Sunday Morning Sports Talk - April 21, 2024 - Hour 1

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is the Home of the Wildcats. Six thirty w LAP Welcome in Stockyards
Bank, Sunday Morning Sports Talk.I am Anthony White, joined by Jack
Pilgrim on three KSR and award winningjournalist Larry vaugh have an action packed show

(00:22):
for you this morning, and weare coming to you from beautiful downtown Lexic,
Kentucky at Clark's Main Street Market Studios. Jack Pilgrim, the only problem
about doing a one show a weekshow. We had Mark Pope introduced a
pep rally. We had him introducedlast Sunday at four thirty, and now

(00:45):
it's been a whole week and everysingle person in America has talked about it,
unless they're living or in Lexington orthe state of Kentucky. So I
don't know if we're beaten beat thisthing up too bad, But we got
to talk of it because our producerBo just said, and he has been
to a lot of events at Reperinaand he thought he was one of the

(01:06):
most magnificent things he has ever seenat Reparena. Do you feel the same.
Yeah, it was something that Ithink all of us will remember for
the rest of our lives because itwas a you know, going through so
much animosity and vitriol, and justthe last several weeks and the end of
John Caliperry's time here. It wasjust so negative. And to have a

(01:30):
moment where everybody kind of came togetheras one and all there rooting for the
same common scene, it was justbeautiful. It was awesome. It just
being down there on the floor andseeing the fans pile in and the excitement
building as we inched closer than weget the bus driving in and you know,

(01:52):
the former players coming off and youknow Mark coming off with the you
know, the championship trophy, justlike he did in nineteen ninety six.
It was just such a beautifully nostalgicmoment for everybody, just kind of,
you know, get get a freshstart for Biblue Nation after you know,
some ups and downs in the lastfour years and so much negativity. It
just felt felt really good to have, you know, everybody in for for

(02:14):
the same common theme. Larry Vaught, I don't know if you made it.
I'm assuming you did. I don'tknow that this is a new age
is Larry Vaught who watches everything onTV so you don't have to travel as
much, And I know you takecare of your family. So did you
get out there and what did youthink about the spectacle? No, I
was still out in Utah, Okay. They of the pep Browalley slash press

(02:38):
conference. So I was watching MarkPope be the lead on the on the
news every night there for about fournights throw and and realizing just how loved
he was in the state of Utah, so many different people, so I
had to watch online there. Butwhat it was amazed. I thought maybe
five thousand people would be a goodturnout, never would have suspected twenty thousand.

(03:04):
I was really glad to hear thatBo, in spite of all the
different things he has going on onSunday, was able to get there because
I wondered with our show in thebaseball game and everything and Bo would be
able to be there. But I'mglad the Blues Brothers made it. Boa.
I know you may well you're notfeeling calls the first segment because we
don't take calls in the first segment. And for those of you who are
listening for Jack Pilgrim, we willhave Jack Pilgrim only for two segments,

(03:28):
so at nine point thirty he willnot be here. And with that being
said, we will take a callthis first segment. You may have something
you want to ask Jack is eightfive nine to eight zero two two eight
seven eight five nine to eight zerocats Bo, what is What is your
take? I know you were kindof commented before we got on air that
you enjoyed it. What was yourfavorite part? I know your sister seemed

(03:50):
to enjoy it pretty well. Myfavorite part, I think was just seeing
all these old school Kentucky fans cometogether reunite. Because the first thing I
noticed when I finally got to Reperenaon Sunday afternoon, it was quite a
hectic Sunday for me. As Larrystated, I'm seeing fans that don't normally

(04:14):
come to UK basketball games. Theydon't come to the home games. These
are folks that are they were donewith Kentucky basketball over the last few years.
And then seeing all the ninety sixT shirts and the hats, and
I'm not going so far saying KentuckyBasketball's back or anything like that, but

(04:34):
I will say this, welcome backBig Blue Nation to Reperena. I thought
it was an awesome spectacle when youhave twenty people deep walking from the concourse
into the arena to get a seat, and it's standing room only. I've
never witnessed that for any Kentucky event. And I've seen a lot there.

