Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good day, everybody, Welcome in Wednesday edition of the Leech Report,
presented by bobcat Enterprises. Coming up today, I've got a
good bit of Kentucky men's basketball to discuss, among other things.
Chris Fisher joins us from the Cat's Pause and John
Clay from the Lexington Herald Leader. In Kentucky Sports dot Com,
(00:21):
Wildcatnews of the Day always presented by just Sepies of Lexington.
Otega Oway put his name in the NBA Draft yesterday,
but is retaining his college eligibility, so there's no surprise
anywhere there. The deadline is May twenty eighth for pulling
one's name out of the draft and heading back to college,
(00:42):
as Jackson Robinson did last season, so you may have
to wait a while for the definitive word. And there's
always the chance he could hear what he wants to
hear and go into the draft, but there certainly are
no indications that that is likely to happen. This is
something that was certainly expected and makes sense because for
(01:02):
otega he I would think certainly put his name on
the more prominently on the radar screens of some folks
in the NBA after what he did in his first
season at Kentucky and now could come back and build
on that. But if he goes through this process, he
gets evaluated. He can hear from the NBA folks directly.
(01:28):
They how they assess his game and what he can
do to get better. I think, to be a little
better three point shooter. And the other thing that Mark
Pope talked about many times is he thinks always got
a big upside as a playmaker. And if that's the
case and he can do some of that, I would
think that would be a way to enhance his value
(01:49):
in the NBA. So I know there's a certain element
of any fan base that just looks for reasons to panic,
but this was just to expect it now. Yesterday, speaking
of panic, Kentucky lost out on a transfer Indiana is
landing Lamar Wilkerson, the high scoring guard from sam Houston State.
(02:12):
After Wilkerson made the visit to Kentucky on Sunday. There
was initially a lot of speculation that Wilkerson might commit
when he was at Indiana, that Kentucky was able to
convince him to visit, and then I think there was
a lot of buzz for Kentucky once Wilkerson canceled trips
to Ole Miss and Auburn, but he said he did
(02:33):
an interview with a field of sixty eight guys yesterday.
He said, on one hand, I didn't want to go
to Kentucky and just be another guy, okay, But he
also said that there was a last minute visit from
I used new coach hearing degrees. And the other line
that jumped out to me is he said, I want
to go where I'm a priority. I think in these
(02:55):
days of the nil world transfer portal nil, there are
you know, things that phrases that come out that are
kind of like phrases in real estate. You know what
a unique fixer upper is those kinds of things. I
want to go where a priority. Where I'm a priority
means that Indiana raise the price, And there are reports
(03:16):
that that did happen. And at some point, if you're Kentucky,
it's like, we would love you at this price, not
at that price. Tennessee would have loved to have em
Alieva back at the price they'd agreed to, probably even
a little bit more, not at double. And so he
(03:38):
is on the market looking for a new place to
play college football and not finding it at the moment,
and Wilkerson has headed off to Indiana, so yeah it
he's again he said, don't want to go where I'm
a priority. Maybe maybe Indiana it was more of a
priority for them in terms of what their budget was.
(03:59):
You know, you get a you get to a point
when it's part of it. Now it's just like professional
teams do you know, they've a budget or a salary
cap whatever to manage and you don't overpay in spots
unless it's you know, one of the best of the best.
So that's where it is. Kentucky now is back in
(04:22):
the market to try to find a player. One would assume,
you know, a shooter. Maybe they end up landing a
backup point guard. Maybe it's it could be nobody, but
I suspect they'll find at least one more player. So
we'll see how it all plays out. But for now
we know Lamar Wilkerson is off to play for the
Indiana Hoosiers, and we'll talk about that with our guests
(04:43):
when they joined the program. Last night, UK baseball got
a walk off win over Miami four to three. This
would have been a bad loss. KUK. He's already taken
a few of these midweek setbacks already, and they are
you know, at the moment. If this were selections Sunday
and or for college baseball, they'd be hanging by a thread.
(05:04):
Still got time to polish up the resume and needed
to make sure they didn't drop one last night, and
so they took care business. Doesn't matter that it was close.
They got the winning run via two out bunt by
Ethan Handle in the bottom of the ninth. So now
they go down to Tennessee this weekend and the balls
are up to number two in the country now and again,
you've got opportunities in this league to enhance your resume.
(05:28):
Anytime you step on the field, you're down there and
do well, take two out of three, get a sweep,
something like that. They'll have other chances with the remaining
conference series that are coming up. Plus next week they'll
have a midweek game against a top fifteen Louisville squad.
So big win last night for Kentucky and that it
(05:49):
was a big win in that it avoided a bad loss,
if that makes sense. And a couple of more football
names headed out in the transfer portal, both offensive lineman
and Fredy Crease and Mark nave links to the stories
that we talk about each day. You can find those
on the bud Light Leech Report page at Tom Leachky
dot com. We'll be right back with Chris Fisher from
(06:11):
The Cat's Pause, John Clay from The Hair Leader coming
up a little later. Leach Reports opening segment every day
of wild Cat News, presented by Giuseppes of Lexington. Out
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At Giuseppes Lexington dot com. You can check out the menu.
We'll be right back with Chris Fisher sixteen past the
top of the hour. Leach Report coming to you each
day for the Clarks pumpin Shop studio. Return, Refresh and
(06:56):
refuel at Clark's and you can sign up for their
new loyalty rewards program too. Get discounts on fuel and
items in the store. Chris Fisher joins us. Now you
read him at Katspaws dot com, coming to us on
the Club Blue Nil dot com hotline, and he has
been your panic counselor here for the last few weeks
(07:17):
as it pertains to the portal. So yeah, I guess
business picked up for you again yesterday, Chris.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
It did it, did you know? And there's no sugarcoating it.
Lamar Wilkerson was a big miss for Kentucky in a
lot of ways. It felt like he was the final
missing piece that they needed. They needed another shooter, they
needed kind of a secondary ball handler, and I thought
Lamar Wilkerson could be that they come up short. You know,
(07:47):
he says he doesn't want to be just another guy
at Kentucky, which you know may be code for Indiana
offered me more money. You know, I don't know, but
you know it's one thing Mark Hope said. He said
it's gonna work out like it's supposed to. And if
that is truly his thought that he didn't want to
be just another guy at Kentucky, then maybe Kentucky is
(08:09):
not the place for him. And so Kentucky will move on.
And you know, one thing I've learned about the portal
in my weeks of counseling is that everything feels magnified. It's,
you know, everybody misses in the high school ranks, everybody
misses in the portal, But when you miss in the portal,
it feels magnified because everything's still concentrated over the course
(08:31):
of you know, three or four weeks. And so when
you miss on a guy, it feels like, you know,
the end of the world because you have to move
on so quickly to someone else. But if this offseason
is any indication, Kentucky has typically followed up a big
miss with a surprise hit, you know, somewhere else. And
(08:53):
so I'm sure Kentucky has already turned their sights to
other portal targets. And you know, they're targets that we
are not aware of. There are targets that are may
not even be in the portal yet, and so there's
still plenty of fish in the sea.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
I assume that you uh, you know, are following this closely.
Is it Sometimes a miss is a case of he
was a perfect fit at this price point, He's not
a perfect fit at this other price point.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, And I think I also think it was a
situation where, you know, Indiana has many more roster spots
to fill, and we're maybe a little bit more desperate
to get some of those spots filled, and we're willing
to overpay and overspend a little bit. And so, you know,
the there are so many variables involved in portal shopping.
