2025-01-13- KSR - Hour 1

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Speaker 1: Comedy Off Broadway in Lexington, welcomes Kentucky's own Ariel Elias January ninth through the eleventh. Then from the Southern Fright Chicks Comedy Tour, catch club favorite Ata May January sixteenth through the eighteenth, and experience the outrageous comedy of Casey Rockett January twenty third through the twenty fifth. For tickets to all shows called eight five nine two seven to one joke, or purchase seats online at Comedy off Broadway dot com.

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Speaker 2: Comedy off Broway.

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

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Speaker 4: Now here's Matt Jones. Welcome everyone at Kentucky Sports Radio, Monday, January thirteenth. I'm Matt Jones here at the KS Bar in Grill. It is a post victory show with you. You can give sellon Clarks Pumpishop full line eight five nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven a Vision Auto Glass text machine seven seven two seven seven four five two five four of this edition. Spots are by the t J. Smith Office. You call Tj'll make them pay. So here's the deal. Today at eleven o'clock, Willie Cauley Stein is gonna come join us and he will be in here to sort of talk. I think we're just gonna talk everything. He was here at this bar Saturday night watching the game, so we'll talk to him about what he thinks about the team. But also maybe Drew the best storyteller. I mean probably he and DeMarcus you think are the best storytellers of the cal Era in terms of having players.

00:01:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, not because they're good storytellers, just because they don't care to say anything. Yeah, they don't let it fly. They're not gonna hide anything. The most open Doran.

00:01:32
Speaker 4: And Marcus Tigue were pretty open, but I think Willy will even take it to another.

00:01:36
Speaker 3: We had Willy this summer when you were gone, and I asked him can we talk about the Bahamas? And he said yes. It was the day we had so many people. We only got a couple of minutes with him and we didn't get much out of him. So we know he's willing to go there if he wants to.

00:01:49
Speaker 5: He's one of those guys that you know, we'll have him on for a segment. We could have a whole show with the guy like that. I'm just making a point.

00:01:56
Speaker 4: He could just do you know, we're gonna have him on more than a segment if he will stay. I assume he would, so he's in town. He was here watching the game Saturday, looking forward to that. We also have new headsets, so if we if you're listening and we sound differently, it's because they tell me Ryan, these are state of the art headsets. Yours.

00:02:15
Speaker 2: Your two ear pieces are actually attached.

00:02:18
Speaker 4: For the first time in the month and a half.

00:02:20
Speaker 2: Mine looked like a couple of mice had been eating on it for a couple of years.

00:02:23
Speaker 4: Uh huh.

00:02:24
Speaker 5: Drew's Drew actually had the best of all of us. But we actually have a fourth set. Like Willie's even gonna have a new headset when he comes and joined me. You have mice eating on Mine was all chewed up, Like the microphone cover was chewed up.

00:02:35
Speaker 2: The head phone covers were all chewed up.

00:02:37
Speaker 3: I really liked leaving the show and being out in public and people would be like, you have like black foam all over your ear. It's like, yeah, it's our crappy headsets that would just leave a trail of radio.

00:02:45
Speaker 4: Well, we have new ones. I was told they were here for two and a half weeks and no one brought them here. So but luckily we got them and now we're ready to go. And what a great day like Cats beat Mississippi State on Saturday night. Awesome when on the road. It's their fourth victory over a team that at the time was in the top twelve of the NET. Gets Kentucky to two and one in the SEC. Part of you know, maybe the separation of the SEC a little bit. Five teams went on the road and they might be the five best teams in the conference. Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and US all went on the road and beat a good team on the road. So and I think you could kind of see there haven't been a lot of road wins that might be the sort of first step in Okay, here are your best teams. But when it comes to Kentucky, tough game, got a big lead, gave it up, fell behind, hit the shots to come back and win. I thought it was a great gutsy test for this group. Jackson Robinson broke out my guy, Ansley Almanor, who Mario just trashed before the season started. But I took up for it because I saw something from him. Hit three big three and Ryan we get the victory.

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Speaker 5: Man, what a great game. You know, both teams played a really high level. Man, and I think when most of us thought the game would maybe in the seventies. I think Jack Gibbons even said the sixties, ninety five, ninety I mean, it was just a fun game to watch.

00:04:12
Speaker 2: Shot the boxtreamely will.

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Speaker 5: But I think if you told me that Kobe Bray was only gonna go one of five for threes, I'd have thought, oh, we're in trouble. Didn't realize that Jackson Robinson was just going to hit everything he threw up in the game.

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Speaker 4: Well, I mean, Jackson Robinson, you know, we needed that game from him. I mean that's you know, I feel like I was like a lone voice in the woods. Think about how many people have called this show and said, Matt, why do you keep saying Jackson Robinson has to be our best player. That's why, yep, Because if we don't have that, it will be very hard to win. Because, you know, let's be honest, until the second half, I mean, Jackson Robinson was the only one making shots for most of the game. Now, Butler hit some big ones obviously Almanor, but we're not in that game in the first half without Jackson Robinson, we're down twelve again at halftime. He really was huge.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and my favorite part with that is it didn't take him long. Kentucky still had a slow ish start. I guess they went down five to OHO and like eleven to five. It wasn't the slow starts of Duke and Clemson where didn't look like they belonged out there. But Robinson didn't waste any time finding his shot. We knew within minutes that he packed his stuff for Starkville, and it's just good moving forward. We knew he had done it at b YU. I even brought up on the pregame show, how I watched that game in the fog a year ago, and I'm like, I know he's done it. He did it at BYU, why can't he do it here? We finally got to see that big forty minute performance from him. He was one shy away from eight. There's only eight people in history that have made eight in a game, so it was almost a truly historic performance from him.

