Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This podcast of the Leech Report is presented by Boone's
Butcher Shop in Barnstown at one hundred Old Bloomfield Pike,
family owned and operated since nineteen forty six, with fresh
meat cut on site daily. Boons Butcher Shop.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good day, Everybody, Welcome into the Leech Report, presented by
Bobcat Enterprises.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Coming up on the show today Mike.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Of course, he joins us on Fridays to talk college
hoops and we will also catch up to John Clay,
longtime columnist for the Lexington Herald Leader who retired last
year and is a man of leisure but.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Still keeping up with the sports world.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So we'll get John's takes on the Cats and who
knows what else. Wildcat News of the Day is the
service of Giuseppes of Lexington, Kentucky at Tennessee tomorrow high
noon in Knoxville, Kentucky going for four in a row
and Knoxville back in the seventies, joe By Hall would
(01:03):
have thought that was impossible. Every coach seems to have
his issue or team that he struggles against, or place
you can't win at, or wherever it might be, and
it was Knoxville for coach Hall.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
And seventy eight championship.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Team got to win there, but those great teams in
the seventies, that was the only team that was able
to win one. They're going for a four in a
row in Knoxville, which the last time that happened was
two thousand and six. Tennessee is two and two in
league play. The Valls are one of the best offensive
(01:42):
rebounding teams in the country. Also get to the free
throw line a lot. Kentucky's one of the best teams
in the league in the country at defensive rebound percentage
denying offensive rebounds. Also one of the best in the
league at keeping teams off the free throw line. It
didn't happen so much in the first half against LSU,
was a big key to the second half comeback, not
(02:04):
putting LSU on the line. So those are two stats
that go right up against each other for this matchup tomorrow.
Kentucky took both regular season matchups with the Balls last season,
but of course Tennessee settled the score with the win
in the NCAA tournament that sent the Balls on to
the Elite eight twelve Noon tip tomorrow. Coverage will start
(02:26):
at ten to thirty on the UK Sports Network. Vall's
coming off a double overtime win that kept them perfect
at home. They're ten and oh at home this season.
Their losses outside of league play came to three outstanding teams.
They beat Houston to go to seven and oh on
November twenty fifth, and then lost the next day to Kansas,
(02:49):
and then lost the next two games at Syracuse and
a neutral COID game to a very good Illinois team.
And in league play they've lost to Arkansas and Florida
on the road and beat Texas and ten A and
M in Knoxville. Kentucky coming off the dramatic win over LSU,
and we'll talk a little bit about that last play
when John joins us here in just a bit. The
(03:13):
Colin Chandler pass was fantastic, Andrea Yelovich got his first start,
played pretty well, scored eleven points, and he has the
highest defensive rebound percentage on the team, so he could
be significant in this matchup tomorrow. Interesting thing about the
Kentucky comeback, Corey Price posted yesterday it was the third
largest deficit that Kentucky has had at halftime at the
(03:38):
p MAC, the Pete Merrivitch Assembly Center for LSU. Ironically,
the ninety four team that had the Marty Grass miracle
came from thirty one down. They too were down sixteen
at halftime before it got even worse. That was Mark
Pope's red shirt year. Weomen's basketball Kentucky survives as scare
last night. Florida, winless in league play, hit eleven of
(04:00):
thirteen shots in the third quarter and took a seven
point lead into the fourth quarter, but Kentucky was able
to rally and win ninety four to eighty nine. Tony
Morgan sensationally in with twenty six points and thirteen assists.
Clara Strack had twenty one points for Kentucky there at
home against Mississippi State on Sunday, and then they will
go to Tennessee next week to jump into the deeper
(04:24):
into the pool, so to speak, in league play, although
couldn't get much tougher than getting the win last night,
so congrats to coach Kenny Brooks and his squad. Coming up,
we will chat with John Clay about UK sports and more.
Our opening segment's always presented by Giuseppes of Lexington. Get
to open table and make a reservation for your next
(04:44):
special night out at Giuseppes. Valentine's Day is just around
the corner, but it's a great place to celebrate any
special occasion, an anniversary, a birthday, whatever it might be.
Go to Giuseppes Lexington dot com and you can see
the menu. Sit in the lounge area if you are inclined,
because you'll get the live jazz music from Dave Hall
that is just a wonderful accompaniment to a fantastic meal.
(05:07):
Makes it a real dining experience when you go to
ju Seppe's. We'll be right back with John Clay Mike
of Coursi a little later. It is The Leads Report
Radio Network presented by Bobcat Enterprises.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
It's like being a little kid in your backyard again.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You know.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Those are those shots that you just always practice because
you just want to kind of have that feeling. So
I think that kind of came to me today. But
I mean, that shot doesn't happen if we don't come
out with the intensity we had in the second half.
So I mean, as credits to all my teammates, that's
the reason I got that shot.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
Is a story flowing around the locker room that as
you walked on the court, you told Colin, don't pass
it though past to mean?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Is that true?
Speaker 4 (05:42):
No comment.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
That was at the postgame news conference down in Baton
Rouge as Malachi Marino talked about his game winner and
then coach Park Pope asked him a question. I'm gonna
try to get to ask coll of this today at
practice or somewhere on the trip. I think he threw
the ball exactly where he meant to throw it. I
(06:05):
don't think it was an overthrow. Watching the clip, he
has a six ten guy I think in front of him. Colin, remember,
can't move in that situation, can't run the baseline. So
here's this big guy in front of him, and it
makes it really difficult to see a pass to Otaga,
(06:26):
who's going away from him like a receiver going along
down the sideline. On the right side. He has an
Aberdeen crossing. But if you try to throw it to Denzel,
you throw it lower and hard to get it around
that big guy in his long arms if he reaches out.
So the best chance you probably have for a completion
(06:49):
is to throw it up for a jump ball to
your seven footer. And that's what he did. And there's
a picture I put with the post today promoting the
show from our friend Vicky Graff who was there taking pictures.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
And you can.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
See just how close the LSU player was to catching
the ball or tipping the ball. I mean it is
literally looks like an inch or two. Malachi snatches, it
turns really as he lands and then hits the shot.
Remember there's only one point six the Latner shot. They
had two point one seconds to execute that. This was
(07:25):
one point six seconds. So just talk about football being
a game of inches, so is basketball sometimes. And I
think it was just a perfect pass from Chandler and
a spectacular play then by Marino to save the day
for Kentucky. As we are coming to you from the
(07:46):
Clark's Pumping Shop studio, return refresh and refuel at Clark's.
Doing a little stalling here so we see if we
get some issues with the phones that have been going
on really all week, and we're trying to get connected
with John clay Rick. Do we have it worked out.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
All right?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
We're still working on trying to connect with John who
can hear us, but we can't hear him for some reason.
A couple of other notes on the matchup to borrow,
and then we'll hit another break and see if we
can get this figured out. Hopefully, keep the fingers crossed.
As for the game the other night, Marino, you can
(08:30):
just see him maturing as a player. There's a play
he was crucial in the second half in terms of
getting Kentucky going before he got into foul trouble, got
his fourth foul because he was doing such a great
job of setting screens on those inbounds passes, and the
first one freed up Aberdeen, and so Kentucky was with
better screening, getting open looks, better looks at the basket
(08:53):
and then started to make shots. They made eight of
eleven threes in the second half, and then there was
a and then as you know, Burno's going along.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
They execute this play many many times.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
It's kind of like, you know, when that game against
South Carolina in football in twenty ten, when Neil Brown
kept calling the Wildcat play time after time after time
for Jojo Kemp when South Carolina couldn't defend it. Kentucky
kept running that same look on that out of bounds,
that baseline out of bounds. But there are options off
of it, and one of them is Malachi can fake
(09:28):
the handoff and drive and you saw Brandon Garrison do
it once but missed the shot. But Brandon did it,
and Malachi did it and got fouled or no got
the basket later on. He just again is a little
bit of an insight into how he's growing as a
player and you know, reading the game as he's learning
(09:49):
to play at this level. Now that I think will
come for Jasper Johnson at some point in the next
few weeks, maybe long, maybe it takes longer, but I
think you'll see the same things start to happen for him.
