2025-12-23- KSR - Hour 1 Half Hour

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Speaker 1: Comedy Up Broadway in Lexington invite you to celebrate New Year's Eve with Lexington's own Lee Kemberroll for two shows only on December thirty first, then from Netflix.

00:00:10
Speaker 2: Is a Joke.

00:00:10
Speaker 1: Catch Ray Low January second and third, and January eighth through the tenth. Don't miss AGT finalist Aaron Blyle for tickets to all Comedy Up Broadway shows called eight five nine two seven to one joke, or visit Comedy Up Broadway dot Com.

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Speaker 2: Comedy Off Bay. This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage.

00:00:33
Speaker 1: Now here's Matt Jones.

00:00:36
Speaker 3: Welcome in.

00:00:37
Speaker 2: This is Kentucky Sports Radio.

00:00:38
Speaker 3: How about it?

00:00:41
Speaker 2: We are now want less than forty eight hours away from Christmas, and we're less than three hours away from tip off pre Kentucky and Bellaman on this edition of Kentucky Sports Radio. Ryan Lemon and Jack Pilgrim here for you this morning, as always, tex Sports Radio sponsored by the t J. Smith Lows called TJ. He'll make them pay. We've got the Clark Publish opp phone numb eight five nine two eight zero two two eight seven Jack kind of abbreviated schedule today, We're gonna have KSR from ten to ten thirty. But then at ten thirty we have to start the pregame show because Kentucky and BT'M and tip off at one o'clock in the afternoon down here at Repperina today.

00:01:16
Speaker 3: Weird, right, it's very weird. Uh. Before I left, Katie said the my wife, Katie said the Uh, the traffic shouldn't be too bad. It's a Saturday. I said, it's no, it's too it's Tuesday. But I think just the scheduling of this is just throwing everybody off. It's a very very weird time. But hey, I'm for it. Nothing like a matinee.

00:01:34
Speaker 2: These games that will get into a lot of the basketball game itself and during the pregame show. But these games at Roperena before Christmas usually has a really good crowd because the people come in for the holidays. Maybe mom and dad gives somebody gives their family the tickets, so it's usually a pretty decent crowd, even though it's one o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon.

00:01:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the the local factor with Bellerman, it's an it's a name brand for for US locals where some alums can come in and you know, celebrating and you know, cheer on their their their former schools. So yeah, I'm excited. I think it's gonna be and I think there's a lot to be excited about with how they won against Saint john to get the debut of Jayden Quaintan's there's a lot of other stuff that went into just kind of the feel good bringing the feel good vibes back to Kentucky basketball.

00:02:18
Speaker 2: So our thirty minute edition of ks are we're kind of like the pre pregame show You and I will do it. Matt his course down in New Orleans getting ready to call his first ever play by play on national radio of a college football play bowl game down in New Orleans today.

00:02:34
Speaker 3: I am very excited to see how that goes goes for him. I've loved hearing, you know, being on the plane and doing a little whispering the play by play under under his breath, watching NFL games and stuff. But yeah, he's gonna crush it. But I don't know how I would react if I were in his shoes, So I wish I wish him nothing but the best.

00:02:50
Speaker 2: I told him, I said, dude, once you get going, you'll settle in and you'll get into a flow and it'll be all right. But I can tell you he's legit a little nervous about it.

00:03:00
Speaker 3: What would the interesting thing is is memorizing the rosters and how all you know the team dynamics and all those things. Like he's got some homework to do, Like I hope, I hope he's brushed up and he's studied up and he's ready to go.

00:03:14
Speaker 2: So that'll be later today the UK basketball games at one. Then we'll the pregame show will probably get over about five ish, and then I think kickoff for his game is at five thirty, so to kind of bleed all in together. So it's a long day of listening to the radio all day to day. But what else you're gonna do? Man, it's a Christmas? Are you ready for Christmas?

