2025-06-23 - BBI - Big Blue Insider with Dick Gabriel

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Big Blue Insider Day. Gabriel with you
on a Monday as we wrap up the month of June.
Amazing it is shot right by and once again tonight baseball,
football basketball to talk about. We're going to be joined
a little bit later on at the bottom of the
hour by Ainsley Almanor, who of course wants a Wildcat,
always a Wildcat, but also now is a member of

(00:22):
La Fa Meia. It's the team that plays in TBT,
the basketball tournament you know it by now. That's the
tournament where a lot of former players get together and
play for a one million dollar person winner take all.
And the Kentucky team last year, which was one of
the favorites to get to the championship, ended up in
the final four, which is where the Wildcats lost, or

(00:44):
La fa Mea lost a name. Of course, it harkens
back to the Caliperi era, but people seem to like it,
and Ansley Almanor is happy to be on the ball love,
so we will talk with him at the bottom of
the hour. A little bit later on, we're going to
talk to Doug Flynn, my broadcasting brother, who of course
is my partner on the SEC plus telecasts of the

(01:05):
streaming channel of UK Baseball, and we always talk to
Doug here in the garage for the chain Gang of
Keith Madison, Darren Headrick and Doug. But I wanted to
talk to him about the upcoming documentary on his life.
And you heard perhaps the man who produced that documentary,
my former WKYT colleague, David Patrick, on Friday, talking about

(01:26):
the project. So we'll talk to Doug about it, as
well as the Wildcats and yesterday's College World Series, which
just a mess if you don't know by now, the
head coach of Coastal Carolina and an assistant coach ejected
in the first inning. And I will get to that
in just a moment, but I also want to point
out that Lee K. Howard will Travelers as well, coming

(01:48):
up in the hour number two. But I got to
talk first about SGA Shay Gildess. Alexander capped off the
year of a lifetime, the season of a lifetime that
saw him lead the league in scoring at thirty two
point seven points per game. He wins the MVP Award
and now he's a world champion and the MVP of

(02:10):
the NBA Playoffs. Following the Thunders win over the Pacers yesterday.
And as I mentioned before, I loved it when ABA
teams the former ABA teams and gosh, you know you're
talking about fifty years ago with the ABA. But those
of us who are ABA fans, we still revel in
the fact that there was success coming out of that league,
great players, the three point shot style of play, and

(02:33):
now another ABA teams won a title because San Antonio
won five. But yeah, the Pacers came close again. I
could not root for them because I just hated the
Pacers when they were in the ABA. But I'm also
rooting for SGA and Cason Wallace, who had a nice
game as well. He had double figures. He had ten points.

(02:54):
But say, Gilles Alexander put together the greatest season and
that a former Wildcat ever has in the NBA. And
as you know, there have been a lot well there
are a lot of Wildcats now in the NBA. But
he had twenty nine points twelve assists. Wallace also had
three steals and a couple of rebounds to go with
his effort. And I will say, yes that Pacer fans

(03:17):
will always look back on the fact that their best player,
Tyrese Halliburton, who would have been the MVP had he
kept going the way he was early and had the
Pacers want it. He went down with the injury, and
it wasn't the calf injury that sidelined him earlier. It
was an achilles and one may have led to the other,

(03:38):
I don't know, but that happened in the second quarter
and the Pacers never really were able to catch up
and put as much pressure on the thunder as they
might have. But one of the other things I wanted
to mention was the fact that the stats for Shay

(03:58):
Gilgess Alexander put him in some heady company like namely
Michael Jordan and Kareem up du A Jabbar. Okay, there's
this uproar now and who brought it up on TV?
But Stephen A. Smith like him or not? Steven A.
Smith knows the NBA, and he's passionate, you know, and

(04:19):
he does the yelling and screaming thing. I like his.
He's a really good writer. He's a really smart guy,
smart enough to parlay his persona into millions and millions
of dollars. But that said, I often wonder if a
guy like that is imitating himself when he does everything
at the top of his lungs. But he was extolling

(04:43):
the virtues of SGA and he mentions Jordan and Jabbar
as it relates to stats, and some people lost their
minds on the internet immediately. Oh, he thinks he's as
good as Jordan, Asbai. You know. Know, here's what stephen A.
Stephen A Smith said, you beat a judge.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
It was com met us.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
We look forward to the NBA Finals. A lot of
people doubted that it would be the spectacular, but it
exceeded expectations because the Indiana Pacers showed up and give
them a lot of credit where credit is due, and
there's going to be a lot of people out there
that's so question. What would have happened if Halliburton had
it gone down? That's inevitable, but should know what the
answer to that question is. It's a brother by the
name of Sga, Say Jilles Alexander twenty nine points, twelve assists,

(05:27):
one turnover, just one turnover in forty minutes. This brother
is something special. Only the third player in history thirty
points per game during the regular season and NBA League
MVP and obviously the MVP of the NBA Finals. You're
talking about Jordan three times, you're talking about.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
Kareem Matthew Jabar, you're talking about.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Shake Gilgs, Alexander. That's the conversation that he is in.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
That's the kind of season he has had.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
That's the kind of season he let ok t s
do and a lot of people could do nothing but
stay on and congratulate them.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
And that was it. The stats add up. He was
comparing the stat line who else has done this, who
else has led the league? And then going on to
do what SGA did this year. Well, two guys, Jordan
three times, crime Abdul Jabbar. That's it. Never said SGA
should be in the same conversation in terms of ability,

(06:16):
and it's it's too soon in his career. Of course,
he'll never, though, be Michael Jordan. Nobody will. I don't think.
I mean maybe somebody will someday. But I do think
he's the greatest of all time. And Jabbar for everything
he did, is underrated when people who are eat up
with recency bias start talking about the greatest players in
the history of the league, just like well Chamberlain. So anyway, yeah,

(06:38):
that stuff. I get really tired of that when when
people because it's everything's an instant take. Everybody's got their
phone in their hands. Everybody without thinking, they tweet things.
I've done that. I've gone back and deleted tweets, or
I've refuse to hit sin when I look at it
and go, that's really stupid. Uh. But I felt like
the criticisms of SGA and yeah, I know I'm being
a bit parochial because he's a UK guy, but I

(07:01):
just think it's silly, and I like to point out
silly things here. You know, what was beyond silly was
the College World Series. And I tuned in a little
bit late. I was out of the house and I
tuned in. I'm like, oh my god, what happened? And
I started going back and looking and reading and looking
at video. In the first inning, Coastal Carolina's head coach,

(07:21):
Kevin Schnall was ejected from the game for arguing balls
and strikes. Now coaches know this, managers know that you
cannot argue balls and strikes. The problem here was it
was such a knee jerk reaction by the plate umpire,
whose name was Angel Campos, and I had forgotten about

(07:42):
this guy. This guy has a rep for being hot tempered,
rabbit ears, whatever you want to call it, so much
so he was fired by Major League Baseball MLB. And
for those of you out there say officials are not
held accountable, and I don't know what's going to happen
to him now, but they are held accountable. He was

(08:02):
fired by Major League Baseball for being poor behind the
plate on balls and strikes, throwing out too many guys,
too many ejections, and just being not up to the job.
He got the dream job, he got called up to
the show, and he blew it. So the next thing
you know, he's working college baseball and he works the

(08:26):
championship game of the College World Series, or at least
one of them. There might have been another one if
Coastal had won, and he blew it. And look, I
am as sympathetic to officials as anybody you'll ever hear
in the media, and I mentioned it more than once.
When I was young, I umpired baseball games from peewee

(08:46):
to adult league games, fraternity games, you know, intermurals. I've
talked to Jim Dopplas the other night, the former NFL
rough I worked for him at UK. I have had
people threaten me I have had somebody tell me they're
going to meet me in the parking lot after the game.
I've had a father who is an ex marine come

(09:08):
at me because he thought I'd said something to his
kid and he wanted to fight me. I had a
fraternity come after me, come walking at me with bats
in their hands because they were so mad at me.
And you know, one of the worst was one game
in particular, where these moms were screaming at me over
eleven year olds and you know their voice is just

(09:30):
piercingly loud. So yeah, I am extremely sympathetic because I've
been the behind the plate. I've caught pitches not just
by kids, but by guys who were playing college baseball,
So I know what it's like. But I also know
this officials have discretion, and I will let you hear
from the head coach, Kevin Schnall about what happened. This

(09:53):
is according to the head coach. Now from coast to Carolina.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
There's twenty five thousand people there, and I vaguely hear
a warning issued as the head coach. And I was
an assistant for twenty four years, and as an assistant,
you're almost treated like a second grade second level citizen
and you can't say a word now as a head coach,

(10:19):
I think it is your right to get an explanation
of why we got warned. And I'm forty eight years old.
I shouldn't get showed by another grown man, right, So
when I come out to ask what the warning is,
a grown man showed me. So at that point I
can now hear him say it was a warning issued

(10:43):
for arguing balls and strikes. And at that point I said,
because you missed three. At that point ejected. If that
warrants an ejection, I'm the first one to stand here
a man and apologize to words that the Fine Art

(11:04):
program or own it. And what does that mean is
you have to own You have to own everything that
you do without blame, without defending yourself, without excuses.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
If you guys watched.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
The video, there was a guy that came in extremely
aggressively tripped over the campos his foot, embarrassed in front
of twenty five thousand, immediately goes two game suspension and
said bumping the umpire immediately does that there was no bump.

