2026-04-17- KSR - Hour 2

00:00:00
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00:01:01
Speaker 2: It is out number two Kentucky Sports Radio eight. I'm nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven here at Whiskey Thief, one hundred and twenty seven acre farm right off I sixty four. But even though the interstate's right there, it feels look like you're in a completely different environment.

00:01:16
Speaker 3: They a nice rustic but great.

00:01:18
Speaker 2: Road, best road, best gravel road we've seen, best gravel road ever.

00:01:23
Speaker 3: Ski anywhere. Whiskey Thief Bourbon.

00:01:25
Speaker 2: They'll stick the Whiskey Thief into the barrel and shoot it right into your cup. These people are all gonna be hammered before the show is over, so we thank them. The food truck is here. They just brought us food. I'm just gonna suggest if you come to Whiskey Thief and the food, I'm gonna go ahead and give my suggestion. Is this thing rhyme the misfit. I don't know what it is. It's barbecue and sauce. But that was great.

00:01:45
Speaker 1: It was like food crack. I couldn't really want it was awesome.

00:01:48
Speaker 2: That's a good cut, like when they do that at Christmas. The little thing. Yeah, that's kind of what it is. Everybody welcome. His bourbon bottle is here today. Derek Anderson joining us here. I know you've talked to the folk once. If you haven't talked to me yet, Derek, great to see you to tell folks how things have been going for the man with the legendary dunks and uh in Kentucky history.

00:02:12
Speaker 4: I'm the mental wellness director for the NBA. So they're good. Yes, thank you. I'm the mental wellness for director for the NBA. So I just try to stay into the mindset of people, just trying to keep motivating like I do it.

00:02:25
Speaker 2: I found with with the NBA, like the players. Yeah, all the players. So talk to me about what that's like. That's interesting.

00:02:30
Speaker 4: Well, I think some of them, you know, I give them the truth. Some of you guys are spoiled and some of you guys are going through stuff, and I think you have to look at yourself in the mirror and figure out what do I do to do?

00:02:38
Speaker 2: Oh, you have to see which one actually is dealing with things and which ones just want.

00:02:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm being more authentic, but there's a lot of guys just because you make millions, are you know, successful? It doesn't you know, eliminate you from real life stuff. So you just try to give them an outlet or resource, a place to go talk relief themselves. And being an NBA, I've dealt with a lot of stuff, so I just tried.

00:02:56
Speaker 2: How did you get involved in that? I didn't know you were doing this. They called me. They saw what I was doing in the community.

00:03:01
Speaker 4: They saw I was doing that kind of doing programs, so they could reach out to me and say, hey, what you would be willing to help the guys. You're a former player, you can relate to them, and they called me and gave me an opportunity.

00:03:09
Speaker 2: Did you have some of those issues as a player? Did you ever have times that things were difficult that you had to deal with. Yeah.

00:03:17
Speaker 4: I didn't see my parents since I was twelve years old. They never watched me play basketball. They in their lives and they were alive and little. They never saw me play, never brought me a pair of shoes. So I was dealing with it, and then I had to work two jobs because my girlfriend was seventeen, I was fourteen.

00:03:29
Speaker 2: I was staying with her seventeen or fourteen. I was on my own.

00:03:33
Speaker 4: I lived in a project housing in Southwick and I lived on my own and she when she got pregnant.

00:03:37
Speaker 2: Maybe I didn't know anything.

00:03:39
Speaker 4: I thought your own at at fourteen, Yeah, and I worked a job candy store, paper route. I just was working, playing basketball, and I didn't see my parents, So I was going through stuff. But I realized that a lot of people go through things and people. When I came, people saw me smiling because I was just enjoying every day, being getting food, you know, simple things in life.

00:03:55
Speaker 2: So I was fascinating because people would people would see. The thing I remember the most about you was how much you played with a smile, like you really like you always had a big smile on your face. But I guess there were you were having to deal with stuff. It was covering it up. It was covering up, but you it was better to smile than cry.

00:04:12
Speaker 4: I mean, I would never been able to be, you know, successful, because I was always living in that sad moment. I just said, how do you get out of that? And it was always creating better habits. So I was always smiling and speaking of people, messing with people, joking and trying to motivate myself to get up every day just to survive.

00:04:25
Speaker 2: Because I was. I didn't even have a lark like I used.

00:04:27
Speaker 4: An extension cord from a neighbor's house, even getting alarmed to go to school. So I was living, you know, trying to figure it out and working too it did it work?

00:04:35
Speaker 2: You're here, I'm here. That's right. Well, let me ask you when you talk about that, go ahead.

00:04:42
Speaker 1: That's a great testimony.

00:04:44
Speaker 2: I think it that kind of goes to a conversation that's been happening a lot in the Kentucky fan base recently about playing at Kentucky and the amount of fan criticism that leads to, and of course now that people have to see it on social media. When you were playing, obviously you were there during some really successful time, so there wasn't a ton of complaining. But did you see that and how do you think? Do you think it's a big problem for kids at Kentucky and UK fan base? What do you think?

00:05:15
Speaker 4: Disclaimer, I'm not ever disrespecting any coach I ever played a Kentucky, ever coached at Kentucky, any at.

00:05:20
Speaker 2: But there is a difference with social media.

00:05:22
Speaker 4: You know what coach Ptina was dealing with, we didn't usually see it, you know, the newspaper would say something we lost the UMass and we were the best team in the country, and the people criticized that, and I'm like, this is the third game, like really, and we saw the newspaper, but the rest of the time we didn't see it because we went on the twenty seven game winnistry.

00:05:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know what I mean.

00:05:38
Speaker 4: So it's like you kind of like don't see the moments of like whatever people are thinking. We didn't get enough to see it. Now the kids are actually happy to see it because it's hard to pass up. Like you said, it's just noticeable.

