Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good day, everybody. It is the Wednesday edition of The
Leach Report. Welcome into the show, presented by Bob cann Enterprises.
Today it's our regular Wednesday guests Chris Fisher from The
Cat's Pause and Mike De Coursey from Sportingnews dot Com.
So obviously tons of college hoops with Mike and a
(00:24):
little bit of a mixture of things with Chris, as
we'll talk to Kentucky football and basketball and let's get
us that gets us right to the Wildcat news of
the day. It is a service of Giuseppes of Lexington,
and the weekly media sessions with some of the Kentucky
basketball team players continued yesterday. Jaden Quainten's Cam Williams talked
(00:47):
to reporters over at the Coliseum. A lot of focus
for Jayden on his recovery from his knee ligament tear
and the surgery and how he's bouncing back. He said
he is feeling great, and he was asked about what
the what he is doing now that he still you know,
(01:07):
can't be fully cleared to get back into action with team,
So what is he doing in this time to learn
what he needs to learn to be productive when he
gets full go. Well we'll get back to that in
a bit, but he talked about just the things that
(01:31):
he can do on the on the side and watching tape. Also,
yesterday there was a scrimmage. You probably saw this in
the youth. Well, if you are on social media, you
saw it on the UK Basketball x account and I'm
sure other social media platforms. That's where I saw it
where they had a scrimmage and Mark Pope put up
(01:53):
a pair of Kobe Bryant shoes as the pride for
the winning team, and Malachira Moreno grabbed a rebound in
the final seconds of the scrimmage and launched a shot
that went in and so his team won the shoes.
(02:14):
So it's part of what they're doing this summer is,
you know, keeping it fun for the guys as well
as getting some serious work done. Now let's go to
the Jadan Quainton spy. This is what he's able to
do while he's waiting to get fully cleared.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Just knowing a lot of free throws, working on a
lot of form stuff, get my shot a little bit
more consistent, and focusing on learning the terminology, learning where
to be on offense and defense out of space, the floor,
what to look for in the offense. I feel like
those are things are going to be really helpful for
me to flourish next year.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
He told the reporters yesterday that there is no definitive
timetable for winning is going to get back out onto
the court. There had been some talk that maybe he
could get full clearance by September. That would be about
six months after the surgery, because he was injured toward
the latter part of last season at Arizona State. So
(03:08):
we'll just see how that goes. But I think, certainly
the feeling is that he will be back. If not
by that most optimistic projection, then you know, in the
in this calendar year, we'll say and that's I'm just
I'm just guessing in terms of that. But from what
the reports that he's talked about in interviews he's done,
(03:32):
they've all been very optimistic, and everybody around the situation
has been as well. So I think it'll the news
will be good when it happens. He'll get fully recovered.
It's just what the timeline is. So you'll keep your
fingers crossed, obviously, and there is no definitive answer right now.
Is the bottom line on that one, a couple of
(03:53):
other things for the headlines of the day, and then
we'll get to our first guest, Chris Visher. Randall Cobb
Tayshaun Prince selected the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame. Two
tremendously deserving individuals from the UK athletics family. Remember when
Randall arrived, it's from the Knoxville area, so people, I
(04:16):
think there was some wonder well if you know, how
did Kentucky get him away from Tennessee? And is he
really as good as Rich Brooks says he is? Yes,
he was probably better. Remember Rich just raving about what
Randall Cobb was going to do, and he's just one
of those guys that is a great football player. He
played quarterback the first year and became the starter midway
(04:39):
through the season, actually led them to the victory in
his rookie season that clinched a bull bit down at
Mississippi State, and he got hurt toward the end of
the year. So Mike Cartline came back and led him
to the Bowl win. And then Mike came back and
solidified himself as the starting QB, and so Randall became
a wide receiver, kick returner but could still run out
(05:00):
the wildcat formation quite effectively. Remember the game at Auburn
when Heartline had been injured the week before at South
Carolina and they had Cobb and freshman Morgan Newton and
Will Fiddler with a three headed quarterback approach, and Randall
was a little like you know, Lynn Bowden. He just
had that ability to find seams in that wildcat formation
(05:21):
be so effective. And then Tayshawn Prince such a versatile player,
tremendous shooter. We'll all never forget those first five three
pointers to start the game against North Carolina in December
of two thousand and one. Great defender as well. His
most famous NBA play was a block shot for the
(05:42):
Pistons on he was on Reggie Miller to preserve and
Detroit win over the Pacers and helped them onto an
NBA championship. He won an Olympic gold medal. Both just
tremendous representatives of UK athletics throughout their time here and
beyond when they went onto the pros. Also elected Nora
(06:03):
Martin Ross trap shooting legend from my hometown. She was
actually a classmate of mine. We graduated the same year
from Bourbon County, so I was thrilled to see Nora
elected to the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame. And then
Karen Ledkey, who was a gymnastics star, athlete, coach and
official participated for the University of Louisville. So congrats to
(06:23):
all four of the new inductees to the Kentucky Sports
Hall of Fame. And one other note on baseball, right
handed pitcher Jackson Jelkin has taken his name out of
the Major League Baseball Draft and we'll return to UK
and that's great news for Nick Minjeon. Jelkin missed last
season because an elbow injury had transferred in from Houston,
where he was the Friday night starter for the Cougars
(06:46):
before he was injured, so he could really help boost
the Kentucky pitching staff for the upcoming season. For the
twenty sixth season of Kentucky Baseball links to the stories
that we talk about each day. You can find those
on the bud lightly Triport page at Tom Leey dot com.
Chris Fisher will join us when we come right back
on the Leach Report. Our opening segment always presented by
Giuseppes of Lexington. Open Table Go there right now. Make
(07:10):
a reservation for Giuseppes. If you haven't been lately, or
if you've never been at all, man are you missing
a fantastic spot. It's out off Nicholasville Road, just pass
man Or Boulevard and it is a fantastic food in
a really special atmosphere. Sit in the lounge area if
you haven't done that in a while, enjoy Dave Hall's
live jazz music while you enjoy a fantastic meal from Giuseppes.
(07:33):
Chris Fisher when we come right back on the Leach
Report Radio Network. Leach Report's presented each day by Bobcat
Enterprises four locations around Kentucky for Bobcat, so google them
when you need to buy or rent a piece of
heavy equipment or you know somebody who does. They're going
to get a great deal and great service after the
(07:55):
deal is done at Bobcat Enterprises. Joining us now Chris
Fisher from katspause dot com to talk all things UK sports.
We'll start with some of the comments from the Kentucky
players yesterday, Jaden Quaintans and Cam Williams talking to the media.
Let's first year. Another bite from Quaintance and Chris here
(08:17):
he's talking about what Kentucky could be defensively this season.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Oh, we have a.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Chance to be great defensively this year. We have one
of the biggest and longest teams in the country, and
I feel like that's gonna, you know, kind of pop
out in the games a lot. I feel like everybody's
buying in and we have people pressing full for we
have people and gods, people and help and the way
we rotate, I feel like we're going to surprise a
lot of people defensively.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Is that something Pope is kind of gone and on
pressing and kind of making sure.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
That do you guys work on that? Definitely, he made
a big ones on trying to fill in the gaps
our left last year defensively and try and improve and
be better on that side of the ball.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So that was JQ yesterday and Cam Williams also talked
about defense in his media session Chris and how Bark
Pope is putting so much emphasis on it, and he's
talked about how Brandon Garrison can switch off on a
guard the abbate cond guard one through five. So that
(09:15):
is certainly a theme of a lot of these player comments.