(09:50):
I guess if you want to call it that, where
you know, it depends on what you need, It depends
on kind of what the fair market value is the asking,
the need the other options at that position, you know
kind of how late in the process everything is, and
so everything kind of has to line up. But you know,
(10:12):
I would challenge Kentucky fans how many names from last
offseason that Kentucky missed on? Do you even remember, you know,
outside of maybe Great Osibor and Aiden Mahaney, I don't
really remember very many targets that Kentucky missed on last year.
Because the most important piece is just the next piece,
(10:33):
and that's what Kentucky is onto.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
And I think also with the transfer portal versus freshmen,
you if you're recruiting a freshman in a certainly a
little earlier time, you're selling, uh to this is the
place to get you to where you want to go,
to move you onto the NBA. It gets you ready
for the NBA, et cetera, and uh, you know the
(11:00):
other things that go along with you know, playing at
Kentucky fan base, edulation, all of that stuff. Whereas guys
in a transfer portal that really have little or no
NBA future are looking some certainly more at the you
know and understandably so what the bottom line is, and
if it's a significant difference, then maybe it makes more
(11:23):
sense for me to go somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yeah, absolutely, And it would not surprise me at all
if that were the case. With Lamar Wilkerson. It was
kind of out there that you know, Indiana kind of
had the best offer, and you know, if they felt
like he was slipping away to Kentucky, which it kind
of felt like over the last you know, forty eight
hours or so, then maybe they kind of come back
to the table with kind of their best and final
(11:46):
offer and maybe that was enough to kind of get
the job done. But you know, listening to Mark Pope
talk to Maggie Davis about the you know, their sales
pitch and the portal how it's you know, some of
the easiest conversations that he's ever had. And I think
it has to be an easy sell for Mark Pope
because you look at the nine transfers that he brought
(12:09):
in last offseason. You know, aside from Kerkkrisa who you
know had a season ending injury in December, a lot
of those guys had their most efficient season of their
college basketball career. And you look at what he did
with a guy like otega Oway. Nobody thought otakeo Ohway
was going to be a star at Kentucky. I think
(12:30):
we had him ranked thirty first overall in the portal
and then in the final re rank he was number seven.
And you look at his numbers set, you know, statistical
highs across the board and has now you know, declared
for the draft and you know, turned himself into a
legitimate draft prospect.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Talk with Chris fishercatzpaus dot com at Chris Fisher twenty
four to seven on X will be right back. It's
the Leads Report, and we're coming to you courtesy of
Bobcat Enterprises for locations around Kentucky. So google Bobcat and
you need to buy or rent a piece of heavy equipment, excavators,
skin steer loaders, et cetera. You can find it from
(13:07):
Bobcat Enterprises. You'll find the location that's closest to you
and they'll give you a good deal and even better
service after the sale. It's Bobcat Enterprises. We'll be right
back John with Chris Fisher from katspaus dot com about
ukme In's basketball building out the roster and Chris. Yesterday,
it was Travis Brandnam, the national recruiting analyst for your
(13:30):
company twenty four to seven, who was on a show
and talking about Nate Ament and said he's heard that
Louisville and Arkansas are fading and it comes down to
Duke Tennessee and Kentucky in that order. So sounds like
probably Nate Imment's not going to be the next option, correct, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I wouldn't expect that to be the case, especially as
Kentucky has continued to add pieces through the transfer portal.
I thought, you know, they did a good job of
kind of getting themselves in the mix, but I never
really saw them as an outright leader or even a
co leader. And it feels like things have continued to
shuffle around over the last several weeks as far as
(14:14):
you know who's in, who's out, who leads. But as
I've stated multiple times, I'm just not willing to bet
against Duke and these types of situations that John Shire's
really embraced, kind of the you know, one and done
method of recruiting and accumulating as many star freshmen as
possible and then just kind of filling in the gaps
with some experienced players through the transfer portal. And so
(14:38):
you know, I would vision Nata Mint being able to
slide in and you know, play alongside the boozers and
you know, some of the guys that they have coming
back Shires.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
It seems kind of like Cal in twenty ten here
where he was the only guy doing that. People didn't
believe you could, you know, do that with freshman and
ultimately Duke even jumped into fish in that pond by
the middle part of that decade. And now it's against
(15:10):
the trend of being older, and that was the thing
back then at twenty ten you didn't have as many
good older players still in the game as you do now.
So it'll be an interesting to see how it plays
out for Duke because it worked very well obviously this season,
but they had a freshman that was, you know, better
(15:30):
than the average freshman, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And I think, you know, in order for it to
work like that, I think you have to get the
tippy top guys, you know, like not all five star
guys are created equal, and we've seen that play out
over the course of the last ten years at Duke.
You know, they're getting the Zion Williamson.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
The RJ.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Barrett's, the Marvin Bagley's, the Cooper Flags, the guys that
can you know, not come in and and not just
have an impact from day one, but really contribute in
a very significant way. And we saw Cooper Flag was
the you know, the National Player of the Year, National
Freshman of the Year, And so I think in order
(16:14):
to do it that way, you have to have game
changing guys. And I think they have another game changing
guy with Cameron Boozer coming in next season. And then
you know, just like I said, just kind of supplement
those guys with some experienced guys from the portal. But
it also has a downside, you know, we saw you know,
I think most people would agree Duke was probably the
(16:35):
best team and probably should have beaten Houston and you know,
maybe would have beaten Florida for the championship. And having
a young team, they watch things kind of fall apart
over the last two and a half minutes.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
It's Houston, and then you have a story up atkatspows
dot com about it take an oways decision to enter
the NBA draft, and I assume you would counsel Kentucky
fans to not panic about this one.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, I'm gonna stay pretty consistent with that message. It
would probably would have been more of a surprise had
he not at least tested the waters. I mean, you
want to, you know, go through the process. You want,
you know, to have a chance to get some feedback.
If you want to be invited to the combine, your
name has to be in the draft and go through
that process. And so I would have been more surprised
if you didn't at least test the waters.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Chris, thank you much. All right, thanks, it's Chris Fisher
Catspause dot Com joining us here on the Leech Report.
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We'll be right back with John Clay. It is the
(18:03):
ly true report coming to you each day from the
Clark's Pumpin' Shop studio. Return, Refresh and refuel. We go
to the Club Blue Nil dot com hotline and bring on.
John Clay columns for the Lexington Herald Leader, Kentucky Sports
dot com and one of the newest members of the
US Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame, alongside former colleague
(18:24):
Chuck Culpeper. So that was a nice exacta for the
USBWA down in San Antonio.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Yeah, that was neat. That was very honored to go
in and very thrilled to go in with Chuck, my
former colleague and a good friend. Great to see check
bear a little bitter sweeten to Bob Holt, another great friend,
was also inducted in the class of twenty twenty five,
and Bob passed away back during the football season. The
(18:52):
sports trader for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, who people may
know from the SEC media days, Bob seed to always
get the first question, uh and had a question for
every coach, so it was a little bittersweet. Wally Hall,
also good friend work with Bob, was there to accept
the honor on Bob's behalf. But yeah, very honored to
go in because mainly because there's so many people that
(19:15):
I respect and have so much admiration for already in
the hall, including my uh my for my former colleague
Jerry Tipton, and people like Billy Reid and Dave Kindred
and Kirk Kirkpatrick and people like that. So to be
in the same company with them, I was very humbled
and honored.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Well you should have been, but it was well deserved.
