2026-03-25- KSR - Hour 1

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Speaker 1: From YouTube, Ben Social Media, Comedy Off Broadway, and Lexington welcomes Josh Wolf March nineteen through the twenty first, then from Late Night TV and The Bob and Tom Show. Catch Nick Griffin March twenty six through the twenty eight and don't miss New York comedy superstar and podcaster Mark Norman April second through the fourth. Four tickets to all comedy Off Broadway shows Calle five nine two seven one joke or visit Comedy Off Broadway dot com com Off Broadway.

00:00:30
Speaker 2: This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage.

00:00:34
Speaker 3: Now here's Matt Jones.

00:00:36
Speaker 4: Welcome everyone. It is Kentucky Sports Radio. Wednesday, March the twenty fifth. I'm Matt Jones. I'm here in Louisville, Kentucky, Ryan and Drewer and Lexington Shannons in Louisville as well. You give us a shout on the Clarks Pumping Shop phone line eight five nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven. A Vision Autoglass text machine is seven seven two s four five two five four in this station sponsored by the t J. Smith Office. If you call TJ, I'll make them pay. Guys, I woke up this morning very casually, was gonna do the show from home in Louisville and then come to Lexington. And then all of a sudden realized, Shannon, they changed all the ways to get into the show now, all the little what do you call them ip addresses?

00:01:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, the little ports that you have to changed.

00:01:18
Speaker 4: All the ports and I couldn't get on so I had to drive my car speed in.

00:01:22
Speaker 5: You should have seen me.

00:01:23
Speaker 4: I was like, I was at a road course on Formula one getting through downtown Louisville and walked in here about two minutes before, ready to go.

00:01:30
Speaker 3: Right, Well, you made it welcome.

00:01:32
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm proud of you for being all traffic laws.

00:01:36
Speaker 5: I did not. There were not laws.

00:01:39
Speaker 4: We're forsaken, but we got here and ready to go. And this is a this is another like insanely huge day of news, Mere Drew.

00:01:51
Speaker 5: I I don't know.

00:01:53
Speaker 4: I can't think of a day in a long time where so many different things happened last night that there's gonna be really kind of big stories that I don't even know if we get to today.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, and if you combine them with excuse me, okay and talk, I have something of my throat all right, I'm back. Sorry, no, I when you combine it with yesterday, what are crazy forty eight hours of news? It's just been one thing after another here lately, and we have a full slate today, we do, so that's a clare my throat.

00:02:16
Speaker 4: So let's uh, let's get started and figure out. I'm trying to figure out which way to go. I think, probably for the future of UK athletics. The most important thing today is a story that came out, at least in a surprise to me this morning from The Athletic, which is basically The New York Times about the UK Athletics department. And I can't tell if this is a story. So the The Athletic is a paid site, but I can't tell if this.

00:02:48
Speaker 5: Article is free or not. Did any of the three of you look at it yet to see?

00:02:52
Speaker 4: Because I subscribe so I can get it, but I don't know if the general public can get it.

00:02:56
Speaker 6: Do you don't think I don't think we can get it yet.

00:02:58
Speaker 4: Okay, so you can't get it all right, So I guess if that's the case, I don't really want to start a show talking about business shin and that seems boring. Yeah right, yeah, but I do think this article is very important, so I'm going to compromise and talk about the article in like thirty minutes so that we talk about sports first. But I would say if in those thirty minutes in the background you want to read that article, you should, because I think it's a lot of our questions about JMI and all those things that people have asked are talked about in that article. But let's start with probably the most important thing, which is that Kentucky's one of their assistant coaches, Jason Hart, is leaving for SMU. He was kind of the head recruiter, I would say on this staff. He wasn't the only recruiter, but he is probably the head recruiter for UK basketball. He's going to SMU for a similar job, although I guess his job title will be associate head coach, but that's really a job title.

00:03:59
Speaker 5: It's kind of the same job.

00:04:02
Speaker 4: Drew, what do you make of the decision of Pope losing heart or heart leaving, whichever it happened.

00:04:08
Speaker 7: Well, he's returning to a guy who worked with Edinburgh for a long time. I think he's like being named the associates. It's a little bit of an upgrade. I'm conflicted on how to react because I can see it two ways. He either is leaving UK because he couldn't get recruits and it's not really his decision, or he's leaving because he was bringing recruits to the table and Kentucky couldn't finish the job. And I really don't know the answer to which way that goes, but I know he was the deep paint connection all anyone wanting deep paint. Pate was the big one. He had coached him before any any interview of Pate. It's heart heart heart heart, heart, heart, heart, heart, heart heart. So he was the big paint connection. And then yeah, recently, any of the trips that have been made to Stokes were Jason Hart. But as far as you know, it's also very obvious that we have zero players and that was his job the last year, So you could also say, well, he didn't bring anything to the table, so what are we losing? But I don't know if he's leaving because he was getting them all the way through the door and up to Pope and Pope couldn't close, or if he couldn't do it himself.

