Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back Stockyards Bank Sunday morning sports Stalk. I'm Anthony
White along with Jack Pilgrim and Larry Walk coming to
you from snowy Clark's Main Street Market studios and beautiful
downtown Lexington, Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Jack Pilgrim, before we get back.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
To the big ass Fans hotline, I did want to
give you a chance to chime in because you know
you are one of the best at beat riding for
UK basketball right now.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Where do you think.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
The basketball rankings are?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Men? Are women? Who's hotter? Right now?
Speaker 1 (00:39):
As far as fan Big Blue Nations concerned, As far
as Jack Pilgrim is concerned, I should.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Say, well, you gotta ride with a hot streak. You
gotta ride with Kenny Brooks and what Georgia amore the
magic that they're creating right now. I mean, like the
men's team is well, winning the statement, you know, big
time games, the you know, the top fifteen opponent.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Things like that.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
But the women's team, they're just taking handling business with
what's in front of them, and you know, riding this
hot streak, riding this winning streak, you know, building that momentum,
building that you know, continuity within the season, I could
not be more impressed with what Kenney brus is doing
in year one. I know it's gonna be tough too,
you know, it's it's easier to have an all American
(01:24):
talent kind of anchoring things for you and kind of,
you know, raise the floor in year one. So we'll
see what happens in year two and year three, kind
of building that continuity. But I mean, if you ask me,
I think this women's team is year one a Final
four contender, and and to just say that out loud,
it's just it blows my mind. So I love what
(01:45):
Mark Pope is doing obviously, but man, there's there's some
real magic going on over in Memorial Collegeume.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Okay, I just want to make sure it was real,
because if anybody was gonna ride the Vin's team, it
was gonna be you. So I just want to make
sure your head was screwed on straight. So appreciate that
from you, Jack Pilgrim. Let's get back to the big
Ass Fans Hotline. If you would like to join the show,
you can join the show eight five to nine to
eight zero two to eight seven. Let me know where
(02:12):
you stand between women's basketball men's basketball does women's basketball
team get enough respect. Do you think that Mark Pope
has with injuries and everything, do you think Mark Pope
has what it takes to continue to be competitive in
the SEC Because these injuries, and I'm doing air quotes,
fatigue is starting to set this team back just a
(02:33):
tab bit.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Although we were competitive.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
We scored ninety seven points and a loss, which is
very exciting. Reminds me of how mummy football score a
lot of points but you lose. Nobody's happy about the loss,
but you're happy about the excitement. So let's get back
to the big Gass fans hotline. See what Alvin has
to say. Good morning, Alvin, what do you got for us?
Alvin has hung up, So Alvin, if you want to
call back, you can call back. Jack Pilgrim. The biggest
(02:59):
take from the game yesterday from from your perspective, the
injuries are not gonna get any better. As I stayed
it before, injuries aren't gonna get any better. Uh, I
know it sounds like your voice. Somebody asked Mark about
maybe we started playing a little ice o ball again
down the stretch, which let me give a shout out
(03:21):
to o Way. The guy's terrific I can't wait to
get Kristin peak on to talk about maybe his stock
when we get a little bit further into the end
of the season, to see what his stock is looking like.
But just the whole idea, the injuries, Uh, nothing's gonna
get better.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
The schedule's not.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Gonna get any easier going forward, and our chance is
not going to get any better due to fatigue, injuries
and some of those things.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Where do you where.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
You mentally at with this team based off of those things,
Jack Pilger.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
You know, I just thought their luck ran out a
little bit. You know, it's basketball, You're gonna get It's
a game of you know, the make or miss league,
especially in the best league in college basketball, where there
are just gonna be days where you know the team
you're going up against is going to be hitting the
shots that you're not. That swing where you know, Travis
(04:15):
Perry misses that wide, wide, wide open three in the
left corner that could have you know, really kind of
kept that momentum going and really flip it there down
the stretch that leads to an Alabama three. On the
other other end, that six point swing that you know,
it just kind of when you have two elite teams
that just comes down to make here or there or
a miss here or there. You know, you know the
(04:36):
Lamont Butler turn over there that you know, when when
they were kind of in a position some you know,
shot selection stuff. I don't I think that was a
little blown out of proportion that you know, going going ice.
I didn't think there was as much hero ball that
we kind of saw on some of the other losses,
the Clemson, Ohio State and the Georgia that really, you know,
it was weird, Like I wasn't as mad leaving that
(05:00):
game as I was the last three and the three losses,
and this one was at home. Like usually Kentucky fans
are more been out of shape about you know, losing
at home and you know, not being able to represent
rupp Aerina and leave a you know, undefeated streak at
home and those things. There wasn't as much of that
that I heard as I kind of expected, you know,
(05:21):
the first Mark Pope you know home loss at Referreena.
I was expecting a little bit more backlash. But I
think there is a grand understanding of hey, you know,
we've already solidified ourselves as an elite team when you
beat Duke, you beat you know, Gonzaga, you go down
the list of these high profile wins that he's already
been able to stablish, you don't need to prove yourself anymore.
And I think even though they came came in a loss,
(05:44):
I still thought they proved themselves once again against a
high profile offensive genius in NATO's and just how impressive
that team is, a very good chance that they'd make
it back to the Final four this year, and you
know they were right there in it, you know, all
the way down to the last couple of cents possession.
So they prove themselves once again, even in a loss,
that they're capable, they have the dudes to make a run.
(06:07):
NATO's even said after the game that this team would
I had plenty talent to make a run. So I
think my biggest takeaway is I think Mark Pope was
more pissed off about the loss than the entire fan
base was. And I don't think I've ever remembered a
game where the fans were more you know, more okay
with how a loss unfolded than the head coach, because
(06:28):
you know, clearly we didn't deal with much of that
in the previous administration. It's it's cool. It's just an
interesting time to kind of understand how how positive things
are around here.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Well, the big Ass Fans Hotline is back active. I
was going to ask you so put this underneath you had.
I do want to find out what happens at the
point guard position if Lamont doesn't or or continues to ail,
and if things get worse, because that kind of concerned
me when he was off the court a little bit.
But let's get back to the big Ass Fans Hotline
(06:59):
to see what you he has to say.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Good morning, Judy? What he got for us? Judy? I
need you to turn your radio down.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
In the background, we're getting feedback and we are here
to hear what you have to say.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Judy.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
You have to talk to us. You have to turn
your radio. You can't listen to the radio, yep, because
we're getting feedback from that. But good morning, What do
you got for us?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Okay, Well hold on, let me turn.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
The radio down. Well, I was just saying to the
fellow that can you hear me now, Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Ma'am, I know B to B.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
It was disappointed yesterday, but those boys played their hearts
out yesterday. And I wanted to shout out to Jack Pilgrim.
I listened to uh when he and See we're down
at Mississippi State, and he did a video of the
game that was better than watching the game. You did
(08:07):
a great job, Jack, or I think it's See that
does the photography part. But anyway, I think the men
and the women are both awesome. I don't think the
women are on TV, and I do get that sec
plus so I can watch them. But I just want
to say I think that we are on the right
(08:28):
track men and women, and let's go win them all
number nine and then let the women get into the
big tournament and see how they can do it.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Well.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Thank you for the call, Judy, first time hearing her voice.
So I'm assuming your first time caller because I've been
Larry Vaughton. I've been on here for about eighteen or
nineteen years, so we appreciate the call. Jack Pilgrim, you're
getting kudos, man. See, not everybody, not everybody's gonna kick
you around.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Can we hand out a call to there? That's my winner, right,
there's my new favorite college.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I agree with you. I absolutely agree with you on that.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I did want to go back to the question I
asked earlier, if Butler gets worse or if something happens
with Butler, because he's playing good. The things he does
is just I guess it's really effort. Most of the
things he like, he's not going to shoot you like crazy.
I mean, he's going to play great defense, he's going
(09:27):
to get to the bucket, he draw files, he's going
to make your your defense have to worry about him.
Him and Old Way are two people that the defense
always has to worry about. Now, you do have bread
and shooters that they have to, you know, adjust and
make sure you close out on. But as far as
controlling the tempo of the game, getting hard buckets, being physical,
and he's already hurt, but the moment he was off
(09:49):
the court, we lost a lot of that downhill effort
and just to grid on the defensive end, we were
getting phone by when he was off the court. So
I'm kind of concerned if he does if his injury
does grow and get a little worse and he has
to come off the court, especially in March, what are
we looking at for that?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Well, when you lose arguably the best point guard in
college basketball, he's not going to be be as good Anthony.
