2026-03-04- KSR - Hour 1

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Speaker 1: From Netflix and Hulu, Comedy Off Broadway and Lexington Welcomes Ashley Gavin February twenty seventh and twenty eighth, then from TV and the Movies. He's one of the Kings of Comedy. Catch d L. Hugley March sixth through the eighth and from the neat Land Podcast and The Grand Old Lopry. Don't miss Aaron Weber March twelfth through the fourteenth. Four tickets to all Comedy Off Broadway shows called A five nine two seven to one joke or visit Comedy Off Broadway dot com co off Brodway.

00:00:31
Speaker 2: This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now here's Matt Jones.

00:00:37
Speaker 3: Welcome everyone a Kentucky Sports Radio Wednesday, March the fourth. I'm Matt Jones here at the KS Bar and Grill. You can give us Clarks Puppy Shop phone line eight five nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven. A Vision Auto Glass text machine is seven seven two seven four five two five four. In this stition sponsored by the T. J. Smith Office called TJ O Make Them Pay, we are here. It's Wingsday, Dollar Wings Today. Ryan Lemon and Drew Franklin. A lot going on today. First of all, in about three minutes, they're gonna have a tornado drill. I don't like it, but you know they still do it. So you'll lose this for like thirty seconds and then you'll be back. The Kentucky women play at eleven o'clock. Yes, we'll have it here at the bar. We're gonna keep doing the show. But at ten forty one you're gonna need to switch to a different station, so we'll talk more about that. So be ready to go to a different station at ten forty one on your streaming WSFC, but you're with us until then, and then the game, and then on podcasts we will have the full show. There is actually a ton to do today, all right. Mitch Barnhart retires. We find out a lot more about his role, which we will talk about. Kentucky Women's start their tournament today. We have a football player with one of the great resumes of all time returning to Kentucky. But I guess we have to start with the game last night, which was a huge bummer.

00:02:03
Speaker 4: Just all the way around.

00:02:04
Speaker 3: Cats lose up twelve early, somehow turned a twelve point lead into a fourteen point deficit, excuse me, a thirteen point deficit at halftime, and then in the second half never really able to crawl back and they lose to A and M Missouri loss. So had we won, we could be looking at the three seed in the SEC tournament. And now as it stands, we have a chance to get the ten seed in the SEC tournament.

00:02:31
Speaker 4: So one loss takes you from potentially three to ten.

00:02:37
Speaker 3: Playing on Wednesday is now all not only possibly on the table, it's probably more likely than not if we lose to Florida. Just a complete devastating collapse the game. What are you gonna say? I mean, I guess Deabiate played pretty well. You know, a way of Aberdeen had their moments, but in general, just a poor performance.

00:02:58
Speaker 5: You're able to complete and utter collapse there at the end of the first half, and some very critical, in my opinion, coaching mistakes during that run. I mean, I don't know how you cannot have Oway, Chandler Aberdeen, two of those three guys has to be on the floor at all time.

00:03:13
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go further. I don't think you can have a moment when Oway and Aberdeen are both out.

00:03:18
Speaker 4: I agreed. I agree, you just don't think you can.

00:03:22
Speaker 3: They were both out for combined seventy one seconds, and A and M was up eight to nothing in those seventy one seconds.

00:03:30
Speaker 4: I just don't.

00:03:30
Speaker 3: I mean Chandler, I love Chandler, but Chandler can't handle the ball. No, And so if you don't have Oway and Aberdeen one of them in, you're asking for destruction. And then if you are gonna take them out through, you cannot have your five worst defenders on the team on the floor at the same time, which is what they did. Our four best defenders are in some order, Owah, Aberdeen, Diabatee and Moreno, all four of them on the bench.

00:03:57
Speaker 4: And just look what happened game check.

00:04:01
Speaker 6: Yeah, they have that start to get us all excited and then to completely lose it like that, To go from up twelve to down twelve eight minutes is really some impressive work. I mean, you gotta tip your cap and how bad you are at that point.

00:04:13
Speaker 4: Twenty seven to three run in the last nine minutes the first and.

00:04:17
Speaker 6: Then you throw in the beginning of second thirty six to six run a team that has lost six out of eight games. I mean, what are we doing. But it wasn't even the substitutions that made me so mad. Call a damn time out.

00:04:27
Speaker 4: That's it.

00:04:28
Speaker 6: Bucky Ball was flying. The eight people that were at that game found some energy and got behind the team. That's what they do. They get in the role and they get moving and they put you away like that. Just call a damn time out and try to stop it. You're on the road, shut them up, and you lose.

00:04:41
Speaker 3: The time out at halftime like he's not saving it for the end of the game. You lose one time out in the first half. You get four for the game, but you have to use one in the first half, so if you don't call it, you lose it. And he didn't call it, And I'll never understand that. I use this analogy lab night, and because somebody called in the postgame show and said, well, are these two years kind of like the last two years of Cal?

00:05:06
Speaker 4: And it was an interesting question because I hadn't really thought about it like that, And.

