2025-09-17 - LEACH REPORT

Tom talks with Chris Fisher, Mike DeCourcy and more.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, gang, how you doing. Welcome here to the show.
It is the Wednesday edition of the Leech Report and
we are presented each day by Bobcat Enterprises. Coming up today, Mike,
of course, he will join us in the second half
of the show and we'll talk some college hoops with him,
and also a little about the passing of a movie icon,
Robert Redford. Charles Walker. We'll check in get his thoughts

(00:24):
on what he saw in Kentucky's win over Eastern Michigan,
and then Chris Fisher from The Cat's Balls will lead
us off, and that's coming up here in just a
few minutes as we roll into the Wildcat News of
the Day, presented by just Sepies of Lexington. The guys
from a Field of sixty h Good and Rob Donster
were in Lexington yesterday to cover a UK men's basketball

(00:46):
practice and they got a chance to have a one
on one with otega Oway and he revealed to them
that he's been dealing with a turf toe injury. There
were pictures of Otaga a while back in a boot
and reports maybe had some minor injury. It turns out

(01:07):
it's a turf toe issue, not as bad as the
one Joe Burrow of the Bengals is dealing with. Oway
told the field of sixty eight guys that he actually
has worked with the same doctor that Burrow is now
using and that Otagas is not nearly as serious, and
that he's about two weeks away from returning to the
court and should be just fine. So all good to

(01:30):
hear there. UK football's getting some practices in with no
game this week, and after today's session, coach Doops will
talk with the local media, so we'll see if any
news comes out of that. He also has the SEC
teleconference coming up today, so we have a little football
news perhaps by later today and to share with you tomorrow.

(01:54):
UK volleyball still in the top ten, number seven in
the American Volleyball Coach Association's latest poll. Big match coming
up tomorrow in Louisville, between the Wildcats and third ranked
U of L. Seth McGowan's named Honorable Mentioned Player of
the Week, but the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award group

(02:16):
that's for his three touchdown performance and the Cats went
over Eastern Michigan also had his second one hundred yard
rushing day and Josh Cattis has been named the All
State Good Works Team for the causes that he helps with,
one of which is a shoe drive tomorrow. He talked
about this on the Coach Oops radio show Monday night

(02:39):
between six and eight tomorrow in front of Malone's and
the Landsdown Shopping Center here in Lexington. If you have
some shoes that are still in good condition that someone
could use, bring them out, drop them off and they'll
be collecting those and Josh and some of his teammates
will be there between six and eight tomorrow. That's at

(03:00):
the Malones in the Lansdowne Shopping Center. They'll be set
up out in the parking lot. Links to the stories
that we talk about each day can be found on
the bud Light Leach tripboard page at Tom leach ky
dot com heading to a break. When we come back,
will visit with Chris Fisher from the Cat's Pause. Our
opening segment's always presented by Giuseppes of Lexington and they

(03:21):
are located out off Nicholasville Road, just past Manor War
here in Lexington, just tucked away off on a little
side road. It's a really quaint location and just a
really special setup. They have their at Giuseppes. They've expanded
their lounge area so you can sit there and enjoy
a fantastic Giuseppe's meal while you listen to Dave Hall's

(03:41):
live jazz music. And it really makes for a really
special dining experience when you have a special occasion to
celebrate with the special people in your life, an anniversary,
a birthday, whatever it might be, or after a big
event like a day at Keelan which is coming up
next month, so check it out. Make a reservation today
at open to for Giuseppes. We'll be right back thirteen

(04:03):
past the top of the hours. We welcome in Chris
Fisher from katspause dot com. We'll start with the Kentucky
football Chris, and what were your reviews of Cutter Bowley's
second career start.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, I think it was hard not to be impressed
by what we saw from Cutter Bowley. He was taking
shots down the field. He was he was hitting on
shots down the field, kind of you know, spreading the
defense out and kind of opening things up underneath. I
liked how he was able to extend plays and kind

