11-13-24 LEACH REPORT

Dick Gabriel fills in to talk with Chris Fisher and Brandon Ramsey.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
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 Leach Ky.

(00:22):
Now here's Tom.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Good morning, everybody. Dick Gaberline for the Voice says, you
might expect. Tom was a late rival getting home early
this morning with the basketball Wildcats.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
So we're happy to sit in here on.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
The Leech Report, presented by bobcat Enterprises. Our guest today
Chris Fischer of two four to seven Sports and the
Cats Pause.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Brandon Ramsey.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
You hear his work on the Brandon Ramsey College Basketball Show.
Also KISR. So we'll talk, of course, a lot of
Wildcats today. That leads off the Wildcat News of the
Day presented by Giuseppe's of Lexing and it's always Wildcat
News of the day.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
But of course the big.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
News last night's win over Duke, Kentucky outscoring of the
Blue Devils by fourteen points in the second half, shutting
down Duke when it needed to the most, and the
Wildcats win it seventy seven to seventy two. Despite a
remarkable game by the freshman Cooper Flag twenty six points,

(01:19):
twelve rebounds, all of them on the defensive glass, and
really impressively, he drew nine fouls. The Wildcats had their
hands full, but down the stretch it was flagged with
a crucial mistake Kentucky making the plays, executing after halftime adjustments,
which are often overblown. Oftentimes it's just let's do what

(01:44):
we have trained to do, what we're supposed to do.
But Mark Pope what's the school with his guys at
halftime and pointed some things out, reminded them of some
things they need to do, and it all worked out
in the second half as the Wildcats got balance scoring
team from Andrew Carr, fifteen from Otega, ten from Amari Williams,

(02:06):
eight points each from Brandon Garrison and Kobe Brea, who
was two of four from three point land the Wildcats
ten of twenty five from beyond the arc. That's who
they are, Duke four of twenty three. As the Wildcats
applied more pressure on three point shooters in the second half,
now it was way actually there were several of them

(02:28):
who made terrific defensive plays. Ohway was huge down the
stretch defensively, but so was Andrew Carr. He was victimized
a little bit in the first half, but he helped
shut the Devils down in the second period. And Amari
Williams made big defensive plays. Really they all did. The
only real surprise in the game was in twenty six
minutes Jackson Robinson only got up four shots, didn't make

(02:51):
any scored one point, but.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
He blocked two shots.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Who would have thought if you had that on your
Bengo card, more blocks than points for Jackson Robinson and
Kentucky would win now. But I believe this will be
kind of a hallmark for this Kentucky team. Enough talent
and enough experience to find a way to win, and
they did that, making the Wildcats three to zero on

(03:17):
the season thus far. UK women won big, easily over
an overmatched Wafford team seventy six to forty two in
Historic Memorial Coliseum last night. Dojah Lawrence with nineteen points.
She had nineteen in the first two games, had fifteen
in the first quarter alone, and she led the Wildcats.

(03:37):
Clara Strack with another terrific performance sixteen points, fifteen rebounds
and four block shots. If you haven't seen the UK
women under Kenny Brooks, you need to do that.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Get out and watch them play. They're a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Six to seven Clara Silva came off the bench, had
four points, three blocks, and she is the based on
the two games prior, the SEC Freshman of the week
in Kentucky's first two games, fifteen of twenty from the field,
total of eleven rebounds and eleven blocks, so an oftentimes

(04:17):
she plays with strack which gives them a six '
five six seven combination, but she's a lot of fun
to watch as well. So a good week for Kentucky basketball,
no question about that. And a reminder that these stories
and more can be found on the blood Light Leech

(04:37):
Report page at Tom leachky dot com. When week come back,
Chris Fisher of the Cats Pass two four to seven
Sports will join us here on the Leech Report. Welcome
back Dick Gaberlin for the voice here on the Leech Report.
Let us welcome mister Chris Fisher of two four to
seven Sports, coming to you from the Clark's Pumpin' Shop studio.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Good morning, Chris, Good morning. There a little bleary eyed
this morning up late last night. I'm guessing.

