2025-12-03- KSR - Hour 2

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00:00:59
Speaker 3: Welcome to two of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now here's Matt Jones.

00:01:05
Speaker 2: All right, Welcome back our number two Kentucky Sports Radio. We are live at Chaos Bar and Grill. The doors are open now, folks are coming in to get the dollar wings on Wings Day here as we're kind of all licking our wounds following last night's butt whooping. Well what only a butt whop? They just played horrible, Just a bad effort, bad performance by your Kentucky Wildcats losing sixty seven sixty four in North Carolina. Who's this segment? Sponsored by Shannon TD.

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00:02:07
Speaker 2: Thank you, Shannon T. Dude, Drew Franklin here and we're joined now by ksrs on Steven Peak. Before we get to his best friend, will Sein, we do want to go to your take on the basketball game. You were there last night at Roperina. You've covered the catch now for several years.

00:02:22
Speaker 5: He slept less than us somehow?

00:02:24
Speaker 2: Would you said he got four hours sleep last week?

00:02:26
Speaker 4: I got about four hours. Yeah, I stay up a little bit going through some film. You know, I don't know.

00:02:31
Speaker 2: Why would you want to rehash that last night?

00:02:33
Speaker 5: Oh?

00:02:33
Speaker 4: Because I was coming on here. I wanted to be able to see some parts of the game. But yeah, it was not a good night, Ryan. I'm not feeling too good today, not too feeling too good about the rest of the season. But you know, am I crazy for thinking maybe maybe they can win the next three non conference games?

00:02:48
Speaker 6: I'm crazy, right, No, they can't. Okay, that's the optimism we need. I was being too negative. You stick with that, all right? You're going to Nashville? Yeah, I do out there together.

00:02:57
Speaker 4: They've done well when I go to Nashville usually.

00:02:58
Speaker 5: How's that? Uh, you don't want to answer that.

00:03:01
Speaker 4: What was the question? Sorry?

00:03:02
Speaker 5: How do they do in Nashville when you're there?

00:03:04
Speaker 4: I don't know, man.

00:03:05
Speaker 2: We haven't been to the weekend of the SEC tournament in its true five years, so it can't be doing that well.

00:03:10
Speaker 4: No, and they lost to Vanerbilt last time I was there in football and in basketball, so well.

00:03:14
Speaker 2: Obviously, the big talking point today is the ten minute drought where they could not get a field goal. They finished the game two of sixteen from the field. What went wrong?

00:03:26
Speaker 4: Well, I'll just say this. We are shooting twenty seven percent from three against teams with the pulse. It was our fears going into the season, right we were. We didn't sign the shooters that we went after. You, Colin Chandler's your best three point shooter right now, he's your best shooter. What how many threes you take last night? Two to over series? Yeah?

00:03:45
Speaker 2: Over two?

00:03:47
Speaker 4: That's I mean, it's all of our fears coming to fruition this team. To me right now, it feels like twenty twenty two to twenty three again, it feels like, you know you got you got this one of the stars back of the a potential player of the year, and it'll take away, much like with Oscar and then it I don't know, man, Like I think the biggest non conference when they got there was Michigan, and it feels like you're kind of I'm reliving that one. I feel like I'm reliving a lot of you K seasons here lately. I mean, just injuries piling up. I win, Will Kentucky be dominant again? Like That's what I'm waiting for. I'm not asking for it every single season, but I need it. I need Kentucky to be one of the top four or five teams again like that. That's Kentucky basketball. And I'm feeling like right now, the standard over the last eleven years is that we could be really good, but we're not really ever great, and I'm getting kind of tired of that.

00:04:41
Speaker 5: You're not wrong.

00:04:43
Speaker 6: You mentioned how they had Oscar that year, and I'm not trying to say this is Oscar. But one more bright spot is think God Malaca Marino has turned into something his fresh year, right I did not expect him to play that much. Honestly, I watched him at a high school high school game, and he looked good. He was still very and I just wondered how that would translate to college. But my god, what would they look like if he wasn't playing the way he's been playing, because he's been pretty steady, especially since taken over in the starting five. He was the only one that wanted to rebound last night, and then, as we mentioned the first hour, made those two big free throws that I was hoping it would be a little more meaningful than they ended up being. But thank god he's playing well. I mean, they at least have a post presence in there, one of them while waiting for Quaintness to get healthy.

00:05:25
Speaker 2: And we mentioned this, you know, Pope ran with him those five guys most of the second half. Yellovich, Marino, Chandler, Otega and Aberdeen. He ran with those guys. Trent cam Brandon Garrison did not play second half of them. Played very little. We need more Yellovich. I know in practice he keeps messing up and Pope makes some run stairs. Okay, that's fine. Whatever put him in the damn game like we saw last night how he could guard Caleb Wilson highlights of the game. That's one of the toughest matchups we'll see this year. I mean that that kid's legit.

00:05:56
Speaker 5: We saw that fancy turn around he had late.

00:05:58
Speaker 6: I mean, he could do some special things and for the most part, Yellowvitch Garden really well. He'll rebound. Still isn't hitting the outside shot, but I think it's in him. Maybe if he gets out of there and gets comfortable, gets more minutes. So I know everybody wants to do about tay Back and that's a weird situation itself, but I'm like, just put Yellow Bitch in more of him, please.

00:06:14
Speaker 2: So another analogy I came up with. I felt like when they during that stretch, they started playing like they were behind. They actually had to leave, but they were playing like they were behind, coming down, rushing shots early in the shot clock, taking taking a bad shot. Do you agree with that or not?

