2025-11-14- KSR - Hour 1

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Comedy Off Broadway and Lexington. Welcome Cincinnati native and club favorite Josh Sneed November fourteenth and fifteenth. Then catch the return of THEGT finalist Preacher Lawson November twenty first through the twenty third, and November twenty eighth and twenty ninth. Don't miss the Queen of Comedy and Lexington's own Adell given sport tickets to all Comedy Off Broadway shows call E five nine two seven to one joke or visit Comedy Off Broadway dot com Comedy.

00:00:28
Speaker 2: Off by Way. Well, welcome everyone. It is Kentucky Sports Radio here live in downtown Lexington at the Affinity Rooftop located on the eighth floor of the.

00:00:41
Speaker 3: Marriotte City Center. This is for what we can remember our first show downtown and look where we are, this beautiful building, the city Center eighth floor where today you we got folks here watching and eating. And if you come today at the Affinity Rooftop calf and you eat a meal, Ryan, you can win. We will draw this gift package that includes a Mark Pope signed basketball, It includes bourbon, it includes a lot of stuff.

00:01:11
Speaker 2: Somebody in here will win that today. Uh at KSR.

00:01:14
Speaker 3: You give shallon clocks Puppy Shop full nine eight five to nine twenty two eighty seven. A Vision Auto Glass tax machine is seven seven two seven seven four five two five four in this edition sponsored by the TJ. Smith Office. You called TJ. He'll make them pay. There's a lot of stuff to get to today. Two games basketball tonight, football tomorrow.

00:01:34
Speaker 2: Lots of news.

00:01:35
Speaker 3: There is a ton going on, but we will start with the news that I uh just found out about twenty minutes ago, and I'm sure all of you have heard that Jalen Lowe re injured his shoulder in practice yesterday, apparently a collision with Diabat, which you know I've seen that. Dude, I don't think you want to have a collision. He uh was hurt yesterday in practice. They did imaging on him last night and today, and the latest update, which I got pulling into the parking lot, is that the injury is slightly worse than last time. Surgery could be an option. He also there are ways potentially he could play through it, but they are going to think about it for the rest of the day and then make a decision. Could what I was told kind of could go either way and it's in part what the staff thinks is best for him long term. I got the sense that this is probably a surgery that would have to happen at some point, but maybe you'd wait and do it in the off season, or you do it now. This is basically exactly what happened with Lamont Butler. I do not know if it's the same injury, so I want to be clear. I don't know if it's the same injury. But if you remember, Lamont Butler had to have surgery in the off season, but he wanted to get through the season and play, so he did.

00:02:55
Speaker 2: I don't know if we're kind of we're in a similar situation here.

00:02:58
Speaker 3: So I think probably by tonight we will know whether or not Jaylen Lowe will play this year. He certainly will not play tonight, and I would think he would not play at least a lot of the non conference season.

00:03:09
Speaker 2: So that's where we are. That's the new news. Guys.

00:03:14
Speaker 3: Well, I'll just give my take and then I'll pass off to you. All I've said all summer. Anybody who listen to this show knows that I thought he was the key to the team. I said we'd be as good as he is, you know, in my opinion, I don't know if I thought he was the best player, but I thought he'd likely be the leading scorer.

00:03:30
Speaker 2: That's probably still would have been true for all this.

00:03:33
Speaker 3: If we don't have him, I think it certainly hurts our ceiling. Meaning, you know, I thought we could be the best team in the country with him. I don't know if we can be the best team in the country without him. I still think we can be really good for a variety of reasons. But now you got a lot of things reps change, Oway's gonna have to step up. One of these guys like Jasper Johnson or something's gonna have to be a lot better than they've been so far.

00:04:00
Speaker 2: But it would be a bummer.

00:04:01
Speaker 3: If you had asked me before the season, who's the player UK can afford to lose least, I probably would have said Jalen Lowe. And now it looks like three games into the year, Ryan, there's at least a chance we might have lost.

00:04:13
Speaker 4: It does suck. I mean, they can still be really good without him, but it does suck that if he's gonna be out for a period of time. I mean, I've been doing this a long time, and I can't remember a shoulder injury ever, and our point guard's been got it two years in a row. I mean we needed to We had the ankle doctor. We need a shoulder doctor or something. This seems like a deja vous that we don't want.

00:04:31
Speaker 3: It is crazy that you would have a shoulder injury on your point guard twice in two years in a row.

00:04:39
Speaker 2: I mean that is I'm with Ryan.

00:04:41
Speaker 3: I can't remember ever having a having a basketball player with the shoulder injury period, and to have him back to back years at the most important position.

00:04:49
Speaker 2: You know. I think losing Lamont crushed us last year.

00:04:53
Speaker 3: Now he did come back, I hope this one doesn't crush us as much.

00:04:57
Speaker 5: It's just insane to have another injury at the exis same position. We ran out of point guards last year, and then in the Blue White Game, you lose one this year, even though we got him for a stunt there. I'm counting that he was out preseason. It's just ridiculous to have these injuries. I'm no doctor, but the moment I heard I thought, probably gonna have to shut that down for the year for surgery. I'm glad you know that they're leaving open the opportunity to not do that. But it just immediately I thought, well, there goes Low for the year. That was my first reaction. I'm sure many people thought the same thing.

00:05:25
Speaker 3: Now, I remember, you do have that kid for two years, and maybe you now have him for two years again if he does play. But he was I think he was on a plan to play here next year regardless.

00:05:37
Speaker 2: You know, Shanon, I.

00:05:39
Speaker 3: What would you do, like if you I mean, if let's say you knew you were gonna have to have surgery at some point. Yeah, from what I understand, it's a four to five month recovery, so you could wait till the end of the year and then be ready for next year even if you played.

00:05:54
Speaker 2: Would you try to play or would you.

