2025-07-08 - BBI

Steve Spurrier with another swipe at UK fans; (15:00) the WNBA needs to prep its players better when it comes to media; (19:00) Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com on why expanding the NCAA men's basketball tournament is pointless; (39:00) sportswriter/author John Huang on Marrow's defection and the upcoming football season; (59:00) adjusted way-too-soon pre-season basketball Top 25; (1:01:00) where does UK fit into top college football rivalries? and the ever-popular Q: "Who's on first?"

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Big Blue and sider Dick Gabriel with
you on a Tuesday edition of our show fifty three
days away from UK Football. Thank you Corey Price. He
posts every day on Twitter or x with a picture
of a UK player and the corresponding jersey number. And
when it gets into the fifties, I will start to
share some of the information that I posted for a

(00:24):
few years on the WKYT and back when we had
a website at a Big Blue Insider, information about the
corresponding numbers as they related to the countdown of the
college football season. Corey started at one hundred, I started
at fifty and moved on from there. A lot of
interesting info background if you will, to help you enjoy

(00:45):
college football as though you really needed. You may need
some help this year with Kentucky, of course, but it's
not far away and fans already are bracing themselves for
what could be. Probably will be up and down. You
definitely will be up and down here. This is the
question is how many downs and how many ups? Well,

(01:05):
there is one Vegas outfit that recently a writer quoted
on Twitter as saying that Kentucky and this seems from
what I understand kind of standard the over an unders
four and a half wins that the betting line you
either go under the Wildcats will win four games or fewer,

(01:26):
or five games or more. I have said, Kentucky I
think will win at least six. Now that's kind of
going through blue colored glasses. I'm assuming, and it's dangerous
to do this, that the old line will be better.
And I have to admit that I was influenced, if

(01:47):
you will, I won't say convinced, but influenced by what
I watched the other day on Kentucky Takeover Day on
the SEC Network. Of course it capped off the day,
and usually he does if it's possible for each team
with a big win over football, all football drives the bus.
We know this, and last year for Kentucky the only

(02:11):
real bright spot for the Wildcats other than a one
point loss to Georgia a controversial one at that. Remember
Mark Stoop's choosing to punt when he might have gone
for it and things like that, and Georgia, which played,
you know like it wasn't really interested, but hey, that's

(02:31):
on Georgia. You know, people kind of blew that off.
That Kentucky effort a Georgia wasn't really trying. I guarantee
you they were trying as the game went on. They
just weren't ready mentally or emotionally to play. And Kentucky
nearly took advantage and then went and beat Ole Miss,
beat Ole Miss in Oxford and didn't play perfectly. Didn't

(02:54):
have a lot of things go well for the Wildcats
except for you know, two or three plays, which is
what happened when you pull an upset. But that's how
it works when you stay close, and Kentucky did that
by overcoming its own mistakes and taking advantage of Old
Miss mistakes. A lot of penalties by the Rebels in
that game. Remember, Kentucky played a cleaner game in terms

(03:18):
of penalties than did the Rebels. Now, Kentucky's O line,
which at times protected well opened up holes, looked like
a good SEC line at times was terrible, as it
was for much of the year, and gave up five
or six sacks, Rock Vandergriff running for his life, although

(03:38):
he did run the ball well early. In fact, Greg
McElroy made a point of that on the broadcast. Bush
handn I thought called a really good game, and it
looked that way because Kentucky at times executed well, but
some of those calls or quarterback runs, and Vandergriff did
it well and got some key first downs. But then

(04:00):
you had real breaks for the Wildcats. You had a
couple of penalties that were rightly called, at least two
of them against Dane Key. Ole miss beat him up
all day long, double team, held him, pushed him, interfered
with him, and the Wildcat's got some calls that they deserved.
Near the goal line, there was an old misdefensive back

(04:20):
on a huge third downplay incomplete pass. Everybody celebrates, now
here comes a flag. What well the replay showed the
defensive back had pinned one of Dane Key's right arm
to his side, holding him. He went up nearly made
to catch one handed, and they got the call for interference,
end up scoring. So stuff like that happens. You had

(04:44):
the long bomb to Burrion Brown, you know, a gamble,
a well executed throw and catch on fourth down. Brown
makes the catch, runs it into the red zone. Then
the biggest break of the game, Gavin wimsit. The running
quarterback fumbles at the two yard line and there's Josh

(05:08):
Kattis to grab it. And fall into the end zone
for what turned out to be the game winning touchdown.
But remember I had forgotten about this. Josh Kattis had
a huge drop at a crucial venture, crucial point in
that game, so bad that they got a couple of
close shots to him just to show the agony and

(05:31):
frustration on his face. He was so wide open on
a big third down place, so he makes up for it.
But that's what a team. I won't say a good team,
because Kentucky wasn't good last year obviously, but what a
team that is playing well. That's playing good football. That's
how it works. Yeah, if you make mistakes, you make
up for it with good plays. And ole Miss was ready.

(05:55):
Ole Miss got off to a good start. It's not
like they took Kentucky lightly. They couldn't have because they
were undefeated Top ten Kentucky coming off the near Missover
Georgia full House Overflowing House. The SEC pregame show was
right next door in the grove, and Kentucky pulled off

(06:16):
a huge upset there. I can't even remember what game
it was. Later in the day that was an even
bigger upset. They kind of moved Kentucky off the top
run when it came to the highlights on the national shows.
But Cats are right up there, of course, because when
a top ten team loses to an unranked team, that's huge.
And it's Kentucky's first win on the road against the

(06:40):
top ten teams since nineteen seventy eight. So we've got
football coming at us. We've got the talking season officially
kicking off next week with SEC Media Days. And you
may have seen this. Mark Story retweeted it. It was
a comment from a podcast down in Gainesville, and Mark

(07:02):
retweeted it. But whoever initially tweeted it made reference to
the fact and this was erroneous because I went back,
I've got it for you. I'm going to play it
for you. The initial report was that UK fans were
making light of the factor or gigging Auburn fans because
of a recruit that flipped from Auburn to Kentucky, and

(07:25):
the old ball coach Steve Spurrier had something to say
about it about Kentucky fans. It wasn't about recruiting. Here's
Pat Dooley off another duly noted podcast, which you can find,
of course on the UNI web. He is a Gainesville
based sportswriter, longtime coverage of the Florida Gators. Here he

(07:46):
is with his guest Steve Spurrier.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Kentucky fans are pointing out that their coach doesn't play golf,
so I'm Kentucky.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah, or they don't have a.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Lot of whims to brag about right now.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yeah, it's immaterial.

Speaker 4 (07:59):
If you're that, they'll find something you should ride better,
exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
And I don't know if that's accurate. Well, I know
it's not accurate when they say Mark Stroops doesn't play golf. Yes,
he does play golf, And Duley and Spurrier were talking
about the fact that I don't know if he still
do this because I haven't been down for SEC media
days in their entirety. Well, I did go last year
to Dallas, and I can't recall if midweek they had

(08:25):
a golf round for the media. They used to do
that regularly. But Mark Stroops does indeed play golf. So
but there it goes the old ball coach again trying
to get Kentucky fans. You know he did that when
he was the head coach. Most of that directed at
Bill Curry because Curry, when he took over a Georgia
Tech did not retain young Steve Spurrier as the offensive coordinator.

(08:49):
So Spurrier got it. Every time he got the chance,
he'd run up the score on Bill Curry. And he
got the chance more than once, didn't he So when
he can take a shot at Kentucky fans, he does it,
and unfortunately for Wildcat fans, they just have to sit
back and take it because it wasn't until Spurrier got
to South Carolina that Kentucky finally beat the visor. Now,

(09:12):
when it comes to Kentucky fans, I'm not the first
person to say this, but they are very similar to
fans of other powerhouse programs such as the New York Yankees.
And Yankee fans are in and uproar right now because
the Yankees have been struggling over the last three weeks.
For a while there, it looked like they were going

(09:35):
to steam roll their way to the World Series and
this time win it. Remember they lost it last year,
but it looked like they were going to just destroy everybody. Well,
they have been struggling of late. Not Aaron Judge, but
and as our buddy Aaron Gershan has pointed out things
have not been going well of late, but that's baseball.