I don't know. I don't know how to break it
to you. I don't know how to tell tell the
fan base. Let the fan base down. But Lamont is
a very very very very very good basketball player. And
I'll be honest, he's better than I thought he was.
I knew, you know, the Accolade's game winning shot to
(10:33):
go to the championship game. I get all that, but
like the numbers don't blow you away when you just
look at him on paper and you know, you look
at the highlights and you're like, man, does he have
the quickness to keep up in the SEC? Does he
have the you know the size? I mean, he's a
six to one, two hundred pound point guard, Like, does
he have the you know, the stuff to be an
(10:53):
SEC point guard? A good one? And man, he has
blown me away at every stop. He's tough as nails.
He's a winner. He hits big shots. I mean even
like when the game is just out of reach, out
of reach, you think, well, well, go get him next time,
go cast you know, he hits a big shot there
in the last couple of seconds to make you go, well,
they're not totally dead quite yet and that is such
an unbelievably valuable thing to have and just have in
(11:16):
your back pocket. So yeah, it would be a lot.
But you know, Larry is kind of alluded to it,
said it pretty you know, bluntly on social media at times.
I think you'd have to saw his leg off to
miss legitimate time here, especially antil we get kind of
crunch time down the stretch of the season. If that
dude has a pulse, he's going to play in these
(11:36):
basketball games. That's why when he just put on the
injury report going into this one for dealing with all
the injuries that he kind of you know, caught on Tuesday,
there wasn't even a doubt in my mind that he
wasn't going to give it a go because he's Lamont Butler.
And you know, I'm glad that we have Lamtt Butler
and everybody else in college basketball doesn't. Because he's a
he has very quickly become an all times fan favorite
(11:57):
here in Lexington.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Larry Vas, much as I agree with Jack Pilgrim on
those statements, banged up Lamont Butler going into March, going
through the month of February going into March, a banged
up Lamont Butler, and the other team knows that he's
banged up, it's gonna be even more banged up. They're
gonna go at him. They're gonna apparently the sec reps
are letting you just lower your shoulders and bowl people over.
(12:21):
Are you concerned any bit or? I know you won't
be able to keep Lamont Butler off the court, but
him at sixty percent, if it starts to get down
from where maybe he's at seventy five. Now you get
down to sixty, maybe he's at fifty percent limping around
out there. This still is the toughest conference in America.
It's gonna become h it's gonna be it's gonna handicap
(12:46):
your team something. Is that not a concern? Do you
have a solution? I'm not sure if Travis Parrott is
the solution, but is he's young, he's still growing, so
he could become that.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Well.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
I think the the best hope is you get kerk
criesa back and that gives you a little bit more
of an option of what you can do. But the
Lamont is an interesting guy, as Jack just pointed out,
and I think and Anthony you probably have maybe played
with some guys like this or maybe you were like
this too, is that sometimes I think he's not probably
(13:20):
totally honest with the coaches about just how banged up
he is because he wants to play, and he just
wants to be out there and playing, and it's just
hard to get him out and to get him rested it.
I don't know that he'll ever be totally healthy the
rest of the season, as you have said, because he
just goes so hard when he's out there. I mean,
he's playing with that bad shoulder that Mark Pope said
(13:41):
for part of the week he couldn't even raise his arm,
and yet he's standing out there trying to take charge,
diving on the floor, doing aws those things that he does.
He's just got a level of toughness that you can't coach.
I think that's probably why I ended up having to
miss the Gonzaga game, is because he probably wasn't totally
honest with the UK coaching staff at Clemson. Baddi's ankle
was hurting when he injured it there, and he went
(14:03):
ahead and finished the game and probably made it worse.
But man, you have to love a guy that's got
that kind of mentality. Because there's not many like him,
and there's no doubt they are far, far, far better
when he's on the court, and that's gonna be something
Mark Cope and his coaches are going to have to
figure out how to balance about what do you do
(14:23):
with him to keep him healthy and versus pushing him
and hurting him some more. So it's a really really
interesting dilemma. But Kenny Brooks kind of has the same thing,
but he's been for it. His players aren't banged up,
but he has no depth. He was talking the other
day about basically that Georgia doesn't practice.
Speaker 6 (14:42):
She just kind of watches.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
And goes through a few things because he can't risk
wearing her out or getting her hurt or anything and practice.
So he said they don't have really hard practices because
where they really got it's more like an NBA practice
where they just kind of go through things. And I'm
sure Mark does the same type thing with his guys.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
But that's why.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Coaches get those big dollars. But Jack said, it's gonna
be hard take on mont Butler out because I don't
know that he's gonna come out.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
That is Larry Vaught. We will continue this conversation. On
the other side of this break, you're listening to Stockyards
Bank Sunday one of Sports Talk on news radio six
thirty WLAP.
Speaker 7 (15:17):
This is the home of the Wildcats, six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Welcome back Stockyards Bank Sunday winning sports Talk. I'm Anthony
White along with Jack Pilgrim and Larry Vaught. Stockyards Bank
is your trusted partner since nineteen o four, so head
on over to syb dot com for all your banking
and financial needs. If you like to join the show
eight five, nine to eight zero, two to eight, seven
(15:43):
eighty five, nine to eight zero caps. We ain't got
a whole lot of time, but Jack, I did want
to ask, uh, what was your what is your take
on the game that Maury William, I'm kind of scratching
my head.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I thought the effort was there.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I thought he did some really good things, but I
just can't put a like a huge stamp of a
you know, of approval on it. But I'm also don't
feel like he played a bad game at all, but.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
It just's kind of bland. What did you take of
Amari's game?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
There are so many times with amar that I'm like, man,
that is the best center in college basketball. I mean
he does things or I'm like, I don't know how
you can find somebody more physically imposing, a better playmaker,
a better basketball IQ, you know, facilitator play. I mean,
he does he does everything. Uh. And then there are
other times I'm like, man, this dude, there's a reason
(16:40):
he came from Drexel. Like they're just they're the ups
and downs with him are just so fascinating.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
You know, I think a lot of it is mental
with him, you know, just when he plays with confidence
and kind of gets downhill and says, all right, I'm
about to take this game over. I think that there
that is the best version of him, when he kind
of gets in his head of I gotta make a
play right now, you know what do I do? That's
when you kind of get into the ISO heavy stuff.
You see him kind of take unnecessarily contested shots at
(17:10):
the rim. You just see you know, him not playing
with confidence is uh, you know, probably just not good
enough for what Kentucky needs. So yeah, it's a weird scout,
Like it's weird to dissect how he plays, because if
you you know, Nitpicks the the good film, you would
think that he's the best. You know, he'd the highlight king.
(17:31):
If you just put together all of his best his
best plays as a wild game, you go, man that
that dude, that dude is an all time Kentucky player.
If you put together the low lights, you would think, Wow,
this dude doesn't belong in a Kentucky uniform. So finding
that balance, finding more of the you know, the consistency
of the better version of of that, and and you know,
kind of capitalizing on the good stuff minimizing the bad stuff.
(17:53):
That's definitely gonna be key here down the stretch. I
think yesterday was a pretty good example of both, where good,
very good overall, but probably not good enough for what
Kentucky needed to win that game.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Got about a minute left. Uh, this is supposed to be.
I guess the bye week equivalent to football bye week.
You don't have anything to do this week? Is this
Pope gonna have the guy just rest and try to
get as healthy as possible. Or do you just have
to continue learning because there's so much and mark Pope's
expectations or is this just just resting and get your
(18:26):
feedback underneath you?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Rest?
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Rest, Rest, Rest, I don't want them doing anything. If
they could take a couple of days of practice off,
I'm for it. Lamont and Andrew Carr, All eyes are
on you. We'll see what happens with Kerkkriso. We've been
kind of getting some vague not the best Like you know,
we used to get the big timelines for Kerr when
he first got injured six weeks. We haven't heard a
real number since then. So we'll see what happens there
(18:51):
and when how quickly he can get back. But hey,
it's one more week closer to whatever his return looks
like when you when you don't play for another week.
So uh yeah, all eyes on getting this team healthy
and get back on track because I think the encore
product is plenty good enough to make a pretty good
run and.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I agree with that. That is Jack Pilgrim. We appreciate you, Jack.
I have a good rest of your day. If you
like to join the show eight five nine to eight
zero two two eight seven eight five nine two A
zero Cats, we will be back after this. You are
listening to Stockyards Bank Sunday morning sports talk on news
radio six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
This is the home of the Wildcats. Six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Welcome back Stockyards Bank Sunday Morning Sports Talk. I am
Anthony White along with Larry Vaught. This hour Sunday Morning
Sports Talk has brought to you by a country Boy Brewing.