00:05:56
Speaker 3: Say, look, man, there's no reason I'm gonna be in paid for four straight months as we'll go ahead and do it.

00:06:00
Speaker 6: Well, it's easy for me to say it, but I would say, you just got to play through the pain and try to get to the off season and then take care of that. Then. You know, I wasn't really willing to change my projection for how the season was going to go after the Lobal loss. But I think if Jalen Lowe is out for a significant part of the schedule, then I think you do have to change the way you look at this.

00:06:18
Speaker 4: Is it his shooting handed to the other one, it's the other one he's left handed, it's his right shoulder.

00:06:23
Speaker 3: Well, with Lamont it was his shooting one though it was so I do think, you know Lamont, it clearly affected his play. You know, there is an argument that with your off arm it's a little easier because it's not your shooting arm. That's I mean, I'm just saying there is an argument that maybe that wouldn't be as.

00:06:42
Speaker 5: Bad if all I was older, didn't have a lot more basketball to play, so he might have had to push through you.

00:06:47
Speaker 2: That's true. Good point.

00:06:48
Speaker 6: I just want to know what kind of drills they're running in practice to where this is happening like this. But to Pope's credit, I mean, he had to deal with those injuries last year and they you know, turned out to have a good season.

00:06:56
Speaker 3: So it is not by the way, you got two of everything. I mean, people wonder why did they build their roster like they did. They did it for this reason. Now, I think Aberdeen's a good backup point guard that can become a starter.

00:07:08
Speaker 2: The question then becomes who's your who becomes the backup?

00:07:12
Speaker 3: Because we saw what happened when Chandler and Johnson were running the point guard. I think Ryan Jasper Johnson's gonna have to figure out how to be a backup point guard, like I think, because I love Chandler and I think Chandler is great in his other role.

00:07:25
Speaker 2: I do not think he's a point guard. So I think you're.

00:07:28
Speaker 3: Gonna have to figure out a way for Jasper Johnson probably to be the backup.

00:07:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, Colin's been playing great. We see how he does when he plays off the ball. It was the Georgetown exhibition and he played point guard and just had troubles, just had a lot of struggles. Jasper, I think I feel a little more confident if he's got.

00:07:42
Speaker 2: To be a backup.

00:07:42
Speaker 4: I feel confident jas Maybe we do.

00:07:45
Speaker 2: I mean, if he goes to be out for the year, you know, I don't know.

00:07:47
Speaker 3: If you saw b Yu just signed a kid from the G League that's gonna play this year, you know, Drew.

00:07:54
Speaker 5: Maybe listen, I've already thought maybe you go do something like that. I assistant in Europe right now. Scout we know we can do the Big Z move. School doesn't matter anymore. Whatever, We'll fake that. But I'm in Europe right now, Like, hey, anybody want to go play college basketball in January? Unless they really believe in Jasper they would know behind the scenes. But I would really consider.

00:08:13
Speaker 2: If you have someone you really if you think we had added Big Z for.

00:08:18
Speaker 5: At this point that you're left two years ago, would you would you consider that?

00:08:23
Speaker 2: Would you consider going and saying, hey, let's find another point guard.

00:08:26
Speaker 4: I guess you got to look into it a little bit to look into it, and then Jasper could be your good your fallback playing if you don't find a.

00:08:33
Speaker 2: Guy like Jasper.

00:08:34
Speaker 3: I don't think you want Jasper to be You want him to do other stuff. But I could see him too. I mean, b y, you literally just got a player. Uh and they had a kid get caught drunk driving. They'll probably get kicked out of school. So I mean, I think that might have been partially why he did.

00:08:47
Speaker 2: It every year.

00:08:48
Speaker 5: I mean, we don't follow him every school, but every year a high school kid reclassifies and their options. Hopefully Jasper can do it. But with Chandler, it's just not that he couldn't play defense, you don't want to take away from him being the two guard. He has been so good since he moved over there. He's shooting fifty eight percent from three. So even if he could play point guard, you don't want to ruin how good he's been in his next.

00:09:09
Speaker 2: Week in the SEC and three point shooting.

00:09:11
Speaker 3: I mean, you don't want to do that. So that was that's part one. Now let's go to part two for a second. And by the way, so we don't know about Jayleen Lowe. I mean, I'm we're talking like he's gone. I got the sense in my conversations that they really are deciding that it is not. But you know, he'll get asked after the game. We'll probably know when the game is over because they're spending today thinking about it. Let's go to the second thing. Mark Pope does his press conference yesterday and very odd. I mean, I think Mark Pope has nailed almost everything you could say to the press. I didn't really understand his press conference yesterday. He said before the Louisville game, a situation happened that threw the team off, and that caused essentially something that kind of put him in a bad frame of mind for the game. He said, I'm not ready to say what that is now, really bad decision to say that. In my opinion, you either say it or you don't. What you don't do is say it and then not say what it is. How many times did you hear me in the col Are era talk about we're gonna people are gonna fill the void, like if you have speculation, people are gonna guess what it is. And there are already a ton of rumors floating around that. I have no idea if any of them are true. I bet one of them is true. But there's like three. I've heard three different ones multiple times. They can't all be true, but one of them probably is true. I think I have an idea which one is true, But I'm not gonna.

00:10:44
Speaker 2: I don't want to spread misinformation.

00:10:47
Speaker 3: But regardless, the fact that I'm having that conversation Ryan is why I think that was a bad idea for Mark Pope to say.

00:10:53
Speaker 4: Really kind of strange that a head coach would say that about something right before a major game like that. Now here's my thoughts about it. It was if it was something internally, I don't think you. I don't think he would have said anything, because it's stuff internally happens all the time, like fights in practice, fights in the locker room. I think they just kind of work through that. But if it was something like they got into it with somebody in the arena that led to an altercation or something. But still, why do you why do you even say it? But see and then he promises it goes, I'll go get into it more in the future, Like you say, so.

