KSR Postgame UK MBB at Auburn 2/22/26

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone. It is the local Twitter Dealers KSR postgame show. Cats lose a heartbreaker seventy five seventy four in a game that it looked like they were in control of, then looked like they had completely given up, then looked like they were gonna win, and then they drop it at the end a five nine two eight h twenty two eighty seven. I think we probably should attacked this in like three parts, so let's just start with everything except the final sequence of the game. I think two people that deserve a lot of praise, Oway and Aberdeen. If Kentucky had won, I think the two of them would basically have willed the team to victory. Aberdeen apparently was sick and out, didn't practice in the two practices since the Georgia game, and you wouldn't have necessarily known it. He looked a little tight, but I thought he played super hard. Made two huge threes, both of which I think if they hadn't have made, probably they get they get beat by double digits, and then hit free throws at the end. As a matter of fact, I kind of wish he had he when he made those last two, I thought when they were gonna inbound the ball there at the end. I kind of hoped it would go to him. I thought he was excellent, played pretty good defense too, And then Oway was Oway was great. I mean Oway, Uh, this was the best of Oway tonight, getting to the getting to the basket finished nearly everyone. I thought he was excellent and I and I thought didn't force things like he can he sometimes will do. I I just thought the two of them played like like warriors. And then I thought Diabate played really well even though he didn't score a lot, just physical et cetera. But the other like, I'm not sure Kentucky really did deserve to win this game, because I thought the rest of the team was was not good and and Kentucky just you know, you saw the limitations in some ways of this group. Auburn's not a great team, and I think if Kentucky was. You know, they lost five straight coming this game, and you know we've now lost back to back games where Georgia had come in losing five of six, beat US, Auburn had lost five in a row and beat US, So those are those are tough losses to take. I didn't think Kentucky really played well tonight. I was kind of shocked a lot of the game. At one point, we were up nine and I was texting with a buddy and I said, I don't even feel like we played well. We're up nine. We would have won because of the will I think of those two guys. Colin Chandler had a decent first half, but the second half was was awful. That's as bad as he's played. Multiple turnovers, bad decisions, bad shooting, and you know, the other guys just it just wasn't a great performance with that sad though, because of that Oway Garrison sort of effort. Excuse me, Oway Aberdeen effort. They were up three with fifteen seconds left, and give Auburn some credit, they took it to the basket there. I think a lot of teams would have just taken a three. They took it to the basket. Uh, forced the contact, got the call, cut it to one, and all year long, Kentucky has struggled in these inbound situations. I tweeted about it, then I deleted it because you know, obviously they hit the play against LSU, but really, when we've just had to get the ball in bounds. If you remember, especially earlier in the year, we had a number of situations I think it was maybe it's Bellerman, I can't remember who it was, but there were we just could not get the ball inbound sometimes, and I thought about that going in this play. They don't really have a play to get someone open, just to inbound it. They did the thing that they've done all year on these inbound plays, which is just kind of hold a hand up in the and the call there by the official I thought was an egregiously bad timing call. Is it technically a foul maybe, although I think he flopped. I mean he started falling before Chandler extended his arm, so there was no doubt he was flopping. Chandler, however, did extend his arm, so you know, you almost give the officials the knife for them to stab you with when you do that. So it was a complete flop the officials, Steven Pearl said after the game, they could have called fifty fouls on each team, and that's the truth. I mean, they beat each other up, and I actually liked that the officials kind of let him play. I thought the officiating actually wasn't bad most of the game because they just kind of were letting everybody beat each other up. But if you're gonna call a game like that, then I don't know how you call that foul right there. It's just a's not the time to call that if you're gonna call the game like they did, And it was called by Courtney Green, who was on the other side of the court. I like Courtney, but that's a terrible call by Courtney. You're on the other side of the court, there are two officials closer to it than you are. That's not your call, and you insert yourself into the game. So I hated it. I thought that was a terrible call. But I also think Chandler, who had played terribly in that second half, you gotta be smart enough not to extend your arms like that. But he may have thought, you know what, they've let us do everything, they'll let us do this, and they didn't. Then on the final play, you know, great block by Diabaatee. You know, the second attempt at the shot, Garrison should have had that rebound, he did not, And then the third one the guy goes over Chandler's back. But you know, it is what it is. I hated that call also, though can't necessarily say we deserve to win. I don't know if they did either. Neither team really played that great, but I don't know. I'm very frustrated by that loss. I'm frustrated by the call, but I'm just more frustrated we were in that situation. They're not good, and we did some really dumb things. You know, in the first half, we're rolling, and then we do the thing where we put four reserves in and they come back and take the lead. Now we get it back, we lead it halftime, which is for only the fifth time this year against a major conference team, and you know, in the second half, start well, we're up nine, you know, and we give it all back up in about three minutes. And it was a battle, back and forth, back and forth. We just couldn't get any offense consistently going. And then I hated. We tie the game and we go zone, which was odd to me. We really hadn't played zone the whole game. And then on a keep zeshion we go and no one picks up the guy who's having a career high scoring night, and he shoots a wide open three and we get up three, and then we score the next six points and it looks like we're gonna win, and that happens, so just frustrating. You know, it brings, in my opinion, the possibility of missing the tournament. That's now on the table, and you gotta win Tuesday night at South Carolina. Now they're not good. They're the worst team in the coal maybe not the worst. They beat Misssippi State, so second worst team in the conference. But and I think if you win that game, you're in the tournament. But if you lose, you're all of a sudden playing your way onto the bubble because you still get you got three hard games to finish the year. So this is a this is a bad back to back stretch, and this is a very disappointing loss. I you know, just disappointing. These games back to back. Kentucky should have won both of these. We should be sitting here tonight with Kentucky ten and four in the conference, in second place in the SEC. But they're eight and six and you know, on a collision course to play on Wednesday in the SEC tournament for the first time ever as far as I can remember. We need to talk about what happened after the game. Tell you what Billy pull up the We'll do this in phases. Okay, so pull up the quote that Mark gives in the press conference. Okay, video the video. Yeah, so this is I posted it. It's about forty seconds long. It's the post where I say he's a little passive aggressive because he's asked about the officiat and he's asked about that call. Do you have that bill? You see where I'm.

00:08:52
Speaker 2: Saying I don't have it yet, but I'll have it here in business.

00:08:54
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, Mark is asked. First of all, he goes to the press conference very soon after the game. That's one of the interesting things about the way these work, the losing the Usually the losing coach goes first. Sometimes that doesn't happen, but usually now usually the road team or the losing team goes first because they got to go home. He gets on there really quick. So he's clearly very emotional and clearly very upset about the call, and he's asked what he thinks about it, and here's his comments.

00:09:34
Speaker 3: Refuse to give control to people that are outside of our program. Refuse regardless of how personal it might get or how bad it might get. We refuse to give control to fans, to give control to anybody else associated with this game. Regardless of how blatantly people are trying to make this not happen, we refuse to give them their power. That's what I talked about. We have forty eight hours to turn this around. We've got a massive game at South Carolina. We're gonna go find a way win it, because that's what we do. So we're not giving away our power. We're not like, we don't make excuses. We don't do that regardless of what is happening. Regardless of how disgraceful things are, we don't give away our power. Regardless how embarrassing, personal, awful, like unacceptable things are, we refuse to give away our power.