00:05:48
Speaker 2: But how did they I mean, you know, as a moderately public figure, I see what I see, and I'm twenty five years older than these guys. When you see what these college I mean, what do you tell them?

00:06:01
Speaker 3: Can they ignore it?

00:06:02
Speaker 2: Do you tell? Like?

00:06:03
Speaker 3: How do you? I mean?

00:06:04
Speaker 2: Because it does feel like it would be a lot for a.

00:06:07
Speaker 4: Kid that age. Well, I've always said I'd rather miss out to mess up. That's why I never drank. Sorry, but I never drank, never smoked, And I just said, if I don't go into it, I can't mess up. And I think that was just a mindset because it was still around. But I think a lot of these kids just don't. They don't they can't break themselves from their bad habits. That's so I said, you create a habit, you can always do it. But a lot of hard these kidscause they as soon as they get on social media they see something negative. Yeah, And I think that's just something you have to practice. I will tell them, don't get on their phones a day of the game. As far as social media, especially especially oh god unless we win.

00:06:38
Speaker 2: If you win, and go on if you lose. But it's hard in this generation.

00:06:42
Speaker 4: It's just a lot of social media, and a lot of these guys are dealing with the more conversation people in your business.

00:06:47
Speaker 2: So Mark, you play with Mark? Uh?

00:06:49
Speaker 3: When Mark's announced this coach, I know.

00:06:52
Speaker 4: You had to be excited about that, right, Oh yeah, super exciting. Super I think he understood the like he said, the assignment, but you know he always knew there it was. And I said, that's not really pressure, that's an honor. I said, don't go into a.

00:07:03
Speaker 2: Stressful because you're gonna be doing stuff that you normally wouldn't do. And it felt like a lot of guys, especially in your group, the Patino group. You know there there was the Patino Cal thing for a long time. I think that's dissipated, but it certainly existed for a while. Did you all feel like not that you weren't welcome before, but like now you were kind of like this are guys here now we can kind of be completely embraced again.

00:07:27
Speaker 4: Well, if Cal was in a group chat, he getting the same thing. Market let's talk about that.

00:07:33
Speaker 2: So because because I've heard the ninety six group chat can be brutal. Yeah, and it it's never personal.

00:07:40
Speaker 4: Like when we talked about Cal and I was just telling by him, it's like we we can do certain things if you want to win games. And I've coached for years and I've always told a kid, if you want to make a coach a game better, you have to teach iq basketball. You don't just run them out there and let him play basketball, because any team can beat you. And I think that's what you look at most teams. They're just out there running the same stuff, not thinking like when I played. When I coach, I teach the guy like when you run out of bounds, play you try to score. You don't just throw it out and run a play, you know. I mean that's wasting energy. If the ball gets in, you get it up really quick and you score, you make a layup, you get free throws, you advance the game. You don't just sit there and let kids play. And that was the thing that we was criticized. So when Mark gets in the group, I say, don't run up set play like when I used to come out of.

00:08:20
Speaker 3: Is hes still in the group.

00:08:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's still in the people know there's a group chat of all the sixty Mark is in the group. Yes, and you guys are still giving suggestions. Yes, I love I ran.

00:08:35
Speaker 4: There was an out of bounds play that I would run the setbacks bory for me and catch it out of you done.

00:08:38
Speaker 2: We don't even run. That's just he does. He still does. He still participating paint in the group chat. He just goes sometimes.

00:08:47
Speaker 5: Yeah, he may have you guys on mute.

00:08:48
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:08:48
Speaker 4: I've seen sometimes write something and then they delete it. They'd be like that was too brutal, wouldn't you love it?

00:08:56
Speaker 1: I wanted to be part of that group chat so bad because we heard you know, it's like become legendary what you guys are going.

00:09:02
Speaker 2: I'm gonna guess. You tell me. I'm trying to guess who the most prolific UH basketball commenters are. I'm just gonna guess. You tell me.

00:09:09
Speaker 3: If I'm right, I'm gonna say you're one of them.

00:09:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, I'm gonna say Cameron's one of them?

00:09:16
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:09:18
Speaker 4: And who do you think anybody who would be the third one's gonna surprise you?

00:09:24
Speaker 2: I think, Okay, who's the third one? You're gonna guess? I don't know. Do you got a guess?

00:09:28
Speaker 1: Anthony?

00:09:29
Speaker 4: No, he's he's kind of calm because he I think because he's coaching, he's got to give him a little cushion. Who's the other one? Wayne Turner? When I tell you Wayne is brutal? Wow, we'll takeawayne on another gird say hey, raise that Wayne?

00:09:43
Speaker 2: Like what you doing? Like he's gonna read this like he's coaching. Like no, So Derek Anderson, Camera Mills, and Wayne Turner giving the well, everybody gives it.

00:09:52
Speaker 4: But I just think we're just more like I'm more passionate about it because I see the game from different because I work with like NBA guys, top one hundred highchool kid, so I see the evolution of how the IQ game is not there, and I'm trying to get them to understand that's the teaching part.

00:10:05
Speaker 2: So you're you're dealing with a lot of the high school guys, and you're you're dealing with a lot.

00:10:09
Speaker 3: Of top players of all those ages.

00:10:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, conversations, and you know Mark, so this you're actually the perfect person asks this question. There's a lot of people been wondering over the last couple of years, can Mark Pope relate to the current player?

00:10:25
Speaker 3: That's been the question that a lot of fans wonder, what you wouldn't you?

00:10:28
Speaker 2: Probably the only part well a few people knows both.

00:10:31
Speaker 3: How would you answer that?

