2025-10-07 - LEACH REPORT

Tom talks with Larry Vaught, Ben Roberts, and more.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good day. Everybody, welcome in.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
It is the Leech Report and we are presented by
Bobcat Enterprises each day. Media day yesterday for the Kentucky
men's basketball team and women's coach Kenny Brooks talked as well,
just didn't have the We didn't have the opportunity to
talk to his players yet. I'm sure that will be
coming soon, but we'll have lots to talk about on

(00:25):
those fronts.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Today.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Larry Vaught will join us and also Ben Roberts from
the Lexidon Herald Leader and we will get into a
lot of the Kentucky basketball discussion from yesterday, a little
football as well. With Larry, we'll hear from Denzel Aberdeen.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
One of the player.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Interviews that I got in on yesterday at media day
Wildcat News of the Day always presented by Joseppies of Lexington.
Mark Pope talked for about forty minutes yesterday, a long
Q and a session, and at one point he was
asked about feeling pressure with higher expectations for this season

(01:04):
and top ten rankings and all of that.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Here's what he said.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
You know, if we had three players on this roster
the expectation, would we still go win a national championship
that never changes here. It's what sets one of the
things that sets Kentucky apart from everywherel So, I don't
know what the difference is in the in the in
the in the pressure of the expectations.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
It's the same.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
And that's why this place is so great, right, That's why,
like we all get to be together in this room together,
even everybody's squished in the bat right, it's just it's
just it's Kentucky.

Speaker 5 (01:35):
It's it's it's what it is. And that you're right
about that. That's why you come here, you know, And
it is not you know, it's not the right fit
for everybody, because you have to love this the way
that we love it to want to be here.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
And that's a pretty cool thing.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Mark Pope yesterday with the media and Historic Memorial Coliseum
Saturday night, of course he is Big Blue Madness and
that will be at Rupp Arena.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Obviously, that has been.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Sold out from about the first half hour after they
started giving out the tickets, and it's going to be
preceded by BBN United fan Fest coming up on Saturday.
That's presented by Kroger and it will go on from
noon until four thirty in one of the exhibit halls
at Central Bank Center, and that will be an opportunity

(02:29):
for fans to get some autographs and get pictures, and
there will be games and booths and it is free
to attend. Tickets will not be necessary for this event.
You can just show up.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
You do. Madness is a ticketed event, even though there
was no.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Charge for it, So this will be an opportunity for
fans to interact and talk about all of this for
the upcoming basketball season. So that will be Saturday at
noon of Big Blue Madness, So put that one on
your calendar. A couple of other notes from media day,
Andrea yellowch cleared to play by the NCAA, and Mark

(03:09):
Pope said Jaden Quaintance's recovery continues to go very well
from knee surgery and still no specific timeline on when
we'll see him on the court in his Kentucky uniform,
but good reports on how the rehab is going. Kenny
Brooks in his media session yesterday, talked about having more
depth on this team and so that leads to working

(03:33):
on building their chemistry right now. He said he took
a look at the teams that advanced in the NCAA
tournament and a common theme that he noticed was the
depth that they had, and so he said that's why
they went into the transfer portal with that in mind,
and he said they quote got the right pieces. Last
night with the open date, diffensive coordinator Brad White was

(03:55):
with us on the radio show for Coach Stoops. We
talked about some of the issues they had at Georgia,
and he said they watched the tape of the game
or a big chunk of it as a defense, something
they don't normally do. They do it by position groups,
but they felt it was important to do that as

(04:16):
a defense. He said, the only way you gain trust
is by talking about it, so they're obviously.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Working at that.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
And he also talked about he wanted his guys to
play with more confidence. He said some of their best
defenses here played without thinking about anything going wrong. They
just cut loose, played hard, and that's where they need
to get to. He talked about, you know, they were
really good on first down, He's right against Georgia, but

(04:46):
they continually allowed Georgia to get out of second and
long into third and short, and that's why the third
down numbers were as poor as they were for Kentucky
at Georgia twenty four to seven Sports predicting Duran Stokes,
number one ranked player in the class of twenty twenty six,
is going to pick Kentucky and Rivals writer Joe Tipton said,
the buzz is that the decision might come this week,

