Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good day, everybody. Welcome into a rainy Monday edition of
the Leads Report, presented by Bob tat Enterprises, and it
is preaked this week, so the second leg of the
Triple Crowns coming up on Saturday, and no sovereignty. The
Derby Winter is skipping it, but it did get a
little bump over the weekend with some horses from the
(00:25):
Derby coming in, so we'll talk about that and a
whole lot more today with our guests. Mark's story from
the Lexington Herald Leader, and he's got some interesting thoughts
on the uk U of l rivalry with the announcement
of the early edition of the men's basketball matchup next season.
And then Evan Meakala will join us and he's one
(00:46):
of the stat gurus that covers college basketball. We talked
to him a couple times during the season. His info
is i think followed by Mark Pope and many other
coaches around the country. So he has some interesting takes
on what the numbers say about the next edition of
(01:06):
the Wildcats and college basketball in general, and we'll get
to all of that in the second half of the show.
Today Wildcat News of the Day as a service of
just Sepies of Lexington and a big weekend for Kentucky baseball.
When we talked last on Friday, they were starting this
series against number seventeen Oklahoma, having lost four games in
(01:26):
a row. They had been swept at Mississippi State the
previous weekend and then lost game down at Western Kentucky
before that didn't have a midweek game. Oklahoma comes in
rank seventeenth in the country and Kentucky gets the sweep,
winning yesterday seven to two to make it three to
oh They had thirteen hits, tying for the second most
all season. Ben Cleaver again outstanding on the mound, and
(01:49):
Tyler Bell's two run homer broke up a two to
two tie. Kentucky never looked back. So that's the third
series win in the last four weekends and Kentucky has
now hit thirteen wins. When Derek Terry was with us
last week from Batcat Central, he said thirteen was believed
to be the magic number, that if Kentucky got to
thirteen SEC wins, they would be safely in the field
(02:12):
for the NCAA Tournament, and they got there in one weekend.
So they still have three games left at Vanderbilt next
weekend plus the SEC tournament to build on what is
now a thirteen and fourteen SEC record twenty eight and
twenty overall. So congrats to coach Benjion and his guys
for answering the bell in those three games. It went
out Saturday, they had a great crowd, beautiful weather. I
(02:34):
hung out up in the radio booth with Darren Hendrick
and Coach Madison and Dick Gabriel and saw Kentucky break
open a close game kind of similar to the way
it did yesterday. They held on late for a win.
On Friday. Oklahoma had the go ahead the go ahead
run at the player or the time run in the
ninth inning and the bullpen got the job done. So
(02:58):
a big weekend for Kentucky baseball and now they will
close out the season as far as SEC play at
Vanderbilt next weekend at the G League Elite camp. There
are several Wildcats involved, and Lamont Butler in particular showing
up well in his first game there. He had twelve points,
seven rebounds, four assists. He had a thirty seven and
(03:20):
a half inch standing vertical jump, which was I think
the among the best or the best there. And now
there's a speculation he might get invited to the NBA
Combine O take a Away. We'll be there at that
so well Kobe Brea, so maybe Lamont will get an invitation.
Maybe others as well. Amary Williams is there. There's one
(03:42):
of the I think the CBS's mock draft has him
actually in the end of the first round. Mariy So
and Andrew Carr with his versatile skill set. So last week,
remember we talked about Lamont Butler being a mid season
All America on the Sporting News team that Mike de
Course he chose. So had he not had all those
injury issues, he might have not needed to go to
(04:04):
the g League of lead camp to get to the
NBA Combined. So happy for Lamont and all the guys
who have showed out well at that event. Wish them
luck if they get a chance to move on to
the Combine and preakn This week is here and the
Derby runner up, Journalism is in that announcement coming yesterday
(04:24):
afternoon from Aaron Wellman of the Eclipse Thoroughbred Group. It's
one of the owners of Journalism who was the beaten
favorite in the Derby. Sandman is going to run back
the Arkansas Derby winner who finished off the board in
the run for the Roses, Bob Baffert's Rodriguez declared out
that foot issue is still just a bit of a problem,
(04:44):
so they're gonna hold him out point for the Belmont
with him. Entries will be taken today for the second
leg of the Triple Crown, and we'll talk more about
that as we get closer to race day on Saturday.
Thanks to the stories that we talk about each day,
you can find those on the bud lighte Leach Report
page at Tom leachky dot com. Our opening segment of
wild Cat News always presented by Giuseppes of Lexington, and
(05:08):
you can go to open Table right now. Make a
reservation for a special day or night out at Giuseppes.
Hopefully maybe you took Mom out to Giuseppe's for Mother's Day. Whatever,
the special occasion is, no place better to go. It's
off Nicholasville Road, just past Manor War here in Lexington.
Fantastic food and a really special ambiance. Sit in the
lounge area, live jazz music, to a company, your meal
(05:31):
each and every evening and we'll be right back here
on the Leech Report Radio Network Monday edition of The
Leech Report and coming up in a little over three weeks,
the LPGA Legends are coming to Central Kentucky, specifically to
Woodford County for the Woodford Legends Invitational Golf Tournament Saturday
(05:52):
and Sunday, June seventh and eighth. Some of the top
players in LPGA history Julie Inngster, Pat Bradley, Laura Davies
and Stevenson and others. You get your tickets at the
Woodford Club Foundation dot org. Tickets cost just fifteen dollars
per day. Kids seventeen and under get in free. And
KVC Kentucky a nonprofit child welfare, behavioral science, health healthcare organization.
(06:15):
It's going to benefit benefit from the proceeds. We welcome
Mark's story to the Club blueenil dot com hotline from
the Lexidon Harold Leer Kentucky Sports dot com and his
latest column focuses on the UKUFL rivalry and Mark. This
came after the announcement of the men's basketball game being
(06:36):
played at the earliest date since the series was resumed
in nineteen eighty three eighty four, and it'll be on
November the eleventh, not quite the opener, but close, and
you have written this column with a bold proposal, and
obviously it's it's in response to the scheduling. Was it
(06:58):
an instant reaction for you to write this or was
it as a result of fan feedback or both?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Well, Actually, the first time I I sertously proposed this,
but the first time I wrote about this idea was
in twenty thirteen, and that was when they announced that
they were going to move the football series to the
end of the year. And at that time there was
a like a handshake agreement between Matthew Mitchell and Jeff
Walls that the women's basketball game would always be on
(07:28):
the first Sunday in December. So at that point you
were playing, you were going to be playing football and
women's basketball a week apart. And I thought, well, why
not just play, you know, women's basketball, football and men's
basketball on the same weekend. Play one, play women's basketball
Friday night, play the football game on Saturday, and then
play the men's basketball game on Sunday and just have
(07:49):
a rivalry blowout. And I thought that would potentially be
really cool, a way that would really galvanize the state
and just be a way to sort of you know,
advertise the best in Kentucky college sports, and I hadn't
you know, at that time, the men's basketball coach at
Kentucky is preferred roster construction was, you know, a brand
(08:09):
new team every year, so you know, his interest I
thought was to have that game, the Loouisville game, as
late as possible, So you know, once i'd written it,
I didn't really think that much about it. But as
you point out then, when it was announced this year
that they're going to play the men's basketball game on
November eleventh, and I don't believe they've announced yet when
the women's basketball game will be, but last year it
(08:30):
was last school year, it was November sixteenth. And if
you're going to play these basketball games in November anyway,
there's not any reason you couldn't play them around the
football game.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Now, that is all true. And these days you can
get pretty instant reaction to opinions that you have and
the stands that you take. So what kind of feedback
have you heard from readers.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Well, the people that have cared enough to reply, I've
been pretty have been on board with it, have been
intrigued by it. So you know that that's been interesting.
