2025-12-16- LEACH REPORT

Tom talks with Larry Vaught, Jon Hale, and Jenn Lefshin.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good day, everybody. Welcome into the Leach Report for this Tuesday,
always presented by Bob kNN Enterprises coming up on a
show today, Well lead out with Larry Vaught. I'm sure
we'll talk a good bit of Kentucky volleyball as well
as other topics with Greg Skinner in Coveany headed off
to Kansas City to play Wisconsin on Thursday night, nine

(00:22):
o'clock Eastern on ESPN. Coach Skinner was on the Coach
Pope Radio Show last night, and then John Hale from
the Herald Leader. We'll talk some Kentucky football with John
and Jenna Leftan from the Kentucky Colonel will join us
at a good article last week. I think it was
last week about otega Oway and the leadership that is

(00:45):
emerging from him, so we'll talk with her about that.
That's the lineup today. Wildcat News of the Day presented
by jes Sepis of Lexington. This night, Mark Pope Radio
Show included a little bit of an update on Jayden
Quaintan's nothing definitive, but Coach Pope did say in response
to a question from a listener that it is getting close.

(01:09):
He said today that they would do full court work
with JQ for the first time since he's been at Kentucky,
and he's of course coming back from knee surgery for
an injury suffered late last season at Arizona State, and
Pope said they're down to days and hours, days and
weeks anymore. So it didn't sound like that it would

(01:31):
be this this week for the Saint John's game, But
who knows. We'll see. At this point, I think he
shouldn't and really he can't make definitive statements because is
he's going through the process with the medical folks. They
have to see how he responds to something like ramping

(01:51):
up more activity today doing the full court work, and
then how does he respond, you know, the next day
after that in terms of is there any swelling those
kinds of things. So the thing reason why these questions
are hard for coaches to answer frequently is because you
don't know the answer for sure until you go through
the process. Pope also talked about the shooting for this team,

(02:17):
and he said he's not convinced that it is a
team of bad shooters. He cited the Noah shooting system,
and it's not the Trent Noah shooting system, as I
jokingly said last night is a system that came from
the NBA. I think it was John Welch that brought
this in when cal was here. And it's a very

(02:38):
advanced piece of technology that has facial recognition, as Pope explained,
and it can track all elements of a shot. For instance,
Goose and I were toggled with Colin Chandler one day
and very good three point shooter obviously shoots a much
higher arc on his shot than others do, and we
were just chatting with him how that came out about,

(03:00):
and he didn't really have a definitive answer. He just
said that's the way he's always done it and it's
worked for him. But he did make reference to the
Noah system and the data that he's gotten back from that,
and Pope is convinced. And by the way, the numbers,
not just for Colin before several players on the team
are at a level that convinces Coach Pope that the

(03:24):
numbers in practice will eventually translate to games. He's been
around this Noah system before and says when the over time,
the numbers tend to match up and if you're basically
if you're shooting well in practice, you will eventually shoot
well in games, so we will see if that holds

(03:45):
up for now, though, he said that he believes finding
ways to win without having great shooting can make them
better to be able to win different ways when you
get into those tight games. In March, he said quote,
I thought we took a step forward and understand how
hard we have to play to win in that win
over Indiana. Last Saturday, Football officially announced the hiring of

(04:08):
offensive coordinator Joe Sloan from LSU. He said that he
has known will Stein for a long time, which I
thought was no worthy because we didn't know about the relationship.
And the fact that they've known each other for a
long time speaks to why Will would go this route.

(04:28):
Because he is an outstanding play caller himself, Will Stein,
and so if he's going to give up that to
be the head coach, then one would think that the
best way for it to work would be have somebody
that he is aligned has been aligned with for a
while in terms of their thinking. So we'll learn more

(04:50):
about all of that as Joe Sloane comes on board here.
I did note that he was a player at East
Carolina and he was actually on the roster, didn't play
in the game, but was a quarterback on the roster
for that Liberty Bowl game down in Memphis in two
thousand and January of two thousand and nine. Now, he

(05:11):
didn't have any stats in the game, so maybe he
was on the roster and he wasn't there. I don't know,
but he was on the East Carolina roster that season.
Links to the stories we talk about you always find
on the bud Light Leach Report page at Tom Leachky
dot com. Gonna head to a break when we come back,
Larry Vaught will lead us off our opening segments, presented