00:03:31
Speaker 3: In two days? I am one of the most festive people that I know. I had your I'm I very much enjoy it. I'm the dude that puts my Christmas decorations up on November first. As soon as we get post Halloween, I'm all in on Christmas. But December just flew by. Man, It just it feels like we snapped our fingers and it's here. So I'm trying to figure out that's why I'm wearing what I'm wearing today, just because I'm trying to force myself into just the you know, a dramatic, exaggerated version of my fastus self because I'm not feeling it doesn't feel like it's forty eight hours away.

00:04:07
Speaker 2: Less than forty eight hours away. Now your little boys will be getting up going crazy at six am in the morning. Casana came to the house. Man, that's a special time on you got little ones at the house.

00:04:16
Speaker 3: This is the first Christmas that Billy, my two year old, grasps it. Understand. We walk around the neighborhood and he sees all the Oh, there's Big Santa, there's the Nutcracker, there's the Polar Bear. Like he is getting obsessed with all of the decoration. So that's definitely added. When you get older as a kid, it's the most magical thing in the world. And then once you get kind of you know, twenties and thirties, it you know, kind of lose some of that magic and then the kids bring it right back. So I very much enjoyed just the magic pind of this year.

00:04:46
Speaker 2: And then there's people like me that I have to go shopping after the postgame show because I still have stuff I have to buy. My parents are coming down this afternoon and I have not bought them anything. I've not been to Kroger, I've not bought groceries. I'm that guy to the last minute. Billy R Sports. I think it's the same way. We're out tonight and tomorrow on Christmas Eve, finishing up.

00:05:06
Speaker 3: I have a couple of things that I see. My wife just does a great such a great job with hitting every cousin and aunt and uncle and grandpa and grandma like she does all of the immediate family for me, like she mean, she does it back in November. She's so prepared. But I still have to do my own personal some some of those things that I you know, I'm I'm the procrastinator. She's definitely the early bird.

00:05:31
Speaker 2: So since we're gonna get into basketball during the pregame show, I ask you some other questions. Did we able to watch the volleyball tournament on Sunday?

00:05:38
Speaker 3: Man? I did? It just sucked? You know, it just sucked how they won on Thursday. It kind of felt like, Okay, well they got the ugly. You know, got knocked the rust off. You know, the big moment was it felt a little big on Thursday. In that first one, it gets Wisconsin, but they overcame it, and all right, well, now you're taking on a team that you've already beaten and you can feel good and hopefully bring itchampionship back to Lexington. And then just came out flat self inflicted errors over and over and over again. You felt, okay, well, just got the ugly first set behind us, that'll be fine. And it kind of felt like M got the momentum and said, oh well, this stuff is sweet, like we can not only beat them but kind of dominate them, and just never were able to respond. And it's just it sucks. It doesn't take away from the magic that was the season. I watched more volleyball this season than I ever have. It was so fun watching this team and rallying where around these girls. But I wish they got it across the finish line.

00:06:33
Speaker 2: It's like after they they jumped out of that first lead in the first set, and once Texas A and M caught them and then won that first set, it's like they were never the same after that. They just didn't recover. Like you said, hitting serves out of bounds, hitting serves into the net, returns easy returns, hitting them out of bounds. There was just like they just were thrown off a little bit.

00:06:50
Speaker 3: It seemed like momentum is just so real in volleyball, where it's just one point turns into three and turns into five, and once it just kind of get unravels. It's really hard to kind of put the toothpaste back in the back in the tube. So they've done a great job eight and one and on the year up to that point and in matches where you fall behind one one to oh, so that this is a kind of comeback cat team. But they just they just didn't have it. You know, sometimes you just got to give credit where it's doe Texas A and M to steam roll the entire field, and you know sometimes that happens. It's that was the team of destiny and unfortunately it wasn't wasn't Kentucky.

