2025-10-27 - LEACH REPORT

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This podcast of the Leech Report is presented by Boone's
Butcher Shop in Barnstown at one hundred old Bloomfield Pike,
family owned and operated since nineteen forty six, with fresh
meat cut on site daily. Boons Butcher Shop. Good day,
Everybody welcome in. It is the Leech Report presented by
Bob Kat Enterprises and Mondays. Means that we check in

(00:24):
with Van Hiles for the Shuffle being Coffee Monday morning
quarterback report and not a lot good to say, certainly
on the defensive side for Kentucky and that lost to
number seventeen Tennessee, but the play of cutter Bowley just
continues to improve week to week. So we will get
it into both of those topics with Van and then

(00:46):
Brandon Ramsey from on three Sports Casar will join us
in the second half for a take on Kentucky basketball,
which opened the season with an impressive win in an
exhibition game over Number one Perdue. We'll get Brandon's take
on that performance and looking ahead as the Cats have
another exhibition game this week. So let's get right into

(01:09):
the Wildcat news of the day, and that's the service
of Giuseppes of Lexington on Friday night, Kentucky crushed Purdue
seventy eight sixty five, had him down by seventeen at
a couple of different occasions, overwhelming defensive suffocated defensive performance
by the Wildcats, and really balanced offensive attack. Jasper Johnson

(01:30):
ended up being the leading scorer with fifteen. Mark Pope's
crew will be back at action Thursday night and the
second and final exhibition against the Georgetown Hoyas, and then'll
also be at Rop Arena Football the next night. It
was the other end of the spectrum for the bbn
as Number seventeen. Tennessee just pounded Kentucky with bombs all night.

(01:54):
They had an average per pass attempt of fifteen yards
per attempt and beat the Cats fifty six to thirty
four very first series. They hit a thirty five yard
post pattern to get the score and just a relentless
onslaught of long completions for Joey Aguilar, the Tennessee quarterback,

(02:16):
who finished up twenty of twenty six for three hundred
and ninety six passing yards. Balls had five hundred and
four total yards, most against the Kentucky team since October
seventh of twenty twenty three. Now on the other side
cutter Bowley continues to grow as a quarterback in his
second season and his first as the full time starter,

(02:37):
third game in a row with a high completion percentage.
He was twenty six of thirty five, a freshman record,
five touchdown passes and against just one interception. And young receiver, well,
I say some young, some older, but new receivers are emerging.
DJ Miller and JJ Hester each had two touchdown catches.

(03:00):
JJ was his first catch of the season, first catches
of the season. Miller had gotten a couple of the
week before, but two tds for each of them. Cam
Miller had a catch and nice yards after the catch,
So you receivers are starting to emerge offensively, So there's

(03:21):
a good trend line at least working on the offensive side.
Of course, Seth McGowan was not able to go warmed
up but could not play, so Jason Patterson filled incapably.
Dow dell aink let him with fifty two yards, but
Patterson had fifty one in his first extended action of
the season, and Kentucky will try to build on that,
and they're not going to face a group of receivers

(03:44):
anything like they saw from Tennessee in terms of the
group of them, but Auburn has some talent at that
position too. They have been struggling at quarterback and actually
changed quarterbacks on Saturday and that sparked a come from
behind win at Arkansas. They were down twenty one to
ten at the half and came back to win. So

(04:06):
that'll be the storyline in Auburn this week is who's
going to start at quarterback for the Tigers ahead of
the matchup with the Cats on Saturday night. Down on
the Planes. That'll be a seven thirty Eastern time kick.
And Kentucky volleyball continues to roll, beating Alabama yesterday three nothing,
sixteen and two on the season for the Wildcats, thirteen
wins in a row. Cassie O'Brien is a machine in

(04:30):
terms of assists, a record setting fifty of them in
this match and then coming up this week, the Wildcats
have a home match against Vandy on Friday night and
then they go to Texas on Sunday, and the Longhorns
are the only other undefeated team in league play. Thanks
to the stories we talk about each day, you can
find them on the Bud Light Leach Report page at