(05:33):
by Giuseppes of Lexington. Look, we're getting a little late
on getting those Christmas gift cards in the mail. Maybe
you could still pull it off, but probably your best
option if you need a last minute gift and you're
not sure what to get at Jiuseppes gift card you're
thinking could be the ideal thing, Well, you can get
them emailed to you, or you can if you're here
close by swing by the restaurant is I'm going to

(05:56):
plan to do to pick up dinner for a little
gathering we're having tonight, So pick up your gift cards
at Guseppe's or get them through email and they could
come to your rescue. Giuseppes. Lexington dot Com is the website.
It's the Leach Report Radio Network and we're presented by
Bobcat Enterprises. Quarter past the top of the hour. Leach
Report comes to you each day from the Clark's Pumping

(06:16):
Shop studio. Return, refresh and refuel at Clark's. And we
welcome in Larry Vaught to the program from your sports
edge dot com and at vot's views on social media,
and we will start with volleyball. Larry is the Wildcats
have won their way to Kansas City, where I guess

(06:37):
they're now the favorite, right even though they lost to
pitt during the season, they're the highest seed left. What
do you know about the matchup with Wisconsin.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
I know the Wisconsin's got one really good player, her
name escapes me right now, one of the four finalists
for National Player of the Year. I know they're really
playing well right now and they're not not astrake injury
to being in the final four. So I think it'll
be a difficult matchup for Kentucky. But one I think

(07:07):
if I was on the Kentucky side, I'd rather be
facing Wisconsin than trying to be Texas.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
For a third time.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah, when the matches were scheduled on Sunday, I was
watching Texas A and M and Nebraska at one point,
and then you know, New Texas was coming up. But
I was kind of having the same thought. It's like,
you know, that last match was of Texas was quite
challenging for the Wildcats. It was an incredible comeback, and
now I'm thinking they're going to have to maybe do

(07:35):
something like that again. And then it turns out it's Wisconsin,
so maybe they can settle a score for another sport
from twenty fifteen.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yes, that would be That would be really really nice.
And of course the flip side is Wisconsin's going to
deal with Kentucky. And I think it's a hard matchup
for anybody right now because they are really playing well.
They have just numerous people that are playing well. Of Course,
Brooklyn Delay and Eva Hudson have just been sensational all season,
but Mally Tezzo at vero, some of the defensive places

(08:09):
she's making have just been out of this world. And
Cassie O'Brien at setter has been good, really good. The
lace month and then the thing that gets me is
just well two things. One just the effort they play with.
I mean, it's just so much fun to watch. And
then how Craig Skinner just seems to have that magic on.
He just taps somebody on the shoulder, sends them in

(08:31):
and whoever it is, it's just playing really well and
doing exactly what he needed them to do. And it
could be one or two different people each match, but
whatever he sees and what he does, it's worked brilliantly.
And that's the advantage of having depth, and he's used
it so so well all season and hopefully it gives
them another advantage on Thursday against Wisconsin.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
He came on the Coach Pope Show last night and
Coach Pope asked Coach Skinner a question of out, you know,
how he's built this operation at Kentucky, and it was
an interesting answer. Gave you a little insight into, you know,
what his thinking was in constructing this dynasty basically, and

(09:14):
he said it started with two positions and it wasn't
the positions that are you win a lot of the
awards that are played by Eva Hudson and Brooklyn Delay
and others before them, he said, it was the center
and the libiro, so the point guard and the best defender.

(09:35):
And that's kind of what he's always looking for, is
to be have, you know, is outstanding of players he
can have at those two positions. Is kind of where
it starts for him. I thought that was interesting.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah, and he's his success rates pretty good just over
the last nine years, he said, immigron or Vassavilli, immigroan
with now Cassie O'Brien hopefully for three more years after
this at that center spot, and then has been just
terrific at the libiro this year. I mean, she's I
think the best of the nation.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
Certainly in the matches I've watched.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
And things, I've not seen anybody any better than her.
But like I said, when you're so good at those
two positions and then you can throw in two players
like Hudson and Delay to go with them, you're going
to be really, really good. And like I say, the
pieces around them. Asia thig then just continues to amaze
me what she can do. I mean, she's five eleven,
it's not like she's five to two. But when you're