(04:56):
I've seen rodeos, concerts, monstertrucks, Wat's kiss there, i watched
Tommy Lee play his drums upside downon a roller coaster of Motley Crue.
But I've never watched or witnessed peoplestanding there just for a press conference to
welcome back Mark Pope to the BigBlue Nation. It was amazing, and
this is something we're going to betalking about for a while that within a

(05:18):
week Caliperry is gone, He's movedon to Arkansas, and then just kind
of out of nowhere, here's MarkPope bringing us all back together again.
So I'm excited. I was outat Keenland yesterday I saw Mark Pope and
I was like, this is awesome. This is this is where it needs
to be right now, and thatis interesting, and that is probably where

(05:38):
the show is going to remain formost of the part where we are going
to talk spring football. As LarryVat on social media has been conversing about
the spring football practice, whatever youwant to call it. I think Mark
Students has a great strategy with doingthat. But right now I do I
do think the steam and the energythat Mark Hope is pulling, I think

(06:00):
is to me is more interesting onlybecause Nick mine On and the back Caps
dropped the game yesterday. So I'lltell you this, Anthony. When he
was done with this speech, Iwas ready to run through a brick wall
for Mark Pope. And we don'teven have a team yet, And that
is what everybody said. And that'swhy we got to get Jack Pilgrim some
questions. And we don't have ateam. We're rounding out a coaching staff,

(06:26):
I guess. So that's what JackPilgrim. How is our team rounded
up? You know, we hadwe spent a whole week of who's exiting
our team? But I think he'smethodically choosing people that fits his system.
I love watching the Yukon Purdue championship. It showed me, you know,
that a system probably is better thanjust athletes. Because I can't name anybody

(06:47):
off of either team except Edie.Uh, where where do we stand as
far as players returning? Uh?At Kentucky? As Kyle so eloquently put
it when when he took the Arkansasjob. He said, I met with
my team. I have no team. That's basically what what what Mark super

(07:09):
Mark Pope has Right now in Lexington, we just got our last departing player
from last year's roster and Jordan Burkes. That wrapped up everybody reach Shepherd made
the anticipated decision that everybody, youknow, I think everybody knew was coming
but didn't want to accept a realitywhen when he decided to enter the NBA
Draft. So that was the onethat everybody was kind of hanging on hope,

(07:31):
hope for. But yeah, JordanBurke's left, which means there is
nobody coming back from last year's roster. A due Hero is still in the
transfer portal, still technically considering Kentucky, but that is not expected to you
know right now pitt In unc orseen as the favorites for him, So
just say, I don't I don'tenvision him finding his way back to Lexington.

(07:51):
So yeah, now our focus isentirely on, you know, the
transfer portal and what Pope is doingthere. He's hosting A Williams right now,
directel star forward who is a threetime CAA Defensive Player of the Year,
incredible and credible, one of thebest bigs in the portal right now.
I'm sure both saw him with MarkPope at Keenland on Saturday, so

(08:16):
that was a lot of fun.He did an interview with TVG and was
like, you know, they're like, so why are you here? You
just here to see the ponies,and he was like, well, I'm
back to here on business. Sothat was the business that he's trying to
get get wrapped up and taken careof, get him committed. You know,
some of the talk behind the scenesabout guys that are very very interested
in Kentucky and who you know,want to be part of the Mark Pope

(08:37):
experience. They are interested, butthey also don't want to dive in head
first without some semblance of a safetynet. They don't want to be the
only guy committed. So getting thefirst domino to fall has been really,
really crucial for Mark Pope and that'swhy I think A Marii Williams is going
to be the first. I thinkwe could hear news on him as early
as today and as soon as thatstarts rolling out, and you know,

(09:01):
the guys want to you know,it's you know, you want to be
a part of the action. Youwant to be a part of the fun.
And I think once the domino startfollowing, they're going to start following
in a hurry. And I reallyreally like the foundation that Pope is set
up thus far with you know,poral guys of interest, some high school
guys that he's still looking at.Yeah, I really really like that the
foundation that he's laid thus far.And since we only have you for two

