2025-04-11 - KSR PRE-SHOW

Billy and Tom Leach talk UK Sports. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone to another edition of the KSR Pre Show.
Today is Friday, April eleventh. I am Billy Rutledge and
one more show without Shannon the Dude. He is on
the beach enjoying a margarita. I am sure with our
pal Ryan Lemon. Big thank you to everybody that's jumped
in with me on the KSR pre Show this week.
It was Officer Dawn yesterday and what was a very

(00:23):
fun show. Check it out on podcast if you haven't
listened to that already. Today we have another frequent KSR
pre Show co host. He is joining us here in
the studio. It's the Voice of the Wildcats, Tom Leach.
Good morning, Tom, it's great to see you this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yes, good to be here. I'm just thinking Steeler's Wheel there.
That's a seventies song that you guys have adopted, which
I get the stuck in the middle thing. Yeah. I
always have thought the best recruiting song and this would
apply for freshman or transfer portal now would come from
that same era from Steven Stills. If you can't be
with the one you love, love the one you're with.

(00:58):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
I love it, and you've exposed me to more music
from back in the day because during the Pope Show
we always have an exit song. Yes, I'm like, Tom,
what are you feeling tonight? And it's You're always in
the earth, wind and fire categories kind of the funky
us guy.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yes, I'm uh one of the gotta be one of
the few people in the world that has Parliament and
Barry Manilow on my iPad music list, so.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
You can't just press shuffle on your love all the
different categories. Speaking of Steeler's Wheel, there is no definition
of you know, clowns to the left of me, jokers
to the right that is not imploying.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
You or.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, I just want to make sure that's clear Tom
up front. But it's great to be with you again.
I always appreciate your time.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Tom. You're a busy guy.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
I mean, you have the football season, you double dip
there for a couple months with the basketball season, and
then right when basketball is.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Over, they send you out to Keenlan for eight straight days.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
I do some stuff for Keeling. You're on various things
podcasts and video handicapping and things. But during the race beat,
we Jim Goodman and I do the mutuals guy for Keenland,
and we do a podcast for every racing day of
the late Pick four. We do that year round, but
during Keenland we do it for every day of the

(02:19):
race meet. So yeah, that that is a little gets
a little crazy during October too with football going on.
But it's fun because it's great racing and it's a
great excuse to be out at Keeland to do some
things for their Today at Keenland show. So just it's
good to have a reason to be at Keenland.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
That's exactly right.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
An excuse to be at Keenland to elo or Burgu
is a great excuse. Do you ever think about how
awesome your career is, Tom ih Yeah, you can fall
in basketball then straight into Keenland, yep, I mean, I
mean you can't get much better than that.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
No, It's is the only job I ever aspired really,
so I've been very fortunate.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
In the past.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
We've had your journalism professor call in and share photos
of a young Tom Leech.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Who Corey Price comes up with one.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
You'll get Corey.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Price, I'm sure at some point today as he'll share
an old photo. So we do appreciate you having you
back on do you like Keenland more than Churchill.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, I mean I just grew up around Keenland and
it's kind of the home track. When my mom passed,
I was going through items in the house. It took
weeks to get through stuff. She was a bit of
a pack rat that had all this stuff, which was
great because you found all these memories as I was
going through things, and I found the program from the

(03:40):
first time I went to Keenland in nineteen seventy one.
It was ten And the reason I know it was
the first time is because the reason we went to
Keenland was because a friend of my dad's had a
horse running that he trained, and I finally had one
good enough to run at Keenland and we went to
see this horse run, and so the horse show up

(04:00):
at the program, it's like, oh, well that was the day.
It's like April something in nineteen seventy one. Wow, and
you still got the program. Yeah, so that's neat. Didn't
know that was there until I was going through items,
through a box of stuff and found it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
You know, you never know what you're gonna find when
you go through those old boxes. And a little Kentucky
flavor ae Keenland. Over the last couple of days. He
had a horse, Kobe Brea from three did he do?

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Did? He ran fifth two year olds his first start
and he's really bred to go a little longer than
four and a half fur long, so he could still
turn out to be something good. And then d book
I assumed name for Devin Booker won at fifty four
to one. Wow.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
That talk about screwing up some pick five's and some.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, well they've got a big carryover. And the pick
six today at Keenland's like over two hundred thousand dollars
to see the pool in addition to what gets met today.
So it'll be a that'll be a big deal at
Keenland today with a big carryover.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
I wish I knew the horse racing lingo Tom.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
I mean, I love covering when like Churchill downs and
the Dirty Yep, interviewing jockeys once again and uh and
I'll trick myself into thinking that I know about horse racing,
but it's something that a lot of people don't know
a lot of right.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Oh yeah, there are experts.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
And so they do, but there are casual for something
like the Derby, there are casual fans who are listening
to that coverage, Yeah, they'll pay any attention maybe the
rest of the year. So it's actually I think there's
a an advantage to having some people involved in broadcast
like that that don't speak all the horse lingo, because
you can get a little too deep into the weeds