(04:38):
of climb up in the pocket and take off and
make plays with his legs. When when things were there
as well, which that was kind of the reputation with
Zach Calzada, and we really hadn't seen that through the
first two weeks, and so I did like the athletic
ability that we saw from from Cutter Bowlie, and all

(04:58):
in all, I think a really really promising season debut
for him.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, maybe it was something as simple as Calzata just pressing,
because I think back to you know, that first drive
of the opening game. He threw a couple of really
nice balls, and then once some adversity hit, he just
seemed to struggle with being decisive on either throwing or running.

(05:24):
And that's the thing with Cutter, younger guy or future
ahead of him, and he made more correct decisions and
throw the ball in places where even if it ended
up being incomplete, his guys had a shot at it.
I think of the one that was ruled in complete,

(05:45):
or the back line of the end zone to Catus
that he actually was able to catch. And then your
point about being able to scramble is useful. I mean,
they're giving him, for the most part, good protection, but
when teams are going to play a lot of man
to man like Kentucky figures to see, at least until
they are better at getting off the line of scrimmage,
that will open up sometimes for the quarterback to run.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, I think the protection has been night and day
from last season to this season. And you do kind
of wonder if Zach Calsata was pressing a little bit
in those first couple games, knowing that he had Cutter
Bowlie kind of nipping at his heels with his play
in fall camp and you know, Bush Hamden and Mark
Stukes kind of said as much, and so you kind

(06:31):
of wonder if he was pressing a little bit and
kind of feeling that that pressure. But you know, again,
especially for a red shirt freshman, it was hard not
to like what you saw out of Cutter Bowie. And
you know, the passing game is is gonna have to
to find a rhythm, which it looked like it did
against Eastern Michigan, especially as Kentucky kind of gets into

(06:54):
the teeth of this SEC gauntlet, because if they don't
prove they can throw the football consistently, you're gonna see
more and more of those safeties kind of creep up
closer to the line of scrimmage and take away that
run game. That we've seen through the first three weeks
and make Kentucky pass the football. So definitely, I think

(07:14):
a promising development for Kentucky, especially going into the bye week,
kind of you know, putting some of that stuff on
film as you go into the bye week and prepare
for a road test at South Carolina in a couple
of weeks.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yeah, it's gonna be interesting a week from Saturday at
South Carolina because they came in here in Week two
last year and that's when everything kind of fell apart.
There was a lot of positivity for Kentucky. They'd had
a big opening win and put up a bunch of
points in a rain shortened game, and then they couldn't

(07:48):
block South Carolina to triculose defensive ends and it just
all fell apart. And then Leonori's Sellers kind of had
his breakout and took off from there. And so now
Kentucky's got to go back and first and foremost show
that they can block those guys.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, those two guys completely wrecked the game.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
I mean, it was an all day thing.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
Kentucky was not able to get those guys under control
and completely blew up whatever offensive game plan Kentucky had
on that day. They just were not able to protect
the quarterback whatsoever and keep those guys out of the backfield.
So you have to feel, at least from a starting point,
a little bit better about Kentucky's chances. The offensive line

(08:36):
just looked so much improved from a season ago, not
only protecting those edges, but on the interior and blocking
in the run game as well. Those guys have played
a ton of football. Their experience. I think they're the
third most experienced offensive line in all of college football
in terms of career starts. So even right there as

(08:57):
a starting point, you have to feel a lot better
about Kentucky's chances. And who knows what Leonora sellers and
you know what his status is going to be going forward.
They'll have I think Missouri this weekend.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
But that'll be uh.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
I think that'll tell us a lot about where this
Kentucky team is at and kind of where they'll be
going forward.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Talk with Chris Fisher from katzpause dot com. It's at
Chris Fisher twenty four to seven on x or Twitter.
I was watching the Clemson Georgia Tech game early last
Saturday's the best early game and when they go to replay.
Now in the ACC they take you into the booth

(09:38):
where the replay officials are reviewing the call and you
get a look at not only the angles but what
they're talking about. You're hearing that discussion and it was
really enjoyed that aspect, that addition to the coverage. Did
you get to see that and do you think it's
going to spread?