(09:24):
segments, Jack, We're going totake an early break so that we don't
have to rest the next break andwe can get a little bit more information
from you. Maybe on the coachingside, I know there was a lot
of rumors about who's going to bereturning to Kentucky that wasn't at Kentucky last
year, who was going to bereturning from the staff that was on the
staff that did not go to Arkansas, and some of those things changed overnight.
We'll talk about that on the otherside of the break. You are

(09:45):
listening to Stockyards Bank. So whenthe sports talk or news radio six thirty
WAP this is Stockyards Bank Sunday Morningssports Talk presented by the Lead Troop Barge
Radio Network on six thirty w WelcomeBack Stockyards Bank Sunday Morning Sports Talk ma

(10:05):
Anthony White along with Larry Vault andas usual Jack Pilgrim for one more segment
this morning. Stockyards Bank to TrustedPartners is nineteen o four. Head on
over to syb dot com for allyour thinking financial needs. Phone lines are
lit up. I suspected guys,and we only have Jack were a limited
amount of times. So let's getto the phone lines to see what Larry

(10:26):
has to say. Good morning,Larry, what do you got for us?
Well, I'm just kind of anxiouswaiting around and see how this thing's
gonna work out. I'm you know, Pope, he's a he's sure got
his work cut out for him.You know. I was kind of funny,
dude got in the same problem we'rein now. Of course, they
got a number one class coming in, but there's no way that they'll win

(10:46):
and title that with much freshman andthe ain't gonna happen. I don't care
ever learn how good you are.But but you know, I've been reading
articles where the Pope has got twoof them, two big guys, you
know they're supposed to be gettings,and one of them some good offensive players.
So maybe we'll give them two ofthem guys and they'd be start from
there. You know. I wishMan wall Oh. I hope he does

(11:09):
good because you know, he's takingon something that I mean, you know,
he's taking on a big blue nationtoo, you know. But but
you know, it was amazing howmany people showed up for a thing last
week. I was really amazed atit, you know, that five thousand
weighted outside. But what hurted meis I was gonna actually tape it,

(11:30):
but it wasn't unlive like when Calwas on. They had him on live
on on the SEC network, butires wasn't OnLive. And I'm sitting there
thinking, wonder why we couldn't beon live, you know, and show
the nation what we were. Iknow they got clips of us probably of
it. But that's what hurted me. And one of the last thing guys
was gonna really hurt me. IfCow goes to you know, he's in

(11:50):
Arkansas, and if he goes anddoes what we wanted him to do,
actually to recruit older kids and stuffand bring in and do actually concentrate on
winning tight and winning games. Youknow, he he more or less said
before he left there, even beforehe announced, and he was gonna try
to leave. He said, it'salways gonna be players first, but but

(12:11):
it's gonna be players first. Butuh uh, you know, I'm gonna
do it my way more or less, and you'll fans can just go jump
off a bluff. But but thatthat's what really hurts me about him.
If he doesn't does what we wanthim to do, if there is like
he's just snubbing us and that.Now I was a cow supporter, but
you know, guys, I'm fromMark Pope one hundred percent, and I

(12:31):
think the guy. I've watched theclips on uh On b Yu and I
was amazed at his offense. SoI just wish him well. And also
I'm gonna put a plug in forthe women's team. This guy is killed
it. Man. I'm one hundredpercent behind him. He is. He's
bringing in players unfought that nobody coulddo. Me talking about five six seven
sixty six six five sixty four Northklinekid. I look for the women actually

(12:56):
to finish in the upper part ofthe of the conference. So anyway,
y'all, let y'all guys go.I'm just putting a few plugs for see
you later. Thank you for thecall. Larry. Uh yeah, I
think Larry has some good points.Now, I do love the energy that
Mark Pope has brought to the community. I think, uh, before we

(13:16):
get to our next car and Larryvought those we at this point, are
we done you know with Cal storiesand Cal in the media in Lexington or
Kentucky media, Are we done evenbringing up his name? Shit? Because
I know people on my podcast andlast week we spoke a lot about uh,
you know, kind of the circumstancesunder which he left under. But

(13:39):
Larry, I agree with a lotof Larry's points. But when he came
up with what Cal is doing there, are we worried about Cal? Is
that time up? Or are westill have to go through that for the
rest of the summer. I thinkit's time to move on, but it's
probably gonna keep coming up. ButI mean, just I think he just
wished John Caller Perry well, whateverhe does at Arkansas, he does at
Arkansas. If you're a Kentucky fan, you just worry about what Mark Pope's

