports Center Top ten.
But you you do get to watch basketball like that,
and that was just a lot of fun that that played,
particularly in a couple others that the Kurr had a
hand in. And Yeah, talking to Kobe after the game,
he you know, he said, it's like he said, it's
like watching a tennis match, and he said, that's even
(09:22):
watching the ball move around like that is even more
fun than being the guy who who gets to knock
down the three at the end of it all, just
because it's it's, as he said, the way the game
should be played. And it's certainly a fun brand of
basketball to watch. And again, that's just it. It really
speaks to you know, the coaching staff and and the
guys that they brought in that that they're willing to
(09:44):
play that way. I mean that that one play in particular,
I mean Amari could have could have taken the shot
himself as he drove in Angeley. Almanar could have could
have taken a corner three, Kurt could have taken a
shot at any point there. Kobe probably passed up one
shot to get a better shot six or eight seconds later. Uh,
and it's that was not an anomaly. I mean, there
(10:05):
were two or three other plays maybe not quite to
that level, but but uh that that that kind of
worked the same right right in that little time period.
And I think you're going to see a whole lot
more of that. And and as these early opposing coaches
have said, that's one of the things that just makes
this team so hard to defend is that, you know,
you have to go with the ball and you have
(10:26):
to move with the ball because everybody who touches the
ball can hit a shot from from where they're touching it.
So it's not like you can, you know, you can
just lay back and let them let them pass it
around like that. If you're not on them, they're they're
going to pull, and if they're open, they're they're probably
gonna make it.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
It's one thing to want to space the floor. It's
another to actually have the personnel to do it where
the opponent has to respect you, so that kind of
naturally spaces out the floor.
Speaker 7 (10:53):
Yeah, yeah, and that's you know, you know, we I
think we're gonna kind of compare to the cow teams,
you know, at least for the time being. But that's
something I don't think it wasn't that cow didn't want
to space the floor. I think it was a lot
of the guys that that he recruited or you know,
came in maybe he thought could shoot and and then
didn't didn't quite live up to that immediately, or were
(11:14):
just different type of players. So, you know, it would
have been really interesting to see, uh, some of the
other guys that that he brought in over the last
ten years, uh in a in a more spaced out system,
and what they could have done.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
But yeah, and with this.
Speaker 7 (11:29):
Team, you I mean, a guy like Kobe Braya shoots
fifty percent from three last season, but he's never played
in a system like this, with with teammates like this
and so many other shooters and willing passers. I don't
think he's going to shoot eighty three percent or whatever
his current rate is from three the rest of the way.
But I think people looked at that that forty nine
(11:52):
point eight percent and thought it wasn't anomaly that always
got to come down to earth from this. But but
I don't know, I don't know, we'll see at the
end of the season.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Yeah, Ben, thank you much. Safe travels down to Atlanta.
Speaker 7 (12:03):
All right, Thank you too, Tom.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
That is Ben Roberts from the Lexington Herald Leader in
Kentucky Sports dot Com. It's the Leach Report, presented by
Bobcat Enterprises. We'll be right back with Mike De Coursey.
It's the Leach Report Radio Network, and we are coming
to you from the Clark's pumpin Shop studio. Return, refresh
and refuel at Clark's. We go to the Club Blue
(12:26):
Nil dot com hotline and bring on Mike de Corsi
from Sportingnews dot Com, who on the ninth of April
wrote a column for Sporting News dot Com listing the
top candidates for the Kentucky basketball job now that John
Caliperry had moved on to Arkansas, and he went through
the people that Kentucky wasn't going to get and then
(12:49):
listed number one on this list a guy named Mark
Pope from BYU. So you were quite precient, and we
want to know who you like in the Kentucky Derby
for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 8 (13:01):
I took a lot of heat for that articular article
I did, but I had a feeling that that people
don't want to appreciate the change in college sports. Always
that Kentucky is still a magical program and has things
(13:21):
that no other program has. It is it's the fabulous crowds,
the the great facilities that they have or they're terrific,
and they're and they're going to get better, I'm sure.
And and then there's very few programs.
Speaker 9 (13:36):
That have that tradition and all of that.
Speaker 8 (13:38):
I mean when I say very few, I mean like
maybe one two something like that. But what what everybody's
got now to an extent is money. And and it's
possible to be where you are in the case of
say Scott Drew at Baylor or Dan Hurley at Connecticut
and still win big.
Speaker 9 (13:58):
And you don't have to be at Kentucky to win big.
Speaker 8 (14:02):
And so if you're going to find the next great
Kentucky coach, you're probably finding him in a lesser job
or a lesser league. And in this case, the Big
twelve is not what the SEC is and BYU, certainly
in terms of basketball tradition, is nowhere near Kentucky. And
(14:22):
of course Mark had the alumni connection as well. It
was all set up for him to accept that. And
he's done. Not only did he take the job, but
he's done a really nice job of building a roster
and getting that team going and ready to make the
first year interesting.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
He comes into a program here that he obviously knows
very well from having played here. But if you, I
don't know, if I'll see if you agree with this.
It feels like to me that the Kentucky basketball fan
has maybe a little greater love for some of the
aspects of basketball that aren't always on the highlight reel,
(15:07):
and it's just great pure shooters or just passing the
ball and moving the ball and as opposed to just
you know, running and dunking, which everybody loves. But the
Kentucky fans have always had a great affection for you know,
Louis Dampier, you know Kyle Macy at Truman Klayter, you
(15:28):
know Joey Meeks, guys that were.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Just great pure shooters.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
And so Mark Pope's style of play seems like a
perfect match for the fan base he's working for.
Speaker 8 (15:37):
Oh absolutely, I mean that That's two of the things
that I really like about his construction of this roster
under the circumstances it was constructed, is that he first
understood who he was, which is offensive based perimeter shooting.
Speaker 9 (15:54):
That's who he was at you at b YU.
Speaker 8 (15:57):
For sure, because I watched them play. I didn't watch
his teams in his prior jobs, but I know I
knew that he had a great appreciation for how to
create open three pointers.
Speaker 9 (16:06):
And what the value of that was.
