2025-11-19 - LEACH REPORT

Dick Gabriel talks with Mike DeCourcy, Chris Fisher, and Charles Walker.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning everybody. Dick Caberlin for the Voice once again,
Tom getting back late late early this morning from New
York City, where, of course he called the action of
the just the flame out by the Wildcats last night,
the lost to Michigan State, and Tom of course earned
his pay, not just for calling that game from way
up at the top of Madison Square Garden, but of

(00:22):
course the postgame conversation with Mark Pope, which had to
be painful. It was painful to listen to, painful to
watch the game, and it's painful for the Big Blue
Nation today. So we're going to talk a lot about
that basketball game, but we'll also talk football today Leach
Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises, and we'll be talking with
Chris Fisher, who has covered the Wildcats for many, many years.

(00:45):
Charles Walker, the former football Wildcat, will join us as well,
as he always does with Tom on Wednesdays, and of
course the great Mike De Coursey from the Sporting News.
Good time to talk to Mike, one of the pre
eminent college basketball writers in America, so we will get
his thoughts on what happened with the football or whether
with the basketball Wildcats. But we'll also talk a little
bit of football as well, and of course it was

(01:10):
just painful, not quite from start to finish. But we
will begin with our Wildcat News of the Day, presented
by just Sepis of Lexington. Kentucky was in it early,
scored the first five points of the game, and then
it just seemed like whenever Michigan State needed a three pointer,
the Spartans got it. And that's a team that had

(01:31):
hit only thirteen threes all year long, was hitting twenty
percent from beyond the arc going into this game collectively,
and then proceeds to hit eleven of twenty two. But
of course the bad news was that most of those
three point looks, I can't say all of them, but
it felt like it were wide open, wide open, and

(01:52):
they drained him. Kentucky conversely seven of thirty from beyond
the arc. People were concerned about this team three point
shooting when you lose a Kobe Braiah, Yeah, but other
guys were good at hitting threes as well. So far
this team has not been good at it. Seven to
thirty is twenty three percent. So for the game, the

(02:13):
Wildcats hit thirty five percent and Michigan State overall hit
fifty percent bench points, thirty four to twenty two, rebounds
forty two to twenty eight. So much of this came
down it seemed just a effort, and it just seemed
like Michigan State was playing harder than the Wildcats did.

(02:36):
And there is all kinds of conjecture on the interweb
today from media from fans about Michigan State playing for
the front of the jersey and Kentucky playing for the
back of the jersey, and so much has been made
about the amount of money Kentucky has spent on this roster.
So we will discuss that as the morning goes on.

(02:58):
As well. There is a right spot on campus today.
That's the UK women's team, which absolutely thumped Produce seventy
six to thirty five, did pretty much whatever I wanted
to do offensively, and held Purdue to nine points in
the second half. Claris Track seventeen points, thirteen rebounds, Jordan

(03:21):
Obie seventeen points, eight rebounds. Tony Morgan had foul trouble early,
sat for most of the first half, but ended up
with eleven points and six assists. So Kenny Brooks's team
was rolling last night. I was there, so I had
the Men's game up on my computer in front of me,
and I was watching basically two games at once to

(03:44):
entirely different games. More on these stories on the bud
Light Leach Report page at Tom leachky dot com. When
we come back, Chris Fisher joined us here on the
Leach Report. Welcome back, Dick Gabrielle sitting in for Tom
Leach on the Leach for Port. Coming to you from
the Clark's Pumping Shop studio. Remember to sign up for
the new Loyalty Rewards program. Joined now by Chris Fisher

(04:07):
of Cats Illustrated, part of the Rivals Network.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Good morning, Chris, Good morning.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
There had to be tough last night for anybody watching
that game, including you. Now you did tweet. I think
some level headed observations, including when you said to avoid
throwing the baby out with the bathwater and that Pope
did not luck his way into the inns record tying
eight wins over the ap top fifteen opponents last season.