How good Kentucky could be defensively, even talked about the
shot blocking of Malachi Moreno, the freshman.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah, it was definitely a point of emphasis for Mark Pope.
I think he realized that, you know, even if you're
scoring eighty five points a game, I think Kentucky ranks
in the top ten nationally in scoring offense, that it's
not going to be quite enough in the SEC. And
they needed to get better defensively. And they went out
and did that. And you talk about Jaden Quaintin's and
(09:46):
Mo Diabat, those are two of the top five transfers
in terms of defensive impact according.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
To Evan mia Kawa.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
And obviously a lot depends on how Jaden Quaintans bounces
back from the ACL. But you know, this was a
kid who was the youngest player in college basketball last season,
averaged over two and a half blocks per game, extremely explosive,
has unbelievable timing with his shot blocking ability, and you know,
(10:17):
it's really really a gift, especially when you consider how
young he was. But all big twelve defensive performer, cat quick,
very you know, mobile laterally, but can also explode off
the floor and has tremendous length, and so with his
shot blocking and kind of the toughness and the physicality
and the versatility of Mo Diabate and kind of somewhat
(10:40):
similar with Cam Williams. I think Kentucky's going to have
a massive, massive upgrade in that department this season.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I was looking at minutes from last season. The top
six guys Oway, Robinson, Brea, Butler, Williams, Car all average
between twenty three and twenty eight minutes a game. Then
it drives down to Garrison at seventeen in almon Or
at fourteen, and Ansley probably might have even played a
(11:07):
tad bit less if Carr had been healthier. There were
some of these averages were reflective of him not being
able to play long stretches of games with respect to
both the defensive and the offensive ends of the court.
I know with Cody Figer on last week and he
was talking about from an offensive perspective, they still want
(11:29):
to play faster, get thirty five threes up the game,
and to do that, they'll have to play faster. And
I said, are you going to be able to do that?
And again this would apply to defense too, because of
the quality of the depth that you have on this roster,
where I would think there could be more than six
guys that might average, say nineteen twenty minutes or more game.
(11:51):
Would you agree, Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I think to your point, you know, Mark Pope wants
to play fast, and he wants to get a lot
of threes, and a lot of those threes are gonna
come in transition. You know, we saw kind of as
the season went on, teams shut down those open three
point looks for Kentucky in the half court, and so
(12:14):
if they wanted to get those shots, they had to
come in transition. And you're only gonna get transition threes
if you're running the floor, and.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
You're only going to be running the floor if you're fresh.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
And so I do think Mark Pope wants to play
a lot of guys, get a lot of bodies in there.
I think you know, one thing to keep an eye on,
especially early in the season, especially if Jaden Quainton's needs
a little bit more runway in recovering from that offseason surgery,
is the minutes that Malachi Moreno is gonna see.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I think he's a guy that just continued to.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Get better and better and better every time he steps
on the floor. You still have Brandon Garrison at that
five spot. But he's a guy that could see you know,
some really valuable game reps and minutes early in the season.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
We saw at the three.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Court or court heave at the bother to win the
scrimmage yesterday. But I mean every event that he's been in,
he's impressed. And you know, I think he was impressive
at the under nineteen training game in Colorado Springs. I think,
you know, a little bit of a minor injury may
have cut his time short.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
There, but he just gets better and better.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
And you know, sometimes you worry about the physicality of
guys transitioning from high school to college, but even for
a seven footer, he's extremely sturdy, especially in the lower body,
so he may not get pushed around as much as
you know, you see your typical freshman big in college basketball.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
To that point, I think it was Cam Williams yesterday
talked about how impressed he's been the shot blocking ability
of Malachi, and certainly the height comes you know, helps that,
but it is also a skill and he is a
guy that certainly has that skill, as Demon's rated Dad already,
(14:01):
and that helps, you you know, make up for a
few defensive mistakes that a freshman might have if you
have to play a little more. How in terms of
you know, lateral speed, guarding, pick and rolls, those kinds
of things. What are your thoughts from what you've seen
at his tape on that area.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Yeah, he's he's a good athlete.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
I mean, he's not spectacular by any stretch, but I
think he's a good athlete. I think he's a guy
that can you know, switch picking rolls and get out
and hedge and recover back and those types of things.
And you mentioned his his shot blocking. He's a true
seven footer. I think he's got good time and good
instincts on that end of the floor and can erase
a lot of those mistakes on the back line.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
And so he has a really really bright future.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
At Kentucky, even if it's not this season. I just
think again, if you look at his progression over the
last year year and a half, everywhere he's been, he's
performed at a really really high level, whether it was
on the Adidas three SSB and the McDonald's All American practice,
this is the Under nineteen training camp, you name it,
(15:03):
He's played some really really good basketball and I think
he's going to just get continued to get better and better.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Twenty four past the top of the hour, will take
a break, come back with Chris Fisher from Catspaws dot Com.
It's at Chris Fisher twenty four to seven on X
We're coming to you from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio. Return,
Refresh and refuel at Clark's. We are back with Chris
Fisher from Catspaws dot com And if you go there
(15:30):
you can see a variety of stories from Chris, including
one about La Familia securing some good news for the
basketball tournament that starts a week from Friday.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Yeah, they secured the second spot in their home court advantage,
so as long as they don't play the vill which
secured the top spot, they'll play at Historic Memorial Coliseum
for every game that they're in the tournament. So huge
advantage I think for that team. And you're playing in
(16:03):
Historic Memorial Coliseum as opposed to Reparna, where you know
it's it's gonna be a little bit more crowded in there.
It's going to trap that sound a little bit better,
I think, and so it could make for a really
raucous environment. I think that was a lot of fun
watching that Lot Familia team last season they advanced all
(16:23):
the way to the semi finals and getting a chance
to see those guys, you know, playing in blue and
white again.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I think it's a lot of fun to.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Another story that you have up is about the two
Kentucky inductees for the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame. And
you'd be hard pressed to find two more deserving names
than Randall Cobb and Tayshaun Prince.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Right, Yeah, two of the absolute best to ever do
it in their respective sports. Just two absolute legends for Kentucky,
both of all Americans. And yeah, I mean you're talking
about just iconic, iconic names in their respective sports for Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
And both will be going into the hull. I think
it's on September twenty third of this year. So it
was thrilled to see that news yesterday. Chris appreciate the
time as always. All right, thank you. That is Chris Fisher.
You read those stories we talked about at Catspawse dot com.
(17:25):
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(17:49):
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Cornrad Hemp. This is the Good Life Lature presented each
day by Bob Kat Enterprises, and we are joined by
Mike de COURSEI. You read him at Sportingnews dot com,
(18:11):
follow on x at TSN Mike, It's the basketball season
rolls around. You see him on the Big Ten Network
and do the brackets for Fox Sports. So busy man
finds his way to the movie theater once in a
while too, So we talked a little bit about that
last week. Mike. Let's start with the I guess resolution.
(18:32):
According to us saw a matt Orlander story at CBS Sports.
Resolution may come this week about expanding the NCAA tournament
to seventy two or seventy six teams. We know you
are not a fan of this, but do you think
it's going to happen.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I'm not positive. I don't know for sure. I know
that there are.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Very loud voices that are agitating in favor of it.
