Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good day, everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Welcome into another week of the Leach Report, presented by
Bobcat Enterprises, and we are just about one month away
from the start of the football season four weeks from
this coming Saturday, and we will talk about Kentucky football
in the first half of the show with Adam Luckett
from on three Sports and KSR. Second half of the show,
(00:27):
we talk Kentucky men's basketball with Ben Roberts from the
Lexington Herald Leader. Been a busy summer of content gathering
for those of us who cover Kentucky men's basketball, with
regular interview sessions with the players and most recently an
extended session with Mark Pope, so we'll touch on all
of that coming up on the show today. Let's jump
(00:48):
right into the Wildcat News of the day. It is
the service of Giuseppes of Lexington. Not a whole lot
of news today, it's really kind of looking forward. Today
is the annual football kickoff luncheon for UK and prior
to that, Coach Stoops will be doing a Q and
A with local media, so you'll be getting some football
(01:08):
info as this day unfolds. And then on Friday it
will be the annual media day and then on Saturday
it's fan Day over at UK, so they've been able
to practice. It's not like it used to be where
Media Day was kind of when everybody checked in and
you started practices. Those days are long gone. It's pretty
(01:32):
much a year round deal now and they're able to
do more as coaches with their players than used to
be the case. So they've been able to do some practicing,
same with Mark Pope and the other coaches on UK's campus.
But it does start to really ramp up, I think
after this week, because you're a month then away from
(01:58):
the first game. At some point, about ten days out
from that first game, you'll start to really put in
a game plan. But you can put in, you know,
do a little bit of that as you go along.
You're as a coach finalizing your decisions on the ranking
of your depth chart and who the guys you're gonna
lean on the most. Still a chance for some of
(02:19):
that to change early in training camp phase of preparing
preparation for the football season. Best example I can always
remember is Benny Snell as a freshman. He came in
and they have two scrimmages in August that helped to
finalize the depth chart, and first goal is to get
through those without injury, but the second thing is to
(02:42):
solidify some things on the depth chart. You put guys
into game situations like they did with Benny in that
first scrimmage back in twenty sixteen, and he was incredibly impressive,
just running over and around other defenders, powering through the
middle of the line, and watching that, I'm thinking, Okay,
that's pretty impressive, But can he do it next week
(03:05):
when they move him up against the ones and the twos. Well,
he looked just as good the next week and the
rest is history. Went on to have a big role
in his first season and become the all time leading
rusher at uk SO. But that was to me always
one of the best examples of a guy that played
his way into a more prominent role through that last
(03:25):
month before the season started. Kentucky has added an assistant
O line coach, Greg Frye, brings a ton of experience
in offensive line work from Power four teams. Says he's
known Mark Stoops for about thirty years when they were
together I think at South Florida years ago. And an
(03:47):
organization called roto Wire. It's a sports statistic and analytics service.
They have come up with their Southeastern Conference quarter Century team,
so the first twenty five years of the New Century.
The All SEC team does include one Kentucky Wildcat, and
it is Derek Abney as a kickoff and punt returner.
(04:09):
When I was driving back from vacation, I heard Derek
on with Dick Gabriel on the Big Blue Insider Show
and it was just great to listen to him. He
always shows up at the South Carolina game because he
lives down there. Now I think he's an engineer, so
he'll be down at Columbia in September. But he was
a record setting returner. I remember Steve Ortmeyer talked about
(04:29):
the difference between being a kickoff returner and a punt
returner and punt returner it's all about the first step,
and Abney was one of those rare guys who could
excel at both. It was a different skill set, but
he could excel at both and just an incredible feel,
particularly I think for the punt returns. So it's glad
(04:50):
to see that recognition for Derek Abney thanks to the
story so we talk about each day can be found
on the Bud Light Leach Report page at Tom Leachky
dot com. We had to the break. We will remind
you that our opening segment's presented by Giuseppes of Lexington.
Got to get out to Giuseppe soon. If you haven't
done that before the season starts, go ahead and go
to open table and get something on the books. If
(05:12):
there's a special occasion coming up, a birthday and anniversary,
something like that, there is no better place to celebrate
than Gisepp'es. You sit in the lounge area and you
can enjoy fantastic food with Dave Hall's live jazz music
as a perfect accompaniment. Just something you don't find anywhere else.
It is really really special at Gusep'es. We'll be right
(05:32):
back with Adam Luggtt talking Kentucky football. It's the Leech
Report coming to you each day from the Clark's Pumpin'
Shops studios, Return, refresh, and refuel at Clark's. Make sure
you download their app as well. Sign up for the
new Loyalty Rewards program. You get discounts when you fill
up and also discounts on items in their stores. We
(05:53):
welcome in Adam Luckett to the program from On three
Sports and KSR to tuk Kentucky football. We have not
gotten together here on the show, Adam since you got
back from SEC media days in Atlanta a week before last.
So what were your takeaways from what you heard? First
of all, just from the Kentucky folks.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, I was just basically, I think they're kind of
really selling or trying to believe in kind of this
underdog role and we've got a lot of doubters. We're
going to try and go and prove them wrong. And
our philosophy is not broken. We know what we want
to do, we know what it takes to succeed, and
they're going to go try to execute that plan. So
for me, it was pretty much they needed a bunch.
(06:38):
I think they there was an admittance of we really
needed to turn the roster over in a big way,
and they've done that and so we'll see if they
can put these pieces together and go have a good season.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
There's a book called Good to Great that a lot
of business people and people in athletics like the message
of and the first thing that they talk about and
it's about take how do you take a company from
being good to great? But same principles could apply to
a team and similar organizations, and the very first thing
(07:10):
they talk about is getting the right people on the
bus and sometimes the right people off the bus before
you worry about anything else, because if you have the
right people, you can figure out anything else. There are
other things that will make you successful or not, but
the first one to focus on is getting the right
people on the bus. So it kind of feels like
(07:32):
that's the approach that Kentucky is looking at going into
this season. Not a big shift in you know, what
they're doing as much as who they're doing it with.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Well, there was a busy bust.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Tom had a lot of movement, might have taken too, but.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, but I do think there was kind of to
your point, I think that was definitely. I think they
just needed some i would say fresh blood in that facility.
But the interesting part of all of that was that
they also made like a big bet on staff continuity offense.
The coordinator is back from the first time since pre
like free COVID, so you have that, and they really
(08:10):
tried to keep all this coaches on staff. Now, they
lost a couple unexpectedly with the kill shortsild Nebraska and
Vince Marl going to Louisville. But overall they made a
bet on continuity and then a bet on just kind
of resetting kind of just the personnel.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
In the building.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
And so it's kind of it's kind of like two
things at once. They are there's a mintance that they
need change, but there was also a mintance that have
to me at least that what we're doing it's the
right path to go down. We just need a reset
after some things went wrong here over the last couple
of years.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
And when you talk about right people on and off
the bus, it's not always about somebody's you know, a
a bad actor or some kind of disruptive force in
your locker room. Could be some of that, but it
can also just be guys, you know in the offensive line.
They just had to get better, wasn't that?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
You know?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Sometimes well, there was a couple of cases for the hits,
some guys they probably needed to get off the bus,
But for the most part, it's just about getting better
in that area and others.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Yeah, And I think also you had some guys that
maybe were around for a couple of years not pointing
out or seeing out anyone that maybe just the culture
of the culture may be going off kilter a little bit.
Bad habits may have started to form and then and
then trying to break them out of their bad habits
in your program would have been hard because they've just
(09:30):
been entrenched there for a little bit and so changing
that I think it's easier sell on kind of when
you've got all these new guys. Even Mark Stuke's mentioned
this in Atlanta, like, those guys don't care about what
happened last year, and we don't want to dwell on
what happened we at this point in the year, we
want to move forward. We've done the work we believe
to fix the problems last year. Now we're trying to
(09:51):
move forward. And I think for them, just maybe getting
some of that mindset of the last couple of years
out of out of the way and now they kind
of have a new slate will maybe allow them more
seamlessly to kind of go and have a good year.
