Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good day, everybody, Welcome in Leach Report presented by Bobcat
Enterprises for this Wednesday and glad to have you on board.
Coming up today, Mike de Corsi will join us. He's
with us on Wednesdays throughout the summer and fall until
we get back into the basketball season and he'll switch
(00:21):
back over to his regular Friday slot. Chris Fisher from
the Cats Pauls will join us as well. One of
their national writers has some interesting takes on the sec
for this upcoming college basketball.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Season that we'll get into with Chris.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
All of that coming up as we roll out the
Wednesday edition of the Leach Report.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Wild Cat News of the.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Day, that's the service of Giuseppes of Lexington, and we
will start with a little good news for Kentucky football.
Couple of doses of it actually commitment, the second one
in the current recruiting cycle coming from a wide receiver
in San Antonio, Texas. Davis McCrae six two one ninety
three star still has visits scheduled to Houston, Rice, Washington State,
(01:06):
and Columbia. I believe, and story Arid says he does
plan to take those visits, but he cited new wide
receivers coach la Damian Washington as the reason that he
picked the Wildcats. So second commitment for Kentucky to go
along with the offensive lineman from Paduca Tillman, and then
optimism has been in fairly short supply in terms of
(01:29):
predictions for the upcoming football season for the Wildcats. And
when you talk about national analysts rankings, et cetera. Well,
ESPN's Football Power Index ranking is out and has Kentucky
at number thirty four nationally. Now thirteen SEC teams are
at the top twenty five, but they have projected Kentucky
(01:51):
with five point six wins and six point four losses,
And there's obviously.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Nu America numerical.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Formulas that go into that, but bottom line is that
I think Vegas had Kentucky's over under at four and
a half wins for this season. So if you want
to put a little stock in the FPI of ESPN,
then they have it at the over it almost six
wins projected for this season. I think there is definitely
(02:25):
a path to get to six or better for this season.
Won't be easy, but we'll know a lot more, probably
by the end of September, once they've played a couple
of conference games, one here in Lexington, one on the road,
and then they go into that brutal stretch of Georgia, Tennessee,
(02:45):
and Texas in October. But there is a little optimism
if you're a Kentucky football fan and want to seize it.
Baseball got a little bad news yesterday, Baseball America reporting
that James McCoy is going to enter the transfer He
was one of only two returning starters this season from
that College World Series team of twenty twenty four, played
(03:07):
a lot of first base, some outfield, and also did
a little pitching. In fact, they brought him in to
try to get that final out in the bottom of
the eighth inning when West Virginia had its game winning
rally on Sunday night, and James was unsuccessful there, and
he had a lot of company in that line in
terms of not being able to get that final out.
(03:28):
But nevertheless, that's a bummer piece of news for Kentucky baseball.
Basketball recruiting note. Tae Kenny, a young man who helped
lead Newport to the Sweet sixteen a couple of years
ago and then went off to one of the academies.
He is reportedly going to make a recruiting visit to
(03:49):
Louisville this weekend. Mark Pope has been talking with him regularly,
according to various reports, and Tay has a lot of
good things to say about Ark Pope and the Wildcats.
You're into the shoe game. I did see a story
where he is lined up with Adidas and Louisville is
an Adida school, but that doesn't always tell the tale
(04:12):
of where somebody goes in recruiting. But take Kenny also
said in this story I read may have been at
katspaws dot com, that Jasper Johnson is constantly in his
ear about coming to play at Kentucky the season after
the upcoming one. So that's a recruitment that we'll be following.
(04:33):
It's been a good run of Kentucky guys, even though
Travis Perry ultimately left to go to Old Miss. But
you still got Noah on the team, you got Johnson,
Reno on the team. Maybe they could add Kenny. So
it's a good period for Kentucky high school basketball. And
we pass along condolences to Travis Ford and his family
on the passing of Travis's dad, Eddie Ford. Helped a
(04:56):
lot of young people advance their careers in basketball here
in the state to Kentucky. Very successful coach and high
school and at the AAU level. And obviously Travis tweeting
out this week about the tremendous love he had for
his dad and how impactful his dad was on his life.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Sent Travis a note yesterday.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I never had a chance to really meet Eddie and
interact with him at all. Oscar Combs did quite a
bit through the high school at AAU basketball circles, and
Oscar had some wonderful things to post about eighty four
this week.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So rip to Eddie Ford.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Twelve past the top of the hour, our opening segment
of Wildcat News always presented by just Seppes of Lexington.
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Speaker 2 (06:12):
It's the Leach Report.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
We're presented by Bobcat Enterprises and we'll be right back
with Chris Fisher from the Cat's Paws. That's the top
of the hour. It is the Leach Report for the
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So you can google them and find out more about
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all of the proceeds go to the recovery efforts. So
the thanks to the folks there for doing that work.
Chris Fisher joining us now from katzpause dot com on
the two four seven Sports Network. Let's start a little
bit talking about the all the positive buzz that is
(07:39):
out there for Kentucky basketball.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
You have a post up at the website Chris at
katzpause dot com about one of the twenty four to
seven sports writers, Isaac Trotter, having a lot of really
good things to say about what Mark Pope's second team
is capable of doing.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, it seems like right now, everywhere you turn, you know,
there's a media outlet talking about Kentucky as a preseason
top ten, preseason top five team, potential national championship contender,
And yeah, you're right Isaac Trotter saying that Mark Pope
has all the pieces to potentially win the national championship
(08:22):
next season. You know, he says, Kentucky's super deep, they
have two of everything, and it's interesting going into year
two under Mark Pope, especially coming off of year one.
The biggest question mark for Kentucky might be do they
have enough shooting? And is that shooting that they have
maybe a little bit too far down on the bench,
(08:43):
guys like Cam Williams or Colin Chandler or Trent Noa,
and will those guys play enough minutes in order to
have an impact in that way. But I just think
this team is so much more dynamic than Mark Pope's
team last season. I think that, you know, his first
team will always hold a special place in the hearts
of fans for you know, kind of laying the foundation
(09:05):
and playing through so much adversity, and you could really
feel their connection to the state and to the community,
and you know, really pushing through a lot of adversity,
a lot of injury when you know they could have
kind of packed things up and went home and instead,
you know, they have eight wins over top fifteen teams,
they reached the Sweet sixteen for the first time since
(09:27):
since twenty nineteen, and really injected a lot of excitement
into the program. But as much as people love that team,
I think they were a little bit limited in terms
of their physical abilities, in terms of, you know, their talent,
and I think Kentucky got a much needed infusion of
talent in every possible way over the course of this offseason,
(09:50):
and a lot a team will that should be a
lot more dynamic guys that can take you off the
dribble and attack you. And it'll be fun to watch
those guys operate in Mark Pope's offense. But as Isaac
points out, Kentucky should be much improved defensively as well.