So congratulations, thank you. And I see I just punched
up your list of the columns at the Harald Leader,
and the first one is headlined I was at the
final four. I can report that college basketball is far
from dead, So that's great to.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Hear, yeah, I mean it was. It was a great
Final four. The TV ratings were really good. Obviously the games,
the games were all good. And I think one thing
it sort of confirmed for me something that I'd sort
of touched on earlier, is that I think the players
are older. Obviously the COVID year giving them an next
year for the COVID year has had something to do
(20:14):
with that. But also I think nil one of the
good things about and I also kept players in school
who maybe would have already tried to go on to
the NBA or maybe even gone overseas to try to
make money overseas. So I think the level of play
is better than it's been when we saw so many
young and raw teams, you know, in the past. So
(20:35):
I think the level of play is better. Obviously there's
a lot of chaos and that sort of thing, but
I think the game itself, just the actual play of
this self, I think is actually in a good place.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Some were lamenting the lack of the Cinderella influence on
this year's tournament, and it was for one seeds at
the final four, But do you think that speaks to
what you were just talking about there in terms of
the level of play, and so it's maybe harder for
you know, you know what fifteen years ago, when you
(21:06):
had really young teams, it was maybe easier for somewhat
less talented but older team to have a shot to
take them down.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Yeah, I think that's. Yeah, I definitely think that's part
of it. I think it's you know, it's easy to
jump to conclusions off of one year. I mean, we'll
see what happens down the road. I mean, I think
this was the first time since two thousand and eight,
I think that the four number one seats had made
the final four. So obviously it's a different landscape. And
now with nil and the transfer portal, we'll see how
(21:34):
it plays down the road. But yeah, I think that's
I think that's probably, you know, part of it that
there are older teams and you don't have maybe some
of the more established programs they had younger rosters who
for one reason or another, you know, didn't make it
to the final four. Obviously, Duke was kind of the
and it was funny because John Shire actually talked about
(21:54):
this at times. John said he thought the Duke coach,
he thought himself, you know, am I crazy for trying
to do it this way because he was he had
the freshman team, Cooper Flag, you know, a couple of
other really good freshmen, and you know, they almost got there,
but I think maybe they're inexperience showed up and the
lost to Houston down the stretch when Houston really attacked
him and came back with the full core press and
(22:15):
so forth. Houston had the experience and Duke didn't have
the experience, and I think that may have been the
deciding factor in that game.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
I now, certainly for college basketball, we've moved into the
mode where it's all about putting rosters together. It's certainly
true here for Kentucky is with what they've done to
this point and trying to finalize it, and I was
saying it's the final four played out here on the
show a couple of times that I really liked the
(22:45):
way Florida was built with the four bigs that had
all were all not the same. They had different strengths
and they could be, you know, somewhat interchangeable. And then
you had three veteran guards and there's always been that
axiom of you know, guards win in March, and these
were three guards that started their careers in college at Belmont, Florida,
(23:07):
Atlantic and Iona. But they were all veterans and all
were critical to the games that Florida won over its
six game winning streak in the tournament. And that's I
just like the way that was put That team was
put together.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Absolutely, and I think one of the to me, one
of the interesting things being there and going to the
press conferences with the coaches. One of the things that
Tied Golden said to me, which is sort of emblematic
of where we are and way coaches are building rosters.
He said that after last year, when Florida lost early
in the tournament last year, they sat down, looked at
their roster and said, we need to get more physical,
(23:46):
we need to be tougher. So they went out and
got a couple of front course players, particularly Chinulu, you know,
a big body underneath who could rebound, take up space
and so forth. And that you know that pinpointed that
we don't need to go out and get the most
talented players. We need to get the players that we
need to fit the roster. Like you said, they already
(24:07):
had the guards. They added another one and Elijah Martin.
But uh, and that's I think you're exactly right. That's
what worked for them, the way that the roster construction.
They had the guards, which you have to have have
to have in uh intern of of play, but they
also had the front court players who could rebound and
take up space and score. I mean, I think the
(24:29):
way Condon came on at the end of the year
really helped Florida. So I mean, I think you know
all this stuff about the transfer portal, and you know,
we know that it is with fans in Kentucky. You know,
they missed on this guy or they didn't get this
guy and so forth. It's really not about that. It's
really about how what does the roster look like? What
does the team need? More so than oh, who's number
(24:50):
one on the transfer portal list or number two on
the list. And I think that it's much more important
how you construct that roster than how much than whether
you can get the best players.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
When you were talking about the freshman, you were talking about,
you know, trying to get the best of the best,
the Cooper Flags, the Anthony Davis's, et cetera. And uh
here in the portal there are you know, guys that
they rank them. Because everybody loves rankings. And loves to
look at them and talk about them. But you know,
(25:22):
it's but it's not all about you know, the best guy.
Maybe you've all you know interwards, Kentucky's got otega Oway,
Well whoever the best guy is in his position, Kentucky
doesn't need so that ranking isn't you know, relative to
that particular position. Just as that that one example. So
it is really about, you know, getting the guys you need.
And also, as I was saying earlier, it's like it's
(25:45):
becoming you know, like the professional sports now fitting them
into your budget, your salary cap if you will, right right,
right right exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
And it's it's really hard to predict, you know, it's
hard to predict how a player is going to fit
into a system and now he's going to play. I
mean two examples of me. Aj Store was a really
good player Wisconsin. He went to Kansas. He was not
very good at all at Kansas. Kansas had a bad season.
Was not a good fit. They brought in some players
(26:14):
that were not good fits. They had a bad season.
Look at Florida, Walter Clayton. Walter Clayton was a football player.
Was Holly was more hogh Re guarded as a football
player coming out of high school as a basketball player,
but he wanted to play basketball. The story goes, so
they told that the frontal four is that Rick Patino
saw a tape of him and said, he's fat, slow,
and he can't shoot, but I like the way he
(26:34):
passes the ball, so I'll take him at Iona. Look
at the player he turned into, So you know, it's
how do you know, It's hard to know. And and
came to Florida. He was from, you know, back down
to Florida. He almost went to Sant John's. Golden actually
had a funny line. He thought that Patino almost had
him at St. John's from Iona, but Golden, who was Jewish,
(26:56):
flew up on Easter weekend and got Clayton to commit
to Florida. And Todd joke that, you know that that
was one advantage of being Jewish. We don't celebrate Easter,
so I had the time to go up and talk
to him and get him to commit. But you know,
look at the player he turned into. So you know,
you just never know about these guys and how they're
going to fit into a system. So, like we said before,
(27:18):
it's all about roster construction these days.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Talk with John Clay for the Lexing Herold Leader Kentucky
Sports dot com and we'll continue here in just a
moment on the Club Blue, ANIL dot com hotline. It's
the Leaks Report Radio Network, fourteen away from the top
of the hour. Here on the Leaks Report, John Clay
joining us from the Lexington Herald Leader in Kentucky Sports
dot com. What do you think about what Mark Pope
(27:42):
has done with his roster construction to this point?
Speaker 3 (27:46):
You know, lot, it's hard to tell, but I mean,
I like what he's done. I think he's done with
what we talked about, trying to find pieces that fit
the guys that he has coming back. So but like
I said, it's it's going to be really hard to
tell until you it, you know, until they get on
the floor and you see how they work together. I
think the only thing you can go by is the
way it was what he did last year. You know,
(28:08):
how that roster fit together, and now you put it
together under you know, under very trying and circumstances in
a short amount of time. So right now I trust
Mark to find the right pieces and get them to come.