00:06:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean this looks like like I said that twenty twenty two twenty three team where it's just kind of like five guys playing pickup ball out there. I went back last night and watched that video. The video that kind of sold me on on Mark Pope that YouTube video from Hoop's Vision where it shows that Kentucky or shows Byu flying down the court one two passes and pulling from three. This this is not the offense that I was sold, Like the offense I've been seeing in some of these games is not. And I will grant you like it will look different when Jalen Lowe's out there. But I was told after the Michigan State game that you can't build this around one player, So then it feels like we kind of did. You're right, and that's kind of that's frustrating.

00:07:11
Speaker 6: And after last year when you saw what happens when your guard gets hurt, I mean you never should have just had one ball handler to begin with. I mean, we don't want the injury to happen, But after you just saw it last year, you should be the team should be built better to handle it, especially with the investment made and all the advantages. Kentucky has to just be like, well, our guard's hurt. I guess that's it. I mean, that should be how it goes.

00:07:31
Speaker 2: Shannon, Is is it as simple as that they built this team around Jalen low He was going to be your leader, your point guard, and now with him out, they've just been in a spiral that it can't recover from.

00:07:39
Speaker 4: I think I think that's a lot of it.

00:07:40
Speaker 3: But at the same time, we also heard about how deep this team is and we're not seeing it right now, you know, like the lineup last night that they put out there. I don't have any confidence that if that's the lot we have to stick with for the rest of the season.

00:07:52
Speaker 4: I do not have very.

00:07:53
Speaker 3: Much optimism at all moving forward. So they've got to get healthy.

00:07:57
Speaker 2: The other big stat last night's Steven twenty offensive rebounds for North Carolina twenty two second chance points.

00:08:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's where Modiabate helps, right, I mean, that's where you'd like to you'd like to have had him, but it you know, and JQ obviously, But those two guys don't really fix for me. What is my biggest concern? Because I thought, like, defensively, I mean, Kentucky played all right, they held him to sixty seven points. I think that if you hold him to sixty seven, regardless of how many offensive rebounds. Now, I mean, you only get thirteen threes off, I guess you could contribute, contribute some of that to they stole twenty possessions from Kentucky or just you know, from getting the offensive offensive boards. But I've been concerned about the shooting since the summer, and I don't know, I just felt like, I know you guys have talked about it, but it felt like maybe an overcorrection happened in the roster construction or you just missed on the guys, so you kind of it kind of just ended up being this way. But I felt like, last year's team, do you take out the injuries, they're top five to eighteen? Am I wrong?

00:08:57
Speaker 6: No, not at all. I'm thinking back at last year's team. I miss Amari just fast and how much motion was it? Even when they were hurt, they would still move on offense. It looked like the way Pope wants to play. This team just gets stuck and the ball gets stuck and they just started looking at each other. And that is not at all what Mark Pope is why he's here. That's supposed to be the advantage, not a disadvantage on offense.

00:09:20
Speaker 2: You know, you're the biggest football fan of any of us, but we brought you here for one reason. Will william Stein's like your best friend. You're just your best friend. You guys, we'll slip in bunk beds. No, we told the story of the pregame show. You and will William Stein played on a baseball team and you were sixteen years old together the Louisville Lumbers.

00:09:39
Speaker 4: Louisville Lumber.

00:09:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you wore the jersey last night to the game. Did you show it to Will Stein? Yeah?

00:09:45
Speaker 4: I was actually walking over the student section and looked in front of me. I heard certain somebody say, hey, Steve, and so my dad's name is Steve Peaks, so he go, Will's gonna call me Steve. But I but when I had to apply for jobs later on, they got real confusing. Apparently I was trying to get money out of the bank or something like that, and so they had to put Steven. So and I'll go by Steven. But I was doing by Steve in high school. So I hear that, and he showed him the jersey and I got that. I'm video put it on my Twitter. It was because it's pretty cool.

00:10:13
Speaker 6: Did you ever think you would your childhood friend and teammate. No, Like, you know, it's already weird that he's what he's thirty six years old. Yes, me, me, I've never felt older than being old real the coaches that I cheer for, of the team that I cheer for.

00:10:26
Speaker 5: But what's your brain like? You go to these press conferences.

00:10:28
Speaker 6: You've been going to Stoops and cow and Pope and you name it for years, and now you're gonna be set up the tripod waiting for your Louisville lumber short stock to come out and do an interview.

00:10:38
Speaker 4: That's it's so weird. I've had so many people text me and ask me like the same thing. How how strange is it that it's not even just somebody who's our age. It's somebody I grew up playing sports against and was on his team for you know, a couple couple of years. So yeah, it's gonna be really, really weird. But I'm I'm so excited. I'm excited for today. I need to here will say some inspiring stuff to pick me up. So hopefully he's gonna he's gonna deliverate for.

00:11:04
Speaker 6: You all obviously went your separate ways. He went and did all the football you went. You went to Murray out of high school, probably hadn't stayed in touch a lot. But I mean you know him and what he's like, what kind of guy are we getting with Will Stein?

00:11:15
Speaker 4: That he's like such a good guy, Like he's he is a really good person, but he's a he's a competitor and a winner. Like wherever that dude goes, he wins. Like you know, he was at Trinity, played a quarterback for his senior season, led him to a state championship, had one of the biggest drives in Trinity football history. It's the little play action bootleg to tie the games and it's overtime got the win there. So Kentucky's getting a really good guy and somebody who I think I fully believe in that he's gonna take Kentucky football uh to a good place.

00:11:48
Speaker 6: That that uh, that emotion he showed last night when he was pumping him off, is that his personality or is that to him just getting kind of caught up in roperena because that was that he brought to the Lexington.