It's just been a little more slowly because they thought
that they were gonna be able to build this offense
around the skill set of Jalen Low and Jasper to
(10:12):
compliment that, and now they could use Jasper to give
them minutes as a backup point guard. And I think
it will happen. I think you'll see him come on
and be very effective and suddenly out of nowhere, Andrea
Yalovich or Andrea Yalovich has started to give them a
contribution at eleven points the other night. As I mentioned,
he has the best defensive rebounding rate on the team,
(10:33):
and that's a big part of what Kentucky needs. To
do against Tennessee tomorrow, and his length gives them some
help on the defensive end, and Coach Pope praised him
for what he was doing in terms of what they
changed to their defense with doing more switching rather than
what they were doing in the first half against LSU,
(10:55):
and it worked for them. We're trying to get to
a break. See when you come back and get the
phones figured out with John Clay. It is the Leach
Report Radio Network, and we're presented by Bob kat Enterprises.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Past the top of the hour, here are the Leech.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Reports, and we're gonna give this a shot and try
to bring on John Clay former columnists, retired columnists from
the Lexington Herald Leader, John, can you hear me?
Speaker 5 (11:18):
I can hear you, Tom, Yes we can.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
This happened on Monday with Mark's story we termed today
Festivus Miracle. Then for some reason, the producer trying to
communicate with you, you guys can't we can't make that work.
But when we put you on the air, it works.
I don't know why that is. But sometimes you don't
really need to know why. You just know that it
works or it.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
Doesn't right right right? How you get there.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
How's how is it being a man of leisure now?
Speaker 5 (11:52):
Well, I wouldn't say that I'm a man of leisure.
I've been pretty busy. A friend of mine who retired
ten years before I did, a former Herald Leader colleague
that told me, he said, I'm so busy now, I
wonder how I had time to do my job back
when I had a job. So I'm kind of like that.
But so far, so good. So retirement is working out,
(12:14):
I would say, so far, so good.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
So are you watching more or less sports than when
you covered it?
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Maybe a little less. I'm still watching a lot of sports.
I think my wife would attest to that, but maybe not.
I'm not one of the One of the advantages, I
guess is that you don't have to watch every minute
of every game.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
There.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
I will admit there have been a couple of UK
basketball games where even in some of them where they
had blowouts against inferior opponents, where I didn't make it
to the end of the game. But I've watched I
still watched plenty of sports, let's put.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
It that way.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
In coach Gillespie's first year, when Kentucky was down, I
think at halftime forty to eleven at Vanderbilt. The next day,
the late Ray Larson came into the radio station and
he said, I used to think you had the best
job of the world, but last night I realized you
don't because I turned it off and I realized you
couldn't leave.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
It's right, you're contractually obligated to stay. Yes, yes, when
you're covering the game, you you you got to watch
it to the end.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Well, the other night, let's start with Kentucky basketball, because
that was an incredible finish and you know, it would
have been a devastating loss. It's a you know, it's
a win that helps the resume a little like it
is actually a quad one because of what L s
U's net ranking is. So that's certainly a nice pickup,
(13:44):
But it was more what would have been what would
have happened had they lost it. Now that they've won it,
you see what you can do from here. It's it's
been an inn in an enigmatic team.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
What's your take on him from Afar.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
Yeah, I mean I think it's kind of a variety
of probably challenges. You could say, you know, the obviously
the injuries have not helped, especially the injury point guard.
He doesn't really have a point guard, especially now with
Low out of the rest of the season, you know,
and did not you know, obviously, I think they knew
(14:22):
that Quains was going to take a while because of
his a cl but I think maybe they thought they
would have him back and full forth by now. Some
of the pieces don't seem like they fit together real well. Uh,
but then they get on runs where, uh, you knows,
the second half against l s U uh, second half
Againstssissippi State, games like that, games when they're you know,
against Indiana against San John's where you think, well, this
(14:45):
team does have some potential. So you know, I'm sure
you know Marcus I would say he's pulling his hair out,
but he doesn't have hair, doesn't show hair, uh, And
I'm sure his assistance. I don't think there's any reason
why they can't figure it out. And because I'm a
good team I think maybe you know this is you know,
you hate to say this because of for Low personally,
(15:06):
but it may be a good thing from the standpoint
that they now know we're not going to have them.
So we've got we've got to figure out what the
players that we do have, how we can best deploy
those players, uh to get to be the best possible team.
So but I think, but I think there have been
some bright spots. Obviously, Moreno, I think is a really
bright spot, not just the shot that he hit the
(15:27):
other night, but the way he's developed, the way he plays.
I think he's got a chance to be a really
good player.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
I think what you said about low is an interesting
point because you you you have a plan of how
to utilize his skill set, that he's really good in
the pick and roll and can get into the lane
and create things and can score, and so you you
build a plan around having him, and even if he's
out but you think he's coming back, you don't get
(15:55):
away from that plan because you know you're going to
come back to it. Well, now you probably need to
do some things differently, and you can commit to doing
that and try to get better at that.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
Right right and you can find out what who can
take that spot or maybe you can play. I mean,
obviously everybody talks about guard play at the NCAA tournament.
You want to have a good point guard but their team,
but you can there are teams that have won who
would not have who have not had what you would
call a traditional point guard, and I think they can,
you know, play around that. I think Chandler is obviously
(16:29):
a key, not necessarily that he is a point guard,
but that he's somebody who can play guard and can
do some of those things. You know, this is going
to happen. Like I said, I heard a coach say
one time that you the real you can really measure
a coach not by when he has his best team,
but when he has players who get hurt or he
has maybe challenges that happened the team. How does a
(16:52):
coach perform under those circumstances? And I think that I
think Marcus facing those circumstances now.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
So unless you put a guy on the ball the night,
a big guy, and they put a guy in front
of late of Laightner, in front of Marino, So uh,
do Rick Patino and the Kentucky players get absolved of
any blame because Duke, just as we could see, made
a hell of a play with and throw it to
(17:20):
a guy who was taller than the people guarding.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
Him, right, And I thought some people make the point
that you know, and I think you made the point
that he couldn't run the baseline the LSU player, so
putting it on and really, I mean, you got to
give credit to Chandler. He made us just a terrific pass.
And I don't know if will Stein's looking at him,
but he made a terrific pass and he made it
to the right person who was able to out jump
(17:42):
the LSU defender who was about as tall as Marino,
and he made you know, he made the perfect shot.
So you know, you couldn't, as they say, you couldn't
have drawn it up any better. But yeah, and I
noticed Rick himself tweet uh tweeted put on social media
something about that as well. So yeah, maybe you I
think Rick believes he's absolved. Let's put it to LA.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Yeah, we're talking with John Clay.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
We're gonna hold him over for one more segment too,
because of the phone issues we had at the beginning,
and talk a little football with John when we come
right back. John Clay retired columns from The Harold Leader,
with us here on the Leach Report, presented by Bob
kat Enterprises almor saying we're here with John Clay and
then Mike of course you'll join us a little later.
(18:24):
John Clay retired columns from the Lexington Harold Leader. You
can still follow on exit John Clay IV shift gears
to football. John, We'll start with the National Championship game
on Monday night. And you covered a lot of Kentucky
Indiana football games. One of them that was one of
the toughest games you'd never have to watch. They ended
up three nothing Kentucky. So did you ever figure you'd
(18:48):
see Indiana doing this?