00:10:23
Speaker 1: An odd set of comments, Right, he's saying he's not essentially blaming the officials, but he's But then he says, regardless of how blah blah blah blah blah, I mean, that's a little passive aggressive. Is that fair to say? Very yeah, I mean, And honestly, rather him just go I'd rather him just say like, they cheated this. Well, as he walks out of the press conference, Okay, so he gets up out of the press conference, he walks. I guess he gets to the other side of the wall. But I don't know if he doesn't realize they can hear it the media room, or maybe he did on purpose. He says, Mitch, if those mother efforts try to find me, screw them. I didn't say a word about how they cheated us. And he actually did say mother blinkers. You know he said it, and it's on video like he said it, like everybody heard it. So he says that after those comments, you just heard, and then he says when Tom Leech asked him on the postgame show what he thinks about the call, he said, we don't talk about officiating. We have to find a way to win games. You know, I don't. It's just my opinion. Other people can disagree. I think that's a pretty bad look. If he wants to say we don't complain about officiating, that's probably the right thing to say. I'll be honest with you. I'm not sure I could do that if I was a coach, but that's probably the right thing to do. Or if he wants to say we got cheated, I'm kind of okay with that too. But when you I don't like, one of the things I don't like is passive aggressive aggressiveness. Just just say what you feel and when you go, we don't make excuses. But then you're making excuses and you're saying it's personal. I don't know why he I mean, maybe there's something with that official that I don't know, but I mean, you're essentially saying a referee as being personal about you. I don't know that's you know, I don't think that's a great look. Billy, What do you think about that?

00:12:53
Speaker 2: You know he's done this before after losses. He's obviously been obviously been told not to complain about it officiating.

00:13:00
Speaker 1: But but he's gonna I mean, if he was gonna get fined, do you think they're not.

00:13:04
Speaker 2: Gonna they're gonna find him.

00:13:06
Speaker 1: They're gonna find him because he said it like like I mean, the he said they can't find me because I didn't say anything about officiating, and then he goes they cheated.

00:13:18
Speaker 2: I mean, is he like, fine's coming, A fine's coming.

00:13:22
Speaker 1: That there's not a rule that it's fine to say it as long as you do it out in the hall and scream it. By the way, I'm okay if he wants to say he thinks the officials cheated. I mean, I don't know that they cheated. I think that was a horrible call in the context of the game.

00:13:40
Speaker 2: But I'd rather him do one or the other.

00:13:42
Speaker 1: Not I want people to say what they mean. I hate when politicians or coaches or really anyone in life thinks something and then says something else, but then's like, but I'm kind of saying, just say it, right, Yeah, okay, whatever it is, just just just just say it. I appreciate that. So he clearly thinks Kentucky got cheated tonight. Just say it. You're gonna get fined anyway. If you're gonna go out in the hall and scream it, you're gonna get fined, so you know. And then o Way has posted on Instagram that the refs cheated, which I can't get mad at him, right because the coach did it. So you know, I really like Mark. There's this narrative that will be out that we're in that situation, and we were in it and with cal at the end, you're in this situation where there's a huge group of people saying, Matt say, Pope needs to go. I don't believe that at this moment. Then there's a huge group of people that say, Matt, you're trying to run Pope off. You know, Billy, there's no way to win. So I learned during the CA period to time the only thing you can do is say what you actually think. So here's what I actually think. I think there's been a very disappointing year. They've had terrible injury luck, but this was also a poorly put together team that at times this year I think has been poorly coached. So but there's four games left. They still not only can make the tournament, they still should unless they completely collapse. And in the tournament, I think they can beat all but a handful of teams in the tournament. There's a few I don't think they can beat. I also think, by the way, they can lose to almost anybody in the URN. So we gotta wait and see what happens. Right now, Am I worried about Pope and his tenure? Yeah? I am. And it's not just about this year. It's about what we have coming or not coming yet next year, and it's things like this. There's just been all year, kind of like a temperament issue. He marks a nice guy. He's not like a bad guy. He's a really good guy, but like he doesn't. He's made some really strange postgame press stuff and it makes you wonder kind of just what goes on a lot. So yeah, I am concerned, but I also know they should have won tonight, and they should have won Tuesday, and they were in the game at Florida, and they wanted Arkansas and they wanted Tennessee. So you know, I'm not giving up, but I am disappointed. And you know, I when you see moments sometimes where the stress of what happens on the court shows itself off the court, And if you go back through since I've been doing this when things weren't working out, usually stuff off the court was similar to what we were seeing on the court. And I think the comments tonight, we're just kind of a guy that I don't know if he feels aggrieved or if he just doesn't handle losing great. But it was disappointing. But I'm also disappointed at that stupid call because Billy, they didn't need to call that.

00:17:27
Speaker 2: Well, he's got a right to be mad. I mean that call sucked.

00:17:30
Speaker 1: It does sucked.

00:17:32
Speaker 2: He was falling down before the arm even extended.

00:17:35
Speaker 1: But he did extend his arm. I mean, you know it's for me, it's a terrible call in the context of the game. But also Chandler can't extend his arm right there. The only thing you can The worst thing you can do right there is getting offensive foul, and we do now it is. It's ridiculous that he made that call, because especially the way the game had been called the whole time, right, I mean, they they let them beat each other up out there, and then to call that I kind of agree with O Way on the postgame radio, Who's like, the whole game, we people have been doing this and now you call it. That's kind of how I feel too. Eight two, eight eighty seven. So that's a lot of emotions all over the place. What do you all think? I'm sure. I actually think we're gonna get some really interesting calls tonight, Billy, don't you.

00:18:36
Speaker 2: I think some angers coming tonight, don't you.

00:18:37
Speaker 1: Yeah? And I'm off tomorrow from Matt Myron, so I don't have to rush to get to bed, so you should like that. That means you can. I won't make you stay up.

00:18:46
Speaker 2: I'll get to stay longer.

00:18:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. We'll take a break and bear it back. It's a Local Toy Dealer's KSR postgame deal. Welcome back Local Toy Dealers KSR postgame Show. Uh, Kentucky is gonna end up with double digit losses this year. That was gonna happen whether we won or loss tonight. But that's four excuse me, four straight years with double digit losses. That's only the second time in school history that's happened. The other time we're the last two years of Tubby and the Billy Clyde years. So you know that's an unfortunate stat too. SEC is better now, so I think that's partially it, but we also had more losses coming into the SEC than we normally do as well. All right, who's up first, Billy Jamie Jamie? Go ahead, Jamie Jamie.

00:19:47
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:19:47
Speaker 5: Hey, I just want to start off. I do not know how your Jayden Klan is. And you're sitting on the bench watching your team lose the way that we have and you don't care. And at the beginning of the year, this is a kid that said he wanted to be the number one pick and he is sitting out go ahead, Well, I mean you don't know that he doesn't care.

00:20:11
Speaker 1: I mean I understand I totally understand why people are skeptical about the quaintance thing, and at times I've been skeptical. But at the same time, I don't know and you don't either, And so when you say he doesn't want to, I that might be true, but like you don't know that for sure.

00:20:31
Speaker 5: Yeah, I hate that they made that call. But if you want to make it, that's fine, But you cannot be on the other side of the floor. You were closer to Mark Pope than Colin Chandler making that call. I do not see any world how you make that call in that situation in this game.