00:11:57
Speaker 4: No, that's that's Will. That's Will. That's that's the that's the kind of guy you're gonna get. I am interested because you all seen the YouTube videos in but kind of breaking. Yeah, that's that's the nerdy side of them. I love the side we saw last night. Yes, I think that's what I love. You're gonna get both. You're gonna get that that that excitement, and you're gonna get You're getting somebody, uh, very intelligent that's gonna be able to break down stuff for us in post games. So maybe we'll learn. I think we're gonna learn some stuff.

00:12:19
Speaker 5: Love it.

00:12:20
Speaker 4: You are.

00:12:20
Speaker 2: Your best friend, is the head coach, best friend, childhood best friend you have? You guys shared a crib together. I think yeah, little little lumber, little lumber. All right, we're gonna take our break. We'll go back to the phone line. If you have a collee talk basketball or football. Steven Peak joined us from KSR. Drew Franklin, Shannon t Dude, Ryan liv and we're right back. This is Kenteky's Portradio. You know, the holidays are full of hustle and bustle, Shannon, but UK Federal Credit Union les in slowing down to find the joy in the season. It's whether that's sharing a meal with friends, giving back to those in need, or embracing loved ones beneath the twinkling lights. And whatever city you live in, these are the moments that remind us what the season is truly about. So y'all, with every smile, every laugh, every kind word, let's be the joy that Kentucky needs. Be the joy Kentucky UK Federal Credit Union, the Official Credit Union of Joy membership FELL has been required federally insured by NCUA.

00:13:10
Speaker 5: You're so joyous and saying joy joy.

00:13:12
Speaker 2: I need some joy in my life. After last night with the postgame show and got over at two in the morning, you had to blog till four in the morning, Stephen, When did you get to bed?

00:13:20
Speaker 6: My last text from Steven was it like at three forty five am. Now, I'm not gonna read it on there because we're buffalo upset, but we were. We were firing off text pretty late.

00:13:27
Speaker 2: Well, I do want to read a tweet from one of our coworkers, mister Jack Pilgrim. He did the pregame show with us yesterday. He's his inn tune with the UK basketball as anybody, okay, his finger on the pulse of what's going on in UK basketball. This is his tweet after the game last night. This is a season from hell for Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats. Just an inexcusable product, no matter the injury situation, bad basketball team.

00:13:53
Speaker 6: We did our rapid reaction pretty late in reperena and uh yeah, Jack was pretty down down then too.

00:14:00
Speaker 5: It was that tweet this morning or last night?

00:14:02
Speaker 2: That was last night?

00:14:02
Speaker 5: Okay, I didn't know if he had slept it off, but yeah, he had a new one this morning. Okay?

00:14:06
Speaker 2: Was this one this morning? Then the one this morning where he's got feeding the duds? Kentucky's got an identity crisis with no immediate answers in sight. Is it time to shift expectations? I don't how do you answer that question?

00:14:20
Speaker 6: I mean, I feel the same way. We were all pretty down last night, thought about kicking the Christmas tree at one point. I'm excited for Nashville. I've been looking forward to this Nashville trip since it was announced. I bought tickets the moment you could buy tickets, taking vacation time. I'm not gonna be yapping with you all. I'm not gonna be writing. I'm gonna be rapid reacting. I'm going as a fan and I'm so excited, but on the inside, I'm dead. I'm like, please, I would love to be surprised. But like, I'm still excited to go and get down there. But I just thought we would be looking much better than we are right now heading into that matchup.

00:14:54
Speaker 2: So Shannon, is it time to alter our expectations?

00:14:57
Speaker 3: M Maybe a little bit, because what did we all have? What were your expectations going into the season. How many losses did you think we would have?

00:15:04
Speaker 4: Six?

00:15:05
Speaker 3: What did most of us pick?

00:15:06
Speaker 2: Yeah? Five, six or seven?

00:15:08
Speaker 3: Because I think if that's the case, there's a good chance you got that going into the SEC.

00:15:12
Speaker 6: I got tricked a little bit. Stephen recorded my preseason predictions video.

00:15:17
Speaker 5: The whole thing. Yea too if you had a light and a microphone.

00:15:20
Speaker 6: But he asked me after the Purdue exhibition, so I was in a great place. I don't even remember what I said, but it was I don't think I did forty no, but I'm pretty sure it was one non conference loss with absolutely whiff on that prediction. But that's what mine was. I I had high expectations, just like everyone else. If you open my DraftKings account and go to open bets, there's Kentucky to win the national championship sitting right there. I gotta look at it every day that I go to gamble. I know many people people were saying final four or bust about Oh yeah, now, like can we just can we beat a team and then we'll go from there. We'll figure it out. Let's get one and then stack a couple and then set the expectations, which is just crazy to say in December with the opportunities they've already had.

00:16:03
Speaker 2: So Steven, how do you answer Jack's question? Is it time to alter our expectations?

00:16:06
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, I did that after the Michigan State game. I think when Mark Pope came out and did that press conference, to me, as upset as he was, I think that for me that was kind of telling that he may see some of the writing on the wall with this team and the limitations that it might have. Partovic currently has us. He's pretty good at predicting stuff he has. I mean he's perfect. But Partovic has Kentucky at nineteen and twelve to finish the season. That's a sixth seed. Oh wow, that would be That would be kind of a nightmare scenario considering what the expect I mean, well, what are the expectations for Kentucky basketball? Always would know we moved, we slightly moved the goalpost a little bit last year to give you know, it's a it's a kind of a grace period. But I don't want to keep saying this, but I kind of missed last year's team a little bit. I miss a lot of the guys on the team. You brought up a Mario. I kind of miss having a Jackson Robinson obviously at Kobe Braya. So yeah, my expectations have have have changed. I still thing, now, what if we can get to SEC play January first, to get Jayalen Low and JQ back. We just reset things. We're zero and zero. Let's try to win the SEC. We haven't done that since since the world shut down. Maybe we can do that again. We haven't won the SEC tournament since twenty eighteen.