(09:55):
It's a long season. Now. Of course, they're in the
media capital world, especially when it comes to sports. And
a guy named Michael Kay is the TV play by
play broadcaster of the Yankees and the host of Center
Stage on the Yes Network as well as the Michael
Okay Show heard on ESPN New York WHSQ. And he

(10:19):
is hard on the Yankees. Now. You know, people always
want to point fingers at announcers for being two partisan
towards their teams at all. Michael O. Kay is tough
on the Yankees. But you can't survive in a market
like that, in a huge market like that, if a
team is struggling and try to paint the picture that
everything's rosy. Now, you can't do that. And Michael Kay

(10:42):
has been tough on the Yankees through the years, but
he's tough right here on Yankee fans, a lot of
whom I think they're probably the squeaky wheel, the loud minority,
who are demanding that the manager of the fire, the
general manager of be fired. Ian cashman who grew up
here election and trades here and there. And Michael Kay

(11:05):
went after him on his show last night.

Speaker 4 (11:07):
What are you trading? What are you rebuilding for? You're
three games out of first place, so you think that
what's happened over the last week is indicative of how
they're going to be for the rest of the year.
I don't see that. I don't see it. There are
moves to be made. Brian Cashman does make moves at
the trade deadline. I got jass Chisholm last year, and
what did that do? That ignited them and they got
to the World Series. And I love, by the way

(11:31):
Yankee fans that say, oh, they should be rebuilt, they
should rebuild, reload. Really, you couldn't take losing in the
World Series. You went to the World Series last year,
and now you've had a bad three week stretch and
you want the manager in GM fired and you want
to reload, and you're gonna be able to handle that.
You can't handle losing in the World Series. Imagine finishing

(11:54):
last in the American League East. Imagine some people need
their head screwed on a little bit better.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
That's Michael Kay on ESPN New York and again it
reminded me a little bit of a strain. Not all
of you, but a strain of Kentucky fans who will
hit the panic button. I want to hit the eject
button immediately. And I will tell you this, I wish
I had saved it. But I saw a tweet after

(12:24):
one of Kentucky's first losses last year from a guy
looked at this profile a Kentucky fan, and he demanded
the firinger Mark Pope, right now. Get rid of him.
Get rid of him while you can. Don't wait, don't
wait until it's too late. Get rid of him now.

(12:45):
And this, of course was in the wake of a
lot of people who even Kentucky fans, who questioned the
hiring of Mark Pope. And it's easy to look back
and say, yeah, I told you so, knew he was
going to be good. No, I don't know how many
people thought that they would see what they say this
past year. And remember, you got to mix in some
disappointing losses this past year, some of which had to

(13:09):
do with injuries. You know, when we talked about what
to expect from the basketball Wildcats, I don't recall many
people myself included saying now, they got to stay healthy.
But once Lamont Butler got hurt and Jackson Robinson. They
were managing with his injuries him in and out of

(13:29):
the lineup, but combined that and Andrew Carr's injury, they
were able to get through some of that. But when
Lamont Butler started to struggle with injury, things really got
a little hairy for the Wildcats. Had they stayed healthy,
were they won one more game in the tournament, who

(13:49):
knows they would have won more. I think regular season games,
maybe gotten a better seed in the nca tournament. I
think that's a definite. But that was just interesting to
me to here Michael Kay taking fans to task, and
it reminded me of some Kentucky fans. And I'm not
painting everybody for the same brush, And I'm certain you

(14:11):
can say the same thing about Dodger fans and Laker
fans and Texas fans. When things go wrong, people get
nervous real quickly. Speaking of things going wrong, we're gonna
talk stay with us now on the other side of
the break about the WNBA. We've talked about it on

(14:32):
the show here about how ridiculous this nonsense. But Caitlin
Clark and the people coming after her, and the lions
and the sand being drawn and things like that. That's
coming up next. A little bit later on, we'll chat
with Matt Norlander of cbssports dot com. He has taken
up the banner. He's not the first to do it,

(14:53):
and he's been doing it against this stupid idea of
expanding the NCAVE basketball tournament. That's coming up on the
Big Bloon Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the
Big Bloon Sider. Coming up at a couple of minutes
Matt Norlander of cbssports dot com. He breaks down exactly why,
at least in his opinion and their solid opinions if

(15:15):
you ask me, it is a bad idea and really
no need to expand the NCAA tournament. So we'll talk
about that, but first a couple of other basketball notes.
La fora mea good News has secured the number two
spot in the tournament's home court advantage. In other words,

(15:36):
la fa meya. That's primarily the UK team will play
every game at home unless they got to play Louisville
in the quarterfinals, which is what happened last year. However,
as you know, so many of the fans in that
arena over they played at Freedom Hall or Kentucky fans,

(15:56):
and I maintained that's why Louisville wins the tickets selling competition.
It's all up to who sells the most tickets, and
I think it's a good idea. Sell the most tickets,
you get to host the most games. Well, a lot
of Kentucky fans in Jefferson County and around there buy
tickets so they can watch games close to home. So

(16:18):
almost by default, and this is not a knock on
on the Louisville based team, but almost by default, they
win that competition. But that's okay because there will be
walk up there will be a lot of Kentucky fans
UK fans at those games. But you got to win
to get there, and I believe this team will. I
mentioned the WNBA and Christine Brennan, who is an outstanding

(16:43):
sports writer. You see her on television. You know, whether
you agree with everything she writes or not, she is
an outstanding writer and journalist. She's written a book about
the WNBA. There was controversy surrounding her and her reporting
last September when there was yet another dust up involving

(17:06):
a player from the Connecticut team. Did John I. Carrington,
who kind of swatted Christine Brennan's word at Caitlin Clark
got her in the eye. Well, Brennan after the game
asked the player about it and said to Johnny, did
you when you kind of swatted at Caitlin did you
intend to hit her in the eye? And if so,

(17:27):
could you just or if not? Either way, could you
talk about what happened on that play? Players got upset,
media people got upset. How could she ask that question?
And in fact, I want to Bonner walked up later
to Brennan and said, you disrespected my teammate. You attacked

(17:48):
my teammate over and over, would not introduce herself, would
not shake her hand, just set it over and over
and walked off. Brennan said she would ask the question,
and rightly so one hundred times out of one hundred.
And I agree with her. Now, the wording was a
little clumsy, but you have to ask that question if

(18:10):
you're a journalist covering the sport, covering the game. And
she writes about it in her book, but she also
quotes a WNBA officialist saying, unfortunately, most of our players
have zero idea what real media exposure is. They don't
know what real coverage is they've been shielded at college,
then they come to the WNBA not knowing what real

(18:34):
questions are. Frankly, they just don't get it. The WNBA
needs to do a much better job, obviously, of prepping
its players. If you want the attention, if you want
the media coverage and everything that comes with it, players
have to be better prepared because they're not prepared in

(18:54):
college playing women's basketball game and frankly, at a lot
of places men's basketball they aren't there ar Kentucky because
there's so much media, but not in women's basketball. With
all due respect, We'll come back and talk to Matt Norlander.
They're trying to expand the NCAA tournament and he is
a columnist with cbssports dot com. He has dead said

(19:14):
against it. Back in a minute six thirty WLAP, welcome
back to the Big Blue and Sider joining us now
on our celebrity hotline. Guy who's new to the show.
I've quoted his work more than once. I'm a big
fan of Matt Norlander of cbssports dot com and he
covers a lot of different things. He is a senior writer, analyst,
and a podcast host and Matt the reason I reached out.

