2025-10-30 - 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 Boone's Butcher Shop. Good day, everybody,
Welcome into the Leach Report, presented by Bobcat Enterprises. Game

(00:22):
day for Kentucky Ben's Basketball, second of two exhibition games
coming up tonight down at Rupp. We'll talk some about
that with a Goose, Jack Gibvens. We will talk Kentucky
basketball and football with Justin Rowland from Cats Illustrated. We'll
lead off a little Breeders Cup talk with Dick Girardi.
Wanted to get some thoughts, some picks from our man

(00:46):
that we always check in with around the Triple Crown
Races and the Breeders Cup. Tomorrow is going to be
recapping the Georgetown game and looking ahead to the Auburn matchup,
and probably a little Kentucky volleyballs and it's a big
weekend for them, So sliding in the Breeders' Cup talk
to the opening segment of today. So let's jump right
into the Wildcat News of the Day, a service of

(01:09):
Giuseppes of Lexington. Georgetown Hoyas are preseason sixth in the
Big East. They lost six of their top seven players
to the NBA or transfer portal and replaced them with
six power forward transfers. No high school recruits for coach
Ed Cooley for this season. Physical long team is the
description on Georgetown the thirteen steals in their exhibition win

(01:33):
over George Washington last week. Mark Pope talked to the
media yesterday and then invited the media and families to
watch practice. He talked about Jalen Lowe, who he said
would have some limited work in practice yesterday, So he
was out there doing some shooting and participating in some drills,

(01:53):
but they're limiting him to no contact for another week.
Hopefully he'll be back maybe for the season opener on Tuesday.
And the Wildcats game tonight tips off at seven, so
we'll have coverage on the UK radio network starting at
five thirty Eastern time on many of these same stations.

(02:14):
First availability report out for SEC games and Kentucky's has
a lot of names on it at the cornerback position.
They're gonna be really thin, it looks like because to
Ryan Nichols, and dj Waller both listed as doubtful. Waller's
been out since Game one, tried to come back for

(02:34):
the Texas game. They thought he would be available and
suffered a setback in the pregame warmups, and then Nichols
suffered an injury during the game last week, and so
he has obviously not gotten back to full strength. Yet
questionable are Jamoori Macklin and Landon Watson, and then probable

(02:55):
is Seth McGowan. So that's a bit of positive news
is his status is better than it was last week,
so hopefully we'll see McGowan back out on the field
and Kentucky's developed an even more depth there at the
running back position with the play of Jason Patterson. Auburn
on the questionable list. The name that surprised some folks
was their leading receiver, Cam Coleman. He is questionable for

(03:18):
the game, as is fellow wide receiver Malcolm Simmons. Auburn
has had some issues at a quarterback with their passing
game their last in the league and passing offense, and
now might be without their leading receiver potentially, so they
handed the ball off to their star running back Jamount
Cobb twenty eight times, a season high last week. One

(03:40):
would expect that Kentucky will see more of that this week,
especially since Auburn just racked up tons of yardage on
the ground and it's come from behind winn in Lexington
last season. Defensive coordinator Brad White talked to the media
yesterday said he's confident his guys will fight back from
the Tennessee game. He said there's a lot of quote

(04:00):
embarrassment and humility for the guys on the defensive side
of the ball, and that would make sense. The guys
certainly got their butt kicked against the balls, but they
have a lot of pride and they have been the
group that has worked hard and they keep coming back.
So we'll see how they rise to the challenge down

(04:21):
at Auburn on Saturday night. Links to the stories that
we talk about you can find those on the bud
Light Leach Report page at Tom leachky dot com. And
as expected, Sovereignty did scratch from the Breeders' Cup classics,
So we'll get into that a little bit with Dick
Gerardy when he joins us here shortly. It is the
Leech Report in our opening segments presented by Just Seppies

