2024-12-20 LEACH REPORT

Tom talks with Mike DeCourcy and Chris Dortch.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
The Leech Report Radio Network is on the air with
the voice of the Wildcats, Tom Leech. It's the daily
gathering spot for the Big Blue Nation to hear the
latest news and views on the Cats. If you have
a question for Tom, email Leech Report at gmail dot
com or send a tweet to add Tom leech Ky.

(00:23):
Now here's Tom.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good day, everybody, and welcome into the Leech Report, presented
by Bobcat Enterprises. Coming to you from New York City
where the Wildcats play tomorrow at Madison Square Garden against
the Ohio State Buckeyes in the CBS Sports Classic. And
we'll have the call on the UK Radio Network or

(00:47):
pregame will get started at four Eastern time tomorrow. Ohio
State is been in a bit of a struggle. They
get clobbered by Auburn last week and one of their
best players, Meetchi Johnson, the transferred in from South Carolina,
had a big game against Kentucky at RUP a couple
of years ago. He has taken a leave of absence

(01:08):
for personal reasons, it said Aaron Bradshaw, the Kentucky transfer,
been away from the team. He's back now but still
hasn't played. So we'll see if he sees action tomorrow
so Ohio State and a bit of a back to
the wall situation in this matchup. But always remember what
my buddy Mike Pratt talked about in these games. He

(01:30):
called them the getaway game, and it could lead to
some unpredictable results because the players know they get to
go home after the game, so they frequently can't wait
to get the game over so they can go home
and see their families for Christmas, and so sometimes you
get some odd results in the getaway games. We're gonna
talk a lot college basketball today. Chris Dortsch will join

(01:53):
us from Hoops h Q and the Blue Ribbon College
Basketball Yearbook. Who Hoops HQ's a new site covering college
basketball gets a SETH Davis project. Chris is one of
their writers and he did a really nice profile on
Kobe Braya, and we'll talk to him about that. And
then Mike Corsi with us on Fridays from Sportingnews dot

(02:16):
Com in the Big Ten Network. Wildcat News of the
Day always a service of Giuseppes of Lexington and Kentucky,
came up yesterday obviously here to New York with final
exams over and coach Pope took the guys to see
Hamilton last night. It is I think Mark Pope's favorite play.

(02:39):
Was talking to him at dinner before they left, and
he said he had seen it three times, so this
would have been his fourth, and he took his guys
to see it. Gave him a little education at the
pregame meal on Alexander Hamilton's life and what the play
was going to be all about. There were some shots
of the guys down in Times Square outside the theater.

(03:02):
Saw a picture with a couple of the assistant coaches,
Cody Fieger and Mark Fox, and Kerkkrisa took pictures with
some UK fans that they saw in Times Square. So
I would imagine there'll be a decent Kentucky presence at
the Garden tomorrow because it's fun to get a trip
to New York around Christmas time, and if you're a

(03:23):
Kentucky fan, you could get to see your team play
against Ohio State. So we will talk about not so
much that matchup as we will just Kentucky basketball with
Chris and Mike Decorsi today several notes on Kentucky football.
Cats have added a quarterback to the mixed Zach's Zach
Calzada from Incarnate Word. He's going to be at his

(03:47):
seventh year of college football and he played at Texas
A and M for a couple of seasons earlier in
his career. At one point, led the Aggies to an
upset of number one Alabama. He's put up some big
numbers at Incarnate Word the last couple of years. And
if you're not familiar with Incarnate Word, it's a FCS
program that sent cam Ward on two Miami and obviously

(04:14):
cam Hoard's had quite a year for the Hurricanes, so
hopefully maybe something close to that for Zach as he
comes into Kentucky. From Incarnate Word. Kentucky's also added a
transfer wide receiver, JJ Hester six four two two from Oklahoma,
but also was at Missouri at one time, and when
he was there, his offensive coordinator was Bush Hampden and

(04:38):
was back in twenty twenty or as a position coach.
So jj Hester added to the fold a big wide receiver.
Kind of maybe envisioned him as the guy who could
take the slot left by Dane Key, who was guy
that could go up and make the contested catches with size.
So a couple of nice pickups yesterday for Kentucky Cup

(05:00):
Oh and one more tight end, Henry Boyer from Illinois
six six seventy didn't catch many passes, so I think
you're looking at him as a tight end that could
be an outstanding blocker for you, while you have Willie
Rodriguez who can do a little bit of both. And

