NCAA Tournament First Round Preview with Cameron Mills

Episode Transcript

(00:12):
Hello and welcome inside another edition ofUK Sports Network Today as we preview the
NCAA Tournament opening round game for Kentuckyagainst the Oakland Golden Grizzlies Thursday night at
seven to ten. UK Sports Networkpregame coverage will begin at five thirty on
the Don Franklinado Countdown to Tipop Show. As always, UK Sports Network Today

(00:34):
is presented by the Big Blue Brew. It's the official newsletter of UK Athletics.
Sign up today at UK athletics dotcom slash Big Blue Brew. It's
completely free and it hits in boxesevery weekday morning. Once again, that's
UK Athletics dot Com slash Big BlueBrew. Speaking of the Don Franklinado Countdown
to Tipop Show, our special guesttoday to preview that first round matchup against

(00:58):
Oakland is none other than Cameron Mills, a two time national champion and an
analyst. On our pregame show,we talk how he would approach it and
how his team approached it there inthe late nineties, and obviously dive a
little bit deeper into our opponent onThursday night, the champions of the Horizon
League, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies,without further ado, here's Cameron, a

(01:21):
national champion in his own right,a member of our pregame broadcast, the
Don Franklin Audo Countdown to tip OffShow. It is Cameron Mills and Cameron,
we have a bracket. How beautifulis that? It's fantastic and it's
and it's a I'm reluctant to saythis, Andrew, it's a great bracket
for us. However, that's that'sthe fan part of me coming out,

(01:42):
the player part of me coming out, and this was just beating into my
head for four years, is youdon't look at the bracket. You look
at your next game. So rightnow it's Oakland, Oakland, Oakland,
Oakland, Oakland, Oakland, Oakland, Oakland, and that's that's it.
So whatever is beyond Oakland, hopefullythe players aren't even thinking about yet,
right which brings us to our opponenton Thursday night seven to ten, and
we will be on the air atfive thirty you providing your analysis of the

(02:06):
Oakland Golden Grizzlies. I always likeasking this question because all these higher seeds,
Kentucky being a three this year,they have the same problem because you
don't have to do well as wetalked about in your conference tournament. If
you're a premier team that already hasthe resume and is going to get in
Oakland, their only way in wasto win their conference tournament. So you're
taking on a team that finished theregular season winners of four of five,

(02:29):
and then they obviously went on arun through the Horizon League tournament, winning
three in a row. So you'replaying a team that is really red hot
even though they haven't played in overa week because of when the tournament was
true. But also I think youcould say the reverse is true because they
won their tournament, and did youmention they also won their conference, right,
they were regular season conference. Sobut the reverse is true even though

(02:50):
yeah, we had a dog gameagainst Texas A and M. We're we
you know, we finished the seasonon a hot streak. We finished the
season, I guess, I thinkguess at this one, you'd say,
what seven of nine, winning sevenand nine, but winning our last five
games before the SEC started, includingsome big wins over I mean, throw
Alabama in there, Tennessee and thereAuburn I think was a little bit earlier

(03:13):
than that streak. Maybe not,because everything kind of came after the South
Carolina. I think it was atthe beginning of that streak. Was that
aubury because for a while I wassaying seven of eight, we won our
last seven of eight in this set, and that one loss was against South
Carolina. So you've got this winstreak that happened after the against Zaga loss.
Or you can't really call it winstreak because the win streak was five,
but the basketball of the year tworight now, now Texas A and

(03:36):
M not was standing. But Ithink a lot of that goes back to
something that that I think a lotof people need to need to understand,
and I think on some level itcould affect us in the instead of a
tournament. That is, and Iknow people get tired of hearing this,
but it's still the truth. Ifyou take Texas A and M Mississippi State,
and Misippi State stands out to mebecause I remember when we played them

(03:58):
at home, they're starting five.Their average age was like twenty three and
a half or twenty four years old. Are starting five or let's just say
our team, I think are IWe're just like nineteen and a half.
I mean with the COVID extra yearsthat a lot of these guys have been
given and we've got a couple withAntonio and Trey are taking advantage of I
think one extra year. Right,So we've got those two guys and they

(04:20):
obviously play a lot, but theneverybody else is basically a second year or
a fresh or a freshman. Andlet's not fool ourselves. Our freshmen playing
an awful lot of minutes. Sobut the point is is that they've been
through everything at this point in theseason except tournament play. They haven't faced
and I think that's what we sawagainst TEXTA and SEC. When we got

(04:43):
behind them. We didn't come outsharp at all. And then we started
pressing and not full court pressing,pressing ourselves feeling the pressure, and we
started feeling the pressure. What happenedwe started missing gimme layups that we usually
make. I mean, we hadsome of the best rim finishers in college
basketball, and all of a sudden, they couldn't finish rob DJ. I
mean, we just we played sloppy. We just didn't look like we were

