2025-06-18 - BBI

Trent Noah on why he never considered leaving UK; (10:00) more Caitlin Clark controversy in the WNBA; (19:00) Unforgettable guard Sean Woods on Caitlin Clark, Collin Chandler and AAU hoops; (39:00) HOF coach Keith Madison back from the MCWS in Omaha; (55:00) West Coast Bureau Chief Gary Moore and everybody got a shot at Rodney...

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Oh, guess what day it is. Guess what day it is?

Speaker 3 (00:05):
Huh anybody, It's hump Day.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the Big Blue and sidet ar Dick Gabriel
with you on a Wednesday. Yes, it is hump Day
and that means that on a Wednesday, we talk with
our unforgettable guard Sean Woods. Also Westend Bureau chief Gary Moore.
That's coming up in our number two. We usually talk
with Aaron Gershan of the Cat's pause midweek. He is
traveling on vacation. He'll be back with us on Thursday,

(00:33):
so a little bit later on we'll talk with the
head coach, or the Hall of Fame head coach, Keith Madison,
who of course coached the Wildcats for so many years
and now remains active in college baseball and as such,
was that the College World Series for a while. He's
just back. He does have a tale to tell about
coming home, air travel, cancel flights and all that stuff.

(00:55):
But more than anything, I want to hear him talk
about his interaction action with the Murray State Racers, who
of course have been eliminated, but they were a great
story in Omaha. Now the great story is the fact
that you've got Coastal Carolina still alive, and they don't
like to be referred to as Cinderella because they've been
there multiple times and they won the championship a few

(01:18):
years ago. They're in the final four, and in fact,
they are playing the Louisville Cardinals this afternoon in an
elimination game that would maybe over by the time we
take the air. My apologies, we do pre record. As
you know, Louisville has to beat Coastal twice. So if
the Cardinals do manage to beat the Chanta Clears this afternoon,
they'll play again tomorrow. Coming up this evening Arkansas LSU.

(01:43):
That's another elimination game because LSU beat Arkansas earlier in
the tournament. The Razorbacks have to beat LSU a couple
of times. They'll play again tomorrow if necessary. The finals
are Saturday, Sunday, Monday, depending on what happens in a
three game series. But Coastal Carolina again is a team

(02:03):
that's chock full of confidence on a long heater right now,
I think it's twenty five straight games. Arkansas is in
great shape, first of all, beating UCLA last night seven
to three. It was seven to nothing to the last inning,
UCLA put up three, but Arkansas cruised for the most part.
But Arkansas pitching has been cruising since the kid threw

(02:26):
the no hitter and saved the bullpen. Save the entire bullpen.
That's such a key in tournaments like this, and again
Arkansas cannot lose again. Arkansas has already lost once in
w LIMB. Same with Louisville, which beat Oregon State another
crazy game. Oregon State was down six to three, put
up three in the top of the ninth, and then

(02:47):
Louisville loaded the bases with nobody out, got a sackfly
from Eddie King, the hottest player in the tournament, and
walked it off against Oregon State. But that inning began
and I'm texting my buddies in the text Shane with
a walk. You just can't walk the leadoff hitter, especially
in a situation like that. But it was not a

(03:08):
clean game, both teams making errors. But Louisville wins it.
Louisville survives and like I said, could be eliminated by now,
but if it beats Coastal this afternoon, it will play
again tomorrow night. We'll talk a lot of college baseball
coming up with Keith Madison. But I also want to
talk to Sean Woods about Colin Chandler, who spoke to

(03:29):
the media this week. And he, of course is a
guy who is going to make a jump from year
one to year two that I think is going to
be really terrific. But where does he fit in to
Mark Pope's ball club. So we'll talk about that with
Sean coming up a little bit later on. Speaking of
Mark Pope's team, Trent Noah talked to the media this week.
They're bringing the players to us now here in the

(03:51):
off season, which is great. And Noah talked to assembled
reporters about what it's like now that pre season pre
pre preseason practices have begun.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
Now it is ramping up on early impression. I mean,
I feel like it'll be just like last year. I
think the BBN will fall in love with helping new guys,
especially coach Pobru again excellent human beings once again, so
that always makes it even better and more enjoyable to
play with.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
That's such a great comment. Now the BBN will fall
in love with these new players, And of course it's
a guy who grew up at Kentucky fan grew up
in Harlan knows the BBN inside and out in Trentoa,
who I really believe will be kind of the Swiss
Army Knife for this team. He can play in the backcourt,
he's strong enough to play in the front court, he

(04:42):
can shoot it, and of course instantly a fan favorite.
But I think he's a guy who will really really
produce in a number of ways for Mark Pope. I
don't know if he'll ever be a starter at Kentucky.
He might be, He'll get bigger, he'll get stronger, but
I think this coming year, as I said, he'll be
a great uti player for Mark Pope. He was just

(05:03):
as popular as Travis Perry, his buddy, his roommate, the
guy he faced off against in the Sweet sixteen championship
game a couple of years ago. Travis Perry chose to leave,
even though he had said or indicated he was staying.
Trent Noah immediately said I'm coming back, and he talked
about the fact that it never occurred to him to
leave UK.

Speaker 4 (05:24):
No no this is this is the greatest place on earth.
And I love coach Coach Poe's vision for me, and
he sees kind of the same path that I see.
So that's what we're looking to do this year and
on the way win number nine.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
The greatest place on Earth, says Trent Noah and the
vision mark Pope has for no He's talked about him
more than once. It's been in general generalities basically, but
you know, he just talked about how much he loves
Trent Noah and is excited about his future. And as
I said, Pope is basically said. He didn't use the

(06:00):
same term, but he's basically said he looks at at
Noah as the all around player. He can guard a
little bit as well. He's got to get better at everything,
so does everybody. But I think that he is a
guy who will keep paying dividends to the Wildcats. And
I do believe again, when he was in high school
the great advantage he had. He's a bigger guy, taller

(06:23):
than most of the kids he's playing against, but with
so much stronger physically stronger. He could bring the ball
up the floor and work his way to the rim
as well as anybody I saw in the Sweet sixteen
that year. And that's saying a lot. So yeah, I'm
excited to see what Trent Noah can do. The UK
women have released the schedule for upcoming SEC games. For

(06:47):
the upcoming year, Kentucky's home and away opponent is Vanderbilt.
That's a plus, it's not Tennessee. Home games include South
Carolina which will be huge, Florida, Georgia, Ole, miss Missou,
A and M and Oklahoma. But on the road now,
you got to go to Texas, Gotta go to Tennessee.

(07:08):
The other ones are the A teams Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn,
along with the LSU and Mississippi State. Kentucky last year
under Kenny Brooks, who's going to be on the show
with Us tomorrow. The UK head coach Wildcats win eleven
and five in the SEC, and Kenny Brooks's first year
in the league. Of course, he had Georgia Amore who

(07:29):
was gone, but he's had Clara Strack, who's coming back.
UK had the best scoring margin in SEC regular season action,
winning by an average of eight and a half points.
That was the best since twenty twelve thirteen, and the
best scoring defense in the SEC regular season, giving up

(07:50):
only sixty five point eight points per game. Wildcats won
eight SEC games by at least fourteen points, second most
in a single season in program history about that. You
got to go back to twenty oh nine to ten
for a team that had eight such wins. So this
team could score, this team could defend, had its best

(08:13):
field goal percent of defense and SEC regular season action
since at least two to three. But new faces. I
talked about the kids who were gone, specifically Georgia Amore.
But when you talk about defense with Clara Strack in
the middle defensive Player of the Year for the SEC,
I mean you're well ahead of the game right there.