(05:37):
on some of that stuff sometimes for an audience that
doesn't understand all those terms because.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Living yeah, and I'm you know, more of an entertainment
aspect of it. They'll they'll weed me out when I say,
you know, was your mother and mutter and they're like,
you know, it doesn't really work, it's not right intoday.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, you can always follow the advice, kay, would I
ever give me about interviewing coaches, Like, look, they're making
the big bucks. Just short, simple questions, let them give
you the answers.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
That's great advice because you have the impossible task of
interviewing coaches after tough losses. You know, Stoops can be
a fiery guy, but I feel like he's very honest,
Like he will tell you how he feels Mark Pope,
and this has been your first year with Pope.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
I feel like he has devastating Yes, after these losses.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yes, it's first time dealing with him through you know,
the the ups and downs, and he's, you know, wonderful
to work with and really interesting guy. But he is
just crushed. I think the after the Alabama game, and
I think he there's a part of him that feels
the weight of the fan base too, that you know,
they've let them down and it you know you're gonna

(06:36):
lose some games. It's it's going to happen. But he
takes it hard.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
Thinks it really hard.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
After wins, you know, he's going up into the crowd,
it's it's two hours after the game, and he's facetiming
people's grandmothers and but after a loss, Man, he is distraught.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
I mean it's tough to get five words out of him.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
And so that's a that's a stark contrast from what
we've had in the past. But it's been a very
fun first year of Mark Pope. I mean, you get
to talk with the guy during the coaches shows you
I'm sure you go to practice very often. Tom, How
has your relationship been with Mark Pope this first great?

Speaker 2 (07:06):
He's been easy to uh, to develop a relationship with.
I mean, you can you know, he didn't mind you
ask him whatever you want to ask him. And I'm
just you know, look at you know, after a game,
you know you want to ask that. Trying to think
in terms of, you know, on your Grol's call and
show you and Matt what are they going to be
asking about? You know, why did you do this? Why
did you run this play? Why did you go to
that guy? And again it's not like asking it to

(07:28):
you know in terms of you know, hitting somebody against
the wall with a question. It's just like, why'd you
do that? Yeah, and you didn't have to be a
long involved question. It's just and because that's what fans
want to know, Why did you do this? Why did
you play that guy? You know, I remember down to
the Vandy game, Trent Noah played some late in the game.
It was like in late January, hadn't played much to

(07:49):
that point. Turned out, you know, putting him in in
a situation like that, which looked a little odd at
the time, was leading to paying dividends because he ended
up being a significant part of the rotation there down
the stretch.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
Excited for a sophomore year, Trent Noah, There's no doubt
about that. On the flip side, the jubilation of a
win after in Illinois, right, I mean the locker room
at that point and interviewing coach where he's so grateful
and at times reflective, Right, I mean after wins like that,
they kind of think back of the journey and how
great it's been with these guys, and there were some

(08:21):
great moments that they were able to share this.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
And he's so much into analytics, and so it's easy
to kind of you can get into some things. You know,
what you did this what Obviously there's probably some numbers
that were dictating some of these decisions. Tell us what
you were seeing sometimes, you know, it's like something that
seems unusual when you hear the explanation. Okay, yeah, that

(08:44):
makes sense. I see what you know. I see what
you're thinking about.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
The analytical approach.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
We'll talk about the masters a little later in the show,
but I feel like Bryson d. Chambeau and Mark pop
are from the same planet. Tom, they're from a different planet,
but they're from the same planet their analytical approach and
how they do things. But we're talking Kentucky basketball right
now with the voice of the Cats, Tom Leech. If
you have a question for US eight five nine two
eight h two two eight seven. But the news bomb
from last night was that a Caden Lewis de committed

(09:11):
from the University of Kentucky. The four star freshmen and
number thirty or thirty two depending on the service recruit
in the class of twenty twenty five, originally from the Washington,
DC area, will.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
Not be on the Cat's roster.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
And I can't help but think that has a lot
to do after the transferportal edition of Jalen Low from Pittsburgh.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Who has two years left. So I think that's the
conventional wisdom. I think seems to be that that would
be why Lewis decided to look elsewhere because the nil
terms were already in place, one would assume, so that
was already settled. And I always get it, get it

(09:51):
somewhat of a kick is the right word out of this,
but just kind of you shake your head if And
a lot of times I gets people around the players
sometimes are telling him, well, you know you're you're not
going to get minutes there. You need to go somewhere
else if you aspire to be in the NBA, and
you're saying I'm going somewhere else because I can't play

