Sunday Morning Sports Talk - January 18, 2026 - Hour 1

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our wires have been crossed.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm not certain if it is just women's basketball, men's basketball.
The way things are, I'm gonna blame Larry Vard. I'm
gonna blame will Stein because now that he's back in
the office and uh, I hated to see Oregon go down,
but he's back in the office, and maybe he's the
just the the hustling, bustling that BBN just excitement, is

(00:25):
messing up our phone lines or just messing up our
connection in general, just the electricity in the air here
in Lexington.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Yeah, it's it's it's more than phone lines. I don't
know what the heck is going on. You're good right now. Okay,
So I was gonna throw that out there for you.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Well, obviously we are on there, so I was glad
that we got these things smoothed out bowls working behind
the scenes to get those things. You're glad, Yeah, I'm
kind of relieved. Well, I would, but I would love
to hear from Jack. So I don't know if that's
a possibility working. Ok, But we are live on air
and that people are hearing. I just got confirmation from

(01:01):
one of my buddies that he can't hear us. Now, so, okay,
let's do what we normally do then, uh uh Larry
vault so and he said, and he said, don't blame
well Stein.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
No, will, I ain't blame you. I'm gonna be a
biggest fan.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
But we don't think we can take calls yet. I
don't think right. No, We're gonna let him work on
that for a little while. But there's plenty to talk about.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
We if we had our guests in here, Roriguez and
uh bros. There, just set back, man, we would just
sit back and just chop it up. At eleven we're good.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
So by the time we get I was afraid by
the time we get this thing going, it to be
about eleven.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
So.

Speaker 5 (01:40):
But the good thing is is he said he did win.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
We've we've went over this twice, but now we don't
have it down perfect for this dialogue this time.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Right, and you got it in our fan base, you
as well, because Jack will take a win. Harvey, can
you seem like you turn your nose up at a
two point us? No, No, you only when you only
lave for you. You played thirty nine minutes and forty
forty seven seconds, thirty no twenty seven twenty six seconds.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, best trailed.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, and you act like just because they trailed so
so much and it was a U and you know
your heart was pounding and oh, they're not going to
be but you said tim Well, since it didn't go
over the air, Leary walked through under the bus. Ten bigs.
Was kind of concerned that, you know, we were down
by two, A lot of people off a lot of things.
But did they look uninspired?

Speaker 6 (02:34):
Though?

Speaker 3 (02:35):
I don't think they look uninspired the first half. I
thought they got out just how tough now physical a
lot early. It hadn't been for Jasper, they might have
been down the twenty five at halftime, but he kind
of gave him a lift, a little bit of a spark.
And then I thought Tennessee did them a favor. They
took both point guards out the last four minutes and
let them get the margin down back to eleven points

(02:56):
at halftime, and at least kind of got back in
the where you're back in the fray. You weren't down
twenty or twenty five or something like that like they
have been at times, and that helped a lot. And
then in the second half, Tennessee, I just didn't I
don't know they. I guess you just said Kentucky got tougher.
I mean, I think Malachi Marino, who had a horrible

(03:19):
first half, he came out and was a much more
physical player the second half than he had been the
first half, and that helped. Then Denzel Aberdeen who had
four points and well he had two thousand and two
and a half minutes. That's why Jasper had to kind
of come in and write the ship a little bit
with his scoring. But in the second half, Denzel Aberdeen
poured in eighteen points. It was just remarkable. And then

(03:40):
otego Away again was not having a very good game,
just wasn't getting it done. Only went three to eleven
from the field, but he still managed to get twelve
points because he got to the foul line nine times,
only made five of them, but he still still got
there like he needed to and when you needed him
at the end, there he was making a couple of
big plays for you. And then and then Modiabatti, a

(04:01):
guy that I think most Kentucky fans had kind of
written off. I think he'd played a total of twenty
five minutes the two previous games and in this game,
and he came back in and when he got his
chance and he gave him a toughness they needed ten points,
six rebounds. Wasn't messing around trying to shoot three pointers.
He was just in there playing like what he was