Speaker 4 (05:06):
Yeah, I'd say that goes for just about everybody this morning.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
What was your initial takeaway? If I may use an overused.

Speaker 4 (05:13):
Term, Yeah, I mean, I think the thing that sticks
out to me more than anything else is the fact
that it felt like countless times in recent years after
the game you would feel like, gosh, how did Kentucky
lose that game? And then so it was refreshing. It
was refreshing last night after the game to be able

(05:35):
to say, Gosh, how did Kentucky win that game? And
you know, I think I don't think Kentucky. Kentucky played
particularly well in any facet, any one facet of the game.
I don't think they played particularly well for any stretch
of the game, but just found a way to gut
out a victory. And sometimes in sports, whether it's basketball

(05:58):
or football or whatever, you just have to keep kind
of grinding and staying in the fight until you can
get enough things to kind of break your way. And
I thought Kentucky really out toughed Duke in the final
ten minutes of that game. You can't say enough about
the plays O take away made down the stretch coming
up with the steel, knocking down those clutch free throws

(06:22):
in the final seconds, you know, out rebounding Cooper flag
on the misfree throw by Lamont Butler. And I think
Kentucky's depth also took over. I mean, you know, eerily
reminiscent of the Kentucky Duke game of ninety eight where
Kentucky was down and the depth kind of paid off

(06:43):
down the stretch, and Kentucky just looked like a much
fresher team down the stretch of that game. And so,
you know, definitely, I thought Kentucky's veterans really outshine Duke's
star freshmen in the closing moments of that game.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Just like ye And I'm glad you brought that up,
Duke out of timeouts down the stretch, how about that?

Speaker 4 (07:06):
Yeah, it felt there were a lot of similarities. And
you know, I know me and you are a little
bit older than a lot of people. Remember that ninety
eight game like it was yesterday. I mean this one
of the you know, absolutely quintessential Kentucky wins. Yeah, Tubby

(07:26):
Smith didn't call a time out, Kentucky's depthate off in
the end, and it did again last night.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
You're right when you look back and you ask yourself,
how did this happen? When you look at the stat
sheet and you hear Pope talking after the game, you
can't put your finger on defense. But if you look
at the numbers, it's this may be And I got
to think it is Chris the kind of kind of
a signature Kentucky win. Kentucky had seventeen assists on twenty five,

(07:56):
made baskets ten out of twenty five from beyond the
and held Duke to twenty nine percent shooting in the
second half. So again, is going to all year It's
gonna start with defense from Mark Pope's team.

Speaker 4 (08:12):
Yeah, I think again. I think Kentucky fans are kind
of going through a reconditioning, a rewiring under Mark Poe.
But this is gonna be a situation where I think
the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
And it's gonna be a team effort every single night.
And you know, you're not gonna have guys going one

(08:34):
on one and guys, you know, probably not a lot
of guys going for twenty five or thirty points a night.
And it's gonna be a collective team effort. At both
ends of the floor, and I thought, yeah, I thought
Kentucky's physicality and their size, yeah, bothered Duke and kind
of you know, leaned on Duke throughout the course of
the game, and you saw, I mean, you know, those

(08:57):
guys were worn out by the end of the game,
and I missed a lot of wide open shots, and
when that happens, fatigue is usually a factor, especially when
you're shooting those wide open shots from the perimeter. And
so I thought Kentucky made huge defensive strides there in
the second half to shut down Cooper Flag and konk Nipple.
Kank Nipple, I think he finished with fourteen points but

(09:18):
didn't have a field goal of the last seventeen minutes
of the game, So I thought Kentucky did a really
good job on him.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
It was five of twenty for the evening and between
the two of them flagg A Canipple for the game
two of thirteen from Beyond the Ark. Now, they did
a majority of their damage, of course, in the paint,
especially early. Chris I was I was kind of thinking, man,
I don't know how Kentucky's gonna guard the paint any better,
and produced in the paint any better, but somehow it did.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
Right.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
Yeah, I think the last time I checked, I think
Duke ended up with forty points in the paint or
something like that, had a huge advantage over Kentucky forty
seven guard, yeah, forty six. Yeah, I know at one
point it was like forty to sixteen advantage and the
paint there, and yeah, Kentucky was able to slow them down.
I thought, I thought of Mary Williams did a really
good job. I thought Kentucky was able to steal some