Talking about UK men's basketball team loss yesterday at noon
one o two to ninety seven. We did score Larry
(19:51):
Vaughton ninety seven points in a loss, which meant if
we could have got a couple stops, which we that
was most of the problem, that we couldn't get a
lot of stops. But if you scored ninety seven points,
that is a lot of points. Like I said earlier,
it kind of reminds me of UK football back in
the How Mummy era. You score forty points and still lose.
Are the fans excited about that? Probably not? But are
(20:14):
they disappointed about it? No, because I think they enjoyed
the show. I think is that what we're at as
a fan base that long gives weird competitive fans? Are
accepting of this or are we still going.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
To get back to the whole as Judy said, we
want number nine?
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Are we going to start getting back to hey, we
got to win these games when they count?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Well?
Speaker 5 (20:39):
I think it's some of both. I think fans obviously
want to win every game, just like what Mark Pope does.
I think they also have an appreciation for the effort
and style that this team has, and it does make
it entertaining, as you noted, kind of like when Howe
was here, you didn't always like losing fifty eight to
(21:01):
forty two, but when you left there, it was it
was a pretty entertaining event that you saw. So I
think it's kind of a fine line, and I think
Mark probably gets a little bit of a grace period
with this being his first year and everything too. And again,
to me yesterday, I wasn't as concerned about what Kentucky
didn't do right. I just thought it was a game
you just give Alabama credit for playing really, really well.
(21:24):
And it's also I think this kind of what life
is like in the SEC right now. I mean, there's
it's just brutal. I mean to think that right now
that we think Kentucky has really played pretty pretty well
and they're tied for fifth, I mean with Tennessee, which
just a couple of weeks ago was number one in
the nation. Now Tennessee is three and two in SEC
(21:46):
play and Mississippi State, where Kentucky went on the road
and one Mississippi State knocks off Old miss who had
just beat Alabama. So it's a other than Alburn who
just kind of keeps roll and right along everybody else.
You know, it seems like on that one night you
could win, or on that one night you could lose.
(22:07):
So I mean, I would have never thought about Vanderbilt
being three and two at this point of the Secson
or Missouri being four and one. So it's gonna be
a lot more weeks that we probably talk about things
like as wins that were just really terrific and losses
that well, maybe you didn't quite see it coming, but
Kentucky didn't play that poorly. Then it's still got beat
(22:27):
because SEC is just that good, I.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Think, and I knew. I said I wouldn't do this,
Larry Vaught, But you could be. You could have a
zero on five SEC team and your coach could you
Your team colors could be red, Crimson, somewhere in that
color ranging. Your coach could be wearing. And this is
what I heard from a little birdie. I don't know
for certain, did a coach in the SEC that coaches
(22:50):
had a red team? Did he have a blue suit
on yesterday. Did you happen to notice that or was
it roomed?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I know you.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
I didn't. I didn't watch, but I did hear the
same thing, and I thought, surely not, surely, not even
John would have made that mistake or whatever or would
have done that.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I wouldn't have thought.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
But apparently it seems to have been true, because I
had quite a few people reach out to me and
let me know that that's what he had done. So
I guess it is what it is. You just never know.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Do you read anything into that?
Speaker 5 (23:20):
No, because and again maybe it's because you know, I've
been known sometimes, like if Kentucky was playing Missippi State
at Rupp Arena, and I remember once I came there
and had on like kind of a maroon sweater that
somebody had given me for Christmas. I mean, I didn't
think anything, but I just put on whatever sweater I
pulled out, and then then I caught flack for doing something.
(23:43):
So I mean, maybe John's just old and he just
didn't think what he was doing. But I don't know.
I can't believe he would have done it to have
just drawn attention, So I don't know. Maybe it's very
very perplexing to try to understand of what we've been
going through his mind. But maybe when you're struggling to
win a game, put the last thing on your mind
(24:05):
is what color you're wearing.
Speaker 6 (24:06):
I think his other jackets didn't come back from the
dry cleaners.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
In time that could have been.
Speaker 6 (24:13):
Or maybe he was maybe he was reminiscing a little bit.
He saw on the schedule that Kentucky and Alabama was yesterday.
Maybe he was reminiscing about last year's UK Alabama game.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Yeah, because you.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
Got to remember that that was a wild game too.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
Yeah, except Kentucky won that one right twenty.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
Right, and it was a very entertaining, high octane.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
Yeah, probably as good. It's what's what there's been the
last couple of years, these two Kentucky Alabama games. So
it's just gonna be that kind of season. As we
talked that, there's just gonna be some games that you think, wow,
they just played so great and this team could go
to the Final four. There's gonna be another game where
he's like, I don't know this, Maybe they're not as
good as what we think. And part of it's gonna
be because of how they play and part of it's
(24:57):
gonna because of who they're playing.
Speaker 6 (24:59):
Can throw this there. I read an article a couple
of days ago. It was on Saturday down South and
it was comparing Caliperry's career to the Godfather movies and
how Godfather won was really good. So if you look
at what he did at Umaz, what he did at Memphis,
kind of compact that all in and in the first
(25:20):
few years at Kentucky really good. Godfather too, also very
good movie. Cali Perry here at Kentucky still pretty good.
But then you get to Godfather three, the current Cali
Perry situation at Arkansas, and it's not good. It's not
a good movie. I go back to this would make
(25:40):
Patino don Vito Corleone. Arkansas was right when the pet
band back in the nineties played the thing from The
Godfather when Kentucky went to Arkansas and Patino walked down
on the court.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Huh see, you always got a deeper meaning for things.
I can get behind that. I can get behind it.
It's a real good article. Saturday Downsouth dot com is
where it's at.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I'm have to check it out.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
I will say I think it is been a Kentucky
fan at this point, there's a lot to smile about.
And I was I brought this up. I think a
couple of weeks ago. I did see Joe on Twitter
did make a He had a statement that I kind
of wanted to get your both I guess both of
you guys reaction to was. I don't, as Larry Vaught said,
(26:28):
Mark Pope at this point deserves you know, some some
grace Mulligan. You know, if this team is competitive, you know,
these guys have only been together for a couple of months.
It's not a team that uh was has been working together.
They have in jail, and I think they are still
getting better, and I do want to kind of ask
find out if we think they are going trending in
the right direction due to injuries and their progression and
(26:51):
Mark Pope's offense, defensive schemes and things like that. But
the one thing that I brought up a couple of
weeks ago and Joe brought up on Twitter, not the
same exact question, but he feels just a legitimate Larry
Vaught that when the refereeing was going on yesterday, Jack
Pilgrim said it, but as a refereeing was going on,
(27:13):
yesterday he would like to see Mark Pope, you know
what I mean, get up in their face, man, get
a get a technical you know, you know at anime,
let your players know that I see what's going on
with you. I'm going to stand up for you. I
have no problem with anything that Mark Pope has done
since he's been here. I mean, I love I don't.
I think at this point he's exempt from ridicule. But
Joe brought that question up, and now a couple of
(27:34):
people have murmured it a little bit.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Do you think.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
That Mark Pope neista at this point for his team's sake,
you know, get a little antsy, get a little loud, show,
a little bravado, and we both know that's not his personality.
But does he has a muster some of that up
to get a little bit more out of his team?
Speaker 5 (27:57):
Yeah, I don't know any I think it's just his
to do that kind of thing. And in fact, I've
been talking to several people this week for a story
about the kindness that Mark coaches with. Is that the
new standard of how you're going to have to do it?
Because if guys or our athletes, I shouldn't just say
guys but if athletes feel like they're being verbally abused
(28:20):
or they're not being used right now, that is just
bail out on. You go in the transfer portal and
go somewhere else. You just have to show them love
and kindness to get what you want out of them
better today than yelling and screaming. I think that's kind
of the approach that Mark is taken, and it has
worked very well for him. Whether you're going to have
to get on he did work the referees just a
tad a time or two yesterday. But he's just not
(28:41):
going to be one of those that's going to whine
and moan and make excuses.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Anytime.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
As you heard after the game is players Marked stressed
to them that they're going to have to learn how
to guard properly. They're going to have an official or
they're going to be blowing the whistles in practice this
week to say you can't do that and try to learn,
and that's just how Mark he is. So I think
if you're looking for a guy that's gonna rant and
rave and throw a hissy fit over on the sideline
(29:09):
toward officials, that's just not going to be him.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
He did yell, oh my gosh, and it was caught
on TV Tuesday night. I was I couldn't believe our
coach did that.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Bo.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Do you need a.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Little bit more? Do you need a little bit more
of a spunky pope? Or I mean, as Larry Voss said,
that's his DNA is to be a nice, respectable, wholesome guy,
and that's what is going to be.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Or you need to see a little bit fire Renny.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
He knows how to control his own emotions. He knows
what he's doing in the moment. If he gets fired
up and he gets on the officials and he gets
teed up, that's even better for the crowd at rapp Arena.
