2025-05-30 LEACH REPORT

2025-05-30   LEACH REPORT

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This podcast of the Leech Report is presented by Boone's
Butcher Shop in Barnestown at one hundred Old Bloomfield Pike,
family owned and operated since nineteen forty six, with fresh
meat cut on site daily Boone's Butcher Shop. Hopefully the
weather's not impacting you too much. Death Valley starting to

(00:21):
sound a little attractive as a vacation site. Doesn't rain there,
I don't think so. Sure does rain here? We'll see
if it's raining much. In Clemson, South Carolina, where Kentucky
begins play in the NCAA Baseball tournament today at noon
against West Virginia, I haven't heard a forecast from down there.

(00:41):
UK Radio Network will have the call with our buddy
Darren Hendrick ESPNU.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
We'll have the TV coverage that.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Is at noon Eastern time today and we will talk
UK baseball. To start off the show, Derek Terry from
Batcat Central, you'll join us to kill a little scouting
report on West Virginia and talk about Kentucky's chances of
maybe advancing out of this regional and then Brandon Ramsey
in the second half of the show, the coach from

(01:08):
on three Sports KSR and now that the roster is
set for Kentucky men's basketball, will get his deep dive
into that Wildcat News of the Day presented by just
Sepies of Lexington and Kentucky plays a West Virginia team
that is forty one and fourteen. Did slump a little
bit towards the end of the season. I saw one

(01:31):
ranking that had Kentucky's pitching staff the top three starters
ranked as the best top three in that regional. So
hopefully that pitching can help carry Kentucky to a bit
of an upset win down there. I mean, you just
think about the fact that Vandy's the number one overall
seed in the tournament at Kentucky could have easily swept

(01:52):
them on the final weekend of the regular season. So
it is a Kentucky team that is not without a
chance and get some good pitching, especially in relief, and
then get some key hits. Kickoff times have been set
for the first three Kentucky football games. The opener against

(02:12):
Toledo will kick off at twelve forty five Eastern on
the SEC network. That one could be a little warm.
Week two against Ole miss to start SEC play, will
be a three to thirty Eastern time kick on ABC,
and then the third consecutive home game to open the
season is against Eastern Michigan seven thirty Eastern Time, and

(02:34):
that one on ESPNU. Well always get the first three
weeks of kickoff times set around the sometime in the
summer every year, and then it'll be kind of as
it goes beyond that. For the most part, NCAA President
Charlie Baker looking to expand the NCAA Tournament to either

(02:58):
seventy two teams or seventy six teams, and to do
it by twenty twenty six. They're apparently having talks with
the CBS and Turner about working this out and compensation,
et cetera. The line is they don't want to leave
any deserving teams out, and they're not doing that at

(03:20):
sixty eight. There's some undeserving teams that are probably getting in.
But I don't lose a whole lot of sleepover our
buddy Mike DECURSI gets really worked up about John Rostein
of CBS, and I appreciate the passion with which they
are against expansion. Personally, it's the difference between the last

(03:47):
couple of teams in and the four or more that
we'll get in is minimal and they're all about the same,
and it's a little more basketball to watch, and basketball.
There's nothing better in basketball during the work day in March,
and if we get a little bit more of that,
I'm not sure it's the worst thing in the world,

(04:08):
but it does look like expansion of some type is coming.
One other piece of news out of the SEC meetings
yesterday mister Greg Sanki announcing that court storming is now
going to be a five hundred thousand dollars offence. There's
no ramping up where the first time it's one hundred thousand,
and the second time it's two fifty, and the third

(04:29):
time it's five hundred, it is five hundred, whether it's
the first time or the twentieth time that it's happened
at your school. Now there is a line in there
I saw where fines can be waived by the league
office if the opponent and the referees are able to
get off the field before or the court before the
storming happens. That's a challenge to pull off, probably more

(04:54):
so in basketball, but at five hundred thousand dollars. In
the time when college athletic departments are trying to find
every dollar they can for what's coming with compensation for athletes.
Then I think they're gonna do their best to find