00:05:06
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, we first don't know if Yeah, we don't know if it's like he's leaving because he wants to leave or he was being pushed out. I really don't know the answer to that, and I haven't I haven't really gotten I'm not sure, So I don't know. I will say, Ryan, I was very excited when Jason Hart came here, heard good things about him. I think he had done a good job at USC, and I was very excited. I thought when he came here that he would be a really good addition. I think his emphasis was on like high school recruiting, and you know, I think the two guys from Kentucky weren't even guys that he was necessarily the main guyle on Johnson and Moreno, so I don't know that it's a huge loss because I'm kind of Withdrew, like, I don't know that he was able to get anyone. Now was he not able to get anyone? What reason? Was it because of him? Is it because of Pope? Is it because I don't that, I don't know. But in terms of like we're losing our connection to recruits, I'm not sure that we had that to begin with.

00:06:05
Speaker 6: You know, And it could be something as simple as he's a West Coast guy. He wants to go back back to all.

00:06:11
Speaker 5: It's not West Coast. He's going to.

00:06:15
Speaker 6: West west part of the state. Get closer to home.

00:06:18
Speaker 5: It's not even the west part of the state.

00:06:20
Speaker 3: Closer to home.

00:06:21
Speaker 6: I should have said to start with, maybe just wants to get.

00:06:24
Speaker 5: Closer to Does he have a map?

00:06:26
Speaker 3: He's been to Texas before, you've been to Tech.

00:06:28
Speaker 8: You know.

00:06:28
Speaker 5: It's kind of like in the middle.

00:06:30
Speaker 3: Right, we were next to Vegas when we were.

00:06:32
Speaker 5: I mean to get it. To be honest with you, he's not that much closer Dallas to Los Angeles. Not really, I mean, you're not. We've done this drive.

00:06:42
Speaker 4: Do you remember it took like two and a half days to get from Dallas to Los Angeles.

00:06:47
Speaker 3: But I think what else where it hurts.

00:06:49
Speaker 6: As far as in game coaching, him and Mark Fox were the only two guys that really did like a lot of in game coaching. It looks like on the sideline, you know, if you watch the bench, it was Pope and then in Heart and then Mark Fox. Those are those are the guys that kind of did most of it. So I think I think this is a blow you meant you guys talked to touch on the recruiting, but I think on the coaching also, this is a blow.

00:07:09
Speaker 5: The beat Shandon, the Dallas beat, you know.

00:07:12
Speaker 4: I mean, he's he's big on the sand that sort of borders Fort Worth.

00:07:19
Speaker 7: Waco is kind of like Malibu. Really, yeah, if you squinch, it is.

00:07:23
Speaker 3: South Padre Island down there somewhere right.

00:07:26
Speaker 5: Uh yeah, it's there. It's not there, but it's in It's Texas.

00:07:30
Speaker 4: It's around Texas, So I mean, yeah, it's the West coast. Drew, you were going to say you think it's do you are you saddened by the loss, regardless of hout it happened.

00:07:39
Speaker 7: I'm really indifferent because my bigger concern is whatever you think of Jason Hart. I don't love the idea of a new assistant coming in on maybe not even here yet in late March. Well, we need a roster asap. Well, and there's people who believe this won't be the only one.

00:07:54
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean you mentioned Mark Fox. There are those.

00:07:58
Speaker 4: I again, I have no ideal what part of the coaching staff will be here because I haven't heard, but there are people on the internet who don't think.

00:08:06
Speaker 5: Mark will be here after this year.

00:08:08
Speaker 4: I don't know, I will say, if they're gonna be staff changes, I do hope, Brian. They they happened quick because the portal opens April six, but I'm assuming work is already taking place right now.

00:08:18
Speaker 6: Yeah, you got to move fast right now. There's no delay whatsoever because when that portal opens there, players are going to find a home very quickly. We saw it happen last year. Man, it didn't take long for them to find a new place to go.

00:08:28
Speaker 5: Yeah.

00:08:28
Speaker 4: So, But then then Kentucky officially added the Keegan Brown guy as the associate director of Player Development. They're very clear that this is not a GM, but we still don't know whether or not he's going to hire a GM or this may be part of the GM.

00:08:48
Speaker 5: I don't know.

00:08:49
Speaker 4: I don't know much about this guy, Drew. He was at though with the What Wisconsin heard is that right?

00:08:54
Speaker 7: Yes, video guy for.

00:08:56
Speaker 4: This is a video guy for the Wisconsin heard, which is a G league Channon, you heard right?

00:09:01
Speaker 5: Heard that?

00:09:02
Speaker 4: Uh? And so I don't really know anything about him. I mean, I think when we get into this, these jobs where it involves getting players and nil and negotiation, I don't know that we're always gonna have heard of these people to be honest. So I really don't know if this is good or bad, but we have a new person in that job.

00:09:21
Speaker 7: Yeah, he left Wisconsin to get closer to Utah. Down here in Licenson. I will say when when Pope first got hired, you know, we're all trying to guess who the assistants were, and I went and I nerded out on a story about Keegan Brown. I'll admit I was like, we got to get this guy because he did seem like a young mind.

00:09:39
Speaker 5: What did you like about him?

00:09:41
Speaker 7: He seemed to be a big part of the offense Pope was running. Everyone watched that video game offense YouTube video and Pope first got hired the hep talked us into it, and I think Keegan Brown was a big part of building Pope's teams there. I actually was rooting for him to be an assistant, just completely based on one YouTube video and then the story I read that was can't remember it's a BYU story, but if something out in Utah that made him seem like a young up and comer, and then it kind of, you know, obviously didn't make the move and ends up in Wisconsin, And I didn't think much of him. So I, at least a couple of years ago, thought highly of him based on what I was reading.