I also know that there are TV news at works
that are writing checks worth of one point one billion
annually that aren't interested. They aren't interested in having the
extra games on Tuesday and Wednesday. They are concerned about
how it will impact the actual body of the tournament,
(19:18):
the sixty fourteen body of the tournament that let's be honest,
I mean, unless your team is in that game on
wednes Tuesday or Wednesday, the average fan looks at the
tournament as starting on Thursday, right around New The average
fan thinks that. And that's when the average fan shows up.
And you can tell that because the first round games
(19:39):
generally rate in the neighborhood of somewhere around somewhere between
four or five and seven million. I think seven million
will be the high end. That's where they generally rate,
and the first four games you need a Carolina or
an Indiana in there to get too close to two million.
(20:00):
Reality is most of them are around one one and
a half. I'm not sure what the sixty the sixteen
seed games rate, but usually the second game rates around
one or one and a half million.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
And they don't want more of that because it because
they have to pay full price for it.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
That's what this is all about in some ways, is
getting more of those units what they call units of
NCAA tournament money to do this. So I don't know
for sure whether it will happen, because I know there's
resistance at that network level because they don't think the
(20:38):
inventory is worth it, and because they are concerned about
how think about this, Tom, You did an office bracket,
a tournament pool, and it's all on one sheet, and
you check off all the teams and you write it
and you put it across and then you're done. And
you can do that back in nineteen eighty or suiting
(21:02):
nineteen ninety. You could do that all on one sheet
of paper. You could do it as soon as you
got the bracket on Sunday night, or you could wait
till you're deadline. Now you have to concern yourself with
four extra games on Tuesday and Wednesday. That's okay, that's
not that hard you know, the sixteens are almost certainly
going to lose, you don't have to worry about that's
so it's really only two games you have to worry.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
About, So it's not that complicated.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
But you stick eight games on Tuesday and Wednesday, and now.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
You've really complicated the bracket process.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
And I think a lot of people let's just say
that whatever I'm done, I'm not that interested. And I
think that's what the TV networks fear as well.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
You know, I remember from a good ways back a
college economics class about the law of diminishing returns, and
there's a thought just traditionally that we would all have
that if ten's good, twenty's better, and if twenty is better,
thirty could be even better. But at some point it
(21:59):
quits being better. The curve starts to go the other
direction on you. So I guess from a business standpoint,
that's ultimately kind of what we're looking at here, is it?
At that point because you can't make you can't stretch
the tournament out any further because CBS is your partner
and they have the Masters, and that ain't moving right right,
(22:20):
and you know you're not gonna I don't think start
the season that much earlier because you're you know, that's
kind of a failed endeavor because of going up against
more football. So it fits perfectly as it is.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
Yes, And that's the part about this that I don't
understand why certain people don't understand, and like this all
kind of started when Greg Sanki started talking about I
think it was the summer of twenty twenty two, and
he used the Ole Miss entry into the College World Series.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
And they were successful, and they might even have won it.
I don't think they did.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
They were last team in closely.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
Yeah, And so that was his reasoning and and a
lot of us who are been living in the basketball world,
I mean I've been I've been in.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
This for four decades. We're like, how can you even
compare the two. They're not the same, They're not remotely
the same. Like they're totally different sports.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yeah, because obviously in basketball, you don't get to you
get to play your best point guard every game, you
don't get to pay them every fifth.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Game, exactly.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
And the other element of that is like if you
compare it to football, I mean.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
We're not saying you need twenty four teams in the
football playoff.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
I mean, there are a lot of people who think
there are too many now, but I honestly, I was
agitating for a football playoff for years, Tom, for many years,
and this is when we had five major conferences, and
then there was the Group of five. And my idea
was just put put six in all you know, all
(23:54):
the major conference champions, and one from the group of
five or eight if you wanted a couple of at largest,
make to round it up.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
But I never argued for twelve.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
But I have no problem with it, and I have
no problem with necessarily expanding it. But I don't think
we're expanding it in order to put in all the
teams that could win it.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Because football is a different sport. The sixteenth team almost
certainly can't win it.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
We've seen one hundred and twenty five years of college
football that tells us this where if you're expanding it,
you're just doing it to get more games. But you're
not doing it because you can get there's a champion
out there that's not going to have a chance to
do it.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
That's certainly not the case in basketball.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Tom with Mike Mccersysportingnews dot Com here on this Wednesday
edition of the leads report in sports talk, especially summers.
You know, it's fun to have the debates about, you know,
where they You're presented with two choices, and which would
you lean to two you know, uncomfortable choices. So if
Mike Npersy had to decide between expanding the NCAA tournament
(24:59):
and letting the ball move to mid court after a
time out at the end of the game, where would
you come down? What would be worse?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
You're really trying to hurt me here.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Aren't you.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
I think that I think that moving the ball, honestly,
it comes up less than the expansion would. So I
think it would be worse for the sport to expand
the tournament.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
So I'll say that it would be worse for the
game to move the ball. But I will tell you,
I mean I followed the Pacers all the way through
the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
From our ten years in Indiana, we kind of became
you know, we started to follow the Pacers, and it
was amazing to me how rarely that came up. I mean,
they almost never did it, and there were a lot
of games in that run where they didn't do it,
and they had dramatic finishes. So the fact that it
(25:53):
came up so rarely suggests to me that if I
have to deal with one of those two things, I'll
probably I'd probably move the.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Ball, all right. Mike de Coursey's with us. We'll take
a break, come back continue the discussion to get into
a little bit about the Wildcats. We come right back
here on the Lead's Report presented by Bob cat Enterprises
a quarter before the top of the hour. Mike Decorsi
is with us as we come to here from the
Clark's Pumping Shop studio, return refresh and refuel and talk
(26:22):
a little bit about Kentucky. Mike is We're getting a
chance to listen to comments from a couple of members
of the team each week, and yesterday was Jaden Quaintans
and Cam Williams. And somebody asked Quaintance about a recent
I think it was an ESPN mock draft that had
him in the lottery. That has been frequently the case.
But the only other Wildcat that it had listed was
(26:44):
a second round projection for Cam Williams. And he's not
the player that certainly gets talked about the most in
terms of the incoming recruits, but he's a six to
eighty three point specialist from Tulane. Here's what Quaintance had
to say about him yesterday.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah, I feel like he's going to surprise a lot
of people. You know, six seven, really athletic, can get downhill,
got on the rim, really good shooter, like really consistent,
a high arch shooter. So I feel like he had
all the tools offensively and defensively that he needs to
get where he wants to go, And I feel like
he's going to surprive a lot of people. He's going
to be major for us this year.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Could Cam Williams be something akin to otega Oway in
terms of producing a lot more than maybe the average
fan expected going in.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
Well, I think that's certainly possible. We've seen a lot
of players who have elevated their the attention that they get,
the stock they get.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
And remember Cam is only he's only played a.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
Year of Division one basketball, so there's a lot of
growth possibility there in addition to getting on a higher
stage with excellent teammates. He's really a young player, but
as a freshman shot forty five excuse me, forty eight
point five percent overall from the field and over forty
(27:58):
from three. Numbers were really good. Answered the question of
how much opportunity he can earn, how many minutes he
can earn.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
And he was a full time player, a thirty minute
plus player for two lane.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
But how many minutes can he get in this really
deep group, that's.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
The question, and that's what he's got to fight for every.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Day, the minutes. So they were talking about in the
first part of the show today. I went back and
looked at the ninety six team that had that wealth
of talent that Mark Pope was a part of, and
I think it was Antoine Walker that had the most
minutes per game, slightly over twenty seven. He and Tony
Delk were both over twenty seven. I don't think anybody
else had got to that level. Last year Kentucky had
(28:43):
six guys between twenty three and twenty eight minutes a game.