(05:06):
ready for you know, big timetournament. Played so and to some degree
that makes sense to me because they'renot used to it. They've never played
in the SEC tournament before. Alot of these guys, they've also never
played in the n C Double Atournament. I'm hoping that having the tournament
experience, even though it's different becauseSEC is not winn or go home for
good, it's win or go homefor now. In C double A from

(05:28):
here on out, it's winter gohome. And you know we have we
have yet to and I have togo back and look, and I keep
meaning to you may know this offtop of your head, but have we
run off six games in a rowthis year at all? It got close
because of that run that you werealluding to. That loss in the middle
was actually the tip in loss atLSU LSU. It wasn't. If it
wasn't for that, it would havebeen a clean winning streak. But yeah,

(05:48):
but other than that, like thebeginning of the year when we were
playing you know, the Guma game, quote unquote, we never won six
in a row. So on tosome level that excites me. It's like,
okay, you know, you know, Cal keeps saying his team's made
for March. Didn't look like thatagainst at the SEC, But that doesn't
mean it's not going to look likeit now. Because I'm hoping as he

(06:09):
said in his show last night oron Monday night, he said, these
guys were crying in the locker room, and to me, that means something.
I mean, I want them cryingin the locker room, you know,
I want them feeling as though.You know, there's a part of
me that wants them crying in thelocker room after every loss because they didn't
show up as well as they wantedto. But I'm hoping all of that

(06:31):
means that when they take the courtThursday night, regardless of who they're playing,
when they take the court Sunday nightor Thursday night, they're ready to
go and they are focused in theway we saw them focused against Tennessee,
the way we saw them focused againstAlabama, the way we saw them focused
against Auburn. I mean, thosewere dominant games and we definitely showed we

(06:54):
let teams, you know, scorea lot of points on us, but
we were able to as someone asI read an article today, are nuclear
off which we definitely have. Soit's just a matter of can that nuclear
offense sustain us for six games ifwe're not going to play any better defense
than we have played consistently. We'veimproved, but we're still not able to
you know, I feel like shutteams down completely, which, to be

(07:18):
fair, I don't know that anybody'sreally good at that anymore. I mean,
when you've got so many players withthe portal, so many guys that
are like what Arkansas did, andArkansas is not a great example because of
their bad season this year, butbasically, you know, Musselman went out
and got five or six guys thatwere like seniors at other schools and basically
made, you know, his ownversion of an All Star team. And

(07:41):
though that's not a bad idea,you got to bring together guys that gel.
And to me, that's what excitesme about this group of Kentucky players
is they were gelling from the verybeginning. I mean, this group of
guys genuinely like each other, genuinelyroot for each other, and I think
that selfishly reminds me a lot ofour ninety eighteen, where we didn't care
who got the credit as long aswe won. And I'm hoping that's what

(08:01):
happens, because I'll say this andthen I turn it back over to you.
But if we don't do anything specialthis year, and I qualify special,
unfairly as getting to the Final four, at least as a Kentucky team,
right, that's a special Kentucky team, one that a lot of people
always remember no matter what. Winthe championship, great, it's even better
it's to going the k but gettingto the final four. If they don't

(08:24):
do that this year, I'm notgoing to hurt for myself as a fan.
I'm gonna hurt for these guys becausethese guys deserve that, because I've
never seen a group of young menspecifically who have so quickly and easily put
aside their egos at the beginning ofthe season. Now usually get them there
by the end of the season,but these guys were there by the beginning
of the season. So I amrooting for these guys more so than I've

(08:45):
rooted for any Kentucky team, andobviously I root hard for him, especially
in March, but I really wantthese guys to do something special because you
can argue maybe they don't deserve towin based on their defense or certain games,
but if we're talking about what ateam truly is, I don't think
there is a better team attitude inthe country than ours, And I think
totally agree with you on the youknow, the reactions in the locker room,

(09:07):
and any good team I've been around, whether it's professional or college,
the one hallmark has obviously been talent, but it's also been that chemistry.
And I remember in twenty seventeen theTriple A season, when our season ended,
it was there was guys getting calledup to the big leagues, these
financial, you know, life changingcalls. Those guys were still devastated in

(09:28):
tears because they wanted to keep going. Because when you keep winning, you're
still together, right because you know, it's not like these friendships are going
to be are going to go bythe wayside once the season does come to
a close, but you get toplay together, and you'll never get to
play together like you are right now. That's exactly right. As a matter
of fact, I'll go back andI'll i'll and I'll use our ninety six,
ninety seven, ninety eight teams asan example. And I don't know

