2026-03-23- KSR - Hour 1

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Speaker 1: From YouTube and social media, Comedy Off Broadway and Lexington welcomes Josh Wolf March nineteen through the twenty first, then from Late Night TV and The Bob and Tom Show. Catch Nick Griffin March twenty six through the twenty eight and don't miss New York comedy superstar and podcaster Mark Norman.

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Speaker 2: April second through the fourth.

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Speaker 1: Pour tickets to all comedy Off Broadway shows Calle five nine, two seven, one joke or visit Comedy Off Broadway, dot com comed 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.

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Speaker 2: Well, welcome everyone. This is Kentucky Sports Radio. I'm Matt Jones. It is Monday, March the twenty third. Yeah, that's right. March kind of runs together, although unfortunately for Kentucky fans it's now going to slow down. And the Clark's Puppet Shop phone line is Hey, I'm nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven. Will be taking your calls today to see kind of your thoughts on where things a vision Auto Glass text machine seven seven two four five two five four And this edition sponsored by the T. J. Smith Office. You called TJ I'll make them pay. Ryan and Mario rolled into Lexington a little after midnight last night listening to basketball all the way back on Westwood One and heard Florida get beat by Iowa, which was kind of exciting, and then other games that were We got to hear the Johnnies Rick Petino go but still sad about Kentucky's kind of miserable defeat at the hands of Iowa State. We spent a lot of time. We stopped in Mount Vernon, Illinois at the Buffalo Wild Wings and did the show I this morning. Got to hear how loud that screaming baby was behind me. That baby was much louder over the air than I even realized. Uh. But then got home and you know, now we're gonna we start the next phase, which is talking about what's next for the UK basketball program. And the UK women play today at five o'clock West Virginia, so we will talk a little bit about that. Drew is he Drew didn't get to go on the trip because he selfishly is having a baby. That's my bad game. So we haven't gotten to talk to him a lot about what's happened. Let's just talk about yesterday drew, What were your thoughts about what went now?

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Speaker 5: Like everyone else, extremely disappointed in how it ended. I never really saw Kentucky getting out of that weekend leading into the tournament, but after always magic in round one, and I always stated having that major injury, I talked myself into a little bit of a run. You know, we saw I didn't really want to play. I was state at all because that ball pressure. We saw what a nightmare that was. But I genuinely thought going in that game Kentucky had a big chance, when I didn't believe that before because the opportunity that opened, and then to go up twelve and then to lose by nineteen, like everyone listening just dumbfounded.

00:02:52
Speaker 2: By how you could do that on that stage. Here you go back that we were up twelve with eight with eight minutes to go, Is that right? Or up twelve with twelve minutes to go like eleven and change. I think, yeah, So twelve minutes ago we're up twelve with eight minutes to go, we were down twenty three.

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Speaker 6: It's crazy.

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Speaker 2: So that means in a course of twenty four minutes we lost by thirty five points, which is kind of unbelievable. I mean, but we've done that before in games, not usually at the beginning, not in the middle, but a thirty five point swing in twenty four minutes is I don't want to say it's unprecedented because it has happened with us before, to a team without their best player, without their best player, and it was they made one. We made a couple of substitutions, and they made one adjustment and it was over. And it kind of felt like, in some ways a fitting way Ryan for the season end. All year we've talked about substitution patterns, adjustments and giving up big runs and all those things showed themselves in this game.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, that adjustment Iowas State made by Gunna trapping pressure of bringing across the mid court line. We could not handle it and did not handle it well at all. And they were starting pushed us. Our offense was starting way out close to the three of the center court line.

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Speaker 6: It was just we had no answer for it.

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Speaker 2: The play that sort of symbolized that was that play I think right at the end of the first half from Colin Chandler just crossed half court, picked up the ball and got double team. Yeah, and it was like they have decided that we cannot handle this, and I think I said up the game. They were right. The only person who kind of could handle it a little bit was Aberdeen, but pretty much everyone else the moment the trap came, they just panicked ye and and it was chaos. It was like when little kids get the basketball and go give me the ball, Give me the ball, and then there take it, take it, take it away. That's kind of how it was.

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Speaker 5: Well, I wasn't gonna use that analogy, but when I was watching it, I remembered when I played junior pro. I was on a Madisonville traveling team and we went to we went to I believe it was either Hopkinsville or Evansville. We played up a level. I could not bring the ball off the court. And that's when I knew basketball wasn't for me. Just a little double team and I had nothing to do. I felt like I was watching my little junior pro team out there that couldn't even cross house.