You know, I tried to think, you know, what the
downsides would be. I guess, you know, maybe you lose
a little bit of individual focus on the particular games,
although I'm not sure that's actually true. I think you
(09:17):
might just build it, just sort of build things to
a crescendo. But yeah, the people that I've heard from
have been on board.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
It would be something unique because you know, Carolina Duke
obviously in terms of men's basketball, gets held as the
top rivalry and then they're in conference, so they're going
to play you know, they usually their last their second
meeting is in the last weekend of the regular season,
and the other ones somewhere in early February, so they
(09:46):
get more favorable slots for drawing attention in that they
don't have to compete with football. So this would be
and I say football, just a whole sport of football,
college and pro. So this would be a way to
create something unique at least, right.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, And you know, if you're gonna play in November,
if you're gonna play basketball in November, you're not gonna
be able to play on Saturday because football has all
the TV windows. I mean, that's just the reality that
you're not going to see much college basketball broadcast on
a Saturday before December. So in that sense, you're not
You're not going to lose anything, you know. I think
(10:26):
last year that or I'm saying last year. It's still
this school year. But in the this current school year.
I think the Kentucky Leville Women, I don't even think
they were on TV.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
It was.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
It was a stream game, but I think you could
get I think you can get TV on Friday and
Sunday for basketball if you need it, and if you
would have access to the SEC Network and the ACC Network,
I think you could get those games on TV in
some manner.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
No, I think that that makes sense. The football game
is going to be on somewhere on Saturday, you know,
and whether it's ESPN, SEC Network, ACC Network, whatever, So
that's that part of the TV is going to be
taken care of. Do you just for the men's basketball,
that's because that's the one that's changing. I know you
(11:15):
go back because I do to. When this thing was
resumed after the Dream Game, Joe b Joby Hall argued
to get it played earlier. He just wanted to get
it out of the way. I think and for Denny Crumb.
His teams usually maybe were a little slow out of
the gate, and you know, there was no seating that
you had to worry about in those days, so he
(11:35):
could just kind of let his team find itself and
play a really tough schedule and then you know, get
get going good at the end of the year. And
he wanted it as latest possible.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Right, that is correct, and you know this will this
will be far and away the earliest on the calendar
this game has ever been played. It has twice been
the season opener, the very first regular season game, the
game after the Dream Game was a season opener, and
then ten years later it was a season opener. Tony
(12:05):
Jelks sophomore year. I believe I'm not a big fan
of a plant in this game this early, and I'm
trying to decide ify my hypocrite because I was always
a big supporter of playing the football game as the
season opener, But it just feels to me like they're
playing it before basketball season really starts.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Well, I would love to see it in February or
something like it, and other I'd love to see a
series of weekends where you know, teams are playing one
weekend and that last month outside of their league. It's
never going to happen. But you know, if we're talk
about perfect world, I just take you know, what the
(12:44):
SEC did with playing the Big twelve there for a
while and the weekend before the Super Bowl when you
could get a lot of attention, was a smart thing
to do.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, I agree with you. I always liked the SEC
Big twelve challenge because it broke up kind of the
conference monotony may be too strong a word, but just
sort of broke up the routine. And I always liked
back when I was much much younger, when Kentucky would
sometimes schedule a huge game on Super Bowl Sunday and
probably most famously the Houston game when a chem Elijah
(13:17):
on and came in to go against Samboo and Melvin
Turpin at rapp Arena. So yeah, I agree with that.
I always like, you know, having a big non conference
game late late in the year.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Twenty three past the top of the hour, chat with
Mark Story from the Lexington Herald Leader at Mark C.
Story on x or Twitter if you prefer, and we'll
continue to visit here in just a moment. A show
is presented by Bobcat enterprises for locations around the state.
So google Bobcat when you need to buy or rent
a piece of heavy equipment for a job, A loader,
(13:47):
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moors for your home too, Bobcat Enterprises. We'll be right back.
We're back with Mark's story from the Lexington Herold Leader
in Kentucky Sports dot Com. Talk about another column that
you wrote recently. It was an amazing stat you on
Earth with Rhys Potter one time Lexing a Catholic star
(14:09):
coming back to play for the Wildcats having been at
Miami of Ohio the last couple of years. You have
an interesting trivia note in there that the last time
a player grew up playing basketball at Lexington and then
signed with UK out of high school, it wasn't exactly
any time recently, right, It was not.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
It was Melvin Turpin if you want somebody that actually
grew up in Lexington. The most recent player who signed
with Kentucky as a recruited scholarship player directly out of
high school with Sean Sutton, which would have been in
nineteen eighty seven, and Sean, of course only played here
his last two years after his dad became the UK
(14:52):
head coach and played here in high school. So yeah,
it's amazing how long it's been since a player from
the city signed with Kentucky. You know, began at Kentucky
as a scholarship player. Obviously, Cameron Mills was that level player,
was a first team All State player and you know,
had taken his high school, Paul and Storing Dunbar, to
the state championship game and back to back years. But
(15:15):
he came to UK as a walk hunt and you know,
I think ended up on scholarship probably the last couple
of years. But you know, to find a recruited high
school player who signed with Kentucky from the city of
Lexington who grew up in lexingon the last one was
Velvin Turpin.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
They used to have the Fayette County Invitational tournament between
December or between Christmas and New Year's when the school
without accession and you had the Lexington public high schools
all played in it. And then they bring in I
guess maybe three of the top teams around the state.
And I remember going out to Lafayette multiple days in
December of nineteen seventy eight, and in that tournament, you
(15:54):
saw Melvin Turpin O'Brian's station, Dirk Minifield of Lafayette, Charles
Hurt of Shelby County, all eventual Wildcats playing. You had
Vince Taylor from Tates Creek. You had Michael Scarce at
Henry Clay, you had Norris Beckley at Shelby County, and
Tony Wilson and Junior Johnson at Loffia, and I'm sure
I'm missing others, but that was the talented Lexington alone
(16:16):
and and a little bit of you know, outside the
state with you know, Shelby County in that particular one tournament.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Well, this is to get way in the way back machine.
You remember back in the seventies, the Street and Smith's
magazine they would well, yeah, with each each of like
metropolitan areas and the five best high school players from
each metropolitan area. And back then they used to include
both Louisville and Lexington separately, and there were you know,
(16:45):
and it compared favorably with the best players from you know,
far larger cities, and so you know, yeah, it's it's
been a bit of a different world, you know. I
think there have been players in the city who were
good enough to play at Kentucky and the Columny alluded to.
I mentioned four of them, but three of them. Three
of them were players that were seniors in years when
(17:07):
Kentucky had gone through coaching changes. I think I think
David Graves from Lexink Athletic, who went and became a
very very very good player and Notre Dame was good
enough to play at Kentucky. I think John Brown, who
actually committed to Rick Patino but then things went you know,
I never understood how why things went awry with he
and Tubby Smith, but he wound up, you know, basically
(17:28):
becoming a prototypical Tubby Smith kind of player for Pittsburgh
on really good teams. You know, I think people forget
how good those pit teams were. Obviously Shelvin Mcott Brian's station.
You know, he was a senior in two thousand and eight,
when you know you had the transition from Tubby Smith
to Billy Gillespie. I think UK did try to get
involved with him, but he had already committed to Butler
(17:50):
and kept his word. And then Kavian Hollingsworth, who was
almost the two thousand point score in college at Western,
I think he would have been good enough to play
at Kentucky, and that was a weird recruitment in that
they wanted him to wait and sign. He wanted to
sign early, and had him waited, I think they would
have offered.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Mark Thank you much, story Lexington Harold later. We'll be
right back. It's the late Trueport. We're presented each day
by Bobcat Enterprises. Tractors, loaders, skid steerloaders, forklifts, et cetera.
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closest to you. We'll go to the club Blue nil
dot com hotline and bring on Evanmakawa Evanmia dot com.