00:11:23
Speaker 3: Why what are you waiting shit? Like if you if you're gonna if you're gonna say it one day, why are we letting it drag on?

00:11:33
Speaker 2: Just say it.

00:11:33
Speaker 6: It's like when somebody says I've got news, but I can't tell you what the news is, and there's nothing more frustrating.

00:11:39
Speaker 2: People get mad at me.

00:11:41
Speaker 4: But it's kind of like that, a.

00:11:42
Speaker 6: Little bit, like, well, this happened, but I can't tell you about it. I would say that's gonna probably be the first question for the Mark Pope Collin show. It's gonna happened.

00:11:50
Speaker 2: It's gonna be his first question tonight. Yeah, I mean he's gonna get asked that. That's gonna be the first question in the postgame press conference, and then you know he's gonna be put in a position do you say tonight or do you keep it lingering? And then after the Michigan State game, is that going to be the first question? Like, I don't know.

00:12:05
Speaker 6: I like that he's open and honest with us, but sometimes I think he overshares. Sometimes we don't need to know all the stuff that's going on behind the scenes, and that I thinks there's probably an example of one of them.

00:12:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, so odd decision. First of all, do you think what he said? Do you think it did have an effect on the game.

00:12:22
Speaker 4: It seemed like some guys may have been affected by it. We all talked about some guys just didn't play well. We talked about the body language and some of the other guys on the team. So I whatever it was, it seems to maybe affected him or he wouldn't have even had the notion to bring it up.

00:12:35
Speaker 2: Yesterday, I do not think. So. I've heard three different stories. I will give one because because there's one that I think is the one that people are talking about. Why.

00:12:47
Speaker 3: I do not think it is necessarily the our guys got into it with the students section, because.

00:12:53
Speaker 2: I think that's happened before and that would get out. Well, there was video.

00:12:57
Speaker 3: I mean there's video of Jayleen load Jawn with the student section, but Jalen Low really didn't play bad most of the game, so I couldn't like. Jalen Low played well. He took a couple of bad shots at the end, but he actually played pretty well. So I don't think Jalen Low jawing with the student section Drew would have had an effect on the result of the game.

00:13:16
Speaker 5: No, and that was it doing the I have a secret I can't tell you now over a player yelling at a student teams that aren't even good.

00:13:26
Speaker 2: Not last year.

00:13:26
Speaker 3: I would sit and watch players go at it with the student section.

00:13:30
Speaker 2: It's usually playful. I can't imagine that would be it.

00:13:33
Speaker 3: Plus, by the way, if you say publicly, if you're a coach, the student section yelled at our players and it rattled them.

00:13:41
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's not a good son.

00:13:43
Speaker 3: Every other telling, every other student section in the country rattle our guys.

00:13:47
Speaker 2: They get rattled. So I can't imagine that would be.

00:13:49
Speaker 5: A good idea you as We'll just say I have a very soft team if I.

00:13:53
Speaker 3: Mean, so, it's got to be something else, And I think it's probably something else. I actually think Ryan, it's something else that did actually have an impact.

00:14:03
Speaker 2: But I'm surprised he said it.

00:14:05
Speaker 3: It's one of those things that I'm really surprised you would say, because you could kind of have kept that in house, if that makes sense. Or the second thing is Louisville did something and he's mad about it. He's trying to figure out when he's gonna say it.

00:14:19
Speaker 2: I think that he.

00:14:22
Speaker 3: Said we were out of character. But yeah, so I don't know. I mean I think I know, but I don't know. But either way, I'm surprised he said it. I don't think he needed to bring that up.

00:14:30
Speaker 4: I'm very surprised he said it. He knows what kind of fan base we are. We're all gonna speculate now like we're doing right now.

00:14:35
Speaker 2: I mean, this is what this is what's gonna happen if you do that, and and people less responsible than us would sit in here and say them all and then debate which one was more likely. That's just a dumb decision. And there will be places that do that right now.

00:14:49
Speaker 5: And they just took a horrible loss. You need to close the book and moved. What do you get in two weeks. You can be like, oh, by the way, let's bring up that Louisville pre game again after you were playing Indiana, Like yeah, now we can move on and.

00:15:01
Speaker 3: It's a great point. Let's say we go to New York and lose to Michigan State. You're gonna explain why we lost.

00:15:05
Speaker 5: A little closing on louis We have the BBN United tip Off Classic champions presented by Kentucky Tourism.

00:15:10
Speaker 2: Championship tonight tonight right down the street eight by.

00:15:14
Speaker 5: I saw a little sneak peak of a trophy.

00:15:16
Speaker 2: I'm not the.

00:15:17
Speaker 6: Only one taking a trophy.

00:15:19
Speaker 5: I think I convinced UK to take it seriously because I'm the only one that mentions the stamp.

00:15:23
Speaker 2: Turn mean, there's a trophy.

00:15:25
Speaker 6: Just I got a little scuttle, but we gotta put that on the trophy case right next.

00:15:29
Speaker 2: To Wicknational eight Yeah.

00:15:31
Speaker 3: We are here at Infinity rooftop, eighth floor, Marriotte City Center.

00:15:35
Speaker 2: Come on out you.

00:15:36
Speaker 3: Can if you get a get some neat you got a chance to win this beautiful prize package.

00:15:40
Speaker 2: Either way you can join us. We are what are you laughing at?

00:15:43
Speaker 5: Showing off the trophy? Old, I wouldn't show it, so don't show anyone.

00:15:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is a terrible trophy. We will take a break and be right back. This is Kentucky Sports Radio. Welcome back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio. Here live and Infinity Rooftop.

00:15:59
Speaker 3: If you would like on Thanksgiving Thanksgiving brunch buffet here at Infinity Booking Fast if you want to spend less time in the kitchen and more with family, here's what's at your Thanksgiving brush buffet, shaving smoke, turkey, ham, salmon, all the side dishes, six different desserts, eleven am to three pm, and an Infinity Rooftop restaurant. You can learn more at their website or on Instagram and Facebook, or get your table at Open Tables.