Speaker 8 (16:09):
But what I think was maybe a little bit overlooked
was he didn't over he didn't ignore rim protection. Rim
protection is so underrated in college basketball. You look at
teams that don't have rim protectors, they're not winning at all.
I mean, if you can't protect the rim at the end,
you know you're gonna you're gonna win. You can win
(16:29):
a lot of games without it. You can win conference
championships and you might have a winning a conference tournament,
but you and you might even make the final four.
But if you don't, if you can't protect the rim,
you're not winning those last couple of games. And this
team has rim protection. He made sure that he got
it with Amari Williams in particular, with Brandon Garrison coming
(16:51):
off the bench. He made sure that he got guys
that could really do that. And that's part of it
that really impresses me because I look, I mean a
year ago, I picked Duke to win it all and
I got like three weeks into the season and I'm like,
how did I miss that?
Speaker 9 (17:06):
How did I miss that.
Speaker 8 (17:07):
They can't protect the rim? And I knew at that
point that the pick was blown. I knew they had
a good year, they made the Elite eight, but they
weren't gonna win.
Speaker 9 (17:14):
It without rim protection.
Speaker 8 (17:16):
And I'm not saying that Kentucky's going to win it
this year, but the fact that they have that at
least puts them in the in the realm of teams
that can.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Yeah, they have that, and they have also guys in
Butler and Oway on the perimeter that give them I
guess the best pair of guards defensively that I can
remember for Kentucky is maybe when they had Shawn Woods
and Dale Brown at ninety three or ninety two Kentucky
team in there, and that is something they may have
(17:49):
in Butler and Oway.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (17:52):
I think that's a great point. It's absolutely important that
they have that, uh and and that they do that
without sacrifice a lot of offense. I mean, Laman is
not a great shooter, but he really understands himself as
an offensive player because he's got so much experience and
you've got so many guys around in Jackson Robinson and
Kobe Brea that can really bust threes and you can
(18:17):
get you can get that out of.
Speaker 9 (18:19):
Car as well.
Speaker 8 (18:20):
I think it's it's a really nicely constructed roster for
what they for when they began to put that together.
Speaker 9 (18:27):
Uh, they have, you.
Speaker 8 (18:28):
Know, essentially no players back from last year and to
still be able to put such a deep group out
there and one that that has a lot of strength
that can work. Now you know whether those strengths are
strong enough to compete at the levels we're talking about.
I think we begin to find that out tomorrow night
in the Champions Classic, because they're taking.
Speaker 9 (18:49):
A big step up in class.
Speaker 8 (18:51):
But I don't think there are many teams that have
as many answers as they do. If a particular player,
let's say Abrea is having a rough night, and every
shooter Steph Curry has rough nights, So you know, every
shooter has rough nights, But.
Speaker 9 (19:05):
That doesn't shut you down.
Speaker 8 (19:06):
If you've got Oway and you've got a Car, and
you've got even alman Or can come off and make shots.
And Kirk crease A showed yesterday that he can and
he can still make a shot, So I think that
there's a lot of answers there, and exactly what order
they'll they'll be, you know, asked to do different things,
(19:29):
I think is still to be assigned and earned as
they go through more difficult games. But it's it's nice
to see so many different players out there who can
really help.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
You get your take on a couple of comparisons. One
in terms of style of play. Yeah, if you look
at football, how Mummy and revolutionized football offensively with the
air raid and the impact that had on the game,
and then later on through Mike Leach and others, and
(20:00):
then but never could match the defense with it for
his own teams anyway, Uh, to to get to championship levels.
So maybe you know Mark is on the track of
doing that with the guys he's brought in defensively to
run into also to plug into a very modern offensive
basketball system. The other thing, just in terms of I'll
(20:22):
see if you agree a little bit of stylistically when
you listen to Mark talk used the word curious in
one of his about talking about his players in one
of his answers on Saturday, and I thought about the
Ted Lasso scene curious and judgmental, where he's throwing darts
in so maybe there's a little ted lasso there too.
Speaker 8 (20:45):
Yeah, there you go. He, however, is not a fish
out of water.
Speaker 9 (20:49):
He is not, No, because Mark is.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
You know.
Speaker 9 (20:53):
I mean, if anybody understands and appreciates the.
Speaker 8 (20:58):
The the excellence and historic greatness of the Kentucky program,
it would be one of the players who was right
at the heart of, you know, the greatest what I
considered to be the greatest college basketball team of my
of my.
Speaker 9 (21:13):
Certainly of my.
Speaker 8 (21:13):
Career, which began in the early eighties, but you know,
even going back to when I was a kid and
following it, which would probably start around seventy or seventy one,
I don't think there's ever been.
Speaker 9 (21:25):
A team like Kentucky ninety six.
Speaker 8 (21:27):
And because Vegas had that great run in ninety one,
and I think it's sexy to try to like make
UNLV the greatest team of all time. Look, the great
you can't be the greatest team if you lost your championship,
and they did in ninety one and the year before.
By the end of the year they were phenomenal, but
they lost five games. So that team that ninety those
(21:49):
Kentucky teams can't. I mean, excuse me, those Vegas teams
can't really get into that greatest ever conversation. But Kentucky
did everything that year.
Speaker 9 (21:57):
They lost a.
Speaker 8 (21:58):
Couple of games, sure, but that's modern in college basketball.
Speaker 9 (22:01):
You're gonna lose now and then.
Speaker 8 (22:03):
And they they they played defense great, they shared the ball,
they shared minutes.
Speaker 9 (22:09):
They were phenomenal.
Speaker 8 (22:11):
And I got to cover five of their six NCAA
Tournament games that year because I was covering Memphis and
they got eliminated first round, so they sent me to
Dallas where where the Cats were, and then I was
already assigned to the Midwest region, so I saw them
up there in Minneapolis, and then of course the Final
four and just never been a team like that. And
(22:31):
you know, I think Mark being a part of that group,
knows how special Kentucky basketball can be and is can
be and can get.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
We'll talk with Mike Decursisportingnews dot Com at TSN Mike
joining us on the Club BLUEINIL dot com hotline. Club
Blues the official collective partner of UK and you can
join for as little as twenty five dollars a month
and if your budget permits, then you can help out
the effort to boost the pool of nil funds for
all the sports on campus, and you can pick the
(23:03):
one you'd like your money to support through Club Blue INIL.