00:07:23
Speaker 2: Well it's like you said, it's still a great season, face national runner up. But Texas A and M. They beat three number one seeds in a row. They beat Nebraska, Pitt and Kentucky back to back to back. They kind of earned it.

00:07:35
Speaker 3: Man, after reverse sweeping Louisville to kind of start the run. So you're right, So you know, it's like Yukon and basketball that twenty you know twenty eleven. Sometimes just those teams they go on runs and you just have to tip your cap and say, hey, that's sucks that we're not that we're not in your shoes, but but you know, what can you do?

00:07:53
Speaker 2: So we'll, like I said'll get into basketball after the break. I want to talk a couple of football questions. You kind of got your finger on the pulse with uk basketball right now. Have you been able to keep up with will Stein's staff and who he's hiring and you bringing the guys he's bringing in?

00:08:06
Speaker 3: Well, I mean we got to feed the studs somehow, right and that this that this team, you know, we gotta we gotta go bowling. Man, We're not sitting next to you know, we're we're setting the expectations high. There's there's good vibes and Lexton with football again. So yeah, I've been following it super closely. I'm very excited for the portal to open up next week and really kind of see him take this thing and run with it. Seeing seeing all right, got a couple of late steals in the high school recruiting class. But what can you do that late in the game. You're you know, you're hired the day before National signing Day, Like you can only do so much. Getting Darby to sign on the dotted line was was big enough as is, but this is where he can he can really kind of show his game off a little bit as a recruiter and kind of a hey, let's go build something specially. It reminds me I go back to when when Stoops first got hired and just kind of selling the dream, like, hey, we don't have anything to work with right now, but come believe in me and let's let's makes something special. And we saw what that turned into with Stoops and hopefully with the floor raised thanks to what Stoops was able to do, U will will Stein's able to not just get high three and low four stars to start his his tenure. We'll we'll be able to get will Stein to bring in some some foreign five star dudes studs. So are you in the boat?

00:09:19
Speaker 2: You're kind of hoping Oregon we get beat to get will Stein on campus. Are you in the boat. You want Oregon to succeed, to miss the make him look even better, and then talk about UK every time they talk about the Oregon Oregon offense.

00:09:29
Speaker 3: Go Ducks, Baby, No, we are, we are, we are rooting for them all the way. I mean, uh, Texas Tech, I think so. I just I thought, how you look it up?

00:09:41
Speaker 2: I'll look it up while you talk.

00:09:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, I I We did this exact same thing when Stoops got hired. I mean, Florida State was in the middle of their national championship push and we kind of saw like, hey, our defensive coordinators coming from a you know, national championship winning program. How fun is that? Like, I mean that that's some real tangible success that we can kind of hang on to to build build off of. Yes, it would be nice to get a little headstart on the portal and he wouldn't be so distracted if he got you know, knocked out. But we're talking long term, the momentum in general, with the attention on the program, with will Stein at the podium being able to say whatever he wants about Kentucky and hey, you see what we just we just put put up fifty points in five hundred yards. Do you want to come do that for me next year, come do it in Lexington. It's it's I will take the long term success even if it means that, you know, some short term hiccups with juggling the portal with it.

00:10:30
Speaker 2: I'm with you. I'm the same way they do play Texas Tech by the way this weekend. And I think that's why his staff was still important. Have guys here with boots on the ground in Lexington working on that kind of thing while he's got to fly back and forth ween here in Oregon.

00:10:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you got Joe Sloan, he's, you know, ready to go. We got you know, Texas saying and we you have guys with boots on the ground here now A and war Stewart, you know, offering guys yesterday announced that he was coming back yesterday as well, so that you you can feel confident in the foundation with the guy to kind of relay the message to the people that need the message relay to them while will Stein it takes care of business up up in Eugene.

00:11:06
Speaker 2: You mentioned Anne wash Stewart, former player been on the Stoop staff, that he's retaining him, He's retaining Mike Hartline and I think that's good because he had to believe.