(04:33):
But of course this is a different team, and you
refer to the secret sauce last year, whatever that might
have been. Is it any clear last year what it
was last year compared to this year.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, I think it's you know, it's been said that,
you know, Mark Pope has the ability to microwave chemistry,
and I think, you know, I think we definitely saw
some of that with last year's team, but as you mentioned,
that was a different team, and and this group certainly
does not seem as connected on either end of the floor.

(05:08):
And we've also seen it with some of these you know,
high priced rosters in college basketball during the portal era,
where they just kind of splinter apart and they play
for each other or play for themselves, so to speak. Yeah,
and to this point in the season, I just don't

(05:28):
think we've seen a team on the floor. We've just
kind of seen a collection of individuals out there. And
you know, whether that's on Mark Pope or whether it's
on the guys that he's brought in. Either way, you
know it when you see it, and we're seeing it
right now, especially the second straight game that Kentucky's been

(05:51):
down twenty to a power opponent and just has not
played particularly well. Now, I will say you have to
give them credit. I think the fight is there because
they fought back in both of those games. Yeah, you know,
they were they trailed by twenty to Louisville and got
it within four. And then they trailed last night by
twenty and got it within ten at one point kind

(06:12):
of midway through the second half. So I don't think
they laid down, but it just doesn't seem like they're
very connected right now.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
No, I couldn't agree more with you because watching and
I was there last year in New York, and they
just they just had a bad game. I think we
and as that season wore on, you had more of
an inclination to just dismiss the Oisle of State loss
as a bad game. But last night I kept saying,
who are these guys? You know, where is the effort?

(06:42):
I do wonder you have to wonder about the absence
of Jalen Lowe and of Jaden Quainton's And I think
those are two guys who do and have and will
play with more fire than we saw this Kentucky team
play with last night. But that cannot be the chief
reason and that happened last night, right.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, I mean, not having Jalen Lowe obviously affects your offense,
but it's not an excuse to not run any offense. Right,
It seems like Kentucky comes down and they just kind
of passively move the ball around the perimeter, and then
you know, either either take a bad shot that's not
really within the offense, or once the shot clock gets

(07:24):
under ten, whoever has the ball just kind of takes
their man. And this team is not the shooting team
that last year's team was. And so some of those
driving lanes that were there last season just are not there,
especially for a guy like will take a Oway. He's
not getting the easy drives to the basket that we
saw a season ago. And so, you know, this is

(07:47):
the type of team that you need to run your
offense and you need to create open shots. This is
not the kind of team that can just go one
on one and create for themselves or or for a teammate,
especially without that proven tre record of making shots from
the perimeter.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
Given the way Mark Pope's offense operates. And I'm no expert,
I don't know that you proclaimed to be, either, but
it's pretty evident. But how much of this do you
think Chris is Amari Williams not being any there anymore
because he seemed like the perfect pivot man literally and
figuratively for this kind of offense.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, I mean even when Lamon Butler went down last season,
you kind of had a de facto point guard in
Amari Williams who could operate as kind of the central
hub of the offense at the top of the key
and hit cutters, going to the rim and things like that.
We haven't seen very much of that this season. I
think mal Chai Moreno is a guy that's done a
good job with that. But you know, everybody talks about it,

(08:44):
take an Oway and how disappointing he's been to this
point in the season, and that is true, he hasn't
played well. But also a guy like Brandon Garrison, who
I thought, yeah, you know, I think a lot of
people felt like would take a big step forward. Not
only has he not taken a step up forward, he
may have taken a step back. Yeah. You know, we saw,

(09:04):
you know, what seemed like a lack of effort last
night and taking some bad shots. And you know, he's
he's kind of like a feast or fame and kind
of guy in ways He's gonna make some plays, but
he's also going to make some mistakes. You kind of
just kind of have to let, you know, give him
a little bit of a longer leash. But he's a
guy that just not has not played well to this