I'll be standing behind him one hundred percent. But if
he has a certain approach, a way he's doing things,
then let him do it. I'm more interested in winning games,
(29:57):
and however he doesn't is fine with me.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I do think though, as a player, I do think
there's something to it. I know some of how Mommy,
I think he got it from Steve Spurry or that
they throwing down at the visor. I think not from
a bad player or something from a bad call or something.
I do think as a player that kind of gets
you going.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I think that gets me. Yeah, coaches upset, let's let's
get going.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Especially when you see two of your coaches offensive coordinator's
nose and nose offensive defense coordinators knows and nose, you know,
both yelling each other man. That gets the players going.
So I do think there's something about that. I do
think that Mark Pope has the way he coaches. I
think he has the personality that the guys are receptive to.
So maybe he doesn't have to do that, but I
(30:40):
think the some of the great coaches will, like Bill Belichick,
he shows no emotional sideline at all, but there are
times throughout a game where he will throw his visor,
throw the clipboard, whatever, you know, show some some upsetness,
just so that I think. I think it's more for
(31:00):
the players to know, you know, hey, let's get it
in gear. If he's not gonna yell at him, I'm
you know what, Joe, everybody else says that they don't
think is Mark Pope and they don't think that he
should do it. I wouldn't be mad, and I got
enough faith in Mark Pope that when he needs to
do it may happen. In March May happen in the
SEC Tournament. I think he'll do it at the right
time and I think it will be effective at that point.
(31:23):
Larry Vaude, I wanted to before we go to break,
I do want to find out from you. Do you
think we are trending in the right direction as a
basketball team. Do you think they are learning what Mark
Pope wants them to learn, like progressing toward March. Do
you think we already talked about the injuries are not
going anywhere. If the injuries anything, they're gonna get worse.
Maybe Kirk Caurice is gonna come back and that will
(31:44):
help due to because he's not participating now. But as
things are going out, yeah, we're competitive now. The schedule's
gonna get tougher. They're gonna beat up Butler a little
bit more. They're gonna go at car a little bit more.
There's a lot of things going to happen. Someone on
Twitter brought up Jackson Robinson again. They feel like we
(32:06):
need a little bit more out of him. Do you
think we are progressing and trending in the right direction
or maybe still too early, or you know, maybe these
guys may not jeal just because it's the first year,
they won't have enough time, and next year the team
is still going to look a whole lot different.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
Well, I think next year the team will look a
lot different. But yeah, I think they're trending in as
good a direction as you can hope. I think all
of us probably tend to get a little I'm mainly
based on conversations bow when I have I say all
of us, but that sometimes we all tend to get
a little too excited when there's a pretty dramatic win,
and probably panic a little too much when there's a
(32:48):
game that doesn't go well, and we tend to forget
that this is a roster that in April didn't even
have an idea what this roster would look like, and
that there's a lot of good players on this team,
but probably not what you would call elite players. And
I do think they played hard, and I think they
try to do what the coach wants. I think they
probably have some physical limitations, and I think we're just
(33:13):
gonna have to accept it's some games it's going to
probably show up and bite them a little bit. I mean,
Alabama was just how much more athletic would you say
Alabama was in Kentucky, Anthony.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
The only position I think we may have had maybe
fifty to fifty or be equal or a little bit
is either Butler or a way other than that. I
think they were they had us all match everywhere else
and actually do and that may just be a push
between Butler and what he was going against.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
Yeah, I would agree with you. I think probably Butler
and O way. You probably could say that would about
fifty to fifty about who was everplace else and it
just showed up and that's just hard sometimes to overcome.
So again, like see, I don't think it was a
Kentucky played poorly. I just thought Alabama played really well.
I know I talked to several national media writers go
into the game, and they all picked Alabama. I just
(34:09):
thought that Alabama was a better overall team than Kentucky.
So I think what Pope's done has been terrific. I
think they'll still they'll keep doing that, but I think
this team does have some limitations and they will do
the best they can with what they've got to work with.
And Mark, we'll keep tinkering around and trying to find
(34:29):
things to make it work better.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
That is the one thing that I think we can
hang our hats on as Big Nation and fans of
University of Kentucky basketball. We are going to be competitive
in every game. Remember we scored ninety seven points. It
was a home game. Alabama is a very very good
basketball team coming off a loss earlier that week. Big
Blue Nation, hang in there, stay behind Pope, keep believing
(34:52):
Pope has us. We're gonna be competitive in every game,
and that's something we haven't been able to say for
quite a while. We'll be back after this. You're listening
to Stockyards Bank Sunday when the sports talk on news
radio six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 7 (35:02):
This is the home of the Wildcats, six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Welcome back Stockyards Bank Sunday Morning Sports Talk. I'm Anthony
White along with Larry Vaught. This hour Sunday Morning Sports
Talk has been brought to you by a country boy
brewing Larry Vaught. I guess we were switching gears because
we're gonna have Coach Garrison on at eleven o'clock to
talk about UK gymnastics and UK Gymnastics not off Alabama,
(35:29):
number three team in the country. And I thought that
you and I were supposed to go watch a gymnastics
event because we have done some nil stuff with them,
or we have attended some of their events that were
INIOL related, and you know, we just supportive of all
UK sports. But I thought it was Alabama meet we
(35:50):
were supposed to, or was it the LSU meet we
were supposed at ten.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
I think it's the LSU that we've kind of got
penciled in that it looks like both of us should
maybe be free on that Friday, February the twenty first,
because I'm going to be out of town a couple
different time. I know we were talking and with them
having some away meets that that looked like the best
one for us to maybe be able to make, unless
unless it works out. I know they have a home
meet on January thirty first. I believe it is, so
(36:18):
we might be able to make that one. But I
think at LSU, with them being the defending national champion
is when we kind of circled it for sure we
wanted to go to.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
And as far as gymnastics is concerned, I did tell
you I can do a kip up, and I thought
the gymnast that we had on the show thought that
that was pretty terrific being just an average athlete. I
do not know how the scoring systems go. When you
do the totality, one hundred and ninety seven points, one
hundred ninety seven point three points is a ton of points.
(36:46):
That's the mostly scored this year thus far.
Speaker 5 (36:49):
Yeah, takes that takes a lot of nine eighths, nine
nine's and all to get there. And of course it
was I think it's Delaney Rodriguez you were talking about.
That was when we had her on this and she
won the all around for Friday Our tied with one
of the gymnast from Alabama for the all around title.
So I'm pretty happy that because she's been on with
(37:10):
us two different times, right, so off a great start
for her. And then Sharon Lee, who was on with us,
did really well on Friday Night also.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
And I didn't I thought that Sharon Lee was not
really expected to contribute a whole lot. Has she turned
the corner?
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Has she? Or Am I wrong?
Speaker 1 (37:27):
I thought when we talked about Sharon Lee that she
has some development to do, and she was she has
she broken into the lineup.
Speaker 5 (37:35):
Yes, she's a sophomore. And she scored a nine to
nine on being the first first competition, first time she's
been in the meat rotation. So to go out there
in your first one score nine nine, I'd be like
quite playing your first game and rushing for one hundred
and fifty yards I think, or something like that would
be the equivalent of that. So that's pretty impressive for her.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Wow, So we're just gonna have coach on. We're not
gonna have any of the girls.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
On right now.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
We're gonna have coach on him. Let him tell us
about all these different stars that he's got. And he's
got a load of them. And I don't think until
we started having a few of the gymnasts down with
us earlier that I realized how many different athletes he
used in one competition, how you rotate them in and
out depending on which event it is, and all like that,
(38:22):
and how many gymnasts it takes to fill a team
out like that, and also should be pretty interesting. And
you know his assistant coach is his wife.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
He's a coach in the GM and typically, well the
wife has to be the gym because wife is always
making all the decisions. We'll have Coach Garrison on when
we come back. You're listening to Stockyards Bank Sunday morning
sports talk on news radio six thirty WLAP
Welcome back Stockyards Bank Sunday morning sports Stalk. I'm Anthony
White along with Jack Pilgrim and Larry Walk coming to
you from snowy Clark's Main Street Market studios and beautiful
downtown Lexington, Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Jack Pilgrim, before we get back.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
To the big ass Fans hotline, I did want to
give you a chance to chime in because you know
you are one of the best at beat riding for
UK basketball right now.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Where do you think.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
The basketball rankings are?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Men? Are women? Who's hotter? Right now?