And I was talking to Cody Figger last week about
the wanting to play even faster offensively, get up more threes,
and to do that and to be as good defensively
as they aspire to be. You know, it's you can't
play that. You can't go that hard for forty minutes, right,
(29:04):
So they're gonna, you know that, to be able to
do that then it to play that way. I think
it does take those kind of bodies, you know, to
do what the ninety six team did to play at
the level they played with all the pressing they did,
they you know, kind of required to be the case
that nobody was going to get to thirty minutes. It
seems like Kentucky has a group this year that is
(29:26):
has more I guess would say quality of depth than
last year's team and experience and to the point where
they should have. You know, I don't know how many
what the number is going to be, but I think
it was six between twenty three and twenty eight last year.
Maybe it's eight between nineteen and twenty eight this year
(29:47):
in terms of minutes, I don't know. What do you think?
Speaker 5 (29:50):
That sounds very logical and reasonable and probably where this
team is headed.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
We saw Jasper Johnson over the last two weeks a
show that.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
That he can play in a system like that by
winning a gold medal in the U nineteen World Cup.
I think I think something like that is absolutely tailor
made for him because he has because he's not a
super physical guy yet, so he's not gonna you don't
want him wearing down, but.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
You get him into a game that's going up and down.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I mean that.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
I think that US team averaged.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
Like one hundred and six points a game, so he's
getting He was getting into the game in the second
quarter and going out and playing pretty freely on offense.
And and although he certainly was required to defend, he
was he didn't have to be super physical doing it.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
They pressed a bit too, they played a.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Diamond press and and bothered a lot of teams that way.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
So I think he fits into.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
That Low is very similar in that sense. They're both
around the same size. I think Jasper's a little bit taller,
but neither of them is super physical.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
So I think that that system, that concept makes a
lot lot of sense for the group of players they've collected.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Is it kind of a an NBA? Look do you
think in terms of, uh, maybe how Pope will will
manage this? And you you mentioned the Pacers that you
were following earlier. I mean, you know they had Matherin,
for example, had a like a twenty seven point game
in the UH in the finals. Different guys could have,
(31:24):
you know, twenty five plus point games. Uh, you know,
TJ McConnell. You know, when they were fully healthy is
a you know, is a key second unit guy. So
I mean you have your your you know, your starters,
but you have very very vital, important guys that are
part of your second group as well.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
An important ingredient to that is the idea.
Speaker 5 (31:49):
And this was something that they adopted and embraced and
never wavered from, is you don't have You can't be
concerned with who scores the points as long as it's
where someone in Kentucky Jerseys. If you're going to play
like that, no one can think about that, no one,
no one can think about who is having those nights.
(32:11):
If it's not you, then you're then you're bothered. And
that and that's true not just.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Through the players, but through the their support.
Speaker 5 (32:19):
Systems as well, whether it's their family members, their their
their high score AAU coaches. They can't worry about that either.
And you have to create an expectation in your in
your group that they can't worry about that. They're obviously
going to want to be out on the floor as
much as possible, but if everybody is getting that nineteen
(32:42):
to twenty seven minutes, there's not everybody's kind of sharing
equally in that, then you can. You got to be
willing to share equally in the scoring opportunities, well, the
shooting opportunities, and when you can, when you can. You
look at that ninety sixteen which I've written on many occasions,
that's the greatest team I've covered that in an NCAA tournament.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
That's the best team. A duke team from ninety one
to ninety two was terrific, but.
Speaker 5 (33:11):
That was that ninety six Kentucky team was the best
team that I saw. And one of the reasons was
that it was the best team. They weren't worried about
who got the shots and the glory and all that,
because they all got the glory.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
In the end.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Yeah. And I think if I was playing what you
just said for Mark Pope, he'd be nodding his head
all the way through your comments. That's exactly what he's
looking for. Part of that, you know, it had to
have been factored into the process of putting this group
together and having those kinds of hopefully having those kinds
of individuals.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
Yeah, I think that that's an important part of it
is when you scout a player, you don't just scout
their games, you also have to scout them as people,
and how will they adjust to how you want to play,
and especially given that this this is the direction that
they moved last year as well. I mean, so they
there is a there's a blueprint there.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
We know what it looks like.
Speaker 5 (34:10):
Uh Now, last year we didn't get to see it
as best full for the full season because there were
so many injuries along the way, including one that ended
the season short of the tournament. Uh so we didn't
get to see it at the at the full, you know,
in its full glory. But they those these guys know
what they're they're signing up for, and so they should
(34:31):
be ready to embrace it.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
And I suspect they will be.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, I would think so as well be surprised if
that was not the case. Uh quick thought. Two guys
from UK Athletics name to the Kentucky Sports Hall of
Fame yesterday, Randall Cobb Tayshawn Prince. The people said Randall
was too small and that Tashan was too thin, and
neither turned out to be true.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
I remember I was in the building when he when
when Tayshawn hit that famous logo three pointer.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
Tayson, one of the great defenders in college basketball over
the last over the last quarter century. A great young man.
I always enjoyed dealing with him. Randall Cobb was a
phenomenal football player, and I.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Wish he became a Pittsburgh Steeler. I think it came
close once or twice there he would have been.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
He would We would have loved him. He was.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
He had a great career. Uh. But I really loved
covering Tayshawn.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
I saw him as a prospect, liked him, really liked
them a lot there and and loved his college career
and obviously had a tremendous pro career as well.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Mike, Thank you for the time. As always, Thanks Tom, Mike,
of course he Sporting News dot Com joining us here
on the Leach Report. We'll be right back. Shufflebean Kuffey
is one of our great partners here at the Leach Report.
Have been for probably a decade or more. Kentucky based
company and they are committed to excellence. They follow the
process of the quality of their coffee from took Cup,
(36:01):
so it starts with the best of coffee beans. You
can find out more about all of this at shufflebean
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can get it through Amazon Prime, or you can pick
up some shuffle bean coffee at Central Kentucky Myers stores.
They have it cured capsules and already ground and hole bean.
Whatever you prefer, just make sure that you are drinking
shuffle bean coffee. Kentucky Volleyball pick to win the SEC
(36:25):
again in the preseason coaches poll. They received nine first
place votes, Six went to Texas, one to Texas A
and M. Four of Coach Skinner's players named preseason ll
SEC Brooklyn Delay, Molly Huzo, Eva Hudson, and Brook Baltimoth.
So those were the four preseason ll SEC for Kentucky Volleyball.
(36:47):
Shay gilgis Alexander on the cover of NBA two K
for twenty twenty six. This Day a Wildcat history of
service at Kentucky's roadshow sports cards at Memorabilia here in Lexington.
You'll find them on Romedy Road and you can find
them on the web at roadshowcards dot com. Happy birthday
to coach Mark Stoops, celebrating a birthday today and hoping
(37:08):
to confound the experts with a better than expected season
this year. He'll be talking at SEC Media Days a
week from tomorrow Scottie Basler and Carlos Tumor to former
Kentucky Events basketball players also born on this day. Happy birthdays,
one and all. That'll do it for us On the
Lakes report presented by Bob Kat Enterprises see tomorrow
Good day, everybody. It is the Wednesday edition of The
Leach Report. Welcome into the show, presented by Bob cann Enterprises.