(04:51):
Town Leach k Whye dot com. Van Hiles join us
when we come right back. Opening segments presented by j
just Sepies of Lexington and their own Bullets barrel pick
is on the way to the restaurant. You can buy
a bottle take it home and Antieppes is currently creating their
new Russell Reserve barrel pick, so check those out at
Giuseppes Lexington dot com. You can order gift cards for

(05:13):
the upcoming holiday season as well and get to open
table and make a reservation for the holidays for a
really special night out with you and the special people
in your life. Gonna get to a quick break back
with Van in just a moment. It's the Leach Report
presented by Bob Kat Enterprises. It's the Leach Report from
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(05:34):
Make sure you signed up for their Loyalty rewards program.
Too rough night for the Kentucky defense of the Heels
of their best statistical performance of the season the week
before against Texas, they were torched by the long bombs
from Tennessee's quarterback. Here was Brad White, UK defensive coordinator
after the game.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
That's what football, especially in this league is like. You
will get humbled very very quickly. And you know so
if you don't perform at your highest levels each and
every week. Again, both coaches and players, this is what
is the result. And again you know, the credit to them.

(06:13):
We knew going in that they had explosive receivers. Again,
I've got to do a better job, you know, of
of limiting those exposures.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
So we welcome in Van Hiles for the Shuffle being
Coffee Monday Morning quarterback edition of the show. And as
a former defensive back for the Cats into the NFL,
that had to be especially painful for you to watch, right.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Oh, mis La, thank you for leading off the show
with my guys. I mean you give me a little grace. Yeah,
it's look it is. There's two positions besides the quarterback
that are expose the most on the field, the corners
and the left and the left and right tackle.

Speaker 4 (07:03):
It's simple.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Everybody in the world knows when they make a mistake.
And when us corners are on an island, which is
what we love to do, and you get stranded on
that island with no water and no food, it looks bad.
And and there's no there's no you can't hide, and

(07:25):
there's no one there.

Speaker 4 (07:26):
To help you.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
The way they spread you all horizontally, safeties can't help you.

Speaker 4 (07:31):
They're just too far away. And we got exposed.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
I talked about it the whole season, is talked about
the preseason. It was a position group I was worried
most about on defense, and they got exposed on Saturday night,
and unfortunately at the worst time, because honestly, the offense
put something together and the corners could not stop the bleeding.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
At times in a basketball game, you'll see a team
understand of a mismatch that they've got and they'll just
keep moving the ball around until they get that mismatch
and then boom they attack, and you know when Mark
Stoops tucks about, uh, it's a bad matchup. I think
you can expound on this, but you're talking about a

(08:20):
group of NFL caliber receivers and it's not at this
point anyway, NFL caliber corners defending them and Tennessee just
picked on them.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (08:30):
That and.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Normally you have one corner, and college football it's hard
to have two outstanding corners. And if you have one,
sometimes you can scheme to help one. You can't scheme
to help both, and both all corners got exposed on
Saturday night. So it's it's what can you do, because honestly,

(08:55):
there's nothing you can do as a defensive coordinator, because
it was the outside receivers. If you play a man
or you're playing zone. There are a lot of zone coverages.
The majority of those you have that outside guy almost
man a man most of the time. So it wasn't
a situation like man the zone where we could help.

(09:16):
It was a situation of we just could not. We
had a bad night defending the simple non route.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
And which is what's a problem.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
It's a goal, it's a it's a straight down the field.
The receiver says, I'm gonna race you to the goal line,
and we just couldn't stop it.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
And your board games growing up as a kid, it
might be called the fly pattern or the street Yes.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
Who boy, you showing your age, mister Leeks. The fly patterns, man,
I haven't heard that word in a long time.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
I used to play a game. I don't know if
you this is before your time. There was a game
was called it was called NFL Strategy, and one person
picked a play on a card, and then the other
person picked an offensive play, and you laid the defensive
card over the offensive card and gave you these probability
boxes of that particular matchup, and you put it into

(10:11):
this little slot that pinned the cards together, and you'd
pop a little button and it would give you one
of the probabilities. And you know, that's that's what it was.
And every time Tennessee flicked that button, it ended up
in the touchdown box.