(09:50):
that this is the reason, butthat group of guys, which is a
lot of you know, like there'sa group of maybe five of us that
played on every single one of thosethree teams. Right now, when I
say play, I use that termyou loosely because I didn't play ninety six.
You know, I played ninety seve, ninety eight. I didn't play
ninety six. I was on theteam but didn't play. But yet playing
those everybody talks about how much funMarch Madness is. Coaches always have that

(10:13):
cliche of saying, all right,guys, you know, the most important
thing is to go out there andhave fun. I always love it when
coaches say that because they don't meanit a lick. I mean they here
because here's what's Here's what's fun.Winning is fun, Andrew losing is not.
So there's no team that goes outthere and loses his game and comes
back in the locker room and coacheslike, you have fun, guys,

(10:35):
that's all that matters. That doesn'tthat doesn't work. And to be fair,
maybe that only happens on a highschool level more so than college.
But if these guys do can puttogether a four or five six game run,
it's the friendships that they've made already, and to your point, they're
not going to lose them. Butthe next level. And I know this

(10:56):
because I've had quite a few teamex teammates play on the next level whether
it's the NBA or just professional basketball. Most of them were in the NBA,
but so many of them have toldme it's just not the same as
college. It's just in college youlive together. You don't do that in
the pros. In college, afterpractice you go do things together. I
think Cal said at Monday night onthe show that he gave the guys two

(11:18):
days off, and then yesterday hetook him bowling as a team, which
I love because that is exactly,literally exactly what we did in ninety six,
ninety seven, ninety eight as ateam, we would go bowling all
the time, and so to givehim that time off hopefully to help them
reset. And that's what excites meabout the A and M loss. Though
I certainly wasn't rooting for us tolose that loss, I'm hoping kind of

(11:41):
resets our mindset because if you lookat games we lost this year, with
the exception of what that three offour game slide we had, or I
think we lost three at home ina row, with the exception of that,
we've responded from every loss with alittle bit of a run. We've
improved. I don't know if youcould say a run now certainly get towards

(12:01):
the end of the season, butwe've gotten better and we certainly come out
that next game ready to avenge ourselveson whoever that other team is. But
to your point earlier, Oakland's nota pushover, and at this point the
season doesn't matter who you play.That's it's always kind of interesting to me.
And I do believe that a numberone seed number two, the higher

(12:22):
the seed, the easier your path, but by one game. Because okay,
so you've got a sixteen over aone. If you win, guess
what you're gonna play an eight ora nine. That is a massive jump
up. Okay, it's not likeyou're going from a from a sixteen seed
to if you win, you're gonnaplay a fifteen seed, then a fourteen
seed, then thirteen teen. It'snot how it works. You jump up
immediately to eight and nine. Ifyou look at the bracket and see who

(12:43):
some of these eight and nines are, especially if you look at the parody
of college basketball, I mean we'vegot our I mean there are favorites Houston,
Yukon, certainly Purdue. I thinkyou know, those three kind of
stand out other than those three.And believe me one of maybe two of
them, maybe all three of themare gonna get knocked out early. Maybe
not early, but they're gonna getknocked out. And again I don't,

(13:05):
I don't. I don't want toback myself in the corner. I'm not
saying all three of them will.I'm saying at least one, maybe two
of them will, and it's possiblethree of them will. I mean,
we may have a national champion thisyear that's got ten losses on the resume
that so easily could happen. Imean, you look at the SEC with
eight teams in, we got tenloss teams sitting up there. You know
they have lower or higher seeds beingon how you want to look at it.

(13:26):
But I just think that this year'sgroup of guys, coming off a
loss, I think they're gonna beready for Oakland. But that's the key
is we can't as a team.Now, again speaking as a former player,
you can't go into this game thinkingthat you know, all right,
well Oakland California, No, no, no, no, Oakland, Oakland
Michigan. Right. I mean yougot to be prepared for this team.

(13:50):
But I think this team has donethat gets Kentucky team's done that all year.
They have come off losses and playedwell the next game. Speaking of
these Oakland Golden Grizzlies, the onething they do that Kentucky really hasn't seen
much, really at all, especiallyin extended times, and they may see
it the whole game on Thursday nightis they zone. They zone on defense,
They zone, zone, zone,zone. I think it's like over

(14:11):
eighty eight percent of their defensive possessionsthey're in his zone. So how does
Kentucky approach that? Launch threes?Maybe, I mean, let's leak this.
Okay. I know Cal has hadhis those who criticize him for not
playing zone. And I'm not sayingthere is no place for a zone in
an athletic for an athletic team,but I will tell you this two things.