(09:25):
point in the season, and quite frankly, has been outplayed
by a freshman in Malacai Moreno.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah, and you do have to wonder about Garrison's effectiveness
last year being in part because of the guys who
were around him, And of course he's got different characters
around him. And I couldn't agree more about Malachai Moreno.
But he you know, he's a freshman and gets lost
on defense like freshman big men do sometimes. A couple
of minutes left with Chris Fisher of Cats Illustrated, Mark

(09:52):
Pope absolutely desponded after that game, you know, whereas you know,
and I don't want to get into comparing this to
his predecessor, but you might have heard somebody shrug it
off to wow, we needed a game like this, man.
This cuts Pope to the core, doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, And I think, you know, and I'm not sure
if it's just the fact that they're losing games, but
you know, I think this team has been out of character.
But I also think Mark Pope has been out of character.
He just hasn't really seemed like himself. I think he's
kind of made some kind of borderline bizarre comments after
some of these games that frankly, fans don't want to hear.

(10:30):
And if you're going to allude to certain things, then
you need to be specific about those things or else
don't throw those things out there at all. And so,
you know, it's kind of led to more questions than
answers at this point, just based on some of his
postgame comments. But you know, I think we saw some
of that last year with I think I particularly remember

(10:54):
the last to the House State and how he reacted
to that. I don't think he takes these losses well.
I think as a former Kentucky player, he takes him extremely,
extremely personally. But yeah, it seems like we've gotten a
different version of Mark Popele over the last ten days
or so.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Chris Fisher, thank you so much, and we'll look for
you within the confines of Cats Illustrated. Have a good day,
all right. Thanks boy Up Next Charles Walker, the former
football Wildcat. We'll talk about Kentucky and the Commodoores next
on the Leach Report. Welcome back to the Leach Report.
Dick Gabriel sitting in for the voice, talking as Tom
does every week with Charles Walker, the former Wildcat wide

(11:37):
receiver who is no doubt looking ahead excitedly to Kentucky Vanderbilt.
Good morning, Charles, Morning Dick.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
We got a three thirty kick and beautiful Nashville, Tennessee,
and the Cats are rolling.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
How wild is it where Kentucky is now versus one
month ago? Did you think it was possible? Be honest, Dick.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
I think we've seen growth. And someone asked me the
other day, you know what changed? And I said again,
I think growth is the answer. And I think you know,
after the game last week and two weeks prior, you know,
Cutter Bowley said, this team is playing for coach Stoups.
And I don't know what started to click or if
the offense opened up the playbook, but the teams playing

(12:19):
together were making plays and we're winning games.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Well, you're a guy who caught passes, so tell me
about the guy throwing passes. What have you seen of late?
And you've talked to Tom about it, You've talked with
me about Cutter Bowley. Just watching his he's blossoming as
a quarterback as a red shirt freshman has been remarkable.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
You know, I call it confidence and connection. You know,
he's he's learning these receivers. The receivers are knowing that
if they can have a glimpse of openness, Cutter's gonna
find them. And let's talk about his elusiveness. I mean,
he finds a way to extend plays, He finds a
way to potentially run over a Tennessee Tech dB when
he probably shouldn't have bud gets in the end zone.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
You know, to me, that just.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
Shows he's a fighter. And again, I think confidence is key,
especially when you're playing quarterback.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
You know, not to be throwing stones. But I think
back to when rich S Gangerrello got here and he
did the NFL thing, and a lot of people nodded
and me, including like, yeah, that's smart. He didn't want
Will Levis to run the ball as much as he
had the year prior. And of course we can picture
Will Levis hurtling a Louisville defensive back running into dbs

(13:28):
and linebackers plowing through them. Now as runners go, Cutter
Bowley is not Will Levice. But I really thought it
metaphorically and physically hurt Will Levis to not run the
ball under Skangarello. It made him more of a victim
in a pocket that was disappearing. Cutter Bowley being able
to extend plays with his legs, which he never had

(13:50):
to do in high school. I just think that's been
huge this year, don't you you know?