00:16:24
Speaker 6: See that's my kind of Thanksgiving. I don't have to cook, I don't have to do anything.

00:16:27
Speaker 3: We've done this a lot in the last few years.

00:16:30
Speaker 2: My family and I actually really enjoy it. You just show up, you do you, then you get out of there.

00:16:33
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, no clean up. You don't have to do the dishes.

00:16:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.

00:16:37
Speaker 4: Free parking in the parking garage, I think for their Thanksgiving buffet, so big deal.

00:16:41
Speaker 2: It's right.

00:16:42
Speaker 3: Come on up and join us here in downtown. This is a you get a good view of the city right here. A lot of people are are a couple of things people have said since.

00:16:50
Speaker 2: The low injury that I think are important to note.

00:16:52
Speaker 3: Number One, somebody rote and I think this is utterly ridiculous. There was another MEDIUM member that said something to the effect of that Jalen Lowe's injury prone. And then I saw somebody say he saw he missed.

00:17:06
Speaker 2: One game at pit one game.

00:17:09
Speaker 3: He missed literally one game, So that's ridiculous to say he's injury prone. Second, I've seen people say soft, dude, it separated his shoulder. He separated shoulder, then came back a couple weeks later, and it's still considered like you can't help separating your shoulder. That's like saying you're soft because you break your leg, Like, what are you supposed to do?

00:17:27
Speaker 5: I mean, he he was boxing out Diabate for a reason exactly.

00:17:31
Speaker 2: He was going up against Diabate.

00:17:32
Speaker 3: If you're soft, you're not gonna be anywhere near Diabate. So uh, I just think any criticism of him, or any even criticism of Pope for the fact that he got hurt, you know, he separated his shoulder.

00:17:45
Speaker 5: I've seen people saying, the athletic trainers gotta go. I mean, this is a lot of injuries were gonna do. We were court sided when Kerr rolled his achol. I mean you saw it right there last year again Zaga, and now you got to point guard just boxing out against a big man. They've they've mostly you know, they seem like just freak injuries and it's just been too many happened.

00:18:02
Speaker 2: I mean, things happen.

00:18:03
Speaker 3: I think our fan base we have the greatest traits in about ninety five percent of what fans are. But we a problem we have is we freak out and we make grand proclamations about little things.

00:18:19
Speaker 2: And I think I saw that last night with his injuryes.

00:18:21
Speaker 6: We overreact to everything. We beat Purdue or ready for the national title, we lose to Georgeown. Oh no, we suck. That's just what we do as a fan base.

00:18:27
Speaker 3: One person rights, Matt, would it be nice to have Travis Perry back.

00:18:32
Speaker 6: I mean, he hasn't done anything at Old Miss.

00:18:35
Speaker 3: He's averaging two point three points a game at Old Miss, So like, yeah, I mean he'd be a body, But I don't think it would make any difference.

00:18:45
Speaker 2: He'd be third string point guard. Maybe now he gets to play.

00:18:49
Speaker 3: But I love Travis Perry, but you saw last year what happens if we have Travis Perry's our point guard in elite games.

00:18:54
Speaker 2: We get run off the floor. I mean we saw that last year.

00:18:58
Speaker 4: We get a sec play. You need a guy, athletic, guy like Aberdeen. He's a guy that give lows out. Aberdeen's a guy that can carry you as your point guard.

00:19:06
Speaker 2: One person writes, Matt, you said go to the G League and get a point guard. Does that really work and is it allowed? I think so by you just did it.

00:19:16
Speaker 3: Wolve's got one coming next year, but by U's got one coming this year that is gonna start.

00:19:22
Speaker 2: I think it's said in December, so I guess you can. There are no rules. Yeah, there's no rules at all. I mean, I still think it's crazy. I'm glad he's here.

00:19:30
Speaker 5: But Yellovich was in like the championship game of the biggest pro league in Europe.

00:19:34
Speaker 2: Now he's going to UK one oh one on campus. None of it makes sense to me.

00:19:37
Speaker 6: And imagine you're on the G League. You're not probably making that much money. You could come here and make a lot more on nil to play for good touch came in and have the spotlight beyond you where people are actually watching your games.

00:19:46
Speaker 3: I like the G League, totally agree a couple op the lines eight, five to nine, two eighth, twenty two eighty seven. Let's go back real quick to the Pope comments, what wouldn't you say whatever it was that happened pregame. I get part of why. I don't understand why Pope said it is okay, fair enough, but at halftime we were down what seven?

00:20:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, whatever happened in the first half.

00:20:12
Speaker 3: Okay, maybe that affects the start of the game, but by halftime, you're down seven, we're three minutes to go, you're down four. So whatever happened at the beginning of the game, Ryan, I still don't say that affects the entire I mean we.

00:20:24
Speaker 2: Were up, actually had a good start, took a lead at the start. If you remember, we actually looked pretty good at the start. I think we were up five, So.

00:20:33
Speaker 3: It's more reason it's so rare for him to screw up public comments.

00:20:37
Speaker 2: I don't understand this.

00:20:39
Speaker 4: Sometimes we get on coaches for being not being open enough. Pope, maybe be too open about stuff. This may be just something with just his nature, his character. He just trying to share what really is the story to keep us from worrying. I don't know, but I think coaches need to got to keep the little things internal and need to stay in there.

00:20:56
Speaker 6: Kind of feels like I don't think it is, but it kind of feels like an excuse. I want to hear that. That's I don't want to hear that.

00:21:03
Speaker 3: There's a part So I know what you're saying. We do want our coach to tell us things at the same time, but we also there's a fine line between telling you and it being an excuse. And I again, we don't know what this is, but it feels like it leans toward excuse.