(14:35):
Number One, I was consistently andthis is not This is not self
deprecation, but the self of selfdeprecation. This is sincerity. I was
consistently the worst defensive player on everyKentucky team I played on. I was
told when I was put in thegame by Tubby Smith and Rich Matino basically,
just don't hurt us on defense andI'll leave you in as long as

(14:58):
I can. All right, well, well, zone is what you play
when you've got somebody like me,and for the most part, because you
can't stick me on one player.And what I'm basically saying is you play
zone when you've got liabilities on defense. You don't play zone when you've got
an athletic quick team. Now youcould make the argument, we've got liabilities

(15:22):
on defense as a team, right, and you could drill down and say,
all right, well he's not thatquick latterly, or maybe the whole
team's letting everyone get by him.But with the rules change, or there's
no charges anymore. Basically there's youcan't put two hands on a guy you
can't used to. You could handcheck a little bit and get away with
it. You can't do anymore.It's an automatic foul the moment you so

(15:43):
nobody's nobody is containing perimeter. Whatteams have done to us is they have
pushed our offense out further and furtherfrom the from the three point line and
made us forced us to start ouroffense further away. But they're not keeping
us from driving. The basis ofthis whole team is penetration and kickout.
Either we get the lob, weget the layup, we get fout,

(16:03):
or we get a three point shot. I mean that's how we've scored.
So to play zone against us,especially this Kentucky team, because where a
zone is weak and they play amatchup zone. So basically, even though
they've got a zone to play,you have to find someone within your zone
that you have to go. Youknow, you don't stay in your zone.
You're do you stay in your zone, but you better find a man

(16:25):
that you can at least kind ofput a hand on and keep track up
within your zone, within your zone, within your area of the zone that
you've been assigned to. But thatbeing said, zones have gaps. Every
zone has a gap. Okay,that's why when you go against a two
to three you play a one threeto one offense. You go against a
one three one defense, you playa two to three zone offense. I

(16:45):
mean it's just you put your offensewhere the zones have gaps. That forces
the defense to basically play honestly,all right, But if you're going against,
for example, a one three onezone defense, well, my goodness,
you're putting somebody on the baseline andthey're just running back back and forth,
and you've got one guy down therewho's got to account for the bigs
in the middle when they rotate in, and then they've got to account for

(17:06):
the corners, or you've got someonedropping down from the wings having to attach
the corners. So for us,as an offensive team, bring on his
own defense. And I'm by nomeans, you know, belittling Oakland's so
own defense. I'm just saying,as a shooter, I want to face
his zone because even before I learnedhow to come off screens correctly, which

(17:26):
didn't happen till made me my sophomorejunior year, when I really started to
understand whind to curl and wind tofade, windo pop, my gosh,
I mean I almost I'll tell youa story. Apparently coach Patino my freshman
year. There's my freshman year.I'm almost posed to my freshman year.
Maybe my junior year, I don'tknow it was, But when it was

(17:48):
when I wasn't playing, it waswhen I was had a very comfortable spot
at the very end of the bench. Apparently coach mate were getting ready to
play Syracuse, I think, andnot in the National Championship Game in ninety
six. This was like an earliergame in the season, and apparently coach
was gonna start me. And Ihad Winston Bennett, who was my coach
at the time, come up tome and say, just be prepared.

(18:11):
Coach wants to start you. Nowwe speaking as to coaches, we talked
him out of it, but don'tbe surprised if he calls your number in
the first half. Well there wasa reason for that because he knew that
even though I might hurt us ondefense, if we're gonna go up against
Syracuse's zone zone offense or excuse me, his own defense, there's gonna be

(18:33):
gaps and put your shooters in.We have got a team full of shooters,
Andrew. I mean, there's nota single guy on this team,
maybe with the exception of Ugo,who cannot shoot a three point shot consistently
and shoot it well. I don'tknow what the stats say now, but
I still think we're probably leading thecountry in three point shooting. If not,
we're close. So by all means, please zone us. Now.

(18:55):
That doesn't mean we don't play sloppyor can't play sloppy and mess it up,
but if they're gonna zone us,then we're gonna have open shots all
day long. The trick is isthat we've got to go and get the
offensive rebounds because those long three pointshots rebound long. Now that's gonna be
just as hard on them, especiallyplaying his zone, because when you're playing
a zone and you've got a rebound, you don't automatically know who you're boxing
out. You got to go findsomebody to box that. So there's so

(19:17):
many things about. To me,the oddity of playing us with the zone
defense doesn't make sense because not onlydo you have to deal with the three
point shots and the long rebounds,you also it is so much easier penetrating
against the zone than it is manto man because again, if you're whipping
the ball around, you've got guysthat are having to make bigger closeouts than