Speaker 3 (13:55):
And again I spoke earlier about opening up the playbook
and at the same time, you can't, you know, you
can't handcuff a quarterback. And I think you're right. There's
there's something to be said where when a coach is
telling you, hey, you can't do this, you can't do this,
it takes away from your confidence, it takes away from
the game scheme. And I think right now everyone in
that offensive meeting room saying, hey, guys, you know we're
putting up points, the defense is playing well, and we

(14:17):
can carry this into a win against a really good
Vanderbilt team at home. Yeah, you know, Dick, Vanderbilt ranks
I think fifth in the FBS and third down conversion
and I think this this our defense ranks roughly ninety fifth.
So I think it comes down to the turnover margin
and winning third down well obviously.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
And it's an old football maxium. The best defense a
good offense. Keep Diego Pavia on the sidelines watching Cutter
Bully move the change right and try to extend those
drives and play ball control coming up Saturday? Is that
is that the way they need to do it?

Speaker 3 (14:53):
You know, I think there's people much smarter than me
that's set these Vegas lives. The over unders what it's
at fifty three and so Vegas thinks there's gonna be
points again. I think Vanderbilt's turnover margin this year's plus
two and the Cats are around minus five. Now, granted
these might be a bit skewed because Cutter Bowie won
our quarterback starts first couple of games. I think it's

(15:13):
gonna come down to, yes, the offense playing a good game. Listen,
Vanderbilt's gonna score. Pavier is a great quarterback. They run
the ball with him, they pass the ball with him.
You stop Pavier, you win third down, you win the
turnover battle. And I don't see a chance where if
we do all three of those things, we don't leave
at the w.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
They need to stress that Vandy defense as best they
can the way they have. And one of those in
this I know does your heart good. Is a wide
receiver spraying the ball around to anybody who's open. Somebody
was complaining that they don't really have a go to receiver.
To me, that's a good thing. Do you see it
that way? You know I do?

Speaker 3 (15:46):
And you know, I think Bowlie's getting the ball out
quick and extending plays when there's nothing there at the beginning.
I like these quick passes, getting the ball in Kendrick
Loll's hands. He's obviously a dynamic playmaker. But like you said,
you've got you've got Gilmore, You've got the whole crew there.
That that is kind of picking up slack. So I
don't know if we have a wide receiver one, but
we definitely have a one A, one B and one C.

(16:08):
And I like the way it looks well.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
It definitely was low with eleven targets and eleven catches
against Tennessee Tech. I've got about a minute left, but
it's gonna be weird, Charles, isn't it when you when
you went down to Vandy as a player, Uh, half
the stands at least were blue. And now people are
showing up to watch Vanderbilt. Vandy fans are showing up,
which I guess is good for the league, right.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Yeah, And you know, I think Clark Lee's done, done
a great job there, and you know it just comes
to show you in this in this new version of
college football. You know, I think the fan bases are
not only playing a big part when it comes to Saturday,
but of course when it comes to n I l uh, Dick.
There's one thing I know now that if you were
to ask a Kentucky fan to donate three weeks ago,
I think the answer might have been not until he's gone.

(16:51):
But if you ask him right now, I think people
are opening their wallets. So I think it's great for
the program.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
The only thing about NIL is, you know, program knee
you to donate when they're struggling. That's why they're struggling.
You know, they need better players. But everybody likes to
be on a bandwagon. But this bandwagon could carry everybody
to a bowl game again. I mean, that's that's just incredible,
isn't it, Yo, Dick.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
The Cats fans are crazy because they care. That's that's
how all in the call. You know, I think there's
still be a lot of blue in Nashville. It's obviously
a great city to visit. I'll tell you what, It's
even more fun when you can leave after the game,
wearing your blue prout because we get the W.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah. I have some fun on West End Avenue and
celebrate a win which has happened many times. Gonna be
tough this weekend, but Charles Walker will be watching and listening,
and we'll talk with Tom next week about Kentucky and
the Commoners. Thank you so much. Have a great weekend, sir,
Thanks Dick Gocats. I will say this that when Vandy
played LSU and played well against LSU, somehow that purple

(17:52):
and gold gout in it seemed like half that stadium
was LSU fans. But it's been all commonores, it seems
this year when we come back, Mike de Corsi of
the Sporting News here on the Leach Report. Welcome back
to the Leach Report. Dick Gabriel sitting in for the Voice,
and we're joined now by Mike the Corsi of the
Sporting News, as Tom is each and every Weekod.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
Morning, Mike, Good morning, Dick. How are you?