00:20:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you on that. I mean, I appreciate the call. There are two officials that are on So you got the guy under the basket who probably has the most direct line of sight, and then the other official is at half court on Chandler's side. So you have two guys on Chandler's side of the floor, neither of which call it, and Corny Green calls it from the other side. And if you go look at the replay, there's there are two people standing in between him and Chandler and his defender. I don't know how he calls that. That's he doesn't have the angle to call it, and it's also just a poor spot, so you know it's a bad that's it is an unnecessary call. It's hard to say it's a bad call because he did extend his arm, but nobody calls that there. And my guess is, if we went back and looked, both teams pushed off thirty times to get opened up to that point. I bet if we looked, because they were smacking each other the entire game, Who's next, Wade, go ahead, Wade, Matt.

00:21:58
Speaker 6: The last time when we wanted to twelve national championship, I was a freshman in high school and fourteen years old. I hadn't met my wife yet, and I now have a one year old daughter, and I turned thirty this year. And only say that to say we've wasted so much time just hoping that this coach is the right one. Like Cole's last five years, I think we all had a little bit of hope, but I think deep down we knew it wasn't gonna happen again. And I had that same feeling with Pope. And I just don't want us to waste more of all of our lives hoping for something I watched the Michigan and Duke game today and I was like, we used to be that, we used to be these as ment games and we didn't have it. And then the Kentugy game came on. I'm like, wow, this is a different product.

00:22:43
Speaker 1: No, it was, you know you saw that when I watched Michigan Duke. Yeah, especially if you saw like the first five minutes where they they could miss both teams, you kind of thought, yeah, we're not playing the same game they are. And I don't know. I mean, I'm not quite as negative that it's not gonna work as you are. And it's hard for me to read where this fan base is because if you were to look at my if you were to look at the comments people send to me, both online and on the text machine, it is wildly all over the place. There are people who've completely given up on Pope, and there's people who are like, why is everybody so hard on Pope? Like people are all over the place, and so I don't I can't really get a sense of where the majority of the fan base is because I think it's all over the place, and I'm kinda I'm not as down on Mark Pope the head coach, as it seems like a lot of people are. But I may be more down being nervous about next year because of what we don't have. So I think Mark is a good X and O coach and but it just hasn't worked this year, and I to be honest with you, I'm kind of perplexed as to why. I mean, I know we've had the injury, but the team wasn't good before the injuries, so it's just kind of it's kind of strange.

00:24:06
Speaker 6: I'm kind of afraid that Mark is the worst kind of coach that we can have because he does give us a lot of really good, emotional fun moments like beating Tennessee's and Arkansas and Duke, but then we still get double digit lost seasons. And I just want to know.

00:24:22
Speaker 1: That's what he did it by two?

00:24:24
Speaker 6: What it is that you're holding onto?

00:24:26
Speaker 1: That's what he did at b YU two. By the way, though, I mean that's a b YU They would beat good teams and lose to bad teams. What am I holding on to? That's a good question. I appreciate the call. I think I'm holding on to the fact that I think he's very smart and I think he has shown that he can produce a team that can beat good teams and he wants it badly, and I feel like, I don't know. I still feel like he can do it, but I will tell you for me, it's all gonna come down to next year. Like I'm just I'm gonna have to see it next year, and there really aren't gonna be any excuses for me next year, like they've got to be good. But yeah, that's probably what I'm holding on to. Who's next, Kevin, Kevin, go ahead, Kevin.

00:25:21
Speaker 7: Matt.

00:25:22
Speaker 8: I think he comes down to exactly what you said.

00:25:24
Speaker 7: Just now.

00:25:24
Speaker 8: He gets one more year and that's it. He has to produce next year. I have no faith in what they can do this year. If you look at what took Tubb Smith out of coaching at Kentucky. His nickname was pen Lost Tubby and that carried on to Billy Gillespie. And we see what he has done this year. And what scares me the most is the bipolar and nature of Mark Pope when we see him and he smarts off to Tom Leach and that's the nicest guy that you could ever talk to, and yet he has an attitude with Tom Leach and he is bipolar when it comes to his postgame press conferences and all of that. I just don't think that he is the right person to fit at Kentucky. And we're just not seeing the results. And I think that you see a team that does not know what they're doing because Mark Pope is not giving a clear message of what he wants to do offensively defensively from game to game, and we're seeing that play out on the court.

00:26:30
Speaker 1: Well, I appreciate the call. I don't know if I would use the word bipolar, but I would use the word of his emotions after games are are kind of all over the place. I mean, that's I think that's fair. You know, again, when he came from BUYU, there were people who did stories where they interviewed I think it was Jacob Polcheck at KSR who theyasically talk to people about what Mark was like at BYU, and they would all say, great guy, great coach. But when they lose, like Tea's very hard on himself and others. And you know, we've seen some of that and some of that's okay, but you know, there have been a lot of strange moments in post games this year. I mean there have there have probably been enough, like there have been some strange moments from the from the Louisville like something happened in the locker room, to what he said after the Michigan State game, which called caused Rick Petino to call him and be like, what's wrong with you? To the game where Missouri where he was kind of weird with Tom and you know the game they had a game the other night that it's just to this, it's just there's been a lot of sort of odd things. Who's next, Robert, Robert, go ahead, Robert Matt.

00:27:57
Speaker 9: I've got four or five very quick comments if I can please. Uh, First of all, I was looking on CBS.

00:28:04
Speaker 1: I will give you. I'm gonna give you. I'm gonna give you three since it's after midnight, but your best time, all right, Okay?

00:28:11
Speaker 9: Right that they were rating the top hundred players for the NBA Draft. Kentucky had two Quaintans who obviously is done for the season, and Oway and Oway was rated ninety three. The bottom line, Number one is we don't have the level of talent.

00:28:27
Speaker 1: I agree that we've had.

00:28:29
Speaker 9: Okay, Number number two, I know this is gonna sound crazy and I've had so many people tell me this, that Otaga, who's shooting sixty five percent and free throws in sec play people when I'm watching the game with my buddies, some of them are screaming to take him out because he clanged so many free throws late in the game under pressure.

00:28:59
Speaker 1: To my occasion, he did, he did, but he also made a couple. Yeah, but he also made a couple there at the end. But yeah, you're right. But my thing is, if you take him out, like who scored? Like we don't ye who's scoring? I mean, yes, he's not perfect. If he was perfect, he wouldn't be ninety three on the rankings, right, he'd be a lot higher. But right, but like, if it's not again, without him and Aberdeen, we might have scored thirty five points tonight, you know.

00:29:32
Speaker 9: Fair point.

00:29:34
Speaker 10: The other thing is, and I hate just trust the players, but.

00:29:37
Speaker 9: I thought that the performance.

00:29:38
Speaker 11: And I was just it wasn't just bad from.

00:29:42
Speaker 9: A basketball standpoint, it was bad from a smart play standpoint, or more meticularly lack thereof. I usually think Chandler plays well and plays smart.

00:29:56
Speaker 1: He was he was bad. I don't know what happened. He was a disaster in that second half, in.

00:30:03
Speaker 9: The second half. Five it's hard to get five game.