(04:21):
supposed to. Again, he was four to eleven from the field.
But I can't faulting because he was in there battling
and knocking Tennessee guys around and they and they needed that.
And when Moe was in the game, and again I
don't know how this plus minus, I don't always but
all I know Kentucky was a plus sixteen and Modia
Bodhi was in the game.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
So I thought when Jack broke that down to us, says,
how the score if you're on the plus side of
the score per minutes.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Where there's a lot of things that go around with that,
because it's not just you, it's how the guy is playing.
That's true if the other four guys on that you're
playing with, go oh for fourteen when you're in the game,
when your plus minus is going to look bad. So
sometimes I think I can be misleading, but I think
it was very because when you look yesterday, the biggest
plus minus was Diabaatee. Then the next one was Colin

(05:09):
Chandler and he played really well. Then I think the
next one after that was Denzel and then Jasper and
those are four guys you all thought played, you thought
played really well when you watch the game. But it's
kind of amazing now the Kentucky is back. They're three
and two in the SEC, which is tied for third,
that everybody in the league has at least one loss.

(05:31):
Florida lost their opening game and you thought, whoa, they're
not going to be as good. We all of a sudden,
now they're four and one. They wanted Vandy like ninety
eight ninety four. It was really a fun game, really
a fun game to watch. But so everybody's right there.
Even I don't think the SEC is as good as
it was last year when you talk about nationally, but

(05:52):
I think as far as being competitive, it might even
be more even because there may not be that big
a difference between one and six team like what there
was last year, well a huge calf A lot of
these teams are pretty even.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
And what you were, uh and we said for the
past couple of weeks, I know, Jack, when things were
looking pretty grim for the Cats, he kind of kept saying,
you know, throw all the analytics out, throw all the
throw all the stats out, and uh, just the way
that Mark Pope likes to coach. But the second half
everybody played the past two games, second half, everybody stepped
the game up. And I think the toughness is something

(06:25):
that you kind of got to have in general. So
like you said, if you're not get anything goes from
from old way or dea body and Moreno's you know,
he's still filling into his role. He's getting where he
needs to be. I think you give credit to Mark
Pope first halftime adjustments. There are coaches who come out
the second half. In these past couple of weeks, the

(06:45):
second half we came out. Everybody looks more confident, everybody
take take are taking better shots. You know, the lineups
kind of pretty much stay the same if it's working
or not. I think he takes the first half to
collect data and then at the halftime adjustments he come
out or do you have another solution? But I'm saying
that because everybody's saying throw out all the analytics and just.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Maybe maybe collect a little data for the game. Maybe
it's collected a little before the game. I mean and
again twelve points down to Mississippi State, what's eighteen down
to LSU, seventeen down to Tennessee and you went on
three of those. I mean, it's I just don't think
that's a trend you like to have to depend on

(07:29):
to keep happening. But it's working right now. They've won
three in a row. That's what matters that you did win.
But I still think they would like to start just
a little bit better. I don't think Mark Pope's intention
is to say, let's get behind but sixteen and come
roaring back.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
No, it's just knowing that you have different options. You
could throw them because you're talking about you're talking about Chandler.
I kind of rolle Chandler off a little bit from
But there's and that's why you have a twelve mayor roster.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
You use it if it has to be Jasper, if
it has to be uh.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
Juggling around, and that's what he's doing. I think a
better job than what he did in some earlier games.
And again, what I'd like to have seen Jasper play
more than nineteen minutes. Yeah, I sure would have because
I thought he was playing really, really well. But as
I said, Aberdeen scores eighteen points a second half and
it looks brillian. It's hard to take everything out. I

(08:17):
get that, but again, what Jasper did, what Chandler did.
Chandler goes four out of six from three and as
you said a couple of weeks theo you think, oh man,
he can't play. And who makes the big steal at
the end is that's sold way up to get the basket.
I mean that's Colin Chandler. So different guys are finding
different ways to accept their role and fill in. And

(08:38):
if they can do that, I think they're going to
be got a chance to be really good going forward.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
You know who typically accepts their role on this show
and does great basketball coverage, Jack Peeper.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
And we finally got Jack Pooker. Jack Peger.

Speaker 5 (08:51):
He didn't get to play the first day either.

Speaker 6 (08:55):
They did it.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
They're doing it like the cats out here. Man, you
had to sit the first half. Man, we got you
for a second half of the show. Man, So now we.