(08:35):
So we'll talk more about that with Kenny Brooks tomorrow
on the Big Blue Insider up NEX. Speaking of women's basketball,
what's going on in the WNBA is quickly getting out
of hand and it's just gotten ugly. Yes, and involves
Kaitlin Clark. No, she's not innocent in all of this,
but they got to figure this out or else they're

(08:56):
going to kill the Golden Goose. Look, it's a popular
game right now, it's it's in't popular, but even more
so because of Caitlin Clark, and she's bringing attention to
all these other great players they have in the league.
But as I said before, the players who are attacking
Caitlyn Clark literally are cutting off their respective noses or
collective noses. Despite their face, she is the rising tide

(09:20):
that's raising all the boats. Everybody's looking at a better life,
better money, better salaries, and they got to figure out
how to peacefully coexist and still be competitive. We'll talk
about that on the other side of the break. We'll
talk about it with Shawn Woods as well. Here on
the Big Blue Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back to

(09:41):
the Big Blue Insider. Coming up in hour number two,
Keith Madison, the Hall of Fame UK coach, just back
from Omaha where he had a chance to interact with
the Murray State Racers. We'll hear about that also. West
End Bureau Chief Gary Moore coming up as well. In
just a few minutes. We will talk with Shawn Woods,
the Unforgettable Guard, about a number of things. I'm I'm
gonna ask him as well about the WNBA, and he

(10:03):
is a fan and of course Sean, being an Indiana native,
he is a Kentuckian at heart. But we have talked
before about the the Caitlin Clark situation and the fact
that things have gotten pretty messy within the WNBA, and
it really, really took hold. Last night, there were some
ugly moments when the Indiana Fever were playing the Connecticut

(10:25):
Sun and in the third quarter, Clark was fouled. She
took a finger to the eye, got poked in the
eye by J. C. Sheldon. I mean it was pretty flagrant.
And then Clark threw an elbow at Sheldon, you know,
trying to I guess, protect herself or just not take
it laying down. Well, that escalated and Tina Charles came in,

(10:47):
tried to mediate the situation, but a player named Marina
Maybray came flying in and kind of cross body blocked
Caitlin Clark knocked her to the floor, so they finally,
you know, a separated everybody. Sheldon got a flagrant one. Maybray, Clark,
and Charles all were given technical fouls, but Maybury was

(11:08):
not ejected from the game, and later on the crew
chief told the Indianapolis Star that the actions did not
warrant her being ousted, said that it did not rise
to the level of an ejection, did not meet the
criteria for a flagrant foul penalty two. But that's not
where it ended. Forty six seconds left to go in

(11:30):
the game, there was a breakaway. And by the way,
at this point, Indiana was up sixteen points with sixteen
seconds left, and there was a breakaway by Sheldon. She's
driving in for a layup. Sophie Cunningham of Indiana comes
running in from behind, throws her arms around her upper body,

(11:52):
her shoulders, and yanks her hair and pulls her to
the ground. So now another scuffle, three ejections happening. It
got ugly. Here's what it sounded like on Indiana Fever TV.
And the analyst is Debbie Antonelli, who's been on our
show before. I worked with her early early in her career.

(12:13):
She's a former UK sports marketing director, now a member
of the Hall of Fame as a broadcaster, as a
player at nc State, and obviously a big fan of
Caitlin Clark, but more than anything, a fan of the WNBA.
And she hates what she sees. And here's we got another.

Speaker 5 (12:32):
Great us here as Jessey Sheldon goes right after Sophie
cunning games.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
There was a hard found, no question.

Speaker 5 (12:42):
He claimed to be all on the officials tonight. It
is totally their responsibility. That's a heart foul, that's a flavor.

Speaker 6 (12:50):
Found and if they had.

Speaker 5 (12:52):
Taken care of the business earlier, we would be in
this situation right now. Well, you can't object her because
he didn't detect Favery.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
Twelve players were rejected, as I said, but it never
should have gone to that. And once again, there's always
been physical play, there's always been you know, smack talking
in the WNBA, but it has been heightened because of
the awareness of Caitlyn Clark. But also we've talked in
the past the jealousy of some players, the resentment. But

(13:25):
again this goes back to before Clark played her first
game in the WNBA. Diana Tarassi, who was a great,
great player and a great smack talker, she warned Caitlin
Clark quote reality is coming when she basically said doing
it against college players is one thing, but doing it

(13:47):
in the pro league is another. And she's right. And
let's get this straight. Caitlyn Clark is a trash talker.
She was a trash talker in college, a good one
and a great player, one of the all time great
and she brought that to the pro game. So there's
going to be back and forth like this. Look, Larry Bird,

(14:08):
she has compared a lot to Larry Bird being that
she is playing in the state of Indiana. She's white.
She's a great outside shooter and a trash talker. And
Larry Bird wasn't the only trash talker in the NBA.
He was one of the best. Now, what's kind of
fun on the internet is to hear NBA venterans tell
stories of Larry Bird and his trash talking was such

(14:30):
that he would tell a guy, I'm going to take
the ball, dribble twice, and go up and shoot, and
there was nothing they could do about it. It's a
great story out there about a key game where the
Celtics called the time out, tried to call to play
for somebody else, and Larry Bird stopped and said, just
give me the ball and get out of the way.
And when he came out of the huddle, I think
Barkley told his story. He told them what he was

(14:52):
going to do and went out and did it and
won the game. So Clark is not innocent of all this.
But what happened in this game, poking her in the
eye and then a blind side hit from out of nowhere,
It's all there on the internet if you want to
go look for it. Is ridiculous and I bring this
up simply because that I've said before. These players are

(15:15):
independent contractors and they're stupid for doing this. I don't
know if this offends them, but to think of Caitlin
Clark as the golden Goose is not out of line
because ever since she joined the league. And you can
resent her, you can be jealous. What you should do
is take advantage as a professional contractor take advantage of

(15:38):
the situation. Make more money, get better deals. You've already
got charter flights now thanks to her. Don't just resent
the fact that now the league's getting more attention. Look,
the league, the NBA wasn't getting enough attention before Bird
and Magic took cold and they had great players, but
you know, the championship round was on delayed television. Believe

(16:02):
it or not, the NBA Finals run delayed TV. Magic
and Bird changed all that was their resentment. Probably did
people attack them physically, not just because of that. I
mean they did it because that was part of the game.
That is part of the women's game. But you got
to stop of this nonsense. It is ridiculous. Before we
go to the break, a note from two four to

(16:25):
seven Sports In the cast pause, the Wildcats get a
commitment from a linebacker from Pennsylvania, Max Mooring. Sixth commitment
of the month of June, seventh overall, and a tip
of the Big bullon Sider Cap two of the Florida Panthers.
They have won the NBA Championship, Sam Reinhardt four goals

(16:47):
leading the Panthers past the Oilers in Game six. This
makes back to back titles for the Florida Panthers. Yes,
that's right, a team from Florida winning once again the
NHL title over a bunch of guys from Canada. Thus
concludes our award winning coverage of the NHL here on

(17:09):
the BD I thank you, thank you very much. Shawn
Wood's next on six point thirty WLAP Welcome back to
the Big Blue Insider, joining us as he does each
and every Wednesday, schedule permitting, is the unforgettable guard Shawn Woods,
his jersey hangs in the raptors of Ruppy. Is also

(17:29):
the head coach at Scott County High School. And we
got a lot to talk about coach, even though we're
in the middle of June. But of course the NBA
Playoffs are still going on. But basketball is three sixty
five here in the state of Kentucky and Indiana your
home state, and let's start with that. You're Indiana Pacers,
and I love seeing ABA teams doing well, but I

(17:51):
just cannot root for the Pacers. I hated him so
much when I was a kid. But I'll be okay
with it if they win. However, Tyrese Hallibert is hobbled, Sean,
I don't think they can win unless he's one hundred percent.
I don't know if he can get back to one
hundred percent, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (18:08):
Yeah, it's gonna be tough day. I mean, he's the
straw that stirs their coffee, and right now, you know
he's not healthy, and I don't think the Patiers have
a chance, Like you said, if he's not one hundred percent,
I mean they struggle with him just beating sixty percent. Yeah,

(18:30):
he has to be on it for them to have
a chance against Okay, see, if he's not, we may
be looking at a new world champion in the NBA
coming out of Oklahoma and two more guys from the
universe of Kentucky that's gonna get rings.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
That's right, speaking of speaking of him not one hundred
percent you're you're struggling a bit today, I know, but
I appreciate you playing hurt.