(10:29):
playing up there where she's playing five eleven is considered
kind of short in volleyball now, and she just keeps.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
Getting it done. And then you can.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Talk what you ought about Mark Pope's recruiting boy did
a good job helping get Lizzie Carr here.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
She's sure in the.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Last three four weeks, I think it's been probably maybe
the biggest difference on the team with the way she's
played in that middle. She's just changed the dynamic of
everything for Kentucky with what she's doing for him there.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
In the middle.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, you were telling me that last Thursday when Selia
over at the coliseum watching the cal Poly match. Sorry
to cough. What is it about what Lizzie has brought
to this that has taken the team's game to another level?

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Well, she just has become such a good defensive presence
there in that middle with her size and link. And
then she's also now really kind of turned up her
offensive game. And I think her and Cassie O'Brien seemed
just like have a really good connection, and Cassie just
knows when and where the center and when she does
it seems like about eighty five percent of the time,

(11:33):
Lizzie just kills it and kills it in a big
in a big way, so it's made it a little
bit harder I think for teams to load up trying
to stop delay in Hudson, or if they do, then
that's really opened it up for Lizzie and she's taken
full advantage of.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
It with what she's been able to do, and it's just.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Given them a different dimension there that they haven't always
had and not every team has all of that and
just one more weapon for them to use. Cassie O'Brien
seems to be setting them all up perfectly to take
advantage of that.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
You're reference player from Wisconsin. I found the name. It's
Mimi Collier from Wisconsin that as their star player that
Kentucky will have to deal with on Wednesday night. Let
us shift gears talk a little bit about Kentucky basketball.
I think you're and you and I are at the
on the age spectrum of the fan base that were

(12:26):
particularly happy to see the Kentucky Indiana series come back
onto the schedule and they'll be playing annually at least
for the time being, so that will be a fun
game moving forward. But this one in particular was quite
necessary for Mark Pope's team.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Absolutely and it didn't start out looking like it was
gonna get the result that they needed, but that they
hung in there in the second half, played really well
and did things to make you think, wow, going forward,
if this you can see this team doing those kinds
of things and maybe there's some hope for them.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
Yet they just had to get out.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
There and get a win.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
No way it's going to be an ugly win.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
Against Indiana, because any win is going to be a
really good win for this team. Now, I'm anxious to
see can they one are low and debt it's going
to stay healthy now, and then two could they kind
of build build on this and then get the offense
in a little bit better flow to where they won't
have to hold a team to sixty five points to

(13:28):
be able to win a game. But it was nice
to see the effort was really good and they got
the plays that they needed to make a play, they
had somebody make them, and Mo came in and just
did the things I think he was expected to do
when he came here. And then again, there's no doubt
that Shalen Low makes a huge difference when he's out
there at point guard, just with the things that he

(13:48):
can do that other players came through because they're not
true point guards.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah, that's what's going to be interesting moving forward now,
because it looks like they've they're on the right track defensively,
they where they need to be still not there offensively,
And Coach Pope talks him about that last night. He
still thinks they can be to be much better shoot,
to be a much better shooting team. I think, well

(14:13):
that to happen, it will be because of them growing
with Jalen Lowe getting more and more time and getting reps,
with him running the offense and setting guys up.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
Absolutely, the more he can get used to things, the
better it will be. And then if you get better shots,
you usually make more shots. But again, they do have
to make shots because no matter who's that there, playing
offense is always going to look a lot better if
some of those shots are going in. And I think
it's kind of I know, it's kind of bewildering to
Mark that they have not shot better than what they do,

(14:49):
because I just don't think he's a coach that embellishes
when he tells you all that, Tom Leech, he's just
killing it in practice and he's knocking those shots down.
I just don't think Mark makes that kind of stuff up,
and he's just not one guy to do that, and
I think it is bewildering to him while the results
that he's seeing in games don't equal what he's seeing
in practice.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
I really thought Kay Williams was going to get a
little hot the other night when he got that first
one to bounce. It kind of took the Patrick Sparks
trip around the rim before it found its way into
the basket, and I thought, Okay, this will get him going.
And any shot went over the rim later second half,
so it's not there yet, But I do think for
a guy like that, I mean, the numbers were so