(05:08):
so we'll see how that all plays out. Darren Rippy,
Kentucky's point guard target in the next recruiting class, is
on a visit to UK right now. Links to the
stories that we talk about you can find those on
the bud Light Leech reboard page at Tom leachky dot com.
Our opening segment of Wildcat News is presented by Giuseppes
of Lexington each day. We had Giuseppes one day last

(05:31):
week at the Lasagna. It is fantastic that and there's
a chicken dish with ricotta and maren airsauce. Those are
probably my two favorites on the menu. You'll have your favorites.
You can see the whole menu at Guseppes Lexington and
you'll get a great meal. The pasta's homemade and handcut
steaks for seafood ship and you get it all with

(05:52):
a really special environment at Giuseppees. So get to open
table and make your reservation today. We'll be right back.
The late Triport comes to you from the Clarks Pump
and Shine Studio each and every day, return refresher and
refuel at Clark's and make sure you get signed up
for their loyalty rewards program too. Larry Vaught joining us.

(06:12):
Now talk a little UK sports. We'll start with the
basketball side. Since it was media day yesterday, Larry and
you got a chance to listen to Mark Pope talk
for quite a while answer a lot of questions. What
were your takeaways from that session.

Speaker 6 (06:27):
I just wish he could be a little more positive, Tom.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah, it's kind of you know, you you know, he's
just such a negative guy and pulls everybody down right.

Speaker 6 (06:40):
Yeah. I mean, it's just hard not to enjoy everything
that he says. I mean, he just is so positive.
He talks about everything he talks about. He's got a
positive state to it. I think one thing that that
he said didn't surprise me this still. I think it's

(07:01):
good that he brings it out is how much he
stresses the importance of having those four returning players. I
think it's easy to get caught up and who he's
brought in, and is his transfers and who the freshman
are stressing with two of them being in state guys
that are you kind of I don't want to say,
forget about kind of lose track of the guys that
he's got coming back, which is a huge difference because

(07:22):
last year he had zero coming back. This year he's
got four. And I mean, maybe they're not the best
players on the team, but I think when you listen
to him Tallkishyer, they're going to be four of the
most important players on his team for various reasons this year.
So I think that was impressive to hearing talk about that. Also,

(07:44):
really really enjoyed the enthusiasm he had just talking about
the fan fest coming up on Saturday. I mean, my gosh,
after you hear him talk about that, they may have
seventy thousand people there for fan Fest if they listen
to to what Mark had to say about it. But again,
he embraces a challenge of people expecting or wanting a

(08:06):
national championship, and he just adds to the expectation level.
So I don't think anything really really surprised me other
than just as easy as hell, he thinks his team's
going to be really good.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
I was glad to hear about the plans for the
fan fest. For years I thought Kentucky could do something
like that. Actually, I think it could be a great
summer event, like an off season thing to just excite people.
The Reds do that in the off season, and I'm
sure other teams do too, where they call it Reds
fan Fest and they have former players doing autograph sessions,

(08:39):
and they have Q and a's about great teams, and
there's a lot of stuff you can do with it.
This is a first step, but there's a lot of
things you could do with something like that to make
it a lot of fun for fans.

Speaker 6 (08:51):
Yeah, I think so too, maybe even combined it at
the same time as the tvt's going on with that continues,
or right before it or right after it, or something
like that. You've got a lot of former players already
in town anyway doing wanting to do some stuff. But yeah,
I think it'd be a great activity in the summer.
So I'm really anxious to see what the turnout will be.

(09:12):
But when he stressed, and the way he stressed open
to the public and free, that's words a lot of
fans like to hear.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, and there's words that people putting things on like
to hear, like selling boothspace to people and sponsorships and
all of that could go with growing that thing too.