Speaker 6 (18:53):
My boy, my voice, my voice is kind of down
a little bit. I'm trying to get it back in
shape from coaching. So it's all right, But no.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
You're right, shake Yelgas, Alexander Case and Wallace and you
know what's great as SGA gets the headlines. But I
just read a big article on the Athletic about the
defenders for OKC and each guy has individual skills, individual trade.
Two of them were free agents. Now, Wallace was a
first round draft pick, but when he was here at

(19:23):
Kentucky he started to blossom. He got through some injuries
and started to bloss him a little bit late. May
have been misused, as it turns out, by Caliperry, but
that's easy to say in hindsight. But I don't know
Seawan that anybody who looked at him at Kentucky. We
knew he could play defense. There were times he's at
their guard in the other team's point guard. I didn't
know that he could be this effective of a defender

(19:45):
in the NBA. But that's just something they've got to learn,
don't they. At the next level.

Speaker 6 (19:50):
This defense is a mentality, and you got to be
an ultimate competitor. And in the NBA, everybody can't be
the man. So how do you get a check? How
do you get how do you prosper in the NBA
if you're not the guy? The easiest and the most
proficient way to stay on the NBA roster is to

(20:11):
be a lockdown defender. And he's found his way to
be that, and he's become elite. And those guys are
hard to come by. And there's if you show me
the teams there are big time teams. I'll show your
team that has big time defenders. And that's one of

(20:33):
the main reasons why Oklahoma City and the Indiana Pacers
are in the finals, because they're two of the best
defensive teams in the league.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
That's right, which flies directly in the face of college
basketball fans. You'd like to see, Well, they don't play
defense in the NBA. You know, it's a different style
and a different brand of basketball. The rules are different.
They get away with more physicality in the NBA. But
I always say, and I didn't make this up. If
you want to see NBA basketball no defense, it's the
All Star game, and yeah, I'm sure if you watch

(21:03):
bad teams play, you watch bad defense. But I told
a friend of mine the othernet, I said, you know,
good teams play good defense. It's easy to say, difficult
to do, but yeah, you know, Okay and Okac came
in rightfully so with the rep of being a great
defensive team. I thought Indiana was underrated defensively, didn't you.

Speaker 6 (21:25):
I never thought Indiana's underrated because I watched them. They
were underrated as far as offensive efficiency because they're not
fun to watch from an offensive standpoint. Yeah, but they
win because they're solid as a route on offense. But
they're very, very tenacious and super solid on defense.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
I think that one of the reasons people might say
that as well is when the Warriors were having their
run and they were so much fun to watch with
the extra pass and the three point shooting, and that's
what stood out they I felt like their defense was underappreciated.
Started with Raymond Green, and say what you will about him,
but he was a real key for them. So keep

(22:10):
that in mind when you're watching the regular season, not
just the playoffs. When it comes to defense in the NBA,
these guys are just so good. They can get to
the rim. But it's just you got to pick your
spots when you're playing defense, and these two teams in
the finals are doing just that. While we're talking pro
ball in Indiana, we got to talk about Kaylyn Clark
and you and I have talked about her before about

(22:32):
how some of the NBWNBA players are going out to
sing all wrong that she is is raising everybody's level
in terms of the money they're making and charter flights
and all that stuff, and yet they keep beating the
crap out of her. And the most recent dust up
involved multiple players and it started with Kaylyn Clark getting

(22:53):
poked in the eye, you know. And earlier on the show, Sean,
I played a clip from the one of the broadcasts,
just the most recent one, with former UK Sports Marketing
director Debbie Antonelli doing the color laying it on the officials,
and I agree with her. I think the officials have
got to get together into WNB and say, you know,

(23:13):
this starts with us, with the referees. They got to
do something to clean this up.

Speaker 6 (23:18):
You know what I'm saying, I'm gonna be devil as
an advocate. Okay, Caitlin Klark ain't no Angel No, I agree. Okay,
she talks more crap. Okay, she gives it too, She
gives it all right. Angel Rees got the blood of

(23:42):
that altercation. But Kitlyn Clark knocked the crap out of
Angel Reese and different. Anytime you get hit like that,
another player is going to retaliate. Okay, Angel Rees, it
became the bandit in that situation when Kitlyn Clark is
the one who clocked her first. Okay, then they talk
about Angel Rees got up and was gonna cheap shot

(24:03):
her of somebody. Uh, give her a puncher in a
face if if she wants somebody wouldnt to grab her.
That's that's that's blowning. Okay. The other day the other night,
when that little girl was defending Caitlyn Clark, she was
frustrating and straight and frustrating Kaitlyn Clark in that possession

(24:24):
and she was turning her bumping her. That was great defense.
Caitlyn Clark got frustrated in that situation and Kitlyn Clark
threw an elbow in her face. That little girl retaliated.
But as a team, when that little girl got a
fast break and Kaitlyn Clark's teammate rightfully, so clarked her foul.

(24:48):
Then that started an altercation. That is just basketball. That's
at every level, your teammate's supposed to take up for you.
I remember, I remember h Call Malone when Isaiah Thomas
got pissed off and rightfully so that John Stockin made
the Olympic team before him. There was no way John

(25:10):
Stockton was supposed to be on the liper team before
Isaiah Thomas. But it was because of personal issues, things
like that with.

Speaker 7 (25:17):
Maddie Johnson and Michael Jordan's. Okay, So, Isaiah Thomas the
first time he played against John Stockton, he torched John Stockton,
I mean embarrassing. So what did Karmlone do? Isaiah Thomas
came in.

Speaker 6 (25:35):
There, Carmlone gave him a cheap shot, elbowed him in
the head, gave him I don't know how many stitches. Okay,
that was taking up for his teammate. Okay. Now, is
Clayton Clark become the darling of this WNBA, No doubt
about it. Is she probably is she the faith and

(25:57):
making a lot of things happen for women basketball, no
doubt about it. Does she the first? No? Okay, but
does she talk a lot of crap, Yes she does.
Tarrossie was the same way, maybe more. Tarossie was nasty
and she'd give it and tell you about it. Caitlyn

(26:20):
Clark is I watched Kaitlyn Clark and I love Caitlin Clark.
Don't get me wrong, I love her. But Caitlyn Clark
is getting away with things. And then when everybody, anybody
retaliates against her, they're the ones who are wrong. Clayland
Park Clark, excuse my language. I would say she's got
some s h I t tour, but she's got some

(26:42):
crap tour now, trust me. I like it. But ain't
nobody going and nobody nobody's gonna bow down tour. No, Okay.
When Larry Bird first came in the league, doctor J
and all of them went at him, but Larry Bird
would talk crap too under nobody saw. But what doctor
J goes at him or whoever else. Doctor J's the

(27:05):
mad guy. See. Kayln Clark has the Larry Bird syndrome.
She can she can uh kiss you on your sheet
and pee down your leg at the same time.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Yeah, but nobody was poking Larry Bird in the eye.
Nobody was nobodyd to strong.

Speaker 6 (27:25):
Yeah, but what they could do was they can get
under his skin. But he was. He was getting under
their kay Clark is getting under these these women's skin.
And is there jealousy?

Speaker 2 (27:38):
They're humans, yeah, but they scrumps man, they got it.
They got to stop the tackling, you know.

Speaker 6 (27:44):
Well they got to stop the tackling. They do they don't.
Don't get me wrong, but it's musty TV. Okay, there's
something to talk to me. And you are talking about.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Exactly right. Sean Woods is the unforgettable guard. He's on
every week with us. We'll take a break, Sean can
rest his voice for a moment and talk more basketball
here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're talking with
the unforgettable guard, Sean Woods. He joins us each and
every week, and let's talk point guards. That is your
area of expertise, well, all of basketball obviously, but that

(28:22):
was your position. Colin Chandler talked to the media this
week Sean, and he was a guy who really blossom
him down the stretch. And you talked about this last season,
shaking off some of the rust from imagine putting the
ball down for two years basically and coming back and
then not only playing D one ball, but playing for Kentucky.
And he said, I'm not sure when you know the

(28:45):
rust came completely off, but you know he took minutes
from Travis Perry, and I think he showed that he
can help this team this coming year. He may not
be in the starting lineup, but how important do you
think he will be?