(19:37):
As I told you in my text message, you are
doing God's work and throwing yourself in front of the
notion that the NCAA tournament should be expanded. I've been
banging on this drum ever since I heard about the potential.
So of you, a guy who's a frequent guest of
my show, Mike, the course he has this is just nuts,

(19:59):
isn't it.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah, thanks for having me on. I actually texted with
the course on Monday. I said, we might need you
to throw one more one more sallo too, So maybe
maybe he's got time to fire off one more columns
who because we should have some sort of decision in
some sorts I think this week. But yeah, listen, you know,

(20:22):
broadly speaking, this topic of na tournament expansion has been
a discussion, a sporadic one, any regular one, but nonetheless
a looming presence in college athletics for more than three
years at this point, and if people are wondering why
we're here. There was a commission on college Sports that

(20:43):
was formed by the former Well It was asked to
be formed by the former president of the WA Mark Emmert.
This was requested in twenty twenty one, it was eventually
built out, and then over the course of more than
a year, really close to two years, a bunch of
people from around college athletics looked at a ton of
different things with the ncivil A and Okay, how can
we make the enterprise better? What's working, what isn't. How

(21:04):
are we going to prepare for the potential that we
might have to pay our student athletes, which is now
obviously a reality that has arrived. And within all of that,
one of the recommendations was that every NCAA Division one
sport examine its championships. All right, are the teams involved? Number?
Is it good? What's the qualifications? And so from that,

(21:25):
one of the recommendations was for every sport to explore
It wasn't a mandate, but it was to explore the
potential to alter the size of its championship fields by
as much as I don't have it in front of
me that it was either twenty or twenty two percent
of its population, so to speak. So in college basketball
that number could have been as high as ninety actually

(21:46):
at its maximum, which was never on the table. I
remember when this story first, you know, started to emerge
a couple of years ago, there were a number of
people that thought that you know, the greediest among us
would get their way and that the tournament would expand
in ninety six or ninety and I kept saying, it's
just not that's not going to happen. There are many

(22:07):
reasons why it won't get to that point, but we're
never going to get to that kind of level and
we aren't. And then last year, a little more than
a year ago, the decision was made that the tournament
would either be sixty eight, seventy two or seventy six teams.
And so now for about thirteen months, powers that be

(22:28):
with Indian Soblea have been looking at this the feasibility
and yeah, there's no need for the tournament to expand.
Obviously this is expansion is a very unpopular idea. The
reason why it's still out there is that you have
conference commissioners, you have in some cases at university presence

(22:49):
I guess, but you have athletic directors and obviously coaches
who they just want more bids, they want more opportunity,
they want to get in and they are not looking
at it from as from a viewpoint of the greater
good at the sport which is if you have a
sixty eight team tournament, that is that's sixty four is perfect.
That's fine, We'll live with sixty eight. It's more than enough.
You get every conference represented, you have everyone that has

(23:10):
a chance to qualify for the tournament through automatic bids
through conference tournaments. The setups i wrote in my column
for Monday, is a unique one in American sports. And
it is just big enough to include a lot of teams,
but still just quite competitive enough that the final couple
weeks of the regular season really do bring urgency value.

(23:31):
And in the difference i'll shut up here in thirteen seconds,
the difference between that the last that large team in
the sixty eight team field and the last a large
team in the seventy sixteen field, it actually is fairly draftic.
There's never been a year in which the selection committee
building out a field of sixty eight has had a

(23:51):
seventy six team roster of candidates to get in. They're
not teams that are good enough to qualify for national championship.
So long winded, but that's kind of where we are, why.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
We are here now, and you are so if there
are levels of accuracy, ye're so on the money. One
of my arguments is, you know, if you add more teams,
you're adding more mediocrity, and you're getting more mediocre games.
You know, there's so many ways this doesn't make sense.
And you crunch numbers and there's a link to your
information on your Twitter page about the fact that, yes,

(24:26):
more schools are playing D one basketball now, But that's
not a good argument for adding teams, right, correct.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
So I have a two part argument to this. The
first one I hadn't heard anyone say in the past
three years, and that is the size of Division one
is irrelevant. That entertains to how big the tournament is.
I you know, while you know Division one was never
this small. If Division one was only one hundred teams
in nineteen eighty five, when they went to sixty four
and well over half of the Division one got, it doesn't matter.

(24:56):
It's the size of the tournament. Sixty four is the
perfect number. It's perfectly symmetrical, and for a national basketball
tournament across forty nine states, Alaska being the only one
without a Division one institution, sixty four has always been
the perfect number. It's never been how big sixty four
is in relation to the size of Division one overall.
So there have been ninety one schools that have joined

(25:16):
Division one since the tournament went to sixty four teams
in nineteen eighty five. And there has been the other
part of the argument here on the behalf of expansion lobbyists,
low as their number may be, but influential nonetheless they
as they are still is that those conferences are looking
for increased access for teams that they think are willing

(25:41):
and deserving of having a chance to crack in. And
they use examples like UCLA getting into the first four
and twenty twenty one and making it to the final four. Well,
if a UCLA can get in that year and make
it all the way, like, who's to say the eleventh
best team in this league shouldn't be able to do it.
But the access argument is not, doesn't the hold wire
man Ninety one schools have joined D one since nineteen

(26:03):
eighty five, only one school out of more than fourteen
hundred at large bids. I'm not talking the automatic invites.
I'm talking to the teams that if you don't win
your conference tournament, you get in that large bid. There's
been more than fourteen hundred of those handed out only
once in forty years at the school new to D
one since eighty five gotten that large. It was the

(26:23):
twenty nineteen UCF team. UCF went D one after eighty five,
that's it. And then even beyond that, the schools. So
the argument is, okay, D one was smaller when eighty five,
when we have to sixty fourteen, now we have so
many more teams competing to get into the tournament. All
those teams that have been added to the pool are
still competing for the same exact bids. They're not taking
any at large bids away from the power conferences from

(26:45):
the big boys, from the high majors. Just isn't happening.
So it's a false argument on its surface. And even
beyond that, those teams, those schools that have made the tournament,
only two of them haven't reached at least of sweet sixteen.
That's sau to the final four awesome Cinerella story two
years ago an FGCU Dunk City back in twenty thirteen,
it was the first fifteen to make the Sweet sixteen.

(27:07):
And then beyond that, all every single team that joined
D one since eighty five, every single one. They have
won nineteen total games in the round of sixty four
beyond nineteen total lot of more than twenty two hundred.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
It is.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
The idea that these schools, this expansion of Division one
has affected the access for high majors is complete nonsense,
and even beyond that, you can read the story at
cvsports dot com. The Power Conferences have accounted for essentially
eighty three percent of all at large bids over the
past ten tournaments period. So if we just went to

(27:42):
recent history and said, okay, what are the SEC, Big ten,
Big twelve, ACC, Big East, Pax twelve, how much have
they gotten for themselves, Well, it's more of them. It's
more than four of every five bids in the past
ten years alone. So their opportunities have only increased as
of late, and there's no real lot to suggest that
they deserve more.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Playing devil's advocate, what about the argument that take fewer
of the teams from the middle of you know, the
eight and eight teams from the Power five or Power
four conferences, and maybe give more bids to those you know,
mid major so called conferences, that we might see things

(28:21):
level out a little bit. Do you buy that?

Speaker 2 (28:24):
So if your devil's advocate is like Okay, let's say
we go to the seventy two or seventy six and
in that scenario, would we have more teams from outside
the Power Conference crutch structure actually wind up getting invitations
to the NAA tournament. My answer to that is, yes,
that would happen. The question is how many would it be?
What would we get on average there? If let's say
we went to a seventy sixteen tournament, which unfortunately I

(28:46):
do think is on the table. I think it's a
very very real possibility. I would say, on average you'd
get I would be optimistic to think that three out
of those bonus eight bids would go to schools outside
what's now the Power five, because the new PAC twelve
isn't really going to be a power conference, so you'd
have to throw the PAC twelve in along with your

(29:06):
Missouri Valleys, your max your Ohio Valleys, your Sun Belts,
your Big South. Like I say, three out of those
eighth so would they be more represented? Sure? Is that
worth it for the expense of a diluted tournament? It's not.
And then the other thing that I try and bring
up every so often, and I hint at it in
the column, I actually think this does matter. I think

(29:27):
the visual presentation of what a bracket looks like when
you show it on a television screen, in a newspaper,
on a printed out piece of paper, the symmetrical nature
of it. You know, there are so many people that
only watch college basketball. When the Antella Tournament starts, they
see the bracket, they throw in ten bucks to join
their friends pool, their bosses pool, their coworker's pool, whatever. Right,
And it's very simple to understand. And the idea that

(29:49):
if you went to seventy six and now you'd have
these weird appendages, how does that format on a page?
Do you actually affect some of the entry level interest
with some people when it comes to this, It's not
like the tournament's going to die. It's not even gonna
come close to that. People are just still gonna watch
the games. But you are going to remove some of
the natural appeal and beauty of the bracket by doing that.