(15:29):
good at Tulane, I have to think it's going to come.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
And I thought he had a kind of an unsung
type of game. I thought things for them that really
helped them out there on the court on both ends.
And the more they get him going, the better they're
going to be. I think he could be the one
guy that could be a really big key for them
going forward, and just to see him make any shot
is good. But I just think the more he plays

(15:54):
and gets in a flow, probably this SHOT's going to
come and maybe on these days he'll hit three or
fourthason the same game and is really get rolling. And
like you say, he showed he could do it at
Tu Lane, so there's no reason to think he can't
do it. He just hasn't got him to follow yet.
But I still believe he could be a big key
for him And to see what he did against Indiana, I.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
Thought was pretty crucial to their win.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
Larry Vaught, thank you much. All right, Tom, It is
the Leech Report, and you can read Larry's work at
your sports edge dot com. Hear him on the Sunday
Morning Sports Talk Show with Anthony White and Jack Pilgrim
and Bo Robinson each Sunday morning. Here in Lexington, we'll
be right back with John Hale. Leats Report presented by
Bobcat Enterprises. We welcome John Hale to the program from

(16:38):
Kentucky Sports dot com and the Lexington Herald Leader and John,
Kentucky's new football coach is putting together his staff. Is
it completely finalized yet? I know it's I mean not
officially in terms of releases by the school, but from
what you can tell, is it pretty much all together?

Speaker 4 (16:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (16:55):
I mean I think there's still a couple open spots.
They haven't really said what they're doing a tight end.

Speaker 4 (17:00):
And then the defensive staff is, you know, we don't
really know specific roles yet, and part of that is
we still don't really know how Jay Bateman, the reported
defensive coordinator higher is going to like structure their defense.
I mean his reputation as being fairly multiple. So what
exactly the titles on that side of the ball. I
think we're still going to have to wait and find out,

(17:20):
but it looks like it's getting near completion.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
Sure sounded like from what I read about the new
DC that he is a little like Brad White in
terms of being multiple fronts. I mean they can do
some four man, some three man and go back and forth,
which is what Kentucky was doing already with his personnel.

Speaker 5 (17:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (17:37):
I read an interview he did with the North Carolina
twenty four seven sports site when he was the DC there,
and basically his reputation had been at base three to
four and he said that's really overrated in this era
of college football to say what your base is, because
everybody doses multiple fronts and you got to be able
to be flexible there. I mean, if we remember Mark
Stoops came in as a four to three guy, and

(17:58):
a couple of years in they changed four three four More.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
With John Hale about Kentucky football. Will we come right back.
It is the Leech Report Radio Network. It's the Leach
Report Tuesday Edition presented by Bobcat Enterprises. And if you
have a need to buy or rent a piece of
heavy equipment, maybe for snow removal, something like that, Bobcats excavators, forklifts, whatever,

(18:23):
they will have it at Bobcat Enterprises. They give you
fantastic service after the sale. John Hale's with us from
Kentucky Sports dot Com and the Lexington Herald Leader, and
we're tucking. Kentucky football official announcement came yesterday of the
hiring Joe Sloan as the OC and he said in
the release, John that he'd known Will Stein for a

(18:44):
long time. And you know, we'll gradually start to find
out details as Will comes back here from his job
at Oregon when that's wrapped up, and how some of
his decisions came about. But I would think for a
guy that is regarded as an outstanding play caller as
Will Stein, is that to give up that particular primary

(19:08):
responsibility to be the head coach. You want to have
somebody that you're in sync with and not just a
good guy with a good rep to be your offensive coordinators.
So I thought that they will. We'll find out what
their relationships about. But the fact that Joe Sloan said
he's known him a long time, I thought was kind

(19:28):
of a noteworthy piece of information.