00:05:12
Speaker 3: I think, oddly Cal and Patino, or Patino, Cal and Pope have the same stubborn issue. Cal's issue was like old man, this worked for me. I ain't changing er, and I think Pope is like a dude, who I use the analogy of created chat GPT and and you put something into chat GPT and it comes back and you know it's wrong, and you go, no, this is chat GPT. It works, it's the truth, and you're like, this is same. Matt Jones is the Prime Minister of France, well he must be. Pope has his analytics and he's like, hey, this is what works. I don't care what you're seeing. And I think both of those that stubbornness is hurting me.

00:05:58
Speaker 5: There's got to be analytics. It's say you can't have a mass substitution like this time after time after time at the time and keep losing the lead. There has to being likes to say, you can't have these two of those three guys on the bench at the same time. There's a smart guy, you know. Even Tom Harden and Jimmy Dykes said that Mark Pope told them he was worried about fatigue in this game because they play a lot more backcourt guys twenty minutes a game.

00:06:17
Speaker 4: We play our backcord guys thirty minutes a game. What did he say after the game.

00:06:20
Speaker 6: He said, our guys were struggling with the Saturday to Tuesday games.

00:06:24
Speaker 4: Come on, they've had that.

00:06:26
Speaker 3: He didn't say that turn around, he said the Saturday, well, you know, in the Insane tournament, it's two days, not three.

00:06:34
Speaker 4: The whole, the whole doesn't true. Stop.

00:06:38
Speaker 3: He didn't say I'll get the exactly well, the only team that does that, need you line to listen. That that that hurt me almost more than giving up a thirty six to six runs.

00:06:46
Speaker 4: I mean, he didn't say.

00:06:47
Speaker 5: The practices are cutting down in like an hour. This time of year, there shouldn't be no fatigue whatsoever. You need to keep your best guys on the floor at all times when you're here in March.

00:06:56
Speaker 3: And it doesn't matter if you're not fatigued. If you're down nineteen, you can be the healthiest down nineteen person in the world. That's not gonna matter. I mean, I don't know.

00:07:08
Speaker 4: I know this.

00:07:09
Speaker 3: What they do in those scenarios does not work. And you know what was funniest when he went through his first set of substitutions, I thought to myself, Mark has finally got because when they got to the first substitutions I watched they brought jasper in and they took a way out and it was Jasper and Aberdeen and then they go, okay, we need to get Noah in. So they brought a way back and then took it like they were taking one of them at a time, and I was like, look, he's got and Jasper was playing well right because he didn't have to bring the ball up every time Aberdeen was, and then I don't know, all of a sudden, he was like, you know what, let's just see what happens if I take all my good players out. That'll work. And then I mean, this isn't on him. But I got that not in the pit of my stomach when we were up twelve and Oa and Noah had that wide open three and he missed it, and they came down and immediately hit a three, and I thought, that's gonna be a moment we remember. Could have been fifteen cut to nine like that. I was like, and then it was on after that.

00:08:22
Speaker 5: You run that time too. I think Brandon Garrison took a three.

00:08:25
Speaker 4: Ah, the Brandon Garrison heat check three.

00:08:28
Speaker 3: And he was playing so good, he had been so good, and then he took that and I was okay.

00:08:33
Speaker 4: I was like, all right, one heat check three.

00:08:35
Speaker 3: I'm okay with that, and then he throws it away on the Why is he take the ball out? Can you help me understand why he takes the ball out on the press because the guy that takes the ball out may have to help you bring it up, So why do you want him to take it out?

00:08:50
Speaker 5: Made a bad turnover taking it out at one time.

00:08:52
Speaker 6: But the guy with respectfully probably the lowest basketball IQ on the team, who we kind of losing, spurts right. I didn't need a ton of respot'sibility, I will say in the beginning though, he and Jasper looked like an NBA jam two man combo. The bench held their own uh in the first way.

00:09:10
Speaker 3: But they but when Jasper and Garrison were in, they were playing with three starters. And I kind of count the Abte a little bit as a starter at least when he's but but when Jasper came in, he had two other guards with him.

00:09:22
Speaker 4: But then when you give him no chance, it's just not the same.

00:09:26
Speaker 6: And it's just Abote is a starter because Yellovich is he not. I understand the Abote is playing great. I know it's hard to slot him in the second half, but it's like he starts and then just sits down and never comes back in again.

00:09:39
Speaker 4: I don't know what.

00:09:39
Speaker 5: Also, you mentioned it the Anletics say you get to put out your four worst defenders on the team on the floor at the same time. That can't be a good idea. And he did it. All our four worst defenders were out.

00:09:49
Speaker 6: There, and we were watching exactly what they do. They get you kind of in some chaos where you're turning it over. They're playing fast, and they just launched those threes and once you could see that bucket ball get going and that was their big run. And that's why I don't even care who's on the floor. Call a time out and regroup and get out of that mess, because that's where they want you to play it well.

00:10:07
Speaker 3: And then the game was just kind of I mean, the second half it was basically an even game, back and forth.

00:10:13
Speaker 4: They'd get up, we cut it a whoa.

00:10:16
Speaker 5: It's a massive storm happening right now.

00:10:18
Speaker 4: Good night.

00:10:19
Speaker 6: Was that expected?

