2026-04-29- KSR - Hour 1

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Known for his crowd work. Comedy Off Broadway and Lexington. Welcome's Club favorite Ian Bag April ninth through the eleventh, then from Saturday Night Live and the hit TV show DMV, Catch ten Meadows April sixteenth through the eighteenth, and from Netflix and social media catch Amber Autrey, me first and second. Four tickets to all Comedy Off Broadway shows Call eight five, nine, two seven one joke or visit Comedy Off Broadway dot com comed Off.

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

00:00:36
Speaker 3: Welcome everyone.

00:00:37
Speaker 4: It is Kentucky Sports Radio, Wednesday, April twenty ninth, on a rainy day in Lexington, Kentucky, where we are at Chaos Bar and Grill. Look, yesterday stunk, so make it better. Come to Chaos Bar. It's Wednesday. We're gonna try to keep things as well.

00:00:55
Speaker 3: It probably won't be really positive.

00:00:56
Speaker 4: I'll be honest with you, but we're gonna talk about where we are and try to laugh a little bit. A five nine eight twenty two eighty seven. It's Clark's Pumping Chop phone line. A Vision Auto Glass text machine is seventy seven two seven four five two five four in this distion sponsored by the TJ.

00:01:10
Speaker 3: Smith Office. If you called TJ, he'll make them pay. Uh.

00:01:14
Speaker 4: It is Wings day, dollar Wings today, So that is a positive. Is a great positive. Bowling league starts tonight, that's another positive. So you can go to KSR Bowling and sign up. I think they told me there's like two teams left and uh, if you haven't signed up, you can show up and they if there are open spots, they'll take yestely KSR Bowling.

00:01:35
Speaker 3: I'm coing tonight.

00:01:36
Speaker 5: You're going to night for opening night on our KSR team. You're actually bowling tonight.

00:01:39
Speaker 4: That's right, all right, So I just want to say, let me just explain how yesterday went for me before we talk about the thing, because uh, I had a meeting that was like two hours during the day and this was one of those kind of old school Internet days where you keep scrolling to see if you can figure out what's happening and update Twitter, and then you know, I'm looking for text messages. I'm texting everybody. I know what do you know? What do you know? Everybody's like, well, you know, what.

00:02:04
Speaker 5: Do you know?

00:02:06
Speaker 4: I end up going to the Reds game last night, and I parked the car, and my plan is to sit in the car because I thought it was gonna be at six thirty.

00:02:15
Speaker 5: Supposed to be at six thirty, and I was.

00:02:16
Speaker 3: Gonna watch the announcement and then Michael.

00:02:19
Speaker 5: Wilbon won't shut up forever.

00:02:21
Speaker 4: And Shaq is wearing a money hat yes, and I was like, okay, I can't do this anymore.

00:02:27
Speaker 3: So I walk.

00:02:27
Speaker 4: I'm walking to the stadium, and my theory is I'm gonna get inside the stadium right as it happens he starts to make thing out. So I'm sitting at the new Joey Vado clock. You know, Joey Vado, for whatever reason.

00:02:39
Speaker 3: Gave a clock to the Reds.

00:02:40
Speaker 5: He gave a clock.

00:02:41
Speaker 4: I don't understand why, but there's a Joey and I get the news that Stokes is committing to Kansas while I'm at the Joey vatdo clock, and I look and there's two Kentucky fans that see me standing there, who are also watching on their phone, and one of them just looks at me and goes, I don't know about Pope, and then he just walks in. And that's how the game starts for me is just sitting there with three Kentucky fans going.

00:03:12
Speaker 3: It was bad.

00:03:14
Speaker 4: Now, I think you gotta look at this in two folds, one losing the kid. Really, since about November, it hasn't felt like we were gonna get this kid, would you agree?

00:03:25
Speaker 5: Always felt like he was going to Kansas.

00:03:26
Speaker 3: I mean there was a time.

00:03:27
Speaker 4: I thought he was going to Kentucky when I thought the two kids in the top ten from Kentucky, well, oh we'll end up in Kentucky. They both end up in Kansas. But since November it's kind of felt like Kansas was the leader. Kentucky got our hopes up a little bit at the end bringing him in for a visit, but he ends up picking picking Kansas. So on the merits of getting the kid, obviously it would be huge to get the number one kid in America, would have been the biggest recruit in Kentucky got in fifteen years.

00:03:56
Speaker 3: But it hasn't looked like we were going to get him for a while.

00:03:59
Speaker 4: And I went yesterday kind of assuming we probably weren't gonna get him. But I also don't think objectively yesterday could have gone much worse than it went in terms of how the whole thing played out. In a year of some of the worst pr that a basketball program could take, we somehow managed to top it yesterday.

00:04:26
Speaker 3: Man, I really mean that. It's somehow, somehow.

00:04:29
Speaker 4: If you were to ask how could yesterday have gone the worst it could, they did it. And I just want people to understand, Like, I don't know how you do the show the day after this without having some hard truth and comments. So like, if you're somebody who's like, why can't we be positive rally around the group, We'll do that tomorrow.

00:04:50
Speaker 3: We gotta be real to Mark Pope had fifteen, fourteen.

00:04:58
Speaker 4: Of the top twenty players in America visit UK's campus. I want to repeat that fourteen of the top twenty players in America.

00:05:08
Speaker 3: Visited UK's campus this past year. Zero of them committed. Zero. So this isn't like we gave a phone call.

00:05:18
Speaker 4: We had fourteen of them flying to the Lexington Airport and zero of them committed, two of which had significant Kentucky connections and or were born here exactly.

00:05:31
Speaker 3: Okay, and you got none of them.

00:05:35
Speaker 4: You now have a situation where you are a school that has as much money to play with as almost anybody.

00:05:41
Speaker 3: In the country.

00:05:43
Speaker 4: And somehow can't get guys to come here that are your top choices, which is baffling to me. In the portal season and in the recruiting season, you turned down in the recruiting season at least a couple kids that would have come here to wait on Stokes and you don't get them.

00:06:03
Speaker 3: Right.

00:06:04
Speaker 4: During the course of yesterday, Moe Williams, the new assistant coach, responds to a Tyron Stokes tweet saying watch NBA today or whatever at six point thirty to see my commitment.

00:06:19
Speaker 3: He responds and goes, let's go look at that moment.

00:06:22
Speaker 5: You think he still thought they got him.

00:06:25
Speaker 4: No, I'm like, well, he wouldn't write that unless we're gonna get it. Yeah, he's not gonna write that if we're going to Kansas. And I thought, at worst he still thinks Kentucky might get which is, by the way, what I think is had I think it's true. I don't think he did that knowing he was gonna go to Kansas. I think he did that.

00:06:42
Speaker 3: Like they still thought they thought they had a chance, which tells me at three point thirty they still thought they could get it.

00:06:47
Speaker 5: Wow.

00:06:49
Speaker 3: And then he picks Kansas after a number of things that have made Kentucky look bad publicly. Then there's another.

00:06:58
Speaker 4: And then if you were saying, okay, if you're gonna lose Stokes, what's the other thing you could do that would be bad? How about you take a commitment from another kid thirty minutes before and no one cares, right, Justin McBride commits thirty minutes before UK puts out the announcement, and it's just lost to history. And unfortunately for that kid, he takes a lot of negativity for the tyrant Stokes thing. You just set him up to completely. I think that kid's gonna be pretty good. I actually think that's a pretty good get your eyeball emoji. You're and Marios end up correct, but you by baffling pr because.

00:07:40
Speaker 3: You can announce that, yes, that wasn't like some reporter UK thought, Okay, the biggest player to make a decision in a decade is happening in thirty minutes.

00:07:51
Speaker 5: Let's put this out. Now. You think they knew that Stokes wasn't committment, that they're trying to soften the blow, like, hey, we're not get Stokes, We're gonna get.

00:08:00
Speaker 3: This someone should call me and go, that's not how you do it.

00:08:03
Speaker 4: You want this kid to not only get if you get Stokes, nobody pays attention to the kid. If you don't get him, then everybody's mad. And they don't. They're not like given credit to having the kid. Just a terrible decision. And Mo Williams is new to this and I get it, But why did Mo tweet that.

00:08:21
Speaker 5: That's an NCAA violation too?

00:08:22
Speaker 4: I think it's an NCAA violation if he signed with us, or no, excuse me, it's an NCAA violation if he didn't sign with us.

00:08:29
Speaker 3: So yeah, I guess technically it might even be an NCAA violation. That would be great. Get an NCAA violation. Ship you don't even get.

00:08:35
Speaker 5: The kids, I know, right, what are we doing?

00:08:38
Speaker 3: What are we doing?

00:08:40
Speaker 6: Like?

00:08:40
Speaker 3: What are we doing?

00:08:42
Speaker 4: Just from a PR perspective, like it's one thing to not get the players. I mean I could not get the players, but from a PR perspective.

00:08:49
Speaker 3: Like I don't, I have no idea.

00:08:54
Speaker 4: Mark Pope's staff from really the Louisville Game on has done a clinic in how not to do public relations. So then get to the game and it comes out after it's over. Jacob poll a Check reported that Kansas has for a month had the papers signed from Stokes for the non revenue part of his deal. Now, let me just quickly explain what that means. When you sign at the school nowadays, you're signing two things. You're signing your rev share agreement. That's the money that allows you to get money. You don't have to work for it, just a check. You sign that when you sign.

00:09:41
Speaker 3: With the school. Okay, Okay.

00:09:45
Speaker 4: Then you have the non rev share which is your nil commitments that is not binding.

00:09:51
Speaker 3: Okay.

00:09:53
Speaker 4: Jacob had a source tell him a month ago that right after the kids visit to Kentucky, he signed the non buy papers to Kansas.

00:10:02
Speaker 3: Now I didn't know. Jacob knew that. Jacob didn't feel like it.

00:10:05
Speaker 4: Was strong enough to put it out at the time because it was only one source, so he didn't put it out. But Jacob thought it would be good to let the UK staff know that, which, by the way, just.

00:10:17
Speaker 3: So people know that is what reporters do. You know, when you hear me talk about talking to reporters, people think I'm just talking about it because I want them on our show. That's part of it, but part of the what reporters do for every school in the country.

00:10:31
Speaker 4: And just so you know, I did this with cal, I did this with Billy, I did this with Mark, I did this with Joker. When you hear things, you tell the coaching staff so that they know, because reporters will find out things coaches sometimes don't know. Yes, Jacob got this info and was like, well, let's let poping them know that he signed this non revenue stuff.

00:10:56
Speaker 3: They didn't take his call.

00:10:58
Speaker 5: They didn't take the call knowing he took his call.

00:11:01
Speaker 4: Other I spoke to another reporter last night that knew the same thing. Is friendly with Mark.

00:11:07
Speaker 3: This is a national reporter tried to call poping them to didn't take their call, so there was no way to pass on that information.

00:11:17
Speaker 4: Polacheck decided he felt like it wasn't worth putting that out because he didn't feel strong about it, and then also what.

00:11:24
Speaker 3: If it was wrong. He got it confirmed again later yesterday and he said that, but my point of all this is just to say it is not only that UK basketball has bad pr It doesn't seem like they're aware of what is going on. There should never be.

00:11:42
Speaker 4: A world where a reporter at KSR and a national college basketball coach knows something that our staff recruiting, the people don't know, correct, And clearly they didn't know because they've been waiting on Stokes and waiting.

00:11:56
Speaker 3: On Stokes and then decided and then they didn't get me.

00:12:00
Speaker 5: The point you made about the fourteen kids coming on out of the top twenty kids coming on campus and not getting any of.

00:12:05
Speaker 3: Them, that's the most damning statistic.

00:12:07
Speaker 5: It is because you were leading for several of those candidates to sign.

00:12:11
Speaker 3: And you didn't want them if you brought them.

00:12:14
Speaker 5: That's true.

00:12:15
Speaker 3: Fourteen kids you brought here, none of them got it.

00:12:17
Speaker 5: And then, like I said, a lot of them wanted to come here.

00:12:19
Speaker 3: We're leading in the portal.

00:12:23
Speaker 4: So this is this was a phrase used with me yesterday by somebody that's, you know, not a media member. Somebody said to me, Kentucky right now and recruiting is scene as the like Christmas turkey, you get fat on Kentucky, you come, you get Kentucky to kind of flirt with you, and then you go get your money from somebody else. And I can't believe Pope has let that happen.

00:12:48
Speaker 3: I can't. I can't believe he's let that happen. How How did you let that happen? How did you let that happen? That we are the floozy in the bar. To use my grandmother's turngue, we should be the wifey san and we're the flues.

00:13:07
Speaker 5: Yeah, I know, right, we should be the wifey. Yeah, we should be. But that's what's stung about that announcement yesterday. That's usually our moment, that to the Kentucky's moment. The kid gets on ESPN with Charles Barkley and Shack and picks Kentucky and I'm okay that, Like.

00:13:21
Speaker 4: It's not the worst thing in the world to lose a kid to Kansas. Like Kansas is a blue bloy. Bill Seff is a great coach, he's a Hall of Famer, he's a great recruiter. But we've now waited till the last minute.

00:13:36
Speaker 5: Yeah for a kid.

00:13:37
Speaker 3: That all signs seem to point we should have known a long time ago. Wouldn't come here.

00:13:40
Speaker 5: And see if we put all our eggs in that basket. Now the basket's empty.

00:13:44
Speaker 4: And now who do you go get? Mark Pope is apparently on the plane as we speak.

00:13:48
Speaker 3: To Israel.

00:13:51
Speaker 4: That surprised me to hear. I don't know if this was the time I would go there. But he's trying to get a player. There's a Brazilian player named Marcio and toast and maybe he's great. I honestly don't know. I mean, the reality is we're gonna have a roster full of people that we're gonna be like, well, maybe he's good.

00:14:09
Speaker 3: I mean, because we don't know. I mean, to be honest with you. A Brazilian guy playing in Israel. Who knows?

00:14:14
Speaker 5: Who knows?

00:14:15
Speaker 3: Who knows? I mean, who knows?

00:14:16
Speaker 4: He's like somebody said online Shannon, he looked like Ryan, which is not.

00:14:20
Speaker 2: A good Are we just not marriage material anymore?

00:14:24
Speaker 3: I think I thought we were marriage material.

00:14:26
Speaker 5: Why are we not marriage material anymore?

00:14:28
Speaker 3: Why Providence's marriage material? Now we have a nice dowry. I listen, I'm not gonna I want this to work. I do, everyone wants it to work. But there has to be a coming to Jesus moment. With all this stuff, it has seemed like.

00:14:57
Speaker 4: If I look at my time covering this, the one thing that has brought coaches down at this school, the ones that have failed, is hubris and Mark Pope on the surface is not someone with a lot of hubris. He seems like a humble guy. But they have shut out the world. They are in a bunker mentality. The other people at the university have no.

00:15:23
Speaker 3: Idea what's going on.

00:15:24
Speaker 4: That's scary and when you hear I think one of the interesting things Jay Blanton yesterday at the champions Blue meeting. I don't know if you saw his comments, but he said, we as a university have to change our pr strategy, including we have to have some coaches telling stories differently.

00:15:42
Speaker 5: Wow, really well, I mean, who could that be about?

00:15:47
Speaker 3: Who could that be about? I think.

00:15:51
Speaker 4: You're gonna see at the end of this a movement of all right, Mark, you want this to work, you can't be doing.

00:15:56
Speaker 3: I think they're going to end up making him take a GM.

00:16:00
Speaker 4: I think this decision right here, they have to. I think it's clear Mark. I think he can do the x's and o's. I mean, there's still questions, but I think he can. But the other parts of this he clearly can't.

00:16:15
Speaker 3: He can't.

00:16:16
Speaker 4: He can't do it the sort of negotiating horse trading, he can't do that.

00:16:23
Speaker 5: When he gits fourteen of those kids on campus.

00:16:25
Speaker 4: And it's just not good at it. And at some point you have to look in the mirror and say, I'm not good at this.

00:16:32
Speaker 5: I need help.

00:16:34
Speaker 4: I know in my life I'm not good at like money transactions. Money doesn't I think I'm pretty good at figuring out what will work and what's not, but when it comes down to the dollars and cents, I'm really not very good at it. So I have a partner, hubby. You hear me talk about who he handles all that, that's history. Mark's got go find a hubby, all right, because he's bad at it. Available hubby's busy.

00:17:00
Speaker 3: I'm here, like, he's got to go find that if they can. He's bad at it.

00:17:03
Speaker 5: He's just it. Yeah, this is a glaring instident that you need to do this.

00:17:10
Speaker 3: I mean, and I don't know. I don't know if he can relate like is he can he relate to these kids?

00:17:14
Speaker 5: That's why I thought you you bring in william You're trying to get Jamal comfort to do.

00:17:18
Speaker 4: And I think that's good. I'm glad we got Mo Williams. But somebody's got to take his phone. You can't mow Williams. You can't be tweeting at players and say let's go.

00:17:25
Speaker 5: And then they picked the.

00:17:26
Speaker 4: Other schools and Hope even that's it is embarrassing, And he deleted it ten minutes later. But like you can't do it, We're gonna already have seen it, like let's go. I mean that means one of two things. When you put let's go, that means either you're saying you think we're gonna get him, or you're so oblivious to our fan base that you think we're gonna celebrate him going somewhere else.

00:17:48
Speaker 5: And Hope even favored it a tweet from him somebody else. Was that real? It looked like it was his real account.

00:17:53
Speaker 3: I hope not.

00:17:54
Speaker 4: I saw that. I still haven't been clear that that was real. Yeah, but either yesterday, yes, they couldn't have gone working expected him to not come, but it couldn't have gone worse.

00:18:05
Speaker 5: But did you get to enjoy the Reds game anyway?

00:18:07
Speaker 4: Well, Ellie was amazing. That was the best Ellie's ever played. That that was eas the sting that little game. Shannon saw him get the cycle. This is the best. It's plays he made, like were like.

00:18:19
Speaker 5: So that he's the sting a little bit a little bit.

00:18:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, all right, we'll take a break A five nine twenty two eighty seven. We'll talk a little more about all of this. And you know, it's wings day though. That's good and this these guys are from Winchester. They're nice, so they're some positive. We'll be right back.

00:18:36
Speaker 3: Welcome back, Teke you Sports Radio eight five nine twenty two eighty seven. This will be a short segment because I went long right there. One Birch Rights matt Oway was ranked one hundred and ninety third in the portal. Look how good it turned out. Maybe somebody will step it up. Maybe it's not to say that any of these dudes won't be good.

00:18:51
Speaker 4: I don't know, but the point is you cannot say, like, oh, well, one of these guys may be great. Maybe, but Hope clearly wanted these other dudes and we didn't get them. And look at the portal last year. A lot of the dudes we wanted that we didn't get went somewhere else.

00:19:08
Speaker 5: And played well well.

00:19:09
Speaker 4: I actually think Mark Pope does a pretty good job of figuring out who to go after.

00:19:15
Speaker 3: He's doesn't get them.

00:19:16
Speaker 5: Yes, I don't think his.

00:19:20
Speaker 3: Eye for scouting is bad.

00:19:22
Speaker 4: That's why when I say GM, I think they do a pretty good job of figuring out who to target. They need somebody who's greasy in the weeds and gets it done right. You need somebody who closes the deal because it's clear. I mean, here's something I learned.

00:19:39
Speaker 3: In the last seventy two hours. I didn't know.

00:19:42
Speaker 4: I think I assumed that the people at the negotiating table were lawyers or JM I or someone from the university. No, it's Pope and his staff. So last year or what would happen is Poping his staff would hand the process of the negotiation to someone else. We've talked about that it was the collective, then they brought it in house. I assumed that that would mean that it was probably JAMI doing the negotiating. Now JMI has a role in all this, but literally, like the person talking to the player's.

00:20:21
Speaker 3: Agent would be JMI. I'm told it's Poping his staff.

00:20:25
Speaker 5: Wow, that's even more damning, Yes.

00:20:28
Speaker 3: Because that's not what they do. They're basketball coaches. You need people who deal with agents. You need a GM. You know Keegan Brown who they brought in. He's an analytics guy.

00:20:43
Speaker 4: He's a guy that looks at the numbers and goes, we should get He's probably the guy that found this kid in Israel. Maybe, but he's not a get in the weeds and negotiate. He's not looking at an agent at a poker game and going, I right, what do you want?

00:21:01
Speaker 3: I fold right?

00:21:04
Speaker 4: You're so you got Basically you got little guppies going into the battle with alligators.

00:21:11
Speaker 3: You know, I'm serious, Like, you get eaten alive. Yeah, you get eaten alive. You know.

00:21:17
Speaker 4: Sometimes in my few years of being a lawyer, you'd see somebody come into like a settlement negotiation and like if they come in shake and you're like, well, we got this.

00:21:29
Speaker 3: I think we're the dude.

00:21:30
Speaker 4: We've got a bunch of analytic guys trying to negotiate with sharks.

00:21:36
Speaker 5: And if the negotiation skills aren't good, and your people skills not connecting with some of these young kids not good, that's just a recipe for disaster.

00:21:45
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, And I've become more and more I think that's what it is. I think there are some things that still hobble Kentucky a little bit. We talked about some of the JMI stuff. I think that's part of it. But I actually think that part of.

00:22:01
Speaker 3: It has been fixed or as close to being fixed.

00:22:06
Speaker 4: Really yeah, because I think they've I think they've moved their position on a couple of things, which is good, that's what you want to do positive. But now I think a big problem is you just have a bunch of dude like like Pete Nocta and the guy. They're doing it for football. There's some people who know how to handle these people. I just think we've got a bunch of I mean, you put a computer scientist in front of an agent for the number one.

00:22:36
Speaker 5: You're gonna get crushed.

00:22:37
Speaker 3: And Kansas has been dealing with these people are forever.

00:22:40
Speaker 4: They've been on probation twenty. You know, they got dudes who are in the in the gutters doing this stuff, and we have.

00:22:49
Speaker 5: Nerds goes along what we said. They have trouble connecting with the younger generation.

00:22:56
Speaker 4: So all right, I'm gonna take your cause. I'm not gonna be angry. Good out of By the way, though you did have your eyeballs ended up being correct.

00:23:03
Speaker 5: We have to I guess we gotta lecture you later.

00:23:06
Speaker 3: Be right back. TJ.

00:23:09
Speaker 4: Smith, personal injury attorney, called tj He'll make them pay.

00:23:13
Speaker 2: Now more of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage.

00:23:17
Speaker 3: Here's Matt Jones. Welcome back Tucky Sports Radio.

00:23:20
Speaker 4: If I'm nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven, the text machine is six seven two seven four five two five four phone lines. We're gonna go to him here. One person writes, Matt, we need a guy like Slice. Slice would be good in this world. Slice is that kind of guy like Slices. You know, he's from the streets of Queens.

00:23:37
Speaker 3: He can talk to agents, he can talk sl I've been with Slice in multiple different Slice was my guy.

00:23:43
Speaker 4: He wasn't here was because like he he could walk into any room. But you know, I mean that's one of the things about Cal is you know, I think I don't know if Cal's We have debates about the coaching of Cal, but one of the things Cal has always been good at is relating to people. And Cal was fine moving among Like Cal had some people where he'd walk out the room and then another guy walk in and go, ah, but we're gonna get this done.

00:24:10
Speaker 3: Here we go.

00:24:11
Speaker 4: You know, he had he was fine being around people who would get your hands dirt.

00:24:15
Speaker 5: Pope needs that guy.

00:24:16
Speaker 3: We need that guy we need. You know, have you seen have you seen pulp fiction?

00:24:22
Speaker 5: Yes?

00:24:23
Speaker 3: You know.

00:24:23
Speaker 4: And they accidentally shoot the guy in the car, yes you remember that, and they got the blood all over the back of it, and they drive to Harvey Kattel's house.

00:24:32
Speaker 3: What's his name in the show, do you remember?

00:24:34
Speaker 5: No?

00:24:34
Speaker 3: Whatever it was, but they go because he fixes the problem.

00:24:37
Speaker 4: Right like, he's the fixer. He that might be what they call him. He's the fixer. That's that's what we need a guy like that.

00:24:44
Speaker 5: We definitely need a guy like that.

00:24:45
Speaker 4: And I think also maybe Mitch Barnhardt didn't like a lot like having people around like that. But now Mitch is gone right different air no more. Everybody associated with the program doesn't need to go to Southland. I mean, we have some people that go to Southland. I got nothing in south but I don't need to all go there.

00:25:05
Speaker 5: This is such a this is such a I'm just just being real.

00:25:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, we got this is just the wrong with south just nothing wrong with Southland.

00:25:13
Speaker 3: But we don't need everybody like we might need one or two that you know, go to Center Point Christian Church where I go about stop promoting your church. The point is just to get some people in the weeds and that's all.

00:25:24
Speaker 6: I mean.

00:25:25
Speaker 4: Now, you did get Justin McBride, he did commit the kid from James Madison.

00:25:29
Speaker 5: Do what do Mario and I need to lecture you? Now you you lectured Mario and I that one day.

00:25:33
Speaker 3: Well you did get it four days wrong.

00:25:35
Speaker 4: But otherwise a four days that's one day to look at it.

00:25:40
Speaker 5: But yes, so the timing of the announcement, I'm happy for the kid. He could be like a MODI about that guy. Give you a little strength and rebounding and toughness down low where you kind of need it right now. But the timing for the kid is awful. I feel bad for him.

00:25:55
Speaker 4: I feel bad for him too. I mean I think he's a good get. I think I actually he's even a better get when you consider that you pair him with the guy from from Senegal, because I think they.

00:26:08
Speaker 5: They could be the diabate Yelovich.

00:26:10
Speaker 4: Now he got well, I mean, they're just two different kinds of guys, right, and so like there'll be games where you'll want to play mcbridemore, and then there might be games you want to play the longer lean guy.

00:26:19
Speaker 3: So I actually like that he shot forty threes.

00:26:23
Speaker 4: And I the more I read about this kid that they're seeing in Israel, I'm fine with him because I think he'll come here and probably be a backup to Malay. But I still like we need somebody good, Like we still we still need a really good.

00:26:36
Speaker 5: Player, a dude.

00:26:38
Speaker 3: We need a dude, and these guys, those guys are not a dude, right, so we need a dude.

00:26:43
Speaker 5: That's why I was out there.

00:26:44
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know. I think the dudes we have are at power forward. And when you sign the two guys that they're looking, if they're if they get the kid from Israel, then then like like the kid from Iowa State, are you gonna get him when you already have four big on your roster?

00:27:01
Speaker 3: Like how many bigs are you trying to get?

00:27:03
Speaker 4: At some point you're gonna be go, Okay, we still you know, right now, we still only have two guards. Did we not learn our lesson last year when we only had three guards? We only have two guards on the roster right now that can play, right. We have two freshmen that are development guys. Yes, But I mean, are we gonna get any more guards? I'd say they've got to go out and get somebody. I'm just wondering if there's nothing left the United States, we will be either we have cam but that's really it.

00:27:31
Speaker 3: We don't have any wings. Trent.

00:27:33
Speaker 5: Where would he fit in?

00:27:34
Speaker 4: But I mean, I like Trent, but we can't go into the year assuming Trent's gonna be the go to wing.

00:27:39
Speaker 5: Scorer Brandon Hawthorne.

00:27:41
Speaker 4: If he's good, Yes, if he's good, then maybe they think they're okay there. But right now, by the way, we're still not projected to being the turn or excuse me, we are projected to be in top twenty five.

00:27:52
Speaker 3: Now they've expanded the tournament they did. I hate that. I hate it.

00:27:56
Speaker 4: But let's let's let's we'll compare plain about that. In the say okay, all right, who's first bird?

00:28:01
Speaker 3: Bird? Go ahead? Bird?

00:28:04
Speaker 7: All right, guys, Tyron Stokes played us like a freaking fiddle. We've been hoodwinked, ben boozled and led us straight by this guy. And he said, you know what, give me two weeks to make my decision. All that two weeks really was was who was gonna sponsor his commitment and where he was going to do it. And he did it with freaking Panini on TV, and we just got embarrassed. You know, I'm ready for the football season, the power case back, That's all I got.

00:28:25
Speaker 4: Part of me wonders, I appreciate the call. I mean, I can I be like cynical conspiracy theorists?

00:28:31
Speaker 2: Please?

00:28:31
Speaker 5: What the show?

00:28:31
Speaker 4: Part of me wonders if Kansas said to him wait two weeks, because if Kentucky's gonna wait, they can't get him players.

00:28:36
Speaker 3: In those two weeks. And we opened with them to start to see there.

00:28:40
Speaker 5: May be a little truth to it.

00:28:42
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know that, but what but he waited a long time. Yeah, you know, I don't blame the kid. The kids should do. I mean, the kid doesn't know anybody anything.

00:28:51
Speaker 2: But he was watching Kentucky basketball in the background.

00:28:55
Speaker 3: You know. But I think we could he is. I think it is fair to say he trolls. He trolled us people.

00:29:02
Speaker 4: I mean, look, I Kentucky fans are not gonna like him, But what does he care? In some ways if he's not coming here.

00:29:09
Speaker 5: Well about the whole Nike Adidas thing.

00:29:11
Speaker 3: Clearly didn't matter.

00:29:12
Speaker 5: Didn't matter.

00:29:12
Speaker 4: Apparently Kansa is somebody reported on the Kansas site they changed the deal, so it didn't matter.

00:29:18
Speaker 3: See that's the kind of thing though, you do.

00:29:20
Speaker 4: If you really want somebody, uh huh, If you really want somebody, you go, Okay, we're in Adida school, but we want you.

00:29:24
Speaker 3: We'll find a way to make it, way to make it, a way to make it work.

00:29:27
Speaker 4: And so that's what you do. I mean, that's you know, I give them credit. That's what you do. You find a way to make it work.

00:29:33
Speaker 3: And even if Tyron Stokes, let's say.

00:29:35
Speaker 4: He ends up like being selfish and whatever, we wanted him and we didn't get him.

00:29:41
Speaker 3: You can't be like.

00:29:43
Speaker 4: You can't if he ends up being a failure. Maybe that's a lucky break for us.

00:29:48
Speaker 5: But we wanted him. You had to want it. Number one rate a player in the country.

00:29:52
Speaker 3: And we didn't get it.

00:29:54
Speaker 4: And we had fourteen of the top twenty players in America on our campus and we got none of them.

00:30:00
Speaker 5: And some of them wanted to come here when they made the trip to Lexington, and we got none of them. Got none of them.

00:30:06
Speaker 3: Do you do you think the image? All? Right?

00:30:09
Speaker 4: So there are some reports also from the Kansas side, and I said this as well, that the visit to Kentucky apparently went horribly.

00:30:17
Speaker 3: When Stokes came. What could have happened? He was only here twenty four hours that beat up Kiya he was the key.

00:30:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess Carson and Mborghini.

00:30:31
Speaker 4: I mean he wasn't and he wasn't even here that long. I mean forty five minutes of it. He was live on Instagram shooting basketball at Rubb.

00:30:38
Speaker 5: What about the Banner Boys, they're oer for three.

00:30:40
Speaker 4: It's not their fault though they're trying. They're trying, they're trying to be positive. Yeah, they just all they somebody just needs to reimburse their sheets because their sheets and their sheets didn't work. How could the visit? That's been a constant theme we've heard is that the visits are bad? What could be happening? I mean, what are we doing on these visits? It's like what can make that? I mean, how bad can they be? Are we making them stay at like the Econo Lodge.

00:31:06
Speaker 2: There's a parody video that's floating around out there, and if you've seen it, I don't think maybe the truth is too far from that.

00:31:11
Speaker 3: About what the visit's like.

00:31:13
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I sleep in this jersey.

00:31:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, he does say I sleep in the jersey. I mean maybe, I don't know. I don't know what you would do.

00:31:24
Speaker 4: I remember he got game, They took him, they took him to a party, he met a woman.

00:31:30
Speaker 3: We're going to see horses.

00:31:35
Speaker 6: You know.

00:31:35
Speaker 5: It worked with Julius Random when he came for his visit.

00:31:37
Speaker 3: Julius Random met his wife on his visit, married his I'm eighty seven. Who's next, Chris, Chris?

00:31:44
Speaker 6: Go ahead, Chris, Yes, Sir Man just wanted to stop by saying, I think you have the best college radio sports show. And I just want to address the way Twitter was kind of bashing cass Are for.

00:32:00
Speaker 3: I'm tired I'm doing.

00:32:03
Speaker 4: I am so over the people on social media who just take every opportunity to bash. I mean, if you want to bash me, fine, But like they're going after Jacob. Jacob made a minor mistake, which was when he put his article up about knowing about the papers, he should have put he didn't get a second source until yesterday.

00:32:24
Speaker 3: But people going after.

00:32:25
Speaker 4: What happens is we lose a player, and people want to have somebody to blame. They want to get mad at somebody, and get mad at Jacob. I mean if you're sitting there yelling at a kid that's twenty four and like putting making fun like that, get a life, Okay, I mean that kid. He tried to call Mark Pope and tell him about this, and nobody took his care and they wouldn't take his call.

00:32:51
Speaker 3: So what do you want him to do?

00:32:53
Speaker 4: And he made the decision at the time. I have one source. If I put this out that because here's what's gonna happen. If Jacob's that out. If Jacob puts that out, then Stokes is gonna say that's wrong, right, Yes, Stokes is not gonna admit he signed with Kansas.

00:33:08
Speaker 3: No, the fans are all gonna get mad at Jacob yes and say he lied. And then when Stokes picks Kansas, they're gonna say it's cause of Jacob's fault. See, So, like you make it to where a kid like that can't win.

00:33:23
Speaker 4: So I I saw everybody doing that. I spent a lot of the Reds game like trying, you know, talking to Jacob. He was very like he was kind of distraught about it, and I understood. And so people are just people are It's one thing to be a jerk to me, but like to just pick on these kids like he did everything he could do. He literally tried to call the staff and say, here's some information you should want, and they wouldn't take his call.

00:33:50
Speaker 3: What are you supposed to do? At that point?

00:33:52
Speaker 5: I admire him for doing that, trying to He didn't even have to do that. I didn't have to do that, but he did it because we all want Kentucky to win like I want them to do. Everyone wants them to win, but we cannot.

00:34:04
Speaker 4: We can lead a horse to water, but if Mark Pope doesn't want to drink it, what are we supposed to do?

00:34:09
Speaker 6: So go ahead, sir, Absolutely, absolutely, no, you're right. And I was just saying, you know, it seems like the blame should be more towards the coaching staff who's recruiting a kid wasting resources that has no idea that this has even happened a month prior. That just to me is a lack of leadership.

00:34:28
Speaker 4: Yes, assuming you know, if that's true, And I appreciate the call. And by the way, at this point, they are now even Kansas people saying it's true, So it's not just Jacob, so it's probably a fact. I I yes, and Stokes is gonna say it's not because it would make it like but again, play out what happens if Jacob says a month ago he's already signed with Kansas, they will ask Stokes, he will say no, I didn't, and then everybody will get mad at Jacob.

00:34:53
Speaker 3: Yes, that's exactly what's gonna happen. So he did what was correct. I I didn't know he knew that, but he talked to.

00:35:02
Speaker 4: Tyler, and Tyler was like, unless you can get a second source, we're just gonna leave it be. And that's what we did. And the rep I didn't even know he knew about it, but.

00:35:13
Speaker 5: But he got it confirmed.

00:35:13
Speaker 4: Even the reality is if we're in a world where a recruiting reporter knows more than our staff, that's a problem, the big problem.

00:35:22
Speaker 3: That's a problem.

00:35:25
Speaker 5: And I think he's got a relationship with some members of the staff that you think they would take his phone call.

00:35:29
Speaker 4: They have made the decision, and I talked to a national reporter about this last night on my drive home. UK staff made a decision that during this portal process they weren't gonna talk to anyone from any outlet, no one except the people in the room. So I'm told there's a room of like seven or eight people that are the only ones that know what's going on. And that's why people don't. That's why no one knows what's happening. And the only way I find out stuff just so people know is random people in the city who happened to find out, or people from other staffs and people from around the country were telling me and Jack and Jacob like, he's not going to Kentucky, but the people at UK were still trying to project that they had him, And I don't know if they were trying to project it or they genuinely believed it. I think Ryan, they genuinely believed.

00:36:22
Speaker 5: Moe Williams tweet yesterday convinced me they believe What.

00:36:24
Speaker 3: Do you make of that tweet, Shanon? Why did he tweet that?

00:36:28
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I'm assuming he did not know that that was a violation by doing that, But there's there's no reason to do that.

00:36:35
Speaker 4: And Okay, let's assume he didn't know it was a violation, because he of course he would of course he wouldn't do it if he knew it. But like Shannon, do you think that meant he didn't know what he was gonna do.

00:36:46
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I think so too, because if you did know that he was going to go to Kansas, why would you.

00:36:51
Speaker 5: Put it He would put that out there.

00:36:53
Speaker 3: So that means that he sent that out at like three forty five. That means that three forty five our staff did not know where he was going.

00:37:00
Speaker 5: And then how soon lander they announced them and Bride decision six?

00:37:06
Speaker 3: Why do you think they announced it? Then? Do you think they announced it because they thought they were getting them both?

00:37:10
Speaker 5: I think they announced it because the knew they weren't getting Stokes and trying to c hya and so anyone not tell them?

00:37:18
Speaker 3: Can I can? I give my pr advice?

00:37:20
Speaker 4: Yes, if you know you're not gonna get Stokes, either put it out Sunday right yeah, or if you can't.

00:37:31
Speaker 3: Wait till Tuesday.

00:37:34
Speaker 4: Maybe is a way to make us feel better after Stokes announcing it at six.

00:37:39
Speaker 5: Before Stokes makes this a big announced like the worst time. It was the worst. As I said earlier, it made me feel sorry for the kid.

00:37:46
Speaker 2: When I saw that I knew that we weren't getting Stokes.

00:37:48
Speaker 3: I did. I kind of did too. Yeah, I was like that, Yeah, throw that underneath of him, because if we were getting stokes, it would be even worse because you go, well, nobody cares about the other guy.

00:37:58
Speaker 5: That's kind of what I happened that I do too.

00:38:01
Speaker 4: Justin McBride, when he gets here, I'm gonna he might be the guy adopt as the dude.

00:38:04
Speaker 3: I'm the may I feel bad for him. He got the raw into that.

00:38:08
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00:38:36
Speaker 3: We'll take a break right back. Kentucky Sports Radio, Welcome back, take you Sports Radio AF.

00:38:42
Speaker 4: I'm nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven text machine seven seven two seven seven four five two five four. To give you an example, what I'm talking about in terms of people not wanting to hear bad news. I wish you could see the text machine and it's not a lot of people, but a few people going, well, why didn't Jacob just leave a message with the staff, like like, hey, you're gonna leave a message by the way, Stokes signed with Cans like you're gonna want to explain to him what and who you got the source from and try to try to be helpful. Yes, but look, the reality is if you had left the matches, they wouldn't have listened.

00:39:18
Speaker 3: If you're not gonna take somebody's call, you're not gonna listen to what they say. And I'm not even like they don't have to take They don't have to take anybody's call. But you have to understand it's not just about us. They don't talk to anyone.

00:39:29
Speaker 4: Ask anyone in college basketball and they'll say Mark Pope and his staff have cut off the world. They don't talk to people in athletics. Ryan, the people in the athletic department do not know.

00:39:41
Speaker 3: What is going on.

00:39:42
Speaker 5: How's that working out for them?

00:39:44
Speaker 3: Well, if they got everybody, it would be working out great. But they haven't.

00:39:48
Speaker 4: And so my point is you can try to justify the philosophy, but you judge a philosophy by its results, right right, That's it Like just I just to find the philosophy if it works, well, I mean to Shannon Dawson may have been right many years ago.

00:40:05
Speaker 3: If it works, you'd have loved it.

00:40:07
Speaker 5: So now Kentucky sitting there with a boatload of money, presurely yes, now that might they were gonna give to Stokes. Now sitting there, what what do they do with this?

00:40:16
Speaker 4: I was told by someone who would know that Stokes wanted his money primarily in revshare. Okay, so remember you have two pockets. You have rev sharre in ale most players get their money in in Ale.

00:40:29
Speaker 5: On basketball, yeah.

00:40:30
Speaker 4: Football, most of them will get it via rev share, but in basketball most of them will get it via in IL. Stokes wanted money that was ninety percent rep share. So they had structured their entire thing that most of Kentucky's basketball repshare money was going to go to Stokes, including I think there was gonna be some money come from other sports that then in those sports some money that would have been revshare money was gonna come from.

00:40:59
Speaker 3: In Does that make sense yes, so they were gonna.

00:41:02
Speaker 4: Have to sell an Ile more for some of these other stokes had the leverage and demand.

00:41:08
Speaker 3: So point being, there's a large chunk of.

00:41:11
Speaker 5: Rev Share money just sitting there now.

00:41:13
Speaker 3: Sitting there available.

00:41:15
Speaker 4: I think some of the money that might have been shared from other programs will not be used, it will go back to those other programs. But there still is a lot of money out there. And so now they're still in theory money to go get guys.

00:41:29
Speaker 5: And we have roster spots open that they need to fill.

00:41:32
Speaker 4: Yes, And so apparently Pope is watching the guy play in Israel tonight. I guess with the time chains, that's pretty soon tonight there is probably what are they seven hours ahead of us or something, so it's probably, you.

00:41:47
Speaker 5: Know, with these European guys, we see little.

00:41:49
Speaker 4: Brazilian though he plays in a European league, but he's from Gotcha, so he's uh, you know, he's from Brazil.

00:41:57
Speaker 5: But you try to make your opinion on what you see. A couple of highlights from him he does play.

00:42:02
Speaker 4: The team he plays for is a really good team, Maccabi Tel Aviv.

00:42:06
Speaker 3: They're one of like the ten best teams in your.

00:42:08
Speaker 5: Lie and then one of the best leagues.

00:42:10
Speaker 4: Well, the way Europe does it is they have a domestic league and then you play in the euro super League. That team is good enough to play in the euro super League, so he plays against all the best players in Europe. Okay, so that's what it's worth noting. We'll take a break, we'll come back our number two. It is wingsday. Hopefully these people here will get some food in him and that'll cheer them up.

00:42:27
Speaker 3: We'll be right back