00:10:12
Speaker 4: Okay, so well that's good. That makes me feel good. So you've actually shandon he's done Keegan Brown research.

00:10:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, the only one on the show who has.

00:10:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, well I certainly have not done Keegan Brown research. So you're pro Keegan Brown.

00:10:25
Speaker 5: I am.

00:10:25
Speaker 7: Well, you know, we'll see. But in the role he's in, which Pope said, he's just going to be around the clock, you know, collecting data, spreadsheets, all that stuff. I mean, I can't hurt to have him. And like I said, I can't switch up because I wanted him in the beginning, just based on one article I read.

00:10:39
Speaker 4: All right, well, Drew is pro Keegan Brown, then I'm pro Keegan Brown.

00:10:44
Speaker 7: It's all that one are I'll tweet it, I'll find it. It was a couple of years old. You'll put it out.

00:10:47
Speaker 5: There, all right, So what were we gonna say?

00:10:48
Speaker 6: This is as close as he'll get to a general manager?

00:10:50
Speaker 3: Is this guy?

00:10:51
Speaker 5: I don't know. I don't know.

00:10:53
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, I feel like we say quite a bit I don't know, which has been kind of the theme of a lot of stuff with. I mean, UK has been so close shot for a while that is hard to know. I and this kind of will go to the second thing I was gonna bring up, but I have probably had more positive or constructive conversations in the last twenty four to forty eight hours with folks around UK sports athletics, just to get an understanding of what's going on, not necessarily to agree with a lot of the decisions, but just communication lines that had kind of gone down. I don't know if here's what I think has happened, Ryan. I think the loss Sunday, and then the reaction to the loss, and then the realization that Mitch Barnhardt is going to be gone, and the realization that a new era is coming, and then all the conversations that have been going in all different directions with fans on.

00:11:57
Speaker 5: Every side of every issue.

00:12:00
Speaker 4: I do think there has been a little bit of a come to Jesus moment in the UK world that Okay, whatever it is we were doing this last year or two, we can't do that anymore. Okay, Yes, and I appreciate that.

00:12:16
Speaker 5: Now.

00:12:16
Speaker 4: I'm as concerned as anybody about some of the stuff going forward. I'm concerned about whether we're gonna have a roster next year. I'm concerned about a lot of stuff. But for the first time, and this is really in the last twenty four to forty eight hours, for the first time in about a year and a half, since the early years of Pope, really when the early days of Pope, since Mark Stoops started having his bad season two years ago, UK has been in this hunker down mentality of everybody get away from us. We're going to be in our cocoon. And I do think Mitch Barnhart was a big part of that thought process. It seems to me in the last twenty four to four eight hours a realization from a lot of people in a lot of different areas, all right, that didn't work, so let's try something else. And that to me, people sometimes ask me, I get asked. I got asked four times yesterday, you know, are we Kentucky basketball going to ever be back? I feel encouragement that at least it feels like, for the first time in about two year and a half that the university seems to realize that the way things have been going just can't keep going like that.

00:13:34
Speaker 5: Now we'll see what happens with that.

00:13:36
Speaker 4: So I'm excited about the Keegan Brown. I don't know if the Jason Hart thing's gonna matter. But now the question is can we get a roster and can we get players? And there's some developments on that. Also, there's some developments on some recruiting. We got a guy coming on campus today, so there's a lot of stuff to talk about. Eight five, nine two eight twenty two eighty seven. This is Ksar in Fort Worth, Texas. I you know, Ryan's just using the same map that they used in Justified.

00:14:11
Speaker 5: Did you want Did you want to watch Justified?

00:14:12
Speaker 8: Oh?

00:14:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh yes?

00:14:13
Speaker 4: And Justified they would say they said Harlan was like ten minutes from Lexington.

00:14:17
Speaker 6: Right down the road from Lexington, SI. It was right down the road from Lexington, just like Dallas is Los Angeles.

00:14:21
Speaker 4: And that made a lot of people at Kentucky mad with that show. If you're a didn say like, Harlan is not ten minutes from Lexington.

00:14:27
Speaker 7: And on one of the first scenes, he's on some old dirt road and he's on the phone. He's like, I'm on Tates Creek Road. I'm like noh Wor's croker Wor's News Circle. Tay Tates Creek is not dirt road.

00:14:39
Speaker 5: Yeah, so.

00:14:41
Speaker 4: We obviously have serious things to talk about. But Shannon just told me a headline during the break. Yeah, read me that headline again.

00:14:46
Speaker 2: Quadruple amputee cornhole champion charged with murder.

00:14:52
Speaker 5: Quadruple amputee cornhole champion.

00:14:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, championship player, professional player.

00:14:59
Speaker 5: Professional player, Yeah, charged with murder.

00:15:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well what did they say?

00:15:03
Speaker 5: He did?

00:15:04
Speaker 3: And shot a man and then dumped the body.

00:15:09
Speaker 5: Shot a man and dumped the body.