00:30:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, he I think. I think when he had those back to back plays where he tried to feed the post to Moreno both times, and both times it got stolen, and then he got taken out. Yeah, no, no, no, those passes were terrible decisions and uh and Pope took him out. And I felt like after that, like I don't know if he was pressing. I just he was really really bad in that second half, and and and what and the turnovers were bad enough, but there was other stuff like he he was he was not good in that second half, and I that that it was kind of he hasn't been like that really since since conference plays. So I don't really know what happened. Hopefully it was just a one game, uh blip. I appreciate the call. I you know, that's kind of what I was saying about. Did they just about feeling like they whether they deserve to win or not. I look back, Billy, and it's hard for me to figure out how we scored. I know that sounds strange, but we scored seventy four points. And as I sit there and try to think of remembering when they scored. I feel like I remember Away getting a bunch of layups, and I remember Aberdeen hitting a couple threes, and it feels like though we just ended up with seventy four points, and it's just hard for me to it almost is like we willed or if we had won this game. Let me tell you what I was gonna say if we won. When it was seventy four seventy one and they called time out, I remember thinking, if we win this game, I'm just gonna go. Man. That was a game won on sheer will power by two dudes, and then we didn't. But it's kind of sheer willpower we were even in it because it just didn't feel like we play good at all.

00:32:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, especially with Brandon Garrison making those plays out there, and Trent Noah outmatched Jasper Johnson.

00:32:08
Speaker 1: Wasn't I actually thought Trent did okay, He's he was a little lot. He was out matched. I actually thought he played Okay.

00:32:15
Speaker 2: What are you gonna say about Beg I can't.

00:32:18
Speaker 1: I can't, I can't. I mean, I'm not sure the last time of player's frustrated me more than he does.

00:32:26
Speaker 2: He got like three foulsand.

00:32:27
Speaker 1: And he made one. He made a howd he miss that layup at.

00:32:31
Speaker 2: The oh that bunny at the end?

00:32:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, how did he?

00:32:35
Speaker 2: But he had put great defense right after, like he kind of made up for it.

00:32:39
Speaker 1: He did. He had that was a good defensive play the next time down, But there were a few that weren't. And I don't know where he was on those last rebounds, like he was like six feet from the basket. Like he is one of the more frustrating players I can ever remember. For me personally, I'm not saying it like I'm not saying for it, just for me personally, I find him to be one of the more frustrating players that I can remember in a long time.

00:33:12
Speaker 2: Who's next another Kevin?

00:33:16
Speaker 1: Kevin? Go ahead, Kevin.

00:33:18
Speaker 12: Hey, Matt and Bill, what's going on? This is Kevin from West Virginia in Crystal Hello. And I'm a I'm a Kentucky boy. I went to UK and then I went to albarn a school, and I've converted my wife to be a UK fan. To a ride in the roller coaster. Yeah, I just wanted to say, it's like it's full thirty now and this is the time this for Ryan, for lovers.

00:33:46
Speaker 1: Okay, you don't have to say see, we don't need this to continue from other people, but go ahead, that's it, all right, I appreciate it. It's like, okay, well, actually didn't make me laugh. Let's a couple of people were quote tweeting the quo tweet. I've said many times, and it's true. I said this a long time ago, and it's it is a true story. One fact of sports in life. When you're complaining about the refs, you lost. And that's true. We are complaining about the refs and we did lose. So this is just Tonight's another example about it.

00:34:26
Speaker 2: Who's next, Skyler?

00:34:27
Speaker 1: Skyler? Go ahead, Skyler.

00:34:30
Speaker 13: Hey, hey, Matt, this first time.

00:34:33
Speaker 1: Caller in a long time. What's up.

00:34:36
Speaker 13: But I would like to say that, yeah, I'd like to complain about the refs, to be honest with you, but I would also like to be able to say that I felt like they costed us a game at the end of the game whenever they.

00:34:59
Speaker 14: Had they call.

00:35:01
Speaker 1: And you're talking about the Chandler call. Yeah, yeah, that was a.

00:35:05
Speaker 8: Mad Yes, the Chandler call.

00:35:08
Speaker 6: Yes, yes, that's what I'm talking about.

00:35:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well it certainly didn't help.

00:35:15
Speaker 13: I just felt like that was very terrible and that was devastating for the game.

00:35:21
Speaker 1: It was very terrible. That's true. It's good to hear from you, sir. I hope you're having uh, hope you're having a good evening, and thank you for calling. Would you, Billy? How outraised were you at that call?

00:35:32
Speaker 7: Like?

00:35:33
Speaker 1: Were you were? You? Were you furious? I could see could you see it? I mean you listen to it? Could you see you saw it? Okay?

00:35:42
Speaker 2: Well I could see why. But I mean Jack was the one that was mad. I mean you could hear it in his voice.

00:35:48
Speaker 1: What did Jack say, you're talking about giving? Yeah?

00:35:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like well, I mean he was fine with it too. He said he saw the arm extend. But they had not been calling it all night. And if you have to call them the last minute the same, you wouldn't I That's that.

00:36:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's my biggest thing. I will grant you that that could be a foul, but it was not a foul in the context of that game and the way they were calling it. You can't just all of a sudden in the last twenty seconds call normally. Sometimes what happens in the last twenty seconds is they stopped calling fouls. They kind of let them play. But this is almost worse because you've set the president. You're gonna let him do one thing and then you call that. You know. But now I you know, I don't understand what chance. First of all, we should have inbounded to Aberdeen. I mean, Chandler's not had a good game, you know, Aberdeen had just made two crucial ones. By the way, again, big shout out to that dude, especially if he's playing sick. He played thirty nine of the forty minutes, so and he made those free throws. I wish we had inbounded it to him, that's what. And if he misses, he misses. But even if he misses, there all the way on the other side of the court. You know, But who's next, Well I said, go ahead, go ahead.

00:37:09
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I mean he's the perfect guy for our Johnny Rocker personal injury attorney, moneymaker of the game, injured, get small town campassion with big city results. When you call the Rocker at two seven zero three two one four four two nine and Matt, you're right, didn't practice in the lead up to this game. Scored fifteen points had three big three pointers in this game as well. He has really been impressive this second time.

00:37:31
Speaker 15: I am.

00:37:31
Speaker 1: I have been a lot of things about this year frustrated me. He has really like he is my smile like the thing that maybe has made me the happiest over the second half of the year. Two things I've really enjoyed watching Moreno develop, Although he's got to get stronger, he gets the ball taken from him too much, but he's really developed and become a good player, and I'm excited about him for the future. And then watching Aberdeen go from a guy that was bad at the start of the year too. I think he you know, he's not he's not good enough to be our second best player, but he is our second best player and he gives everything he's got, and so I have a lot of love for him. And I wouldn't have thought that earlier in the year, but he really does. He gives everything he's got every game and I appreciate that. We'll take a break and be right back. It's a Local Toy Dealers KSR Post game Show Quarterback. It is the Local Toy Dealers KSR Post game Show. Text machine is seven seven to two seven seven four five two five four one person rights, Matt, I've kind of been with you and thought we needed to only play our top five guys. But did you feel like they got tired down the stretch and maybe it would have been good to play more people. No, because when we did play more people for a stretch, well, depends on what you mean by I play more people. I think what he did in the second half is actually fine, which is he kind of It seemed like he kept three of the starters in, three of the big four in at all times felt like to me pretty much all the second half Aberdeen, o A, Chandler Moreno at least three of those four were in, which I think is what you have to do. He gave Jovich some minutes, Garrison some minutes, played Diabate most of the game, you know, gave Noah some minutes. I'm okay with that. But in the first half he went Jasper, Noah, Garrison, Diabate, oh way, and we gave up eight points at about twelve seconds. And you can't do that. And you know, I don't know Billy, Jasper, John I just can't blame. And that's sad, but it's true.