M it's e v A N M I y A
(18:49):
dot com correct. Yeah, great, yep uh. Let's talk about
some of your recent posts on X. It's a great
follow because you if you love college basketball. A lot
of really interesting content through evan site, Andy direction to
it and headlines on the posts, and one of them
(19:10):
has to do with the ranking of the transfer classes,
and you have a high opinion on the group that
Mark Pope has put together, right.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Yes, that's correct. So on my website, one of the
things that I do is I for every single team
in the transfer portal, I look at all of the
guys that they've brought in, and I basically evaluate how
good their incoming transfer class is, both looking at the
quality of guys they brought in but also the number
of guys. It's kind of similar to how you'll see
high school recruiting rankings work, but it's all based on
(19:40):
my statistical models evaluations of all these players and how
good I project them to be. And so Kentucky right
now has the second best incoming transfer class in the
entire country, taking into account both the quality of the
guys that brought in but also the number of pieces
they have. They're behind only Michigan. And I say that
because Michigan there's kind of a big asterisk with their
(20:03):
class because one of their biggest additions in the transfer
portal is yax Landeborg, who is still in the NBA
draft process, and a lot of people are saying there's
a good chance you might go to the NBA. So
if lend Theboorg were to not go to Michigan, I
think I think Kentucky would probably move ahead of Michigan
in my ranking and be the best incoming transfer class
(20:23):
in the entire country. So when you take all that
into account, it's been a really really impressive off season
for Kentucky and they've been pretty much better than anybody
in terms of the pieces that they're bringing in through
the portal.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
You did an interesting study also about what you term
the best way to build a roster in this current
climate of the transfer portal and nil. What were some
of the things that you found out and how much
of it was a surprise if any to you.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Yeah, I mean so one of the things that I
look at often is in this modern transfer portal era,
where a team can retool or rebuild an entire roster
from scratch if they want you in the offseason. That's
what we saw Kentucky do last year when Mark Pope
came in. The question is like, what is the best
way to build a championship level roster in twenty twenty
(21:13):
five because you have all of these different routes now
you can go the high school route, and get you know,
high level transfers, which is something that Kentucky has done
a lot in the past. You can go the portal
route and fill a lot of your roster with new
pieces veteran guys from other schools, or you can prioritize
returning guys from the previous team, retaining guys, and focusing
on roster continuity. All of these are very valid measures.
(21:35):
And so what I have found in looking at the
data of the most successful high majors over the last
several years is that the number one key is to
get more talent on your roster. I think that goes
without saying, but when you look at the teams that
have been the most successful, teams that have made final fours,
that have won national championships, that have gotten one season
had a lot of success throughout the regular season, the
(21:58):
common trend you'll see is that almost all of these
teams have had at least fifty percent of their minutes
being played by guys who are returning from the previous season.
So that means that they're building their teams around a core,
a key corp of guys who are coming back, and
then they're raising the talent level around them by getting
a couple key new pieces gither through the portal or
(22:19):
through the freshman ranks to raise the talent level, but
you're not necessarily completely re hauling an entire roster in
an offseason. You look at the last four national champions,
Florida this last year, Yukon the previous two years, Kansas
the year before. All of them were over that fifty
percent mark in terms of having returning players play a
majority of their minutes. And you look at this year's
(22:39):
final four. You had, you know, Florida obviously, but Houston
and Auburn as well. All of them had about seventy
percent or more of their minutes being played by returning players.
And the blueprint for those three schools was keep your
key pieces from last year and then get a couple
key pieces to raise the talent level. Duke was the
exception in this year's Final four, but they were the
(23:01):
most talented team in the entire country. They had three
likely lottery picks on their rosters, so it's not a
surprise that they were that good. But for a lot
of other teams who don't have that luxury of being
that talented, retaining your key guys from one season to
the next really is important.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Talking with Evbacala here on the club Blueenisle dot com hotline.
His website is Evanmeia dot com. It sounds like what
you're describing is what a lot of us older college
basketball fans grew up with. With a different twist. Teams
you know, Joby Hall's Kentucky teams were built, you know
where they you have players stay with the program and
(23:38):
you get the payoff as they got older, and the
new guys they'd bring in to give them a shot
of more talent would be freshmen now instead of freshmen,
it's or it's not always freshmen now, it can be transfers.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Right, Yeah, that's correct. And you know the difference is
when you get a freshman out of high school. You know,
obviously there's a chance that freshman is talented enough to
you only play one year in calle college and go
to the NBA Draft. But what you're seeing is in
this day and age, because of how much money you
can make in college, a lot of good high school
recruits are staying for multiple years in college. It's kind
(24:10):
of flipped now where you can get one year rentals
if you want to call it that through the portal.
You know, guys who have one year of eligibility left
and are willing to, you know, maybe come at for
the last year of college and make a big difference
to your program. And those guys can be very, very
valuable in kind of putting the final touches on a roster,
but also if you're continually having to rely on those
(24:32):
one year players. You know, I know there was a
good number of players Kentucky has this last season they
got as they were filling off their roster, but then
they're going to have to graduate after one year. You
look at Lamont Butler, Amari Williams, Dandrew Carr, Jackson Robinson,
Kobe Braya, like all of these guys were just available
for one year and then they're gone. So if you
can get guys, you know, if you're trying to raise
(24:53):
the talent level on your roster, if you're able to
get someone who will then play for multiple seasons for you,
that's really where you get a lot of gold. Because
you look at what Florida did this year. You know
a lot of their guys originally were transfers. You had,
you know, Walter Clayton and will Richard who were They
(25:14):
got them from the mid major ranks, but they stayed
for multiple years, and it was that second year or
third year with the program where they really really became elite.
And so I think that really is is the key
is regardless of where you get your talent initially, trying
to retain them and develop them for multiple years often
means they're gonna have their best seasons down the road.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Talk with Evan Mea Kala and we'll continue the conversation
here in just a moment on the Leach's Report, presented
by Bobcat Enterprises. It's the lead report from the Clark's
Pumping Shop studio. Return Refresh and Refuel at Clark's with
chat with Evanmeaccowa, evanmeat dot com, e v A n
m I y a dot com. What's the follow on
x slash Twitter.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
You can follow me also at Evanmea on on Twitter,
and also if you go to my website Evanmea dot
I've got links to all of my social media platforms
on there as well, and I also have a link
to my blog where I post a lot of you know,
this this roster construction stuff we've been talking about I
post a lot of that analysis over there.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
As well, really interesting stuff, and as you can imagine,
Kentucky fans eat this up, especially with coach Pope being
new in the job and the way he's gone about it,
and you know, with having to build a roster from scratch.
We've talked about that before on the show when you've
joined us. But I guess he did better than anybody
in terms of advancing in the tournament with no returning minutes.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Right, Yeah, That's really one of the most impressive things
that I thought about Kentucky's year season this year is
Mark Pope kind of made it look easy to get
an entirely new roster that was comprised pretty much all
of you know, these transfers and freshmen and making it
look like these guys have been playing together for a while.
But the reality is there were six high major programs
(26:56):
this year, including Kentucky, who had an entirely different roster
returned no minutes from the previous season. And while Kentucky
was successful that almost all of the rest of them
were not. The only other team in that group of
six that even made the tournament was Louisville, And you know,
I think we would all recognize Pat Kelse did a
phenomenal job of overcoming adversity in that situation. But there
(27:18):
were four other programs like USC who had an entirely
new roster, had hopes of making a tournament and just
did not. We weren't able to get there and fell
short of expectations. So what Mark Pope was able to
do in getting that team to click so quickly, I
think is not the norm. I think that is the
exception to the norm. And I think a lot of
(27:39):
coaches will struggle, especially if they're new coaches in a
new system with an entirely new roster. I think they
will for the most part, continue to struggle in that
first year. And so that that only makes it more
impressive what Kentucky in that first year under Mark Pope
was able to accomplish.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
This year, one of your posts had a ranking of
the top defensive players for the upcoming season based on analytics,
and you had two Wildcats in the top five, including
the number one ranked guy in Jaden Quainten's right.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Yes, that's correct, and I think it's been a big
key for Kentucky. And I noticed this last offseason as well.