00:21:21
Speaker 2: Now, what if it comes out Louisville did something.

00:21:24
Speaker 6: Well, then maybe that would be about excuse. We got to hear what it is.

00:21:28
Speaker 2: What could they have done?

00:21:29
Speaker 5: Yeah, and he said out of character for us, So you almost have to be the reaction to what Louisville did. I think the most likely scenario is this is really dumb and Pope's had a golly g moment behind scenes and then set it to hint at it and if we found out, we'd be like, that's it, why did you bring that up?

00:21:45
Speaker 2: I totally agree with you. I think that is I think the most likely scenarios you're gonna hear about something that happens, probably more than you realize, and we are blowing it out of proportion. But we're doing it in part because he said that, right, Like, because he said that, that's gonna make it to where you don't have a choice.

00:22:05
Speaker 3: I mean every after he said that yesterday, everyone I talked to I was getting text from people.

00:22:10
Speaker 2: I haven't talked to in ten years what happened? Because you know, people want gossip like it's just natural human nature.

00:22:15
Speaker 4: And the fact that came out after Louis Will just beat us is does that magnify it? Like, Oh, what's the problem?

00:22:20
Speaker 2: What happened?

00:22:21
Speaker 4: We need to know what's what caused that?

00:22:23
Speaker 6: And if if we don't never hear it's gonna go down and like Kentucky folklore for years to come. If we never get the reason, you know, because we're gonna be talking.

00:22:30
Speaker 2: About well it has to say exactly. But if he doesn't say the reason, now that the stories are gonna get wilder and wild. It's like the old story about the fight on the point.

00:22:39
Speaker 4: That's it, Tim Turmoil find the plane.

00:22:41
Speaker 3: Between Gerald Fitch and what is it? I don't know what happened on that plane, but like over the years, it's become like it was snakes on the plant right, like it was an absolute bro and it probably.

00:22:53
Speaker 6: Whoa, what just happened? Something fell right.

00:22:55
Speaker 2: We'll take a break and be right back. Let's Sucky's words radio quarterback. It is Kentucky Sports Radio EIGHTF.

00:23:02
Speaker 3: I'm nine two eight twenty two eighty seven Infinity Rooftop eight four, Marriotte City Center, Kentucky plays to tonight seven o'clock against Eastern Illinois. Our pregame show starts at four point thirty. For coming to the game, coming out to Ksbar. We will be there or you can come watch the game tonight. Ryan actually will not be there, so it is me and Drew Roland solo on the pregame and then I'll be doing the post game tonight and then tomorrow morning we'll have the pregame football at nine to thirty. We finished at eleven thirty and then Drew and I get on a get in a car and.

00:23:35
Speaker 2: With Mario and Billy Head towards Buffalo.

00:23:38
Speaker 5: I'm ready for some Buffalo. I am bummed to miss the final home game, even though it is an FCS game, But the Bills Stadium, a Bill's game and Bill's Mafia is high on my life bucket list, and I can't wait to get up there.

00:23:49
Speaker 2: If you've ever heard us when we're on the road, you're definitely gonna want to hear the show, the postgame show Saturday, Shannon, because we're just gonna pull off on the side of the road in some town and then do the postgame show.

00:24:01
Speaker 6: Then they're done that over the years.

00:24:02
Speaker 2: Monday, we will be doing the show in Buffalo. Me, Drew, Billy, and Mario. There in Buffalo.

00:24:08
Speaker 6: I was telling Billy, this is his first ever KSR road trip. First I think to properly break him in and give him his initiation. You need to make sure you find an airbnb with a princess bed to make him sleep on that, because that's what you gotta do on a road.

00:24:20
Speaker 2: For the record, we did book an airbnb. There you go. It has three king bats yep, and one bunk. Bad. Billy gets the bunk Bad.

00:24:27
Speaker 6: You get top four bottom Billy your choice.

00:24:29
Speaker 2: Do get to choose, though, he can choose top or bottom.

00:24:33
Speaker 6: But which one are you?

00:24:35
Speaker 2: Yes, he's more of a bo. He's certainly a bottom for this trip.

00:24:48
Speaker 4: I hate to miss the the basketball pregame show tonight, but I have a hot date.

00:24:55
Speaker 2: What is it like Douglas versus All Football?

00:24:59
Speaker 4: It's bitch right up your tiger beat?

00:25:01
Speaker 2: Ali? What is it?

00:25:03
Speaker 4: Sean Cassidy concert in Cincinnati?

00:25:06
Speaker 2: Yeah? Uh huh?

00:25:07
Speaker 4: All the ladies my age or like Sean Cassidy, Like.

00:25:09
Speaker 2: Oh, I don't know who that is? Who's that a do.

00:25:12
Speaker 4: Run run run, a do run run he's saying that one.

00:25:15
Speaker 2: How old is that guy? Oh?

00:25:17
Speaker 4: He's city's sixties, maybe seventies.

00:25:18
Speaker 2: You're going to go see Sean Cassidy and concert.

00:25:22
Speaker 4: Little miss Yoga girl loved her some Sean Cassidy. She would dump me for Sean Cassidy in a Second's Chubby Chucker opening.

00:25:29
Speaker 5: Maybe okay, storry a manute, you're skipping work to take her straight to someone she would dump you for.

00:25:34
Speaker 2: Yees, seems like a bad idea. Where is this concert at a Wendy's?

00:25:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, someplace called the Drudge Garage in Cincinnati.

00:25:44
Speaker 6: Garage to play the garage bar not River Ben.

00:25:47
Speaker 2: No, he's playing.

00:25:49
Speaker 3: No, he's playing at some guy named like Bill Drudge's garage.

00:25:53
Speaker 6: I mean I could book him at my garage if you really want to come over.

00:25:55
Speaker 2: Well, I wish you the bed.

