2026-04-22- KSR - Hour 1

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Speaker 1: Known for his crowd work. Comedy Off Broadway and Lexington. Welcome's Club Favorite Ian Back April night through the eleventh, then from Saturday Night Live and the hit TV show DMV Catch ten Meadows April sixteenth through the eighteenth, and from Netflix and social media catch Amber Autrey, me first and second. Four tickets to all Comedy Off Broadway shows Call eight five, nine, two seven to one joke or visit Comedy Off Broadway, dot com.

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Speaker 2: Comedy off Bay.

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Speaker 3: This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage.

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Speaker 4: Now here's Matt Jones.

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Speaker 5: Well, welcome everyone, Kentucky Sports Radio, Wednesday, April to twenty second. I am Matt Jones here on another nice spring day in Lexington. And is Wingsday at Ksbar Grill. Even though we're not out there all day to day. You get dollar wings yes day and night. Go eat them, put them in your face, and you ryan living at Shannon the Dude Matt Jones Clark Puppa Shop nine eight five nine twenty two eighty seven a Vision Auto Glass text machine seven seven two seven seven four five two five four In this sedition sponsored by the T. J. Smith Office called TJL Make Them Pay all right, three things today. First of all, the exciting will Stein will join us at eleven thirty. Yes, we're gonna do a football talk. Sure, I'm gonna like get him to introduce us to some of the players and like, you know, not nitty gritty X and O, but X and O for the common man, for the woman, for.

00:01:34
Speaker 2: The non football nerds.

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Speaker 5: Well, I mean just we haven't really gotten to talk about the players beyond the quarterback, and so I want to ask him about the positions and what he thinks good. I mean, he's now been through spring practice.

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Speaker 2: I wore my autographed will Stein T shirt.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, Shandon, I think Ryan thought he was coming in here. I didn't think he was coming in but he's not.

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Speaker 3: I thought, well, now that's why I got my quarter zip and Khaki's on.

00:01:57
Speaker 5: He's gonna be back. He's gonna be by by zoo.

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Speaker 6: Ok.

00:02:01
Speaker 5: So Ryan dressed up like a little child, and unfortunately.

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Speaker 2: Will Stein autograft T shirt brand new, first time I've worn it.

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Speaker 5: It's not gonna work it out now. The other thing is, there are two major conversations that I think are want to have. Uh. The one I thought was gonna be the centerpiece and then the governor decided to throw a bomb yesterday. So the first was I had someone uh well, well, well, actually let's do the governor when first. So I think this is a pretty amazing story. So for those of you that didn't see Governor Andy Basheer, just out of nowhere.

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Speaker 2: Right, yeah, just it did come out of nowhere.

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Speaker 5: I mean I didn't no heads up. I have to say, when I first saw this, I thought it might be AI. I did too, I really did. Yeah, I mean, and I have to say, I can't believe, but I thought, is this AI?

00:02:56
Speaker 4: Yeah, I saw that. I'm like, man that escalated quickly?

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Speaker 5: Does that a know where? Yes? Out of nowhere? So here. I'm not going to read all of it, but here are the main points of the Anibashare puts this statement out. I'm losing the confidence and growing increasingly concerned with the management and decision making at the University of Kentucky. My concerns include the creation of a new one million dollar job that has no defined duties, and the announcement that the new Dean of Law was the only candidate not recommended by the law school faculty. And then he goes on to say that he thinks certain donors are pushing partisan and undue influence, and he said students, faculties and trustees should attend the board meetings that's later this week to make their voices heard. Like that's a wow to me, essentially calling out the UK president and leadership over the one million dollars is Mitch's contract.

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Speaker 2: Of course that doesn't say it by the name, but we know what you're talking about it.

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Speaker 5: And the other one is the law school Dean.

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Speaker 2: Uh huh.

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Speaker 5: I couldn't believe it, Like you don't see government like you don't see governors do that.

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Speaker 7: Oh.

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Speaker 5: You get to the question of like why, now, here's what I want to do, Brian, and you tell me. I think we just need to cut through the bs and just say what's actually happening here?

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Speaker 2: Okay, let's do it.

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Speaker 5: Are you good with that?

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Speaker 2: I'm good with it.