Speaker 6 (28:58):
I think he'll be a good piece, He's for sure.
You know. I don't think he's a point guard, but
I think he'll be a good piece. No, he's not
point guard. He's not a playmaker. You know he's a
basketball player, but he's not He's not a point guard.
He's not a guy that you you put the ball
in his hands and say, go run my team. He's
not that that. He's not that that type of player.
What he is is he's a very complimentary player that

(29:22):
is more athletic than you think. I think he'll shoot
the ball better than he did last year because he's
been out, so he was out so long. I think
he'll be I like him because he competes. I think
he plays hard. I think he'll do whatever the coach
asks him to do. I think he's he's gonna if

(29:42):
Mark Pope runs more and gets out and transition more.
I think you'll see more of him. I think he's
much better in transition, going up and down than he
is in the half court because he's not a break
you down type of guy. I don't know if he's
a not down shooter yet, but I think he's he's

(30:04):
got length from the guard spot. I think he's competitive.
I don't know how elite he'll be on the defensive end,
but because he plays so hard, he'll be good enough.
But you know, I think he's a four year player
that with great personality, and sooner or later he's going

(30:24):
to become a leader on this basketball team and maybe
one of the faces just because of who he is.
But we got to continue to get better players, for sure,
But he'll always be in the mix because he's solid
enough and tough enough, and I think those type of
people you win championships with when you bring other people in.

(30:46):
Because he'll be able to sell Mark Pope to the
new guys that's come in, especially transferst.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
Clearly, Jalenlow will be, you know, the man with the
ball as long as he stays healthy, and the point
guard he transferred in from Pittsburgh. I was thinking Chandler
in terms of being a backup to Jalen Low. I
see what you say about him being a playmaker, but
you know he is still evolving, is Chandler as a
college player. But just like last year, they got to

(31:15):
make sure the point guard stays healthy and stays out
of foul trouble, right right.

Speaker 6 (31:20):
I mean, as you saw last year, he wasn't the
guy they put at the point. They put Williams at
the point. You know, he's not a point guard, so
let's not say he's a point guard. He's not not
even close to being a point guard. He's a good
guard that could come off the bench and give us
some energy if he's hitting shots. I think he could
be really good because with his athleticism, he's kind of

(31:44):
got an electric game. And I see him more so
as playing passing lanes, you know, doing those type of deals,
bringing energy. That's the type of kid I see him.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
Got you, I got you. Let me ask you a
little bit about summer basketball. About AAU ball when I
was in high school one hundred years ago. I don't
know what it was like when you were, but back
in the seventies, there was a rule prohibiting AAU teams
from having I think any more than three kids from
the same high school. If you can believe that or not.

(32:19):
Is that right? Okay?

Speaker 6 (32:20):
Yes, you can only have two. Actually you can only
have two.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Okay. So somewhere that changed, which was a great obviously
a great advantage for you know, entire high school teams
to compete at the AAU level. That's one thing. But
the other is the AAU teams that are essentially constructed
like all star teams and Caliperi used to joke about it.

(32:44):
You know, I'd have to tell my kids, this is
an AAU ball. You got to play defense or you know,
you got to want to win. You're not going to
play another game in a couple of hours. That kind
of thing. As a guy who is recruited at the
D one level, coached at the D one level, and
now you're coaching high school kids who are involved with
AAU ball, where do you come down on that? On

(33:04):
the value of it, it's never going to go away,
of course, too much money involved. But you know, we
talk all the time about kids who are AAU YouTube
All Stars, but then there's something missing when they get
to college you know, where are you on all this.

Speaker 6 (33:23):
Dick AAU. Okay, In these tournaments in the summer May
and July are super convenient for college coaches because you
can bring them all in together and you can watch
and you only have to be a one, maybe two
or three spots maybe four in July instead of going
to every high school in the country trying to find

(33:44):
a player. So it's made college recruiting more convenient. Okay.
Now because of that, all right, there is money involved,
because these AAU tournaments are charging college coaches for five
hundred dollars just to get the packet of the information

(34:05):
and the rosters, and half the time the rosters aren't right,
or the numbers are right, so on and so forth.
So it is a racket and it's not organized, okay,
But it's a way to a symbol a bunch of
talent for days on end where everybody could be in
one place and watch. Okay, So that's one thing. Two,

(34:27):
there's no coaching involved. It's just showcasing talent, rolling the
balls out there. These AAU teams meet up on weekends.
They don't practice during the week, they meet up on weekends.
You may have a kid, two three kids coming from
this date to come join this team only on weekends
to play. Okay, So there's no practices, there's no fundamental

(34:49):
deals going on. Nobody's playing great defense. And that's what
I call prep schools glorified AAU. So they're not getting
any coaching. They're just showing their individual talents. So kids, okay,
they're not being coached and not getting constructive criticism, they're
not being called out. So and they got college coaches,

(35:12):
you know, recruiting them. So then when they come to
high school, all right, and the coach tries to coach
them or don't coach them, it's it gets boring because
now you're going over the little things instead of just
hooping and playing. They their their their attentions, pay is minute.

Speaker 7 (35:32):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (35:34):
Okay. So now you go to college okay, and it's
more high stakes, and it's more coaching okay, and you're
playing against better players, and the older and better players
have been in those systems. They know what it's like,
and so that young kid gets exploited no matter how
talented they are. So then they get frustrated because they

(35:59):
run into a road block and they're being told that
they're not as good and the coach tells them, I
don't care what you did in high school, this is
college now. Just don't want to hear that, So they
get deflated, and what they do they go on to
transfer portal because they want to be glorified. They want
to be told how good they are, instead of it's

(36:19):
being told the truth and get better. They thinking that
just going to a workout guy who's taking their money,
making them go against cones and working on their ball
handling and shooting. Okay, those are guys that they want
to go to because those are guys that are telling
them what they want to hear. They don't want to
go to a guy that's going to tell them the

(36:40):
truth and this is how you play the game of
basketball as a team because that coach is is depending
on wins and losses, so he's got to make sure
that that kid knows everything that he needs to know
about what they do on that particular team for that
coach and that school to be successful. Kids don't want
to hear that anymore. That's the reason why they jump

(37:03):
from here to there to there because kids don't like
the truth.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Kind of vicious circle, isn't it?

Speaker 6 (37:11):
Vicious is not even the words. And now you're throwing
money on top of it. Now you see what I'm saying,
and you can move. College basketball is like AAU. You
don't like this team if they're not giving you these
amount of shoes or this and that, you're going to
go to the next one. Same with transfer portal. If

(37:31):
I'm at this place, they're only giving me thirty thousand,
and another school can give me one hundred and fifty
two hundred thousand a million. What do you think they're
gonna do? But it starts at the AAU deal because
they're allowed to. There's not too many rules, okay, And
so they looking at school just like they look at AAU.

(37:51):
And it's even in the high school rates. So when
does it stop? I don't know. It's a mentality. And
these parents are atrocious.

Speaker 7 (38:03):
Everybody I know.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
We get to the P word, go ahead.

Speaker 6 (38:06):
Oh yeah, And everybody thinks their kids are pro and
the parents don't want to hear the constructive criticism and
the truth no more than the kid does. That's right,
So that makes it even worse.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Yeah, well, I have clearly a scratched an itch for you,
and that leaves us off at a spot where we're
out of time, but we will certainly pick this up
next week. But it is fascinating when we talk with
Sean Woods, unforgettable guard, head coach at Scott County High School. Coach,
hope your voice recovers in time for your kids to
hear you in full throat.

Speaker 6 (38:36):
Hey working on it right now and getting it back
into shape out to two years, Dick.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
Sounds good to see you.

Speaker 8 (38:42):
Take care Up next that we're number two with our
West End Bureau Chief Gary Moore and the coach Keith Madison,
Hall of Famer Fumber Wildcat mentor who's just back from
the College World Series.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
He got stories to tell. He was hanging out with
those Murray State racers. We'll talk about that and more
on the other side of the news break here on
six thirty l eight feet. Welcome back to the Big

(40:46):
Blue and Sider joining us now one of our favorite
guests as part of the chain Gang. We had him
in the garage not too long ago. But since then,
Keith Madison, the Hall of Fame coach, has been to
Omaha and back, which is an annual tradition. One it's
a true labor love. But man, coach, you were keeping
us up to speed. We in the textchain gang about

(41:07):
your travel just in nightmare, tell everybody what happened to you,
because everyone's had something similar, but it's always unique.