(05:15):
a way to save that five hundred thousand dollars. So
we'll see see how it works out. But that is
some piece of news that came out of the meetings
yesterday that wrapped up down in Destin, Florida. Links to
the stories that we talk about each day, you can
find those on the bud Light Leach Report page at
Tom leachky dot com. We're gonna head to a break

(05:40):
and come back and talk some UK baseball with Derek Terry.
Our opening segment every day presented by Giuseppees of Lexington.
You can go to Open Table, make your reservation for
a special night out of Giuseppe's sit in the lounge area,
enjoy Dave Hall's live jazz music every night of the week.
It's a really special makes it for a really special

(06:01):
evening and Giuseppe's fantastic food similar ambiance. Check out the
menu find your favorites at Giuseppes Lexington dot com.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
We'll be right back.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Kentucky Baseball gets set to openplay in the NCAA Tournament
in Clemson, South Carolina against West Virginia out of the
Big Twelve. Dereck, what is the scouting report on the Mountaineers?

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Well, Tom to the team that won the Big Twelve
regular season. I think they were in line for a
lot of the year if people considered them to be
a host, and maybe had a couple of bad weekends
right there at the end that just knocked them off
the line. So this is a good team, first year
head coach that took over a program that's pretty good
if people remember it wasn't too long ago that West

(06:49):
Virginia was in Kentucky's regional back in twenty twenty three
and Kentucky ultimately eliminated them that season. But yes, it's
a good team. I mean this will be a think
this is a really good regional. Actually, you know, given
the USC Upstate. I don't know how much you've talked
about it, if any, because I didn't know this until
last week, but kind of a Kentucky connection at least
through Morehead State. Their head coach is only thirty two

(07:12):
years old, Kane Sweeney. He played at Morehead State and
took over there in his first year. So you got
a couple first year head coaches in this region down
here in Clemson. So I'm looking forward to see how
it plays out.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
I am just looking here at the weather. They're talking
about the possibility of a few storms around game time
today down in Clemson, and then also fog in the
mix as well. So it's just a crazy weather year.
So that who knows that game could end up getting

(07:44):
delayed a little bit at the start, we'll see twelve
noons the anticipated start. I saw somewhere I was reading
a little bit about West Virginia and I saw the
number was seven guys hitting three hundred or better.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah, no, I mean this is it's a good offense.
I mean, I've been curious to see you k didn't
announce the starter at least at this point. I'm sure
they'll put the lineup out soon. I wasn't sure which
route they would go. You know, I think Ben Sleever
is the best overall starter for Kentucky, But you know,
with Nick McKay's he's the experienced guy, very old, twenty

(08:19):
five years old. Maybe you know, he doesn't really have
I don't think he's playing in infield of tournaments. When
he was at South dakost State, but depending on which
they felt better about, either seeing a left hander or
a right hander. I would say that ultimately be what
goes into that decision. The only one that would really
surprise me is if it's Mate Harris. That would that
would really surprise me if he was. I know he's

(08:40):
been like the Friday night starter, but that's really just
been a name only for him this year. If you're
kind of lining up you feel like Kentucky's best starters are,
I'd still say he's probably third out of the three.
So I don't know something about it. I have a
hunch that it's going to be McKay, but I don't
know that.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, that to me makes a lot of sense just
as a fan because ultimately, I mean, you don't want
to look ahead, but you do have to think about
these things in terms of, you know, the bigger picture,
and if you can, it would be nice to throw
your best guy against the number one seed Clemson, and

(09:17):
we're assuming they would be sc Epstein and to be
able to do that tomorrow night and have a chance
to then take control of the regional.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, it's always the tricky game that coaches play, especially
you know, for UK and some other years where it's
just interesting in a way that this is the first
time under benjie On that they're not hosting, so it's
just a little bit different. They're the three seed in
this region. You know, you're trying to trying to do
whatever you can to get into that winner's bracket. You know,
it's really important. It's just hard if you lose the

(09:48):
first game to make it out. I mean, if you
really if you lose either of the first two. They've
done it in your past where they lost that second
game actually out of the three years under men you
and they lost the second game and battled back. But
you know, with the pitching staff this year, that would
that would concern me, and especially not having a you know,
not having the home crowd either. You know, you're gonna