00:05:38
Speaker 4: Three points shoot. He it was funny they called time out after his seventh three. I thought Mississippi State we talked about how I thought early in the game, Pope went one too many without calling time out. I thought Misssippi State did that too, because they gave him a couple extra ones. After their seventh one, they called time out, and they clearly switched their defense to Robinson's not gonna beat us, and then Kentucky was able to get stuff from other guys at that point. Then you got Oway going to the basket. Obviously you had Almanor car got a few layups down low. We were able to adjust to their changing defense, and I think that helped.

00:06:16
Speaker 5: That's exactly why Almanor had those good looks because they were constrained so much on Jackson, Robinson and Omanor's credit. Man, those were three big threes he hit. They were all pretty crucially hit those well.

00:06:25
Speaker 4: Think about the biggest shots. Okay, actually, as great as Robinson played, I don't know that any of his shots were the biggest. I thought the Butler corner three was huge. Big Oway had a couple of layups where we had to have a basket. The momentum was going against us, and he would get down and get a basket. Almanor. We're down two. When Almonor hits his first three and not only down two. They had scored like six or eight in a row, and they were on run, crowds going crazy. Almonor hits the three car had a couple of layups down low there that were really important. They as good as Robinson, I thought other dudes hit major, major shots. And then on the last possession, Butler was in Hubbard's face. I mean, go watch those twenty seconds of defense. Because Hubbard was shooting you could tell no matter what he was shooting in Butler made sure Drew he didn't get off easy shots. A championship shift saw it again.

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Speaker 3: We knew before the year we'd see this out of Butler, and it's great to finally actually watch it. When Pope said on the radio, I don't lose a minute of sleeping night about guarding SEC guards, he already knew what Lamont Butler was. And now we're finally seeing it. Because Hubbard's about as good as you're gonna face in the SEC. He's up there at those scoring guards with Clayton, who will see at A and M tomorrow night if he plays, And Lamont Butler did a great job defending him, especially when it mattered.

00:07:44
Speaker 4: I loved everything about how we played. I loved the environment. I mean, Mississippi State was rocking, and they went into that environment and won. You know, we talked about I consider Gonzaga a road win, but it's a different It was still like an NBA arena. This was loud college arena, people yelling at you kids, you know, screaming t shirts that they don't do cowbells, but they have the culture of cow bells, like you know, chaw everywhere. Like I mean, it was that's what you want to do, is go win one day.

00:08:15
Speaker 2: I think that's what's so impressive to me.

00:08:17
Speaker 5: They went into that environment after they just got beat on the road at Georgia and played at a high level. And you know, you hinted to this about Jackson Robinson. He hits his first shot, he hits his section, so that seems to like spring board him on.

00:08:28
Speaker 4: This his first one, his first one, and then his second one rattled in. But I think it was huge there too, And I think it was that was that was a huge thing for the game.

00:08:37
Speaker 3: And there was the confidences in the one he missed, he was quick to let it fly. It didn't go in, but we knew that the Georgia game didn't linger because you could worry that he would just come out and not even want to shoot. He was so bad at Georgia.

00:08:47
Speaker 5: But he got right to it his his comments after the game where he said, Man, after the Georgia game, I was really in my head, you know, I felt like, oh, but then boom, look what he did.

00:08:55
Speaker 2: He came out and looked great.

00:08:56
Speaker 4: Mary Williams had a double double. Amari is my this year player of no no, no, okay, okay, all right, I'm okay with that, like they like, that's him for me. He he you know, but he he drives me crazy with his won't put his hands up. But he does rebound. He rebounds well sometimes and but he gets big ones. Got a big one there at the end, ended up missing the free throw, but that was kind of a game clinching rebound. And he hustles. And I will say this, he's a great passer. He's gonna make a couple turnovers because he'll try to like thread a needle, but when he threads a needle, it's pretty. And he is, for a big man, a very good passer.

00:09:37
Speaker 3: Even though I yell at him about once a game He's still my favorite. It's just that his turnovers. Maybe a few more, but it's just that when he does turn it over, it's so bad. It's like, you know, we mentioned trying to be a point guard. Garrison does it too, but when he connects on him. There's not many big man who can run an offense from the top of the.

00:09:53
Speaker 4: Key like Gryson hit a three as.

00:09:54
Speaker 2: Well, he did Travis Perry hit a three.

00:09:56
Speaker 5: I mean, well, everybody, but bring you only one guy didn't shoot there very well, didn't pray it.

00:10:04
Speaker 4: You think you'll ever get it right?

00:10:05
Speaker 2: Probably not.

00:10:06
Speaker 4: They're about to play the seventeenth game tomorrow. Yeah, brand made one though, Yeah, so he made one and.

00:10:13
Speaker 3: You're a big shot. You're mentioning earlier. Even though Perry's was early in the game, missus Y State was on early run and that one shut him up and pulled Kentucky with hit the three.