Speaker 6 (09:28):
Yeah, it sure could. I don't have any doubts they
will be able to grow that. So I think those
are just some of my early takeaways from listening to him.
And now the good thing about it, you don't have
to wait long do you get to see him play producer.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Wow, two weeks from Variety. You were talking about returning players.
You've got to post about that at your sports edge
dot com. He cited a few numbers yesterday. He loves numbers, obviously,
and he said, Trent Noah is averaging in their live
scrimmage is one point six well, excuse me, one point
seven to six points per possession? He said, I've never

(10:04):
seen that number ever in the history of college basketball.
Colin Chandler leading the team in the defensive Impact metric
whatever goes into that. He talked about Brandon Garrison winning
the conditioning runs at the end of practice, so he
had a lot of good things to say about those
returning guys.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
And those are some specifics that you wrote about.

Speaker 6 (10:24):
Yeah, when its set those points for possessions, that almost
seems unbelievable to think he could be doing that. So again,
I don't think anybody can do that during the season,
but just trend is showing out so well right now.
And again I'm like, I kind of wonder what defensive
metrics we were talking about. But the colin I think

(10:45):
is a guy that can make a huge jump for
Kentucky this year because we saw it kind of happening
toward the end of last year. And I don't think
I would have ever imagined Brandon Garrison winning the wind Sprints.
I don't know, I just didn't would never have thought
about that, But I guess it just show was the
athleticism that guy has. But during the summer, when I
talked to Mark and I also talked to Micham McLean

(11:07):
for sort I was doing for Blue Ribbon Yearbook Basketball
about Kentucky, Brandon was a guy they vote were raving
about back in I guess that was June or early
July when I talked to them, So obviously here we
are three months later and nothing has changed. So I
would say that Brandon's had a really good summer.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Go back and watch that Duke game. There was a
play where he it was like a turnover or something,
and he got fed for a layup. I think of
a memory serves by out running everybody down the floor
to get the layup. So he covered those those legs
cover a lot of ground.

Speaker 6 (11:44):
Yeah, and that's something that he could continue to do.
Get out and run the court like that. He can.
He can wear a lot of big men, all opposing
teams out that way who don't like to run the court,
especially knowing that I think Kuchy's going to have some depth,
but he will. It wouldn't be a ceremony. He's going
to play thirty eight minutes a game, so it's come
in and go as hard as you can for as

(12:05):
long as you can and wear somebody out.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
From doing player Q and as catch any interesting nuggets.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
Out of that.

Speaker 6 (12:17):
Now. I think had so much opportunity to talk to
so many guys during the summer that there really was
anything that jumped out at me other than maybe when
Hawthorne was talking about you guys taking an elbow or
forearm from mole and hadn't ended up going with good stitches.
I think that just kind of emphasizes the discounty that

(12:37):
the body is going to bring to the team this year,
and how much did they need that that even practices
with a teammate just going for a ball, that bo
he just knocks you around, and that's why we're going
to see I think Mark called it the bully, the
way he kind of bullies and people on the court,
and that's something they just didn't have last year. And

(12:58):
that's not a lot of teams say there's hard to
find those players anymore. So I think that is the
one thing that's still has kind of jumps out of
the everytime I hear them talk about just how physical
that he is.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
He said yesterday in his media session Mark Pope that
he didn't know if they had as many NBA guys
on this team yet that his teams did back in
say that ninety six championship season. But he did talk
about the comparison from a standpoint of the competition level
in practice and so many guys that can play at

(13:33):
this level that is needed to succeed here. And I
would imagine that probably won't be the last time we'll
hear that comparison, especially with the anniversary for the ninety
six team this year, but I know came ref you
and I have talked about it here on the show
during the summer, but just you know how the you know,
the minutes broke down. Nobody played thirty minutes on that
ninety six team, and I would assume it'll probably be

(13:54):
like that for this team.