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Speaker 2: You four sometimes get that moment sports where you're like, oh that's what good is? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Millsburg. I remember I got pretty good at tennis and then they maybe play seth Hauser at Corbett all the Corbett guy Seth Hauser, Yeah, and the first time he served, I was like, yeah, well that's never getting it turn because I could hit a lot. I could hit people that were better than me, and I'd kind of dink it back and then out think them. And then with Seth Hauser, I was like, no, I don't even have a chance to think. It gets here too quickly, and I was like, well, there's the end of me being really good at tennis. I think that's I was State's pressure made it seem like, okay, there's the end of us being able to run an offense, because when before they started to do the pressure, our offense looked surprisingly really good, but we couldn't even get into it. They made it to where we couldn't even get into anything. And we all wanted Chandler to hit threes right away. Bangs two. Banks was the last one scoring in the game, and then Aberdeen hits two, and you go, we get a couple lucky bounces where we get like the ball falls in our hands and we get a layup and we're playing great. I thought we played great defense the entire first half, Like even though we were behind at halftime, I thought our defense was excellent throughout, but the offense just just clapped. So then we lose, and the question I think going forward is less about this loss and like how do we feel going going forward? There we were driving and so I didn't see a lot of the post game online reaction, but I can just kind of guess that it was probably not the most positive thing in the world.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, well, why don't you you You would know as we moderate a message board had delete a lot. I mean, Twitter is nasty, especially those accounts that don't have a face on them, you know, they can say whatever they want.

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Speaker 2: It was just ugly. I thought a lot of it was disappointed. I was.

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Speaker 5: I thought there's a lot of over the top stuff on there too. It was good to see that the Arkansas fans found my video again. Yeah, I like that every time that that that video is going to continue to exist. Uh, Arkansas fans now are in my mentions as much as Kentucky fans like I. It was funny while we were in in While we were in Saint Louis, Mario get some message shanding from DraftKings, and DraftKings says, hey, we're going live in Arkansas on Friday, would you like to make a video encouraging your fans in Arkansas to go on DraftKings.

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Speaker 2: And I'm like, I don't think you want me to do that.

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Speaker 6: You don't understand.

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Speaker 2: I don't think that's gonna get people. You'll get a reaction, people will be angry. I think I think you will lose subscriptions. I was in that group chat. It's kind of like, what are we doing, Mario, you can handle that one. Yeah, It's like, Matt send a message welcoming all the Arkansas people to Draft Kings. I'm like, no, any of the other states, not that one.

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Speaker 5: The kasar website team was live on YouTube for the rapid reaction last night, and you can like donate a super chat, donate money. An Arkansas fan donated a little bit of money and said like enjoy your trip home or something like that. I mean they're even giving money to troll.

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Speaker 2: There's a way for people to donate money to.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, like if you want your question bumped, you can give ten bucks. Some of them, you know, get a lot of money, but it rarely happens. But Arkansas fans were doing me. Ryan's eyes go, wait a minute, why are we doing.

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Speaker 4: That Ryan was doing that with the YouTube.

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Speaker 2: Guy was, way you did it with the YouTube string.

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Speaker 6: I want to see my name on the bottom of the screen. Shout out, thanks.

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Speaker 2: Buddy, start investing in just getting five dollars to save people's names. Well, all right, so now what I guess Mark Pope said he wanted to have twenty four hours to mourn. He was asked after the game by Tom Leech what about the future, and he was like, we're not gonna think about that tonight. We're gonna mourn for twenty four hours. So I guess that means by five o'clock we're gonna think about the future, but we're not gonna be on at five o'clock. He will, he's got a show tonight.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, get one more Coaches show tonight.

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Speaker 5: He probably would have loved the interview between Sunday and Monday they interviewing Brandon Stockton, like, what is the hope?

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Speaker 2: No offense to brand and Stocktor, but you I mean, so if I were in charge of media relations for UK, which I'm not, and if I had the authority, I think some of those that UK don't have, like they're not allowed to do things they want to do. I would say, Mark, the best thing you could do is an hour of a real conversation. Right, no beautifuls, no specials. This is the state of Kentucky. Here's what went right, here's what went wrong. It can't just be we didn't get our full deck of playing cards. You got out coached. You need to acknowledge that. You need to like, Okay, where do we go from here? We need some encouragement. I hope that's what he does. I'm doubtful that's what he'll do, but I hope that's. Well, wait a minute, do we have the show because the women's.

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Speaker 6: Teams playing, so I was gonna ask, they're gonna run it.

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Speaker 2: They're putting it against the women's game. I checked with Billy when I got here. More more pr greatness. Let's put the final coach to show up against the women's NCAA tournament game. Let's let's dilute both of them. That's great, all right, Well, regardless, I think that's probably what he should do. The first question I guess is what does the roster look like, which means what players are back? Season's over now, so we can give honest opinions. I want to we're gonna quickly go through percentage chance they're playing for Kentucky next year.

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Speaker 6: Okay, all right, the Max Snuffy.

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Speaker 2: Game, let's start with Let's start with Colin Chandler. Percentage chance. I will say eighty five, Yeah, eighty five, Shannon, seventy eighty for me, all right, let's go Malachaimarno.