(10:11):
enough at Kentucky. You're probably not going to the NBA.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Shying away from competition is not in the elite athletes blood,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
Like the athletes a lot of times maybe want to
do it and maybe you know it's and it also
could be somebody could be saying since he hadn't signed,
it could be a better nil offer. I guess that
that could be a possibility. Somebody's you know, missed out
on somebody and so they say, hey, we'll give you
X more if you come here that you know, certainly
in these days it could be something like that.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
We live in weird times as we wait for this
the NCAA versus House settlement, that will maybe bring some
clarity to this. I found a quote that a cad
And Lewis gave to twenty four to seven Sports right
after he committed to Kentucky. It may shed some light
on his decision. He said, they want me to come
in and play a priority role right away. There's a
starting spot and he wants me to take it. I

(10:59):
want to come in and run the team. And look,
this is the new day of college sports. If you're
not guaranteeing me playing time, then sometimes these kids are
going to look elsewhere. Right, If somebody is guaranteeing playing time,
you know, then there is you know, there's a saying
that grass isn't always greener on the other side, even
though that may be what you want. I just know

(11:20):
that his family was all in. Like if you've seen
what they've been posting on social media, they love to
bb and they knew the power of the stage and
the platform that Kentucky Basketball puts you on. But when
you've got a crowded henhouse, you know, sometimes you get
people that want to go elsewhere.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah, and again, and it could but it also could
be you know, a better deal somewhere else because of
circumstances changing. You just you never know what you don't know.
But it's a disappointment, certainly to lose somebody this late.
So now you would assume you're looking to find a
point guard. You're not going to find a freshman of

(11:56):
that caliber certainly, right.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
I don't think Travis Perry as a second and string
point guard is the plan either.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
I think that I think you know, Travis is I
kind of think he and Trent both can certainly play here.
I think Travis needs Trent's a little thicker and bigger
and was a little able to a little better able
to hold up physically. Travis, I think will benefit from

(12:22):
just getting stronger in the weight room, and I think
he can certainly play here. If just you know, at
this point, I think you're you would like to have
somebody with a little more experience and in the second slot,
probably behind Low. Maybe it's somebody out there you can
find that comes in and challenges jayal Low. What most
likely you're thinking you're finding somebody and that's not the

(12:43):
easiest thing to find. I would think to find somebody
that would be comfortable to be the backup point guard.
Everybody wants to be the starting point.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
Guard right in. Minutes played is also another factor.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
I mean, although I think we've seen what with Mark
you're gonna get, I don't think that you'll you'll get minutes.
You know, I don't think he's playing anybody. You know,
rare to play somebody thirty five or more minutes, and
I guess that's more of the front court.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
It feels like his philosophy with Biggs is more twenty
five minutes. Guards maybe can lean into more of the
thirty thirty five range.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
If so.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
You mentioned Trent, No, the guy can rebound with the
best of the time.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
And he had a knack for just not only rebounding,
but coming up with loose balls and just being able
to define that fifty to fifty ball. And that's something
that is it's hard to maybe measure a little bit
numbers wise, I would think, but it's certainly you can
see that he has a knack for it.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
He's also got a little bit of billy confidence, that
irrational confidence.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
I mean, just pull up from a different county and Travis.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Has some of that. I mean, you saw a couple
of the shots that he took, I think a one
out of Missouri. It's just Travis was just got a
little overwhelmed from a defensive standpoint where he's just not,
you know, as developed as he needs to be. And
if you there are ways if you're not as quick
as the guy you're going up against, but you're stronger
and so you can bump them a little bit and

(14:03):
you know, throw them off as they are trying to
attack you off the bounds. Well, he didn't have the
strength yet to do that, so that's maybe his counter
over time as he gets stronger and then so yeah,
he's not as quick as you know if he's guarding
Jalen Lowe in a game, was just playing with him now,
but you you know, there are ways to offset, you know,
your deficiencies, and he'll gather that over time, I would.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
Think, and you'll see some development from these guys.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
I know we're talking about the Kentucky kids, but you know,
an emphasis on keeping guys in your system I think
is important to Mark Pope. And now we've got another
mister Kentucky basketball coming to the roster in Malachi Morenos.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah, and you know, really interesting pack set of skills
that he has and playing in the Nike Hoop Summit tonight.
So he's a guy that you would think is likely
a multi year player.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
I want to talk to you more about the transfer
portal class because what Mark Pope is doing I think
is fantastic.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
He's done some great things.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
But before we take our first break, I want to
ask you do you think Brandon Garrison's on the roster
next year?