And if they have diversity hits, maybe they'll be able
to survive it better than in the past, because that's
been an issue. I think over the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Coaches I'll often talk about in all sports having player
led teams, and that's the optimum situation. There are a
lot of new folks, new voices in that Kentucky football
locker room. Have you gotten any sense of how that
leadership component has worked itself out to this point.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yeah, I think that's a very good question. I'm not
sure because there's so much new going on with them
right now. I think some of that is probably going
to be decided here in these next few weeks in
camp when guys start wanting jobs and securing roles. I
think with any team you need to be get rud
by the guy's from up front, and I think for
(10:55):
Kentucky that's kind of been an issue the last couple
of years where I think about probably twenty sixteen to
twenty twenty one, some of their biggest leaders on the
team playing on that offensive line. And so I think
for them in this rebuild, they're probably hopeful that I think,
you know, guys like Jagger Burt and maybe Josh Braun
from Arkansas can kind of step up and be the
guys that kind of lead the way offensively in for
(11:18):
the team.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
We're talking with Adam Luggin from on three Sports and
KSRU and he covers Kentucky football, and we will continue
with our chat here in just a moment. It's the
lead's report. We're presented each day by Bobcat Enterprises and
they have four locations around Kentucky. I was coming back
from a concert my daughter and I went to up
(11:40):
in Northern Kentucky on Saturday. Drove right past the newest
Bobcat location there in the Northern Kentucky area. But wherever
you are, just google Bobcat Enterprises if you need to
buy or rent heavy equipment and they will have what
you need and they'll take great care of you in
the deal as well. At Bobcat Enterprises. We'll be right back.
We're chatting with Adam Lucky. You can read him in
(12:00):
all three sports KSR. And what's the podcast schedule that
you're a part of.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, eleven personnel. We go live. Believe that once the
season starts, it'll be every Wednesday at the believe we're
going to live on Thursdays and offseason, but once the
season starts, every Wednesday we'll be going live. He checks
out on ksr's YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
And a month from or four weeks exactly from Saturday
is when this will get started. When Kentucky takes on
Toledo out of the Mid American Conference. I saw where
I was flipping around different sites just kind of see
what was happening in the wildcat world today. And your
colleague at KSR Drew Franklin, had played the EA Sports
(12:42):
game and played out a six and six record for
Kentucky with actually a win over Navy in a bowl
game to get to seven and six, which that number
I think would certainly be satisfactory to a large percentage
of the Kentucky fan base. I'm guessing you would agree,
right right.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
As long as the schedule, which we all think is
gonna be really tough, if all those teams are kind
of what we kind of think they are, then yeah,
I think that would be a good season for Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
This year, the thing was, though, and again he's just
playing out a game, but it's, you know, something to
talk about in the offseason. There were several lopsided losses,
and thinking about that, I was almost thinking, you know,
if you play, if you don't get blown out, if
you're competitive against that schedule game in and game out, Uh,
that's would almost be more impressive or as impressive as
(13:33):
getting to six wins. If you got to five, but
you didn't get blown out by.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Anybody, Yeah, which is kind of that's what happened kind
of last year against the better teams. The better teams
they went you know, I'm talking like Top ten playoffs,
the playoff teams. They went toe to toe against Georgia
Texas for about three quarters and then Tennessee. Georgia and
Tennessee for the whole game. It was against teams you
thought that they were on the same level playing field
(13:59):
with and that they had a legit chance of beating
as the ones they kind of things just blew up
on them. So for me, I think, you know, you
go into games against Georgia this year, Tom Texas, those
two really stand out as like, well those could be
really tough, but the other ones you want to see them,
you know, really have a chance to win. And Ole
miss was the other playoff team that they you know,
they beat last year. So these other teams that are
(14:20):
maybe a step down from that, you want to see
them really be able to kind of compete and win
some of those games. And for me, that's kind of
like if you're just breaking down the season and looking
at it closer, like the matchups in those type of games.
I would say, like teams French top twenty five or
maybe in the top twenty or top fifteen, but not
necessarily playoff teams. Those are the teams like you're gonna
(14:42):
have to eventually for Kentucky to succeed year over year,
you're gonna have to beat those teams, you know, Martald
Tonight we point to kind of the South Carolina Missouri
series as series at Kentucky own when they were rolling
and now they don't owe them to own those Moore
and now in Banning, now we're seeing those losses stacked up.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
It would I would think that a big part of
it for Kentucky is going to be better managing adversity
and situations where they don't beat themselves. It's turnovers, that's penalties,
and then if you do get you're gonna get some
of that. From time to time. You try to minimize it.
But when you do get it, how do you handle it?
(15:19):
Does it do you just wilt after that? Or do
you fight back and find a way to win some
of those games? And those were things that categories they
didn't score well in last season, right.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
And I think it's I think that's been kind of
a year over year thing. I think last year it
was a little bit heightened. But we've heard Mark Suit's
free last year talk about how he didn't think they
handled diversity well. A game that stands out, obviously is
the twenty twenty three game against Missouri where they get
the lead missouris as the fake punt touchdown, and it
felt like they just fell. The season just fell apart
(15:53):
from that moment. So that's the thing that they really
have to fix, right the adversity. And I think you
hit a good point with the turnovers. Lucky to play
how they want to play. You can't rank sub one
hundred in total turnovers loss and that's what they ranked
last year, So you've got to you've got to get
that fixed. And situationally, I think they've got to be
better specifically on offense. You know, when you get the
(16:13):
third and one, you need to be able to convert them.
When you get in the red zone, you need to
be able to score touchdown, specifically the lower red zone.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
And what are you hearing about the quarterbacks over the
course of the summer.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Yeah, I still they it's still classified as kind of
an open job. Of the expectation is that that Calsada
will be the starter, and then that they're bringing cutter
Bowli along as of right now. And with all the
Calzada they kind of rap on him kind of since
he's arrived on campus, was you know, he's got a
rocket power arm accuracy is something he needs to work on.
(16:44):
But one interesting point I thought Stoops made recently in
an interview was that when they had spring ball and
they actually went to eleven on eleven and kind of
played real football where the quarterback is not necessarily live
but asked to kind of play in game and kind
of have to create if something's not there, And they
say kal Zotta really showed up and was one of
their better players during those periods. So that that playmaking
(17:09):
aspect we saw in the carrent Word last year, that
kind of showed up in Kentucky's eleven on eleven scrimmages.
And so that's exciting when you if you could have
a quarterback that can maybe make some third down magic
while you're playing some on a ball control offense, that
can really help you kind of dictate the terms of
the game. And if Kentucky's able to dictate the terms
of the game on offense under Stoops, they've been able
(17:30):
to win a lot.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Anythink back to the kind of the breakthrough season at
twenty sixteen. He got to the job by injury Stephen Johnson,
but he was that kind of guy. He just found
a way to get it done. Scrambles right, eight completions whatever.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yeah, And I think a successful Calzada year would kind
of look I would say similar numbers live wise, if
you pulled up Johnson's numbers that year in twenty sixteen,
if that Klazada had successful year to look something like
that in my opinion.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Adam Locke, a KSR on three Sports, thank you for
the time.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Appreciate Tom.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
It is the Leech Report. We are halfway through this
Monday edition of the show presented by Bobcat Enterprises Ben Roberts.
When we return Leach Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises for
this Monday, as we welcome in Ben Roberts to the program.