Speaker 1 (00:39):
As far as fan Big Blue Nations concerned, As far
as Jack Pilgrim is concerned, I should.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Say, well, you gotta ride with a hot streak. You
gotta ride with Kenny Brooks and what Georgia amore the
magic that they're creating right now. I mean, like the
men's team is well, winning the statement, you know, big
time games, the you know, the top fifteen opponent.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Things like that.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
But the women's team, they're just taking handling business with
what's in front of them, and you know, riding this
hot streak, riding this winning streak, you know, building that momentum,
building that you know, continuity within the season, I could
not be more impressed with what Kenney brus is doing
in year one. I know it's gonna be tough too,
you know, it's it's easier to have an all American
(01:24):
talent kind of anchoring things for you and kind of,
you know, raise the floor in year one. So we'll
see what happens in year two and year three, kind
of building that continuity. But I mean, if you ask me,
I think this women's team is year one a Final
four contender, and and to just say that out loud,
it's just it blows my mind. So I love what
(01:45):
Mark Pope is doing obviously, but man, there's there's some
real magic going on over in Memorial Collegeume.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Okay, I just want to make sure it was real,
because if anybody was gonna ride the Vin's team, it
was gonna be you. So I just want to make
sure your head was screwed on straight. So appreciate that
from you, Jack Pilgrim. Let's get back to the big
Ass Fans Hotline. If you would like to join the show,
you can join the show eight five to nine to
eight zero two to eight seven. Let me know where
(02:12):
you stand between women's basketball men's basketball does women's basketball
team get enough respect. Do you think that Mark Pope
has with injuries and everything, do you think Mark Pope
has what it takes to continue to be competitive in
the SEC Because these injuries, and I'm doing air quotes,
fatigue is starting to set this team back just a
(02:33):
tab bit.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Although we were competitive.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
We scored ninety seven points and a loss, which is
very exciting. Reminds me of how mummy football score a
lot of points but you lose. Nobody's happy about the loss,
but you're happy about the excitement. So let's get back
to the big Gass fans hotline. See what Alvin has
to say. Good morning, Alvin, what do you got for us?
Alvin has hung up, So Alvin, if you want to
call back, you can call back. Jack Pilgrim. The biggest
(02:59):
take from the game yesterday from from your perspective, the
injuries are not gonna get any better. As I stayed
it before, injuries aren't gonna get any better. Uh, I
know it sounds like your voice. Somebody asked Mark about
maybe we started playing a little ice o ball again
down the stretch, which let me give a shout out
(03:21):
to o Way. The guy's terrific I can't wait to
get Kristin peak on to talk about maybe his stock
when we get a little bit further into the end
of the season, to see what his stock is looking like.
But just the whole idea, the injuries, Uh, nothing's gonna
get better.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
The schedule's not.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Gonna get any easier going forward, and our chance is
not going to get any better due to fatigue, injuries
and some of those things.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Where do you where.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
You mentally at with this team based off of those things,
Jack Pilger.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
You know, I just thought their luck ran out a
little bit. You know, it's basketball, You're gonna get It's
a game of you know, the make or miss league,
especially in the best league in college basketball, where there
are just gonna be days where you know the team
you're going up against is going to be hitting the
shots that you're not. That swing where you know, Travis
(04:15):
Perry misses that wide, wide, wide open three in the
left corner that could have you know, really kind of
kept that momentum going and really flip it there down
the stretch that leads to an Alabama three. On the
other other end, that six point swing that you know,
it just kind of when you have two elite teams
that just comes down to make here or there or
a miss here or there. You know, you know the
(04:36):
Lamont Butler turn over there that you know, when when
they were kind of in a position some you know,
shot selection stuff. I don't I think that was a
little blown out of proportion that you know, going going ice.
I didn't think there was as much hero ball that
we kind of saw on some of the other losses,
the Clemson, Ohio State and the Georgia that really, you know,
it was weird, Like I wasn't as mad leaving that
(05:00):
game as I was the last three and the three losses,
and this one was at home. Like usually Kentucky fans
are more been out of shape about you know, losing
at home and you know, not being able to represent
rupp Aerina and leave a you know, undefeated streak at
home and those things. There wasn't as much of that
that I heard as I kind of expected, you know,
(05:21):
the first Mark Pope you know home loss at Referreena.
I was expecting a little bit more backlash. But I
think there is a grand understanding of hey, you know,
we've already solidified ourselves as an elite team when you
beat Duke, you beat you know, Gonzaga, you go down
the list of these high profile wins that he's already
been able to stablish, you don't need to prove yourself anymore.
And I think even though they came came in a loss,
(05:44):
I still thought they proved themselves once again against a
high profile offensive genius in NATO's and just how impressive
that team is, a very good chance that they'd make
it back to the Final four this year, and you
know they were right there in it, you know, all
the way down to the last couple of cents possession.
So they prove themselves once again, even in a loss,
that they're capable, they have the dudes to make a run.
(06:07):
NATO's even said after the game that this team would
I had plenty talent to make a run. So I
think my biggest takeaway is I think Mark Pope was
more pissed off about the loss than the entire fan
base was. And I don't think I've ever remembered a
game where the fans were more you know, more okay
with how a loss unfolded than the head coach, because
(06:28):
you know, clearly we didn't deal with much of that
in the previous administration. It's it's cool. It's just an
interesting time to kind of understand how how positive things
are around here.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Well, the big Ass Fans Hotline is back active. I
was going to ask you so put this underneath you had.
I do want to find out what happens at the
point guard position if Lamont doesn't or or continues to ail,
and if things get worse, because that kind of concerned
me when he was off the court a little bit.
But let's get back to the big Ass Fans Hotline
(06:59):
to see what you he has to say.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Good morning, Judy? What he got for us? Judy? I
need you to turn your radio down.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
In the background, we're getting feedback and we are here
to hear what you have to say.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Judy.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
You have to talk to us. You have to turn
your radio. You can't listen to the radio, yep, because
we're getting feedback from that. But good morning, What do
you got for us?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Okay, Well hold on, let me turn.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
The radio down. Well, I was just saying to the
fellow that can you hear me now, Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Ma'am, I know B to B.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
It was disappointed yesterday, but those boys played their hearts
out yesterday. And I wanted to shout out to Jack Pilgrim.
I listened to uh when he and See we're down
at Mississippi State, and he did a video of the
game that was better than watching the game. You did
(08:07):
a great job, Jack, or I think it's See that
does the photography part. But anyway, I think the men
and the women are both awesome. I don't think the
women are on TV, and I do get that sec
plus so I can watch them. But I just want
to say I think that we are on the right
(08:28):
track men and women, and let's go win them all
number nine and then let the women get into the
big tournament and see how they can do it.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Well.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Thank you for the call, Judy, first time hearing her voice.
So I'm assuming your first time caller because I've been
Larry Vaughton. I've been on here for about eighteen or
nineteen years, so we appreciate the call. Jack Pilgrim, you're
getting kudos, man. See, not everybody, not everybody's gonna kick
you around.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Can we hand out a call to there? That's my winner, right,
there's my new favorite college.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I agree with you. I absolutely agree with you on that.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I did want to go back to the question I
asked earlier, if Butler gets worse or if something happens
with Butler, because he's playing good. The things he does
is just I guess it's really effort. Most of the
things he like, he's not going to shoot you like crazy.
I mean, he's going to play great defense, he's going
(09:27):
to get to the bucket, he draw files, he's going
to make your your defense have to worry about him.
Him and Old Way are two people that the defense
always has to worry about. Now, you do have bread
and shooters that they have to, you know, adjust and
make sure you close out on. But as far as
controlling the tempo of the game, getting hard buckets, being physical,
and he's already hurt, but the moment he was off
(09:49):
the court, we lost a lot of that downhill effort
and just to grid on the defensive end, we were
getting phone by when he was off the court. So
I'm kind of concerned if he does if his injury
does grow and get a little worse and he has
to come off the court, especially in March, what are
we looking at for that?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Well, when you lose arguably the best point guard in
college basketball, he's not going to be be as good Anthony.