Speaker 5 (09:01):
Can so come out Sie. Before we take you back out.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
We should take Jack prun Larry vaugh Kind. He doesn't
like the ugly wins. You know, there's forty there's forty
minutes on the Clockfour reasons trend there's a forty minutes
there's forty minutes on the clock. Four reason you ever
you ever heard Jack and Larry, Have you ever heard
the story about the tortoise and the hair?

Speaker 3 (09:24):
Yeah, yeah, I've never seen it. I've never seen it.
At first it happen though, I mean, that's a good story.
But I'm gonna bet on the hair every time there's
a race. But uh, yeah, Jack, where where you staying?
Your thoughts on the game? Yesterday? Were just the games
of the week. The Cardiac Cats are back. Yeah, I
wish it didn't, you know, start the way that they

(09:47):
do and and.

Speaker 7 (09:49):
The words I say in real time, I probably need
to just understand patience and and maybe not be so
reactionary at halftime and thinking, oh, well, this team's just
this team's cook. They have no chance. They're there, They're this,
they're that. Uh they're they are learning on the fly.
They are proving everybody wrong on the fly. And uh, hey,

(10:09):
if this is gonna be the new reality where they're
gonna come back and win games, and uh, you know it.
You when you think big picture how the NCAA tournament works,
it's games are not gonna be you know, the opponents
just roll over and die. Like that's just not how
opponents present themselves in the In the NCAA tournament, it

(10:30):
is a do or die. We're going to fight for
forty full minutes. And if you think that, uh, you're, you're,
you're any lead is comfortable, any lead is safe, you
are sadly, sadly mistaken. So you know, as as as
much more comfortable as I'd be watching a thirty point
win against LSU and Baton Rouge or you know, going
down in steam roll in Tennessee. Honestly, there is a

(10:51):
lot of value in learning how to win this way
and this kind of backs against the wall. We gotta
we gotta claw our way out. We got to fight
our way out. There's no no turn back. It's it's
it's do or die right now. We got to make
our move or live with the consequences. And sure enough,
I mean, this team is living behind ten points hopefully.

(11:11):
Even joke like, hey we should we should just start
games down twenty just you know, before before the balls
even tipped, set the scoreboard at twenty to zero and
let us ball so that it's uncomfortable in real time,
but hey, it makes for glorious Sunday morning sports talks
after the fact.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
And Larry, I know you don't like the way it
went down or I don't think it's.

Speaker 5 (11:33):
The Finnis that I know it.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, but just the storyline in the way it's transpired.
I'm sure everybody doesn't like that, but I think everybody
likes drama and thriller.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
But do you do you?

Speaker 2 (11:45):
And it sounds what I'm hearing from Jack and I
feel this way as well as an athlete in general.
I think it Bill's character when you overcome adversity toofed
and I've said this for years, if you overcome at versity,
you end up on the right side of the win column.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Perfect.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Now you can also have adversity in the game and lose,
and hopefully you do it early enough where it doesn't
affect you. But I think here lately, man, we've been
facing adversity and I'm thinking it's a building character. Can
you not give us credit or give Pope or or
even the players, because the players have taken a lot
of lumps upside the head past couple of weeks, you know,
not playing together and not being motivated and oh, you

(12:21):
know any kind of phrases you'd like to use to
describe our team, But to pull it out at the end,
ups and downs, double digit leads, overcoming double digit leads?

Speaker 1 (12:31):
Is that not building character for march?

Speaker 5 (12:35):
Hopefully? Hopefully.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
But again, I'm just saying you're missinterpreting. I'm just saying
it's a bad trend. When you keep getting behind by fifteen, sixteen,
twenty points. You're not just gonna keep coming back and
winning those games all the time. You want to get
to where you start out just a little bit better.
You don't have to start out twenty points ahead. Just
don't get twenty points fine. In fact, my prophetic treat

(12:58):
tweet that I had yesterday was the good news at
halftime they weren't behind but twenty. See, so I was
being optimistic right there. I was not being had. I
wasn't going all off like Jack was. I was looking
for the pothe they weren't down by twenty, so I
felt like I.