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Speaker 5: I'll run it back at eighty five. I like that spot those time. Okay, fifty.

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Speaker 2: He's been asking about it all year. I've seen this in him all year. I'm gonna go seventy five because I just can't see them letting that local talent get away. But Ryan makes me worried because he knows all these people. He probably played grade school basketball with the you know, the laundry guy, great Crossing. So uh, Shannon, I'll go eighty Okay, Cam Williams.

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Speaker 6: Seventy five, sixty five, Shandon seventy.

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Speaker 2: I was gonna go seventy five. So sh Ryan's the lowest on all these people.

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Speaker 4: Just just for the Ryne doesn't thing anybody is ke r.

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Speaker 2: Ryan thinks we're gonna have no players next year. Okay, do you buy day? I feel pretty good about him too. I'll put him. I'll say seventy five for him, I'll go forty five. Shannon sixty five, I'll go fifty. I'm not as confident because I've heard no buzz about him returning, so it's hard for me to Brandon Garrison. Oh boy, this is a wild card.

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Speaker 5: That is because I know Pope still loves him, but you know a lot of the fans divided on him.

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Speaker 2: I'll say forty on Garrison, Yeah, forty five.

00:11:59
Speaker 3: Let's hope it's like ten because he's the guy I don't want back personally.

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Speaker 2: Time G Time had a BG time, I can't. Yeah, you put the number. I'm gonna put the number at twenty five percent, just because of things I've heard. But I would be fine with him being back a bas time, but understanding what do you talk? It was time? Yeah?

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Speaker 4: What one game out of how many?

00:12:23
Speaker 2: Hey, we lose that game? Wait it was twice in a week and a half in the postseason, G time, Right, Okay, learn the words.

00:12:32
Speaker 4: Enjoy your BG time, jaylen.

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Speaker 5: Low, I have no idea what they're gonna do with that spot. I'll say twenty, Yeah, twenty five, thirty thirty.

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna say twenty because I think there's just been some chatter that that that that he jaylen Lowe might be looking into his comments he's come to media, aren't great. Yeah, Trent Noah.

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Speaker 3: I could see him be in a Travis Ferry type situation to where he ends up somewhere else.

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Speaker 4: I want to go twenty.

00:13:06
Speaker 5: I'll say seventy forty, seventy seventy. I just to think, if it's up to Trent, he would stay. It's what's Kentucky's role going to be for him?

00:13:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna go twenty.

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Speaker 6: Five forty Okay?

00:13:20
Speaker 2: Whom I missing here? Jasper Jasper Ryan one? One? Okay, I'll also say one. I don't want to be too negative.

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Speaker 4: I guess I'll be the optimistic one to go ten.

00:13:36
Speaker 2: Three. Wow, it just didn't go well. Triple the chance.

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Speaker 4: Of these two, Yeah he did.

00:13:42
Speaker 2: There's three times as much of a chance for me, Shannon as then I gave a ten off as much.

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Speaker 6: He just needs a fresh start somewhere, I think, you know.

00:13:53
Speaker 2: And then is there anyone else? I think that's it?

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Speaker 6: I mean Yellow Yellovich, Oh, yeah, Yellovich Hawthorn.

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Speaker 2: By the way, I assume one hundred if he like I don't see any reason why he would Yeah, why was he Why was he here if he didn't?

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Speaker 5: But yes, Yellovich, Oh man, he seems to really like it, and honestly, he was. He's one of the favorite people to hear from an interviews. He's brutally honest. I loved when he was like, no, fatigue is not an excuse, or when he called out his teammates for being selfish. Yeah, I'm root for him to come back. I'll say fifty, but that could who knows with him. I don't know what Pope thinks of him.

00:14:28
Speaker 6: I go forty, kind of close to fifty fifty, but I think it's the other way.

00:14:31
Speaker 4: I go forty, I'll go thirty thirty five somewhere around.

00:14:33
Speaker 2: Now, I go twenty five. I haven't heard any buzz that would suggest to me that he would be back, So I'm clearly leaning on a lot of returns. Yeah, Tyron stokes the Bill Self situation, with the understanding that Bill Self kind of hinted it maybe retirement. I'll still say.

00:14:54
Speaker 6: Fifteen, Yeah, twenty five, change him twenty five.

00:14:59
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go fifty. But yeah, I think what's gonna happen is there's gonna be a massive amount of pressure on Pope to really go for this. I think we're gonna if I think there's a chance we get him, we vastly overpay, but we do it because we feel like we have to.

00:15:14
Speaker 6: That's my They got to get somebody to just for the perception.

00:15:17
Speaker 2: And it's also interesting, like a couple of these, like all right, guys that committed Kansas, guys that committed to North Carolina. There's a top ten player that committed to North Carolina. Like, I wonder if if they scored a scramble, you know.

00:15:29
Speaker 6: A guyde commits.