00:17:14
Speaker 5: Can we just get to Saturday?

00:17:15
Speaker 4: That'd be great, babe.

00:17:16
Speaker 5: We're doing baby steps.

00:17:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's try to get that.

00:17:18
Speaker 2: We got the Friday last years Saturday this year.

00:17:21
Speaker 5: It's such a sad conversation. Yeah, Kentucky.

00:17:23
Speaker 2: But you know, going into the season, we all thought, looking at this was the perfect roster. We were too deep at every position, we were over we had loaded in the back court.

00:17:31
Speaker 6: What's happened, Well, we assume some guys, I'm crazy for us to think that they would improve. I mean, whoops, that's my bad for expecting a returning player to get a little bit better and not go the other.

00:17:42
Speaker 2: Way, because that was Pope's mantra. Second players take a big jump in the second year. That's not happened for a couple of guys.

00:17:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, Colin Chandler is the only one that I feel like has really taken that that big step. Is there anybody else? I mean, I feel like Collins is really the only one and in and thank goodness he did. What would this team be if Colin Chandler didn't take that massive step, if he was still the guy averaging two point seven points per game last year or whatever it was.

00:18:08
Speaker 6: And Steven mentioned how Pope kind of talks like the writings on the wall. I do feel like like he's our leader, and sometimes I think he's more scared than I. Yeah, Like it's like we're in Brave Heart and he's in the back of the line, like, wait, you're the code. You get up here and lead us, please and stick your chests out and have some confidence. Sometimes I'm looking at him like, oh no, what do you know? Because you're not exactly making me feel any better. And how you're explaining this either.

00:18:29
Speaker 2: I want to ask you, guys, you were there last night, how was the crowd for his post game crowd conference?

00:18:35
Speaker 6: First that ever? I mean part of it. It's almost one in the morning on a week night. So I don't blame him.

00:18:41
Speaker 2: He just lost.

00:18:42
Speaker 5: Losing.

00:18:42
Speaker 6: Didn't know that was the lowest we'll probably ever see. Yeah, A lot of that was it was very late at night.

00:18:47
Speaker 4: I was surprised when we walked out from the player interviews and there was nobody there. I I mean it was almost one in the morning, so I kind of get it. But I think all the people in the media were, like, never seen it like this.

00:19:00
Speaker 6: If he were to win, I think maybe some people would tough it out just to show him some support, like, all right, let's figure this out.

00:19:04
Speaker 5: But being a loss, everybody was quick to get on home.

00:19:07
Speaker 2: Shannon on the Avis and Glass text Machine overwhelming disdain for Kentucky Joe's new song.

00:19:12
Speaker 3: I know I've been reading the comments too. Maybe we shouldn't have doubled down and let him do both.

00:19:18
Speaker 2: Amen, Yeah, yeah, all right? Eight five nine two two two eighty seven who's our next collor Mike, Mike, go ahead, mikey.

00:19:26
Speaker 7: Guys think I picked up bad time to stop drinking. But anyway, I was just gonna say, you know, sometimes I just don't understand Hope, because last night I thought, you know, everything went wrong on offense. But the hind an obvious advantage With yellow bitch down alone and you go ten minutes without a bucket, why not put him and Chandler on the same side and just let him play some two man and get him a bucket man, Because I mean, only is a bucket or two in that ten minute stretch and we win that game. And I know it was ugly, but it's better than the.

00:20:01
Speaker 2: Elves appreciate it, man, you know. And like Drew said earlier, a lot of those misses we had good looks. They just couldn't knock him down. It was a three point one time YELLOWVI. It shot from the wing. It was dead on, but it came up short. I think because these legs. He was tired. He'd been playing so many minutes.

00:20:16
Speaker 8: Yeah, can't be playing all the those now that that talk is actually kind of annoying. Most teams play seven or eight guys, right and that how many guys in North Carolina played last night like with a lot of minutes?

00:20:28
Speaker 4: Because I felt like they how come they had the.

00:20:30
Speaker 5: Three guys that played thirty five or more?

00:20:32
Speaker 4: So okay, so where were why weren't their legs given out?

00:20:37
Speaker 2: I don't know, can't have an answer. I don't know.

00:20:39
Speaker 4: You know, Cali Perry, we had a quote a couple of years ago where he said that doing the platoon system made it to where he couldn't recruit for a couple of years. Cal not known Fry purplely obviously, but uh, you know, you look at some of the guys you missed. Donovan Dent. I don't know how good he's actually hey actually is, but somebody Kentucky wanted I guess that was the first pick plays over thirty minutes you had Lamar Wilkerson. How many minutes is he averaging? Drew thirty over thirty?

00:21:04
Speaker 6: Also, don't look up his three point shooting Sea's shooting lights out. Yeah, it's best for our mental state if we just don't look that up.

00:21:10
Speaker 2: And he's coming to rough Brain in a week or so.

00:21:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, and so you look at the guys you're missing out on and those are the guys that are playing. Caleb Wilson, I think playing over thirty minutes a game. Kentucky did have four guys that played over thirty minutes, but that's because you have three starters hurt. How do how is this happening? How am I still reliving Kentucky basketball seasons with all these injuries. I'll say it again, thirteen injuries in thirteen months of the Mark Pope era. I'm losing my mind.