(11:49):
He was embarrassed. I shouldn't be held accountable for a
grown man's athleticism. Don't retract it, though, because now it's
accept and the reason why is excessive because I was
trying to say I didn't pump him. It is what
it is. But if that warranted an ejection, man, there'd

(12:12):
be a lot of ejections. As an umpire, I feel
like it's your job to manage the game, the National
Championship game, with some poise, some calmness, and a little
bit of tolerance.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
That's an accurate depiction. I went back. I've seen the
video several times and yeah, one of the other umpires
tripped over the play Empire's foot and fell down but
embarrassing and immediately jumped up as though he had been shoved.
And that's what they said with the release in the
fifth inning. That was a bad look by the NCAA
bad look. You know. They never had a chance to

(12:49):
sit down and debrief everybody before they released the statement.
Then they changed the wording, which is just weak. Yeah,
it really ticked me off. And again I am as
sim My brother's been a sports official for almost fifty years,
and of course I'm arguing with him about this via
text message. But it wasn't as though I wondered were

(13:10):
they chirping from the dugout the campos go over and say, hey,
that's enough. And then if that happened and the coach
comes charging out of the dugout to argue balls and structs, yeah,
he's got to go. That's baseball. That's part of it.
I don't care what level, but that's not how it happened.
He came out of the dugout and all in one
fell sup, here's the warning, you're gone. The umpire choked.

(13:33):
In my opinion, he was not up to the moment.
And I can't say that it cost Coastal the game
and the championship. LSU wonted five to three. I think
ls she was a better team, But in my mind,
it just kind of ruined the memory for anybody who
wasn't an LSU fan. Off you were certainly a Coastal fan,

(13:54):
but man, that was ugly. And of course, you know,
they talked about it throughout the game, and I've seen
people ripping the announcers on social media. I mean, what
are you supposed to say? You're really not supposed to
have an opinion when you're calling a game like that,
beyond the fact that, oh man, this is a shame

(14:15):
that this happened because up there when you're live on
the air, and I've never had this happen to me
in a game like that, but I've had odd things
happen where you don't know why call was made, but
you have no information at your fingertips. You have no explanation.
As I said that the release they came out in
the fifth inning, yeah, did it help, Well not really.

(14:36):
It kind of confused the situation even more because what
the hell is this? So I can't really say anything
about the response to the broadcasters, but it just needed
more information which they did not have at the time.
So anyhow, those were the two huge sporting events yesterday,

(14:57):
and one of them with Tyrese Halliburton going down, put
a question mark over I do think the Thunder would
have won. They were the better team and the coach
being a jacked and by the way, the first base
coach was ejected too. That's another thing in baseball coaches.
You've got the head coach is one thing, the manager,
the base coaches, no, they're not allowed to say much
of anything. That's kind of an unwritten rule. That might

(15:20):
be a written rule. That's you know, I remember in
one of the ball games when Marks Troops was drawn
back and forth with Georgia Tech's head coach and one
of the Georgia Tech assistant coaches chimed in, oh, man,
that was bad form now, but it was just a
weird weekend for sports, and I'll go back to the

(15:41):
NBA playoffs for just a moment. Also, social media uproar
by Christian schenaw with who sang the national anthem. She's
an Oklahoma City native. She's a Tony Award winning actress.
You've seen her if you don't know the name, She's
been in a lot of stuff. Tremendous voice. She sang
the national anthem and got some black. She was fine

(16:02):
at the end. She put a little bit of her
spin on it.

Speaker 5 (16:04):
Here it is what the lote I love hold.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, she took it up a notch at the end.
A lot of singers do they go up that one note.
She went that second note. I think she was just
showing off because she has such a great voice. But man,
some people just trashed her on social media. Others chimed
in and said it was one of the best they'd
ever heard with you know, not for me, but I
thought she did a nice job, but two each his own,
I guess, but I thought it was something like I said,

(16:51):
you want to grab your phone and tweet, that's fine,
but think about it. More to come. At the bottom
of the hour, Ansley Almanor talks about joining La Famia
here on six thirty w LAP Welcome back to the
Big Bloon Sider quick segment here because I managed to
go on about refereeing and umpiring and SGA in that
last segment, but I will tell you that coming up
in a few minutes, Ansley Almanor will join us. The

(17:12):
sharp shooting perimeter player. I'm a swing man, I guess,
more forward than anything for the Wildcats this past year,
and now a member of La Familia, which is the
Kentucky based UK based I should say, a team that's
involved in the basketball tournament Winners take All for a
million bucks. They made the final four last year. They'll
try it again this year, and Angsley will talk with

(17:34):
us about his opportunity to play and being Rapperina once
again again mentioning what happened with the College World Series.
But I can relate it as much to basketball, and
you probably can as well, because there have been moments,
especially if you're a Kentucky fan, if you follow the Wildcats,

(17:55):
I go back to two situations where discretion came in
and now a number one. Maybe a little too much,
but I guess it's understandable. Let me take you back,
and if you're of a certain age, you remember this.
If not, you may have heard about it or read
about it. If you're a Kentucky fan, you know the

(18:15):
Wildcats made the Final four nineteen seventy five. Use your
Google machine if you're young and you want to know
more about that game. The Wildcats beat Indiana up in
Dayton in the regional championship game. The Indiana team that
had beaten Kentucky by twenty four points undefeated Bob nineteen,
virtually the same team the next year went undefeated and

(18:37):
won the national title. Kentucky pulls the upset, goes to
the Final four. Beat Syracuse in the first game. It
should have been a UKUL final, but U OFL blew
a late lead and lost to UCLA and John Wooden
in the day. On the day between the two games,
the Saturday and Monday games, John Wooden announced his impending retirement,

(19:00):
which of course changed so much and of course, John
Wooden later on addressed and anybody who supported John Wooden,
the notion that if Wooden had not done that, Kentucky
would have won. I've said before, I mentioned that once
to Denny Crumb, who was an assistant under John Wooden
up until you know what nineteen seventy one when he

(19:22):
went to U of l oh Man. Did he take
me a part on that wasn't mean about it, but
sternly explained to me why I was wrong. I've talked
to a couple of former UK players, Kevin Greevy and
Bob Guyett from that team, who had the same opportunity
to speak to Wooden, and they brought that up, and
John Wooden patiently but pointedly explained why they were wrong.

(19:45):
His point was UCLA was quicker and faster, So anyway,
think what you will. Here's what happened in the championship game.
And again Kentucky missed opportunities. There were free throws the
Wildcats missed, but John Wooden at one point walked out
onto the floor during the game to protest a call

(20:06):
and then of course quickly a dead ball. But he
was out there on the floor in a situation where
any other coach would have been teed up. And he
didn't just step out and step back, you know. I
mean Calipari used to step out, Patino used to walk
on to the floor. No, this was a calculated move
by Wooden to take on the officials and it worked

(20:30):
only in that he was not ejected. But look, you're
a referee in that game. It's one of the biggest games,
maybe the biggest assignment of your life, and you're going
to tee up John Wooden and possibly eject John wouldn't.
No way, You're not going to do that, even though
proper protocol demanded it. Why not discretion? That's when a

(20:56):
referee and official can show discretion, and they did. Now,
Joe Hall wasn't happy about it. I don't know that
it costs Kentucky the game, but that was a glaring
example of discretion. Here's another one for you December thirty,
twenty oh too, Louisville's Freedom Hall Kentucky Indiana crucial point.