Speaker 5 (13:12):
Almost put on nine points ahead.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
That was my logic going on and seeing you saw
me defending against when certain people were giving up yesterday,
and I said they're only down before go down by six?

Speaker 5 (13:22):
Hang in there and.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Now bo Jack the building character. Cam does what you
expect him to do. I think he was on for
two for three, but he filled the role that he
had to roll. Like Larry and I were talking about,
Jasper showed up, like are those guys.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
We expect to see? Maybe we give him too much credit?

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, Jasper hasn't had a lot of minutes, but Chandler
has had some decent minutes, and within those minutes, I
don't think he was on that side of the plus
and minus that you always talk about. But it's are
are we expecting to see what we're seeing out of
and Jasper and a little bit more out of cam uh,
and then things may go the way Larry wanted to go,

(14:06):
But we got to wait to the second half to
get going. He's right, you really don't want to live
in that area, but you gotta watch the film and
find out why it's taking us a half to get going.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (14:19):
I think we need to just throw out everything we
thought and expected about this team in terms of who
needs to be. Oh, well, this is the obvious starting ad.
Like the top eight rotation. We gotta you know, Modia Batay.

Speaker 6 (14:31):
He's out.

Speaker 7 (14:32):
We gotta we gotta throw him out. Jasper's out unfortunately,
trying Noah's out. Unfortunately. We can't just kind of assume
anything about this group anymore because we're seeing, like, Kentucky
does not win that game if Andrea Yellovich and Jasper
Johnson don't play as well. It's half now. In the
second half, it was the Denzel Laboratin show. It was

(14:52):
Colin Chandler hitting big shots. It was Otegay as bad
as he played him, coming up big down the stretch
and getting the steal and score and you know, the
and ones and all that stuff. So like this team,
we talked about the depths all year and how that
was the problematic about the team's chances to like, hey,
I think Pope is panicking having too many pieces of

(15:15):
not knowing who to play when to play them, you know,
how to tighten the rotation. Well, what if this guy's
on a heater and then this other guy's not getting
his minutes and he's going to be up all of
those things that the dynamic that comes with that. I
think now we're kind of learning that, Hey, that's that's
the reason why Kentucky's winning games, because one day it's
gonna be Andrea Jelovitch. One day, it's gonna be Denzel Aberdeen.

(15:35):
One day, it's gonna be on Otega Ohway. Probably more
often than not, it's gonna be Otega Ohway. But you know,
Modiabatte is a perfect example. He was deemed unplayable the
last two games, saw his minutes cut to thirteen and
twelve over the last two and then in this one
he gets four massive second half offensive rebounds leads to
you know, seventeen second half second chance points and that

(15:57):
was the difference, thirteen total offensive rebounds compared to just
one uh in the first half for Kentucky. I mean,
Rick Barnes of the podium was just furious. It's just
like that's effort, man, That's it. That's that's us not
doing our job and not doing not not people taking
on their role. You know, modia Batte had what was
was single handedly kept them in games with with within
that game, with some second chance opportunities and you know,

(16:20):
just fighting for the ball and just showing, you know,
showing toughness and GrITT and you know, that's why you
invest in a guy like modiabat That's why you invest
in the guy like Denzel Aberdeen to all right, the
world around us is kind of collapsing and the offense
isn't looking pretty all right, Well, I'm just gonna go
get mine. I'm gonna go I'm gonna be the dude
to put the you know, put put the capon and
put the team the weight of the world on my

(16:40):
shoulders and go win us as basketball game. That was
Denzel in the second half. So this team, as deep
as they are and as chaotic as the rotation looks
at times, and as much as you put my brain
in a pretzel trying to you know, distribute the minutes
for this for this team, I think I think all
of that is thrown in the dumpster. It is a
game by game by game situation with this group.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Now, before we get to the phone lines, because the
phone lines are fixed or what do I want to
address this before we get deep into the conversation.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
The Jelavick and morenos starters, all that height, I like it,
I love it. I love the energy A give they
I think they bring a Jelavick rings, a little stretch
and plus size. It kind of reminds me of Tiany
Key on the women's team that she can do so
many things because of her size kind of messes up
your lineup. Look, but so where's JQ standing this thing?
And and who comes out of the starting lineup if

(17:29):
JQ does come back Malachi later or I mean moreno, or.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
Appreciated that on purpose?