00:11:14
Speaker 3: Mike Hartline just took good job at USF.

00:11:18
Speaker 2: I thought he was staying.

00:11:19
Speaker 3: Think he just left.

00:11:20
Speaker 2: Well, that takes away what I was getting ready to say. Never mind them. So when we come back from the break though, I want to ask you what is Will Stein? What's on his Christmas list? What's he's asking Santa Christmas? So all right, still looking for last minute gifts? Yes, well, make your loved ones feel great. Corn Bred Hemp has got you covered right now. Say forty dollars on orders over to one twenty. Say forty dollars on orders over one hundred and twenty. I guess what they're trying to say with code K why cheer as code K y cheer. So stock up on gummies, seltzers, sleep support, oil's topicals. It's an easy way to check off your whole list in one go. If you're truly down to the wire like me. Corn Bread Gift Cards a gift cards making gifting easy. So go to Cornbread him dot com, Cormborate himp that this is the good life. Been a good friend friend of ours for over many many years. We've done a lot of shows with him and again. That code right now for the Christmas holiday is ky cheer. All right, we'll take our break, come back. We got one more segment of KSR, then we'll start the KSR pregame show. Kentucky and Bellerman coming up. This is Ryan and Jack right back. This is Kentucky's Ports Radio. I thought you were getting ready, say you're gonna play Chuck Berry's Christmas song here. Gus thought you asked us what we wanted to hear in we Jack said, okay, gotcha, oh gotcha?

00:12:40
Speaker 3: All right?

00:12:41
Speaker 2: So Ryan Lem and Jack pilke them here. We are live at Chaos Bar and Grill. We are now open. We opened at ten o'clock this morning. We're serving breakfast because Kentucky's playing Bellerman at one o'clock. We opened a little hour early and it filled up. We got a good crowd here already. Like I said, a lot of this these right before Christmas games get a lot of a different crowd. You see some different faces. People kind are in for the holiday, and we're seeing that already here as a Chaos bars filling up. And the breakfast here is really good, by the way, So come on out, you know. Commonwealth Causes is creating a better Kentucky by shining a spotlight on local charities and inspiring generosity across the state. Each week you can join in the fund while give you back. The Queen of Hearts Raffle happens every Thursday, and the next ultimate Bourbon Collection Raffle will be January twenty ninth. Your ticket doesn't just give you a shot at twenty thousand dollars worth of bourbon or a share of the ten thousand dollars Queen of hartspot. It makes you a piece of the puzzle in supporting Kentucky's charities. Today, Commonwealth Causes is donated nearly six hundred and fifty thousand dollars to nonprofits right hundred the Bluegrass. So grab your tickets now at Commonwealth Causes dot org. That's Commonwealth Causes dot org. Follow at ky Causes on social media, download the app and play and win and support Happy Holidays from Commonwealth Causes. All right, you had a little minute to think about it. Will Stein's crawing up on Santa Claus' knee. Sanny asks what he wants for Christmas? What's will Stein ask? What's on his Christmas list?

00:13:55
Speaker 3: Oh? Well, if I were will Stein, I'd say we got we got to get some studs, and I think the quarterback room is going to be fine. I think there's so much to He will have his pick of the litter for for quarterback, whether it's Cutter Bowley, whether it's somebody else that he wants to hand pick. I think those questions are being had right now. Those conversations are being had right now. But you got to have whoever it is, have somebody to throw the ball to. And I think we saw the value of that this year, the lack thereof not having kind of a go to superstar on the outside for for a Cutter. I'm pushing all my chips on on on the best receiver will Stein can get his hands on two or three. I mean, the hit reset on that receiver room. Bring bring back the talent from last year, the DJ Millers, the you know, Harley Gilmore's of the of the world, and you know, go find a true wide receiver number one.

00:14:48
Speaker 2: You know, they've lost every single offensive lineman. Now they had four seniors and with Farmer committing to the NFL, going to the NFL, they've lost all five of them. And they hardly played anybody in uh and in rotation at all. I mean, they've got to That's one thing that's got me in his Christmas list.