(21:18):
Late seconds, Indiana goes in for a shot that either
ties or puts them up and a player gets banged around.
No call. Mike Davis, the Indiana coach, ran out on
the floor in the middle of the play live ball,
demanding a foul, and then you know, the officials stopped
to play finally, and he's chasing the referee up the floor,

(21:41):
Bert Smith, and you can see the video of Bert's
he's already tied him up. But now Bert Smith, you
can read his lips clearly saying walk away coach, walk
away coach, and he didn't. Finally they throw him out
of the game, and Davis later apologized, wrote a letter
and all that stuff. But Bert Smith was willing to

(22:04):
leave it at a technical foul by seeing walk away coach.
That's discretion. Ultimately, Davis paid the price literally, but it
can't happen. Good officials know when to apply discretion. All right.
Up next to Annsley Amanor of tbt's Lafa Meya here

(22:25):
on six thirty WLAP, Welcome back to the Big Blue Sider.
We're joined now by a guy who was so popular
to the basketball Wildcats fans of the Big Blue Nation,
Ansley Amanor, sharp shooting perimeter player who now will bring
his skills to TBT part of the Lafa Mea Aley.
Welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us, Congratulations on
joining the ball club.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
Thanks for having me I appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
Tell me about just what excites you about this project.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
You know, just having an opportunity to be able to
represent you Ban one more time, you know, put it
on jersey that you know represents the University of Kentucky
and playing with you know, so much prestigious alumni. It's
just a great opportunity.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
I feel like for me, you've played against this team
last year, did you not. Weren't you guys able to
square up against the TVT squad last year?

Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yeah? Yeah, last year you played against them. You know,
it was a good experience. If I got to meet
somebody guys this year, it's gonna be a little bit different,
but there's definitely gonna be some carryover, so I'll be
familiar with somebody.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Got a different roster, you mean, yeah, a different Yeah,
when you were playing against them, did you think to yourself,
you know, that might be kind of cool to be
a part of that.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah, I definitely thought that, for sure. I definitely did
think that. So you know, just you know, looking at
a year later, it's like full circle a lon and
I'm actually here and now I got to go play
against them. So it's definitely a great opportunity.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
This tournament has been around for a while. I think
it's safe to say it's pretty successful. What do you
know about it if you followed it since its inception and.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
Get the following for a little bit to a few
guys who played in the past few years, So it
definitely gained some traction, I feel like, especially recently. So
I think it's a good tournament, good opportunity, especially for
guys like me, were trying to get some more exposure
and you know, play at the next level.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
Oh yeah, yeah, that was going to be my next question.
I mean, I know basketball isn't over for you, so
this is a great opportunity to show what you can do,
isn't it.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, definitely is you know, definitely a great opportunity. I'm
excited to actually showcase my skills, especially in front of
your ben and just two whatever else is watching.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
Fans, im media heard about your shooting ability. We all
read about you, we saw your numbers, what you did
at your previous school, and sure enough, you didn't disappoint.
I mean, people love the way you shot the ball,
but I felt like Ansley second half of the year especially,
you really expanded your game, didn't you.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah, definitely feel like I did, you know, just you know,
I was working on my game every day, showing more
the year went on, getting more comfortable in the offense.
I just feel like that's just a part of you know,
becoming a better basketball player. And I feel like, you know,
even after the season, I made more progression. It's just
really takes being my game and you know, getting better.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
So you're still working, You're still working at it.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
Of course, of course, what what do you want to
get better?

Speaker 1 (25:15):
I know everything, right, but I mean I felt like
you took the ball to the rack a little bit
more and a little bit better as the year went on.
Did you did you feel that way?

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Yeah, definitely felt that way. It was a game more
comfortable and having more confidence doing things like that after
working working at working on it in practice a lot.
So definitely definitely I got better over the year.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
Talking to Ansley, Almnori is now part of LA Fora Media.
The team basically comprised of UK players who will play
in TBT coming up. And uh, yeah, this past season,
I always wonder about this, Guys like you who are
so good at shooting the three. You know, when you
when you check in you can kind of at least
I can up and where the media sits kind of

(25:56):
feel the crowd start to rustle, like okay, here we go.
And then whenever you get the ball, especially if you
had just a shred of daylight, you could feel the
entire at least I could feel the entire arena kind
of brace itself and inhale ready for that shot to
go down. Can you feel that as a player or
are you so dialed in you don't notice that.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
I don't really notice it too much, to be honest,
I'm readouted into the game to trying to focus on
making an impact up my team, you know when any
way possible, So I don't know, you get to focus
on that while I'm playing. But looking back at it,
watching family definitely see it and hear it.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
What was that like for you when you would look
back at the video and you could see the way people.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
React, You know, it's obviously just a humbling experience, great experience,
just you know, being able to just seeing like so
many people would just support me and just you know,
root me on stuff like that. It was a great,
great experience and it just felt good just being able
to feel that and see it at least especially watching.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
Them back, you could, I know you could feel it
when the shots went down and a place to right.
A little bit different from Fairley Dickinson, was it?

Speaker 6 (26:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (26:59):
A lot different?

Speaker 1 (27:00):
Was it what you thought it would be the experience
of playing in rupp Arena playing for Kentucky?

Speaker 2 (27:05):
It was even even better, you know, even bigger, even better.
BBN is just you know, something you can't replicate, you
can't prepare for it, and it should, you know, so
so grateful for you know, you would represent them.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
You guys all talked about how tough it was going
to be to walk away, and even Kobe talked about
they're not going to be able to take this jersey
away from me. How tough was that for you? When
the season ended?

Speaker 2 (27:28):
You know, it was really tough. You know, it suck,
really really sucked. You know, such a time flew You
got there and there for you know, over like ten
months and just felt like it was you know a
day when you know, like going all sit and downe
So it just really flew by it, especially when you're
having fun with your family, with your brother.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
So this was a UK This was a UK team
ANGELI like no other because the roster had to come together,
the entire roster of scholarship players in such a short
amount of time, and you guys had so many big wins,
You made a deep run. Why do you think this
team was so successful?

Speaker 2 (28:07):
You know, I just feel like we loved each other
on and off the court. You know, we spent a
lot of time. We knew each other, like where a
family coach did a great job apparent as if we
did all the coaches that have We had great coaching staff,
and you know, we just played for each other, played
the right way, and we played for the right reasons.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
And the coaches I know, and they're still doing that,
weren't getting just they weren't compiling a team like it
was a fantasy team. It was it was as much
about the people as the players. Did you get a
feel for that with Mark Pope and his staff because
they did a great job of getting just the right guys,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely, they definitely did that. And you
could just tell while we were out of the court
and we started playing with each other that there is
a team that just gel really well. And you know something,
you can't really up the plate I.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
Know there are some players who wonder about Mark Pope's
coaching style, his demeanor. I mean, everybody knows how smart
he is, and coaches all know x'es and o's. But
Pope admitted that, you know, he tried to be that gruff,
mean kind of coach that he was coached by Rick Patino,
but he said he just had to be himself, which

(29:14):
is much more upbeat and positive. And I was privileged
to attend a couple of practices and saw that firsthand.
What was it like being a player with a coach,
you know, who's not always up in your grill, who's
you know, much more positive.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yeah, it was a great It was just a fun
and enjoyable experience, you know, just being a player, just
being able to learn and you know, not worrying about
your coach just being a little, you know, too much
sometimes coach, I think that just a little too much,
and players they react poorly to it and they just
can't really handle it. But just being able to just
talk to coach, you know, like like he wasn't your coach,

(29:49):
like you just another person that you just you know,
just talking to me, and the man how to respect
for his players always, and it's just a great feeling.
You know, you just want to go out there and
fight for him, you know, especially you know when you
feel like he's just out there and just wants the
best for you and just talks to you like, you know,
with doub most respect.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
The fact that he has been where you guys want
to be and and and wanted to be. You know,
he's played in Kentucky, won a title, played in the league,
played overseas. How much does that help when you when
you guys go to relate to him, It helps a.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
Lot, you know, it helps a lot just being able
to listen to them and hear what you gotta say
and just like understand that he's been where you run
and go. He had a lot of things to say
and like a lot of great wisdom and you know,
great guidance that we definitely want to listen to. And
it just makes it easier to listen to him, especially
knowing that he been exactly where we're trying to.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
Go talking to. Angeley Amanor is now part of lat
for Meia. The ball club that is comprised primarily are
UK players that'll be a part of TBT once again.
Winner Take All Uh, it's a steep hill, but the
last year team made a pretty good climb. You like
your chances?