(14:03):
gonna do. I mean, maybeJohn'll do great at Arkansas, maybe he
won't, But it really is kindof your rettlevant to what's going to happen
to Kentucky now. But I don'tthink a lot of Kentucky fans are gonna
let it go anytime soon, doyou, Jack No, And I think
we're gonna be watching their roster buildingjust as closely as we are for us,
you know, as these five starrecruits he commit and look for their

(14:26):
options. I don't know, Ifeel like there's kind of a part of
the fan base that wants that recruitingclass that he recruited at Kentucky to just
just dissolve and these guys go elsewhere. There's some buzz about Jade and Quaint
going to Louisville, and like,I don't I don't think any Kentucky fans
wanting him to go to Louisville.But I think there is a portion of
this fan base that would like tostick in the cow and have him,

(14:48):
you know, kind of have toscramble a little bit and force himself into
adding you know, guys that aren'this guys he's you know, he spent
the entire last year talking about howhe was gonna do it his way and
how Freshman was was the way,and we're gonna zig while everybody else is
zagging, and you know, it'dbe kind of ironic for him to go
to Arkansas and then lose everybody thathe had coming in for for next season.

(15:11):
But yeah, I think a lotof the focus right now is on
us and what our roster looks like. And I think this week's been kind
of interesting because Billy Donovan just becameavailable yesterday after losing in their second play
in game with the Chicago bull Souh, as slow moving as it kind
of feels right now with just twoguys signed on and you've got you've got

(15:33):
to Mary Williams, you know,potentially about to commit and and you know,
some of the early stages of theroster building, Billy Donovan had heap
inside and and him be the guywould have just been starting the process yesterday,
so like, and that's assuming hewould have been a said yes.
B would have been a quick yes. So I know he was kind of
the guy everybody was rooting for.Whatever. Uh, Scott Drew and Dan

(15:56):
Hurley passed on it. But Ithink the way things worked out, the
guy that they're looking at, theguys that they're pursuing hard and laying the
groundwork for I know, it doesn'tseem like a lot's happening publicly, but
you know, Mark poets putting himselfin position to land, you know,
the core group of of of thisthis roster and build out from that.
So, uh, we're nine daysfarther along than we would have been with

(16:18):
Billy Donovan had that been the guy. Uh Mark Mitch Marnhart went with,
So, yeah, things are lookinggood. I think just the impatiency is
starting to set in a little bitand uh get a little anxious for some
good positive news. Uh, let'sget back to the phone lines and see
what Alvin has to say. Goodmorning, Alvon, we got for us,
Hey, good morning, good morningto have him and join the show.

(16:41):
Uh. Really, the the PEPrally was extremely inspiring. I think
that the cool Blue Big Blue Nationwas really impressed away that Mark Stoops I'm
sorry, Mark pap uh uh connectedwith the brand uh sort of exorcism of
callism if you will. Uh thatthere was a demographical fan that has sort

(17:06):
of left the Big Blue Nation becausethere was fractured with the coach that just
left. Uh, And I thoughtthat he uh co the chronology of bringing
in all the older players off ofthat bus was extremely great when he look
up in the rafters and mentioned thechampionships that we won with the history of

(17:29):
UK basketball, and then he sortof pivot to Travis Perry, uh,
the new kid that would be comingin and the new generation of Wildcats,
uh, you know from Kentucky.Uh, and that that his coming here
inspired and seemingly brought back the brandthinking of Kentucky basketball, which I felt

(17:52):
was extremely unique. Uh. Theone other big announcement that Big Blue Nation
was looking at was the Lead Shepherdannouncement if he's gonna stay or if he's
gonna go to the NBA. Andthe decision was made a couple of three
days ago. As a lot ofus had hoped that he would continue playing

(18:15):
here and sort of expand his legacywith the basketball program. But as we
all know, the NBA is alure for kids that have NBA type talent
at the collegiate level, leaming themselves, won and done. So yeah,
he did. He did leave,and you know that's part of what these