Speaker 4 (19:31):
Yeah. I talked to Jeff Traylor, the head coach at
UTSA a few weeks ago, he's one of Will's main mentors,
and asked about that relationship, and it feels like the
three of them have just like known each other for
a while from crossing paths and you know, the Texas
High School and Louisiana scenes, because they're all down there
and recruiting at various places. And then obviously Trailer when
he was at UTSA and then Joe Sloan was at

(19:54):
Louisiana Tech, they coached against each other, and so I
think that endorsement certainly helped. I thought it was fascinating
talking to Trailer out that decision for Stein to stop
calling plays and as a head coach, how do you
make that call? And and he said, don't be don't
be fooled, even though he may not be the one
radio in and then on game day, he's going to
be in all those offensive meetings and they're going to
script out on Thursday, you know, what what are our

(20:15):
play calls for third and six, What are our play
calls for third and two? And what order are we
going in? And so Will's going to still be super
involved in that. But it's it's definitely important to have
a guy you trust and know you can get in there.
And then Sloan is also a great recruiter from all loncations.
It's clearly a good quarterbacks coach from what he did
at LSU with Jade Daniel and Garrett us Meyer. So
like that, that part of it, I think it's a

(20:36):
It makes it a pretty obvious fit for Kentucky these days.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
The quarterback the if you can find the right guy
there in a in a top level guy, gives you
a chance. You could put Pavia did down at Vanderbilt,
uh short of the reaction to the Heisman, but what
he did on the field, how you know, transformative a
quarterback and be and so one would think with will

(21:03):
Stein's reputation and what he's putting together he'll be able
to regularly get the kinds of quarterbacks that he would
like to get. And if you do that, you generally
will the rest I would think kind of follows because
top receivers, linemen, whatever, want to be around really good
quarterbacks helps them get noticed.

Speaker 4 (21:25):
Yeah. Absolutely, And I think it's important to note too.
I mean, like, clearly, recruiting in Kentucky and recruiting and
Oregon are two different things, given an organ's national success
and their kind of status as immediate national title contender
every year. But the quarterbacks they took in the portal
at Oregon and Stein's three years there, I mean like,
obviously they turned into great national player the year, kind
of candidate's early around draft picks, but it was no

(21:47):
certainty that they were those guys when they took them,
Like there was some real debate over how they performed
at their previous schools and what kind of works they had,
and so like, being a guy who clearly evaluated the
quarterback market, didn't just take the guy with the best
that to the best you know, recruiting repp or whatever
and still turn them into and had to see us
they did. That speaks well to me for what he'll

(22:07):
be able to do in Kentucky. So maybe he can't
get you know, Bonix or or Going Gabriel or whoever
at Kentucky, but he can find a guy who on
paper you might say, like what exactly does he see here,
and then turn it into something that really helps them.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
On three Sports is reporting the quarterback Stone Saunders is
entering the transfer portal, and I think we all go
back to the Hall Mummy line quarterbacks are born to transfer,
which was true, that was in the late nineties when
House hit that, and it's even more true today because
you try to get more than one good one, but

(22:40):
it's always going to that now especially harder than ever
to keep them. But what about the quarterback situation for
the guys that are here? And he guess as to
what Will Stein and Joe Sloan are thinking about what
they have and what they want to add. Yeah, I
mean it's gonna be fascinating.

Speaker 4 (23:00):
I mean, I think it's it's noteworthy that Cutter has
not entered the portal as of yet. I mean, the
Kentucky players all had a window to do that after
the new hire was made, and it's been relatively quiet
terms of out going Obviously, they have another chance to
do it in a couple of weeks, so we can't
assume anybody's coming back.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
But I think I think they like Cutter.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
I think that they're going to add somebody else to
compete with him no matter what, and then we'll see
how that affects Cutter's decision, because their depth is just
not very good. I mean, having Stone leave, I think
he was probably gonna leave regardless of who the coach was,
just because you know, maybe his size and his skill set.
He probably needs to go play in an air rate
kind of offense to you know, to succeed at the
college level. So I think that was probably happening even

(23:39):
if Mark Stoops and Bushingdon had come back. But that
leaves just Cutter and Brendan Ward on the roster. So
you need at least another quarterback, even if both those
guys come back, and maybe two. So certainly assuming that
Matt Ponatowski, you know, gets here from high school, whether
he goes to the draft. But I think they like Cutter.
I think he's a guy who has the skill set.