(19:41):
normal. Right, I mean,that's what's got in us, got us
in trouble a lot. We haveoffered way too much help defense and left
shooters wide open on wings as opposedto all right, I can't leave him,
so I've got I can't go help. Right, We've made that mistake
too often. Well, when you'replaying a zone, you're kind of assigned,
right, I mean, you hedgetowards the guy that Okay, we

(20:02):
can't let this guy get off.Well, who do you do that with
this Kentucky team? Who do younot help off of you? You have
to stay at home on everybody,which all that does is it spreads that
zone wider and wider, which meansthe gaps to drive through are just enormous.
So I don't really understand playing usa zone. I may very well
eat my words Thursday night, butI just I don't get it, except

(20:23):
that that's what this coach does.That's what this team does. And that's
why I was kind of shaking myhands earlier saying bring it on, man.
I would rather play against the zonewith this team than I think anything.
Hey, I'll say this, BeforeI was at Kentucky, I was
in the Horizon League and Greg Campyis one of the more eccentric characters.
So it wouldn't surprise me at allif they don't play any zone on Thursday

(20:45):
night, Like it really wouldn't,Like, I mean, you know this
better than I do. But butand I know this is but can you
share this just his story because he'sgot a pretty amazing story, and I
don't know the details of it.I just know he's been through a lot.
I did not realize that Coach Caland he you know, coaching it's
such a small fraternity, but Imean, we've gotten to the point where

(21:06):
there's almost four hundred Division one schools, so it's you are getting to the
point where not every coach knows everybody. But I was surprised at how well
right and I was surprised at howwell coach Cal. You know, they
were talking about it right after theselection show, how well he knew Coach
camp Be, and he brought upa great point, and it is it
is true. It's something I hadn'tthought about in a while. But he

(21:26):
had many chances over the years wherehe could have went somewhere else years and
he could have went somewhere else,and he built that from the ground up.
You know. It wasn't like youinherited anything and then made it better
like it literally was just from theground up. So's they've only been D
one since ninety seven. He's beenthere for years, which basically means for

(21:48):
the first fifteen years or so,they were what D two and AI think
they went n ai A. Ithink they followed a similar path that Belmont
did. They went from NAI Ato division to Division two to Division one
vacation. I mean, because he'sbasically built a program that was it's not
look and that's that it's a misnomerabout NAI that there's no talent at NII
level or n C Double A Divisiontwo division. There is. There's just

(22:11):
not a bunch of talent on oneteam. The talent is much more spread
out than it is at D one. But to have to have a guy
who's been at one school forty yearsbrought them from NAI to the n C
Double A Division one and now itis in the NC Tournament after winning the
Horizon League. And is this havethey ever won the Horizon League before?

(22:33):
It's been a little while. It'sbeen a little while. But the Northern
Kentucky Norse my norse Go Norse.They they they got in and kind of
re stabbed, re kind of wartwo was the dominant force in the league.
But Oakland's had a couple of reallygood regular seasons. And as you
know Cameron and those mid major conferences, you know, it's it's really tough
because you can have a you canhave a I mean, look at Indiana

(22:55):
State you can have a fantastic regularseason, do everything that they asked of
you, and then you who's agame in the conference tournament, even in
the championship, and you're not going. So I think that's kind of what's
happened to Oakland the last you know, decade or so until this year.
Yeah. Well, it's one ofthose things where this is what makes the
NCAA tournament so great. It's theit's the non madness part. Well,

(23:15):
I actually no, it is themadnest part in it because you have a
team like Oakland or a team likeand I hate to bring it up to
UK fans, but Saint Peter,Saint Peter's a few years ago, a
couple of years ago, what throughI guess, yeah, two, two
or three years ago. You know, knock us out. I mean it
happens. I mean, you've hadDuke knocked out by Mercer. I mean
you had We've had a sixteen overa one. I mean it's happened,
I mean twice. Now, there'sa reason it's called March madness. It's

(23:38):
not just because everyone stops working forthree weeks and watches a tournament. It's
because they watch a tournament and stopworking because you finally get to see the
seventy best teams in the country,or at least the hottest teams in the
country. And it's one big freefor all. And the free for all,
the fact that it's not double elimination, the fact that it's winner go

(23:59):
home, man, the pressure inthe stakes, they just rise. And
that's why I always kind of say, and I know it's getting cliche for
me to say it, and peopleargue with me all the time about it,
but everything up until this point doesit matter. I mean, you
can say it matters to the seatingand yeah, like I said earlier,
it gets you one extra easy game, but that's all it does. If
you get a number one seed ora number two seed, maybe what matters