I don't know. I don't know how to break it
to you. I don't know how to tell tell the
fan base. Let the fan base down. But Lamont is
a very very very very very good basketball player. And
I'll be honest, he's better than I thought he was.
I knew, you know, the Accolade's game winning shot to
(10:33):
go to the championship game. I get all that, but
like the numbers don't blow you away when you just
look at him on paper and you know, you look
at the highlights and you're like, man, does he have
the quickness to keep up in the SEC? Does he
have the you know the size? I mean, he's a
six to one, two hundred pound point guard, Like, does
he have the you know, the stuff to be an
(10:53):
SEC point guard? A good one? And man, he has
blown me away at every stop. He's tough as nails.
He's a winner. He hits big shots. I mean even
like when the game is just out of reach, out
of reach, you think, well, well, go get him next time,
go cast you know, he hits a big shot there
in the last couple of seconds to make you go, well,
they're not totally dead quite yet and that is such
an unbelievably valuable thing to have and just have in
(11:16):
your back pocket. So yeah, it would be a lot.
But you know, Larry is kind of alluded to it,
said it pretty you know, bluntly on social media at times.
I think you'd have to saw his leg off to
miss legitimate time here, especially antil we get kind of
crunch time down the stretch of the season. If that
dude has a pulse, he's going to play in these
(11:36):
basketball games. That's why when he just put on the
injury report going into this one for dealing with all
the injuries that he kind of you know, caught on Tuesday,
there wasn't even a doubt in my mind that he
wasn't going to give it a go because he's Lamont Butler.
And you know, I'm glad that we have Lamtt Butler
and everybody else in college basketball doesn't. Because he's a
he has very quickly become an all times fan favorite
(11:57):
here in Lexington.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Larry Vas, much as I agree with Jack Pilgrim on
those statements, banged up Lamont Butler going into March, going
through the month of February going into March, a banged
up Lamont Butler, and the other team knows that he's
banged up, it's gonna be even more banged up. They're
gonna go at him. They're gonna apparently the sec reps
are letting you just lower your shoulders and bowl people over.
(12:21):
Are you concerned any bit or? I know you won't
be able to keep Lamont Butler off the court, but
him at sixty percent, if it starts to get down
from where maybe he's at seventy five. Now you get
down to sixty, maybe he's at fifty percent limping around
out there. This still is the toughest conference in America.
It's gonna become h it's gonna be it's gonna handicap
(12:46):
your team something. Is that not a concern? Do you
have a solution? I'm not sure if Travis Parrott is
the solution, but is he's young, he's still growing, so
he could become that.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Well.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
I think the the best hope is you get kerk
criesa back and that gives you a little bit more
of an option of what you can do. But the
Lamont is an interesting guy, as Jack just pointed out,
and I think and Anthony you probably have maybe played
with some guys like this or maybe you were like
this too, is that sometimes I think he's not probably
(13:20):
totally honest with the coaches about just how banged up
he is because he wants to play, and he just
wants to be out there and playing, and it's just
hard to get him out and to get him rested it.
I don't know that he'll ever be totally healthy the
rest of the season, as you have said, because he
just goes so hard when he's out there. I mean,
he's playing with that bad shoulder that Mark Pope said
(13:41):
for part of the week he couldn't even raise his arm,
and yet he's standing out there trying to take charge,
diving on the floor, doing aws those things that he does.
He's just got a level of toughness that you can't coach.
I think that's probably why I ended up having to
miss the Gonzaga game, is because he probably wasn't totally
honest with the UK coaching staff at Clemson. Baddi's ankle
was hurting when he injured it there, and he went
(14:03):
ahead and finished the game and probably made it worse.
But man, you have to love a guy that's got
that kind of mentality. Because there's not many like him,
and there's no doubt they are far, far, far better
when he's on the court, and that's gonna be something
Mark Cope and his coaches are going to have to
figure out how to balance about what do you do
(14:23):
with him to keep him healthy and versus pushing him
and hurting him some more. So it's a really really
interesting dilemma. But Kenny Brooks kind of has the same thing,
but he's been for it. His players aren't banged up,
but he has no depth. He was talking the other
day about basically that Georgia doesn't practice.
Speaker 6 (14:42):
She just kind of watches.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
And goes through a few things because he can't risk
wearing her out or getting her hurt or anything and practice.
So he said they don't have really hard practices because
where they really got it's more like an NBA practice
where they just kind of go through things. And I'm
sure Mark does the same type thing with his guys.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
But that's why.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Coaches get those big dollars. But Jack said, it's gonna
be hard take on mont Butler out because I don't
know that he's gonna come out.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
That is Larry Vaught. We will continue this conversation. On
the other side of this break, you're listening to Stockyards
Bank Sunday one of Sports Talk on news radio six
thirty WLAP.
Speaker 7 (15:17):
This is the home of the Wildcats, six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Welcome back Stockyards Bank Sunday winning sports Talk. I'm Anthony
White along with Jack Pilgrim and Larry Vaught. Stockyards Bank
is your trusted partner since nineteen o four, so head
on over to syb dot com for all your banking
and financial needs. If you like to join the show
eight five, nine to eight zero, two to eight, seven
(15:43):
eighty five, nine to eight zero caps. We ain't got
a whole lot of time, but Jack, I did want
to ask, uh, what was your what is your take
on the game that Maury William, I'm kind of scratching
my head.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I thought the effort was there.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I thought he did some really good things, but I
just can't put a like a huge stamp of a
you know, of approval on it. But I'm also don't
feel like he played a bad game at all, but.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
It just's kind of bland. What did you take of
Amari's game?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
There are so many times with amar that I'm like, man,
that is the best center in college basketball. I mean
he does things or I'm like, I don't know how
you can find somebody more physically imposing, a better playmaker,
a better basketball IQ, you know, facilitator play. I mean,
he does he does everything. Uh. And then there are
other times I'm like, man, this dude, there's a reason
(16:40):
he came from Drexel. Like they're just they're the ups
and downs with him are just so fascinating.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
You know, I think a lot of it is mental
with him, you know, just when he plays with confidence
and kind of gets downhill and says, all right, I'm
about to take this game over. I think that there
that is the best version of him, when he kind
of gets in his head of I gotta make a
play right now, you know what do I do? That's
when you kind of get into the ISO heavy stuff.
You see him kind of take unnecessarily contested shots at
(17:10):
the rim. You just see you know, him not playing
with confidence is uh, you know, probably just not good
enough for what Kentucky needs. So yeah, it's a weird scout,
Like it's weird to dissect how he plays, because if
you you know, Nitpicks the the good film, you would
think that he's the best. You know, he'd the highlight king.
(17:31):
If you just put together all of his best his
best plays as a wild game, you go, man that
that dude, that dude is an all time Kentucky player.
If you put together the low lights, you would think, Wow,
this dude doesn't belong in a Kentucky uniform. So finding
that balance, finding more of the you know, the consistency
of the better version of of that, and and you know,
kind of capitalizing on the good stuff minimizing the bad stuff.
(17:53):
That's definitely gonna be key here down the stretch. I
think yesterday was a pretty good example of both, where good,
very good overall, but probably not good enough for what
Kentucky needed to win that game.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Got about a minute left. Uh, this is supposed to be.
I guess the bye week equivalent to football bye week.
You don't have anything to do this week? Is this
Pope gonna have the guy just rest and try to
get as healthy as possible. Or do you just have
to continue learning because there's so much and mark Pope's
expectations or is this just just resting and get your
(18:26):
feedback underneath you?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Rest?
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Rest, Rest, Rest, I don't want them doing anything. If
they could take a couple of days of practice off,
I'm for it. Lamont and Andrew Carr, All eyes are
on you. We'll see what happens with Kerkkriso. We've been
kind of getting some vague not the best Like you know,
we used to get the big timelines for Kerr when
he first got injured six weeks. We haven't heard a
real number since then. So we'll see what happens there
(18:51):
and when how quickly he can get back. But hey,
it's one more week closer to whatever his return looks
like when you when you don't play for another week.
So uh yeah, all eyes on getting this team healthy
and get back on track because I think the encore
product is plenty good enough to make a pretty good
run and.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I agree with that. That is Jack Pilgrim. We appreciate you, Jack.
I have a good rest of your day. If you
like to join the show eight five nine to eight
zero two two eight seven eight five nine two A
zero Cats, we will be back after this. You are
listening to Stockyards Bank Sunday morning sports talk on news
radio six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
This is the home of the Wildcats. Six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Welcome back Stockyards Bank Sunday Morning Sports Talk. I am
Anthony White along with Larry Vaught. This hour Sunday Morning
Sports Talk has brought to you by a country Boy Brewing.