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Speaker 5: I'm going to tell you what actually is going on in these words, okay, and everybody can fall on whatever side they want to me and people know, I like governorsh here, but I also think you say what it is. What's really an issue here is that a couple things happen that I think people need to understand in twenty twenty four, UK change the way they do all governing used to be if you hired deans of like the law school or the business school or whatever, it had to be approved by the Board of Trustee absolutely and there was often a university faculty vote on things. They didn't always follow what the faculty said, but the faculty got a vote, okay. In twenty twenty four, power at UK was essentially consolidated in the president's office. The president of the university has what at UK has been unprecedented power. They basically signed off dal where the Board of Trustees does not approve all but tenure agreements. So basically the president can hire a dean, they can hire an athletic director, they can hire all of this and the Board of Trustees does not have to approve up. As matter of fact, they don't even get a vote. That's never how it's been. And in twenty twenty four they changed the bylaws and they basically made the university president like an all powerful authority. Now, the reasoning for doing this depends on whether you want how you look at it, they would say to you, it streamlines the process rather than all of these things having to go to a board of trustees. It only meets once a month and has other lives. Now the president can just do the work. Okay, okay. Other people would say the president's office was tired of dealing with boards of trustees. The governor appoints those people. Depending on who's the governor, you might get a conservative board of trustees or a liberal board of trustees. And they were like, you know what, let's just have the president do it all right, Well, Governor Brasher, who was appointing the people on the board of trustees, didn't like that.

00:06:31
Speaker 2: I can see why because the.

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Speaker 5: Governor, whoever the governor is, gets much less powerful in that in that moment. So now you get to the law school. I think Andy Basheer cares more about the law school in this than Barnhart, But Barnhart gets thrown into this. They hired this guy, Greg Van Tateno to run the law school. Now side note, you've heard me tell the story Shannon about how I ended up at KSR because I asked for I applied for a job, thought I would get it, didn't get it. You remember that that was Greg Van Tateno. That's where we know that name he was the guy that didn't hire me as the US assistant US attorney that led me to go be able to start Kashar so cal comes full circuit. He did, but it was I accuse that story as like an unanswered prayers thing, like I really wanted that job Van Tatenhobe I came in second, and now twenty years later, I'm doing this. If he had hired me, I'd probably be a I don't know what I'd be somewhere, but i'd probably be a lawyer. So Van taten Hope is a Republican. He's been appointed the dean. I think the statement by Bashir is suggesting that pressure from donors, and I would read that Ryan to say the Crafts when you.

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Speaker 2: He doesn't mention again in any names, but you gotta figure assume that's who he's talking about.

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Speaker 5: And they're very close to Greg, you know, I know they're very close to him, and so Barney or it's upset excuse me, yeah, but Sheer's upset about that. And then he does something I think is brilliant Shannon, which is he throws the Mitch thing in there. Oh yeah, a message about the law school. Would we be talking about it.

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Speaker 2: Most people would glaze over it.

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Speaker 5: No one would care Shane, but he intelligently goes, but if I throw in the Bitch contract, now it's going to catch some attention. Now it's going to catch some attention. Because the way they hired the law school dean Ryan is also how they did the Mitch contract. ELI gave Mitch that contract and did not run it by the board of trustees.

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Speaker 2: Didn't have to get it approved.

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Speaker 5: But I didn't have to get it approved because they changed the rules in twenty twenty four. Twenty four. You would have used to have had to take the law school dean, take it to the board of trustees, take the Mitch contract, take it to the board of trustees. Now you don't have to. Now the president gets to do whatever they want. And Basher's like, how do I make the point that that's bad. Oh, people are against this Mitch contract. I'll throw that in.

00:09:06
Speaker 2: Uh huh.

00:09:07
Speaker 5: What do you think? Do you agree with the governor that there should be some oversight of the president giving jobs or giving contracts, or do you think the other argument that we need it to be efficient, it's just better for the president to do it. Which one do you go.

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Speaker 2: For like, I go along with what we've been saying for a couple of weeks. They are like, there's a leaderless university going on.

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Speaker 6: There.

00:09:29
Speaker 2: There's no leader. There's nobody acting as a leader, nobody acting the leader in the athletics department. And I was really, I.

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Speaker 5: Think, but Sheer's making the opposite point. I think. But Sheer's making the point there's one person deciding everything.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, he's basically the king you need.

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Speaker 5: He's saying, he's the king.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and form of checks and balances in this he's.

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Speaker 5: That's exactly right. I don't think that's what I think. But Sheer's saying the opposite of that. He's saying one person's making every decision.

00:09:55
Speaker 2: Huh.

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Speaker 5: And that's not right, you know.

00:09:58
Speaker 2: And it struck because that wasn't Matt Jones saying it. That wasn't Brett Setzer saying it. That was the governor of the state of Kentucky pointing out our flagship university has some issues.

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Speaker 5: And I will also note it's easy for this stuff to comment through partisan and I get it. Soon as the governor gets involved, people are gonna think it's partisan. And then when he said he brought up the word partisan. But I will note that the criticisms of this structure. You have on the one hand, Andy Basher, Democrat probably running for president. Yes, then you have Brett Setzer, who I think he would be fine with me, saying is a maggot to the magma to the core donor like far right donor. Yes, they're both making the same criticism exactly same point. I think that's kind of interesting. Yeah, Setzer maga donor saying it's the president doing everything and they're giving these contracts out. And then you have a left governor saying the same thing.