I mean, you have a guy like Denzel Aberdeen otega
Oway on the wing, you have Mo Diabat who is
(10:13):
kind of a multiple or multi positional defender who can
step out on the perimeter, and then you have Jaden
Quainton's who you know, whenever he does come back, should
have a huge impact in terms of rim protection average
two point six blocks per game as the youngest player
in college basketball last season. Obviously, a lot depends on
(10:35):
kind of how he's able to bounce back from that
ACL injury, But so much to like about Kentucky going
into next.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Season defensive The defensive end is one area that was
an issue for them at times last season, and you
noted that that seems to have been addressed in the
team he's put together. And also something else that your
colleague said in this podcast. He notes that Jalen Lowe,
(11:06):
Otega Away and Denzel Aberdeen are three guys who can
go quote get one for themselves, and that was an
area frequently cited as one of the weaknesses for Kentucky
last year that Otaga was really the only guy who
was doing much of that. So that's an area where
you know, late you can get into postseason, the defenses
(11:28):
are better, teams are you know, the opponents are better
and playing for you know, playing for their postseason lives,
and sometimes you just have to you know, the play
breaks down, you just have to go get something yourself
as the shot clocks winding down, and they'll have a
better capability apparently of doing that.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, I think Kentucky'll have several guys that have are
kind of like a built in insurance policy late in
the shot clock where you know things break down, they
can just take their man off the dribble and create something.
I think you'll see much more shot creation from the
perimeter next season, as opposed to this season where Kentucky
was kind of forced to rely on the scheme and
(12:07):
the offensive system to create open shots. I think this
year Kentucky will have the players as well to create
some of those shots. And I remember, you know, much
of the concern for Lamont Butler when he came in
with his his shooting percentages and his inefficiency, but when
you look when all the dust settled, he had a
(12:28):
career season pretty much across the board in terms of
offensive efficiency shooting percentages. And I'm expecting a similar jump
for Jalen Lowe. He was forced to do most of
everything on a really bad pit team. I think if
you put some players around him, much like we saw
with him at the NBA Draft combine, I think he's
(12:50):
gonna shine brightly. He has the ability to score to
get other guys involved. Expect a big jump from him.
And then Denzel Aberdeen as well, a guy that you
know came off of the bench for a loaded Florida
team that is going to get a chance to showcase
his ability. And if you look at the opportunities he
had to showcase his ability at Florida last season, the
games that Walter Clayton and Elijah Martin were out, he
(13:13):
played particularly well. I think he averaged over fifteen points
per game, shot over forty percent from the three in
his five stars. And so those are two guys I
think that could make a big jump from last season
to next season.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Tom Chris Fisher, it's at Chris Fisher twenty four to
seven on x or Twitter, and we'll get to quick break,
come back and continue this discussion in just a moment.
On the Leech Report, we are presented each day by
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(13:45):
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You read them at catspause dot com.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
We're talking about all of the optimistic projections for Kentucky
basketball for the upcoming season. Second one for Mark Pope,
and they're going to have a lot of different ways
that they can play. And I think you mentioned guys
that might be further down that are the best three
point shooters on paper anyway, might be further down the
(14:26):
line for those guys. That's that's one way to you know,
play your way into two more minutes if the team
is not as successful at three point shooting. As it
would want to be for whatever reason. But I think
to be the kind of three point shooting team that
Mark Pope certainly wants. Then lead improvement from Low, the
(14:47):
lead improvement from Oway. You know, Dabatte Aberdeen are guys
that can can make a three. But you know, there's
there's in the main rotation. There's not a Kobe Braat type, right,
or even a Jackson Robinson.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yeah, and I think you know, Jeff Goodman from the
Field of sixty eight made a good point and talking
about Cam Williams kind of as maybe the X factor
on this team. He has that length, he has that
athletic ability that Kentucky needs to kind of upgrade from
last season. But also you know shot. You know, they
had sixty three makes from beyond the arc shot over
(15:21):
forty one percent from three as a freshman at Tulane
last season, which is really really impressive. If he's able
to kind of extrapolate that out, I think that's huge
for Kentucky and it'll be interesting to see how all
these pieces fit together. You know, I think Mark Pope
wants to play fast, and I don't think he was
(15:43):
able to play quite as fast last season, especially as
the year went on due to all of the injuries.
But you know, I think if Mark Pope had his druthers,
he would probably play all fourteen guys minutes just to
keep that pace up and to keep that kind of
chaos on the offensive end and attacking and transition. So
(16:03):
it'll be interesting to see kind of how that rotation
begins to shape up as the season goes along. And
I think that, you know, that'll be one of the
big X factors next season. It's kind of how all
those parts kind of meshed together. But I can't remember
who said this. I wish I could remember so I
could give them credit, But they talked about Mark Pope's
ability to microwave chemistry, and I thought that was a
(16:24):
really good way to put it, because if you look at,
you know, some of the top transfer classes from last season,
not all those teams. Most of those teams did not
fare particularly well. Kansas State, Arkansas for much of the season, Indiana,
and you know, teams like Kentucky Louisville were able to
take all those new parts and create something that worked
(16:44):
pretty much from the get go. And so I think
having Mark Pope as your head coach, I think if
you're a Kentucky fan that had to give you confidence
going into next year with a grand total of ten
offseason editions.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yeah, that's a really good point because they're probably still
one more season away from getting to where I suspect
he wants to be, which is having you know, a
majority of your roster being holdovers and then you add
you know, three four transfers or freshmen to the mix.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Yeah, and that's why I love the addition of Braden Hawthorne.
Getting that guy into your system where he may not
be able to contribute as much as a freshman next
season needs to put on weight, needs to add strength,
but is a guy that can help you down the
line and having him in your system. And Mark Pope
always talks about making that jump from year one to
year two where you have the decision making down. Now
(17:35):
you can play fast, you can play free, and players
make that big jump from year one to year two.
Having those guys in your system and having those holdovers
in the transfer portal era of college basketball is more
important than ever.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Chris Fishercashpauls dot Com, thank you all right, Thanks right
back with Michael Corsi. Guess so, the Leads Report come
to you via the Club BLUEINIL dot com hotline. Club
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tab and Club Blue Kids is where future Wildcats repped
the blue and White with pride. Mike de Coursi joins
us now from Sportingnews dot com at TSN Mike on
X and let's start a little NBA Mike with the
Nicks and surprising folks with the announcement yesterday that they
are out with their coach Tom Thibodau, who just led
(18:52):
them to the finals for the first time in more
than two decades. So were you surprised by that?
Speaker 4 (18:58):
I was. I had had an appearance on a program
that I do and and I literally found out as
we As I was being asked the question about it,
I was not anticipating that at all. I did. I
did understand that there was some disappointment in how what
the Eastern Conference Final series against the Knicks played out.
(19:20):
But I thought that the fact that they had taken
out the Celtics and that they had been very competitive
against against the the the Pacers would suggest that maybe
you needed to tweak some things, but not necessarily that
you needed to abandon everything. I will say that I
did think that Thibodeau's stubbornness was was a problem. He was.
(19:41):
He was a very stubborn coach in general. The idea
that they weren't deep enough to go into their bench
more than they did was kind of blown away a
bit by the performances of some of the bench guys
in the Eastern Conference Finals. So they got some really
good Landry Shammett on one of them. He's he's the
(20:03):
main guy. Like Landry Shammitt was a problem for the Pacers.