(05:20):
you've got a skinner coming in as a freshman who
is a guy that probably is a little bit more
of the hybrid tight end wide receiver type. And you
got Josh Catis back who, like Willie, is a guy
who can both catch, catch and run, but as a
strong blocker. But Boyer six six seventy gives him it's
almost like having another offensive lineman there at tight end

(05:43):
when he lines up Kobe Keenam center, he is transferring out,
not a big surprise. He was the backup this season
and didn't sound like it was in the plan for
him to ascend to the starting spot. So when that happens,
they're reportedly looking to land a transfer center. So when
that happens, not surprising to see the guy that is

(06:07):
kind of getting passed over to look elsewhere, especially this
day in time. Keishan Silvers found his new college football home.
He's going to play for the University of Southern California
Trojans in LA. Links to the stories that we talk
about each day can be found on the bud Light
Leech Report page at Tom Leachky dot com. We want

(06:29):
to remind you that our opening segment's presented by Giuseppes
each day, and Giuseppes is tucked away just off Nicholasville
Road in Lexington. You don't see it if you're just
going in your normal travels out past man Or on
Nicholasville Road, but it's worth the effort to take just
one turn and go find Giuseppes and you will find
a fantastic dining experience. Live jazz music every night in

(06:53):
the expanded lounge area to accompany your meal if you
choose to sit there for a really special dining experience.
But wherever you are seated at Giuseppees, you're going to
get a fantastic meal. Giuseppes Lexington dot com. If you
got to check out the menu open table to make
your reservations. We'll be right back with Chris Dorch talking
college hoops. It's the Leads Reports and we come to

(07:18):
you each day from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio, return,
refresh and refuel at Clark's and they have a new
loyalty rewards program that you need to take advantage of
because you can get some great discounts on gas and
then you can get some good items when you accumulate
points inside the store as well at Clark's Pumping Shop.
So sign up for the app and get on the

(07:40):
rewards program. We are joined on the Club Blue Nil
dot com hotline with buy Chris dorch from the Blue
ribon College Basketball yearbook, but he also writes for the
new project hoops HQ, where he recently did a story
profiling Kobe Brea, and we want to talk to Chris
about that. So, Chris, I appreciate you joining us, And

(08:04):
for Kobe, it's a bit of a homecoming because he
grew up in this area and you did a profile
of him for Hoops HQ that has an interesting angle
on how he became such a good shooter.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah. You know, I've always been as a writer slash storyteller.
I've not cared so much about, you know, the score
or whatever. I wanted to know how that score happened,
Like one time, I was covering in another life the

(08:42):
Tennessee Amateur Golf tournament and a kid who later went
on to win on the PGA Tour won the tournament,
and he won it with a borrowed putter, and he
said he after that he wasn't going to give the
putter he borrowed back. So I'm like, this is pure gold.
You know. I didn't much care that he shot a

(09:04):
course record, or I did care that he won the tournament.
I just wanted to know how so, and looking at
Kobe Braham, obviously, he led the nation last year in
three point percentage. He's second this year, and I think
that I wanted to find out how a guy, and

(09:25):
I've watched tons of tape on him. I wanted to
find out how the guy developed such a sweet stroke.
And I got to admit, you know, I'm a country boy,
not originally, but you know, most of my life. And
the reason he told me shocked me at first. He

(09:46):
said that, you know, his parents are from the Dominican
and they moved to New York, and the only avenue
he had to play his father played professional basketball in
the Dominican, so he was naturally going to gravitate to.
But the only place he had to practice was the
outdoor court in New York City, and those are the places.

(10:06):
And I have seen chain rims are no rims, but
I've never seen double rims. And I had to get
Kobe and Ricardo Greer, associated head coach at Dayton whom
he played for, over there, to explain it. And then

(10:26):
I had to look it up on a website. I
think it's called coaches dot com. But double rims are
just how it sounds that one rim stacked on another.
And the reason they do that in the playground is
because kids are always dunking and if you put a
single rim out there, they wouldn't last a day. So Kobe,

(10:49):
in practicing on these double rims, realized that Ricardo had
a great quote. He said, if you've missed a shot
short on a double rim, the rebound could go out
to have work. So these things are thick as a brick,
and Kobe learned that you had. You know, if you
think over the years, and I know you're old enough