00:10:21
Speaker 4: That's that's what the tornado drill was for. Yeah, that hit all that hit immediately, you know.

00:10:28
Speaker 3: We cut it a couple of times to nine, and it felt like, okay, if we could get a stop here in one time score and then we just weren't.

00:10:34
Speaker 4: We just weren't able to do that.

00:10:36
Speaker 5: It's a missed opportunity because, like you said, you had it with Missouri losing last night. Really you had a chance to set yourself up for next week in Nashville instead, and when we're staring at right the face of playing again on the first down Wednesday, you had nobody to blame with yourself last night. That was a coaching mistake. We got out coached, we got out played, we got out hustled. All the outs we had it last night.

00:10:54
Speaker 6: And James, they had these long straight they were one of twelve in the half. I mean Vandy Saturday, we had a full game that was awesome. But it seems like most of the time we have these long stretches where they just can't get a bucket and that's what keeps them from getting over the hump in the second half as the gap got too big.

00:11:09
Speaker 3: What do you think at the end of the day, we got one game left in the regular season. We're just inconsistent, right, That's just what this team is gonna be. We're gonna be inconsistent, and it is what it is right.

00:11:24
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:11:24
Speaker 5: Tom called them the unpredictables a couple times last night, and they are. This has been like a roller coaster season. Coming off maybe their best game they've played in the entire SEC season against Vanderbilt and come back and throw in that turd last night was awful.

00:11:37
Speaker 6: Yeah, Florida ahead. I mean at one point they were up about like fifty last night. It's looking like a regular season under twenty wins, and with the inconsistency. I know we all have hope they can stream together a run, but I just can't see them playing consecutive games that, you know, getting enough wins, especially starting on Wednesday in Nashville.

00:11:56
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean, we're not gonna win five straight games.

00:12:00
Speaker 5: Too much of a turnaround.

00:12:02
Speaker 4: I got that exact quote if you wanted here, Yeah, read me the Saturday Tuesday.

00:12:05
Speaker 2: These Saturday Tuesday turnarounds have been a little bit challenging for us with our limited roster size right now.

00:12:12
Speaker 3: I can't listen to that's a terrible excuse. Yeah, I mean that is a terrible excuse. You got nine guys. First of all, the roster is not that limited. How many teams are out there playing more than nine guys consistently. How many guys did A and M play? Just so I can look.

00:12:28
Speaker 6: And see, Well, they have the deepest bench in the country, so they played.

00:12:31
Speaker 4: How many do they play?

00:12:32
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm sure they do have the deepest bench, but how many do they play?

00:12:35
Speaker 4: Do they play ten? And we played nine?

00:12:37
Speaker 6: Probably nine or ten?

00:12:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, so they go one deeper than us. They played, No, they only played nine guys too. They played nine guys. We played nine guys.

00:12:50
Speaker 5: They had to do a Saturday Tuesday turnaround just like we did.

00:12:52
Speaker 3: The only difference is we played our back court probably five to six minutes more than they played. But they are bad court, and they played a couple of their bench guys a little bit more than we played hard.

00:13:05
Speaker 4: That's it. Well.

00:13:07
Speaker 6: Also, people were wearing canvas converse and belts in basketball doing Saturday Tuesday turnarounds. That's the sport that's not changing. Canvas converse they were also, I was trying to look it up on the fly. I don't even know if Oway is top ten in minutes in the SEC they're talking about exhausted. They were acuff plays three more minutes a game than him. Florida's how Aberdeen got two fouls and they took him out. I also was like, you gotta put him back in. I don't care if he has two fouls, what's good? I mean how many? This was something. This is something a lot of coaches do. They keep their guy out with two fouls. How many foules did Aberdeen finish with three?

00:13:42
Speaker 4: You know what? He could have taken another one? Yep.

00:13:45
Speaker 3: I mean I generally speaking, I think it's good to take your guy out with two fouls, but not if the game is getting away from you, especially if the game is getting away from you because you don't.

00:13:53
Speaker 6: Have a point guard and then you're playing him in the second half and he's down by fifteen.

00:13:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, Aberdeen, I've said this. He he's the key to the game.

00:14:01
Speaker 3: Without him, we just look atrocious most of the time.

00:14:06
Speaker 5: Like you said, though, when Jasper did come in for him and him that you know, he did gave you some good minutes, but then he didn't surround Jasper with other guys on the floor that could help him.

00:14:13
Speaker 3: And also Chandler only took five shots, and a couple of them were like I was, that's surprises.

00:14:18
Speaker 5: They did a really good job locking him up. And keeping him out of the offense. But he's got to find a way to get shots.

00:14:22
Speaker 4: He has to.

00:14:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, he was a non factor hit that first one, and he was a non factor pretty much the rest of the game.

00:14:28
Speaker 4: Hey, five nine, two eighty seven. Tough loss.