00:15:10
Speaker 3: That's pretty good. That's that's that's a lot.

00:15:15
Speaker 5: Shot a man where.

00:15:17
Speaker 2: Uh the amputy was driving, was driving, was driving okay, and then pulled over and shot the guy, then dumped his body.

00:15:27
Speaker 5: Wow, And he's a cornhole player.

00:15:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, not anymore. Well, it'd be a different kind of in prison. He can be a corn hole player.

00:15:36
Speaker 5: I don't that's an unbelievable story.

00:15:40
Speaker 3: It's not to unpacked. Yeah, huh, well, I mean you can.

00:15:45
Speaker 5: Where is that?

00:15:48
Speaker 3: What's Maryland?

00:15:52
Speaker 4: Well, I'm gonna have to read that story. I don't want to make any comments because I don't even know. I don't even know how to begin to That is one that's hard to even begin to process.

00:15:59
Speaker 7: There's videos of the guy like firing guns not associated with the crime, but like he he has.

00:16:04
Speaker 5: A lot of prosthetic arms. Is that how he fires it?

00:16:09
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:16:10
Speaker 7: And he also was just kind of I don't know, I'm gonna what do you think.

00:16:15
Speaker 6: He's driving a car.

00:16:16
Speaker 7: I just got to see the video. I don't know how to describe it.

00:16:19
Speaker 5: Don't turn riding to Mike Off.

00:16:21
Speaker 3: I gotta say one thing.

00:16:22
Speaker 5: I know, say one thing. Already made one inappropriate joke in this segment.

00:16:28
Speaker 6: No, I didn't you, No, that was not the joke.

00:16:35
Speaker 3: Come on, let him make the joke.

00:16:37
Speaker 6: I said, I'm making a joke. I don't know how he's driving a car and shooting a gun at the same time.

00:16:41
Speaker 4: Prosthetic, But that's what I just said. It's because of prostatic. I mean, I assume. Although Drew says we need to watch the video.

00:16:47
Speaker 3: He did pull the trigger with his tongue, I mean he did it with his finger.

00:16:51
Speaker 4: Well, Drew says, there's a video. I watched the video. I need you all to stop talking because I'm not I'm worried about what we'll save it for. It'st the news later. Yeah, that's probably a good one for our podcast. We're taking this afternoon. All right, if I'm nine two, twenty two eighty seven, what person rights Matt we Jason Hart did get us LaMotte Butler? Okay, he was great, So I mean that that that would have been a good start. I don't know, are there any players on the roster that were on the roster this year that he was the direct guy.

00:17:18
Speaker 5: Drew or do you are you? Do you know?

00:17:20
Speaker 7: I would be guessing. I'm not sure exactly who he reeled in this year.

00:17:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm not sure either if I'm nine two eighth twenty two eighty seven. Since I got off track with your story, I do need to say one thing to all the listeners. Yesterday I highly recommended the show Neighbors. Yes, I watched the end of episode two yesterday where he does karate. Maybe the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life. You've seen it, Drew right.

00:17:48
Speaker 7: Episode two is the one with the white haired guy in the pool.

00:17:51
Speaker 4: And he's yes. Yes, Episode two is. The characters in the show are unbelievable. The character these people existing. There's a guy who calls himself the Italian Stallion that multiple people wrote and said with Shannon the dude in ten More Years, I got a multi and like, at first I mocked it and I kind of drew think it's true. The guy in episode two with the ponytail, No, not even because he looks like him, like.

00:18:14
Speaker 3: The actions, Oh what's he doing?

00:18:17
Speaker 5: Well, I'll let you watch it all right?

00:18:19
Speaker 8: Then?

00:18:20
Speaker 4: Episode three is amazing about I can't even like watching it last night.

00:18:25
Speaker 5: I just I couldn't believe these people existed, and it made me.

00:18:27
Speaker 4: These two best friends argued over a plot of land that's like three feet. I bring all this up to say, episode six, I'm told, is one that I need to warn the viewers about.

00:18:39
Speaker 8: H do.

00:18:40
Speaker 4: I haven't seen it, but I had a lot of people write me and go, you need to say to viewers the episode six is different than everything else.

00:18:47
Speaker 5: And I haven't seen it.

00:18:49
Speaker 4: But I just want to say I'm not responsible for episode six because I haven't seen it yet.

00:18:54
Speaker 7: I have not gotten to six yet, but my friends knew I was watching it last night and they're done with it, and they also warned of episode six.

00:19:01
Speaker 5: Hey say, do not watch episode six with your mom or Larry Wow?

00:19:05
Speaker 7: Really, Yes, I think there's some male nudity involved.

00:19:08
Speaker 4: All right, So Shannon, just for the record, I'm recommending episodes one through five. No comment on six.

00:19:14
Speaker 3: Okay, I won't watch six.

00:19:16
Speaker 5: I wat I want you to watch two because that guy's you.

00:19:20
Speaker 3: In ten years, we'll see what you really think about me.

00:19:22
Speaker 5: No, I'm not the one he said it.

00:19:24
Speaker 4: It's the people on the uh, people on the text machiney if I'm not two eight oh twenty two eighty s inven Adam, go ahead, Adam.

00:19:31
Speaker 9: Hey, what's up guys?

00:19:33
Speaker 8: Uh?