He covers Kentucky men's basketball or the Lexington Herald Leader
and Kentucky Sports dot Com. Ben, maybe you've felt a
(18:29):
little bit like you're back in school, you and your
fellow media members this summer because you're showing up at
UK kind of like summer school. I guess it would
be for once a week sessions for the most part,
where you get to hear from the new Kentucky basketball team,
and then it culminates with a long session with Mark Pope.
So are you ready for the test?
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, you know, it does kind of feel like that
now that I think about it.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
I was over there for some other stuff too this summer,
so yeah, it was like showing up for about twice
a week, driving in parking, staying about an hour and
and uh and leaving.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
So yeah, that's a that's a good analogy.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
And you didn't cut any of the classes, right, you
were a good students.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Yeah, Yeah, it's hard to cut the summer the summer
classes because yeah, there's there's only there's I only took.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
One, I think the whole time I was there.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Some of the others maybe especially toward.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
The end, maybe, Uh what did you learn or what
did you find most interesting from what you heard?
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Well, it looks like it's gonna be a team of
of some really good talkers.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I think, led by Jalen Lowe. He was he was.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Especially entertaining and obviously being everybody presumes the starting point
guard on this team. I think we'll be hearing a
lot from here from him this season. But just you know,
it kind of you see it on paper and you
kind of do the arranging and the lineups in your head.
But then when you when you see all the guys
back to back and get to talk to them in person,
(20:01):
you know, the one thing that it drove home to
me was just how versatile positionally I think this.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Team is going to be. I think even last season's.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Team, while they had some guys that could move here
and there in the lineup, you know, there were obviously
some guys that were in their spots in their roles,
and I think with this group, you're gonna have a
lot of guys who you could mark. Bolk's gonna have
a ton of different combinations. He's got a lot of
guys who could kind of move across the positional spectrum,
(20:35):
and you know, I think he's gonna throw a lot
of different looks at teams, you know, depending on what
the situation is and depending on what the matchups are.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
The other thing to kind of carry that forward to
me is I watch a practice last week for the
first time, and it kind of confirmed what I suspected
in that if you were saying, say, the assignment was
to rank the players, the top ten players in order
(21:04):
one through ten, and it was, uh, you know, all
of you that covered Kentucky fans basketball, and you watched
some practices, I don't think you'd get a consensus on
a lot of the who goes in what position? Oh
take away at number one might be the closest to
a consensus, and the last year's team, I think I
(21:26):
think back to even kerk Cries at one point said,
you know, he and Lamont Butler were both thought to
be the you know, the point guards, and I think
Kurr even said it was clear who was number one,
that it was Lamont, Yeah, and I think it was
you know the guys. You could watch a couple of
practices and have a pretty good idea of you know,
who the the how the rotation maybe would stack up,
(21:48):
and where guys fell. You know, positionally, you'd have a
little bit of that consensus over the course of a
one through ten. I think that that's one of the
exciting things about this group is that I don't know
that at some point it may sort itself out to
more of a consensus, but it certainly doesn't seem to
be there now.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Yeah, and that's something that that talking from folks who
have been in a lot of them, or have been
to a lot.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Of those practices, have been around a lot of those practices, but.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Then also talking to the players themselves, Yeah, that that's
something that really that that that really you know, comes
to the surface. You ask about you know, who's looking good,
who's standing out, and it seems like you get different
answers basically from everybody. Like you said, Otega has been
has been a constant, especially you know in the scrimmages,
(22:35):
and it just sounds like he's he's ready to take
it to another level. But you know, look around the
rest of the roster. I bet I've heard everybody's name
at least at least two or three times, and it's
always and there always, there's always.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Something to back it up.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
You know, this guy's this guy's looking really good at this,
this other guy's looking really good at that.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
This guy surprised me in this area of the game.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
But I feel like I've heard everybody's name multiple times
over the last few weeks, and other than Otega, you know,
nobody that that you just always hear every single time,
which which tells you that with all these guys there,
there's there's room for them to you know, at any
point over the course of the season. Obviously long way
(23:22):
to go till November and a lot of growing still
to do, but you know, any of these guys could
could have their game on any given night. And and
you know, talking to some of the other some folks
who outside the program who were kind of experts in
the transfer portal and really familiar with this guy, these guys,
uh they you know, you talk about a Jasper Johnson
(23:43):
or a Denzel Aberdeen, m Colin Chandler. Uh, you know,
taking that next step, I think there's a lot of
different players on this team who it should not be
a surprise if if they lead in scoring or up
there and scoring on different nights, agains stuff teams.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I think, Uh, there's a name you didn't mention there,
And I think that's probably be the case for most
people talking about this team that cover it that are
from outside Kentucky, that are Kentucky fans. But the one
name that keeps popping up a lot when the players
talk because of they all keep talking about how will
he's shooting it is Trent Noah.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Yeah, Yeah, I mean Jalen Lowe just straight up said
he was he thought Trent was the best shooter he's
ever seen. And he and he's played with a lot
of good shooters going back to his time in aau
and high school and then obviously his.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Two years at Pitt.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
He played with some really good three point shooters in
his young career so far. You know, Colin Chandler just
kind of kind of still just kind of shakes his
head and chuckles talking about these shooting contests the two
of them used to do with Travis Perry. Travis obviously
gone now and and I think Colin feels a little,
you know, when he's out there with it's just him
and Trent, he feels a little exposed because Trend shooting
(25:00):
the ball so well. But but yeah, and a lot
of these other transfers besides Jalen have also mentioned Trent.
You know, Cam Williams uh came out full of confidence
in himself instead of any three point shooting contest, he's
gonna win it. But he said his his closest competition
is Trent, and then there's really not anybody close to
(25:21):
those two, which is which is obviously a lot of
praise right there from Cam. So yeah, I mean, I
it'll be interesting. You know, it's much the case as
it was last season, where I think pretty much everybody
had Trent penciled in at number twelve on that roster
going into last season. Obviously he found a way to
break through. There were some injuries and he broke through
(25:43):
a little more. It'll be interesting to see and you know,
what looks like a similar situation was such a deep roster.
If he can find some some meaningful minutes in there,
and I know, uh, I know, Mark Pope's gonna gonna
want to find those for him if he can.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
We're talking with Ben Roberts. You could read them at
Kentucky Sports dot com and in the pages of the
Lexington Harold Leader covered Kentucky men's basketball, and we will
continue here in just a moment from the Clark's Pumping
Shop studio. Return, Refresh and refuel at Clark's. It's the
Late Report of presented by Bobcat Enterprises. We're visiting with
Ben Roberts from the Lexington Hairleader in Kentucky Sports dot
(26:20):
Com about Kentucky men's basketball. I was looking at the
hoops HQ website over the weekend and one of the
stories that I came across that they did recently ranking
the transfer classes by league in the SEC. The writer
and they did this from what they called a data
driven approach, So they had Kentucky third behind A and
(26:44):
M and Vandy. And I'm not interested in quibbling about
the rankings, having they looked that closely at the Texas
A and M and Vandy's classes or anybody else's other
than Kentucky. But the thought that I had is that
number one, I don't think Kentucky's first class for coach
Pope would have been ranked as high as third in
the league. And that group did really well, especially considering
(27:07):
the injury issues that they had. And the second thing
is if you're looking at it from a data driven approach,
means you're looking backward at the data, not necessarily projecting
forward how guys will do in this system. And I
think how much improvement statistically you saw in various categories
from Oway and from Butler and several other guys. You
(27:29):
saw Brea and Williams being drafted when they weren't even
mentioned as prospects before the season if their transfer classes
better than the first one, the way that the first
one performed in the system votes really well for this season.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Yeah, And I mean, obviously, you know A and M
that has to be somewhat volume driven to A and M.
It was replacing the entire team with buzz gone, and
then Vanderbilt you know, still kind of in a bit
of rebuilding mode with with buyington there and and yeah,
so you're heading those six transfers to obviously some really
good freshmen, but but more importantly, you know the guys
(28:09):
that they got coming back, which led by you know,
the possible preseason SEC Player of the Year. But but yeah,
a lot of those guys in that group of six.