00:15:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I have no idea. That world is not really my my world anymore. But all right, eight five, nine, twenty two eighty seven, those are your predictions. According to Ryan, we will have no players next yeah, and according to uh Drew, we'll have all the players. We'll see which one, which one ends up being correct. We'll take a break, be right back. This is KSR when welcome back, take you sports radio. All right, let me run through a few things at in postgame that I think are kind of interesting. What do you think about the eye was State players saying that they knew Ryan that if they went on a run, Kentucky would quit.

00:16:05
Speaker 7: Not a good look when opposing player says that about your team. But I guess, you know, they probably looked at the Gonzaga game, maybe the Vanderbilt game, and saw when they got down they did just kind of quit in those games.

00:16:14
Speaker 2: There were games this year where we came back, yes, which so I mean it was not consistent. But they he said, and you rarely hear players be this open. We thought they would quit, and in this case, I don't. I think. I don't think they quit exactly, but they certainly their effort went down for a period.

00:16:30
Speaker 5: Yeah, that guy was kind of a villain. I watched this whole interview. He also said we weren't really sure if we wanted Santa Clara Kentucky. We were good with either, and then he said it was fun watching Kentucky fans leave early.

00:16:39
Speaker 2: That was a nice bonus.

00:16:40
Speaker 5: Yeah, so he he chose violence in his comments, But I do think they probably cherry picked games to watch because Kentucky did not quit Tennessee Lsu. I mean, we know all the big comebacks, So I didn't completely agree with this point.

00:16:51
Speaker 2: One person rights Matt I was at at the game. Part of what made me sad is we didn't have the usual Kentucky turnout. True, but it wasn't bad. I actually think the Kentucky Iowa State contingents were relatively the same. The difference was there were a lot of Purdue people. Yes, so that the stadium was a little more empty during our game because the Purdue people had kind of left. But I would say Kentucky and ISA State had about the same amount of people, maybe a little bit more Iowa State. It was definitely not the big blue swarm where you used.

00:17:23
Speaker 4: To on TV. It sounded like it was all Iowa State fans.

00:17:27
Speaker 2: Well that was because they were making all the shots and we weren't.

00:17:30
Speaker 4: Maybe so, but you know, there were a lot of them there.

00:17:34
Speaker 7: They despite all that happened, where you're still got a chance to go into halftime up like six or seven points.

00:17:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a huge We talked about that in the post game show, that little play where well, first of all, I mean, we're gonna talk about the game. The stat of the game is Denzel Aberdeen thirty seven minutes played with him and the game minus five with him out of the game, minus fourteen in thirty seven minutes were minus five with Denzel Aberdeen. In three minutes without him were minus fourteen. That's one of the craziest stats I remember in basketball. It really is.

00:18:05
Speaker 5: And then you know, the moment they make that sub, everyone's like, well, they're probably gonna go on a run and then not over run.

00:18:10
Speaker 2: And same thing in the second half. Yep. I mean we were already down big when they took him out in the second half, but then we didn't went down even more. I mean that was you. And then's the stretch we talked about where the ball falls in mak Malachi's hands, he drops it, trips, guy catches it, shoots the corner three. We should have been up six to eight at half time, were down one.

00:18:27
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know you called it too.

00:18:29
Speaker 7: You said they're gonna hit a shot and go up by one at half time, and of course they can't just gonna.

00:18:32
Speaker 2: Feel it as far as the crowd, I'm gonna say this to take up for the BBN. Yes it was less, and you know it was less at the SEC tournament. But the university has to look itself in the face for this. This is slowly becoming a culmination of I think a few years really going back to COVID of fan neglect by the administration, I don't blame Pope, Actually I really don't. I think he tries. You know, I did have some blame at the end of cal for fans stuff, but really I think it's it's courts the administration. They've raised prices. They've also kind of gone away from the mission of giving fans what they want to protecting their ownership of things. You know, we'll talk probably more later about Eli Cappoluto's video, but like all he said was if you watch his video about let's talk about the future of UK athletics, it was we have to earn more revenue and cut expenses. Way to get people excited. Eli, who earn more revenue, cut more expenses, go cats? Oh see you tes cuts cuts cuts, I mean that's you know, come on. Like so there is a point then that you have this game and fans don't really believe we're necessarily going to win. And so I get it. When Kentucky fans are are valued, Kentucky fans show up. I go look at Mark Pope's press conference, right, just go look at anything. When Kentucky fans feel valued, they will show up like anybody else. But if you take them for granted, as I think this university has done for a number of years, and now the university needs fans more than ever for financial reasons. And there's a part of me going you reput you show, you reput you so and so different conversation. But that's kind of why I know we didn't have our usual showing. But I actually Ryan don't blame fans. I get it.

00:20:36
Speaker 6: I'd get it.

00:20:36
Speaker 7: Also, it goes way back, even what they did to the UK football fans.

00:20:40
Speaker 2: Like ten years ago. That was like in twenty twelve.