(30:11):
And so, you know, I wrote the column one because
I wanted to write it too, but I had had
some of this data in my back pocket for a
while and it was time to finally put it out there.
But I also hope that you know, some of this
spirit and some of this stuff can be in the
room this week. You know, as we speak right now
this very moment in Savannah, Georgia and some hotel ballroom
or something, the selection committee and select members of the
n so LA staff are there and they're talking about

(30:32):
a whole bunch of stuff. I mean, you know, the
n SOLA Tournament expansion conversation is going to be the
most important thing. It might take up the most time,
but they've got, you know, they've got like nearly a
dozen agenda items that they're talking about. I don't think
the expansion stuff is going to be dug into until
probably tomorrow, I think. But hopefully this stuff will you know,
be brought up and people take real care, real consideration,
because no one's really asking for tournament expansion. This is

(30:54):
only being done because they're agreed by commissioners and under
the what I think is a false threat that maybe
someday one day, yeah, the good power conferences could break
away and start their own tournament instead. I maintain that
is not going to happen. The threat of the actual
action of taking undertaking that kind of evacuation of one
of the most beloved American institutions would would create maybe

(31:16):
a downright mutiny, and I just don't think that threat
should be the same triggers or pressure as any sort
of expansion of the tournament.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
We're talking with Matt Norlanders, senior writer, analysts podcaster for
CBS sports dot Com. More a minute on the Big
Bloin Sider six thirty WLAP talking to Matt Norlanders, senior writer,
analysts and podcaster for cbssports dot Com, who is quite
passionate about as am I as are a lot of
people about the fact that they're about to screw up

(31:45):
or it looks like the NCA tournament at least the
vote going on, as he said down in Savannah, Georgia,
I like, I agree with you. I don't think they're
going to kill the Golden Goose. But mediocre games matter
to viewers, and I always direct my listeners to the
fact that, yeah, we like Cinderellas in those first couple

(32:07):
of weekends. Maybe maybe just in that first weekend alone,
But when George Mason made it to the final four,
that was an six with Florida, UCLA and LSU, four
schools that traditionally did not draw a lot of attention.
When it came to college basketball and the ratings were abysmal.

(32:28):
They were down twenty five percent from the year prior.
So that matters to people, does it not?

Speaker 2 (32:35):
To a certain extent, Yes, But those stories also resonate
and help tell the story of the tournament as the
years go on. So like kind of an option of
your point here, George Mason is like, people don't remember
that the two thousand and six Final Four might have
been very poorly rated, like no one you remember it,

(32:57):
like and TV people might remember it, but for the
most part, like that that kind of stuff that dies
off really quickly, people do remember George Mason made the
Final four, and that is part of that. Like, that's
one of the ten most significant stories in the history
of the NCAA tournament. It was the first mid major
to ever break through and really was the first of
you know, we've had I think seven mid majors since
then make the Final four. It's been it's been mighty impressive.

(33:19):
But yet there is a The magic of the tournament
is that you have Cinderella potential and it pops up yep,
fairly regularly. You can make an argument that maybe we're
at risk of having some of that being reduced in
this next phase. We had none of it in this
past tournament. But you know, we're two years remove from
FAU making the final four in SBSU in the title game,
so let's not overreact too much there. And the balance

(33:41):
between these power conferences, these big name schools and these
little places that you're like, I hadn't thought about that
school since the last time I saw them in the
tournament thirteen years ago. You know, there's it's the perfect balance.
Sixty eight really is. It's the perfect ballance of enough
power conference opportunity and representation and then the small all
schools that get their automatic bids from you know, towns

(34:03):
that house seventy thousand people and they get their chance
on the national stage. It is perfect as sixty four.
So we no longer have a perfect American sporting event,
but sixty eight is about as close to perfect as
you can get. It owns the month and again you
have the conference tournaments. My last point on this, and
I just want to hammer out when you have your

(34:24):
conference tournaments the week before, Okay, so you really do
have basically once we flip the calendar to March, you
have a three hundred and sixty teen national Tournament. What's
happening here is that everyone had a chance to qualify
for their conference tournament that then gets the automatic bid
into the NSAA tournament. So if you're looking for an
expanded tournament, we've always always had one, and just in

(34:45):
a different kind of form. That blends the best of
both worlds. That brings relevance, that brings urgency, real meaning
to those games at the power conference level, and a
team that might be nineteen to eleven fighting to get
into the tournament. Now, I just shudder to think about,
like think about like North Carolina last season and how
uninspiring they were. They had one quad one win and

(35:05):
they still got in and six in a seventy sixteen tournament.
That North Carolina team that was constantly criticized, really tough
to watch at times. That team's in with ease, there's
there's there's no sweat whatsoever. And so if you think
about Carolina getting in as a sixty eighth team, think
about how poor the seventy six team would be. You know,

(35:26):
I can't even give you what team that was because
there wasn't there weren't you know, eight additional teams that
were near the cut line last season. That's uh, that's
what we're looking at, and that's not that's not that
positive for the sport.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
Couldn't agree more. Before I let you go, I have
to ask you about a post I saw on one
of your social media accounts. You are a big fan
of Calvin and Hobbes, and apparently you read them to
one of your children or multiple children. Yeah, at bedtime.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
I have such a collection of Calvin and Hobbs books,
and when Waterston, when the author, the artist retired, I
quld read in the comic page, just because I was
such a fan of Calvin and Hobbes. How did that
happen with you?

Speaker 2 (36:07):
Yeah? Listen, I think you and I and there's probably
people listening right now that that identify with this as well.
I was turned on to them a young age, definitely
seven or eight years old. I don't remember how I
first encountered it, but I do remember that my grandparents
reinforced my love for it, so you would buy me

(36:29):
the paperback. You know, there's treasure everywhere, and and you
know it's a magical world, and all of these Calvin
Hobbs collections that were in paperback and and I remember,
you know, in middle school, I would try and perfect
drawing Calvin and Hobbes you know, in the columns of
my notebooks during class and even into high school, and
it was just, yeah, it's a formative, uh, you know,

(36:52):
American experience as a as a young child growing up.
And so I've got the full on, you know, hardcover
volume of Everyone that Water never published. And a few
years ago, my older son we just started reading, you know,
not every night, but two three nights a week. We
just go through seven, eight, nine, ten pages and we're
almost done. Yeah, we're about forty pages or so from

(37:13):
from finishing volume three. So yeah, that's uh, that's real
American art there. And so I appreciate you bringing that up.
And yeah, that's the greatest comic trip ever.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
As part, yeah, I agree. And a doc there's a
documentary out there about Bill Waterson, very reclusive. Uh yeah,
very there's uh, there's just it's a great story. And
if you're a fan of comics, can't recommend it. More
if you're a fan of college basketball, I cannot recommend
Matt Norlander Moore at cbsports dot com, who, by the way,

(37:42):
according to your bio is a guitar player and a
want to be drummer. There's a picture of you performing.
How often does that happen?

Speaker 2 (37:54):
That's actually not and that's in my uh, that's in
my twitter head. It's not me performing. Uh, it's me
on stage with the band and Gus there. Who's a
fantastic alternative pop group that's been around for thirty plus
FW years. They formed in Boston, Great Dudes. I had
a sticker on my laptop that went viral a few
years back, and so as a result of that, they said,
let's bring you on stage and make the whole thing
of it. But I have played the occasional I have

(38:14):
played the occasional gig hero in there, but not nearly
as much since I had kids.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Well that's great, hey, listen. I do appreciate your time
as always, and I've been reading you for a while.
But and again, to Mike de Corsi is a pal
and he has also been so vocal. I don't know
if there's anything we as media people can do, but
they're about to ruin one of the great one of
the great sporting event, not ruin, but damage one of
the great sporting events in America.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
So hold out hope for a few more days. I'll
surprise us.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
Yeah, Matt, thank you so much. I enjoy the rest
of your summer.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
Thank you so much. Appreciate you having me on.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Hour number two is up next, we'll talk more college
basketball and college football, and we'll visit with sports writer, blogger,
author John Wong on the other side of the news
break here on six thirty w a.