(04:43):
of Lexington. They want you to know that they have
gift cards ready and waiting for the holidays. They look
really nice. They'll fix them up for you, send them
out to you and you can give them to the
people that are hard to buy for on your list.
So go to Giuseppes Lexington dot com you can find
out more, or you can just swing by the restaurant
now Nicholasville Road out pass Man of War Boulevard here

(05:04):
in Lexington. And while you're also working on those gift cards,
make yourself a reservation through open table at Ji Seppies.
We'll be right back on the way to Report Radio
Network presented by Bobcat Enterprises. It's apart coming to you
each day from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio, Return, Refresh,
Refuel at Clark's. We are joined by Dick Chirardi from

(05:25):
Bettonline dot ag works with the Buyer speed figure guys,
longtime sports columnists in Philadelphia, and he joins us around
Breeders' Cup time and the Triple Crown races. And lost
some luster from the Classic with the scratch of Sovereignty yesterday.
Still a certainly very interesting race, right But if you

(05:46):
wanted to bet against sovereignty, your price just got depressed significantly, right.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, for sure time. Yeah, look, it's really disappointing because
he was the headliner. I mean, he was going for
Horse of the Year, to run off the Derby, Belmont,
Jim Dandy and travel in a row is some season.
So yeah, everybody wanted to see him run and that's short.
NBC is very disappointed. All the fans are disappointed. But
you know it, You've been around it a long time.
It's part of the sports. Sometimes these horses just get

(06:12):
sick and he had a fever and they can't tell
you how they're feeling, and human probably would be just fine,
but you just want to make sure there's nothing seriously wrong,
and you just can't run the horses under that circumstance.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, if you were a human, you'd you know, get
up and you know, you'd take some take something and
go to work and ask for whatever. But and they
do that for horses. But the thing is, when you
go to work, if you're at you know, eighty five
percent that day, that's okay. You can still do your job.
But you know, those guys, those top level athletes human

(06:44):
or equine have to be one hundred percent to win precisely.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, and this is like such a strong field, as
she said, Look, it's still a terrific field.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
Right.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
We've got the one, two, three finishers from last year's Classic,
Seri Leon, Fierceness, Forever Young, we got Journalism, we got Baeza,
the pennsylvani Derby winner. So it's a terrific field. But yeah,
it's stealing reality. It's not quite the same without sovereignty yet, So.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
Who do you like in there without sovereignty?

Speaker 2 (07:12):
I don't have a strong opinion about a win. I
think Sierra Leone is the horse most likely to run
well under the circumstances because he just never runs a
bad race, But whether that's winning like last year or not,
I'm not quite sure. And Fierceness, to me, should get
the right trip, right, there's the rabbit that's in there

(07:33):
for Sierra Leone, But it looks to me like Fierceness
should be sitting second and maybe gets first run on
all the closers. And certainly he ran a sensational race
last year in the Classic, and it's clear that he
likes Delmar already won the Pacific Classic. Clear over Journalism
and then run that great second at Delmar last year.
In the classic.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Three year olds have had good success over the years.
There's two of them left in there now, with Journalism
and Bayes of the Chase, Sovereignty home and the Triple Crown.
What shot do you give the three years? How did
the three year old stack up with the older horses here?

Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yeah, I think a shot. Obviously, Sovereignty would have had
the best chance. I mean he's going to go favored.
If one of them wins, that's just going to make
Sovereignty look even better, right that neither one of them
could ever beat Sovereignty, But yeah, I do give them
a chance. Journalism is probably going to have to come
back to his early season form when he was running
his best buyer numbers, and now with the first time

(08:30):
he's had a layoff all year, maybe that's the trick
and baza you could see it Tom just race by
race by race, he's getting better and better and better.
So I certainly think there's a chance he could be
very competitive.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
I think the interesting thing with both of those horses,
Bazas was playing catchup all through the spring just to
try to get into the Derby and then had to
get in at the last minute and ran well. But
is maybe by now he's kind of getting there on
the better terms than maybe he did to the Derby,