00:10:22
Speaker 4: I think that was when they had their biggest lead. It was eleven to five, I believe. I think maybe it was against the shot clock. Omari had to let it flo Perry got the rebound and then hit the three that cut it to like eleven to eight. So our biggest deficit was when he hit the three. Just an all around great team victory. You know there's you've heard me say, this's a lot. There's nothing better than winning a game on the road. Uh. You just get to watch the teams come together. There's a picture after the game of them celebrating in the locker room. You know it's a big deal. When Mitch's double fist seen water ready to stuke. I mean he's doing a stone cold shining with the water. I was ready to hit it and drink it. It may not be beer, but he'll still time to take the water. When he got home. He probably did it with milk. That's how excited he was about it.

00:11:12
Speaker 5: I donk, go ahead, you want to bring it one more big shot? The shot Butler hit right before halftime because Hubbard had kind of stuck in his eye on that four point play and was talking smack to him. Butler came down the other day. That tells me he's he's got a little that dog in and we've.

00:11:27
Speaker 2: Been talking about it.

00:11:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I don't know that he had a great game, but still hit a couple of big shots to play defense. I actually thought he didn't play well, but hit huge shots drew when it mattered.

00:11:37
Speaker 3: We was someone who needed him to score ten points. I can tell you he was one for nine from the field for most of the game and then turned.

00:11:43
Speaker 4: It on late. He was doing other things, but the shot was not falling. He was trying to take it to the rim and it just wasn't happening. He got he got stopped at the rim a number of times. And on your Barnhart double fisting point. You know, I don't know Barnhart.

00:11:55
Speaker 3: I'm not around him, but I've wondered seeing these photos, is anyone having more fun than him?

00:11:59
Speaker 4: Now?

00:12:00
Speaker 3: Seeing him again in the water shower, he's grinning from ear to ear like a little kid. I mean, this was his pick. Everybody was against it, and he has to be loving everything.

00:12:08
Speaker 4: I mean, if you're Mitch Barnhardt, you should sit there and feel like I mean, he's not gonna do middle fingers, but he's gonna be pinkies up on some respects because you know, he's had to deal with col and even when Cow was at his best, his relationship with Mitch was terrible. Their relationship was never good from moment one. So you gotta think of for fourteen years every day he had to deal with someone he did not personally like. Right, then you throw in the fa I mean, the fans have never loved him, right, I don't think anybody hates him, but I don't think like people don't go you know what I mean, Like there's not a bond there, even though I think people respect how good he's done the job. I remember Ditch mitchmand Brooks was here. Yeah, I mean, it's just a he's not a warm and fuzzy He's very nice man, but he's also like not somebody that you know you're gonna have a beer with, right, or he's just that's just not who he is. Then you know, he hires this guy and everyone, I mean, if we're on it's outside of like five percent of people. Everybody went and was like what rah? And then he turns it around. Right, everyone embraces it, and now Pope's rolling fans are loving it. The other guy is struggling, to say the least. If you're Mitch Barnhardt, you do have to be walking around like, yeah, he wants some ye hope would n't be a part of this, right, he was not a part of the water shower. They want him. I mean sometimes he would be there, but they didn't. Like a lot of the players of the cal Era were almost they almost felt zero connection to Mitch. And Mitch is now like you know, giving Kobe Braya tickling even like it's just not it's just a different thing.

00:13:56
Speaker 5: You know, Mitch has to be feeling good, just not with with Pope, but with Kenny Brook to the women's team, stuck his neck out for.

00:14:01
Speaker 4: Many Yeah, I mean, well we'll talk more about them. They're fifteen in one, yeah or whatever.

00:14:06
Speaker 5: Stucky's neck out for men Jonen baseball and they went to the College World Series. I mean, mitch' is Tellaby McMahon walking out with a little sweat.

00:14:13
Speaker 4: Which is on a heater. If he could just get stoops to get to a bowl, I think he could just like be fine, so good stuff eight five nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven. Text machine is seven seven two seven seven four five two five four. We're gonna take a break. We're here at Chaos Bar. If you want to come meet Willie, he'll be here around eleven. This is Kentucky Sports Radio walking back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio. Here, it's Chaos Bar and grill eight five nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven. On the text machine, one person writes, Matt, do you think Pope and staff notice Amari keeps his hands down? Do you think there's an intent to it? Well, Pope has got this characteristic that I like, which is he takes up for his players when they ask questions. So I don't know how much of what he says is, like, how what he really believes or if he's like taking up for him. But he did say something like, well, you can move quicker with your hands down. I can't imagine though he always wants his hands down, but he did. I will say to it Mark, his hands were down the whole first half, early second in the second half. Towards the end, I did notice on a couple of big plays his hands got up, and I cheered the moment his hands got up, one of which led to a block. I mentioned that on Friday's show.

00:15:20
Speaker 3: On Pope's Calling show last week, I'd never heard someone make the case for not having your arms up, Pope said, guys can go around you.

00:15:27
Speaker 4: You're more agile when your hands are down. I was just thought, I've never really heard that explanation I'm not gonna throw the challenge flag, but I'm throwing the challenge flag on that. I don't believe coaches are like, yeah, you're seven feet tall, keep your hands down at your waist. I don't think they believe.

00:15:42
Speaker 3: I can remember running in little league basketball from not having my hands.

00:15:45
Speaker 5: Yes, it's one of the things you're taught from early aid to get your hand especially if you're in the post, big guy, you gotta get your hands up.

00:15:51
Speaker 2: I can see it.

00:15:51
Speaker 5: Maybe on the perimeter, if you got him out to your side a little bit, maybe help your lateral quickness a little bit.