I mean, Jalen Lowe, I just I really expect him
to take a huge step forward after you know, having
so much on his shoulders last season at Pitt that
that was not an optimal situation for a point guard.
(28:31):
I don't that's not the style of you know, and
and he's out to he's out to prove everybody that
I'm not just the guy as he said that just
likes to jack it up all the time and take
a bunch of shots like I want to get people involved.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
That's why I'm here.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
I think he's gonna be huge for them this season,
especially with this speed and quickness. But yeah, Modabate is
one who I'm really interested to see because if you
look at his underlying numbers, to forget for a second
the way he plays and just the eyeballs, but you
look at his numbers and you extrapolate that out, he
(29:06):
could be sitting on a big season with what I
assume everybody thinks.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
There's gonna be a lot more playing.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Time in Kentucky this I think he would have gotten
a lot more playing time at Alabama had he stayed there.
But then also just talking to a bunch of his
former teammates at Alabama, talking to his new teammates a
Kentucky knowing just from watching him play over the last
couple of years, his style will play, and the style
will play that Mark Pope likes and once in this
(29:32):
team and maybe didn't have as.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Much in last season's team.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
I think he's one that's really gonna gonna gonna bring
this team together on the court, and I don't know
if he'll quite have the numbers at the end of
the season to do it, but I think he's gonna
be an all SEC type type performer at Kentucky this season.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
I'm guessing you would agree with this that Oway was
the guy that most exceeded fan X expectations.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
UH in year one. Would you agree? Yeah? I would.
I would. I would say that's safe to say with
this group.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Uh, just listening to you talk there, you would think, well,
could be Jalen Low, could be that guy. You look
at his numbers last season at pitt and think about
what they might be at the end of one season
at Kentucky. But Diabatee Denzel Aberdeen are two guys that
are going to play much likely play much more prominent roles,
and have much more responsibility than they had at their
(30:29):
previous places. Cam Williams, the guy from you know Tulane
that nobody is talking had talked much about and all
at once. So NFL or NBA mock draft comes out
and he's the the uh, one of only two guys
listed as draft prospects. So it seems like there are
several candidates for that overachiever role this season. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Absolutely, and Cam is right there too, And he's one
that it just got so overshadowed by the timing. I mean,
it was the day of the Kentucky, Tennessee and Cuba tournament,
so and and it came so much out of nowhere,
and I feel like pretty much the entire fan base
was not in, you know, off season mode yet, because
it wasn't the off season, so everybody was like, who.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Is this guy?
Speaker 4 (31:13):
A lot of a lot of fans that never heard
of him obviously didn't watch a ton of two lane basketball,
So there was that initial shock, and then there was
about an hour of oh, you know, this guy seems
pretty good, and then it was on endo game mode,
and then after that, I feel like he was kind
of forgotten for a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
But I just remember that morning.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Being up in Indianapolis and texting and calling around to
uh TO to mostly folks outside the program, just trying
to learn more about him. And and these guys who
who know the sport nationally, cover the sport nationally, maybe
even knew him in high school, were just raving about
not only the type of player he could become, but
(31:52):
the type of player he could be in Mark Pope's
system after what they'd seen from the previous season of him.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
So yeah, I mean he's a guy.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
You know, again, it's hard to you know, he probably
won't even start, or he might not start, but he's
a guy that could be an NBA draft pick by
the end of this season, or you know, he could
be well on his way there and like Otega, be
one or two little tweaks away and come back as
as a as a preseason all SEC type the next year,
(32:24):
and and and be ready to take that next junt.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
You know, as you said, Mark Pope was preparing for
a Sweet sixteen game in the NCAA Tournament, and yet
he had his staff for clearly, you know, evaluating transfers
for the next season. Just it would be interesting to
see what a coach's breakdown of his time and her
time would be now versus five, ten years ago, because
(32:52):
within the season where you've got game prep, but you
also have you know, you always had to spend some
time on recruiting, but now you're spending some of that
time on evaluating transfers and then oh yeah, you've got
to manage nil in that time span too.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
It would just be interesting to see what that breakdown
of percentage of time looks.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Like, Yeah, it was I have it in my notes somewhere,
but I was told kind of what the what the
setup was, especially there in the tournament, and the SEC.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Tournament too had already started by then.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
But basically, yeah, they had guys kind of on shifts
of like, okay, you're on game prep from this hour
to this hour. You're on EVL of possible transfers this
hour to this hour, and that includes talking to people,
talking to people behind the scenes, talking to guys that
are already in the portal and their families. It was funny,
and I believe it was the Indianapolis stop. We had
(33:49):
kind of a coffee station that was kind of uh,
you know, it's technically in the media area, but the
coaches were pretty nearby. And a few times over the
course of those two three days, uh, you know, a
Kentucky coach again on his cell phone, get a cup
of coffee, and you could I knew who they were
talking to, and it was it was possible transfers or
(34:09):
or family members of possible transfers. And and this was
the day before the game, and and they were working
at uh that hard. So yeah, and that you know
that that wasn't Kentucky, that that was everybody. You know.
Rick Barnes talked about it too, about what his staff
was doing in the lead up to that game. And
I remember Brad Underwood kind of held court before the
Illinois game the day before that, kind of breaking down
(34:31):
what what his staff was doing.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
And uh, it sounded like a lot of work. And
from the tone of everybody, it sounded like not what
they wanted to be doing in that moment. Yea, they
wanted exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Ben, thank you much as always.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Yep, thanks a lot of time, as Ben Roberts from
the Hair.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Leader Kentucky sports dot com. Cornbread Hemp is a company
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Speaker 1 (35:34):
This is the good life. We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Stay a wild Cat history and it's a birthday. And
his connection to the Wildcats is that he was the
TV voice of the replays for Kentucky men's basketball and
probably a few live games. I think too with Larry Conley.
It's Marty Brannaman. Happy birthday to the Reds and Hall
of Famer and Marty celebrating his birthday today. Wildcat History
(35:58):
Notes presented by Kentucky Roadshow, Sports Cards and Memorabilia on
Romedy Road in Lexington and at roadshowcards dot com. Did
you guys see the story about Josh Heinz Allen, one
of the all time greats for Kentucky football. He told
his story last week about he and his wife and
their son Wesley, who was diagnosed with a form of
(36:21):
leukemia and.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Just how.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Difficult it was for them to hear that and to
battle through it, and then think about what Wesley at
nine had to do chemotherapy and all of that to
battle through well. The good news is that recently Wesley
got to ring the bell for being cancer free. But
Josh and his wife Caitlin have started a foundation for
(36:47):
pediatric cancer research, and you can go online and find
out more about this and if you are able to
do so to contribute to the cause. It's the four
for One Foundation and just a wonderful, wonderful cause to
(37:08):
fight pediatric cancer research. Dick Vittals done amazing work in
that area, so wish them well with that, and so
happy for Josh and the whole family that the prognosis
or Wesley has turned out to be as good as
it has and he's cancer free. That was just great
(37:28):
to hear that part of the story. Shuffle Being Coffee
is a Kentucky based company that is all about being
the best, just like the Wildcats, and so they start
with the very best coffee beans and you can try
some for yourself by going to Central Kentucky Myers stores
or Amazon and you can order it there, or go
to the company's website Shufflebean dot us and you can
(37:50):
order some product there. You can read the backstory on
the company started by a group of Kentuckians and they
like to say they follow the process of the quality
of shuffle being coffee from seed to cup. So try
shuffle being coffee for yourself, and put some hustle in
your shuffle. We had a hustle on out of here.