Speaker 2 (10:00):
I didn't see that, but I agree with you. I
like kind of having that transparency because sometimes as a
viewer at home, you don't exactly know what's going on,
and if it's not relayed to the announced booth, those
guys don't either. And so you had that play on
Saturday with with Josh Katis catching that ball in the

(10:21):
back of the end zone and you're kind of wondering
at home, well, why wasn't that reviewed? It looked like
he got in. Then you had the touchdown that was
taken off the board to Henry Boyer, and that play
was kind of called blown dead before before it was snapped.
And you know, the the howls and whys of of
those types of things I think would go a long

(10:42):
way with the viewer sitting at home.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, they didn't really explain the one that knocked off
Henry Boyer's touchdown. Jeff actually caught it on our broadcast
because they the uh, there was some confusion. I forget
exactly what happened, but there was maybe a play blown
dead after the ball as is, after the ball had

(11:07):
been snapped. It wasn't that anyway. There was there was
a play that looked like it was a do over,
but it wasn't. I think is essentially what happened. And
so the yard the down marker didn't get flipped to
third I think from second and it was actually third down,
and so they, I guess, blew the play dead basically

(11:28):
as the ball was being snapped, but then they continued
on with the play. It was a short pass and
Henry got touched down and so that was wiped out.
And so that's not something you necessarily review, and it
was just a quick explanation that didn't really cover the
whole thing. But the more you can explain, I think
for fans, the better, and the better it is. I
think for officials too, because you know, I was watching

(11:48):
Week one, Barrion Brown had a catch for LSU that
sure looked to me like a touchdown and then I
saw something that that they sent out to the media
from the National Supervisor of Officials. It shows you some
calls each week and explains why they were made the
way that they were, and even if you don't agree
with them, you understand why they made them. In some

(12:10):
cases you do agree with it after seeing it. And
with the Barryon Brown one, he had the ball as
he was passing the pylon, but the rule is you
had to secure it when you hit the ground and
that's when the ball came loose, and so that's why
they ruled it incomplete. And so the more of that
explanation you can give to fans, I think, the better
it is probably is for officials.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, I love what the NFL does with you know,
having Gene Sterotor and Terry McAuley and Dean Blandino and
those guys kind of in the booth on hand, ready
to explain, Okay, this is why this call was made,
or you know, we have a review and this is
why it's going to be upheld, or this is why
it's going to be overturned. And you know, as the
average fan probably doesn't know, even though it probably thinks

(12:56):
they do, the intricacies of some of these rules and
maybe even sometimes the differences between the college game and
the NFL game, and you know, the role differences between
the two leagues, and so having those guys on hand
ready to explain, I think really really goes a long
way and average and adds a lot more depth to

(13:17):
the to the coverage.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
Chris, thank you much for the time. All right, thanks
Chris Fishercatzpause dot Com. We'll take a break, come back.
Charles Walker will join us next.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
It's the Leads.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
Report, coming to you from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio. Return, Refresh,
Refuel at Clark's Picture Part Present about Bob Kat Enterprises.
We welcome old number eighty eight Charles Walker, the former
Wildcat white out to the program. The guy from CBI
inshirts and Charles, what was your takeaway on Cutter Bully's

(13:48):
performance last Saturday?