Today it's our regular Wednesday guests Chris Fisher from The
Cat's Pause and Mike De Coursey from Sportingnews dot Com.
So obviously tons of college hoops with Mike and a
(00:24):
little bit of a mixture of things with Chris, as
we'll talk to Kentucky football and basketball and let's get
us that gets us right to the Wildcat news of
the day. It is a service of Giuseppes of Lexington,
and the weekly media sessions with some of the Kentucky
basketball team players continued yesterday. Jaden Quainten's Cam Williams talked
(00:47):
to reporters over at the Coliseum. A lot of focus
for Jayden on his recovery from his knee ligament tear
and the surgery and how he's bouncing back. He said
he is feeling great, and he was asked about what
the what he is doing now that he still you know,
(01:07):
can't be fully cleared to get back into action with team,
So what is he doing in this time to learn
what he needs to learn to be productive when he
gets full go. Well we'll get back to that in
a bit, but he talked about just the things that
(01:31):
he can do on the on the side and watching tape. Also,
yesterday there was a scrimmage. You probably saw this in
the youth. Well, if you are on social media, you
saw it on the UK Basketball x account and I'm
sure other social media platforms. That's where I saw it
where they had a scrimmage and Mark Pope put up
(01:53):
a pair of Kobe Bryant shoes as the pride for
the winning team, and Malachira Moreno grabbed a rebound in
the final seconds of the scrimmage and launched a shot
that went in and so his team won the shoes.
(02:14):
So it's part of what they're doing this summer is,
you know, keeping it fun for the guys as well
as getting some serious work done. Now let's go to
the Jadan Quainton spy. This is what he's able to
do while he's waiting to get fully cleared.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Just knowing a lot of free throws, working on a
lot of form stuff, get my shot a little bit
more consistent, and focusing on learning the terminology, learning where
to be on offense and defense out of space, the floor,
what to look for in the offense. I feel like
those are things are going to be really helpful for
me to flourish next year.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
He told the reporters yesterday that there is no definitive
timetable for winning is going to get back out onto
the court. There had been some talk that maybe he
could get full clearance by September. That would be about
six months after the surgery, because he was injured toward
the latter part of last season at Arizona State. So
(03:08):
we'll just see how that goes. But I think, certainly
the feeling is that he will be back. If not
by that most optimistic projection, then you know, in the
in this calendar year, we'll say and that's I'm just
I'm just guessing in terms of that. But from what
the reports that he's talked about in interviews he's done,
(03:32):
they've all been very optimistic, and everybody around the situation
has been as well. So I think it'll the news
will be good when it happens. He'll get fully recovered.
It's just what the timeline is. So you'll keep your
fingers crossed, obviously, and there is no definitive answer right now.
Is the bottom line on that one, a couple of
(03:53):
other things for the headlines of the day, and then
we'll get to our first guest, Chris Visher. Randall Cobb
Tayshaun Prince selected the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame. Two
tremendously deserving individuals from the UK athletics family. Remember when
Randall arrived, it's from the Knoxville area, so people, I
(04:16):
think there was some wonder well if you know, how
did Kentucky get him away from Tennessee? And is he
really as good as Rich Brooks says he is? Yes,
he was probably better. Remember Rich just raving about what
Randall Cobb was going to do, and he's just one
of those guys that is a great football player. He
played quarterback the first year and became the starter midway
(04:39):
through the season, actually led them to the victory in
his rookie season that clinched a bull bit down at
Mississippi State, and he got hurt toward the end of
the year. So Mike Cartline came back and led him
to the Bowl win. And then Mike came back and
solidified himself as the starting QB, and so Randall became
a wide receiver, kick returner but could still run out
(05:00):
the wildcat formation quite effectively. Remember the game at Auburn
when Heartline had been injured the week before at South
Carolina and they had Cobb and freshman Morgan Newton and
Will Fiddler with a three headed quarterback approach, and Randall
was a little like you know, Lynn Bowden. He just
had that ability to find seams in that wildcat formation
(05:21):
be so effective. And then Tayshawn Prince such a versatile player,
tremendous shooter. We'll all never forget those first five three
pointers to start the game against North Carolina in December
of two thousand and one. Great defender as well. His
most famous NBA play was a block shot for the
(05:42):
Pistons on he was on Reggie Miller to preserve and
Detroit win over the Pacers and helped them onto an
NBA championship. He won an Olympic gold medal. Both just
tremendous representatives of UK athletics throughout their time here and
beyond when they went onto the pros. Also elected Nora
(06:03):
Martin Ross trap shooting legend from my hometown. She was
actually a classmate of mine. We graduated the same year
from Bourbon County, so I was thrilled to see Nora
elected to the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame. And then
Karen Ledkey, who was a gymnastics star, athlete, coach and
official participated for the University of Louisville. So congrats to
(06:23):
all four of the new inductees to the Kentucky Sports
Hall of Fame. And one other note on baseball, right
handed pitcher Jackson Jelkin has taken his name out of
the Major League Baseball Draft and we'll return to UK
and that's great news for Nick Minjeon. Jelkin missed last
season because an elbow injury had transferred in from Houston,
where he was the Friday night starter for the Cougars
(06:46):
before he was injured, so he could really help boost
the Kentucky pitching staff for the upcoming season. For the
twenty sixth season of Kentucky Baseball links to the stories
that we talk about each day. You can find those
on the bud lightly Triport page at Tom Leey dot com.
Chris Fisher will join us when we come right back
on the Leach Report. Our opening segment always presented by
Giuseppes of Lexington. Open Table Go there right now. Make
(07:10):
a reservation for Giuseppes. If you haven't been lately, or
if you've never been at all, man are you missing
a fantastic spot. It's out off Nicholasville Road, just pass
man Or Boulevard and it is a fantastic food in
a really special atmosphere. Sit in the lounge area if
you haven't done that in a while, enjoy Dave Hall's
live jazz music while you enjoy a fantastic meal from Giuseppes.
(07:33):
Chris Fisher when we come right back on the Leach
Report Radio Network. Leach Report's presented each day by Bobcat
Enterprises four locations around Kentucky for Bobcat, so google them
when you need to buy or rent a piece of
heavy equipment or you know somebody who does. They're going
to get a great deal and great service after the
(07:55):
deal is done at Bobcat Enterprises. Joining us now Chris
Fisher from katspause dot com to talk all things UK sports.
We'll start with some of the comments from the Kentucky
players yesterday, Jaden Quaintans and Cam Williams talking to the media.
Let's first year. Another bite from Quaintance and Chris here
(08:17):
he's talking about what Kentucky could be defensively this season.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Oh, we have a.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Chance to be great defensively this year. We have one
of the biggest and longest teams in the country, and
I feel like that's gonna, you know, kind of pop
out in the games a lot. I feel like everybody's
buying in and we have people pressing full for we
have people and gods, people and help and the way
we rotate, I feel like we're going to surprise a
lot of people defensively.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Is that something Pope is kind of gone and on
pressing and kind of making sure.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
That do you guys work on that? Definitely, he made
a big ones on trying to fill in the gaps
our left last year defensively and try and improve and
be better on that side of the ball.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So that was JQ yesterday and Cam Williams also talked
about defense in his media session Chris and how Bark
Pope is putting so much emphasis on it, and he's
talked about how Brandon Garrison can switch off on a
guard the abbate cond guard one through five. So that
(09:15):
is certainly a theme of a lot of these player comments.