(10:09):
be on the road down here in Clemson and it'll
be tough. I mean, if you can find a way
though to get through those first two and and win
both of them and be sitting there Sunday night with
even if it isn't it here, so I think it
probably would be at that point. I'm actually very positive
that's who would be in that third game. You know,
I think that's a good spot to try to put

(10:30):
him in, just because you know, there's a you would
love to win that game, but there's a little bit
of cushion there. You know, you'd have to be eliminated,
you'd have to lose twice. So I mean, uh, it'll
be interesting to see how how that goes. And uh,
I don't know, I'm just so excited to kind of
see how it plays out because it's been it's been
eleven years, right, I think twenty fourteen was the last

(10:51):
time that Kentucky was on the road in a regional,
and even that was just kind of right down the road. Yeah,
so you have got back to twenty twelve when they
played out in Gary, Indiana, where I guess you could
say they had to travel like a little bit to
go play in a regional. But this is some cool matchups.
I mean West Virginia, Like I said, they have seen
them somewhat recently in the last few years, but I

(11:12):
don't really remember the last time they played Climpson. If
that's who they end up playing it.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
It would be nice if the game didn't go as
long as the one in Gary, Indiana did.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, was actually talking to somebody about that the other day,
and just remember the box score from that. I might
have the details wrong. It's been a long time, but
you know A. J. Reid was supposed to be the
starter the next day and he ended up having to
throw thing nine innings in the Friday game, so he
had to burn two starters more or less that series
or that not one game.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah, that was that was crazy. Who was the opponent?
Was it Kent State?

Speaker 2 (11:47):
It was Kent State? Who Scott Strickland was the head
coach there and he coached at Georgia for a long time.
He recently replaced him. But you know, if there was
any I don't think it made anybody feel better, but
that Kent State team eventually did make it all the
way to the College World Series. Here. How about that?

Speaker 1 (12:01):
I didn't didn't realize that. We're talking with Derek Terry
from backcat Central. Tell our listeners where they can find
your work.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
I can find it post everything to substack, So if
you just go to backcat central dot com you'll be
able to find it there, and if you sign up
for the email list. I like the website, but if
you don't ever want to come back to the website.
If you just sign up, every story we'll go to
your email whichever you log in with, and then also
post basically every link to Twitter at Derek S Terry

(12:33):
where you can find me there.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
We are chatting with Derek Terry. He's with Backcat Central
talking about Kentucky baseball opening play in the NCAA Tournament
against West Virginia today at noon Eastern, ESPN, you and
the and the UK radio network. I wonder where Kentucky
is mentally, Derek, because they've had plenty of time to

(12:55):
recover from that end of the season where they were
walked off twice with home runs down at Vanderbilt team
that ends up as the number one overall seed, and
then they lose the first game of the SEC Tournament
to the Oklahoma team that they could that they had
swept to basically lock up their spot in the tournament,

(13:16):
in the big tournament. So that to me is the
biggest question about where Kentucky is. Have they been able
to get rejuvenated or are they down on the dump still.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I feel like
you would hope that just given the nature of leading
up to the tournament, I felt like the message internally
it was most likely that, you know, they were probably
going to be in, but I saw some of ben
jumps pressure. I wasn't able to make it on Tuesday.
I had work, But you know, I think he mentioned
that they kind of put the fate in the committee's hands.

(13:48):
So by Sunday morning or Monday morning, excuse me, when
the selection show was going on. I mean, a lot
of the leading bracketologists you could say, or had eventually
moved them out. You know, they were kind of safe
all week and then there were so many bids they
got stolen throughout the weekend that you know, it looked
like they might not make it. And of course, as
we came to find out whence the committee was you know,

(14:09):
revealed the bracket, they were somewhat safely and you would
say they weren't among the last four teams in, so uh,
they really didn't have to sweat it as much as
maybe we thought going off the bracketology. But I think
you would hope that they're that they're feeling rejuvenated. You know,
I think they're going to feel very battle tested having
played in this SEC They had one of the hardest
schedules within the conference as well, based on the teams