Is really prioritizing getting some guys through the portal who
are going to be defensive stalwarts. So this year Jaden
Quaintons in terms of his predicted defensive impact next year,
has a higher predicted defensive impact and rating on my
(28:29):
website than any other transfer in the entire portal. And
then you've got Modiabat from coming from Alabama, who clocks
in at number four in terms of defensive value in
the portal. So they've gotten two of the top five
guys in the portal in that and that's something I
noticed last year because they went out and got Lamont Butler,
they got Amuri Williams, otega Oway, Brandon Garrison. All of
(28:51):
these guys were also rated really highly according to the
analytics and their defensive ability. Obviously, we know that Mark
Pope's you know, emphasism and strength is offense, but he's
really made a point the last two seasons of saying, hey,
I'm going to go get guys who are going to
really raise our defensive talent and ability and sort of
shore up that side of things. And I think that's
been a really, really good approach.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
And then there was another ranking based on best portal
players with who have a combination of being both an
elite distributor and an outstanding free throw shooter. And on
that second one, there's one theory that if you shoot
well at the free throw line, it'll show up over
time in your field goal percentage as well. So, and
(29:36):
Jalen Low was number three on that list, behind Boogie
Flan and Jacobe Gillespie, who's going down to Tennessee. So
tell me what led to Jalen getting ranked that highly
And do you also subscribe to that theory about free
throw shooting.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Yeah, so, yeah, Jolanne Low was one of the most
elite players in the country when it came to both
playmaking for others. He's in the top two percent national
and his assist rate grade on my website, and he's
also in the top two percent nationally when it comes
to his predicted free throw percentage for next year he shoots.
He's predicted to shoot almost ninety percent from the line
(30:11):
next year, which is something that is always extremely valuable
for a floor general. On the floor, especially late in games,
they're often going to have the ball and if they're
really reliable from the line, that often really helps secure games.
So you look at those three things together, and that's
something that you want in any point guard that you have.
And then you mentioned the three point shooting. That's that's
an area that you know he is not as prolific in.
(30:32):
But one thing that you have to point to is
that that free throw shooting percentage does often reflect that
guys can be a better three point shooter in the
future than they've performed so far. You know, in his career,
low has shot under thirty percent from three, But when
you combine both the level of competition that he's played
and also his really high freethrow grade on my website,
(30:55):
I actually have a projection for him of shooting closer
to thirty three thirty four percent from three this year.
So I think we're gonna see a better you know,
three point shooting percentage from him than he's done previously.
And hopefully that's something that you know, there's there's plenty
of other talented shooters on this team. Certainly hopefully that's
an era he can contribute better than he has in
the past.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
So we've talked about low Acquaintance and diabate for their
defensive acumen with the rest of the portal class city
thing in particular that stands out on numbers for any
of those guys.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Well, I do really think that it's gonna be very
fun to have both Diabate and Quaintance, you know, potentially
as you're starting big men there. They're they're both different,
but they're both very very you know, powerful and dominant guys,
especially in the defensive end. I think something that's really stuck
out about Diabate at Alabama was he was the kind
(31:45):
of guy who was the perfect kind of like role
player around their other stars, where he did everything else
that the team needed through you know, being a willing
you know, a willing rebounder, being tough on the class,
protecting the rim, high hustle plays, and that shows up
in a lot of his advanced metrics that point to
(32:05):
his impact on Alabama's team performance when he was on
the floor. When he was on the court, Alabama played
way better than when he was on the bench, and
that just I think goes to the intangibles that he
brings to the court. So I think he's going to
be a really valuable piece for Kentucky because of that
and kind of allowing the other star players around him,
you know, you're more classic leading scorers like Jolne low
(32:25):
Otaya awakening back. Obviously, I think those guys are really
gonna thrive because of having a guy like Diabat on
the court with them.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
You think there are a lot of Nile numbers that
are still inflated beyond what they really are.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Yeah, I you know, I by and large, I think,
you know, the the bigger numbers we've seen in terms
of what you know, top fifty or top one hundred
players in the portal are going for, I think those
are largely accurate. But when it comes to you know,
individual players or individual team budgets, I think, you know,
it's just hard to know exactly what the agenda is
(32:59):
behind any pieces of information that's being floated out there,
because every single player or agent or team you know,
might have something that they're trying to spread there. So
I do think there probably is some inflation, especially when
it's talking about you know, going rates for players of
what they're expecting in the market, and I think a
lot of times what a player is actually paid can
be a little bit less than that. But I still
(33:19):
think it's undeniable that the rate in which we've seen
players going for I mean, according to my data and
the market value that I've been tracking a player who
would be worth one million dollars last season, So a
player worth one million in last year's transfer portal market
is going for north of two point five million this
this offseason. So we're seeing, you know, a boost of
(33:41):
over two and a half two point five x what
we saw last year. That's just how crazy the market
has been and how much teams are willing to spend
and invest in in men's basketball.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
EVN, thank you so much for the time.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Yeah, thank you, Tom. This is great.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
It's the lead reporting of the official coffee of our
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corn Brad Hamp. This is the Good Life final segment
of the Leach Report. Mentioned entries are going to be
taken today for the Preakness and all of the other
undercard stakes on Saturday up at Pimlico. All of our
(35:23):
Triple Crown coverage again, the Springs presented by Claiborne Farm
doing the usual unusually well for more than a century.
UK Softball earns a bit of the NCAA tournament for
the sixteenth year in a row. They'll be in the
Clemson Regional as a two seed and play at two
o'clock Eastern this Friday against Northwestern. It's a double elimination
in the regional, so best of luck to coach Lawson
(35:46):
and her team when they start play on Friday. This
day and Wow Cat History is a presentation of Kentucky
road Show sports cards and memorabilia. They're on Romney Road
here in Lexington and their Roadshowcards dot Com. Actually over
the store last week, I think, and picked up some
items for a birthday gift, so you can head there
(36:09):
to see all the great memorabilia and all the collectibles
that they have at Kentucky road Show Shop. Nineteen ninety seven.
This day, Tubby Smith announced that Tuby Smith was announced
as the new head basketball coach at Kentucky as the
successor to Rick Patino. And of course we'd go on
to win the national championship in his very first season.
A lot of Wildcat birthdays today. Kevin Greevy one of
(36:30):
the all time great scores at Kentucky. He's celebrating a
birthday today, Keith Bogan's as well. Keith deserves to be
in the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame one of these
days soon. Joker Phillips, former Wildcat star as a receiver,
and of course the coach here as well. And then
Nate Cestina transferred in from Bucknell, and there's been a
(36:53):
star on the Kentucky TBT team in the last summer
and Kwade all celebrating birthdays today. A cause of death
has been determined for Ben Christman, the former Wildcat offensive lineman.
The coroner for Clark County, Nevada. Ben was transferred to
(37:15):
UNLV and was preparing for his first season. He passed
back in February as he was preparing his practice. He
was working out with his Rebel teammates. They say it
was cardio myopathy and cardiac arrhythmia and an irregular heartbeat,
so at least maybe some closure for his family and friends.
UKQB commit DJ Hunter on the Sunday Morning sports talk
(37:36):
show yesterday. His dad played at EKU at one time,
and DJ talked to the guys about possibly considering transferring
into a high school in Kentucky to play in this
upcoming season. Says he's a pass first QB, but comfortable
running as well, as a cousin of Ty Bryant, and
he's out of Knoxville right now. That all loot for
(37:57):
the sedition of The Leech Report, presented by Bob Kat Enterprises.
Will see you tomorrow.
Good day, everybody. Welcome into a rainy Monday edition of
the Leads Report, presented by Bob tat Enterprises, and it
is preaked this week, so the second leg of the
Triple Crowns coming up on Saturday, and no sovereignty. The
Derby Winter is skipping it, but it did get a
little bump over the weekend with some horses from the
(00:25):
Derby coming in, so we'll talk about that and a
whole lot more today with our guests. Mark's story from
the Lexington Herald Leader, and he's got some interesting thoughts
on the uk U of l rivalry with the announcement
of the early edition of the men's basketball matchup next season.