00:15:07
Speaker 3: I think there's gonna be a lot of presents under the tree, Like I think, I think we need to understand that this is a total reset. I yeah, I was more selfishly talking about the the explosion of the will Stein offense and getting carried away in that regard that I just personally want to see selfishly want to see, uh a superstar wide receiver, but uh A resetting the offensive line room is is make or break for year one for will Stein. So that's probably that that needed to be. Like the like pre Christmas like that was Thanksgiving, like we gotta we gotta set the foundation there and then Christmas is kind of you know where you can get get a little selfish there. So yeah, I think those are priorities ABC D through Z.

00:15:48
Speaker 2: What is on Mitch Barnhardt's Christmas list?

00:15:51
Speaker 3: Probably for me to shut up probably if I had I guess just you know, I don't know. I think that's.

00:16:00
Speaker 2: Definitely wants a winning season for football, or definitely or only some success in the football, And this is his hire, you know, will Stein's his maybe his legacy.

00:16:08
Speaker 3: Higher, and I think a turnaround to get because also the mark Pope higher was his legacy higher as well. Ye, he needs this thing to turn around and continue to build upon what we've seen work over the last two weeks for this Kentucky basketball team as well. We kind of heard him unfiltered a little bit on the show that the last one I was on pre Indiana, where he talked about just kind of the you know, hey, you know, the money is where it needs to be. We like the foundation with JMI and you know, the deals that were able to secure, but it's up to the coaches to build rosters that are going to compete. It wasn't a shot at Pope, but it was like a hey, we are holding up our end of the bargain, Pope. Now it's on you to make sure that the twenty two million dollar roster you put together as a championship quality one. So I think seeing I bet Mitch Barnhart was just as excited as anybody to see Jaden Quainton's debut, to see that vision maybe come together a little bit more clearly.

00:17:02
Speaker 2: You know, it seems like they're the attitude of Big Blue Nation definitely has changed after beating Indiana and beating Saint John's because it was as much as low as it's been in a long time after the Gonzaga loss, and you were there, you witnessed it. Crowd was into it, electric loud, and they just got waxed.

00:17:19
Speaker 3: And that's there are two extremes with this because that product was totally inexcusable, totally unacceptable. That was a losing brand of basketball. I don't care who was in, who was out, who was hurt, who was available, I don't care that effort, the passion, the want to all of those things. When you have DeMarcus Cousins publicly tweeting, these guys don't have I know what Hart looks like playing for the University of Kentucky. These guys don't have it. When you're publicly called out by a legend like that, and you have Mark Pope at the podium saying, hey, I'm a former player too, and I'd be mad at the coach if you know right now as well. So when you hit rock bottom in that way, not just the score, but the how they got there compared to what has made these last two games so enjoyable with the passion and the diving for loose balls and you know, crashing the offensive glass and just playing hard, tough basketball. It's that they're easy to root for. Again, so you know, got to meet in the middle somewhere. It's probably not sustainable to play this style of basketball. You gotta make shots eventually, but you also just can't play a losing brand the way that we saw leading up to this little little stretch.

00:18:24
Speaker 2: And you're the guy that asked a question the DeMarcus Cousins quote, You're the one and asked that, kudos to you, by the way, Well.

00:18:33
Speaker 3: It's it's the the idea that that that generation of player was known as that, oh, these guys don't care about the school. They they only care about being here for eight months and making you know, nowadays it's being here for eight months and making as much money as you can win n IL before going to the draft. But for their generation of kids, it was I'm using this program as a stepping stool to get to the NBA. And the old generation of Kentucky and viewed that as like, oh, that's not real. You know, they don't care about the name on the front. They only care about the name on the back. That guy is saying that these guys didn't care for his program. You know, it was kind of ironic and kind of a full circle moment that I think that was. That was pretty revealing. I was pretty telling when when a guy like DeMarcus Cousins, a fan favorite in the one and Done era, is saying that these guys don't have heart.