00:19:33
Speaker 9: You know, I see a lot of pushback online with assistant coaches leaving.

00:19:40
Speaker 8: Uh.

00:19:40
Speaker 9: You know, Corey Hart came in as what the reputation of We're going to get all these G League players and that hasn't happened. And you know, even you know, Alvin Brooks on on the staff came in from from Baylor. It's like he's a he's a top notch recruiter and we have zero recruits for next year. So you know, I can't really over these coaches leaving.

00:20:02
Speaker 4: I sort of agree with you, Adam, to be honest with you, I saw someone say online you can't both say Pope needs to make changes and fix things and then get mad when changes are made, right, And I think that's a really fair point. I mean, if you do not think what happened last year is acceptable and it needs to get better, then changing things would presumably be the way to.

00:20:23
Speaker 9: Do it, exactly. If you know, obviously a head coaching change isn't going to happen this offseason, but this is this is the way to go. You've got to do something to try to make it better, and you know this is this is how you take care of that. Yeah, knew, assistant coaches.

00:20:42
Speaker 4: Appreciate the call. So I agree with you. I don't know how you can do both. Hubert Davis is out, Yeah, but surprising. I mean, this is a pretty monumental thing in college basketball, Hubert Davis being gone. Matt Norlander said this yesterday, and he's right. This is the first time in any of our lifetimes, in any of our lifetimes, that the North Carolina job is open. The North Carolina Joe job has not been opened since Dean Smith was the coach. They've always just picked the guy, They've always promoted from within, and they say they are now going outside the family for the first time ever.

00:21:20
Speaker 5: Ever, So.

00:21:24
Speaker 4: However you think of brands in college basketball. North Carolina is certainly one of the three or four biggest and that job is open, and I think that job has as much potential as any job. And the Kansas job might be open. Yeah, it's not official, it's not official. There's been no official announcement, but you could end up with a case where the North Carolina and Kansas job is open. And Matt Norlander said last night he thought that there were some top coaches that would leave for those jobs. So what happens Drew ste May goes to Kansas or Todd Golden goes to North Carolina or something like that happens. How are things going to feel in Lexington?

00:22:10
Speaker 5: Not great.

00:22:11
Speaker 7: Billy Donovan's name is also being thrown around a lot that he might want to return to college for that job that would really work after just two years ago.

00:22:18
Speaker 4: We wouldn't wait for talk to him. If we couldn't, I mean, we couldn't wait. We had three different times to hire Billy Donovan. And if he comes none of those three and then goes to Carolina.

00:22:30
Speaker 7: I mean, what if we just look up and you know, Todd Golden's at USC natoates and I'm just guessing natoates is at U n C or natoates is at Kansas, Golden's at UNS whatever. They just all upgrade and get the best coaches, and that will also come with a trickle effect across the board with recruiting and then other coaches raising their contracts and buy outs at other schools.

00:22:50
Speaker 4: They'd both be out of the SEC though some try to find some positive out of it. But those jobs, those are two of the best four jobs in the country. Yep, we'll be right back.

00:23:04
Speaker 5: TJ. Smith, personal injury attorney called TJ.

00:23:07
Speaker 7: He'll make them pay.

00:23:09
Speaker 2: Now more of Kentucky Sports Radio present it by Stockton Mortgage.

00:23:12
Speaker 3: Here's Matt Jones.

00:23:14
Speaker 4: Welcome back Tucky Sports Radio Kentucky. Kentucky beat Murray State and baseball. That's a World College World Series baseball team we beat yesterday, Drew right they went to college.

00:23:26
Speaker 5: Was it last year?

00:23:26
Speaker 6: Oh?

00:23:27
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, last year Murray State.

00:23:29
Speaker 7: Also, we've been struggling against teams in the States.

00:23:31
Speaker 5: This year's yea more Head State beat us.

00:23:33
Speaker 7: It's good to get a big win.

00:23:35
Speaker 5: One ten uh.

00:23:36
Speaker 4: Okay, So you can apparently this JMI article or this article about UK's athletics can be shared as a gift article.

00:23:48
Speaker 5: I don't know what that means, Shannon, and give it as a gift.

00:23:51
Speaker 4: But you can give it as a gift. So someone sent it to me as a gift and they say that I can share this as a gift. So Drew, I'm going to give this for you to share it as a gift. It's the gift okay.

00:24:02
Speaker 7: You can also join KSR plus and it comes from an athletic subscription shout out?

00:24:07
Speaker 5: Is that right? Yeah?

00:24:08
Speaker 3: Off, right?

00:24:09
Speaker 8: Now?

00:24:09
Speaker 3: Are you not a member a KSR plus?

00:24:10
Speaker 4: I am, but I pay for the athletic I guess I didn't have to do that. It comes free if you're on KOs board on there.

00:24:18
Speaker 5: You just saved me money, Drew very much, and we have a sale.

00:24:22
Speaker 4: Go go there now, so I will tweet out the gift article or you can either way. If you want to read this, there's a way to get it. It's by a guy named Justin Williams. Here here it's very long. Here are the basics. UK for the first time talked about how this whole new athletics department's going to run. Justin Williams says that Kentucky has become the first athletic department to completely transition their athletic department to a nonprofit entity LLC. No other college university has changed athletic department to an LLC except Kentucky.