Speaker 6 (13:57):
I would think if if there's one guy who might
have might be jail and Lovel just because of what
he's going to do for this team at the point
guard spot. But I think balance is going to be
the key right there for them. You heard them talk
about it. The players talk about it all summer about
how deep they could be, and of course they'll take
a couple of weeks. He'll drop the P word for

(14:17):
platoon out there, which I don't think we'd ever see happen.
But just still that they're talking about the depth on
this team and an almost everybody's going to have to
fight for minutes. I think that's a great incentive to
keep you playing really hard every day. Now that I
think this team would have that problem anyway, but it's
a great incentive to have. And as you're saying, when

(14:39):
you're trying to figure the minutes, out and you're thinking, well,
I don't know, and then you hear Mark History talk
about guys like Chandler Hanah, who I don't think anybody
with pensil in as starters and get to hear him
saying things like that, but they're sure going to play.
I keep hearing how well Jasper Johnson has suddenly started
showing out in the last two to three weeks as
he's got more comfortable with everything. So what's he going

(15:03):
to be?

Speaker 3 (15:03):
Like?

Speaker 6 (15:04):
You have Jelovic here now, I'm said, I'm sure I
really know what to think or expect from him. I
think maybe just watch a little bit of Pro Day
tonight and then watching the Madness. We'll get to see
now according an action. But then like saying, in two
weeks or we'll find out plenty about him and may
savent to reguys everything I'm thinking about him, because I

(15:26):
know Mark and his staff are really rating about him.
But till I get the scene, it's kind of hard
for me to know.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
Boor Larry Vaught.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
When we continue, it is the Leach Report presented by
Bob kat Enterprises.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
We'll be right back Rebecca Larry Vaughan.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
He mentioned the Pro Day which is today for UK
men's basketball, and the coverage will be on SEC Network Plus.
It'll start at five thirty Eastern Time with Dick Gabriel
and the goost Jack Gibbons, and all thirty NBA teams
are expected to have a presence at UK's pro day.
According to UK Athletics dot Com, Larry Vott with US

(16:05):
wanted to do a quick thought on football. Larry, I
heard you mentioned something on the Sunday Morning Show this
past weekend that you liked seeing Cutter Bully be a
little angry when they couldn't get the ball snapped after
the McGowan fumble or there during that sequence where they
had a miss alignment on a play during their two
minute drill. I said the same thing on the air.

(16:27):
It's what you want to see in your quarterback.

Speaker 6 (16:30):
Yeah. I think with the frustration when things aren't going well,
you want to see somebody kind of step up and
look like they can take charge of things and below
the guys, that's not acceptable. And maybe that was a
start to Cutter being able to do that. Because they've
got to find somebody that can kind of help right
the ship in some ways, and you need Cutter to

(16:52):
be that guy I think to lead that offense, and
I'm not sure he's a cat and normally he's going
to yell at teammates. That's a little bit out of
his comfort zone, I think, But in that situation, I
think warranted it and he did it. And hopefully they
can use this bye week to kind of find some
ways to put things back together and art of good

(17:12):
things going in a better direction than what they have.
But that offense has just got to be a little
more productive than what it has. I know. It's frustrating
because at times they have taken the ball and golf
down the field and looked really good, but they go
way too many stretches where they don't look really good.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
They may have found themselves a receiver there in the
fourth quarter in Cam Miller.

Speaker 6 (17:34):
Well, he certainly. I mean, it's hard to think you
could just come in in one quarter and look better
than any receiver you've had all season, But that's what
he did. He got what he had three catches for
forty two forty one yards something like that, and that's
a far better average and any receiver than they've got
on the team playing the wide receiver spot it's had.

(17:54):
I mean, really, it's been Cattus and Rodriguez have been
able to make plays down the field fall So good
to see.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Larry Vott your sports Edge dot com gotta run, thank you.
We'll be right back with Ben Roberts. It's the lead
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And so if you're a first time customer, go to
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us from the Lexington Herald Leader Kentucky sports dot com,
where he covers the Kentucky men's basketball team.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
Did you watch Monday Night Football?

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Ben?

Speaker 6 (19:10):
I watched snippets of it.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yes, yeah, you see the winning touchdown?

Speaker 3 (19:15):
I did not.