Speaker 4 (17:37):
You did that on purpose?

Speaker 7 (17:40):
Now that's a great question. I understand the the you know,
like Malachi has been playing so well. You know it
wasn't his best performance. He came up big late. But
you know, how do you take that guy off the
floor in favor of a guy who's played four games
for this team, and you know there's been in and
out of the lineups, you know, since he signed with Kentucky.

(18:02):
So it's tough. But I think that the BG minutes,
you know, BG has some real highs and some real lows,
and he's probably the odd man out. But again is
what it's stunned you if you know against Texas this
week at Beach it's the BEG game, No, because that's
just kind of the new reality with this team. You
never know who's going to step up on any given night.

(18:24):
So I think it's just kind of one of those
we we got a I guess the other angle of
this is JQ and his knee swelling and kind of
getting that right and making sure he's one hundred percent
before he returns. There's not a kind of pressure on
him to return because Kentucky is playing better, and you know,
Malachi has stepped up the way he has. Yelevitch has

(18:45):
stepped up as a new starting four, and you know
we can go small with Cam at the four. We
can you know, modiava ta and kind of take games
over as we saw, so that you have your options
and guys are playing well enough that you're not sitting
there panicking about JQ at this point, he can kind
of come along and when when the time is right,
put him back in there and let him take games
over as we saw him do in the second half

(19:05):
against Saint John's and you know, help help Kentucky win
some basketball games.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
So it's tough.

Speaker 7 (19:10):
That's a really, really tough dynamic that I don't know
the perfect answer for that, and that's why Pope gets
paid the big bucks and I don't.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
And we're going to get to the phone lines because
we have gotten that fixed.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Bowsman working is behind off over there.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
Mike, appreciate you for calling what he got for us.

Speaker 6 (19:31):
Hey, guys, you know, I don't want to try to
act like I know everything, but that's like I finally
figured out this slow star. It's kind of like the
pace and I'll play real fast in the beginning, and
a lot of times I think it's because they admit
that defensive scout, because if you knows, once they get
their defense right and then get a few turnovers, it
kind of naturally states things up and they and they

(19:53):
start playing with a little more pace. And you know,
they didn't get any offensive rebounds or no steels early,
so they kind of didn't get to flow. But when
Jasper come in, he kind of did what Low does
and he kind of stayed it up on his own,
you know, just getting in getting paint touches and things
like that.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
I can agree with that, Larry.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Do you think because Larry's wants us to start a
little faster, I think they're collecting dating Mike, it sounds
to me like you think that maybe they are just
being a little conservative in the beginning, or what you said,
it seems like they come out at at at a
faster pace, or you think they come at a slower pace.

Speaker 6 (20:29):
Mike, they get it. Once they get the defense right,
it seems like they'll get a steal or you know,
or an offensive rebound be nice. And then they get
out on the break. And once they get on the break,
the pace naturally speeds up and the guys seem to
get more engaged when they're playing this uff. And I
don't mean like a you know, like last year, they
need to go fast, but a lot of times that

(20:50):
offense gets stagnant, no movement. Seems like they're getting a
better flow when they're getting out on the break and
things like that, and a lot of times I think
it's there's been several games that matters they've had to
fans because the staff was the the wrong or you know,
they were they're or executing the game plan.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Thanks for the call, Mike, And I do agree with
Mike because I did think a lot of the things
change in the game when when we were in the
passing lanes because we got several steals or several deflections
and you know, just made it tough for those guys
to make passes anywhere. I do think there's I wonder
how much these guys are listening to Mark Poper, how
much what he's trying to accomplish his translating these guys,
because we're still.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Going undernease screens.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Is why Gillespie was having a field day out there,
and you going under these screens.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
It's just kind of taking the easy way.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
If you fight through screens, the hedge has to stay longer,
The shooters a little bit less confident in their shot
because they know you're coming right at their shooting arm typically,
where if you're go underneath the screen, they can set
their feet, their set their balance and take a good shot.
But that is something we've been saying for the past
couple of weeks that preaching us to go over the