So go to Club blueoil dot com. You'll see about
the membership packages and also the perks that you get
for being a member, like meet and greet with players.
They've got another one of those scheduled for this Saturday
when Kentucky hosts Murray State out at Kroger Field, So
(23:23):
you have a chance to go a little early if
you're a Club Blue member and be able to get
to the front of the line for a chance to
get a picture or an autograph from Colin Chandler or
Aaron Lamb from the volleyball team.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Mike the course, he's with us. We'll be right back
on the lead Report Radio Network.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
We have a group of guys that love each other.
They love walking in this gym in front of BBN,
they love putting a Kentucky jersey on their chest, they
love making each other look good, they love sharing for
each other. And when you have a group like that,
it can be really fun. I think our fan base
is going to feel that more and more from this team,
(24:04):
and I think it's pretty special.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Was Mark Pope after the game on Saturday? Is this
the Leach Report presented by bobcat Enterprises, And we're chatting
with Mike Decursi from Sportingnews dot com. You get an
early nineties Patino vibe at all from the Pope teams.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
Well, I think that you look at the way they
move to basketball and their understanding of the value of
the open shot, and I think that that you can
get some of that for sure. I do think that that,
you know, I'll be interested to see some of the
shots that were taken against buck Noll whether they will
filter into the game plan against higher end teams. There
(24:46):
were a couple of shots that were taken in transition
while not just not just two on three excuse me,
three on twos or something like that, but shots taken
five on five in transition, which you don't see a
lot in college basketball for good reason, that were taken
and made in this game. But I wonder how that's
going to trans you know, transfer to when you play
(25:07):
in the SEC, which is going to be a very
strong league this year, or when you play games like
Tuesdays against Duke.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Let's talk about the Duke matchup.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
What's your take on what are the concerns for Kentucky
and what are the areas where they can cause some
problems for the Dukies.
Speaker 8 (25:24):
Yeah, I think first of all, I think that one
of the things that the Duke's Duke in terms of
weakness is not They went from having a problem at
the rim, which is somewhat mitigated by the freshman Malach
common Malatch. I don't know exactly how to say his name.
Speaker 9 (25:43):
Man, I haven't seen them play enough. I saw them play,
but I haven't really studied enough to know how to
pronounce his name.
Speaker 8 (25:50):
But he was on the Olympic team at South Sudan
and did some nice things for them, and he gives
them the rim protection that.
Speaker 9 (25:56):
They lack lacked last year.
Speaker 8 (25:58):
But what they still but they don't have now they
had a point guard who went to the NBA, and
now they're kind of Tyree's Proctor is.
Speaker 9 (26:06):
A very good player, a very good college player.
Speaker 8 (26:09):
Caleb Foster I think is going to be a terrific
college player in time. I'm not sure either one of
them is really a point guard. And so what they're
end up having you do is generate offense, not not scoring,
but offensive flow from a lot of different positions. It
helps to have Cooper Flag on your team if that's
what you're going to do, because Flag is one of
the most complete American basketball prospects that we've seen, probably
(26:32):
since Lebron James, in terms of the ability to do
a little or I shouldn't say a little, a lot
of everything once. Flag is not probably gonna end up
leading Duke and scoring, but he's gonna He's going to
be big numbers in every single category that matters, rebounds, assists, blocks.
He's a really intelligent, versatile player, terrific athlete, and so
(26:58):
they end up having to to generate offense from a
lot of directions, and I think that that makes them
more guardable as a result, because you can't ever just
give it to one guy on the perimeter and say
go buy.
Speaker 9 (27:12):
Somebody and make the defense react. I mean, that's not
really what Procter does.
Speaker 8 (27:17):
He can make his terrific shooter, he can make a
playoff the bounce, but he's probably not making it for
somebody else. He doesn't have great vision, and that's a
problem for Duke. When he came out of high school
a few years ago, he was supposed to be a
big time point guard prospect, but it's not worked out
(27:37):
that way. And Foster was never really supposed to be
a point guard. He's a really good shooter physically powerful,
reminds me of some of those seventies and eighties NBA guys.
Speaker 9 (27:49):
That I grew up on.
Speaker 8 (27:51):
Just really tight motion on his shot, but not really
a point guard. He's a smart player, so he can
get things going. But like I said, I think that's
where Kentucky can have some success is you play tight
defense on a team like that and they and they're
still learning themselves and it can be hard for them
(28:12):
to generate offense in tough situations.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Who guards Cooper Flag? And then once the first you're
not going to leave one gun in for forty minutes,
So it's the second best option.
Speaker 8 (28:24):
Yeah, it's an interesting thing because Andrew Carr would probably
be the you know, position I would do. Whether or
not he can deal with that, I think that. I
think you'll see a lot of bodies on Flag and
I think that and Kentucky's one of the teams that
has that ability, and they can attack him in different ways.
(28:44):
I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if at times depending
on how they positioned Flag. If Lamont Butler took a
few trips on him just to see if maybe that
you know that physical power that Butler has and that
intelligence and that fierce understanding of how to defend, maybe
he gets into a Flag on the perimeter a little
(29:06):
bit and bothers him some.
Speaker 9 (29:08):
I think you'll see.
Speaker 8 (29:08):
A very varied approach, but the key for them will
be to making sure that they understand what Flag's objective
is on every play, because he is really good at
involving others.
Speaker 9 (29:22):
If you over commit to him, he's going to find
the right.
Speaker 8 (29:24):
Player and hit him with a scoring pass. But with
a guy like Williams or when Garrison's in at the rim,
those guys have to make sure they're positioned to understand
where Flag is and where he's coming from, because having
that great rim protection I talked about doesn't help you
if you're not.
Speaker 9 (29:43):
In the play.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
A game in mid November doesn't tell us a lot
about March, necessarily, but it tells us a lot about
where a team stands in mid November, and so I'm
really eager to see this matchup for Kentucky tomorrow night
to just see where they are against a team that
has so much individual talent. So I will see you
(30:06):
down in Atlanta, Mike.