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, we definitely do. Change is trying to go over
all this year for sure.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
That ought to be fun. This past year's team, you
guys had to adjust quite a bit because of injuries.
You had Jackson go down, you had Lamont dealing with injuries. Uh,
you know your playing time would increase. Uh what was
that like for you guys to constantly have to you know,
change if not the style the attack that what you

(31:22):
guys or how much did you have to change because
you lost some key games, a lot of games from
key players.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Yeah, you know, we just we had we had a
great team. Of course, had a great team. Everybody's prepared,
you know, it's just a next man up mentality. So
just having having great players and practice and hard every
day and pushing each other in practice every day in
fact prepared us. Uh, you know for anything, especially when
it came to the game and if you're putting the
situations that you maybe not have been used to, you

(31:51):
were always prepared for it just because you know, uh,
you've been pushed charge and practice and you know you've
just been preparing for it your whole life basically. So
I just feel like we did a great job of adjusting.
And you know, since we're older but more mature team,
it was easier for us to you know, handle those bumps,
the bumps and up and downs because you.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
Were older and more mature. Did that make it easier
to blend and come together as a team.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, definitely, definitely think so, because.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
I wondered about that. You know, usually younger guys and
when you learn your way, but some of you older guys,
and it's a relative term, I know, are set in
your ways, but I really felt like you guys hit,
for lack of a better term, ans a more of
a professional approach to the way you came together. Is
that is that accurate?

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Yeah? For sure? Definitely.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
What did you learn from your teammates as much as
your coaches can you can you zero in on any
of that?

Speaker 2 (32:44):
I mean, just you know, just learning about them, just learning,
you know, just different people came from different places, keep
calling from different backgrounds, learn how to hand those certain things,
you know, learning tips. You know, a lot of them
played a high major schools that I wasn't really playing
out before. So just you know seeing how to hand
themselves and handle certain things definitely helped me throughout the year.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
What about playing with the Mari, a guy a big
like that who at times would run the point and
could pass the basketball. What was that like?

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah, it was it was great. You know, he's a
great player, a great skill set. Definitely very unique, and
I feel you're the privileged to be able to play
with a guy like that who could you know, at
that at that height see the whole floor and be
able to facilitate for the whole team.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
We talked about how you grew as a player. Where
do you think you improved the most. I kind of
touched on this earlier, but I felt like your defense
got better, your handle. Was there anything in particular you
were most proud of?

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah, I feel like defensive I got a lot better
throughout the year. Some of the people didn't really notice,
like just me personally, I got the better defensively, and
uh yeah, my handle more comfortable. So like, here's just
the sense that you should be more comfortable and more confident,
you know, in my abilities. But definitely defensively, I play
actually got better. In general.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Of course, you had to get better playing in the
SEC and do respect to the teams that you played against. Uh.
This year, I think you'll probably what, hell, the SEC
won the national title and a team that you guys beat, Uh,
tell me about kind of moving up in terms of
competition playing against SEC teams.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yeah, I mean it was. It was definitely a tough
I mean it was really tough. You know, we're all
basket players the O of the day. There's a great
so thankful to you know, I just to be able
to play in the best conference, you know and arguably
prograst of history. You know, that's you know, showcase my
skills and to go out there and get better every
single day. You know, the BASKETBLL players gold is at
all times, and you know, just being able to you know,
play that, being able to do that and just play

(34:38):
in that league just you know, definitely a great experience.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
I was gonna say, you know, you've played against tough players,
good players throughout your college career before you got to Kentucky.
It just seemed like in the SEC, there's more of them, right,
more depth top, you know, there's so much.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
Death you know, uh, size, speed, other games just different.
So just it was great, you know, as a competitor
as you want to be in.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
I was going to say it had to be a
tough adjustment, but iron sharpens iron, right, you want.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
To go at that, right, Yeah, exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (35:11):
I mentioned Florida, you guys in one of the incredible
games beat them both Team I one six to one hundred.
When you watch Florida throughout the year from that point on,
knowing how good they were, did you feel like that
was the team that really had a shot? I mean,
Walter Clayton Juniors are pretty incredible, isn't he.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
Yeah, yeah, definitely, you know, they're a great team built well. Coach, Well,
that was cool. I mean, obviously beating them, you know,
with the bitter season our Military Washington National championship, because
you know, you know how a healthy, you know, full
strengthy for Lake definitely could have been there ourselves.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
So well, but you've got that win over them in
your hip pocket, right. A couple of minutes left with
Ansley aman Or he's going to be playing in the
TBT for La Familia, and uh, a little bit of
a different look in terms of the rules and things
like that. The scoring. I gotta think that it's going
to be a little more up temple. Although you guys
love playing up tempo under Mark Pope, how much is

(36:11):
that going to help you in this tournament?

Speaker 2 (36:13):
I mean just it's definitely help us. Seeing the way
that we play in general, just as a other team
is gonna be pretty interesting. You know. I'm just excited
to get to put those guys yea, and you know,
I just want to be out there help them win,
help us, help us win this whole prize.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Well, when you do, when you win that big prize,
what are your plans afterwards? I mean, I'm sure you've
got an Asian.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
And agent, you know, just exploring professional opportunities right now,
seeing you know what pops up and you know what
are your best for me?

Speaker 1 (36:42):
How would you feel about playing overseas because some guys
get homesick.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
I definitely definitely opened to the opportunity, definitely, you know,
open an opportunity just as long as they have to
play at the next level.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Yeah, see the world on somebody else's nickel.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Right, Yeah, exactly. You know that would be a great
experience for sure.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, but you already know that you can always come
back to lexingon right.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
And yeah, of course you know us at my second
home now. You know, everybody over there show love and
you know, definitely had to go back next month as.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
We speak, are you back in New York? Are you
still in Lexington?

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Yeah, I'm in New York right now. I'm in New York.
Head off to lex next month.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
I'll let you go with this. What do people say
to you when you see them and they followed you
and your friends, your family, But what do you tell
them about BBN and and lexingon?

Speaker 2 (37:30):
You know, it's just one of the kind, you know,
definitely as other to try to go experience that whenever
they can, you know, just being out there. Uh, my
experience is a great experience, you know, BBN, It's just
there's nothing you can really describe. You've got to go
out there and witness it yourself. Kentucky's a great place,
great people, and definitely I'm going to try to come

(37:51):
back as often as I can.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
He is Ansley Almanor. He's always going to be welcome
in Lexington from initially Spring Valley, New York. But he'll
be a part of love and looking forward to seeing
you play again, young man. I appreciate your time.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
I appreciate you man.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
Can go and we'll talk more UK hoops on the
other side of the break here on six thirty WLAP. Well,
it's a quick one here, but we only have time
to tell you that earlier today Denzel Aberdeen and Mohammed
Diabatte talked to the media. We'll have all kinds of
coverage of that. Tomorrow you hear from both players. And
also tomorrow we'll hear from twenty Beckham, the GM of

(38:27):
Lafa Meya and the new head coach, Sean Woods. They're
holding a joint press conference on Tuesdays. So much more
UK basketball coming up tomorrow. Yeah. I know it's the
middle of the summer, but you know as well as
I that it just never stops if you're a Kentucky
basketball player or a media person. But really, the the TBT,
the TBT tvt has been a great success and a

(38:49):
lot of fun, and we'll be talking about it, of course,
we hope through the championship game. I remember two with
Doug Flynn. His next from six thirty w LAP.

Speaker 7 (39:01):
Then any type set such station tap, don't do anything.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
Welcome back to the Big Moon Sider. Join now by
my broadcasting brother, mister Doug Flynn. June we get together
on the he doesn't join me. I joined him. It's
my privilege on the SEC. Plus streaming telecasts of UK
baseball and the College World Series has come to an end.
We're in the middle of the big league season. But Doug,
before I ask you about what happened with Coastal Carolina

(41:16):
and LSU, I don't know if you've had a chance.
You're not a big social media guy, but I know
that Darren Hedrick keeps us up to speed on her
chain gang text message. Were the moves that nickmn Jonas
staff were making through the portal, really going after pitching,
just laying that a kid from South Carolina, and that's
going to be the key coming up, isn't it. They

(41:38):
got some good guys coming back, but they need arms.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
Oh absolutely.

Speaker 6 (41:41):
If you look at the College World Series, every one
of those teams that got there just had some strength
and all of it on the hill. Some teams two
and three guys that are projected to be in the
top couple of rounds of the draft. So I really
like what Nick's doing. Plus with the kids that he's
got coming back from last year that are going to
be a year older, and the way they showed that
they could play. Towards the end of the year, you

(42:03):
got to be pretty excited about next season.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
You and I got to watch and everybody got to
watch Ben Cleaver really blossom. We saw him as a
freshman come on at the end of the year and
then a slim reaper really made a name for himself
in more waste than one this past year. I can't
wait to see what happens. He's gonna work it, he says,
putting on even more muscle and getting stronger. And he
was an sec guy, wasn't he?