Speaker 7 (19:16):
I had to read about that one.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Everybody needs to go watch. This is incredible.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Wouldn't wouldn't have they wouldn't have won the game, or
wouldn't have won on that play anyway in college because
Lawrence comes away from center and he falls down, and
when he so he's been down there in college, but
he tries to get up and he kind of falls
down again, and then he gets up, runs through a
tackle with twenty five seconds left, he scores the game

(19:40):
winning touchdown to beat the Chiefs. And they only had
about a minute and a half when Kansas City scored
to go ahead. So big win for former Kentucky O
C Liam Cohen and his Jags. Their only loss, amazingly
so far in the season is to the Bengals in
the game where I think it was the game where
Joe Burrow went out and Browning through several interceptions but also.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
Was able to lead him to a win.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Which hasn't happened since, but part of a crazy year
in the NFL anyway, goes every ready listing and go
check out that particular play. It was a crazy into
a bit of a crazy NFL week, field goals, hitting
wires and all kinds of crazy stuff going on. Pretty calm,
normal media day for Kentucky men's basketball. No crazy stuff there,

(20:30):
but interesting stuff. What were some of the things that
caught your ear?

Speaker 7 (20:35):
Yeah, I thought, you know, I feel like it's not
media day unless there's a little gentle like going in
the season. So I spent a good chunk of time
with Jaden Quaintance yesterday and then no drama as far
as eligibility around andre Yellovich, but obviously with late start
to practice and just getting acclimated here in the United States,

(20:57):
you know, he obviously starts a little bit behind, and
it'll be interesting to see, you know, how ready he
is for the season opener on November fourth, and then
kind of how he progresses. Talked to him for quite
a bit yesterday, and he talked about knowing Zvonimir a
Visitch quite well, who obviously had his own troubles when

(21:18):
he got to to Lexison a couple of years ago,
a little different situations. Obviously, Andrea knows he's going to
be playing right away. He gave him some warnings on
what foods not to eat when he first got over here,
and he's been following those and has had no stomach issues.
He said, Uh, And obviously he had. You know, he
had two years of a pretty high level pro experience

(21:41):
over there. So I think it's a matter just from
talking to his teammates, talking to Pope, I think it's
a matter of him just you know, having the time
to to get adjusted to this this new style of
basketball and and and he might be able to come
around a little bit quicker and and be a little
bit more of a consistent perform for Kentucky this season.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
I've heard good things really from shortly after he arrived,
but I imagine there's quite a steep learning curve when
you come in later than everybody else.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (22:13):
I remember talking to Jalen Lowe probably about three weeks
after he'd gotten here, and Jalen said, like, he's such
a quick learner. He knows what he's supposed to be doing.
You know, asked a lot of questions, but rarely has
to to ask twice or be explained something twice. But
there's especially at this level, at this speed and athleticism

(22:36):
and physicality, there's a big difference between knowing what to
do and then actually being able to go do it
when you're supposed to do it, And it sounds like
that's kind of been the biggest issue for him so far.
He acknowledged that his first full week of practice was
not good, that there was a lot of catch up,
that he you know, just felt a little out of

(22:58):
sorts and very behind. But he said Thursday, Friday, Saturday
of last week, which would have been weak two, he
felt like he did a lot of really good things
and spoke to his own versatility as far as scoring
the ball, passing, getting down there and getting some rebounds.
So I think he felt like he's he's really on
an upward trajectory. And he talked about the season beginning

(23:21):
with the Purdue game on on October twenty fourth, so
that's kind of his target for being up to one
hundred percent full speed, and he says he's going to
be there. Talking to taking away last week and you know,
spoke about the depth of this roster, but he specifically
spoke about all the different looks they could have at

(23:41):
different positions, and the four was the spot he brought
up as his best example. With Diabate and Yellovich being
such different players and being able to throw such different
looks at the opponents.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
There, that is really going to be interesting to watch,
not just in the Purdue game, but it'll stretch over,
you know, several games still.