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
No.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
I mean it's an incredible story. I mean, Kurt Signet,
he's done an unbelievable job. You know, I think no,
I would not envisioning. I mean, Indiana had some decent
teams back in the uh you know, Bill Mallory, uh ant,
I remember Anthony Thompson's running back. They had some you know,
they had some.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Good teams got the late sixties.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
That's right, That's right, that team back there, which I
think Kentucky played the next year in John Ray's first game,
I believe was against that Indiana team that had been
to the Rose Bowl the year before. So, but no,
what they've done is truly remarkable.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Does does it give hope to the Kentucky football program
and others trying to move up in tough leagues.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
Yeah, I think so, and I think I mean, I
think it also shows I mean just the way the
game has shifted, and that it's a it is a
different game now, the way you can put together a
team and so forth. And that's not to take anything
away from the job as Signetti has done. I think,
as he said, just google him, he's won everywhere he's been,
uh under under you know, different circumstances. But no, I
think it does give help. I mean, look at the
(19:56):
year that I mean give hope. Look at the year
Vanderbilt had this year. I mean Texas Tech went out
and basically bought a team which you can do what
you're going to do now these days, and was the
top four seed in the playoffs. So yeah, I think
it does give some hope to some programs that have
not don't have quite the same tradition and history as
some of the blue blood programs.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
One of the strangest interactions I've ever heard was that
the Derby post position draw two years ago. I guess
it is now and Micropolis being interviewed about fierceness, but
there's a reporter from New York asking him a bunch
of Saint John's questions, and finally one of the racing writers,
after that person finished with his questions, asked him, why
(20:37):
does he asking you all those Saint John's basketball questions,
and Micropoli said, well, I bought the team, and it's
okay to say that now.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
You can say that. You might be able to whisper
that in the past, but now you can say it
out loud.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yes you can.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
What's your take on the Kentucky hiring of Will Stein?
Speaker 5 (20:57):
And I think it's a very I think it's a
forward thinking higher. I mean, he's a young guy. You
wonder about a young guy coming into as the first
time head coach coming into the SEC. But I think
obviously will has the credentials what he did at Oregon.
I think he brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm,
you know, into the program. I want to say, I
think Mark Stops did a tremendous job. I think, especially
(21:19):
people like yourself and myself who followed and took a
football for a long time, I appreciate the job that
Mark did because this has not been an easy place
to win, and I think Mark what happened at the end.
I remember when Dan Mullen got fired at Florida. Mark said, sometimes,
you know, in a program, things kind of go in
one direction and the perception of the program, it's hard
to get it turned around, and the administration feels like
(21:41):
it has to make a change. And I think that's
what happened with Mark. But no, I think we'll I
think people are excited to see what he can do
and to have an offensive head coach and to see
what he can do on the offensive side of the ball.
I think, you know, on paper, to me, it looks
like a good hire. We'll see how it plays. That.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah, I would agree with with all of that. You know,
when the the way the games changed with in terms
of building teams, that was I think a real curveball
for coach Stoups because he had a pretty good plan
going with how they were recruiting and developing players. Loss
of John Schlarman, with the identity that they were building
(22:23):
in the offensive line was a big blow to their
program as well. And John was was so good at
what he did. So sometimes the rules of the games
change and it changes who will succeed and who won't.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
Right, absolutely, Yeah, I think it's a very good point.
I think when you look back after a few years.
When you look back on Mark's time here in New Point,
where where did you start to go south on him?
I think you definitely can point to. Unfortunately, John's illness
and death. I mean that, I think another thing hurt
him too. I mean people don't realize he wasn't able
to go and recruit like he had before when he
(23:02):
had his illness, and I think that hurt him as well.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
John, We appreciate the time. We'll do this again.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
And one quick thing, I want to do a shout
out to my mother in law who passed away on Wednesday,
Kenny Lou McGee, who was a huge Kentucky basketball and
Cincinnati Reds fan. Her two favorite things were when the
When when they were not playing well, she would say,
they're just not hustling. And if she was really down
on them, she said, stick a fork in them. Oh,
(23:28):
I want to shout out to her. Shout out to
her friend Jane Duncan, who Tom you know from Paris,
her friend there at the Willows who listens to you
every morning.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Well, God bless her.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
And condolences to to Cindy and all of your all
family of the passing of your mother in law. And
she's not the only one this season who said they're
not hustling at times.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Probably Mark Pope.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Is probably probably so. But I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
John, thank you. We'll do this again. They certainly were
hustling in that second half on Saturday. We'll talk about
that more with Mike de Coursey when.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
He joins us.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Next, it is the Leech Report Radio Network. It is
presented by Bobcat Enterprises. And you need to buy a
rent heavy equipment. That's who you need to call. We're
talking excavators and forklifts and back hose and loaders, those
kinds of things. That's who you need to call. Bobcat Enterprises.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
It's the Leech Report from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio, Return,
Refresh and Refuel at Clark's. Mike de Coursey joins the
program from Sportingnews dot Com at TSN Mike on X
and first let me start with Mike Tomlin stepping down
as coach of the Steelers.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
You're a Pittsburgh guy. What'd you think about that?
Speaker 7 (24:40):
Oh? I was disappointed.
Speaker 6 (24:42):
I thought that, first of all, this is not the
ideal time. Maybe it is if you don't want to struggle.
And I'm not saying they necessarily struggle, because he rarely did.
But they are in a quarterback conundrum that has very
few obvious escape routes at this point because there are
very few, if any, capable quarterbacks on the free agent market.
(25:06):
A draft that once was believed to be pretty pretty
loaded with quarterback prospects has through the course of the
twenty twenty five college football season, thinned considerably.
Speaker 7 (25:20):
It doesn't look like it will provide great help.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
So now you have to start over without the head
coach who had seemed to be able to win games
in the NFL no matter who was installed at that position, and.
Speaker 7 (25:33):
So I thought he would stay and fight that.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
I don't know what it was that led him to
decide this was it. I suspect being booed twice at
home in the final six weeks or so of the
season probably convinced him that no matter what he did
in this circumstance, it wasn't going to be enough.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Since we last talked, came the news that Jalen Lowe's
season is done. He re injured his shoulder against Mississippi
State Saturday night. So now Kentucky knows that he's not
part of the plan on the court moving forward? What
do you make of what Kentucky can be post Jayalen Low.
Speaker 6 (26:10):
Yeah, it's disappointing, obviously, because when he was playing, he
showed what he's capable of, and even in a limited state,
which he was for pretty much his entire time in uniform.
Maybe not back when he was playing before the injury
and playing in exhibitions or Blue White Game or whatever,
(26:33):
but once he was on the floor in games that counted,
he was compromised from the beginning.
Speaker 7 (26:39):
And even in.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
That state, you saw a definition to the offense. You
saw the ability he had to get deep into defenses
and stress them. And so without him, I don't see
them having that component to their approach. I think they're
going to have to be a little bit more convention,
a little bit more power oriented. Denzel Aborating can get
(27:03):
by guys. It's it's he's certainly a fine athlete, and
it's not something he doesn't do at all, but he's
not he's not geared to that. It's not something he's
done a ton and and decided what to what plays
to make off of that over and over consistent basis,
and so I think they're going to have to be
(27:24):
a little bit more conventional. They're going to have to
use Yeah, you want to get the ball to the lane,
no doubt, But I think I think that you're different.
But I also think at the opposite end, you are
better defensively. For all the minutes that Jalen would have
spent on the floor, there's I mean.
Speaker 7 (27:43):
Especially, we never really saw what he might have.
Speaker 6 (27:45):
Been as a defender with with growth and with maturity
if he were healthy. But when he was not healthy,
which was all this season, his defensive limitations were exacerbated
instead of instead of the improvement we'd hope to see.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
TEB with Mike DECURSI you also, in addition to sporting
new seum on the Big Ten network, and he does
the brackets for Fox Sports, and so Kentucky probably would
have been around the bubble. I would imagine had they
not gotten the Malachi miracle on Wednesday night, if they
can get a win at Tennessee on Saturday, where could
(28:25):
they be by next Friday or I guess Tuesday would
be your next bracket.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (28:30):
When they lost the Missouri game and I still had
them in my bracket, I took a lot of heat
from Kentucky haters, maybe in some Kentucky fans not sure
where it was all coming from, but there is the
assistance that's provided by those behind them, which it's not
an impressive group at this point, and they seem to
(28:50):
find a lot of ways to lose games. Kentucky was
able to extricate itself from that. Against LSU, Tennessee would
be a significant win. LSU is not a likely NCAA
tournament team, but but they certainly were around the bubble,
and you by by winning on their court, you damage
(29:11):
their case, and damaging their case helps your case because
there's a possibility that you're going.