Speaker 5 (38:59):
Leaky Tat.

Speaker 6 (39:21):
Tat tat the singing.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
Welcome back to the Big One, Sadery joining us now
a long time friends of the show. He is an
author as well as a sportswriter, a blogger, John Wong,
Doctor John Wong. Wong's Whinings is the blog Rights and
Covers Kentucky for Nolan Media Group of Chain, but also
has written and published several books, the latest Whining for Posterity.

(41:12):
We're going to talk about that a little bit later on,
but we've got a lot to cover, Doc, because first
of all, you weighed in. You weigh in on a
lot of things and basically all things UK sports. You
were not pleased with a big dog Vince merriw. You
put out kind of a stinging tweet, didn't you.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
Yeah, I did.

Speaker 7 (41:32):
It was a little bit tongue in cheek, but there
was a lot of truth involved in writing something like that,
And it took me a little while to decide whether
the press the button or not, because I knew that
Vince was kind of the face of the program. He's
got a lot of supporters over the course of time.
He was kind of teflonish if you really asked me.

(41:53):
Nothing he ever did drew any ire from the fans,
not that it deserved it, but he was one of
these guys that it didn't matter no matter what he
said or how you perceived him or where you saw him.
He was always just this good guy, everybody's friend. And
so by putting that out there, I kind of wanted

(42:14):
to make sure everybody knew that this was a violation,
that this was something that should not have happened. I mean,
he can go anywhere if he wants, it's his life.
But to go to your arch rival, I mean, this
is everything as bad as what Rick Patino did back
in the day.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
I was about to ask you if you equated it
to Patino. I gave Patino a pass for two reasons.
Number one, he didn't go directly to U of L.
And number two.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
It's correct.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
With Patino, it was a homecoming. I also knew, though,
for a fact, that Rick Patino would have returned to
UK if Tubby had left to go to the NBA.
At a certain point, there was a certain I don't
know if you remember this, but he was kind of
flirting with the Atlanta Hawks, and had he taken that job,
I was assured by somebody way up there in the

(43:06):
UK that Rick would come back. Rick did not want
to come back to the UK at the expense of Tubby.
In other words, do not fire Tubby Smith, so you
can hire me. But if Tubby leaves, come back, which
to me would have been a shock because I always
believed that Patino wouldn't have wanted to compete with his
own legacy. So that said, he came back. He came

(43:29):
back to the state of Kentucky because he's like you
and me, he loved it here and he wanted to
be a Kentuckian again. And yeah, he understood what he
was doing taking a Louisville job, but he knew deep
down that he couldn't get the Kentucky job, so he
took the next best thing. That's not what Vince Merrill
did right.

Speaker 7 (43:49):
I can't decide, Dick, whether of what this is true
modives were. On one hand, it's almost like he knew
exactly what he was doing and this was kind of.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
In your face.

Speaker 7 (44:02):
I want to give him the benefit of the doubt,
but I'm not sure I can in that particular situation.
I do think he knew what he was doing, but
the ramifications, I'm not quite sure he's fully aware of
how passionate the Big Blue Nation is not just in
support of Kentucky, but in opposition to the University of Louisville.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
You cannot go to your rival. You just cannot do that.

Speaker 7 (44:30):
I don't care how much money is involved, I don't
care how much control is involved in something like that.
He should have known better.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Yeah, And you know what's interesting about this. And you've
been around your CA athletics a long time, not as
long as I have, but you know, for a while,
it's amazing to me how diligently people over in Memorial
Coliseum and beyond, or to the south side of campus
as well, keep an eye on what's going on on

(45:00):
at the University of Louisville every time something comes up,
every time there's a news nugget or something. Yeah, I'm
telling you they're aware of it. You know, if there's
a recruit or anything unusual, well they keep an eye on.
But that's the basis of a good rivalry, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (45:19):
What's the adage, know thy enemy?

Speaker 7 (45:22):
Yeah, yeah, And in terms of arrival, they are the enemy.
When you think about just the compilation of all sports.
You've got this school that's just down the road, and
the fact that they've been good in basketball, and good
in football, and good in volleyball and good in baseball
over the course of the years. That makes the competitive.

(45:44):
It's actually much more fun for those of us who
are covering the sport. I enjoy a little bit of vitriol.
So the fashion events has gone to the enemy, that
he's defected, that he's gone full Benedict Arnold, I think
it's a good thing.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
Well good for you because you got to write a
at it on the blog. One last note on this.
You mentioned all the sports, and yeah, I mean they
go ahead to head in so many ways, but as
much as anything, John in recruiting and not just in
football or basketball, in a lot of different ways. So
you know, that's even more intense I think at.

Speaker 7 (46:18):
Times when you're pulling from kind of the same pool,
that does make it a little it gets a lot
more personalid in regard to that.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Well, let us shift over to
a football with the media days coming up and you've
been covering Mark Stoops for a while. Stoops handles himself
well with the media. I do believe has gotten better
through the years at it.

Speaker 3 (46:45):
With one exception.

Speaker 7 (46:47):
I think he's still is extremely paranoid about what the media.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
Is trying to do.

Speaker 7 (46:51):
I think you know how many times, well how many
times has he literally said come out and said, well,
I know you're going to take this and you're going
to spin it. Uh, And not everybody is intent on
doing that.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
Sure, it happens occasionally.

Speaker 7 (47:06):
Everybody wants clicks, everybody wants recognition and stories. But there
are some people out there who are actually trying to
report on what's going.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
On and maybe even give a little bit of a
positive spin once in a while.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
Some people do misinterpret as well. Some do it intentionally,
but some of you're right, but here's it, and every
coach has that's part of it. But what what has
impressed me about that is Stoops has said what every
other coach thinks. You know, I guarantee you their coach
is sitting at podiums thinking, man, they're going to turn

(47:41):
this into something. Uh, but Soups, you're right. He's also said,
you're not going to get me to say this or that,
you know, So you're right about that. You're right about that.
But I've been talking to folks about the fact that, yes,
Stoops has really run the gauntlet at media days from
You're the new coach at Kentucky. How the hell are
you going to do this? You're the foot coach at

(48:03):
of a football team at a basketball school that's finally
been put the rest. Then at one point it was
how in the world are you winning ten games at
a place like Kentucky? You must be a genius. And
now it's going to be back to are you feeling
the heat? Are you on the hot seat? So this
is going to be really interesting, isn't it.

Speaker 7 (48:19):
Well it goes around, kind of comes back around full
circle right now. But in reality, Dick, and this could
be controversial, But I'm going to run this by you.
I mean, why should we not be building a statue
for the guy? All I've heard is gloom and doom.
Over the past three or four months, it seems like
everybody's already ushering the guy out the door.

Speaker 3 (48:41):
He's got equity in the bank.

Speaker 7 (48:43):
I mean, he really is the winningest coach in University
of Kentucky football history the last time I'd looked.

Speaker 3 (48:50):
Right, Sure, a couple of.

Speaker 7 (48:51):
Down years, you don't want it moving, the program moving
in the wrong direction. But the guy deserves the benefit
of the doubt in turning this thing around. He supposedly
has gotten a tider control on the team. Culture is
back into the discussion right now. This is a guy
who I don't care what the buyout is. You know,

(49:12):
if he's going to leave, he needs to leave on
his own terms. He's done that much for the program
that I am shocked. I am very, very disappointed in
the fan base in not only the apathy, but the
negativity that's that's seeping out of the program.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
You're shocked by that. I mean, in today's microwave society,
where you know everything, you have to have an instant
take in every game, you know, the fortunes of a
program turn on every win and loss.

Speaker 7 (49:42):
Really, let me put it this way, I'm shocked at
all the four win predictions that are coming out. I'll
challenge you with this. Granted, the schedule is daunting, right,
this is a tough schedule. Yeah, you look at it,
you pick where are these wins going to actually come from?
But if they can just get out of the gate,

(50:04):
Toledo Winbble, if they can beat old myths, and then
of course Eastern Michigan, if they're three to zero out
of the gate, then I think that's going to re
energize everybody.

Speaker 3 (50:14):
See we're going to jump back on van wagon.