00:25:05
Speaker 5: Now.

00:25:06
Speaker 4: In the article, they quote a number of people who say this is revolutionary in a positive way, and then they quote a couple of people who say they're a little skeptical, but nevertheless they Kentucky is the first university to ever do this. I remember when they announced it a few months ago, or what was it like, eight months ago? Ryan, However, long ago that was he They said, soon every university will do this. Yes, as of right now, only Kentucky has, but that doesn't mean there won't be others that will do it as well. In the article this I'm going to reach you this paragraph, it's understandable to assume that with the amount of money the Wildcats are paying, they could be in financial distress, an overly leveraged asset that would have financial expert Dave Ramsey folding his arms in disgust.

00:25:57
Speaker 5: Dave Ramsey shit Rice.

00:25:59
Speaker 4: And the reality, however, is quite the opposite. Kentucky Athletics has access to plenty of money, potentially swimming in it. Scrooge McDuck style. In an industry where a lot of schools, even at the power conference level, are scrubbing their budgets and pleading for Congress to step in, Kentucky is embracing an adapter die mentality. They want to be up there with schools like Texas and Ohio State, which have budgets over three hundred million dollars. Eric Monday, university administrator and likely future president of university, that's my thing. We are running to what is next in college athletics. We're going to provide opportunities for our fans at a level beyond what we've traditionally done. We're going to have an athletics department beyond two hundred million a year to two hundred and twenty five million a year to two hundred and fifty million a year. Ah, so we can do more at UK. So that's the that's the biggest part of it. Basically, they're saying we're going to essentially an LLC model and we're about to row and money. Now that's hard for me to here, we're rolling in money. Scrooge McDuck style drew after Eli Kappaludo came on Saturday and said get ready for cuts. I don't that messaging seems different to me. But if you read this article, it goes into detail how it will work. It goes into detail as to how they believe it will succeed, and it seems like to me reading it, a lot of it is they think they're going to be able to grow lots of revenue all things that are not just athletics, specifically the restaurants, entertainment districts, hotels, all the things they've talked about building. They say those businesses and shops, those businesses will benefit from game day traffic, but also have year round money for athletics, as they are essentially businesses that will have UK Athletics as their profit center.

00:28:01
Speaker 5: What do we make of all that?

00:28:04
Speaker 7: Well, since they're pretty much Kentucky's collective these days, I'm rooting for them. I'm still a little skeptical with how that will work. As you said, it hadn't been a week since Eli told us there's gonna be cuts and all of that. On the football end, I've always thought we're good. I still wonder how this works with basketball, and it might even not reflect well on the basketball staff if it's true that they have a Scrooge McDuck's amount of money and can't sign anybody. But I like the optimism within the building, even though I still have my guard up a little bit that this is gonna work out. I mean, they're saying all the right things, and this story obviously paints it all in a bright light for Kentucky and leading the way in nil So I'm hoping it works out, but I've still you know, there are people that have had to work with them have said the opposite, and people in the building, so I'm still conflicted on how that how it will actually play out.

00:28:52
Speaker 4: So I when I read it this morning, i'd be I think it sounds great. Okay, it sounds great. We're gonna run UK Athletics like a business. I've been saying that for a long time. I'm I think, without saying it, it's kind of a hey, by the way, the way we did things under Mitch, we're not doing them anymore. I think there's a subtext to this in the way they say that. Although Mitch is quoted in this a couple of times supporting it, I think it looks good if you read it. I also agree with Drew that I actually think what they're doing is working for football. Basketball is a different question. There's a couple of things that I think though to watch. One the Scrooge McDuck language, I wonder if that's going to be Shannon like Ferrari was with basketball this year.

00:29:36
Speaker 3: Do you think we're gonna hear that a lot?

00:29:38
Speaker 4: I think if we And now granted this was the writer that said that it wasn't UK, but like, if we don't get recruits, are people going to go?

00:29:45
Speaker 5: I thought we had Scrooge McDuck money.

00:29:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Dave Ramsey reference and a Scrooge McDuck right.

00:29:52
Speaker 4: The other thing is and UK cites this. And this is where I'm gonna need help from the listeners. I'm going I'm going to do something that people say I never do, but I'm going to do here. I'm going to admit I don't know what I'm about to talk about at all, and I want over the next twenty four hours there are many listeners right now who will have experienced what I'm about to say, and I would like, on the text machine or on Twitter or whatever, write me and tell me, because I really want to hear from you on this. In the article, they basically say we're going to do to UK athletics what we did to UK healthcare. They say in this article that this model they're doing for UK athletics they did for UK healthcare and it had a ton of success. I will be honest with you, I have no idea if that's true or not, because I don't know anything about healthcare. So what I would like is, I think there's probably a ton of you out there that have experiences or dealings with UK healthcare that you can tell me. Let's assume UK athletics. Let's take what they say at face value. They're going to do with you UK athletics what they did with UK healthcare. If that's true, those of you that have experience with it, tell me what that means, because Ryan, I don't know. I don't know what that means. But the university itself cites what UK has done with UK healthcare as to what we are about to do with athletics, and it's going to change and make UK a Texas Ohio state like power. All right, So somebody who knows what they've done with UK healthcare, Ryan, let me know what that means. I have a question, Okay, do you have it to any of you know what happened with you? Okay, I don't true, do you?