(11:11):
to remember Kazzie Russell who shot he was a great
streaky shooter. He shot a line drive shot, and you
know that works for people but you become a streaky shooter.
To be a consistent shooter, you have to learn to
develop to put the proper arc. It's been scientifically proven

(11:33):
that if you drop two basketballs, if you stood over
the rim, if you could get on a ladder, two
basketballs would fit through the rim at one time. So
that explains how much the importance of arc is. So
quite organically, Kobe learned that if I'm going to be

(11:54):
able to make shots, I have to put the proper arc.
So he did that by shooting hundreds and thousands of
shots on those rims. And then he was also a
student of the game. He started out watching Steph Curry,
and he realized that Steph kind of as as Kobe

(12:16):
put it in my story, would pull the ball from
his hip. And then he realized as he got the
higher levels of the game, he began to study some
of the greatest shooters ever who shot the ball over
their head as Kobe does now Ray Allen Klay, Thompson, J. J. Reddick,
Kyle Kover. He says, I watched everything they did. I

(12:39):
learned about balance and footprik footwork, moving without the ball
and arc, and I learned it's all about the repetition.
At the end of the day, it's all about the reps.
So there's no telling them how many thousands of shots
he's taken. And like I said, quite organically with those
unforgiving doubles, he learned how to put just a beautiful arc.

(13:04):
I think he's and the statistics back to me out
he's the best shooter in the country.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
You started this off talking about a golf story. The shooters,
it's like a golf swing. It's just the reps, and
that's to get to that same If you can repeat
the golf swing every time, or if you can repeat
the shooting stroke every time, that's how the great ones
do it.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
If only I've walked on the golf swing for years,
can't quite seem to get there. Although I'm good at
every other sport I've played, you know, golf has eluded
me because I'm too analytic and I don't know they
call it elephant ears where you you know, you'll see

(13:49):
a YouTube video or I've taken lessons from being a
golf rid you haven't access. But Kobe, you know, he
had his father and you know they were in New
York City and he had no choice. His venue of
choice was the outdoor courts, and he realized that if

(14:11):
he was going to become great, he was going to
have to take thousands of shots. And those double rims
just made it all the more obvious. And his film study,
you know, made it all the more obvious that if
you were going to be a great shooter, you had
to learn to put the arc on it. And what's

(14:32):
ironic about it, Tom, is that, you know, when he
was at Dayton, he won the Atlantic ten sixth Man
of the Year twice and here at Kentucky he's coming
off the bench. Let's see how many minutes he averages
twenty four point one, you know, so that's that's not

(14:54):
bad on a team that you know, plays a lot
of guys and spreads the minutes around. But it's not
you know, Starter would probably typically expect to get twenty
eight to thirty two minutes. But he's okay with that.
He sits next next to Mark Fox's who's an old
friend of mine. I talk to him for the story

(15:15):
on the bench, and as the game's unfold, he watches
and sees what's going on and kind of figures out
what he needs to go in and do and you know,
his job is to make shots, obviously, but he does
other things. I mean, if you look at his his numbers,
he's shooting better than fifty percent from two point range two,
so he's not just a jump shooter. And obviously he's

(15:39):
also a great free throw shooter. So yeah, he he
doesn't take a lot of them. I think they'd probably
want him, and I know this. I've heard Mark Pope
talk about this. You know, he wants Kobe to continue
to cut and be in motion and maybe tickets to

(16:00):
the rim a little bit, so you can't just close out.
In other words, once you get to sec play, as
you know, everybody's got six six to six seven wings
who can close out on you in a hurry, and
Kobe will learn that you've got a pump fake and
go around. And I think that's what Mark wants him

(16:22):
to do, you know, to take his game to an
even higher level. But it's really cool. I've always liked
the formation. I'm a Beatles fan in music, that's the
greatest story in the history of popular music. They organically
came together to become the greatest band ever. And what

(16:44):
I like writing about are things that happen organically they're
not manufactured. They're just somebody stumbling onto a way to
be as good at an art like shooting as anybody
in the country.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
And that is definitely Kobe Brayer grew up in Washington Heights. Ironically,
they went to see Hamilton last night. That's where Linn
Manuel Miranda's from. So Kobe Brea going to get to
one of the guys getting to kind of come back
home for this game tomorrow against Ohio State. You can
go see Chris's story at hoops HQ and it's a