Made every shot, you know, not not every shot, but
it felt like he made every big shot that he
took from deep, did a solid job defensively, and in
the first couple of series he could not get off
the bench, and early in this one as.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Well, one thankfully he didn't make in that building was
in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Yes, I remember that.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Bam Adebayo blocked it. Wichita State folks must have nightmares
about Kentucky. They lost a close one there, then had
that upset in twenty fourteen. And I was talking with
Matt Norlander about Puchita State yesterday. Kind of gets me
to this, and you'll you'll have a take, I'm sure
on this, just you know how you know, we all
are college basketball fans and we think we know who's
(20:55):
going to be best in the NBA. And that Wichita
State team they had cle Anthony Early and Ron Baker
leading the charge, and then they had this kind of
stocky little point guard who looked like just a nice
college player. I named Fred van Vliet. So what were
the odds that he would have had the longest NBA
career by a mile?
Speaker 4 (21:15):
I know, it is amazing what Fred's become, what he's
been able to accomplish, winning an NBA championship as a
pivotal player with the Raptors in twenty nineteen. I would
not have anticipated him being the star of that group
in the league. I thought Baker was going to have
a better NBA career than he did. It's been remarkable,
(21:35):
But you know, I look at Wichita as a cautionary
example of people talk about the transfer portal and guys
always wanting to climb up, and what they missed sometimes
is that the transfer portal opened for colleges probably around
two thousand and three, when the ACC started going hunting
(21:56):
for football teams to beef up their football league. All
of a sudden, Boston College was moving, and Wake Forest,
I excuse me, Virginia Tech was moving in Miami, and
then later on pitt and Syracuse, and then all of
a sudden that spread to the middle leagues, and Wichita
decided they were better off than the American than the Valley.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
And I looked.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
At that and I was like, how how are you
gonna be better off? Everybody wants out of the American
and half the teams that wanted out got out.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Yeah, that's a good point. I'm an old school college
basketball fan. I remember the Missouri Valley Conference back to
the days when it had Louisville and Cincinnati, and Bradley
was really good and UH Wichita State of course, uh
Indiana State came out of there with Larry Bird.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
So a lot of good history in that league.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Uh speaking of a guy like Van Vleet, and this
is to a much greater level of guys, you know,
maybe being much better in the NBA than a lot
of US though Shay MVP of the NBA and may
get a ring here in the next couple of weeks
as the final start tomorrow. Did you see anything like
this coming for him?
Speaker 4 (23:07):
No? Did I think he would be a starting NBA
point guard after watching him for a year at Kentucky. Absolutely,
I thought he was very good. But this is this
is one of the really remarkable stories of professional advancement.
Jokic is a pretty remarkable story as well, because Jokic
went I think it was twenty fourteen, right around there,
(23:30):
the United States played Serbia in the Under twenty World
Cup Final and Aaron Gordon played for the US and
it was coached by Billy Donovan, and Jokicic was on
the Serbian team and played like twenty minutes as the
US was winning the game in a very close game.
He played twenty minutes and you know what, eight years later,
(23:51):
he's the best player in the league. And that's pretty remarkable.
But I'm not sure that Shay isn't right there, considering
he was a he was an excellent freshman point guard,
but not an All American, was projected to be a
top ten pick. I think he went right around there,
maybe eleven, and now he's the MVP. I think it's
(24:14):
been astonishing, and I give him a ton of credit
for continuing to develop and advance and improve and to
find boundaries to his talent that we did not know existed.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
That's where I was going next with him, because when
he was here for the one season, the storyline on
him or backstory whatever, was the early morning workouts that
he committed to with Joel Justice, who was then an
assistant coach, and they, you know, Cal talked about how
(24:47):
you know, religiously Shay went about that, and you know,
he's not a guy who's gonna jump out of the
gym or be the fastest guy on the court or
physically overpower anybody. So he's it's a good lesson for
young players he has to obviously has a lot of talent,
(25:08):
but it's not like I don't think anyway if you
would disagree with this that his talent's not, you know,
vastly superior to everybody else that's competing for that MVP
award that he won, and yet he got it because
of all that work that he has put in to
make himself a better player.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
Yeah, it's one hundred percent true. I will say Tom,
that one of the things that's always amazed me. And
I've seen a couple of different superstars do summer workouts.
Kevin Durant, I was in the gym one time, and
Lebron James back in the summers when I used to
go to Vegas on the circuit, the AAU circuit, and
(25:51):
just happened to be in a gym and all of
a sudden they shut it down because there were no games,
and somebody said, hey, stick around, you might want to
watch this. And so there I am watching Kevin Durant
work out at Green Valley High School or whatever it was,
and and the work and I'm like, wait a second,
this guy's he's already star. He's worth millions, and he's
doing this when he could be sitting like in Monte
(26:14):
Carlo or something. Never ceases to amaze me how hard
these guys are willing to work at the game, and
Shay is a prime example of that when look, here's
the thing. Shaye's MVP now and like you said, in
a couple of weeks he could be an NBA champion.
And I guarantee you that we get to mid July
(26:35):
and he's sweating in some gym somewhere trying to continue
to get better at what he's already great at.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Absolutely talk with Mike de Coursey. At Ts said Mike
on X and we'll continue the conversation here in just
a moment. As we headed the break, will remind you
about the LPGA Tour Legends that are coming to Woodford
County this weekend. Some of the best players in the
history of the LPGA, Julie Angster, Llydes, Tris Johnson, and
Moore are going to play at Woodford Club in for
(27:04):
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Get them through Woodford Clubfoundation dot org. Proceeds benefit KVC
Kentucky for the Woodford Legends Invitational chance to get up
close and personal with some of the all time best
players on the LPGA.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Tour.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
We'll be right back on the way to report presented
by Bob kat Enterprises ORTEENA at the top of the
hours the Leach Report. Mike the Corsi is with us
on the Club Blueenile dot com highline. Let's talk a
little college hoops here. And you have been active on
social media about the NCAA president talking about expanding the
(27:42):
NCAA tournament. Personally, as a basketball fan, it's it would
to me it's not the worst thing in the world
if I get to have a couple of more games
in the afternoon on Tuesday and Wednesday of the first
week of the tournament. However, it's still just more mediocre teams.
(28:03):
And the thing that occurs to me is, I don't
think the networks are going to be really your I
wouldn't think to pay a whole lot more for that
to have, you know, the sixty ninth and or the
seventy first and seventy second teams play at three o'clock
on a Tuesday afternoon, So why are you increasing your
(28:24):
costs without increasing your revenue?
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (28:27):
See, that's really the hold up right now. Thank goodness
that the networks aren't interested in these games because they
know they don't add to the bottom line, and they're
being asked. No one at the NCAA or no one
in the NCAA membership wants to increase the number of
entrants without increasing at least covering the payouts that would
(28:51):
go to those entrants. The point is partly to get
all those people paid. So to speak, if you have
a sixty ninth team, I think the unit now is
worth something like two million dollars that goes it ultimately
goes to the conference. The conference splits it up, and
so the networks would be on the hook for that money.