Speaker 4 (13:50):
You know, Tom two words or one word depending on
how you say, it comes to mind, and it's gunslinger,
And I think I think, as we've kind of known,
Cutter shoots from the hip, he can extend plays, he
wants to throw the ball, and the Cats put up
four hundred and ninety two yards offense. So I think

(14:10):
we've been waiting for.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
That buddy of mine on a group on a high
school buddy's on a text chain and one of them,
after hearing Cutter interviewed, said he sounds like a surfer dude.
And I mentioned that to Josh Kattis on the Coaches Show,
Buddy not. He kind of laughed and agreed. So he
seems to be a QB with a demeanor that he

(14:35):
has a little swagger and has a little carefree attitude,
and that can play well at that position sometimes.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
And I'm not.

Speaker 4 (14:44):
Sure if nonchalant is the term, but you know, I
watched I watched the same interview and Cutter being Cutter.
He's kind of looking at the reporter and not even
staring at the camera, and I think the reporter told
him halfway.

Speaker 3 (14:56):
Through, hey, hey, look look over.

Speaker 4 (14:58):
Here again, which to me kind of just proves to
what you're saying. I'm saying I think football is on
his mind. He's looking at his reads, he's making he
makes a decision, and he doesn't harp on it. It
can be a great thing for an offense if you
stay away from turnovers. It can also be a very
bad thing. You kind of reminds me of a of

(15:20):
a Baker Mayfield. Maybe not that athletic and that type
of personality, but you know, supposedly Baker leads the NFL
and potential turnovers, but he hasn't lost one so far.
When Cutters throwing it, it's great. We just got to
take care of that ball.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, the understand where somebody might track potential turnovers, but
the one that stat that matters who's actual turnovers. And
we saw the Bengals backup Jake Browning struggle with that
on Sunday. But even though he came in through three
interceptions in a short time span subbing for Joe Burrow,

(15:55):
he kept playing the position and kept you stayed in
the game, didn't get down on himself, and they're going
to be you know, as he goes Carr goes back
into the SEC. Some days it won't be as fun
as the Eastern Michigan game. But that's part of that
position is having to you have to have that mindset.
I mean, you're going to throw some interceptions and.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
You know, Tom, I know we don't want to harp
on on miss We're here to talk about Eastern Michigan,
here to talk about Bye week in the future schedule.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
But what I told people, at the end of.

Speaker 4 (16:24):
The day, we are sitting there with two fourth one
opportunities to win the game at home, and it's a
top twenty, really good Old Miss team.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
You know, that's college football. We're not going to go
out and win every game by fifty.

Speaker 4 (16:36):
You have to have a chance to win the game
at the end of the game, which is what the
Bengals did on Saturday or on Sunday, so that this
team can beat good football teams, and I think the
fan base should be excited about that.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
What's the key for a player to handle an open
week the right way in terms of not letting it negatively,
you know, take the edge off when you get back
into games the following week.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
You know, it's all about preparation.

Speaker 4 (17:03):
And the bye week's always funny because you watch film
on the three games you've already played, or how many
games you've already played. You're resting your body because let's
be honest, whether you're playing Eastern Michigan or Own Miss,
you're gonna come.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
Out of a college football game with some knicks.

Speaker 4 (17:17):
So you're resting up, You're getting mentally prepared, you're working
out a little bit harder. But Tom, it's a long season,
so you have to prep. You know, each opponent has
their own characteristics that you have to learn. A lot
more goes into college football and playing college football than
what meets the eye.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
And I know you know that absolutely, Charles, Thank you much.
As always, we will talk next week and start talking
about the matchup between the Cats and the game Cocks
down in Columbia.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
Yes, their gokatz.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
That is Charles Walker joining us here on the Leech Report.
We are coming up on the heartbreak at the bottom
of the hour, like of course he college hoops and
a little movies. Will we return. It is the Wednesday
edition of the Leach Report, presented by Bobcat Enterprises. It's
the lead report for a Wednesday and we are presented

(18:09):
each day by Bobcat Enterprises. It's not just Wildcat country
here in Kentucky. It is Bobcat Country. And when you
need to buy or rent a piece of heavy equipment
for a job, or you know someone who does, Bobcat
Enterprises is the place to call. Google them. You'll find
the location that's closest to you. If you need a
tractor or an excavator, skidzteerload or whatever it might be,