Speaker 4 (10:25):
That's so awesome that you know what.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
That sounds better than the game I had. Whereas a vibration.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Or electric football. Yeah, Joey Aguilar didn't have to throw
that little felt football.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
You know.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
I had that one too. Yes, that's funny, Yeah, it's
and you know, well, why didn't everybody do that? Well,
everybody have those kinds of receivers and or play at
that pace, and uh, that's you know, Texas the week
before was not that way. Auburn and I don't think
plays that way there, but they do have at least

(11:06):
one really good receiver, right right.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
It Yeah, it's man, it's it's it's tough because what
makes it tougher is, honestly, the way the front four
has played, and a few of those past plays, if
we can hold our water for tenth of a second longer,
we were hitting the quarterback and and those really hurt

(11:31):
because you were there, and man, I I feel for
those guys, but that's that's your job, and you guys
have got to do a better job of doing your
job when the front is doing their job.

Speaker 4 (11:45):
And that's why it's the greatest team sport ever.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
It takes to one guy to make a mistake and
it's gonna be exposed in the offense.

Speaker 4 (11:51):
Gonna use the now I'll say pick on that.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
Like you said earlier, it's it's unfortunate that those guys
got exposed this week.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah, it's the air raid was trying to spread you
out and look for mismatches. And what they were looking
for though, was like in a shorter box of trying
to throw short and where they had where they had
they used to say throw to the grass, they tell
the quarterbacks, and that meant where when you scan the

(12:23):
field where there was the most grass, that's where you
had a one on one matchup and you throw it
to a fast guy and it makes one man miss,
it turns into a big play. Tennessee's doing it differently
with their system where they're like the Oakland Raiders of
the late sixties and early seventies and just throwing it
down the field time and time again.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
Yeah, and as a former quarterback, the least percentage throw
is the deep ball.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
There's a lot of variables that are involved with that.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
The most high percentage throw is the intermediate throw.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
And they just forget about the intermediate throw.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
They either throw short of they toy beat and and
I will say this kudos to their quarterback this game,
because I've watched.

Speaker 4 (13:04):
Them other games.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
He coulda hit on every beat ball against US. I've
seen them another games though picks. I've seen him underthrow.
I've seen my overthrow. But against US on Saturday, he
was on it all night and unfortunately, again it happened
to us. But I've seen the kid playing other games
and he's not that accurate on the deep ball, but

(13:28):
he was on tonight the same way Cutter was.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, we will come back and talk about Cutter van
Heiles with us. It's at V Style seventeen on x
you can see his cutups of the games and the
locker on Wednesday night and with it with another former
cat Anthony White as they go back and forth, and
it's on YouTube on Wednesday nights at nine Eastern time.
Just be a really festive occasion this week for that

(13:53):
particular show. I'm sure with the guys and we'll be
right back here on the Leach Report Radio Network. It's
the Late Report. It's presented by Bob Kat Enterprises with
chat with Van Hiles here on our shuffle being coffee.
Monday morning, Quarterback Day, Kentucky face the number one passing
offense in the SEC in Tennessee Balls tied for the

(14:16):
league in yards per attempt at nine point one. This week,
Auburn is ranked at the bottom and in both yards
per game passing and also yards per attempt passing and
in touchdown passes. Tennessee has twenty, Auburn has six. So
that will help, right Van.

Speaker 4 (14:33):
Hoiles, I hope so.

Speaker 3 (14:37):
But you know the whole tent, they look like all
stars sometimes against when you play them, so on paper, yes,
this this team is a totally different animal. And I
hope these guys find a way to come back and
win a game because I don't even want to talk.

Speaker 4 (14:57):
I've been through this before.