(24:21):
is what are you going to dothese last six opportunities? If you get
six opportunities, what matters right nowfor Kentucky is what are you going to
do Thursday night? Because everything elsehas been a learning experience up until Thursday
night. And if you win,great, you get to play Saturday.
If you lose, season's over,season's over. So and we don't hang
banners anywhere. As far as Iknow, nobody's hanging banners for you had

(24:45):
a great season or you had agreat regular season, I should say you
hang banners and you get rings fornational championships. Some places hang banners for
conference championships. I don't think wedo that anymore. I think we did
it in World coll Sum. Idon't know if they're going to change that,
but we don't do it rup andwe do think banners for final fours,

(25:07):
but we definitely hang banners for nationalchampionships. And that's to me why
now the season officially starts everything else. The guys have been learning. They've
got to put everything they've learned inthe last four months into practice right now.
Final fours and national championships definitely theexpectation, as you can tell by
just looking up, as you said, at Rupp Arena and Oakland led by

(25:30):
Trey Townsend. He's the Horizon LeaguePlayer of the Year. He's phenomenal,
leads them in basically every single category, scoring, rebounding, assists, steels,
blocks, I mean, he's justhe's phenomenal. But here's a guy
that I know, he's after yourown heart. I know this. They
have a guy in the name ofJack Goldkey. He has attempted Cameron three
hundred and thirty five shots this year. Three hundred and twenty seven of those

(25:53):
have been three pointers. He's onlyattempted eight to two pointers. So that's
a man after your stat line,And what was the story you're sharing with
me earlier about he had a hehad a breakaway layup and he that would
be wide open Oakland that Oakland hashad guys that have done this, and
there was a guy there was aguy five or six years ago, zero
two point attempts and he passed upa wide open last. This is an

(26:17):
affectation with with the Golden Grizzlies.They always have a guy who's only just
like it is to shoot threes.I would look, I'm proud that I
played at Kentucky. I would loveto play on a team like that,
And to be honest, that kindof was what my team became. When
I was in the game. It'slike, okay, Cam, do not
You're not allowed to go inside threepoint line because if I did, I
turned it over, I'd bounce itoff the backboard. I would do something

(26:37):
stupid. My job was to standoutside that three point line and shoot threes
and then to go down and tryto play defense. That that was my
role on the team. That's that'sa pretty impressive stat line. We'll see
how many he gets on on Thursday. But if you go back to Townsend,
and you and I were talking aboutthis before we started, Townsen shooting
forty two percent of the three pointline and only forty percent from the field

(26:57):
goal percentage. So he's shooting betterfrom three point line that he is field
goal. That's not a common stat. You don't see that a lot herely.
It's the other way around somewhat.But for him to shoot better from
the three point line that he doesfrom field, that's that's just a weird
stat. So they play zone,they're gonna be launching crazy threes, and
let's remember those are the games thatwe've had trouble with, right, Because

(27:19):
here's the thing about and I don'tknow that I'm right about this, it's
just a personal feeling after being ashooter having to guard shooters or do my
best and having to have people guardme. If I'm on You've closed out
however you want, unless you punchme in the gut every time you close
out, You're not gonna affect whetheror not I'm on or off. The

(27:41):
only way now that's if I'm on. Now, if I'm having an off
game. Yeah, maybe closing outhelps in your three point defense matters,
but if you face a team thatit just catches red hot, there's nothing
you can do. You can turnthem over before they get to half court,
but that's all you can do becauseif they're on on closing out,
it's not gonna matter keeping the shootersfrom getting the ball. Sure, but

(28:04):
in a case like us, forexample, well we got four other guys
on the court, Chances are thatcan shoot the ball just as well.
So and that to some degree istrue of this Oakland team because they're a
three point shooting team. Last questionfor you, Cameron, and you brought
this up a little bit earlier.I was surprised to hear that I think
Trey was the best bowler when theywent Antonio Reeves is like spending tons of

(28:25):
time in the bowling alley when he'snot in the gym shooting. And it
was actually Trey from what I heard, that was actually best on that night.
But for you as a player,and you were fortunate enough to be
a Kentucky kid to be in thissituation to where you're going into an NCAA
tournament wearing the blue and white asa Kentucky kid. What were these few
days Like we're taping this interview onTuesday, so two nights before, but

(28:48):
from selection Sunday and if you playThursday, you have this like weird four
day window where it's just kind ofanticipation that what is that like for the
guys? So I think I thinkit's different from them to the teams I
was on, because the teams Iwas on again, and I think every
Kentucky team these days it's different fromthe teams I was on because there's so

(29:11):
many young players who've never experienced andthen they go and though so they never
have a sophomore experience than Selby tournament, so it's all new to them.
When I was there, you know, we went to the Elite eight and
ninety five, We went to thechampionship game in ninety six, championship game,
ninety sen, championship game in ninetyeight, and so once you hit,
so once I hit my sophomore year, these four days were this wasn't