How good Kentucky could be defensively, even talked about the
shot blocking of Malachi Moreno, the freshman.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah, it was definitely a point of emphasis for Mark Pope.
I think he realized that, you know, even if you're
scoring eighty five points a game, I think Kentucky ranks
in the top ten nationally in scoring offense, that it's
not going to be quite enough in the SEC. And
they needed to get better defensively. And they went out
and did that. And you talk about Jaden Quaintin's and
(09:46):
Mo Diabat, those are two of the top five transfers
in terms of defensive impact according.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
To Evan mia Kawa.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
And obviously a lot depends on how Jaden Quaintans bounces
back from the ACL. But you know, this was a
kid who was the youngest player in college basketball last season,
averaged over two and a half blocks per game, extremely explosive,
has unbelievable timing with his shot blocking ability, and you know,
(10:17):
it's really really a gift, especially when you consider how
young he was. But all big twelve defensive performer, cat quick,
very you know, mobile laterally, but can also explode off
the floor and has tremendous length, and so with his
shot blocking and kind of the toughness and the physicality
and the versatility of Mo Diabate and kind of somewhat
(10:40):
similar with Cam Williams. I think Kentucky's going to have
a massive, massive upgrade in that department this season.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I was looking at minutes from last season. The top
six guys Oway, Robinson, Brea, Butler, Williams, Car all average
between twenty three and twenty eight minutes a game. Then
it drives down to Garrison at seventeen in almon Or
at fourteen, and Ansley probably might have even played a
(11:07):
tad bit less if Carr had been healthier. There were
some of these averages were reflective of him not being
able to play long stretches of games with respect to
both the defensive and the offensive ends of the court.
I know with Cody Figer on last week and he
was talking about from an offensive perspective, they still want
(11:29):
to play faster, get thirty five threes up the game,
and to do that, they'll have to play faster. And
I said, are you going to be able to do that?
And again this would apply to defense too, because of
the quality of the depth that you have on this roster,
where I would think there could be more than six
guys that might average, say nineteen twenty minutes or more game.
(11:51):
Would you agree, Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I think to your point, you know, Mark Pope wants
to play fast, and he wants to get a lot
of threes, and a lot of those threes are gonna
come in transition. You know, we saw kind of as
the season went on, teams shut down those open three
point looks for Kentucky in the half court, and so
(12:14):
if they wanted to get those shots, they had to
come in transition. And you're only gonna get transition threes
if you're running the floor, and.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
You're only going to be running the floor if you're fresh.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
And so I do think Mark Pope wants to play
a lot of guys, get a lot of bodies in there.
I think you know, one thing to keep an eye on,
especially early in the season, especially if Jaden Quainton's needs
a little bit more runway in recovering from that offseason surgery,
is the minutes that Malachi Moreno is gonna see.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I think he's a guy that just continued to.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Get better and better and better every time he steps
on the floor. You still have Brandon Garrison at that
five spot. But he's a guy that could see you know,
some really valuable game reps and minutes early in the season.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
We saw at the three.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Court or court heave at the bother to win the
scrimmage yesterday. But I mean every event that he's been in,
he's impressed. And you know, I think he was impressive
at the under nineteen training game in Colorado Springs. I think,
you know, a little bit of a minor injury may
have cut his time short.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
There, but he just gets better and better.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
And you know, sometimes you worry about the physicality of
guys transitioning from high school to college, but even for
a seven footer, he's extremely sturdy, especially in the lower body,
so he may not get pushed around as much as
you know, you see your typical freshman big in college basketball.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
To that point, I think it was Cam Williams yesterday
talked about how impressed he's been the shot blocking ability
of Malachi, and certainly the height comes you know, helps that,
but it is also a skill and he is a
guy that certainly has that skill, as Demon's rated Dad already,
(14:01):
and that helps, you you know, make up for a
few defensive mistakes that a freshman might have if you
have to play a little more. How in terms of
you know, lateral speed, guarding, pick and rolls, those kinds
of things. What are your thoughts from what you've seen
at his tape on that area.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Yeah, he's he's a good athlete.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
I mean, he's not spectacular by any stretch, but I
think he's a good athlete. I think he's a guy
that can you know, switch picking rolls and get out
and hedge and recover back and those types of things.
And you mentioned his his shot blocking. He's a true
seven footer. I think he's got good time and good
instincts on that end of the floor and can erase
a lot of those mistakes on the back line.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
And so he has a really really bright future.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
At Kentucky, even if it's not this season. I just
think again, if you look at his progression over the
last year year and a half, everywhere he's been, he's
performed at a really really high level, whether it was
on the Adidas three SSB and the McDonald's All American practice,
this is the Under nineteen training camp, you name it,
(15:03):
He's played some really really good basketball and I think
he's going to just get continued to get better and better.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Twenty four past the top of the hour, will take
a break, come back with Chris Fisher from Catspaws dot Com.
It's at Chris Fisher twenty four to seven on X
We're coming to you from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio. Return,
Refresh and refuel at Clark's. We are back with Chris
Fisher from Catspaws dot com And if you go there
(15:30):
you can see a variety of stories from Chris, including
one about La Familia securing some good news for the
basketball tournament that starts a week from Friday.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Yeah, they secured the second spot in their home court advantage,
so as long as they don't play the vill which
secured the top spot, they'll play at Historic Memorial Coliseum
for every game that they're in the tournament. So huge
advantage I think for that team. And you're playing in
(16:03):
Historic Memorial Coliseum as opposed to Reparna, where you know
it's it's gonna be a little bit more crowded in there.
It's going to trap that sound a little bit better,
I think, and so it could make for a really
raucous environment. I think that was a lot of fun
watching that Lot Familia team last season they advanced all
(16:23):
the way to the semi finals and getting a chance
to see those guys, you know, playing in blue and
white again.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I think it's a lot of fun to.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Another story that you have up is about the two
Kentucky inductees for the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame. And
you'd be hard pressed to find two more deserving names
than Randall Cobb and Tayshaun Prince.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Right, Yeah, two of the absolute best to ever do
it in their respective sports. Just two absolute legends for Kentucky,
both of all Americans. And yeah, I mean you're talking
about just iconic, iconic names in their respective sports for Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
And both will be going into the hull. I think
it's on September twenty third of this year. So it
was thrilled to see that news yesterday. Chris appreciate the
time as always. All right, thank you. That is Chris Fisher.
You read those stories we talked about at Catspawse dot com.
(17:25):
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(17:49):
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Cornrad Hemp. This is the Good Life Lature presented each
day by Bob Kat Enterprises, and we are joined by
Mike de COURSEI. You read him at Sportingnews dot com,
(18:11):
follow on x at TSN Mike, It's the basketball season
rolls around. You see him on the Big Ten Network
and do the brackets for Fox Sports. So busy man
finds his way to the movie theater once in a
while too, So we talked a little bit about that
last week. Mike. Let's start with the I guess resolution.
(18:32):
According to us saw a matt Orlander story at CBS Sports.
Resolution may come this week about expanding the NCAA tournament
to seventy two or seventy six teams. We know you
are not a fan of this, but do you think
it's going to happen.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I'm not positive. I don't know for sure. I know
that there are.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Very loud voices that are agitating in favor of it.