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Speaker 2: Yes, so maybe I said it wrong. Leaders Leader List University. It's like almost like a dictator. There's no exact opposite. Yeah, there's not a checks and balance of a board to try to approve or disapprove of whether moves are trying to make over there.

00:11:08
Speaker 5: So, Shannon, how does this apply for the future. I'm not even giving a judgment on what Bashir said. I actually think Van Tatenove will be a good law school dean. I had a lot of graduates of UK law who wrote me disappointed, saying, Matt, you're a voice on the left. How could you say it's okay to have this right wing judges. I think he'll do a good job. I really do. This is a guy who turned me down for a job I got. I mean, he's not I'm friendly with him, but I got no allegiance to him. But he's smart, and I actually think the president of a law school, dean of law school doesn't have to be an academic. I actually think he'll do a good job. So I can't really agree with the governor on that. But what I can't agree with is we need to have an office where there's a checks and balance, because what happened is Eli Capluto and Eric Munday gave this deal to men and no one approved it, and we're now stuck with this million dollar a year deal with ten tickets and no one has the ability to overturn it. And guess what, he refused to talk about it. I think that's a legitimate criticism, do you yeah? Do you Shanon?

00:12:19
Speaker 6: Yeah?

00:12:20
Speaker 4: I absolutely do.

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Speaker 3: I mean, you know, even the president of the United States has somebody that overlooks what he does.

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Speaker 4: You got Congress in this in theory, yes, but in this.

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Speaker 3: Situation, there's there's nobody to check the president on this.

00:12:34
Speaker 2: So does Governor share join the knucklehead club?

00:12:36
Speaker 5: Now? So I wonder if Mitch Martinhart will call the governor a knucklehead.

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Speaker 4: Because I will remember the King knucklehead.

00:12:42
Speaker 5: He said, the only people questioning any of this were a couple of knuckleheads. That's exactly what he's insinuating. It was me and Drew Well, I mean, is the governor a knucklehead?

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Speaker 2: Guess he joins the club?

00:12:53
Speaker 5: Is Brett Setzer a knucklehead?

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Speaker 2: He's in the club, for sure.

00:12:56
Speaker 5: It's a bipartisan knuckleheads, you know. So, But now, how does this matter for the future? This puts a lot of Okay, this same president of no checks and balances, guess what his next big hire is the athletic director. Yeah? Right, So now all of a sudden, I expected they would hire an athletic director. We've asked, well, why hasn't happened. Maybe they knew this was coming, because now the next athletic director, he's going to hire somebody, and you've got the governor going, all right, what are you doing over there? We're going to be watching uh huh. So I actually think what this does is it makes it to where I don't know what they're gonna do about the next athletic director, because all of a sudden you have the governor of the state who's running for president saying, Hey, what kind of ship are you running over there? Yeah?

00:13:53
Speaker 2: What's going on on?

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Speaker 5: This was a headline on ESPN yesterday.

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Speaker 2: Nationally, he was on the Daily Mail yesterday.

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Speaker 5: So now all of a sudden, the scrutiny over who they hire as AD is not just going to be big Blue Nation and a bunch of knuckleheads. It's going to be the national political world going This dude that's running for president has publicly called out the president of the of the university. What's going to happen now? Yes, So I actually think all of a sudden, the AD hire at UK Athletics has a chance to become a national story.

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Speaker 2: A lot more eyes on it now seeing what he's gonna do. What's gonna happen?

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Speaker 5: So, Shannon, I, it's kind of like a wild thing. No matter which side you're on. This has made it now to whoever the next AD is could literally be an issue in the presidential race. This thing just got amplified, got amplified, Like the scrutiny on who they hire as ad just got amplified by a thousand because it's going to be seen as presidential candidate takes on the main university in his state.

00:15:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, the flagship university in your state.

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Speaker 3: And when you have the ability to create a job at a thin air a million dollars and there's no job description.

00:15:11
Speaker 2: And nobody has to approve it, it's a problem.

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Speaker 4: How does nobody see that's a problem.

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Speaker 5: Oh, I think a lot of people do see it. So I think what Bashir did is he took an issue that most people wouldn't care about, who's the dean of the law school, And by throwing in Barnhardt, now, all of a sudden, you have this huge story.

00:15:31
Speaker 2: So yeah, for like me on the outside, I didn't know there was this controversy about the dean of law school.

00:15:36
Speaker 5: Now you do.

00:15:36
Speaker 2: Now we do because I paid attention to He put the Barnhart thing in there.