00:21:33
Speaker 6: You include Quaintens on that because I don't give him quaints Quaintances was already hurt. No, I don't think I don't think we can throw that one low and whatever going on with the No he thought the thirty experienced thirteen injuries. Yeah, thirteen months, okay, because I mean he built the roster with the guy with the torn aco. I'm still for it. I think it'll work out. I think it'll be good. But I don't count that one as much as holding this team back because you knew when you first called the guy how that would play out.

00:21:55
Speaker 2: Let's get another call, Shannon, who we got Crease?

00:21:57
Speaker 4: Crease?

00:21:58
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Crease.

00:22:01
Speaker 9: Hey, guys, I really am just disgusted with the state of the program, and I really just think Pope's in over his head with his job, and I know we're probably stuck with him next year. The guy can't recruit, and we're quickly slipping into any Indiana territory in my opinion, as a program, and it's just disgusting.

00:22:17
Speaker 2: Appreciate it, Crease. I mean, there's starting some rumblings. They're seeing it on social media, people you know, questioning now is Pope the guy? The honeymoon I think is definitely over because some of the fans are already starting to sour a little bit. How how much credit do you give him? And how much credit do you not give him? At this point?

00:22:35
Speaker 6: I also keep thinking he came here, he's the one, like I'm here to win championships, criticize me, like I know the standard, we're not moving the standard, and now it's like.

00:22:43
Speaker 5: We are way off course here. If that's the game plan.

00:22:47
Speaker 2: It will help him if he's able to land one of the top recruits. That's still a big knock on him. He hasn't checked that box. Can you get a top recruit that's not a Kentucky kid?

00:22:55
Speaker 6: And Steven's right about Resett in January, go win the SEC and all that can happen when they get healthy. But I'm worried about you're gonna have so many losses in the non conference when we want to get to our real goal. What kind of seed and what kind of path are you gonna have in front of you, because you can't just keep taking losses this early in the season and expect to be in a good spot at the end of the year.

00:23:11
Speaker 2: Well, thankfully the SEC is not as strong as it was last year, or maybe you can make up some ground in the SEC season this year. All right, Well, take our break, we'll come back. Go back to the phone lines eight five nine two, eight h two to eighty seven. Ryan, Drew, Shannon and Stephen Peak will be right back.

00:23:23
Speaker 1: This is KSR TJ Smith, Personal injury Attorney, Call TJ. He'll make them pay now.

00:23:29
Speaker 3: More of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Here's Matt Jones.

00:23:34
Speaker 2: Welcome back to a KS bar and grill. A lunch is going on here Dollar Wednesday and wednesdays'll coming out and see us. We can eat your feelings away.

00:23:42
Speaker 5: Shannon.

00:23:42
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00:23:43
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00:24:07
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00:24:33
Speaker 2: This is from ABIs and Glass text Machine. It's from Joe dick vyto talks so much about Jay Williams that Diago Pavia's mom wants to come to the Penzaga game eight two two eight seven after Clark' puppy shop phone number. So who we got Chan, It's gonna Mitch, Mitch, go ahead, Mitch.

00:24:51
Speaker 10: Hey, guys, how we doing?

00:24:53
Speaker 11: Uh?

00:24:54
Speaker 10: I feel like we haven't talked about yet his coaches challenges. There was a clear play in the first apps that the ball looked like it went off you and see they called it U and C ball. They immediately score. Meanwhile, you know you watched the Duke and sport A game last night. Golden and shi are both used challenges fairly early in the first half. So I mean, why are we why are we holding onto those?

00:25:20
Speaker 2: I appreciate the phone call. I I don't know. I mean, whatever analytics tells you that's what they're gonna go with lexing data.

00:25:26
Speaker 4: Well, they used one in the Michigan State game pretty early on a call that really might have actually wanted to hold on to it.

00:25:32
Speaker 2: Truly, you're right about that.

00:25:33
Speaker 4: Was there a play last night?

00:25:35
Speaker 6: Was I need to I need to do my rewatch? We sit up there on the moon, So a lot of time we don't get replaced. So a lot of times those close calls, I mean, you have just as much luck go and asking someone sitting outside. So I don't know particular like close things like that until I go watch the bright.

00:25:49
Speaker 5: What are you laughing at? I didn't mean that. It's like a complaint.

00:25:52
Speaker 6: I'm just saying there are things that happened in the game where you know, I truly don't know what's going on.

00:25:56
Speaker 2: Steve, you said you've already watched it, especially the second half. Why would you want to go back and watch that disaster?

00:26:00
Speaker 4: Because I was coming on here. I wanted to because we don't know what we're talking about. No, And I well, yeah, I mean I would. I just, uh, when you're at the game. When I'm at the game, I'm roaming around. I'm also nervous and pacing, so I don't feel like when I'm at the games that I'm actually seeing the game. So usually when I go back and watch it, I actually try to figure out what happened.

00:26:18
Speaker 6: We're working here, so half the time my nose is in my computer and I look up and I'm like, well, hope they show a replay.

00:26:23
Speaker 5: I've missed whatever that was. Why Steven is all over the place.

00:26:26
Speaker 2: I recommend everybody go watch your rapid reaction. That's that's worth a watch.

00:26:30
Speaker 6: We appreciate the views, but it's not won't be the most joyous conversation.

00:26:35
Speaker 2: You'll watched better than rewatch the game. Go watch the rapid reaction.

00:26:39
Speaker 5: Who's da watch Steven's video? You tweeted it? What your s PK?

00:26:43
Speaker 4: What is stephen p K?

00:26:45
Speaker 6: Because Will really does walk by, he's like Steve and he pulls up the lumber jersey.

00:26:49
Speaker 5: That's a cool video.

00:26:50
Speaker 2: You'll gotta watch that one. All right, here's next Shannon Randall. Randall, go ahead, and Randall.