00:15:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, but he even keeps him like Eddie's knees, which I don't which I don't get. One person writes Matt, do you think Mitch Barnhart will do a press conference and give one of Cow's Do you see what I did there? No? And this is like I respect this, but this is part of why I think it's been hard for fans to connect with Mitch is he doesn't really do press conferences. He's never warm and fuzzy, like he never shows one ounce of like lovable personality, you know what I mean. It's all business all the time and I've heard like you watch him with his family, Like I went to a UK tennis match last year and sat with him and his daughter and his daughter's kid just for a few minutes. And watching him with his family, you see a different person than you see you know Drew on the press conferences or something like that, but he just doesn't show the world that side.

00:16:51
Speaker 3: Oh, as somebody that stands next to Mitch at a football or basketball you'll you'll know the fire in Barnhart. But on the point of just being public and talking. Sing here trying to think. I remember the awkward call interview and then he came on the show. But he just doesn't do much like press conferences or anything like that.

00:17:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, I can't even remember.

00:17:09
Speaker 3: I'd be if I were him, I'd have one every week right now, just a flex on my on my two basketball team.

00:17:14
Speaker 4: Me tell you something if you go to the games. Okay, So Mitch stands. He stands over there where I used to when I did the radio sideline. I stood in that little walkway where the players come out. That was where they had me stand. I was there the fourteen, fifteen and sixteen seasons, pretty good seasons. Right. He stands there too. He would usually stand behind me and he would check to make sure the microphone was off a lot because, let me tell you, you know, he's a man of God. Unless we're down three and get a bad call, then sometimes a different set of things come out.

00:17:55
Speaker 5: It's been fun to you watch him and when he stands out there in the corner football games is the same way, and the sideline. A lot of times he'll stand in the end zone and he'll let you know quickly what he's feeling.

00:18:05
Speaker 4: Two eighty seven. One more person on the text machine, rights, Matt, have you signed your contract yet? My wife keeps asking me, and I need to give her an answer. Today is the meet they finally gave me, finally gave me the written thing Friday at eight o'clock, which is exactly when you want it. And so the meeting is today.

00:18:24
Speaker 2: So do we have a show tomorrow?

00:18:26
Speaker 4: I mean as of this moment, but ask me at five o'clock today, I'm driving back to Louisville. Shannon, be at the building there with you for the first time in a while.

00:18:34
Speaker 2: Shannon, need to have a best of ready for Shanna.

00:18:37
Speaker 4: Have a best of just in case, you know, if we if we do a show tomorrow, which I think we will. Georgia Amore will be here with us tomorrow as well. Ten she'll be she can only be here one segment, so she'll be here at ten thirty. She has a class at eleven.

00:18:52
Speaker 5: So by someone who is just on fire right now. She's had like five or six straight games of over twenty. I mean, she is definitely playing at a super high one of the best, maybe one of the top point guards in the country.

00:19:02
Speaker 4: We also should talk just a second before we go the phones about the thing that happened after the game with Pope and the guy in the crowd. First of all, if you haven't seen the video, I don't know how you couldn't have. It's been everywhere now. But Pope comes out after the game talks to the people, the Kentucky fans. But what has started happening is that Kentucky fans who go to a road game kind of go gather down next to the court after the game to celebrate when they win. A lot of times they'll kick you out for that. But at but at least at Gonzaga they didn't, and now at Missippi's date they didn't. And then Pope comes out and says hi to everybody. He does it before he even goes to the media, so we're talking ten or fifteen minutes after the game. He usually doesn't. I guess he was down there. He saw a young man in a wheelchair that was up on top of the concourse who couldn't get down because Mississippi State's got an old stadium, you know. I don't know if they're eighty A compliant or not. But he was up there on the con course. I don't know who told him that. He walked up there to go meet the guy. And then in one of the like, I mean, you've seen the video, one of the nicest things you've ever seen. Now only does he walk to him, sits next to him, which people who know people who who deal with who are in wheelchairs and who deal with that say, one of the nicest things you can do is go sit rather than look down upon sit. It's like a little thing. Mark does it. And then what I love is Mark talks to him just about being a fan. He's like, when'd you become a fan? Oh, wasn't that twenty fifteen team where Willy's here?

00:20:32
Speaker 6: Right?

00:20:33
Speaker 4: Like, wasn't that a great team. How good was that? You know, just has a conversation with him. A guy in the crowd just films it. Mark doesn't know that's gonna happen. It's not an official UK video. It's just a guy in the crowd, one of the you know, just a really cool thing. And it's the kind of thing he did so like nonchalantly. That right. It makes me think he does it all the time. It usually doesn't get shown on film, and it's it was perfect to watch because it wasn't just it seemed genuine. I mean too, he made the media weight, the radio audience weight. He's set with this guy, and I just I thought it was awesome.

00:21:12
Speaker 5: I agree with everything you just said, one hundred percent genuine. Just his natural reaction was he wanted to go talk to this fan that was up there at the top and couldn't get down everybody else. And I'm glad you talked that about him pulling out the chair, didn't just talk to the guy, just say hey, how you doing want a picture? Pulled the chair out and set. But I haven't talked to him for a number of minutes. I just tell you what kind of person Mark.