(24:00):
They're going to want to have somebody to compete with
him because he wasn't so good last year that you
can just assume he's gonna win at the high level
and then we'll see how Cutter evaluates that decision himself.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Yeah, that's the interesting thing is now with the change
in the portal because Kentucky picked up a guy like
Seth mcgallan after the spring last year, that second portal
windows no longer an option. So if you're a player,
you have to make that decision. I guess what does
it start? Early January? Yeah, so you have to make
that decision then before you would get a chance. You know,

(24:31):
previously you could have gone through spring practice and then Okay,
they like this other guy, they want to go to
this other guy. I need to find someplace to land.
But that's no longer an option.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
Right, and you got to make it quick because everybody's
gonna you know, you're going to get into your new
school before classes start in the spring, and so you
can go through spring practice and so it's not going
to be a really situation where you can sit there
and wait and see who they add. So I'm sure
that those conversations are happening behind the scenes right now
in terms of agents and coaches and high school coaches
and pair. It's kind of reaching out and seeing what
the market is at various places. But yeah, Cutter is

(25:04):
going to have a decision to make, and I do
think Cutter is more valuable to Kentucky than he is
anywhere else right now. It's just a matter of what
he thinks his best his best choice in terms of
his development, what's what's best for his future.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Talk with John Hale from the Lexington Herold Leader in
Kentucky sports dot Com as the Kentucky football team will
begin the new will Stein Era after Will finishes his
run with Oregon in the playoffs. I can't remember where
I read this, who suggested this, but I thought it
made a lot of sense. Uh, just at first glance,

(25:37):
was to move do away with spring football, make it
June football. You know what you do in the spring,
you do, say in early June, and then make the
transfer portal and restrict coaching movement until after the playoffs
basically end. Because I don't know, I think that would

(26:00):
even be more helpful with the academic calendar, but I
think that needs to I don't care about that anymore.
And the reason is for two things. One, so much
is done online. You can work around that and number two,
if Z could have found his way to be eligible
by getting to class in October, you can figure this out.

Speaker 4 (26:21):
Yeah, I mean, it's a situation where it does feel
like they either need to push spring football back or
just push the regular season up and start the playoff
earlier to where it's basically finished by New Year's Day.
I mean, one of those two options. That's the only
way the calendar is going to get fixed. I mean,
I don't think we're going to see a Lane Kiffin
situation every year, but that's certainly kind of added to

(26:42):
the spotlight. And then the players and guys who are
on portal teams are on playoff teams. Considering the portal
and all of that, it's a mess, and the calendar,
the academic calendar, does complicate things you want to get
Theoretically they're all still students. But yeah, I think the
way it works is either get rid of spring football
so you don't have to have this pressure to get
guys on campus for you know, by the end of March,

(27:05):
or move the regular season calendar up so it's basically
all done by the time the spring semester starts.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
That seems to make perfect sense, So hopefully somebody will
move forward on that sooner rather than later, because what
they're doing right now is just ridiculous. John, thank you
much for the time. As always, thanks for having me.
It's John Hale. You read it at Lexid Hair Leader,
Kentucky Sports dot Com. Seventeen away from the top of
the hour, Tuesday edition of the Leacher Report from the

(27:31):
Clark's Pumping Shop studio, Return, refresh and reviewal and general
option from the Kentucky Colonel coming up next fourteen away
from the top of the hour. It's the Leach Report
for a Tuesday and we welcome in general option from
ky Colonel dot Com. Came across one of her columns
last week about Otega Oway and the headline is, after

(27:56):
weeks of growing pains, Otaga Away finally becomes the leader
Kentucky has been waiting for. And we want to talk
about that with Jenna Lifton. But before we do that, Jenna,
whenever you do your first book down the line, whether
that's next year or ten years from now, it'll be
a little blurb on the back that I obvious the
abbreviated version of the Jenna Liftin story. So for those
who don't know, since you're making your first appearance on

(28:16):
the show, what does that little paragraph look like?

Speaker 5 (28:19):
Yeah, Hey, Tom, thank you so much for having me on.

Speaker 6 (28:22):
So I was born and raised in Austin, Texas. Grew
up a huge Longhorn.

Speaker 5 (28:26):
Fan still am came to Kentucky for sports journalism. I'm
currently a junior here. I played soccer my whole life.
That's kind of where my passion for sports came from.
And then you know, I just I grew up such
a Texas Longhorn fan that it's always been a huge
part of my life, in my family's life. So I
know I wanted to be in the sports industry and

(28:47):
writing's always.