00:10:32
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know his speech, and I think when I speak to kids and the parents, I'm like, I can teach your kids, Like if y'all probably put a five up like this, that's fifty five of a jump shot, they don't teach that. So when you ask a player to be a great shooter and you don't teach it, it's kind of like hard. So I don't know what his speech is going into it with the parents, and mine was always I can teach your kid how to think, how to play, and how to and be a pro. And that's a mentality. And I don't know what his speeches are. He can relate to the guys because he's a great guy. When it's time to exits and those time to change is time to do things. I think that's when we don't know what he's actually done because it's a new situation.

00:11:04
Speaker 2: But when you're in.

00:11:05
Speaker 4: By you you get the kind of run and play and it's a different style. When you're in the SEC and a Kentucky thing, we was coming for your throat and that's a different mentality. Is he teaching that mentality because he's never been that Rob Rod guy anyway. You saw when we play I'm dancing. When I dunk on you, he's just like this good play.

00:11:19
Speaker 2: Didn't go to that.

00:11:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like that's a great guy, but that's not Kentucky. Like that's I was taught to dominate players whenever I played, and that was a mentality.

00:11:28
Speaker 2: See you think maybe there needs to be a little bit of a dog mentality. Yeah, you have to. He always is saying that that's right.

00:11:34
Speaker 4: And the thing about it, you can say a player, like when you said you need some dudes.

00:11:37
Speaker 2: I can create a dude who didn't get created.

00:11:40
Speaker 4: Dude, if I gave you twenty shots a game, he said, I'm gonna put you in a position to score, and I want you to dominate that player. And you do that every single day for two three weeks. What happens in that fourth week it becomes normal and then in two months you're like a whole different animal because you see it from other players, You see it from other teams. You be like, I didn't know that guy was that good. He hadn't been coached at he hadn't been let loose yet. And you can see it all day long. When some of these guys are train and put in a position to succeed, they played totally the Why do you think it's the transfer portals? You see guys like the kid from wint to Michigan was a big Tamp player the year. Yes, he was a totally different player from where he was at. He became a dog because he was taught to be a dog. Needs you to be my leader. I need you to be a guy depend on don't be emotional, and if you lead by example, that's how you create a dog. If you can play basketball, you can do that.

00:12:22
Speaker 2: So if you were if you were, you know, if Mark was standing here, because he knows you love him right like he knows you've got loved for if you were to say, hey, I love Mark Pope. Here's the one.

00:12:35
Speaker 3: Piece of advice I would give him.

00:12:37
Speaker 2: What would that be?

00:12:38
Speaker 4: You practice with a mentality of IQ and effort. You practice that every single day, because that's what happens. The players will start doing stuff on the court where they'll be like, wow, good play. You ever seen him sometimes when coach Matino was playing, he's coaching, he's doing this. Yeah, that's because we've been taught to do what we were supposed to do. When you watched us play eighty score eighty six points at halftime, what do you think he said at halftime? Probably not much. I mean it was it was because this is the way we practiced. Our minds were different, our thought process and our anticipating our thoughts where we have to explode do the job that he taught us in practice. And I would tell Mark what you doing like when he does this thing in practice, I love you, But he does a free throw thing.

00:13:12
Speaker 2: He wants everybody quiet. We wanted everybody loves when we're on the road. Process.

00:13:17
Speaker 4: So if I'm a the free throw line, I need to hear noise so I know it. Again of the game, when there's crazy going on, I got to concentrate one, shoot it hold, I follow through one, two, three, and the ball goes in. But if you don't teach that, and when it happens in a game, how am I prepared? I'm not so when you see guys kind of like doing this and that's never gonna happen. And I think that was just what I would tell him is you got to practice a different way to get a better result.

00:13:39
Speaker 2: Again the game. What do you think was the thing in last year's team as you watched it that said this team is missing this? It was IQ.

00:13:47
Speaker 4: There was times when we had a big guy on the guard on him, like yesterd we didn't throw the ball. I would have been living over there. I would have been like, dude, throw.

00:13:53
Speaker 2: It to him.

00:13:54
Speaker 4: When they double team, you cut, get a layup. As soon as you cut the rotation, guy's coming right, that's the other guy for let's where gonna go. So you don't think it was a talent thing. It was a basketball IQ, Yes, And that was the difference. And you watch how we lost the game.

00:14:07
Speaker 2: It was IQ.

00:14:07
Speaker 4: We didn't know how to play basketball. It was literally we couldn't throw a bounce. I could bounce fake pass here and bounce it. Guys would do this and look at him, and the whole defense was looking at him. I know what you're throwing about it. I was like, dude, pump fake. If you're in a two three zone, you did this, the whole defense goes, we don't need to teach that. And then the assistant coaches. The guys shoot a free throw, they do this and walk off the line.

00:14:26
Speaker 2: You know what.

00:14:27
Speaker 4: The CoA assistant coaches to do nothing. I would say, stay on the free throw line, hold your follow through, make the ball go in. That's points that after the end of the game. Yeah, it was not teaching, and I was. I was always telling him that you got to teach the IQ part and understanding of the game. If you want players to be better, you can't just let them go and say what they'll figure out. I was expecting because if you run a play, you know, defense scout defense, scout your plays. It's got to be a counter and it's got to be an IQ count.

00:14:50
Speaker 2: Now you when you were doing this, this guy was covering the team. Yeah, I remember, my man, What did everybody think of this guy right here?

00:14:58
Speaker 4: He was funny, he was all in us, but he knew the game too.

00:15:02
Speaker 2: He would say something, he knew the game.

00:15:04
Speaker 1: I know ball.

00:15:06
Speaker 5: This is breaking news to us.

00:15:08
Speaker 2: You said he knew the game. I knew.

00:15:13
Speaker 1: Those guys were so much fun to be around too, because they weren't just great basketball players. They were great young men off the court. That's what made them fun to be around.

00:15:20
Speaker 2: Well, tell me you be sticking around for second? Yeah, tell me about Stocktor Mortgage.