(21:59):
screen and stuff underneath the screen. They did that quite
a bit to let you Letsie get going. So I
think Mike maybe onto something. We're gonna check back with
Jack Pilgrim if he thinks those are difference issues when
we come back. You are listening to Stockyards Bank Sunday
when the sports talk on news radio six thirty WLAP.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
This is the home of the Wildcuts, six thirty WLAP.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Welcome back Stockyards Bank Sunday Morning Sports Talk. I'm Anthony
White along with Larry Vaught and Jack Pilgrim. Bo Robinson
Stockyards Bank has been your trusted partner since nineteen hundred
and four, So head on over to syb dot com
for all your banking and financial needs. And remember I
always remember that this hour and next hour and the

(22:38):
hour after that will be brought to you by Country
Boy Brewing. But this hour right now, it's part to
you back Country Boy Brewing. Let's get to the phone
lines while they're hot and see what Steve has to say.
Good morning, Steve, What do you got for us?

Speaker 1 (22:54):
Maybe not Steve? All right? Hey, how you doing? What
do you got for us?

Speaker 8 (23:00):
Good morning, Hey Larry, This is Steve from Margarityville.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
Steve from Margerityville. I love it, man, and I know
you're living life large today.

Speaker 8 (23:09):
Hey, it's great to be a cat here in East Tennessee.
I get to wear the blue around, aggravate all these
people in the Orange. It is great to be here.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
They didn't tear your UK poster down last night?

Speaker 5 (23:22):
Did they?

Speaker 1 (23:23):
Oh?

Speaker 8 (23:23):
No, no, no, they know better than that.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
So well, you you've had a pretty good go at it.
Then what are we six of the last seven?

Speaker 3 (23:32):
Steve?

Speaker 1 (23:33):
So you got you got all the bragging rates?

Speaker 8 (23:36):
Oh? I do. I mean, I mean, Anthony, it's great.
I mean, you'll listen to all these these guys wearing
the orange and they're saying, we're gonna beat you. We're
gonna beat you. And I say, well, hold on, let
me get my eight national championship rings out of my ear.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Rucket here you got, But Steve, I don't.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
I wonder how the game was if for thirty nine
minutes and half of a second and half half of
a minute they were putting it to us, and then
after the game ends and you're on the wrong side
of the wind column, they want to start pushing and shoving.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
What happened with you? They didn't push and shove you,
did they?

Speaker 8 (24:13):
Well, if I had to tell them, they tell a
quick story.

Speaker 6 (24:16):
I went.

Speaker 8 (24:17):
My mother in law and father in law have season
tickets to U t UT and it's like five rows
behind the bench, and they were going to give it
to us. But my wife, I said I can't do that.
I said, I can't hear Rocky talk that many times.
I said, I might get in trouble. So we were
watching the game here and she looked at me and
she says, I'm kind of glad we didn't go, we

(24:37):
might have got in trouble. So but yeah, I'm loving
it down here today and I get to go to
work all week and wearing my blue and so we're
all good.

Speaker 3 (24:48):
Even though they booted you out of your seat right
before you thought you were going.

Speaker 8 (24:51):
To the game, Yeah they did, but that's all. That's
all right, Larry. We we we sit here when we
watch it, and I will tell you I know why. Now.
My wife, she is a not a diehard Tennessee fan,
but she she Mintilaria, is trying to get her to
turn blue because she liked Oscar a couple of years ago,

(25:11):
but now her favorite player Jasper. So every time Jasper
would get in, I'd yell and there I say, Hey,
Jasper's in pray for so I pray for him. So
I think that's why Jasper had those twelve points there.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Well, I didn't know that was her favorite player. We're
going I'm gonna work on getting her an autographed or
something from him to bring down to you.

Speaker 8 (25:26):
All right, that would be good, but no, it's it's good.
And I'll be running my mouth all the week long
that work this week.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
Good for you, Steve, Thanks for the call, Steve, Hey,
Jack Pergrim. I don't know if you were down there
or not, and you.