00:20:43
Speaker 5: I think it all started right then. That's when it started. Part of the reason Saint Louis was hurt too. And I talked to a lot of fans in Nashville. Three days off work in Nashville playing Wednesday at noon, Thursday at noon, Friday at noon.

00:20:56
Speaker 2: They're like, I was invested as I could be. I can't make the trip to say we play Friday, Yeah, after already doing the week before. Yeah. No, there's a little bit of that. And we treat the SEC tournament very serious. I think if we'd been gone to Chicago, if we'd won, we would have a bajillion and make it excited, right, So I do think there's there there's part of that as well. The other thing is it's weird chanting when when when I put a KSR kind of inside joke out there, and then the world that doesn't understand KSR gets involved, right because I tweeted that, everyone knows I almost leave the game, yeah, or do leave almost usually I usually leave, And then of course people know about the referee incident. Yeah, So I thought it would be funny because I did come close to wanting to yell at that referee, and I just thought it would be funny. I decided I had to leave the game because we were gonna lose. So I was like, oh, I almost got so mad at the referee I left, you know, I mean I really was. I wasn't gonna get kicked off a press road yelling at the referee. I just needed to leave the building because I was getting nervous. And I tweeted that out and then I became a symbol of what's wrong with the media, Like all these dudes, all these dudes who work for like Longhorn in your Face thirty seven, are like, this is what's wrong with our profession. I want to be like. Listen, you'll snot I was doing this when you were a baby. Shut up. You know the reason Longhorn in Your Face twenty seven gets credentialed is because people like us fought for it, which of course makes me sound child right you wal I walked, I got denied so you could get like, but they did. You know, That's what happens all these people. I became like the symbol for fan journalist. You know, one of our entities is still working and some of these others aren't. But hey, I'm the media tries to police other people.

00:22:51
Speaker 5: I don't know you. I don't work for you, I don't work with you. We're not friends, never even met you. Why do you care what I'm wearing?

00:22:58
Speaker 2: Well? I mean, you look good the UK stuff. Complain about that. We'll take a break. Take your calls right for this. TJ. Smith, personal injury attorney called TJ. He'll make them pay now more.

00:23:08
Speaker 3: Kentucky Sports Radio present it by Stockton Mortgage.

00:23:11
Speaker 4: Here's Matt Jones.

00:23:13
Speaker 2: Welcome back. Tukey Sports Radio A five nine two eight twenty two eighty seven, text Machine seven seven two seven seven four five two five four One person writes, Matt with Drew leave a restaurant if his baby was as cranky as the one on the postgame show. Oh yeah, that was wild you all.

00:23:26
Speaker 5: When you first made the comment, I thought on Matt's probably being a little harsh on a baby being there. And then I heard that first scream and it actually I had pretty good laugh listen to it, and it just continued the whole show. So it sounded like you were giving your headset to the baby to scream to the listeners.

00:23:41
Speaker 2: And it was the baby was just it was a lot, and it was fitting. You're trying to have this big picture talk about Pope.

00:23:47
Speaker 5: I mean, you're in your serious tongue. And then Mario eating all the food also laughed at that.

00:23:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, Mario, just wait till we start to show eat all our food. You were doing a radio show, I know, so he was like, now's my time to eat all the food.

00:24:02
Speaker 1: Uh?

00:24:02
Speaker 2: What versus rights? Matt, do you agree with what Cal's been saying recently about coaches win games administration win championships to Kentucky fans? Owe him an apology? No. On the second thing, I do agree with him on coaches win games administrations. Win championships. But but but Cal has a revisions history about UK. He thinks he didn't win championships because of Midge. I'm not saying Mitch gave the best support or not. Those two hated each other. They blame me. It's their relationship. All bad relationships are a two way street, right, Ksr's bad relationship with Cal. We deserve some of the blame. I would argue he deserves more of it. But you know what, whatever, But it's not. No one is innocent in those scenarios. But the team that lost to Oakland had everyone you could want. He had an elite college train for He had the number three pick in the draft, the number eight pick in the draft, a dude who went in the second round but played big minutes for the seventy six ers. He had the best recruiting. Like, come on, man, what else did you need on that team? Mitch Barnhart ain't to blame for the fact that you couldn't stop a dude who plays at the y MZA from going off on you. That's not Mitch Barnhardt's that game. And like that, Am I right about that? That ain't banging his fault.

00:25:29
Speaker 6: Got nothing to do with the ad or the administration.

00:25:32
Speaker 2: Come on, Now, in general, I agree with that, but I think he's used. He's taking this chance to take little jabs, especially Mitch, and I get it. That's him, that's who he is, and that's fine, and that's between you know. That's my name's Paul, and that's between y'all. But you didn't lose to Oakland because Mitch didn't get you in IL. And part of the reason you didn't get in it was you, sir. A lot of the people didn't want to give you money anymore. So go ahead, Jack.