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (42:27):
Absolutely yeah, and he will get so much better. And
you have confidence that when he went out there that
all right, which guy we was gonna see tonight. Unlike
a few of the pictures that we've seen over the
years where just never could get that comfortable feeling of
owning that mound, Well, he started doing it from day one.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
His mound was his.

Speaker 6 (42:47):
And I just think as he gets stronger, he gets
more command of that. Already some really good stuff that
he is definitely going to be the picture that nobody
wants to face, especially left handed hitters.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
And you know, talking to him after the game, is
we do uh, it's really funny because you know, you
talk about being out there on the mound and owning it.
You know, he's got that baby face and he's a
slender guy. He is the slim Reaper, so you know,
he just looks like a kid. Now he's tall, you know,
but he doesn't pitch like a kid, does he.

Speaker 6 (43:17):
Well, you know, Danny Graves was nicknamed him the baby
face that sassin.

Speaker 2 (43:21):
Oh yeah, and uh he's.

Speaker 6 (43:23):
All time save leaders from the Cincinnati Reds. But you
know he's about my size, not big. But I'm telling you,
you know, the makeup that he had which made him
such a great great relief pitcher is what you would
really love to see and everybody. And I think Leaver's
got that.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
I met I got to meet him at the College
World Series last year, Danny Graves. I seen him pitch
and he was working I guess for ESPN. Uh that's right,
acc Network, And uh yeah, he's got you know that,
Like like you said, he just that appearance. But when
he starts talking, he kind of owns the room, doesn't he.

Speaker 4 (43:59):
So I.

Speaker 1 (44:01):
Pictures need that. And when you look around the infield
and the outfield, a lot of starters back for the Wildcats.
But relievers is where Kentucky really struggled this year. You know,
Hogan was hurt most of the year, some other guys struggled.
But yeah, getting back to the College World Series, you
had just incredible starting pitching, especially LSU and Coastal. But

(44:22):
it seemed to your point, Doug Leck. You know they
would show they pick up that camera and the bullpen
guys warming up. This guy throws ninety eight, that guy
throws ninety four. Everybody had a roster of relievers who
could come in and to shut you down. And anymore.
In college ball you got to have that.

Speaker 6 (44:40):
Yeah, you really do, because the quality of play is
so good. I remember one time they said college baseball
was probably equivalent to good class at a baseball and
now it's probably equivalent to double a baseball. I really do.
And you see a lot of these kids that are
staying around for that extra year plus. What I often

(45:01):
forget too is some of these kids are now twenty
four twenty feet, so they get a little bit older
because of the portal, and so they've got an extra
year of play, and so we saw a lot of
older kids over the last couple of years.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Yeah, that's a great point because about when the Legends
first got here. Gosh, I don't remember how many years
ago that was, but people would say, well, the SEC
is about as good as I said, Not quite, because
SEC kids back then would give their left arm lifts
that were left handed to land a contract with the Legends. Now,
as you said, they're sticking around. Of course there's more
money involved, but they're bigger, stronger, faster, and especially when

(45:37):
the best pitcher on the teams on the bump. Yeah,
that team could could compete with a single air double.
The we're talking to Doug Flynn of the SEC Network
covers UK baseball, and of course was at Omaha last
year when the Wildcats were playing and we were all
furiously and frantically texting yesterday Doug about what happened at
the first inning, and I talked about it off the top.

(45:58):
I just felt like, uh, that played umpire, lost his cool,
had the opportunity to show discretion and did not. And
I had forgotten this. He had been fired by the
major leagues. He they say officials aren't accountable, held accountable.
He got fired for doing the same kind of stuff

(46:19):
and he really put a cloud over this championship roun
didn't he?

Speaker 6 (46:25):
Yeah, And you get a really good understanding of it
when you listen to Coastal Carolina's coach explain exactly what happened. Yeah,
I played that because there was there was I mean,
we were all speculating as to what was said, what
could have happened, what did happen, But he pretty much
laid it out on the line. And then I saw

(46:45):
the umpire run up, the other umpire run up, and
you could tell that he lost his ballance and the
tripps he wasn't shoved, but then to come up and
immediately tried to blame that on the coach as well,
when the video is certainly going to make him look
completely foolish. But Dick, we saw a lot of that
over the last year or so with some of the umpiring.
Now there's you know, there's part of this game that

(47:08):
you really you got to let it talk, you gotta
let it breathe, you gotta let it be human. And
if it gets to the point where we start taking
all that away, I mean, this is the championship game
of the national title for college baseball, and he yanks
him quickly. That's one of the fastest ejections I think
I've ever seen at any level.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
Yeah, I had read about it, and this is kind
of legendary, but every once in a while you read
about a coach or a manager brings a lineup card
out and starts talking about last night's game and gets
ejected at that point. I know, But in terms of
in terms of yeah, a game like this, and I
talked earlier Doug about other situations where officials have used discretion.

(47:57):
But man, if your back is up like that so
soon you got that's a you problem. You know what
I mean?

Speaker 3 (48:04):
Uh?

Speaker 6 (48:04):
Oh, I agree and uh And you.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
Know, the statement they release in the middle of the
game was suspect. And as you know from our conversations
on the air and off within the chain gang, I'm
the one in our group who's most sympathetic to officially,
not just because of my brother, but just because of
my experience. But you know, like I said, I've had

(48:27):
people screaming at me and threatening me and I know
what that feels like. Not at that level, though, but
he's working at that level. He ought to be able
to handle it, right.

Speaker 6 (48:37):
I would think that he would, and the NCAA should
have been well aware of that as well, so I
put a lot of blame on him for putting him
in that situation, knowing that he has a history of
something like that. Yeah, but I've been you know, I've
been run before for just with my big mouth when
I was coaching in pro ball, and I mean, Dick,
without even saying anything bad, I would just you know,

(48:58):
question something like hey, like that, both you're gone. And
he made a good point yesterday, which I thought was
one of the most ridiculous things. If you are in
a ball or minor league ball, the manager can speak,
but if a coach says one word, he's automatically ejected.
And it's pretty much the same way a college ball.

(49:19):
The coaches are to be there to watch it. They're
not supposed to be able to say anything. I mean,
you can't question anything without getting run. And I think
they've got to loosen it up a little bit on that,
because if you and I both know there is a
tremendous amount of mouth and going on in the game,
and you clean it all up or you let it.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
You know what My point on that was, they had ejected.
They had ejected the head coach, so technically that coach
on the field. He was the head coach at the time.
He had instantly become, you know, the head coach of record,
so to throw him out was supreme. I mean, I
get that, you know, and again that's one of the
unridden rules of sports really, but yeah, they just they

(49:57):
just mishandled everything. It was a bad look or college baseball,
and it ruined for a lot of us. What is
one of the greatest events, and especially if you've been there,
that there is I've said before it's it's like the
Final Falling twice as good because there's twice as many teams, you.

Speaker 6 (50:13):
Know, and you've got to let it go a little bit.
In that situation. You always give the guys a little leeway.
They work there, Reari and the team like Coastal Carolina's
worked there, Rearian to be here. I mean, we have
said before that are the days gone for Coastal Carolinas
and teams like that. Well, we saw Burray and them

(50:34):
have great years, able to compete with the Southeastern Conference
and something the strong teams out west. So they make
it that far and then you've got to give them
a little leeway. Especially the guy wasn't custing or anything.
He was just questioning, you know, his louthy umpire.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
Yeah, and you know what, You've made a good point
through the years about ballplayers, both current and retired, being
shepherds of the game. That extends, in my opinion, to officials.
I think they need too as well. And will he
be held accountable If that guy, any of them, really
the couple of them, end up in Omaha next year,
I'll be really disappointed. He is Doug Flynn. He is

(51:12):
my broadcasting brother on the SEC plus broadcast at UK Baseball.
We'll come back and talk about learning more about mister
Flynn in just a minute on the big one side
of here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're chatting
with my good friend and colleague, mister Doug Flynn from
SEC plus coverage of UK baseball and a longtime Big leaguer.