00:39:53
Speaker 2: Not even like four minutes at a game.

00:39:55
Speaker 1: Well, I mean he was in there tonight. His man makes a three, he doesn't get back on defense, he gets the ball stolen from him. You know, Pope didn't put him back.

00:40:06
Speaker 2: In two minutes minus six tonight.

00:40:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was minus six and two minutes against Georgia, who was minus sixteen and nine minutes, and tonight he was minus six and too many.

00:40:17
Speaker 2: Well, Pope mentioned fatigue a lot in the postgame to.

00:40:19
Speaker 1: Know fatigue was certainly part of it. But here's what I'll say about fatigue. We were down, we were down what six with five minutes ago, and came back and were up three. So clearly the fatigue didn't get him in the last five minutes, right right, Yeah, I mean part You know the person who was the most fatigued was Chandler. Well, may I just say something. Chandler had two thousand two minutes and set out most of the first half.

00:40:49
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.

00:40:50
Speaker 1: So like of all the the guy who played the most played thirty nine minutes and was sick. He didn't look fatigued, did he. No, I'm just being like Aberdeen. Back to my Aberdeen. My man plays thirty nine minutes he's sick, hasn't practiced all week. He's not fatigued, so you know, I don't know. There was a moment where I felt like Chandler needed to go out and the timeout came, and that's but I'll tell you this, they may have been fatigued, But I'd rather have a fatigue guys we have on the court, though, Billy, than what we saw in the first half of that little stretch.

00:41:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what it seems like it's becoming. I mean, they went five and a half minutes without a field goal early in.

00:41:38
Speaker 1: This samely, from the eighteen minute mark of the second half to the four minute mark of the second half, that's fourteen minutes and we scored fourteen points. Jeez. That's where I mean, honestly, that's where we lost the game was in that stretch.

00:41:50
Speaker 2: Who's next, Larry.

00:41:52
Speaker 1: Larry, go ahead, Larry, Hey, Matt, what's up? First time?

00:41:57
Speaker 16: Long time?

00:41:58
Speaker 1: Who are.

00:42:01
Speaker 16: Fellow lawyer from down here in Etown?

00:42:03
Speaker 10: No?

00:42:03
Speaker 1: Well, hello Etown town, esquire.

00:42:09
Speaker 17: Hey.

00:42:10
Speaker 16: My son went to University of Michigan, so I followed them a lot. My text to my son tonight was great games today between top five teams. One versus three and two verses four probably is none of them were Kentucky. Well, what are we doing?

00:42:32
Speaker 1: Well, we're not in the top four, and right now we've lost two straight games to teams that coming into it had lost ten of their last eleven games.

00:42:41
Speaker 16: So you know, you know, I'm not much of a of a AI man, but I put this in. It says, I was just thinking, how long has it been since Kentucky's been a top one or two seeds?

00:42:54
Speaker 1: And out seventeen, It's been ten.

00:42:59
Speaker 16: Years since Kentucky Walcatz earned a number one seed. This is a ten year drought prior to this.

00:43:07
Speaker 1: This is double.

00:43:10
Speaker 16: Before this drought.

00:43:11
Speaker 1: The longest yeah, between number.

00:43:12
Speaker 16: One seeds for Kentucky and the modern era sixty plus sixty four plus teams was only five years between nineteen ninety eight and two thousand and three.

00:43:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think that's right. I think as I think a guy is wrong about that we we had. I don't think we got a one seed from like eighty six to ninety three. Maybe, but in general your point it may be very well, maybe the longest time since we've had a one seed in history. I mean, it's been ten years we had a one seed in twenty fifteen. We were two in twenty question mask seventeen.

00:43:47
Speaker 16: Where are we at? Are we now Indiana?

00:43:50
Speaker 1: No, I've said, we talked about that last week. Were we're also to the year we lost to Saint Peter's but we lost the same Let me add you but we are we we are?

00:44:04
Speaker 16: Are we relevant anymore?

00:44:06
Speaker 1: Yes? I mean we are? You know, well, depends on what you mean by relevant. I mean, are we irrelevant in terms of can we win a national title? We haven't. I'd say since COVID. We've only had one team since COVID that went into the tournament where people thought we could win the national title, and that was the year we lost to Saint Peters.

00:44:27
Speaker 16: So I get are we looking at that in regards to Blue Eyes?

00:44:34
Speaker 6: No?

00:44:35
Speaker 1: I mean, look, it depends on what you mean by relevant. Okay, Well, I mean, if you're asking my opinion, you're just you're telling me. I mean, if you're asking my opinion, we when it comes to relevant, if you mean, do we matter? In college basketball? Nothing moves the needle except for Duke more than Kentucky and college basketball. We get the highest ratings, We get the most clicks, We are always in a prime time spot in our games on ESPN, even when we aren't good. So, yes, we are relevant. Think about how many times you see Indiana in a marquee game versus how many times you see us. We are next to Duke. We are the most marquee program in college basketball still. Now the second point, have we been a contender? No? Okay, and that's really more important than even being marquee. But the idea that we're not, like like we're irrelevant, that's just not true. They put us at eight thirty. They put us at eight thirty on ESPN because we're relevant.

00:45:40
Speaker 16: Yeah, but we yeah, but we weren't the top five.

00:45:44
Speaker 1: But I want you to look at the games, and I appreciate the calls. I want you to look at the games that we're on, that we're on the national prime slates. It was number two versus number four, number one versus number three. Right now it's number six versus is the number one pick in the draft. And in between we're two unranked Kentucky Auburn teams. Why because it's Kentucky. But we are not playing up to our marquee status. Though that is a fair critique. We since COVID have not been what we should. That is fair, and that's why I believe there should be whole sale changes in the athletic department. And we're gonna have another year, in my opinion, to see whether that needs to happen with the basketball program. But the standard has slipped, but we are not irrelevant. That's not true in my opinion. Who's next, Lance, Lance, go ahead? Lance, Yeah, Matt.

00:46:52
Speaker 11: To me, it seems like we always play either up or down to our competition, especially in conference plate. I agree you say that a problem Pope has with preparedness for these games or what do you think about it?

00:47:05
Speaker 1: You go back to his time at BYU and you throw it here. It is clearly the case that Mark has in his coaching career had teams that seemed to play to the level of their competition and b why you he made that program relevant and they would beat good teams and then they would lose to bad teams. And that's kind of been what it's like here. Why is that the case? I don't know. I can't figure that out, but it is frustrating. And you know, the guy mentioned Michigan, and I think Michigan is a good is a good situation to sort of compare it to, and I appreciate the call. I mean, Michigan has a second year coach that came in highly touted and had all the resources in the world this summer as we did to get a team, and like us, had not had kind of struck out on some top targets as freshmen. And they are one of the two or three best teams in the country and we are where we are. And at some point, if you're sitting there going okay, well, what's a good way to judge Mark? You have to look at Dusty May and Michigan and say why is the gap so large there? And that's probably a question for the off season. But we're very similar programs in terms of what we had as a possibility this year, and they have ended up much much better than we have.