Speaker 6 (28:48):
Been my thing. So it's kind of a best in
both worlds for me.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
A few years ago, when my mom passed, I was
going through a bunch of things that she saved, and
one of them was what was then called I don't
know what, I don't they have this term any more.
Is then called a tab in The Kentucky Colonel, and
it was a football preseason addition, this little added section
into the Colonel and John Clay from the Lexington Herald Leader,

(29:13):
who was a longtime media person here is retired. Now
John and I both had stories in the tab so
that was kind of fun to see that. So Colonel
has a long history of great work and not that
it was necessarily minor John's but yours certainly in your colleagues.

(29:34):
But anyway, it's a great tradition there at the Colonel.
So let's talk a little bit about your column and
what you were motivated, what you saw that motivated you
to write that.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (29:46):
Absolutely, I think the biggest thing for Otaga's return.

Speaker 5 (29:50):
A lot of people, you know, you instantly feel, you know,
you talk about his scoring impact and his impact like
a a player, but no one really talked about the
fact that he was overtaking this leadership role.

Speaker 6 (30:01):
You know, when he was.

Speaker 5 (30:02):
Here last year, he was with such a veteran team
that he didn't have to be a leader because there
were so many guys out there that were that were
taking that role, you know, that were in their fourth
and fifth years, that it wasn't really his responsibility to
have that role. And this year he was given that responsibility.
So a big part of the reason I felt like,
you know, he was underperforming to start off the season

(30:25):
is because he was given this added amount of pressure
to be that leader on the court and have to
you know, find his voice in that way.

Speaker 6 (30:34):
And He's talked about multiple times, you know, I've always
been a lead by example.

Speaker 5 (30:37):
But I had to realize that, you know, not everyone
can kind of do what I do, So I had
to start leading through my voice.

Speaker 6 (30:44):
And after that NC Central game where he really you know,
he had his.

Speaker 5 (30:50):
Season high in points and was just overall you could
see he was leading on the court, I just felt
like that was the first time he really put together
a full game with full effort and played that role
that the team's really been missing.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
And he was dealing with a health issue with the
turf toe that sidelined him for really a long stretch
this summer. So you know, he's going into his season
to prove himself for the NBA and he's tried to
get healthy. So that's going on. And then oh, yeah,
by the way, we need you to be the leader
as well for this team, and you haven't done that before,
but it needs you to be really good at that.

(31:25):
So it's not always the easiest thing in the world
to fully embrace all of that from the start.

Speaker 5 (31:31):
Yeah, absolutely, in that of Soctor, you know that he
had an NBA scout telling him everything he needed to do,
and it was completely opposite of.

Speaker 6 (31:39):
What, you know, what made him so.

Speaker 5 (31:40):
Successful at Kentucky. I mean, that's why you see him
taking so many three pointers, especially early on in the season,
because that's what a scout told him he needed to
do in order to be drafted higher. But that's not
his game.

Speaker 6 (31:52):
That's never what it was.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
You know.

Speaker 5 (31:53):
It was always driving to the glass and putting up
balls there.

Speaker 6 (31:56):
It was never from far.

Speaker 5 (31:58):
So he not only is trying to you know, balance
having this new identity as a leader, but he was
being told that he needed to change his identity as
a player.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
And I would think I said this to Goose the
other day we were watching practice. I think for Otega
because it's started with what you saw the NC Central game,
and then they get the win that they needed in
terms of a marque opponent against Indiana, if they can
come out of the hole that they dug for themselves,

(32:28):
and he's viewed as the leader in orchestrating that turnaround
and also continuing to play well, which I'm confident he
will do. Those kinds of things will make more of
a statement about what he can do for an NBA
team than any number of threes that he hits this season,
because he's not gonna be taken that many of them
at the next level.

Speaker 6 (32:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (32:49):
Absolutely, And I think that's the biggest thing. You know,
It definitely is worrying to have this many struggles early
on and kind of being unsure of what this team's
identity is is. But facing adversity early in the season
is better than you know, late and then March. And
I think that the way this team responds to it
and the way they did against Indiana was a really

(33:11):
good start, but the way they respond to it heading
into conference play, I'm going to say a lot about
this team and definitely going to say a lot about
him as a leader.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
What do you like about his game just in terms
of watching the sport of basketball?