Speaker 2 (15:04):
I would hope. So, I mean I don't have any
I'm not going to yes because I don't have any
intel on it. But uh I was just talking with
Mike Decorsiu on my show about it, and he's like,
why would you leave you could you could well be
the starter. I mean, acquaintance is coming off an injury,
so you don't know, you know, I know he says
he's going to be ready by September, but we'll see

(15:26):
if but I think you know, certainly he'll be ready
early in the season, if not before. But still, you're
the guy with experience and you have a big edge,
and you know you have a coach who if you know,
if you're Brandon Garrison, you aspire to be in the NBA.
You're a McDonald's ull American. The way you get there,

(15:46):
I would think is being a a guy who can
you can stretch the floor by shooting threes in the NBA,
really good passing skills. I mean, he has a lot
to like, just needs to get stronger. You know, he
amari held up better physically than BG did, but that
can change with a you know, full year in the
weight room. Remember he had some injury issues. It probably

(16:09):
limited his weight room work somewhat over you know, leading
up to the season. I'm not sure you know how
many other places are going to be open to him
being as inclined to take that three point shot. But
I mean he's shut. He shot what about thirty It
wasn't bad. It wasn't you know, thirty three percent. I mean,

(16:31):
and you could see him. Mark Pope's very high on
him as a shooter, so I could see him being
a thirty seven thirty eight three point shooter. Remember the
Oklahoma game where he switched off on fears some Yeah,
can he develop that skill a little bit and have
a little bit of that Willie Cowley Stein ability to
be a big guy who could switch off and guard
a guard for at least a limited time and a

(16:53):
pick and roll. You develop all those kinds of skills.
You've got a nice look at NBA resume, I would think,
and you had a chance to develop all those skills here.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
Definitely improved as the season went on and you brought
up the Oklahoma game, I mean, probably one of his
best of the year.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
But also he runs a little white hot.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yes, yeah, they need to you know, channel that a
little differently, but again that that comes with a little time.
But you know, he's a you know, a very passionate
young man. It seems like. So I hope he's back
because I think a little stronger version of that guy
that's developed his shot just a little more and a

(17:31):
little more of a you know, offensive gamer in the basket.
But yeah, he was a much better passer than I
was expecting. I thought we were going to get that
from Amari and did. But Beg was a little bit
of a surprise and how well he passed the ball.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
Do you ever have any of that weed of bix
before you take a break?

Speaker 5 (17:47):
No?

Speaker 2 (17:47):
I did not.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
I heard it was pretty dry, sounded like the warm milk.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
I actually wrote down with with Beg, I think on
the elevator one day up in Indianapolis, and I asked
him and he said he said it needed a lot
of sugar. He said, he said it was like oatmeal
and it needed a lot of sugar, and it was
okay with the you know the accompaniments.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
Well, it's like my coffee this morning. I take a
little coffee with my cream and sugar.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, I'm not a coffee drinker, but when I tried
to drink it, it turned into something closer to hot chocolate.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
Hey, we'll give us call this morning. Eight five nine
two eighth two two eight seven. If you have any
questions for the voice of the Wildcats, we'll keep talking
Kentucky basketball, some other sports headlines, and some madness that
happened at the Masters. You spend a lot of time
at Keenland, so I'm not sure if you saw this toime,
but some amateurs just making a fool of themselves on
the course yesterday. We'll take a break and be right back.

(18:35):
Tom Leach and Billy Rutledge here on the KSR, and
I'm just kind of it's got the receipts. Hey, welcome back.
This is the KSR pre show. It's Billy and Tom
having a good time. It's the conversations during the break.
A lot of times that that should that you should
be here over the air.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
Sometimes we were.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
Just talking about Tim Rustard's interview style.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Actually, Tom, how do you do pronunciations to Sorry to
switch you to a different topic there, but you're somebody
that's done play by play for a while. You've seen
some crazy names over the year. Is it just a
repetition thing?

Speaker 2 (19:13):
Defensive end for Indiana? We had him for about four
years and I just it's it was almost kind of lyrical.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
So like remembering a song. It's just something that comes
to you and you get it down.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
I was, I have a scorecard that I keep and
do uh do it by hand. In football, so many
names on there, so I do that by hand. In basketball,
I have a template that like, so I could just
print up Kentucky on a board for uh each game
and then I fill in, but I type in the

(19:48):
other team and then but I will sometimes because I
don't have to turn in a paper, I'm so I
type it the way I want to say it, yeah, yeah.
And then also I'll have it spelled out, written out
phonetically and then that's highlighted in pink usually so that
it's there easy to find. And you mean you're on

(20:10):
the board. There will be times you may hear me
just going and you know, looking at the guy and
a Gunliam actually you know, just getting it in.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
My head and you got the media guide and sids
that helped.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
Funny story on media guy. There was a few years
ago they were playing Kansas and it was as a bookie,
the big Fella. I think that I think it was.
I think it was as a bookie that they had.
But in the media guide, the first listing for it.
It was like something like as a bouquet or something
a little different, and so it's like, oh, it's in

(20:43):
the media guide. I used that and then turned out
it was actually not correct and if you walk deeper
into the notes, further back in the back, it was
actually written another way. And we will get resolution on
one thing, I assume this season because the Vanimir the
leis at Kentucky is the brother of Thomas love Ivasi

(21:07):
at Illinois, so it can't be both twice. No, no,
so now that they're both on the same team, so
we we need a resolution on that.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
I bring this up because the Tennessee quarterback is in
the news for renegotiation, renegotiating his already eight million dollar
nil deal with Tennessee.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah, that's that's There's twenty six letters in the alphabet
and I think he uses eighteen of them. Name.