00:15:23
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00:15:40
Speaker 2: You get one house from me, and all of a sudden, you're busy men.

00:15:43
Speaker 6: Right.

00:15:44
Speaker 1: I did get a call from you about your My relationship with you said, hey, you if you help Matt buy a house. You can help me buy a house.

00:15:50
Speaker 2: I expect a commission. We'll take a break and be right back. You see, if you're taking sports radio, we go welcome back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio. Here live a whiskey deef. Derek Anderson's new bourbon, his AOK charity bourbon.

00:16:11
Speaker 3: Acts of Kindness. Tell people what acts of kindness is?

00:16:14
Speaker 4: Just teaching people common courtesy, people skills. Oh you can't okay people skills, common courtesy, and character building. You can't change a community without changing.

00:16:24
Speaker 2: The character of a kid.

00:16:24
Speaker 4: So we just try to teach that whole part of every day that you wake up, you gotta do something good, awesome.

00:16:30
Speaker 2: This bourbon is on sale here. He'll be signing it when this is uh, when this is over. I have about fifty messages on the text machine seven seven to two seven sent four five two five for Ryan asking if Derek Anderson could be the next coach assistant coach on the staff.

00:16:48
Speaker 5: I wasn't gonna say anything during this interview.

00:16:51
Speaker 2: You have to give me somewhere to live.

00:16:52
Speaker 1: I got you. You know you kind of dabbled in coaching a little bit over the years. Is that something you would want to eventually do.

00:16:58
Speaker 2: Seriously, I wish you could see how many of these are con Dereck join the staff? Can Derreck joint the staff? Can Dereck joined the staff?

00:17:04
Speaker 1: Wow?

00:17:05
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, I've always wanted it. I've expressed that. And the reason why I haven't coached anywhere. I told them I only wanted to coach in Kentucky.

00:17:11
Speaker 2: Really, I only wanted to go to that.

00:17:13
Speaker 7: Ah.

00:17:15
Speaker 1: There's a spot open on the staff right now.

00:17:17
Speaker 2: All right, So let me ask you just a couple of questions about the changes in college basketball. First of all, do you like that the guys now make money? You could have made some big money back in the day.

00:17:26
Speaker 4: I like if it was structured like I would get it where you guys get some of your money, put some of your trust, put some up, put it away. When we can teach the financial literacy, and then they can they won't be so entitled and say, hey, I get it right around and Rose roys on campus. Like, I just think it doesn't make good for a young person to do that. You want it just I was six or five at ninth grade. I shouldn't have been driving, even though I was tall enough. I think about that. You can give someone something but they're not able to prepare for it, and I think you can give it, but put it in and then do it over a period of time. You know, why would I need a million dollars on campus? I would say, give me, you know, maybe twenty thousand or some even just hpithetically, you have one hundred thousand a year. You don't have any problem with them money in theory.

00:18:01
Speaker 2: No, not at all.

00:18:02
Speaker 4: You could if you're making money with the university like we made. Do we want a championship?

00:18:05
Speaker 5: You should?

00:18:06
Speaker 4: If we gave us all of US one hundred thousand dollars, put like fifty in ESCO. Give us fifty. So when we get out of college, now I get all that money out. I'm done with college and now I can do what I want to do. What if I don't make the NBA, I still get to live off the money I've earned in college and I can live a good life.

00:18:18
Speaker 2: Do you uh the transfer Portland? You transferred but had to sit out? Yeah, now that is not the case. Are you in favor of that? No? I think I think I like it.

00:18:27
Speaker 4: I just don't think you should transfer multiple times, like if I were one time, one time, unless the coach leaves, like they said, if the coach leaves and you can't get opportunity to leave, right, But if you're transferred once and then I'm here, I'm here for the rest of the time. And that way you can build a relationship, you can build a camaraderie, and you build your team in your structure.

00:18:43
Speaker 2: All right, you got to rotating like this. This is worse than NBA.

00:18:45
Speaker 4: Like I played with guys he had trade I was playing with.

00:18:47
Speaker 2: I was funny.

00:18:48
Speaker 4: I was sitting at home on watching the ESPN and looking up Derek Cannis was trading.

00:18:52
Speaker 2: I'm like, damn, I didn't get a call. You know, you found for me.

00:18:57
Speaker 4: You found out from the ESBs because my contract, My contract is up, and they was like, we can't pay you and Sean Kemp and I was at my rookie deal and had one year left. So I was sitting home just clicking through and it looked up Derek Hatis with Translate.

00:19:07
Speaker 3: Dang wow.

00:19:08
Speaker 4: But it was a business, so they don't owe you to respect. They owe you as a job. And I'm like, well, I gotta deal with it. But if you're in college and you sign a contract. You can't just up and leave when you feel like it's not going well. How does that teach you? And like, what can you do that at any other job where you do that, we're teaching bad habits for them to grow up in a real world which is not really authentic.

00:19:26
Speaker 2: You can't leave jobs if you if you don't like the guarantee to get another job, because would you? But you're not if you leave it. If you leave a school, you're not guaranteed to get another school to want you.

00:19:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you that's what you're going for. But you're teaching bad habits and how many kids are left out of the porter for that?

00:19:42
Speaker 2: Wells is a life lesson, that's a life It is a fertile life lesson.

00:19:48
Speaker 4: You want to protect the kids integrity of the game and protect the kids from being making bad decisions. Again, you wouldn't allow me to drive because I'm six or five. You would say are you able? Are you are you mature enough? Are you able to do those things that you don't that? And I think that was a difference. Just because my son can like my son at sixteen, he's my height. I'm not going to let him just run off to do something just because he's older. I mean, he's tall. We gotta give structure. I think that hurts the game when you don't put structure in anything.