(51:34):
He is the glue who held together, we say, tongue
in cheek, the big Red machine. Of course, when Doug
was traded, the Big Red Machine fell apart. But also
just saying I got the T shirt to prove it
Gold Glove winter with the New York Mets. We're gonna
learn more about Doug. I thought I knew everything there
was to know about you. But I mean we've traveled together,

(51:54):
worked together. But David Patrick, a former colleague of mine,
reached out to Doug. And you've now I ever met Doug,
as you know, a bigger Reds fan than David Patrick.
But David has heard your story in little bits and pieces,
but he decided it was worth a documentary. And you're
a guy who you enjoy talking baseball, but you're not

(52:14):
real keen on talking about yourself. But why did you
accept this offer from David who I know you've known forever.

Speaker 6 (52:23):
Well, I don't know if accepting the offer, but you
know I love David because I've known him for a
long time as you have. I've always appreciated in trusted
h When he said something, you know that it's facts.
And then he said, why don't we just sit down
let's talk a little bit. And I said, all right,
now you have to understand this has been like three

(52:43):
or four years ago when we did this, and so
I sat down and then all of a sudden I
forgot about it. I thought, well, I guess he's used
it on some of his TV shows or maybe down
at Moorhead where he is and then he calls me
said okay, he said, remember that little deal we did.
I said, yeah, well I've got it put together and

(53:03):
you're kidding and he said no, and he's so I
started sending me some pictures and he already had a
bunch of pictures and hook him up with Rick Walls
at the Hall of Fame in Cincinnati, and he got
a few more and he says, have you ever just
sat down? I said, David, people know my story pretty much.
He said, well, there's a lot that I don't know
about it. And so we basically started from the get

(53:23):
go and walked it all the way through. And you know,
I feel very very fortunate. I feel really humbled and
almost embarrassed a little bit that we're going to do
something like that. And you know, Kyt said they were
going to run it a couple of times over the
coming weeks.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
Sunday.

Speaker 6 (53:40):
Yeah, and I'm Saturday and Sunday and I'm going to
be up in Cincinnati with the Big Red Machine reunion.

Speaker 8 (53:46):
Uh so.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (53:48):
But David sent me a copy of it. I haven't
looked at it yet, but I'm trusting if he's excited
about it, then I'm gonna be excited.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
Well, he said, he showed you a rough draft and
you gave it the thumbs up.

Speaker 6 (53:57):
So well, he and I both looked at it. Yeah,
we look had it together and then at a restaurant
one time, so and I was sitting there laughing. He said,
what do you think? I said, that's pretty funny.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
But yeah, will air this Saturday one on w KYT
and Sunday on the c W Lexington at one o'clock.
Now you talk more than just baseball. You get into
some personal stuff and again I know that that can
be difficult for you.

Speaker 6 (54:24):
Yeah, something it can. I think we touched a little
bit on my sister's disappearance and then but we talk
a lot about my faith too, and you and I,
you know, we're buddies. We've talked about that a lot
and how important that has been, especially when you go
through tough stuff like that with my sister, and then
you know, my parents going this is we did all

(54:45):
this right before Mom and Daddy passed away, so you
know there's some things that have changed. But it just
kind of and I don't ever use that as an excuse,
but you know, when I got traded in seventy seven
at the same time that Melanie disappeared, and I went
to New York and every day with calling home to
see what was going on. Fighters at your every day

(55:08):
coming in. If you heard anythings, you know what's going on.
And it was just my career was almost over at
that point because I just was not handling it all
very well. And so it kind of gets into that
just a little bit.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
Also, your parents. One of the great things I thought,
because having lost my dad at a young age, I
had my mom for quite a while. But both your
parents were excellent athletes. You told me your mom might
have been the best one in the family. But the
fact that you could share all of this with your brother,
but with your parents, and you know how proud your
dad was as a former ballplayer himself. I've told you before.

(55:46):
My enduring memory of Bobby Flynn, and there are so many,
not just his multicolored jacket, was the night you were
inducted into Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame, and one of
the giveaways was a glass a tumbler with the names
of each inductee on it, and a lot of people
will leave the banquet and inadvertently leave him behind. Your
father collected every one of those glasses he could find. Uh,

(56:09):
I don't know if you if you even know where
they are right now, Doug, he must have had two
dozen of them as he wanted as he walked out
of that banquet hall. But he was so proud, and
he wore one of your World Series rings. And I
know you're a year so high, so proud to let
him do it.

Speaker 6 (56:26):
Oh. Well, you know, Dicky's gone Cincinnati so often that
when my first couple of years, Johnny Bench got a
name tag and put it on the locker for him.
So here, Bobby, you up here as much as and
Dad felt like, you know, pro game has changed so
much from when he was playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
He played one year in the minor league and then

(56:47):
all of a sudden you get to the big league. Well,
the security and all that stuff was so different for him.
But Dad felt like, hey, my son's here. I just
walked through the locker room. Go get a ball of
that whatever I wanted. Yeah, and uh so he finally
had to learn the proe a call, but it never
really faced him.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
If you do, Dad, he was you know, it's.

Speaker 6 (57:04):
Better to ask for forgiveness and permission so and he
had and I saw I saw him one day and
he was asking Johnny Bentrick, I need a hat Christmas. Bobby,
let me ask you guy. So I went home and
I said, Dad, what are you doing with all those hats?
And I looked around. I couldn't find the one. Well,
none of them are for him. He's always given idea. Yeah,

(57:25):
and that that pretty much was the way he was
his whole career. He loved to do things for other people.
And I used to think, you know, he just really
loved be around sport. I think he just really loved
bearing people.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
Oh yeah, yeah, And that's why he was great because
he was the sideline marshal at Rupp Arena and helped
media people find their seats and all that stuff. And uh,
he was great. Uh. I'll let you go with this.
With the the doc coming up, it's on Saturday one
on w d k YT and Sunday I had won
on the c W Doug Flynn, what do you hope

(57:57):
people take away? I know again, you don't seek out attention.
You've never met a stranger. I get a huge kick,
Doug out of when you and I and Dan Darren
and Coach Madison go to the visitors broadcast booths, and
inevitably one or both of them because their baseball nuts
know you know your career, they know the big red machine,

(58:19):
of course. But and you all start swapping stories and
I just melted into the wall and listen. But what
do you hope people take away from this?

Speaker 6 (58:29):
Well, you know, I got to thinking about that when
we were on TV those day with David. It's kind
of a cool little story, I think, And it's kind
of one of not giving up, but it's also one
of appreciating your blessings and the good things that do
happen to you along the way. And I think sometimes
we get to the point, or after we get to
a certain point, we forget about those little things that

(58:51):
helped us to get where we were. I think of
the coaches that I had that kept developing me, the
parents that supported me, the friends in this town that
were all always there pushing me and wishing me the
very best. And then a story of not giving up,
just keep learning how to hone your skills, doing something
that you love to do. In baseball was something because

(59:13):
as you know, I continued playing softball even after I've
an He's pro baseball. So I love that, but I
always kept trying to get a little bit better. And
you know, there's one percent of the game that makes
it strictly on their ability. The rather ninety nine percent
of us. We got to play hard every day just
to stay up there. And that was never That was
never something I minded doing, is getting that extra work in.

(59:37):
But I think, probably more than anything else gave. It's
just how blessed that I really feel, how humbled I
am after I look back and think why me?

Speaker 1 (59:45):
Why? And I love the fact that you like to
chat with the current players of Kentucky really anybody who
wants help. But I'm around you obviously in UK, and
you love talking to the players, especially infielders, about you know,
little improvements here and there, trying to help them appreciate

(01:00:06):
and get better right now instead of looking back saying, man,
I wish i'd known this back when, because you told
me before that we joke about, you know, the fact
that you were a bit of a light hitter, but
you never got any help with it in the pro ranks.
And you're giving it back even now, aren't you. Well.

Speaker 6 (01:00:25):
I see the size of these kids and the sheer
ability that they have. They're bigger than we were, they're
stronger than we were if they can just learn to
harness this in the right way. And they've got such
good instruction as well. The college game right now probably
is as good as instruction as you're gonna get anywhere
at pro balls, I mean, and they all pretty much

(01:00:45):
use the same techniques. But being able to identify where
someone needs help and then putting that into words, Yeah,
there's a you know, I saw a lot of pros
like myself sometimes, as you well know, I have a
lot of time articulating things.

Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
I got it up there, just don't come.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
Out right used articulate pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
Yeah, I got it written down here time what it
was on your hand.

Speaker 4 (01:01:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:01:09):
But I just I think when you see, don't blow
an opportunity here. Yeah, because if you make it now, Dick,
you don't need very long and your set for life. Yeah,
that's right, And it's a great life. It's a great life.
I'm here, we are fifty years later talking about you know,
the first world series that we want in seventy five,
and I'm thinking, wow, it's been fifty years. But I

(01:01:31):
have milked that sucker as much as you can.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
And I'm proud of you. Is Doug Flynn. Watch for
his story coming up. David Patrick produced it. It's on
Saturday one o'clock on WKYT and again on Sunday on
the c W lexingon a whole new appreciation for my
broadcast brother. Thank you, sir. I have a wonderful week.