Speaker 3 (21:29):
Do you remember it?

Speaker 2 (21:31):
I know it's a long name, and I can't when
you say it, I'll remember it because I struggled with
that one last year. Well, getting it, I don't. I
think I got it right during the game, but it
was I was fighting that all week to get it.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Well, I hope Darren isn't listening because he spent maybe
two weeks trying to teach me how to say this
guy's name, and I still can't do it. Is it
Lama Lieva or Ela Lama Laya, Lama Lavea?

Speaker 2 (21:53):
Yeah, it's been a and I know had a.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
Hey Lava lamp.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yes, it's There was one this season, and in fact,
I can't remember who it was, but it was somebody's
name and it was Yeah. I wish I could remember
it because I came up with a way that worked,
some pop culture reference, but it was like part of
the name, and I gave it to Tom Hardy said, Hey,
you're right, that that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
It's like me trying to remember people's names, like you
associate it with something else, a pop culture reference or something,
and you can call back to it. Well, you know,
hopefully he doesn't get his money, Tom, he just doesn't
play for Tennessee. I'd like to see them lose every game.
But we'll take a break. We're here with the Voice
of the Cats, Tom Leach. It is the KSR pre Show,
Welcome Back.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
It is the show before the show.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
The KSR Pre Show will hand it off to Drew
the final day of drew Apalooza.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
He's got some.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
Fun things planned. I'll let him share a little later
and I'll be joining him. We're watching the Masks.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
Who's playing it well?

Speaker 1 (22:53):
You know, we tried Tyler Childish, but he's busy, so
we had we have to settle for some other bands.
But we know Rick Ryder will get us in and
out with some great music. Tom Leech is in studio,
the Voice of the Wildcats. It's great to have you
in studio.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Tom.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Interviews are always better when in person than over there own.
And we're watching the Masters in studio here, probably one
of my favorite weekends of the year.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
Hoping that you can find some time to watch some
with all the keenland.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
I'm hoping so on Sunday afternoon at least. I love
watching all the majors. And I were you a fan
of moving the PGA to May.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
I was indifferent about it.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
I was initially I thought that was good, and then
as it's played out, I don't like it because I'm
busy with you know, from with the horse racing stuff
this and you know, it's just in August. It was
nice to have because football had started yet another major
sporting event there in August. Anyway, I love watching the Majors,
so the two I get to see the most of,

(23:49):
or usually the US Open and the British because they're
in June and July.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
I will say it doesn't feel right when it ends
with the British. Now I agree, it just doesn't feel
right with the Peigans and yeah, exactly, but they did
have a gap and they wanted to fill that gap.
It was an eventful day at the Masters. I want
to fill you in on some headlines, Tom, because not
only did Justin Rose have a great round at seven
under with only twenty two putts, there were some weird
odd stories around the course, including Nick Dunlap, who was

(24:17):
only the eleventh golfer all time in the Masters to
not break ninety. He shot a ninety Tom but had
zero three putts, really zero three putts on the round.
Actually averaged one point eight three putts a hole and
shot ninety at Yester Year.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
He was kind of sounds like my game. Once I
get to the green, I'm a decent putter, but it
just takes a while.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
Yeah, found the long stuff.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
Maybe found Ray's Creek, But Ray's Creek is the center
of the next controversy I want to talk about because
US Amateur Champion Jose Lewis Ballister is twenty one years old.
He's from Arizona State University. He wore an upside down
hat yesterday that said Arizona State, you've seen those new styles, Tom,
where it's not just flipped lettering, but it's upside down lettering. Actually,

(25:05):
I don't think I, oh, you haven't seen it in
basketball and doesn't belong in Augusta is the short take here.
But he went on to admit in the postgame press
conference after the game that he relieved himself at Ray
into Ray's Creek on the thirteenth hole while nobody was
looking after he had hit his third shot. There was

(25:25):
something going on with Justin Thomas and the green, so
he had some time to kill and he really had
to pee.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Tom. He turned around and peed into Ray's creek.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
I have plenty of trees there.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
He said afterwards that he did not know that there
were restrooms right off the tea box on the thirteenth tee.
He actually got a round of a play from the paint.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
Thing was.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
He wasn't thinking, Tom.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Was it like a the library where one would go
to study or something or what did he think?

Speaker 1 (25:52):
What are we gonna do about this? This is Augusta National,
This is not the public course. He is peeing into
Ray's Creek. Should he be allowed to play the round today?

Speaker 2 (26:04):
We'll give him one U one U forgiveness one morning one.
I don't know if a warning is the right word,
but like, look, dude, you can't ever do anything like
that again. Do you have any questions? Do you want
to ask before you begin the second round? Because you're
on from this is movie, way before your time. Animal House.