00:14:34
Speaker 3: What are you gonna do? But we got a lot of stuff to talk about. We will talk about the game. Feel free to give a call. We're gonna talk about the Barnhardt situation and more. We are here at ks Bar and Grill. The women tip off at eleven am in the first game. Both the men and the women may be in the nine seed at eleven am in the in the in the SEC tournament. We'll take a break. Great bags, kiss, welcome back. It is like sports radio eight five nine two twenty two eighty seven. Some news coming from Dave Baker. Uh he is is? He says time with the UK Sports Network is coming to an end. Dave Baker has announced that he is no longer going to be part of the JMI broadcast and that JMI has let him go.

00:15:24
Speaker 4: So Dave Baker has been part of the UK broadcast for thirty seven Yes, my entire time here in Lexton.

00:15:32
Speaker 5: J that's part of Day's persona man, you know he's going to be doing the game. Did a lot of halftime games during the you know the TV broadcast, did a lot of radio thing broadcasts. So a legend in this town. He's really a broadcasting legend in this town.

00:15:45
Speaker 4: He really is.

00:15:46
Speaker 3: I mean, when you know UK basketball, I mean Dave Baker. Yeah, thirty seven years, that's a pretty that's a pretty amazing long run. So salute to our guy. Uh buzz. He is going to continue doing work at w K y T, but will no longer be after this year on the UK Brocket. It's gonna finish the year.

00:16:06
Speaker 4: It looks like, you know, he did other sports.

00:16:08
Speaker 5: He did, you know, soccer, volleyball, baseball, softball, He did a lot of other play by playing stuff for JM.

00:16:14
Speaker 4: I so, who's gonna yell with Cameron?

00:16:18
Speaker 6: I don't know, Andrew Cappas, I don't know do they do they yell? I don't think Andrew Cappas yells.

00:16:24
Speaker 4: I feel like Cameron will yell at anybody though.

00:16:26
Speaker 6: I feel like he's he just barged in last night and just start talking to us during the pregame show. Did we saw Dave last night. If I had known this was the end, I would have given him a big hug. I didn't realize until I'd gotten home.

00:16:36
Speaker 3: But Uh, on parsonal level, I just want to say, Dave Baker, Uh, what was open and good to us early early on when a lot of people were not. And uh when when Billy When when Tubby left and Billy Gillespie was hired, he put our blog on the TV screen as as sort of a He literally put a video of our blog on the TV screen because we were reporting something about Billy Gillespie.

00:17:07
Speaker 4: And I remember thinking it was the coolest thing in the world. They're like, they put our blog on the television. So you wonder why I say the TV. They put our blog on the TV.

00:17:16
Speaker 3: Uh. And so I will always appreciate Dave. In thirty seven years, that's probably I would think that's longer than anybody, right, I mean, only only Kwood and Ralph Packer could be in that vicinity.

00:17:28
Speaker 5: Yeah, between him and Nick Gabriel, these guys have been involved with the UK sideline gigs and radio gigs forever. So, like I said, he was not he was a titan in this town.

00:17:40
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:17:40
Speaker 5: So uh about your boy I'm Dave Baker.

00:17:44
Speaker 4: Can you ever tip off? What about your boy?

00:17:46
Speaker 6: Made Mad jump so much?

00:17:48
Speaker 4: That was well, why did you do that? My little tribute today? Baker? That's your tribute? Huh.

00:17:53
Speaker 3: You know when they give people tributes, it's usually like heartfelt emotions.

00:17:56
Speaker 4: It's not what about your boy?

00:18:00
Speaker 6: Well, I'm sure he feels that's our official statement from Kosruh at.

00:18:07
Speaker 3: What person writes on the text machine sheen Matt. I like Mark Pope, but I just don't think he is a great coach. Your caller last night hit it. He might be good, he might even be successful, but we need great and I don't see from him.

00:18:23
Speaker 4: Great.

00:18:24
Speaker 3: Great coaches don't lose by the amounts we sometimes lose to.

00:18:29
Speaker 5: Last night, maybe in the first time, I really got mad at him. Like Drew mentioned, you didn't call time out during that run, You had some erroneous substitution patterns, didn't make the do you know, get find a way to get Chandler of the basketball, get him some shots. Just a couple of things happened last night, like, man, what are you doing?

00:18:45
Speaker 4: You got mad? Yeah?

00:18:47
Speaker 6: He almost injured Trent.

00:18:48
Speaker 4: Noah, he did oh Man took.

00:18:50
Speaker 5: Out Trent Noah.

00:18:51
Speaker 4: Trent was five trimp.

00:18:52
Speaker 3: Finally hits a shot non straight mar Is Trent Noah month February may not be, but March is and then he gets hurt on I mean, what is that not a summary of the season, Tret Noah hits two threes and he turns his ankle on our own coach.

00:19:08
Speaker 6: I did like, uh, it seemed to be pretty over. I think most of us thought the whole second half it was over. But Trent there for about a minute. Trent didn't hear no beell. He had nine points in a hurry through that foul. If he had gotten that four point play to cut it to seven or whatever it would have been, I might have started thinking some thoughts. But a nice little spurt from him, only to have his breakout moment.

00:19:27
Speaker 4: People he's all right.

00:19:28
Speaker 6: They didn't say anything, but we had Adam Stratton, the earth KOSR and said he saw Trent walking around the arena after it didn't look like he had any problem.

00:19:34
Speaker 4: You do have to give a shout out to Ramadan Mo.