Speaker 3 (14:59):
I noticed in my it's a tough time when things
are going south, but it can you can. You can
come out of it and win three games in a
row like we did in ninety six.

Speaker 4 (15:08):
So it's it's there for you.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Let's talk a little bit about what a mindset is
for a player in this situation. We're gonna get to
cutter Bowl here, I promise. But you know, the the
week before they there was a lot of positivity coming
out of that in terms of playing so well against
a ranked opponent, and it was a frustrating missed opportunity,

(15:33):
but they had played well on both sides of the ball.
But now you are sitting here, still undefeat, are still
winless in the league, two and five overall. In reality,
there's probably one game off the best case scenario that
anybody was forecasting at the beginning of the season. But
they are beat up physically, and they and the challenge

(15:55):
is to not give into being beat up emotionally, right.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
Right, And look, you came to college to play the
sport you love. It's a blessing for you to be
on campus with your education paid for. And now these
guys are getting paid, so you're getting paid.

Speaker 4 (16:14):
Do your job. You go to work.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
Not everybody in this world life's going to work on Monday.
This is the roughest day. You do your job.

Speaker 4 (16:21):
This is what you are.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
You're paid to do, literally paid to do now, So
you got a man up, go to work, and every
week is a new week. Every week is a week
for you to get better and to get a W.
So galvanage yourself. Hope they have good leaders and you
do what you're supposed to do each week. Prepare like
it's a new week, it's a new opponent. That's a

(16:44):
great thing about football. You got six five days to
prepare for a new opponent. Prepare like you have prepared
better than you have ever prepared, and go out there
and get a W this week.

Speaker 4 (16:54):
That's all you can do as a player.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
That's the challenge now, because these guys are our quasi professionals,
because most, if not all, are getting paid to varying
degrees and at the next level where they aspire to be.
You're that's it's it's your job. You don't get to
feel sorry for yourself or you know whatever. You are

(17:19):
expected to show up and do your job weekend and
week out.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yeah, because you're you're always auditioning for the next game
the next year because it's a bad It's look coaches
are recruiting guys every year, going to portal every year
to replace you. If you start going downhill these nast
these last five games, that doesn't look well for you

(17:42):
for the next year. So you are competing every day
of your life on campus for someone not to come
and take your spot. He can be on campus right now,
or he can be somewhere else. It will be on
campus in the spring. So you have to compete every
day because if you don't compete, your job will not
be there in the future.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
Van Iiles with us. We'll do one more segment and
then we'll get into a little conversation about men's basketball
with Brandon Ramsey in the second half. It is the
Leech Ripport and we're presented by Bob Cat Enterprises. We'll
be right back. It's the Lake's Report from the Clark's
Pumping Shop studio. Return Refresh, refuel. Van Hiles with us.
The Shuffle being Coffee Monday morning, quarterback edition of our show.

(18:23):
And want to talk for a segment here Van about
what Cutter Bowley is doing as a quarterback, how he's
grown in the past month since he became the starter,
and so impressed with his poise or moxie or swagger,
whatever word you want to use. Drows a pick six
early on a tough break on a deflection. It just

(18:46):
pops right up in the air. It's an easy catch
for the defender right in stride. He comes back and
just keeps slinging touchdown passes and reminds me of what
the story Rich Brooks told me when Andre Woodson basically
submitted himself and Brooks his mind as the quarterback was
when they got blown out by Louisville at the start
of six. But they were you know, hitting Andre on

(19:09):
sacks and rushes and things, and uh, he just kept
getting back up and throwing touchdowns and at least making
some big plays. So so impressed with Cutter boldly tell
me what you're seeing.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
Yeah, that is the the game is slowing down for him,
like there are there are plays in this game that
he would not have made two or three games ago.
It also shows that he is seeing the game as
Bush wants him to see the game. Because once a
coach starts to trust you, he starts to open up things.