I know, people are you know, bummed about that. The
last kid, Wilkerson kid went to Indiana. But you know,
(28:28):
I it's hard to tell how would he have fit Obviously,
I think Mark thought he would have fit in well,
or he wouldn't have recruited him and tried to get
him to come. But and I've seen other people say this,
and I think it's true. A lot of times what
sometimes people consider a big miss is followed by a
surprising win. So there may be somebody else out there
that we don't even know about who's gonna pop up
(28:49):
that you know that that Mark ends up getting.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
And if you're trying, you know, if you're talking about
the team you're trying to build and getting the pieces
to fit together and getting everybody on the same page,
part of it is, you know, you don't let's mike,
assumption is not the right word. I'm guessing that probably
Indiana up the price and Kentucky could have done the same,
(29:16):
and it, you know, right into a little bit of
a bidding war. But then in those situations, every decision
you make then has side effects that come along with
it that you have to deal with. And at some
point you decide, okay, at this price, Uh, you are
a great fit for us, and uh and but this
(29:37):
is kind of our price point, So we're going to
try to find the next best fit with this kind
of you know, budget range, and sometimes that's going to
happen in this day and the way we're doing college
sports now.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Right and because there's right now there's no transparency, we
don't know for sure what these kids are getting. I mean,
there's all kinds of numbers being thrown out there, especially
on social media. Know for sure what they're getting because
there's no transparency, there's no way of finding out for sure.
So yeah, I mean you're exactly right. I mean you
have to there are budget there are budget constraints. People
(30:11):
don't have an unlimited amount of budget. And also it
doesn't affect how much you can spend or what kind
of effect that's going to have on your locker room
as well. I mean, so yeah, I mean there's so
many things that go into it now that didn't go
into it before, or if it went into it before,
it was all under the table, I guesses, but yeah,
but yeah, so yeah, there's a lot of different factors.
(30:33):
Like I said, the thing I think you have to
go on right now at this point is that Mark
Pope look at the team he put together last year
in a short amount of time, those teams that those
pieces fit together pretty well. They ended up getting getting
up to this Sweet sixteen and played, you know, had
a winning record in a very tough conference in his
first year as a coach. So I trust that he
(30:54):
can find the right guys to move forward.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Gone with John Clay from the Lexington Herald Leader sports
dot com. Let's talk a little bit about Nicoleamaliva from
down at Tennessee, who's thinking about two million a year
and tried to leverage that into a doubling of the
salary reportedly, and now finds himself shopping for a new
(31:20):
place and not a lot of suitors reportedly at this point,
and certainly none at the level he aspired to be at.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Right, right, right, Which is the kind of the flip
side of all this thing. I mean, I think we've
said this before. It's going to have to come down
to at some point people talk about guardrails. I think
it's going to come down it's going to have to
be contracts. I know the schools don't want to do that,
but they're going to have to. To me, that's going
to be the only solution to this thing, because you're
going to be able is to sign kids to contracts.
(31:50):
Have in the contracts that there's and I've seen this,
and I think this is a valid point. Maybe you
have a contract with some of the mid major schools
that if the kid leaves to go to a bigger school,
than school has to compensate the mid major school of
the smaller school or the preceding school for developing the player. Uh.
That's to me, the only way that you're gonna have
any kind of semblance, some semblance, anyway of order. You know,
(32:14):
there are now reports that you know, uh, I'm a
leva or I'm a leaving, I think is what they're
calling him in to see. But he he You know,
they didn't even before the playoff game that they were
making threats that he was going to sit out the
playoff game last year Tennessee if he didn't get more money.
You know, that's crazy, Yeah, it would have been. Yeah,
that's crazy. So yeah, I'm gonna be I think there
(32:37):
would be I don't I've said all along. I think
that the players should get money. There's just too much
money being made for the players. Not to get some
sort of cut up cut in it. I'm all for
the transfer portal. If coaches are allowed to move, why
I can't play. I'm with Jay Billis on all that.
But I do think there's gonna have to be They're
gonna have to bring some kind of order to it.
(32:58):
And the only way I think the they can really
do that is to have contracts with these players, even
though I know the schools don't want to do that.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
And then the pros, you know, they have agents that
are certified and the sports fans we lament you know,
the what agents the games that they play, but they
are professionals and they know what they're doing, and so
you know, a good agent's not going to advise the guy.
You know, if you're unhappy with your deal after the playoff,
you go to Tennessee and talk about it. If you
(33:26):
can't resolve it, then you you know, uh, every everybody
knows what's going on, and Tennessee moves on, uh, you know,
through spring practice, et cetera. You don't uh, you know,
do that at the last minute and basically try to
extort your employer, so to speak, and that's just not
good business.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
No, no, on either side. Yeah, yeah, and we give
some protection and we give some protection to the players
as well, you know, as far as you know, uh,
you know, if you whether they would sign maybe a
two year contract or three year contract that you can't
you can't drop a player after one year, that some
sort of repercussions, there's you know, some sort of you know,
uh that would be in the contract. Some more stipulation
(34:07):
would be in the contract. That's the only way you're
going to be able to do it, I think. But
of course we should happen.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
We should remember too that it was Tennessee that opened
this door on the Amalieva by uh you threaten lawsuit
with against the n C double A and you know
that kind of I think, uh moved collectives into uh,
you know, more of a more out in the open
a little bit, which maybe that was for the best,
who knows, But anyway, Tennessee opened the door, and uh
(34:35):
they got hit on the on the way out a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
So, right, what goes around comes around.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Sometimes, John, thank you very much for the time. As always,
Thank you Tom. That is John Clay. You read him
at the Lexington Herald Leader and Kentucky Sports dot Com.
He joins us on the Club Blue nil dot com hotline.
Club Blues the official collective partner for UK Athletics and
they have teamed up with Bespoken Spirits for a new release.
(35:03):
It is a limited edition Club Blue basketball bottle. Really
cool looking bottle features a bold weeded Kentucky bourbon whiskey
inside and there are fewer than eight hundred individually numbered
bottles that were produced, so it's not going to be
around for long. Get to liquor barn stores around Kentucky
while supplies last and pick up the limited edition Club
(35:25):
Blue Basketball bottle. All bottles sold directly support the NIL
efforts for all sports at UK. It is the Leech
Report Radio network We'll be right Back, which report presented
each day by Bobcat Enterprise. Its Last night, Kentucky picked
up a transfer from Georgia Tech for women's basketball. Tony Morgan,
(35:47):
five to nine guard, two time All acc performer for
Tech averaged fourteen points a game, six as sists and
five rebounds last season, so nice pickup two under six
foot guards that have come in via the transfer portal
now for coach Brooks, and the last one worked pretty
(36:10):
well with Georgia amore. So that's the third pickup in
the portal for Kentucky women's basketball. Now Kentucky Softball pubbled
Western Kentucky last night over at John Crop Stadium, nine
to one, four home runs for coach Rachel Lawson's squad.
Racing and resuming today out at Keenland. There are just
(36:33):
two weeks of racing left and there's no racing this
Sunday because of Easter. So you've got today, Tomorrow, and
Friday and Saturday this week and then Wednesday through Friday
next week and that's the end of the Keenland Spring Meet.
So with those eight straight days the schedule altered by
the weather, we end up with a situation where it
(36:56):
just has feels like it's flown by at this point.
So it should be another nice card out at Keenland
today and a nice day as well. We're in for
a pretty good stretch of warmer weather. It looks like
this week no UK history notes to pass along today,
so we will tell you that tomorrow Billy Rutlis, she's
(37:16):
going to fill in for me. Mike the Course, He's
going to do a slot on the show tomorrow and
then Goose Gibbons and justin Rowland after that and then
I will be back with you on Friday. Leach Report
presented each day by Bobcat Enterprises, and we have four
locations for Bobcat around the state, so check them out
(37:38):
when you need to buy or rent a piece of
heavy equipment that will do it for the Leech Report.
We will see you tomorrow and Billy will and I'll
see you on Friday. Have a good day, everybody,
Good day, everybody, Welcome in Wednesday edition of the Leech Report,
presented by bobcat Enterprises. Coming up today, I've got a
good bit of Kentucky men's basketball to discuss, among other things.