(09:03):
and then journalism to be is a horse that you know,
shipped back and forth across the country twice and ran
in all three of the races of the Triple Crowd
and ran in the Haskells, then shipped back out to
California and best thing in the world was a couple
of months off, probably to recharge the batteries for him.
He looked like maybe he had just lost a little
off his fastball in that last race.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
No, I think that's right. He just he had no
speed early in the Pacific Classic, similar to the Haskell
and so yeah, that's generally telling your horses starting to
have issues. But he still came at the big run
and both of us races won the hassle. It wasn't
good enough to be fiercest in the next one under
those circumstances. But yeah, no, I think that's why they
made the decision not to ship them again, because I

(09:44):
know they had considered the Pennsylvania Derby, but they just said, look,
that's just too much that's why they kept them home.
Even though he ran second, he would have been favored
obviously at Parks, probably would have won the race. Although
he's ran well enough, maybe he doesn't win the race.
But yeah, that was the thinking, and I think it
made a lot of since he hasn't had a race couple.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
So it's for horse players, that's a great weekend of
tremendous opportunities to make some money. Who are some horses
our listeners can make some money with this weekend.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
So I like Ben Tornado a lot in the In
the sprint time now he's listed as the five to
two morning line favorite. That's probably about right. I don't
know that he's, you know, any super long shot, but
I think, you know, he run great in the race
last year. I think he might be better this year.
That would certainly be one I would look at. I'm
a little intrigued in the Turf that Rebel's Romance is

(10:35):
now going for his third win in the Turf is
not is not favored in the race. Mini Hawk, who
was the runner up in the Arc Trene office favored.
That's that's a little surprising to me. So yeah, I
would take a long look at Rebels Romance. Again, not
big prices, but you know in the Breeders' Cup any
even the favorites are like two to one, five to two,

(10:57):
three to one sometimes that those are never bad prices.
If you can hook up hook him up at a
nice exactly, make yourself.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
A score the juvenile Tomorrow's where we sometimes get the
Derby favorite for the next year. Kenny McPeak tell me
before the race at Keenland that Brian Hernandez was just
effusive in the praise for a blackout time and how
is maybe the best young horse he'd ever been on
for Kenny and they've been together a long time. Ted

(11:25):
Naffie huge favorite in there. Baffort's got a highly regarded
horse in Brant What about that race.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yeah, I think Kenny does have a live horse, maybe
more for the spring than this fall. Maybe he's not
going to catch up on Saturday, but yeah, I mean
just watch him because I think he's a horse he
can certainly be thinking about it. I know Kenny already
is about the first Saturday in May and twenty sixth
at Churchill, But yeah, I've liked everything about watching him

(11:52):
run because he's never really had anything his way yet maybe,
And I don't think it's it's going to break all
that great for him on right given the potential pay scenario.
It just doesn't look like they're going to be going
that fast and it's gonna make a little harder for
him to catch up. But yes, I'm with Kenny. I
think and what Brian said, I think this source is
very talented.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
Any prices double digit horses that you think are worth,
if not a win, just that could help folks hit
something nice.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
Yeah, one that interested me just a little bit with it.
I mean you find the race in the distaff. Maybe
the thirteen regaled. I don't know again for the win,
but I think she her double or handicap is ridiculously
good if she can come back to that race. Now
that was a muddy track, maybe that's what that was

(12:44):
all about, but that was kind of just a different race,
and she's going to be every bit of twenty to one.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
I would think, Dick, you already bet online dot ag
and you can do wagers through that site. And also
you always have they always have some interesting prop bets.
Anything that you're looking at.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
There, I haven't seen. I actually haven't seen that yet.
I'm waiting for Jimmy to send Jimmy Tom. I have
not seen him. So yeah, I've not seen it. Bet
online prop bets for the Breeders Cup yet, but the
odds are all up on the site.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
Dick Girardi, Thank you much, you got it.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Thank you, Tom.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Twenty two past the top of the hour. It is
the Leach Report Breeders Cup. The five races for two
year olds are tomorrow out at del Mar and then
the next day you have the full lineup that starts
on I think the first race on NBC is like
the third of the Breeders Cup races. Around three thirty.
You'll be able to watch most of the races before