(18:36):
kids look to do. So dohave one question to leave? Hurry up
and we got to get to abreak quick. The n I l the
NIL stuff. These big corporations arethrowing in money by Walmart, Jerry Jones,
Eccesteria throughout the nation. We're seeingmoney spread. Is this particular apparatus
gonna hurt college basketball moving forward?Thank you appreciate the call. Alvin jack

(19:02):
Man. I know you got ahead to the big house. Man.
Enjoy yourself. Say a prayer forme, mess saying a prayer for Larry
and uh and dip your foot inthe water too. We'll hear you back
from you next week. We'll beback after this. You'll listen to Stockyards
Bank Sunday Morning Sports Talk on NewsRadio six thirty WLAP. This is the
home of the Wildcats six thirty WLAP. Welcome back Stockyards Banks Sunday Morning Sports

(19:23):
Talk. I am Anthony White,joined with by only Larry Vault at this
point. Thanks Jack S. Pilgrimfrom getting the started off this morning on
the right foot, getting us offon a positive note. He's gone for
the rest of the show, soyou will have Larry Vaught NY. This
hour of Sunday Morning Sports Talk isabout to you by Country Boy Brewing and
Larry. We had a bunch ofcalls already this morning. What you normally

(19:45):
don't do. So we'll try toget some of those things since we had
to go rapid fire since Jack wason, If you would like to join
the show eight five nine two eightzero two two eight seven eight five nine
eight zero Cats go back to Carler, Larry said, and he says that

(20:06):
CAL won't win with freshmen. Andit is this going to sustain Larry?
The fact that they think CAL won'twin with freshmen in Arkansas and the point
that everybody's kind of concerned about whatkind of talent we're bringing in. Now.
I got faith in Pope just because, as I stated before, the
NCAA Championship showed two teams that weresystems. There were system teams that ran

(20:32):
offenses. You know, people didwhat they had to do. I mean
even Oakland didn't you know, theyran a system, although the forty year
old guy made a ton of threepoint shots that were uncharacteristic or it's just
just something you don't plan for andthat's not like a system thing. But
I would really love to see asystem here in Lexston, Kentucky. But

(20:56):
the argument that CAL has taken allthese fresh you know, the freshman that
we had lined up coming to callis not staying here. It's kind of
just the opposite of what we want. Do you want to win or do
you want that excitement? And I'vebeen saying for the past couple of weeks
that were without Cal here, weare losing. I think we're gonna lose
the excitement. Now we can winwith a Princeton offense. We could just

(21:17):
win just methodically and win games.Our friends gonna be happy with that?
Or are we gonna miss that wholeidea of putting two and three guys in
an NBA draft every year and goingforward, we may not have a guy
in the NBA draft for the nextfive years. If we could, We're
not gonna say they're not gonna comejust for Pope, because there are people
who want to come and play forthe Wildcats. I think that's still the

(21:41):
thing. But the idea and Larryand the reason it's brought up, because
Larry brought it up in this firstcall, was that he don't think we
can win with freshmen. But peoplealso upset that our recruiting class isn't as
good as dukes and all these otherthings. Well, I think it's hard.
It's just right now, it's justhard. To put together a team
period when you start in mid April, and I think you just have to

(22:02):
be patient and understand what team hehas for this first year probably won't be
anything like the team he'll have goingforward, and he actually has time to
recruit high school players and be involvedin the portal from the time it gets
going and other players have a chanceto see what he's going to be able
to do at Kentucky. I thinkit's really really tough right now trying to

(22:26):
put this roster together. I mean, as we talked about, he has
two players on his roster, butthat's one more player than what John Caliberry's
got on his roster at Arkansas rightnow. So it's not like he just
suddenly filled it's up with ten guys, and he's had a week longer to
be working on it than what MarkPope has, And all of those guys
that were committed to Kentucky, noneof them have committed to Arkansas yet,

(22:49):
and nobody at Kentucky other than Ivisahas transferred to Arkansas. So it's just
a tough process and I don't knowwhat kind of roster Mark Folk's gonna end
up with for next year. I'msure, he's gonna put the best one
together that he can, but Ithink you just better be prepared to be
patient with what he has next year. And remember that he didn't get started