Chris Fisher joins us from the Cat's Pause and John
Clay from the Lexington Herald Leader. In Kentucky Sports dot Com,
(00:21):
Wildcatnews of the Day always presented by just Sepies of Lexington.
Otega Oway put his name in the NBA Draft yesterday,
but is retaining his college eligibility, so there's no surprise
anywhere there. The deadline is May twenty eighth for pulling
one's name out of the draft and heading back to college,
(00:42):
as Jackson Robinson did last season, so you may have
to wait a while for the definitive word. And there's
always the chance he could hear what he wants to
hear and go into the draft, but there certainly are
no indications that that is likely to happen. This is
something that was certainly expected and makes sense because for
(01:02):
otega he I would think certainly put his name on
the more prominently on the radar screens of some folks
in the NBA after what he did in his first
season at Kentucky and now could come back and build
on that. But if he goes through this process, he
gets evaluated. He can hear from the NBA folks directly.
(01:28):
They how they assess his game and what he can
do to get better. I think, to be a little
better three point shooter. And the other thing that Mark
Pope talked about many times is he thinks always got
a big upside as a playmaker. And if that's the
case and he can do some of that, I would
think that would be a way to enhance his value
(01:49):
in the NBA. So I know there's a certain element
of any fan base that just looks for reasons to panic,
but this was just to expect it now. Yesterday, speaking
of panic, Kentucky lost out on a transfer Indiana is
landing Lamar Wilkerson, the high scoring guard from sam Houston State.
(02:12):
After Wilkerson made the visit to Kentucky on Sunday. There
was initially a lot of speculation that Wilkerson might commit
when he was at Indiana, that Kentucky was able to
convince him to visit, and then I think there was
a lot of buzz for Kentucky once Wilkerson canceled trips
to Ole Miss and Auburn, but he said he did
(02:33):
an interview with a field of sixty eight guys yesterday.
He said, on one hand, I didn't want to go
to Kentucky and just be another guy, okay, But he
also said that there was a last minute visit from
I used new coach hearing degrees. And the other line
that jumped out to me is he said, I want
to go where I'm a priority. I think in these
(02:55):
days of the nil world transfer portal nil, there are
you know, things that phrases that come out that are
kind of like phrases in real estate. You know what
a unique fixer upper is those kinds of things. I
want to go where a priority. Where I'm a priority
means that Indiana raise the price, And there are reports
(03:16):
that that did happen. And at some point, if you're Kentucky,
it's like, we would love you at this price, not
at that price. Tennessee would have loved to have em
Alieva back at the price they'd agreed to, probably even
a little bit more, not at double. And so he
(03:38):
is on the market looking for a new place to
play college football and not finding it at the moment,
and Wilkerson has headed off to Indiana, so yeah it
he's again he said, don't want to go where I'm
a priority. Maybe maybe Indiana it was more of a
priority for them in terms of what their budget was.
(03:59):
You know, you get a you get to a point
when it's part of it. Now it's just like professional
teams do you know, they've a budget or a salary
cap whatever to manage and you don't overpay in spots
unless it's you know, one of the best of the best.
So that's where it is. Kentucky now is back in
(04:22):
the market to try to find a player. One would assume,
you know, a shooter. Maybe they end up landing a
backup point guard. Maybe it's it could be nobody, but
I suspect they'll find at least one more player. So
we'll see how it all plays out. But for now
we know Lamar Wilkerson is off to play for the
Indiana Hoosiers, and we'll talk about that with our guests
(04:43):
when they joined the program. Last night, UK baseball got
a walk off win over Miami four to three. This
would have been a bad loss. KUK. He's already taken
a few of these midweek setbacks already, and they are
you know, at the moment. If this were selections Sunday
and or for college baseball, they'd be hanging by a thread.
(05:04):
Still got time to polish up the resume and needed
to make sure they didn't drop one last night, and
so they took care business. Doesn't matter that it was close.
They got the winning run via two out bunt by
Ethan Handle in the bottom of the ninth. So now
they go down to Tennessee this weekend and the balls
are up to number two in the country now and again,
you've got opportunities in this league to enhance your resume.
(05:28):
Anytime you step on the field, you're down there and
do well, take two out of three, get a sweep,
something like that. They'll have other chances with the remaining
conference series that are coming up. Plus next week they'll
have a midweek game against a top fifteen Louisville squad.
So big win last night for Kentucky and that it
(05:49):
was a big win in that it avoided a bad loss,
if that makes sense. And a couple of more football
names headed out in the transfer portal, both offensive lineman
and Fredy Crease and Mark nave links to the stories
that we talk about each day. You can find those
on the bud Light Leech Report page at Tom Leachky
dot com. We'll be right back with Chris Fisher from
(06:11):
The Cat's Pause, John Clay from The Hair Leader coming
up a little later. Leach Reports opening segment every day
of wild Cat News, presented by Giuseppes of Lexington. Out
off Nicholasville Road, just past man O War and get
to open table right now. Make your reservation. If you've
got a special occasion coming up, a birthday, at anniversary,
something like that, or if you want to plan around
(06:33):
an event derby weekend, maybe after you watch the derby,
head out to Giuseppes for a fantastic meal. Food's fantastic,
soows the ambiance, full wine and bourbon selections as well.
At Giuseppes Lexington dot com. You can check out the menu.
We'll be right back with Chris Fisher sixteen past the
top of the hour. Leach Report coming to you each
day for the Clarks pumpin Shop studio. Return, Refresh and
(06:56):
refuel at Clark's and you can sign up for their
new loyalty rewards program too. Get discounts on fuel and
items in the store. Chris Fisher joins us. Now you
read him at Katspaws dot com, coming to us on
the Club Blue Nil dot com hotline, and he has
been your panic counselor here for the last few weeks
(07:17):
as it pertains to the portal. So yeah, I guess
business picked up for you again yesterday, Chris.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
It did it, did you know? And there's no sugarcoating it.
Lamar Wilkerson was a big miss for Kentucky in a
lot of ways. It felt like he was the final
missing piece that they needed. They needed another shooter, they
needed kind of a secondary ball handler, and I thought
Lamar Wilkerson could be that they come up short. You know,
(07:47):
he says he doesn't want to be just another guy
at Kentucky, which you know may be code for Indiana
offered me more money. You know, I don't know, but
you know it's one thing Mark Hope said. He said
it's gonna work out like it's supposed to. And if
that is truly his thought that he didn't want to
be just another guy at Kentucky, then maybe Kentucky is
(08:09):
not the place for him. And so Kentucky will move on.
And you know, one thing I've learned about the portal
in my weeks of counseling is that everything feels magnified. It's,
you know, everybody misses in the high school ranks, everybody
misses in the portal, But when you miss in the portal,
it feels magnified because everything's still concentrated over the course
(08:31):
of you know, three or four weeks. And so when
you miss on a guy, it feels like, you know,
the end of the world because you have to move
on so quickly to someone else. But if this offseason
is any indication, Kentucky has typically followed up a big
miss with a surprise hit, you know, somewhere else. And
(08:53):
so I'm sure Kentucky has already turned their sights to
other portal targets. And you know, they're targets that we
are not aware of. There are targets that are may
not even be in the portal yet, and so there's
still plenty of fish in the sea.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
I assume that you uh, you know, are following this closely.
Is it Sometimes a miss is a case of he
was a perfect fit at this price point, He's not
a perfect fit at this other price point.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, And I think I also think it was a
situation where, you know, Indiana has many more roster spots
to fill, and we're maybe a little bit more desperate
to get some of those spots filled, and we're willing
to overpay and overspend a little bit. And so, you know,
the there are so many variables involved in portal shopping.