(13:43):
the Kentucky football game tomorrow night. Is the Classic is
the eleventh race on the card of fourteen. Links to
the stories we talk about each day. You can find
them on the Bud Light Leach Report page of Time
Leachky dot com. We'll come back and chat with a Goose,
Jack Gibbons Report presented by Bob Kat Enterprises. It's the

(14:05):
Leach Report and we welcome in the Goose Jack Evans
Goose and I'll be court side tonight for Kentucky's second
exhibition game against Georgetown. We'll talk about that in a minute,
but Goose, I want to ask you. I'm guessing you
saw this was on social media everywhere yesterday. Janis and
I did a little practice before I try the last name,

(14:26):
and I haven't practiced it yet this morning, so we'll
just say Yanis for the Bucks. Yeah, picks up the
dribble at about a half step outside the three point
line and gets to the rim without ever dribbling again.
How many points could you have scored doing that?

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Well, you know, I think I would. I would have
been able to use that a lot to my advantage. Tom,
I mean, you know, I mean I wasn't the quickest
player in the world, but certainly not having to dribble
would would have made me a lot quicker. I probably
I would have still been playing if I didn't have

(15:03):
to dribble and just take off running. But that's why
it is in the NBA. Now, I'm seeing Lebron do
that a number of times, and I guess that's how
you tell who the superstars are, because they can take
as main steps as they are.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
Absolutely. Well, we'll talk now about the matchup with the
Georgetown hoyas I was thinking about this preparing for the game.
This is a matchup of bad memories for Kentucky. It's
the eighty four Final Four against the Hoyas at in Seattle,
and then the next year for the Hoyas here at
Rauparita when they lost the national championship to Villadova. So

(15:39):
I don't know what. I don't know what how that impacts.
It doesn't impact the game at all, and there's nobody
on either side that was involved in any of that.
But it's an interesting storyline.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
Boy, I tell you, I was out there in Seattle
during that game in the Final four, and man, I
sat there and I sat there in the second half,
and about halfway through, I've looked up and I asked Linda,
I said, has Kentucky even scored this half? I don't.

(16:08):
I think it was like ten minutes, maybe under the
ten minute mark before Kentucky got the first basket in
second half.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, I think I think that's right, because they were up.
I want to say they were up like twenty nine
to twenty two at halftime. They had played pretty well
in the first half. It was a little like the
first half of that Kentucky UCLA game. In the twenty
fifteen season up in Chicago. At one point in the
first half, I was just saying to myself as we

(16:37):
were doing the game, they may not score Ucla, may
not score a point. And I think it was forty
one to seven at halftime, so they got closed.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
That was unbelievable. I'll take another one of those pleas.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yes, it's the Georgetown team that has a good backcourt.
So Kentucky faced that challenge last week. It be interesting,
they can get interesting to see if the cast can
get the defensive intensity and execution up to that same
level they had at last Friday.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah, the thing about Georgetown is they play so hard.
I mean, they come after you, and that's gonna be
a challenge for Kentucky offensively. You know, it doesn't sound
like Jayden Lowe is going to play, so yeah, they
Georgetown has a couple of really good point guards and
they put pressure on from the other side. So Kentucky's

(17:31):
gonna have to get find a way to get some
good play from their guards as well.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
I want to talk a little bit more about tonight's
game and just Kentucky in general with the goose Jack Gibbings.
When we come right back. We're hitting the Herd break
at the bottom of the hour. Don't forget with the
holidays coming up that if you have a Wildcat fan
on your list, then you didn't buy them Goose's book
for last Christmas, then make up for that and do
it for this Christmas, and you'll have a chance, I'm

(17:58):
sure if you come to a game to swing by
our broadcast spot and get it signed too, so they
call me Goose. You can find that in your favorite
bookstore and we'll be right back with the Leach Report
presented by Bob Kat Enterprises.