00:20:13
Speaker 2: Let me ask you more fun question. In my opinion, the four best teams of my lifetime since I've been covering Kentucky ninety six twenty ten. Now, granted, some of these teams didn't win twenty ten, twenty twelve, twenty fifteen. All right, So Anthony Davis, Wall and cousins the thirty eight one team, and you guys, I'm gonna do a final four round robin. You all play each other. I'm gonna assume you think you are winning. But how would you How do you rank that?

00:20:44
Speaker 4: It's tough because the reason John Wall's team lost they couldn't shoot.

00:20:47
Speaker 2: So we goes on on them. So they're out. They're out, Okay all the time. You a man and man they can win.

00:20:54
Speaker 4: The twenty twelve team, I will say we would beat him because of our bench was stronger offensively the.

00:21:00
Speaker 2: Bitch, but y'all had no but no offense to Mark.

00:21:03
Speaker 4: He ain't guarding Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis can't guard a three point shooting. We will put Waltter McCarty in. Okay, I mean, so we bring Anthony away from the basket. He thought about good guard a little bit. I mean, but he's away from the basket. So when I'm going with me and Ron and all those going to basket.

00:21:17
Speaker 2: You think you think you could take doron lamb, off the back, off the bound. I love you. I'm not gonna like they're gonna be talking about you on Club five twenty the way. No, there are great players. They know they're great.

00:21:34
Speaker 4: If I said, yeah, if Jordan I could take you, They're gonna look at me like I'm crazy. No, I'm just said, all right, so now twenty fifteen though twenty fifteen, that's all.

00:21:41
Speaker 2: That's a different thing. That's a different thing.

00:21:42
Speaker 4: And I would say until when one time we had a conversation, I said, if he puts Devin Booker in, they win.

00:21:49
Speaker 2: That's the team that scares me. Okay, So if they go Harrison Booker rather than Harrison Harrison, even you Lison Booker because that puts pressure on us and we can't double what help as much. And Booker is a shooter.

00:22:02
Speaker 4: Do you and I think about this, if you have both the twins are great players, but they weren't the shooters.

00:22:07
Speaker 3: They were not the Booker was unless it was under thirty seconds.

00:22:09
Speaker 4: I'm just saying, you know, Booker was a shooter, and I think that was a difference in My whole comment was if you take the bigs away from the basket, that's what hurts. And I think that's what we did with Walter and Antoine. Antoine Walker and Walter was up top. So when me and Ron and Tony Dulk and Jet we was posting up. Guys, you couldn't help him block it. I'm catching the ball and I'm dunking off the off the pace, off the baseline, and you know, on the post, and.

00:22:29
Speaker 2: Where's Anthony at that point? Whereas Carl Towns and all those guys. You think the fifteen team, what is It's it along with you the two best teams.

00:22:38
Speaker 3: I do, even though they lost, I still do this.

00:22:40
Speaker 4: As I said, it was because the right players weren't in the game. And that's why I agree with you. I think the twenty fifteen had the deeper team and just as much talent as a tweens.

00:22:49
Speaker 2: The only two teams in Kentucky history that during the regular season just dominated everybody they played. Were you all in twenty fifteen? Tweet twelve won a ton of games, Yeah, but a lot of them were clubs. A lot of the twenty fifteen team, Ryan, they just pounded people, and so did that.

00:23:04
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, there ain't nobody, no team beating that ninety sixteenth. They were the best by far.

00:23:10
Speaker 3: No, you said it.

00:23:11
Speaker 4: It was a team, and I think that was a difference in twenty twelve. They were a team when you looked at like you look they were a team.

00:23:17
Speaker 2: They really were. And Hey, everybody, give a big round of applause. Derek Anderson, that was a great interview. You did a great job. Thank you, brother. We're gonna take some calls in and talk more recruiting. Be right back.

00:23:27
Speaker 3: This is Kentucky Sports Radio.

00:23:29
Speaker 2: Quarterback In is Kentucky Sports Radio. The NBA playoffs are here in Draft Kings, sports books and official sports betting partner of the NBA. They got profit boosts for every single game day starts tomorrow. Well he got the end of the playing tonight and then the actual playoffs start tomorrow. Bet just five dollars. If your bet wins, you'll get three hundred bonus bets use my code KSR five into three hundred in partnership with DraftKings and if the crown is yours, if you got game, probably win their game by the team plus Kentucky Oot the fly Beepmans Winters, Sea Boats bets inspired in seven Days, minu wats required in mea Minister sticks playing and Berry went off Boost only plies to winning for distaltrbsposal game and so he works with the Draft Kings dot Com slash promo's limited time Off.

00:24:06
Speaker 5: Whoa be an auctioneer?

00:24:10
Speaker 2: No kidding, I've got that. I've got that down. How great was Derek?

00:24:15
Speaker 1: He was incredible.

00:24:16
Speaker 3: That was awesome.

00:24:17
Speaker 2: If you if you go to the text machine, if you go to the text machine, honestly you are the people's choice for assistant coach. I thought he knew a lot Shandon until he said Ryan new basketball.

00:24:28
Speaker 8: Yeah, that was That was really my takeaway from the entire interviews that Ryan apparently knows basketball.

00:24:33
Speaker 2: That's what made me worried, Billy that maybe I can't take the rest of his stuff. Seriously, if he thinks, if he if he thinks that Ryan knows what Derek knows.

00:24:42
Speaker 1: This to be a fact. I went to Rick Patino before the Arizona game the ninety seven Championships, said, played Derek Anderson. You played Derek Anders we win the championship in ninety seven.

00:24:52
Speaker 5: He was ready to go to and I'm shocked about it.

00:24:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sure that Rick liked you.

00:24:56
Speaker 2: Say, yeah he didn't.

00:24:57
Speaker 1: He didn't didn't play and see what happened. He played Derek and As we win that game.