(17:24):
new site covering college basketball, and you always find him
at Blue Ribbon Yearbook website as well. And it's still
an opportunity to get the Blue Ribon yearbook for the
college basketball fan on your gift list ahead of getting
ready for selection Sunday. It could still come in handy. Chris,
we got to get to a break. I appreciate the time,
and Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
Same to you, Tom. Thanks a lot.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
We'll be right back on the Late Report Radio. Chris
George appreciate him joining us on the Club Blueennil dot
com hotline. Mike, of course, he coming up in the
second half of the show as the Wildcats are here
in New York to play Ohio State tomorrow on the
CBS Sports Classic, we were talking about Kobe Brea. I
was talking with Kobe at dinner last night. I said,
have you ever played in the Garden And he said

(18:13):
his teams never did, Dayton, they came up here to
New York to play, but they didn't play at the Garden.
But he did play there as a youngster. There was
like an exhibition at halftime where they had young kids
get to go out on the court and play a
simulated game, and so he was actually on the Garden
floor once in his career. Already, we'll be right back
with Mike de Corsi. The Report's presented by Bobcat Enterprises.

(18:37):
Each and every day they have four locations around Kentucky.
So when you need to buy or just rent a
piece of heavy equipment for a job, forklift of Bobcat excavators, kids,
steered looters, et cetera, they'll have what you need and
they also give you a fantastic service after the sale
at any of those four Bobcat Enterprises locations around Kentuck.

(19:00):
Joining us now with the Club Blueinil dot Com hotline
is Mike Decursi. You read him at Sportingnews dot com,
see him of the Big Ten Network. Soon he'll be
doing brackets for Fox Sports college basketball coverage. So Mike,
we'll start there. Kentucky's ten and one heading into this
game tomorrow against Ohio State. If you were doing the

(19:21):
brackets today, what kind of scene would Kentucky be? Do
you think?

Speaker 4 (19:26):
Well, I will tell you tom I'm going to be
doing brackets a week from today. My first bracket will
appear on Fox's social media accounts and mine a week
from today, and I have to really drill down. But
with the with the Duke win in particular, and and

(19:48):
and a not bad loss to Clemson, I'm gonna say
that they're they're certainly gonna be a one or a two,
and without like I said, without really looking hard at
it yet, I would lean toward the one.

Speaker 5 (20:02):
But they're going to be right there as long.

Speaker 4 (20:04):
As they take care of business tomorrow against Ohio State.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
So you follow at TSN Mike on X or Twitter
if you prefer, and you'll see the first bracket when
it comes out next week. We last night, the team
got up here to New York early for the Saturday game,
and coach Pope took them to see his favorite play Hamilton.
So for the Wildcats to not throw away their shot

(20:31):
this season, what do they need to improve on?

Speaker 5 (20:36):
Well, first of all, when I saw the photo from
the stage last night, I said to myself, boy, if
you didn't like Mark Pope already, well now you have
to love him because he has fabulous taste in theater.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
So you've got to give him that.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
I think that with tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (20:57):
I think the main thing is tomorrow is to uh
to continue to do what they do because they've got
physical advantages. Even though Kentucky doesn't play as a as
a you know, it doesn't present itself as a power team. Uh,
they have the ability to overpower a team like Ohio

(21:18):
State that hasn't that hasn't really been able to develop
an inside game because of the absence of Aaron Bradshaw.
I don't no one I've seen has been able to
present his status for tomorrow. He's been back with the
team since December ninth, but hasn't yet to play for them.

Speaker 6 (21:38):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (21:38):
Yeah, it has yet to to play for them since
the absence. Uh, And so without him, they've really struggled
on the inside. They struggled unbelievably against Auburn, which with
the with Jenni Broome, has one of the terrific inside
games in college basketball. But the Wildcats can can own
the the the area around Divorce.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Now.

Speaker 4 (22:00):
I know it's more important to them to drive the
basketball to make open shots, uh, but they can own
the boards and and and score a lot there.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
You know.