(29:33):
you know, it's getting warm outside? You got you know, it's spring
is here and if that's not funenough to say goodbye to the dreariness of
January and February. Number you know, as a player, you're warming up
faster. You know, you're walkingin from ice cold, unless you unless
you're playing down in Florida or Miami, You're you're walking in from ice cold
into a gym and you've got toget your muscles going and that takes that

(29:55):
takes about twenty minutes to get Thatdoesn't take any time this time of year.
So that's that's fun. But thenyou've got all especially coming after that
loss. I wonder about the pressurethese guys are putting on themselves right now,
and I think it's important to realizepressure is not a bad thing.
We think of it as a badthing. Pressure is a good thing.
Pressure forces you to prepare, andI'm hoping that's what happens to them.

(30:18):
But I will tell you this,if these guys can win, if they
can put together five six great games, this will be one of the greatest
memories they'll ever have in their life. Because even the ninety seven season where
we were runner up, we didn'twin a national championship, we got close.
We got I mean, we wereone bad overtime away from possibly three
peating, because who's to say wewin in ninety seven that we automatically win

(30:41):
ninety eight. You can't say that. But those are the parts of And
remember what I said earlier, winningis what's fun. So when you're winning
in this tournament, it's it's thebest month of your life. I mean,
it just is. I mean,you're you're staying in and again because
we're Kentucky, you know, becausewe got a three seed. Because the
way they do is you get topick the hotel and still how they used

(31:03):
to do I don't know how theystill do it, but your school got
to pick. If you were theone seed, you got to pick whatever
hotel you wanted in the city.Well, so we were constantly picking five
star hotels. And I say welike the players anything to do with that,
We didn't, but they were pickingthe nicest hotels, right, the
nicest. But I mean we weretreated like kings this month. And that's
fun. Now, the reality isif you're play at Kentucky, you're treated

(31:23):
like kings all the time. Butman, when it gets to this part
of the season where you're traveling,your fans are there with you, you're
winning games, and in some insome seasons you're winning games that people didn't
think you'd win, like in ninetyeight, in ninety seven. To some
degree, it's just it just kindof everything you experienced as a player during
the regular season. It is itis, I mean just quantified, you

(31:48):
know, a bazillion I mean itjust exponentially the funness of it. And
again if you win, because there'snothing there's nothing less fun than losing that
first round game. But if youwin, you could put together a street
man. It just they will lookback on it and said, that was
one of the best months, oneof the best times of my life.

(32:09):
Cameron, you and I at leasthave these first four games, we can
enjoy the next couple of nights tokind of stave off our hunger for Thursday
night, and very much looking forwardto hearing from you on Thursday. It'll
be five thirty the Don Franklinardo counton the tip Off Show, as we'll
get you ready for that first roundgame. Cam, it's always so much
fun. Can't wait to have youon in the offseason to get a little

(32:29):
deeper into those late nineties teams.Oh yeah, Oh, I got some
great stories for you, Andrew.Oh, I can't wait. We'll definitely
have you back on so appreciate yourtime. Cam. We'll talk to you
Thursday. Absolutely. In other men'sbasketball news, no surprise here, Reed
Sheppard named the USBWA Wayman Tisdale NationalFreshman of the Year. He is the
third different Wildcat under head coach JohnCalipery to win the award, joining John

(32:52):
Wall and Anthony Davis. That issome exclusive company in blue and white.
Calipari has also coached an other Freshmanof the Year. That was Tyreek Evans
while a member of Memphis, ofcourse, back in two thousand and nine,
and Shepard the first Kentucky born playerto claim the honor, which has
been given to the top freshman inthe country since nineteen eighty nine. Sheppard

(33:14):
averaging just under thirteen points per game. He's been in double figures twenty one
different times, four and a halfassists per game, a whole bunch of
steals, and a whole bunch ofclutch shots, shooting over fifty percent from
beyond the arc, and a factorin Obviously a big part of the Kentucky
Wildcat offensive and defensive plans going intopostseason. Play big. Congrats to Read

(33:36):
Shepard, the USBWA Wayman Tisdale NationalFreshman of the Year. Turning our attention
to the diamond first with baseball,Cats were coming off an outstanding weekend,
sweeping away number twenty five Georgia inthe SEC opener, so they entered play
midweek play, that is, onTuesday, with a seventeen and three record

(33:57):
in an unblemished three to zero secCUS Conference mark as well. They fell
behind early Evansville, getting three runsin the top of the fifth inning,
but the Cats answered quickly with threeof their own in the bottom of the
fifth and then how about a sevenspot in the bottom of the sixth en
route to an eleven to three triumphover Evansville. Very good mid major program
out of the Missouri Valley Conference shouldbe contending for a postseason spot there.