And then Evan Meakala will join us and he's one
(00:46):
of the stat gurus that covers college basketball. We talked
to him a couple times during the season. His info
is i think followed by Mark Pope and many other
coaches around the country. So he has some interesting takes
on what the numbers say about the next edition of
(01:06):
the Wildcats and college basketball in general, and we'll get
to all of that in the second half of the show.
Today Wildcat News of the Day as a service of
just Sepies of Lexington and a big weekend for Kentucky baseball.
When we talked last on Friday, they were starting this
series against number seventeen Oklahoma, having lost four games in
(01:26):
a row. They had been swept at Mississippi State the
previous weekend and then lost game down at Western Kentucky
before that didn't have a midweek game. Oklahoma comes in
rank seventeenth in the country and Kentucky gets the sweep,
winning yesterday seven to two to make it three to
oh They had thirteen hits, tying for the second most
all season. Ben Cleaver again outstanding on the mound, and
(01:49):
Tyler Bell's two run homer broke up a two to
two tie. Kentucky never looked back. So that's the third
series win in the last four weekends and Kentucky has
now hit thirteen wins. When Derek Terry was with us
last week from Batcat Central, he said thirteen was believed
to be the magic number, that if Kentucky got to
thirteen SEC wins, they would be safely in the field
(02:12):
for the NCAA Tournament, and they got there in one weekend.
So they still have three games left at Vanderbilt next
weekend plus the SEC tournament to build on what is
now a thirteen and fourteen SEC record twenty eight and
twenty overall. So congrats to coach Benjion and his guys
for answering the bell in those three games. It went
out Saturday, they had a great crowd, beautiful weather. I
(02:34):
hung out up in the radio booth with Darren Hendrick
and Coach Madison and Dick Gabriel and saw Kentucky break
open a close game kind of similar to the way
it did yesterday. They held on late for a win.
On Friday. Oklahoma had the go ahead the go ahead
run at the player or the time run in the
ninth inning and the bullpen got the job done. So
(02:58):
a big weekend for Kentucky baseball and now they will
close out the season as far as SEC play at
Vanderbilt next weekend at the G League Elite camp. There
are several Wildcats involved, and Lamont Butler in particular showing
up well in his first game there. He had twelve points,
seven rebounds, four assists. He had a thirty seven and
(03:20):
a half inch standing vertical jump, which was I think
the among the best or the best there. And now
there's a speculation he might get invited to the NBA
Combine O take a Away. We'll be there at that
so well Kobe Brea, so maybe Lamont will get an invitation.
Maybe others as well. Amary Williams is there. There's one
(03:42):
of the I think the CBS's mock draft has him
actually in the end of the first round. Mariy So
and Andrew Carr with his versatile skill set. So last week,
remember we talked about Lamont Butler being a mid season
All America on the Sporting News team that Mike de
Course he chose. So had he not had all those
injury issues, he might have not needed to go to
(04:04):
the g League of lead camp to get to the
NBA Combined. So happy for Lamont and all the guys
who have showed out well at that event. Wish them
luck if they get a chance to move on to
the Combine and preakn This week is here and the
Derby runner up, Journalism is in that announcement coming yesterday
(04:24):
afternoon from Aaron Wellman of the Eclipse Thoroughbred Group. It's
one of the owners of Journalism who was the beaten
favorite in the Derby. Sandman is going to run back
the Arkansas Derby winner who finished off the board in
the run for the Roses, Bob Baffert's Rodriguez declared out
that foot issue is still just a bit of a problem,
(04:44):
so they're gonna hold him out point for the Belmont
with him. Entries will be taken today for the second
leg of the Triple Crown, and we'll talk more about
that as we get closer to race day on Saturday.
Thanks to the stories that we talk about each day,
you can find those on the bud lighte Leach Report
page at Tom leachky dot com. Our opening segment of
wild Cat News always presented by Giuseppes of Lexington, and
(05:08):
you can go to open Table right now. Make a
reservation for a special day or night out at Giuseppes.
Hopefully maybe you took Mom out to Giuseppe's for Mother's Day. Whatever,
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lounge area, live jazz music, to a company, your meal
(05:31):
each and every evening and we'll be right back here
on the Leech Report Radio Network Monday edition of The
Leech Report and coming up in a little over three weeks,
the LPGA Legends are coming to Central Kentucky, specifically to
Woodford County for the Woodford Legends Invitational Golf Tournament Saturday
(05:52):
and Sunday, June seventh and eighth. Some of the top
players in LPGA history Julie Inngster, Pat Bradley, Laura Davies
and Stevenson and others. You get your tickets at the
Woodford Club Foundation dot org. Tickets cost just fifteen dollars
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(06:15):
It's going to benefit benefit from the proceeds. We welcome
Mark's story to the Club blueenil dot com hotline from
the Lexidon Harold Leer Kentucky Sports dot com and his
latest column focuses on the UKUFL rivalry and Mark. This
came after the announcement of the men's basketball game being
(06:36):
played at the earliest date since the series was resumed
in nineteen eighty three eighty four, and it'll be on
November the eleventh, not quite the opener, but close, and
you have written this column with a bold proposal, and
obviously it's it's in response to the scheduling. Was it
(06:58):
an instant reaction for you to write this or was
it as a result of fan feedback or both?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Well, Actually, the first time I I sertously proposed this,
but the first time I wrote about this idea was
in twenty thirteen, and that was when they announced that
they were going to move the football series to the
end of the year. And at that time there was
a like a handshake agreement between Matthew Mitchell and Jeff
Walls that the women's basketball game would always be on
(07:28):
the first Sunday in December. So at that point you
were playing, you were going to be playing football and
women's basketball a week apart. And I thought, well, why
not just play, you know, women's basketball, football and men's
basketball on the same weekend. Play one, play women's basketball
Friday night, play the football game on Saturday, and then
play the men's basketball game on Sunday and just have
(07:49):
a rivalry blowout. And I thought that would potentially be
really cool, a way that would really galvanize the state
and just be a way to sort of you know,
advertise the best in Kentucky college sports, and I hadn't
you know, at that time, the men's basketball coach at
Kentucky is preferred roster construction was, you know, a brand
(08:09):
new team every year, so you know, his interest I
thought was to have that game, the Loouisville game, as
late as possible, So you know, once i'd written it,
I didn't really think that much about it. But as
you point out then, when it was announced this year
that they're going to play the men's basketball game on
November eleventh, and I don't believe they've announced yet when
the women's basketball game will be, but last year it
(08:30):
was last school year, it was November sixteenth. And if
you're going to play these basketball games in November anyway,
there's not any reason you couldn't play them around the
football game.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Now, that is all true. And these days you can
get pretty instant reaction to opinions that you have and
the stands that you take. So what kind of feedback
have you heard from readers.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Well, the people that have cared enough to reply, I've
been pretty have been on board with it, have been
intrigued by it. So you know that that's been interesting.
You know, I tried to think, you know, what the
downsides would be. I guess, you know, maybe you lose
a little bit of individual focus on the particular games,
although I'm not sure that's actually true. I think you
(09:17):
might just build it, just sort of build things to
a crescendo. But yeah, the people that I've heard from
have been on board.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
It would be something unique because you know, Carolina Duke
obviously in terms of men's basketball, gets held as the
top rivalry and then they're in conference, so they're going
to play you know, they usually their last their second
meeting is in the last weekend of the regular season,
and the other ones somewhere in early February, so they
(09:46):
get more favorable slots for drawing attention in that they
don't have to compete with football. So this would be
and I say football, just a whole sport of football,
college and pro. So this would be a way to
create something unique at least, right.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, And you know, if you're gonna play in November,
if you're gonna play basketball in November, you're not gonna
be able to play on Saturday because football has all
the TV windows. I mean, that's just the reality that
you're not going to see much college basketball broadcast on
a Saturday before December. So in that sense, you're not
You're not going to lose anything, you know. I think
(10:26):
last year that or I'm saying last year. It's still
this school year. But in the this current school year.