Speaker 4 (18:13):
I kind of just came into college ready to work.
College is a lot different than high school, and I
think since then it's only been trying to prove myself
and he's trying to get better every single day, and
so I think that's kind of just been the main
focal point for me, and I think it's really it's
really helped me so far.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
That's Malachi Marino and he was talking after the win
against Purdue last Friday when he turned a lot of heads.
As we chat with the Goose, Jack Gibbons, who lives
over Georgetown Way where Malachi grew up, and I imagine
that's quite a talking point over where you live.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
Yeah, I think, well there and a lot of other
places as well, just simply because of the improvement in
this game. He's he has played so much better than
a lot of people thought he would and has come
along a lot quicker, a lot sooner than people thought.

(19:11):
And I think that has a little bit to do
with JQ being out, So he's getting all of the
minutes going against Brandon Garrison pretty much every day in practice,
and so that has helped him as he has picked
up more time on the court, so he's taken full
advantage of that. I was really really impressed with him

(19:35):
the other night in that game against Purdue, and you know,
he had eight points and four rebounds, but I was
more impressed with how he carried and carried himself throughout
the game. I mean, he didn't look like the freshman
with with the deer in the headlight kind of look.

(19:56):
You know, he seemed to be very confident about himself.
He didn't miss any rotations on defense or many glaring
mistakes on defense. He ran the floor well. I mean,
he did a bunch of stuff good and was very impressive,
and that went over Purdue.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yeah, that's a great point. He looked older than he is.
Turned nineteen at night, but he looked older just the
way he moved out on the floor. I think the
one that we talked about during the broadcast, you know,
it was kind of particularly impressive. He waved everybody off.
He caught the ball down outside the block and then
just went to work against the big guy from Purdue

(20:36):
and took him to the basket and scored on him,
and it was very impressive.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yeah, and I think that was the seven to four kids,
so he doesn't have to look up and many guys
that he does, he did in that situation. But yeah,
he just waved everybody off, and you know, Mark gives
him the freedom to do that in practice, so it
was really impressive to see him do that. He used

(21:02):
his body well to make sure that the big guy,
he had contact with the big guy all the time
he had the ball. He didn't shy away, didn't try
to shoot a fall away that's gonna get blocked every
time by a guy that big. So yeah, you know,
he's the physical play that he is showing as probably

(21:25):
the most impressive theme for me, because that's the one
thing I questioned watching him in high school, is he
gonna be able to play the physical basketball that he's
going to face on this level.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Yesterday was a fun day to practice at RUP and
Coach Pope did his news conference and then open it
up to the people who cover the team to come
and bring family members and watch the practice and get
a look at what they do. And it was a
regular practice, a little bit of scrimmaging, and there were

(22:00):
a couple of times drough that practice because Cam Williams
launched from somewhere around the UK logo or Tayshaun Prince
made that fifth three in two thousand and one, he
just kind of shot it like it was a free throw, and.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
He shoots it so easy from then. That's one of
the things that's amazing to me is Number One, I
would not have that shot would not even have entered
my mind in practice. It wouldn't have entered my mind
in practice with no coaches on the floor, It wouldn't
have entered my mind. They should should shoot it so

(22:39):
far out nowadays, but that's part of it. And you know,
if you're going to get thirty or so threes up,
which is kind of what Mark wants you, you have
to take a couple every now and then that are man,
there's no way that's a good shot, but they go