00:19:36
Speaker 3: Yes, you know, they used to say in Alabama when Ramadan hits Mo Diabat takes it up a notch.

00:19:43
Speaker 4: And he's kind of done that here, hasn't he.

00:19:45
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's sitting over there eating Mandarian oranges during the gamenges.

00:19:49
Speaker 3: Mandarien, you are kind of adding syllables to things.

00:19:58
Speaker 4: Now, well, Mandarin makes it more special. Mandarian come up with me.

00:20:04
Speaker 5: I saw the word in my head. It kind of looks like Mandarien Mandarin.

00:20:09
Speaker 4: Okay, uh, that's but it helped him.

00:20:11
Speaker 6: He was calling him fruit cup Mo because the moment, the moment he got a little fruit in him on the bench, he came in and was unstoppable, like fruit cup Mo.

00:20:19
Speaker 4: I have to tell you, I got some pride.

00:20:21
Speaker 3: On my drive here from Louisville this morning, I was listening to Bill Simmons podcast. They were talking about best nicknames in basketball and they brought up cream abdul Jabar nice and I kept waiting for him to say my name and he didn't. But nevertheless he was like, cream Abdul Jabbar is a great name. And I was like, yes, but you knew he was talking to you. You felt it well. I mean he didn't mention my name. That's okay, but you had that connection.

00:20:41
Speaker 4: He didn't have to. It's still it's still the it's still the connection. But yes, that. It's crazy to me.

00:20:47
Speaker 3: You know, he doesn't get to eat or drink during the day, so he like they took him out so he could have a meal.

00:20:53
Speaker 4: As son comes down.

00:20:54
Speaker 3: On the bench, I do wonder if you get into the SEC and NCAA tournament if you can't drink water during the game.

00:21:01
Speaker 4: I mean, I guess he's already done that. He did that in the Vandy game.

00:21:04
Speaker 5: So he've been waking up a lot of what a five thirty in the morning to get some breakfast, get something in him, and then nothing until the sun goes down.

00:21:10
Speaker 4: So it's gonna be tough. It is. Who's up? But he's playing well during played well, who's up? Fir shit? Andy? Andy? Go ahead? Andy? Hey, what's up? Guys?

00:21:19
Speaker 7: Cut a couple of questions. If we lose to Florida Saturday, what would need to happen for us to play on Thursday?

00:21:28
Speaker 3: So if we lose to Florida, I think the best we can do, absent a crazy set of circumstances is the eight seed. There are a crazy set of circumstances where I think we can get to the seven. But if we lose to Florida, so Texas we need to lose to Arkansas tonight, and then we would need Vandy to lose Vandy and Texas to lose next week, and Fanny plays Tennessee, so they could lose in Texas, I think plays Oklahoma, so we need Texas to either lose to Arkansas or Oklahoma. So basically we need a Texas loss and Bandy to lose to Tennessee.

00:22:08
Speaker 7: All right, And I'm just going to touch on which he is telling about just a minute ago, about Pope. I agree that Pope can be good and successful, but probably not great. But my question is how many coaches are out there right now that could be great at coaching?

00:22:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I.

00:22:28
Speaker 3: Think there's probably a lot of people that could be great. I'll give you an example, and I appreciate the call. Take Todd Golden, right, I mean, how many people knew who Todd Golden was before he got to Florida And you had to be a big time college basketball fan and follow San Francisco, And then he goes there and he has a lot of success. So there's a lot of guys like that. We'll just have to see. We'll take a break, be right back. Remember, you're gonna have to change the channel. At ten forty five, we'll be right back to Kisorry.

00:22:54
Speaker 4: TJ. Smith personal injury attorney called TJ.

00:22:57
Speaker 1: He'll make them pay.

00:22:58
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00:23:02
Speaker 4: Here's Matt Joones, welcome back, take you Sports Radio.

00:23:04
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00:24:17
Speaker 4: They play Arkansas.

00:24:18
Speaker 5: They've already beat Arkansas bout twenty this year, so we may be doing the same thing tomorrow they get there.

00:24:22
Speaker 3: We'll keep track with the game with the game here. Okay, before we go back to phones, let's talk for a thing about Mitch Barnheart. We mentioned yesterday that he retired. We now know a little bit more about what he's gonna do. I will tell you I have his role will be going forward, head of the read me the job title again, Drew, because we talked about in the pregame show.

00:24:45
Speaker 4: It's an amazing job title.

00:24:47
Speaker 6: He is the Executive in residence for the UK Sport and Workforce Initiative.

00:24:56
Speaker 3: Lots of words, executive in residence. As we said on the pregame show that usually in residence means temporary, So he is an executive that will be in residence.

00:25:08
Speaker 6: He's not working remote. Okay, better not for a million.

00:25:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's again nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year for these sports.

00:25:19
Speaker 6: The UK Sport and Workforce Initiative, we'll call it UK s W I uck sweet ux sweet.

00:25:26
Speaker 4: So a lot of people were worried.