00:15:39
Speaker 5: So if I'm nine two eight twenty two eighty seven, we all open up the phones in a minute, I don't. I just wanted to give people an understanding of what's actually in play there. We won't have to spend all day on it. We have will Stein on talk to recruiting k Tuck. He got another basketball player yesterday. Top twenty five rankings are out for next season. Where did the hats land? We'll talk about all that right after this. Who sings this?

00:16:05
Speaker 4: It's the Bloodhound Gang? You and me and baby We ain't nothing but the animals. Sorry, I I.

00:16:11
Speaker 5: Had this album when I was in college. That was no boy, Because what is it that we are the Discovery Channel?

00:16:18
Speaker 6: Right?

00:16:19
Speaker 4: Do it like they do on the Discovery Let do it like they.

00:16:21
Speaker 5: Do on the Discovery Channel. My college roommate Tall was a huge fan of the Bloodhound game. Well, I haven't thought about the Bloodhound game long time. If I'm nine to eighty seven, so you know, uh, comments coming in there? Let me read one that I do think is worth noting. One person writes, Matt, why are we talking about this? It's just politics. This is a sports show. Because this is going to have a huge The only reason all of that story is interesting to me is because it's going to have a huge determining factor on who wins the Governor's or excuse me, on who is the ID? Like this is now? This is now? Who's going to be the a d More specifically, like Eli Cappaluto. Here's another breaking news. He ain't gonna be the president this He's gonna be retiring to he's I'm surprised he hasn't announced it. I mean that they're they're gonna go in the spring. We're gonna have a new president and a new a D. Yes, right, that's what's gonna be happening starting in junior job. We're gonna have a new president and a new a D. A new president, new AD that from a sports perspective, will be figuring out whether or not the University of Kentucky is going to be competitive in the new innile landscape. That's the the You may not care about who the dean of law school is. Most people don't. I mean, I don't even really care. But I assume by listening to this you care about UK sports. The two people that will have the biggest impact on deciding if in the next day decade Kentucky is going to be relevant nationally are going to be hired in the next month and a half. And this tweet Babashir is about how is this person going to be hired? Because I think UK's goal is to have Eric Monday be president and then Eric Monday picking ad that'll do what he wants. And I'm not saying that's good or bad. I don't know, Eric Monday. I'm just saying to you, this throws a wrench in that.

00:18:17
Speaker 2: Probably, yes, I think it really does.

00:18:20
Speaker 5: This throws that tweet, probably throws a wrench in that. And now who knows what happens. So I just think it's interesting Chan and the two most important hires that will decide the future kind of UK sports. Now I think it's up in the air what happens.

00:18:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, And again, when you've got one person that's deciding that you need to have like a group of people, like a trustee, the board of trustees that are going to vote on that, it doesn't make me feel good knowing that one person is potentially going to decide that for Kentucky.

00:18:49
Speaker 5: But I will also note again I'm here to be fair. The board of trustees at every university is usually just people that were friends or donors of the governor. It's not like they have some special knowledge. They're usually picked because they donated a lot of money to a campaign.

00:19:04
Speaker 3: But I'll take their collective vote over one person's decision.

00:19:08
Speaker 5: Usually that's correct. So anyway, that's where that is. Now let's switch gears for a second. Let's talk just about basketball. Kentucky does get a commitment yesterday. Braiden Hawthorne's brother is it Zion. Zion didn't even know that was a person didn't either, But I'm fine with it.

00:19:26
Speaker 2: Package deal.

00:19:29
Speaker 5: So in my view, you have to ask yourself do you trust the judgment of the staff and people around the program, because everybody around the program will tell you they thought Braiden Hawthorne was really good and could have played last year. My argument was, well, why didn't he play? We could have used him. But regardless he didn't, he's coming back. I'm excited about that. Jack Gibbons, I think, said there were times he was as good as anybody on the floor last.

00:19:58
Speaker 2: Year, best player in practice at some time points.

00:20:01
Speaker 5: His brother, I don't know how good his brother is. This may have been a case where they said, we want Brayden to stay, but will you take Zion. I got no problem with it if they did. You have fifteen roster spots now you know you used to have twelve, then you had thirteen, Now you got fifteen. They ain't gonna all play I'm fine throwing a flyer on this kid. Really, what matters is your top nine or ten. Right, If you want to take Zion Hawthorne, I'm fine with it. How about you.

00:20:31
Speaker 2: I think he's just also gives you a little more depth at point guard. They've had a little, you know, problem with depth at point guard. So now you got the the Williams.

00:20:39
Speaker 5: Four guys who could play point guard.

00:20:41
Speaker 2: We may need all four of them where things have gone. But I was going to have Braiden back. You know, there was word that he was gonna play, but then he got hurt. Then a word came out that they really wasn't hurt, they just didn't blame him. So I'm really kind of confused how that all played out. But they definitely could have used him this year.