00:48:42
Speaker 2: Who's next, Tommy.

00:48:44
Speaker 4: Tommy, go ahead, Tommy, Hey, Matt, this is Tommy here out of Tompkinsville, Kentucky.

00:48:50
Speaker 1: How are you doing doing good? Okay?

00:48:54
Speaker 4: So I got two quick things and I don't want to keep you long. But the first thing is I saw some comments early about how you weren't happy with how Pope reacted postgame. I just want to hear how you think he should have acted. Do you want him to be happy? What do you want?

00:49:11
Speaker 1: I want him to be consistent. If he's upset about the officiating, say I'm upset about the officiating. If he's not upset and he wants there to be no excuses, say there are no excuses. But don't say there are no excuses and then walk out of the room and then say they cheated us. Those are just those are just inconsistent messages. And and and I just want like just say what what you will think? Like just be Mark Pope and if and and it was clear what Mark Pope felt was they got cheated. So I wish he'd just say it, just say it be like you we got you? Now. Do I think we got cheated? No? Do I think that was a bad call? Yes, But that doesn't mean we got cheated. I mean mean, like, you know.

00:50:02
Speaker 4: What about do you think it was personal?

00:50:04
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean he says it is, I don't. I mean, I don't know what would make it personal unless he and that referee have something. But if he thinks it is, I can't say it's not. I don't know their relationship, right, I just would say this, if you're gonna say you lost and a ref has made it personal, like, well, you better be ready to stand on that because the SEC is probably gonna ask you about that and you're probably gonna have him calling another game of years at some point.

00:50:31
Speaker 4: Right, Okay, Well, last thing real quick? Uh, this is one. This one's trying to light in the mood. I understanding a big bro country guy. I was wondering if you were a fan of J. B. Selburn's music, and if you can name one song.

00:50:45
Speaker 1: I do not know a name of a song, but I do like JD and I have I have enjoyed hearing him. He's a Kentucky fan and a fan of KSR, and so I'm a fan of his. I'm not but I do not know a name of a song. But it's not usually my kind of music. But Phil J like JD the same way I do about my my cousin, Like, if you're one of my people, I'm going before it. Who's next, Brad, Brad? Go ahead, Brad?

00:51:13
Speaker 14: Hey, uh, cousin, say you know, I thought the refree were bad, but I thought the coaching was pretty substitioning and stuff for bad too. We ran literally nothing from about seventeen minute point on in the second half to the end of the game. Oh take o Way, beut us out, Aberdeen, Belt South, a big three.

00:51:38
Speaker 8: I just well, I mean, you're right by the way.

00:51:40
Speaker 1: Almost almost every possession in the last in the second half ended with either o Way or Aberdeen creating something off the drip. I mean, like, that's kind of what we did. But I also think, like I'll be honest, it didn't look like anybody else out there wanted to shoot. You know what. It didn't look like Chaylor wanted to show. I mean Chandler and or Chador and Noah both they both had multiple open looks and it did not look like they wanted to shoot right. And moreno got the ball on the block and he didn't really seem to one. It was funny. It's funny when you talk about people that I know are cool shooting the ball, Ohway and Aberdeen are. Unfortunately, the next two people that seem most ready to shoot are Garrison and Diabonte, who always feel confident to have their number called. So he.

00:52:38
Speaker 14: Don't care.

00:52:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, but when he gets the ball by the way when Diabonte gets the ball and he makes the decision, I'm going to the basket. There could be eight guys on him, and he's going to shoot it. He's going to shoot it no matter what. But go ahead.

00:52:58
Speaker 14: My concern is, you know, it's it. You know, this year is what it is.

00:53:04
Speaker 16: The roster is bad.

00:53:06
Speaker 14: I think Pope completely overcompensated for athleticism. But my bi can turn this next year. What do we have to be excited about coming in right now? Or Malachi is gonna be your best player?

00:53:22
Speaker 1: No, I mean I don't.

00:53:22
Speaker 14: Think about that.

00:53:24
Speaker 1: I don't think that. I think, well, I'll say this, if those are the two best players, then we're not gonna be very good. But I think they I think that there will be guys in the portal that will be as good, if not better than Chandler and and Moreno, it is now up to Pope. It's now up to Pope to get them right. That will be what that will be where we That will be what decides next season. And I appreciate the call. We don't have freshmen who can bail us out. You know, I think you're gonna get Chandler. Well, I hope you're gonna get moreno Chandler and Cam Williams back. You might get low you or you might want I mean, I don't know what they want. And then I don't know about the other guys. But you're gonna have to go get four or five guys in the portal, and you need at least one of them to be a star. They have to get a star. They haven't really gotten a star star yet in the portal. Last year they got a bunch of guys that were really good and that was a good team, but they didn't quite have a star. I think they hope Jackson Robinson would be that, and it didn't quite happen. This year, you know, they struck out on a lot of the stars. They're gonna have to get a star in the portal this year, and I don't know who it'll be because I don't know who's gonna be in the portal, but they're gonna have to get one. When when ESPN puts out those rankings top guys in the portal, were we gotta get one of the top five if we're gonna be good next year. We'll take a break A five nine two twenty t eighty seven come Back final segment. It's a Local Toy Dealers KSR postgames Welcome Back. It is the Local Toy Dealers KSR Postgame show eight five nine two eight zero twenty two eighty seven. UH text Machine is seven seven two seven seven four five two five four mostly good text message. UH text machine comments today when person writes, Matt, I agree with what you said about us being relevant, But do you think that Kentucky will remain relevant if they don't start winning at a high level. I mean it's a fair question, like if you I mean, that's how you get to be Indiana Because there was a time that everything I said about Kentucky was true about Indiana, like they would be in the marquee spots and they would and that has stopped. So you're yeah, I mean, if you go twenty years without it, it will. But well, this is something I know a little bit about because of my ESPN work. Every single story written on ESPN about Kentucky will be the highest rated story read on ESPN College basketball that week. Like I don't know if you watch Field of sixty eight, but they will make a Kentucky game one of the top three or four games they talk about every night because more people that are watching them from us than anyone else. We drive. The only school that's closed is Duke. We are these even North Carolina and Kansas don't drive traffic like Kentucky and Duke. So you know, could that go away? Yeah, I guess it could, but we're still a long way from it going away. You know, Kentucky Arkansas was until last week the highest watched game on ESPN this year. That'll probably get passed by That was passed by Duke Carolina. They'll probably be passed by Duke Michigan because Duke actually probably is even more marquee than we are now. But we're still too. But now we want to win titles and in that respect, we're way behind these schools. And on that I completely agree.

00:57:16
Speaker 2: Who's up next, Matthew.

00:57:17
Speaker 1: Matthew, go ahead, Matthew, Hello, matt how are you doing doing good?

00:57:25
Speaker 18: Tonight was a was a rough one. It's a as a lifelong Kentucky fans always hard to you know, have a win and they get ripped in that manner. But through it all, whether or not Mark Pope is the man for the job, that's yet to be seen. Because last the year was a quite a magical year for me personally, but you know, he just didn't get the right roster construction that he needed this year, and of course the we're losing games because of it. So I'm willing to always give him another year to see a way he can do. Yeah, and you know, if I, if I could, if I could talk to him personally, I would like to say something to the effect of, you know, coach, you.