(23:00):
in sometimes, so that's a good shot for them.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
I'm guessing that shot for you would have been followed
by three words, get a wall.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
Get a wall. Uh well, those three words probably about
six or seven words, but those three words would be
that they would be mixed in that somewhere. There might
be something before a few words or a few words
after it, but get a wall, certainly as part of
that conversation.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
So let's talk about the matchup tonight, or not so
much the matchup, but just the game and what kinds
of things you'll be looking to see ahead of the
official opener next week.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Well, the most impressive thing to me, one of the
bigger takeaways for me in that Purdue game is that
sixty five point total that Purdue had. And you know, frankly,
if Kentucky doesn't give away give up two or three

(24:00):
dunks by the big kid, the seven to four kid
late in the game, Purdue wouldn't have had sixty points.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
So for.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
Kentucky to play defense as well as they had to
play it in that game to make that happen. That
is what I'm looking forward to the most tonight to
see if they can make a habit of playing defense
the way they did in the game against Purdue. Are
they going to be that team that is up there

(24:31):
really high and all the defensive categories, Because if they are,
they're going to win a lot of games. Kentucky has
a bunch of weapons on offense, but if they can
be the defensive team that they weren't close to the
defensive team they were in that Purdue game, it's going
to be really, really nice this year. So that's the thing.

(24:53):
And I'll throw rebounding in there also, because you know
how I feel about defense. If you don't rebound, you're
not playing good defense. So the defensive rebounding. Purdue had
just seven offensive rebounds in the game. So those two
things are what I'm going to look for in the game.
And they'll get better on offense. I'm looking the seed.

(25:15):
But until you know, until you know, you get Low back,
I don't think their offense is going to be as
smooth as it will be after he gets back.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
Yeah, he seems to be moving around fire. I can
understand them being extra cautious though, but he you know,
looks very comfortable out there and moving around. Well. Hated
to see the news speaking of point guards about Lamont Butler.
He's suffered negligamare and so he was going to play
for a G League team and got the bad news

(25:50):
that he is out for the season. So he battles.
So he'll be back, I'm sure, but I hated to
see that.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
Well, you know, you just have to love them because
of the way he works, and you know, I saw
going into Atlanta he had a really good chance of
making it. I got to talk to him at the
Summer League games out in Vegas, and he was hurt

(26:18):
at that time, but he had played really well, so
he was excited about the opportunity. His parents were there
and they loved him and watching him play obviously, so
got to talk to them. They were all excited and
felt like he had a good chance of being called
up at some point during the season. I wouldn't be

(26:38):
surprised if that happens, but that was that was really
bad news to hear that he's out for the season.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
Goods appreciate it. We'll see you in a few hours
down a rupt.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
Yeah, Hey, Tom, let me mention real quickly. Jay Schidler
and I will be in Carmel, Indiana, just outside of Indianapolis,
this weekend, well Saturday, for game watch party Jay will
Jay will have his book Blonde Bomber. I'll have my book.

(27:16):
We'll give away a couple of tickets to a UK
basketball game. We'll have some of my Kentucky Legends seventy
eight legends bourbon for bourbon tasting. It's going to be
a fun, fun opportunity for Big Blue Nation in that area.
And we have a really active Midwest alumni association there.

(27:40):
So if you're happen to be if you happen to
live in that area, be in that area, come to
come up and see us at Bubba louis and Carmel, Indiana.
I saw Main Street there in Carmel, So come out
and say hi and talk to Jay. We'll talk basketball
at halftime, have a lot of giveaway stuff. It's going
to be a nice game watch party.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
Great. That sounds like a lot of fun, and there's
a lot of Wildcat fans obviously in that area. It's
not too far of a drive from Louisville, what forty
minutes something like that.