Speaker 7 (29:16):
To wind up in the same grouping at the end
of the year, so you want to take care of
those head to heads.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
That's where the the old miss the late collapse there
was painful for that reason.
Speaker 7 (29:27):
But Tennessee would give you.
Speaker 6 (29:29):
I think I think you're going to see that Saint
John's win continue to improve in quality as the as
the Red Storm go through the Big East, that they
have shown that they're starting to find some capability there.
The Indiana win, I think will end up being a
field win, but they have some work to do as well, uh,
(29:50):
Tennessee is a no doubt field win, it's a high
quad one win. So that would be an enormous step
for this team. But it's going to be a real challenge.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
H It feels like in just watching them that them,
you know, not in the coaches meetings and what they're
strategizing about, but it kind of feels like after the
Gonzaga game, they thought maybe that, yeah, they they weren't
going to be as good as they hoped they were
going to be offensively, and so they would try to
focus more on the defensive end, being a great offensive
(30:22):
rebounding team, play more bigs together, and that had some
success with that against Indiana, and Saint John's had a
really bad day against Alabama, and then post Alabama, they're
shooting forty one percent on threes. They're getting about eight
or so a game. That part of the attack has
(30:43):
started to look closer to what I'm sure coach Pope
expected it to be. They're limiting their turnovers, they're keeping
teams off the free throw line, they're doing a good
job of limiting offensive rebounds, and so they're finding it
maybe a different way to win. And that's been the
thing for this team is kind of finding their identity.
Speaker 7 (31:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (31:02):
Absolutely, It's one of the things that we talked about
all the way back when they played Louisville and they
tried to play the style that was predominant last season
during the time when Lamar was available, when Lament excuse
me was available, that they tried to play that way
in the Louisville game, and you could see right away that,
(31:23):
especially without Jalen Lowe, that wasn't going to work and
they had to find it a different approach.
Speaker 7 (31:29):
And then when Jalen did play, it still was limited.
So you had to.
Speaker 6 (31:33):
Have your primary game or at least half the game
was going to have to be played in that other style,
whatever it was. And so you're talking about what they
need to do find that. Like I said, when I
use the word conventional, I meant, you know, more toward
power oriented. You've got a deep collection of big men still.
(31:53):
You've got Malachi who continues to improve. You've got Brandon Garrison,
who I still think there is.
Speaker 7 (31:59):
Good basketball in there.
Speaker 6 (32:01):
He's just struggling with his confidence a little bit right now,
and and those those elements can help them. And then
when you go to the backcourt, you look at Denzel
at your point and and he's big and powerful for
a guard as opposed to Jalen who's small and quick,
and so that helps you at the defensive end. It
helps you with check tracking down long rebounds of miss threes.
(32:22):
He's so dynamic and he's so sudden that he can
get there. So I think that's that's the right approach.
And I thought Colin on the LSU game, I think
it was Wednesday night, his performance was what I've been
waiting to see.
Speaker 7 (32:38):
Now for a month and a half.
Speaker 6 (32:41):
That's that's the Colin Chandler that needs to play for Kentucky.
They instead of trying to find ways to hide him
or whatever.
Speaker 7 (32:50):
That's that guy. Uh uh. He needs to he needs
to play, and he needs to play like that.
Speaker 6 (32:55):
He's a He's a significant asset when he is doing
what he does really well, which has moved the basketball,
get himself open for threes, get the ball deep on occasion,
but don't force action the way he was during the
period probably from mid December until this past week or so.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Something else we talked about as far back as the
summer was otega Oway. You talked about that transition from
being a supplementary guy or a support role guy to
being the man. And that's not the easiest thing in
the world to embrace or to accept. And he is
(33:37):
quite the heater right now. Four straight games with twenty plus.
Six of the last eight has had twenty plus, shooting
forty over forty percent on catch and shoot threes. He
is averaging eighteen and a half over the last I
think it's eight games. And he and me found out here,
you got into the free throw line in that stretch
(33:57):
sixty one times. So he is playing maybe as well
as anybody in the league. I have to think right.
Speaker 7 (34:04):
Now, that is outstanding.
Speaker 6 (34:07):
And that's sixty one free throws and he came, that's
eight a game. I mean, that's you're really punishing the defense.
I think sometimes one of the most underrated elements of
basketball statistics is free throw attempts, because not only do
you get the opportunity to score at a seventy five
percent rate or so, but also the fact that every
(34:30):
time you put a foul in the defense, you're getting
your teammates into the bonus or into the double bonus,
and you're putting the defense into positions perhaps where another
foul is Oh gosh, I'm in foul trouble or another
foul is oh my gosh, I can't play anymore. I
have to watch, and that makes the defense struggle more so.
(34:52):
That ability to get yourself fouled that he's displaying is
really it's enormous and I'm I'm delighted to see how
he has embraced this responsibility, especially as the stakes have
become greater, the oppetition that excuse me, the opposition has
become more demanding because you're playing high major every night
(35:14):
instead of maybe every third night. It's really really cool
to see that, and it's obviously great for his future
as well, because if you can show that you can
do these kinds of things when he gets to the NBA,
when he gets to the pros, he's not going to
probably be a twenty point game scorer, but they want
to know that in your minutes that you can be productive,
(35:36):
and him showing what he's capable of doing now is
going to it's going to not only pay short term
dividends for UK, but long term for him.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Lets re check my math where we're talking is fifty
nine in nine games, added the conzigative game in there
as well, but still that's almost seven per game, six
six plus that, and that's who he is of getting
and most every great scorer at any level is a
big component of it is getting some points at the line.
(36:04):
You get a couple of layups, you get a few
free throws, and you get ten points before you even
have to hit a jump.
Speaker 6 (36:08):
Shot exactly exactly, and his his I think he's now
starting to feel that confidence that you need to have
in order to fulfill that role. It is really a challenge,
and it's probably again something that's often overlooked. There's just
an assumption, well, you're older now and all the guys
who used to score twenty points are gone, so now
(36:30):
you're going to score twenty points. And that's that's a
challenge forever for nearly every player that accepts it, with
the exception of you know, like I sometimes complain about
how many players now spend most of their careers in
loaded prep schools, how many prospects, and how that teaches
them to be role.
Speaker 7 (36:46):
Players before they have to be role players.
Speaker 6 (36:48):
Cooger Flag is never going to be a role player,
but everybody else has to learn that balance, and it
is a challenge.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Mike Decursisportingnews dot Com, Big ten Network in the brackets
from Fox Sports, which you can see at TSN Mike
later today.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Thank you, Mike, Thank you Tom.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
It is the Leech Report and we're presented by Bobcat Enterprises.
We'll be right back the stand Wildcat History of Service
of Kentucky road Show, Sports cards at Memorabilia. They're on
Romney Road in Lexington at a roadshowcards dot Com. Nineteen
ninety six Kentucky beat LSU one twenty nine to ninety seven.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
It was eighty six forty two and a half.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Mark Pope was referencing that game the other night and
Antoine Walker had thirty two in that game. Mark Pope
had two points that night. Richard Madison, Happy birthday to
the Master Blaster, one of the all time great nicknames.
The Louisville Kings the new UFL team. They have drafted
a couple of former Wildcats to play for them, Benny
(37:45):
Snell and Lynn Bowden. Former UL quarterback Chris Redman. It's
going to be the coach of that team.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
That'll do it.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
For this edition of The Leech Report, presented by Bobcat Enterprises.