00:25:01
Speaker 9: Yeah, you know, I'm sad I missed Ryan's TV era interviewing Tiger Woods.

00:25:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, they realized that, like Ryan, the Ryan. You know, Ryan was moderately a serious person for a long time. No, I mean that for those of you in Lexington, you know that's true.

00:25:18
Speaker 5: Look like you've done to him though.

00:25:20
Speaker 2: Well, I feel bad I've brought this, but like you, this was not always the Ryan Lemon that you see now taking his shirt off and all that. That wasn't the Ryan Lemon of television when I was in college, for instance.

00:25:34
Speaker 1: But I feel like the dumb ass hat fits me a lot better.

00:25:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, the dumb ass hat.

00:25:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, take off the sports hat, put on the dumb ass hat.

00:25:43
Speaker 8: You set the barlow and then when you have something that's actually true and factual, cause that's interesting.

00:25:49
Speaker 2: A couple things real quick that's happened during the show. Jeff Goodman has said he he projects, although he says he doesn't know for sure, but he projects Donnie Freeman will go to Kentucky, and then Jacob pola Check of KSR says he's hearing very good things about Alex Wilkins and Kentucky so that both of their visits are over again. If we got to Monday and those two guys had committed, Billy, I think we'd have a different feeling kind of around the basketball one hundred percent.

00:26:18
Speaker 9: And we talk about the dominoes that start to fall when you get a guy like Zoom Diallo. I mean, who wants to play for Kentucky when people get signed up like that.

00:26:25
Speaker 3: So Alex Wilkins to me is the one.

00:26:28
Speaker 2: Like I mean, I watched that kid play one day again, knew nothing about him, and I turned on and I said, that kid's way too good to go to Furman. You could just tell he was of the small Now, I didn't see every small college in the country, but I watched some on you know, Friday nights and when random times and when I that was the best small college kid player I saw all year, so he would be that. He's the guy of all the people him. And then I'd love to have the dude. I don't think we're in on him, but the dude from Iowa State that that shoots threes, the big guy. I would love to have him too. But Wilkins would be one eye would be very happy if they get Wilkins.

00:27:04
Speaker 1: Is he our best player or Diallow our best player?

00:27:07
Speaker 2: I think he's our best player. I think he'll well, at least he'll score the most. I mean, I don't know if he's the best player necessarily, but he'll score the most. I do think if you could have a starting lineup that is Diallo, Wilkins, Moreno Freeman, and then somebody, maybe it's Cam Williams, maybe it's Braden Hawthorne, maybe it's somebody else they get in the portal, I think you got the potential to have a really good team. Now, is that a Final four team? I don't know if it is or not, but I think it's it's good enough to be really good. And then if you could add somebody, whether it's Tyron Stokes or it's somebody from overseas, then.

00:27:43
Speaker 3: Maybe you're cooking, but at least you have the base.

00:27:45
Speaker 2: What I've been worried about is I've yet to be We don't have the base of a team that's even good yet. But I think if you get those two guys, Ryan, you can have that.

00:27:55
Speaker 1: Well, we go back to you know, they're in then NTA tournament when Furman was giving Connecticut a good game, and I really really good. We flipped over and it was him, the Wilkens kid was the reason they were giving Connecticut such a good game. The dude's a player.

00:28:07
Speaker 2: He's very very good. All right, Who's up next?

00:28:09
Speaker 1: Ray got Jared up next?

00:28:12
Speaker 2: Jared, go ahead, Jared.

00:28:15
Speaker 10: Hey, Matt, thanks for taking my call. First off, I just want to say I really love what you guys do on the radio show, and I know that you've taken a lot of heat and I just want you to know a lot of people support you guys and everything you do. So thank you for this show.

00:28:28
Speaker 2: Thank you for saying that. I appreciate it.

00:28:31
Speaker 10: Of course, going back to the question of kind of what Mark Pope can do to get the fan base excited again, I want to preface this. I do want to be positive, but I'm under the impression that he's not necessarily the right person for this job, but how he could win me over this summer is first and foremost, Get Donnie Freeman, get Wilkins, get Ransick, and then I'll be excited, regardless of everything else, to just actually talk to the fan base. Like the reason we hopped on board was because of that press conference where he came out and was zero to one hundred and was wearing his Kentucky jersey and was holding up the National Championship trophy from ninety six. And then the last thing I heard Derek Anderson to be an assistant coach after that interview, you just said that's who I wanted as an assistance.

00:29:24
Speaker 2: Well, listen, I appreciate the call. First of all, I don't think I actually think there was nothing wrong with that call to say, you know, it's okay that people are skeptical. I get asked.

00:29:32
Speaker 3: Sometimes, do you believe that Mark Pope will say, you.

00:29:36
Speaker 2: Know, I don't know. I hope, but I don't know. But I think that's a really good point he said about the press conference. If you want to have asked me a year ago, Ryan, what does Mark Pope have going for him? The most. I would say the trait that he has going for him the most is that this fan base wants to love him right, that he's one of us, that we feel a connect to him, and that he gets us, He gets our quirks, he understands us, and when he talks, you can feel, like back in the day with Joe B. Hall, like this is a guy who's part of us. When he goes silent, then he loses his biggest strength, Like what is his biggest strength with the fan base is that connection? And when you take that connection away and all we can judge our results and then you lose by thirty five, what have you done? You've taken away the thing that was your best trade. It's like when Tubby Smith was so nice, his best trait was everybody thought he was nice. Well, if he'd all of a sudden start being a jerk, he'd be taking away his best trade. I think Mark kind of this year got away from Ryan the thing that was his best, which was being engaged with the fan base, and by becoming kind of a hermit recluse, it made it harder for people to have any connection or even sympathy for it.