Speaker 6 (01:01:53):
You're the best of my brother. Thank you. Gave seapout
and Lee K.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
Howard of WKYT is up next here on the Big
Mom's Side six point thirty WLAP Welcome back to the
Big Lewensider. Joined now on our celebrity Hot on the
Hem by a long time friend of the show, Lee K. Howard,
a sports anchor reporter for WKYT, my former stomping grounds.
And you know, Lee K, when I was setting this
up with you, I flashed back sitting here in my
garage remembering you were the first person who came over here.

(01:02:22):
You did a TV story for KYT. This was during
COVID when you were hurting for stories and you actually
try a story on the fact that I was here
in the garage doing my show. So media versus media,
but something to do, right.

Speaker 8 (01:02:38):
It was, you know, and at that time if you remember,
we were all trying to search for just things to
talk about, and you sitting in that garage with you
your record deck and whatever else on your ironing board
was kind of novelty. Now now now it's to become
kind of the norm for a lot of people working
from home or from the garage or whatever. So I'm
glad to see you pushed through all this time.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
Well it spoiled me. I mean, you know, you get
up and you got to go to work, get the
kids off, just go whatever and go to work. I
come down here, walk past the man cave, walk in
the garage, and I will tell you sadly the ironing
board has been retired. But because my kids gave me
a nice table for my gear, and gave me a
nice set of shelves, and my wife was switching out

(01:03:21):
desks upstairs, so I got a nice little command center now,
So you need to come back and maybe, just you know,
next time you're a guest on the show, you can
sit right here in front of me, because some folks
have made it to the garage. Now that you know,
COVID is not exactly a thing of the pass, but
we can we can speak face to face. But it
has been a while since we did that story, but

(01:03:41):
you have been, of course busy since then. And one
of the many, many many things you cover, of course
is Kentucky basketball, and we had an Ansley Almanor on
the show earlier today. He is now, as you know,
part of La Familla. And I really wondered about that
tournament when I first read about it. I thought, really,
it has really become a thing, hasn't it. It's been,

(01:04:03):
and it's great for you guys to have something to cover.

Speaker 8 (01:04:05):
In the summertime, right exactly. I mean selfishly, the timing
of it is perfect. But I think last year the
fan base as a whole was kind of captured in
almost a nostalgia of having so many of those guys
back and competing. And then you know, it got so
much better when it became a Kentucky Louisville thing and

(01:04:26):
the way that game played out, and it just it
was so much fun. And I've honestly been looking forward
to the tvt since last year a lot of those
same guys coming back, with the Harrison Twins and Willie
Caley Stein and a couple of them. But then I
think it's also great that they've learned a few things like, hey,
you need some pressure legs as well, because if you

(01:04:47):
think back, Nate Festino was probably their best player and
he was a younger guy. And so with them getting Annsley,
I think that's a great move because you've got a
guy who Chef's played college basketball. He can shoot threes obviously,
and you need three point shooting in this kind of
a tournament. And I think he's almost a perfect fit

(01:05:10):
for him and Kentucky. Really. You know, the TVT has
been around for a long time and Kentucky's never really
had a team because well mostly because a lot of
the UK alum went directly to the NBA or the
G League or we're trying to play. So now Anthony's
kind of a unique situation where you've got a guy
right out of college and he can provide some really
good minutes I'm sure for this team this summer.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
I also think you got to tip your captain Twane Beckham,
the former Wildcat who is the GM and made it
clear and they told us this during interviews last year.
You were there. This is not just a fun league thing.
You're going to work, you're gonna play. We want to
win that money. And they played that way, didn't they.
And I thought Beckham did a great job of putting
the roster together and then setting that tone, you know

(01:05:54):
what I mean.

Speaker 8 (01:05:55):
Yeah, twenty's great and he has kind of found a
Niche is kind of a business person in this situation
and you know he I know Tyler Eulis couldn't come
back this year. He got Sean Woods to be the coach,
who Sean was an assistant last year on that on
the La Familia team staff, and you know, you can
tell these guys want to win. And that's one thing
about it. I was a little bit concerned about going
into last year. Are they going to treat this kind

(01:06:18):
of like, oh, we're having fun, this is an All
Star game scrimmage, or are they going to treat it
like they have something to prove? And that was clear
from the first jump that like these guys, they're competitors
at heart, and when you put that amount of money
on the line too really give them something to shoot for.
Combining that with how good of a run they had
last year, I expect him to come back this year

(01:06:39):
in this summer and have even more of a drive
and you know, like I said, maybe they learned a
little bit from last year from like, Okay, what kind
of pieces do we need. Maybe we need some more
three point shooting, Maybe we need some younger guys as well.
I think they could use a few more post players.
And I think they're still you know, releasing players still
to come twenty in that group. But yeah, it's I

(01:07:01):
think that of all the schools, Kentucky has a real
shot at putting together a really, really good team that
could win at all.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
Well, and you remember last year, Cistina had to be
somewhere else, They got you know, other duty somewhere and
basically had to leave the team before the final four.
I think if he stays with him, you know, they
might have won that money. So yeah, if they can
keep that roster intact. But also I was so happy
for Sean as a regular on my show each week

(01:07:28):
because he wasn't certain last year if he could commit
to working with that team, and then he did, and
Tyler Eulis you could see if you were at the
game or watching on TV. Eulus really leaned on Sean
Woods to kind of run huddles during the game. Sean
has so much head coaching experience that I thought this

(01:07:48):
was a pretty.

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
Good fit, you know, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 8 (01:07:52):
I mean, Tyler clearly knows basketball, and he was, you know,
kind of a point guard coach even when he was
playing at Kentucky. But you're right, you hit that on
the head. Sean has the actual coaching experience, and there's
something that's a little bit different about knowing how to
coach guys than knowing the game, and both of them
know both. But Sean I think will excel in that

(01:08:14):
role now that he's the head coach of the team.
And you know, obviously, like you said, he worked with
a lot of these same guys last year, so they're
familiar with him and he's familiar with them. So I
think it's going to be a really good situation with Sean.
And plus, you know, with him being over there at
Scott County now he's around and probably can be committed
committed to something.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
Like this in the summer.

Speaker 1 (01:08:33):
Yeah, and he's told me he knows how to coach pros,
you know, as opposed to high school or college kids.
We're talking to Lee K. Howard, the weekend sports anchor
reporter for w k y T not Weekend Weeknight and
used to be the weekend guy. And Lee k is
a Southwest kind of guy. He's from New Mexico, went

(01:08:53):
to Clovis right right, went to West Texas State. And
as such, you know, and I like you anyway that
you're a Cowboys fan. But which NBA team do you
follow more than Mavericks or the Rockets or either one?

Speaker 8 (01:09:07):
So ironically enough, I wasn't much of a Mavericks fan
because we're terrible. When I was growing up in the
late eighties and early nineties, we would go there. I
remember going there when Michael Jordan and the Bulls came
to town. So like we would go there for other
games or other teams. Rather ironically enough, I grew up
an Indiana Pacers fan. Uh yeah, because my family I

(01:09:28):
had extended family from Indiana, So I went to several
Indiana Pacers games growing up, including a Knicks Pacers game
I remember in the nineties. So big fan of Reggie
Miller and Rick Smith, the Duncan Dutchman and Mark Jackson
and all that group. I say, ironically enough, because you're
going to be really blown away by who I was
cheering for in this NBA Finals, which was not really

(01:09:52):
the Pacers. I liked the Pacers quite a bit, but
I felt more connected to this thunder group just because of.

Speaker 1 (01:09:57):
Shay and as absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:10:00):
But yeah, so growing up, I.

Speaker 8 (01:10:03):
Guess I was more of a Pacers fan than anything.
But over time and as of age, I didn't really
have an allegiance to any one particular team. I followed
the Kentucky guys, to be honest with you. Yeah, so
this this particular series has been a lot of fun
for me, watching the team that I grew up liking
and cheering for and then a group of young guys

(01:10:24):
that played at Kentucky on Oklahoma City. You know, it
was kind of a win win for me.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
Yeah. Well, at least you've got Reed Shepherd still on
the rock. It's interesting that they made that huge trade
for Kevin Durant, but they held on to Reed Shepherd.
He was never on the trading block as I understand it,
so apparently he is one of the young building blocks.
But now he'll play alongside Kevin Durant. We're talking with
Lee K. Howard of WKY. He will come back and

(01:10:48):
talk to Kentucky Football on the other side of the
break here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're talking
with Lee K.