00:25:56
Speaker 4: All the ladies my age they know Sean Cassidy.

00:25:59
Speaker 3: Why two women. One person writes, Matt, you're being a hypocrite. You're saying Pope is wrong by saying he has info he won't share, and now you're doing.

00:26:10
Speaker 2: The same thing. You can't have your cake and eat it too well.

00:26:14
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean there's I guess there's some truth to that, but I would say, you know, if the governor of Kentucky says something that's different than if Ryan Lemon says it. I mean, Mark Pope has a responsibility as coach that's different than the responsibility of a person on the radio. My reason for saying I know there's three things is I actually want people to not too much overreact.

00:26:37
Speaker 2: I mean, I saw some things online that were like rumors that were terrible.

00:26:41
Speaker 3: I just want people I'm almost wanting to throw Pope a lifeline and go, don't go say something that makes people think it might be something huge of you know, I've heard three stories.

00:26:52
Speaker 2: I have the one that I think is correct.

00:26:55
Speaker 3: I could sit here and tell you, But what if I'm wrong, then I put out a false story to every Is that a positive thing? I'm just telling you of the ones I've heard, it's not that huge a deal, which is partially why I don't think Mark Pope should have set it to begin.

00:27:08
Speaker 2: I could even say it because I think it makes people. People will always speculate with the worst version. You may remember when I was in the hospital. You remember I called in one day. Yes, I called in because people were speculating things that were much worse than what was actually happening. I mean, what was actually happening was important, but like I was hearing that, people were like thought I was about to die, and so I wanted to make sure, Hey it's it's I'm okay. I kind of think like when you.

00:27:38
Speaker 3: Just throw it out there, Drew and you have no context, people end up going a lot farther than it probably is.

00:27:43
Speaker 5: And this is a head coach in a press conference talking about just getting his butt kicked in a rivalry game, and you're a sports radio host just trying to interpret his comments. So I'll defend you a little their different circumstances. Hope's in an official setting and he needed to have some answers because a lot of the fan base want to know what went wrong. And then he just kind of was like, I got a secret, but I'm not telling you.

00:28:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, I probably a mistake. Who's up first? Neil is up first, Neil go ahead, and Neil.

00:28:10
Speaker 7: Hey man.

00:28:10
Speaker 8: I'm actually gonna be a little critical of Pope here. I think that he constructed this roster. It's to the opposite of what he thinks the team should look like. They can't play defense and they can't shoot. He didn't bring anybody in to really fix that, and I especially fault them for bringing back branding gearson. I don't want to kill the guy, but there's nothing that he did last year that you could look at and say this is a starter in the SEC and a starter for a top five team.

00:28:33
Speaker 2: Okay, let me let me counter your first point for just a second.

00:28:36
Speaker 3: Okay, I think Pope might have made a couple of mistakes on the roster.

00:28:42
Speaker 2: I would know, we're three games into the season, and so you know, maybe slow down just a little bit. We're three games into the season. If you count the two exhibition games. We just beat Perdue, who just went on the road and beat Alabama.

00:28:54
Speaker 3: With that said, I do not agree with your premise about the defense. Yeah, they did not play, well it's Louisville, But otherwise this year their defense has actually been pretty good, even in times they've struggled. I don't think you can just say they can't play any defense. I actually don't think that's fair. They did not play great defense in the first half against Louisville last game, but I don't think you can say definitively they can't play defense.

00:29:22
Speaker 8: Well, I would say that they can play defense against you know, the bottom two hundred ten pomp teams. But once you see it, well.

00:29:28
Speaker 3: How do you explain the way how do you explain the way they help? How do you explain Purdue scoring what fifty eight.

00:29:36
Speaker 8: Pretty slow in an athletic and a Big ten team, Well.

00:29:39
Speaker 2: They scored eighty five against Alabama?

00:29:43
Speaker 8: Well, Alabama don't play defense in the shooters we don't have we don't have that.

00:29:47
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, I mean again, now I feel like the argument I'm having against UK football. Every team sucks if we beat them, and we sucks if like, at some point you actually have to give them credit. We played defense well again, I mean even Georgetown, the reason we lost was he didn't play good offense.

00:30:02
Speaker 2: I'm not willing to give up on the team.

00:30:06
Speaker 3: I will make you a bet by the end of the seedon season, Louisville is one.

00:30:10
Speaker 2: Of the three best teams in America in offensive efficiency. I'm gonna make you that bad.

00:30:16
Speaker 3: And if that's the case, would you say that maybe sometimes that team might just be really good and we were playing.

00:30:23
Speaker 2: On their home floor, on their home floor in a in a night where in the first half they were crazy hot. Is that possible.

00:30:31
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's very possible, And I hope that is the case. I hope we can turn the defense around and learn to stop athletic teams. But just the prospect doesn't look very good when you know we do have Brandon Garrison, and our centers aren't very you know, the most athletic people.

00:30:45
Speaker 2: We're losing Low, the worst defender on the team.

00:30:49
Speaker 3: So I appreciate the car Our defense will not get Our offense is gonna get worse through but our defense will not be worse without Low. He's the worst defender on the team and I love the kid, I'm as big as promote, but he can't play defense, so the defense actually think we'll get better without him.

00:31:03
Speaker 2: I'm worried about the scoring.

00:31:05
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I have plenty of concerns too. I'm not gonna sit here and act like it's all all roses over there. But that game was on November eleventh. I don't have a crystal ball to know what it's gonna look. I'm not gonna form any season long predictions. Losing a rivalry game on the road in the third game of the year, I'm as disappointed as anyone. And oh way, you need to get it going. Three point shooting needs to get better. Lots of things need to be corrected. But I'm not gonna make any statements about the season after three games.