(19:41):
And I don't I didn't watch Cutter in high school,
but I have a strong feeling that they ran a
lot of empty sets in high school and that's where
he feels the most comfortable, and Bushes allowing him to
run some empty sets in offense. So there's they are
starting to see the game the same.

Speaker 4 (20:01):
Their relationship has to be growing.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
There's a lot of trust within both of them because
Cutter is trusting the process of whatever the route concept
is and letting the ball rip without thinking too much.
He's reacting instead of thinking, and it is a great
thing to see. And that's the scary part about it
is that we are getting better offensively, and that's the

(20:24):
thing that's been an issue all season. Not scoring two
touchdowns In the SEC game, they score five. Now, the
crazy part about it is they have three games right
now that they need to win for this senior class.
If they can win these three games, then let's see
what happens after that, because these are we all knew,

(20:44):
as you said earlier, that these three games in October
were the most difficult, and they turned out to be
the most difficult, but we had chances. Now let's see
if we can pounce on the teams that we had
legitimate shots to be preseason and then let's see what happen.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, first time since the Eastern Michigan game that they
will play a team that's not ranked when they play them,
and that'll be the next three weeks. The cutter is
with the empty sets, I'm assuming if you're the offensive
play caller in that situation, you with the way the

(21:22):
offense has has it's been slow out of the gate,
struggled for you know, season and a half here until
they found a quarterback to get it rolling. They have
been real cognizant about, you know, staying out of negative
plays and getting behind the chains. So when you empty
the set for the quarterback, uh, nobody back there to

(21:42):
protect him. He's kind of like a cornerback on a
white house, and you trust him to make quick decisions
and understand, you know, what what he has to do there. Also,
you trust your offensive line, I guess a little bit,
but there's nobody back there to you know, be a
pick up a blitzer for Cutter. So is that right
that they're trust sting here. That shows a higher level
of trust in him.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
Yes, and exactly, And that's the OC has to trust
you because what happens is like you said, getting behind
the chains now. As the quarterback, it makes the picture
clear because the defense has to has to show what
they're gonna play earlier, because you cannot cheat when there's
five out.

Speaker 4 (22:22):
If they're gonna blitz, they have to show and it's
by alignment.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
There's a whole bunch of things you can show on
field of even though they might not show that you're blissing,
it's obvious when a guy's blitzing when there's five out, So.

Speaker 4 (22:34):
It clears up the picture for the quarterback.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
It makes the picture worse for the OC because you
have to trust that he's gonna get the ball out
his hands if they bring six. So that's the name
of the game. As the player, it's easier and a
lot of respects. As the OC is dangerous.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
And the where we talk about how good Tennessee was
at the wide receiver position in this last matchup, it's
it'll be the bigger part of the challenge will be
for the offensive guys and cutter this week. Auburn in
SEC play is fourth in total defense. They're playing really
well defensively. They have given up over four hundred yards

(23:15):
just once since the opening game of the season. So
they're playing very well on that side of the ball.
But Texas was played very well in that side of
the ball, and the Cutter and the crew found a
way to get it moving. So it's gonna be an
interesting matchup in that regard on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah, and look, DJ Dirkin is known for being aggressive.
This is a game that's gonna come down to ken
your guys on the perimeter, the.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
Feat tough, press, physical, aggressive man a man. If they can, this.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
Will be a game what Cutter can progress even more
from last week because it's.

Speaker 4 (23:54):
Gonna be there.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
But those defensive backs are gonna put pressure not only
on the receivers, They're gonna put pressure on the because
they are the best press man team I think I've
seen the last couple of years in the country.

Speaker 4 (24:06):
They are that type.

Speaker 3 (24:08):
They are dogs on the perimeter and they are gonna
make it tough on you.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Van Hiles ad V Style seventeen on X and The
Locker on Wednesday nights with Anthony White on YouTube and
at their podcast platforms and right here every Monday.