Speaker 4 (22:09):
Long term, I think that what we saw from Lamont
Butler was really important, him coming back and having the
impact that he did. I think for Kentucky to be
the great team that it can be, I think Lamont
has to be a complete point guard. And he certainly

(22:31):
was in the game a week ago. He was everything
and and he needed to be because of the absences
that they had, and he was so with with Kerr
missing he could. You know that that rotation is really
a weapon when they have it. But uh, for them
to be the best they can be, I think it
has to be you have to have a point guard

(22:52):
who's in control. It's like the thing in football where
if you have two quarterbacks, if you have none, I
don't think it's white is extreme in that sense in basketball,
because you can play the second point guard off the ball.
You can play them together, and I think Kentucky has
and will do that. But you need to have somebody
that you look to in those moments and say, Okay,

(23:14):
what are we doing here? He doesn't have to do
it all himself, as he did in that game, but
you have to have somebody that's in charge. And Lamont
has been a final four point guard before and I
certainly think he has the ability to be that with
this team as well.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
What is it about the way the team's constructed or
the system in which they're playing that is enabling guys
to play the way they are? Butler's got better numbers
in a lot of different categories than he's had for
his career and any given season. Same for Oway. I
think of the guys that play the most, everybody's turnover

(23:54):
rate is at a career low except for Amari Williams,
and if he has one or two more low turnover
games lower no turnover games, he'll be at a career low.
So what is it about the system or the way
the team's constructed?

Speaker 4 (24:08):
Well, I think part of it is the depth prevents
or limits fatigue. You don't get as let you think
back to the you know, why did you know? Why
did the in the Duke game? Why did Duke give
up so many turnovers late? Because they were exhausted. Cooper
Flag had spent I don't know, thirty seven minutes on

(24:32):
the floor, thirty six whatever it was, and now they're saying, Okay,
do more because the game wasn't decided.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
And that's not a problem for Kentucky.

Speaker 4 (24:42):
I think eventually, if you can have your best players
playing in the twenty eight on average, twenty eight minute range,
but then in the big games, you know, thirty two
to thirty three minutes, I think that that's I think
that's ideal. And I think Kentucky's rotation and its depth, uh,

(25:03):
when everybody's healthy, I think that absolutely makes a huge
difference for them. And then it's also a function of
there's the ability to stretch the floor means less traffic,
and the less traffic you get yourself into, the fewer
times somebody's gonna be able to come off the guy
they're guarding and swat the ball away, knock it off

(25:24):
your knee or or just take it off you because
because you're occupied trying to get by your guy and
not even thinking about the help defender. So I think
that that Kentucky takes great advantage of that and the
help defender in today's basketball, it's it's no longer let's
just get let me just get in the way. Now
they're they're basically if they're going to help, they're required

(25:46):
to be useful.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (25:48):
And and that I think that I think Kentucky can
take advantage of that as well, because they can get
them into foul trouble if if they if they come
across and somebody tries to swipe at the ball on them.
You know, you've got guys who are really smart with
the basketball, like Oway and like Lamont, who can get

(26:10):
the other team into file difficulty rather than turn it over.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
Talking with Mike Decorusi from Sporting News dot Com and
the Big Ten Network and doing the brackets for spot
Fox Sports college basketball coverage will continue the discussion. He's
joining us on the Club Blue nil dot com hotline.
They have a couple of new co branded bourbons that
are out. This is a partnership with Bespoken Spirits and

(26:35):
a portion of the proceeds go to the Nil efforts
at UK. Club Blues, the official collective partner of UK Athletics,
So go to their website Club blueenil dot com and
you can find out more about the bourbons, where to
buy them, and the distribution is going to be expanded
on a greater statewide level coming up after the first
of the year. That's at Club Blue ni l dot

(26:58):
com for those two new co brass and all the
ways to help out the Nil efforts if you on
if you are a member of Club Blue nil dot com,
we'll be right back with Mike de Coursis.

Speaker 6 (27:09):
As the season going on, you see a more team
shout to get more physical, like that's kind of I
don't think that's really making any difference. You know, it
helps us though, because some of our actions you know,
you want you want to be physical, and it helps
us get off to certain reads and certain looks. So
I feel like that's definitely helping up. But defensively being physical,
that's that's what's gonna you know, separate guys when it
comes to March and April and that's where you want
to play. So I feel like that's definitely helping us out,

(27:30):
helping us right now and it is good tests.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
Ans Ley almon Or talking about some of the physical
play he and his guys are getting in from their opponents.
Cody Figer, one of the assistant coaches this week, told
The Harald Leader Mike talking with Mike de Corsi here
on the Leach Report, Mike, coach Figer said to the
Herald Leader that they're noticing everybody they're playing is playing

(27:58):
differently than they've seen them play the other teams on
their schedule to that point. So Kentucky's offense is definitely,
I guess, causing a few preparation issues for opposing teams.
Mike with us, all right, we'll reconnect with Mike de COURSI.