00:25:27
Speaker 3: We talked about on the pregame show essentially are we keeping him around to have his eyes overlooking the new ad? And some people were saying, does this mean they're hiring from within and basically Mitch will still control everything. I called the UK spokesman yesterday, Jay Blinton, or well excuse me. I texted with him and I asked him that question and he said to me and I Jay has always been wonderful in the last He's been doing this since I've been doing it, So if he says it, I believe it. He said that this new new initiative is not with athletics. It is to create a organization on campus that helps students get careers in the sports workforce Okay, he basically is trying to create a way to place UK athletes in the world of sports and in the fields of nil whatever.

00:26:24
Speaker 4: That means.

00:26:25
Speaker 3: He will not be working in athletics and his office will not even be in the UK Athletics building. He's basically moving across campus to the academic side.

00:26:36
Speaker 4: Okay.

00:26:36
Speaker 3: So even though I think Mitch best ad maybe in the history of UK and has done great things, I believe when it's over, it's over.

00:26:45
Speaker 4: You don't you don't linger.

00:26:49
Speaker 3: So good thing is this means the new ad will be in charge whoever it is now. You could argue does that job of essentially workforce career development? Is that a million dollar dollar a year job.

00:27:01
Speaker 4: With a country club membership.

00:27:03
Speaker 3: And all that, Uh, you know, I don't know, but I guess, as Drew says, that's not my money. So and that sounds like it's not UK athletics money. Sounds like it is UK the you know, academic money. So but I am glad Ryan that that means it's not like he's not going to be kind of athletic director senior athletic director.

00:27:30
Speaker 5: After hearing what you just said, it makes me feel a little better about it because, yes, when we talked about it yesterday, if if he was in the same building and if somebody that worked under you and you're right down the hallway, I would think he had a hard time keeping his nose out of the business. You're bringing a new somebody think he's O you're looking over your shoulder. What's he thinking about me? So the fact that Mitch's position is not even in the building has nothing new athletics makes me feel a little bit better about what they're trying to develop.

00:27:53
Speaker 4: It's a million dollar career development.

00:27:56
Speaker 6: Placer gotta be a lot of careers. Great to see his numbers. Congratulations to the students of the Universal Many.

00:28:03
Speaker 4: Everybody's gonna be getting jobs.

00:28:05
Speaker 6: Yeah, I still think it's outrageous. It is a little better that it's not coming out of the UK Athletics spot, because I think it would be crazy to ask your fans, your blue collar people, for money. We need every penny we can get to make UK good and then a million of that is going to Hill.

00:28:21
Speaker 4: It's still a crazy amount of money. It's still crazy, but.

00:28:24
Speaker 6: Athletics is a little.

00:28:26
Speaker 4: UK especially on the heels of this.

00:28:28
Speaker 3: Of the contracts they gave to stoops and to col and the bile and all like it's it's a.

00:28:33
Speaker 4: Crazy amount of money. UK, in my.

00:28:37
Speaker 3: Opinion, completely screwed up this announcement, Like why didn't they.

00:28:41
Speaker 4: Say that, you know, nobody knew that.

00:28:44
Speaker 3: I had to ask and I don't think people still know unless you're listening to me. Should have had a press conference, did not have a press conference, should have had somebody answering questions, did not have somebody answering questions. Continues what we've talked about, which is I think think this the pr has been so bad for so long that you know your ad of twenty four years is retiring, and you don't even give the man a press conference.

00:29:15
Speaker 4: Like you don't even give the man a.

00:29:17
Speaker 3: Chance, I mean to a be asked questions about his role, but also to be celebrated. It's like you're giving him a He didn't even get a cake lunch at the end of a Friday.

00:29:30
Speaker 6: We got a nine to fifty a year. That's why they don't have a press conference.

00:29:33
Speaker 3: But that's look skeptical to people. I mean, the contracts at eight hundred thousand a year. They just raised it to nine to fifty and added more years and yeah.

00:29:45
Speaker 4: So, and what is the UK sport?

00:29:47
Speaker 6: I know they there was cre mention of that before you, I mean, but you have to explain these things.

00:29:51
Speaker 3: I agree, they don't even tell you what it is if Jay doesn't answer my question. So again, congrats to Mitch. I think he's been a great ad. Once again, k just I don't understand how they handle this, but that's the way it is. So then now the question is who will be the next day d And you need to turn to WSFC because we will talk about that after this and take your calls. And we're fifteen minutes away from the UK women's team. We will take a break and be right back. This is KSR.

00:30:23
Speaker 4: We'k go back, take you Sports Radio. Ryan gave.

00:30:26
Speaker 3: First of all, welcome to everyone at WSFC. I'm assuming we are breaking that Summerset station streaming record yep. So and for those of you listening on podcast, hello again. I hope you're enjoying your afternoon. Now, you told me something that I could not believe. Ryan, what happened when C. M. Newton retired.

00:30:47
Speaker 5: When seem Newton retired, UK bought him a beach house in the Bahamas because he wanted to retire there and fish down there.

00:30:55
Speaker 3: That's crazy to me that they bought him a beach house in the Bahamas.

00:30:59
Speaker 5: Either it would while back in the late nineties three four hundred thousand or something, they bought him a beach house for him to gun there and fish in the Bahamas.