(10:07):
really valuable minutes with Brandon Garrison coming off the bench
and had a couple of nice putbacks, had that that
jumper from the top of the key, and you know,
with Mary Williams and Brandon Garrison their ability to protect
the rim. And I think Andrew Carr, you know, I
don't I'm not sure he gets enough credit for his
defensive ability. He's not, you know, a super athlete or

(10:29):
anything like that. But when you've played as much basketball
as he has, positional positional defense and just being in
the right spot and walling off your man and making them,
you know, staying between your man in the basket and
making them make a tough shot or make a tough two.
You know, that goes a long way, and so you
know another adjustment that I saw down the stretch, it

(10:51):
felt like offensively, the ball kept finding a Mary Williams
on the perimeter, and Duke was playing so far off
of him that it was starting to kind of bog
down the offense there at the half court. All of
a sudden, Mark Pope moves Andrew Carr to the five,
and you have to respect Andrew Carr's ability to shoot
the ball from the perimeter, and all of a sudden
that opened things up for the offense. I think that

(11:12):
paid huge dividends for Kentucky down the stretch.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
In fact, Bill has kept pointing out on TV, and
then so did Schulmann. I'm sure you heard that Kentucky had,
you know, air quotes gone small although Car six ' ten.
But you make a great point about his experience and
literally his experience with Duke. He's played now five times against.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
The Blue Devils. Of course, only this one time against
Cooper Flag.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
But at the beginning of the game I thought man
Flags didn't foul him out, but Carr wound up with
only two personal fouls, and you're.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
Right, he affected the way both.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Of those guys played the bigs down the stretch for Duke.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
Yeah, I mean Kentucky was down nine at the half,
but you know three starters were on the bench with
two fouls, and so again, I think in so many regards,
Kentucky was just kind of able to weather the storm.
You know, when when Cooper Flag had it going, when
Kanka Nipple had it going, when the big seven footer
was dominating inside, they just kind of weathered the storm

(12:14):
and stayed in the fight, and stayed in the fight
and stayed within striking distance, and then finally over the
last five minutes were able to pull even and really
start to put some game pressure on Duke. And you know,
we've seen Kentucky freshman falter in the closing minutes of games,
and you know, for as good as those guys are,

(12:36):
Cooper Flag is going to be the number one pick
in the draft. I think kan Ka Nipple's projected to
go in the top ten, you know, being on that
stage for the first time, and you know, with fatigue
being a factor, I definitely think you saw that come
into play over the final few minutes. Cooper Flag with
two turnovers in the final minute, yep, and then allowed

(12:59):
O take Way to kind of sneak in there and
get that offensive rebound, and that was the difference in
the game.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
You make a great point about Flag and he will
carry this probably for the rest.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
Of his life.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
He'll beat himself up for that turnover late, but being
a great player, he will learn from it. And maybe
we will see these two teams face each other in
the NSAE tournament later on in March. We'll take a break,
come back and talk more with Chris Fisher of two
four to seven Sports. You see his work on the
Cats Paws website as well. More to come here on

(13:31):
a Leech Report. Welcome back to the Leach Report.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
Dick Gabriel sitting in for the Voice.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
He was in Atlanta late last night, coming home early
this morning, as you might expect, as the Wildcats knocked
off Duke. We're talking with Chris Fisher of two four
to seven Sports and the Cat's Balls. One other question
Chris about the men's game last night, what did you
think of the lift given by kerk KRISA only two
of nine from the outside, but he was a factor.