00:21:30
Speaker 4: Pope is it's obvious when you when you think about it, but I had never really thought about it. There's a guy in my fellowship, you know, asked an institute thing that's that's in a wheelchair. We were gonna go see him in South Dakota, and I said we He and I were talking once and he said, you know, it's a little thing. He was like, I don't get mad when people don't, but when people sit next to you, it's just now you put each other on the same level, and it's you know, that had never clicked to me in my life. Maybe it should have, but it just never had. It clearly clicked to Mark Pope because he did it naturally, and I thought it was really nice.

00:22:07
Speaker 3: If he had just gone up there, given him a fist bump and kept walking, I think that still might have been the nicest thing in coach ever did to go out of the way to someone who couldn't make it down. If he had just done a photo, we'd be talking about how nice that was. But to pull up a chair and have a conversation, knowing you've got a plane on the tarmac, you probably can't wait to get home.

00:22:24
Speaker 4: Your player's staff, everybody wants to get home.

00:22:26
Speaker 3: You still have more obligations in that arena, and you don't make that a brief interaction. You've made that dude's a day, night, life year. I mean, you gave that guy a moment he'll never forget.

00:22:37
Speaker 4: Eighteen year old kid by the way, which I which I didn't rise from Madison, Mississippi, who had made the trip. So anyway, Uh, just a just a really neat thing.

00:22:47
Speaker 2: Your tweet got a lot of play too.

00:22:49
Speaker 4: I mean it's Tino and Kelsey. Yeah, only my three or four biggest tweets of all time. And but it wasn't me. It was the kid who took it. It's just Adam Town's Adam Town take a break, take calls right, KSR is he TJ Smith personal injury attorney called TJ. He'll make them pay now.

00:23:06
Speaker 5: More of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage.

00:23:09
Speaker 4: Here's Matt Jones, wealgok magett is Kentucky Sports Radio Apen nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven, text machine seven seven two seven to seventy four five two five four. Let's just quickly to two other things. Louisville one at pitt uh they're good, and how does that make you feel.

00:23:26
Speaker 5: I think we want Louisville to be fairly good. Since we beat them, you got'll help us, you know, come to selection seating time.

00:23:32
Speaker 4: They might have a crazy good record in the ACC because they lost to Duke, but they've already beaten Carolina, pitt and Clemson, who might be then three best teams besides Duke. So the rest of the year they're playing bad teams. Now they're not gonna get a lot of quad one wins, but they might end up with a gaudy record at the end of the year. Drew, Yeah, I mean I prefer they lose every game.

00:23:53
Speaker 3: But now that we already have that win, like Ron said, that's just great for the resume. I think Duke and Louisville both are gonna run through that conference. It is not very good this year, which is gonna make that Kentucky's resume even better, make those two wins look great.

00:24:05
Speaker 4: I think so in the same case with Gonzaga, and then we do have to talk about Arkansas owen three in conference. Oh here comes Willie. Yeah, Willie, don't don't listen to this part, all right, So you just just wait over there. Just don't listen to this part. Okay, you go to go to the restroom. Owen three a classic cow after the game press conference where he's like, I don't even know who we play? You know what's happening? Is this basketball? Who are we doing? And uh, you know they do. They might win a game this week because they play at LSU, but oh and three, oh.

00:24:43
Speaker 5: And three, and it ain't gonna get any easier for that group. You start out the season oh and three losing games at home, it's gonna get a lot tougher.

00:24:49
Speaker 4: They're not good. We've got to beat them.

00:24:51
Speaker 5: And I thought going in the season they were going to be a good team.

00:24:55
Speaker 4: I mean, they're not good that they missed so many. Did you see the meme? It was like, did you see the post about what happens if Arkansas players? Did you see the John F. Kennedy post?

00:25:07
Speaker 2: I don't know if I saw.

00:25:08
Speaker 4: I think I saw that one. They had a picture of John F. Kennedy where he was like one hundred years old. Yeah, and they showed a picture of it and said John F. Kennedy if the Arkansas players were the shooters, I mean, like, come on now, like they're being terrible about the fact that because they can't make a shot, they cannot make a shot.

00:25:26
Speaker 3: This isn't just our opinions, like they are in trouble with their resume, Like in the they have one Quad one and Quad two win combined that.

00:25:35
Speaker 4: One, well, they'll get a lot of chances. No, they just got a lot of confidence. I've seen the last few chances.

00:25:42
Speaker 3: The thing, I mean, the basketball is one thing. I don't think anyone's that surprised that a Cal team's not hitting threes. But this stuff he's doing after the games. Arkansas fans are getting tired of that real quick because he does not have the good will there that he had here.

00:25:54
Speaker 4: That when do we play?

00:25:56
Speaker 3: Did not land very well in Fatteville, they were livid over that. We heard that ten times he had a title. We kind of rolled our eyes, like, come on, Cal, Arkansas has no patience for these stats are wrong?

00:26:07
Speaker 4: When do we play? That got tired already. He hit the wall Cousins year where all that stuff was cute. It's just like, you don't know who we play.

00:26:16
Speaker 3: You know these people calendar year ago had tweets they're awful about Cal.

00:26:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that stuff is wearing thin who's up first? Shit Kyle, Kyle, go ahead, Kyle.