00:31:28
Speaker 3: Sometimes Ryan also, the more we see of a guy, the more critical we are. Oh yeah, okay, I mean That's that's why I used to say sometimes guys can stay in college too long because you start to pick out their holes. That Who are the two players that have received the most criticism for UK this year, Owayne Garrison? Who are the two dudes that return We all wanted them to all We I hope in this new era, this non cal era, We're gonna have guys returned, and I do hope we're careful not to always punish them for returning by like them being the people were the most Look, I was very critical of o Way.

00:32:04
Speaker 2: I've never loved Garrison as a player, going back to last year.

00:32:09
Speaker 3: But I also think if Garrison doesn't play well, there's a little guy named Jaden Quainton's coming in a little while. You got yellow, bitch, you got moreno always a bigger deal to me than Garrison, because I don't know if we have the replacement Ryan for oh Way Garrison.

00:32:22
Speaker 2: We can sit on the bitch if he doesn't play well.

00:32:24
Speaker 4: You know, you brought up a great point. How many times did Pope say his players take a big step up in year two? That's kind of his narrative all summer. We talked about it, and out of the four guys, Colin Chandler maybe the only one of the four second year guys that have really stepped up. The other three guys are still we're still kind of waiting for it to happen.

00:32:40
Speaker 5: Maybe we still haven't gotten a fair look at Noah. I mean, he was cold in the first few appearances, but with the turned ankle, you know, hadn't played in two and a half games. I'm still hoping he makes that sophomore jump. But it's way too early say anything about him.

00:32:53
Speaker 6: Yeah, I would say, wait till we get to the conference schedule. You know, we're three games. I mean we are here.

00:32:58
Speaker 2: We are three games.

00:32:59
Speaker 6: Yeah, and people are already you know, we had a call yesterday on the pre show already won in Garrison out of the starting lineup. Well maybe, but like, let's not give up on them yet. It's still so early.

00:33:08
Speaker 2: We're three games.

00:33:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've got a championship to win the night.

00:33:11
Speaker 3: I mean, remember, right last year we beat Duke and we and we all myself included, We're like, we're the best team in the world. And then a couple of weeks later we lost by like fifty to Ohio State.

00:33:23
Speaker 2: So you know, so take Alabama. Alabama goes wins at Saint John's and you're like, man, this team's great, and then they just lose at home to produce yep, Like you know, sometimes early in the year, Drew, you're gonna get weird.

00:33:38
Speaker 5: Results, and I'm gonna go and tell y'all get ready. Louisville's about to play a terrible game. They've got a tough three game stretch coming up, and one is against John Caliperry won't shock me if he beats him by twenty five, because that's just how it goes sometimes. That would the roller coasters make twenty five a little high, But the roller coasters of college basketball, especially in November, I just don't think you can really judge the big picture yet.

00:33:58
Speaker 2: Ex I do think it would have been used to get one more shooter on this roster.

00:34:01
Speaker 3: I do think that I wish we had one more game, and maybe no I'll be that guy when he gets healthy.

00:34:05
Speaker 2: I wish we had one more shooter.

00:34:07
Speaker 5: If this goes on like that with Cam and Noah not shooting well, then Pope did form a bad team. If you want to take thirty three's a game and you don't have a good shooter, then that is you didn't build it the way you like to play.

00:34:17
Speaker 3: Hey, you wouldn't let a bad call slide in tonight's game against Eastern Illinois. Well, Ryan, what if you had a mole that changed shape or a spot that wouldn't heal?

00:34:26
Speaker 2: What would you do? Matt it's an interesting transition.

00:34:29
Speaker 3: Kentucky Skin Cancer Center has your back, your chest, your ears, your scalp, and every other spot. A team of dermatologists and skin cancer surgeons. You state of the art technology to cure your skin cancer.

00:34:40
Speaker 2: You can get it. Where is it? What cities?

00:34:43
Speaker 4: Powderly?

00:34:44
Speaker 2: That's true? What about that other one?

00:34:48
Speaker 4: Lexington, No, Owensboro, NDA one, Uh, Mount Saint Helens. I don't know Mount Saint Helens, but it's in Powdery.

00:34:57
Speaker 3: It's in Owensboro, Powdery, Bowling Green, Glasgow in Franklin called two seven o eight four two nineteen ninety nine. It's the Kentucky Skin Cancer Center. UH dot com. We'll take a break and be right back. This is KSR Waterback.

00:35:11
Speaker 2: It is Kentucky Sports Radio eighty nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven. Text machine seven seven two seven seven four five two five four.

00:35:19
Speaker 3: We are here at the UH Infinity rooftop on top of the Marriott City Center.

00:35:25
Speaker 2: Great crowd here.

00:35:26
Speaker 3: Somebody's gonna win the smart pope, basketball, bourbon and other things. On the text machine, UH, one person writes, Matt, I hate how negative our fans get. We are gonna be fine. This Kentucky team has played three games. There have been very few seasons outside of a couple in UK history, where we didn't lose to a bad team early in the year.

00:35:46
Speaker 2: It happens fair enough.

00:35:48
Speaker 3: I don't think Louis's bad though, I mean, I actually think Louis's good. So uh, but you're right, we lose to bad We lost to UNC Wilmington a couple of years.

00:35:55
Speaker 2: Ago at home.

00:35:56
Speaker 3: I mean, I'll remind you some of some of the undertones of our most negative people are people who still wish we had cow. I'll remind you that Col's last year with Rob Dillingham and Ree Shepard, we lost to UNC Wilmington.

00:36:07
Speaker 2: Earlier in the year at home.

00:36:09
Speaker 5: Right, you know, we don't have enough time to count Cal's November losses.

00:36:13
Speaker 3: We couldn't win, one person, writes Matt Purdue didn't scout against Kentucky. You can't pay any attention to that game. It's becoming clear Pope can't coach defense. Just look at the Georgetown game. Oh so we can't pay attention to the Perdue game, but we also have to pay attention to the Georgetown game. That's what we do, man, That's that is the kind of negative fan. That drives me crazy. And by the way, how do we know Purdue didn't scout against them because they because they said it?