00:31:39
Speaker 8: Yeah?

00:31:39
Speaker 7: I know there was a guy there a long time and maybe paid him well to take another gig, similar to what we're saying with UK athletics.

00:31:49
Speaker 5: Well that that might be similar to is that true? Is that actually what happened?

00:31:54
Speaker 7: It's I don't know what's public, but yeah, I kind of okay, Well leave that part to the side.

00:32:02
Speaker 3: I didn't know.

00:32:04
Speaker 5: I know he's gonna say that. What were you what was your question? Right?

00:32:07
Speaker 6: So you know when they said they were going to make athletics part of an LLC, like what you said like eight months ago. I mean we all applaud I thought it was a great idea, so why haven't others?

00:32:15
Speaker 4: It still might be. I don't know if it's a great idea or not. Their argument is it will be a lot easier for us to do things like by businesses as an LLC than if we were part of the university. And they're right about that, that's true. Now here's the problem with making anything of yours of business. What can happen to businesses?

00:32:36
Speaker 5: Shit, they can go under, they can fail, right.

00:32:41
Speaker 4: So at least when you have government regulation, and there are many, many negatives of government regulation, you have a backbone of the government to hold you up, and sometimes that leads you to make bad decisions. Sometimes it doesn't, but you always have a stop gap that Okay, at the end of the day, we have this pot of money from our government that will keep us in order.

00:33:09
Speaker 5: With a business, you can have infinite success, but you also can go bankrupt.

00:33:17
Speaker 4: And what's gonna happen is this private is this LLC gonna then have to come to the government and go bail us out?

00:33:26
Speaker 5: That I don't know. So I'm sure that this could be really good.

00:33:32
Speaker 4: But Shannon, businesses can succeed and they can also fail, and that they do put in this article what happens if they go belly up?

00:33:41
Speaker 5: And UK's answers basically like, we won't.

00:33:45
Speaker 3: Love the confidence.

00:33:45
Speaker 5: Oh, I mean that's confidence, right, yeah, that confidence. Yeah, So we'll see.

00:33:50
Speaker 4: But what I'd really like to do is that this is really a put out there of let me know you all in the UK healthcare world. I want to hear from you over the next few, like twenty four hours, because it seems like whatever they did to UK Healthcare. That's what we're doing to UK analytics. So we'll see what that is.

00:34:06
Speaker 7: There's the quote in there about Kentucky is not afraid to swing and miss Let's swing and hit though, how about we let's make let's make contact. I watched the Reds a lot. I see a lot of swing and missus. Yeah, we don't want that. I'm glad you're at the plate. I'm glad you'red swing.

00:34:20
Speaker 3: It starts tomorrow too.

00:34:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, we go, we got that summer, Velly's coming. We'll take a break, we'll be right back. Take a couple of calls chaos. You gotta give the You gotta give Scrooge McDuck a lot of credit as a reference that has had.

00:34:34
Speaker 5: Lasted a long time.

00:34:35
Speaker 4: It has, you know, because when's the last time you've seen anything duck tails related. Scrooge McDuck was not even a huge character, was he. No, And yet when you say Scrooge McDuck.

00:34:49
Speaker 3: Everybody knows. Everybody knows what vision of them jumping in that pile of gold.

00:34:53
Speaker 5: That's right. Yeah, so it really has worked for a long time. Now.

00:34:58
Speaker 4: I'm getting a ton of messages already from people in the UK Health Care keep them up today. I want to read them later tonight because I do want to understand, uh kind of because you know the fact that UK specifically made that comparison means that you know, they see it as the same thing.

00:35:16
Speaker 5: And Drew was correct.

00:35:17
Speaker 4: They did essentially push out the leader of UK Healthcare and gave him some money to put somebody else in. So I don't know if that's coincidence or not. Now you had a question, right, first of all, let me so a couple of people criticizing me for saying Ryan told inappropriate joke but not saying it to Shannon.

00:35:36
Speaker 5: A couple of segments ago. There's a different Shannon.

00:35:40
Speaker 3: It's called tact, It's called subtlety.

00:35:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, go back in podcast, listen to that joke as told by Shannon subtle and Ryan.

00:35:51
Speaker 5: Shannon Less.

00:35:52
Speaker 3: So I don't know what you're talking about.

00:35:57
Speaker 4: Exactly exactly. So that's the difference. Now, what was your question?

00:36:02
Speaker 6: So, you know, like you said, they started this allc eight months ago whatever, and we thought it was very innovative idea kind of head of the curve. But why eight months later has no other school done the same thing and followed suit.

00:36:12
Speaker 4: Don't know It says in the article that their other schools have dipped their toe around it, like Clemson, Louisville and Miami, but that no one's done it Butuck Kentucky.

00:36:24
Speaker 3: Is that they think.

00:36:26
Speaker 4: I think what they're saying is those schools have taken parts of their athletic department and made them LLC's. But we're the only one that's done our whole athletic department. So and I you know, why haven't other people done it? Maybe they will or maybe they want to see if it works or fails with us first, right.