Speaker 3 (24:01):
Maybe you would think.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
Coach Pope settles into what the rotation will look like
from game to game, but just how he is going
to uh, well, he talks a lot about chess, deploy
the chess pieces on the board.

Speaker 7 (24:17):
Yes, and he's got a lot of them. He can
only play five at once. And you know, obviously there's
a lot of depth on last season's team, and they
needed it because they had a lot of key injuries.
Clearly at the end of the season, this team has
even more depth. I think both both of Pope's teams
have been very high floor, but I think this team
has a lot higher ceiling. And yeah, it's you know,

(24:41):
especially with Jayden nowt at the beginning of the season
in a quaintance, who I expect to miss miss quite
a few games at the onset It'll be really interesting
to me to see how he kind of plays around
with that four and five spot. You know, I imagine
Brandon Garrison will get the chance to be the starting five,
but I think you could see some some small ball
five with Mo Diabate at different points of the early

(25:05):
part of the season. You know, it'll be a matter
of seeing how quickly Malachai Moreno can get up to speed,
what kind of impact Reese Potter can have at this level.
So he's got a lot of really intriguing pieces around there.
It's just a matter of what, you know, what kind
of lineups he wants to use in different situations, and
he's got a lot at his disposal, depending on how

(25:27):
he wants to do it.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
When he was asked yesterday to kind of give a
just a thumbnail sketch of these new players that have
come in, and he did not want to be constrained
by verbiage when it came to Mo Diabate. Clearly likes
a lot about Diabate's game. I know Jay Billison this

(25:52):
summer and he said that was the guy that most
intrigued him among the transfers in terms of potentially making
the biggest impact just because of the versa utility of
skills that he can bring. And you know, Diabate talked about,
you know, looking forward to being able to show what
he can do, you know, handling the ball, and he said,
Pope challenge him to become a better passer. So he's
worked on that. And you know, if he's playing five

(26:14):
or even the four in this system, you get to
show off a lot of those skills.

Speaker 7 (26:18):
Yeah, I mean, I think he perfect. I think he's
kind of the personification of that you know, high floor
but also very high ceiling of this UK team. I
think everybody who watched him play last season, the UK
fan should be pretty well familiar with him. I know
what he brings as far as the physicality aspect, athleticism,
you know, just a toughness if you want to use

(26:39):
that word, of getting in there and mixing it up.
But you talk to his teammates at Alabama, you talk
to these analytics folks who who have seen more of him,
who dig a little deeper into the numbers, and he's
very skilled. Obviously shot a super low sample size, but
of very high three point percentage last season. He wants

(27:01):
to take more threes. You mentioned his passing there. He
was talking that up yesterday. He's really been working on
his ball handling and creating off the dribble, which he
could already do at Alabama. There's a lot of facets
to his game. It sounds like that just, you know,
because that Alabama team was so loaded his two years
there that he just did not have an opportunity to

(27:22):
show off. And I think had he stayed there, he
would have been showing those things off for Nate Oates
this coming season. And now he's at Kentucky, He's gonna
do it. And you know, this is a guy who
I think, on the low end, is a key starter
for one of the top teams in the league. On
the high end, he's an all SEC performer who could

(27:42):
be a real difference maker in games.

Speaker 6 (27:45):
In March, we.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
Talked with Ben Roberts from the Lexington Herald Leader Kentucky
Sports dot Com here on the Leach Report presented by
Bobcat Enterprises. We have four locations around Kentucky, So google
Bobcat when you need to buy a rent a piece
of heavy equipment or know somebody who does.

Speaker 3 (28:01):
And talking about.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Excavators and forklifts and those kinds of things zero turn
moors for your home lawn too. You can get it
all the Bobcat Enterprises. Fantastic service after the sale as
well more with Ben Roberts. When we come right back
from the Clarks Pumping Shop studio, return, refresh and refuel
at Clark's. This is the Leach Report, Ben Roberts with us.

(28:23):
It's at Ben Roberts HL on X. He covers Kentucky
men's basketball for The Herald Leader Kentucky sports dot com.
And yesterday was media day, so we got to hear
a lot from the Wildcat players and from coach Mark Pope.
What interested you most about what you heard from Coach Pope?