And it may be more expensive than a simple two
(29:13):
million for each team. It may be more expensive than that.
I'm not certainly literate in financially literate in how network
spending works, but it would be at least that And
so that's something they're saying, we're not gonna get the
audience because even now, like if you get a Carolina
or an Indiana in a first four game, which we
(29:36):
have done each of those in the last three four years,
they get a number about two to two point five million.
That's the big number on a first four game. The
average number is closer to one or one and a half.
That's not moving the needle. For the networks, that's not
a huge number. When they get to the first round,
(29:58):
you're getting six million, and for the for the really
great games between four and six, and the average NCAA
tournament game over the course of sixty seven games averages
out to about count ten million people per and so
these early games are not enough to move the needle.
And then on the other side, they're you're not allowing
(30:18):
great teams into the field, and you're not excluding great teams.
You're it's a it's a it's if you look at
the final teams that get in. Can you make an
argument that Carolina didn't belong? Absolutely and I did. But
the teams behind them, there were no great teams. There
were no best teams. In the words of Charlie Baker,
(30:41):
he said, some of the best teams are being left out.
Is this echoes back to Greg Sankee who kind of
started all this back around twenty two or twenty three
when he said that you look at Ole Miss winning
the College World Series in baseball, and they were like
the literal last team in. And so he was basically
(31:02):
equating college baseball to college basketball. When we know those
two sports are not alike. They're not similar in terms
of how games are won and lost. You're not gonna
see Murray State do the kind of damage in the
NCAA tournament or anybody like Murray State very often, but
it's not that rare in the College World Series because
(31:23):
baseball is different.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I have done, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
I was just gonna say I done. I've done the
brackets for five years and I know what's on the
other side of that line, Tom for Fox Sports, and
it's just not that impressive.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
The end of the bubble is like getting to the
garage sale at four o'clock when they're closing up.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Oh, that's the greatest line I think I've ever heard
on this. That's a perfect analogy. It couldn't be better.
You're not finding any any hidden rem brands at four o'clock, right, No.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
You're not.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Mark Pope has advocated for more games. Would you be
in favor of that? And do you think anybody in
power would be in favor of that?
Speaker 4 (32:06):
I don't know what it adds. I mean, you're already
starting the season in the second or actually the first
week in November now, which is as early as it's
ever been. And I think where sometimes coaches and others
get lost is in like the tournament has to be
in March. I mean it has to be because that's
(32:27):
where the money is. And so you can't say to
CBS or Turner, who are paying a billion dollars a year,
little more than a billion dollars a year to the tournament, oh,
we want you to move in into April or May.
They're not going to go for that when they've already
signed a contract for the billion dollars for sixty seven
basketball games. That gets them, as I said, ten million
dollars tell me ten million viewers per They're not changing that.
(32:51):
So where do those games go? I just don't know
what would be the value of that. I have heard
suggest since that they should play exhibition games in August.
Maybe I heard one person suggests that I'm never against
more hoop. I just don't know that it would be
of great value to the college basketball season to expand
(33:14):
a number of games.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Just as a sports fan, I wish somebody would take
try to do something From about the right after the
end of the British Open in the middle of July
until the last couple of weeks of August when football
is almost here. It's a dead period in sports unless
you're just a die hard baseball fan. And I was
(33:36):
thrilled when the NBA looked like at one point they
might be moving to starting their season later and finishing
up around that time frame, which would have made a
whole lot of sense. So why not college basketball jump
in there and play some games, even if they're exhibitions.
You can play four, go to the Bahamas, you can
play four games, well, play four regionally, and then go
to the Pajama still once every four years?
Speaker 4 (33:59):
Yeah, or you know, I mean, my goodness, why not?
The other option would be why not allow? And I
like your idea better, but this is a this is
sort of a corollary like why not why why are
we limiting these international tours the once every four years?
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (34:14):
A lot of guys are only on campus for a
year or two, so why not give them the opportunity.
I think we have a lot of rules that are
just there because they were there, and at this point
they don't really make much sense, and so there's no
reason for something like that, that kind of restriction to
remain in the book.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Absolutely, And you know, again, it's that dead time for sports,
so surely somebody would pay you to put it on
TV or streaming or something. So they're looking to make
money and a little bit there, Mike, thank you as always.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Thanks Tom, and is.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Mike de Coursy Sportingnews dot Com. We need to get
into a little movie discussion with him one of these
Wednesdays and.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Have a we'll talk about.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Summer movies and classics and all that kind of stuff.
Maybe'll do a whole hour with Mike one week and
do that. Anyway, for now, we need to get to
a break and come back with our final segment for
this Wednesday edition of The Leach Report, presented by Bobcat Enterprises.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
It's the Leach Report.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
And time for our Triple Crown update. Belmont Steaks coming
up on Saturday at Saratoga again this year at a
mile at a quarter. Our Triple count coverage presented by
Clayburne Farm doing the usual, unusually well for more than
one hundred years, and the Belmont Steaks Festival starts today
with the racing at Saratoga. Most of the Steaks were
(35:41):
really all the stakes races. The big ones are coming
tomorrow and then more on Friday and Saturday. Bloodhorse Magazine
has a story about the mayor Puka Puca, who was
the producer of Mage for the twenty twenty three Kentucky
Derby and door knock for last year's Belmont Steaks. She
could become the first mayor ever to produce three winners
(36:04):
of Triple Crown races and would have done it in
three consecutive years, so pretty interesting stat. There stand Wildcat
History presented by Kentucky road Show Sports Cards at Memorabilia.
They're on Romney Rode in Lexington, ad at roadshowcards dot com.
And it's just a happy birthday today and it's to
volleyball coach Craig Skinner got one national championship, always having
(36:26):
his eye on a second one. And happy birthday, do
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I said cornbrandamp dot com. This is the good life.
We will see you tomorrow on the Leach Report, presented
by Bobcat Enterprises
Good day, everybody, Welcome in Leach Report presented by Bobcat
Enterprises for this Wednesday and glad to have you on board.
Coming up today, Mike de Corsi will join us. He's
with us on Wednesdays throughout the summer and fall until
we get back into the basketball season and he'll switch
(00:21):
back over to his regular Friday slot. Chris Fisher from
the Cats Pauls will join us as well. One of
their national writers has some interesting takes on the sec
for this upcoming college basketball.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Season that we'll get into with Chris.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
All of that coming up as we roll out the
Wednesday edition of the Leach Report.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Wild Cat News of the.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Day, that's the service of Giuseppes of Lexington, and we
will start with a little good news for Kentucky football.