I also know that there are TV news at works
that are writing checks worth of one point one billion
annually that aren't interested. They aren't interested in having the
extra games on Tuesday and Wednesday. They are concerned about
how it will impact the actual body of the tournament,
(19:18):
the sixty fourteen body of the tournament that let's be honest,
I mean, unless your team is in that game on
wednes Tuesday or Wednesday, the average fan looks at the
tournament as starting on Thursday, right around New The average
fan thinks that. And that's when the average fan shows up.
And you can tell that because the first round games
(19:39):
generally rate in the neighborhood of somewhere around somewhere between
four or five and seven million. I think seven million
will be the high end. That's where they generally rate,
and the first four games you need a Carolina or
an Indiana in there to get too close to two million.
(20:00):
Reality is most of them are around one one and
a half. I'm not sure what the sixty the sixteen
seed games rate, but usually the second game rates around
one or one and a half million.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
And they don't want more of that because it because
they have to pay full price for it.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
That's what this is all about in some ways, is
getting more of those units what they call units of
NCAA tournament money to do this. So I don't know
for sure whether it will happen, because I know there's
resistance at that network level because they don't think the
(20:38):
inventory is worth it, and because they are concerned about
how think about this, Tom, You did an office bracket,
a tournament pool, and it's all on one sheet, and
you check off all the teams and you write it
and you put it across and then you're done. And
you can do that back in nineteen eighty or suiting
(21:02):
nineteen ninety. You could do that all on one sheet
of paper. You could do it as soon as you
got the bracket on Sunday night, or you could wait
till you're deadline. Now you have to concern yourself with
four extra games on Tuesday and Wednesday. That's okay, that's
not that hard you know, the sixteens are almost certainly
going to lose, you don't have to worry about that's
so it's really only two games you have to worry.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
About, So it's not that complicated.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
But you stick eight games on Tuesday and Wednesday, and now.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
You've really complicated the bracket process.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
And I think a lot of people let's just say
that whatever I'm done, I'm not that interested. And I
think that's what the TV networks fear as well.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
You know, I remember from a good ways back a
college economics class about the law of diminishing returns, and
there's a thought just traditionally that we would all have
that if ten's good, twenty's better, and if twenty is better,
thirty could be even better. But at some point it
(21:59):
quits being better. The curve starts to go the other
direction on you. So I guess from a business standpoint,
that's ultimately kind of what we're looking at here, is it?
At that point because you can't make you can't stretch
the tournament out any further because CBS is your partner
and they have the Masters, and that ain't moving right right,
(22:20):
and you know you're not gonna I don't think start
the season that much earlier because you're you know, that's
kind of a failed endeavor because of going up against
more football. So it fits perfectly as it is.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
Yes, And that's the part about this that I don't
understand why certain people don't understand, and like this all
kind of started when Greg Sanki started talking about I
think it was the summer of twenty twenty two, and
he used the Ole Miss entry into the College World Series.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
And they were successful, and they might even have won it.
I don't think they did.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
They were last team in closely.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
Yeah, And so that was his reasoning and and a
lot of us who are been living in the basketball world,
I mean I've been I've been in.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
This for four decades. We're like, how can you even
compare the two. They're not the same, They're not remotely
the same. Like they're totally different sports.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yeah, because obviously in basketball, you don't get to you
get to play your best point guard every game, you
don't get to pay them every fifth.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Game, exactly.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
And the other element of that is like if you
compare it to football, I mean.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
We're not saying you need twenty four teams in the
football playoff.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
I mean, there are a lot of people who think
there are too many now, but I honestly, I was
agitating for a football playoff for years, Tom, for many years,
and this is when we had five major conferences, and
then there was the Group of five. And my idea
was just put put six in all you know, all
(23:54):
the major conference champions, and one from the group of
five or eight if you wanted a couple of at largest,
make to round it up.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
But I never argued for twelve.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
But I have no problem with it, and I have
no problem with necessarily expanding it. But I don't think
we're expanding it in order to put in all the
teams that could win it.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Because football is a different sport. The sixteenth team almost
certainly can't win it.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
We've seen one hundred and twenty five years of college
football that tells us this where if you're expanding it,
you're just doing it to get more games. But you're
not doing it because you can get there's a champion
out there that's not going to have a chance to
do it.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
That's certainly not the case in basketball.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Tom with Mike Mccersysportingnews dot Com here on this Wednesday
edition of the leads report in sports talk, especially summers.
You know, it's fun to have the debates about, you know,
where they You're presented with two choices, and which would
you lean to two you know, uncomfortable choices. So if
Mike Npersy had to decide between expanding the NCAA tournament
(24:59):
and letting the ball move to mid court after a
time out at the end of the game, where would
you come down? What would be worse?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
You're really trying to hurt me here.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Aren't you.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
I think that I think that moving the ball, honestly,
it comes up less than the expansion would. So I
think it would be worse for the sport to expand
the tournament.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
So I'll say that it would be worse for the
game to move the ball. But I will tell you,
I mean I followed the Pacers all the way through
the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
From our ten years in Indiana, we kind of became
you know, we started to follow the Pacers, and it
was amazing to me how rarely that came up. I mean,
they almost never did it, and there were a lot
of games in that run where they didn't do it,
and they had dramatic finishes. So the fact that it
(25:53):
came up so rarely suggests to me that if I
have to deal with one of those two things, I'll
probably I'd probably move the.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Ball, all right. Mike de Coursey's with us. We'll take
a break, come back continue the discussion to get into
a little bit about the Wildcats. We come right back
here on the Lead's Report presented by Bob cat Enterprises
a quarter before the top of the hour. Mike Decorsi
is with us as we come to here from the
Clark's Pumping Shop studio, return refresh and refuel and talk
(26:22):
a little bit about Kentucky. Mike is We're getting a
chance to listen to comments from a couple of members
of the team each week, and yesterday was Jaden Quaintans
and Cam Williams. And somebody asked Quaintance about a recent
I think it was an ESPN mock draft that had
him in the lottery. That has been frequently the case.
But the only other Wildcat that it had listed was
(26:44):
a second round projection for Cam Williams. And he's not
the player that certainly gets talked about the most in
terms of the incoming recruits, but he's a six to
eighty three point specialist from Tulane. Here's what Quaintance had
to say about him yesterday.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah, I feel like he's going to surprise a lot
of people. You know, six seven, really athletic, can get downhill,
got on the rim, really good shooter, like really consistent,
a high arch shooter. So I feel like he had
all the tools offensively and defensively that he needs to
get where he wants to go, And I feel like
he's going to surprive a lot of people. He's going
to be major for us this year.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Could Cam Williams be something akin to otega Oway in
terms of producing a lot more than maybe the average
fan expected going in.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
Well, I think that's certainly possible. We've seen a lot
of players who have elevated their the attention that they get,
the stock they get.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
And remember Cam is only he's only played a.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
Year of Division one basketball, so there's a lot of
growth possibility there in addition to getting on a higher
stage with excellent teammates. He's really a young player, but
as a freshman shot forty five excuse me, forty eight
point five percent overall from the field and over forty
(27:58):
from three. Numbers were really good. Answered the question of
how much opportunity he can earn, how many minutes he
can earn.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
And he was a full time player, a thirty minute
plus player for two lane.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
But how many minutes can he get in this really
deep group, that's.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
The question, and that's what he's got to fight for every.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Day, the minutes. So they were talking about in the
first part of the show today. I went back and
looked at the ninety six team that had that wealth
of talent that Mark Pope was a part of, and
I think it was Antoine Walker that had the most
minutes per game, slightly over twenty seven. He and Tony
Delk were both over twenty seven. I don't think anybody
else had got to that level. Last year Kentucky had
(28:43):
six guys between twenty three and twenty eight minutes a game.