Speaker 6 (41:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:15):
After two two board meetings and four great baseball games,
I was scheduled fly back Sunday afternoon. The flight was
delayed first for six hours, and then after about seven
hours they decided to cancel the flight. The airline did

(41:41):
not have a hotel room available for us, So basically
I'm homeless. I'm homeless in Omaha for a while there.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
And all the rooms are full because of baseball exactly.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
Not only do they have a College World Series, but
as you may remember, Dick, they have dozens and dozens
of teams, youth league teams that come in from a
major youth tournament. And so it's just it's just a
baseball crazy week in Omah, which is fun and beautiful,
but we're looking for a hotel room. At the last minute,

(42:19):
not so much. I was able to actually get back
to the Marriott and five hundred and ninety nine bucks.
Probably you'd probably get that room in January in Omaha
for about one hundred and eighty nine bucks, no question,
No question. But anyway, I've spent many hours and my

(42:44):
connections were tight. I'm having knee surgery Friday, so you know,
hustling through the airports was no fun at all. Oh,
just trying to get all this but everybody had. You know,
if you travel very much, you're going to experience that.
But it's just a nightmare when you when you have

(43:05):
to go through it.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
Oh man, Well, I'm glad you're back safe and sound.
You did see some really great baseball out there, and
you were dealing with it and interacting with the Murray
State team. Excuse me? And uh, you know you've seen
them play in lexing In they pulled off a win here,
pull off a lot of wins. What was it like
being around that energy?

Speaker 3 (43:27):
It was tremendous. Uh. And and I tell you these guys,
uh just really really believed. And Dick, you've been around
sports so much in many different sports, especially football and baseball,
and you can see when a team believes, and Murray

(43:49):
State really did believe. Uh. And then and then to
watch Coastal Carolina, I mean, they've got some really special
things going on with their team right now. They're such
a role and are playing so very well in a
year that most of us, including myself, thought, hey, you know,

(44:09):
the era of mid majors making it to Almaha is
probably over because of the transfer portal and in il
and all that. And now we you know, suddenly we
have a team like Murray State that's never been there before,
and then a team like Coastal who wanted a few

(44:29):
years ago. But you know, everybody kind of thought teams
like Coastal would maybe get squeezed out because their players
would be transferring to the bigger schools. But man, Coast
of Carolina is right there with LSU and Arkansas right

(44:50):
now in Louisville. I mean those, you know, all those
teams are very good, but Coastal Carolina has that special
something that going on right now. And these kids just
don't believe they're going to lose.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
Yeah, and it's more than just you know, passion. I
believe these guys can play. I mean they're really good.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
Yeah, yeah, they're they're very good.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
And and and you know, you and Darren on the
radio dugging me on TV, we talked. You know, it's
it's it's baseball one on one. It's it's pitching in
defense as well as offense. And and we have seen that,
We've seen the breakdowns. You know, U of L almost
let one get away, and they did let one get
away because of defense. Oregon State, you know, which made
a terrible mistake late in the game. Uh in the

(45:39):
super regional last year here made some late any mistakes
and let games get away. So you got to have
it all and Coastal does.

Speaker 6 (45:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
And and it's uh, I mean what you just talked about,
Dick is magnified, you know in Omaha. And uh, when
I mean hit every error, every mental error, is it
seems like it haunts you. Yeah, because the other teams
are so good they're going to take advantage of that.

(46:12):
But yeah, it's it's been a it's been a really
good series. It's been a except for those errors that
you talked about, it's been well played. And the pitching
is it just seems like the kitching just keeps getting better.

Speaker 6 (46:27):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
The kid that threw for Arkansas against Murray. But I
mean when you're when you're hit ninety seven in the
ninth inning, oh man, that's pretty strong. I mean, that's
that's major league caliber right there.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
And what's amazing is the most challenging ball, and this
is a really good Murray State offense average eight plus
runs a game exactly. But there was like a hard
hit ball of the first basement who barely had to
move to make a play, you know, hit the one
kid actually hit who I did not care for that
call where Murray State kid lay in the game was

(47:05):
hit and they called him out, you know, even though
the ball hit him while he was in the batters
by anyway, But no, that that that kid for Arkansas
was tremendous. But again getting back to Murray State, we
were talking just about, you know, how this might affect
that program, and I wondered too, coach, you know, going

(47:25):
back to when you had your best teams at Kentucky.
This was back before they had as many teams in
the NCAATE tournament. You know, you guys were scrambling for
facilities and funding at Kentucky when a few other schools
were really pouring it into baseball. Could you relate much
to the hill Murray State was.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
Trying to climb, No doubt I really could. And also
Dan Skirka as a young coach, and you know he's
been there for six years. I think he's only forty
years old now, right, You know I started at Kentucky
at twenty six years old, and so I know that

(48:06):
that clime. And he's just had tremendous points for a
young coach, and his teams have a tremendous or his
team has had a tremendous approach at the plate.

Speaker 6 (48:21):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (48:22):
They really had a plan when they when they would
go up to the place. And even though a lot
of people say, well, you know they finally caught up
with the merch, they got no hit, but think about
what they did in the super regionals. They pounded the
ball against Duke and UH. And then when they get
to Omaha and the first and their first loss, Dick,

(48:42):
I think I counted nine hard at the ball that
just didn't ball. They really were swinging it well in
that first game. But they You know, baseball is a
cruel sport. Sometimes you can do something perfectly, square the
ball up and hit it perfect and it goes right
into someone's club.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
Yeah, if you shooted basketball perfectly, it's going to go
through the basket.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
Or you make you make a great pitch that dives
away from the hitter and it fools him, but he
sticks his bat out and it drops in over the
first base.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
Yeah, that's right. It's it could be a tough game,
but at the same time it's a beautiful game. And
I thought Burry State played extremely well. They only everybody
talks about the no hitter. Arkansas only scored three runs
against Murray State. And Murray State, I mean Arkansas has

(49:37):
a really really good off there.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Yeah. Yeah. Keith Madison is a Hall of Fame coach
and coach the wildcast for many many years. You hear
him now now every now and then with Darren Hedrick
on the UK Radio Network. We'll come back and talk
more baseball with a coach on the other side of
the break. Here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're
talking with Keith Madison, hall of Fame coach from the
University of Kentucky and you hear him on the UK

(50:01):
Radio Network with Darren Hedrick. He is just back from Omaha,
where you are part of. What is the organization you're
at You said you're out there for meetings the Baseball
Coaches Association.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
Yeah, it's the American Baseball Coach Association. It's a great organization.
I'll put a shameless plug in. We have over fifteen
thousand members.

Speaker 5 (50:23):
Wow, and.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
Mostly high school and college coaches. Now travel baseball coaches
are getting involved. So it's a great organization to be
a part of. And we wisely have our we have
two board meetings a year. We wisely have one board
meeting every year in Omaha during a college World Series.

(50:47):
And so I get to go out every year and
watch some great baseball and also try to do some
good things with the American Baseball Coaches Association, or as
baseball coaches called the ABCA.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
Yeah. Well, and now you've got so much happening in
college sports, and you and and Darren and Doug and
I have talked about the portal and I on all that,
and now you've got the house settlement figuring in. You've
got I don't know if you ever thought you'd see today,
but no longer do you see the eleven point seven scholies.
They have the opportunity to fully fund baseball scholarships. But

(51:25):
that means no more walk ons. There's so much going on.
What did you guys at the college level, what are
they talking about these days?

Speaker 3 (51:33):
Yeah, they were talking a lot about the you know,
the roster clemouth and uh and and the way that
and the way that baseball programs are going to be
funded so much better than they have been in the past,
and and uh and then you know, quite frankly, we
talked about the negative side of it is, you know,

(51:56):
you're already seeing other sports being.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
Great, all right, that's right.