I think the Kentucky Leville Women, I don't even think
they were on TV.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
It was.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
It was a stream game, but I think you could
get I think you can get TV on Friday and
Sunday for basketball if you need it, and if you
would have access to the SEC Network and the ACC Network,
I think you could get those games on TV in
some manner.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
No, I think that that makes sense. The football game
is going to be on somewhere on Saturday, you know,
and whether it's ESPN, SEC Network, ACC Network, whatever, So
that's that part of the TV is going to be
taken care of. Do you just for the men's basketball,
that's because that's the one that's changing. I know you
(11:15):
go back because I do to. When this thing was
resumed after the Dream Game, Joe b Joby Hall argued
to get it played earlier. He just wanted to get
it out of the way. I think and for Denny Crumb.
His teams usually maybe were a little slow out of
the gate, and you know, there was no seating that
you had to worry about in those days, so he
(11:35):
could just kind of let his team find itself and
play a really tough schedule and then you know, get
get going good at the end of the year. And
he wanted it as latest possible.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Right, that is correct, and you know this will this
will be far and away the earliest on the calendar
this game has ever been played. It has twice been
the season opener, the very first regular season game, the
game after the Dream Game was a season opener, and
then ten years later it was a season opener. Tony
(12:05):
Jelks sophomore year. I believe I'm not a big fan
of a plant in this game this early, and I'm
trying to decide ify my hypocrite because I was always
a big supporter of playing the football game as the
season opener, But it just feels to me like they're
playing it before basketball season really starts.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Well, I would love to see it in February or
something like it, and other I'd love to see a
series of weekends where you know, teams are playing one
weekend and that last month outside of their league. It's
never going to happen. But you know, if we're talk
about perfect world, I just take you know, what the
(12:44):
SEC did with playing the Big twelve there for a
while and the weekend before the Super Bowl when you
could get a lot of attention, was a smart thing
to do.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, I agree with you. I always liked the SEC
Big twelve challenge because it broke up kind of the
conference monotony may be too strong a word, but just
sort of broke up the routine. And I always liked
back when I was much much younger, when Kentucky would
sometimes schedule a huge game on Super Bowl Sunday and
probably most famously the Houston game when a chem Elijah
(13:17):
on and came in to go against Samboo and Melvin
Turpin at rapp Arena. So yeah, I agree with that.
I always like, you know, having a big non conference
game late late in the year.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Twenty three past the top of the hour, chat with
Mark Story from the Lexington Herald Leader at Mark C.
Story on x or Twitter if you prefer, and we'll
continue to visit here in just a moment. A show
is presented by Bobcat enterprises for locations around the state.
So google Bobcat when you need to buy or rent
a piece of heavy equipment for a job, A loader,
(13:47):
a Bobcat, an excavator, whatever it might be. Zero turn
moors for your home too, Bobcat Enterprises. We'll be right back.
We're back with Mark's story from the Lexington Herold Leader
in Kentucky Sports dot Com. Talk about another column that
you wrote recently. It was an amazing stat you on
Earth with Rhys Potter one time Lexing a Catholic star
(14:09):
coming back to play for the Wildcats having been at
Miami of Ohio the last couple of years. You have
an interesting trivia note in there that the last time
a player grew up playing basketball at Lexington and then
signed with UK out of high school, it wasn't exactly
any time recently, right, It was not.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
It was Melvin Turpin if you want somebody that actually
grew up in Lexington. The most recent player who signed
with Kentucky as a recruited scholarship player directly out of
high school with Sean Sutton, which would have been in
nineteen eighty seven, and Sean, of course only played here
his last two years after his dad became the UK
(14:52):
head coach and played here in high school. So yeah,
it's amazing how long it's been since a player from
the city signed with Kentucky. You know, began at Kentucky
as a scholarship player. Obviously, Cameron Mills was that level player,
was a first team All State player and you know,
had taken his high school, Paul and Storing Dunbar, to
the state championship game and back to back years. But
(15:15):
he came to UK as a walk hunt and you know,
I think ended up on scholarship probably the last couple
of years. But you know, to find a recruited high
school player who signed with Kentucky from the city of
Lexington who grew up in lexingon the last one was
Velvin Turpin.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
They used to have the Fayette County Invitational tournament between
December or between Christmas and New Year's when the school
without accession and you had the Lexington public high schools
all played in it. And then they bring in I
guess maybe three of the top teams around the state.
And I remember going out to Lafayette multiple days in
December of nineteen seventy eight, and in that tournament, you
(15:54):
saw Melvin Turpin O'Brian's station, Dirk Minifield of Lafayette, Charles
Hurt of Shelby County, all eventual Wildcats playing. You had
Vince Taylor from Tates Creek. You had Michael Scarce at
Henry Clay, you had Norris Beckley at Shelby County, and
Tony Wilson and Junior Johnson at Loffia, and I'm sure
I'm missing others, but that was the talented Lexington alone
(16:16):
and and a little bit of you know, outside the
state with you know, Shelby County in that particular one tournament.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Well, this is to get way in the way back machine.
You remember back in the seventies, the Street and Smith's
magazine they would well, yeah, with each each of like
metropolitan areas and the five best high school players from
each metropolitan area. And back then they used to include
both Louisville and Lexington separately, and there were you know,
(16:45):
and it compared favorably with the best players from you know,
far larger cities, and so you know, yeah, it's it's
been a bit of a different world, you know. I
think there have been players in the city who were
good enough to play at Kentucky and the Columny alluded to.
I mentioned four of them, but three of them. Three
of them were players that were seniors in years when
(17:07):
Kentucky had gone through coaching changes. I think I think
David Graves from Lexink Athletic, who went and became a
very very very good player and Notre Dame was good
enough to play at Kentucky. I think John Brown, who
actually committed to Rick Patino but then things went you know,
I never understood how why things went awry with he
and Tubby Smith, but he wound up, you know, basically
(17:28):
becoming a prototypical Tubby Smith kind of player for Pittsburgh
on really good teams. You know, I think people forget
how good those pit teams were. Obviously Shelvin Mcott Brian's station.
You know, he was a senior in two thousand and eight,
when you know you had the transition from Tubby Smith
to Billy Gillespie. I think UK did try to get
involved with him, but he had already committed to Butler
(17:50):
and kept his word. And then Kavian Hollingsworth, who was
almost the two thousand point score in college at Western,
I think he would have been good enough to play
at Kentucky, and that was a weird recruitment in that
they wanted him to wait and sign. He wanted to
sign early, and had him waited, I think they would
have offered.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Mark Thank you much, story Lexington Harold later. We'll be
right back. It's the late Trueport. We're presented each day
by Bobcat Enterprises. Tractors, loaders, skid steerloaders, forklifts, et cetera.
All of that kind of heavy equipment. You can buy
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(18:29):
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dot com hotline and bring on Evanmakawa Evanmia dot com.