00:31:02
Speaker 1: I agree with you one hundred percent. We got so mad at the end of the Cali era because he was talking down to us. We said, Mark Pope's gonna talk to us because he's one of us.

00:31:11
Speaker 3: Well with Calin Patino, and I'm gonna let you feel.

00:31:13
Speaker 2: With Callen Patino, I never felt like they were one of us. They were like almost the band leader marching us along. And when it felt like they were doing it in connection with us, that was great, and then but when cal kind of got it got away from it, I never felt.

00:31:28
Speaker 3: Like they were one of us. With Pope, I did feel that way.

00:31:32
Speaker 1: We definitely felt that way. So when they get beat by thirty and he comes out and has these horrible postgame news conercces with Tom Leech, we needed our leader to pick us up, you know, be a leader, talk to us the way we want to be talked to. As a fan, you're you're one of us, and it just didn't happen this year.

00:31:46
Speaker 2: People they hear us talk about her, me talk about Shannon talking to the media, and they're like, oh, who cares if they talk to you, Okay, leave the media out of it. Mark Pope has yet to talk to the fans since the season ended. Yeah, he hasn't done one press conference. He hasn't done one anything since the season ended. We lost on a difficult, embarrassing loss to Iowa State in a game that after the first ten minutes we were never competitive in. And she hasn't said one word since then. Yeah, and I it's just a mistake.

00:32:19
Speaker 5: I agree with you and the caller.

00:32:20
Speaker 8: You know, like when he was first hired, a lot of us for you know, sort of skeptical, there's a lot of uncertainty. But when he did that press conference at Ropperena, everybody was on.

00:32:28
Speaker 2: Board, everyone for the whole first year.

00:32:31
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, you know.

00:32:32
Speaker 8: And again, if he can get just a couple of players, he can flip the script on the negativity of the fan base is feeling right now.

00:32:37
Speaker 2: But think about how much Billy you turn on TV college basketball actually would argue the portal keeps college basketball interesting for a little bit longer, you know what I mean. Like normally the tournament's over and everybody just moves on, right, And now you've got these few weeks where people are still talking. I see these coaches every day. I see Danny Hurley, I see Todd Golden, I see they're going on interview shows. I kind of think they're trying to like show the recruits out there.

00:33:05
Speaker 3: Look at Mark's nowhere.

00:33:08
Speaker 9: Yeah, that's just recruiting in a new day and age where you can get in front of these shows and be present in front of guys and and look. I mean that was his biggest strength was talking, and so hopefully he can do more in this offseason.

00:33:18
Speaker 2: I hope. So who's up next?

00:33:19
Speaker 1: Andy?

00:33:20
Speaker 2: Is up next? Andy? Go ahead? Andy?

00:33:23
Speaker 7: Hey, guys, got two questions. He's talking about has become a NYL four team and more to would take to get there? With Stokes? My question is what would it take? What would you have to go out and do this off season to become a final four team without Nity.

00:33:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know if they I don't know if they have you know, unless they have a recruit that I don't know about yet, which is certainly possible. I don't necessarily see a preseason top five to seven roster coming together with Pope unless you get Stokes. I think otherwise you're looking at a preseason eight to twenty team. That's just that's just my take on what I've seen. Now again, maybe there's some guy out there. We don't know yet, But I still think even if they got Freeman and Wilkins, for me, if they don't get Stokes, there's still one player away from being great.

00:34:27
Speaker 3: Not trying to be pessimistic, that's just my view on it.

00:34:31
Speaker 7: And when is the NCAA voting on this fIF your eligibility thing.

00:34:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great point, Andy, I appreciate the call. I think it's in like two weeks they vote, and again that may make a whole new set of players righting available, these these graduates. Like in hindsight, man, I really wish we had Aberdeen if he could have a fifth year, you know, if you could, if you could add him to that team next year and have like three guards and he's one of them. And like I it kind of bums me out if he ends up play a Florida.

00:35:00
Speaker 1: Makes me wonder, you know, Like we talked about a lot of these guys enter the portal by Monday. Maybe there's another Denzel Aberdeen out there.

00:35:06
Speaker 2: Maybe there is. Yeah, I got to the point at the end, Billy, I really liked our Denzel Aberdeen. Ye I thought the last fifteen games he was great.

00:35:13
Speaker 9: Yeah, a little rough, to start, but he really became his own or came into his own. I think if Cam Williams and Moreno take the jump that we want them to, that you become that fun.

00:35:22
Speaker 2: That's the one thing that I'm glad you said that Oway took. I don't know if he took a jump. He ow. He was kind of the same both years. He was very good, maybe a little better. Garrison did not take a jump. Noah did not take a jump. If Moreno and Cam take a jump, that's a different thing, you know. And because I'm the problem was we didn't really have guys take a jump.

00:35:45
Speaker 3: Last year, so that's what makes it a little bit harder. Shady Rays is.

00:35:47
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00:36:10
Speaker 1: Of whoa slowed down twenty Now it's thirty thirty percent slowed down. Slow your roll, big spender.

00:36:18
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not deciding, but go to Shady rays dot com. Uh, the promo code is KSR thirty percent off. Get your summer sunglasses ready. We'll take a break final segment here at Whiskey, Thief and Breakford. It's KSR were come back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio. Everybody's gone to get in line to get the signing of the bourbon. But we got food here as well. Derek Anderson will be signing his bourbon here in just a little bit A five nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven. We were talking about Denzel Aberdeen real quick. You mentioned from last night. I did a trivia question where he's one of the where he's one of the answers surprises people. I said, who are the eight players in UK history who either transferred in or transferred out that had the most points in a season at UK, So they had either transferred in or transferred out.

00:37:08
Speaker 3: Derek is like thirteenth on that list.

00:37:10
Speaker 1: We guess, Derek, but the uh.