Speaker 3 (52:00):
Uh, and that's very sad, and you hope that doesn't
happen very much. But I think it's inevitable because there's
only so much money to go around and and so uh,
depending on which sports are you know, have have good traditions, uh,

(52:22):
you know, they're probably going to be safe. But some
some maybe some of the newer sports in certain schools
or leagues that you know, perhaps haven't been as successful
as some of the other teams or programs. You know,
there's a chance that they may do away with them.
And I just think that's tragic. But at the same time,

(52:44):
it's also very difficult to raise money for enough money, uh,
for each individual sports program.

Speaker 6 (52:52):
This day and age.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
I'm also wondering about junior college baseball, you know, because
there's a as you know, there's a distinct ripple effect,
and junior college athletes are more prevalent, I think in
baseball than any other sport except maybe football, maybe more
than football. Uh And now that's what kind of an
effect is all this going to have on the jucos

(53:15):
and on your your your former player Jan Weisberg coach
for a long time at a D three level. Now
he's at EKU, but had a really successful program at
Birmingham Southern, which of course no longer exists. But what
kind of ripple effects that can I have?

Speaker 3 (53:30):
Yeah, it's definitely going to have a ripple effect. And
junior college baseball there's been a very positive thing for
college baseball in general because it's been junior college baseball.
If you you know, in the past, if you get
in a bind and and you know, like for instance,

(53:51):
if your catcher signed pro you didn't expect him to,
Yeah you can go. You can go into the JUCO
ranks and find a good play And a lot of
players coming out of high school that are maybe not
as strong or as mature, you know, they choose to
go to junior college baseball so that they could get

(54:14):
playing experience and become more mature and get stronger and
then be ready for Division one baseball. So you hope
that it doesn't have a negular effect on those Jucos
because there are a lot of really good junior college
programs out there, and the baseball players that go to
junior college, it's not all about not having the grade. Yeah,

(54:35):
some of them are, but most of the time it's
about wanting to have a Division one opportunity and going
to junior college and getting experience and improving as a
player and then moving.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
On to Division one.

Speaker 3 (54:49):
A lot of those kids in juco baseball are good students.
They just want a chance to play baseball at the
highest level, and sometimes at junior college are out is
the route to go a couple of.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
Minutes lef with Keith Madison so many kids coming through
the portal now, there are still opportunities for the Jucos,
maybe at the schools that these kids left behind, you
know what I'm saying. On the D one level.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
One thing I've noticed about about both athletes and also
their sports is they tend to adapt and survive. Is
the rules changes happen, and a lot of times those
changes are very uncomfortable for people. But the good programs
and the good players they find a way to adjust

(55:37):
and adapt and survive. And I'm hoping that's what will happen.
I think, you know, the way that the programs like
SEC programs, ACC programs, and I guess it's the power
forward down. The way they're going to be funded is
going to be incredible. It's going to be it's going

(55:58):
to be like a real really good level of minor
league baseball.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
Yeah, yeah, it will.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
And yeah, and the talent level is is it's just
going to keep And I think what's happening with Major
League baseball really quick? Here? It is, you know, fewer,
fewer players drafted. There are fewer rounds. You know, there
used to be I don't know, fifty rounds and now
there's so there's there's the talent pool out there. It's

(56:26):
so much better for division on baseball than it was
in my era. Uh So there's more good players to
be had and more good players to recruit. And that's why,
you know, I see Nick nan Jones two three, four
times a week during the school year. I haven't seen
him since. Uh, I haven't seen him since you got

(56:47):
back from the regional tournament because you know, because man,
those guys are working, they are after it. Yeah, yeah,
getting those you know, going into the transfer portal. And
also recruiting, you know, the young guys in high school.
So I talked to many coaches Division one coaches while

(57:08):
I was in Omaha, and every one of them said
the same thing. I am working harder in the summer
now than I've ever worked in my life.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
Coach, I appreciate the time. Glad you made it back.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
Yes, sir Dick, thanks for having me on, Buddy I Jordan.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
Western Bureau Chief Gary Moore is next in six thirty
WLAP Welcome back to the big blueing cider. As promised,
it is Wednesday. That means we look to the other
end of the interstate, to the western end, to our
West end. Bureau Chief Gary Moore, longtime West Coast Bureau
chief when he covered all kinds of sports for us
when he was with Kalas Radio in LA. But now

(57:42):
he is in LA the Louisville area, joined us each
and every week with a lot on his mind.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
Two guys in a six pack, you and me, buddy,
And by the way, congratulations to your alma mater, Trinity.
Yeah about that state baseball champs had no hitter in there.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
Yeah, And a couple of former sham Rocks two or
three on the UFL roster and yeah, ESPN with some
Trinity shoutouts. I love it thanks to Chris Burke, who
I've got to give him as props. He's a sane
x guy, but he did bring up the fact that
this guy, that guy, this guy, there were Trinity shamrocks
and they tipped their caps to the new stage.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
Champs Cousin Skeeter Davis Duggins. Skeeter Duggins was a footballer
back in the early eighties. For your rocks, Well, get
into our two guys in a six pack. We have
six swigs here, the first wig. Speaking of no hitters, Dick,
it could have been worse.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
It really could have.

Speaker 1 (58:37):
My hometown Racers could have been no hit twice if
you think about it. Yeah, as we last talk, well,
so much for wearing lucky horseshoes on their caps. Murray
ran into, of course, Arkansas's fireballer and first round no
doubter in the MLB draft. Gage Wood had even better
stuff than Paul Sken's in this College World Series, throwing

(58:58):
only the third no hitter they're in the CWS and
after a remarkable dream season, the greatest obviously in Murray
State baseball history, complete with the Manager of the Year
in college baseball. The question is, now what someone once said,
the toughest thing about being a success is to keep
being a success, especially nowadays in college sports with the

(59:19):
portal in NIL and all that stuff, and for a
small D one school with limited financial resource, it's even tougher.
So I ask you, what do you do if you're
the ad at Murray State, Nico Yanko? Do you move
more basketball money over to some baseball definitely, fix up
the facilities. Do you find some alumni with deep pockets?
Do you win the Kentucky lottery? Murray needs to capitalize

(59:41):
on this. This is really huge.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
What would you do?

Speaker 1 (59:43):
Well?

Speaker 2 (59:44):
I think you mentioned it. You know, you can move
money around. You've got to find some benefactors. Now with NIL,
I'm sure they have some, but you've got to find more.
You know better than anybody probably listening to this show
the challenges there because you grew up in murray Land
Grand Institution, so it's, you know, not the biggest city

(01:00:04):
in the state of Kentucky. They have renovated somewhat basketball
and football, but you know, the stills in the video
that were released once the Racers made not just the tournament,
but the supers underscoring how modest their facilities are. That's
got to help, you know, But you have got to

(01:00:25):
strike while this iron is red hot, because it won't
get any hotter. And here's the thing to follow up.
We've talked again about how vital it is to be
able to host not just a regional, but a super
trying to look ahead to Murray State someday. Hosting not
impossible in a regional. But you've got to schedule a

(01:00:46):
little bit better when you can because of your respective conference.
Maybe play some more challenging opponents. Help your RPI. Do
what Nick ben Jee Omee did as best you can.
Strength the schedule and all that, but just try to
raise your own profile and then be really smart when
it comes to the portal. But the other thing you
got to do, try to hang on to your head. Coach.