Best of show for the most part, on Monday for
the holiday. We'll see you live again on Two Step
This podcast of the Leech Report is presented by Boone's
Butcher Shop in Barnstown at one hundred Old Bloomfield Pike,
family owned and operated since nineteen forty six, with fresh
meat cut on site daily. Boons Butcher Shop.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good day, Everybody, Welcome into the Leech Report, presented by
Bobcat Enterprises.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Coming up on the show today Mike.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Of course, he joins us on Fridays to talk college
hoops and we will also catch up to John Clay,
longtime columnist for the Lexington Herald Leader who retired last
year and is a man of leisure but.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Still keeping up with the sports world.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So we'll get John's takes on the Cats and who
knows what else. Wildcat News of the Day is the
service of Giuseppes of Lexington, Kentucky at Tennessee tomorrow high
noon in Knoxville, Kentucky going for four in a row
and Knoxville back in the seventies, joe By Hall would
(01:03):
have thought that was impossible. Every coach seems to have
his issue or team that he struggles against, or place
you can't win at, or wherever it might be, and
it was Knoxville for coach Hall.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
And seventy eight championship.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Team got to win there, but those great teams in
the seventies, that was the only team that was able
to win one. They're going for a four in a
row in Knoxville, which the last time that happened was
two thousand and six. Tennessee is two and two in
league play. The Valls are one of the best offensive
(01:42):
rebounding teams in the country. Also get to the free
throw line a lot. Kentucky's one of the best teams
in the league in the country at defensive rebound percentage
denying offensive rebounds. Also one of the best in the
league at keeping teams off the free throw line. It
didn't happen so much in the first half against LSU,
was a big key to the second half comeback, not
(02:04):
putting LSU on the line. So those are two stats
that go right up against each other for this matchup tomorrow.
Kentucky took both regular season matchups with the Balls last season,
but of course Tennessee settled the score with the win
in the NCAA tournament that sent the Balls on to
the Elite eight twelve Noon tip tomorrow. Coverage will start
(02:26):
at ten to thirty on the UK Sports Network. Vall's
coming off a double overtime win that kept them perfect
at home. They're ten and oh at home this season.
Their losses outside of league play came to three outstanding teams.
They beat Houston to go to seven and oh on
November twenty fifth, and then lost the next day to Kansas,
(02:49):
and then lost the next two games at Syracuse and
a neutral COID game to a very good Illinois team.
And in league play they've lost to Arkansas and Florida
on the road and beat Texas and ten A and
M in Knoxville. Kentucky coming off the dramatic win over LSU,
and we'll talk a little bit about that last play
when John joins us here in just a bit. The
(03:13):
Colin Chandler pass was fantastic, Andrea Yelovich got his first start,
played pretty well, scored eleven points, and he has the
highest defensive rebound percentage on the team, so he could
be significant in this matchup tomorrow. Interesting thing about the
Kentucky comeback, Corey Price posted yesterday it was the third
largest deficit that Kentucky has had at halftime at the
(03:38):
p MAC, the Pete Merrivitch Assembly Center for LSU. Ironically,
the ninety four team that had the Marty Grass miracle
came from thirty one down. They too were down sixteen
at halftime before it got even worse. That was Mark
Pope's red shirt year. Weomen's basketball Kentucky survives as scare
last night. Florida, winless in league play, hit eleven of
(04:00):
thirteen shots in the third quarter and took a seven
point lead into the fourth quarter, but Kentucky was able
to rally and win ninety four to eighty nine. Tony
Morgan sensationally in with twenty six points and thirteen assists.
Clara Strack had twenty one points for Kentucky there at
home against Mississippi State on Sunday, and then they will
go to Tennessee next week to jump into the deeper
(04:24):
into the pool, so to speak, in league play, although
couldn't get much tougher than getting the win last night,
so congrats to coach Kenny Brooks and his squad. Coming up,
we will chat with John Clay about UK sports and more.
Our opening segment's always presented by Giuseppes of Lexington. Get
to open table and make a reservation for your next
(04:44):
special night out at Giuseppes. Valentine's Day is just around
the corner, but it's a great place to celebrate any
special occasion, an anniversary, a birthday, whatever it might be.
Go to Giuseppes Lexington dot com and you can see
the menu. Sit in the lounge area if you are inclined,
because you'll get the live jazz music from Dave Hall
that is just a wonderful accompaniment to a fantastic meal.
(05:07):
Makes it a real dining experience when you go to
ju Seppe's. We'll be right back with John Clay Mike
of Coursi a little later. It is The Leads Report
Radio Network presented by Bobcat Enterprises.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
It's like being a little kid in your backyard again.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You know.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Those are those shots that you just always practice because
you just want to kind of have that feeling. So
I think that kind of came to me today. But
I mean, that shot doesn't happen if we don't come
out with the intensity we had in the second half.
So I mean, as credits to all my teammates, that's
the reason I got that shot.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
Is a story flowing around the locker room that as
you walked on the court, you told Colin, don't pass
it though past to mean?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Is that true?
Speaker 4 (05:42):
No comment.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
That was at the postgame news conference down in Baton
Rouge as Malachi Marino talked about his game winner and
then coach Park Pope asked him a question. I'm gonna
try to get to ask coll of this today at
practice or somewhere on the trip. I think he threw
the ball exactly where he meant to throw it. I
(06:05):
don't think it was an overthrow. Watching the clip, he
has a six ten guy I think in front of him. Colin, remember,
can't move in that situation, can't run the baseline. So
here's this big guy in front of him, and it
makes it really difficult to see a pass to Otaga,
(06:26):
who's going away from him like a receiver going along
down the sideline. On the right side. He has an
Aberdeen crossing. But if you try to throw it to Denzel,
you throw it lower and hard to get it around
that big guy in his long arms if he reaches out.
So the best chance you probably have for a completion
(06:49):
is to throw it up for a jump ball to
your seven footer. And that's what he did. And there's
a picture I put with the post today promoting the
show from our friend Vicky Graff who was there taking pictures.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
And you can.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
See just how close the LSU player was to catching
the ball or tipping the ball. I mean it is
literally looks like an inch or two. Malachi snatches, it
turns really as he lands and then hits the shot.
Remember there's only one point six the Latner shot. They
had two point one seconds to execute that. This was
(07:25):
one point six seconds. So just talk about football being
a game of inches, so is basketball sometimes. And I
think it was just a perfect pass from Chandler and
a spectacular play then by Marino to save the day
for Kentucky. As we are coming to you from the
(07:46):
Clark's Pumping Shop studio, return refresh and refuel at Clark's.
Doing a little stalling here so we see if we
get some issues with the phones that have been going
on really all week, and we're trying to get connected
with John clay Rick. Do we have it worked out.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
All right?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
We're still working on trying to connect with John who
can hear us, but we can't hear him for some reason.
A couple of other notes on the matchup to borrow,
and then we'll hit another break and see if we
can get this figured out. Hopefully, keep the fingers crossed.
As for the game the other night, Marino, you can
(08:30):
just see him maturing as a player. There's a play
he was crucial in the second half in terms of
getting Kentucky going before he got into foul trouble, got
his fourth foul because he was doing such a great
job of setting screens on those inbounds passes, and the
first one freed up Aberdeen, and so Kentucky was with
better screening, getting open looks, better looks at the basket
(08:53):
and then started to make shots. They made eight of
eleven threes in the second half, and then there was
a and then as you know, Burno's going along.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
They execute this play many many times.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
It's kind of like, you know, when that game against
South Carolina in football in twenty ten, when Neil Brown
kept calling the Wildcat play time after time after time
for Jojo Kemp when South Carolina couldn't defend it. Kentucky
kept running that same look on that out of bounds,
that baseline out of bounds. But there are options off
of it, and one of them is Malachi can fake
(09:28):
the handoff and drive and you saw Brandon Garrison do
it once but missed the shot. But Brandon did it,
and Malachi did it and got fouled or no got
the basket later on. He just again is a little
bit of an insight into how he's growing as a
player and you know, reading the game as he's learning
(09:49):
to play at this level. Now that I think will
come for Jasper Johnson at some point in the next
few weeks, maybe long, maybe it takes longer, but I
think you'll see the same things start to happen for him.