Speaker 7 (28:46):
You know, I asked him where you know an area
where they might be a little further behind right now
compared to last season, And I was interested that he
did not really have an answer for that, which maybe
the UK fans should be very optimistic because you know,

(29:07):
usually I feel like head coaches always have three or
four or five or more, you know, areas that that
they are concentrating on they need their team to get
better at. You know, maybe he didn't want to put
that out there for for some reason for this team,
but you know he spoke to what he came up
with was basically just that this team isn't as experienced

(29:29):
as the last season's team, which we already knew, but
you know, I I just talking. You know, he talked
up the competitiveness, and that's something that you hear when
you when you talk to people that have been at
a lot of these practices, that have been around this team,
and it's something that you you since when you talk
to these guys behind the scenes, that that these guys

(29:51):
are just you know, and that's what happens when you
have a deep team. And otego Away was telling me
this last week that you know, it's every it seems
like every every practice is an absolute battle, and they have,
you know, competitive guys across the board. Obviously that's nothing
new for Kentucky basketball, but this is a team that
is going to go more than ten deep, I think

(30:13):
in big games this season. You know, as long as
everybody stays healthy, and once everybody gets healthy, it's just
as we talked about, a team with a whole lot
of pieces that Mark Pope can deploy around that court
in whatever way he wants. And you know, it sounds
like things are firing on all cylinders to start with.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
He referenced the ninety six team that he played on
and all the depth that that team had, and you
know what the practices were like. And I'm sure the
players will hear some of those stories from their coach
throughout the season. I asked to Trenton Know about that
yesterday and he mentioned one that Popa told them about
a practice after a bad game where they had to
come back in practice and he took an elbow to

(30:57):
the face that I think maybe loocid to tooth or
something I can't remember, maybe knocked one out. I can't
remember the whole story. I have to go back and
listen to it from Trid. But that's probably going to
be a little bit of a theme because it's the
thirtieth anniversary of the ninety sixteen and we're going to
see most likely it sounds like the denim uniforms at
some point, but also from the standpoint of this similarities

(31:22):
in terms at least of the depth.

Speaker 7 (31:23):
Right, Yeah, I think so. And you know, one interesting
thing to me toward the end of last season, I
was doing a story on Brandon Garrison. Then some guys
told me that he really ruffled some feathers because he
was so physical in practice. He was setting hard screens,
he was doing he was going a little too far
in practice by everyone around him, at least that's what

(31:47):
they thought. And I talked to Beg about it, and
he was like, this is how I practiced. You know,
I'm going I'm going all out like you see me
go all out in games. From a physicality standpoint, and
just from talking to people, I feel like there's about
or five Brandon Garrisons on this team. Uh so you
might have some loose teeth over the course of the season.
And when you have that many guys playing at that

(32:09):
kind of physicality level, you know that stuff spreads. You know,
if it's one guy, I feel like you get a
lot of like sideways glances like why is this guy
doing this? We don't want to be doing this on
a random Wednesday in the middle of in the middle
of October. When it's when it's five guys, that that
really spreads and that gets contagious and and that kind

(32:32):
of helps create a team identity. And that's something that
you know, for all the positives of last season's Kentucky team,
I think a lot of people Mark Pope included, uh,
you know, thought that that that was maybe a missing
ingredient at least across the board for that group that
it sounds like won't be for this one.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
I don't know if you saw the movie Slapshot from
the seventies, but oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
The Hanson brothers in old time hockey.

Speaker 7 (32:57):
I don't know if they I don't know if mart
Is gonna be run it out out of the court
in more than a couple of games this season if
they go hands and brothers, But yeah, they might. There's
gonna be some physicality there for sure.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
You can read a lot about the Cats through the
upcoming season from Ben It's at the Lexia hair Leader
and Kentucky sports dot Com.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
Thank you for joining us. Thanks a lot, Tom As
Ben Roberts.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
We will take a quick break, come back with our
final segment on this Tuesday edition of the Leech Report.
It's presented each day by Bobcat Enterprises Corn Brand Hamps
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(34:28):
Cornbreadhemp dot com. This is the good life. Yesterday it
was media day for Kentucky men's basketball and we'll bring
some of the content from player interviews, like this one
with Denzel Aberdeen in the Florida transfer.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
You play on championship team at Florida. What is a
championship qualities you see in this.