(23:12):
trying to do it till the middleof April, and it's just hard now.
I do agree with Jack to anextent that once he can get one
or two gas committed, maybe it'llbe a little bit easier to get a
few more committed. But maybe Anthony, maybe he'll get older guys and they'll
stay here a little bit and he'lldevelop them in the NBA draft picks.
And that's what our fan base haswanted. And I think I can't remember

(23:34):
which one that might have been Alvinswho said, I'm kind of with you.
We're on the Mark Pope bandwagon.The press conference, we I mean,
the press are we didn't have.We've never had a problem filling our
up for basketball games. I thinkit's just it was a press conference.
But it may have been Larry kindof said the fan base. He's happened

(23:56):
to see the fan base behind himand the things you said. Once we
start getting a rostered a round out, I think the fans will even get
more excited but the one. Ilove the fact that you said the fan
base needs to be patient, Butdo you think they are going to be
patient or do you think the firstbad loss or we could possibly are they
gonna because you know, we've alwayshad a fan base that's waiting to jump

(24:19):
for me, the first one tojump off the bandwagon or I told you
so. But as we've known onthis show for years, everybody, we're
tired of the one and done.They want guys that's gonna stay for two,
three, four years. And ifthat's what we're going to round our
roster off with, they have tobe patient with the process of a guy
stand for two or three years learningthe system and learning Mark Pope's Wait,
are they going to give them thatlong? That a great question, Anthday,

(24:44):
And I'm sure there's some that arevery loyal to John Cali Perry who
won't. It'll be offering those comparison. There'll be some who just like to
win and don't consider the circumstances,who might be a little in patient.
But I think overall it will beaation fan base. But then again,
I felt the fan base would certainlyunderstand the decision that Reid Shepherd has made,

(25:07):
and I've been amazed at some ofthe pushback he's got from some people
blaming him for being more interested inhis financial future than hanging a banner interrupt
I don't know exactly what kind ofbanner they thought he was going to hang
next year with only if he wason the roster, I'd be three and
instead of taking twenty million or morefor the NBA. So that has surprised

(25:30):
me a little bit. And againit's not been a lot of people,
but just even the fact that someor I've been that way as surprised me
a little bit because I thought,what more could you expect from reed Shepherd?
And yet he's kind of flowback fromwhat he's doing too. And Larry,
I'm a little bit surprised at you. I'm surprised at you for being
surprised, but I'm also surprised thatyou for not recognizing for years. Hasn't

(25:53):
everyone not for years? But Iguess the past three four or five maybe
years that people I've always been upsetwhen our players go to the NBA.
Why does Reeve Shepherd get a pass? Reece Shepherd got to pass this season
when he had when he had arough stretch. Why does he why does
he get a pass? Why wouldyou expect the fan base of feel any
differently about Reid leaving after a yearand they've been saying for the past four

(26:14):
years that, well, we don'twant one of Dons. We're not wanting
to with not understanding whether doing itor two different things. To me,
you may not want one and Dons, but if you don't understand why they
become a one and done to securetheir financial future, that's the part that
I don't quite get. And Reidwas a guy that I mean, there's

(26:34):
a lot of people that thought hewouldn't even that he shouldn't even be playing
at Kentucky. Now they have Suddenlyyou don't see that come up anymore,
and that went away quickly. ButI just think, how can you not
be happy for a kid that cameand over overachieved from what was expected to
him and now it's a chance tobe a top ten draft pick. I
don't understand how you can't be happyfor that. Do you think the fan

(26:56):
base will feel a little bit betterif he had taken drawn it out of
It? Came a little quick forme, but I do think there was
probably all this media attention and uh, with Jeff and Mark being you know,
big buddies that you know, letme let me get that. I
know my recruiting process in high schooland we didn't have social media back in
the day, so you know,we had the rotary dial phone, so
you had to sit there. Ifa coach, if you weren't a home,

(27:18):
you weren't a coach wasn't talking toyou, they can leave a message.
But I don't think even back thenwe could call the coaches. They
would have to call us. Uh. So it was a but it wore
me out a little bit. Man. Everybody tugging at you, especially at
the age of sixteen, trying tofind it where you want to go to
school across the country and there we'retrying to tug you give them, telling
them rumors and persuade you against anotherschool. At that age, you shouldn't

(27:41):
have to go through that. Soyou think it's a bit of that why
he announced so quickly or do youjust think it was a no brainer and
he just wanted to get it outof the way so Mark Pope can move
along and his family can move along. I think the Shepherd family is not
wanting to be involved in a lotof drama, and once they knew what
was going to happen, they're notonce to kind of drag it out.