Speaker 5 (33:25):
Yeah, I mean, he just really has that passion. You know.
Last year was I mean, he was incredible, right, he
was just kind of the heart and soul of the team,
and he just he's really you know, the way he's
overtaken that role and also talking to him, the way
he's able to own up to his mistakes and realize

(33:45):
that he has fallen short of what he needs to do,
not on the court, but you know, off the court
and in his ever and as a leader.

Speaker 6 (33:53):
It's a hard thing to admit.

Speaker 5 (33:54):
It really is like no one ever wants to admit
that they're in the wrong. You know, no one ever
wants to admit that, Yeah, I haven't been playing one
hundred percent, but he was. He owned up to it,
and since he's done that, you know, you have seen
great improvement. Even though he wasn't you know, a leading
scorer against Indiana that was really Modia Bote's game, he

(34:16):
still did a good job overall and kind of having that,
you know, being able to work with Mo and Jalen
on that leadership front.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
I would think in this whenever Indiana came eight days
after that abysmal performance down in Nashville and it was
a you think about the play that Diabate made to
get the rebound for the go ahead bucket against all
five of the Indiana players who were there under the
basket with him. That's the one hundred and eighty degree

(34:45):
opposite of what we saw the previous week. And that's
something that that I would think Kentucky fans young and
old can get behind.

Speaker 5 (34:53):
Yeah. Absolutely, I think you know, when you talk about
overcoming adversity like that, you know, that was really rockball
for Kentucky, and that's that's the most rock bottom they've
been in a while.

Speaker 6 (35:04):
You just can't have a loss like that. It was brutal.
But I think that's.

Speaker 5 (35:10):
Where you have to have your veterans come in, and
not even just Otega, but especially Otega, where it's you
have to shut out that outside noise. You can't let
it get to you. You can't let other people determine
how your season is going to go based off one performance.
You have to be able to control your locker room
and you know, look at the guys around you, be
able to say that all everything that's happening needs to

(35:32):
stay within here, like we can all let the outside
noise affect the way we play and affect how you know, we.

Speaker 6 (35:38):
Do the rest of the season.

Speaker 5 (35:39):
Because it is so early on, it really is, and
this is a really young team and they have never
played together before, you know, and there's just a lot
of growing pains that come with that. And it's a
real big call to the leaderships and the leaders and
veterans on this team that they were able to shut
out that outside.

Speaker 6 (35:59):
Noise and have the performance they did against Indiana.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
Wherekind fans find you on social media.

Speaker 5 (36:06):
All of my handles are at Gen's Reporting.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
And you can find her at ky Colonel dot com
as well.

Speaker 6 (36:14):
Jen, Thank you, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
We are heading to a break. One segment left on
this Tuesday edition of The Lead Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises.
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(36:40):
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(37:03):
that was started by Kentuckians more than a decade ago
and they have a commitment to being the very best
and you can taste that when you try shuffle being coffee.
First thing's gonna catch you is the aroma, but the
taste is even better. So give it a try if
you haven't done so already by picking some up today
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(37:23):
or go to the company's website Shufflebean dot Us, Kentucky
based company. That's about being the best you can get.
Behind that and add in the fact that it is
an outstanding cup of coffee. Shuffle being coffee, put some
hustle in your shuffle. Eva Hudson of Kentucky named a
finalist What a four for the American Volleyball Coaches Association
Player of the Year awards, So good luck to Eva.

(37:45):
Stay in wild Cat history. Nineteen fifty Kentucky and Kansas
played for the first time in basketball, and the Cats
dominated Bill Spivey with twenty two outplayed All American Clyde
Levella of Kansas. Twenty two to ten was the scoring
margin between the two big men. Lots of birthdays today
Maggart celebrating a birthday today, Happy birthday for Eddie Wayne Maggert.
Number eighteen for the Wildcats, staring Feldhouse, Alan Edwards, Colenna Azubuki,

(38:08):
Justin Edwards. Coach Matthew Mitchell all celebrating birthdays today, and
today was the day that Bill Arnsparker was born, legendary
assistant coach in the NFL and was an assistant here
at Kentucky as well in the early sixties. See you tomorrow,
I'm the Leads Report.