Speaker 3 (28:12):
Maybe, yeah, forty five minutes to an hour, but to
get up to Carmel. But yeah, it's it's it's pretty close.
A lot of a lot of Kentucky fans in that area.
So we're looking Jay and I looking forward to meeting
and greeting and having a good time in Carmel.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Great, Thank you guys.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
Thanks Tom.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Sixteen away from the top of the hour. Each report's
presented by Bobcat Enterprises with four locations around the state buying,
renting heavy equipment. When you're in the market for that,
or you know someone who is, it's got to be
Bobcat Enterprises here a Kentucky. They have four locations, so
google them. You'll find the one that's closest to you.
And nobody's going to treat you better than the folks

(28:56):
at Bobcat Enterprises. We'll be right back with Justin Rowland
from Cats Illustrated. Thirteen away from the top of the hour.
Justin Roland joining us from katz Illustrated dot Com and
on three Sports and at Roland Rivals on X Justin
We'll start with Kentucky basketball playing the Georgetown Hoyas tonight

(29:16):
at RUP. What are you most interested to see in
exhibition Number two.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (29:21):
I mean this stuff is still so far off from
like the meat of the season, and it's going to
be so imbalanced, like how coaches are approaching this game,
what they're trying to get from it. So I just
instead of zooming out and looking at like what the
big picture might look like, just zooming in and what
are we learning about these individual players, Like how do
they how do they function with different personnel combinations on

(29:44):
the court? You know, where are they confident at what
looks like an area that they're that is going to
be experimental, but maybe you're not going to see as
much later in the season. And you know, just you
could go player for player and say I want to
see this. I'd be interested in that. And that's that's
where we're at the exhibition season.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
Here's to a little Kentucky football. With the Cats heading
down to Auburn on Saturday, and obviously a lot of
negativity around the football program at the moment, players trying
to tune that out and stay focused on a schedule
that breaks back into their favor Now they're not playing
a ranked team for the first time in many weeks,

(30:20):
and they have won under coach Stops several big games
on the road. So what kind of chance do you
give them at Auburn.

Speaker 5 (30:28):
I mean, it's not an impossible task. Kentucky is what
one and ten at Auburn since nineteen sixty five, and
that's the state where they have not gone and won
many football games over the decades. So it is a
tall order. But I mean the hope is Auburn is
not confident at winning football games. Like whatever, you want
to break down the matchup as at this point you

(30:48):
kind of know what each program is and right now
you know something's got to give for one of these
two teams. I know Auburn's coming off a win against Arkansas,
but this is just a team that has repeatedly shot
itself in the foot in close game situations. So you
just got to get it as a close game situation
and hope, hope that takes over.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
It's interesting for Kentucky where we are from the beginning
of the season, maybe for Auburn two, because they had
a couple of transfer quarterbacks and a lot of expectations
of putting a lot of points up and there last
in passing offense and kind of leaning more and more
on the power run and a really good defense, whereas

(31:30):
Kentucky were the storyline was, you know, getting back to
the power rushing attack. And now they they've got a
quarterback who looks to be a rising star and a
couple of young receivers named Miller. They are creating some excitement.
All of a sudden, it looks like the path forward
for Kentucky is on Cutter Bowli's.

Speaker 5 (31:48):
Right arm, no doubt. And you know, to be totally
fair at the beginning of the year, I mean a
few things that could happen. It would eventually make some
some people will be like, Okay, I'm still interested in
what's going on. Is for Cutter Bully to emerge as
a breakout player over the second half of the season.
You know, going into next year, it would be you know,

(32:11):
when's the last time Kintuck he developed the high school
quarterback who's playing at a high level in the offense,
and you're starting to think, well, if he can do
that with this set of weapons this year, Like what
could you if you really didn't have to focus on
a quarterback in the portal, if you didn't have to
do as much work on the line in the portal,
like you could really set Bully up to be very
interesting in the future.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
So the more.

Speaker 5 (32:33):
Games like this he can string together, the more he
can build, the more he can show. That's what you
would pin your hopes on moving forward.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
Yet, because if you have a quarterback that wide receivers
and offensive linemen perceived to be a big time NFL prospect,
there's there's an appeal to playing there that goes beyond
the NIL money because it could lead you to more
NFL money.