(01:01:08):
I gotta think folks are coming out of skirk coming
after Skirka. Yeah, you know they are.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
Well, sky's a limit because nobody thought they'd get this far. No, no,
now your sky's limit for your Here.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
Was the other thing, Gary, they were so good. This
was not a fluke, No, not at all. They're good
hit even more impressive by Woods no hitter. This was
a great offense by Murray Stade sure was andy. They
weren't even touching the baseball, and he was so close
to a perfect game. It was scary our.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
Second swig dealing with that. There's no shame in being
no hit when a picture is flat out on and
most of any player will tell you that Colorado Rockies
found that out dick. Eleven years ago to night at
Dodger Stadium, I was there June eighteenth, twenty fourteen, Clayton
Kershaw threw his first I believe only no hitter so far,

(01:01:56):
one hundred and seven pitches, fifteen strikeouts. Ato Dodger win
and Kershawn went on to win the Cy Young that winter.
In fact, that year, I went down from the press
box and I sat behind home plate for about the
last two or three innings just to watch his stuff,
which was just electric. You knew something, You knew he
was probably gonna get it. After about the seventh inning.
I was also a Dodger Stadium dick fourteen months later

(01:02:18):
when the Cubs Jake Arietta no hit the Dodgers two
to nothing August thirtieth, twenty fifteen and route to his
cy young year. And you know what even happened to
the defending world champion Dodgers in La by again the Cubs,
who used four different pitchers to no hit the Dodgers
June twenty four, twenty twenty one. And that was a
Dodgers lineup that had Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger, Max

(01:02:41):
Munsey and some guy playing first base he may have
heard of. Albert Puhols was also in that lineup. So,
like I said, there's no shame in getting no hit.
Happens to the best. And here's the thing, to paraphrase
Tom Petty, at least Murray went down swinging, not much
touching with the best, but they went down swinging.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
And like I said, it was scary how close Wood
came to pitching a perfect game. Didn't hit the guy, Yeah,
he hit another guy. That was another thing we probably
hang on. Let me cut that out. Something else we
probably should talk about more was that he also hit
a Murray batter what was it in the ninth inning,

(01:03:24):
But he was called out because they said that he
intentionally got himself hit, and uh, it was bogus. I mean,
he was standing in the batter's box when the ball
hit him anyway. Yeah, this no hitter was clearly won
for the ages, and to do it against a Murray
State team that was so adept at adjusting to pitchers

(01:03:49):
and doing what it had to do. Yeah, it was
something that people are going to talk about for a
long time.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
Stings for a while, but it doesn't erase a great
dream season. Yeah, our third swig. One last College World Series. Thought,
before we get into some very good news from the
major leagues, can we get a better trophy for these
collegiate winners? These flat things look like a slab of
wood paneling. I mean, Beer League Softball, Dick's got better
trophies than what they're given these winners for this just

(01:04:16):
my thought. Okay, Now for the good news. Major League
Baseball finally has come to their census, will again allow
all Stars to wear their regular home or away jerseys
uniforms instead of those regrettable Nike monstrosities that end up
being nothing more than really eye pollution and the same
cap too, by the way, put some stars on them
this year, which is okay, fine, but of course home

(01:04:38):
run derby and workouts Nike couldn't leave well enough alone.
So we've got lowercase NL jerseys for the Natty League
and lowercase AL for the American League. Lower case in
the tradition of the Braves throwback a since that's where
the game is this year. But hey, if your name's Al,
you got your own personalized jersey from MLB this year.

(01:04:58):
But it's a win for fans like you and me
who think All Stars should always rep their team and
not their corporate costumer.

Speaker 6 (01:05:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
That's one of the things that I love about the
Baseball All Star Game, or is the introductions. You know,
when every player is introduced, they all come running out
in their respective jerseys, you know, And it was even
better in my opinion. I know, I'm an old guy,
you know, shaking my fist at a cloud, but pre
interleague play, because there was that great mystery when you
got the series, but it also existed in the All

(01:05:27):
Star Game, you know, and here's an NL player facing
an ALE pitcher that maybe they'll see each other in
the World Series, but probably not. So that's what made
it so exciting. But it all starts with the player intros,
when they all came running out in their respective uniforms,
and our beloved Cardinals, of course have the best uniforms,

(01:05:49):
but that's all part of the fun. I think it's
always great too.

Speaker 1 (01:05:52):
But if your team is crumming and you only got
one guy there, at least when he comes out, he goes,
there's a guy with our jersey right there.

Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
Yeah. And by the way, while we're at that, I
kind of like that rule. I think every team ought
to be represented. And yes, I know that means a
guy who might compare to somebody else be having a
mediocre year, but he's the best that team can offer.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
I still think they ought to be represented. I agree
one hundred percent. Fourth swig op ed peace in New
York Times this week caught my eye, Dick with this
header four thousand, seven hundred and eighty five dollars that's
how much it costs to be a sports fan now,
written by a guy named June Lead, a Korean American who,
besides covering sports for ESPN, Bleacher Report and The Washington Post,

(01:06:36):
is a longtime Boston sports fan who subscribes to nearly
every service that there is for live sports for NFL, NBA, MLB,
had more. He wrote that in two thousand and four,
a hardcore Boston fan would spend around one thousand, thirteen
hundred or thirteen hundred twenty one dollars to follow his
or her favorite team. That includes tickets, TV access, maybe
some merch. Today four thousand, seven hundred and eighty five dollars,

(01:06:59):
a two hundred sixty two percent jump. This fall, I
found out via Google AI that if you want to
watch every single NFL game on all platforms, you're talking
anywhere from six hundred and fifty seven dollars to fifteen
hundred dollars. That's just for the NFL on a screen
near you. There's so many platforms for the NFL, and
now MLB's gotten into it with Roku and Apple TV

(01:07:21):
and MLBtv local cable, which I'm still not gonna get.
We've talked about that, I'm not gonna get Peacock, forget that,
I'm not gonna get Roku. I'm asking you, this is
the NFL and MLB pushing it with too many, too
many portals for their sports.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
Well by pushing it, if you mean they're gonna lose fans,
lose viewers, well yeah, because not everybody can afford that.
A and others like you, on principle just are gonna,
you know, stick their foot in the dirt and say no.
But again, this is the kind of thing that drives
me nuts about sports when we can say didn't we
see this coming? And you and I talked about this

(01:07:58):
three and four years ago. You mentioned p and when
Notre Dame said our first game of the year against
I think it was coincidentally Toledo, which is what Kentucky
opens with. You're only going to be able to see
it on Peacock, not on NBC. And there were howls
and screams, and my response was welcome to the future. Right,
And then when you John Skipper, they were chilling words.

(01:08:20):
But the former chief at ESPN said, someday the world
the Super Bowl will be on pay per view. They
don't have any choice because the revenue streams are drying
up and now they're out of hand, there's no question.
But the other thing too is Gary there's a lot
of freebies out there. You can follow your team if

(01:08:42):
you want to be fully immersed. Yeah, you got to
spend the money, but how about red zone. You know
you can watch every game. There is all the good stuff,
and there's a lot of free stuff on the interweb.
But If you really want to dive in, you got.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
To pony up Fifth Swig and the six Pack games
NBA Finals about twenty five hours from now. The Okies
can win it all on the road, or the Pacers
can force a Game seven back in Okac Sunday night
in primetime. I'll tell if Halliburton is one hundred percent,
there ain't going to be a number seven on Sunday.
It's obviously not the TV ratings juggernaut. The NBA was
hoping for two cities that smug East and West Coast

(01:09:19):
people call flyover towns, but hey, there's been some really
good intense basketball being played here. In Game five peaked
at thirteen point two million viewers. That's way above the
nine million or so average for the first four games,
still a far cry from the record twenty nine million
viewers in nineteen ninety eight. Michael Jordan Bulls in Utah
or you go back to even before that, the bird

(01:09:41):
Magic viewers back in eighty seven. I think they peaked
at like twenty four million overall. The for those games.
Warriors and Calves with Steph and Lebron brought in as
many as thirty one million back in twenty sixteen. But
I ask you, will we ever see those kinds of numbers,
with those kinds of generational stars again anytime soon?

Speaker 2 (01:10:00):
I think you could, You could match the Warriors numbers,
because that, I think is a more accurate depiction of
where we are now with television. Those Magic Bird series
which were so great, they didn't compete with five hundred channels,
they didn't compete with so much they had. The Internet
was a live back then, but not the way it

(01:10:21):
is now. You know, you look at entertainment show, look
at I Love Lucy. You know sixty million people would
tune in things like that. When I hear old time
TV people talk about the numbers they used to get
when there were only three four networks without due respect
to PBS, no, that'll never be there again. It doesn't

(01:10:43):
mean there isn't as much interest. There are just more
choices now and so everybody has to adjust accordingly. But
back to your original point, if snobs NBA snobs are
not watching, they're missing out on a really good series
with some really nominal performances, and not just by Halliburton
n SGA. I mean, this has been a fun series.

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
Agreed, and finally a sixth wig in the six pack.
This month we had two great local sports reporters announcing
within days of each other that they're retiring. Right over
there in Lexington, guy, you've had on your show many
many times. Columnist John Clay announced his last day at
the Herald Leaders June thirtieth, forty five years after his
first byline in the Lexington Leader summer of nineteen eighty.