(28:21):
I'm just seeing a tweet here from Mike Golick Junior,
formerly of ESPN. It's a picture from South Bend, Indiana
with the snow falling as cars are already starting to
head to the parking lots for the college football playoff
opener tonight against Indiana, which we'll get to here a

(28:43):
second with Mike de Coursey was talking a bit about that.
But right now, back to comment we just had from
Ansley almon Or Mike talking about physical play and Kentucky
is assistant coach Cody Figer. I was telling the hair
leader that you know, as they prepare to play teams,
they're noticing that teams are playing in Kentucky differently than
they've been playing anybody else up to that point in

(29:04):
the season.

Speaker 4 (29:05):
That's fascinating that they're that they're changing their approach for
the Wildcats this soon. It's it really is surprising that
coaches would already be making such major adjustments in their
game plans, and because it's usually at this time of year,
coaches are trying to just get their guys to play

(29:28):
the best they can as who they're going to be.
They want to establish identities and team personalities and team hierarchies,
and so for them to be tweaking that, I think
it says a lot about how quickly this group has
adopted what the coaching staff is asking from them.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
I think that's the part of this.

Speaker 4 (29:50):
It's probably not given enough attention and appreciation, is how
you know.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
I saw.

Speaker 4 (29:57):
Evan and Iah, who does tremendous job with data and analytics,
talking about how teams that are basically renovated are struggling
overall in college basketball, and I look at Kentucky and
I'm like, you have it not down?

Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah, that's that is interesting. Gary Parrish from CBS some
on the show recently, and he was talking about looking
at a bunch of teams last season, and I think
every one of them had struggled when they'd had these
massive influx of transfers, either by choice or by circumstance.
And with Kentucky it was the ladder. They had to
just completely start from scratch. So that is, you know,

(30:40):
if it continues to go as it is now, that's
going to be uh, you know, one of the more
intriguing storylines as to why it's worked so well here.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
Yeah, absolutely, and and it's it's been impressive because Kentucky,
by if you look around the sec part of the
success that they've had is that they've got there are
a number of terrific basketball teams. But another element of
the success is that, according to Tiers, to an extent,
teams have scheduled really smartly. Like Florida has not played

(31:13):
a lot of heavyweights. They played good teams or teams
that maybe had heavyweight names, but not heavyweight teams like
Carolina the other night. But Auburn and Alabama scheduled heavyweights,
and Kentucky probably in the transition might have wanted to
go a little lighter than they have, maybe take up
a Florida type schedule if they could, but the circumstances

(31:36):
don't allow that because they're Kentucky and so they're in
the Champions Classic and they're going to play Duke, etc.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
And so.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
The fact that they've.

Speaker 4 (31:46):
Done this in that environment against this schedule has been
extraordinarily impressive, And you know, I think that it'll be
interesting to see how what level they can sustain of
success because the league is really deep. There are terrific
teams probably one to seven or eight, and then there

(32:08):
are very good teams all the way down to twelve, thirteen,
maybe fourteen. So it's a real challenge that the Wildcats
will face once conference play begins, but they have shown.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
No indication that they can't handle it. A couple of
minutes left here with Mike de coursi TSN at TSN,
Mike on X and Sportingnews dot Com and switching gears
to college football. And you write about other sports beyond
college basketball, and you're a sports fan, So as the
sports fan in you, are you excited about the first

(32:43):
ever college football playoff kicking off tonight? I am threeteen playoffs.

Speaker 4 (32:48):
Yeah, because it's the first real playoff and I've been
writing at the first legitimate playoff. This is the best
college football season of my lifetime.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
And I've been around a while.