Speaker 4 (24:20):
Thank you, Van, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
Leach Report Radio Network and talk to some Hoops with
Brandon Ramsey, will we come right back? Lea presented by
Bob Catt Enterprises four locations around Kentucky for Bobcats, So
call them when you have a need for heavy equipment
to buy it or rent it, and if you know
of somebody that is in that situation, Bobcat Enterprises will
take care of you fantastic service after the sale as well.

(24:44):
Weird joined by Brandon Ramsey, covers the Kentucky men's basketball
for on three Sports and KSR and Brandon. That was
a fairly impressive performance last Friday night, was it, hut?

Speaker 5 (24:55):
Yeah, it sure was. It was a lot of fun
Tom to watch Kentucky play somebody in a different uniform.
It was especially encouraging when that other team happened to
be the preseason, preseason number one team in the country.
And obviously, you know all of the necessary caveats, but
being an exhibition are real and warranted. But still you can't.

(25:17):
You can't dismiss what you saw on the floor, and
that was a Kentucky team that pretty much in every
facet for forty minutes, looked better than perdue. And that's
while you're down your starting point yard and what will
ultimately probably be your starting center.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Kentucky was faced of the preseason player of the Year
in Purdue point guard Braden Smith, and seemed to do
a really nice job on him. How did they do that?

Speaker 5 (25:42):
They did? I think that. I think they did a
really good job mixing up the looks on him a
little bit. They were pretty willing to switch, which I
had a whole video out before the game kind of
talk about how I thought switching the ball screens against
Braydon Smith and kind of limiting his ability to make
decisions was probably a really good game plan, and I
thought Kentucky did that pretty well. They also kind of

(26:05):
got out and pressured him a little bit more, kind of,
you know, picking him up ninety four feet. Jasper Johnson
did a pretty good job of speeding him up a
few times, especially, I thought Denzel Aberdeen as well. I
thought that too. When they would get into the kind
of their drop coverage ballscreen wise, they did a really
good job of being pretty soft in that drop to

(26:25):
really make him throw it to the role guy. And
a lot of times Trey Coffin Wren likes to short
role so he can kind of playmake from that high
post area, so a lot of times he was actually
throwing the ball backwards to tray Coffin Wren as opposed
to getting him really on the role. I thought, in
a lot of different ways, Kentucky has really bottled Brayden

(26:46):
Smith up about as well as you can hope for.
When he's the best playmaker in college basketball. Some of
the things he can do with the ball in his
hands are pretty impressive, and I thought Kentucky negated that
pretty well. I mean, the guy averages a nine assists
a game. We had five. Again, I know it's just
one game, but I was really impressed with what Kentucky
did against them.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
The storyline for Park Pope's second team was how much
improvement we would expect to see on the defensive end.
And do you assume believe that is a valid claim
to make still at this point.

Speaker 5 (27:23):
It absolutely is. I mean, but based on every metrics site,
whether it's bark Torvik or ken Palm or Evan Me,
all these different sites expect for Due to be the
number one offense in college of basketball this season, and
Kentucky came out and held them to sixty five points.
They were struggling to finish around the basket. They certainly
didn't shoot it well for three. Some of that stuff

(27:44):
is a little bit of this, you know, normal shooting
variant that can come and go on a single game basis.
But I thought that Kentucky sped them up. I thought
by the end of the game Kentucky wore them down
quite frankly in the final five or six minutes. So
I think those things translated. I think the way that
communicated and rotated defensively, considering it was October twenty fourth

(28:06):
or whatever it was twenty third, that was incredibly, incredibly
impressive for this point in the season. And like I said,
you're still waiting on at some point to add into
the equation somebody who could be the best interior defender
in all of college basketball, and Jaden Klayn and so
I think that there's even more upside to be had
with this defense. But man, for a preseason game, they

(28:28):
looked about as far along as I could have possibly
hoped for.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Coach Popez talked about how competitive this group is in practices,
and I would think that's imperative if you're a player
on this team, because of the competition that you face
each day in practice for minutes, because there's you know,
if somebody's not getting the job done, he has options
to go with every spot and could play even in

(28:55):
different ways if he needs to write.