00:26:02
Speaker 8: Warnfel's to observation, not an observation. I found this is relevant to Indiana Kentucky. I found an old magazine about two months ago and on Sports Illustrated, and there's a picture of an Indiana player and a Kentucky player going up for a rebound. On the cover, the Kentucky players Charles Hurd, there's an insert of Bobby Knight and Joe Hall, and the headline is Kentucky College of Basketball's Biggest war. Those two programs are totally irrelevant.

00:26:33
Speaker 2: Now, yeah, you guys got to stop comparing this. It's not totally Indiana is not even Indian doesn't even go to the tournament. We are not irrelevant?

00:26:44
Speaker 9: All right, We're close, now We're not?

00:26:46
Speaker 2: I mean, no, we're not. Why do you think that game was in CBS and a time slot with nothing else playing? Is it because we're irrelevant? Is it because you think everybody wanted to tune in to see Iowa State play? Now? Are we winning to level? Are we winning.

00:27:03
Speaker 8: What they tuned in to watch Kentucky exactly?

00:27:06
Speaker 2: So we're not irrelevant?

00:27:09
Speaker 8: Well?

00:27:10
Speaker 9: I think I mean you just answered your own question.

00:27:13
Speaker 2: They tuned in to watch us. We are not irrelevant? Now are we good enough? No? Are we? Are we on the path that's towards downgrade? Yes? But you can't say we're irrelevant when you agree with me that people tuned in to watch us.

00:27:29
Speaker 8: I think we're trying to I'll clean this up. We're trying to pick nat crap out of pepper here. We're trying to find something positive. And now I'll move on to this.

00:27:39
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:27:40
Speaker 8: I'll ask this to all of you. If something is absolutely inevitable in life, in your lives, it's absolutely inevitable. I know collor collegiate sports deals strictly when contractual obligations. Why can't you cut ties?

00:27:58
Speaker 2: Well? But you because you're making it a sound and I'm not saying you're wrong, but you're making it. You're coming to a conclusion because you're making an assumption. Not everyone would agree with. Your assumption. Is it's inevitable Mark Pope's gonna fail. That's your assumption. Maybe you'll be right, but that's an assumption. That's not a conclusion. You don't know that. So that's why saying if I knew for certain, and I appreciate the call, if I felt like I felt for certain, Mark Stoops was not going to bring it back, So it's time to make a change. I'm not there yet with Mark Pope. Maybe you are, and I that's fine if you are. I'm not even saying you're wrong. But in order to say cut ties, you have to think it's inevitable he'll fail. And I'm just not there yet.

00:28:42
Speaker 5: And I don't have a lot of optimism in Mark Pope. But just for the school, as we're making cuts, we can't just keep paying buy out after buye. You're paying Stoops. I know popes buy out and huge, but we're already got the Mitch thing. I mean they're talking about being efficient. Yeah, well, they're talking about being efficient. You can't just keep firing people in paying them lots of money. Now, if it doesn't work out, then he should never been hired, and that sits on someone else's shoulders who won't be working here anymore. But you can't just keep firing people over and over when it's not working. Yeah, not after two years at least. I mean another behind it inevitable. He's gonna fail, do you, Shannon?

00:29:13
Speaker 2: No? No?

00:29:14
Speaker 4: I mean this third year though, is going to be make or break though.

00:29:17
Speaker 2: If he comes out, if we have any then it's inevitable. Yeah.

00:29:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I give him and he's going to get one more year regardless of what we think.

00:29:24
Speaker 4: So he deserves one more year at least.

00:29:26
Speaker 7: I'm curious to see what we say two months from now, after he's got his roster pretty much built for next season.

00:29:32
Speaker 6: How will we feel going into years.

00:29:33
Speaker 2: I hope we all talk ourselves into it, because we don't think that's really a bad will We talked ourselves, Zach car And I'm not talking myself into a guy like with Billy Gillespie, like that's posing with Roses in eighth grade like Avery, I'm not doing that. I'm gonna for beating ball State. You know. Here's one of the things that's kind of interesting now that we watched this weekend. Mark did a good job scouting players. We just didn't get them. Oh the top five he went after it would have been by the end of the year, was playing well for U c. L A. The dude Shannon that hit the game winning shot against Florida. We thought was coming here. What's his name for Guerrez from uh Morris? We got did we got? But we thought he were getting him he hit the big shot. I mean, scoop over here had us ready for acting excellent. Yeah, that was the first team All American like they looked as in Indiana.

00:30:25
Speaker 4: So we looked at the right guys.

00:30:26
Speaker 2: We just didn't get anyho We.

00:30:27
Speaker 4: Know who the good players are. We just can't get him to come play here.

00:30:29
Speaker 2: That's right.

00:30:30
Speaker 5: Problem though that goes to the point of close. You can find him, you can get him on the phone, but you got to give him here.