Speaker 5 (33:00):
Yeah, no doubt, And it's interesting to see it actually
coming together now. This is something that they've worked for
and they've tried to do really since they moved on
from Eddie Graham as the offensive coordinator and Drew like
this sheer personnel strength and Cohen and whatnot. You saw
glimpses of it at time in twenty twenty one. A
lot of that was wan Dale too. This is like

(33:21):
the most coherent, impressive passing game that we've seen sustained
from Kentucky, considering the competition everything else, for a very
long time. And we just don't think a Stoops is
like the kind of coach with a team like that
or a program like that, But we haven't seen it,
so we don't know how he might be able to
manage it.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
You run a site where you cover all the buzz
that's going on message boards, are there all of that?
So there's a lot of chatter, a lot of rumors,
a lot of some which may be usually some of
which turned out to be true, and a good percentage don't,
but some do. So what I'm wondering is, beyond all

(34:00):
the chatter that's going on, is there still do you
think there is still time to change a significant number
of hearts and minds if they would get on a
little run behind Cutter Bowley.

Speaker 5 (34:12):
Well, yeah, I mean, look, I think no question if
they were to come out and become like what South
Carolina was in one of these seasons recently where they
just get hot down the back stretch, or even Florida
last year. Think about the situation that Billy Napier was
in before they got hot in the back half of
last season. It's really not very different than the tone
around the Stoops tenure. And if Bowley could be Lagway

(34:36):
in a sense, that would be very similar. Because Florida
didn't beat great teams at the end of last year,
but they played well enough against some decent and quality
and Conference opponents that bought Billy Napier another year at Florida.
So if that did that for Napier, you imagine it
could move some people for stups.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah, you're Any coach on the hot seat in any
sport needs to be a to have the fans see
the cavalry on the hill that might might provide some help.

Speaker 5 (35:05):
That's right, They sell hope.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (35:06):
That's what they do is it's a game of momentum.
It's kind of like interest. It's moving in your direction
or it's moving against you, and it's very hard when
a momentum is moving against you. But what they do
have is a lot of young talented players in the program,
and they're probably their plea would probably be just let
this come to fruition and let us show that it
might not look like it, but these guys can carry
us in the future.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Which just kind of serves to underscore big opportunity weekend
for the Wildcat football team.

Speaker 5 (35:33):
Right, that's right, Yep, this is one that they really
have to have. If they had one one of the
last two or three, then you'd be saying, let's see
what they do. But they got to win this one.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
An it'll kick at seven thirty tomorrow night down on
the planes justin appreciate the time. As always, we'll talk
next week.

Speaker 5 (35:49):
Thanks a lot of Tom dustin.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
Rowlindcatz Illustrated dot Com on the on three Sports Network
and at Roland Rivals on x here on the Leach Report.
We'll be right back. You're going on at cornbred Hemp
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(36:54):
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History presented by Kentucky road Show Sports Cars and they
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coming up tomorrow and Saturday. I will be off tomorrow,
so Dick Gabriel will fill in. So let me give
you a couple of names to take a shot with

(37:16):
on a Breeders' Cup weekend. Lenny LOEU Philly against the
Boys in the Juvenile Turf sprint. She actually broke her
maiden at Church or at Keelan back in the spring,
and they have been very high on her back to
that time. So I think she's got a big shot
in there, like Copian against the boys in the sprint,

(37:38):
like Goliath in the turf after a prep in Germany.
She feels Pretties maybe my most likely winner over the
two days in the Philly and Mayor Turf. That's the
very last race, so just a few to take a
look at. I was all over the place in the classic.
I went back and forth so many times, ended up
picking journalism. But that's gonna be a really, really tough

(38:02):
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Shuffleban Coffee. It's the Leach Report and we're back tomorrow.