00:58:04
Speaker 16: Know I'm not behind you.

00:58:06
Speaker 18: You know, you know you voice your frustrations when you've got every other college coach saying whatever they want to say. You know, I'm out there with you. But you know I'm I'm I'm optimistic and excited to see what he could possibly do next year. I know it's gonna be a whole roster reconstruction, and uh I other than Malachaimarino, I love the Kentucky boys, but I don't know how many of those guys are are going to be even ready for what they need to do. But you know, I love coach and I hope the best. I still think we're gonna make the tournament, but I don't think we're gonna make a whole lot of noise. But I am excited that the possibilities as to what we can do well.

00:58:46
Speaker 1: I appreciate the call those. Uh, I think all of that is reasonable. And uh, I'm sure you know. I don't think there's anybody listening to this that doesn't want want Mark Pope to succeed. Part of what makes it hard is we all want him to succeed so much because we know how much he cares, and we know how much he wants to win. You know, I it would be so much. It would be so awesome to win with him as the coach, because it would be like it would be more special in some ways than it is with coaches who just come and go. Because he's part of this, so we all want it and he wants it. He probably wants it too much, which is probably what causes some of these weird things that happen after losses. Let's do five more and we'll call him night. Who's next, Dave, Dave? Go ahead, Dave, hey man, what's up?

00:59:42
Speaker 10: So like you just said, nothing, like you just said, as awesome as it would be to win with Pope, it kind of makes it a more painful when we lose with him.

00:59:53
Speaker 1: Now, I agree with that completely, Yeah, because you just hate it. It's like it's hard to it's hard for me. It's hard for everybody to want criticize him because it's like you're criticizing like one of your family members, you know.

01:00:09
Speaker 6: Exactly.

01:00:09
Speaker 10: It's like when Mitch hired him, it was like we didn't want it.

01:00:13
Speaker 6: We didn't.

01:00:14
Speaker 10: Yeah, it's it's good, it's it felt good, but it's like it's to go south, and it's like we have to almost kind.

01:00:22
Speaker 1: Of Yeah, it's like hiring. It's like you remember when you remember when Mark Mark Stoops hired his brother Mike Stoops as the linebacker coach, and I remember thinking it would be awesome to have your brother coach with you. Well, what if he's a bad coach? Are you gonna fire your brother? Like, what are you gonna do? It's gonna be terrible if it doesn't work out. And I kind of wonder if it's like this, like we all want a former Kentucky player to coach, but then what if it doesn't work out? It makes it a lot harder.

01:00:58
Speaker 10: Yeah, so one thing, I know this might be wishful thinking, but what do you think our record would be? Or how many games do you think would be different if occasion Lewis had a decomitte.

01:01:14
Speaker 1: I mean, it'd be better. It'd be better because you'd be able to play, have another guard who can score. You probably could play Aberdeen at his more regular position. Yeah, we'd be better. I mean, we'd be better. If Jalen low wasn't hurt, we'd be better. We'd be better. We'd be better if we had one more guard who could play. I honestly think that the thing we miss the most is we need another guard who can play. And that could have been Jalen Lowe. I thought it could have been Jasper Johnson. And it's ended up Jalen's hurt and Jasper's not playing well and Cam Williams is hurt, and so, like you just have a situation. Wouldn't it been nice if tonight, when Chandler was off, you could have put somebody else in, you know what I mean, And we just couldn't. And that's kind of the way it goes. Yeah, So I appreciate Paul. Who's up next?

01:02:12
Speaker 2: TJ?

01:02:13
Speaker 1: TJ? Go ahead, TJ.

01:02:16
Speaker 17: Hey, Matt, been a while, you know, Look I've got the final four tickets. I'm forty years old. I'm up there with you. You know, the name on the front of the jersey, not the bat.

01:02:27
Speaker 16: That doesn't matter anymore.

01:02:29
Speaker 7: These kids get paid.

01:02:31
Speaker 17: It doesn't matter if you're from Puerto Rico, China, Japan, America, Mexico, wherever. Pay the best players. It doesn't matter. Oh, it's the pageantry of Kentucky.

01:02:43
Speaker 9: Boy.

01:02:44
Speaker 17: You know, with Cala PARTI, if we had a bad season, we still had the excitement of, well, we've got the number two pass.

01:02:51
Speaker 8: Coming in here.

01:02:52
Speaker 17: You don't even have that, Matt and I. Here's the thing, one more thing. Here's the thing. Oh, it was a bad call. It was this. It was that this is a game where it shouldn't have been a bad call, or not to lose the game. They're on a five game losing streak. You are Kentucky. We are now the Tennessee and the Nebraska of football. If we don't change soon, this is pathetic.

01:03:25
Speaker 1: Appreciate it call. I mean, I I We're definitely not Nebraska. Uh you know, I think we're still not quite Tennessee. But Tennessee's been what the relevant Yeah, I don't know. I mean the analogy is probably if we're not careful, we're gonna become like UCLA, which is UCLA. I'll still have years where they're really really good, but like they're not consistently like you don't look every and go wonderful, UCLA is gonna be good. I that's kind of that's something that could happen. That's a very good point though about with cal you are like, well, so and so is coming in next year. Part of what I think is making this hard is that nobody has confidence about next year. That you know, if you think about twenty thirteen when we went to the n I T. We had the number one class in America coming in the next year with the Twins and Randall. Remember people go, keep calm, the twins are coming right. Yeah, we don't have that, and so that in and of itself makes it makes it difficult. And I'm with you. I get the best players. If there's a tie and you want to add a kid from Kentucky, that's awesome, But get the best players. The end of the day, we gotta we want to win three more. Who's next?

01:04:52
Speaker 2: Ben?

01:04:52
Speaker 1: Ben? Go ahead, Ben?

01:04:55
Speaker 6: Hey, what's going on?

01:04:56
Speaker 1: Man? What's up? Hey?

01:04:58
Speaker 6: So me so I been leaving the game heading back from Auburn. Uh, it sucked.

01:05:07
Speaker 1: It was.

01:05:09
Speaker 6: It was a tough game to be at. The thing I take away the most is I'll worry that Pope cares too much. And I think it's just it shows up in the press conferences and everything else that he just he cares too much and he wants the guys to care as much as him, and they just I don't feel like they feel the same way.

01:05:32
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, I don't want to say the guys don't care. I think they care, but uh, the question is about Pope care too much. I mean, they're You're not the first person that said that. I don't know. I think he takes stuff really personally, but you know, I guess I'd rather be that than the other way.

01:05:52
Speaker 6: Yeah, but yeah, I mean, I mean I think the guys, I think, to me, it's like Hope cares too much in the sense of like the guy who, uh just he weirds me out with like even the postgame stuff, complaining about the refs, and I think everybody would complain about the refs. But in my mind, it's just like Pope can't do that. And it's like the guy who you know, he's on the second date and asking the girl, well, how many kids she wants, you know, and he, uh, you know, he cares so much about her, but she doesn't maybe feel that way. And I think the guys are just kind of it just I don't know, that's just it's a lot. Auburn was Uh, it was fun, but at no point it felt like we were really, you know, pulling away. And I feel like it's in that way all year. We'll get up even if we get up eight, you know, it's feel like we can't just put a team away.