00:31:08
Speaker 4: If there was a KSR, then I would have been like, are you kidding me?

00:31:14
Speaker 3: I mean what, I don't understand the idea of buying people things.

00:31:19
Speaker 4: In retire Get him a watch? Right? Whatever happened to that?

00:31:22
Speaker 6: I thought they were paid for the job while they were there.

00:31:25
Speaker 4: Yes, you know it was. Will always love people, always love.

00:31:31
Speaker 3: To complain when people don't get things that they work for and I get that, But giving things for people when they're not even working, and if he's really doing career development, as one of the people here watching the show said, what did the other career development officers at Kentucky make?

00:31:53
Speaker 6: I would want to be negotiating if I were a career developing In fact, guys, I've been thinking, and I think I'm starting the KSR sport. It's been great working with you. I'll be over here on this side of the room making more money.

00:32:05
Speaker 4: I like it. You're gonna have to go sit at jalapenos. So there's a separation.

00:32:11
Speaker 3: All right, Well, let's talk about who's next, Okay, because I in terms of ad I think there's basically three sets of candidates.

00:32:20
Speaker 4: So let's start with who's going to make the decision.

00:32:25
Speaker 3: I think the reality is this decision will be made by a handful of people. Eli Cappaluno says he's going to go on a listening tour. That reminds me of something Bill Clinton would say. I feel like that's what politicians say. I'm going on a listening tour. I went on a listening tour when I was thinking about running for Senate, and it was mostly me talking and there wasn't a lot of listening. So I don't know, I don't know what that means. But but Mitch is going to be here till June thirtieth, so there's not a rush to go and hire someone. I think the people that are going to make this decision basically is the guy that will probably be the next president of the UK is Eric Munday. I think if you talk to anyone around the university, they'll tell you that they think he will be the person that will have the biggest impact on the decision. There will certainly be some donors handful that will have some impact.

00:33:16
Speaker 4: And then you have the board of trustees.

00:33:19
Speaker 3: I made a lot of calls yesterday and I genuinely don't think they have a decision. I think people who think they already know who it is, I actually don't think that's true. There are three different ways they can go. Way one is they will hire some from within UK. If that happens, there are essentially two candidates. Mark Hill is basically being Mitch Parhart's number two for a number of years. He's taken a very large role over the years with football and he is you know, I think the person that people have thought for why would be the most likely candidate. Rachel Baker is kind of right there with him in terms of taking no A role.

00:34:01
Speaker 4: She has a lot of.

00:34:03
Speaker 3: Experience, worked for the has worked for other schools, has been in out college athletics a lot. I always hear positive things about her. She is, as people know, married to someone at JMI, which I think will be something that people will will will bring up in that process.

00:34:19
Speaker 4: So that's group one.

00:34:21
Speaker 3: Group two would be people I think that have been at Kentucky and are now somewhere else, and I think the head person in there would be Dwayne Peeve. I think Dwayne Peevey connected to UK's golden age of basketball. He's the AD at De Paul, probably the best person that has been at Kentucky with donors. So I think when you're saying what is it that people would really like about Dwayne, it would be connection to donors. Probably the best person at getting donors since I've been doing this and basketball he's at DePaul. The negative to him for people would be he's never been in a football school, right, He's never run football, so that, but I think he's the most likely person with Kentucky connection that somewhere else. You know, you got Rob Mullens in Oregon. The AD at Wichita State is from here, is from there. I would be surprised if Rob Mullens would come. I think Scott Strickling at Florida is someone that they would at least inquire about. He was the SI D here for a while. I like Scott, So that's your outside of UK, but connections here and then number three would be somebody we don't even know where. They just say we're going off the board and looking for whoever we think.

00:35:35
Speaker 4: Is the best.

00:35:37
Speaker 3: I would be surprised if you were to ask me in likelihood of it happening. I'm gonna make my bet that they get somebody in that number two category. I think they get somebody who has a connection here and is somewhere else else. I think any I think Dwayne Scott or Rob Mullens could all be great. I don't don't really know the guy that's at Wichita State, but that would be my guess. But I also could be talked into going off the board to somebody new.

00:36:08
Speaker 4: What do you guys think.

00:36:10
Speaker 5: On your first group? Mark Hill and Rachel Baker both probably very actively involved with recent coaching hires. I mean just hired Mark Pope and Kenny Brooks two years.

00:36:19
Speaker 3: Mark Hill definitely involved a lot in the will Stein Higher YEP, for sure.

00:36:23
Speaker 6: That is a Utah guy. Be shocked if he was.

00:36:26
Speaker 4: Involved in the Pope A so. I think that's probably probably right. Yeah, No, that's a good big Utah. That's a good so.

00:36:32
Speaker 5: I think that's a positive when they are involved with the hiring of your most prominent coaches. Negative, maybe he might be neither one I've ever been in an athletic directord before being you know, this is not really an entry level position.

00:36:42
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:36:43
Speaker 3: I saw some people criticizing Twain for not having run football. Well, some of these people have never been a d's and this is not. And then this is an entry and this is an entry level job to be the AD. So you're right, that's true. I forgot about You're right about Mark Hill and Mark Pope because Mark Hill is and I do think he was heavily involved in that higher.