(14:30):
that they played, you know, they didn't We talked a
lot about the overall number of SEC wins that you
need to kind of be in consideration, but in a
year like this, it was kind of bizarre because Missouri
was so bad. I mean, Missouri literally lost every single
game outside of the Texas A and M series when
they won all three. You know, they went on twenty
eight otherwise, so you know, they didn't benefit from getting

(14:50):
some wins there, and the teams that they played were
all really good. And then if you looked at their
resume compared to some others, they did have a lot
of high rp I wins and played some of the
best teams in the country. So I think that gives
every SEC team confidences, not just Kentucky as they go
to these regionals, but yeah, health wise too, I kind
of wonder they don't have to put up the availability
reports like they do for the SEC games. You know,

(15:13):
Ryan Schwartz was a guy who was playing pretty well
towards the end of the year, and so I think
like a ninety five mind power sastball off his helmet
and was had to sit out a few games after
that you would think at this point he's probably available,
but we'll see once the lineup comes out. You know,
I don't know if he'll start or not, but if
you as long as he's available, it gives you another
right handed bat off the bench. And he's only homeward

(15:34):
once this year, but I feel like he certainly fits
the power profile. He's the kind of guy you can
put in late in the game if you're looking for
one swing to tie it or whatnot, So that would
be good. I don't know if there's anybody else who.
I think a lot of the other guys are confirmed
out for the year. Ethan Handle, a little Marcie, guys
like that, so health wise, you know, they were able

(15:55):
to rest up, and then mentally, I think they should
come in here with some confidence that they did what
they had to to get into this field and in
a transition here like this, and really I don't think
there should be much pressure at all on these guys
to come out here and to see what happens.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
Derek Terry Batcatcentral dot Com.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
Thank you for the time. All right, Thanks Tom, have
a good day you too.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
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Speaker 3 (16:45):
The coach Pope and his staff put together this year,
I think not only does it not only that's super deep,
not only is it you know, probably a borderline top
ten roster just in terms of talent going in, but
I think you saw them check some of the boxes
and improve on some of the weaknesses from last season.
I think this team's going to be significantly more athletic

(17:08):
across the board, a little bit more physical. I think
they're gonna come in with certainly a much higher floor
defensively and have a chance to be quite a bit better,
especially early on in the season on that end of
the floor. So I think that was good to kind
of see this team get put together in that way.
You know, probably the only hole may still be like

(17:30):
having that true backup point guard. However, I think that really,
you know, positionally, this team is still gonna be better
handling the ball than last year's team. Obviously that starts
with point guard or starting point yard Jalen Low, but
then you know guys like Denzel Aberdeen and you know,
even otega Oway, certainly Jasper Johnson, these different guys that

(17:54):
certainly can come in and take over some primary or
certainly secondary ball handling duties. I'm not as worried about
the lack of a true backup point guard as some
people might be.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
Do you think, in the current climate of college athletics
with respect to the transfer portal in particular, that having
a great backup point guard is a challenging objective, much
like having a great backup quarterback might be because nobody

(18:27):
stays and develops, it seems anymore. Cutter Bowley being a
Kentucky kid might end up being an exception to that.
And it looks like, you know, if he stays through
this season and then and then assumes the job next year.
But you know, nobody wants to kind of sit and
wait anymore, and so you have to have maybe a

(18:47):
starting point guard and then somebody else who can morph
into the point guard if needed. Is that what we're
looking at most places?

Speaker 3 (18:55):
I think so, you know, you said it perfectly. It
is really hard, I think to have a guy who
was a willing to be a quote unquote backup point
guard and then be have that person who's willing to
do so be a Kentucky caliber player. You know, I
think it's hard to find a balance between those two things.

(19:15):
And I think, you know, certainly once once a kid
and Lewis went elsewhere this offseason, I think it was
hard to kind of truly fill that role. So you
had to, you know, somewhat do it by committee. And
I think that adding Digital Aberdeen when they did, you know,
certainly solidified having enough you know, backup point guard minutes

(19:39):
to go around, like I said, with you know, sharing
it between Aberdeen and Jasper Johnson Oway maybe some other
guys even as well. Plus you know, we saw last
year where you know, hecka Martin Williams was the backup
point guard for what a pit of the second half
of the season. So you know, Kentucky is you know,
certainly willing to to let guys like, you know, whether
it's Mohammed Diabake is a pretty good ballhand or an