Speaker 1 (18:15):
I am well? Thank you so much. You have seen
so much in your travels and career as a college
basketball writer. And I'm wondering were you sitting in slack
jawed amazement last night watching Kentucky Michigan State, as many
of us were.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
Yeah, I was very surprised by I mean, I think
one of the things that needs to be recognized is
that although ultimately Kentucky played a significant role in why
Michigan State was able to continue to shoot comfortably in

(18:53):
the second half, this is a team that had really
struggled to make three point shots prior to last night.
So I think there was there was a smidge of
bad luck on Kentucky's part that has to be acknowledged.
That they obviously encouraged or allowed or whatever verb you
want to use Michigan State to get comfortable in their

(19:15):
three point game. But they made shots they haven't made
all year, and you know, good good for Michigan State
if they can make them again. But I think they're
still they're still even among their fan base approve it element,
can we do this again? That sort of thing. So
I think that's part of it. And I'll tell you
what really amazed me, Dick was the post the post

(19:36):
game reaction from the media. I saw a lot of
my colleagues pounding about the twenty two million dollars figure out. Now,
first of all, I guess that's right. I don't know.
I don't have the like I don't have the salary
cap figures or whatever like we get from the MLS
or MLBPA or NFL or whatever. I don't know that

(19:59):
there's a spot track number for Kentucky. I don't think
there is. But who cares how much it costs. It
doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
It's not my money.

Speaker 4 (20:10):
It might it might matter to the people who donated,
but it doesn't matter to college basketball how much Kentucky
spent on the roster.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
They're supposed to be good, whether.

Speaker 4 (20:19):
They spent two dollars or two or twenty two million.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
I guess it came up last night. I can only
imagine it did not cross my mind, to be honest
with you, but my mind didn't really work that way.
But just because it seemed like last night the issue
was effort, So that was kind of the lowest hanging fruit,
wasn't it. Well, these guys are being paid a gazillion dollars.
Michigan State's roster isn't anywhere near that costly. That must

(20:47):
be the difference, you know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (20:49):
Yeah, I don't think that's the difference in the least.
I think they lost confidence a couple of those three
pointers that weren't on the scouting report, so to speak.
UH went in for Michigan State, and Kentucky has struggled
a bit to be who they thought they'd be. And

(21:10):
I don't I don't think it's like here, I am,
you know, trying to explain this, but I don't think
that you look at Kentucky and say, how can this
team not be as good as the team we thought
they would be when they're not the team they we
thought they'd be. We thought they would have Jalen low
at point guard, and they don't have Jalen Low at
point guard. They they kind of had them against Louisville.

(21:33):
I don't know that that version of Jalen Lowe really
UH made would have made the impact necessary. I don't
know that he could have made the impact necessary in
that matchup on that stage in his conditions. I just
I just think that we have to we have to,
as as viewers, as analysts, as fans in the cases

(21:56):
of many people listening to us, I have to sit
there and sit back and say, Okay, what's wrong and
how can it be fixed?

Speaker 2 (22:05):
And how well can it be fixed?