Couple of doses of it actually commitment, the second one
in the current recruiting cycle coming from a wide receiver
in San Antonio, Texas. Davis McCrae six two one ninety
three star still has visits scheduled to Houston, Rice, Washington State,
(01:06):
and Columbia. I believe, and story Arid says he does
plan to take those visits, but he cited new wide
receivers coach la Damian Washington as the reason that he
picked the Wildcats. So second commitment for Kentucky to go
along with the offensive lineman from Paduca Tillman, and then
optimism has been in fairly short supply in terms of
(01:29):
predictions for the upcoming football season for the Wildcats. And
when you talk about national analysts rankings, et cetera. Well,
ESPN's Football Power Index ranking is out and has Kentucky
at number thirty four nationally. Now thirteen SEC teams are
at the top twenty five, but they have projected Kentucky
(01:51):
with five point six wins and six point four losses,
And there's obviously.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Nu America numerical.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Formulas that go into that, but bottom line is that
I think Vegas had Kentucky's over under at four and
a half wins for this season. So if you want
to put a little stock in the FPI of ESPN,
then they have it at the over it almost six
wins projected for this season. I think there is definitely
(02:25):
a path to get to six or better for this season.
Won't be easy, but we'll know a lot more, probably
by the end of September, once they've played a couple
of conference games, one here in Lexington, one on the road,
and then they go into that brutal stretch of Georgia, Tennessee,
(02:45):
and Texas in October. But there is a little optimism
if you're a Kentucky football fan and want to seize it.
Baseball got a little bad news yesterday, Baseball America reporting
that James McCoy is going to enter the transfer He
was one of only two returning starters this season from
that College World Series team of twenty twenty four, played
(03:07):
a lot of first base, some outfield, and also did
a little pitching. In fact, they brought him in to
try to get that final out in the bottom of
the eighth inning when West Virginia had its game winning
rally on Sunday night, and James was unsuccessful there, and
he had a lot of company in that line in
terms of not being able to get that final out.
(03:28):
But nevertheless, that's a bummer piece of news for Kentucky baseball.
Basketball recruiting note. Tae Kenny, a young man who helped
lead Newport to the Sweet sixteen a couple of years
ago and then went off to one of the academies.
He is reportedly going to make a recruiting visit to
(03:49):
Louisville this weekend. Mark Pope has been talking with him regularly,
according to various reports, and Tay has a lot of
good things to say about Ark Pope and the Wildcats.
You're into the shoe game. I did see a story
where he is lined up with Adidas and Louisville is
an Adida school, but that doesn't always tell the tale
(04:12):
of where somebody goes in recruiting. But take Kenny also
said in this story I read may have been at
katspaws dot com, that Jasper Johnson is constantly in his
ear about coming to play at Kentucky the season after
the upcoming one. So that's a recruitment that we'll be following.
(04:33):
It's been a good run of Kentucky guys, even though
Travis Perry ultimately left to go to Old Miss. But
you still got Noah on the team, you got Johnson,
Reno on the team. Maybe they could add Kenny. So
it's a good period for Kentucky high school basketball. And
we pass along condolences to Travis Ford and his family
on the passing of Travis's dad, Eddie Ford. Helped a
(04:56):
lot of young people advance their careers in basketball here
in the state to Kentucky. Very successful coach and high
school and at the AAU level. And obviously Travis tweeting
out this week about the tremendous love he had for
his dad and how impactful his dad was on his life.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Sent Travis a note yesterday.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I never had a chance to really meet Eddie and
interact with him at all. Oscar Combs did quite a
bit through the high school at AAU basketball circles, and
Oscar had some wonderful things to post about eighty four
this week.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So rip to Eddie Ford.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Twelve past the top of the hour, our opening segment
of Wildcat News always presented by just Seppes of Lexington.
You have a special occasion coming up, maybe a birthday
or anniversary this summer, somebody gets a promotion in the family,
head to Giuseppes for the celebration. It's fantastic place to
go if you're looking for a really special night out
(06:01):
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Speaker 2 (06:12):
It's the Leach Report.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
We're presented by Bobcat Enterprises and we'll be right back
with Chris Fisher from the Cat's Paws. That's the top
of the hour. It is the Leach Report for the
Clark's Pumping Shop studio. Return, refresh and refuel at Clark's
and make sure you get signed up for their new
loyalty rewards program. State Line Co is a company based
(06:34):
down in the London area. There's a story of the
Herald Leader today that recounts the timeline and the impact
of the damage of those tornadoes last month that just
devastated the London community. So state Line Co has these
London Strong T shirts that they have produced and all
of the proceeds are going to the recovery efforts there
(06:55):
in Laurel County. State Line Co is a Kentucky based company,
So you can google them and find out more about
how you could get one of these London Strong T
shirts and send a little of that money to help
out the folks in London. You can follow them at
state Line Co on social media and again one of
(07:16):
all of the proceeds go to the recovery efforts. So
the thanks to the folks there for doing that work.
Chris Fisher joining us now from katzpause dot com on
the two four seven Sports Network. Let's start a little
bit talking about the all the positive buzz that is
(07:39):
out there for Kentucky basketball.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
You have a post up at the website Chris at
katzpause dot com about one of the twenty four to
seven sports writers, Isaac Trotter, having a lot of really
good things to say about what Mark Pope's second team
is capable of doing.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, it seems like right now, everywhere you turn, you know,
there's a media outlet talking about Kentucky as a preseason
top ten, preseason top five team, potential national championship contender,
And yeah, you're right Isaac Trotter saying that Mark Pope
has all the pieces to potentially win the national championship
(08:22):
next season. You know, he says, Kentucky's super deep, they
have two of everything, and it's interesting going into year
two under Mark Pope, especially coming off of year one.
The biggest question mark for Kentucky might be do they
have enough shooting? And is that shooting that they have
maybe a little bit too far down on the bench,
(08:43):
guys like Cam Williams or Colin Chandler or Trent Noa,
and will those guys play enough minutes in order to
have an impact in that way. But I just think
this team is so much more dynamic than Mark Pope's
team last season. I think that, you know, his first
team will always hold a special place in the hearts
of fans for you know, kind of laying the foundation
(09:05):
and playing through so much adversity, and you could really
feel their connection to the state and to the community,
and you know, really pushing through a lot of adversity,
a lot of injury when you know they could have
kind of packed things up and went home and instead,
you know, they have eight wins over top fifteen teams,
they reached the Sweet sixteen for the first time since
(09:27):
since twenty nineteen, and really injected a lot of excitement
into the program. But as much as people love that team,
I think they were a little bit limited in terms
of their physical abilities, in terms of, you know, their talent,
and I think Kentucky got a much needed infusion of
talent in every possible way over the course of this offseason,
(09:50):
and a lot a team will that should be a
lot more dynamic guys that can take you off the
dribble and attack you. And it'll be fun to watch
those guys operate in Mark Pope's offense. But as Isaac
points out, Kentucky should be much improved defensively as well.