Speaker 4 (13:59):
I thought, yeah, I think he gives something a little
extra to this Kentucky team, a little bit of swagger,
a little bit of almost unfound confidence, which is I
think in a good It is like a good thing
in a way, but it almost feels like Mark Pope

(14:20):
is running like kind of a platoon with Lamont Butler
and Kerk Crisa. And you know, if they're in a
situation where they need defense, he puts in Lamont Butler.
If they're in a situation where they might you know,
need a little bit of offense, he puts in Kirk
Cresa And I think it works out really well. And
you know, this is a guy that started ninety three

(14:40):
of ninety nine career games at Arizona and West Virginia
before coming to Kentucky. So I think it says a
lot about him embracing his role off the bench and
kind of being that energy guy. And so he's I
think he's a much better offensive player than we've seen
to this point. I think he's still of getting adjusted

(15:01):
to that roll off the bench, But I mean, this
is an All Conference caliber player that Kentucky has coming
off the bench, and I think he's going to continue
to get better and better as he gets more comfortable.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
Interesting that Butler was not credited with a steal, but
one of the biggest plays of the game is when
he back tipped the ball away from flag and Flag
was the one It was finally ruled who touched it last.
That was a crucial juncture in that game. But I
suspect big UK games like this all year. We're gonna
part We're gonna, you know, slice and dice the numbers,

(15:35):
the stats to plays the next day for hours, because
that's just I think the way this roster is put together.
Speaking of a roster put together, well, in our final
couple of minutes, you also have a story on the
website about the UK women they cruise to a win
over Wafford seventy six to forty two is never a game,
but the personality of this team is readily apparent. Chris

(15:59):
and the obviously Georgia Amore is tremendous appoint guard. But
the big Clara Strack backed up by a bigger Clara
Silva makes this team really fun to watch, doesn't it.

Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah, I mean those two are really special and they're
gonna be really special in the years to come for Kentucky.
I mean, you look at the jump that Clara Strack
has made from her freshman year at Virginia Tech now
or her sophomore year at Kentucky. And she's already really
good and she's going to be very very good for

(16:32):
years to come. And then how can you not be
excited about Clara Silva leads the nation and blocks per
game at five point five and has had a huge impact,
especially for a freshman, and she's competed a lot in
you know, FIBA international play, so I don't think she's
intimidated at all by the college game. And she's come
in and made a huge impact from day one. And

(16:54):
so that's the you know, the funny thing about this team.
They're three and oh three blowouts and Georgia Amore really
hasn't even played particularly well offensively. She's had a lot
of assists, but she hasn't really scored the ball the
way that she had last season at Virginia Tech. And
so once she gets it going, I think this team
has a chance to be really really good.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yeah, and the good news is she hasn't needed to
score a lot and these again, these are three walkover
games to your point, But because of that, the BIG's
Clara Strack and you know, key and Hassett has has
played well and Silva they have just overwhelmed their opponents.
But we all know what happens when you get into
SEC play things are a lot different. So have you

(17:38):
been into to a game or an event yet at
the Coliseum since they renovated.

Speaker 5 (17:45):
I haven't since it's been renovated.

Speaker 4 (17:46):
No, I'm looking forward to doing that.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
Oh man, you got to get in there and you're
you're you're a little bit older, but you're not nearly
as old as I am. You don't remember when they
played varsity basketball in there, but they played women's basketball
in there for deck age. Now you'll be shocked. Chris
is it's a brand new arena. You're really gonna like it.
Thanks so much of a great day, all right you

(18:09):
reminder of Ease Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises with four
locations in Kentucky when you need to rent it or
buy heavy equipment or a new zero turnmore for you
Long Turn two Bobcat Enterprises Brandon Ramsey next here on
the Leech Report. Welcome back Dick Gabriel sitting in for
Tom Leach on the Leach Report, Joined now by Kastar's

(18:32):
Brandon Ramsey. Of the Brandon Ramsey College Basketball Show.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
Good morning Brandon, Good morning Dick.

Speaker 5 (18:39):
Thanks for having me on this morning.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
I've got to think you might be a little o'bleary
eyed as well today staying up late last night, weren't you?

Speaker 5 (18:47):
It was certainly a late night, but it was. It
was one of those nights where you were very happy
to be up as late as you were.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
I don't know about you, but I want to put
my head down. I was replaying the game in my mind.
It took a little while. What did you think? I
was just talking to Chris Fisher about this. You know,
there were there were points where Kentucky played pretty well.
It was an early season game. But was there a
particular element of this game that you think turned it
for the Wildcats?