00:36:46
Speaker 6: And you think eight months later somebody may have followed suit and all the leader.

00:36:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, Mike, go ahead, Mike, Good morning guys.

00:36:58
Speaker 8: I'm just I'm just looking at the next season. Oh my gosh. But anyway, So Jaden Clayton's you know, would know that situation. But Mo Diabate, Moreno and Chandler. I think that's what those are the three players that we we got to focus on. And I know a lot of people say about Diabate but I won't say about Diabade is that this guy.

00:37:23
Speaker 5: Wouldn't you wouldn't become in there williams.

00:37:27
Speaker 8: Uh just because of his injury I don't know. I mean, I mean, I know it's just ankle and stuff, but I know I like, I like, I do like him, you know, I do, yes, But with Mo, Mo was he was a battler man. He got us rebounds, He played some defense, he played some good defense. He knows he's not a you know, he's not an offensive guy. But man, when we needed some we needed some grits, he got us some grit And that's the reason I really like him, you know. And I just really think we got to have a corps for next year that we can build on, and we got I mean, this is this is my My fear is that because of the situation we're in, we're gonna make bad decisions.

00:38:06
Speaker 5: I worry about that. That's a very that's a great that's a very good point.

00:38:10
Speaker 4: I appreciate the call of the sixteen teams playing right now in the Sweet sixteen, fourteen of them had have at least three players in their top six that were returners. So it is important to have that. Yes, Michigan, and I want to say Texas are they and Texas was an eleven seed. They're the only two teams I think that are in the UH that don't have. At least three of their top six guys were returners from last year. Uh So, so Drew knowing that it is important that some critical mass of these guys come back.

00:38:51
Speaker 7: And I agree that that's important too. Now, if you look at a lot of the guys that came back, they were some of the team's best players a year ago. It'd be nice if you know, Aberdeen Oway had a little l jibillity left and they're the guys you're returning. True, So sure, I want to keep College you. I want to keep a lot of the guys, to be honest, but under the circumstances that they take a big jump forward and you get some stars to put next to them, because I don't think anyone's going to make big enough jump from the current team to be a star. So I want to keep lots of bodies. I think that's important in this era. But uh the ones Kentucky have an option to return right now aren't quite as good as what a lot of the other schools had to bring back that are still in the conversation.

00:39:27
Speaker 5: David, go ahead, David, hey man, I.

00:39:31
Speaker 9: Know you haven't touched on this yet, but I got to bog to pick with Michael Wilbond.

00:39:35
Speaker 4: Okay, well, I'm gonna do that next hour, David, can we hold on till then?

00:39:42
Speaker 5: Why don't you hold on?

00:39:43
Speaker 4: Let me play Will Bond's clip and then Shandon, we'll let David give a good response. Okay, fire you hang on, David, because I want you to fire at Will Bond when we do that next segment.

00:39:52
Speaker 5: All right, let's go to Will. Go ahead, Will.

00:39:55
Speaker 10: Yeah, Hey, thanks for taking my call again. Guys, A long time no speak. I really did want to kind of piggyback off the last person that was talking, just kind of see who you guys really want coming back on the team next year and why there's so much hate for Jasper Johnson. He is such a good kid local, He could develop into a great player. Stay with Malachomarino, he struggled toward the end of the year. Just wanted to get your guys' thoughts on that and try please keep bb in in line. We have the best fans, but also some of the worst and nastiest fans.

00:40:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we talked about the people coming back or not yesterday. There's a video online. I don't want to repeat it and go over it again, but you can you can see what we thought about all those. Let me hold off on Jasper in a second. I do think Jasper's a really good kid. I want to talk about that because his uncle made a comment yesterday, which will go to a bigger conversation again, one I have in the next hour. But I do think we need a critical mass of these guys back. And there's nobody on the team that like Drew. If they came back, I'd be unhappy. But I do think we got to go get some studs to go along with whoever comes back.

00:41:01
Speaker 7: Pully agree, and I've seen people. I'm just gonna use Brandon Garrison as an example. Some people don't want him back. I could understand. But at the same time, it's not like the portal is full of people that want to be a backup center that are gonna be better than that. I mean, we got to recognize Pope's not gonna go out and just nail every position on the roster with the best of the best. So some of these guys, even if you don't think they're you know, gonna be great or whatever, you still need guys on your bench as long as they can accept that role.

00:41:26
Speaker 4: And I mean I had nine dudes that played last year, so two of them are gone. That's seven of those seven. Like, I'm fine with all seven of them back. I don't think they're all gonna seven gonna come back, but I think it's key what you do with the other three or four spots.

00:41:44
Speaker 5: Ryan, they better be really good.

00:41:46
Speaker 11: You know, you gotta get some dudes because we are losing our two best players. Yeah, I mean, we went twenty two and fourteen and we're losing our two best players, So we gotta go get some dudes.

00:41:58
Speaker 6: Like Drew said, though Brandon Garrison into about that, they both kind of fit in their role coming off the bench, and I would really like to have them coming off the bench again next year.

00:42:05
Speaker 5: You can't end up with much worse. You with that a question, But you also have to make sure they want to come off the bench.

00:42:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, and who knows if they do, We're gonna come back out two. We're gonna play will Bond here. David's response talk about a couple of other things. Kiosk