Speaker 4 (22:07):
And you saw last night I mean, I've said all
year that Denzel Aberdeen is the best third guard in America.
But right now, he's not a third guard. He's got
to be your starting point guard. And that's not yet
who he is. He may be by February, but he's
not that player yet.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
It's difficult to expect him to replicate what he did
against Louisville statistically on a nightly basis. I mean, for
a guy whose job, to your point, his job now
is to handle the ball and distribute. Oh yes, and
by the way, you still need twenty six points from him,
And that's not realistic, is it.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
No? And it's not ideal. It's not what you want. Really,
you want six or seven assists from him. You want
elite on ball defense, which he didn't do last night.
And you want him to get the ball to other
players who who are and and to be an outlet
when the ball when the when the initial offense doesn't

(23:06):
work and the ball comes back to him to be
dangerous either on the catch and drive and make the
defense breakdown, or if he's wide open to make the shot.
That's the ideal point guard scenario, and he still has
to lean into that. He still has to figure out
how to be that. He's never been that. He's been that.
Last year at Florida he was that for about eight

(23:30):
minutes a game on average, and in the biggest games
significantly less. Uh that that's that's exactly what you want
him to be. I think what you need to see
from this team is you need to see otega Oway
gain comfort with the idea that, yeah, it's kind of
got to be you to start this, You've got to

(23:51):
be better. And it's taking him a while to understand
how to be that player. But it's not it's not
a new thing. It's not new for a player who
has been a complimentary player and an excellent one to
have some difficulty transitioning to being a primary player and
becoming an excellent one at that.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
He is Mike Decursia The Sporting News, the preeminent college
basketball writer in America in my opinion, We'll come back
and talk more basketball with Mike on the other side
of the break here on the Leach Report. Welcome back
to the Leach Report. Dick Gabriel sitting in for The Voice.
The Leach Report, presented by bobcat Enterprises for locations in Kentucky,
when you need to rent or buy heavy equipment, google

(24:34):
them to find the closest location to you. We're talking
to Mike de Corsi, as Tom does every Wednesday, Mike
of course with the Sporting News TSN Mike on Twitter,
and we're talking naturally about Kentucky Michigan State last night.
We'll talk about a couple of other things before we
let Mike go. But Mike, I wanted to pick up
on something you mentioned before the break. You mentioned Otega Oway,

(24:56):
who had been a complimentary player at Oklahoma as we
all know last year, he absolutely, I don't want to
say exploded, but he was really an integral part of
the Kentucky attack last season. But this was a year
that began with him being a complimentary player again as
we know. But then Jackson Robinson goes down, Lamont Butler

(25:17):
goes down, and Otega always shouldered such a heavy load.
So well that, yeah, we expected it this year, and
I'm I guess maybe that's what surprises me most of all. MICUs.
He admitted that his own effort has been an issue
up to this point. That's a head scratcher to me.
How about you?

Speaker 4 (25:38):
You know, I think that players sort of search for
explanations when when they get into circumstances like this, Do
I really think he's not playing hard enough? No, I
think he's not playing confidently enough. You know. I often
say that if you tell an athlete to run straight ahead,
straight ahead, straight line, just runs straight to that, you know,

(26:01):
to that tree over there, they're gonna run fast. And
then you tell them, okay, you got to run straight ahead,
but you got to do this, that and the other
thing along the way. And now all of a sudden
they're like, well, where do you want me to go?
And then they're not getting there fast. And that's the difference.
I don't think he fully understands the role now. And look,
I don't blame him for that. Like I said, there

(26:22):
are lots of athletes who in college basketball who at
one point are one thing in their careers, the complimentary player.
I mean, a year ago, he was the leading scorer,
but he wasn't the fulcrum of the offense. And now
we say, okay, well you're kind of gonna need to
be that guy so everything else works. And that becomes

(26:44):
exacerbated by the fact that you're not playing with an
experienced point guard, so you don't get maybe quite the
looks that you ordinarily would or should in that role,
and it's just harder. And I think that what he
has right now is a lack of confidence in the
role that he needs to fill. And I think he

(27:05):
needs to fill it because I'm not sure that there's
anybody else on the team.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
That's equipped to do that.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, if he.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
Doesn't, If he doesn't do this, like who else is
going to It's not like you've got a guy sitting
there that's an obvious candidate and you could say, hey, Otaga,
go back to what you were last year. You were
great at that and we'll be happy to have that,
because I don't know that you have that player, And.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
That's something Mark Pope has to figure out, has to
help Otago oh Way obviously has to help everybody, and man,
I have seen him despond it. In fact, last year,
I was up in the garden after that Ohio State
lost and as I walked out of the media room,
I saw him talking to Tom Leach on the postgame show.
Tom was recording it and Mark was slumped against the