Speaker 5 (19:16):
I just think that coming out of the you know,
coming out of halftime, some of the adjustments that were made,
and just the toughness that Kentucky displayed to stay in
this game. You know, I think there were a lot
of reasons at halftime to honestly be discouraged. You were.
You were losing by nine points despite I think the

(19:36):
three point differential at the time was Kentucky had already
hit seven and Duke it only hit had had hit three.
And you know, so when if you would have told
me in the half that Kentucky was winning by four
or three point shots and losing by nine, I would
have said things are not going very well. And honestly
that was why at halftime, I didn't think, you know,

(19:58):
to be quite frank, I, I didn't think a chance
to win the game at halftime, and then they just
kept hanging around. They displayed so you know, just grittiness, toughness,
everything down the stretch in order to give themselves a
chance to win. And then in those last couple of
segments they were there in order to make the plays

(20:19):
they needed to win the game. So I mean, above
everything else, just the toughness that it took to win
that game when you weren't even necessarily the most talented
team on the court. Yeah, but you just find a way,
and that was really exciting, especially as you mentioned for
an early season game. You know, I just can't compliment

(20:40):
coach Pope and the staff and the team enough for
the grittiness that I feel like it took to win
that game.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
This is not a knock on previous management, but I
believe that the roster composition had so much to do
with Kentucky winning that game last night. Veterans who knew
how to be coached and take what their coach told
them put it into action without having a glance at

(21:08):
the sideline on every possession, and guys who had been
in big games, maybe not as big in terms of
the national spotlight as this one.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
But there was no panic, was there?

Speaker 5 (21:21):
Absolutely not? And I think you're exactly right to see
the maturity and the experience really shine through. You know,
Kentucky's playing guys that are twenty one, twenty two to
twenty three years old, playing guys that have played one
hundred plus college basketball games. So yes, like, as you mentioned,

(21:41):
the national spotlight of Duke versus Kentucky in the Champions
Classic might be a little different, But like, these guys
have all played big time college basketball games. They've all
been in a position where they're down nine points a
halftime and they have to figure out a way to
go win. You know, it's not new to you know,
like Lamont Butler's played at the National Championship Game, He's

(22:05):
not going to be scared about the fact that he's
down nine to Duke at halftime, he's just going to
try to find a way to fix it. And these
guys all came together along with the coaching staff and
found a way to fix it and got themselves in
a position to win the game.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
Cooper Flags a real deal, though, isn't.

Speaker 5 (22:21):
He He's incredible? He really Isn't mean the idea that
the most talented player on the basketball court. Now, he
obviously made a couple you know, he made a couple
of mistakes down the stretch, and that's probably being well
what he is. But I mean, the most talented basketball
player on the court with a seventeen year old kid

(22:42):
who should still be senior in high school, like that
is genuinely incredible in a game of Duke versus Kentucky
in Atlanta at the Champions Classic.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah, I kept hearing about him and thinking him on now,
you know, and number one pick in the day, you know,
but he's got it all and yet makes.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
A mistake down the stretch. He's a freshman.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
That didn't cost him the game, but cost him the
opportunity to win the game. They're not in that game
obviously without him. But you know, later on they were saying, well,
we should have had somebody else with the basketball. Yeah,
freshmen make mistakes, don't.

Speaker 5 (23:19):
They They absolutely do, and you know it, Kentucky's been
on the receiving end of that in years past at
times as well. But but yeah, I mean, obviously it's
hard to knock Cooper flat because as you said, you know,
I think with him having twenty six points and twelve
rebounds or whatever he had, you know, Duke doesn't have

(23:42):
a chance to win the game without him in there.
But yeah, you know, he had a couple of freshman
mistakes down the stretch. But also, you know, like some
of some of the movies he made a name coach
who even alluded to this, like it was the scouting
and some of the things that they you know, that
the Kentucky was aware of his tendencies to beIN and
some of like some of the over dribbling that he
does that allowed them to make those plays on stretching,

(24:05):
and again that that's just such a you know, it's
it's just so refreshing to see some of those you know,
intricacies of the scouting report shine through and ultimately win
a game for Kentucky like it did last night.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
And what you just described is a testament to his staff,
his com You know, Pope doesn't do all the scouting
by himself, and Pope played at Kentucky for a coach
who was notorious for almost over scouting opponents. But it
pays off, doesn't it.