We'll see you tomorrow for the Leach Report, presented by
Bob Ken Enterprises
Good day, everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Welcome into another week of the Leach Report, presented by
Bobcat Enterprises, and we are just about one month away
from the start of the football season four weeks from
this coming Saturday, and we will talk about Kentucky football
in the first half of the show with Adam Luckett
from on three Sports and KSR. Second half of the show,
(00:27):
we talk Kentucky men's basketball with Ben Roberts from the
Lexington Herald Leader. Been a busy summer of content gathering
for those of us who cover Kentucky men's basketball, with
regular interview sessions with the players and most recently an
extended session with Mark Pope, so we'll touch on all
of that coming up on the show today. Let's jump
(00:48):
right into the Wildcat News of the day. It is
the service of Giuseppes of Lexington. Not a whole lot
of news today, it's really kind of looking forward. Today
is the annual football kickoff luncheon for UK and prior
to that, Coach Stoops will be doing a Q and
A with local media, so you'll be getting some football
(01:08):
info as this day unfolds. And then on Friday it
will be the annual media day and then on Saturday
it's fan Day over at UK, so they've been able
to practice. It's not like it used to be where
Media Day was kind of when everybody checked in and
you started practices. Those days are long gone. It's pretty
(01:32):
much a year round deal now and they're able to
do more as coaches with their players than used to
be the case. So they've been able to do some practicing,
same with Mark Pope and the other coaches on UK's campus.
But it does start to really ramp up, I think
after this week, because you're a month then away from
(01:58):
the first game. At some point, about ten days out
from that first game, you'll start to really put in
a game plan. But you can put in, you know,
do a little bit of that as you go along.
You're as a coach finalizing your decisions on the ranking
of your depth chart and who the guys you're gonna
lean on the most. Still a chance for some of
(02:19):
that to change early in training camp phase of preparing
preparation for the football season. Best example I can always
remember is Benny Snell as a freshman. He came in
and they have two scrimmages in August that helped to
finalize the depth chart, and first goal is to get
through those without injury, but the second thing is to
(02:42):
solidify some things on the depth chart. You put guys
into game situations like they did with Benny in that
first scrimmage back in twenty sixteen, and he was incredibly impressive,
just running over and around other defenders, powering through the
middle of the line, and watching that, I'm thinking, Okay,
that's pretty impressive, But can he do it next week
(03:05):
when they move him up against the ones and the twos. Well,
he looked just as good the next week and the
rest is history. Went on to have a big role
in his first season and become the all time leading
rusher at uk SO. But that was to me always
one of the best examples of a guy that played
his way into a more prominent role through that last
(03:25):
month before the season started. Kentucky has added an assistant
O line coach, Greg Frye, brings a ton of experience
in offensive line work from Power four teams. Says he's
known Mark Stoops for about thirty years when they were
together I think at South Florida years ago. And an
(03:47):
organization called roto Wire. It's a sports statistic and analytics service.
They have come up with their Southeastern Conference quarter Century team,
so the first twenty five years of the New Century.
The All SEC team does include one Kentucky Wildcat, and
it is Derek Abney as a kickoff and punt returner.
(04:09):
When I was driving back from vacation, I heard Derek
on with Dick Gabriel on the Big Blue Insider Show
and it was just great to listen to him. He
always shows up at the South Carolina game because he
lives down there. Now I think he's an engineer, so
he'll be down at Columbia in September. But he was
a record setting returner. I remember Steve Ortmeyer talked about
(04:29):
the difference between being a kickoff returner and a punt
returner and punt returner it's all about the first step,
and Abney was one of those rare guys who could
excel at both. It was a different skill set, but
he could excel at both and just an incredible feel,
particularly I think for the punt returns. So it's glad
(04:50):
to see that recognition for Derek Abney thanks to the
story so we talk about each day can be found
on the Bud Light Leach Report page at Tom Leachky
dot com. We had to the break. We will remind
you that our opening segment's presented by Giuseppes of Lexington.
Got to get out to Giuseppe soon. If you haven't
done that before the season starts, go ahead and go
to open table and get something on the books. If
(05:12):
there's a special occasion coming up, a birthday and anniversary,
something like that, there is no better place to celebrate
than Gisepp'es. You sit in the lounge area and you
can enjoy fantastic food with Dave Hall's live jazz music
as a perfect accompaniment. Just something you don't find anywhere else.
It is really really special at Gusep'es. We'll be right
(05:32):
back with Adam Luggtt talking Kentucky football. It's the Leech
Report coming to you each day from the Clark's Pumpin'
Shops studios, Return, refresh, and refuel at Clark's. Make sure
you download their app as well. Sign up for the
new Loyalty Rewards program. You get discounts when you fill
up and also discounts on items in their stores. We
(05:53):
welcome in Adam Luckett to the program from On three
Sports and KSR to tuk Kentucky football. We have not
gotten together here on the show, Adam since you got
back from SEC media days in Atlanta a week before last.
So what were your takeaways from what you heard? First
of all, just from the Kentucky folks.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, I was just basically, I think they're kind of
really selling or trying to believe in kind of this
underdog role and we've got a lot of doubters. We're
going to try and go and prove them wrong. And
our philosophy is not broken. We know what we want
to do, we know what it takes to succeed, and
they're going to go try to execute that plan. So
for me, it was pretty much they needed a bunch.
(06:38):
I think they there was an admittance of we really
needed to turn the roster over in a big way,
and they've done that and so we'll see if they
can put these pieces together and go have a good season.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
There's a book called Good to Great that a lot
of business people and people in athletics like the message
of and the first thing that they talk about and
it's about take how do you take a company from
being good to great? But same principles could apply to
a team and similar organizations, and the very first thing
(07:10):
they talk about is getting the right people on the
bus and sometimes the right people off the bus before
you worry about anything else, because if you have the
right people, you can figure out anything else. There are
other things that will make you successful or not, but
the first one to focus on is getting the right
people on the bus. So it kind of feels like
(07:32):
that's the approach that Kentucky is looking at going into
this season. Not a big shift in you know, what
they're doing as much as who they're doing it with.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Well, there was a busy bust.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Tom had a lot of movement, might have taken too, but.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, but I do think there was kind of to
your point, I think that was definitely. I think they
just needed some i would say fresh blood in that facility.
But the interesting part of all of that was that
they also made like a big bet on staff continuity offense.
The coordinator is back from the first time since pre
like free COVID, so you have that, and they really
(08:10):
tried to keep all this coaches on staff. Now, they
lost a couple unexpectedly with the kill shortsild Nebraska and
Vince Marl going to Louisville. But overall they made a
bet on continuity and then a bet on just kind
of resetting kind of just the personnel.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
In the building.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
And so it's kind of it's kind of like two
things at once. They are there's a mintance that they
need change, but there was also a mintance that have
to me at least that what we're doing it's the
right path to go down. We just need a reset
after some things went wrong here over the last couple
of years.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
And when you talk about right people on and off
the bus, it's not always about somebody's you know, a
a bad actor or some kind of disruptive force in
your locker room. Could be some of that, but it
can also just be guys, you know in the offensive line.
They just had to get better, wasn't that?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
You know?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Sometimes well, there was a couple of cases for the hits,
some guys they probably needed to get off the bus,
But for the most part, it's just about getting better
in that area and others.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Yeah, And I think also you had some guys that
maybe were around for a couple of years not pointing
out or seeing out anyone that maybe just the culture
of the culture may be going off kilter a little bit.
Bad habits may have started to form and then and
then trying to break them out of their bad habits
in your program would have been hard because they've just
(09:30):
been entrenched there for a little bit and so changing
that I think it's easier sell on kind of when
you've got all these new guys. Even Mark Stuke's mentioned
this in Atlanta, like, those guys don't care about what
happened last year, and we don't want to dwell on
what happened we at this point in the year, we
want to move forward. We've done the work we believe
to fix the problems last year. Now we're trying to
(09:51):
move forward. And I think for them, just maybe getting
some of that mindset of the last couple of years
out of out of the way and now they kind
of have a new slate will maybe allow them more
seamlessly to kind of go and have a good year.
And if they have diversity hits, maybe they'll be able
to survive it better than in the past, because that's
been an issue. I think over the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Coaches I'll often talk about in all sports having player
led teams, and that's the optimum situation. There are a
lot of new folks, new voices in that Kentucky football
locker room. Have you gotten any sense of how that
leadership component has worked itself out to this point.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yeah, I think that's a very good question. I'm not
sure because there's so much new going on with them
right now. I think some of that is probably going
to be decided here in these next few weeks in
camp when guys start wanting jobs and securing roles. I
think with any team you need to be get rud
by the guy's from up front, and I think for
(10:55):
Kentucky that's kind of been an issue the last couple
of years where I think about probably twenty sixteen to
twenty twenty one, some of their biggest leaders on the
team playing on that offensive line. And so I think
for them in this rebuild, they're probably hopeful that I think,
you know, guys like Jagger Burt and maybe Josh Braun
from Arkansas can kind of step up and be the
guys that kind of lead the way offensively in for
(11:18):
the team.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
We're talking with Adam Luggin from on three Sports and
KSRU and he covers Kentucky football, and we will continue
with our chat here in just a moment. It's the
lead's report. We're presented each day by Bobcat Enterprises and
they have four locations around Kentucky. I was coming back
from a concert my daughter and I went to up
(11:40):
in Northern Kentucky on Saturday. Drove right past the newest
Bobcat location there in the Northern Kentucky area. But wherever
you are, just google Bobcat Enterprises if you need to
buy or rent heavy equipment and they will have what
you need and they'll take great care of you in
the deal as well. At Bobcat Enterprises. We'll be right back.
We're chatting with Adam Lucky. You can read him in
(12:00):
all three sports KSR. And what's the podcast schedule that
you're a part of.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, eleven personnel. We go live. Believe that once the
season starts, it'll be every Wednesday at the believe we're
going to live on Thursdays and offseason, but once the
season starts, every Wednesday we'll be going live. He checks
out on ksr's YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
And a month from or four weeks exactly from Saturday
is when this will get started. When Kentucky takes on
Toledo out of the Mid American Conference. I saw where
I was flipping around different sites just kind of see
what was happening in the wildcat world today. And your
colleague at KSR Drew Franklin, had played the EA Sports
(12:42):
game and played out a six and six record for
Kentucky with actually a win over Navy in a bowl
game to get to seven and six, which that number
I think would certainly be satisfactory to a large percentage
of the Kentucky fan base. I'm guessing you would agree,
right right.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
As long as the schedule, which we all think is
gonna be really tough, if all those teams are kind
of what we kind of think they are, then yeah,
I think that would be a good season for Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
This year, the thing was, though, and again he's just
playing out a game, but it's, you know, something to
talk about in the offseason. There were several lopsided losses,
and thinking about that, I was almost thinking, you know,
if you play, if you don't get blown out, if
you're competitive against that schedule game in and game out, Uh,
that's would almost be more impressive or as impressive as
(13:33):
getting to six wins. If you got to five, but
you didn't get blown out by.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Anybody, Yeah, which is kind of that's what happened kind
of last year against the better teams. The better teams
they went you know, I'm talking like Top ten playoffs,
the playoff teams. They went toe to toe against Georgia
Texas for about three quarters and then Tennessee. Georgia and
Tennessee for the whole game. It was against teams you
thought that they were on the same level playing field
(13:59):
with and that they had a legit chance of beating
as the ones they kind of things just blew up
on them. So for me, I think, you know, you
go into games against Georgia this year, Tom Texas, those
two really stand out as like, well those could be
really tough, but the other ones you want to see them,
you know, really have a chance to win. And Ole
miss was the other playoff team that they you know,
they beat last year. So these other teams that are
(14:20):
maybe a step down from that, you want to see
them really be able to kind of compete and win
some of those games. And for me, that's kind of
like if you're just breaking down the season and looking
at it closer, like the matchups in those type of games.
I would say, like teams French top twenty five or
maybe in the top twenty or top fifteen, but not
necessarily playoff teams. Those are the teams like you're gonna
(14:42):
have to eventually for Kentucky to succeed year over year,
you're gonna have to beat those teams, you know, Martald
Tonight we point to kind of the South Carolina Missouri
series as series at Kentucky own when they were rolling
and now they don't owe them to own those Moore
and now in Banning, now we're seeing those losses stacked up.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
It would I would think that a big part of
it for Kentucky is going to be better managing adversity
and situations where they don't beat themselves. It's turnovers, that's penalties,
and then if you do get you're gonna get some
of that. From time to time. You try to minimize it.
But when you do get it, how do you handle it?
(15:19):
Does it do you just wilt after that? Or do
you fight back and find a way to win some
of those games? And those were things that categories they
didn't score well in last season, right.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
And I think it's I think that's been kind of
a year over year thing. I think last year it
was a little bit heightened. But we've heard Mark Suit's
free last year talk about how he didn't think they
handled diversity well. A game that stands out, obviously is
the twenty twenty three game against Missouri where they get
the lead missouris as the fake punt touchdown, and it
felt like they just fell. The season just fell apart
(15:53):
from that moment. So that's the thing that they really
have to fix, right the adversity. And I think you
hit a good point with the turnovers. Lucky to play
how they want to play. You can't rank sub one
hundred in total turnovers loss and that's what they ranked
last year, So you've got to you've got to get
that fixed. And situationally, I think they've got to be
better specifically on offense. You know, when you get the
(16:13):
third and one, you need to be able to convert them.
When you get in the red zone, you need to
be able to score touchdown, specifically the lower red zone.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
And what are you hearing about the quarterbacks over the
course of the summer.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Yeah, I still they it's still classified as kind of
an open job. Of the expectation is that that Calsada
will be the starter, and then that they're bringing cutter
Bowli along as of right now. And with all the
Calzada they kind of rap on him kind of since
he's arrived on campus, was you know, he's got a
rocket power arm accuracy is something he needs to work on.
(16:44):
But one interesting point I thought Stoops made recently in
an interview was that when they had spring ball and
they actually went to eleven on eleven and kind of
played real football where the quarterback is not necessarily live
but asked to kind of play in game and kind
of have to create if something's not there, And they
say kal Zotta really showed up and was one of
their better players during those periods. So that that playmaking
(17:09):
aspect we saw in the carrent Word last year, that
kind of showed up in Kentucky's eleven on eleven scrimmages.
And so that's exciting when you if you could have
a quarterback that can maybe make some third down magic
while you're playing some on a ball control offense, that
can really help you kind of dictate the terms of
the game. And if Kentucky's able to dictate the terms
of the game on offense under Stoops, they've been able
(17:30):
to win a lot.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Anythink back to the kind of the breakthrough season at
twenty sixteen. He got to the job by injury Stephen Johnson,
but he was that kind of guy. He just found
a way to get it done. Scrambles right, eight completions whatever.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yeah, And I think a successful Calzada year would kind
of look I would say similar numbers live wise, if
you pulled up Johnson's numbers that year in twenty sixteen,
if that Klazada had successful year to look something like
that in my opinion.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Adam Locke, a KSR on three Sports, thank you for
the time.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Appreciate Tom.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
It is the Leech Report. We are halfway through this
Monday edition of the show presented by Bobcat Enterprises Ben Roberts.
When we return Leach Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises for
this Monday, as we welcome in Ben Roberts to the program.
He covers Kentucky men's basketball or the Lexington Herald Leader
and Kentucky Sports dot Com. Ben, maybe you've felt a
(18:29):
little bit like you're back in school, you and your
fellow media members this summer because you're showing up at
UK kind of like summer school. I guess it would
be for once a week sessions for the most part,
where you get to hear from the new Kentucky basketball team,
and then it culminates with a long session with Mark Pope.
So are you ready for the test?
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, you know, it does kind of feel like that
now that I think about it.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
I was over there for some other stuff too this summer,
so yeah, it was like showing up for about twice
a week, driving in parking, staying about an hour and
and uh and leaving.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
So yeah, that's a that's a good analogy.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
And you didn't cut any of the classes, right, you
were a good students.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Yeah, Yeah, it's hard to cut the summer the summer
classes because yeah, there's there's only there's I only took.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
One, I think the whole time I was there.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Some of the others maybe especially toward.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
The end, maybe, Uh what did you learn or what
did you find most interesting from what you heard?
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Well, it looks like it's gonna be a team of
of some really good talkers.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I think, led by Jalen Lowe. He was he was.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Especially entertaining and obviously being everybody presumes the starting point
guard on this team. I think we'll be hearing a
lot from here from him this season. But just you know,
it kind of you see it on paper and you
kind of do the arranging and the lineups in your head.
But then when you when you see all the guys
back to back and get to talk to them in person,
(20:01):
you know, the one thing that it drove home to
me was just how versatile positionally I think this.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Team is going to be. I think even last season's.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Team, while they had some guys that could move here
and there in the lineup, you know, there were obviously
some guys that were in their spots in their roles,
and I think with this group, you're gonna have a
lot of guys who you could mark. Bolk's gonna have
a ton of different combinations. He's got a lot of
guys who could kind of move across the positional spectrum,
(20:35):
and you know, I think he's gonna throw a lot
of different looks at teams, you know, depending on what
the situation is and depending on what the matchups are.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
The other thing to kind of carry that forward to
me is I watch a practice last week for the
first time, and it kind of confirmed what I suspected
in that if you were saying, say, the assignment was
to rank the players, the top ten players in order
(21:04):
one through ten, and it was, uh, you know, all
of you that covered Kentucky fans basketball, and you watched
some practices, I don't think you'd get a consensus on
a lot of the who goes in what position? Oh
take away at number one might be the closest to
a consensus, and the last year's team, I think I
(21:26):
think back to even kerk Cries at one point said,
you know, he and Lamont Butler were both thought to
be the you know, the point guards, and I think
Kurr even said it was clear who was number one,
that it was Lamont, Yeah, and I think it was
you know the guys. You could watch a couple of
practices and have a pretty good idea of you know,
who the the how the rotation maybe would stack up,
(21:48):
and where guys fell. You know, positionally, you'd have a
little bit of that consensus over the course of a
one through ten. I think that that's one of the
exciting things about this group is that I don't know
that at some point it may sort itself out to
more of a consensus, but it certainly doesn't seem to
be there now.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Yeah, and that's something that that talking from folks who
have been in a lot of them, or have been
to a lot.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Of those practices, have been around a lot of those practices, but.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Then also talking to the players themselves, Yeah, that that's
something that really that that that really you know, comes
to the surface. You ask about you know, who's looking good,
who's standing out, and it seems like you get different
answers basically from everybody. Like you said, Otega has been
has been a constant, especially you know in the scrimmages,
(22:35):
and it just sounds like he's he's ready to take
it to another level. But you know, look around the
rest of the roster. I bet I've heard everybody's name
at least at least two or three times, and it's
always and there always, there's always.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Something to back it up.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
You know, this guy's this guy's looking really good at this,
this other guy's looking really good at that.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
This guy surprised me in this area of the game.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
But I feel like I've heard everybody's name multiple times
over the last few weeks, and other than Otega, you know,
nobody that that you just always hear every single time,
which which tells you that with all these guys there,
there's there's room for them to you know, at any
point over the course of the season. Obviously long way
(23:22):
to go till November and a lot of growing still
to do, but you know, any of these guys could
could have their game on any given night. And and
you know, talking to some of the other some folks
who outside the program who were kind of experts in
the transfer portal and really familiar with this guy, these guys,
uh they you know, you talk about a Jasper Johnson
(23:43):
or a Denzel Aberdeen, m Colin Chandler. Uh, you know,
taking that next step, I think there's a lot of
different players on this team who it should not be
a surprise if if they lead in scoring or up
there and scoring on different nights, agains stuff teams.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I think, Uh, there's a name you didn't mention there,
And I think that's probably be the case for most
people talking about this team that cover it that are
from outside Kentucky, that are Kentucky fans. But the one
name that keeps popping up a lot when the players
talk because of they all keep talking about how will
he's shooting it is Trent Noah.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Yeah, Yeah, I mean Jalen Lowe just straight up said
he was he thought Trent was the best shooter he's
ever seen. And he and he's played with a lot
of good shooters going back to his time in aau
and high school and then obviously his.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Two years at Pitt.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
He played with some really good three point shooters in
his young career so far. You know, Colin Chandler just
kind of kind of still just kind of shakes his
head and chuckles talking about these shooting contests the two
of them used to do with Travis Perry. Travis obviously
gone now and and I think Colin feels a little,
you know, when he's out there with it's just him
and Trent, he feels a little exposed because Trend shooting
(25:00):
the ball so well. But but yeah, and a lot
of these other transfers besides Jalen have also mentioned Trent.
You know, Cam Williams uh came out full of confidence
in himself instead of any three point shooting contest, he's
gonna win it. But he said his his closest competition
is Trent, and then there's really not anybody close to
(25:21):
those two, which is which is obviously a lot of
praise right there from Cam. So yeah, I mean, I
it'll be interesting. You know, it's much the case as
it was last season, where I think pretty much everybody
had Trent penciled in at number twelve on that roster
going into last season. Obviously he found a way to
break through. There were some injuries and he broke through
(25:43):
a little more. It'll be interesting to see and you know,
what looks like a similar situation was such a deep roster.
If he can find some some meaningful minutes in there,
and I know, uh, I know, Mark Pope's gonna gonna
want to find those for him if he can.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
We're talking with Ben Roberts. You could read them at
Kentucky Sports dot com and in the pages of the
Lexington Harold Leader covered Kentucky men's basketball, and we will
continue here in just a moment from the Clark's Pumping
Shop studio. Return, Refresh and refuel at Clark's. It's the
Late Report of presented by Bobcat Enterprises. We're visiting with
Ben Roberts from the Lexington Hairleader in Kentucky Sports dot
(26:20):
Com about Kentucky men's basketball. I was looking at the
hoops HQ website over the weekend and one of the
stories that I came across that they did recently ranking
the transfer classes by league in the SEC. The writer
and they did this from what they called a data
driven approach, So they had Kentucky third behind A and
(26:44):
M and Vandy. And I'm not interested in quibbling about
the rankings, having they looked that closely at the Texas
A and M and Vandy's classes or anybody else's other
than Kentucky. But the thought that I had is that
number one, I don't think Kentucky's first class for coach
Pope would have been ranked as high as third in
the league. And that group did really well, especially considering
(27:07):
the injury issues that they had. And the second thing
is if you're looking at it from a data driven approach,
means you're looking backward at the data, not necessarily projecting
forward how guys will do in this system. And I
think how much improvement statistically you saw in various categories
from Oway and from Butler and several other guys. You
(27:29):
saw Brea and Williams being drafted when they weren't even
mentioned as prospects before the season if their transfer classes
better than the first one, the way that the first
one performed in the system votes really well for this season.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Yeah, And I mean, obviously, you know A and M
that has to be somewhat volume driven to A and M.
It was replacing the entire team with buzz gone, and
then Vanderbilt you know, still kind of in a bit
of rebuilding mode with with buyington there and and yeah,
so you're heading those six transfers to obviously some really
good freshmen, but but more importantly, you know the guys
(28:09):
that they got coming back, which led by you know,
the possible preseason SEC Player of the Year. But but yeah,
a lot of those guys in that group of six.
I mean, Jalen Lowe, I just I really expect him
to take a huge step forward after you know, having
so much on his shoulders last season at Pitt that
that was not an optimal situation for a point guard.
(28:31):
I don't that's not the style of you know, and
and he's out to he's out to prove everybody that
I'm not just the guy as he said that just
likes to jack it up all the time and take
a bunch of shots like I want to get people involved.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
That's why I'm here.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
I think he's gonna be huge for them this season,
especially with this speed and quickness. But yeah, Modabate is
one who I'm really interested to see because if you
look at his underlying numbers, to forget for a second
the way he plays and just the eyeballs, but you
look at his numbers and you extrapolate that out, he
(29:06):
could be sitting on a big season with what I
assume everybody thinks.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
There's gonna be a lot more playing.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Time in Kentucky this I think he would have gotten
a lot more playing time at Alabama had he stayed there.
But then also just talking to a bunch of his
former teammates at Alabama, talking to his new teammates a
Kentucky knowing just from watching him play over the last
couple of years, his style will play, and the style
will play that Mark Pope likes and once in this
(29:32):
team and maybe didn't have as.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Much in last season's team.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
I think he's one that's really gonna gonna gonna bring
this team together on the court, and I don't know
if he'll quite have the numbers at the end of
the season to do it, but I think he's gonna
be an all SEC type type performer at Kentucky this season.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
I'm guessing you would agree with this that Oway was
the guy that most exceeded fan X expectations.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
UH in year one. Would you agree? Yeah? I would.
I would. I would say that's safe to say with
this group.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Uh, just listening to you talk there, you would think, well,
could be Jalen Low, could be that guy. You look
at his numbers last season at pitt and think about
what they might be at the end of one season
at Kentucky. But Diabatee Denzel Aberdeen are two guys that
are going to play much likely play much more prominent roles,
and have much more responsibility than they had at their
(30:29):
previous places. Cam Williams, the guy from you know Tulane
that nobody is talking had talked much about and all
at once. So NFL or NBA mock draft comes out
and he's the the uh, one of only two guys
listed as draft prospects. So it seems like there are
several candidates for that overachiever role this season. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Absolutely, and Cam is right there too, And he's one
that it just got so overshadowed by the timing. I mean,
it was the day of the Kentucky, Tennessee and Cuba tournament,
so and and it came so much out of nowhere,
and I feel like pretty much the entire fan base
was not in, you know, off season mode yet, because
it wasn't the off season, so everybody was like, who.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Is this guy?
Speaker 4 (31:13):
A lot of a lot of fans that never heard
of him obviously didn't watch a ton of two lane basketball,
So there was that initial shock, and then there was
about an hour of oh, you know, this guy seems
pretty good, and then it was on endo game mode,
and then after that, I feel like he was kind
of forgotten for a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
But I just remember that morning.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Being up in Indianapolis and texting and calling around to
uh TO to mostly folks outside the program, just trying
to learn more about him. And and these guys who
who know the sport nationally, cover the sport nationally, maybe
even knew him in high school, were just raving about
not only the type of player he could become, but
(31:52):
the type of player he could be in Mark Pope's
system after what they'd seen from the previous season of him.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
So yeah, I mean he's a guy.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
You know, again, it's hard to you know, he probably
won't even start, or he might not start, but he's
a guy that could be an NBA draft pick by
the end of this season, or you know, he could
be well on his way there and like Otega, be
one or two little tweaks away and come back as
as a as a preseason all SEC type the next year,
(32:24):
and and and be ready to take that next junt.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
You know, as you said, Mark Pope was preparing for
a Sweet sixteen game in the NCAA Tournament, and yet
he had his staff for clearly, you know, evaluating transfers
for the next season. Just it would be interesting to
see what a coach's breakdown of his time and her
time would be now versus five, ten years ago, because
(32:52):
within the season where you've got game prep, but you
also have you know, you always had to spend some
time on recruiting, but now you're spending some of that
time on evaluating transfers and then oh yeah, you've got
to manage nil in that time span too.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
It would just be interesting to see what that breakdown
of percentage of time looks.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Like, Yeah, it was I have it in my notes somewhere,
but I was told kind of what the what the
setup was, especially there in the tournament, and the SEC.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Tournament too had already started by then.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
But basically, yeah, they had guys kind of on shifts
of like, okay, you're on game prep from this hour
to this hour. You're on EVL of possible transfers this
hour to this hour, and that includes talking to people,
talking to people behind the scenes, talking to guys that
are already in the portal and their families. It was funny,
and I believe it was the Indianapolis stop. We had
(33:49):
kind of a coffee station that was kind of uh,
you know, it's technically in the media area, but the
coaches were pretty nearby. And a few times over the
course of those two three days, uh, you know, a
Kentucky coach again on his cell phone, get a cup
of coffee, and you could I knew who they were
talking to, and it was it was possible transfers or
(34:09):
or family members of possible transfers. And and this was
the day before the game, and and they were working
at uh that hard. So yeah, and that you know
that that wasn't Kentucky, that that was everybody. You know.
Rick Barnes talked about it too, about what his staff
was doing in the lead up to that game. And
I remember Brad Underwood kind of held court before the
Illinois game the day before that, kind of breaking down
(34:31):
what what his staff was doing.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
And uh, it sounded like a lot of work. And
from the tone of everybody, it sounded like not what
they wanted to be doing in that moment. Yea, they
wanted exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Ben, thank you much as always.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Yep, thanks a lot of time, as Ben Roberts from
the Hair.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Leader Kentucky sports dot com. Cornbread Hemp is a company
that has a variety of products that could make your
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Speaker 1 (35:34):
This is the good life. We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Stay a wild Cat history and it's a birthday. And
his connection to the Wildcats is that he was the
TV voice of the replays for Kentucky men's basketball and
probably a few live games. I think too with Larry Conley.
It's Marty Brannaman. Happy birthday to the Reds and Hall
of Famer and Marty celebrating his birthday today. Wildcat History
(35:58):
Notes presented by Kentucky Roadshow, Sports Cards and Memorabilia on
Romedy Road in Lexington and at roadshowcards dot com. Did
you guys see the story about Josh Heinz Allen, one
of the all time greats for Kentucky football. He told
his story last week about he and his wife and
their son Wesley, who was diagnosed with a form of
(36:21):
leukemia and.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Just how.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Difficult it was for them to hear that and to
battle through it, and then think about what Wesley at
nine had to do chemotherapy and all of that to
battle through well. The good news is that recently Wesley
got to ring the bell for being cancer free. But
Josh and his wife Caitlin have started a foundation for
(36:47):
pediatric cancer research, and you can go online and find
out more about this and if you are able to
do so to contribute to the cause. It's the four
for One Foundation and just a wonderful, wonderful cause to
(37:08):
fight pediatric cancer research. Dick Vittals done amazing work in
that area, so wish them well with that, and so
happy for Josh and the whole family that the prognosis
or Wesley has turned out to be as good as
it has and he's cancer free. That was just great
(37:28):
to hear that part of the story. Shuffle Being Coffee
is a Kentucky based company that is all about being
the best, just like the Wildcats, and so they start
with the very best coffee beans and you can try
some for yourself by going to Central Kentucky Myers stores
or Amazon and you can order it there, or go
to the company's website Shufflebean dot us and you can
(37:50):
order some product there. You can read the backstory on
the company started by a group of Kentuckians and they
like to say they follow the process of the quality
of shuffle being coffee from seed to cup. So try
shuffle being coffee for yourself, and put some hustle in
your shuffle. We had a hustle on out of here.
We'll see you tomorrow for the Leach Report, presented by
Bob Ken Enterprises
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