(01:11:31):
Thirteen years as the UK football beat writer, and then
twenty five more as a columnist, John's covered twenty one
final fours, forty four consecutive Kentucky Derby's, among countless other events,
and then over here two days later, as you told me,
John's friend and fellow Hall of Famer Rick Bosich announced
his retirement effective July the first. Rick's been at WDRBTV,

(01:11:53):
of course since twenty twelve, but way before that I
began reading him at your former employer, Louisville Times, and
then he went under the CJ for thirty one years.
Rix Palett WDRB Eric Crawford says Rick has covered thirty
one final fours, fifteen Super Bowls, eleven World Series, three
Summer Olympics and the NBA Finals. What can you say?

(01:12:15):
To these two five star journalists after all of these
decades quitters, Seriously the kidding. I would say, thank you
for your hard work, gentlemen, getting the truth and also
sacrificing a lot of valuable time away from family for
appreciative readers like Dick Gabriel and Gary Moore.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
That's right, So much to unpack here. We had a
great lunch this week. Ralph Hacker put it together. Essentially
was to get us together with Tom Devine, our long
time UK network engineer. But we had you know, Jim
Host was there, Oscar Combs, Tom Leech, Wow, you know,
Kyle Macy was on a UK network for many years,

(01:12:58):
you know, and of course Ralph Hacker. Uh But I
said next to John Claty invited John, and John told
us that after Kentucky was beaten in the Sweet sixteen
by Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament, he said he texted
his wife and said, I'm done. That's it, you know,
because he knew that if he carried this to his

(01:13:19):
you know, by the end of the fiscal year, he'll
be done. But if he started in the UK football season,
he would want to finish it and that would carry
to the you know, all that kind of stuff. But
he had been thinking about it for a while, so
had Rick and John was like a situation like there,
but for the grace of God go I. You know,
John wrote for the Kentucky Colonel, as I did, got

(01:13:39):
out of school, took the job at the local newspaper.
I might have done the same thing if I hadn't
gotten into broadcasting at a station where you and I
first worked together. And then, you know, John did what
you want to do. You cover the you do a
little bit of everything, You cover the beat, and you
end up with a column that was going to be
my career path somewhere, if not accident, maybe the Courier Journal,

(01:14:02):
because yeah, I was an intern at the Louisville Times.
I remember when Rick started with a CJ. Rick, I
didn't talk. I ran out of time. I didn't have
a chance to talk to him about this. But Rick
left the Courier Journal for a couple of days, took
a job I think it was in Minneapolis, a huge newspaper,
and then he just turned around and came home. He

(01:14:25):
had second thoughts, like like coaches have done, and yeah,
and he turned around and he said, I'm sorry but
I can't take this job and came back to Louisville,
you know. Uh, and that was our game. And I
tipped my cap to wd RB over there, which has
a great website when it comes to sports sports programming
that is independent of the TV channel. They spent money

(01:14:48):
on Rick, they spent money on Eric. They've made it
work because they hired the right guys. He'll be missed,
there's no question about that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:55):
Absolutely, Absolutely, they're the best in this There's some good
sports guys. Yeah, you've had him on your show.

Speaker 2 (01:15:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:15:02):
Rick and Eric know this town in this state like
nobody else.

Speaker 2 (01:15:05):
And the biggest reason I think DRB is the best
is because management it was smart enough to give them
airtime and space where other stations don't have the courage
it takes to do that. But that's a great business
model DRB is. They're making money, you know, and sports
is so huge here.

Speaker 1 (01:15:23):
It's huge yware exactly, but especially here.

Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
Yeah. Yeah, Louisville is one of the great sports markets
in all of America. We're talking with Gary Maris, our
Western bureau chief. We'll come back with some hot reads
and just a minute here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back.
We're talking with Gary Mariy is our West End bureau chief.
We talk with him each and every Wednesday. He presents
two guys in a six pack. We counter with a
couple of hot reads. For Gary, Kevin Durant wants a

(01:15:48):
new team again. Uh, he's picking and choosing again. Got
to be the right team. Got to be a team
that will give him the ball all the time. But
also Gary, he wants to win another which he's done
in the past. But now he's saying Spurs or Wolves.
Maybe Phoenix is trying to accommodate. This to me gets

(01:16:09):
a little tiresome, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:16:12):
You know, he goes back to the Seattle SuperSonics days.

Speaker 2 (01:16:15):
That is amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:16:16):
Isn't that crazy to think about that? That's how long
he's thirty he's gonna be with thirty seven? I think
this fall and if he'd had stayed with Golden State, maybe,
but no, you got to go to Brooklyn, you got
to get with the guys, and how did that work out? Well,
then okay, I'm gonna go to Phoenix. Well how did
that work out? So now it's onto this other guy.
Maybe if he'd even stayed at Oklahoma City. You know,

(01:16:38):
they got to the finals against the Heat. They did,
and they had a three to one lead against the
Warriors and blew it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:44):
And then what does he do?

Speaker 1 (01:16:45):
He goes to join the Warriors later that summer. I
like him a lot, can't. I can't complain about him
too much because great player. He's won of gold medals.
You know, he's been a savior in the Olympics time
and time again. So good lucke him. I hope he
gets it. But it is tiring.

Speaker 2 (01:17:02):
Yeah, and here's the other thing that puts me off
of just a little bit. He could have stayed with
the Warriors. He could have won, yeah, another title or
two and chose to leave. Yep, that's what puzzles me
the most. Speaking of titles, not sure which team is
going to win the championship when it comes to the
Jello Shots in Omaha, probably LSU, but I'm talking about

(01:17:24):
Rocos Pizza and Cantina. I got a chance to visit
that spot when I was in Omaha last year. They
host every year the Jello Shot Challenge. Fans from each
respective team are urged to come in by a jello shot.
What do you drink it? Or not, or do you
drink it or slurp it? Anyway? Each shot five bucks
proceeds go to food banks in the hometowns of each

(01:17:47):
respective College World Series team and in Omaha. And in
twenty twenty three, LSU's baseball team won the championship. They
bought Gary a record shattering sixty eight thousand, eight hundred
and eighty eight jell O shots. That's a lot of
money for food banks. You got to put this up

(01:18:09):
there with one of the great promotional moves in all
of sports.

Speaker 1 (01:18:13):
How many did you have last year when you were there?

Speaker 2 (01:18:15):
Probably just one?

Speaker 1 (01:18:17):
Oh, come on now, you're you're you're with the guys here,
come on now. And Skeens was doing it right, didn't
I see him in his deans Livy and.

Speaker 2 (01:18:26):
Todd Graves and LSU biomingo U. So yeah, that that
that you talk about a built in advantage for LSU faithful.

Speaker 1 (01:18:33):
I saw this, they were saying in at least in
the Career Journal at ten o'clock Central time, Sunday, U
of l was in second to last place. But you
see who was in second place? Murray State. Yeah about that,
I've got hit, But by god, we can slurp.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
No, it's a it's a great uh promotional deal. And
I want to point out as well Rocko's canteena is
right next to the ballpark, so it's not as those
fans are staggering out of the bar, getting in their
cars and driving to the game. They've got a chance
to walk around, go sit in the sun for three
or four hours and sober up. But again, it's one
of the great promotional moves in all of sports. He

(01:19:11):
is Gary Moore. He is our west End bureau chief
and we talk to him each and every week. You
can also follow him, which you should on Twitter or
x at at nine five to five Gary and I
follow you at a big Go Insider one. That's right
that good week and how to do it for now
Thanks to Gary Moore, Thanks to Shaan Woods and Keith
Madison that said good night in the garage and Lexington.

Speaker 3 (01:19:34):
I had no respect to day I was born, really
no respect.

Speaker 6 (01:19:36):
The doctor picked me up and smacked me. I found
out the night she got a few.

Speaker 2 (01:19:39):
In two.

Speaker 3 (01:20:02):
Take that saying anything, can anything, do anything, back out

(01:20:48):
stake that anything but facts.

Speaker 2 (01:21:12):
From type

Speaker 3 (01:21:20):
Dotting The