00:26:55
Speaker 12: See, I believe that Will Stein's here at Kentucky. We're really gonna see some good quarterbacks come through his programmer developed. You know, that seems like a real positive as far as his you know, tenure as an oct at the Oregon and uh and another thing about the basketball, you know, uh, Jack Gibbons was saying on the post game show that that you know, they need one of these guys to come into the huddle. And I think it's to take you all the way that like, hey, feed me the rock, you know, I mean like kind of be like that guy. That's because he's supposed to be. I believe the preseason best player on the team, and I mean, you know, you need that strong leadership. You need that guy to just be like, hey, I'm the guy that you need to try to get the ball to.

00:27:47
Speaker 11: In this moment.

00:27:49
Speaker 12: I mean, and and I mean I'm not saying ballhog, but I mean like when you when you zero in on that one guy and you open up the floor for these other guys like at the wing or something, you dish it out to like Conlin Chandler over there with open three hours a lot of times and seen that Aberdeen go down and and Taydler's over there wide open, and and but Aberdeen didn't dish it out. He just go I mean, you know, it's it's it seems like something that Pope would definitely be expressive. And maybe that's what he means in in his most game conference where he's talking about, you.

00:28:23
Speaker 2: Know, play for each other. Yeah, okay, all right, man, appreciate it.

00:28:28
Speaker 5: Yeah.

00:28:28
Speaker 2: You know, Otega is a guy that we saw signed to the old Otega and I heard Jack say that one time he's got to go tell these guys get me the ball. Stephen.

00:28:37
Speaker 4: I think you might have even counted how many times that happened then than not kicking the ball out to your open teammates. Yeah, yeah, it was like four times. Instead we're just taking contested.

00:28:46
Speaker 2: During that stretch of ten minutes without scoring.

00:28:48
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's guys open. And what we saw even in the Purdue game, guy drives baseline, he kicks it out to the corner. That guy doesn't shoot. He gives up a shot, a good shot for somebody who's got a better sh shot, better shot. Yeah, and in the Perdue game one time it was Jasper Johnson who then got to catch shoot wide open and he buried the three. That's mark Mark Pope's offense. That's the ball movement that I want to see. That's what we've seen. I mean, what we saw last night and what we've kind of seen outside of the louisvill game and against these big teams is the kind of offense we saw under John Caliparium. I wrong, without the the creators, without the without the lottery picks.

00:29:27
Speaker 5: We've brought up.

00:29:28
Speaker 6: Travis Ford has said a few times so our boy Cutler unfiltered about the team chemistry, and I think some people interpreted it as like locker room, and that might exist, But what Travis Ford was saying is the not passing to your teammate, like they don't have on court chemistry correct, Like they're not making that extra pass for the easy shot. And I think that's really showing. Now I've heard him say that a couple of times.

00:29:47
Speaker 2: So as they go back to Jalen Lowell, they need that guy, that strong point guard leading the team out there. I think it all goes back to when they lost him and they just went to tail spin that they haven't recovered from.

00:29:57
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean that is definitely a big part of it getting him back. But I mean he wouldn't have helped with twenty offensive rebounds and effort and just the three times we've played a team that has any kind of physicality, the moment we turned the lights up and get excited about a game that it's like they just they completely fold. Do they have at least in the three trials so.

00:30:14
Speaker 2: Far, I'll tell you he would have helped with eight assists, nine turnovers last night.

00:30:18
Speaker 4: Definitely there, Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. And you know I was looking at Otega always numbers, he's got to get to the free throw line more. Last year he was getting to the free throw line. I think he had five point three attempts last season. He's three point three so far this year. Some of that is just having guys be able to make shots, to spread the floor so that he can get downhill.

00:30:39
Speaker 2: I think Otega was listening to Drew or Drews. They want to go back to the old Otega. Just get the ball, immediately go because he did that. He did that last night better than he's done all season.

00:30:48
Speaker 6: Now, he does need the spacing and that, you know, got to hit the threes all that, but he's still It was better last night. But he hadn't had that aggression in that attitude that he had a year ago. But maybe a light turned on last night, even though it didn't result in a win, because he he seemed to have taken a step forward, even though it didn't help in the outcome.

00:31:04
Speaker 2: Who's next, Shannon, Let's go to Joe.

00:31:07
Speaker 4: Joe.

00:31:07
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Joe. You're on with Steven Peake, Drew Franklin, and Shannon the dude.

00:31:13
Speaker 11: Okay, this is Joe, Taygert Faxbell Gang.

00:31:20
Speaker 2: Is she cutting out on a Shannon?

00:31:21
Speaker 4: Okay, I don't know, can't tell.

00:31:25
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Okay, all right, okay, okay, okay, all right.

00:31:33
Speaker 11: Baxball Gang, okay gang.

00:31:36
Speaker 2: The basketball game. Yes, yeah, it didn't go very well. We we appreciate phone call. Yeah, I think we're all upset.

00:31:44
Speaker 4: Having a hard time.

00:31:49
Speaker 5: You need it out of that run, Yeah, I think so quick appreciate the call.

00:31:53
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know where it was going. That's so I apologize.

00:31:58
Speaker 5: Shannon's just doing his job over your job. You're cue.

00:32:01
Speaker 2: Let's let's try another with Wayne, Dwayne go ahead.

00:32:06
Speaker 9: Yeah.

00:32:08
Speaker 11: I think it's gonna have to come. I think there's a lot of it's gonna have to come from the players that sell themselves. Like, for instance, somebody like take a oh Way. You know, they used to back in the day, thirty years ago, they would they would start the black Watch like early in the morning and go in and shoot, and they spend that extra time, and uh, you know, Coach Patino would always encourage them, get in there, get your extra shooting in. If you're not shooting, if you're not shooting at least forty percent from the field, you need to be shooting. And he tall you look up and he'd see who's in there. And there was a direct correlation between the extra shooting and uh, they're they're shooting percentage and uh, but some of some of these guys can't even I mean they were missing layups from writing.