(09:50):
I guess if you want to call it that, where
you know, it depends on what you need, It depends
on kind of what the fair market value is the asking,
the need the other options at that position, you know
kind of how late in the process everything is, and
so everything kind of has to line up. But you know,
(10:12):
I would challenge Kentucky fans how many names from last
offseason that Kentucky missed on? Do you even remember, you know,
outside of maybe Great Osibor and Aiden Mahaney, I don't
really remember very many targets that Kentucky missed on last year.
Because the most important piece is just the next piece,
(10:33):
and that's what Kentucky is onto.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
And I think also with the transfer portal versus freshmen,
you if you're recruiting a freshman in a certainly a
little earlier time, you're selling, uh to this is the
place to get you to where you want to go,
to move you onto the NBA. It gets you ready
for the NBA, et cetera, and uh, you know the
(11:00):
other things that go along with you know, playing at
Kentucky fan base, edulation, all of that stuff. Whereas guys
in a transfer portal that really have little or no
NBA future are looking some certainly more at the you
know and understandably so what the bottom line is, and
if it's a significant difference, then maybe it makes more
(11:23):
sense for me to go somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yeah, absolutely, And it would not surprise me at all
if that were the case. With Lamar Wilkerson. It was
kind of out there that you know, Indiana kind of
had the best offer, and you know, if they felt
like he was slipping away to Kentucky, which it kind
of felt like over the last you know, forty eight
hours or so, then maybe they kind of come back
to the table with kind of their best and final
(11:46):
offer and maybe that was enough to kind of get
the job done. But you know, listening to Mark Pope
talk to Maggie Davis about the you know, their sales
pitch and the portal how it's you know, some of
the easiest conversations that he's ever had. And I think
it has to be an easy sell for Mark Pope
because you look at the nine transfers that he brought
(12:09):
in last offseason. You know, aside from Kerkkrisa who you
know had a season ending injury in December, a lot
of those guys had their most efficient season of their
college basketball career. And you look at what he did
with a guy like otega Oway. Nobody thought otakeo Ohway
was going to be a star at Kentucky. I think
(12:30):
we had him ranked thirty first overall in the portal
and then in the final re rank he was number seven.
And you look at his numbers set, you know, statistical
highs across the board and has now you know, declared
for the draft and you know, turned himself into a
legitimate draft prospect.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Talk with Chris fishercatzpaus dot com at Chris Fisher twenty
four to seven on X will be right back. It's
the Leads Report, and we're coming to you courtesy of
Bobcat Enterprises for locations around Kentucky. So google Bobcat and
you need to buy or rent a piece of heavy equipment, excavators,
skin steer loaders, et cetera. You can find it from
(13:07):
Bobcat Enterprises. You'll find the location that's closest to you
and they'll give you a good deal and even better
service after the sale. It's Bobcat Enterprises. We'll be right
back John with Chris Fisher from katspaus dot com about
ukme In's basketball building out the roster and Chris. Yesterday,
it was Travis Brandnam, the national recruiting analyst for your
(13:30):
company twenty four to seven, who was on a show
and talking about Nate Ament and said he's heard that
Louisville and Arkansas are fading and it comes down to
Duke Tennessee and Kentucky in that order. So sounds like
probably Nate Imment's not going to be the next option, correct, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I wouldn't expect that to be the case, especially as
Kentucky has continued to add pieces through the transfer portal.
I thought, you know, they did a good job of
kind of getting themselves in the mix, but I never
really saw them as an outright leader or even a
co leader. And it feels like things have continued to
shuffle around over the last several weeks as far as
(14:14):
you know who's in, who's out, who leads. But as
I've stated multiple times, I'm just not willing to bet
against Duke and these types of situations that John Shire's
really embraced, kind of the you know, one and done
method of recruiting and accumulating as many star freshmen as
possible and then just kind of filling in the gaps
with some experienced players through the transfer portal. And so
(14:38):
you know, I would vision Nata Mint being able to
slide in and you know, play alongside the boozers and
you know, some of the guys that they have coming
back Shires.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
It seems kind of like Cal in twenty ten here
where he was the only guy doing that. People didn't
believe you could, you know, do that with freshman and
ultimately Duke even jumped into fish in that pond by
the middle part of that decade. And now it's against
(15:10):
the trend of being older, and that was the thing
back then at twenty ten you didn't have as many
good older players still in the game as you do now.
So it'll be an interesting to see how it plays
out for Duke because it worked very well obviously this season,
but they had a freshman that was, you know, better
(15:30):
than the average freshman, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And I think, you know, in order for it to
work like that, I think you have to get the
tippy top guys, you know, like not all five star
guys are created equal, and we've seen that play out
over the course of the last ten years at Duke.
You know, they're getting the Zion Williamson.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
The RJ.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Barrett's, the Marvin Bagley's, the Cooper Flags, the guys that
can you know, not come in and and not just
have an impact from day one, but really contribute in
a very significant way. And we saw Cooper Flag was
the you know, the National Player of the Year, National
Freshman of the Year, And so I think in order
(16:14):
to do it that way, you have to have game
changing guys. And I think they have another game changing
guy with Cameron Boozer coming in next season. And then
you know, just like I said, just kind of supplement
those guys with some experienced guys from the portal. But
it also has a downside, you know, we saw you know,
I think most people would agree Duke was probably the
(16:35):
best team and probably should have beaten Houston and you know,
maybe would have beaten Florida for the championship. And having
a young team, they watch things kind of fall apart
over the last two and a half minutes.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
It's Houston, and then you have a story up atkatspows
dot com about it take an oways decision to enter
the NBA draft, and I assume you would counsel Kentucky
fans to not panic about this one.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, I'm gonna stay pretty consistent with that message. It
would probably would have been more of a surprise had
he not at least tested the waters. I mean, you
want to, you know, go through the process. You want,
you know, to have a chance to get some feedback.
If you want to be invited to the combine, your
name has to be in the draft and go through
that process. And so I would have been more surprised
if you didn't at least test the waters.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Chris, thank you much. All right, thanks, it's Chris Fisher
Catspause dot Com joining us here on the Leech Report.
Springs in the air and if you're looking to shake
off some of the winter gloom, the folks at Cornbread
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(17:40):
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tom at checkout Cornbreadthemp dot com. This is the good life.
We'll be right back with John Clay. It is the
(18:03):
ly true report coming to you each day from the
Clark's Pumpin' Shop studio. Return, Refresh and refuel. We go
to the Club Blue Nil dot com hotline and bring on.
John Clay columns for the Lexington Herald Leader, Kentucky Sports
dot com and one of the newest members of the
US Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame, alongside former colleague
(18:24):
Chuck Culpeper. So that was a nice exacta for the
USBWA down in San Antonio.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Yeah, that was neat. That was very honored to go
in and very thrilled to go in with Chuck, my
former colleague and a good friend. Great to see check
bear a little bitter sweeten to Bob Holt, another great friend,
was also inducted in the class of twenty twenty five,
and Bob passed away back during the football season. The
(18:52):
sports trader for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, who people may
know from the SEC media days, Bob seed to always
get the first question, uh and had a question for
every coach, so it was a little bittersweet. Wally Hall,
also good friend work with Bob, was there to accept
the honor on Bob's behalf. But yeah, very honored to
go in because mainly because there's so many people that
(19:15):
I respect and have so much admiration for already in
the hall, including my uh my for my former colleague
Jerry Tipton, and people like Billy Reid and Dave Kindred
and Kirk Kirkpatrick and people like that. So to be
in the same company with them, I was very humbled
and honored.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Well you should have been, but it was well deserved.