Speaker 8 (30:08):
Oh well, enjoy it very much and have a great
time and we will talk to you soon.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
Sounds good. That is Mike to Corsi.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
You can read him at Sportingnews dot com, follow at
TSN Mike and you'll hear him here generally on Fridays,
and we'll probably move into that routine next week.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
It's the Leech.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Report coming to you from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio. Return,
Refresh and refuel at Clarks.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Let's talk for a second about Shufflebean Coffee. If you
need a great cup of coffee to get your day
started or to finish off a fine meal, then make
it shuffle Bean Coffee. It's a Kentucky based company, so
you like to help out a Kentucky company as long
as they're making a great product, and that is certainly
the case with Shuffleban Coffee. You can try it by
(30:57):
picking some up today at Central Kentucky Myers stores. You
can get it through Amazon, or you can go to
the website for the company Shufflebeing dot us and you
can find it there in a variety of ways, the
whole being cured, capsules, etc. Just try some shuffle being coffee.
I think you're gonna love it and you'll make it
your go to coffee for your home. Put some hustle
in your shuffle with Shufflebean coffee. This day and while
(31:20):
cat History is presented by Kentucky road Show Sports Cards
and Memorabilia. They're on Romedy Road in Lexington and at
roadshowcards dot com. Nineteen ninety five. This day, Moe Williams
ran for two hundred and seventy two yards. That was
the most ever by a Kentucky running back on his
home field until Lynn Bowden and Ray Davis. I think
Bowden still has the record, Davis just a few yards
(31:42):
behind him. They established new records. And Happy birthday, Brad Calipari.
Want to talk for a second about cornbread Hemp. They
have a special deal for Veterans Day. The headline says
celebrating the health and wellness of our veterans and veterans
can get thirty percent off all CB and THHC products
(32:02):
thirty percent off the normal price by using the code
USA thirty. That's at cornbreadhimp dot com and after Veterans Day.
You can get thirty percent off your first order by
using the code Tom at checkout. And it's a great company.
Kentucky based, Kentucky grown Hemp to Kentucky guys.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Start of this company.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
It's the number one CBD brand in our state and
the fastest growing company of its kind in the country
according to Ink magazine. It's Cornbreadhimp dot com. Men soccer
beat South Carolina yesterday one nil. They move on to
the Sundalt Conference semifinals. Talk to you tomorrow more Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Do Radio app. If you have any questions for Tom,
email Pleach Report at gmail dot com and check out
his website.
This bingie beef Turkey. Podcast of the Leech Report is
also presented by Boons Butcher Shop one hundred old Bloomfield
Pike in Barnestown, fresh meat cut on location daily and
they're family owned and operated have been since nineteen forty six.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The Leech Report Radio Network is on the air with
the Voice of the Wildcats, Tom Leech. It's the daily
gathering spot for the Big Blue Nation to hear the
latest news and views on the Cats. If you have
a question for Tom, email Leech Report at gmail dot
com or send a tweet to add Tom leech Ky.
(00:35):
Now here's Tom.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Good day, everybody, and welcome in to the Leech Report,
presented by Bobcat Enterprises. And if you can't tell already,
I am not on my a game today voice wise,
battling a nasty cough and headed to the doctor today,
so hopefully good to go by tomorrow night down in Atlanta.
(00:59):
But coming up on the show today, we're going to
talk about the big matchup between Kentucky and Duke tomorrow night.
I think that's what's foremost on everybody's mind right now
in this part of the world. Ben Roberts, who covers
the Kentucky basketball team for the Lexington Herald Leader will
join us in the first half of the show, and
Mike de Coursey will join us in the second half
of the show from Sporting News dot Com, and we'll
(01:19):
start our weekly visits with Mike coming up here on
the show Today, Wildcat News of the Day presented by
Joseppies of Lexington, and first of all, Happy Veterans Day
to all who served.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
A big thank.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
You can't you can't be thanked enough for what you have,
what you did, and what you are doing. But for
all the veterans, we certainly give a great debt of gratitude,
and especially so on this day. Let's get to the
(01:58):
Wildcat News of the Day presented by Just set Piece.
Kentucky beats Bucknell one hundred to seventy two, and Shannon
is actually producing today. I forgot to tell you this, Shannon.
There's a SoundBite there Mark Pope three on rebounding that
we want to talk about here in just a second.
Kentucky made a big emphasis on rebounding after the first
(02:21):
couple of exhibition games and the opener against Wright State.
Pope was not thrilled with what Kentucky was doing on
the glass, and they came out and won the Battle
of the boards to the tune of fifty seven to
thirty five and had twenty two offensive rebounds. And he
was telling Jack and I had shoot around on Saturday
(02:41):
that he thinks this will be a really good rebounding team.
It's not like that's going to be something they'll have
to deal with all year long.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
He thinks.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
He just believes they had a little bit of slippage
from where they were earlier and working on a lot
of things, and they put a big emphasis on it
this week. He was quite pleased that the emphasis resulted
in the substantially improved production in the rebounding column. This
was Mark Pope after the game.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
It's a blessing. I'm telling you, it's a gift as
a coach to have guys that are curious and guys
that are humble, and guys that want to get better.
We don't use the words curious very often, and we
don't talk about humility very often, but we have a
ton of that on our team, and for these guys
who respond to a challenge. Were kind of sit on
(03:33):
this for maybe ten days, like, ah, we're just not
getting where we need to get on the glass. And
for these guys to come almost put up sixty rebounds
today is It's incredibly gratifying as a coach. It's a
really important stuff for us as a team, and we're
trying to get to one hundred. Has there ever been
a game with one hundred rebounds?
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Is that true? A hundred rebounds? Oh? Man, I thought
I was.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
I'm usually really good at being hyperbolic, but apparently that
wasn't even close. Well, I was kind of being sarcastic
about one hundred. But maybe that needs to be our.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Goal and maybe they'll hit it someday. But that's asking
a lot. Because I showed him the stat box from
John Scott's site online of a Kentucky ole Miss game
in nineteen sixty four, I think where Kentucky had one
hundred and eight rebounds and ole Miss was twenty four
(04:31):
of eighty four. Kentucky was forty nine of one hundred
and twenty five. So I don't think you're going to
have games these days with that many misshots and that
many rebound opportunities. But who knows, maybe they can pull
it off someday. Probably not tomorrow night, though, Kentucky will
take on Duke Duke's in early six and a half
to seven point favorite. From what I'm seeing, I watched
(04:55):
a little bit of the Blue Devil's win over Army
on Friday night. Cooper Flag there star freshman had some
cramping issues in the second half of that game. Didn't
get to play much in the second half. So we'll
see if Kentucky can maybe get into his legs a
little bit in this game tomorrow night in Atlanta. Kentucky
has fifty three assists through two games. That's the most
of any team in the country. There's a couple of
(05:17):
teams that have a higher per game average, but they've
only played one game to this point. Kentucky scored one
hundred or more in back to back games to start
the season. That had not been done since nineteen seventy nine.