00:20:54
Speaker 5: So yeah, I'm fine with it. I think I have been very out of about taking up for UK fans. I had a moment, Shannon, and I was disappointed in some yesterday when that announcement happened. I thought some of the postings under the announcement were wrong by Kentucky fans. Yeah, because that kid's gonna see that. Yeah, and that kid did nothing wrong, right, he should be excited to be here, so I do hope. Listen, I'm as frustrated when they don't get guys I want, but like, don't take it out on this random kid. We might end up looking and he might end up being really good, and he's going to be like the fourteenth or fifteenth man. It doesn't really matter, Shannon, Like, that's not the moment to express frustrating about other things.

00:21:42
Speaker 3: And if I could tell you, the last thing you need right now is to lose players. So if you lost him because you refuse to take his player, you know it's good. You get Hawthorne back. Now you get his brother, so you filled in another roster spot. He may not get much planned time, but you gotta that's okay, I mean, somebody right.

00:21:56
Speaker 5: Last year's roster spot. Two of the roster spots were Rhys Potter and Braiden Hawthorne, who didn't play yep, correct, So now if one of them is his brother, what difference does it make? Right, You're not gonna play it no difference it makes, It makes no difference, So don't be like, there's no reason to be rude about it. And maybe he'll be good. I don't know, but Braiden Hawthorne. I think they expect they would not have brought him back right unless they thought he would be in the rotation.

00:22:20
Speaker 2: I really think they're excited about having him as part of the program, want to kind of help build with him as part of the program. So I think it was kind of a good get for him yesterday.

00:22:28
Speaker 5: Yeah. Uh so now we find out what's next.

00:22:33
Speaker 2: Louisville got another big committee yesterday, didn't They They.

00:22:35
Speaker 5: Did, But you know what, I just want to have a roster two teams. Field of sixty eight and ESPN both put out their preseason top twenty fives. Yeah, we weren't in either one of them yet. One of them we were thirty seventh and one of them we were forty fourth. So I'm pretty concerned about us getting just players. And along those lines, we'll talk about Stokes, who I think we're gonna have a decision from very very soon. We'll be right back. TJ. Smith, personal injury attorney, called TJ. He'll make them pay. Now.

00:23:10
Speaker 3: More of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage.

00:23:13
Speaker 4: Here's Matt Jones.

00:23:14
Speaker 5: Welcome back Tucky Sports Radio. If I'm nine two eighty seven, all right, So let's switch gears for a second. Tyron Stokes all right, announced yesterday his final three, which I think at one point we're a final two, but now it's back to three. Uh Kentucky, Kansas Organ. We've talked about that. I hear, no, he was ready. Sometimes when I can see, like like a quick draw McGee over here, Mario Shannon pulls up the phone. You don't need.

00:23:50
Speaker 8: Everything out on the internet, but this is gonna be saying. Part of the thing is, Mario, we'll talk for two hours and then you'll take the four minutes where there's some creat and then that's what you put up. And everybody's like, oh, Matt talk's about and said, what's all they see?

00:24:07
Speaker 5: Because it's all you put up.

00:24:08
Speaker 4: Anything that can age poorly, he probably shouldn't.

00:24:11
Speaker 5: Face he does, like, I mean, you had to put up the like, you know, the one of me going it could happen. You had to put that up, all right, So anyway, so no, don't put There's a lot of scuttle button in the college basketball world that Stokes will decide the next day or two. Yes, okay, some people even think today. I don't know, but I will tell you that folks around UK think it's coming maybe today, if not today, tomorrow. Kentucky still thinks they can get him.

00:24:46
Speaker 2: I hope they went up their offer either.

00:24:48
Speaker 5: Kentucky genuinely believes that don't. I don't want to say they believe they are going to get him, but they genuinely believe they can get it. And I think Kansas does too, and presumably Oregon is somehow involved. I don't know where he's gonna go, but I think Kentucky is getting to a Remember how I told you there was a chunk of money for Stokes. Oh yeah, that wasn't there for anybody else. It might be there for one other person now, and it's sort of coming to I think for Kentucky, like all right, just let us know so we can figure out what we're doing with this.

00:25:25
Speaker 2: With a big chunk of money.

00:25:26
Speaker 5: Yeah, but it could be today or tomorrow that the decisions made. Kentucky still thinks they can get him. I mean they genuinely do. If you read if all you do is read the Internet and the insiders, they all have him going to Kansas. But I'm telling you, the folks at Kentucky still think they can get it. Now, that might be delusional, but Ryan, that's what they think. And I do think it's interesting that all this negativity if they were to pull Stokes off tonight, changes everything everything around Shannon.

00:26:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely it does.

00:26:05
Speaker 3: You know, we all of a sudden the are a more positive fan base if we get Stokes. What's concerning for me is going from two schools to three schools, because if you lose them to Oregon. It's what we talked about yesterdays.