00:32:57
Speaker 7: You know.

00:32:57
Speaker 11: It wasn't just three pointers. They were shooting it come over the goal from two feet away. I mean it was get back threes are awful too.

00:33:07
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, I don't appreciate the call. I don't doubt that they're working and working hard and going in and getting extra shots up.

00:33:14
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:33:15
Speaker 2: I mean, I remember I was in we went we learned this summer, we went through the crafts Inner. We were giving somebody a tour and it's ten o'clock at night and Colin Chandler's in there shooting, you know. And this was in the summer. So I think those guys still get in there early on their own time and do get their shots up.

00:33:28
Speaker 4: We saw from looking in that Joe Craft Center, the Noah Art System, what's our ROI on that this year, But guys were putting in thousands of shots. So I mean, I don't think that they think that's the issue.

00:33:40
Speaker 6: No, no, no, I don't either. I mean sure we don't. It's not branded as the breakfast club and some of the things we've had in the past where they've just openly bragged about, Wow, these guys are just always here. We're not hearing that that much. But I'm not going to criticize their work ethic. I'm not over there. I assume they're in the gym. I do think they're trying really hard. I really do.

00:33:58
Speaker 2: Let's talk about something positive. The UK volleyball team hosting first round in the NCA Tournament tomorrow night over at Historic Memorial Coliseum. It's the second game of the night, so it could start anywhere between seven seven thirty somewhere in that ballpark.

00:34:13
Speaker 5: First one's a four thirty.

00:34:14
Speaker 2: So if you're not going, if you can't get tickets, come here. We'll have it on here at kas Bar and Grille, kind of like a volleyball watch party. We had a great watch party the other night when they won the SEC tournament. It was a lot of fun. They started winning when Drew walked out of the building, told you, yeah, trust me, I won't be here for the next one. Drew, stay away me. We want to win. So it's tomorrow night. Now. Tonight, the UK women basketball team plays on ESPN. They play Miami right down at Miami.

00:34:37
Speaker 6: I have o'clock game a little earlier than we typically get, so maybe they'll cheer us up tonight. They're on ESPN two, ESPN two, okay in Miami, but uh, you know, big night for women's basketball and volleyball tomorrow. I saw Craig Skinner was on top of the fifth third building promoting it. He just keeps getting higher and higher. That's the tallest building in the world. So if they win tonight, I don't know what he's doing next. Maybe we'll get him on the moon. Maybe Jeff Bezos can shoot Craig Skinner in the space to promote the second round. But uh, there, I guess we have will Stein now. But the volleyball team has been the only reason to smile very sure a few weeks. I'm very excited for them to start their NCAA run.

00:35:10
Speaker 2: All right, Wrawford, We'll take our final break, come back our final segment eight five nine two eight oh two two eight seven. This is Kentucky's Ports Radio. All right, welcome back, Final segment Kentucky's Ports Radio. Ryan Lemon, Drew Franklin, Channing the Dude, and Steven Peak from KSR uh. We got one more sponsor to read about Channing. Who we got Ryan?

00:35:27
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00:35:30
Speaker 11: Oh?

00:35:30
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00:35:34
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00:35:52
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00:35:53
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00:36:10
Speaker 2: I want to tell you this bout Shady Raise. They made me some prescription sunglasses and now I can wear them at the beach and stuff and I look like a movie star.

00:36:18
Speaker 5: I how about that? Yeah, I'm in my dad's car. They had to borrow it to get here. Right there on his on his dash, he had some shade. Look at you, dad, proud of you.

00:36:26
Speaker 2: I want to read his car tweet from our big toe Matt Jones. So in case you missed it, you know why he's not here, he said, Just so folks know, I am at the hospital with my dad who had an unexpected heart surgery yesterday. He is doing a little better, which I care about more than the game last night because people were getting some pushback. You know why he's not here or why he wasn't on the show. Come on, man, read the room.

00:36:48
Speaker 6: We were pretty committed to the grind and we're we know this is busy times, but family comes first, especially while you're having a procedure. Glad it went well, and if Matt needs to take however long you.

00:36:58
Speaker 2: Need, that's right. Family is more important. So man, it's Larry. Everybody loves Hilarry. Larry is one tough dude. They're making knockoff heart surgery. It's Larry Blonddale, that's right.

00:37:08
Speaker 4: I think people just you know, when there was tough losses before I was working in ks Are, I wanted to hear what Matt had to say, but it kind of yeah, it kind of made me feel feel a little bit better, validated how I was feeling. So I know we're missing Matt today.

00:37:22
Speaker 5: He'll be back.

00:37:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, well so far, maybe even tomorrow. We'll hear his take on the game and stuff. So back off, people eight five nine two two eight seven.

00:37:31
Speaker 5: Give defensive Ryan.

00:37:33
Speaker 2: You can come at me, but don't come at my boys.

00:37:35
Speaker 5: Don't come with Larry.

00:37:36
Speaker 2: Don't come at Larry crying out loud.

00:37:38
Speaker 6: People have told me, Frank, it's getting a little stale over here, and then I'm being too negative. Come we in with some positivity.

00:37:44
Speaker 2: Let's do it.

00:37:45
Speaker 5: I don't have any but we can do it.

00:37:47
Speaker 6: Okay, Before we get people are complaining about me complaining. I don't want to be that guy. I don't want to be the complain Nobody likes that person.