(28:03):
And I think the feedback they gotimmediately because it goes along with everything I've
heard from anybody to connect with theNBA that this and we'll have Christian peak
on with this at eleven and shecan maybe go into a little bit more
detail in this. But this isnot the strongest draft that they've had in
years, And everybody I've talked toconnect with NBA said unless Reid would have

(28:23):
a problem with his physical or something, that there's just no way he's not
going to be in the top ten. And when you look at that kind
of money, I just think,Jeff and Stacey and Reid, I'll say,
you know, my draft stop isnever going to be any higher.
Now is the time to go.And I think they didn't want to drag
it out and leave the kind ofhanging there, so go ahead and make

(28:44):
the decision. In fact, Ithink if John Caliperiod's still been the coach,
I think the decision will probably wouldhave been announced even earlier. That
makes sense. That's good stuff.I'm going to get to the Break early
so we can talk about I knowAlvin brought up the Break and I got
some questions about the brand. Icame to school and played for this brand,
and we report on this brand awhole lot, and there's a lot

(29:07):
of people who cheer for the brand. There's a lot of different angles where
you talk about the brand. I'mkind of curious Larry Vaught and you listeners
your stance on what the brand meansand what was the term the brand mean?
If you want to join the showeight five to nine to eight zero
two two eight seven eight five nineto zero Cats, we will be back
after this. You're listening to StockyardsBank Sunday Morning Sports Talk on news radio
six thirty WLAP. This is thehome of the Wildcats. Six thirty WLAP.

(29:34):
Welcome back Stockyards Bank Sunday Morning SportsTalk. I am Anthony White along
with Larry Vaught. The phone linesare lit up, so we're going to
continue to We've been talking little UKfootball, UK basketball. We haven't dove
into UK baseball a whole lot,but that team is exciting. If you

(29:56):
haven't got an opportunity to go seethem, you probably should go see them.
We got to get back on agood foot after dropping the game yesterday
four to nine. You could checkthem out today at one pm on the
SEC Network plus Bowen. I'm sureyou can probably hear them on these airways
at one o'clock. You are correct, So we'll have the game here on

(30:18):
six thirty w LAP Cats and Tennessee. So big rubber match between these two.
Yeah, we gotta get this seriesnumber two against number three after splitting
the series between Friday and Saturday.So I didn't think they were going to
win on Friday, and then allof a sudden, the bats just got
hot. Yeah, it was funny. Look, yeah it was rough.

(30:41):
It was about to fifth, noseventh or eighth inning when they started and
the bats started working for them.I mean, I'm not going so far
to call them come back Cats yet. Yeah, I'm not going to do
that, but it seems like theykind of hit their stride in the middle
of the game. But yesterday Tennesseejumped out big time in the first inning.
And Anthony Larry, you guys havewatched sports just as long as I

(31:04):
have, and you kind of,especially with Kentucky basketball, you just kind
of get that feeling that early inthe game, this is not going to
go well, you know, kindof like watching Kentucky and Oakland, you
kind of get that since in thefirst five or six minutes, that this
is not going to end up theway we want it to. Yeah,
our beasts has been rocking pretty muchall last week. I mean at nine

(31:27):
rows against Harbor Friday, nine roseagainst or thirteen against them on Saturday.
I'm I guess everybody, unless youdon't have a TV, you heard about
the seventeen runs against Louisville. Soit's been a maybe we should have carried
some of those runs over. Andthey set an attendance record for Kentucky Proud
Park Friday night, and then theythe fans broke a yes yesterday. So

(31:51):
I'm curious to find out if themomentum continues with the fan attendance, that
is interesting. I might have tomake it over to myself. Is easy
to get in Oh yeah park,I mean parking and all that stuff.
Or do I just tell them Iknow Bo Robinson or Larry No, don't.
That's not going to get you anywherein life. Trust me, I'll
tell Larry vaugh You tell them youknow Larry. That will help you out