It's just been a little more slowly because they thought
that they were gonna be able to build this offense
around the skill set of Jalen Low and Jasper to
(10:12):
compliment that, and now they could use Jasper to give
them minutes as a backup point guard. And I think
it will happen. I think you'll see him come on
and be very effective and suddenly out of nowhere, Andrea
Yalovich or Andrea Yalovich has started to give them a
contribution at eleven points the other night. As I mentioned,
he has the best defensive rebounding rate on the team,
(10:33):
and that's a big part of what Kentucky needs. To
do against Tennessee tomorrow, and his length gives them some
help on the defensive end, and Coach Pope praised him
for what he was doing in terms of what they
changed to their defense with doing more switching rather than
what they were doing in the first half against LSU,
(10:55):
and it worked for them. We're trying to get to
a break. See when you come back and get the
phones figured out with John Clay. It is the Leach
Report Radio Network, and we're presented by Bob kat Enterprises.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Past the top of the hour, here are the Leech.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Reports, and we're gonna give this a shot and try
to bring on John Clay former columnists, retired columnists from
the Lexington Herald Leader, John, can you hear me?
Speaker 5 (11:18):
I can hear you, Tom, Yes we can.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
This happened on Monday with Mark's story we termed today
Festivus Miracle. Then for some reason, the producer trying to
communicate with you, you guys can't we can't make that work.
But when we put you on the air, it works.
I don't know why that is. But sometimes you don't
really need to know why. You just know that it
works or it.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
Doesn't right right right? How you get there.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
How's how is it being a man of leisure now?
Speaker 5 (11:52):
Well, I wouldn't say that I'm a man of leisure.
I've been pretty busy. A friend of mine who retired
ten years before I did, a former Herald Leader colleague
that told me, he said, I'm so busy now, I
wonder how I had time to do my job back
when I had a job. So I'm kind of like that.
But so far, so good. So retirement is working out,
(12:14):
I would say, so far, so good.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
So are you watching more or less sports than when
you covered it?
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Maybe a little less. I'm still watching a lot of sports.
I think my wife would attest to that, but maybe not.
I'm not one of the One of the advantages, I
guess is that you don't have to watch every minute
of every game.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
There.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
I will admit there have been a couple of UK
basketball games where even in some of them where they
had blowouts against inferior opponents, where I didn't make it
to the end of the game. But I've watched I
still watched plenty of sports, let's put.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
It that way.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
In coach Gillespie's first year, when Kentucky was down, I
think at halftime forty to eleven at Vanderbilt. The next day,
the late Ray Larson came into the radio station and
he said, I used to think you had the best
job of the world, but last night I realized you
don't because I turned it off and I realized you
couldn't leave.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
It's right, you're contractually obligated to stay. Yes, yes, when
you're covering the game, you you you got to watch
it to the end.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Well, the other night, let's start with Kentucky basketball, because
that was an incredible finish and you know, it would
have been a devastating loss. It's a you know, it's
a win that helps the resume a little like it
is actually a quad one because of what L s
U's net ranking is. So that's certainly a nice pickup,
(13:44):
But it was more what would have been what would
have happened had they lost it. Now that they've won it,
you see what you can do from here. It's it's
been an inn in an enigmatic team.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
What's your take on him from Afar.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
Yeah, I mean I think it's kind of a variety
of probably challenges. You could say, you know, the obviously
the injuries have not helped, especially the injury point guard.
He doesn't really have a point guard, especially now with
Low out of the rest of the season, you know,
and did not you know, obviously, I think they knew
(14:22):
that Quains was going to take a while because of
his a cl but I think maybe they thought they
would have him back and full forth by now. Some
of the pieces don't seem like they fit together real well. Uh,
but then they get on runs where, uh, you knows,
the second half against l s U uh, second half
Againstssissippi State, games like that, games when they're you know,
against Indiana against San John's where you think, well, this
(14:45):
team does have some potential. So you know, I'm sure
you know Marcus I would say he's pulling his hair out,
but he doesn't have hair, doesn't show hair, uh, And
I'm sure his assistance. I don't think there's any reason
why they can't figure it out. And because I'm a
good team I think maybe you know this is you know,
you hate to say this because of for Low personally,
(15:06):
but it may be a good thing from the standpoint
that they now know we're not going to have them.
So we've got we've got to figure out what the
players that we do have, how we can best deploy
those players, uh to get to be the best possible team.
So but I think, but I think there have been
some bright spots. Obviously, Moreno, I think is a really
bright spot, not just the shot that he hit the
(15:27):
other night, but the way he's developed, the way he plays.
I think he's got a chance to be a really
good player.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
I think what you said about low is an interesting
point because you you you have a plan of how
to utilize his skill set, that he's really good in
the pick and roll and can get into the lane
and create things and can score, and so you you
build a plan around having him, and even if he's
out but you think he's coming back, you don't get
(15:55):
away from that plan because you know you're going to
come back to it. Well, now you probably need to
do some things differently, and you can commit to doing
that and try to get better at that.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
Right right and you can find out what who can
take that spot or maybe you can play. I mean,
obviously everybody talks about guard play at the NCAA tournament.
You want to have a good point guard but their team,
but you can there are teams that have won who
would not have who have not had what you would
call a traditional point guard, and I think they can,
you know, play around that. I think Chandler is obviously
(16:29):
a key, not necessarily that he is a point guard,
but that he's somebody who can play guard and can
do some of those things. You know, this is going
to happen. Like I said, I heard a coach say
one time that you the real you can really measure
a coach not by when he has his best team,
but when he has players who get hurt or he
has maybe challenges that happened the team. How does a
(16:52):
coach perform under those circumstances? And I think that I
think Marcus facing those circumstances now.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
So unless you put a guy on the ball the night,
a big guy, and they put a guy in front
of late of Laightner, in front of Marino, So uh,
do Rick Patino and the Kentucky players get absolved of
any blame because Duke, just as we could see, made
a hell of a play with and throw it to
(17:20):
a guy who was taller than the people guarding.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
Him, right, And I thought some people make the point
that you know, and I think you made the point
that he couldn't run the baseline the LSU player, so
putting it on and really, I mean, you got to
give credit to Chandler. He made us just a terrific pass.
And I don't know if will Stein's looking at him,
but he made a terrific pass and he made it
to the right person who was able to out jump
(17:42):
the LSU defender who was about as tall as Marino,
and he made you know, he made the perfect shot.
So you know, you couldn't, as they say, you couldn't
have drawn it up any better. But yeah, and I
noticed Rick himself tweet uh tweeted put on social media
something about that as well. So yeah, maybe you I
think Rick believes he's absolved. Let's put it to LA.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Yeah, we're talking with John Clay.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
We're gonna hold him over for one more segment too,
because of the phone issues we had at the beginning,
and talk a little football with John when we come
right back. John Clay retired columns from The Harold Leader,
with us here on the Leach Report, presented by Bob
kat Enterprises almor saying we're here with John Clay and
then Mike of course you'll join us a little later.
(18:24):
John Clay retired columns from the Lexington Harold Leader. You
can still follow on exit John Clay IV shift gears
to football. John, We'll start with the National Championship game
on Monday night. And you covered a lot of Kentucky
Indiana football games. One of them that was one of
the toughest games you'd never have to watch. They ended
up three nothing Kentucky. So did you ever figure you'd
(18:48):
see Indiana doing this?
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
No.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
I mean it's an incredible story. I mean, Kurt Signet,
he's done an unbelievable job. You know, I think no,
I would not envisioning. I mean, Indiana had some decent
teams back in the uh you know, Bill Mallory, uh ant,
I remember Anthony Thompson's running back. They had some you know,
they had some.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Good teams got the late sixties.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
That's right, That's right, that team back there, which I
think Kentucky played the next year in John Ray's first game,
I believe was against that Indiana team that had been
to the Rose Bowl the year before. So, but no,
what they've done is truly remarkable.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Does does it give hope to the Kentucky football program
and others trying to move up in tough leagues.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
Yeah, I think so, and I think I mean, I
think it also shows I mean just the way the
game has shifted, and that it's a it is a
different game now, the way you can put together a
team and so forth. And that's not to take anything
away from the job as Signetti has done. I think,
as he said, just google him, he's won everywhere he's been,
uh under under you know, different circumstances. But no, I
think it does give help. I mean, look at the
(19:56):
year that I mean give hope. Look at the year
Vanderbilt had this year. I mean Texas Tech went out
and basically bought a team which you can do what
you're going to do now these days, and was the
top four seed in the playoffs. So yeah, I think
it does give some hope to some programs that have
not don't have quite the same tradition and history as
some of the blue blood programs.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
One of the strangest interactions I've ever heard was that
the Derby post position draw two years ago. I guess
it is now and Micropolis being interviewed about fierceness, but
there's a reporter from New York asking him a bunch
of Saint John's questions, and finally one of the racing writers,
after that person finished with his questions, asked him, why
(20:37):
does he asking you all those Saint John's basketball questions,
and Micropoli said, well, I bought the team, and it's
okay to say that now.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
You can say that. You might be able to whisper
that in the past, but now you can say it
out loud.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yes you can.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
What's your take on the Kentucky hiring of Will Stein?
Speaker 5 (20:57):
And I think it's a very I think it's a
forward thinking higher. I mean, he's a young guy. You
wonder about a young guy coming into as the first
time head coach coming into the SEC. But I think
obviously will has the credentials what he did at Oregon.
I think he brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm,
you know, into the program. I want to say, I
think Mark Stops did a tremendous job. I think, especially
(21:19):
people like yourself and myself who followed and took a
football for a long time, I appreciate the job that
Mark did because this has not been an easy place
to win, and I think Mark what happened at the end.
I remember when Dan Mullen got fired at Florida. Mark said, sometimes,
you know, in a program, things kind of go in
one direction and the perception of the program, it's hard
to get it turned around, and the administration feels like
(21:41):
it has to make a change. And I think that's
what happened with Mark. But no, I think we'll I
think people are excited to see what he can do
and to have an offensive head coach and to see
what he can do on the offensive side of the ball.
I think, you know, on paper, to me, it looks
like a good hire. We'll see how it plays. That.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah, I would agree with with all of that. You know,
when the the way the games changed with in terms
of building teams, that was I think a real curveball
for coach Stoups because he had a pretty good plan
going with how they were recruiting and developing players. Loss
of John Schlarman, with the identity that they were building
(22:23):
in the offensive line was a big blow to their
program as well. And John was was so good at
what he did. So sometimes the rules of the games
change and it changes who will succeed and who won't.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
Right, absolutely, Yeah, I think it's a very good point.
I think when you look back after a few years.
When you look back on Mark's time here in New Point,
where where did you start to go south on him?
I think you definitely can point to. Unfortunately, John's illness
and death. I mean that, I think another thing hurt
him too. I mean people don't realize he wasn't able
to go and recruit like he had before when he
(23:02):
had his illness, and I think that hurt him as well.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
John, We appreciate the time. We'll do this again.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
And one quick thing, I want to do a shout
out to my mother in law who passed away on Wednesday,
Kenny Lou McGee, who was a huge Kentucky basketball and
Cincinnati Reds fan. Her two favorite things were when the
When when they were not playing well, she would say,
they're just not hustling. And if she was really down
on them, she said, stick a fork in them. Oh,
(23:28):
I want to shout out to her. Shout out to
her friend Jane Duncan, who Tom you know from Paris,
her friend there at the Willows who listens to you
every morning.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Well, God bless her.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
And condolences to to Cindy and all of your all
family of the passing of your mother in law. And
she's not the only one this season who said they're
not hustling at times.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Probably Mark Pope.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Is probably probably so. But I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
John, thank you. We'll do this again. They certainly were
hustling in that second half on Saturday. We'll talk about
that more with Mike de Coursey when.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
He joins us.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Next, it is the Leech Report Radio Network. It is
presented by Bobcat Enterprises. And you need to buy a
rent heavy equipment. That's who you need to call. We're
talking excavators and forklifts and back hose and loaders, those
kinds of things. That's who you need to call. Bobcat Enterprises.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
It's the Leech Report from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio, Return,
Refresh and Refuel at Clark's. Mike de Coursey joins the
program from Sportingnews dot Com at TSN Mike on X
and first let me start with Mike Tomlin stepping down
as coach of the Steelers.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
You're a Pittsburgh guy. What'd you think about that?
Speaker 7 (24:40):
Oh? I was disappointed.
Speaker 6 (24:42):
I thought that, first of all, this is not the
ideal time. Maybe it is if you don't want to struggle.
And I'm not saying they necessarily struggle, because he rarely did.
But they are in a quarterback conundrum that has very
few obvious escape routes at this point because there are
very few, if any, capable quarterbacks on the free agent market.
(25:06):
A draft that once was believed to be pretty pretty
loaded with quarterback prospects has through the course of the
twenty twenty five college football season, thinned considerably.
Speaker 7 (25:20):
It doesn't look like it will provide great help.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
So now you have to start over without the head
coach who had seemed to be able to win games
in the NFL no matter who was installed at that position, and.
Speaker 7 (25:33):
So I thought he would stay and fight that.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
I don't know what it was that led him to
decide this was it. I suspect being booed twice at
home in the final six weeks or so of the
season probably convinced him that no matter what he did
in this circumstance, it wasn't going to be enough.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Since we last talked, came the news that Jalen Lowe's
season is done. He re injured his shoulder against Mississippi
State Saturday night. So now Kentucky knows that he's not
part of the plan on the court moving forward? What
do you make of what Kentucky can be post Jayalen Low.
Speaker 6 (26:10):
Yeah, it's disappointing, obviously, because when he was playing, he
showed what he's capable of, and even in a limited state,
which he was for pretty much his entire time in uniform.
Maybe not back when he was playing before the injury
and playing in exhibitions or Blue White Game or whatever,
(26:33):
but once he was on the floor in games that counted,
he was compromised from the beginning.
Speaker 7 (26:39):
And even in.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
That state, you saw a definition to the offense. You
saw the ability he had to get deep into defenses
and stress them. And so without him, I don't see
them having that component to their approach. I think they're
going to have to be a little bit more convention,
a little bit more power oriented. Denzel Aborating can get
(27:03):
by guys. It's it's he's certainly a fine athlete, and
it's not something he doesn't do at all, but he's
not he's not geared to that. It's not something he's
done a ton and and decided what to what plays
to make off of that over and over consistent basis,
and so I think they're going to have to be
(27:24):
a little bit more conventional. They're going to have to
use Yeah, you want to get the ball to the lane,
no doubt, But I think I think that you're different.
But I also think at the opposite end, you are
better defensively. For all the minutes that Jalen would have
spent on the floor, there's I mean.
Speaker 7 (27:43):
Especially, we never really saw what he might have.
Speaker 6 (27:45):
Been as a defender with with growth and with maturity
if he were healthy. But when he was not healthy,
which was all this season, his defensive limitations were exacerbated
instead of instead of the improvement we'd hope to see.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
TEB with Mike DECURSI you also, in addition to sporting
new seum on the Big Ten network, and he does
the brackets for Fox Sports, and so Kentucky probably would
have been around the bubble. I would imagine had they
not gotten the Malachi miracle on Wednesday night, if they
can get a win at Tennessee on Saturday, where could
(28:25):
they be by next Friday or I guess Tuesday would
be your next bracket.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (28:30):
When they lost the Missouri game and I still had
them in my bracket, I took a lot of heat
from Kentucky haters, maybe in some Kentucky fans not sure
where it was all coming from, but there is the
assistance that's provided by those behind them, which it's not
an impressive group at this point, and they seem to
(28:50):
find a lot of ways to lose games. Kentucky was
able to extricate itself from that. Against LSU, Tennessee would
be a significant win. LSU is not a likely NCAA
tournament team, but but they certainly were around the bubble,
and you by by winning on their court, you damage
(29:11):
their case, and damaging their case helps your case because
there's a possibility that you're going.