Speaker 7 (50:17):
And then you look down the list, got You've got
these teams that traditionally are tough. Granted, Georgia, Texas are
probably going to be losses. South Carolina, Okay, that's tough
down down there. It's in uh, it's in Columbia this year, right, yeah,
it's down there. But then you've got Tennessee and Auburn.
I mean, those are two teams traditionally you think are tough.

(50:37):
But they've got unproven quarterbacks coming in this year. What's
to say their program can't just go ahead and dissentegrate
mid season by the time Kentucky plays those right, wish
for thinking, maybe I know it's July, it's August Hope
Springs Eternal. But Florida Tennessee Tech, you can certainly beat that.
Vandy They're going to be hard this year with Garcia

(51:00):
coming back. But if you can't beat Vandy, you know
what are you doing? In the SCC And then Louisville
last game of the year. I think I could pick
got my rose colored glasses on, but I can actually
see seven wins this year.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
I actually I think it's possible. I'm leaning more towards
six and again, Yeah, you're right, that's the rose color glasses.
But it's interesting, John, some of those other schools you mentioned, Louisville,
South Carolina, Ole Miss Likewise new quarterbacks and all three
of those schools, their qbs are making noise in NFL camps.

(51:35):
They weren't just you know, experienced qbs. They were really
really good qbs. Spencer, Rattler and Dart and Shuck. So yeah,
now the huge question mark for the Wildcats, of course,
is the offensive line. We'll talk about that on the
other side of the break. Here in the Big Moon
Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with doctor

(51:55):
John Wong. He is a sports writer, a blogger and
an author, and of course we're talking talking about his
beloved Wildcats. John is an alumnus and has been covering
the Wildcats since he retired from a career in dentistry,
a successful career and grabbed a keyboard instead of a
dental instruments. So, uh, just a couple more think questions
about football and then a little bit of basketball before

(52:18):
you shamelessly plug your latest book. But Pride of the
Break of cop I know, I know you're busy doing that,
but h I mentioned the old line going in, and
I hope you've had a chance to talk to shi
as Pete. He's getting a lot of the headlines because
he's such an interesting guy, but he's also the biggest
figure literally on a brand new old line, John, which

(52:42):
I think the hinges, I think the success or failure,
And I'm putting it on the old line because frankly,
you go back and look at the past three years,
it's been on the old line. The big blue wall
is long gone, and they've got to reef. They've got
to find it somewhere, don't they.

Speaker 7 (52:59):
You're speaking the truth because I think every year a
lot of Kentucky's success hinges on two things. The quarterback obviously,
and then the O line. Those two things go hand
in hand. And the fact that Kentucky is now once again,
this is after Vince left, So I don't know whether
this is a coincidence or not. Probably not, but the

(53:22):
fact that the trend seems like that they're able to
still get these guys in, you know, these recruits a quarterback,
this new guy, Ponatowski and DJ Hunter commit And now
with the O line, I think with Kentucky football, tell
me if you agree, it's more where are we headed?
That's more important than where the program actually is now.

(53:44):
If the program is headed in the right direction, then
everybody's happy, everybody's all in. If the program is headed
to the wrong direction, like everybody claims for the past
year or so, then that's when depression starts setting in.
But the fact that their trend positively, I think, is
a huge, huge spine for this program.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Let us shift to basketball now,
is our time is dwindling? You talk about program going
in the right direction. Jasper Johnson comes home with a
golden medal. The early reports on the new Wildcats, we've
seen video clips and everybody's got great video clips right now.

(54:25):
But when you combine the portal class with the recruiting
class pulled in by Mark Pope and staff, it's hard
to find another program that can match what Kentucky's done.
Can they do it on the floor as well as
they've done it on the recruiting trail. We'll find out,
not soon but soon enough. But again, going in the

(54:47):
right direction.

Speaker 7 (54:47):
You know, ultimately it's about palent It's about Jimmy's and
Joe and I think the one big difference between this
year and last year is that this year the team
is just a lot more athletic. They can do so
many different things, especially on the defensive side of the ball,
and it looks like that they bought in and me

(55:08):
listening to all these interviews, they're not so much talking
about putting the ball in the basket that's going to
come naturally. They're talking a lot about protecting the rim
on bad defense, being able to play, getting into shape,
doing all these little and tangible things such as bonding
together as a team that you're looking for when you're

(55:29):
looking for a team that's going to hopefully go to
the final four. I think with just like all the
talking football has been negative. I think all the talking
basketball have shifted to the point where I think the
bar may end up being a Final Four run this year.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
Wow. Well, if you minutes left with John Wong, so
let us shamelessly plug whining for posterity tell everybody. And
I haven't finished it, to be honest with you, but
I'm into it. How does this differ from some of
your other missives.

Speaker 7 (56:01):
Well, I think a lot of my other books have
dealt primarily with sports, specifically University Kentucky sports and UK athletes.
This one was so different, so difficult to write because
it was personal. Like you said, the title is called
blinding for Posterity, but that's not really what the focus is.
It's really the subtitle that comes into play lessons and

(56:24):
live sports, other things worth complaining about. It just so
happens that a couple of other things worth complaining about
involved two very sensitive topics, such as politics and religion.
And if you've gone into the politics session, you know.

Speaker 3 (56:39):
That I don't hold back.

Speaker 7 (56:40):
I talk about immigration and gun control and race relations
and healthcare in America. I follow it up with a
couple of chapters on love and faith and family. Those
are also very emotional and pointant topics, and of course
I follow up with sections on travel and sports funding
to talk about there is something.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
For everybody in this book.

Speaker 7 (57:04):
If you look hard enough, it's not the complaint, it's
the life lessons behind those complaints.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
Well, and you also made a choice and a decision
to open up your personal life, and you wrote about
your wife and her struggles with her health. How tough
was that?

Speaker 3 (57:21):
Extremely? Extremely difficult?

Speaker 7 (57:23):
But I did it for one reason in particular, and
that's to let other people who are going through these
difficult times. And I've been through some difficult times. In fact,
I lead off the life chapter with two of my
biggest challenges. My wife you mentioned her struggles with mental illness,
and then of course my dealing with cancer diagnosis and

(57:44):
treatment of prostate cancer. And those are two huge things
that could have easily taken me down. But if I
look back on it, as I reflect on all those
hard knocks and experiences, there are a lot of things
that I could learn from this. One of my favorite
quotes is is from Muhammad Ali. He said, a person
who thinks the way at age fifty as he did

(58:05):
at age twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.
My thinking is evolved over that time. I've learned a
lot of life lessons that I think can be helpful
to somebody else going through those. It doesn't matter whether
you're suffering from health related problems, or you've got financial difficulties,
or maybe you've got relationship problems. There is a way

(58:28):
out of that. There is hope. You know, as the
Great dig Vital said in Jim Boonbano and his speech,
you should just never give up.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
You know, you never want to give.

Speaker 7 (58:39):
Up hope on any of this stuff. There is hope
out there on the horizon. And that's part of my message.
And then after all that serious stop then I start
talking about hairstyle.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
Stuff like that. But cancer hit you twice. I had
forgotten about that, and I can relate. I mean, I
recently had a little bit of skincare answer taken. I
was not the most serious kid, but any form of
cancer serious. And yeah, my mother dealt with it quite
a bit, being very very fair complexed. But it's just
scary when when they when they drop that word on you.

(59:14):
And again I had forgotten that you would you would
dealt with it. A couple of times. But have you
always been like Professor Positive.

Speaker 3 (59:24):
No.

Speaker 7 (59:25):
In fact, for a lot of my life, I've been
on the other side. I've been kind of a glass
half empty. That's almost the way that I'm wired. That
you can see it in a lot of my sports
writing too. I sometimes I expect bad things to happen,
so that when good things happen, then I'm not disappointed

(59:45):
at all.

Speaker 3 (59:45):
Of that makes.

Speaker 7 (59:46):
Sense, But I've learned over the years that a positive
attitude really makes a huge, huge difference in your overall
perspective of life in general. You know, people who are positive,
it's been scientifically demonstrated that their lives is just better.
You know, they lived longer, they're healthier, they're able to
have better relationships. Financially, they're better off. It's a matter

(01:00:09):
of just how you view the world. It's not what
happens to you, it's how you respond to it. First
quote out of the book, it's when life serves you
a poop sandwich. I don't use poop, I use blank,
blank sandwich. It doesn't mean you have to eat it.
It just means it's how you respond.