(32:12):
much more. That won't help either. Ancy, that'll probably push you back
a few lots. Well that's fine, man, So go check the Cats
so you can listen to it hereon them at one pm. You can
listen to on this show on thisairwaves where you can go over to those
baseball facilities and watch the game.Let's get back to the phone lines and
see what we what Dennis has tosave to us. Good morning, the

(32:35):
Didnis. How's it going, howwe're doing. We're doing good, doing
good. A couple of things onbasketball, and then I'll get onto football
here since football has been tremendously slightedhere the last couple of weeks. As
far as basketball, I like themMark pop Her, but the Saint here,

(33:00):
here's my thought over why it wasthat I caught the Pope rally was
so big is that they everybody thinksfor going back to ninety six and this
day and time, I don't knowif you can ever go back to ninety
six, because you can't. Fanbases tired of the one and dones,

(33:22):
But you're never You're not gonna bedone with the one and dones. You're
still gonna have to recruits, maybenot as many, but you still got
to recruit some studs to go withwith some transfer for players. And transfer
to this portal is a joke.You're gonna lose. You're gonna lose players

(33:44):
in the portal. I mean theportal giveth and it taketh away. So
you know, if you think youso you I just think that people think
going back to ninety six. You'renot going to go back to ninety six
can legally because just the way athleticsare today, you've got the transfer portal,

(34:07):
N I L and the one anddones, it's never gonna be what
it was. So you know,the blue bloods, if you've got money
to compete, then you'll be okay. But if you don't have money and
you're not going to compete, andyou know, you've got Arkansols down there.

(34:29):
He's got Jerry Jones, he's gotmore money than any booster that the
UK has. You got the TysonChicken. So you know, don't kid
yourselves that. You know, moneytalks and you know you know what walks.
So anyway, as far as football, what's the chances of getting this

(34:52):
big running back Martinez? And doyou think that's a sign that Kentucky's not
fully happy with what they had onboard. And something else kind of surprised
me is that we're really deep onthe D line, but it seems like
we're going after some players in thetransfer portal on the D line. So
are we anticipating somebody leaving or whatdo you guys? Let y'all take there.

(35:16):
Thank you for the call, Dennis. We will throw those things around
as far as the D line isconcerned. I feel, and Larry,
I don't know. I'm not sureif you're familiar with this, but that
class that wasn't justin Rogers and thoseuh Hayes Sounders. What's the kids?

(35:42):
What's the number number eight from upin Ratcliffe, Kentucky? Ox and Don?
Yeah, so all those guys inthe class. So we're in the
We need to get into portal nowor a portal we got to have backup.
So I don't anticipate Dion coming back. Those three guys aren't coming back.
And that is although we have adeep room now in the defensive line,

(36:04):
if all those guys leave, youcan't start scrapping and looking for somebody
next year we needed. Hopefully wecan get one or two guys this year
to replaced, Like you said,Dion's going to be a huge loss.
And those other three guys I named, and it's probably more than that.
Those other three guys I named,Larry or have been in the system progressing
to where they are and now,so we can't just start from scratch next

(36:28):
year with some little seventeen eighteen yearolds in this conference. Anyways, No,
and how many of those guys arebanged up right now, Anthony,
I heard every single one of usbanged up, And as I stayed a
last week, Gadson got hurt duringthe Blue and White game and he was
somebody who So the only people Ithink that were available that are true d

(36:52):
linemen were were Smith, the Smithtwin And I don't know why I'm keep
on all these names keep on escapingme. The kid from Youngstown, Brian
Robinson. Those were the only twoavailable after the end of the spring.
They to make it through spring.I think they had to move a couple
offensive linemen to defensive line just toget the spring game together. So that's

(37:15):
why people keep asking about the springgame. I didn't get a really good
gauge on what's going on, butwe will talk about the things that I
do know and I do feel itgoing to be problems or great points.
We will talk about that after this. You're listening to Stockyards Bank Sunday morning
sports talk on news radio six thirtyWLAP