Speaker 5 (28:57):
One hundred percent y. I think that just the depth
of the team obviously breeds a level of competitiveness that
I think can be really helpful. Now you have to
be a little bit careful that it doesn't turn into
a situation where everybody is just constantly looking over their shoulder.
But I think at least right now, it seems like
coach Pope has done a really good job of kind

(29:18):
of protecting against that. And I think the players are
really buying into the fact that, hey, they know that
maybe today might not be their day, but that doesn't
mean that the next day they're not going to get
the same opportunity to let it be their day. And
I think that's one of the strengths of having ten
to twelve guys that can really impact the games, is
that sure that there might be a day that you
only play seven minutes and things aren't working for you,

(29:40):
but that doesn't mean that the next day you can't
play twenty seven minutes and be the leading scorer. And
I think as long as everybody really buys into that
this season. It's one of the many reasons that Kentucky
could be pretty special.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
It's the Least Report and one of our great partners
is Shuffle Being Coffee. It's a group of Kentuckians that
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(30:12):
they're talking about. You can pick up some Shuffle Being
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and you can get it there. To get to our
break a little early here and come back one more
segment with Brandon Ramsey from on three Sports and KSR
at b Ramsey KSR on X for his analysis of
the Cats. We'll be read back on the Lead Report

(30:33):
Radio Network.

Speaker 4 (30:34):
Jasper, I mean, it's my guy.

Speaker 5 (30:36):
He's that unbelievable player, and honestly, I think that's that's
what we expect of them every day, to come out
from a score via.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
Dog and I think he really proved that nobody nobody's
like Jasper Johnson.

Speaker 4 (30:47):
And I mean, we just wanted to put on.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
From the state of Kentucky because it's our home state
and we just want to represent to Kentucky. That's Malachi
Moreno and he's talking about his fellow homegrown Kentucky freshman
Jasper Johnson, had led the Cats with fifteen points. We're
talking with Brandon Ramsey who covers the Cats who are
on three Sports and KSR give me your take on Jasper.

Speaker 5 (31:10):
First of all, Jasper was outstanding. I think that it
was It was a game that I envisioned that he
certainly could have at some point in this season. I
admittedly I wouldn't necessarily thought it would it would come
in the first exhibition game against the preseason number one
team in the country. But he's just such a dynamic

(31:31):
playmaker and you know, athletic offensive shop maker. You know,
all the things that he can do with the ball
in his hands are are so explosive, and I think
that that gives him a chance against really anybody in
the country, to create separation to get his shots off.
He saw how aggressive he was a couple of times
when Pritty would go under a high ball screen and

(31:52):
one of the ones he dribbled into at the top
of the key, he just you know, rose up, you know,
rose up and sprayed it in from deep. And I
think that the way that he can shoot the ball,
the way that he can play make It's one of
the things I talked about with with this team compared
to last year's team. I thought that even being a
top ten offense, last year, Kentucky had to rely so
heavily just on elite execution every time down to the court.

(32:13):
And I think this year, with guys like this, with
guys like Jasper Johnson, but also Denzel Aberdeen, even a
Modeia Batte, certainly jail and low the level of individual
playmaking sometimes when you just meet a bucket or when
things break down and you have a guy that can
go get one on his zone. Jasper Johnson's as good
at that, as good as at that as anybody else.
And I think that really lifts the level of this

(32:35):
year's offense because they still executed a super high level,
but now they have some guys that can kind of
make it easier on you and to still get a
bucket themselves.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
When you can't out athlete the opponent at some spot
or at least have a have a draw it is
you have, you are limited in your upside.