I mean, you have a guy like Denzel Aberdeen otega
Oway on the wing, you have Mo Diabat who is
(10:13):
kind of a multiple or multi positional defender who can
step out on the perimeter, and then you have Jaden
Quainton's who you know, whenever he does come back, should
have a huge impact in terms of rim protection average
two point six blocks per game as the youngest player
in college basketball last season. Obviously, a lot depends on
(10:35):
kind of how he's able to bounce back from that
ACL injury, But so much to like about Kentucky going
into next.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Season defensive The defensive end is one area that was
an issue for them at times last season, and you
noted that that seems to have been addressed in the
team he's put together. And also something else that your
colleague said in this podcast. He notes that Jalen Lowe,
(11:06):
Otega Away and Denzel Aberdeen are three guys who can
go quote get one for themselves, and that was an
area frequently cited as one of the weaknesses for Kentucky
last year that Otaga was really the only guy who
was doing much of that. So that's an area where
you know, late you can get into postseason, the defenses
(11:28):
are better, teams are you know, the opponents are better
and playing for you know, playing for their postseason lives,
and sometimes you just have to you know, the play
breaks down, you just have to go get something yourself
as the shot clocks winding down, and they'll have a
better capability apparently of doing that.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, I think Kentucky'll have several guys that have are
kind of like a built in insurance policy late in
the shot clock where you know things break down, they
can just take their man off the dribble and create something.
I think you'll see much more shot creation from the
perimeter next season, as opposed to this season where Kentucky
was kind of forced to rely on the scheme and
(12:07):
the offensive system to create open shots. I think this
year Kentucky will have the players as well to create
some of those shots. And I remember, you know, much
of the concern for Lamont Butler when he came in
with his his shooting percentages and his inefficiency, but when
you look when all the dust settled, he had a
(12:28):
career season pretty much across the board in terms of
offensive efficiency shooting percentages. And I'm expecting a similar jump
for Jalen Lowe. He was forced to do most of
everything on a really bad pit team. I think if
you put some players around him, much like we saw
with him at the NBA Draft combine, I think he's
(12:50):
gonna shine brightly. He has the ability to score to
get other guys involved. Expect a big jump from him.
And then Denzel Aberdeen as well, a guy that you
know came off of the bench for a loaded Florida
team that is going to get a chance to showcase
his ability. And if you look at the opportunities he
had to showcase his ability at Florida last season, the
games that Walter Clayton and Elijah Martin were out, he
(13:13):
played particularly well. I think he averaged over fifteen points
per game, shot over forty percent from the three in
his five stars. And so those are two guys I
think that could make a big jump from last season
to next season.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Tom Chris Fisher, it's at Chris Fisher twenty four to
seven on x or Twitter, and we'll get to quick break,
come back and continue this discussion in just a moment.
On the Leech Report, we are presented each day by
Bobcat Enterprises. They have four locations around Kentucky, So google
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(13:45):
or rent, you'll find the Bobcat location that's closest to you.
And they have been known since they opened the business
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You read them at catspause dot com.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
We're talking about all of the optimistic projections for Kentucky
basketball for the upcoming season. Second one for Mark Pope,
and they're going to have a lot of different ways
that they can play. And I think you mentioned guys
that might be further down that are the best three
point shooters on paper anyway, might be further down the
(14:26):
line for those guys. That's that's one way to you know,
play your way into two more minutes if the team
is not as successful at three point shooting. As it
would want to be for whatever reason. But I think
to be the kind of three point shooting team that
Mark Pope certainly wants. Then lead improvement from Low, the
(14:47):
lead improvement from Oway. You know, Dabatte Aberdeen are guys
that can can make a three. But you know, there's
there's in the main rotation. There's not a Kobe Braat type, right,
or even a Jackson Robinson.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yeah, and I think you know, Jeff Goodman from the
Field of sixty eight made a good point and talking
about Cam Williams kind of as maybe the X factor
on this team. He has that length, he has that
athletic ability that Kentucky needs to kind of upgrade from
last season. But also you know shot. You know, they
had sixty three makes from beyond the arc shot over
(15:21):
forty one percent from three as a freshman at Tulane
last season, which is really really impressive. If he's able
to kind of extrapolate that out, I think that's huge
for Kentucky and it'll be interesting to see how all
these pieces fit together. You know, I think Mark Pope
wants to play fast, and I don't think he was
(15:43):
able to play quite as fast last season, especially as
the year went on due to all of the injuries.
But you know, I think if Mark Pope had his druthers,
he would probably play all fourteen guys minutes just to
keep that pace up and to keep that kind of
chaos on the offensive end and attacking and transition. So
(16:03):
it'll be interesting to see kind of how that rotation
begins to shape up as the season goes along. And
I think that, you know, that'll be one of the
big X factors next season. It's kind of how all
those parts kind of meshed together. But I can't remember
who said this. I wish I could remember so I
could give them credit, But they talked about Mark Pope's
ability to microwave chemistry, and I thought that was a
(16:24):
really good way to put it, because if you look at,
you know, some of the top transfer classes from last season,
not all those teams. Most of those teams did not
fare particularly well. Kansas State, Arkansas for much of the season, Indiana,
and you know, teams like Kentucky Louisville were able to
take all those new parts and create something that worked
(16:44):
pretty much from the get go. And so I think
having Mark Pope as your head coach, I think if
you're a Kentucky fan that had to give you confidence
going into next year with a grand total of ten
offseason editions.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yeah, that's a really good point because they're probably still
one more season away from getting to where I suspect
he wants to be, which is having you know, a
majority of your roster being holdovers and then you add
you know, three four transfers or freshmen to the mix.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Yeah, and that's why I love the addition of Braden Hawthorne.
Getting that guy into your system where he may not
be able to contribute as much as a freshman next
season needs to put on weight, needs to add strength,
but is a guy that can help you down the
line and having him in your system. And Mark Pope
always talks about making that jump from year one to
year two where you have the decision making down. Now
(17:35):
you can play fast, you can play free, and players
make that big jump from year one to year two.
Having those guys in your system and having those holdovers
in the transfer portal era of college basketball is more
important than ever.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Chris Fishercashpauls dot Com, thank you all right, Thanks right
back with Michael Corsi. Guess so, the Leads Report come
to you via the Club BLUEINIL dot com hotline. Club
Blues the official NIL fundraising partner for UK Athletics, and
they're also working with fans on a lot of cool
projects like Club Blue Kids. And if you'd like your
(18:09):
kid to be part of that club, go to Club
blueenil dot com click on the kids tab and you
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They have one coming up with Brandon Garrison. It's all
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tab and Club Blue Kids is where future Wildcats repped
the blue and White with pride. Mike de Coursi joins
us now from Sportingnews dot com at TSN Mike on
X and let's start a little NBA Mike with the
Nicks and surprising folks with the announcement yesterday that they
are out with their coach Tom Thibodau, who just led
(18:52):
them to the finals for the first time in more
than two decades. So were you surprised by that?
Speaker 4 (18:58):
I was. I had had an appearance on a program
that I do and and I literally found out as
we As I was being asked the question about it,
I was not anticipating that at all. I did. I
did understand that there was some disappointment in how what
the Eastern Conference Final series against the Knicks played out.
(19:20):
But I thought that the fact that they had taken
out the Celtics and that they had been very competitive
against against the the the Pacers would suggest that maybe
you needed to tweak some things, but not necessarily that
you needed to abandon everything. I will say that I
did think that Thibodeau's stubbornness was was a problem. He was.