(26:27):
He's on double secret probation.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
Now I've seen it. I've seen Animal.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
He's on double secret probation.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
But like patrons have tried to take, you know, a
handful of sand home with them, some blades of grass,
and they will be tackled and taken to jail and
banned from the premises. You're telling me this amateur peas
and Ray's Creek. Not only that, he said afterwards they
saw me. It was not embarrassing at all for me.
If I had to do it again, I will do
it again.

Speaker 2 (26:52):
Well he should be embarrassed.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
Oh my gosh, I don't want to be a hypocrite.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
Tom because I'm not going to say I've never done
that on a public course as frequent golfer, but in Augustina,
I'm not in a major, and I'm not at Augusta.
That is the one place where I could see. I
don't want to be like, you know, mister grumpy, get
off my lawn here, but that's that's the sacred place.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
And I cannot believe this amateur did that yesterday.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Did not did not see did not see that story.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
Well, hopefully nobody saw him actually do what he was doing,
because that sounded like he did get a round of
applause when he had his back turned when he did it. Unbelievable, unbelievable.
I can't believe to make Sports Center top ten, probably not,
probably not, I hope not. I just I'm shocked by it.
Let's go to the phones, though, A five nine, two
eight two two eights, and we've had some people patiently waiting,

(27:41):
like Peanut, who is our first caller today.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
What's up, Peanut?

Speaker 2 (27:46):
I was going Billy, Tom, Hello, Pinut.

Speaker 4 (27:52):
I'm gonna say, Tom, you reminded me digging through your
mom stuff when my mom passed.

Speaker 5 (27:58):
I've been going through a couple of.

Speaker 4 (27:59):
Tops of hers, and I found a lot of uh
in the seventies of the Kentucky Derby programs. Those they.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, they would could sit like in the breast pocket
of your coat. I think that's how they were designed.

Speaker 4 (28:16):
And also a bunch of She's got a lot of
the glasses to the Derby glasses. So I'm trying to
start a collection, trying to get them all.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Oh, that's good. A lot of times you'll see some
of those kind of things at garage sales. You may
be able to add to your collection that way. But yeah,
that that's a.

Speaker 4 (28:30):
That's I actually got a got a flea market buddy
down here in Orlando. He's giving me several from the seventies,
and so I'm trying to get a lot of them.
I'm sure they're hard to find, but I'm sure they're
out there.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
Oh yeah, definitely.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yeah, good, thank you, peanut. Nothing like a good flea
market to find some good old memorabilia. They're they're out there.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
Our guy Bo Robinson one of the best collectors. Uh,
do you have anything you hold close to your heart?
I know you're a Bears fan.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah, and uh yeah, I like I like getting I
like having pictures. So I try to get pictures with
you know, people from time to time that you know,
UH have up in the office. Never been a big
autograph guy. Uh once in a while if I've like
you know, they when Kentucky won the title in twenty twelve.

(29:24):
You never know if you'll if there will be more
than one of those that you get to call. So
h Thomas Bisner, He's actually snapped a picture of me
interviewing Cal on the court, and so I got Cal
to sign that. So that's about the only thing I'll
usually kind of get autographed is something like that where
there's some significance to it, and then if I can
have access to the person, get them to uh to

(29:45):
sign it.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
I thought it was a nice touch when Cal came
out back to Rupperina and he had the program.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Oh yeah, that rolled up joby just like Joe B.
Somewhere I have I found I didn't. I wanted to
find this during COVID when you know we're all going
through old boxes. I know I have this somewhere of
a game at Transylvania Basketball Game. Used to go to
a lot of Trancy games in the early seventies. They
were really good and they had the Trancy tip Off

(30:11):
program and it was just a one page fold over
of the lineups for each team, but on the cover
there'd be a picture of the coach maybe and Eightolf
Rupp happened to be at the game and Tom Hammond
was called in the game for Channel eighteen. And so
I have eight off up and Tom Hammond on the
program where I got autographs at that time. So I've
got that somewhere. I've got to find it.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
I got to meet Tom the other day when we
were at that we were in an event together. Oh okay,
it was and you were there as well. And that
was when they had the celebrity guests. I guess they
had a little pin and they I don't know how
I got invited to be a celebrity guest Tom, but
I got to meet Tom Hammond that day.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
He's been very kind of me. He's a good friend,
and he's one of the all time greats. I mean,
do you think if you know somebody who's that was
growing up here are aspiring to get into this business.
And you can listen to Kaywood Leadford and Ralph Hacker
in the Kentucky Games and Marty Brennaman and Joe Nucks
all the Red game, the Reds games, and then Tom

(31:10):
Hammond who went from LA X to NBC. All you
just that's who you had access to on a regular basis.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
I think it was an adoption event if okay, that's
what it was, but I can't remember the name. Let's
go back to the phones though. Scott is next up,
ready to go. What's up, Scott?

Speaker 3 (31:25):
Good morning?