Talking about UK men's basketball team loss yesterday at noon
one o two to ninety seven. We did score Larry
(19:51):
Vaughton ninety seven points in a loss, which meant if
we could have got a couple stops, which we that
was most of the problem, that we couldn't get a
lot of stops. But if you scored ninety seven points,
that is a lot of points. Like I said earlier,
it kind of reminds me of UK football back in
the How Mummy era. You score forty points and still lose.
Are the fans excited about that? Probably not? But are
(20:14):
they disappointed about it? No, because I think they enjoyed
the show. I think is that what we're at as
a fan base that long gives weird competitive fans? Are
accepting of this or are we still going.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
To get back to the whole as Judy said, we
want number nine?
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Are we going to start getting back to hey, we
got to win these games when they count?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Well?
Speaker 5 (20:39):
I think it's some of both. I think fans obviously
want to win every game, just like what Mark Pope does.
I think they also have an appreciation for the effort
and style that this team has, and it does make
it entertaining, as you noted, kind of like when Howe
was here, you didn't always like losing fifty eight to
(21:01):
forty two, but when you left there, it was it
was a pretty entertaining event that you saw. So I
think it's kind of a fine line, and I think
Mark probably gets a little bit of a grace period
with this being his first year and everything too. And again,
to me yesterday, I wasn't as concerned about what Kentucky
didn't do right. I just thought it was a game
you just give Alabama credit for playing really, really well.
(21:24):
And it's also I think this kind of what life
is like in the SEC right now. I mean, there's
it's just brutal. I mean to think that right now
that we think Kentucky has really played pretty pretty well
and they're tied for fifth, I mean with Tennessee, which
just a couple of weeks ago was number one in
the nation. Now Tennessee is three and two in SEC
(21:46):
play and Mississippi State, where Kentucky went on the road
and one Mississippi State knocks off Old miss who had
just beat Alabama. So it's a other than Alburn who
just kind of keeps roll and right along everybody else.
You know, it seems like on that one night you
could win, or on that one night you could lose.
(22:07):
So I mean, I would have never thought about Vanderbilt
being three and two at this point of the Secson
or Missouri being four and one. So it's gonna be
a lot more weeks that we probably talk about things
like as wins that were just really terrific and losses
that well, maybe you didn't quite see it coming, but
Kentucky didn't play that poorly. Then it's still got beat
(22:27):
because SEC is just that good, I.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Think, and I knew. I said I wouldn't do this,
Larry Vaught, But you could be. You could have a
zero on five SEC team and your coach could you
Your team colors could be red, Crimson, somewhere in that
color ranging. Your coach could be wearing. And this is
what I heard from a little birdie. I don't know
for certain, did a coach in the SEC that coaches
(22:50):
had a red team? Did he have a blue suit
on yesterday. Did you happen to notice that or was
it roomed?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I know you.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
I didn't. I didn't watch, but I did hear the
same thing, and I thought, surely not, surely, not even
John would have made that mistake or whatever or would
have done that.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I wouldn't have thought.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
But apparently it seems to have been true, because I
had quite a few people reach out to me and
let me know that that's what he had done. So
I guess it is what it is. You just never know.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Do you read anything into that?
Speaker 5 (23:20):
No, because and again maybe it's because you know, I've
been known sometimes, like if Kentucky was playing Missippi State
at Rupp Arena, and I remember once I came there
and had on like kind of a maroon sweater that
somebody had given me for Christmas. I mean, I didn't
think anything, but I just put on whatever sweater I
pulled out, and then then I caught flack for doing something.
(23:43):
So I mean, maybe John's just old and he just
didn't think what he was doing. But I don't know.
I can't believe he would have done it to have
just drawn attention, So I don't know. Maybe it's very
very perplexing to try to understand of what we've been
going through his mind. But maybe when you're struggling to
win a game, put the last thing on your mind
(24:05):
is what color you're wearing.
Speaker 6 (24:06):
I think his other jackets didn't come back from the
dry cleaners.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
In time that could have been.
Speaker 6 (24:13):
Or maybe he was maybe he was reminiscing a little bit.
He saw on the schedule that Kentucky and Alabama was yesterday.
Maybe he was reminiscing about last year's UK Alabama game.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Yeah, because you.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
Got to remember that that was a wild game too.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
Yeah, except Kentucky won that one right twenty.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
Right, and it was a very entertaining, high octane.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
Yeah, probably as good. It's what's what there's been the
last couple of years, these two Kentucky Alabama games. So
it's just gonna be that kind of season. As we
talked that, there's just gonna be some games that you think, wow,
they just played so great and this team could go
to the Final four. There's gonna be another game where
he's like, I don't know this, Maybe they're not as
good as what we think. And part of it's gonna
be because of how they play and part of it's
(24:57):
gonna because of who they're playing.
Speaker 6 (24:59):
Can throw this there. I read an article a couple
of days ago. It was on Saturday down South and
it was comparing Caliperry's career to the Godfather movies and
how Godfather won was really good. So if you look
at what he did at Umaz, what he did at Memphis,
kind of compact that all in and in the first
(25:20):
few years at Kentucky really good. Godfather too, also very
good movie. Cali Perry here at Kentucky still pretty good.
But then you get to Godfather three, the current Cali
Perry situation at Arkansas, and it's not good. It's not
a good movie. I go back to this would make
(25:40):
Patino don Vito Corleone. Arkansas was right when the pet
band back in the nineties played the thing from The
Godfather when Kentucky went to Arkansas and Patino walked down
on the court.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Huh see, you always got a deeper meaning for things.
I can get behind that. I can get behind it.
It's a real good article. Saturday Downsouth dot com is
where it's at.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I'm have to check it out.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
I will say I think it is been a Kentucky
fan at this point, there's a lot to smile about.
And I was I brought this up. I think a
couple of weeks ago. I did see Joe on Twitter
did make a He had a statement that I kind
of wanted to get your both I guess both of
you guys reaction to was. I don't, as Larry Vaught said,
(26:28):
Mark Pope at this point deserves you know, some some
grace Mulligan. You know, if this team is competitive, you know,
these guys have only been together for a couple of months.
It's not a team that uh was has been working together.
They have in jail, and I think they are still
getting better, and I do want to kind of ask
find out if we think they are going trending in
the right direction due to injuries and their progression and
(26:51):
Mark Pope's offense, defensive schemes and things like that. But
the one thing that I brought up a couple of
weeks ago and Joe brought up on Twitter, not the
same exact question, but he feels just a legitimate Larry
Vaught that when the refereeing was going on yesterday, Jack
Pilgrim said it, but as a refereeing was going on,
(27:13):
yesterday he would like to see Mark Pope, you know
what I mean, get up in their face, man, get
a get a technical you know, you know at anime,
let your players know that I see what's going on
with you. I'm going to stand up for you. I
have no problem with anything that Mark Pope has done
since he's been here. I mean, I love I don't.
I think at this point he's exempt from ridicule. But
Joe brought that question up, and now a couple of
(27:34):
people have murmured it a little bit.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Do you think.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
That Mark Pope neista at this point for his team's sake,
you know, get a little antsy, get a little loud, show,
a little bravado, and we both know that's not his personality.
But does he has a muster some of that up
to get a little bit more out of his team?
Speaker 5 (27:57):
Yeah, I don't know any I think it's just his
to do that kind of thing. And in fact, I've
been talking to several people this week for a story
about the kindness that Mark coaches with. Is that the
new standard of how you're going to have to do it?
Because if guys or our athletes, I shouldn't just say
guys but if athletes feel like they're being verbally abused
(28:20):
or they're not being used right now, that is just
bail out on. You go in the transfer portal and
go somewhere else. You just have to show them love
and kindness to get what you want out of them
better today than yelling and screaming. I think that's kind
of the approach that Mark is taken, and it has
worked very well for him. Whether you're going to have
to get on he did work the referees just a
tad a time or two yesterday. But he's just not
(28:41):
going to be one of those that's going to whine
and moan and make excuses.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Anytime.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
As you heard after the game is players Marked stressed
to them that they're going to have to learn how
to guard properly. They're going to have an official or
they're going to be blowing the whistles in practice this
week to say you can't do that and try to learn,
and that's just how Mark he is. So I think
if you're looking for a guy that's gonna rant and
rave and throw a hissy fit over on the sideline
(29:09):
toward officials, that's just not going to be him.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
He did yell, oh my gosh, and it was caught
on TV Tuesday night. I was I couldn't believe our
coach did that.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Bo.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Do you need a.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Little bit more? Do you need a little bit more
of a spunky pope? Or I mean, as Larry Voss said,
that's his DNA is to be a nice, respectable, wholesome guy,
and that's what is going to be.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Or you need to see a little bit fire Renny.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
He knows how to control his own emotions. He knows
what he's doing in the moment. If he gets fired
up and he gets on the officials and he gets
teed up, that's even better for the crowd at rapp Arena.