Speaker 7 (29:16):
To wind up in the same grouping at the end
of the year, so you want to take care of
those head to heads.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
That's where the the old miss the late collapse there
was painful for that reason.
Speaker 7 (29:27):
But Tennessee would give you.
Speaker 6 (29:29):
I think I think you're going to see that Saint
John's win continue to improve in quality as the as
the Red Storm go through the Big East, that they
have shown that they're starting to find some capability there.
The Indiana win, I think will end up being a
field win, but they have some work to do as well, uh,
(29:50):
Tennessee is a no doubt field win, it's a high
quad one win. So that would be an enormous step
for this team. But it's going to be a real challenge.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
H It feels like in just watching them that them,
you know, not in the coaches meetings and what they're
strategizing about, but it kind of feels like after the
Gonzaga game, they thought maybe that, yeah, they they weren't
going to be as good as they hoped they were
going to be offensively, and so they would try to
focus more on the defensive end, being a great offensive
(30:22):
rebounding team, play more bigs together, and that had some
success with that against Indiana, and Saint John's had a
really bad day against Alabama, and then post Alabama, they're
shooting forty one percent on threes. They're getting about eight
or so a game. That part of the attack has
(30:43):
started to look closer to what I'm sure coach Pope
expected it to be. They're limiting their turnovers, they're keeping
teams off the free throw line, they're doing a good
job of limiting offensive rebounds, and so they're finding it
maybe a different way to win. And that's been the
thing for this team is kind of finding their identity.
Speaker 7 (31:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (31:02):
Absolutely, It's one of the things that we talked about
all the way back when they played Louisville and they
tried to play the style that was predominant last season
during the time when Lamar was available, when Lament excuse
me was available, that they tried to play that way
in the Louisville game, and you could see right away that,
(31:23):
especially without Jalen Lowe, that wasn't going to work and
they had to find it a different approach.
Speaker 7 (31:29):
And then when Jalen did play, it still was limited.
So you had to.
Speaker 6 (31:33):
Have your primary game or at least half the game
was going to have to be played in that other style,
whatever it was. And so you're talking about what they
need to do find that. Like I said, when I
use the word conventional, I meant, you know, more toward
power oriented. You've got a deep collection of big men still.
(31:53):
You've got Malachi who continues to improve. You've got Brandon Garrison,
who I still think there is.
Speaker 7 (31:59):
Good basketball in there.
Speaker 6 (32:01):
He's just struggling with his confidence a little bit right now,
and and those those elements can help them. And then
when you go to the backcourt, you look at Denzel
at your point and and he's big and powerful for
a guard as opposed to Jalen who's small and quick,
and so that helps you at the defensive end. It
helps you with check tracking down long rebounds of miss threes.
(32:22):
He's so dynamic and he's so sudden that he can
get there. So I think that's that's the right approach.
And I thought Colin on the LSU game, I think
it was Wednesday night, his performance was what I've been
waiting to see.
Speaker 7 (32:38):
Now for a month and a half.
Speaker 6 (32:41):
That's that's the Colin Chandler that needs to play for Kentucky.
They instead of trying to find ways to hide him
or whatever.
Speaker 7 (32:50):
That's that guy. Uh uh. He needs to he needs
to play, and he needs to play like that.
Speaker 6 (32:55):
He's a He's a significant asset when he is doing
what he does really well, which has moved the basketball,
get himself open for threes, get the ball deep on occasion,
but don't force action the way he was during the
period probably from mid December until this past week or so.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Something else we talked about as far back as the
summer was otega Oway. You talked about that transition from
being a supplementary guy or a support role guy to
being the man. And that's not the easiest thing in
the world to embrace or to accept. And he is
(33:37):
quite the heater right now. Four straight games with twenty plus.
Six of the last eight has had twenty plus, shooting
forty over forty percent on catch and shoot threes. He
is averaging eighteen and a half over the last I
think it's eight games. And he and me found out here,
you got into the free throw line in that stretch
(33:57):
sixty one times. So he is playing maybe as well
as anybody in the league. I have to think right.
Speaker 7 (34:04):
Now, that is outstanding.
Speaker 6 (34:07):
And that's sixty one free throws and he came, that's
eight a game. I mean, that's you're really punishing the defense.
I think sometimes one of the most underrated elements of
basketball statistics is free throw attempts, because not only do
you get the opportunity to score at a seventy five
percent rate or so, but also the fact that every
(34:30):
time you put a foul in the defense, you're getting
your teammates into the bonus or into the double bonus,
and you're putting the defense into positions perhaps where another
foul is Oh gosh, I'm in foul trouble or another
foul is oh my gosh, I can't play anymore. I
have to watch, and that makes the defense struggle more so.
(34:52):
That ability to get yourself fouled that he's displaying is
really it's enormous and I'm I'm delighted to see how
he has embraced this responsibility, especially as the stakes have
become greater, the oppetition that excuse me, the opposition has
become more demanding because you're playing high major every night
(35:14):
instead of maybe every third night. It's really really cool
to see that, and it's obviously great for his future
as well, because if you can show that you can
do these kinds of things when he gets to the NBA,
when he gets to the pros, he's not going to
probably be a twenty point game scorer, but they want
to know that in your minutes that you can be productive,
(35:36):
and him showing what he's capable of doing now is
going to it's going to not only pay short term
dividends for UK, but long term for him.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Lets re check my math where we're talking is fifty
nine in nine games, added the conzigative game in there
as well, but still that's almost seven per game, six
six plus that, and that's who he is of getting
and most every great scorer at any level is a
big component of it is getting some points at the line.
(36:04):
You get a couple of layups, you get a few
free throws, and you get ten points before you even
have to hit a jump.
Speaker 6 (36:08):
Shot exactly exactly, and his his I think he's now
starting to feel that confidence that you need to have
in order to fulfill that role. It is really a challenge,
and it's probably again something that's often overlooked. There's just
an assumption, well, you're older now and all the guys
who used to score twenty points are gone, so now
(36:30):
you're going to score twenty points. And that's that's a
challenge forever for nearly every player that accepts it, with
the exception of you know, like I sometimes complain about
how many players now spend most of their careers in
loaded prep schools, how many prospects, and how that teaches
them to be role.
Speaker 7 (36:46):
Players before they have to be role players.
Speaker 6 (36:48):
Cooger Flag is never going to be a role player,
but everybody else has to learn that balance, and it
is a challenge.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Mike Decursisportingnews dot Com, Big ten Network in the brackets
from Fox Sports, which you can see at TSN Mike
later today.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Thank you, Mike, Thank you Tom.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
It is the Leech Report and we're presented by Bobcat Enterprises.
We'll be right back the stand Wildcat History of Service
of Kentucky road Show, Sports cards at Memorabilia. They're on
Romney Road in Lexington at a roadshowcards dot Com. Nineteen
ninety six Kentucky beat LSU one twenty nine to ninety seven.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
It was eighty six forty two and a half.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Mark Pope was referencing that game the other night and
Antoine Walker had thirty two in that game. Mark Pope
had two points that night. Richard Madison, Happy birthday to
the Master Blaster, one of the all time great nicknames.
The Louisville Kings the new UFL team. They have drafted
a couple of former Wildcats to play for them, Benny
(37:45):
Snell and Lynn Bowden. Former UL quarterback Chris Redman. It's
going to be the coach of that team.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
That'll do it.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
For this edition of The Leech Report, presented by Bobcat Enterprises.
Best of show for the most part, on Monday for
the holiday. We'll see you live again on Two Step
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