Speaker 5 (25:42):
Know he was down there well.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
For the games, So it is kind of concerning.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
And I don't know if if you really understand how
how how I guess dangerous those things can be, as
I stated, with Steve leading the game for most of
well the majority, almost the entirety of the game, and
then the rug gets pulled from out underneath you at
the end of the game, like Charlie Brown, and then

(26:13):
they then the temperature start flaring. And I've seen it
with Tennessee fans mostly and sometimes with Louisville fans. Did
it because I don't I think once you lose the game,
I think they're just upset. But it can't really get
dangerous just because those guys are upset, the fans are upset.
I guess they think six out of seven wins at

(26:34):
your own crib is you're not used to it. They
don't get used to it. But did it get dangerous
down there or was it just over really quickly and
everybody calmer heads prevailed.

Speaker 4 (26:44):
They should be used to this at this point, like
home in Kentucky's home is, you know, not Lexington South,
So I'm I don't know why they would feel the
need to let their the temperatures rays and the you know,
their emotions, you know, watching Tennessee fans leave and just

(27:08):
kind of the the how mauthy they were to start.

Speaker 7 (27:11):
The game, and as it was going on and just
kind of you know, they were getting chesty, like, oh man,
you know, finally this this three game losing streak that
we have in this building against our arch rival, is
is is coming to an end. And the kind of
gloating and you know, punching down. There's one we're doing
our pregame walking talk outside the building and there was
some Tennessee fan on on top kind of walking in

(27:34):
and he shouted down at us. He said, cal Perry,
ain't there no more h And I was like, yeah,
that's that's okay, you know, and just gloating and gloating
and gloating, and it was it was just so sweet
watching the meltdown and watching the you know, there was uh,
to the family's credit, there was one section of Kentucky
fans and it was all of the players, you know,

(27:56):
families and cousins and uncles and best friends and all that, uh,
sitting in one one section and they were so loud,
and they were the ones starting all the defense defense
chants on whenever we needed a big stop or uh.
It was very end of the game when when the
tide kind of turned and Kentucky started getting some momentum,

(28:17):
the go Bie Blue chants all came from one single
section and watching just how there the volume on Tennessee's
side started decreasing and the Kentucky fans started increasing.

Speaker 4 (28:28):
Man, it was it was something special.

Speaker 7 (28:29):
So I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever apologize for
winning a Knoxville That was just a beautiful moment watching how.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
Sad they are.

Speaker 7 (28:36):
But yeah, there's no reason for fighting, no reason for anything.
Like they should be used to this at this point
six or seven is uh is a is a normal
thing now, so we should we should just be uh
you know they they should walk into that building expecting
to lose to Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
And we'll we only got about a minute and a half,
but I did want to ask you before we had
the caller. Uh, the caller, Mike was talking about the defense.
Do you think the DF this is something that they're
just trying to get into a rhythm with as the
game comes along, do you think they're not understand the assignment,
they're feeling their way, unmotivated. What do you think are
slow starts on the defensive end of the court for
our team?

Speaker 7 (29:13):
Yeah, in this one, I think Jacoby Gillstie was just
he was on one, he was getting the defense was
stunk early, early for Kentucky. But you also have to
give credit where it's due. Jacoby Gillestie is a great
player and he was hitting big shots and you know,
very uncharacteristic. I think they're sorry four of five from
three for a team that is not great from the

(29:34):
perimeter all season. So you give credit where it's due
for them making shots that they don't typically make. But
very similar to the Michigan State game when they came
in as one of the worst shooting teams in college
basketball and you just leave them open. Nobody was in
fifteen feet of them. Yeah, they're horse shots. You're supposed
to if you're a D one athlete, you're supposed to
be a going to make those shots. So yes, it

(29:54):
works both directions. You give credit where it's due for
them hitting the shots and taking advantage of the the
defensive slip ups. But to Kentucky's credit, they took advantage
in other ways down the stretch and came up with
big stops for some big turnovers, and you know, did
just enough. But I would not say it was a
masterclass defensive effort for Kentucky from from start to finish,

(30:16):
by any stretch of the imagination, especially there in the
first half.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
If you like to join the show, hop on in
eight five to nine to eight zero two two eight
seven US eight five to nine to eight zero cats.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
We will be back at this now and Margaritaville.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
You listen to Stockyards bank signing one of sports Talk
on news radio six thirty WLAP