Speaker 5 (01:10:54):
Howard.

Speaker 1 (01:10:55):
He is a sports anchor reporter for wk YT. Covers
everything because when you work in local TV, you got
to be an expert on everything. But one of the
primary beats, of course is UK football. And you come
from football territory out there in West Texas and New Mexico,
and I know they love their basketball too, but it's interestingly, Kay,

(01:11:16):
I think watching this Kentucky football program which has grown
under Mark stops but as such, now expectations are so high.
The ceiling is higher, the floor is higher, and now
UK fans sound like football fans everywhere. You know, they
want it, and they want they know what they want.
They want it right now. This is a pivotal year,
isn't it.

Speaker 8 (01:11:36):
It really is. And I think the biggest difference that
I noticed this year going into this fall camp or
the summer, even as opposed to in years past and
recent past for Mark Soops is kind of people are
down on the football program and the expectations are much
lower for what the fan base feels like team can do. Now.
I don't know that's the case with the coaching staff

(01:11:56):
and the players. I'm sure they think that they can
be just as good as they've ever been. But I
think a lot of that is probably just the unknown.
They know themselves and they know their personnel a lot
better than what the fans do, just because there's been
so much turnover on the roster. It kind of feels
like after Stoops first got here and they won two
games for two consecutive seasons, and going into that third

(01:12:19):
season it was like, I don't know, I mean, we
haven't seen the results, so I think coming off it
almost feels like that year coming off of not going
to a bowl game. You know, it's a huge year
for Mark Stoops and his coaching staff. They've got to
put some results on the field. But as you said,
it's not easy, and that really has more to do

(01:12:40):
with the competition around the league as much as it
does the Jimmys and Joe's on the UK roster. I mean,
it's a combination of both. It doesn't make it easy,
but you're right, it is a huge year for Soups well.

Speaker 1 (01:12:52):
A combination of that, and then you know the competition
around the league that's about Jimmies and Joe's. Everybody has
players now, including Vanderbilt, which be Kentucky. As you know,
last year, and you know, we talked with you of
being a New Mexico native, and you know, they brought
in a QB and coordinators and somebody else from New
Mexico State. Kentucky's got a key alignment. Could be a

(01:13:16):
key alignment from New Mexico State, which is not known
for great football league as you well know, what do
you make of that?

Speaker 8 (01:13:23):
Well, I think it speaks to a little bit of
a transfer portal when you've got a guy like a
bandy like Diego Pavia quarterback who you mentioned he played
at New Mexico Military Institute, which is a very small
junior college in New Mexico. You know, we always talked
about the negatives of a transfer portal the positives as
a kid that played there can make his way into
the SEC and be the darling of the country for

(01:13:43):
a couple weeks of the year, you know what I mean.
So I think guys that maybe started the program like
New Mexico or you know, name your other state can
find their way to the big time. So that's that's
kind of kids using the transfer portal correctly to elevate
their game and elevate their status and everything like that.
So I think that's probably more than anything, but you're

(01:14:06):
right now. I think it evens the playing field a
little bit more, not just in the SEC, but in
college football. You've got your Georgia's and some of your
elite programs, but everybody else doesn't have to be that
far behind. And I think one thing that we saw
last year is if you go after the wrong guys
or miss in the transfer portal, your season is tanked.

(01:14:30):
Now the good news about that is you can try
again the next year. And I think that's what Stoops
and the team have done. They've gone in and gone
all right, we've got thirty three new players or whatever
it is coming in this year in the transfer portal.
They've been really active in the recruiting cycle this past week,
past couple of weeks actually bringing in guys for twenty
twenty six. And you can have a bad year and

(01:14:53):
follow that up with a good season, and so I
think that's what this Kentucky coaching staff is hoping that
they can do this next year.

Speaker 1 (01:15:00):
Now with the portal door spinning, you've got another quarterback
who probably will start in Zach Calzada, who has Texas
roots in in Carnin word in San Antonio and then
we've stop at Auburn, but at Texas A and m
uh so yeah, coming from your old stomping grounds out west.

Speaker 6 (01:15:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:15:20):
The thing I like about Calzada is and this is
not a knock on Brock Bandergriff, but Brock was a
great you know he was. He was a career backup essentially,
didn't have a lot of experience. He got into some
games at Georgia. But right, but but Calzada comes in
as the guy who's played a lot of minutes. And
so if I'm trying to spin it and think of

(01:15:41):
a positive for Calzada, who's I think forty five years old,
it is. It is that he's played a lot of
college football and in the SEC you know, when Jimbo
Fisher beat Nick Saban, you know Texas A and m
over Alabama, he was the quarterback that led the Aggies
to that win. And he's played meaningful games, meaningful minutes,

(01:16:03):
and so nothing is going to overwhelm him. And so
I think that's going to be a big thing. He's
going to go in as confident as anybody on the field,
you know, his team and the other team included. So
I do like that as a mature quarterback going into it.
That he's the kind of guy who's not going to
be intimidated by the moment. Now, how does he fit
with all the rest of the guys around him. I mean,

(01:16:25):
that's still to be seen, but I think it's a
good swing for this coaching staff because you've got a
guy like Cutter Bowlie sitting right there that you can
ideally learn for one more season. You only kind of
needed a rental. I mean, I hate to call him that.
I don't mean, I don't mean that as a you know,
as a negative, but you kind of needed someone to
fill a gap. And so maybe Kalzada is that guy.

(01:16:47):
You work in Cutter sparingly as you go, and you
get him ready for the following season.

Speaker 1 (01:16:52):
Yeah. I've talked about it a lot this summer, Lee
k with this revolving door because you know, as you
well know it, Drew Barker was supposed to be the answer,
and through no fault of his own, he gets hurt.
And now Kentucky's got to start plugging in temporary quarterbacks
and some have played more than one season and played
really well. But I wonder if Cutter Bully and you

(01:17:14):
covered his high school career at least the one year
here in Lexington. You know, could he be the guy
who at some point seeses the job and plays more
than one year as a starter, you know what I mean?

Speaker 6 (01:17:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:17:26):
And I think ideally, I mean, the college football world's
a little bit different now because guys transfer so often.
But I think your ideal situation is you have your
top quarterback come in, they sit for two years. By
the time they're junior or senior there in there and
they're playing. That was always Mike Leech's thing at Texas
Tech when I was there covering his teams in Lubbock.

(01:17:49):
He always wanted a guy to come in fit for
two years and take over the program and play two years. Now,
like I said, a lot of things have changed. Players
that get buried even one spot on the depth chart
leave because they don't want to sit around. But I
don't think it's a terrible thing. And Cutter has his
head on his shoulders correctly. I mean, he's a good kid.

(01:18:10):
I think that they are assuring him of the talent
that they believe that he has, and we've seen flashes
of it, so I absolutely think that, especially if you
kind of just work him in here and there this
year in spots and give him opportunities that he's the
guy going forward for this program. You know, I will

(01:18:33):
say they've they've got it. They've got a pretty deep
quarterback room, which is something that you've got to have.
Also just says injuries and things like that. I don't
want to see Cutter come in because of injury, but
I think that he knows his role on this team.
He's going to compete and they're going to say he's
competing for the job as well. You know, but I
think that's kind of the ideal situation for Cutter going

(01:18:55):
into year two.

Speaker 1 (01:18:56):
He is Lee K. Howard. You can see him on
WKYT and follow him on Twitter at Howard WKYT. Thank
you sir, all right, thank you da. That'll do it
for now, Thanks to my guest Lee K. Howard, Angeley
Almanor and my man Dougs Lynn. And remember the documentary
by produced by David Patrick, coming up Saturday on WKYT
at one o'clock and again on Sunday that we are

(01:19:16):
on the c W lexing and again at one o'clock.
You don't want to miss that and we'll talk about
him more throughout the week. I am sure. So that'll
do it for now. Thank you so much. That's it.
Good night from the garage in Lexing movie Quaranteed praaves tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:19:30):
But the fight is mine.

Speaker 1 (01:19:31):
Oh I don't say yes, stupid.

Speaker 5 (01:19:34):
You've got the arms left, Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:19:36):
I have look just a fish wool.

Speaker 7 (01:20:00):
The tactic dippen so doing can anything to anything? One

(01:20:27):
sat stack that shack from tap its Unpat Dottumatmo

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}2025-06-23 - BBI