(19:41):
He was a very stubborn coach in general. The idea
that they weren't deep enough to go into their bench
more than they did was kind of blown away a
bit by the performances of some of the bench guys
in the Eastern Conference Finals. So they got some really
good Landry Shammett on one of them. He's he's the
(20:03):
main guy. Like Landry Shammitt was a problem for the Pacers.
Made every shot, you know, not not every shot, but
it felt like he made every big shot that he
took from deep, did a solid job defensively, and in
the first couple of series he could not get off
the bench, and early in this one as.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Well, one thankfully he didn't make in that building was
in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Yes, I remember that.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Bam Adebayo blocked it. Wichita State folks must have nightmares
about Kentucky. They lost a close one there, then had
that upset in twenty fourteen. And I was talking with
Matt Norlander about Puchita State yesterday. Kind of gets me
to this, and you'll you'll have a take, I'm sure
on this, just you know how you know, we all
are college basketball fans and we think we know who's
(20:55):
going to be best in the NBA. And that Wichita
State team they had cle Anthony Early and Ron Baker
leading the charge, and then they had this kind of
stocky little point guard who looked like just a nice
college player. I named Fred van Vliet. So what were
the odds that he would have had the longest NBA
career by a mile?
Speaker 4 (21:15):
I know, it is amazing what Fred's become, what he's
been able to accomplish, winning an NBA championship as a
pivotal player with the Raptors in twenty nineteen. I would
not have anticipated him being the star of that group
in the league. I thought Baker was going to have
a better NBA career than he did. It's been remarkable,
(21:35):
But you know, I look at Wichita as a cautionary
example of people talk about the transfer portal and guys
always wanting to climb up, and what they missed sometimes
is that the transfer portal opened for colleges probably around
two thousand and three, when the ACC started going hunting
(21:56):
for football teams to beef up their football league. All
of a sudden, Boston College was moving, and Wake Forest,
I excuse me, Virginia Tech was moving in Miami, and
then later on pitt and Syracuse, and then all of
a sudden that spread to the middle leagues, and Wichita
decided they were better off than the American than the Valley.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
And I looked.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
At that and I was like, how how are you
gonna be better off? Everybody wants out of the American
and half the teams that wanted out got out.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Yeah, that's a good point. I'm an old school college
basketball fan. I remember the Missouri Valley Conference back to
the days when it had Louisville and Cincinnati, and Bradley
was really good and UH Wichita State of course, uh
Indiana State came out of there with Larry Bird.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
So a lot of good history in that league.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Uh speaking of a guy like Van Vleet, and this
is to a much greater level of guys, you know,
maybe being much better in the NBA than a lot
of US though Shay MVP of the NBA and may
get a ring here in the next couple of weeks
as the final start tomorrow. Did you see anything like
this coming for him?
Speaker 4 (23:07):
No? Did I think he would be a starting NBA
point guard after watching him for a year at Kentucky. Absolutely,
I thought he was very good. But this is this
is one of the really remarkable stories of professional advancement.
Jokic is a pretty remarkable story as well, because Jokic
went I think it was twenty fourteen, right around there,
(23:30):
the United States played Serbia in the Under twenty World
Cup Final and Aaron Gordon played for the US and
it was coached by Billy Donovan, and Jokicic was on
the Serbian team and played like twenty minutes as the
US was winning the game in a very close game.
He played twenty minutes and you know what, eight years later,
(23:51):
he's the best player in the league. And that's pretty remarkable.
But I'm not sure that Shay isn't right there, considering
he was a he was an excellent freshman point guard,
but not an All American, was projected to be a
top ten pick. I think he went right around there,
maybe eleven, and now he's the MVP. I think it's
(24:14):
been astonishing, and I give him a ton of credit
for continuing to develop and advance and improve and to
find boundaries to his talent that we did not know existed.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
That's where I was going next with him, because when
he was here for the one season, the storyline on
him or backstory whatever, was the early morning workouts that
he committed to with Joel Justice, who was then an
assistant coach, and they, you know, Cal talked about how
(24:47):
you know, religiously Shay went about that, and you know,
he's not a guy who's gonna jump out of the
gym or be the fastest guy on the court or
physically overpower anybody. So he's it's a good lesson for
young players he has to obviously has a lot of talent,
(25:08):
but it's not like I don't think anyway if you
would disagree with this that his talent's not, you know,
vastly superior to everybody else that's competing for that MVP
award that he won, and yet he got it because
of all that work that he has put in to
make himself a better player.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
Yeah, it's one hundred percent true. I will say Tom,
that one of the things that's always amazed me. And
I've seen a couple of different superstars do summer workouts.
Kevin Durant, I was in the gym one time, and
Lebron James back in the summers when I used to
go to Vegas on the circuit, the AAU circuit, and
(25:51):
just happened to be in a gym and all of
a sudden they shut it down because there were no games,
and somebody said, hey, stick around, you might want to
watch this. And so there I am watching Kevin Durant
work out at Green Valley High School or whatever it was,
and and the work and I'm like, wait a second,
this guy's he's already star. He's worth millions, and he's
doing this when he could be sitting like in Monte
(26:14):
Carlo or something. Never ceases to amaze me how hard
these guys are willing to work at the game, and
Shay is a prime example of that when look, here's
the thing. Shaye's MVP now and like you said, in
a couple of weeks he could be an NBA champion.
And I guarantee you that we get to mid July
(26:35):
and he's sweating in some gym somewhere trying to continue
to get better at what he's already great at.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Absolutely talk with Mike de Coursey. At Ts said Mike
on X and we'll continue the conversation here in just
a moment. As we headed the break, will remind you
about the LPGA Tour Legends that are coming to Woodford
County this weekend. Some of the best players in the
history of the LPGA, Julie Angster, Llydes, Tris Johnson, and
Moore are going to play at Woodford Club in for
(27:04):
sales this Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are just fifteen dollars.
Get them through Woodford Clubfoundation dot org. Proceeds benefit KVC
Kentucky for the Woodford Legends Invitational chance to get up
close and personal with some of the all time best
players on the LPGA.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Tour.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
We'll be right back on the way to report presented
by Bob kat Enterprises ORTEENA at the top of the
hours the Leach Report. Mike the Corsi is with us
on the Club Blueenile dot com highline. Let's talk a
little college hoops here. And you have been active on
social media about the NCAA president talking about expanding the
(27:42):
NCAA tournament. Personally, as a basketball fan, it's it would
to me it's not the worst thing in the world
if I get to have a couple of more games
in the afternoon on Tuesday and Wednesday of the first
week of the tournament. However, it's still just more mediocre teams.
(28:03):
And the thing that occurs to me is, I don't
think the networks are going to be really your I
wouldn't think to pay a whole lot more for that
to have, you know, the sixty ninth and or the
seventy first and seventy second teams play at three o'clock
on a Tuesday afternoon, So why are you increasing your
(28:24):
costs without increasing your revenue?