00:26:28
Speaker 6: Hey, Matt, great game this weekend. So overall our basketball team is ninth in the country and shot attempts per game and twelfth and fast break points per game. And we've played eight D one Tower School so far where we're four and zero against teams who are top one hundred shots per game, you know, wanting to shoot with us, and one in three against teams one hundred and first or worse. So putting it playingly, I don't care who you are, but if you play flow, I just want our team to push the ball and shoot as much as possible every game, driving up our possession totals. This weekend was phenomenal doing that and starting with the Tennessee game this month on the twenty eighth, what's your thoughts on we played six consecutive games against teams outside of the top one hundred and per game.

00:27:08
Speaker 4: I think I think you make a great point. When we impose the pace and I appreciate the call. We're great when the pace is what we want, we're great. We move when we get up and down the floor. We're better at fast breaks than other teams. We're better shooting than other teams. Teams seem to shoot their best three point percentage of the year against US at least, but Mississippi State did in the second half. In the first half they missed a bunch. But the problem is when teams slow us down. But Mississippi State was a team I thought was going to try to slow us down and they weren't able to do it. We scored ninety five on a team. Remember, Florida was second in the country in half court defense, Mississippi State was fifth. So it's really just about do we get to the pace that we want to get to, because when we do ryan we're as good as anybody.

00:27:54
Speaker 5: Two of the best defensive teams that we've played all year, Florida and Mississippi State, we scored one hundred and six ninety five against them because we were able to dictate the pace, set the pace. Georgia, they set the pace. It slowed it down. That's why they trouble.

00:28:07
Speaker 4: And I don't know why one was different than the other. We're gonna play Texas A and M another team that's gonna try to set the pace. Now they're more guard centric, like they're gonna they're they got guards that are good, but they're gonna try to set the pace. Then we'll play Alabama, who I think will be fine playing our pace. Yes, so with two interesting home games coming up.

00:28:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, to your point, I mean, the only three times Kentucky hadn't scored seventy five points, or the three losses they were in the sixties and all those games, I just I don't think they're gonna win any fights that are that low. Scort with Mississippi State hadn't given up They'd only give it up eighty once this season, and they hadn't given up that many going back to like twenty sixteen.

00:28:41
Speaker 4: That's yeah, you know I heard. I was listening to the Field of sixty eight and Terrence Oglesby, who seems like he's kind of taking up the role as like Kentucky critic. He was like, this team's defense. If they have to play a game in the sixties, they're not gonna win. And I was like, yeah, you're right, if we're in the sixties or seventies, we're not gonna win. But if we get to the eighties, I like our chance. I mean, we get to the eighties, I don't know if you can out shoot us when we're in that amount. Because we're in the eighties, somebody's making them.

00:29:12
Speaker 5: We talked about the rule of eighty one. I think with this team is sad the rule of seventy one. Yeah, we can get to eighty one. We got a pretty good shot to win the game.

00:29:18
Speaker 4: But it is it will be fit. We're not gonna win a game with defense, No, but we can out shoot almost anybody. Remember, we still haven't had a game I think where everyone's hot, right, you know, we still missed a lot of shots. Praya was one for five. If we get a game where everybody's hot, we might score two hundred and forty four.

00:29:39
Speaker 3: That's what's so wild about the other night. Seven players, seven different players hit a three, and Kobe Braya was cold like you had. Garrison hit one all them on the course had the.

00:29:47
Speaker 4: Fixed though three. That was definitely a no, no, no, yes three there by Garrison. Who's next, Let's go to slugger, slugger? How are you slugger?

00:29:57
Speaker 6: Oh?

00:29:57
Speaker 7: I'm well, boys. I was actually at the game there and I can tell you right now that place was a hornets neez getting in there. It was just one bad mouth after the other, and they definitely didn't appreciate me wearing blue. But deep down, I feel like that was our best game all year.

00:30:16
Speaker 4: Maybe yeah, I mean maybe when you can see I think I still think the Gonzaga win, just when you consider how much we were down and all, that maybe the best. But in terms of winning on the road, like you said, I mean, when you have a fourteen point lead and you give it up, I think it's very rare to win that game. And then they did.

00:30:35
Speaker 7: Oh absolutely, And when we went down eighty seventy eight, I thought, man, this is we're in a hole. Now get ready, boys, And not only we come out of it, we came out of its strong. It was a great effort and a lot of fun there. And the people that were sitting around me were bad mouthing me the whole time. And he let's say, with about ten seconds ago, they were running for the exit.

00:30:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, well that's the way it works. I appreciate the call. That was the moment I was the most worried. Eighty seventy eight. We get the ball and I think we turned it over, so we gave them the ball they had it back up to and I was like, uh, oh, and then we came down. I think that we made them take a bad shot and then Ansley Almanor hits three the next possession. That was I think a really key sequence right there. And Maari turned it over when it was eighty to seventy eight. Yeah, on the cut Amari passed.

00:31:26
Speaker 5: You're exactly right tas spot when I thought, oh, when they banked in the three pointer.

00:31:30
Speaker 4: Well, they never easily never come down. That was and that was a six point play.

00:31:37
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:31:37
Speaker 4: They called a fake foul on Robinson on the that's has another bad flop if you watch it. Robinson's now been called for two horrendous flops on rebounds, the one at Georgia and then that one that dude did not get fouled and ended up getting a six point play.

00:31:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'll be honest, that bank three. I thought that was the curse because State banked one in and Clemson banked one in.

00:31:58
Speaker 4: Yep, I just thought it didn't Georgia bank one.

00:32:01
Speaker 3: I mean say Georgia, Yeah, not in not Ohio State. Yeah, that's that's been the Uh, it's been one of those in each loss.