(20:00):
offensive undiator, or you know even a Jaden Queen and
Surah or a Yellovich. You know, some of these guys
that have some skill on the front court. We know
that you know, Coach Cooks would allow them to initiate
some offense as well. So I really don't think, you know,
it's necessarily the glaring hole that it may look like
when he just lay out the depth chart.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
Oh wait, to me, seems like an intriguing guy for
some minutes there because of two things. One one of
those stories I read somewhere along the way through his
process that the NBA folks talked about one of the
things that he came back to him was to be
able to improve his decision making some and nothing that

(20:39):
he needs is you know, a massive upgrade. It's you know,
ten twenty percent improvement in things. But so he you know,
they would like to see him improved there a little bit.
Mark Pope has said he thinks uh and the'se used
this phrase a lot. He could be an elite level playmaker. Well,
if he's right about that and instincts are pretty good

(21:01):
in this area, then that would seem to be a
guy that could help your team and could help himself
by being able to handle some of those minutes.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
No doubt about it. Because the thing with the would
take away is we we know he's already very good
at driving the basketball and getting himself into advantageous situations
in the paint. I think as a junior at Kentucky,
you saw those you know, primarily translate to scoring opportunities.
That's why he was leading score Kentucky average over sixteen

(21:32):
points a game. But he wasn't a super high assist guy.
I think that's what you know, what, whether it's the
NBA scouts or coach Pope for anybody else talking about,
you know, what he needs to improve on as a
playmaker was that. I think at times we saw you know,
maybe a little bit of hero ball creep in there
where you know, whether it's whether it was because he
felt like he had to make a play or because

(21:53):
he just was much more comfortable as a scorer than
as a facilitator. You saw him, you know, drive in
there and sometimes take some lower percentage shots. And I
think that because he's able. You know, he's a big,
strong athletic and very good at getting into the paint.
If you can see him develop into you know, playing
off a two feet drawing help and then making that
play you know, out out to a shooter or a

(22:14):
cutter or a lob threat, whatever it may be, that's
one of the ways that he's going to take a
step forward going into a senior season.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah, we've talked a lot about year two improvement for
guys in Mark Pope's system. I look, I was tund
a little bit about this yesterday with Oways numbers, and
I'm looking at Kenpalm dot com specifically, and his assist
strate versus his turnover rate was substantially negative in the
first two years at Oklahoma. It was almost one to

(22:43):
one last year at Kentucky. So that was improvement. And
now the if this year that assist rate finally goes
into a positive position versus the turnover rate, that's the
trend you want to be on.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
I would think absolutely. And I think that, you know,
the probably the primary reason you saw some improvement there
from years one in two of Oklahoma, the year one
of Kentucky was we just know the space that you're
able to play in at Kentucky, So it certainly lends
itself to guys being able to make jumps in terms
of playmaking, and I think, you know, hopefully that'll be

(23:16):
one of the areas, you know, along with maybe some
more consistent shooting, along with maybe being a little bit
better off the ball as a defender. I think those
are really the areas where you're going to look to see,
you know, those incremental improvements as you mentioned with otega Oway,
to make that leap from being an All SCC guy
to being an All American type guy.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
We're talking with Brandon Ramsey, the coach from on three
Sports and KSR. It's at Brandon Ramsey KSR on X
or Twitter and we'll get to break come back and
continue our conversation here. And just a bit joining us
is Brandon Ramsey from on three Sports and KSR. We're
talking about Kentucky's roster for next season. Brandon seems like

(23:58):
to me, otega Oway well play a lot of minutes
and Jalen Lowe better play a lot of minutes because
if he doesn't, that means he's not playing well as
well as they need him to. So I think those
guys play a lot of minutes after that. To me,
it's it's really interesting how the minutes will shake out.
We tend to talk in terms of, you know, who's

(24:18):
starting or not, but I just think I think you're
gonna see a lot of people. I don't know what
the numbers are, somewhere between what twenty and twenty five
minutes per game averages.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
Yeah, absolutely, I was gonna say, yeah, probably, you know,
in some cases, are probably even a larger rays down
you know, down to its fifteen to twenty five, just
because I think you're gonna see at least ten guys,
possibly even eleven play in you know, most, if not
all the games. That's that's something that coach Post probably
more comfortable with than some other coaches that like tighter