So congratulations, thank you. And I see I just punched
up your list of the columns at the Harald Leader,
and the first one is headlined I was at the
final four. I can report that college basketball is far
from dead, So that's great to.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Hear, yeah, I mean it was. It was a great
Final four. The TV ratings were really good. Obviously the games,
the games were all good. And I think one thing
it sort of confirmed for me something that I'd sort
of touched on earlier, is that I think the players
are older. Obviously the COVID year giving them an next
year for the COVID year has had something to do
(20:14):
with that. But also I think nil one of the
good things about and I also kept players in school
who maybe would have already tried to go on to
the NBA or maybe even gone overseas to try to
make money overseas. So I think the level of play
is better than it's been when we saw so many
young and raw teams, you know, in the past. So
(20:35):
I think the level of play is better. Obviously there's
a lot of chaos and that sort of thing, but
I think the game itself, just the actual play of
this self, I think is actually in a good place.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Some were lamenting the lack of the Cinderella influence on
this year's tournament, and it was for one seeds at
the final four, But do you think that speaks to
what you were just talking about there in terms of
the level of play, and so it's maybe harder for
you know, you know what fifteen years ago, when you
(21:06):
had really young teams, it was maybe easier for somewhat
less talented but older team to have a shot to
take them down.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Yeah, I think that's. Yeah, I definitely think that's part
of it. I think it's you know, it's easy to
jump to conclusions off of one year. I mean, we'll
see what happens down the road. I mean, I think
this was the first time since two thousand and eight,
I think that the four number one seats had made
the final four. So obviously it's a different landscape. And
now with nil and the transfer portal, we'll see how
(21:34):
it plays down the road. But yeah, I think that's
I think that's probably, you know, part of it that
there are older teams and you don't have maybe some
of the more established programs they had younger rosters who
for one reason or another, you know, didn't make it
to the final four. Obviously, Duke was kind of the
and it was funny because John Shire actually talked about
(21:54):
this at times. John said he thought the Duke coach,
he thought himself, you know, am I crazy for trying
to do it this way because he was he had
the freshman team, Cooper Flag, you know, a couple of
other really good freshmen, and you know, they almost got there,
but I think maybe they're inexperience showed up and the
lost to Houston down the stretch when Houston really attacked
him and came back with the full core press and
(22:15):
so forth. Houston had the experience and Duke didn't have
the experience, and I think that may have been the
deciding factor in that game.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
I now, certainly for college basketball, we've moved into the
mode where it's all about putting rosters together. It's certainly
true here for Kentucky is with what they've done to
this point and trying to finalize it, and I was
saying it's the final four played out here on the
show a couple of times that I really liked the
(22:45):
way Florida was built with the four bigs that had
all were all not the same. They had different strengths
and they could be, you know, somewhat interchangeable. And then
you had three veteran guards and there's always been that
axiom of you know, guards win in March, and these
were three guards that started their careers in college at Belmont, Florida,
(23:07):
Atlantic and Iona. But they were all veterans and all
were critical to the games that Florida won over its
six game winning streak in the tournament. And that's I
just like the way that was put That team was
put together.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Absolutely, and I think one of the to me, one
of the interesting things being there and going to the
press conferences with the coaches. One of the things that
Tied Golden said to me, which is sort of emblematic
of where we are and way coaches are building rosters.
He said that after last year, when Florida lost early
in the tournament last year, they sat down, looked at
their roster and said, we need to get more physical,
(23:46):
we need to be tougher. So they went out and
got a couple of front course players, particularly Chinulu, you know,
a big body underneath who could rebound, take up space
and so forth. And that you know that pinpointed that
we don't need to go out and get the most
talented players. We need to get the players that we
need to fit the roster. Like you said, they already
(24:07):
had the guards. They added another one and Elijah Martin.
But uh, and that's I think you're exactly right. That's
what worked for them, the way that the roster construction.
They had the guards, which you have to have have
to have in uh intern of of play, but they
also had the front court players who could rebound and
take up space and score. I mean, I think the
(24:29):
way Condon came on at the end of the year
really helped Florida. So I mean, I think you know
all this stuff about the transfer portal, and you know,
we know that it is with fans in Kentucky. You know,
they missed on this guy or they didn't get this
guy and so forth. It's really not about that. It's
really about how what does the roster look like? What
does the team need? More so than oh, who's number
(24:50):
one on the transfer portal list or number two on
the list. And I think that it's much more important
how you construct that roster than how much than whether
you can get the best players.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
When you were talking about the freshman, you were talking about,
you know, trying to get the best of the best,
the Cooper Flags, the Anthony Davis's, et cetera. And uh
here in the portal there are you know, guys that
they rank them. Because everybody loves rankings. And loves to
look at them and talk about them. But you know,
(25:22):
it's but it's not all about you know, the best guy.
Maybe you've all you know interwards, Kentucky's got otega Oway,
Well whoever the best guy is in his position, Kentucky
doesn't need so that ranking isn't you know, relative to
that particular position. Just as that that one example. So
it is really about, you know, getting the guys you need.
And also, as I was saying earlier, it's like it's
(25:45):
becoming you know, like the professional sports now fitting them
into your budget, your salary cap if you will, right right,
right right exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
And it's it's really hard to predict, you know, it's
hard to predict how a player is going to fit
into a system and now he's going to play. I
mean two examples of me. Aj Store was a really
good player Wisconsin. He went to Kansas. He was not
very good at all at Kansas. Kansas had a bad season.
Was not a good fit. They brought in some players
(26:14):
that were not good fits. They had a bad season.
Look at Florida, Walter Clayton. Walter Clayton was a football player.
Was Holly was more hogh Re guarded as a football
player coming out of high school as a basketball player,
but he wanted to play basketball. The story goes, so
they told that the frontal four is that Rick Patino
saw a tape of him and said, he's fat, slow,
and he can't shoot, but I like the way he
(26:34):
passes the ball, so I'll take him at Iona. Look
at the player he turned into, So you know, it's
how do you know, It's hard to know. And and
came to Florida. He was from, you know, back down
to Florida. He almost went to Sant John's. Golden actually
had a funny line. He thought that Patino almost had
him at St. John's from Iona, but Golden, who was Jewish,
(26:56):
flew up on Easter weekend and got Clayton to commit
to Florida. And Todd joke that, you know that that
was one advantage of being Jewish. We don't celebrate Easter,
so I had the time to go up and talk
to him and get him to commit. But you know,
look at the player he turned into. So you know,
you just never know about these guys and how they're
going to fit into a system. So, like we said before,
(27:18):
it's all about roster construction these days.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Talk with John Clay for the Lexing Herold Leader Kentucky
Sports dot com and we'll continue here in just a
moment on the Club Blue, ANIL dot com hotline. It's
the Leaks Report Radio Network, fourteen away from the top
of the hour. Here on the Leaks Report, John Clay
joining us from the Lexington Herald Leader in Kentucky Sports
dot com. What do you think about what Mark Pope
(27:42):
has done with his roster construction to this point?
Speaker 3 (27:46):
You know, lot, it's hard to tell, but I mean,
I like what he's done. I think he's done with
what we talked about, trying to find pieces that fit
the guys that he has coming back. So but like
I said, it's it's going to be really hard to
tell until you it, you know, until they get on
the floor and you see how they work together. I
think the only thing you can go by is the
way it was what he did last year. You know,
(28:08):
how that roster fit together, and now you put it
together under you know, under very trying and circumstances in
a short amount of time. So right now I trust
Mark to find the right pieces and get them to come.