(18:32):
zero turn moors for your home, lawn too, and parts
and service after the sale is fantastic at Bobcat Enterprises.
It is the Wednesday edition of the Leach Report, and
we are welcoming into the program Mike Decursi from Sportingnews
dot com and at TSN MIC on X where you

(18:53):
read his college basketball coverage, and we're going to get
to a little bit of that, but we're going to
start with the passing of a movie icon, Robert Redford.
That news came yesterday, and Mike is our movie buff
here on the show, and I gave him a homework
assignment yesterday for your top Robert Redford films. And as

(19:17):
you noted, did you ask to actor and director or
just actor because he's done well as an actor, as
a director as well, but just as an actor. Your
favorite Robert Redford movies?

Speaker 5 (19:27):
Mike, Well, it started.

Speaker 6 (19:30):
The list started with number one, The Sting, which won
the Best Picture I think in nineteen seventy three and
is just a wonderful kper and he's in it with
Paul Newman and some other tremendous act.

Speaker 5 (19:45):
And everything was everywhere. Yeh.

Speaker 6 (19:46):
She was great in that absolutely, and then number two
would be All the President's Men, co starred with Dustin
Hoffman in a story about the Nixon investigation in the seventies.
Number three the Great Butch Cassidy and The Sun Dance
Kid another with Robert Redford. They made two just seminal

(20:09):
movies together. And then the four and five are a
little bit less, a little bit more obscure, I guess
you'd say. The fourth is a movie called All Is Lost,
in which I don't even know if there's another actor
in the movie. I believe that, as I recall, certainly

(20:29):
most of it, if not all of it, is spent
entirely him on a sailboat and him struggling against the
storm and other obstacles to stay alive. And it's a
pretty amazing piece of filmmaking.

Speaker 5 (20:46):
That he does.

Speaker 6 (20:47):
There may be a voice actor on the radio or
something like that, but I don't remember that anybody else.

Speaker 5 (20:52):
Appears in it.

Speaker 6 (20:53):
It was made at twenty thirteen, so he was probably
in his mid seventies at the time, and carries the
entire movie by himself. And then the fifth is a
film called Brubaker from nineteen eighty in which he plays
a prison warden and Yafat Coto is one of the

(21:14):
co stars, and I remembered Coto's performance very well, and
of course Redford being such a dominant figure, but as
I watched a clip from it yesterday and a very
inexperienced young Morgan Freeman is one of the actors who

(21:35):
plays a prisoner in the film, and I did not remember,
of course at the time. Morgan Framan didn't really become
famous until eighty seven when he was Oscar nominated for
a movie that I can't remember the title of, but
he played a pimp in the movie in nineteen eighty seven,
and he was Oscar nominated for that. And that's a

(21:58):
couple of years later in Driving Miss Daisy and all that.
So he became famous very in a very short order
over the course of that decade. But that was kind
of one of his first big films. Brew Baker so
a lot of really fascinating character actors in addition to.

Speaker 5 (22:19):
Read for who, you know, despite being the handsome.

Speaker 6 (22:22):
Leading man in that is not really playing a leading man,
parties playing a prison warden and does a phenomenal job.
As I was researching this. One of the things that's
really fascinating about his acting career is how many movies
he made with really accomplished directors that didn't turn out great.

(22:43):
That are, if you look at their Rotten Tomato scores
are sixty percent or below. He made films with Sydney
Pollock that didn't do great, with Richard Attenborough that didn't
do great, A.

Speaker 5 (22:56):
Very long list of those.