00:19:20
Speaker 2: Draft Kings big sponsor of Kentucky Ports Radio as well, and I'm gonna go over some Draft Kings Odds day. You teo what you think Kentucky Overbellman is a thirty five and a half point favorite.

00:19:29
Speaker 3: Hammer it, baby, yeah, hammer it. Feel good about this one.

00:19:34
Speaker 2: We'll get into it more. But as Jalen Low play today.

00:19:37
Speaker 3: He did not practice yesterday and there's no shoot around today. So I'm just my educated guest here is that they will correctly make the decision to hold him out. I would wrap him in bubble wrap and shove him away as keep him away from the basketball floor practice, do not let him get touched for the next fourteen days. Just just leave him be. We saw plenty in this second half against Saint John's. Keep him health, Keeping him healthy is probabority number one from our pope.

00:20:04
Speaker 2: Why not, like you said, there's a big drought now before they play Alabama again, there's you know they playing what January third or.

00:20:11
Speaker 3: Fourteen day gap between Saint John's and so Wild.

00:20:15
Speaker 2: Why not why not just sit him right now against Bellerman and let that shoulder he heel up because it's going to get bumped again once the SEC starts you.

00:20:23
Speaker 3: This is touch and go this, I mean you're going to have to delicately, delicately handle Jalen Low the rest of the season. H Pope said last night and as Collin show, that he does expect Jalen to be available the rest of the season like that. He doesn't think that this is something that's gonna linger and it's gonna take him off the floor at some point. He thinks that they can manage this, which I'm all in on. But you gotta be able to manage it. You got to be able to pick and choose the ad as needed spots with Jalen Low. You can't just throw him out there and say, hey, thirty five minutes a game, buddy, go go let her rip like pick and choose your spots when to use this very very valuable tool for your team.

00:21:00
Speaker 2: So you say, hammer the over at thirty five and a half on Draftking, the over under is one fifty six and a half. Oh, I'm going I think Kentucky will score a lot of points. Will Will Bellerman score enough points to get over the get over the over?

00:21:13
Speaker 3: Well, and I don't want to share my secrets for the pregame show, but I'm picking a big, big win that doesn't involve Kentucky's scoring enough points to make However, many Bellerman scores not matter as much, so I'm still slamming the over on that one.

00:21:28
Speaker 2: That Kentucky may hit one hundred. So will Bellerman get fifty fifty five? There's your question right there, So yeah, well we'll get more into that again. We're open here at Chaos Bar and Grill. Nice crowd, kind of people coming in.

00:21:40
Speaker 3: I am getting salivating looking at some of these plates that are coming out with the eggs and bacon and biscuits. It's it's looking pretty darn tasted.

00:21:48
Speaker 2: The breakfast is actually very very good here at Case Bar.

00:21:50
Speaker 3: It's kind of rare.

00:21:51
Speaker 2: We don't do it all the time. Sometimes we have an early football game Monico open up a little early and needs to breakfast, so we're.

00:21:56
Speaker 3: Doing it here.

00:21:57
Speaker 2: A lot of new faces here, and that's what's kind of cool about these holiday games.

00:22:01
Speaker 3: I'm enjoying seeing some of the morning beers as well. We gotta get we gotta get some excitement at Rupparena for a one o'clock Tuesday game.

00:22:08
Speaker 2: So that does it for this edition of KSR. Thirty minutes gone, but stay tune. We're gonna start the Citral Kentucky Chevy, the Other's KSR pregame show with Jack Pilgrim Kentucky and Bellerman coming up.

00:22:18
Speaker 3: So stay tuned.

00:22:19
Speaker 2: We're right back talking basketball here on Kentucky's Port Radio.

00:22:22
Speaker 3: Goodbye,