(24:53):
rotations we've seen, you know, going back to the BYU days,
even with with coach playing more guys a little bit
more evenly distributed in terms of minutes. And I think
that this team is certainly going to be a poster
child of backs. Like you said, I think once you
get beyond oh Way and Jalen Lowe, who are probably
thirty minutes per game swort of guys. I think that

(25:16):
you really start to see guys that are going to
pretty much split minutes with the guy you know, I
wouldn't even want to use the word that's behind them,
but it's kind of next to them in the position group,
whether that be you know, a split between Jayden Koinnets
and Brandon Garrison at the five, or you know, Yellowvich
and Mohammed Diabat at the four. You know, certainly minutes

(25:36):
for Colin Chandler and and Jasper Johnson on the wing,
and Denzel Aberdeen, you know Cam Williams as well, and
I'm sure Trent Noah, you know it is going to
you know, want to continue to earn minutes as well,
so that that there's a lot of names to go around,
and you know, there's only you know, so many minutes
in a game to give people. So I think, yeah,
you're gonna see a probably a deeper rotation and and

(25:58):
a lot of guys not named O Way or Low
that are probably not getting a whole lot more than
twenty minutes a game.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
I don't think this time. A year ago, a lot
of people were talking about Otega being a guy that
would put up the numbers that he did. Is there anybody, if,
if if the question for this group is who would
be the guy to most likely exceed expectations? Is there
anybody that leaps to.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Mind the The two guys that come first to my
mind are Colin Chandler and Brandon Garrison, probably, you know,
because of what we have come to, you know, at
least want to expect of guys that go from year
one to year two and coach Pope's system. And that's
certainly something that he has always you know, that that

(26:44):
that he's preached and kind of you know, tried to
get people excited about it, like, hey, well, you know,
when I can have people for a couple of years,
really good things happen. And I think that with their
comfortability in the in the system already, and certainly this
is you know, the that the raw talent that each
of those guys have, I think that you can see

(27:06):
a pretty good leap for either one of them going
into your year two in Kentucky's system. But one of
the things I've talked about that you know, gets me
so excited about this group is whether it's Garrison or Chandler,
I would probably throw Jasper Johnson and Yellovich in this
discussion as well as like, I don't know which one
of those four guys is going to be a lot

(27:26):
better than what we think, but I have a pretty
good feeling that at least one of them is going
to be. And I think that with the depth that
Kentucky has, that's a good thing where like, you don't
need all four of those guys to hit home runs
this year. You just need one of them to be
quite a bit better than what we think they might
be and the other ones to you know, be serviceable
in their roles. And I think that's really exciting going

(27:47):
into the year where there's not a ton of pressure
of like, man, we need Jasper Johnson to be awesome
as a freshman. Would it be great if he is? Yes,
But if he's not, then maybe Colin Chandler is that guy,
or maybe yellowch is that guy. And I think that's
a really good position to be in going into the season.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
They could of have a a little more versatility. A
guy like BG can certainly play some four Yeah, how
good you know, how how quickly quaintance gets back to
to one hundred percent and how well he plays the
young man from Croatia. How impactful Yelevich is may determine

(28:28):
some of this, uh in terms of, you know, the
minutes at the four for BG. But I think you know,
we did an interview with Michail McClain recently and he
talked about how they you know, found out later in
the season that Beg could comfortably slide into that role.
And you know, it looked good with him and Amari
together out at Oklahoma's the game. I keep coming back
to for Brandon, but you know, that's a he's you know,

(28:49):
a versatile piece of this. If he can be the
guy that's just as good at four as he is at.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Five, absolutely, and I think that with the with the
talent of Jaden Quain's again, I would a lot of it.
You know, he is going to be decided about how
healthy he is and when he gets healthy. But if
Jayden point It's is the NBA lottery pick that we
all you know, thinks that he can be, then he's
a guy that's going to command more minutes as well.
And you're going to want to find Brendan Garrison some