I know, people are you know, bummed about that. The
last kid, Wilkerson kid went to Indiana. But you know,
(28:28):
I it's hard to tell how would he have fit Obviously,
I think Mark thought he would have fit in well,
or he wouldn't have recruited him and tried to get
him to come. But and I've seen other people say this,
and I think it's true. A lot of times what
sometimes people consider a big miss is followed by a
surprising win. So there may be somebody else out there
that we don't even know about who's gonna pop up
(28:49):
that you know that that Mark ends up getting.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
And if you're trying, you know, if you're talking about
the team you're trying to build and getting the pieces
to fit together and getting everybody on the same page,
part of it is, you know, you don't let's mike,
assumption is not the right word. I'm guessing that probably
Indiana up the price and Kentucky could have done the same,
(29:16):
and it, you know, right into a little bit of
a bidding war. But then in those situations, every decision
you make then has side effects that come along with
it that you have to deal with. And at some
point you decide, okay, at this price, Uh, you are
a great fit for us, and uh and but this
(29:37):
is kind of our price point, So we're going to
try to find the next best fit with this kind
of you know, budget range, and sometimes that's going to
happen in this day and the way we're doing college
sports now.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Right and because there's right now there's no transparency, we
don't know for sure what these kids are getting. I mean,
there's all kinds of numbers being thrown out there, especially
on social media. Know for sure what they're getting because
there's no transparency, there's no way of finding out for sure.
So yeah, I mean you're exactly right. I mean you
have to there are budget there are budget constraints. People
(30:11):
don't have an unlimited amount of budget. And also it
doesn't affect how much you can spend or what kind
of effect that's going to have on your locker room
as well. I mean, so yeah, I mean there's so
many things that go into it now that didn't go
into it before, or if it went into it before,
it was all under the table, I guesses, but yeah,
but yeah, so yeah, there's a lot of different factors.
(30:33):
Like I said, the thing I think you have to
go on right now at this point is that Mark
Pope look at the team he put together last year
in a short amount of time, those teams that those
pieces fit together pretty well. They ended up getting getting
up to this Sweet sixteen and played, you know, had
a winning record in a very tough conference in his
first year as a coach. So I trust that he
(30:54):
can find the right guys to move forward.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Gone with John Clay from the Lexington Herald Leader sports
dot com. Let's talk a little bit about Nicoleamaliva from
down at Tennessee, who's thinking about two million a year
and tried to leverage that into a doubling of the
salary reportedly, and now finds himself shopping for a new
(31:20):
place and not a lot of suitors reportedly at this point,
and certainly none at the level he aspired to be at.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Right, right, right, Which is the kind of the flip
side of all this thing. I mean, I think we've
said this before. It's going to have to come down
to at some point people talk about guardrails. I think
it's going to come down it's going to have to
be contracts. I know the schools don't want to do that,
but they're going to have to. To me, that's going
to be the only solution to this thing, because you're
going to be able is to sign kids to contracts.
(31:50):
Have in the contracts that there's and I've seen this,
and I think this is a valid point. Maybe you
have a contract with some of the mid major schools
that if the kid leaves to go to a bigger school,
than school has to compensate the mid major school of
the smaller school or the preceding school for developing the player. Uh.
That's to me, the only way that you're gonna have
any kind of semblance, some semblance, anyway of order. You know,
(32:14):
there are now reports that you know, uh, I'm a
leva or I'm a leaving, I think is what they're
calling him in to see. But he he You know,
they didn't even before the playoff game that they were
making threats that he was going to sit out the
playoff game last year Tennessee if he didn't get more money.
You know, that's crazy, Yeah, it would have been. Yeah,
that's crazy. So yeah, I'm gonna be I think there
(32:37):
would be I don't I've said all along. I think
that the players should get money. There's just too much
money being made for the players. Not to get some
sort of cut up cut in it. I'm all for
the transfer portal. If coaches are allowed to move, why
I can't play. I'm with Jay Billis on all that.
But I do think there's gonna have to be They're
gonna have to bring some kind of order to it.
(32:58):
And the only way I think the they can really
do that is to have contracts with these players, even
though I know the schools don't want to do that.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
And then the pros, you know, they have agents that
are certified and the sports fans we lament you know,
the what agents the games that they play, but they
are professionals and they know what they're doing, and so
you know, a good agent's not going to advise the guy.
You know, if you're unhappy with your deal after the playoff,
you go to Tennessee and talk about it. If you
(33:26):
can't resolve it, then you you know, uh, every everybody
knows what's going on, and Tennessee moves on, uh, you know,
through spring practice, et cetera. You don't uh, you know,
do that at the last minute and basically try to
extort your employer, so to speak, and that's just not
good business.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
No, no, on either side. Yeah, yeah, and we give
some protection and we give some protection to the players
as well, you know, as far as you know, uh,
you know, if you whether they would sign maybe a
two year contract or three year contract that you can't
you can't drop a player after one year, that some
sort of repercussions, there's you know, some sort of you know,
uh that would be in the contract. Some more stipulation
(34:07):
would be in the contract. That's the only way you're
going to be able to do it, I think. But
of course we should happen.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
We should remember too that it was Tennessee that opened
this door on the Amalieva by uh you threaten lawsuit
with against the n C double A and you know
that kind of I think, uh moved collectives into uh,
you know, more of a more out in the open
a little bit, which maybe that was for the best,
who knows, But anyway, Tennessee opened the door, and uh
(34:35):
they got hit on the on the way out a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
So, right, what goes around comes around.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Sometimes, John, thank you very much for the time. As always,
Thank you Tom. That is John Clay. You read him
at the Lexington Herald Leader and Kentucky Sports dot Com.
He joins us on the Club Blue nil dot com hotline.
Club Blues the official collective partner for UK Athletics and
they have teamed up with Bespoken Spirits for a new release.
(35:03):
It is a limited edition Club Blue basketball bottle. Really
cool looking bottle features a bold weeded Kentucky bourbon whiskey
inside and there are fewer than eight hundred individually numbered
bottles that were produced, so it's not going to be
around for long. Get to liquor barn stores around Kentucky
while supplies last and pick up the limited edition Club
(35:25):
Blue Basketball bottle. All bottles sold directly support the NIL
efforts for all sports at UK. It is the Leech
Report Radio network We'll be right Back, which report presented
each day by Bobcat Enterprise. Its Last night, Kentucky picked
up a transfer from Georgia Tech for women's basketball. Tony Morgan,
(35:47):
five to nine guard, two time All acc performer for
Tech averaged fourteen points a game, six as sists and
five rebounds last season, so nice pickup two under six
foot guards that have come in via the transfer portal
now for coach Brooks, and the last one worked pretty
(36:10):
well with Georgia amore. So that's the third pickup in
the portal for Kentucky women's basketball. Now Kentucky Softball pubbled
Western Kentucky last night over at John Crop Stadium, nine
to one, four home runs for coach Rachel Lawson's squad.
Racing and resuming today out at Keenland. There are just
(36:33):
two weeks of racing left and there's no racing this
Sunday because of Easter. So you've got today, Tomorrow, and
Friday and Saturday this week and then Wednesday through Friday
next week and that's the end of the Keenland Spring Meet.
So with those eight straight days the schedule altered by
the weather, we end up with a situation where it
(36:56):
just has feels like it's flown by at this point.
So it should be another nice card out at Keenland
today and a nice day as well. We're in for
a pretty good stretch of warmer weather. It looks like
this week no UK history notes to pass along today,
so we will tell you that tomorrow Billy Rutlis, she's
(37:16):
going to fill in for me. Mike the Course, He's
going to do a slot on the show tomorrow and
then Goose Gibbons and justin Rowland after that and then
I will be back with you on Friday. Leach Report
presented each day by Bobcat Enterprises, and we have four
locations for Bobcat around the state, so check them out
(37:38):
when you need to buy or rent a piece of
heavy equipment that will do it for the Leech Report.
We will see you tomorrow and Billy will and I'll
see you on Friday. Have a good day, everybody,
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