M it's e v A N M I y A
(18:49):
dot com correct. Yeah, great, yep uh. Let's talk about
some of your recent posts on X. It's a great
follow because you if you love college basketball. A lot
of really interesting content through evan site, Andy direction to
it and headlines on the posts, and one of them
(19:10):
has to do with the ranking of the transfer classes,
and you have a high opinion on the group that
Mark Pope has put together, right.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Yes, that's correct. So on my website, one of the
things that I do is I for every single team
in the transfer portal, I look at all of the
guys that they've brought in, and I basically evaluate how
good their incoming transfer class is, both looking at the
quality of guys they brought in but also the number
of guys. It's kind of similar to how you'll see
high school recruiting rankings work, but it's all based on
(19:40):
my statistical models evaluations of all these players and how
good I project them to be. And so Kentucky right
now has the second best incoming transfer class in the
entire country, taking into account both the quality of the
guys that brought in but also the number of pieces
they have. They're behind only Michigan. And I say that
because Michigan there's kind of a big asterisk with their
(20:03):
class because one of their biggest additions in the transfer
portal is yax Landeborg, who is still in the NBA
draft process, and a lot of people are saying there's
a good chance you might go to the NBA. So
if lend Theboorg were to not go to Michigan, I
think I think Kentucky would probably move ahead of Michigan
in my ranking and be the best incoming transfer class
(20:23):
in the entire country. So when you take all that
into account, it's been a really really impressive off season
for Kentucky and they've been pretty much better than anybody
in terms of the pieces that they're bringing in through
the portal.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
You did an interesting study also about what you term
the best way to build a roster in this current
climate of the transfer portal and nil. What were some
of the things that you found out and how much
of it was a surprise if any to you.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Yeah, I mean so one of the things that I
look at often is in this modern transfer portal era,
where a team can retool or rebuild an entire roster
from scratch if they want you in the offseason. That's
what we saw Kentucky do last year when Mark Pope
came in. The question is like, what is the best
way to build a championship level roster in twenty twenty
(21:13):
five because you have all of these different routes now
you can go the high school route, and get you know,
high level transfers, which is something that Kentucky has done
a lot in the past. You can go the portal
route and fill a lot of your roster with new
pieces veteran guys from other schools, or you can prioritize
returning guys from the previous team, retaining guys, and focusing
on roster continuity. All of these are very valid measures.
(21:35):
And so what I have found in looking at the
data of the most successful high majors over the last
several years is that the number one key is to
get more talent on your roster. I think that goes
without saying, but when you look at the teams that
have been the most successful, teams that have made final fours,
that have won national championships, that have gotten one season
had a lot of success throughout the regular season, the
(21:58):
common trend you'll see is that almost all of these
teams have had at least fifty percent of their minutes
being played by guys who are returning from the previous season.
So that means that they're building their teams around a core,
a key corp of guys who are coming back, and
then they're raising the talent level around them by getting
a couple key new pieces gither through the portal or
(22:19):
through the freshman ranks to raise the talent level, but
you're not necessarily completely re hauling an entire roster in
an offseason. You look at the last four national champions,
Florida this last year, Yukon the previous two years, Kansas
the year before. All of them were over that fifty
percent mark in terms of having returning players play a
majority of their minutes. And you look at this year's
(22:39):
final four. You had, you know, Florida obviously, but Houston
and Auburn as well. All of them had about seventy
percent or more of their minutes being played by returning players.
And the blueprint for those three schools was keep your
key pieces from last year and then get a couple
key pieces to raise the talent level. Duke was the
exception in this year's Final four, but they were the
(23:01):
most talented team in the entire country. They had three
likely lottery picks on their rosters, so it's not a
surprise that they were that good. But for a lot
of other teams who don't have that luxury of being
that talented, retaining your key guys from one season to
the next really is important.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Talking with Evbacala here on the club Blueenisle dot com hotline.
His website is Evanmeia dot com. It sounds like what
you're describing is what a lot of us older college
basketball fans grew up with. With a different twist. Teams
you know, Joby Hall's Kentucky teams were built, you know
where they you have players stay with the program and
(23:38):
you get the payoff as they got older, and the
new guys they'd bring in to give them a shot
of more talent would be freshmen now instead of freshmen,
it's or it's not always freshmen now, it can be transfers.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Right, Yeah, that's correct. And you know the difference is
when you get a freshman out of high school. You know,
obviously there's a chance that freshman is talented enough to
you only play one year in calle college and go
to the NBA Draft. But what you're seeing is in
this day and age, because of how much money you
can make in college, a lot of good high school
recruits are staying for multiple years in college. It's kind
(24:10):
of flipped now where you can get one year rentals
if you want to call it that through the portal.
You know, guys who have one year of eligibility left
and are willing to, you know, maybe come at for
the last year of college and make a big difference
to your program. And those guys can be very, very
valuable in kind of putting the final touches on a roster,
but also if you're continually having to rely on those
(24:32):
one year players. You know, I know there was a
good number of players Kentucky has this last season they
got as they were filling off their roster, but then
they're going to have to graduate after one year. You
look at Lamont Butler, Amari Williams, Dandrew Carr, Jackson Robinson,
Kobe Braya, like all of these guys were just available
for one year and then they're gone. So if you
can get guys, you know, if you're trying to raise
(24:53):
the talent level on your roster, if you're able to
get someone who will then play for multiple seasons for you,
that's really where you get a lot of gold. Because
you look at what Florida did this year. You know
a lot of their guys originally were transfers. You had,
you know, Walter Clayton and will Richard who were They
(25:14):
got them from the mid major ranks, but they stayed
for multiple years, and it was that second year or
third year with the program where they really really became elite.
And so I think that really is is the key
is regardless of where you get your talent initially, trying
to retain them and develop them for multiple years often
means they're gonna have their best seasons down the road.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Talk with Evan Mea Kala and we'll continue the conversation
here in just a moment on the Leach's Report, presented
by Bobcat Enterprises. It's the lead report from the Clark's
Pumping Shop studio. Return Refresh and Refuel at Clark's with
chat with Evanmeaccowa, evanmeat dot com, e v A n
m I y a dot com. What's the follow on
x slash Twitter.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
You can follow me also at Evanmea on on Twitter,
and also if you go to my website Evanmea dot
I've got links to all of my social media platforms
on there as well, and I also have a link
to my blog where I post a lot of you know,
this this roster construction stuff we've been talking about I
post a lot of that analysis over there.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
As well, really interesting stuff, and as you can imagine,
Kentucky fans eat this up, especially with coach Pope being
new in the job and the way he's gone about it,
and you know, with having to build a roster from scratch.
We've talked about that before on the show when you've
joined us. But I guess he did better than anybody
in terms of advancing in the tournament with no returning minutes.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Right, Yeah, That's really one of the most impressive things
that I thought about Kentucky's year season this year is
Mark Pope kind of made it look easy to get
an entirely new roster that was comprised pretty much all
of you know, these transfers and freshmen and making it
look like these guys have been playing together for a while.
But the reality is there were six high major programs
(26:56):
this year, including Kentucky, who had an entirely different roster
returned no minutes from the previous season. And while Kentucky
was successful that almost all of the rest of them
were not. The only other team in that group of
six that even made the tournament was Louisville, And you know,
I think we would all recognize Pat Kelse did a
phenomenal job of overcoming adversity in that situation. But there
(27:18):
were four other programs like USC who had an entirely
new roster, had hopes of making a tournament and just
did not. We weren't able to get there and fell
short of expectations. So what Mark Pope was able to
do in getting that team to click so quickly, I
think is not the norm. I think that is the
exception to the norm. And I think a lot of
(27:39):
coaches will struggle, especially if they're new coaches in a
new system with an entirely new roster. I think they
will for the most part, continue to struggle in that
first year. And so that that only makes it more
impressive what Kentucky in that first year under Mark Pope
was able to accomplish.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
This year, one of your posts had a ranking of
the top defensive players for the upcoming season based on analytics,
and you had two Wildcats in the top five, including
the number one ranked guy in Jaden Quainten's right.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Yes, that's correct, and I think it's been a big
key for Kentucky. And I noticed this last offseason as well.