Speaker 6 (22:57):
But when you make movies as as seminal as the
ones I mentioned, and of course Out of Africa a
movie I didn't love, or The Natural, a movie I
wasn't I wasn't as crazy about, but were huge hits.
And Out of Africa I was another Oscar winner for
Best Picture. When you make those movies as the misses

(23:19):
don't don't hurt as much Rotten Tomatoes.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
I saw their list. They had all as lost at
number one over all the presidents men. I think it's
all the President's men over the sting for me. So
I just kind of flip your two have the same too,
just as a movie fan. There's another one I watched
actually a couple of years ago. My wife and I
watched Her Suggestion, and it was really good. It was
like for the early seventies. I think Three Days of

(23:43):
the Condor.

Speaker 6 (23:45):
Yes, yes, that's a movie that I saw when I
was too young to really get it, and so it
didn't make my list. It's one of those i'd like
to go back and watch again. I think Pollock directed
that as well, I remember correctly, And you know, he
he made a movie about the Great Gatsby, you know,

(24:08):
an adaptation of the Great Gatsby, one of the great
American literature works, which you know, that's a gutsy move
to try to make Gatsby into a film, and and
I thought it was work, was really good. The movie
was less again, one of those movies that that wasn't
highly regarded, but that he was good in pretty much

(24:30):
everything he did.

Speaker 5 (24:31):
It's a terrific actor. Yeah, the film sometimes.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yeah, there was a movie that I enjoyed him in it,
and I enjoyed the movie and it wasn't like ever
Gonna Win an Oscar? Wasn't that kind of movie? A
movie called Legal Eagles with Debra Winger, Yeah, and there.

Speaker 6 (24:47):
Like yeah, yeah, so I will one asterisk on my
list is that I have never seen the way we were.

Speaker 5 (24:54):
When it came out.

Speaker 6 (24:56):
Not my kind of movie for a kid, you know,
for thirteen, fourteen, fifty year old kid or whatever I
was at the time. So I didn't and I've just
never caught up with it. It's one of those that's
on my list when I get some time.

Speaker 5 (25:09):
Away from work that I got to sit down and see.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Yeah, I did not see it when it came up,
probably for the same reason. But yeah, I watched it
actually a few years ago, and it's it's good. It's
just not in the my top five or probably even ten.
One other subject before we get into some basketball, because
you follow a lot of sports other than basketball, and

(25:34):
yesterday a former Wildcat maybe it's either her or Anthony
Davis is the best ever won and done at Kentucky.
Sydney McLaughlin Laroni broke a nineteen year old American record
in the four hundred at the World Athletic Championships semi
final in Tokyo. She'll running the final tomorrow night. And

(25:54):
she was an Olympic gold medalist multi times in the
four hundred meter hurdles. Now she just running the flat
races and she's maybe as dominant as any athlete in
her sport right now, and.

Speaker 6 (26:06):
She is phenomenal. I am a huge fan of Sydney.
I tried to get her named the Sporting News Athlete.

Speaker 5 (26:13):
Of the Year last year and I just didn't win
the argument.

Speaker 6 (26:17):
But to go to do what she does. She is
in the hurdles so dominant that I think that's why
she's running the open four hundred now is just to
see how far she can go with that. It's a
couple of years, three years, I think, til another Olympics.
She may come back around to running the hurdles again.

Speaker 5 (26:38):
We'll see. But to see her.

Speaker 6 (26:41):
Last I watched the semi final race, and I watched
all three semi final races in that category, and she
she was just dominant in a way that no one
else in the other two semi finals was. So I'm
very excited about watching the final. I think she's one
of America's greatest athletes ever.

Speaker 5 (27:03):
I really do. And you know where you know, it's
a very.

Speaker 6 (27:06):
Long list, obviously, but she's in that team picture. She's
just such an incredible athlete, and I'm very curious to
see how far she's able to take running the four
hundred itself as opposed to the hurdles, where she's already
the best that there's ever been.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
We're tug with Mike of course Sportingnews dot Com where
he writes about college basketball, and we will talk about that.
When do we come back here on the Leech Report
from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio, Return, refresh and refuel
at Clark's fourteen Away from the top of the hours
we chat with Mike Decursi. You read him at Sportingnews
dot Com, on Exit's at TSN Mike, and you'll see

(27:45):
him on the Big Ten Network during college basketball season
and also on Fox doing their brackets and Mike. We're
starting to see top ten lists come out. Kentucky was
number eight in the Blue Ribbon Top ten last week
Top twenty. I think there were seventh in the field
of sixty eight that came out this week. There'll be

(28:06):
more on the way as the season approaches. How deep
do you think the pool of true national title contenders
will be this year? Or I guess maybe more appropriately,
is it any deeper or not as deep as a
typical year?

Speaker 6 (28:21):
You know, I think probably it will end up being
a little deeper than in some years, in part because
there's no obvious dominant team like we don't have a
Yukon twenty twenty four shaping up in the preseason, we
knew that team was going to be hard to beat

(28:42):
that I think they became even better than we anticipated.
But it obviously right exactly exactly, not quite the same
because Florida had everybody back, but Yukon had a lot
of the key pieces and added some like a Steph
Castle that year to make up for some of the

(29:02):
wings they lost to the NBA Hopkins, et cetera. And
so this year we don't have a team like that.
And Purdue is often projected if you look around. John
Rosstein puts his top twenty five up and toasted pretty
regularly on Twitter, and John has Purdue number one, And

(29:22):
my response is, Okay, they're really good, but who's their
NBA guy. We've gone over this, i'm sure, on many
occasions about how if you don't have an NBA first
round pick in your rotation, you haven't won it since
nineteen eighty seven, so it's almost forty years now. So

(29:44):
if you don't have that, I'm not projecting you as
the winner ever, and you may eventually break that somebody.
But if you don't have that, and I or it's
not obvious or a parent.

Speaker 5 (29:57):
Now, somebody might say, Braden Smith's going to.

Speaker 6 (29:59):
Get in there because he's so good and he passed
the ball so well that he's going to get in there. Okay,
that's maybe an answer, but I don't know that I
am ready to go on to that. So so that's
so that's one of the reasons why I think it's
going to be more open, because that player isn't a
parent everywhere, even on some of the best, some of

(30:21):
the teams that we project to be among.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
The best for Kentucky. That would be Jade and Quaintan's.

Speaker 6 (30:25):
Right, definitely, and I wouldn't rule out Otaga and Jasper
as well eventually, And I you know, obviously challenge this
year will be to get into the rotation and nothing
that has anything to do with his ability. But he's
entering a roster that's very loaded at the position he plays,

(30:45):
and he's going to have to fight for playing time.
But I don't have any doubt that he'll be that
sort of player eventually.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah, that goes back a little bit of bet what
we were talking last week, and as we had the
conversation about minutes and compared it to ninety six quick
research was a little flawed. I corrected it the next
day on the show. But Antoine Walker played the most minutes,
but it was still twenty seven. But the seventh fewest
minutes was a future first round draft pick in Ron Mercer.

Speaker 6 (31:13):
Right, and Ron was one of the stars of the
championship game against Syracuse, even though that was one of
the reasons why that team was so great is because
there were a lot of times when it was Okay,
this isn't working, that's going to work. And on championship night,
obviously Tony Delk was phenomenal, but Ron was a huge

(31:34):
contributor that night, even though, as you said, he went
into that game averaging well down below twenty minutes in
the season. And so Jasper is going to find a role,
I'm sure, but that's going to be. Like I said,
it's not that I don't expect he will, but I
do know it's going to be a challenge because he's

(31:55):
up against Otaga and Denzel and some other terrific players.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
Yeah, yeah, Denzel. I think it was maybe o Way
yesterday in his Field of sixty eight interview. I think
it was him that mentioned just how impressed he'd been
with with Aberdeen and Goose said the same thing after
watching some summer practices that he said he's Goose said,
he's better than I realized and a better shooter. Especially

(32:19):
what impact do you see him having.