Speaker 5 (24:36):
It absolutely does. You know, you really can't overstate just
the preparedness of this team. Early in the season. You
saw it against I mean, heck, you saw going back
to being ready to guard the Princeton against Kentucky Wesleyan,
you know, and then that's a Division two school in
a in an exhibition.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
Game, yep.

Speaker 5 (24:56):
And then you know, the same level of apparentness for
cons Wesleyan ended up winning you a game against Duke
in the Champions Classic, and that just shows why, you know,
just taking every game as seriously as possible is is
what matters in college basketball.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
When it came to points in the paid, Kentucky was
kind of overwhelmed. But on the other half, on the
other hand, bench points Kentucky twenty five to six. I think, Brandon,
we're gonna see that all year.

Speaker 5 (25:28):
You're absolutely gonna see it all year because Kentucky's strengths
is in the depths and you're gonna see on a
ninth to night basis. I mean, already this season we've
played three games, We've had three different leading scorers, and
I think that that's going to continue to be a
theme for this team on a ninth night basis. It's
gonna be you know, it's gonna be take Away one night,

(25:49):
It's gonna be Kobe Braya getting Botam three. I guarantee
you we're not gonna go many more games before Jackson
Robinson scores twenty five points. You know, Andrew Carr had
his night last night. You know, all these different guys,
some of them coming off of the bench, you know,
Kirkreese and Anthony Omanar, all these guys, they're going to
have their time to shine as well. And absolutely, you're right,
you know, we're just the depth of this team in

(26:12):
the way they're able to come at you in waves
makes it really difficult for opposing teams.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
We'll come back and talk more with Brandon Ramsey here
in just a minute. Dick Gaberlin for Tom Leach on
the Leach Report. Welcome back, Dick Gabriel sitting in for
Tom on The Leech Report, presented by bobcat Enterprises talking
with Brandon Ramsey. Tell everybody about the Brandon Ramsey College
Basketball Show.

Speaker 5 (26:35):
Yeah, so it's kind of a national college basketball show.
I talk about more than just Kentucky, but as a
Kentucky fan and somebody that covers the Cats, I do
lean a little bit that way still. But it comes
out on Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts
every Monday and Friday. And then also there's a live
YouTube show on the brand Names College Basketball Show YouTube

(26:58):
channel every Wednesday, so you can chat with me live
and talking college hoops. But yeah, it's just a show
that talks a little bit more about the entire national
landscape a couple times a week.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
Well that said, will this win Overduke? And again it
is super early change your perception of where you had
Kentucky fitting into the national picture.

Speaker 5 (27:22):
I think it has to. Honestly, you know, like, this
is a team that going into the season with the
roster that was built. I think we all felt pretty
comfortable saying you know what, I think Coach Pope built
us a top twenty five team. You watch the first
couple of games, you probably got a little bit more excited, like, Okay,

(27:42):
this is maybe a top fifteen to top twenty team,
and then you go and you beat Duke in the
way that you beat Duke, and I think that, yeah,
you have to sit here and think, like, hey, we
have a chance to be as good as anybody in
college basketball this season, especially, you know, just watching everybody
for the course of the first week, a lot of
teams that had some ups and downs. You know, obviously

(28:04):
we're going to experience some of those ups and downs
throughout the season as well. It's not going to be,
you know, all sunshine and rainbows, I don't think, but
so far it's been great, And yeah, I think there's
there's really no other way to look at it other
than to be very enthusiastic with what you've seen so
far and probably kind of move yourself up the spectrum

(28:26):
of whatever you thought was possible for this team.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
And a lot is possible for this team, no question.
But I think people kind of knew that going in,
just because of the way the roster is constructed, and
now they've got another week between games. You might've heard
Jack Gibbons talk to one of the players last night
about it that after a win like this, you kind
of want to get back at it, or at least
a lot of guys do.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
But maybe a week off is good for this team,
you know.