Speaker 6 (31:27):
Come on, guys, just this quick thing. I grew up
listening to Kwood and with Nick man of his and yeah,
you know, man whoever takes over, it's a lot of
mixed shoes to field and uh let I think you
have done uh bother beyond expectations. I think uh Kwood

(31:49):
would be proud to have you followed behind it.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Well, thank you very much. Kaywood was very kind. I
got fortunate to have worked around him a little bit
and got a couple to of my prize possessions, which
at you know, things you collect or whatever. I have
two critiques that Kaywood did for me, one one handwritten
and one type written. One one is from eighty seven
after doing some Sweet sixteen games, and one is ninety seven,

(32:11):
my first year doing Kentucky football.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
Do you remember any of the critiques like, well, I.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Told you one of them, you know, short simple questions.
Let the coach, you know, answer. There were things like
in football, this is just one thing of how you
know in football you're gonna set the play up how
many times? You know each team, maybe Aspire is going
to get sixty play maybe one hundred and twenty five times.
You're going to set in a three hour broadcast, set
the play. You know, cats come up to the line

(32:36):
of scrimmage. Two receivers to the right, three to the left.
He said, to occasionally break that up and to work
in a few different names occasionally. You know. It's like,
think Drake Jackson's a center that comes to mind. Drake Jackson,
the center from right here in Kentucky leads them up
to the line of scrimmage. Three receivers to the left too.
It's a different way to kind of just break up

(32:58):
the monotony of saying the same thing one hundred and
twenty five times and working in a different name, little thing.
It was little things like that that separate, you know,
somebody like Kywood from being good or very good and
being great.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
Painting the picture a very different job than what a
television play by play announcer has to do. I mean,
you've got to be the eyes and ears for these fans.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
But thank you for the company.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
Yeah, thank you, Scott. It's got to be nice to
hear things like that.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
I very nice. That's always very nice. And it's I
mean for me to say, you know, well, it's just
very nice to hear a compliment that somebody also that
grew up listening to Kaywood. I will also say that
I had a very good fortune of being the guy
that followed the guy that followed Gaywood.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
Yes, you never want to be the guy after that.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
My friend Bob Castling just retired down to Tennessee. He
had to follow John Ward immediately. That's the toughest spot
to be. In the same way with coaches, you know, uh.
And I always thought whoever followed Cali Perry, I always
thought would needed to be like Tubby followed Rick was
a different kind of personality, but tremendous coach in his
own right, but just a different personality. It would be

(34:06):
hard to out Putino Patino or out cal cal if
you're the follow the next coach that follows and Mark
Pope's the perfect guy. Would he is? You know, if
you could put what you want in a Kentucky coach. Obviously,
time will tell. He's got to, you know, rack up
the wins. But in terms of understanding the fan base

(34:27):
and also being very competent at the job, but just
understanding everything that goes with it, because there it is
a lot more than just coaching basketball, and uh, you
know Mark Stoops has come to understand that in football
as well.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
Yeah, just go to Tuscaloosa and ask is it calein divorce? Yeah,
and what it's like in the pressure from a fan
base after you follow again and.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
Nick Saven's still there. Yeah, he's granted he's doing a
lot of national stuff, but he's still I think still
as an office.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
And I mentioned this on the show the other day.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
I think Joby Hall following Rup and Rupp doing a
Collin show where he's you know, talking bad about.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
I don't know you did a calling. In fact, there
weren't calling shows at that time. He did a coach
a show, He did his show on w l e X,
and then when Joe's started, he uh partnered with w
k y T and so they had uh show, I
don't think they were. I don't think they were head
to head against each other. But yeah, I mean the
other the guy you're following who didn't really want to leave,

(35:22):
is still has his own show and his own office.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
That's so bizarre.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
And Joe obviously had tremendous respect for him for coach
rupp uh and yet he wanted to carve out his
own identity obviously, and Joe never really got it. Later
in life he started to get some of the uh,
you know, recognition that he deserved. But you think about
following a legendary figure and then being able to win

(35:49):
a championship and go to multiple final fours, and just
ways that he, you know, changed the game and you
know where there's weight training or some scouting things bringing
on Leonard Hamilton is one of the first African America
with the first African American assistant coach at the University
of Kentucky and giving Leonard a prominent role and how

(36:11):
that impacted future coaches down the line. And Oscar Combs
has been a great champion of Leonard, who just retired
being in the UK Athletics Hall of Fame, which I
think is would be very much deserved but Joe was
the guy who you know, uh brought Leonard into the program.
Uh brought in you know, uh into fully integrated the program.