Speaker 4 (33:01):
I trace my following of college football all the way
back to like nineteen sixty eight, when my folks, go
were Irish Catholic, took me to my grandparents' house to
watch Notre Dame play Perdue. That's how long I go back,
and for all those years polls and bowls and mythical championships,
and now they're actually going to decide it on the

(33:21):
field with four, you know, starting with four really interesting,
intriguing games. I'm very excited about it. It should be
a wonderful twenty four hours starting at eight o'clock tonight,
while it will end up being about twenty six or
thirty hours by the time the last one gets finished,
but I think it's thrilling and it's exactly what college

(33:44):
football has needed for a very long.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Time, going back to that time. Your time frame you
were referencing with more interesting angles to the way it
used to be done. Is Arkansas and Texas both undefeated,
and I think of like maybe nineteen sixty nine, and Yes,
President Nixon goes to the game and declares that the
winner is the national champion, and Penn States sitting over

(34:07):
here waving like, hey, we're undefeated too, Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 4 (34:12):
And later on Joe Paterno had a famous quote where
he said, I don't know how someone who knew so
little about water to Kate and seventy two knew so
much about college football in sixty nine. I remember him
saying that, So yeah, out, yes, yes, exactly.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
Now that it'll be on the field, there will be
none of that.

Speaker 4 (34:33):
There may be, you know, I think Alabama feels aggrieved
and that sort of thing. But I feel a lot
like I do the day after the NCAA Tournament selections
are made, like there are teams that could have gotten in,
but no one that had to be in. It only
comes up about every five to seven years that the
committee completely blows it, like with Monmouth in twenty sixteen.

(34:58):
Those are really rare. For the most part, they get
it right, they don't get it exactly as.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
Those of us who pick brackets.

Speaker 4 (35:07):
We've all the consensus has missed on one team for
each of the last three years. As I recall, so
they get it pretty close to right, and I think
the football committee did it as well.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
Mike de Corsi, we appreciate you joining us as always.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to you and the family. We'll
talk to you next week, all right.

Speaker 4 (35:27):
Merry Christmas and happy Holidays to you as well.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
Tom. I'll look forward to next week. That is Mike
de Corsi. You can see him on a Big ten
Network two and starting next weekend he'll start doing brackets
for Fox Sports college basketball coverage. One segment left here
on the Leech Report, coming to you from New York,
presented each day by Bob kat Enterprises. This Day a

(35:51):
wild Cat History presented by Kentucky road Show Sports cards
and memorabilia you'll find on Romney Road in Lexington. If
you're looking for a last minute Christmas gift for a
Wildcat fan who's a collector, head on over to see
Jimmy and his crew this weekend and they'll have some
good stuff for you or early next week too, I
guess and Roadshowcards dot Com online. This day. In nineteen

(36:12):
sixty nine, Kentucky won the NIT over Duke. Bob McCallan
was the MVP with a twenty five point game. Can
you imagine nowadays Duke agreeing to come in and just
play in the Ukit no return game. But that was
nineteen sixty nine, Kentucky be Duke to win the UK
Holiday Tournament. Happy birthday, Darren Fox, Happy birthday to Jeff Brasso.

(36:35):
Corn Bred Hemp's one of our great partners here on
the Leech Report, and they've got fantastic deals in these
closing days before Christmas at cornbreadhamp dot com. They've been
having special offers all throughout the month. A few days
left to take advantage of those deals. At cornbreadhamp dot com.
It's Kentucky grown hemp and it helps you out if

(36:57):
you've got aches and pains, if you are having trouble
get to sleep. The sleep gummies we'll do the trick
for you without that melotone and hangover. If you just
want something that way to avoid the alcohol and yet
just to be able to take the edge off a
little bit of a tough day. Cornbreadhamp dot com they
have got the products for you, So make sure that
you check that out. All right, that's going to do

(37:19):
it for us Here in New York, the Wildcats we'll
have a practice today and then game day workout tomorrow,
and then they'll take on the Ohio State Buckeyes in
the CBS Sports Classic. Ohio State beat Valpo by twenty
five earlier this week, but last weekend lost by about
forty to Auburn. Now, the game was a little fluky

(37:40):
in that Auburn hit i think nine threes in the
first half of that game and Ohio State hit won
and you get that kind of disparity in three point shooting.
It was a twenty eight point game at halftime, so
it was really just one of those games where it
was Ohio State was out of it almost from the start.
So they're better than they looked on that day. They

(38:01):
played well at Texas A and m early in the season.
But again they've got Michie Johnson out tomorrow and don't
know if Aaron Bradshaw is going to play or not,
but he is back with the team. Now, have a
great rest of your weekend. We'll be back with you
Monday to kind of recap the weekend here in New
York and then a couple of best of shows on

(38:21):
Christmas even Christmas Day, So have a great weekend, everybody,
it's the Late Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises