KSR Postgame UK MBB vs Iowa State NCAAT 3/22/26

00:00:08
Speaker 1: Well, welcome everyone. It is the local Towity Dealers KSR postgame show. The Cats finished their season with a disappointing and somewhat embarrassing loss to Iowa State eighty two sixty three in Saint Louis, and the Cats finished the season twenty two and fourteen. Kentucky one of those games that will be kind of hard for the fan base to digest. If I'm nine two to eight, zho twenty two to eighty seven, we are here. It's me and Ryan and Mario. We are stopped in Mount Vernon, Illinois. We actually took off right as the game ended and headed on our way back.

00:00:47
Speaker 2: I like a lot of ways to go about this game.

00:00:50
Speaker 1: I think what I will do is talk a minute, a couple of minutes about the game, and then kind of overall about the season as a whole. First of all, the game, Tucky came out really well, started led twenty to eight. I felt like, for the first time all year, I set directly courtside, when you get kind of a different view. When you sit there, you can see the game in a way that I actually think is a lot more helpful in watching. And I thought Kentucky came out defensively and was great in the first half. Intense, got out on the shooters. I was very, very impressed and offensively early they shared the ball, they passed to the off side, which is what Mark Popit said they wanted to do kind of make the skip pass across the court, and I thought they looked great. And then all of a sudden, Iowa State changed their defense. And I think this is worth noting. I talked on the pregame show today about how when I talked to Tom Crane and then Seth Greenberg said this on TV that the way Iowa State was going to play is they were going to double everything when people made drive, try to cut off the basket and make Kentucky shoot threes. And at the start of the game that's what they did. And then Kentucky made six threes to start the game. And after they did that, time out was called and Iowa State switched their defense. After having a game plan that clearly the coaches had said to broadcasters because many broadcasters said it right, they came out and completely switched their defense. They made a coaching adjustment they did and they decided to pressure the ball handler at the point of attack whoever it was every time, and then when they did, the pressure just wilted Kentucky. The guards couldn't handle it, the bigs really couldn't handle it, and Kentucky ended up with twenty turnovers, twelve in the first half. That's an outrageous amount. I mean, we Kentucky only won one game all year where they had more than eleven turnovers, and we had twenty. And that game plan Kentucky was just not able to adjust to. And when they switched it, when they switched from kind of daring Kentucky to shoot threes to saying, okay, beaus, beat our pressure, Kentucky was not able to do it. And offensively, then every shot seemed like it was a miracle to get one off.

00:03:18
Speaker 2: Much less make it.

00:03:19
Speaker 1: It was wilting. It was one of the best defensive performances after that adjustment I've seen a team play against Kentucky in a long time. And then understandably, when the offense suffers, the defense suffered on the other end. Cats were up one at halftime. I thought there were two key sequences in the game. Number one, and we've said this all year, the substitution patterns. Now, this was not a mass substitution, because that's been an issue for a lot of the year. But this was a game where I think only three guards could play Aberdeen, Away and Chandler. And when they tried and understand why Pope did this, when he tried to steal minutes for those guys, it just didn't work. Put in Jasper Johnson. He was minus nine and a minute and thirty seven seconds and it was a brutal minus nine. Moreno really struggle all game. Shot free throws well, but otherwise really struggle. Couldn't get his hands on the ball, which which leads to the second key sequence up seven. Great defense on a possession missshot, Diabate taps the rebound. Diabate I thought was great hitting the glass, taps the rebound, taps it into Moreno's hands, who loses it, falls down. A mam Levic or whatever his name was for Aowa State catches it, shoots an open corner three, cuts it to four. It could have been a seven with the ball with a minute fifteen. Instead it's four. We come down Russia's shot, no understanding of time and situation. They get the ball back. We come and rush another shot and give them the final shot and they hit a three and we go from up seven to down one. And I thought that was a crucial little swing. And then the second half was just embarrassing. I mean, they at one point were down twenty five. It was just it was embarrassing second half. So Kentucky loses. So that's the game. Ryan thoughts on the game. You nailed it.

00:05:20
Speaker 3: Came out great start, and we said in the pregame show that they're gonna have to hit shots.

00:05:24
Speaker 1: They did.

00:05:24
Speaker 3: We said Colin Town's got to come out hit some shots, and he did. He did. You know, offense looked great, but you nailed it.

00:05:30
Speaker 1: Man.

00:05:30
Speaker 3: Iowa State. Maybe adjustment when they put that trapping defensive pressure on us. Kentucky did not handle it at all.

00:05:36
Speaker 1: And you saw the weaknesses that the team had. The two biggest weaknesses in my opinion maybe three one No depth.

00:05:44
Speaker 3: No depth.

00:05:45
Speaker 1: Now some of that is having a couple of injuries, but a big part of it is they didn't have a backup point guard. So I mean, you could not take Aberdeen out, and when they did, you saw what happened.

00:05:56
Speaker 3: He went him in there. They pushed our offense out. It was starting nearly at half courts.

00:06:00
Speaker 1: By the way, we lost by nineteen and Aberdeen was minus five, which means we were minus fourteen without him and he only set out four minutes. Wow. So think about that for him now, I mean, think about how bad it was when he wasn't on the court. It was it was brutal.

00:06:18
Speaker 2: So that was number one.

00:06:19
Speaker 1: Pope addressed that after the game said, well, we thought something was gonna happen in our spring situation, and then it fell through. I guess he's referencing a Caden Lewis not coming here. But when a Cayden Lewis didn't come, you gotta go do something. There's still plenty of time. There's guys all over the world, right Yeah, and they didn't do it. And you saw that. And let me say salute to Aberdeen for making that. Like I actually think he was great in the second half of the year. And while I'm on that phase, salute o way. Yes, one of the best two year runs as a player in Kentucky history. He was, you know, wasn't perfect, but this is a guy who probably on the ideal team is Robin to a batman, and he had to be batman, and he was a pretty pretty dagone good batman. Honestly was better than I thought he could be this year, and so salute to him. He had thirty what is it how many games we played? We played thirty six games this year, thirty six And I think he had thirty three games in double figures and or thirty four games in double figures, and I think something like seventeen games or nineteen games over twenty points. Wow, pretty amazing season for him. Now, bigger picture, the season as a whole, and ultimately this, ultimately, this is the most important thing.

00:07:38
Speaker 2: The season as a whole was a huge discipline.

00:07:42
Speaker 1: I don't know how you can say that the season was anything but a disappointment. Kentucky came in the own coach said, we were a ferrari We had national championship or Final four expectations. Yes, we had two major injuries. Was at the point guard. But they did make a voluntary choice to not have a backup well, he said. Pope said in the post game, we knew our weakness was we didn't have a backup point guard. Well, probably should have fixed that. That hurts you, quaintance, that's a loss, But you know what, I don't find that as much of an excuse as everybody else, because you knew he had a torn acl when you brought him, when you took him right, so you made the conscious decision to do that. That wasn't like he got like low was a freak accident. But Quaintans, you knew he was coming off of torn acl and you just you decided to do it. So while I do give some sympathy for the low thing, ultimately you didn't construct this roster correctly. Even when we were at our best. I will remind you we had three games where we had the whole team. We beat Saint John's, but we lost by like twenty five to Alabama and lost at home to Missouri.

00:08:59
Speaker 3: Yes, were people just bring up the wolf.

00:09:02
Speaker 2: We had our whole team.

00:09:04
Speaker 1: We were zero to two in the one game where all guys played right. We had one half where we looked good, the second half aga in Saint John's. For the rest of the time we weren't good even with the whole team. It was poor roster construction. It just was. And I will go further, I think what we had was poorly coached. He did not have a team that fit his philosophy. And then in my opinion, Mark was not able to make it adapt. He was not able to take his players, adjust how they play and make it work. I'll give you an example right now, Saint John's playing. Rick has a team of dudes who can't shoot. They can't and yet he's got them on the way to potentially the Sweet six team. We'll see how the game ends. And they won the Big East because he adjusted to what he had.

00:09:52
Speaker 3: Lay your stings right.

00:09:55
Speaker 1: This team actually ended up shooting okay some of the year, but we were not able to adjust, and it was a very disappointing year. I thought last year was ultimately a kind of successful year. I think this year was a disappointment, which is why I think the third year is going to be what it comes down to. Form Mark Pope, there are there was a couple discouraging comments in the post In the postgame, I might have to pull this out to read it, but he said he was asked about going forward, and he said, we've got to find guys who want to come here because of what Kentucky is. I hate that philosophy. That philosophy may have been true ten years ago, although I don't think it was maybe twenty years ago. We need to get the best players and then teach them to quote Terrence Jones about Kentuck, right, Yeah, then teach them about Kentucky. Get the best guys here, bring them here, and then make them fall in love with it. Because when you bring guys who this is the peak of what they want. That's nice, it makes our heart feel good. But we lose, right Illinoi's got a team full of serbians that probably didn't even know worse Illinois was on the map when they came here, and they're in the sweet sixteenth, right right, So teach them about Kentucky. I don't. I'm worried. I'm worried about the building of the off season. We'll talk more about later this week. But Eli Cappaluto made a video yesterday. The basics of it were, we gotta cut expenses, We gotta cut expenses. Jack Givens said on the post game, I don't know if they're gonna have as much money for NIL next year. That's a little concern. Ouch Jack would know, Yes, he would, that's a little concerning. And then when you hear Mark say, well, we got to start getting people who want to be here for what Kentucky. Is that sounds like it's saying we may not be able to get these guys that cost a lot of money. All of those things are things that make it hard for me to feel confidence about next year. Now we'll see there's a big portal season. We'll see who comes back. But you have to call a spadea s bade. And this was a disappointing year. And it wasn't we didn't reach our goals. We were twenty two and fourteen. We lost fourteen games the second round. You know, it's not a disaster, but it's also not great. But the bigger issues that we lost fourteen games. We were a non seed in the SEC tournament. We played the first game of the SEC tournament. Right. We were non competitive in many games this year, many games, many games. This wasn't like bad luck. We got our.

00:12:48
Speaker 2: Ass kicked in a lot of games this year. Now we do.

00:12:52
Speaker 1: Have some good wins, a positive two good wins over Tennessee right one at Arkansas, biggest win of the year. That was a great whip. Right won a game against Bandy at home that was nice. Beat Saint John's, Yes, but we also lost it home to Georgia. And we lost it home to Missouri. Right. We got embarrassed at Texas A and M. We got embarrassed at Vanderbilte. We lost by forty to Gonzaga in Nashville. We had embarrassment that we should not have at this school. And so people asked me once, how do I grade a team? Regular season? Number one A D.

00:13:40
Speaker 2: We were the ninth seed in the SEC D SEC Tournament.

00:13:48
Speaker 4: C.

00:13:49
Speaker 1: Right, they won a couple of games games, but we only made it to the quarterfinal.

00:13:53
Speaker 3: Right, it still didn't make it the weekend and.

00:13:55
Speaker 1: Then NCAA Tournament.

00:13:58
Speaker 5: C.

00:14:00
Speaker 1: But we have a great moment we'll always remember with the O Way shot. Yeah, so that's nice.

00:14:05
Speaker 6: But overall, just a really really disappointing season that I think sets it up where if we are objective, Mark Pope's future at Kentucky is about next.

00:14:19
Speaker 3: Season will be defined next it will be defined by next season.

00:14:23
Speaker 1: There are people I see them online who want to make a change. Now that's not going to happen. It's also not what I think should happen. But I also don't think this baby should be behind me screaming I don't get to choose everything. So I next year will define what Mark Pope is or isn't.

00:14:44
Speaker 3: At Kentucky, I agree with you. I think last year's team kind of overachieved. This year's team definitely underachieved. And this team was way too good to lose fourteen games. Way too good, way too good. I don't care what you think about talent. Go look at that team Iowa State put on the floor.

00:15:04
Speaker 1: Go look at the pedigrees of that guy of that team where they were ranked in high school, and then look at forget about low acquaintance, look at who we put on the floor this year as well. Uh, look at our pedigrees R nil. There's no reason for us to lose by twenty each points points. We lost by twenty points because they ran a better defense, they ran a better offense, they were better coached, they were better connected, they had a better identity than our guys, right period, end of story. If we had lost to Duke and that talent, then I might accept your argument of yours, but an argument of well, our guys were hurt, but we lost to a team of guys that on paper shouldn't be any better than our guys, and the one guy they had that is better was out. We can't complain their best player got hurt in the last.

00:16:07
Speaker 3: Game and they found a way to make it work and beat just by nineteen second worst tie, second worst loss and.

00:16:13
Speaker 1: Second worst loss in the NCAA tournament ever. Ever could have been worse, felt like it was worse. So it is disappointing. I know fans are disappointed. I know Mark is disappointed. I'm sure everyone is. But their needs to be a fundamental reset and evaluation of everything involved with how UK Athletics and UK basketball has been run the last six years. That starts at the top where we're making a change. It goes down through nil GM, it goes down through media relations, fan relations, coaching. Everything, in my opinion, has been off the tracks a little bit, and it is steam rolled to get worse and worse, with everyone instead of trying to figure out how to make it better, pointing fingers at other people. If we're honest with each other behind the scenes, they all point fingers at each other and you all are shaking your heads because you know it's true, or they point fingers at the media or the fans or expectations. No one takes accountability and looks in the mirror and says, when are we gonna reset this? Now's the opportunity, because if you don't reset it right now, in one year, we're gonna be looking for something to do.

00:17:48
Speaker 3: That's just the reality. They better do it.

00:17:49
Speaker 1: And what makes me nervous is I still hear people pointing fingers instead of looking in the mirror and going, what can I do that might be different than what I'm doing HU And on a weekend when I see a president come on and go, we're gonna have to cut expenses and now we're going to focus on how we make money as a university, which is what he'sa in.

00:18:15
Speaker 3: Yes.

00:18:17
Speaker 1: And I see a coach who says we need to get guys who play for the name on the front of the jersey, and I see that performance on the court, there's a part of me that goes, you know, is someone going to lead here and make a change that this basketball program can get back to the elite status where it needs to be.

00:18:41
Speaker 3: That playing for the front of the jersey, that's old school basketball. Like I said, that may have been something you can do ten years ago. Definitely fifteen years, twenty years ago. Modern basketball is not that way anymore.

00:18:52
Speaker 1: There was a lot of things, especially towards the end about cal that I grew sour up. But one thing I always did believe him about was if you get the talent this, they'll fall in love with the university. Right. I believe that, Yes, because this place is special.

00:19:12
Speaker 2: Mark loves this place.

00:19:13
Speaker 1: He'll get them to fall in love with the university.

00:19:16
Speaker 3: Sure he will.

00:19:17
Speaker 1: But I don't need somebody who's in love with us immediately.

00:19:21
Speaker 2: I need guys who.

00:19:23
Speaker 1: Can go ball, who fit your system, and who won't lose by twenty to Iowa State. And I need a coach who can take his roster, adjust, motivate, and not have zero answer when a coach makes one change and the team looks completely lost.

00:19:45
Speaker 3: Zero offense looks like after that changed zero.

00:19:48
Speaker 1: Iowa State clearly came in with one game plan, and we, to our credit, shot them out of that game plan, correct.

00:19:57
Speaker 2: But then they changed and we did not.

00:20:00
Speaker 3: We couldn't. We couldn't punch back.

00:20:02
Speaker 1: And that's why we're sitting here today with a twenty point loss eighty seven. We will take your calls. We are. We just had some Kentucky fans walk in. Nice to see the Kentucky fans. I'm not waving at that family with the children, the one that's screaming back there. We did that, they're not.

00:20:21
Speaker 3: We can move closer if you want to know.

00:20:23
Speaker 1: This is a massive restaurant and they had to sit right there.

00:20:27
Speaker 3: I want to hear your postgame show, right you.

00:20:29
Speaker 1: So we'll take them break and be right back. It's a Local Toy Dealers KSR postcame, welcome back. It is the Local Toy Dealers KSR postgame show. I just want to go on record just to end the day. While I was doing that monologue with Ryan, Mario ate all our food, the good ones Mario while we were starting. The food came right before it started, and Mario eight all there were three different kinds of wings. He took the good kind and ate them all while we were on the air, every single one of them. Ate them.

00:21:00
Speaker 3: I think I did have one if.

00:21:02
Speaker 1: Well done, thank you for that way to go eight five nine two eighty's save you one, Thank you man, eight five nine. It was grizzle eight five nine, two eighth twenty two eighty seven one person rites Matt Okay, is there anything that you can say that is positive to be about the off season? Yes, what I can say, is the good thing about all of this is if you have a good portal season, you can fix all of these things. Sure, right, Like so whatever weaknesses are on your roster are fixable. Whereas fifteen years ago you might not be able to fix it, you.

00:21:40
Speaker 3: Can fix it now you can quickly.

00:21:43
Speaker 1: And I think the question I'm sure we'll do a lot of this tomorrow is is is who's back. I can tell you that for my purposes, I'm not gonna say there's nobody. There's anybody that I don't want back. I don't think that's fair to do to a kid. I mean, I know they're fans that think like that, and I'm sure, like I in private have my own thoughts. But but I can tell you three people that I want to be back. I definitely want uh Moreno back. He's got to spend all off season working on his strength in his hands, because I think that's what's keeping him from being a good player. Like he is a good player, but keeping from me a great player. He loses the ball too much and he gets it taken from me. And you saw those were men on the other side of the court, Yeah, right, and Yellovich and Moreno they don't. They don't play like that, and they and Moreno's got to get better. But if he does, I think there's a lot of potential there.

00:22:38
Speaker 3: He took a big jump, took a big lead, so maybe, but when the.

00:22:41
Speaker 1: Physicality came, he retreated a little bit. So I want to see him do that. Yes, I would definitely want him back. I definitely want Conn Chandler back. He needs to work on the off season. What do you do?

00:22:52
Speaker 2: What do you do when they take your.

00:22:53
Speaker 1: Shot away from you? You got to create, whether it's that you can't hit it or whatever you gotta. You gotta be able to beat your man off the drum. Yep, he couldn't do that this year away An Aberdeen could. He really couldn't. But the athleticism is there. That block he got is was like a holy Like it'll get forgotten, but that block was one of the most athletic things I've ever seen up close.

00:23:17
Speaker 3: He started like on the other side of the free throw lane and blocked that dude shot.

00:23:21
Speaker 1: The angle you and I were at. That was one of the most amazing plays I've ever seen, Like.

00:23:25
Speaker 3: Go, go, gadget arms. Yeah, I don't know how he did it.

00:23:28
Speaker 1: So he's got the athleticism, so I want him back. And then I think I would like Cam Williams back. I think there's more there and I think when he gets in a rhythm, he can really shoot and he can guard multiple positions, which I really like other guys.

00:23:47
Speaker 3: Really do you hear that?

00:23:49
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I definitely hear that.

00:23:51
Speaker 3: I just want they're just agreeing with what you were saying.

00:23:57
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, please youngster. Other guys, if they come back, I'm good with it. But like we gotta get some growth. Yes, I think a lot of the year I was kind of ready for a new maybe maybe don't need Diabate.

00:24:14
Speaker 2: I actually kind of would like him again.

00:24:16
Speaker 1: He started to have toughness that we didn't have, and I thought the last eight or ten games the year, he was really good. This year. I think that six man, aggressive like physical role is actually a really good role for him.

00:24:29
Speaker 3: When he settled into that role, he was very productive off the bench for us.

00:24:33
Speaker 1: So so that's my feelings on the roster and then everything else. Then, I you know, we'll see, we'll see what Pope wants to do and how everything fits. You're gonna have to go get whether it's whether you think it's Jalen Lowe. You're gonna have to get a point guard, right and you probably And at this point I need two point guards, even if the second one's not a star. I still need two because we can't go into these years with one and.

00:24:55
Speaker 3: Hope because Dangel Aberdeen was not a point guard.

00:24:58
Speaker 1: Which is why I'm so would, which is why I we'll think of him very fun. Absolutely, he was not a point guard. And then the second half of that year, Yep, he was a good point.

00:25:06
Speaker 3: He really grew on me. I think I even sat on the show one time. He's one of my least favorite players. He grew on me. He grew up a good point guard.

00:25:13
Speaker 1: Go look at the plus minus for this game. When he was out, we fell apart. Yeah, the whole game.

00:25:21
Speaker 2: All right, Billy, who's up first?

00:25:22
Speaker 1: John? John? Go ahead, John, Oh, I can't hear you, my man, Like, so put the phone up to your mouth and like like talk into it.

00:25:35
Speaker 7: We need we need you, like we can go back, but we cannot just stitch it right now. Like, uh, everyone wants to talk. They say, they say, uh, we pushed cal Perry.

00:25:48
Speaker 1: Up for this. We put Billy is that just going in and out or is that just what it's him? It's yeah, I appreciate the call. Your phone is going in and out, so I can't hear what you're saying. Go ahead, who's that?

00:26:01
Speaker 3: Don is up there?

00:26:02
Speaker 1: Don? Go ahead? Don?

00:26:04
Speaker 4: Yeah him, Matt, thank you for taking my call. I'm seventy seven years old. I've been listening to UK basketball since I was a twelve or thirteen year old boy on a little transistor radio. I remember Adolph Rupp, I remember Taywood Leford very well. And I don't even know where to start. I mean, I really don't. I'm so disgusted. We shouldn't have even been playing Iowa State today. That lucky shot got us there. We shouldn't even been there. I don't even know what to say about the team. About Mark Kolk. I like Mark, I'm just not sure he's the fit. I really don't know, Matt. I just I'm so upset about the style of play. I wish we had two good guards. Guards are college guards are what makes colleagues teams work, and we still't have them.

00:26:59
Speaker 1: And I would disagree with you that we didn't have guards. I mean, I think our two best players were guards. You know, we may not have had enough of them, and we didn't necessarily have great shooters. But I think our guards, especially Oway and Aberdeen, became the least of our problems. But in general, I agree with you, and your point is, like, is Pope the guy? You know?

00:27:23
Speaker 2: I don't know the answer to that question.

00:27:25
Speaker 1: Like I would have said going into this year, yes, Now I'm kind of.

00:27:29
Speaker 2: In the I don't know. To be honest with you, I don't know.

00:27:33
Speaker 4: I love the guy. I just I just am not positive that he's the fifth that we need.

00:27:40
Speaker 1: Matt.

00:27:41
Speaker 4: I just don't think he is. I wish, you know. I mean, other teams get good coaches and they rebuild the program, they find good players. Why can't we? I mean, we used to be krim de la krim Uk basketball was the top. And where are we? I don't even We're not even in the top thirty or forty. I don't believe. And it just it just bugs the peanuts out of me, you know what I'm saying.

00:28:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I understand what you're saying. I appreciate the call. I mean, I think if you were to rank where are we right now? It all depends on what you mean. If you mean performance, we're not in the top fifteen of the programs in recent years. If you're talking about sort of prestige, that's a little different. I think we still are. But you know, as far as mark, I'm gonna say, I thought a lot about this between the SEC tournament and the NCAA tournament. But I really value Ryan people that I can think are good people, good hearts, good humans, treat each other well. I think at our current society, where that happens less and less, I value it more and more. Okay, but I don't know if college sports is like there's value in being a good person, be kind to people. But you also got to push the envelope open college sports right like you can't. You don't get any rewards in college sports for like best sportsmanship. You get rewards in life, but in college sports you gotta go win, right and in college basketball, especially especially until we have set in stone rules that like Congress passes, which is gonna happen sometime, but it may not happen for the next couple of years. You got to push the envelope. What's what's the thing? I say a lot ask for forgiveness. Excuse me, beg for forgiveness, don't ask for permission. Let's start doing some stuff that will ask us to beg for forgiveness, and let's stop waiting for permission.

00:29:44
Speaker 2: Nobody else is and they're winning.

00:29:48
Speaker 1: And maybe one of the things with the change of leadership is there'll be a change of thoughts on that. But that also means, hey, Mark Pope, go you know whatever it is like, do what you whatever. Pushed the envelope and let's stop going, well, can we do this? Do it, and then we'll deal with it on the back end. You know, Alabama played a player that was not the court. Alabama played a player that they specifically said they cannot and then you know what they didn't.

00:30:16
Speaker 2: They didn't unpunish them.

00:30:18
Speaker 3: Nope, none at all.

00:30:19
Speaker 1: They're still in the term, they have the same seed they would have had him.

00:30:21
Speaker 3: Yep, didn't matter.

00:30:22
Speaker 1: So go for it.

00:30:23
Speaker 3: I'm in the boat. I want it to work for Mark Polpo.

00:30:27
Speaker 1: I do too, everybody does.

00:30:29
Speaker 3: I want it to happen for him. But I think he's got, like you said, look in the mirror. He's got to make some changes. He's got to adapt to some things in modern basketball. And to hear his comments today makes me kind of still scratch my head about where he's thinking.

00:30:41
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of different ways to relate to modern athletes. You can be like John Shire and be their friend. You can be like one of the boys maybe, or you can be a disciplinarian still maybe if they respect you, like Rick Patino or Tom Izzo.

00:30:58
Speaker 2: I don't know if you can.

00:30:59
Speaker 1: Be like.

00:31:01
Speaker 2: Gollie. G guys, let's go. I don't know.

00:31:06
Speaker 1: Maybe you can. Last year it worked. I'm not sure that it worked this year. Didn't work with this group. With this group last year, I think it kind of did. So maybe it's who you get, right, Yeah, but I think, you know.

00:31:20
Speaker 3: Maybe they was a more mature group last year.

00:31:22
Speaker 1: Maybe, but I don't think it really worked with this it didn't. So who's next, Nathan, Nathan go ahead, and Nathan.

00:31:32
Speaker 6: Hey, Matt.

00:31:34
Speaker 8: I am twenty four years old. I just wanted to call in, get my get my thoughts. So when Mark Pope was hired, I was really mad at my dad, his friends, everybody, everybody that thought Mark Pope was a good hire was I thought older and I wanted cal gone. So I will say that so did all my friends. Maybe unique for me at my age, I thought Calsh to be gone, but I had an idea that we were going to get a good hire. And when he was hired, I said, this guy's won zero tournament games. He coach said b yu while also winning zero games in the tournament. And I was upset, and I got all my dad, my dad, my dad's friends, my family, dad's older that loved UK got to witness him play at UK. I understood why they loved him. The press conference won everyone over. It was really cool. I loved and it even won me over a little bit. But we're here now and you're seeing the results when you hire a guy that has not won zero that when you hire a guy that has won zero tournament games before he came to Kentucky. If anybody else was hired that has won zero tournament games before they came to Kentucky, this fan base would have been in shambles. And they were in shambles when we hired Mark Pope. And that's what.

00:33:03
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have to cut you off.

00:33:04
Speaker 1: But I want to say you that's a great call and there's a lot of great points there. Again, I thought about this between the SEC and the NCAA tournament. I violated some of my rules of coaching to get really excited about Mark Pope.

00:33:20
Speaker 2: What are you?

00:33:20
Speaker 1: What are there?

00:33:21
Speaker 2: Some rules you've heard me say over the years about coaching.

00:33:24
Speaker 3: Don't hire a former player.

00:33:25
Speaker 1: Don't hire a player who played there unless they've killed it a lah Roy Williams somewhere else. The biggest mistake people make is hiring a former player. Caroline is about to fire another one. Yep. Right, We've seen it over and over and over, and it rarely works. It might work with John Shire, we'll see, but it rarely works.

00:33:51
Speaker 2: So my rule has always.

00:33:53
Speaker 1: Been don't do that. I and my initial reaction was don't do that, right, But then I like the caller, talking myself into the second rule I always have for Kentucky basketball.

00:34:07
Speaker 2: Now this may not be true in other schools, but for.

00:34:09
Speaker 1: Kentucky basketball, I need you to have won somewhere, preferably at a really good school, but I need you to have won big somewhere. Mark hadn't. Okay, he won some, but he never won to turnament game. He won some at Utah Valley State, but if he didn't play here, that wasn't the resume, right, So now, I still hope it works. I do too.

00:34:43
Speaker 2: I still think it can.

00:34:46
Speaker 1: But maybe the lesson is, don't violate your rules just because you want it to work.

00:34:52
Speaker 3: What can you say to all the people like on my timeline that wont him gone?

00:34:57
Speaker 1: Now?

00:34:57
Speaker 2: Well, what I would say is, I think.

00:35:04
Speaker 1: Coaches need three years to see if it's unless it's just a disaster, you need three years, and he needs a third year. The other thing is it's not gonna happen, right, So you can say it and be angry, or you can just say, well, okay, it's not gonna happen, So what do we do for next year? If I was in charge, I would not fire Mark Pup. First of all, we owe people too much money as it is. We owe Mark Stoops thirty five million dollars. We now owe Mitch Barnhardt money. Yes, we're gonna be paying money out the wazoo. You know it's not gonna happen, and I wouldn't do it. But I will say, for me, next year will be determined.

00:35:46
Speaker 3: We talk about you know Mark Story's article, his legacy would starts on March first. Well, if you had step one, step two, we're getting ready to go to step three about the roster for next season.

00:35:56
Speaker 1: Step one was a yeah, yeah, uh wasn't It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great. This next month is the month. It is how they build this roster.

00:36:07
Speaker 3: Yep.

00:36:08
Speaker 1: What they do is the ad. They're about to restructure things in athletics in a way that I don't think people realize and how that works.

00:36:18
Speaker 2: I think it's going to be crucial.

00:36:20
Speaker 1: We will come back July first, August first, and it will be a different thing. And what that looks like, we'll see who's next. Stub stub go ahead, stub.

00:36:34
Speaker 4: Man. I don't understand how you can watch a film of Iowa State and not understand that moreno Yellowitch Chandler are going to.

00:36:48
Speaker 9: Get their lunch taken from them. Yeah, you know, it's one thing. It's one thing to have a misconstructed roster, it's a it's another thing to totally mismanaged that roster like today should have been from the good go. It should have been oh way, Aberdeen, will if Bote, Garrison and then the Couples guys off the bench.

00:37:16
Speaker 4: That's it.

00:37:18
Speaker 1: I kind of agree with you. I mean, I think you had to play Taylor because you have to have that threat. But I would just alter it and say it's Aberdeen, Oway, Chandler, Diabate, Garrison, Yellowitch and moreno spot minutes. That's what I Williams. Williams a six man. Yeah, but you're right. I was shocked how little Garrison played in important moments because even though like this is his kind of game, right.

00:37:44
Speaker 9: Also, I mean Chandler was no threat with this matchup, Like he was totally outmatched, so he was not a threat. The three made early in the game were fools gold And I called it a halftime. I said, I will faced on the win by seven teams, and they won by nineteen. But and we just need to throw Tyron Stokes whatever money he wants. But at the end of the day, he'll probably come and he'll get like an impacted tooth or something and he'll be injured all the year, won't play it.

00:38:16
Speaker 1: Well, that's a danger. I appreciate the call. I mean, that's a danger of getting him. You know, you look at these great freshmen, they've gone a couple different paths. Cameron Boozer may take his team to have a shot at the national title. Darius A. Cuff has done good stuff at Arkansas. Kingston Flemings has been really good at Houston. The kid at Illinois has been really good. Caleb Wilson was good before he got hurt. And then you have and day Ja Dea Bontes was good. Then you have Darren Peterson on again, off again, Mickel Brown and Louisville on again, off again. So there is a risk when you get one of those guys.

00:38:45
Speaker 3: There is, And I think we're all just a little gun shy about what happened with Quainton's this year. Paying a lot of money, didn't even get to play.

00:38:52
Speaker 1: That's our own fault. I mean I was for him doing it. But if they genuinely were building around the team around Quayton playing, that's on them. Yeah, right, I always considered Quainton's a bonus. If they really thought he was going to be like their best player, then that's on them. You just you're taking a guy who just he just tore his ACL last season.

00:39:12
Speaker 3: They were telling us, you remember, like in August September, you know he's on the court. Now he's we're running up and down the floor, blit, leading us to believe he was gonna play. That's why I wonder if he reinjured it when those three games he played in.

00:39:23
Speaker 1: I think that's the most likely scenario. Is it something that there's no way he doesn't play the rest of the year.

00:39:28
Speaker 2: I agree, unless he may be reinjured it, who's next? Luke, Luke, go ahead, Luke.

00:39:35
Speaker 10: Hey, guys, I know Pop's not gonna get fired because frankly, we don't have the fact to do it, or maybe the money as well, that's part of it. But I was gonna make the case for why you should.

00:39:48
Speaker 11: It's pretty simple.

00:39:49
Speaker 10: One, you should have hired him in the first place.

00:39:50
Speaker 11: And when you have a massive reach higher, why would you have a long leash with that guy?

00:39:55
Speaker 10: I mean, why why would you do that?

00:39:56
Speaker 11: Doesn't make any sense. Number Two, he's seven feet tall. There no seven foot tall coaches in the Hall of Fame. John Thompson at six ten is the tallest. And it takes a Hall of Fame coach for it to work. Here it does, We're very close to a Hall of Fame coach at the very least.

00:40:10
Speaker 1: Do you think do you think it's because of height? You think it's cause of height?

00:40:14
Speaker 11: Yes, yes, I'm serious. I think plays a serious factor in being a good basketball coach. Okay, how many?

00:40:24
Speaker 2: Well there's not.

00:40:25
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, there's not a lot of seven foot people in the world, so, like your your sample size is pretty small. I mean, John Thompson was a really good coach, but there I mean, how many seven There are not a lot of seven footers in the world, period, and.

00:40:39
Speaker 11: None of them have been Hall of Fame coaches.

00:40:41
Speaker 8: None of them.

00:40:41
Speaker 12: You wouldn't think that there would be one.

00:40:43
Speaker 4: That would be a Hall of Famer. Okay, that's what I'm saying.

00:40:46
Speaker 1: Ok.

00:40:47
Speaker 7: And not to mention.

00:40:48
Speaker 8: Here's another thing.

00:40:48
Speaker 1: Go look at.

00:40:49
Speaker 13: I encourage everybody to go do this.

00:40:51
Speaker 11: Go to Basketball reference dot com and pull up Mark Coaches Pope, Mark Poke's coaching record and tell me if that's the guy that should be leading can Die. If you come away with a yes, then you're looking at a different page than I am, because the guy has lost double digit games almost every single season of his coaching career.

00:41:08
Speaker 8: The two seasons he didn't one of them was the.

00:41:11
Speaker 11: COVID shortened season, which they would have had a conference tournament and an NCAA tournament where he would have lost two games. That was his first year at BYU and his second year at BYU was another.

00:41:20
Speaker 9: Year that they didn't that they didn't lose double digit.

00:41:23
Speaker 11: Games, and that's when they were in the West Coast Conference. They weren't even in the Big twelve.

00:41:27
Speaker 14: This guy has no business being a coach in lections, and I.

00:41:29
Speaker 10: Think we got to get rid of them.

00:41:31
Speaker 13: And if we don't, we're just waiting the year.

00:41:35
Speaker 1: Appreciate the call. So that's the case. On the other side, man.

00:41:38
Speaker 3: There's people like that, a lot of our fan bases on that side, they just don't think he's the right guy to handle this job.

00:41:44
Speaker 2: Well, I don't have confidence he's the right guy. Let me be clear. I want I think everybody wants him to be right.

00:41:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, but.

00:41:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a no win I mean it's a no win situation.

00:41:55
Speaker 3: That this whole season, going back from high handled whatever happened at the Louisville game, to talk with the media, to substitution patterns, the whole season has just been odd.

00:42:05
Speaker 2: I would just counsel people.

00:42:08
Speaker 1: Go watch videos of him talking to the media last year versus talking to the media this year.

00:42:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, just just watch how different he is.

00:42:19
Speaker 1: And I don't know why, Like, I don't know, I don't think it has anything to do with the media. It's just that's the only time we hear him talk. Really go just the difference between how he talks to Tom Leach after games last year versus this year. It's just different. And and so we're not the only ones thinking it. I mean, you can see it if you go look at the just the difference.

00:42:42
Speaker 2: Who's next, Michael, Michael, go ahead.

00:42:46
Speaker 14: Michael, Hey, I think your grades are very generous, and I think your comments about oh, it's risky to get I think it speaks to a drop in standard here. You know, your grades are acceptable from twenty twenty on. But the reality is this has been a complete embarrassment since twenty twenty and this is an f season for Kentucky. It is ridiculous to lose like we lost today, of all the bad stats of Pope's time here, to blowout losses in the NCAA Tournament.

00:43:29
Speaker 12: Last year we were.

00:43:30
Speaker 14: Non competitive against Tennessee, and we were non competitive this year. And people glossed over that non competitive loss last year. But that was embarrassing, and it was embarrassing today. And I understand that. You know, you guys can't just sit here and be like it's an S and this is miserable. But the reality is is that it is.

00:43:51
Speaker 1: Let me just say about the grades for me, like for me, just so you know, And this maybe because I'm a dork, Like I think a D is unacceptable, and I think a Kentucky a D is really unacceptable. I think an F is like like the COVID year to me is in half. But I still think you don't. I mean, you get a coach that gives you consistent c's, then you got to replace him. At Kentucky, this is a place that needs a's, right, So so don't get me wrong. It may just be the difference in the way you and I look at grades, but I'm I don't think that, Like I'm not saying like a C or a C minus is because like that's good. If a coach at Kentucky continues to get sezed, then you go get a new coach. Yeah.

00:44:32
Speaker 14: Yeah, And I liked what Drew said all year. I mean that's how you know. I don't think we're Indiana, but that's how you become Indiana.

00:44:39
Speaker 2: Is you draw that is true, you know that is true, and you accept Yeah, that's.

00:44:43
Speaker 14: Like this, and that's why you know. I just want to know from your perspective, because this is where I'm at. We talk about year three. To me, we have to be a contender in year three or we have to move on from him because we cannot continue this run since twenty twenty of this performance. So if we are not a contender next year, do you think Kentucky should move on from him or keep them?

00:45:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, I that's a that's a good question, I think. So let me put it like this. I think we need to be a team next year. That is the equipal. Like I'm watching Saint John's in Kansas, that's a four and a five seed to some extent haven't quite been like they wanted. But both of those teams could make a Final four. They both have the makeup of a team like Duke's not going to play either one of these teams in the next round.

00:45:36
Speaker 2: True, right, we got to at least be that.

00:45:39
Speaker 3: We're a long way from that, it feels like.

00:45:40
Speaker 2: I agree, but we gotta at least be that.

00:45:43
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't know if we can beat Duke or Michigan or Arizona next year, Well we gotta at least be that. We got to at least be what I'm sitting here and watching right now. Yeah, and if we're not, then yeah, I think you have to move on a f I've nine two eight, twenty two eighty seven. We'll take a break. Be right back. Local Toy Dealers KSR Post game Show. Welcome back. It is a Local Toy Dealers KSR post game show. Looks like my tweet has kind of gone viral that I was talking about that I came close to talking trash to a referee on press row, so I decided it was my time to leave the building. I didn't Kentucky fans understand what I mean about that. The other fan bases don't really get the history, like you know. I mean, it's kind of a cheeky reference to the to the UH referee a decade ago. And then it's also that I leave the building during games. It's not like I was leaving, but I did. Ryan knows I was about to talk trash today, guy like I was very close to doing it. And then I was like, I'm sitting on press row. I will certainly get in trouble if I talked trash in this room. But I was close. I wanted to We.

00:46:53
Speaker 3: Were so close you could have reached out and tapped him on the shoulder.

00:46:56
Speaker 1: Excuse me, sir, but it's after he called like five fouls and four minutes.

00:47:00
Speaker 3: You know what to me goes nobody's calling anything but that guy.

00:47:03
Speaker 1: He called every foul, and I was like, lly, I felt myself like wanting to make fun of like how he wore his pants and stuff.

00:47:12
Speaker 2: And then I was like, all right, I just need to go outside.

00:47:13
Speaker 3: You did make a good joke about his pants to me, his pants. I just you know, somebody looked it up. We were like five and two in games he had refereed.

00:47:22
Speaker 2: I mean, listen, we didn't lose because the rest that was just I mean, I just but.

00:47:28
Speaker 1: I probably needed to leave anyway, because like I was getting nervous. But when I was like legitimately thinking should I say something to this referee, then I was like, you know what, I just need to go outside.

00:47:38
Speaker 3: And you made it through the whole first half, made it to the first TV time out of the second half. That's when things were going to.

00:47:42
Speaker 1: Sell the whole game. But I could just feel it. I could feel it slipping away from it. Honestly, you when we were up twenty to eight, I looked at you and said, we're up twenty day, but we can't can't keep playing like this. It just I could tell that we not that we were lucky, but that we were.

00:47:59
Speaker 2: The moment they changed defenses, I knew we were in trouble.

00:48:01
Speaker 3: Well the end of the first half, we had that seven point ly with the men have to go and things are falling apart. They're down to with a couple of seconds left. You said they're gonna hit a three, go up by one a half time, and it's exactly what happened.

00:48:11
Speaker 1: Well, you can feel it and just feel what's gonna happen.

00:48:15
Speaker 3: They hit that three when the locker room up won and you could.

00:48:17
Speaker 1: Feel it and we we are are our time and clock was so bad during that period. Like you you want, you have to go into halftime leading, and they did everything possible to not lead. I do think the most important play of the game was moreno dropping that rebound and the guy hit hit the three three, because I think if if he keeps that and then we run all thirty seconds, we're going into halftime with at least a six or seven point lead.

00:48:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, and instead we went down one. Who's next Aaron.

00:48:47
Speaker 1: Go ahead, Aaron.

00:48:50
Speaker 13: Hey Man, thanks for taking the call. I just want to say, uh, Polk doesn't have the demeanor or the attitude to coach at Kentucky in my opinion. I'm watching the game today, Ottholberger's screaming at his team, screaming his head off. Meanwhile, we're down thirteen and I see Mark Pope clapping his hands. Let's go seeing it off seasons. It's just that attitude. He's the guy to coach it.

00:49:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know I've said that. You're right, that is what he does. He thinks that sort of positive motivation works, and I think that can work. Again, I bring up John Shire, like, he doesn't scream at people, you know, he just kind of talks to them.

00:49:28
Speaker 3: It works.

00:49:30
Speaker 1: So I think there's many different ways to do it. But does Mark's form of it work. It's to your point, and I'm not sure if it does. I don't think you have to scream. I think there are guys out there that scream and succeeding, and there are guys that aren't. I mean, Kelvin Sampson isn't really a screamer, right, But I do think though for whatever reason, sir it's not working right now.

00:49:54
Speaker 13: All right, thanks taking a call, man.

00:49:55
Speaker 1: Appreciate the call now. But like Dan Hurley and Todd Golden and i'm oh and Rick Tino, they scream and it's working. So you know, I think everybody's got different ways of doing it.

00:50:05
Speaker 3: They're valid criticism. I think you can have a coach pope. My biggest concern is just there was no offensive identity at all whatsoever, Like all season long, I don't know, I still don't know what kind offensive team we were supposed to be. They never go feature Guy Otega.

00:50:21
Speaker 1: That was like our only off Imagine if Otaga and Aberdeen like yeah, I mean they were the only The only identity was Otaga, take your guys, that was it. Aberdeen try to dribble and find somebody seriously like that was There really wasn't a lot of ideas.

00:50:39
Speaker 3: And when we were sitting, man, you got to see Iowa state what they were doing offensively, and they had.

00:50:43
Speaker 2: The ball so much.

00:50:44
Speaker 1: Even at the beginning when we were playing really good defense, they still moved the ball. They well, they we played well on them, but they moved the ball. Great, who's next.

00:50:53
Speaker 15: On that note, Let's give our Johnny Rocker personal injury Attorney, moneymaker of the game, Matt injured. Get small town compassion with big city results when you call the Rocker at two seven zero three two one four four two nine. And while it was Oway on Friday, Today's is Denzel Aberdeen. He led the team with twenty points. He was four of nine from three and four or five from the free throw line. In thirty seven minutes, he was minus five and he is our Johnny Rocker personal injury attorney, money maker of the game, Ryan Lemon's favorite player.

00:51:21
Speaker 2: Let me read that. I want to read that stat again.

00:51:23
Speaker 1: Played thirty seven minutes in a game we lost by nineteen, and he was minus five, which means the three minutes he was out was minus fourteen. Ouch. If you don't think that kid like, everybody's gonna love O way. I hope people have a good spot in their heart for Aberdeen.

00:51:46
Speaker 3: Yes, Cauz.

00:51:47
Speaker 1: For thirty seven minutes he was on the court and we were minus five, and for three he was off and we were minus fourteen.

00:51:54
Speaker 3: That's that's no coincidence.

00:51:56
Speaker 1: That's crazy.

00:51:58
Speaker 3: I'll say this. You know, I think Bill said it was four of nine and three's he took two at the shot clock buzzer because he had to we couldn't get a shot off.

00:52:05
Speaker 1: That's right, Who's next? D C, d C? What's up? DC?

00:52:10
Speaker 5: Hey man, I think we're gonna play that game ten out of ten times when we were lost every time. I think you're their best player was hurt and we started the game great and we still ended up losing it. Chandler turns into a ghost too often. And did you see Tyler or Tyrese Haliburton's tweet about uh, did you want to talk stuff the old UK players but they're Arkansas fans now?

00:52:34
Speaker 2: Thank you?

00:52:34
Speaker 1: Yeah? I saw that. And look you know that video that happened with Shay and in Casey Wallace is why he says that. And of course Haliburton played them in the Championship Series last year, which is probably where that comes from as well.

00:52:49
Speaker 3: Haliburton played at Iowa.

00:52:50
Speaker 1: The deal you make with the Devil with col is you will have success, but it is about him, and so we see the counter to that, and it'll be that way about Arkansas. Like those guys that play at Arkansas will be loyal to him. It won't because they're loyal to Arkansas. Yeah, right, that's just what you get. And I appreciate the call, and you know, is it worth it? Yeah, it's it's worth it because you had a lot of success with him. But the counter to that is you get situations where when he leaved, he said, well when he leaved, when he leaved, when he left, you get people going, I'm big in Arkansas. I don't think, by the way, though, I don't think that's many. And I don't even really blame Case and Wallace. They just got they came up to him, and.

00:53:39
Speaker 3: I think it's very small number of guys that actually feel that way. Do you leaned towards me?

00:53:44
Speaker 1: I don't think there's anybody that played here that in seven years is going to be rooting for Arkansas.

00:53:50
Speaker 2: I agree, not one.

00:53:51
Speaker 3: When call Lee, he's not gonna be right for wan Saw.

00:53:54
Speaker 1: Now will they come back here? Maybe he's cut a couple of guys won't, But there will be guys that come here, yes, and lot of times the guys that feel that way or dudes that didn't have success here. Shay had success here, but you know, Case Wats unfortunately was on a disappointing team. I don't blame him, but like he didn't get to experience, and that was a tumultuous year in terms of what the internal dynamics of that team were like. That was that was that was an odd year. And so you know, you had half the team that was Oscar, half the team that was Severe. Cason was kind of in the middle. He really wasn't on either side of it. It was just a weird year. I feel like this year was just as weird. It just kind of felt weird. Now it's all we can talk about it. The whole season just felt odd. It did, although I think that got better. I think the team was a lot more connected at the end than they were. I think when you had were like mid season, the team was all over the place. Yes, and I do think they kind of came together at the so I think some of that weirdness went away as the season went on.

00:54:55
Speaker 2: Who's next, Michael, Michael, Go ahead, Michael.

00:55:00
Speaker 16: Hey Man, thanks for taking my call. I ain't the most educated. I ain't the most educated guy in the world, but when made that substitution in the first half. I've been watching them all year. Am I the only one that thinks that the team just don't I mean, they fall apart. I mean they when he put Johnson in there and he turned the ball over. I think back to back possessions. I mean, I don't I don't mean a bash a kid, but I mean he could barely draw, he could barely dribble the ball up the court, and he fell over. And it just when he made that mass substitution. I think I always say went on a nine or eleven overrun. Then I think that's when we lost the game right there.

00:55:43
Speaker 1: Well, that sequence, that sequence, that minute and a half was a bad sequence. I appreciate the call. I'm not gonna say that's when we lost the game because we didn't play a lot. But in the second half the game was essentially tied. You had a chance to steal. But there's no doubt that that sequence where they took Aberdeen now and they put Jasper in, we.

00:56:05
Speaker 3: Had six or seven empty possessions in a row.

00:56:08
Speaker 1: I mean it was a nine point swing in a minute and thirty seconds. Quick. That was quick. You take that nine point swing and then you take the eight to oho run in the last minute and a half the first half, that's seventeen points, which was the difference in the game. You go those two swings.

00:56:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, that's big.

00:56:28
Speaker 1: It's big. We should have gone into half up eight or ten. I felt like we had that and we were down with just.

00:56:34
Speaker 3: Somehow slipped away.

00:56:35
Speaker 2: And how in the.

00:56:36
Speaker 1: World did they just turn that Kansas game off?

00:56:39
Speaker 3: Looked over to Florida, Iowa.

00:56:41
Speaker 1: Looked over to Florida, Iowa.

00:56:42
Speaker 3: We're in Illinois, right, We're in Illinois.

00:56:45
Speaker 2: All right, Well, okay, let's take a break.

00:56:48
Speaker 1: If I'm nine to eighth twenty two eighty seven, we will come back for the final segment of the twenty twenty five twenty twenty sixth season. This is the Local Toy Dealers KSR post game Show, Welcome Back. It is the Local Toy Dealer's KSR post game Show. Saint John's up seven with four minutes ago? You rooting for Rick and the Johnnys.

00:57:07
Speaker 3: I actually am. I don't know why, but I have found myself rooting for him ever since we beat him.

00:57:13
Speaker 1: Why would they say that was out on on Saint John's anyway?

00:57:17
Speaker 2: Yes, I am, I am too. I kind of want him to win.

00:57:20
Speaker 1: That's uh. I don't know if that well, if you had told me that a few years Agould, I never imagine I'm not gonna read him on the air just for I'm just not gonna do it.

00:57:29
Speaker 2: But uh, Oscar Comb's choosing violence on line?

00:57:32
Speaker 3: What Oscar comb?

00:57:34
Speaker 1: Oscar Combs. He's probably the strongest shots I've ever seen Oscar Combs taken about UK athletics.

00:57:41
Speaker 3: It's not a fake Oscar Combs.

00:57:42
Speaker 1: This is the real Oscar Combs. So i'll let you all. You can look up on Twitter.

00:57:47
Speaker 3: Look it up.

00:57:48
Speaker 1: It includes the sentence they're fleecing Kentuckians from Paduca to Virgie.

00:57:53
Speaker 3: Wasn't he gotta throw Virgie under the bus?

00:57:55
Speaker 1: No, he's saying Virgie's being fleeced we because he that they don't like the folks. Really, it should be from Fulton to Virgie because put Pikeel to Paducah leaves out the little tip of both states.

00:58:09
Speaker 3: It does. Yes, well, it should be Fulton the Virgie, Fulton the Virgie.

00:58:14
Speaker 2: He makes sure to put Virgie in there. But he's choosing violence.

00:58:17
Speaker 1: Bill you reading this, I'm surprised to see that, but.

00:58:22
Speaker 2: I'll let you read it.

00:58:24
Speaker 1: Oscar Combes. Well, there you go. Who's next?

00:58:27
Speaker 2: Wes Wes go ahead, Wes.

00:58:31
Speaker 17: Hey, Matt first time long time who I want to say, he is a tough, disappointing loss for us and Mark folks. He's aka momentum killing. Can you please and light me Matt on Mark folk substitution patterns. I mean, they've kind of plagued this all year, but you know, not playing Moe there at the first half. I just don't understand where Mark's head is with the substitution patterns because.

00:58:57
Speaker 1: I didn't understand either. I I don't have an explanation because I I think his substitution patterns earlier in the year were just hideous, and then today it was for me a matter of timing. So I'm just pulling up the box score here to see minutes played. So Yellovich played fourteen minutes Moreno played eighteen, Garrison played twenty two in diabate eighteen. I don't know how you look at this matchup and you see how physical Iowa State is and you say, Mo Diabte needs to play eighteen minutes. To me, this is a game Mo diabates thirty three minutes, absolutely right. I mean he had one foul, so he wasn't in foul trouble. My man was two for three from the field. And he only got three rebounds. But I can think of three or four plays myself where he tipped the rebound to somebody that got it. I don't know what world you played Diabate eighteen minutes in Yellovich fourteen against this team. Now, there are other games where maybe you don't play it Diabata as much. A team that's you know, shoots threes and but but in this game and Garrison, you know, Garrison has his ups and downs.

01:00:11
Speaker 2: But if there's a Garrison game, this.

01:00:13
Speaker 1: Is the game, right, this is the this is the game I watched when we were sitting up close. Garrison can switch on perimeter defenders, probably as good as any of the bigs we have, right.

01:00:23
Speaker 3: Well, I think so probably the best, probably the best.

01:00:26
Speaker 2: So to me, those two guys should play a lot.

01:00:28
Speaker 1: And then you know, I mean, the nine oh run in the first half is the nine oh run you cannot take Aberdeen.

01:00:36
Speaker 2: Here's the thing.

01:00:36
Speaker 1: If you think that people have fatigue issues, how much rest is Aberdeen getting in forty thirty seven minutes versus forty If you're gonna play in thirty seven, then just playing forty, especially if in those three minutes we're gonna be minus fourteen.

01:00:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, just playing.

01:00:55
Speaker 1: Forty Okay, Like how much rest did he really get? I know what happened. We lost fourteen points while he said, how much more tired could he possibly have been? So I appreciate the call Aberdeen today was you just could not take him out, but they still did.

01:01:11
Speaker 3: With their guards that they had. Aberdeen was the only guy that can kind of handle that pressure they were putting on it.

01:01:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, even O Way tries to dribble through pressure, he does, which he will lose the ball when he does that.

01:01:22
Speaker 3: Colin tried the same thing.

01:01:24
Speaker 1: Aberdeen's the only guy that, for whatever reason seems to have the presence of mind to jump and pass, and like those other guys always tries to fight through it. Diabata tries to dribble through it. Garrison just hands him the ball. Yellow bitch gets it taken from him. Like, Aberdeen's the one guy who can.

01:01:41
Speaker 3: Hand he and they were putting on all kind of pressure on him. They got to him a little bit. Be least he's the one guy handled at the best.

01:01:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, now a three point game here, Kans is coming back. Who's next, Chris, Chris? Go ahead, Chris?

01:01:54
Speaker 18: Yeah, Hey, this is Chris hey Man. I'm making this call in honor of coach Larry Sturgell's Boon's Camp, Kentucky and paintsful. He's retired now. But you made the point about the substitution pattern by coach Pope and coach Sturgill and I have talked about this. When Aberdeen hit two threes early in that game and was on fire, and when Pope substituted him out, he totally took the momentum away from that team. Avererdeen came back in the game three minutes later and missed his next three shots. Now, the point that coach Sturgill and I have seen in what he has made is when he lost those players, he still had the players to have an excellent team this year. He should have gone to a triangle and put elevantch at the foul line and put two big men at the basement down on the post, and then he could play you know, the rest of his players. But he could have crafted an offense that would have been I mean, my goodness, Garrison and Moreno can score the ball in the in the paint and he's running those two centers out there sixty And this was not in the key.

01:03:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, in my opinion, that we got spoiled last year with Amari yep, and that we'll think all these bigs can handle the ball at the top of the key. And I know Pope system. He needs guys to do that, he wants them. But this ain't the group of guys. I mean, amar Mari was. Amari was the guy, and I appreciate the call, and I was skeptical of that, and then I got convinced as hear went on, Amari's special at this. But the garrison and the like, that's not that's not them. That garrison turnover at the top of the key like that, that system. It feels like to me, Pope was trying to force these guys into a system that they did not have the talent for.

01:03:50
Speaker 3: It would work once in a while, they would hit a back door pass or.

01:03:53
Speaker 1: So Everyson's a pretty good passer, so he could throw like a back door pass or a bounce pass, but.

01:03:57
Speaker 3: In general, general, in general.

01:03:59
Speaker 2: It's that's just not what he's good at.

01:04:01
Speaker 1: And I you know, I mean, I'm not an offensive genius, but and today they were pushing I would have kept Aberdeen and I'm enough to do that today.

01:04:11
Speaker 3: They were pushing our big guys so far out of the almost like they could say the half court. They were just initiate the offense out way out there.

01:04:19
Speaker 1: I just cannot get over it that it was minus fourteen in the three minutes he was out.

01:04:23
Speaker 3: That's almost unbelievable.

01:04:25
Speaker 2: Could unbelievable stat.

01:04:28
Speaker 3: I'm just giving them layups.

01:04:29
Speaker 2: Who's say, John's now at one point game, Who's next?

01:04:33
Speaker 1: Rooney? Go ahead, Rooney? Hey? Uh.

01:04:38
Speaker 19: Not overly disappointed about the lost the night because I feel like probably should have lost the first game we got beat to eye, probably won the next game. But my question is, if we next year have the exact same season as we do this year, do you think Pope's gone? And I know you probably want to answer this, but how do you feel about Jay Lucas?

01:04:59
Speaker 2: That's all I got.

01:05:02
Speaker 1: That's a great question. If we had the exact same season next year, I I think they'd probably make a change, but I don't know that that's certain. I think it would depend on who the new athletic director is, what their philosophy is. I think if Mitch Barnhardt were the coach, then they probably wouldn't or a D but he won't be the ad, So I don't know what they're gonna hire.

01:05:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, fourteen losses and a first round or a second round exit Natty in the NCAA tournament may not be acceptable next year.

01:05:35
Speaker 1: Yeah.

01:05:35
Speaker 2: Bryce Hopkins just hit a big three.

01:05:37
Speaker 3: That was Bryce Hopkins. It hit that three.

01:05:39
Speaker 1: It was Bryce Hopkins.

01:05:40
Speaker 3: Wow. By the way, lots of former Cats still in it. Yeah, Bryce Hopkins, Cameron Fletcher, J. Wagner just played last night.

01:05:47
Speaker 2: For Hugo is playing Yeah Florid and Burks.

01:05:51
Speaker 3: Was playing for South Florida or Central Florida.

01:05:54
Speaker 1: All right, Kansas got the ball down too with the chance to tire or take the lead, and they're not. They're gonna play it out nine. No, they're gonna talk to him out a fun nine to eight, oh twenty eighty seven. Who's next? We'll do four more? Cathead, Cathead, go ahead, Cadhead.

01:06:09
Speaker 12: Hey guys, how's it going?

01:06:11
Speaker 1: Man?

01:06:11
Speaker 12: This is old CADTHEAD sitting up here in Georgetown. Look, it's might sound like a rents and refeat, but I agree with everybody else, like the substitution pattern all this stuff, Like you know we're up ten, you take Aberdeen out and you put JJ in like he is. He just weep with the ball, you know. And I hate talk about these kids because they are kids. But they make money now right, I mean, they make money, so you know we should be able to, you know, say what's what's wrong?

01:06:39
Speaker 1: You know.

01:06:40
Speaker 12: And then you know you touched on Casino and Saint John's. Yeah, we're I think I am. I'm rooting for them. I hated him when he went to Louisville, but I fort of god, he's probably the best coach and he's probably the best coaching college basketball. I mean Auestley, but we need somebody of that staff. I know he will never come back, We will never get him come back. But you know he always talks about Camlock because this is this is basketball, this BBN place. Man, everybody talks about it. Even on CD yesterday they were talking about, oh, they have the greatest fans, big blue knaves and this and that. Everybody knows it, right, But we're we're just putting that, We're putting out a subpar theme some part, you know. And then the analytics, I know, I know Pope is big on analytics. You know, play this guy on me, men, this play this guy's on me men's but look, sometimes you got to coach with your eyes.

01:07:37
Speaker 1: I don't disagree with you about that. I don't disagree with you about that. The way I look at analytics is like this. I think they're a hugely useful tool. But just think about life. You can make all the best decisions in the world, and you can read all the books, and you can like, you know, you can do all the study, and I enjoy doing. But sometimes the difference between success and not success is just how you relate to another person, right, do they like you or not?

01:08:04
Speaker 2: And sometimes and all the numbers.

01:08:09
Speaker 12: Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, ma'am. I'm sorry.

01:08:11
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, all the numbers in the world can tell you to do this or that, but I'm not a basketball genius. And I said on that court, and the moment Aberdeen looked went out, I looked at mine and goes, uh, oh.

01:08:26
Speaker 2: You know, so there should be a part where people just kind of go, I don't know if this is gonna work.

01:08:33
Speaker 12: Yes, me and me and my buddy were sitting here, and as soon as that happened, I'm like, oh, this is And then Jasper and you know, he gets the ball just take it from him like he falls down.

01:08:42
Speaker 1: You know, here's the ball, dud.

01:08:46
Speaker 2: The coach for the history.

01:08:47
Speaker 12: I played sports my whole life. I played sports my whole life. And like you said, I'm not a genius or whatever, but you have to coach with your eyes sometimes, Like you said, Garrison, why don't we go big sometimes? You put Garrison and Marino in there. I mean, I love Moreno. I watched him club through middle school, high school. I mean, he's a great player. He needs a little boom meat on his bones. But you know he's a great player. But why don't you go big sometimes? Because you know Garrison? Right now, this this game was garrisonal game.

01:09:17
Speaker 1: Uh, I appreciate the call. I agree with you. This was a Garrison Theabonte game. It was to me games tied. Now came diab was fighting his butt off, and I watched the Abate on the bench.

01:09:29
Speaker 2: When he was on the bench, he was sitting there.

01:09:32
Speaker 1: His leg was tapping like he it was like give me back in, Like you could just see it, like his leg was just sitting there tapping, going.

01:09:38
Speaker 2: Like give me back in, give me back in, give me back in. And and then of course they didn't so he did.

01:09:43
Speaker 3: He plays his butt off some time he's in there, fought, fought down the post. Garrison I think also did a good job, and he needed to square a lot of points, but he didn't have to.

01:09:51
Speaker 1: You know, let me give you an example of a coach doing something really good. Kansas is tied. They only had two team fouls thirteen seconds left. They are sitting there and slowly having Saint John's bring up the court and then foul him, and self told I watched him tell the Kansas player fouling before he crosses half court, so then they have to imbound it going the full length of the court. And now they're doing it again before he goes across half court, so now once again they're gonna have to imbound it before half court. That is, it's a little thing, but Bill self just ran off ten seconds and by fouling them before they crossed half court every time, Saint John's never got to cross half court. And look how far away they are now with three point nine seconds left, and Saint John's is driving and the guy hits a layup at the buzzer, So you know what, it didn't matter.

01:10:41
Speaker 3: Wow, rick Petina.

01:10:44
Speaker 1: Wow, Ricky P. With the layup at the buzzer, all that good coaching, and you know what, it didn't matter. That little dude beat his man off the drop on hilarious. Here I am praising him because I do think that was smart play. And then that little kid just takes who even made that shot? Who was it?

01:11:02
Speaker 3: Their little point guard, their little little point guard.

01:11:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, look at that.

01:11:07
Speaker 2: Well there's another buzzer beater.

01:11:09
Speaker 1: Look at Ricky, look at it.

01:11:10
Speaker 3: Look He's like, yeah, I knew it.

01:11:12
Speaker 1: Unbelievable. Three more's next dayne Dwayne, Go ahead, Dwayne?

01:11:18
Speaker 2: How did he How did they get to the rim? And how did they second? So, how in the world did they let him get to the rim?

01:11:26
Speaker 1: All right, go ahead?

01:11:29
Speaker 20: He just went to the rack. I just I'm just watching it right now. He just took it to the rack and laid it straight in.

01:11:35
Speaker 1: Unbelievable. Go ahead.

01:11:36
Speaker 20: Yeah, I'm rooting for Patino the rest of the rest of the tournament. I hope they hope they make a run. As in Freddy Magert was saying after action review, we didn't play very good this game. And when you like you say it's about Jimmy's and Joe's and when you took out our Jimmy's and our Joe's came play. You see what happened. We had ten point, we had a ten point lead, go to nothing quick. We're gonna have to have more players if we're gonna have substitution patterns like this. And the last thing I got to say is everybody says the last game was the Otega O Way game. The only thing I'm gonna say it was the Billy Flu game.

01:12:23
Speaker 2: Have a good night, appreciate the call.

01:12:26
Speaker 1: I don't get that.

01:12:26
Speaker 3: The Billy our billy flu.

01:12:28
Speaker 1: Game, Flu game, Billy flu game. He did go through the flu. Well done, Billy. You feeling better?

01:12:33
Speaker 2: I am?

01:12:34
Speaker 1: I am, thank you.

01:12:35
Speaker 3: You sound a lot better.

01:12:36
Speaker 1: He sounds a lot better. I can't believe they just let him get to that either. Duke Saint John's in Washington, d C. Friday night, Oh my godness, that's gonna be great.

01:12:45
Speaker 3: Right, let's go.

01:12:46
Speaker 2: Although we're gonna see a lot of Lightner shot.

01:12:49
Speaker 1: We will a lot of Lightner shots. And I cannot believe Kansas just let that dude get to the rim.

01:12:55
Speaker 3: Like I said, I hope we see a lot of the Boozer brother commercials though that would I really enjoy the those to.

01:13:00
Speaker 1: Get a bunch of them? Two more?

01:13:02
Speaker 2: Who's next, Steve, Steve, go ahead, Steve first time?

01:13:06
Speaker 4: Long time?

01:13:08
Speaker 2: Who are what's up?

01:13:09
Speaker 21: What's up?

01:13:10
Speaker 18: Hey?

01:13:11
Speaker 21: Why don't we reach out to pat Riley to get a GM in here that he knows it's young enough and coming to fix a lot of these problems. So in two years, whether Mark Cooby's coach or whoever's coached, that we're ready to rote.

01:13:28
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I I don't think it has to be pat Riley. Like I I want you to go during this off week. I want you to go read. Let me, let me give you let me. I want you to go read. And I hate to say this because it's Duke. I want you to go read about how Duke runs their athletic department. Now just take just there was an article, I don't remember what public, I think it was the New York Times. They have a woman running their athletic department who came from the world of business. She just went from business to running the athletic department. And then they hired this so it's two women. And they hired this woman from Nike to come be the Nile person, right, two women, neither of which had a background in basketball. Okay, they were just smart people and they have created the infrastructure that every team in the country is now copying. And they just went and got two smart minds who were innovative, not stuck in their ways, and they did it. There's no reason we can't do something like that. There's no reason they went and they were innovative. They didn't sit there and go, well, what's the way we do this, Let's keep it, let's keep it in the family, let's find someone who was groomed under rad They just went out and said, who are the too smart people that we can find? And they got them. It reminds me of I've told this story before, but we decided we needed a new CEO of KSR many years ago, and I hired Maria, who was answering the phone with us, and I said, I want you to be our CEO, and she goes, well, what do you do?

01:15:05
Speaker 2: And I said, I don't really know.

01:15:06
Speaker 1: You're gonna kind of figure it out, but I know you're smart and I can tell you got your stuff together, and I'm going to give you this and you're gonna figure it out because you're smart, fast forward.

01:15:17
Speaker 2: She's an executive now at on three.

01:15:19
Speaker 1: Put her on the fast track, and how'd she get the job? She was answering the phone and I was like, but she's smart. I know she is.

01:15:26
Speaker 2: She'll figure it out.

01:15:27
Speaker 1: Right. There is somebody out there that we can give this stuff to, and we shouldn't give it to them because they happen to be in the room and they're like, hey, you doing, buddy, Like it needs to be somebody who's that innovative thinker on all this, and then I think a lot of the problems take care of themselves.

01:15:44
Speaker 3: The big question is, if that's the way modern basketball is, why are we so slow to adapt to it.

01:15:51
Speaker 1: I don't know.

01:15:52
Speaker 2: I thought Mark what I'm describing.

01:15:55
Speaker 1: I kind of thought Mark was that I did too, But I think he's kind of stuck in his ways, oddly for a relatively young man. So I don't know.

01:16:08
Speaker 3: History is showing these other schools, if.

01:16:09
Speaker 1: These other schools have adapted. If you right now, go look at go look at how Duke runs their athletic department Florida. Go look at what Tommy Lloyd's doing in Arizona. Go look at what Dusty May is doing at Michigan. All four of them took the modern system and said, how do we make this work? And we're still sitting there going how do we maximize profit while bringing down cost and protecting our trademark against the copyright of that?

01:16:38
Speaker 3: Like, what are you talking about?

01:16:42
Speaker 2: Go in?

01:16:43
Speaker 1: Who's next? Last one?

01:16:45
Speaker 15: Chris?

01:16:46
Speaker 2: Chris? Go ahead, Chris?

01:16:49
Speaker 22: Hey man, Hey guys. One thing that I want to talk about is obviously, you know you want to get as much talent as you can. But I think one of the glaring things this season is basketball IQ rights. As smart as Mark Pope is, here's gonna be a surgeon, as smart as he is with the analytics, How can you be an evaluator of players to build your roster when and you can't see that basketball IQ is not part of their game and you let the talent that you thought you evaluated circumvent that. So I think there's a sweet spot between talent and basketball IQ.

01:17:29
Speaker 1: But we are very talented, like like I feel like sometimes this year we didn't have great basketball IQ, but we also weren't talented Like like, I agree with you, you need a balance, but we didn't seem at times to have either.

01:17:47
Speaker 22: And the crazy thing is is I think last year's team was less talented but had the basketball IQ toal had better results.

01:17:58
Speaker 1: Last year's team was a team that whatever their ability was, they each maximize their ability. You saw Kobe Braa be the best version of Kobe Brayan, Amari Williams, and Andrew Carr and Jackson Robinson and Lamont Butler, like all those guys and Oway played like to the best of what they were. Yep. Sometimes this year I have to be honest if you said to me who played to the best of their ability this year? Away Aberdeen?

01:18:30
Speaker 3: Is there anybody else?

01:18:31
Speaker 1: Maybe half the year Diabatee and maybe a half the year Channeler.

01:18:38
Speaker 2: But really just Away? And I think that's kind of a problem.

01:18:44
Speaker 1: Yep.

01:18:45
Speaker 22: I just hope that they think about basketball IQ in maybe a little bit different lens than what they did in the previous year in the transfer portal. I think it goes a long way.

01:18:56
Speaker 1: I agree, and I appreciate the call. We went along today, but there was a lot talk about.

01:19:01
Speaker 3: Show, the last post game show of the year.

01:19:04
Speaker 1: Yes, but we'll be back on the air tomorrow. We're right back to it. Let me say a couple of things real quick. We'll take a check. By the way, whenever you get a chat. I can't mean to say that on the air. You know what, it's the last show of the year. What we're gonna do a couple of things. First of all, thank all of you for listening again this year, even when other parts of UK Athletics disappoint us performance. The one thing that never fails is there's no fan base like this and you guys are We saw it again in Saint Louis, Like how kind and just great fans people are We deserve success, meaning Kentucky, because you all deserve success. Also, I want to thank everybody that's on been on this show, on this show, going back to Paul, this is really the end of us of a seven month sprint that starts in September. Ryan Lemon's been with me forever and is awesome as a person and a great host and great co hosting is why this show works. Drew obviously about to have a baby who I've been with even longer than Ryan. Billy comes in with the flu still gives it as all the time, Shannon and I solved every relationship problem this weekend. And then of course Mario, who has been a great addition and has made it to where we are close to being in the modern era of athletics. They could use him over there at the institution we're talking about, but we're not gonna let him go. All of you guys, thank you all, thank all of you that listen. We'll have a great spring, a great summer. And will Stein's first game is five months from now.

01:20:50
Speaker 3: Well, it'll go by fast, ready to go.

01:20:51
Speaker 1: That's exactly right, Thank you guys very much. Kat's in the season on a disappointment, losing by nineteen to Iowa State. This has been the local Toy Dealers KSR post game show