00:37:04
Speaker 6: I thought that the moment Pope was announced, I even had my antennas up, like what does this mean for the future of the athletic department? How involved was Mark Hill? I would call some of that your second group and at least get no's from him. You got Mulligan, Mulligan's mullins at Oregon with all the Nike, you just got will Stein and some Oregon coaches that should be smooth there. He'd probably say no, but I think at least gotta call him. Even at Alabama, Greg Byrne. I know it's Alabama, but he kinda is not on a hot seat. But he hired Kaylen Debora without really looking around.

00:37:34
Speaker 3: Well, he and Scott Strickland aren't beloved by their fan bases.

00:37:38
Speaker 6: If Alabama football doesn't get back to what it was, he might be looking for a reason to get out of Tuscaloosis. So he and Strickland and Mullins, those three, even though they are better situations right now, at least make them tell me, no, what about Dwayne. Of course, we all love Dwayne. I'd love to have Dwayne personally. That'd be great for us because we know him so well. But also I thought he was great here with UK, especially on the basketball end where it's not a big secret we're not exactly killing it in basketball in the last several years, So I think he'd be good for that and for us personally. And then on our pregame show. I don't know how serious of the candidate he'd be, but I would entertain Martin Newton with the CNA connection, I agree with that Nike.

00:38:15
Speaker 3: Connection, and also connected to the university was here and it's Sanford, you know, not a powerhouse. But he hired Bucky, who we just lost to last night, from a high school to coach their basketball program and has some success in other sports there, and all those people that we talked about that if one of the things Mitch has done a really good job is producing ads at other schools, all those people, to me are pretty good candidates.

00:38:41
Speaker 4: That's where I would go.

00:38:43
Speaker 3: I would go to one of those people knows the university but has been out on their own and has enough separation to where they're kind of not under Mitch's thumb.

00:38:51
Speaker 4: That's what I would do.

00:38:54
Speaker 3: I think if they're going to keep Mark Hill or Rachel Baker, they've got to sell those people to the fan base, because the fan base does not know who those people are, and so that's an issue. I do like that they're gonna take time. I think whatever they do Ryan, they have to interview a lot of people. They cannot let people think this was predetermined, like they have to actually do the due diligence.

00:39:20
Speaker 5: You know, when Mitch was ad, he always had a list in his back pocket in case he had to make a move on a coaching change really quick. Do you think Uk Capeluto and Monday kind of knew this was coming And I've already started the process of venting with some candidates vetting, vetting.

00:39:38
Speaker 4: He's venting.

00:39:39
Speaker 6: They're really complaining about everything else.

00:39:42
Speaker 3: I think I have in my mind what I think the most likely order of likelihood of doing it is. But I will say to you, I'd probably have four people right next to each other. I will be surprised if they go off the board. I'll be surprised if they hire someone that has no connection to this school. I'm not necessarily against it, but I'll be surprised just with how this school does things. I think the most likely scenario is if you made me bad. I think they go, you're pev, you're strickling, You're that group. Then my second most likely would be the people that are here. And then I think the third most likely is they just go elsewhere. But I will say to you, nothing's gonna shock me because I don't think there is a yes, that's who it's gonna be.

00:40:37
Speaker 6: And it's a weird time. I mean, we all have a pretty good idea of who will be next. But Eli is about to turn seventy seven and he's involved in this. Yeah, I mean, no matter what, Eli is not gonna have a long career with whoever's being hired, right.

00:40:51
Speaker 3: Who do you think unifies all the various people in play donors fans admit who is the person that does what I do think needs to happen, which is bring UK athletics all together.

00:41:04
Speaker 4: Who's the person most likely to do that.

00:41:06
Speaker 5: I think it's Dwayne Pevee. I think he was doing that when he was here. Kind of has the bridge between Cal and Mitch back then the Boosters, Big Boosters and UK. He was there kind of negotiated with all that. I think it's PEV.

00:41:20
Speaker 3: I think you're probably right. I think PV. I think Scott Strickland could do that.

00:41:25
Speaker 6: Fans are most familiar with PV just because he was so out in front when he was here.

00:41:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, do you worry about him not having done football?

00:41:34
Speaker 6: Not that much because I mean, like I said, if you promote someone, they haven't done the job at all. I mean, he did just as much football when he was here as the associator or whatever they named him. I mean it's a hit compared to the some of the other candidates, but I don't think it's like a full stop no because he didn't have football program.

00:41:50
Speaker 4: Well, we got some time to figure it out.

00:41:52
Speaker 3: They got to get it right, and I think the fan base will be following this more.

00:41:58
Speaker 4: Than you know.

00:41:58
Speaker 3: What's interesting is this is the only ad we've had since I've been doing this, which is crazy, I mean twenty one years.

00:42:06
Speaker 4: This is the only ad I've ever done a show about.

00:42:10
Speaker 6: So I was in high school when he was hired.

00:42:11
Speaker 4: I mean that's wild.

00:42:12
Speaker 3: All right, Well, take a break, come back, I remember two, do some fun stuff, and then take your calls.

00:42:15
Speaker 4: Kaos hard