And then there was no three boyd shot. And then
Corey Price came up with stat about Amari Williams with
thirteen rebounds or more in his first two games. Only
(05:39):
three other Kentucky players have done that, dan Issel, Julius Randall,
and Oscar Sheibwey.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
So pretty good company to be in.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
It's media day for Mark Stoops in the Kentucky football program.
He'll do his weekly news conference in the noon hour
and then the radio show tonight, and I'm sure the
quarterback question is going to be foremost on everyone's mind.
Don't know that we'll get any answer on that. A
lot of times he's not inclined to give out that information,
(06:10):
especially early in the week to the opponent.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
But we'll see. And then also a.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Question about Barrion Brown's status since he was injured in
the last game for the Wildcats. Volleyball Number thirteen. Kentucky
beats LSU three to nothing, seven in a row for
coach Skinner squad twenty consecutive sets. They've won Emma at
grom At thirty three assists to spark Kentucky to that win.
They're in quite a roll right now. Links to the
(06:37):
stories that we talk about each day, you can find
them on the bud Light Leech Report page at Tom
leech ky dot com. Head to the break as we do,
we'll tell you about Joseppies of Lexington. We were out
there with family on Saturday after the basketball game, had
a fantastic meal, went for the pasta special that they have.
They have homemade pasta every day.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
This had.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Some and Dewey sausage in it, shrimp. It was fantastic.
They have handcut steaks and they have fresh seafood that
they ship in every day at Just Setpies. And it's
just been a really cool, wonderful special atmosphere there at
Just Setpies off Nicholasville Road here in Lexington. Go to
open table to make your reservations. We'll be right back
on the Leech Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
If you played the right way, like the ball is
gonna find the right person, It's all about stampatient and
not forcing anything, you know. And so they Kerse showed
it a whole bunch of sounds and I felt like
he had an open shot and then he swing it
to me and I'm even more open. So it's just
a testament. So you know how we played together and
how together we are, because it takes a lot of fun.
It takes a lot of togetherness to make those players happen,
(07:48):
you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Kobe Bray came off the bench with twenty points, including
a personal best tying six three point baskets. As we
chat with Ben Roberts and the club bluinil dot com
hotline about Kentucky basketball ahead of this matchup with Duke
tomorrow night and the Champions Classic in Atlanta. And I
think fans were eating up the way the ball was
(08:11):
moving at times, especially in that second half. I mean
it was just whipping around the perimeter and uh, you know,
go in and out and just you know, kerk Crisa,
who had twelve assists, tying his personal best over times
he just touched the ball and moved it on to
somebody else.
Speaker 7 (08:28):
Yeah, Tom, I don't know how how you, uh you
keep up with with some of yeah, rapid rapid passing attacks,
especially the one where Kobe brought it up and then
Kirk kind of dropped it back behind the back to
him and that just kind of started a pinball game,
it seemed like, until until Kobe hit the three. But yeah,
you know, it's it's certainly.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Fun to watch. And you know, we we talked about.
Speaker 7 (08:51):
That, you know, the kind of lack of like like
five star lottery pick talent, so you're not going to
have a lot of the you know, the Anthony.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Davis type highlights.
Speaker 7 (08:59):
Some of the he's uh, some of these just just
highlights that are gonna make the Sports Center Top ten.
But you you do get to watch basketball like that,
and that was just a lot of fun that that played,
particularly in a couple others that the Kurr had a
hand in. And Yeah, talking to Kobe after the game,
he you know, he said, it's like he said, it's
like watching a tennis match, and he said, that's even
(09:22):
watching the ball move around like that is even more
fun than being the guy who who gets to knock
down the three at the end of it all, just
because it's it's, as he said, the way the game
should be played. And it's certainly a fun brand of
basketball to watch. And again, that's just it. It really
speaks to you know, the coaching staff and and the
guys that they brought in that that they're willing to
(09:44):
play that way. I mean that that one play in particular,
I mean Amari could have could have taken the shot
himself as he drove in Angeley. Almanar could have could
have taken a corner three, Kurt could have taken a
shot at any point there. Kobe probably passed up one
shot to get a better shot six or eight seconds later. Uh,
and it's that was not an anomaly. I mean, there
(10:05):
were two or three other plays maybe not quite to
that level, but but uh that that that kind of
worked the same right right in that little time period.
And I think you're going to see a whole lot
more of that. And and as these early opposing coaches
have said, that's one of the things that just makes
this team so hard to defend is that, you know,
you have to go with the ball and you have
(10:26):
to move with the ball because everybody who touches the
ball can hit a shot from from where they're touching it.
So it's not like you can, you know, you can
just lay back and let them let them pass it
around like that. If you're not on them, they're they're
going to pull, and if they're open, they're they're probably
gonna make it.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
It's one thing to want to space the floor. It's
another to actually have the personnel to do it where
the opponent has to respect you, so that kind of
naturally spaces out the floor.
Speaker 7 (10:53):
Yeah, yeah, and that's you know, you know, we I
think we're gonna kind of compare to the cow teams,
you know, at least for the time being. But that's
something I don't think it wasn't that cow didn't want
to space the floor. I think it was a lot
of the guys that that he recruited or you know,
came in maybe he thought could shoot and and then
didn't didn't quite live up to that immediately, or were
(11:14):
just different type of players. So, you know, it would
have been really interesting to see, uh, some of the
other guys that that he brought in over the last
ten years, uh in a in a more spaced out system,
and what they could have done.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
But yeah, and with this.