Speaker 8 (34:46):
Group, just the leadership. We all have the jail that
we have a lot of guys here. We jell together
very well and just buying in and practices and stuff
like that, going hard in practice.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
I think we have what it takes.

Speaker 8 (34:58):
Some number nine are market.

Speaker 3 (34:59):
What do you think? Thank you?

Speaker 2 (35:00):
Where do you think you've improved the bolts for last year?

Speaker 8 (35:03):
Definitely my consistency and three point shots. Last year I
was a little up and down. I was a little
up and down in my three point shots, but just
getting coming in gym, working out each and every day
to get my three point shots up and then my
finishing at the two and the two point field goal percentage,
finishing well at the basket.

Speaker 6 (35:21):
I think.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
So what went into is the improvement in your three
point shooting? How did you go back doing that?

Speaker 8 (35:25):
Just locking in each and every day, trying to hold
my follow through on each and every shot, of focusing on.

Speaker 3 (35:30):
Some targets at the room. What I got to look
at the.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
Rim certain number of shots.

Speaker 8 (35:34):
Yes, sir, we have a what it's called a Noah
don't know from the seed back here, but it's like
a little thing that we use to calculate our shots
where we miss it where we make it at to
make sure that we shoot straight all the time. So
it really helps each and every time I worked out
in here, and it's just getting me better each every day.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
I'll bet all the analytics, so hoping you all see
where you are.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
Yes, sir An Lynks is very helpful.

Speaker 8 (35:58):
I mean that's what the NBA look it's like looks
at and that's where obviously I want to be at.
So just having stuff like this and the coaches be
very analytical is very helpful for me because that's obviously
where I want to get better at and improved, because
I want to be a guy that is very consistent
each every game I playing, and so I just watching
film by seeing where to take shots, where not to
take shots, but to take like stuff.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
Like that as WMS, like we remember about that game
in rough last year, just because that was about as
higher level from playing.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
I remember.

Speaker 8 (36:29):
It's a lot of points and barely any defense, but
it's a very up tempo game. Rubles loud, I mean
very loud. I could even hear some of the play
calls in there. But a lot of great athletes just
playing against yourself's going hard, and uh, it's great atmosphere
in general.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
Did you ever think that day what would it be
like to play in this episode?

Speaker 8 (36:49):
Not at that time, though, but I mean just seeing
like all the blue in the crowd and stuff like that.
Just cheering can tell your stuff like that, You're like, man,
this place is crazy.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
Denzel Aberdeen.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
There that game with Florida tipped at eleven am on
a Saturday. But there's one against North Carolina this season.
It's going to be tipping past nine o'clock in Rupperina.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
So you may need a little.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Coffee before you head to rupt and make it. Shuffle
Bean Coffee. It's a Kentucky based company. A group of
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(37:33):
through the company's website at Shufflebean dot us. Put some
hustle and your shuffle Shuffleban Coffee. Cassie O'Brien, Kentucky volleyball
named SEC Freshman of the Week, had thirty four assists
in her first SEC roads start in a sweep at
Old Miss last weekend. They are at number nine Texas
A and M tomorrow night as this road swing continues.

(37:54):
Happy Birthday, Alex Groza, UK legend was born on this day.
It's our UK history note out of Boy Kentucky road
Show sports cards and memorabilia. They are on Romney Road
here in Lexington and at roadshowcards dot Com. Texas or
Tarleton State has reinstated coach Billy Gillespie after a quick
review of an issue there and apparently nothing to it.

(38:17):
So Coach Gillespie has been reinstated at Tarleton State.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
We'll see you tomorrow. I'm the lead report