Speaker 5 (32:54):
Right, Absolutely, Yeah, I think that. And we saw that
last year at times where the auticism or the strength
of the physicality was something that hurt Kentucky. And I
think that this year, whether it just be from them
from from the depth and the number of players Kentucky
can throw at you, but also just improving that kind
of across the board position to position, I think that's

(33:15):
going to be less of a worry this year for
Kentucky than it probably was in twenty four to twenty five.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, certainly looks that way. Let's talk about Marino really
looked very comfortable out there. I thought I watched him
practice the day before and it had seen this over
the course of the time that he's been here. Just
how well he passes the ball. I wondered about that,
and you know how long that would take him to
adapt into mark system the way they want their bigs

(33:43):
to be able to, you know, move the ball. And
I was surprised at how quickly he was doing that,
and I asked Coach Pope about that. I guess was
after we finished the pregame, and he said that was
actually the first thing that drew him to to move
Marino when he and the staff saw Malachi play. That's

(34:05):
what they said, bade him want to want to recruit him,
which I thought was interesting. I can't remember of the
term he used the other and I asked him about
it after the game, but it was about, I think,
just seeing ahead, seeing the game, you know, the next
move or two ahead. And that was one of many
things that were impressive about him.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
Absolutely.

Speaker 5 (34:26):
I think with Malachi throughout the summer, every whisper kind
of seemed to be like, hey, Malachi Marino is going
to have to play this year. He's doing really well
in practice, and then each little glimpse, whether it was
Pro Day or whether it was Blue White Scammage, all
these different things, we kind of started to see like, Okay, yeah,
he's living up to the hype. That wasn't just some
propaganda coming out of Kentucky practice. And then here he

(34:47):
really showed it against Purdue, against the veteran front court
with some really physical guys. His skill level, it's a
different left, it's different skill It's not like he's gonna
come out and shoot threes, but he's willing to into
a zoom action or he can certainly hit a backcut
when guy's curled to the basket, or backcut to a
for a layup. And he's really good on the rim run.

(35:07):
He's really good on the roll. I thought he did
a good job of feelings some guys when Kentucky would
drive it in. Both Brandon Garrison and moreno, in my
opinion to get credit for kind of some hidden points
where they did a great java occupying guys inside while
Kentucky drove it in or kut in there to score.
So yeah, he's he's certainly beyond where I thought he

(35:27):
would be at this point in the season. And I
think that even when Jayden Quintoff comes back, you're in
a position where not only can you play Mala comreno
and be okay, but you're probably gonna need to play
mala commereno because he's pretty darn good.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
We can't don't have the time to talk about. Everybody
love watching Diabate play. Just the way he attacks rebounds.

Speaker 5 (35:46):
He's a beast, I mean nine rebounds. Obviously, he's kind
of an undersized guy in the front core. But he's
just so physical, plays so hard and with so much passion.
I think he's gonna be a fan favorite throughout this
season with his versatility. I was impressed with some of
his drives off defensively, but yeah, certainly the way that
he cleaned up the glass, that's something that worried me
coming out of some of Kentucky's preseason stuff. But Kentucky

(36:07):
can rebound it. I think eighty two point six percent
on the defensive glass, which extrapolated over an entire season,
would be the best in the country. And they did
that against a pretty good offensive rebounding team and Diabosi
was a big part of that. So yeah, it was
certainly a lot of fun to watch.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
Brandon Ramsey on three Sports KSR. We will be talking
throughout the season and hopefully into early April.

Speaker 5 (36:29):
Thank you, Breden, Yeah, anytime, Tom, Thank you at.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
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dot com. You came in Soccer number twenty five beat

(37:39):
number ten West Virginia one nil at the bell and
is at the top of the Sun Belt Conference standings.
Women's soccer beat Texas A and M three Noil they
go into SEC tournament play on Sunday as the sixth
seed and we'll face eleventh seeded Florida. LSU fired Brian Kelly.
It's a fifty three million dollar buyout school SYS. Terms
of the separation are being negotiated and post position draw

(38:01):
off well. The Breeders' Cup races on Friday and Saturday
at Del Mar is coming up. It'll be televised on
Fan Duels tonight at seven Eastern. Does it for us?
We'll see you tomorrow on The Leech Report, presented by
Bob Kat Enterprises