And I was talking to Cody Figger last week about
the wanting to play even faster offensively, get up more threes,
and to do that and to be as good defensively
as they aspire to be. You know, it's you can't
play that. You can't go that hard for forty minutes, right,
(29:04):
So they're gonna, you know that, to be able to
do that then it to play that way. I think
it does take those kind of bodies, you know, to
do what the ninety six team did to play at
the level they played with all the pressing they did,
they you know, kind of required to be the case
that nobody was going to get to thirty minutes. It
seems like Kentucky has a group this year that is
(29:26):
has more I guess would say quality of depth than
last year's team and experience and to the point where
they should have. You know, I don't know how many
what the number is going to be, but I think
it was six between twenty three and twenty eight last year.
Maybe it's eight between nineteen and twenty eight this year
(29:47):
in terms of minutes, I don't know. What do you think?
Speaker 5 (29:50):
That sounds very logical and reasonable and probably where this
team is headed.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
We saw Jasper Johnson over the last two weeks a
show that.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
That he can play in a system like that by
winning a gold medal in the U nineteen World Cup.
I think I think something like that is absolutely tailor
made for him because he has because he's not a
super physical guy yet, so he's not gonna you don't
want him wearing down, but.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
You get him into a game that's going up and down.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I mean that.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
I think that US team averaged.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
Like one hundred and six points a game, so he's
getting He was getting into the game in the second
quarter and going out and playing pretty freely on offense.
And and although he certainly was required to defend, he
was he didn't have to be super physical doing it.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
They pressed a bit too, they played a.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Diamond press and and bothered a lot of teams that way.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
So I think he fits into.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
That Low is very similar in that sense. They're both
around the same size. I think Jasper's a little bit taller,
but neither of them is super physical.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
So I think that that system, that concept makes a
lot lot of sense for the group of players they've collected.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Is it kind of a an NBA? Look do you
think in terms of, uh, maybe how Pope will will
manage this? And you you mentioned the Pacers that you
were following earlier. I mean, you know they had Matherin,
for example, had a like a twenty seven point game
in the UH in the finals. Different guys could have,
(31:24):
you know, twenty five plus point games. Uh, you know,
TJ McConnell. You know, when they were fully healthy is
a you know, is a key second unit guy. So
I mean you have your your you know, your starters,
but you have very very vital, important guys that are
part of your second group as well.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
An important ingredient to that is the idea.
Speaker 5 (31:49):
And this was something that they adopted and embraced and
never wavered from, is you don't have You can't be
concerned with who scores the points as long as it's
where someone in Kentucky Jerseys. If you're going to play
like that, no one can think about that, no one,
no one can think about who is having those nights.
(32:11):
If it's not you, then you're then you're bothered. And
that and that's true not just.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Through the players, but through the their support.
Speaker 5 (32:19):
Systems as well, whether it's their family members, their their
their high score AAU coaches. They can't worry about that either.
And you have to create an expectation in your in
your group that they can't worry about that. They're obviously
going to want to be out on the floor as
much as possible, but if everybody is getting that nineteen
(32:42):
to twenty seven minutes, there's not everybody's kind of sharing
equally in that, then you can. You got to be
willing to share equally in the scoring opportunities, well, the
shooting opportunities, and when you can, when you can. You
look at that ninety sixteen which I've written on many occasions,
that's the greatest team I've covered that in an NCAA tournament.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
That's the best team. A duke team from ninety one
to ninety two was terrific, but.
Speaker 5 (33:11):
That was that ninety six Kentucky team was the best
team that I saw. And one of the reasons was
that it was the best team. They weren't worried about
who got the shots and the glory and all that,
because they all got the glory.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
In the end.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Yeah. And I think if I was playing what you
just said for Mark Pope, he'd be nodding his head
all the way through your comments. That's exactly what he's
looking for. Part of that, you know, it had to
have been factored into the process of putting this group
together and having those kinds of hopefully having those kinds
of individuals.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
Yeah, I think that that's an important part of it
is when you scout a player, you don't just scout
their games, you also have to scout them as people,
and how will they adjust to how you want to play,
and especially given that this this is the direction that
they moved last year as well. I mean, so they
there is a there's a blueprint there.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
We know what it looks like.
Speaker 5 (34:10):
Uh Now, last year we didn't get to see it
as best full for the full season because there were
so many injuries along the way, including one that ended
the season short of the tournament. Uh so we didn't
get to see it at the at the full, you know,
in its full glory. But they those these guys know
what they're they're signing up for, and so they should
(34:31):
be ready to embrace it.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
And I suspect they will be.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, I would think so as well be surprised if
that was not the case. Uh quick thought. Two guys
from UK Athletics name to the Kentucky Sports Hall of
Fame yesterday, Randall Cobb Tayshawn Prince. The people said Randall
was too small and that Tashan was too thin, and
neither turned out to be true.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
I remember I was in the building when he when
when Tayshawn hit that famous logo three pointer.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
Tayson, one of the great defenders in college basketball over
the last over the last quarter century. A great young man.
I always enjoyed dealing with him. Randall Cobb was a
phenomenal football player, and I.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Wish he became a Pittsburgh Steeler. I think it came
close once or twice there he would have been.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
He would We would have loved him. He was.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
He had a great career. Uh. But I really loved
covering Tayshawn.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
I saw him as a prospect, liked him, really liked
them a lot there and and loved his college career
and obviously had a tremendous pro career as well.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Mike, Thank you for the time. As always, Thanks Tom, Mike,
of course he Sporting News dot Com joining us here
on the Leach Report. We'll be right back. Shufflebean Kuffey
is one of our great partners here at the Leach Report.
Have been for probably a decade or more. Kentucky based
company and they are committed to excellence. They follow the
process of the quality of their coffee from took Cup,
(36:01):
so it starts with the best of coffee beans. You
can find out more about all of this at shufflebean
dot Us. You can order product while you're there. You
can get it through Amazon Prime, or you can pick
up some shuffle bean coffee at Central Kentucky Myers stores.
They have it cured capsules and already ground and hole bean.
Whatever you prefer, just make sure that you are drinking
shuffle bean coffee. Kentucky Volleyball pick to win the SEC
(36:25):
again in the preseason coaches poll. They received nine first
place votes, Six went to Texas, one to Texas A
and M. Four of Coach Skinner's players named preseason ll
SEC Brooklyn Delay, Molly Huzo, Eva Hudson, and Brook Baltimoth.
So those were the four preseason ll SEC for Kentucky Volleyball.
(36:47):
Shay gilgis Alexander on the cover of NBA two K
for twenty twenty six. This Day a Wildcat history of
service at Kentucky's roadshow sports cards at Memorabilia here in Lexington.
You'll find them on Romedy Road and you can find
them on the web at roadshowcards dot com. Happy birthday
to coach Mark Stoops, celebrating a birthday today and hoping
(37:08):
to confound the experts with a better than expected season
this year. He'll be talking at SEC Media Days a
week from tomorrow Scottie Basler and Carlos Tumor to former
Kentucky Events basketball players also born on this day. Happy birthdays,
one and all. That'll do it for us On the
Lakes report presented by Bob Kat Enterprises see tomorrow
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