Speaker 5 (28:53):
I think it probably is, you know, just the emotion
that comes with a game like this, and especially with
it with it being all new, not necessarily you know,
person to person, but it's all new for this team.
This is the first time that twelve guys have come
together and had the emotions of playing in the Champions
Classic all national television against Duke. So yeah, I think

(29:15):
having a couple of days to just kind of ground
yourself a little bit and get back to the normal
routine of a few days of practice and you know,
you're not coming off of this high of thinking that
you're the best team in the country. You have a
little bit of time to practice and watch some film
and get ready for the ext opponent. I honestly think
it works out pretty well for the Cats.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
It does, And I also believe that because this is
a veteran ball club, they will process this win a
little differently or maybe even a lot differently than a
young team might you know what I mean. I don't
think that they'll that'll you know, for lack of a
better term, go to their head Liftscomb is next. They
should handle Lipskim pretty well and Jackson State in Western Kentucky.

(30:00):
There's a while before they have a real high profile game,
if you want to call Clemson high profile. But Gonzaga
coming up that long trip. But I just think because
they're veterans, they'll be better able to take this one
in stride, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (30:17):
Absolutely. I mean it's everything we talked about with the
win last night. You know, the veteran leadership, playing one
hundred plus college basketball games. Yeah, that stuff matters. It
matters within the game, but it matters a lot in
between the games as well, because these guys know what
it's like to go through the grind of the season,

(30:37):
and they know that just because you beat Duke in
the Champions Classic doesn't mean that something's going to come
easily to you the next game. They've all been through,
you know, highs and lows of a college basketball season.
So I think you're going to see just the maturity
of this team is going to continue to be something
that we talk about, I think throughout the entire season.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
How surprised were you at the line score of Jackson
Robinson twenty six and a half minutes over four had
two block shots and only one point. And if I
told you that before the game, and I said, but
Kentucky wins, would you believe me?

Speaker 5 (31:15):
No? No, no, No, that's That's exactly what I was prepared
to say. Was it that that? Yeah? If you would
have read me that stat line, yeah, and said what
are the chings of Kentucky wins? I would have said
one out of one hundred. I don't know, like you know,
I it's just hard to believe that you have a
main guy, you know, arguably your your best kind of

(31:36):
go to score just get held, you know, essentially for
nothing throughout the game. Now, I think coach Copes quote
in the postgame was true. You know that that's not
just blowing smoke. That's not just trying to build confidence
for a guy that had a tough game. The gravity
that he brings to the floor does matter. Like when

(31:56):
he's out there, it doesn't matter if he's over four,
over fourteen or eleven for fourteen. The defense is worried
about the fact that Jackson Robinson on the court and
that does carry weight. So even though he's not scoring,
he did have an impact on last night's game.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
You know what I kept reminding myself last night while
I'm watching Kentucky come back, is that when Pope built
this roster, and one of the announcers mentioned it, he
started with defense. Remember how people were kind of curious
that he was going for defenders before he went for
high volume shooters, high volume scorers. But it really sent

(32:37):
a message, I think, made a statement, and it certainly
paid off last night.

Speaker 5 (32:42):
Yeah. I mean it was just another example of kind
of a proof of concept of how far along and
how good this defense is. Yeah, we kind of started
to see it. We started to see it against right
Stateton buck Now, but it was Right stateon buck Now,
so you weren't sure exactly how much to buy into it.
And then actually in the second half it's what won
Kentucky the game down the stretch against against a team

(33:06):
as talented as a duke. So yeah, you absolutely right.
I think we all kind of sat there thinking like, well, okay,
we watched this high power at high octane offensive BYU.
We thought we were going to go out and score
a million points a game. And the first guys you
signed were you know, were Amari Williams, who take oh
way like some of these more like defensive minded guys

(33:27):
well a game play class night. It's probably exactly why
Coach Pope was looking at it the way that he was,
because he knew his system was going to allow the
offense to be what it is, but he had to
make sure that the defensive pieces were there first in
order to compete at this level.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
And yet that defense only forced one turnover in the
first half. I thought that was the weirdest stat of
all in the first half.