01:06:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you're right. I appreciate the call. I think that's fair. Uh. Christy Noman announces Billy that pre check is being suspended at the airport due to a partial government shutdown.

01:06:55
Speaker 2: Oh that's a.

01:06:56
Speaker 1: Good way, good way to make this that's a good way to make this administration more popular to suspend pre check.

01:07:03
Speaker 2: Just make the lines longer at the airports.

01:07:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's one thing that will make everybody thrilled. Let's make the lines longer at the airport. Yeah. Oh, that's right, because you have to you go that line.

01:07:17
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm with the normal people. You're you're already done with security by the time I.

01:07:21
Speaker 1: Get Wait, a minute. I pay for pre check.

01:07:24
Speaker 2: Are you gonna suspend.

01:07:25
Speaker 1: Something that we pay for better? Yeah, exactly, you better suspend the payment I pay for that. You can't suspend. See all right, two more? Who's next? Tory? Tory, go ahead, Tory.

01:07:41
Speaker 7: Hey matt uh brother? This this stinks. It's this stink's really bad. I'm not even having like a little bit of fun.

01:07:50
Speaker 1: No, it's not been a lot of fun. I agree. This year, this has been. This has been. This is one of the weirder teams that I can ever remember. I never know what's gonna happen in the game, and I don't. Yeah, you're right, it hasn't been a lot of fun. I think that's fair.

01:08:06
Speaker 7: It's it's a daily occurrence online. You've got fans and then various levels of media making the case as to why it's not that bad. You got to look at it through this lens. And then there's others that are just like, there's stinks, he's got to go. And then then the responses to each kind of tweet is just people making the case for whatever their side is, and it all just amounts to people are just trying to figure out, like, why is this so bad and at the end of the day it just stinks. And and Mark Pope goes into breast conferences and he says like there somebody like they're trying to take our power, which like I know what he's trying to say, Like I like words, and then like I'm all about the gena sa quav like the specific English language and saying something that sounds pretty, but it like it just comes off as cringey and and maybe, well not maybe I think Mark Pope might be cringe and he either has to work on it or a manager to offset that when he talks to these kids. But the dorky stuff and how much this all stinks, it's just I'm just not having a good time.

01:09:13
Speaker 1: Man. Yeah, you know he might be a little cringe. Yeah, maybe I thought that, But I don't know. Like ultimately, I guess what matters most is he does is he get those like twelve guys in the locker room to buy in, right, Like ultimately that's probably what's most important. And he certainly did last year. I can't I don't know about this year. I can't really tell. It's hard for me. What has been so hard to interpret this year? The team did not like each other at first. It feels like they've kind of gotten through that. But I can't tell sometimes how well Pope connects with the team this year. I think he really connected with him last year. I can't tell. I'm not saying he doesn't, but it's hard to see it sometimes, and so it's hard to know. I'm with you, it's not been fun. And I think you're right. I think a lot of the the a lot of it is fans trying to figure out why is it like this? And that's all kind of not being able to figure it out.

01:10:24
Speaker 7: And so so Pope resonates very well with me. The things he say sit well with me. And I'm a thirty thirty five year old white dude. He's he's I think he gets into these conversations or these dinners with with these younger guys and like this is just my opinion, right, And I think the team's probably a similar reaction. As he gets there and he says like this is beautiful, and he tries to motivate him in this like very empathetic and powerful way that this like Shakespearean discussion he has with these players. And I think a lot of it is just met with a big irol.

01:11:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I don't know if it is.

01:11:03
Speaker 6: I just don't a lot.

01:11:05
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting when I've talked to Pope, I always I find him really interesting. But I find him interesting kind of like I find like I used to find my law professors interesting. And I don't know if you would put my law professors in a locker room of college kids and they would be the best motivators in the world. So I don't know, I really don't know. I think ultimately there's a lot of different waste for things to work. I think it worked last year. It doesn't seems to have worked as well this year. So I appreciate the call, but I do He's different, man, He's different. I think that's clear. And uh, but if we won, I guess none of us would care. Is it one more?

01:11:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I'm sure there's a lot of coaches that are cringe. But sometimes when you tell you.

01:11:56
Speaker 1: Like like like you remember how I can say this now because we've actually and I think you have to kind of become friends with him. Tom Crean, right, like we used to always joke like Tom Creane was like the most cringe guy in the world, but like, but his Dwayne Wade loves it, you know, and and a lot of his former players love him. So even though maybe we found him cringe like, his players really liked him. And I've gotten to know him since I've started doing ESPN, and I think he's awesome. So I don't know, you know, I think it's ultimately can you get your players to buy in? And there are people who might you know. Then there's like the guy with the Miami Dolphins, Mike McDaniel, who tries that cool and I think he's cringing in a different way. You know, you just got that's exactly right. You got to be yourself. And I do think Mark is himself, you know what I mean. I think he is what you see.

01:12:51
Speaker 2: So he just wants it too much.

01:12:53
Speaker 1: Maybe one more like Alex finished.

01:12:56
Speaker 17: Strong Matt appreciate it.

01:12:59
Speaker 10: Man.

01:13:00
Speaker 19: I'm the UK grad flew to Atlanta today from Miami, rented a car, drove to Auburn. I've gotta be honest, man, it's just really fricking frustrating. Atmosphere was electric. This was a game years and years and years in the past. Kentucky goes in and wins. The OTAGA always fast break, slam the lead.

01:13:22
Speaker 15: Same issues again, bad first half, letting them go on runs, weird substitutions.

01:13:29
Speaker 19: In same lineups. We have a timeout with thirty seconds left.

01:13:33
Speaker 15: Why is Calvin Chandler pushing off?

01:13:35
Speaker 19: Man Like, why that can't happen?

01:13:38
Speaker 15: Use a timeout? It's okay, Otaga incredible again right without him, We're not in the game. The fast breaks, everything was incredible. I can still with Tom hard after the game. It should everyone is on the same page.

01:13:55
Speaker 6: This is three in a row.

01:13:57
Speaker 19: I don't I just don't know. Man, I don't, and I know you feel the same way. I just I don't know.

01:14:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know, and I appreciate the call.

01:14:07
Speaker 10: I I.

01:14:10
Speaker 1: Do know that this year we have four games left. We could win them all. We could lose them all, even the game at South Carolina two. We could lose that game if we don't play, so we could go four and oh we could go zero to four. We could get to the tournament. I mean, now, I think we're trending towards if we beat South Carolina non seed something like that. If we lose the other three, but we also could play our way to a six seed. We could be an eleven seed. We could miss the tournament if we don't win another game. So I don't know, and I don't know what's gonna happen, and I don't know what our roster is gonna be next year. And I think all that unknowing, that lack of knowledge is part of that's what makes this so difficult. At the end of the calperiod, I knew it was over. I knew it was over. I don't know what we are right now, and so you know, what are you gonna do. We're gonna go play Tuesday night and hope we win. So that's kind of all we can do. Cats lose a tough one seventy five, seventy four, one rebound, one in position, referee not calling a foul, you know, one box out. We could have won, but we didn't. And so now seventeen and ten, with four games to go, we'll take a break. Well, we won't take a break. We'll end the show. We'll see you later, be back on Monday morning. This has been the Local Toy Dealers KSR postgame show.