(29:15):
minutes at the four. And I think that what's what
he did defensively, I'm out of the perimeter at times
last season again, especially in that Oklahoma game that you mentioned.
And then if he can continue to improve his shooting,
which we saw in flashes last year, then I think
he can absolutely take some of those minutes at the
four and allow Acquaintance to up his minutes at the
five if need be.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah, Uh, Bark played a long time in the NBA.
There's a I think here's a thought of NBA approach
to what he does. And I think you know, this
team he's put together seemingly has that kind of look
of an NBA team that has put together guys that
can play, you know, have some flexibility in their roles,
and you could you could put you know, Aberdeen and

(29:57):
Diabate out there together and have you in no way
your best defensive team.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
You could put another group out there and have your
best rebounding team or your best three point shooting team,
and none of that would be for whole games. It
would just be for you know, stretches.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
Absolutely, and I think that that that versatility. You know,
outside of Jal and Low, pretty much everybody on this
team you can easily slot into at least two different positions,
if not three or more. And I think that that
that helps what you're talking about, where, you know, on
a given night, depending on you know, are you trying
to come back or are you trying to hold onto
a lead, are you getting killed on the glass? You

(30:35):
need three point shooting, do you need some defense whatever
it may be, or just you know, matchup wise too,
you have a lot of different lineups and a lot
of flexibility of what you can throw out there. And
that's certainly, you know, one of the reasons why I'm
as high as I am on the Kentucky team.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
You know, you look at last season's teams were team
there was time they could times they could get into
situations where they were just in a you know, in
a tough matchup. One that comes to mind is Arkansas
where they were having difficulty containing guys off the bounce
in that game. And so this kind of versatility that
we're talking about gives him a way to kind of

(31:10):
counter a lot of different looks he might see in
a given game.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
Well, and I mean the one thing too, with you
mentioned the Arkansas matchup and having some trouble stand in
front of the ball. The one thing that this team's
going to be able to do even if they can't
stay in front of the ball as well in certain games,
there's going to be some pretty high level rim protection.
I'm pretty confident with Jaden Quay and standing there certainly,
But then you know Brandon Garrison with with with the minutes,
he'll provide yellowch Diabate, Cam Williams. These are all guys

(31:38):
averaged over a block of game wherever they were last season,
So I think that you're going to have some positional
rim protection, not even just from the five, but even
out of the wings and the perimeter as well. With
the guys that are going to make it a lot
harder for teams to finish at the rim than what
we saw this past season.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah, last season, I remember last summer. I remember saying, boy,
I wish this was a year where they had one
of those you know trips to the Bahamas or the
Global Jam up in Toronto to get a look at
the team because of you know, we just didn't know
much about them. We know more about this team, but
I think I'd be even more excited to see what
they would look like together in a few exhibition runs

(32:16):
in the summer.

Speaker 3 (32:18):
Absolutely, and I think that's going to be honestly one
of the values of you know, when we certainly have
seen an uptick in the exhibition level of play for
this year where what we're taking on Purdue and Georgetown,
the Hoya is not the one down the road in Kentucky,
and you know, that's a you know, that's quite frankly,
a very different level of competition than what we're used

(32:39):
to playing in the exhibition. So I think that you know,
in the absence of one of those international trips where
you get some games against other professional teams, I think,
you know, being able to really test yourself in the
preseason will be good for this team as they kind
of learn how to coexist. And I think from a
fan base state point, we're going to get a much
better feel. We're not going to be tricked into like, oh,

(33:00):
we beat TRANSI by fifty, what does that mean. We're
gonna get a chance to play one of the best
teams in the country and Purdue right off the bat.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Brandon appreciate the time as always, Thank.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
You yep, anytime, Tom, thank you.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
At Brandon Ramsey KSR on x or Twitter, and we
will take a break thirtieth of May and birthdays. Brock Vandergriff,
former Kentucky QB, celebrating a birthday today Tomorrow. Early birthday
wishes for UK Hall of Famer, longtime assistant coach to
Joe B. Hall and also worked on with Kentucky Baseball

(33:34):
Dick Parsons and John Kriigler from the nineteen fifty eight
Finland five National champs will celebrate a birthday tomorrow