Speaker 6 (32:22):
Well, I think one of the things that is best
about Denzel is that he's a low mistake player.

Speaker 5 (32:29):
He doesn't ever hurt you.

Speaker 6 (32:31):
He's he's a guy that is a positive player on
both ends of the floor. He's a facilitator, he's a
blend player. And I don't you don't You're not going
to run a play a lot of plays for Denzel,
but he's going to get you a lot of plays.
He's going to get possessions because because of how he

(32:51):
handles himself, he's going to maximize possessions. I think that
having a player like that on a talented team is
a great value. And I suppose in some ways he
won't play the same position and he won't play it
the same way. But I think you might look at
him as sort of the Anthony Epps of this group
in that always a positive player, even if he's not

(33:15):
averaging huge numbers offensively.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
It's interesting, I mean, teams a guy like that can
be so valuable. Anthony was not the future NBA star,
but he was such a key piece to those teams
in ninety six and ninety seven.

Speaker 6 (33:32):
Yeah, it's one of the really cool stories of that
ninety sixteen because everybody else is walking around with like
NBA socks on already. I don't know if they were
literally doing it then, but those guys there were nine
NBA future NBA players on the ninety six team, and
it was pretty obvious that Anthony wasn't won.

Speaker 5 (33:50):
And yet when.

Speaker 6 (33:52):
Rick put the five out on the floor, Anthony was
out there because he made everybody better.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Yeah, he's like the team baby in college and has
a great quarterback that's not going to play in the NFL,
and he's out there throwing the ball to and handing
the ball off to future NFL guys.

Speaker 6 (34:10):
No question, that's a great comparison. We've seen a lot
of those guys, and there was a period of time
when guys like that Gino Taretta, Jason White were winning
Heisman's because they were surrounded by superstars, but they were
the quarterback and their teams won every game, and so
they got the Heismans.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
Mike decorsisportingnews dot Com at TSN, Mike on X and Twitter, Mike,
thank you much.

Speaker 6 (34:34):
Thanks Tom.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
He joins us so on Wednesdays for now here on
the Leach Report. We'll probably shift back to Friday's. There's
regular spot sometime and probably November as we get into
the college basketball season. But always a great insight on
hoops and movies from Mike Corsi. Can take a quick break.
It's the Leach Report, presented by Bob Kat Enterprises, and

(34:56):
we'll be right back.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
It's the Leach Report.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
Do we come to you each day from the Clark's
Pump and Shop studio or wild Cat History Note is
the service of Kentucky road Shows, sports cards and memorabilia
and you can find them on Romney Road here in
Lexington and on the web at roadshowcards dot com. This day,
nineteen forty nine, KENTUCKY'SO scored the fourth most points in

(35:23):
school history, beating Mississippi Southern. I'm assuming maybe that's now
Southern miss seventy one to seven. Terry Beatles ran for
one hundred and six yards for Kentucky. Happy Birthday. Former
Kentucky lineman Justin Jeffries and UK and NFL legend George
Blanda was born on this day. Tay Kenny predicted to

(35:45):
go to Kansas. Now by the who covers recruiting, it's
Joe Tipton for rivals, Kenny's former Newport High School star.
Now I think at overtime Elite Kentucky's involved in his recruitment.
Louisville had been considered the favorite for a long time.
Sounds like the predictions are leaning toward the Jayhawks way
at the moment. Well summer is winding down. Doesn't quite

(36:09):
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gummies at Cornbreadhemp dot com. That will do it for

(36:55):
today's edition of The Leacher Report. Tomorrow we'll chat with
the Goose. They're doing some going to be doing some
cool things with the fiftieth anniversary season of Kentucky men's
basketball and Rupp Arena, so I'm sure we'll talk a
little bit about that and more with the Goose tomorrow
and appreciate you guys joining us today. Have a great day, everybody.

(37:16):
It's the Leach Report, presented by Bobcat Enterprises.