Is really prioritizing getting some guys through the portal who
are going to be defensive stalwarts. So this year Jaden
Quaintons in terms of his predicted defensive impact next year,
has a higher predicted defensive impact and rating on my
(28:29):
website than any other transfer in the entire portal. And
then you've got Modiabat from coming from Alabama, who clocks
in at number four in terms of defensive value in
the portal. So they've gotten two of the top five
guys in the portal in that and that's something I
noticed last year because they went out and got Lamont Butler,
they got Amuri Williams, otega Oway, Brandon Garrison. All of
(28:51):
these guys were also rated really highly according to the
analytics and their defensive ability. Obviously, we know that Mark
Pope's you know, emphasism and strength is offense, but he's
really made a point the last two seasons of saying, hey,
I'm going to go get guys who are going to
really raise our defensive talent and ability and sort of
shore up that side of things. And I think that's
been a really, really good approach.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
And then there was another ranking based on best portal
players with who have a combination of being both an
elite distributor and an outstanding free throw shooter. And on
that second one, there's one theory that if you shoot
well at the free throw line, it'll show up over
time in your field goal percentage as well. So, and
(29:36):
Jalen Low was number three on that list, behind Boogie
Flan and Jacobe Gillespie, who's going down to Tennessee. So
tell me what led to Jalen getting ranked that highly
And do you also subscribe to that theory about free
throw shooting.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Yeah, so, yeah, Jolanne Low was one of the most
elite players in the country when it came to both
playmaking for others. He's in the top two percent national
and his assist rate grade on my website, and he's
also in the top two percent nationally when it comes
to his predicted free throw percentage for next year he shoots.
He's predicted to shoot almost ninety percent from the line
(30:11):
next year, which is something that is always extremely valuable
for a floor general. On the floor, especially late in games,
they're often going to have the ball and if they're
really reliable from the line, that often really helps secure games.
So you look at those three things together, and that's
something that you want in any point guard that you have.
And then you mentioned the three point shooting. That's that's
an area that you know he is not as prolific in.
(30:32):
But one thing that you have to point to is
that that free throw shooting percentage does often reflect that
guys can be a better three point shooter in the
future than they've performed so far. You know, in his career,
low has shot under thirty percent from three, But when
you combine both the level of competition that he's played
and also his really high freethrow grade on my website,
(30:55):
I actually have a projection for him of shooting closer
to thirty three thirty four percent from three this year.
So I think we're gonna see a better you know,
three point shooting percentage from him than he's done previously.
And hopefully that's something that you know, there's there's plenty
of other talented shooters on this team. Certainly hopefully that's
an era he can contribute better than he has in
the past.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
So we've talked about low Acquaintance and diabate for their
defensive acumen with the rest of the portal class city
thing in particular that stands out on numbers for any
of those guys.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Well, I do really think that it's gonna be very
fun to have both Diabate and Quaintance, you know, potentially
as you're starting big men there. They're they're both different,
but they're both very very you know, powerful and dominant guys,
especially in the defensive end. I think something that's really stuck
out about Diabate at Alabama was he was the kind
(31:45):
of guy who was the perfect kind of like role
player around their other stars, where he did everything else
that the team needed through you know, being a willing
you know, a willing rebounder, being tough on the class,
protecting the rim, high hustle plays, and that shows up
in a lot of his advanced metrics that point to
(32:05):
his impact on Alabama's team performance when he was on
the floor. When he was on the court, Alabama played
way better than when he was on the bench, and
that just I think goes to the intangibles that he
brings to the court. So I think he's going to
be a really valuable piece for Kentucky because of that
and kind of allowing the other star players around him,
you know, you're more classic leading scorers like Jolne low
(32:25):
Otaya awakening back. Obviously, I think those guys are really
gonna thrive because of having a guy like Diabat on
the court with them.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
You think there are a lot of Nile numbers that
are still inflated beyond what they really are.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Yeah, I you know, I by and large, I think,
you know, the the bigger numbers we've seen in terms
of what you know, top fifty or top one hundred
players in the portal are going for, I think those
are largely accurate. But when it comes to you know,
individual players or individual team budgets, I think, you know,
it's just hard to know exactly what the agenda is
(32:59):
behind any pieces of information that's being floated out there,
because every single player or agent or team you know,
might have something that they're trying to spread there. So
I do think there probably is some inflation, especially when
it's talking about you know, going rates for players of
what they're expecting in the market, and I think a
lot of times what a player is actually paid can
be a little bit less than that. But I still
(33:19):
think it's undeniable that the rate in which we've seen
players going for I mean, according to my data and
the market value that I've been tracking a player who
would be worth one million dollars last season, So a
player worth one million in last year's transfer portal market
is going for north of two point five million this
this offseason. So we're seeing, you know, a boost of
(33:41):
over two and a half two point five x what
we saw last year. That's just how crazy the market
has been and how much teams are willing to spend
and invest in in men's basketball.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
EVN, thank you so much for the time.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Yeah, thank you, Tom. This is great.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
It's the lead reporting of the official coffee of our
show is the official coffee of upp Arena in the
KFCM Center. Talking about Kentucky based Shufflebean coffee. Go to
the website Shufflebean dot us and you can read the
backstory of the group of Kentuckians that came together with
this commitment to make an outstanding cup of coffee. Starts
with the very best coffee beans. Aroma will knock your
(34:18):
socks off. The taste is fantastic. Give it a try
by ordering from the website or from Amazon, or you
can pick it up at central Kentucky meer stores. Shufflebean coffee.
We'll be right back if you tried Cornbread Hemp yet.
If you haven't, here's a great opportunity to do so.
Twenty percent off your first order at Cornbreadthamp dot com
if you put in the code tom at checkout. Talking
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about their infused gummies that could help you relax on
a warm spring weekend and a variety of flavors. Talking
about the sleep gummies that help you get the rest
you deserve. Achy Joints, their bombs and lotions could help
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(35:03):
get twenty percent off your first order. One hundred percent
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corn Brad Hamp. This is the Good Life final segment
of the Leach Report. Mentioned entries are going to be
taken today for the Preakness and all of the other
undercard stakes on Saturday up at Pimlico. All of our
(35:23):
Triple Crown coverage again, the Springs presented by Claiborne Farm
doing the usual unusually well for more than a century.
UK Softball earns a bit of the NCAA tournament for
the sixteenth year in a row. They'll be in the
Clemson Regional as a two seed and play at two
o'clock Eastern this Friday against Northwestern. It's a double elimination
in the regional, so best of luck to coach Lawson
(35:46):
and her team when they start play on Friday. This
day and Wow Cat History is a presentation of Kentucky
road Show sports cards and memorabilia. They're on Romney Road
here in Lexington and their Roadshowcards dot Com. Actually over
the store last week, I think, and picked up some
items for a birthday gift, so you can head there
(36:09):
to see all the great memorabilia and all the collectibles
that they have at Kentucky road Show Shop. Nineteen ninety seven.
This day, Tubby Smith announced that Tuby Smith was announced
as the new head basketball coach at Kentucky as the
successor to Rick Patino. And of course we'd go on
to win the national championship in his very first season.
A lot of Wildcat birthdays today. Kevin Greevy one of
(36:30):
the all time great scores at Kentucky. He's celebrating a
birthday today, Keith Bogan's as well. Keith deserves to be
in the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame one of these
days soon. Joker Phillips, former Wildcat star as a receiver,
and of course the coach here as well. And then
Nate Cestina transferred in from Bucknell, and there's been a
(36:53):
star on the Kentucky TBT team in the last summer
and Kwade all celebrating birthdays today. A cause of death
has been determined for Ben Christman, the former Wildcat offensive lineman.
The coroner for Clark County, Nevada. Ben was transferred to
(37:15):
UNLV and was preparing for his first season. He passed
back in February as he was preparing his practice. He
was working out with his Rebel teammates. They say it
was cardio myopathy and cardiac arrhythmia and an irregular heartbeat,
so at least maybe some closure for his family and friends.
UKQB commit DJ Hunter on the Sunday Morning sports talk
(37:36):
show yesterday. His dad played at EKU at one time,
and DJ talked to the guys about possibly considering transferring
into a high school in Kentucky to play in this
upcoming season. Says he's a pass first QB, but comfortable
running as well, as a cousin of Ty Bryant, and
he's out of Knoxville right now. That all loot for
(37:57):
the sedition of The Leech Report, presented by Bob Kat Enterprises.
Will see you tomorrow.
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