Speaker 7 (11:29):
Team, you I mean, a guy like Kobe Braya shoots
fifty percent from three last season, but he's never played
in a system like this, with with teammates like this
and so many other shooters and willing passers. I don't
think he's going to shoot eighty three percent or whatever
his current rate is from three the rest of the way.
But I think people looked at that that forty nine
(11:52):
point eight percent and thought it wasn't anomaly that always
got to come down to earth from this. But but
I don't know, I don't know, we'll see at the
end of the season.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Yeah, Ben, thank you much. Safe travels down to Atlanta.
Speaker 7 (12:03):
All right, Thank you too, Tom.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
That is Ben Roberts from the Lexington Herald Leader in
Kentucky Sports dot Com. It's the Leach Report, presented by
Bobcat Enterprises. We'll be right back with Mike De Coursey.
It's the Leach Report Radio Network, and we are coming
to you from the Clark's pumpin Shop studio. Return, refresh
and refuel at Clark's. We go to the Club Blue
(12:26):
Nil dot com hotline and bring on Mike de Corsi
from Sportingnews dot Com, who on the ninth of April
wrote a column for Sporting News dot Com listing the
top candidates for the Kentucky basketball job now that John
Caliperry had moved on to Arkansas, and he went through
the people that Kentucky wasn't going to get and then
(12:49):
listed number one on this list a guy named Mark
Pope from BYU. So you were quite precient, and we
want to know who you like in the Kentucky Derby
for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 8 (13:01):
I took a lot of heat for that articular article
I did, but I had a feeling that that people
don't want to appreciate the change in college sports. Always
that Kentucky is still a magical program and has things
(13:21):
that no other program has. It is it's the fabulous crowds,
the the great facilities that they have or they're terrific,
and they're and they're going to get better, I'm sure.
And and then there's very few programs.
Speaker 9 (13:36):
That have that tradition and all of that.
Speaker 8 (13:38):
I mean when I say very few, I mean like
maybe one two something like that. But what what everybody's
got now to an extent is money. And and it's
possible to be where you are in the case of
say Scott Drew at Baylor or Dan Hurley at Connecticut
and still win big.
Speaker 9 (13:58):
And you don't have to be at Kentucky to win big.
Speaker 8 (14:02):
And so if you're going to find the next great
Kentucky coach, you're probably finding him in a lesser job
or a lesser league. And in this case, the Big
twelve is not what the SEC is and BYU, certainly
in terms of basketball tradition, is nowhere near Kentucky. And
(14:22):
of course Mark had the alumni connection as well. It
was all set up for him to accept that. And
he's done. Not only did he take the job, but
he's done a really nice job of building a roster
and getting that team going and ready to make the
first year interesting.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
He comes into a program here that he obviously knows
very well from having played here. But if you, I
don't know, if I'll see if you agree with this.
It feels like to me that the Kentucky basketball fan
has maybe a little greater love for some of the
aspects of basketball that aren't always on the highlight reel,
(15:07):
and it's just great pure shooters or just passing the
ball and moving the ball and as opposed to just
you know, running and dunking, which everybody loves. But the
Kentucky fans have always had a great affection for you know,
Louis Dampier, you know Kyle Macy at Truman Klayter, you
(15:28):
know Joey Meeks, guys that were.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Just great pure shooters.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
And so Mark Pope's style of play seems like a
perfect match for the fan base he's working for.
Speaker 8 (15:37):
Oh absolutely, I mean that That's two of the things
that I really like about his construction of this roster
under the circumstances it was constructed, is that he first
understood who he was, which is offensive based perimeter shooting.
Speaker 9 (15:54):
That's who he was at you at b YU.
Speaker 8 (15:57):
For sure, because I watched them play. I didn't watch
his teams in his prior jobs, but I know I
knew that he had a great appreciation for how to
create open three pointers.
Speaker 9 (16:06):
And what the value of that was.
Speaker 8 (16:09):
But what I think was maybe a little bit overlooked
was he didn't over he didn't ignore rim protection. Rim
protection is so underrated in college basketball. You look at
teams that don't have rim protectors, they're not winning at all.
I mean, if you can't protect the rim at the end,
you know you're gonna you're gonna win. You can win
(16:29):
a lot of games without it. You can win conference
championships and you might have a winning a conference tournament,
but you and you might even make the final four.
But if you don't, if you can't protect the rim,
you're not winning those last couple of games. And this
team has rim protection. He made sure that he got
it with Amari Williams in particular, with Brandon Garrison coming
(16:51):
off the bench. He made sure that he got guys
that could really do that. And that's part of it
that really impresses me because I look, I mean a
year ago, I picked Duke to win it all and
I got like three weeks into the season and I'm like,
how did I miss that?
Speaker 9 (17:06):
How did I miss that.
Speaker 8 (17:07):
They can't protect the rim? And I knew at that
point that the pick was blown. I knew they had
a good year, they made the Elite eight, but they
weren't gonna win.
Speaker 9 (17:14):
It without rim protection.
Speaker 8 (17:16):
And I'm not saying that Kentucky's going to win it
this year, but the fact that they have that at
least puts them in the in the realm of teams
that can.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Yeah, they have that, and they have also guys in
Butler and Oway on the perimeter that give them I
guess the best pair of guards defensively that I can
remember for Kentucky is maybe when they had Shawn Woods
and Dale Brown at ninety three or ninety two Kentucky
team in there, and that is something they may have
(17:49):
in Butler and Oway.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (17:52):
I think that's a great point. It's absolutely important that
they have that, uh and and that they do that
without sacrifice a lot of offense. I mean, Laman is
not a great shooter, but he really understands himself as
an offensive player because he's got so much experience and
you've got so many guys around in Jackson Robinson and
Kobe Brea that can really bust threes and you can
(18:17):
get you can get that out of.
Speaker 9 (18:19):
Car as well.
Speaker 8 (18:20):
I think it's it's a really nicely constructed roster for
what they for when they began to put that together.
Speaker 9 (18:27):
Uh, they have, you.
Speaker 8 (18:28):
Know, essentially no players back from last year and to
still be able to put such a deep group out
there and one that that has a lot of strength
that can work. Now you know whether those strengths are
strong enough to compete at the levels we're talking about.