00:26:17
Speaker 4: It's kind of like what happened with Donnie Freeman.

00:26:19
Speaker 5: You know, losing losing the Keyns is is bad, Shannon, but losing to Oregon would be worse, especially.

00:26:24
Speaker 2: If he's picking it just based on a Nike school, you know, and you picked Oregon Nike over Kentucky Nike.

00:26:30
Speaker 3: Go back to last Friday, Donnie Freeman cancels his visit to Yukon. Looks good for Kentucky. Then here comes Saint John's out of nowhere and takes them. I hope this isn't the case with what's gonna happen with Oregon.

00:26:40
Speaker 5: But what if they were to get what I mean, if they were what if they were just to randomly pull the number one player, in the country.

00:26:48
Speaker 4: We're talking ourselves onto number nine this upcoming season.

00:26:51
Speaker 5: Well, I still our fan base though, but I mean we would be it would we immediately put a jolt of energy into all this immediately overnight, We're excited about what Mark Pope is doing at Kentucky basketball program. I think we would be excited about the fact that we got this guy.

00:27:07
Speaker 2: No doubt we would be excited.

00:27:09
Speaker 5: And I'm telling you, they still think they can get it. That's what's amazing. Good to hear they genuinely think they can get it. That doesn't mean they think they have, but that like they they don't understand why this fan base is given up on getting him now. I mean, I understand because we've lost a bunch of these other guys. Yeah, but they don't under like I think they generally are, like, just hang on.

00:27:39
Speaker 2: It's good to hear you say that, because the more this drags out, the more I thought he was gonna be probably Kansas, and they.

00:27:44
Speaker 5: Still like, if you made me pick, I still think he's going to Kansas, all right, But I'm I was not. I was a little supper. They still think they can get him, so I mean, like they know better than I do. Yeah, so we'll see which gets me the final point before we do up. So I got a messages today. This is let me just say, this is not from a hater. Okay, this is from a KSR supporter, someone who has always been a big supporter of our show, etc. And they wrote me this and I took it seriously because this is not just somebody just chirping. A lot of times our critics are just people, yes, who are just chirping. And they said to me this, I just want you to know. I hear people now kind of upset about your negativity here locally, just sharing what I'm hearing. They there are many folks who think KSR alone and you specifically are whipping up the negativity among fans, and that it's unnecessary. I'm not saying I agree. I don't even really have an opinion. I just wanted you to know. Okay. I saw that, and because of who it was, I was like, all right, I'm gonna listen to this, and I don't mean to turn this into a reflection. Do you agree with that or not? But I was sitting here thinking like, okay, let's just say for argument's sake that I wanted to talk positively? What would I do? Like I was having this thought in my brain last night, like what would I do? Some people will say, well, just talk about UK football. We're gonna have will Stein on. I'm very excited. There's nothing to what are you gonna say about UK football. We've never seen these guys play, we don't know them right like, and it is just a fact until September, talking UK football is when our ratings drop. I'm hoping that changes. There were times that was different, but it's just a fact and it just is. The difference is when will Stein is on here. Sure, and everybody can say, well but you I've don't I know what works and what doesn't. Basketball talkduring this time here it's what works. So what is the way I'm being genuine asking here to talk about UK basketball today and be positive because I don't want to just sound I don't. I'm not a grump. There are some people on the radio who just like throwing barbs and that's not me. I like to have fun. But what do you say for the people who get in the comment section and say Kansar is too negative? You're gonna run Pope off like you rain count like, what what would you like to hear? So really, I'm not putting this online because those people I think don't even listen. But for those of you that listen, what is the case for major positivity right now? And I'm asking you all, Shannon right now, what is it? Because I don't want to be that guy that's gloom and doom. I don't think people like that. But I don't really know what you say.

00:31:01
Speaker 2: You know, we're all happy forced to have these conversations with our fan base right now.

00:31:05
Speaker 9: I'm excited about Alex Wilkins, That's what I That's the first thing at Zoom Diallo.

00:31:10
Speaker 5: I think Moreno is gonna be better and gonna be really good. I'm you know, I think Cam will be better than what we saw. But that roster is situated is not a top twenty five roster. It's it's not So what do you want me to say? Then? It is?

00:31:34
Speaker 3: I think the best way to be positive about it just to not talk about it.

00:31:37
Speaker 4: But you have to.

00:31:40
Speaker 5: You can't because then people go, Matt, why aren't you talking about sports? Like I don't you? What are you supposed to do? What? What is the positive top.

00:31:50
Speaker 4: For a fast food bracket.

00:31:54
Speaker 5: We're heading there. But it's portal season, right like it's it is portal season if it was June. The answer is exactly that shade. And now you just start, you know, make Ryan roll around on the street or something like that. Here, eat a bunch of donuts. Right, but this is the season.