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
Dick, how much of that goes into your passion for
running because I knew you were a runner, but I
thought it was really interesting when you talked about all
the different places in the world that you were picking
them up and putting them down and not just a
jogger man. You know, you run.

Speaker 7 (01:00:43):
There was not a better way to see a strange
city that you're in than to put on some shoes
and just to run downtown and just soak in the
sights and the sounds and the smells of the city.
You see me on social media whenever I'm visiting some
of these fight to covering these games, I always get
out for a morning run.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
That's a big bit. It's been a big, big part
of my life. And I run. Uh, not so much
for my body, but for the mind.

Speaker 7 (01:01:13):
It's really good to get out there and fear your
mind and just take everything in from a sight and
sound standpoint and just kind of relax, just let the
world come come to you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
That's my therapy.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
Yeah, I can relate. I like to swim, but you know,
and you can just let your mind go. But on
the other hand, you can't see the sites.

Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
And you also need to you also need to pull.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
Yeah, I was gonna say, unless you're swimming in the ocean,
but that gets a little boring as well.

Speaker 7 (01:01:42):
So yeah, when we're running, it's just a good pair
of tennis shoes. And then you're you're out there. You're
out there patching your cardiovascular system, getting ready to choke
down that whole pepperoni pizza afterwards.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Life, my knees never allowed me to run that far
that long, but typically cap of you for doing so.
Whining for posterity is the name of the book you
can find I assume you can find it where you
can find all your other books.

Speaker 7 (01:02:10):
Go directly to Amazon for the time being, Amazon or
Barnesanoble dot com. That's the best way to go ahead
and get it. If you see me around town, flag
me down. I'll be glad to sign it for you.
But Dick, I know I don't have a big enough
platform for people to read a memoir of mine. So
read it for the life lessons, read it for the
social commentary, read it for the comic relief. Like I said,

(01:02:32):
there's something in this book for everybody. All proceeds go
to our family scholarships.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
So I'm a writer.

Speaker 7 (01:02:38):
I don't make any money out of this thing, but
any of the funds that we do get will go
directly into the scholarship that my dad said, five colleges
at the University of Kentucky.

Speaker 3 (01:02:49):
It's to pay it forward.

Speaker 7 (01:02:51):
This way, you've become not only somebody who supports me
in my writing, which I really appreciate, but you also
get to be a part of our family. Like you
get to be a part of people who may not
have the funds to pursue their higher education.

Speaker 3 (01:03:06):
This is the way for them to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
John Wong, an author, columnist, retired Orthodonis and by the way,
a military veteran. We thank you for that. Thank you.
Servill see you down.

Speaker 3 (01:03:16):
The road as always. Thank you, Dick. Always a pleasure.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
We'll talk more college basketball on the other side of
the break here in a Big Blue Sider six thirty
WLAP Welcome back to the Big Bonsider. Thanks again to
John Wong for joining us. John off the here told
me you probably will not be going to SEC media days.
My plans right now are to attend down there in Atlanta,
just because I think it's going to be really interesting

(01:03:44):
to see how Mark Stoops and the Wildcats are perceived.
I have a pretty good idea. It's what have you
done for me lately in college football, and lately the
Wildcats haven't done much. But again I'm just I guess
the word is haunted, but in a good way and
in a bad way by Kentucky's went over Old Miss.
I was thinking about it all during the off season,

(01:04:06):
and then again I watched it, recorded it and watched
it on Kentucky Takeover Day on the SEC Network. And
of course freshness in my mind from the past season
were the losses, were the bad games, and I need
to go back and watch that Georgia game again. But
that Ole Miss win, so many things were good. There

(01:04:28):
were some near disasters, but it was such a good
performance by Kentucky, and I just kept thinking, what happened
to this team? Where did it go? Why didn't we
see more of what we saw down in Oxford? So
who knows? You know, maybe with the rebuilt old line,
we'll see more of that. And the teams the John reference,

(01:04:50):
the teams that have been, as you and I have
called them, the swing games through the years, the South Carolinas,
they don't play them, but the Missouri's the Vandy. He
shouldn't be a swing game. It really it is. You
go back and look at the record, Kentucky has the
advantage and wins. But you would think that the way
Kentucky fans look at Vandy that the Wildcats have won

(01:05:11):
seventy or eighty percent of the time over Vandy. It's
closer to like fifty five percent. So anyhow, they got
to win those games, get back to winning those games,
and try to knock off Tennessee. And again they've been
able to beat Florida at times through the years. That's
a huge plus. But that's how you move up. You know,

(01:05:33):
you can't wait for the other guys to back up.
Those days are gone. It was happening for a while there,
and Kentucky did not take full advantage. It did over Florida,
but Tennessee clearly backed up. Kentucky didn't take advantage Georgia
for a while there before Kirby Smart got down there
and went not started to back up. Kentucky didn't take advantage.

(01:05:56):
Alabama backed up in the nineties and the Cats beat him,
didn't They just didn't play Alabama enough. Auburn clearly backing up,
and Kentucky didn't take full but of course didn't play
Auburn a lot. But that's how you make your bones.
You got to beat those teams that give you the
opportunity to win. And John mentioned South Carolina that's going

(01:06:18):
to be huge. Ole Miss another team that for a
long time was one of the have nots and then
ups and downs and Kentucky got them last year. All Right,
I promised college basketball and I just like to keep
an eye on these things. They drive Cameron Mills nuts.
It's the preseason. This is of course a way too
early top twenty five college basketball ranking, But this is

(01:06:40):
according to a panel with USA Today looking at n
SAT men's college basketball, and this is the post transfer
portal top twenty five, which they've ranked, of course post
portal with the number of pre portal ranking. And once

(01:07:01):
again USA Today says Houston will be number one. This
is pre and post portal, even though it lost a
couple of key players but had maybe the top recruiting
class in the country. They got Duke second. Still I
don't get this. I mean, they must love the recruits
coming in for Duke. How do you lose Cooper Flag, Conkin,

(01:07:22):
Hipple and Maloche the other kid drafted in the first round,
Antireech Proctor. You get a good recruiting class including Carlos
Boozer's twin sons and others. And he's got him second,
got you Cunt third. Still another great recruiting class for

(01:07:42):
Nanny Hurley. He's got Purdue up from eleventh to fourth.
How about that. But they also pick up some quality
through the portal, says USA today. So Purdue now way
up there in their eyes. Florida is fifth, up from eighth,
even though Clayton is gone, so as Elijah Martin, so

(01:08:03):
as Will Richard. But they got other bigs back. Now
he makes a mistake or the panel makes a mistake,
Denzel Aberdeen should pick up more minutes. Nope, not at Florida.
He won't, but I will tell you. They mentioned the
fact that he's at Kentucky when they write about Kentucky.
We're coming up to that. Michigan sixth up from ninth,
even though Dusty may lost. It's to his top three

(01:08:26):
players in ann Arbor, but he got a lot of
quality through the portal. Brigham Young is seventh, actually drops
a couple spots, but still a lot expected of the
team that signed the top freshman in America, aj Debansa.
And they've got some good recruits coming in beyond him.
They got Alabama eighth, down from number six. They say,

(01:08:48):
of course that's the SEC favorite now. Even though Obama
lost some good kids picked up some talent through the portal.
They got Saint John's ninth, up from thirteenth, and a
lot of Poles have Saint John's ranked much higher. I
saw one poll at Saint John's number one, but Patino

(01:09:10):
I think signed one high school kid. Everybody else through
the portal, including warmer wildcat Bryce Hopkins. Once he is healthy,
he should be a big help. He did lose r. J. Lewis,
the Big East player of the year, but he's got
a lot coming back and a lot coming in from
the portal. UCLA drops from four to ten, even though

(01:09:33):
Mick Cronin's got a pretty good transfer class. They got
Louisville eleven now down one. Texas Tech drops from seventh
to twelfth, even though they've got the returning big twelfth
player of the year. Iowa State fourteen now thirteen. They
lost a transfer who needs hip surgery and likely will

(01:09:54):
miss the season, but they got some other guys through
the portal. They got Kentucky fo now up two spots
from sixteenth, primarily because otega Oway is back. And of
course they also mentioned Jaden Quaintan's and they say, if
he's healthy, that could be a real difference maker. And

(01:10:17):
they're not wrong about that, of course, Janden low Denzel Aberdeen.
They do mention, they do not mention Kentucky's recruiting class.
The incoming freshman gold medalist Jasper Johnson, Malachai Moreno. Tennessee drops,
I'm sorry, rises from nineteenth to fifteenth in the eyes

(01:10:37):
of USA today, a lot of transfers coming in. There's Wisconsin, Arizona,
Gonzaga eighteen. Arkansas drops from twelve to nineteen in the
eyes of USA today, primarily because the Duke Thierio left,
went to the NBA Draft, was the thirty six player taken.