I think we begin to find that out tomorrow night
in the Champions Classic, because they're taking.
Speaker 9 (18:49):
A big step up in class.
Speaker 8 (18:51):
But I don't think there are many teams that have
as many answers as they do. If a particular player,
let's say Abrea is having a rough night, and every
shooter Steph Curry has rough nights, So you know, every
shooter has rough nights, But.
Speaker 9 (19:05):
That doesn't shut you down.
Speaker 8 (19:06):
If you've got Oway and you've got a Car, and
you've got even alman Or can come off and make shots.
And Kirk crease A showed yesterday that he can and
he can still make a shot, So I think that
there's a lot of answers there, and exactly what order
they'll they'll be, you know, asked to do different things,
(19:29):
I think is still to be assigned and earned as
they go through more difficult games. But it's it's nice
to see so many different players out there who can
really help.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
You get your take on a couple of comparisons. One
in terms of style of play. Yeah, if you look
at football, how Mummy and revolutionized football offensively with the
air raid and the impact that had on the game,
and then later on through Mike Leach and others, and
(20:00):
then but never could match the defense with it for
his own teams anyway, Uh, to to get to championship levels.
So maybe you know Mark is on the track of
doing that with the guys he's brought in defensively to
run into also to plug into a very modern offensive
basketball system. The other thing, just in terms of I'll
(20:22):
see if you agree a little bit of stylistically when
you listen to Mark talk used the word curious in
one of his about talking about his players in one
of his answers on Saturday, and I thought about the
Ted Lasso scene curious and judgmental, where he's throwing darts
in so maybe there's a little ted lasso there too.
Speaker 8 (20:45):
Yeah, there you go. He, however, is not a fish
out of water.
Speaker 9 (20:49):
He is not, No, because Mark is.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
You know.
Speaker 9 (20:53):
I mean, if anybody understands and appreciates the.
Speaker 8 (20:58):
The the excellence and historic greatness of the Kentucky program,
it would be one of the players who was right
at the heart of, you know, the greatest what I
considered to be the greatest college basketball team of my
of my.
Speaker 9 (21:13):
Certainly of my.
Speaker 8 (21:13):
Career, which began in the early eighties, but you know,
even going back to when I was a kid and
following it, which would probably start around seventy or seventy one,
I don't think there's ever been.
Speaker 9 (21:25):
A team like Kentucky ninety six.
Speaker 8 (21:27):
And because Vegas had that great run in ninety one,
and I think it's sexy to try to like make
UNLV the greatest team of all time. Look, the great
you can't be the greatest team if you lost your championship,
and they did in ninety one and the year before.
By the end of the year they were phenomenal, but
they lost five games. So that team that ninety those
(21:49):
Kentucky teams can't. I mean, excuse me, those Vegas teams
can't really get into that greatest ever conversation. But Kentucky
did everything that year.
Speaker 9 (21:57):
They lost a.
Speaker 8 (21:58):
Couple of games, sure, but that's modern in college basketball.
Speaker 9 (22:01):
You're gonna lose now and then.
Speaker 8 (22:03):
And they they they played defense great, they shared the ball,
they shared minutes.
Speaker 9 (22:09):
They were phenomenal.
Speaker 8 (22:11):
And I got to cover five of their six NCAA
Tournament games that year because I was covering Memphis and
they got eliminated first round, so they sent me to
Dallas where where the Cats were, and then I was
already assigned to the Midwest region, so I saw them
up there in Minneapolis, and then of course the Final
four and just never been a team like that. And
(22:31):
you know, I think Mark being a part of that group,
knows how special Kentucky basketball can be and is can
be and can get.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
We'll talk with Mike Decursisportingnews dot Com at TSN Mike
joining us on the Club BLUEINIL dot com hotline. Club
Blues the official collective partner of UK and you can
join for as little as twenty five dollars a month
and if your budget permits, then you can help out
the effort to boost the pool of nil funds for
all the sports on campus, and you can pick the
(23:03):
one you'd like your money to support through Club Blue INIL.
So go to Club blueoil dot com. You'll see about
the membership packages and also the perks that you get
for being a member, like meet and greet with players.
They've got another one of those scheduled for this Saturday
when Kentucky hosts Murray State out at Kroger Field, So
(23:23):
you have a chance to go a little early if
you're a Club Blue member and be able to get
to the front of the line for a chance to
get a picture or an autograph from Colin Chandler or
Aaron Lamb from the volleyball team.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Mike the course, he's with us. We'll be right back
on the lead Report Radio Network.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
We have a group of guys that love each other.
They love walking in this gym in front of BBN,
they love putting a Kentucky jersey on their chest, they
love making each other look good, they love sharing for
each other. And when you have a group like that,
it can be really fun. I think our fan base
is going to feel that more and more from this team,
(24:04):
and I think it's pretty special.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Was Mark Pope after the game on Saturday? Is this
the Leach Report presented by bobcat Enterprises, And we're chatting
with Mike Decursi from Sportingnews dot com. You get an
early nineties Patino vibe at all from the Pope teams.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
Well, I think that you look at the way they
move to basketball and their understanding of the value of
the open shot, and I think that that you can
get some of that for sure. I do think that that,
you know, I'll be interested to see some of the
shots that were taken against buck Noll whether they will
filter into the game plan against higher end teams. There
(24:46):
were a couple of shots that were taken in transition
while not just not just two on three excuse me,
three on twos or something like that, but shots taken
five on five in transition, which you don't see a
lot in college basketball for good reason, that were taken
and made in this game. But I wonder how that's
going to trans you know, transfer to when you play
(25:07):
in the SEC, which is going to be a very
strong league this year, or when you play games like
Tuesdays against Duke.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Let's talk about the Duke matchup.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
What's your take on what are the concerns for Kentucky
and what are the areas where they can cause some
problems for the Dukies.
Speaker 8 (25:24):
Yeah, I think first of all, I think that one
of the things that the Duke's Duke in terms of
weakness is not They went from having a problem at
the rim, which is somewhat mitigated by the freshman Malach
common Malatch. I don't know exactly how to say his name.
Speaker 9 (25:43):
Man, I haven't seen them play enough. I saw them play,
but I haven't really studied enough to know how to
pronounce his name.