00:36:39
Speaker 2: Right? Come on, that's by the way, that's ridiculous.

00:36:43
Speaker 3: If you don't believe Perdue did anything, then you're you're insane.

00:36:47
Speaker 2: Plus, they're pretty good. I watched them last night. A lot of the things they do we stopped.

00:36:52
Speaker 3: Give us some credit for it, right, I don't know the idea that we have to set Whatever bad happens, that's legit.

00:37:00
Speaker 2: Whatever good happens, well, there's an excuse.

00:37:02
Speaker 6: Come on, we've heard the same version of that on football the last couple of weeks. When you dominate Florida, Florida sucks.

00:37:10
Speaker 2: You know, you just.

00:37:11
Speaker 6: Got back to back wins in the sec we won. Give yourself some credit.

00:37:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like you just get I don't understand that.

00:37:17
Speaker 3: And then another person writes what do you think about Marcus and Jeff Tige, saying they're worried about Kentucky basketball because we don't have stars anymore.

00:37:26
Speaker 2: I love Marcus and Jeff t They're hilarious. I wouldn't exactly call them intellectuals, No, they're awesome. Those two guys Jeff Tige makes me laugh as much as anyone in sports right now. With that said, their version of what Kentucky basketball should be is what Cal had, which was a ton of stars coming in, which we liked, but it wasn't working anymore. It wasn't.

00:37:53
Speaker 3: I said this yesterday, and Ryan, I want to know what you think about this. I said that the book on Mark Pope has yet to be written. It's a it's a novel that hasn't been It's like, we're thirty pages into it. It might end up being a great book, a classic. It might end up being a book that doesn't work. But we don't know yet. But here's what I know. The book on Cal Perry was closed, it was finished. I was done with it. It was a great book. I loved it. But then I got to the end and I was ready for a new book.

00:38:29
Speaker 5: To the very end, I was like, Yod, I was loving you, but this is We're just it's a great examples like Game of Thrones, You're like man.

00:38:36
Speaker 2: Season two was awesome. Those first seasons were incredible.

00:38:39
Speaker 3: They were amazing, but you know what, they could have stuck the ind a little bit. This is a new book and we'll see what happens.

00:38:45
Speaker 4: The Mark book book is even one. I think I would sit down and read. You know, and you read a book, but I would read the Mark Poe book. Some chapters are a little disappointing. Some chapters make you happy. I think we had a lot more happy chapters coming then we do disappointing chapters.

00:38:59
Speaker 2: It's tough for you to make book analogies.

00:39:02
Speaker 4: I thought I nailed that one. I thought he did a pretty good job on that one.

00:39:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know if that's true. By the way, weekend watching when you're not watching UK sports. That movie on Netflix about James Garfield is really good.

00:39:13
Speaker 3: Like it's about the guy who assassinated James Garfield and he's playing and he's played by Tom.

00:39:20
Speaker 2: Wopat from Succession, you know, Shim's husband.

00:39:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it doesn't sound like it'd be good, but everybody would like it. It's called Death by Lightning and it's on Netflix. It's only four episodes. I finished three, really really good. Who's next?

00:39:35
Speaker 2: Greg is up next? Greg? Go ahead?

00:39:38
Speaker 7: Greg got good morning, gentlemen.

00:39:41
Speaker 2: How's it going doing good?

00:39:44
Speaker 7: Yeah? I wanted to make a just a few comments. If I'm a first of all, and let me say in defense of the coach Pope, I'm overall well pleased with him being hired as a coach the University of Kentucky, and please with Mitch Barnhardt's decision to hire him. But you know, based on what you had said in the beginning of your show about something going on with what he said in his press conference, uh that we don't know what that is. And but seems like the Louisville game, you know, Coach Pope seems like last year pretty much.

00:40:22
Speaker 2: Answer volume down, go ahead. I'm sorry, no, go ahead.

00:40:26
Speaker 7: It seems like last year coach Pope had answers when Kentucky was not playing good. He would go in at halftime and come up with a plan. But I don't know if somebody has already made this comment. Maybe this has affected him more than it has a team to the team in the Louisville game, because he did not seem to have any answers at all. He didn't try anything. He couldn't slow down Louisville at all. And I know he don't play. I understand that he's on the shide.

00:40:52
Speaker 4: Well I think he did.

00:40:53
Speaker 2: I do think he had answers. It just took him too long to get him.

00:40:57
Speaker 7: I mean we played well in the Wilkes Cam Williams, Well.

00:41:02
Speaker 2: That's an answer. Part of the defense got a lot better.

00:41:06
Speaker 3: One of the things they started to do is they started immediately pressuring mcal McHale Brown the moment he got the ball, go back and watch the possessions in the last ten minutes.

00:41:14
Speaker 2: They got it out of his hands and they said.

00:41:16
Speaker 3: Okay, Cromwell, I keep forgetting to give McNeely, I'm on late.

00:41:21
Speaker 2: Make you beat us going to the rim. And they really weren't able to.

00:41:24
Speaker 3: So they made a couple of big The biggest was they got the ball out of Brown's hands most of the time. Now, Louisville countered that late in the game they would set double screens which would get him one on one and that big play where he got the and one biggest play of the game occurred during that. But he they did make changes. Now I think it took too long, but they did.

00:41:44
Speaker 7: Make changes that definitely helped him. Course, well, let me say I didn't watch the game. I usually have the game on the radio with Tom Lee given.

00:41:52
Speaker 4: Well, how do you know he didn't make any changes.

00:41:56
Speaker 7: Well on the radio.

00:42:00
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, man, I appreciate them. I do appre I gotta go to break. I think you will take a break. We'll be right back. Wow, that was incredible. We'll break, will be right back, it says Kentucky Sports Radio.