(36:32):
Coach rep signed the first African American player. But Coach Hall,
you know, brought in Goose and James Lead, Reggie Warford
and Marion Haskins and Larry Johnson, just great players that then, uh,
you know, did what needed to be should have been
done long before at the UK, and Joe you know,
didn't get enough credit for any of that.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
It's not easy to follow the guy, and it will
not be easy whoever replaces Tom Leach many years down
the road.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Yeah, it'll be different from k would you know then
at time of you know, so many games, you used
to listen to so many games it was your only option.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
Yeah, yeah, if you want to catch it on tape
delay on TV later.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, I remember those days.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
I can't imagine that these days.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
And you know what I mean, Oh yeah, I mean,
you know, handful of games, hardly any football games and
then a handful of basketball games would be on TV.
You know, maybe maybe a third of the Kentucky games
at most, so so many of them you just had
to listen to follow the Cats.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Well, as much as the SEC network poorly times Kentucky
basketball games, it's almost like they're not on TV for
a certain amount of time.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Yeah, that's true. We do get listeners forced to the
the radio for a time at the start of games.
I would I wish they would just plot the things
two and a half hours. I need to fix it
they do, you know in the postseason. Yeah, the postseason
and the national championship game that you're started a half
hour earlier. It was wonderful. Instead of starting at nine

(38:03):
to twenty two like they used to do for so
many me and you people had to wake up. They
backed it up a half hour. And but in a
national semifinal games they're plotted two and a half, two
hours and forty five forty five apart, something like that,
And it was great.

Speaker 3 (38:15):
Well that final four, say of the tournament.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
Now, we just need to fix replay.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
Oh, Tom, we don't have enough time for that topic, Tom.
Some of the video reviews that we got this year,
it was an interesting year of officiating too. Let's take
a break. We've got one segment to go. We'll get
to a couple more calls and we'll wrap this thing up.
Here on the show before the show. It's the KSR
pre Show.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
Welcome back.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
It is the KSR pre Show, our final segment before
Drew Palooza.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
I want to take a couple of calls before we
end the show.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
Alvin is on the line. What's up, Alvin? You're with
Tom and Billy here on the KSRP pre Show.

Speaker 6 (38:51):
Hey, how you going?

Speaker 5 (38:52):
Tom and Billy? Tom Leach, I want to command you
for the great jobs you've done for Kentucky Basketball. Thank
you Kentucky Football. Years of your votes has been very
important for those two entities. But I did have a
question for you. What would you think your friend, longtime
co broadcast partner, the late great Mike Pratt, would think

(39:13):
about nil and the transfer of portal. You knew him
well because you were sad by sad for so many years.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
It was just starting to come in. The Mike's last
season he was with us was the basketball season that
ended in twenty two, and that was you know, that
was Kellen, Grady and Mince and those guys. So they
had some transfers. I know, Alvin. Mike's big concern, I
think was how was it all going to affect the

(39:43):
locker room? You know, could you maintain you know, a
chemistry and maintain a team when you got agents involved,
and so, I mean it works in professional sports. But
that was one of the things w he talked about it.
That was something he was going to be interested to

(40:03):
see how that would play out. He didn't have any
problem with guys, you know, getting paid so and you
know it's just but how you know, could you do
that and any other thing if we're talking about this
with a Kayen and Lewis and we don't know why
he you know, maybe it was money that motivated him
to make his decision, but if it was playing time
and any worry about playing time, Mike just always would

(40:26):
get a kick out of, Okay, you're going somewhere else
because you can't start here and you want to go
to the NBA. It's like, if you can't start here,
you're not going to the NBA.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
Right right, It's and this is just such a factory
to the NBA.

Speaker 3 (40:39):
I mean, all eyes are on you. This would be
the perfect place to hone your skills.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
I always there can be a situation. Will Levis's best
example the transfer portal. Oh, where you know, as a
quarterback you get buried on depth chart. You're never getting
out of that hole. But Joe Burrow, another one, go
somewhere else, and you get your chance to show what
you can do. So there are situations where you know
the player does need to move.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
On Zach Calzada.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
Maybe maybe.

Speaker 6 (41:05):
So.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
I also think of another broadcast partner of yours, and yes,
thank you, Alvin of Jack Gibvens, and how he could
have cashed in a little bit if An.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
Oh my goodness, yeah, Logan Gold.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
Oh, I think about after you know, that game in
say Lewis in seventy eight. But yeah, I mean Goose,
James Lee, local you know Kentucky guys, Lexington guys, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
Oh my god, in these bigger than live characters with
this fan base, it had been Weedipi's two point zero.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
There's no doubt. Tom. I really enjoyed the time. Thank
you again for joining me this.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
Yeah, it's always fun. We'll do it when Shannon takes
his next vacation.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
Well next week we got yeah, exactly, it'll be around
the corner. I think, thank you to everybody that's joined
me this week here on the KSR pre Show, Shannon
should be back next Monday. It's going to be a
fun show with Drew Franklin on the final day of
Drew Palooza. I believe the Mayor of Lexington's going to
be joining us, so excited for that as well. For
Tom Leach on Billy Retis. This has been the KSR

(42:04):
pre show. We'll talk to you on Monday.