(34:21):
Of course, Indiana State the favoritein the Valley, but Evansville expected to
contend with that win. Kentucky noweighteen and three. Amelian Patrive three for
four, four runs knocked in ashis average has climbed all the way up
to three seventy eight. Nick Lopez, it's hard to keep that average stagnant
for him. He came in hittingat just above four to thirty. He
went one for three with an RBI, so he's at four twenty six now.

(34:45):
But two hit day for Ryan Nicholsonas well, and the offense collected
nine in total, but those elevenruns to support a very good pitching outing
that all started with Drew Lafferty.He went four and a third innings,
allowed one run on four hits,one walk in four straight counts. His
ERA for the year now stands atthree point two four. Cameron O'Brien finished

(35:05):
off that fifth inning, and thena combo of Ben Cleaver, Robert Hogan,
Cooper Robinson and Johnny Hummel pitched fourscoreless innings out of that Kentucky bullpen,
and the Kentucky Proud Park crowd ofover two thousand on a midweek game
very impressive, went home happy withKentucky getting that eighteenth victory of the season,
and afterwards head coach Nick Minjion talkingabout the importance of these midweek wins.

(35:29):
Yeah, you know, we've allbeen a part of teams where you
don't play good in that midweek gameand it can carry over into the weekend.
And we also on the flip sidebeen a part of teams. I
thought Ryan Nicholson made a really maturecomment to our team after the game.
He just said, hey, youknow, we just swept a really good
Georgia team. Had been really easyfor us not to be as focus or
locked in, And you know what, our team was focusing, locked in

(35:51):
even early when we weren't scoring,but we were still competing really hard and
throwing up zeros on the pitching anddefensive end. But they were locked in.
And that's what you got to dowhen you have a mature team.
And for a guy like Ryan toeven notice that and make the comment,
that's good. Kentucky hits the roadnow to resume SEZ play. That'll start
on Friday at Missouri. Seven pmsstart there and start time on Saturday,

(36:15):
both of those games on SEC NetworkPlus, but also UK Sports Network coverage
beginning approximately fifteen minutes prior to firstpitch in each of those games. And
then on Sunday afternoon it's a noonstart at Missou. That game schedule to
be broadcasted on SEC Network. DarrenHedrick will be on the air at eleven
forty five am with UK Sports Networkcoverage, so meant that television feed turned

(36:37):
Darren all the way up as theCats look to continue their excellent start in
Southeastern Conference action. No midname forsoftball on Tuesday, but coach Losson's team
will resume their twenty twenty four campaignon Wednesday with their midweek contest against Marshall.

(36:58):
Kentucky checking in this week at numbertwenty three in the poll, and
that game against Marshall is at JohnCrops Stadium, so six o'clock first pitch.
Hope to see out there before Kentuckyhits the road as well in softball,
So double road trip for our baseballand softball teams this weekend. Softball
in Gainesville beginning on Friday against theGators. They have two nationally televised games

(37:22):
this weekend. Do the softball doesthe softball program? Six o'clock start on
Friday on SEC network. No listedtelevision broadcast for Saturday when they visit Florida
at three o'clock, and then anESPN two broadcast is slated for Sunday.
That is a noon start on Sunday. As Kentucky getting back into SEC play,

(37:43):
they played one of the favorites verytough three game series with LSU three
close games, but the Tigers,who were number three in the country at
the time, did take all threeof those wins. So entering play on
Wednesday in that midweek game against Marshall, Kentucky, standing at nineteen and eight,
zero to three in the SEC.But a chance to write that very
much this weekend when they visit Floridafor three That an SEC road trip for

(38:08):
coach Lawson and company, and they'llbe back at John Crops Stadium for SEC
play on Thursday, and they'll takeon Alabama Thursday, March twenty eighth.
If you want to look ahead,just a little bit for UK softball.
So best of luck to baseball atMissouri and best of luck to softball at

(38:28):
Florida, and of course a biggood luck to men's basketball as they take
on once again Oakland on Thursday inthe first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Pregame coverage begins with the Don FranklinardoCountdown to tip bof show at five thirty,
tip off a little after seven scheduledfor seven to ten, as Tom
and Jack will be courtside there inPittsburgh to bring you all the action.

(38:51):
A big thanks to Cameron Mills forspending some time with us to preview that
matchup, and a big thanks toeveryone at the UK Sports Network who helps
put the together. So for everyoneat the network, I'm Andrewkappus saying thanks
for listening to UK Sports Network todayand we'll talk to you next time.
Thank you, thank you, thankyou, thank you, thank you.