(27:49):
wall in the hallway. Body language said it all. I
can't imagine what it was like last night for Tom.
But I've seen the postgame news conference and just some
really comments by Mark Pope, who's at a loss. A
lot of people believe that the best thing to do
is just tear into your team at this point, that's

(28:10):
not Mark Pope. Mark Pope is not Rick Bettino. But
I'm really curious to see how he responds and how
his team responds to him, you know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (28:19):
Oh? Absolutely, And we saw last year. It's a great
comparison to go back to that Ohio State game. I
remember the team that they got drilled by last year
didn't even end up making the NCAA tournament, and this
Kentucky team went through some really difficult challenges after that.
I mean a little more than a month later, you

(28:39):
lose Lamont Butler, later on, you lose Jackson Robinson, and
you still wind up in the Sweet sixteen having a
very successful year. This SEC is not going to be
like last year's SEC. I mean, you don't have to
be you don't have to be great just to survive
every night. If you get to great, you're gonna win

(29:02):
a lot of games. And I don't think that that's
beyond this team obviously. I feel better about it if
Jalen Lowe were in place and healthy. I don't know
whether we're going to see that or not, but I
do think that they still can find a gear even
if they have to go with Aberdeen as their primary

(29:23):
point guard. I still think there's a way to get
to be successful. I just don't think last night they
played with great confidence or cohesion, and we know that
Mark is going to work to address that.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
Before I let you go, once again, you have blessed
us with common sense, as you often do on Twitter,
and I always commend you for that. But you had
a great line about the college football Playoff Committee in
third grade, like they're in the third grade of the
men's basketball committee finishing the masters. Although we also agree
that they shouldn't screw around with the bracketing with the

(29:57):
field of sixty eight. But is it that simple? I mean,
the ken the football playoff committee, how many lessons or
what kinds of lessons should they take from the basketball committee?

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Well?

Speaker 4 (30:08):
I think that first of all, there's there has to
be an understanding on the football committee that their data
is is weak and they don't have enough intersectional competition
at interconference competition to really make great judgments about the
value of this win that win. It's it's hard, so

(30:30):
I think you have you first have to cover the
easy stuff. So like, if you have a two foot putt,
make it and and Notre Dame in Miami played one another,
they play and and and Miami won the football game.
Now does that necessarily mean Miami is superior. Well, it
was a Miami home game, so there's that. But I

(30:50):
think if you're at the very least, there should be
almost no separation between those two teams. One can't be
ninth and one can't be well, I think it lasted
was ninth and fifth, and I think now it's ninth
and twelfth or something like that. But if you're going
to judge Notre Dame to be ninth, tell me why.
Because they beat SC Well, that's a good win. But

(31:12):
Michigan did that too, and Michigan's not at ninth and
so and I think, if I remember right, Michigan may
even have done it on the road. I'm not positive
about that one, but I know they did it. I
know they beat the Trojan, So I don't think that's
a good enough reason. I think that too much of
football analysis, especially at this level is how pretty are you?

Speaker 1 (31:35):
Like?

Speaker 2 (31:35):
How good do you look? That?

Speaker 4 (31:37):
And that's one thing that while it exists within the
NCAA Men's Basketball Committee, if you look.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
At it, the strictest.

Speaker 4 (31:48):
Adherence is to WHOJA beat and where'd you beat them?
That's that you can see that as someone who's done
the selections for the projections for Fox now for five
years with a tournament six years overall, I mean, I
can tell you that the first place everybody should look
is not the net rankings this that the other they

(32:10):
should look at the record metrics, the winds above bubble,
the KPI strength, the record for ESPN. Those are the
metrics that have the most adherents to what eventually comes
out of the selection room in the NCAA tournament.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
There you go confusing everybody with common sense. But I
hope you keep doing it, Mike. You know I'm a fan.
Thank you so much for your time. Have a good day.