00:32:11
Speaker 2: So I'm with you. I start with Wilkins and I try to bring up, look, Kobe Brea, Wilkins gonna be got Kobe Brea come in and be our leading leading scorer. Well, I think he can be our leading score like off off off the offensive weapon. And then I go to and I think Marino's gonna be a big jump this year. He's been a big jump fro great crossing to a freshman. Freshman his sophomore is gonna be a big jump and he's gonna he's.

00:32:33
Speaker 5: An NBA kid. He's a few things happen.

00:32:36
Speaker 2: And then I go to Cam Williams. He is just starting to get comfortable on the offense and just starting to find his shot when he got hurt. I think he's gonna be huge this year.

00:32:45
Speaker 5: Okay, so what does that team get you?

00:32:47
Speaker 2: It gets me a little more excited than it was.

00:32:50
Speaker 6: But that.

00:32:50
Speaker 5: But is that team that's in the tournament sweet sixteen? Maybe that's a see. I don't even think that's a sweet sixteen.

00:32:58
Speaker 2: I thought I'm hoping for hoping they can get those sweets sick. Definitely not a final fourteen. I think it's somebody that could get behind and get excited about it.

00:33:05
Speaker 5: Oh, I'm going to get behind any of them. Yeah, I don't care what the team is. They put Mario out there, I'm gonna be cheering. I'm gonna be going crazy.

00:33:13
Speaker 2: And I said, I don't don't give up. There could be a four guy they pull over from overseas somewhere and you know, get a foreign guy come in. Maybe be that missing link.

00:33:20
Speaker 5: So are are you everything you're saying here? You believe? Yes? Okay, Well then why aren't you then? Why aren't you being more positive?

00:33:26
Speaker 2: Because sweet sixteen is still not I think Kentucky's standard. Still we're not have that guy that we can get us to a final four. That's the Kentucky standards.

00:33:35
Speaker 5: Well, all right, eight five, nine two eight twenty two eighty seven. I'm glad to hear the case for positivity. I do not I want you all to know the listeners of this show. The thing about this show is because it is so successful, it has people with strong opinions who don't even listen. Yeah right. They have these strong opinions about what we do and who we are, and they never turn it on. I had a guy the other day go into long details about how I was hurting the program, and then he said, I mean, I don't listen, but this is what I'm told. And I'm like, but those of you listening right now, you clearly listen. So what do you think. I think, by the way, we get criticism for things we don't even say, right, you know, like for like everything. If you don't listen, everything bad that happens is us. But I'm now talking. This guy that wrote me is a listener.

00:34:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, what would you suggest?

00:34:35
Speaker 5: Are there people out there that are very excited that we're just not hearing from because we opened up the phones yesterday and we didn't get.

00:34:42
Speaker 2: Those right now.

00:34:43
Speaker 3: We got one caller and I asked her, I, so are you going to make the positive case?

00:34:47
Speaker 4: She goes, no, All right.

00:34:52
Speaker 5: Creating a better Kentucky by shining a spotlight on local charities and inspiring generosity across the state each week, you could join the phone while giving back The Queen of Hearts Raffle happens every Thursday, and the next ultimate Bourbon Collection Raffle will happen April thirty, twenty thousand dollars worth of bourbon to share, or the ten thousand collar Queen of Hearts pot. It'll make you a piece in the puzzle to supporting Kentucky charities. Download the app Commonwealth Causes Support and win the Bourbon Raffle. There the Queen of Hearts, which Ryan has yet to win, but will one day go to Commonwealthcauses, dot Com or app ky Causes on social phone lines are open. We will take your calls. Will Stein will be on here at eleven thirty. I am excited about that. It's KSI welcome back. Take you sports radio. All right, good comments on the text machine. People cut all over the place, right, most people seeming to say that they think like we're just being objective. And then there are people who are saying we are not negative enough. Let me read a couple other parts. Well, I'm a listed to twenty years. I agree with the negativity. It's not fair you don't deal with nil Transferred portals but you speak like you do well, I also don't coach, and neither do you. Then neither does anybody. Like there's a level of this that this is all our opinion and if we could only speak on what we knew, then this would be a two hour show. Shendon about constitutional law right, and I don't know that people would want to listen to that. So comes a point of if you don't know, I'm giving you the most information that I have and then get basing my opinion on that, and like that's all you can do, right, One person writes, Matt, I think you should all should just report the facts and leave it at that. Well, that's a news program, the talk radio show. I mean that Bob Valvano used to do that. Remember he would read the.

00:36:41
Speaker 4: Newspaper, the show would be over in five minutes.

00:36:44
Speaker 2: I mean that's not We are a sports talk radio show in Lexington, Kentucky.