00:30:36
Speaker 2: And the question is why don't they get here, which gets to the whole is it uk j my? Is it Pope? We don't really know, but I kind of feel like we'll know in two months too, and we'll find out.

00:30:49
Speaker 6: Mike.

00:30:49
Speaker 9: Go ahead, Mike, so we're gonna give him a third year. But how do you justify the poor evaluation of talent they have and the amount of money that they spent on this team? How can you just give up that much money? Again?

00:31:09
Speaker 2: Well, that's but that's what Jack Gibbons says. That worries me. So I think the most worrisome thing that happened yesterday, maybe the most worrisome thing of the day, was what Jack Gibbons said on the post game show, and it got little attention, But Jack just kind of threw in offhand, I don't know if they're gonna have the nile to get players next year like we did this year. They're gonna have to make what they get work. How when I heard that, we were in the car, yeah, and I went.

00:31:39
Speaker 6: He wouldn't have said that if he wasn't concerned about it.

00:31:42
Speaker 2: That was an interesting comment for a guy well connected to the program on the official postgame show to say, And you pot you combine Jack Gibbons saying I don't know if they're gonna have the money with Eli Cappeluto saying cuts cuts cuts cuts. With Mark Pope saying we got to start getting guys who want to play for the front of the jersey, maybe not just the biggest. You start to think, are they not planning on spending money? So I appreciate the call. I am concerned about that. I do wonder, like you know that none of those people said they're gonna do whatever it takes. Jack saying that is important, I think, and I think he's being He wouldn't say it if he didn't believe it. But Ryan, that was maybe the thing. When he said that, I was like, Oh, I've taken it as an assumption they'll go get whoever they need to get. Maybe they're trying to set us up for they're not gonna be able to go get these guys. I think, are we running this back?

00:32:42
Speaker 7: Kentucky fans have always been expecting, well, just we were Kentucky, we'll pay whatever we need you to get these players. Just that what you just laid out right there doesn't sound like that's gonna be in the plan.

00:32:51
Speaker 2: Sounds like I always hear Yankees fans complain and Red Sox fans that they were used to go geting whoever they want, and now they are all like, you know, trying to balance a budget.

00:33:01
Speaker 6: Uh huh kind of what it sounds like.

00:33:03
Speaker 2: That's kind of what it sounded like.

00:33:05
Speaker 5: Well, we just did that percentage exercise and I was optimistic on returns. I wouldn't have said that five days ago. Jack's comment in the back of my head, and Pope even said straight up, we have a lot of good young players. We got to start with retention, and that kind of thought, well, we're running this back.

00:33:20
Speaker 2: It's gonna be hard to get people excited with that. I mean, we'll see, but that I did find that to be very Uh even if.

00:33:26
Speaker 7: They do that, they still may need to make a big splash with somebody again somebody.

00:33:31
Speaker 5: But well, we talked about youts, we talked about not having much star power. I mean, they won't have anything close to it. Oh way, if they're just return returning.

00:33:40
Speaker 2: With them, we're losing our two best players, right Our two best players are gone. Stop overpaying for sunglasses. If you're tired of buying expensive sunglasses only to lose or break them, you need shady rays and independent American owned companies start right here in Kentucky. Premium polarized shades for every activity running, fishing, by making, golfing, you name it. Every member of your family can find their perfect payer. They got the best protection program industry with lost and broken replacements. So take on your next adventure. It's Shady Rays and Shady Rays dot com. We'll take a break, take more calls, koscler welcome back. Take you sports radio A five nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven, text machine seven seven two seven seven four five two five four What person rights? What do you think about Oscar? Combs tweets, Well, I mean when you lose Oscar, you know part of it. Oscar really really loves Mark Pope because they have a long relationship. So I think part of where Oscar comes from is Oscar is going to take up for Mark and if I and so he's going, I think to blame the administration more than then Mark. At the same time, I'll never dismiss anything he says because he's seen more than any of us have, and he is he went from he went middle fingers up to the administration.

00:35:00
Speaker 6: Yes he did.

00:35:00
Speaker 2: So when people are like those ks R and Matt, they're always negative, go look at Oscar and go go I mean you think we're negative. Go look at Oscar I get it though. I mean his complaint is clearly a Barnhart complaint and a president complaint. He was mad, he's mad about the contract, He's mad about the ten lifetime tickets. I'm shocked how many people are mad about the ten lifetime tickets. Yeah, I'm in that crowd. Those are expensive tickets. Yeah, and you could argue, like how many people you need and if you would.

00:35:32
Speaker 5: Sell those, You're you're saying, let's be more efficient. Why are you giving away ten lower level tickets that come with huge K fund donations and everything else?

00:35:39
Speaker 2: So what would you would you be cool giving him two? Yes, that's fine.

00:35:43
Speaker 5: And also it says like if he passes away, the family still gets them through his wife, Like what how long do you need ten tickets?

00:35:50
Speaker 2: Ten's a lot, though, Like nobody knows ten people shit, you know, like I'm not taking you know how hard it would be to organize ten tickets to a game and every game.

00:36:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we'll get it for the SEC tournament. But that's once a year, I know.

00:36:05
Speaker 2: But to say, like you get timed for the rest of your wife, don't.

00:36:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, you don't have that.

00:36:09
Speaker 2: Many to pay for those. Yeah, stop paying for those, and he's not paying for him. I mean, I get it. Those are expensive seats that could be sold to someone. Yeah, but we're on a budget cut, that's right, So we need to give this guy who's leaving two million more dollars. Be efficient, because that way we can be efficient. It's very important in this new age to create new sources of revenue. The first one is to give Mitch two million dollars. That will be very creative in revenue in general.

00:36:34
Speaker 5: But if you work for UK Athletics, don't you dare ask for a raise in the next year.

00:36:37
Speaker 2: Yes? Because efficiency. By the way, well let's just make it twenty tickets. I get it, Brent, go ahead of Brent.

00:36:47
Speaker 10: Hey, man, uh, you really got me worried about the NIM I think last night I was listening to you on the post game and that was the most worriousome thing what you said about jet gibbons. When when will we know it's nil? Is okay going forward?

00:37:04
Speaker 2: Well, we don't know. We don't know because and this goes to one of my worries when we sort of sold the athletic department to a private company, basically is that this stuff is not released. You know, now the UK has claimed and I will take them at their word that they will release everything the same way they would if it was under the public scrutiny rules. We will know that come those releases which will start to come this summer about budgets, et cetera. But we don't really know, and when questions are asked, we're told it's garbage and shut up and that only two or three people are mad. Yeah, I mean, so we don't know, is the answer. I mean, so far we've asked just on the question of why did Mitch get the extra two million dollars because and other schools have done it, So like, we don't know. So to answer your question, I'm not sure we will for sure know what the JMI commitment is, but the proof will have to be in the pudding. We'll just see what players we get come mid May.

00:38:10
Speaker 10: So then my next question is if, like next year, Nate Oates his contract drops down to an eight million dollars buyout. Do you think if then it came in and saw that the JMI I deal was that, can we go to court or try to get JMI to reach I don't. I don't know.

00:38:33
Speaker 2: I mean that that I have no idea because I don't know whether or not. I mean, I know the university feels like the deal is good, right, so I think it's very unlikely the university wants to end it. So I think for I think JMI is not going anywhere. So then the question of is it good is it bad? Is something we'll learn more about. There are there's an and I appreciate the call. There's evidence that there's some really good parts of it. There's I think there's evidence that I'm not sure how it works for our basketball program, but the proof's in the pudding. Like, look, if they go into portal season and they come out with a great roster and then no one's gonna worry about it if they don't, you know what the thing is? What this is part of what worries me. I mean, I gotta be honest. It's so hard to know what to say in these scenarios because no matter what is said, there are people to get angry. So the only thing I can do is be honest. Everyone behind the scenes is pointing their fingers at each other. Right, they won't explicitly say it, but they're very much like, these problems are happening, not our fault. Go look ow there, and then you go over there, and they go, not our fault, bull over there, and the only thing they can agree on is they can all go. But really the fall is you people the media. Well yeah, but when the cameras aren't on you guys tell us privately it's other people's fault. So I don't know. I think it's a mess. I think the whole thing is a mess. I think there needs to be a rearrange I think it's salvageable, but there needs to be a rearrangement. They need to use this time with Mitch leaving to completely change how everything's done, to quit having a centralized power structure of four people that make all the decisions and get into the modern age. Do you am I wrong?

00:40:36
Speaker 10: No?

00:40:36
Speaker 7: And that can think you made the argument for the people that think they need to hire somebody from the outside of that position.

00:40:41
Speaker 2: I think there needs to be somebody. You need to do what companies do when they're failing, which is you bring in somebody that has no connection to anybody and say, look at this and tell us what we're doing. Right, Yep? Because here's the problem. I've been doing this twenty years. The same people are in charge that were in charge twenty years ago, the same people in like every position. Now it seems like natural attrition is going to start changing a lot of these things. They need somebody to come in that doesn't know who any of us are and come in and go, all right, this house is dysfunctional. How do we put it back in track? And here's the thing. Privately, everyone that doesn't have a platform all agrees with me. Talk to the rank and file member of the athletics department, the basketball staff, the presidential office. Not the big voices, but the secondary voices will all say, Matt, you're exactly right. We need somebody to come in and restart this. But nobody can say it publicly because the loud voices just go nothing's wrong, and media are bad and fans are unrealistic. But go talk to the people that work in If they don't tell you that am.

00:42:06
Speaker 6: I wrong, No at all, We're just knuckleheads.

00:42:09
Speaker 2: We'll take a break. Come back. I number two it skoz Are