00:32:07
Speaker 4: Hey, if you're exercising more, being healthier and saving more money than some of your New Year's resolutions. Maybe it's time to get in shape. Court Physical Therapy has been Kentucky and his leader in physical therapy for more than thirty years. Whether you're a chronic resolution breaker or someone who's serious about making a lifestyle change, Court can help. That's KRT dot com. Court dot com. We'll take a break and be right back. Willie colly Stein will join us at eleven. This is Kentucky Sports Radio. Worcome back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio A five nine, two eight oh, twenty two eighty seven. Will He just told me that he uh he was here for the Gonzaga game too, which we didn't know because we were out in Seattle. So we're now two and oh. When he watches a game here, we're gonna have to bring him in to make him watch the uh games in March.

00:32:50
Speaker 2: His record a lot better than our record.

00:32:53
Speaker 4: When I watch games here, we never win, so I think it's because I'm too nervous, I feel it.

00:32:59
Speaker 3: Congratulations to Willie. He's now hosting every game watch party here for the.

00:33:01
Speaker 4: Rest of season. Looking forward to that. That's very nice. Say five nine to two to eight to zero. Twenty two eighty seven one person rights Matt Okay, So Kobe Braan missed those shots collectively. Where does this team rank in three point shooting for UK teams? Oh, that's tough because when they're hot, it's as good as any. But they can go cold. I mean, besides this team, what do you think is the best three point shooting team in Kentucky history? Just as a team, We've had individuals. Last year's team individually was great those three individuals, but then the other guys weren't great shooters. What do you think has been the best collective group?

00:33:42
Speaker 3: Earlier in the season, I remember a lot of notes of like first time since nineteen ninety three open with five straight games of ten threes. There was a lot of first time since the ninety two ninety three range, So I'd put those teams in it.

00:33:54
Speaker 4: The ninety two to ninety three was really good because the bigs could shoot threes too. So you had like the four kids from Kentucky. You had Ford, Mashburn, Dale Brown, even Jamel Martinez could shoot the three if he won. And I think the team the Fox Monk Brisco wasn't a great shooter, but he was on those, but then Derek Willis and uh Dominique Hawkins coming off the bench. That team, when they got hot, could really make shots. And Bam now makes him in the NBA. He didn't really shoot him when he was at Kentucky. Last year's team got to be up there though, even though he lost. I mean, you three of the six best three point shooters in UK history on the same team. I'm trying to.

00:34:41
Speaker 3: Think of ones and my brain's going Antonio Reeves, Re Shepherd and Rob Billingham.

00:34:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean all three of those guys on the same team. I mean, Col's had Cal had a ton of teams where there were so many good bigs and so many good getting to the basket guys. But as a group of just all three point shooters, I mean everyone on this team can make them except Amari. That's pretty good if you have eight guys who can make a three.

00:35:02
Speaker 3: Brandon Garrison is three for four from three in the last four games.

00:35:05
Speaker 4: It's crazy because I sure don't like it when he shoots it, but then it goes in.

00:35:09
Speaker 2: And Trentonoah's like three or four. Hey, he doesn't miss either.

00:35:11
Speaker 4: Tritton Noah doesn't even is not didn't even get in.

00:35:15
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, that's why I think we're gonna name him the Johnny Rocker role player. Every game, every game, Travis Parry made one, he did make. Do we put the ninety six team in the comings?

00:35:25
Speaker 4: For sure? They should be up there that whole ninety six through ninety eight because in ninety six, everyone but Pope shot three? Yeah no, I mean I think I'm right. Apps, just the Apps, Delk Walker, McCarty, all those Eric Anderson, Ron Mercer all shot three, Jeff Shepherd, all those guys. Yeah, No, ninety six through ninety eight's got to be in that conversation.

00:35:49
Speaker 5: But way, if you ask just to pick who's number one, I think we've hit the top three ninety two, ninety six and last year.

00:35:54
Speaker 2: Who's the best? Which one are you picking?

00:35:56
Speaker 4: Well, this one is in that group. I mean those teams were better six Well, ninety six and Willie's team are the two best teams of all time in my opinion. Last year's team was not great, but they could sure shoot. I think this one will be up there with him. And just if you're talking.

00:36:18
Speaker 3: Three point shooting, oh definitely. And bra even though he's been cold for a week. When the season's over, he's gonna be up there at the top. With some of the names we've mentioned. One that's not a team but a backcourt. Ulis and Murray didn't miss a lot when they were open. We forget how good Ulyss was a three point shooter in addition everything else he did.

00:36:35
Speaker 4: And then Murray of course is high on. Honestly, I mean, even with Willie sitting here, think about who's on the fifteen team, Booker, Uless, the Twins, Alex could shoot from three, Trey Lyles and they didn't even let Carl Town shoot from three, and he won the NBA three point shooting contest. So I mean that's also a pretty good group if you look at it.

00:36:57
Speaker 3: And before that, Cale didn't need shooters because he had to Lamb, and we have drawn Lamb. You know, you don't need anybody else on the team that can shoot when you have amb.

00:37:05
Speaker 4: Who's up next, Kentucky? How are you.

00:37:10
Speaker 6: Hey?

00:37:11
Speaker 4: Good guys? How y'all doing doing good?