I'll be standing behind him one hundred percent. But if
he has a certain approach, a way he's doing things,
then let him do it. I'm more interested in winning games,
(29:57):
and however he doesn't is fine with me.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I do think though, as a player, I do think
there's something to it. I know some of how Mommy,
I think he got it from Steve Spurry or that
they throwing down at the visor. I think not from
a bad player or something from a bad call or something.
I do think as a player that kind of gets
you going.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I think that gets me. Yeah, coaches upset, let's let's
get going.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Especially when you see two of your coaches offensive coordinator's
nose and nose offensive defense coordinators knows and nose, you know,
both yelling each other man. That gets the players going.
So I do think there's something about that. I do
think that Mark Pope has the way he coaches. I
think he has the personality that the guys are receptive to.
So maybe he doesn't have to do that, but I
(30:40):
think the some of the great coaches will, like Bill Belichick,
he shows no emotional sideline at all, but there are
times throughout a game where he will throw his visor,
throw the clipboard, whatever, you know, show some some upsetness,
just so that I think. I think it's more for
(31:00):
the players to know, you know, hey, let's get it
in gear. If he's not gonna yell at him, I'm
you know what, Joe, everybody else says that they don't
think is Mark Pope and they don't think that he
should do it. I wouldn't be mad, and I got
enough faith in Mark Pope that when he needs to
do it may happen. In March May happen in the
SEC Tournament. I think he'll do it at the right
time and I think it will be effective at that point.
(31:23):
Larry Vaude, I wanted to before we go to break,
I do want to find out from you. Do you
think we are trending in the right direction as a
basketball team. Do you think they are learning what Mark
Pope wants them to learn, like progressing toward March. Do
you think we already talked about the injuries are not
going anywhere. If the injuries anything, they're gonna get worse.
Maybe Kirk Caurice is gonna come back and that will
(31:44):
help due to because he's not participating now. But as
things are going out, yeah, we're competitive now. The schedule's
gonna get tougher. They're gonna beat up Butler a little
bit more. They're gonna go at car a little bit more.
There's a lot of things going to happen. Someone on
Twitter brought up Jackson Robinson again. They feel like we
(32:06):
need a little bit more out of him. Do you
think we are progressing and trending in the right direction
or maybe still too early, or you know, maybe these
guys may not jeal just because it's the first year,
they won't have enough time, and next year the team
is still going to look a whole lot different.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
Well, I think next year the team will look a
lot different. But yeah, I think they're trending in as
good a direction as you can hope. I think all
of us probably tend to get a little I'm mainly
based on conversations bow when I have I say all
of us, but that sometimes we all tend to get
a little too excited when there's a pretty dramatic win,
and probably panic a little too much when there's a
(32:48):
game that doesn't go well, and we tend to forget
that this is a roster that in April didn't even
have an idea what this roster would look like, and
that there's a lot of good players on this team,
but probably not what you would call elite players. And
I do think they played hard, and I think they
try to do what the coach wants. I think they
probably have some physical limitations, and I think we're just
(33:13):
gonna have to accept it's some games it's going to
probably show up and bite them a little bit. I mean,
Alabama was just how much more athletic would you say
Alabama was in Kentucky, Anthony.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
The only position I think we may have had maybe
fifty to fifty or be equal or a little bit
is either Butler or a way other than that. I
think they were they had us all match everywhere else
and actually do and that may just be a push
between Butler and what he was going against.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
Yeah, I would agree with you. I think probably Butler
and O way. You probably could say that would about
fifty to fifty about who was everplace else and it
just showed up and that's just hard sometimes to overcome.
So again, like see, I don't think it was a
Kentucky played poorly. I just thought Alabama played really well.
I know I talked to several national media writers go
into the game, and they all picked Alabama. I just
(34:09):
thought that Alabama was a better overall team than Kentucky.
So I think what Pope's done has been terrific. I
think they'll still they'll keep doing that, but I think
this team does have some limitations and they will do
the best they can with what they've got to work with.
And Mark, we'll keep tinkering around and trying to find
(34:29):
things to make it work better.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
That is the one thing that I think we can
hang our hats on as Big Nation and fans of
University of Kentucky basketball. We are going to be competitive
in every game. Remember we scored ninety seven points. It
was a home game. Alabama is a very very good
basketball team coming off a loss earlier that week. Big
Blue Nation, hang in there, stay behind Pope, keep believing
(34:52):
Pope has us. We're gonna be competitive in every game,
and that's something we haven't been able to say for
quite a while. We'll be back after this. You're listening
to Stockyards Bank Sunday when the sports talk on news
radio six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 7 (35:02):
This is the home of the Wildcats, six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Welcome back Stockyards Bank Sunday Morning Sports Talk. I'm Anthony
White along with Larry Vaught. This hour Sunday Morning Sports
Talk has been brought to you by a country boy
brewing Larry Vaught. I guess we were switching gears because
we're gonna have Coach Garrison on at eleven o'clock to
talk about UK gymnastics and UK Gymnastics not off Alabama,
(35:29):
number three team in the country. And I thought that
you and I were supposed to go watch a gymnastics
event because we have done some nil stuff with them,
or we have attended some of their events that were
INIOL related, and you know, we just supportive of all
UK sports. But I thought it was Alabama meet we
(35:50):
were supposed to, or was it the LSU meet we
were supposed at ten.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
I think it's the LSU that we've kind of got
penciled in that it looks like both of us should
maybe be free on that Friday, February the twenty first,
because I'm going to be out of town a couple
different time. I know we were talking and with them
having some away meets that that looked like the best
one for us to maybe be able to make, unless
unless it works out. I know they have a home
meet on January thirty first. I believe it is, so
(36:18):
we might be able to make that one. But I
think at LSU, with them being the defending national champion
is when we kind of circled it for sure we
wanted to go to.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
And as far as gymnastics is concerned, I did tell
you I can do a kip up, and I thought
the gymnast that we had on the show thought that
that was pretty terrific being just an average athlete. I
do not know how the scoring systems go. When you
do the totality, one hundred and ninety seven points, one
hundred ninety seven point three points is a ton of points.
(36:46):
That's the mostly scored this year thus far.
Speaker 5 (36:49):
Yeah, takes that takes a lot of nine eighths, nine
nine's and all to get there. And of course it
was I think it's Delaney Rodriguez you were talking about.
That was when we had her on this and she
won the all around for Friday Our tied with one
of the gymnast from Alabama for the all around title.
So I'm pretty happy that because she's been on with
(37:10):
us two different times, right, so off a great start
for her. And then Sharon Lee, who was on with us,
did really well on Friday Night also.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
And I didn't I thought that Sharon Lee was not
really expected to contribute a whole lot. Has she turned
the corner?
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Has she? Or Am I wrong?
Speaker 1 (37:27):
I thought when we talked about Sharon Lee that she
has some development to do, and she was she has
she broken into the lineup.
Speaker 5 (37:35):
Yes, she's a sophomore. And she scored a nine to
nine on being the first first competition, first time she's
been in the meat rotation. So to go out there
in your first one score nine nine, I'd be like
quite playing your first game and rushing for one hundred
and fifty yards I think, or something like that would
be the equivalent of that. So that's pretty impressive for her.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Wow, So we're just gonna have coach on. We're not
gonna have any of the girls.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
On right now.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
We're gonna have coach on him. Let him tell us
about all these different stars that he's got. And he's
got a load of them. And I don't think until
we started having a few of the gymnasts down with
us earlier that I realized how many different athletes he
used in one competition, how you rotate them in and
out depending on which event it is, and all like that,
(38:22):
and how many gymnasts it takes to fill a team
out like that, and also should be pretty interesting. And
you know his assistant coach is his wife.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
He's a coach in the GM and typically, well the
wife has to be the gym because wife is always
making all the decisions. We'll have Coach Garrison on when
we come back. You're listening to Stockyards Bank Sunday morning
sports talk on news radio six thirty WLAP
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