00:36:49
Speaker 5: Yeah, Now, like this wouldn't make some sense, Matt. I think part of the problem was that during the season it felt like you all in the fan base hung on popes everywhere word and turned it into a narrative of he doesn't know how to handle the media and he's kind of weird. I mean, that's a maybe a fair comparison. But at the same time, here's the way I would look at it. Think about this goal of this show has always been to have conversations that like you and your friends have, right.

00:37:20
Speaker 2: I think that's why it works. I think.

00:37:23
Speaker 5: After some of those press conferences, Shannon, people and their friends were talking about, did you see what happened in that press conference?

00:37:30
Speaker 4: Yeah?

00:37:31
Speaker 5: You know. I mean when he came on and said something happened in the locker room, every person was like, what happened in the locker room? Absolutely? And what you want because you want us to come on the radio and go, let's not talk about what happened like like you're trying to mirror the conversations that fans have. And Pope had a lot of odd moments last year.

00:37:53
Speaker 9: He did the way he handled some of those losses. But we have odd moments, we do. Ryan Shannon has many odd moment almost daily, and we talk about those.

00:38:05
Speaker 5: Last week, one person says, why don't you have Pope on more to talk about things himself. I've asked. I've asked and asked and asked, and I don't think he's I don't think he's like avoiding us, but they're not coming on. I asked to have him on after the season. I asked to have him on during the season. I asked to have him on before the portal opened. I asked to have him on last week. And in every case, they'll say to me, he's gonna do it, just not yet.

00:38:33
Speaker 2: And he's not just doing us, he's not talking to anybody.

00:38:36
Speaker 5: I can't make them do that, you know what I mean? Right, And the idea that people say, well, the university won't deal with you, will Stein's on at eleven thirty, that's it's made up. It's just they're making the choice not to come on anything, not just me. So you know, that's what I said.

00:38:54
Speaker 2: That we need to we need to hear from him at times. Our fan base, we need, we need to hear from our leader.

00:38:59
Speaker 5: So that's so those And there's a lot of people saying they think we're objective, and I appreciate all that, all right, So now there are people on Lauren go ahead, Lauren, hey, firs, who are.

00:39:13
Speaker 7: I think you guys are totally objective. I listen every day, maybe sometimes twice a day. If I don't feel like I.

00:39:20
Speaker 6: Oh, thank you.

00:39:23
Speaker 7: My question is do you all think that these recruits are too soft and they don't want the heat.

00:39:32
Speaker 5: I don't blame the right to come to me. No, I actually don't think that's it. I mean that there is some talk that that that Christian Collins maybe that some of the folks around him didn't like the sort of idea of of of fan comments. But I think that's I don't think that has a huge part. No. I appreciate the call it might have for like one player, but in general, no, be because the thing is there's a reason why these players come and they go hey, BBN, where you at? Think about how many times you've seen those posts? Right?

00:40:08
Speaker 10: Because they love the We give more positive attention too, absolutely, so yeah we do give negative some people, but go look how many positive comments people see.

00:40:20
Speaker 2: And they show up, we follow them on all their social media's. They love that stuff, They love it.

00:40:24
Speaker 5: They love it.

00:40:25
Speaker 4: You may have heard, though, this isn't for everyone. Not everybody can't deal with the spots.

00:40:29
Speaker 5: You know, cow was right about that, right, And I will tell you the football staff, both the last one and this one would use me and others to pump up that because they knew how much the players liked it. Yes, right, they got it. They would go, hey, this guy's here, and then all of a sudden I would retweet it and dozens of people would say come here. Then other schools don't get that as much, even in football. So that's an advantage that we have that we we should use. Patrick.

00:41:04
Speaker 6: Go ahead, hey, first time, long time?

00:41:08
Speaker 5: Who are.

00:41:10
Speaker 6: Hey? My question is kind of two things here. Number One, it hurts because Pope is one of us, and I think that's why fans get so emotionally get catched to it. He does, and that's why when he came we filled the arena. But my question is how much of the recruiting stuff is on Pope. You know, I told my buddy weeks ago. Then it feels like there's something brewing behind the scenes. And what I mean is the Jami stuff. Pope gets these guys to the closing table. How do we know it's his fault? Like, what if we don't?

00:41:52
Speaker 5: We really don't at the university. The answer to the question is we don't. I'll be honest with you, we don't. I appreciate the call. I don't know if the reason, the deal, the deal is closed. Is Pope isn't closed as Pope is JMI is UK in general? Is it not understanding the agents? I don't know, and I wish I did. I have theories, I've heard things. But if you were to say to me, like definitively under oath, why do I think we're not getting players? I think it's a lot of things. The football team, it's not that, but that's a different process. But to some extent you are right, they're getting the football guy. So we'll take a break. We'll take more of your calls talk about this and other things. KSR.