00:37:14
Speaker 8: I had a couple of comments, so I called in last week and talked about the rebounding. Offensive rebounds had been given up, and I thought we'd done a great job against the six State If I'm not mistaken. We out rebounded them all together and on the offensive boards, and uh so I was curious. I don't know a ton about them as far as rebounding goes that just because they're not a great rebounding team, or did we shore that up.

00:37:36
Speaker 4: I thought we've I thought we did a pretty good job keeping them off the glass on the offensive rebounds. They they I appreciate the call. They were not as big a glass crashers as I thought they would be. But I think we actually, especially in the second, you know, towards the end of the game, I thought we did a pretty good job at that. Yeah.

00:37:53
Speaker 5: Really, you know overall this season that that's definitely an area where they've not been great.

00:37:57
Speaker 2: But they didn't kill us.

00:37:59
Speaker 5: On the off to Glasgow Misissippi State that Cam Matthews though, he was like, uh.

00:38:03
Speaker 4: He's like, but here's Cam Matthews was a nineteen percent three point shooter going into the game, and he made three straight. Although they may say that about al Minor, but I mean he made three straight. By the way, Willie got disrespected at the halftime of that game. You didn't hear this because you were here, But Ron Slay and Damian Fishback. Were talking about the dudes in the SEC who had dunked on people the hardest, because Jack Yeah, dunked on should have been on. Oh he wasn't named He named like three not I don't think he named a UK guy. He named like you could have just named Willie three. Who did he say? Who you should have been? I mean, you're dunk against Florida, but it's not just that one. Then the dude you made the dude in Cincinnati he should have retired from basketball in the NCAA tournament. I mean that dude that I think he did. Remember he left the game and didn't come back. I think he did tell me what you really did? He should have That was one of the most didn't have seen that he works at Amazon though. Who's up next? Ed? What's up? Ed? But they didn't mention. I can't remember who they mentioned. They mentioned like three guys. Can't remember. It was ed go ahead in.

00:39:11
Speaker 8: Hey man, what a great day to be a Wildcat San And I was wondering Jackson Robinson his breakout performance. You think it continues?

00:39:21
Speaker 4: Yes, I do? I think. Okay, So after the game, appreciate the call. They asked about Jackson Robinson. Drew alluded to this earlier. Pope said that he came to him after the last game and said, I'm just thinking too much when I missed the first when it gets in my head all the stuff we guessed about, he said, I'm not doing that anymore. I'm just gonna shoot. And he's won for one in games since that. I think, if you know how I've said, I don't think any of these dudes are gonna play in the NBA, Drew. If he plays like he did against Mississippi State, he might be able. He could be an NBA player if he plays like that.

00:39:55
Speaker 3: And Pope, who's had him a couple of several years now, so that was his best college games. He's had better, actually really had better statistical games, but just given the circumstances coming off maybe his worst game and all the criticism and doubt in his head to turn around and do it on short notice, Pope said, that's the best TS scene from Robinson.

00:40:12
Speaker 4: What do you make of the fact that Mississippi State hadn't beaten us in the regular season since like oh eight? Isn't that crazy?

00:40:19
Speaker 2: That is crazy? Especially that's a tough place to play. At times.

00:40:22
Speaker 5: So to win all these years in a row down even on their place, that's that says something about your program.

00:40:27
Speaker 4: It's weird to me because it's not like they've stunk the whole No. I mean there was a period of time where we broke their hearts every year. I mean we twenty ten, right, we beat them the call Me Game, Yeah, the SEC Tournament game I think we had. I mean we've also had crazy endings down there.

00:40:47
Speaker 2: Reid shot yeah, read Dante.

00:40:49
Speaker 4: Allen, Dante Allen went off. Eric Daniels hit the layup at the buzzer, the call Me game, DeMarcus Cousin or you know, putting it in at the buzzer to send it to overtime. The fact that they've not beaten US in the regular season since eight is an amazing stat really is.

00:41:06
Speaker 3: Like Ryan said, they don't always have the best team in the conference, usually even more towards the bottom, but they've mostly been a very physical team. I could think of some big guys that have been elite, like Bernardo down there blocking shots, and they've still gone in and played great games.

00:41:18
Speaker 4: Forgot about He's the SEC all time shot ball shop.

00:41:22
Speaker 3: There's also been several overtime games, including the tip end. I think Dante Allen's was overtime. It's like Mississippi State just keeps getting a heartbreaking ending.

00:41:29
Speaker 4: I think the loss in the SEC tournament that year with Dante Allen in the COVID year is the only time they've beaten US since OA, and it was about one point I think, so eight five, nine, two eighty seven. Listen, do we have time for one? Quickly?

00:41:43
Speaker 2: Say less than a minute?

00:41:44
Speaker 4: So y Adam, go quick?

00:41:48
Speaker 9: Hey Matt, first time caller, Uh, great day to be a wall category with the last caller. Saw your tweet about the UK official pregame show. Got a kick out of that because I was listening to the to the pregame show. I just thought how bad that show had become, and I hang up. Listen to your comment.

00:42:05
Speaker 4: But I don't want to say it's bad because I don't necessarily believe that. But I do want to talk about maybe we'll do it in the second hour. If not, we'll do it Tuesday. Dave Baker and Camera Mills need an intervention the two of them. The two of them are going to kill each other at some point. It really is like insane isn't it. Are you gonna let me talk? I mean that they're going to fight at some point. We're gonna take a break. When we come back, we're here a ks bar. Willie Caley Stein will join us right after this