Speaker 5 (33:50):
It really was, and I think it led to a
lot of us, you know, I thought on Twitter, people
were talking to me about it about like, you know,
Kentucky has to do a better job taking care of
the ball, And I said, hey, folks, like turning it
over six or seven times and a half against Duke
isn't all that bad. What's bad is that it's six
or seven turnovers versus one, right, That made it feel

(34:12):
so much worse than it really was. And yeah, I
was surprised to see that, but obviously, you know, forcing
some tough shots, getting in to miss some threes like
those aren't the same as turnovers, but they end up
equating to the same thing. If you're just you're getting
stops and Kentucky was able to string together some stops
throughout the game and obviously did it enough to win

(34:32):
the game.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
Brandon Ramsey cas Are and the Brandon Ramsey College Basketball Show,
thank you, brother, have a good day.

Speaker 5 (34:39):
Yep, anytimes dick things having me on.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
We'll come back and wrap up this edition of The
Leads Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises. Welcome back, thanks to
I Guess, Chris Fisher, Brandon Ramsey. Final Thoughts and UK
History presented by Kentucky road Shows, Sports Cards and Memorabilia
and Election and learn more about them at roads showcards
dot com. On this date back in twenty four, UK

(35:05):
trailed Vandy thirteen nothing going into the fourth quarter, but
came back to win it fourteen to thirteen, and the
winning touchdown was a TV pass from Shane Boyd to
Glenn Holt. I'll never forget this one. Shane was under pressure,
he reached back and kind of lofted a rainmaker. Glen
Holt was in the middle of the end zone on

(35:26):
the very back line and made the catch just in
bounds to complete the comeback. That was a rough year
for the Wildcats under Rich Brooks. They had lost seven straight,
sixth straight going into that game. And the other game
that they won that year was against Indiana, and Shane
Boyd had a tremendous game. Wildcats.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
After losing their opener twenty eight nothing.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
To Louisville, they beat Indiana fifty one to thirty two,
and Shane Boyd threw for two hundred and five yards
and two touchdowns. He carried seventeen times for one hundred
and thirty yards and two touchdowns. And we thought it
was going to be that kind of year for Shane
because that's what kind of athlete he was. But I
found out the following year that in that game he

(36:14):
damaged his shoulder, not his throwing shoulder, but what that
meant was they couldn't call plays that had him running
the football anymore. So instead of a dual threat quarterback,
he became a dropback guy and there just wasn't enough
around him to call for more success that season. Ultimately,
Rich Brooks did lead the Wildcats out of the wilderness,

(36:37):
but we saw why so many coaches loved Shane Boyd.
A tough guy, a smart guy. You know, he shared
the position the year prior to Jared Lorenzo. That ticked
off a lot of people who did not see Shane
as a quarterback. But I will tell you this, he
must hold the record for most professional contracts sign in

(36:59):
the NFL, in the CFL, in whatever football league you got.
He signed a total of seventeen contracts to play professionally somehow,
some way, including the National Football League, but the Steelers,
the Cardinals, the Texans, the colt sometimes on the practice squad.

(37:20):
Most often is not, of course a backup. But he
was a great athlete and coaches loved him. That's why
they kept signing Shane Boy to contract after contract. Ended
up with twenty four hundred passing yards in his career
and nearly a thousand rushing yards, but didn't play for
very good teams.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
Sometimes that's the way it goes. I have a great day, everybody.
That's it. So long from the Leach Report.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
Thanks for listening to The Leach Report. Anytime you missed
a show, you can listen to the podcast at Tom
Leechkwind dot com, lap dot com or seven ninety Louisville
dot com, and anytime you're out of range of the stations,
catch the show via the iHeartRadio app. If you have
any questions for Tom. Email Leach Report at gmail dot

(38:15):
com and check out his website at Tom leach Ky
dot com.