Speaker 4 (32:37):
Always a pleasure, Dick, you too, Mike.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
The Corsi of The Sporting News and again on Extra
Twitter at TSN Mike, And in this day of hot takes,
when everybody wants to jump to as many conclusions as possible,
Mike weighs in, but it's always with a huge dose,
as I said, of common sense. Try it, you'll like it.
We'll come back and wrap up this edition of the
Leach Report. Welcome back, final segment of the Leads Report,

(33:03):
presented by Bob Kat Enterprises. And before we get to
this day in UK history, I wanted to just recognize
the fact that I've lost a friend and a former colleague,
and a big blue nation has lost one of its own,
and that's Randy Burke. Randy was a wide receiver played
under fran Kersey, was a senior on that Peach Bowl team.
Randy's had some health issues through the years, but was

(33:24):
a cancer survivor a successful businessman once his career ended.
In the NFL, Randy was a first round draft pick
and incredible story. He was a wide receiver and essentially
a verer option kind of team. I know, Derek Ramsey,
you didn't play the VERA, but that helps people understand
what kind of option or offense it was. And so
Randy didn't catch a lot of balls in his senior year.

(33:46):
He only caught like ten or eleven passes all year long.
Really fast, great hands, he had huge hands. I can
tell you because I used to say, put your hand
up here, let me see how big that hand is.
And he went an All Star game, a Senior Bowl
type of game, was invited just because of his sheer
speed and maybe Frank Cursey got him an invite. He

(34:07):
caught more balls in that one game than he did
his entire senior year, and as a result, and because
of the workouts around the game, he went from being
a surefire free agent to a number one draft pick
by the Baltimore Colts back when they had Burt Jones,
who Randy said had the greatest arm he had ever
seen in football. So he had an NFL career and

(34:30):
he was the number three receiver for the Colts and
was a wedge buster too, which led him to some
concerns about CT and all that kind of thing. But
we lost him a couple of nights ago. Died in
his sleep. As I understand it, so melancholy happy trails.
As Tony Kohneizer says to Randy Burke, my my friend
from WKYT is one of our salespeople. But I covered

(34:52):
his career at Kentucky. Now a year later after Randy graduated,
This day in history presented by Kentucky road Show Sports
Cards and Memorabilia and Lexington. Learn more about them at
roadshowcards dot com. On this date, Kentucky beat Tennessee twenty
one to seventeen and finished up a ten to one season. Now,
that was at a time when beating Tennessee was great.

(35:15):
That was a lot of fun. But it happened as
often as not. That preceded that ugly run of Tennessee victories,
and it happened thanks in large part to Derrick Ramsey.
Down the stretch, playing with a bruised shoulder. Kentucky was
trailing seventeen fourteen. They took Ramsey out. Cursey, I remember,

(35:36):
I'll never forget this. Cursey took Ramsey out, put in
Mike Deaton. The back of Mike had a tremendous arm.
Everybody knew what was gonna happen. He hit Felix Wilson
a wide out with a thirty six yard pass to
start the winning drive. And then Ramsey came right back
in and with that poor shoulder made some big plays,

(35:57):
including a third and five situation at the Tennessee thirty nine.
Ramsey went six yards for the first down, ended up
finishing the drive with a one yard touchdown run. It
was an eighty yard drive in the fourth quarter that
cemented that win over Tennessee on this state back in
nineteen seventy seven. It completed an undefeated run, six to

(36:20):
zero and the sec for the Wildcats. Of course, they
couldn't celebrate, well, they did, but couldn't celebrate officially a
Southeastern Conference championship because they were on NCAA probation, couldn't
go to a bowl game. But that for my money,
at least, Modern Era is the greatest team in UK
football history and they beat Tennessee on this state in
nineteen seventy seven.