00:37:13
Speaker 2: Number one is who's number one? Antonio Reeves is number one? Who's number two? Always number three, who's number two? Oscar is number two Oscar, so it goes it's Reeves, then Oscar, then o Way, then it's Kyle Macy. People forget that Kyle Macy was a transfer and then fifth is Roderick Rhodes who transferred out larn Ellis that was that was one you didn't give and then the one. But then my point about Aberdeen Aberdeen is seventh. So like I don't think people realize just how many points Aberdeen's Aberdeen Aberdeen at the end of the year was averaging thirteen point nine points a game, And I don't think people realize that really necessarily Ryan when they think about his career, that he ended up averaging, you know, more points than say Kobe Braa did when he was eating.

00:38:15
Speaker 1: I don't think there's been one player that I have disliked as much to start a season and liked him twice as much at the end of the season. He gave made me so frustrated with first ten twelve games, but then he became not just a good point guard, he was a valuable valuable player on our team last year.

00:38:30
Speaker 2: And not to just not to always be in Antonio Reeves stand, but when you go look at how many points Billy that Antonio Reeves scored at the school, even with Mark, even with John Calpory not playing him the first half he played Untilo reason basically played a year and a half, and the amount of points he scored, he's like the second highest two year scorer, third highest in UK history and he really only played a year.

00:38:57
Speaker 3: And a half.

00:38:58
Speaker 5: That's hard to believe.

00:38:59
Speaker 9: You know, I remember some great performances, like thirty seven points on the road against Arkansas, but for him to be in that kind of conversation is surprising.

00:39:06
Speaker 2: But you know, he scored in double digits, like it was something like forty games out of forty one or something like some crazy thing, and we just we don't think about it. All right. The NBA and NHL playoffs start tonight, so you gotta go on record. Who's gonna be in the finals. Let's start with the NBA. Ryan, I'll go Thunder for sure. In the West.

00:39:27
Speaker 1: I mean, the Pistons have been the best team in the East, so I'll go you even me go charge, I'll go Pistons Thunder.

00:39:31
Speaker 8: Piston's thunder, Shan, I agree with the Thunder, but I'm going with my Boston Celtics.

00:39:36
Speaker 2: Boston Celtics.

00:39:37
Speaker 9: Yeah, I was gonna go thunder Celtics, so not exciting, but similar with Shannon.

00:39:41
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go thunder Knicks. I'm gonna take the New York Knicks. Now, let's really testing hockey. Can you even get two teams who theoretically could play in the finals against each other?

00:39:56
Speaker 1: The Tampa Lightning.

00:39:58
Speaker 2: Tampa Bay Lightning, Okay, they're in it.

00:40:00
Speaker 1: And the Detroit Red Wings.

00:40:02
Speaker 2: Detroit Red Wings are not in it. And they're also in the same conference as Tampa minute.

00:40:06
Speaker 1: Colorado Avalanche.

00:40:07
Speaker 2: Okay, that's a theoretical possible.

00:40:10
Speaker 9: All right, Avalanche and Hurricanes Lightning and Canadians.

00:40:15
Speaker 2: All right, I'm gonna get I'm going with you Avalanche and no, you can't have the Lightning in the Canadians. Same one.

00:40:21
Speaker 9: H the Calgary Flame, No, not in it.

00:40:26
Speaker 1: Running out of NHL.

00:40:27
Speaker 2: Team, Come on, West Coast team.

00:40:29
Speaker 1: Let's go the Minnesota Wild.

00:40:32
Speaker 2: Okay, they're in it. There you go, So you've got Lightning Wild, I'm with you, Hurricanes and Avalanche. My Canes.

00:40:38
Speaker 3: They opened with the Ottawa Senators. Did you know that was a team?

00:40:41
Speaker 2: Yes, I know.

00:40:41
Speaker 1: It was a team. I didn't know who they played though.

00:40:43
Speaker 2: All right, who's up for next?

00:40:45
Speaker 1: Larry is up next?

00:40:46
Speaker 6: Larry, go ahead, Larry, Yeah, yeah, thanks for taking my call. I really enjoyed listening to your conversation there with Derrick Anderson. But I would want to mention I didn't hear it. There's a book that he wrote about ten years ago by the name of Stamina, and he talks about his life and he talks about don't run out of breath before you win. It's a great book to read, stamp.

00:41:18
Speaker 2: I remember that good, good recommendation there, sir, Thank you very much. All right, let's do a prediction here. We'll make this my DraftKings prediction when we come in on Monday. Well, Wilkins and Freeman have committed to Kentucky.

00:41:32
Speaker 1: Right, I'm gonna say yes on Wilkins, no on Freeman.

00:41:35
Speaker 5: Okay, I'm gonna say yes on Freeman, no on Wilkins.

00:41:39
Speaker 9: I'm saying yes to both Wilkins and Freeman.

00:41:41
Speaker 1: All right, so break the time.

00:41:44
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go with Shannon. I'm gonna say yes on Freeman, no on Wilkins. But it's not because Wilkins went somewhere else. It's just because he hasn't decided you, so I'm gonna say, uh, Freeman. I mean, this is not any way to guarantee, but Freeman might even be today.

00:42:01
Speaker 5: He did cancel his visit to Yukon, which is a good sight.

00:42:03
Speaker 2: That could even that could even take place today. I think Wilkins probably drags in the next week, so that's why I'm not sure whether or not we'll know. Thank you to everybody here at Whiskey Thief. We appreciate you guys. Awesome show hosting, this great crowd as always here. You all always show up great and the food here as well. Thank you to Derek Anderson. Awesome interview on this on this Friday. Everybody, have an awesome weekend. We are back next week on Monday. Appreciate it. Hopefully everybody's in a positive mood. We'll see you later. This has been Kentucky Sports Radio.