(01:10:57):
Good for him, but DJ Wagner's Carter Knox's back. They
signed Darius Acuff junior who could be great, and Malik
Thomas so but Cali Perry could make another run. Creighton
is twenty Kansas is twenty one, Michigan State, Illinois, Oregon,

(01:11:17):
and Auburn is twenty fifth. According to the USA Today
Way too early preseason poll. Another word about Kansas. Remember
when Kentucky Remember when we all thought the Wildcats were
going to get Hunter Dickinson and the way he had
played at Michigan. I had two thoughts on that. The
first one was met, you know, because I was there

(01:11:39):
in London when the Wildcats played Michigan and beat him,
and Dickinson did not impress me, but he did impress
me in other games, So I'm a good player, and
I thought he would have helped Kentucky ends up in Kansas,
got a better nil deal that didn't work, which told
me a lot of times. You know, big name players

(01:12:01):
will shun Kentucky go elsewhere. Ben Simmons did and didn't
do anything. Other players same thing. So it says a
lot about who you play with, who's around you, who
you're surrounded with. I thought Dickinson would get a lot
more done at Kentucky surrounded by more quality teammates. Well, yeah,

(01:12:21):
quality teammates at Kansas. And it didn't work, and he
did not hear his name called on draft night, and
I just looking back on it, think Kentucky might have
ducked one there. Yeah, I could have helped, But that
to me was a fascinating case of a guy who
everybody wanted and then when he didn't become a Wildcat.

(01:12:45):
For a while there it looked like while they missed out,
but ultimately I can't say Kentucky did miss out, no question.
Up next, we'll shift you over to college football. It's
the Big moon Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back to
The Big Moonsider, final segment of our show. And this
being the talking season the middle of summer, it is
also the time when broadcasters and writers have to try

(01:13:07):
to fill the Internet. It's a bottomless pit and we
have to fill it. But there are some fun ways
to do that. And one of the ways is to
rank this, that and the other thing. And one of
the recent surveys I like. In fact, this was on
the Athletic dot Com and I highly recommend it. It

(01:13:28):
is a great website if you like sports, and it's
not expensive. I promise you what they have done is
rank the top one hundred college football rivalries of all time,
and I will save you the trouble. I still would
like you if you haven't and I don't get anything
out of this, but I just recommend the subscription, but

(01:13:49):
you'll enjoy it. But I will tell you the UK
shows up twice the UK Louisville rivalry, out of one
hundred rivalries, ranks seventy nine according to the folks who
put this poll together, just ahead of Tennessee, Vandy, of
Southern Grambling, Baylor, Texas Tech rivalries like that. The Kentucky

(01:14:14):
Tennessee rivalry, and I use that term loosely because Tennessee
is dominated, is seventy fifth. But it's one spot ahead
of Clemson Georgia. How about that? So I will skip
ahead to the top. Let's go top ten, shall we?
And you can probably imagine just about all of them.

(01:14:37):
It's the order which is interesting as always, just on
the outside looking in at twelve Georgia Florida. At eleven
Alabama Tennessee. And remember that's the rivalry for Tennessee because
it's dominated Kentucky for so long in Alabama being Alabama,
that's the game Tennessee fans worry about. But that's on

(01:15:01):
the outside looking in. At the top ten, number ten
Minnesota Wisconsin, which is a great rivalry, believe it or not.
Florida Florida State. Lately there hadn't been a whole lot
of sizzle because neither team's been any good. But through
the years. Yeah, Ohio State, Penn State, especially now that
they're in the same conference. Miami Florida State, same thing.

(01:15:24):
Neither team's been really interesting. But through the years, yeah,
that's been a great one. Nebraska Oklahoma is ranked six.
That used to be the game of the year, and
in fact, back in the early seventies, kids, I'm taking
you way back, it's still considered the greatest game ever played.
I think it was seventy two, maybe on a Thanksgiving Day.

(01:15:46):
Oh man, what a game. I do remember watching that game.
Not so much lately, but USC Notre Dame. It's a
high profile game, and of late Notre Dame's been more relevant.
USC has been better. Army is fourth, of course, of course,
I don't care what the records are. It's always going

(01:16:06):
to be up there. Oklahoma, Texas now part of the SEC.
But through the years, huge games involving those two teams.
Number two Auburn Alabama. I think that has as much
to do with how much these teams hate each other
the fans as anything, but there have been some incredible
games by both the one by both of these teams,

(01:16:30):
and Number one, of course, Michigan Ohio State. Michigan leads it,
believe it or not. Sixty two to fifty two is
six ties. Lately it's been Ohio State and Michigan's at
its moments, but that's according to the Athletic dot Com
and I can't again can't recommend it higher. I mean,

(01:16:51):
it's just a great website, great way to follow, and
a lot of fun. There's another poll out there, going
back to cbsports dot com college Football's top twenty five
worst coaching hires of the century. No, there's not a
Kentucky coach in there, not even among the ones who
just missed the cut. I thought they might throw in

(01:17:13):
Joker Phillips because he had a rough time at Kentucky.
But I will jump ahead Willie Taggart, the former hero
from Western Kentucky. His stop at Florida State not so good.
Let's see, let's skip to the top ten, shall we.
Derek Dooley of Tennessee. Yeah, I always try to make

(01:17:34):
fun of him. He did not have a good run
in Knoxville fifteen and twenty one. He's the guy who
lost twice against Kentucky. Even worst, he was three and
two against Kentucky and Vanderbilt. But ohen six against Georgia
South Carolina and his sixth in the SECS twice and

(01:17:56):
lost fourteen of his last fifteen SE's games. Dully led
Tennessee to his first back to back losing seasons in
one hundred years and set the program back for a long,
long time. Less Miles at Kansas. That was a mess.
Jeremy Prue of Tennessee, Ty Willingham at Washington, Charlie Weiss

(01:18:20):
at Kansas. He failed a Notre dame. Went six and
twenty two at Kansas. Rich Brooks used to make fun
of him because he was the OC under Belichick in
New England. Yeah, but Tom Brady, but Rich Brooks knew
what was what. Chad Morris at Arkansas four, Elis Johnson

(01:18:41):
and Southerness three. Elis Johnson took a team and went
twelve and two the year before, ended up oh to twelve.
Boom tied for first all time. Mike Price at Alabama,
Michael Haywood at Pittsburgh, incbsports dot com. It's where you go,
and by the way, they have an other list. Ten

(01:19:01):
college prospects primed to boost pro stock after returning to
school for next season. And what surprises me is Otaga
Oway not on that list. I mean you talk about
a high profile player who could be the SEC Player
of the Year and went through the process and Boogie

(01:19:21):
Fland is on that list and that that's a good choice.
But o'takeo Oway is not, which I find very surprising.
But one man's opinion, or a couple of guys opinions,
that's what makes it fun. Thanks to my guests, John Wong,
Matt Norlander, keep your fingers crossed in this NCA tournament mess.
That's a good night from the garage in Lexington.

Speaker 4 (01:19:42):
What is the fullest name on third base?

Speaker 2 (01:19:44):
What is the fella's name on second?

Speaker 1 (01:19:46):
Mate, I'm not asking you who's not second, who's on first?
I don't know third mesh.

Speaker 2 (01:19:50):
No.

Speaker 6 (01:20:01):
Such sect, such stat stating the stats and then the

(01:21:16):
canaps from type don't