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (28:27):
See, that's really the hold up right now. Thank goodness
that the networks aren't interested in these games because they
know they don't add to the bottom line, and they're
being asked. No one at the NCAA or no one
in the NCAA membership wants to increase the number of
entrants without increasing at least covering the payouts that would
(28:51):
go to those entrants. The point is partly to get
all those people paid. So to speak, if you have
a sixty ninth team, I think the unit now is
worth something like two million dollars that goes it ultimately
goes to the conference. The conference splits it up, and
so the networks would be on the hook for that money.
And it may be more expensive than a simple two
(29:13):
million for each team. It may be more expensive than that.
I'm not certainly literate in financially literate in how network
spending works, but it would be at least that And
so that's something they're saying, we're not gonna get the
audience because even now, like if you get a Carolina
or an Indiana in a first four game, which we
(29:36):
have done each of those in the last three four years,
they get a number about two to two point five million.
That's the big number on a first four game. The
average number is closer to one or one and a half.
That's not moving the needle. For the networks, that's not
a huge number. When they get to the first round,
(29:58):
you're getting six million, and for the for the really
great games between four and six, and the average NCAA
tournament game over the course of sixty seven games averages
out to about count ten million people per and so
these early games are not enough to move the needle.
And then on the other side, they're you're not allowing
(30:18):
great teams into the field, and you're not excluding great teams.
You're it's a it's a it's if you look at
the final teams that get in. Can you make an
argument that Carolina didn't belong? Absolutely and I did. But
the teams behind them, there were no great teams. There
were no best teams. In the words of Charlie Baker,
(30:41):
he said, some of the best teams are being left out.
Is this echoes back to Greg Sankee who kind of
started all this back around twenty two or twenty three
when he said that you look at Ole Miss winning
the College World Series in baseball, and they were like
the literal last team in. And so he was basically
(31:02):
equating college baseball to college basketball. When we know those
two sports are not alike. They're not similar in terms
of how games are won and lost. You're not gonna
see Murray State do the kind of damage in the
NCAA tournament or anybody like Murray State very often, but
it's not that rare in the College World Series because
(31:23):
baseball is different.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I have done, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
I was just gonna say I done. I've done the
brackets for five years and I know what's on the
other side of that line, Tom for Fox Sports, and
it's just not that impressive.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
The end of the bubble is like getting to the
garage sale at four o'clock when they're closing up.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Oh, that's the greatest line I think I've ever heard
on this. That's a perfect analogy. It couldn't be better.
You're not finding any any hidden rem brands at four o'clock, right, No.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
You're not.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Mark Pope has advocated for more games. Would you be
in favor of that? And do you think anybody in
power would be in favor of that?
Speaker 4 (32:06):
I don't know what it adds. I mean, you're already
starting the season in the second or actually the first
week in November now, which is as early as it's
ever been. And I think where sometimes coaches and others
get lost is in like the tournament has to be
in March. I mean it has to be because that's
(32:27):
where the money is. And so you can't say to
CBS or Turner, who are paying a billion dollars a year,
little more than a billion dollars a year to the tournament, oh,
we want you to move in into April or May.
They're not going to go for that when they've already
signed a contract for the billion dollars for sixty seven
basketball games. That gets them, as I said, ten million
dollars tell me ten million viewers per They're not changing that.
(32:51):
So where do those games go? I just don't know
what would be the value of that. I have heard
suggest since that they should play exhibition games in August.
Maybe I heard one person suggests that I'm never against
more hoop. I just don't know that it would be
of great value to the college basketball season to expand
(33:14):
a number of games.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Just as a sports fan, I wish somebody would take
try to do something From about the right after the
end of the British Open in the middle of July
until the last couple of weeks of August when football
is almost here. It's a dead period in sports unless
you're just a die hard baseball fan. And I was
(33:36):
thrilled when the NBA looked like at one point they
might be moving to starting their season later and finishing
up around that time frame, which would have made a
whole lot of sense. So why not college basketball jump
in there and play some games, even if they're exhibitions.
You can play four, go to the Bahamas, you can
play four games, well, play four regionally, and then go
to the Pajama still once every four years?
Speaker 4 (33:59):
Yeah, or you know, I mean, my goodness, why not?
The other option would be why not allow? And I
like your idea better, but this is a this is
sort of a corollary like why not why why are
we limiting these international tours the once every four years?
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (34:14):
A lot of guys are only on campus for a
year or two, so why not give them the opportunity.
I think we have a lot of rules that are
just there because they were there, and at this point
they don't really make much sense, and so there's no
reason for something like that, that kind of restriction to
remain in the book.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Absolutely, And you know, again, it's that dead time for sports,
so surely somebody would pay you to put it on
TV or streaming or something. So they're looking to make
money and a little bit there, Mike, thank you as always.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Thanks Tom, and is.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Mike de Coursy Sportingnews dot Com. We need to get
into a little movie discussion with him one of these
Wednesdays and.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Have a we'll talk about.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Summer movies and classics and all that kind of stuff.
Maybe'll do a whole hour with Mike one week and
do that. Anyway, for now, we need to get to
a break and come back with our final segment for
this Wednesday edition of The Leach Report, presented by Bobcat Enterprises.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
It's the Leach Report.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
And time for our Triple Crown update. Belmont Steaks coming
up on Saturday at Saratoga again this year at a
mile at a quarter. Our Triple count coverage presented by
Clayburne Farm doing the usual, unusually well for more than
one hundred years, and the Belmont Steaks Festival starts today
with the racing at Saratoga. Most of the Steaks were
(35:41):
really all the stakes races. The big ones are coming
tomorrow and then more on Friday and Saturday. Bloodhorse Magazine
has a story about the mayor Puka Puca, who was
the producer of Mage for the twenty twenty three Kentucky
Derby and door knock for last year's Belmont Steaks. She
could become the first mayor ever to produce three winners
(36:04):
of Triple Crown races and would have done it in
three consecutive years, so pretty interesting stat. There stand Wildcat
History presented by Kentucky road Show Sports Cards at Memorabilia.
They're on Romney Rode in Lexington, ad at roadshowcards dot com.
And it's just a happy birthday today and it's to
volleyball coach Craig Skinner got one national championship, always having
(36:26):
his eye on a second one. And happy birthday, do
coach Skinner. If you tried the new Seltzers from our
friends at Cornbread Hemp. These are packed with delicious fruit
flavor and five milligrams of the good stuff. No booze,
no hangover, just a smooth, enjoyable lift, just thirty calories
per can five grams of sugar. So it is a
(36:47):
guilt free indulgence and it's a way to enjoy summer.
If you have aches and pains, you're not enjoying summer,
so the bombs and lotions from Cornbread Hemp could help
you out. If you have trouble getting to sleep, sleepgummies
will do the trick. Otherwise, the Seltzers the infused gummies
can take the edge off a tough day or just
help you relax on one of those nice summer weekends.
(37:08):
So go to cornbrandamp dot com. If it's your first order,
we'll put in the code Tom and check out. You'll
get an extra twenty percent off first orders only. Of course,
I said cornbrandamp dot com. This is the good life.
We will see you tomorrow on the Leach Report, presented
by Bobcat Enterprises
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