Speaker 8 (25:50):
But he was on the Olympic team at South Sudan
and did some nice things for them, and he gives
them the rim protection that.
Speaker 9 (25:56):
They lack lacked last year.
Speaker 8 (25:58):
But what they still but they don't have now they
had a point guard who went to the NBA, and
now they're kind of Tyree's Proctor is.
Speaker 9 (26:06):
A very good player, a very good college player.
Speaker 8 (26:09):
Caleb Foster I think is going to be a terrific
college player in time. I'm not sure either one of
them is really a point guard. And so what they're
end up having you do is generate offense, not not scoring,
but offensive flow from a lot of different positions. It
helps to have Cooper Flag on your team if that's
what you're going to do, because Flag is one of
the most complete American basketball prospects that we've seen, probably
(26:32):
since Lebron James, in terms of the ability to do
a little or I shouldn't say a little, a lot
of everything once. Flag is not probably gonna end up
leading Duke and scoring, but he's gonna He's going to
be big numbers in every single category that matters, rebounds, assists, blocks.
He's a really intelligent, versatile player, terrific athlete, and so
(26:58):
they end up having to to generate offense from a
lot of directions, and I think that that makes them
more guardable as a result, because you can't ever just
give it to one guy on the perimeter and say
go buy.
Speaker 9 (27:12):
Somebody and make the defense react. I mean, that's not
really what Procter does.
Speaker 8 (27:17):
He can make his terrific shooter, he can make a
playoff the bounce, but he's probably not making it for
somebody else. He doesn't have great vision, and that's a
problem for Duke. When he came out of high school
a few years ago, he was supposed to be a
big time point guard prospect, but it's not worked out
(27:37):
that way. And Foster was never really supposed to be
a point guard. He's a really good shooter physically powerful,
reminds me of some of those seventies and eighties NBA guys.
Speaker 9 (27:49):
That I grew up on.
Speaker 8 (27:51):
Just really tight motion on his shot, but not really
a point guard. He's a smart player, so he can
get things going. But like I said, I think that's
where Kentucky can have some success is you play tight
defense on a team like that and they and they're
still learning themselves and it can be hard for them
(28:12):
to generate offense in tough situations.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Who guards Cooper Flag? And then once the first you're
not going to leave one gun in for forty minutes,
So it's the second best option.
Speaker 8 (28:24):
Yeah, it's an interesting thing because Andrew Carr would probably
be the you know, position I would do. Whether or
not he can deal with that, I think that. I
think you'll see a lot of bodies on Flag and
I think that and Kentucky's one of the teams that
has that ability, and they can attack him in different ways.
(28:44):
I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if at times depending
on how they positioned Flag. If Lamont Butler took a
few trips on him just to see if maybe that
you know that physical power that Butler has and that
intelligence and that fierce understanding of how to defend, maybe
he gets into a Flag on the perimeter a little
(29:06):
bit and bothers him some.
Speaker 9 (29:08):
I think you'll see.
Speaker 8 (29:08):
A very varied approach, but the key for them will
be to making sure that they understand what Flag's objective
is on every play, because he is really good at
involving others.
Speaker 9 (29:22):
If you over commit to him, he's going to find
the right.
Speaker 8 (29:24):
Player and hit him with a scoring pass. But with
a guy like Williams or when Garrison's in at the rim,
those guys have to make sure they're positioned to understand
where Flag is and where he's coming from, because having
that great rim protection I talked about doesn't help you
if you're not.
Speaker 9 (29:43):
In the play.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
A game in mid November doesn't tell us a lot
about March, necessarily, but it tells us a lot about
where a team stands in mid November, and so I'm
really eager to see this matchup for Kentucky tomorrow night
to just see where they are against a team that
has so much individual talent. So I will see you
(30:06):
down in Atlanta, Mike.
Speaker 8 (30:08):
Oh well, enjoy it very much and have a great
time and we will talk to you soon.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
Sounds good. That is Mike to Corsi.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
You can read him at Sportingnews dot com, follow at
TSN Mike and you'll hear him here generally on Fridays,
and we'll probably move into that routine next week.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
It's the Leech.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Report coming to you from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio. Return,
Refresh and refuel at Clarks.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Let's talk for a second about Shufflebean Coffee. If you
need a great cup of coffee to get your day
started or to finish off a fine meal, then make
it shuffle Bean Coffee. It's a Kentucky based company, so
you like to help out a Kentucky company as long
as they're making a great product, and that is certainly
the case with Shuffleban Coffee. You can try it by
(30:57):
picking some up today at Central Kentucky Myers stores. You
can get it through Amazon, or you can go to
the website for the company Shufflebeing dot us and you
can find it there in a variety of ways, the
whole being cured, capsules, etc. Just try some shuffle being coffee.
I think you're gonna love it and you'll make it
your go to coffee for your home. Put some hustle
in your shuffle with Shufflebean coffee. This day and while
(31:20):
cat History is presented by Kentucky road Show Sports Cards
and Memorabilia. They're on Romedy Road in Lexington and at
roadshowcards dot com. Nineteen ninety five. This day, Moe Williams
ran for two hundred and seventy two yards. That was
the most ever by a Kentucky running back on his
home field until Lynn Bowden and Ray Davis. I think
Bowden still has the record, Davis just a few yards
(31:42):
behind him. They established new records. And Happy birthday, Brad Calipari.
Want to talk for a second about cornbread Hemp. They
have a special deal for Veterans Day. The headline says
celebrating the health and wellness of our veterans and veterans
can get thirty percent off all CB and THHC products
(32:02):
thirty percent off the normal price by using the code
USA thirty. That's at cornbreadhimp dot com and after Veterans Day.
You can get thirty percent off your first order by
using the code Tom at checkout. And it's a great company.
Kentucky based, Kentucky grown Hemp to Kentucky guys.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Start of this company.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
It's the number one CBD brand in our state and
the fastest growing company of its kind in the country
according to Ink magazine. It's Cornbreadhimp dot com. Men soccer
beat South Carolina yesterday one nil. They move on to
the Sundalt Conference semifinals. Talk to you tomorrow more Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Do Radio app. If you have any questions for Tom,
email Pleach Report at gmail dot com and check out
his website.
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