00:37:52
Speaker 2: We'll take a couple of calls, but before we hang up tonight, today has to give us something positive.

00:37:57
Speaker 5: I love that, all right, I'm smiling now.

00:37:59
Speaker 2: Look, I'm good ready, Shannon, who's next? Cole Cole?

00:38:02
Speaker 13: Go ahead, Cole, Hey, guys, first time, long time listen every day.

00:38:08
Speaker 2: Appreciate your call.

00:38:09
Speaker 4: Cole.

00:38:10
Speaker 13: I had two quick questions here, one football, one basketball. I'll start with the football. I think, for first, I think Will Sein is a phenomenal hire, arguably could be potentially the best hire so far in college football, maybe second behind Lane Kiffin if you count that. But I will say, for a long time now, I've been saying, even before Stupis was fired, I said, we really need an offensive minded coach. We need somebody like Sein or Heartline. And I had always kind of given Brian Hartline the edge just because he's kind of known for his recruiting and sending these guys to the NFL, not that Will sign hasn't. I just don't know as much about his recruiting. I was gonna say, if you guys, do we know what happened with Heartline or if he was even interviewed, And it just made me think of it because I saw that he's going to be hired at at South Florida today. And then I had a basketball question.

00:39:00
Speaker 5: But okay, about that.

00:39:01
Speaker 2: What's your basketball question, We'll do both of them.

00:39:03
Speaker 13: Then, okay, yeah, So I was gonna say, so not to be negative, I know you're just talking about positivity, but this question here. I hadn't even thought about this till this morning. I saw some people saying, you know, mentioning it on Twitter, just you know, negative fans. But should we be slightly concerned that Quaintons may not ever end up playing for US? I know we need him pretty bad, but you know, with his injury and everything, I thought maybe if the season's kind of going downhill, I kind of feel like this has happened to us before.

00:39:33
Speaker 2: All Right, you guys, thank you, Okay, all right, I appreciate the phone call you take. The Jaden Quainton's question.

00:39:37
Speaker 6: First, I don't expect that at all. I know I've heard people saying he could Shade and Sharpest. Those are completely different situations. Sharp actually had the benefit of being a mystery, having never played like he had amazing high school highlights. He set out and the NBA rolled the dice top five pick and it worked. Quainten's kind of needs to show them that he didn't lose a step in his rehab because he had good tape at Arizona State and he blows out his knee and he I mean, he would still be a high pick. Somebody would take that chance. But he also can do make himself a lot of money if he plays and shows that he's didn't lose a step with that injury and his attitude has been right from the beginning. I would be surprised if he doesn't play that.

00:40:16
Speaker 5: I don't think. I think they're completely different scenarios.

00:40:18
Speaker 2: Steven, since you're will Stein's twin brother, you take the will Stein hartline question.

00:40:23
Speaker 4: About whether they which which one they reached out to.

00:40:26
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's I'll answer for Steven well. Stephen was also he was one of the first to put it out there about Stein on the job.

00:40:32
Speaker 5: But you won't.

00:40:33
Speaker 6: You've Trinity people. I don't know what's going on there. If y'all just have these like these underground tunnels and a little bit and talk to each other, yeah, regardless, it seemed Stein was high on Kentucky's list early in the processing one and Kentucky was high on Stein's list, nailed the interview. They might have had a few conversations with others, but it looks like they got their number one guy, and and Stein was a quick yes because he wanted to be here.

00:40:56
Speaker 2: I feel like they hadn't have make contact with Stein's people weeks ago. That happens yeah, it should. That happens all the time. I think Heartline was a good fallback plan. But obviously he took the job to day at South Florida, so it all worked out the way it was supposed to.

00:41:10
Speaker 6: Ye, we could all live in a fantasy land where people wait till the portal to make calls. No, they are coaches talking to players and coaches talking to school all season long.

00:41:17
Speaker 5: We didn't act like that doesn't happen, but that happened.

00:41:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely. You know what I thought was weird is how they've talked about, you know, how young will Stein is and he's can't he handle this being thirty six years old? In the SEC. I mean I was looking up Jim Bayheim. I know, this is basketball. He just hired a thirty one years old. This used to not be so crazy. Well old was Rick Patino when he was at Kentucky thirty seven? Yeah, Mike s Seski, these are basketball guys. I know, there were just the easy ones for me to look up. He was thirty three. I mean, he took over a duke, So it used to not be that weird, but it's felt like hiring somebody who was in their thirties felt like like, oh, we're just hiring somebody straight out of high school. Now, Like that's what it felt like. So, you know, I'm excited. Is this the only millennial coach in the athletic department?

00:42:00
Speaker 5: I guess so.

00:42:01
Speaker 4: Uh interesting.

00:42:02
Speaker 2: I had to think about that.

00:42:03
Speaker 4: It might be, but we.

00:42:04
Speaker 6: Needed the youth. I think it'll be good for him. As you saw last night, just that energy. Stoops had a style is more go to work, keep your head down. Looks like we're gonna have a little more fire with stun.

00:42:13
Speaker 2: All right, thirty seconds, rapid reaction positive before we get out of here, Drew.

00:42:18
Speaker 6: We're going to Nashville, Western Kentucky's gonna show up, good crowd, We'll beat Gonzaga.

00:42:22
Speaker 5: We're beating Gonzaga, Steven.

00:42:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're gonna We're gonna win one of these next three games in the don Con and then we're gonna have a good sec run. I think so, Shannon.

00:42:30
Speaker 3: They didn't score a point in ten minutes and still one of the lost bout three defense.

00:42:33
Speaker 2: Was decent volleyball. Gonna win the title.

00:42:36
Speaker 11: There you go,