2024-12-27- KSR - Hour 1

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Comedy Off Broadway in Lexington welcomes Derek Strue December nineteenth through the twenty first. Then catch Lexington Native League Emberl for two hilarious shows on New Year's Eve, and don't miss Brian Bates January third and fourth. Comedy Off Broadway opened and down down Lexington in nineteen eighty seven, and they're still bringing the best and stand up comedy to the area thirty seven years later. Goll eight by nine two seven one Joke or visit Comedy Off Broadway dot com.

00:00:27
Speaker 2: Comedy Off Bway. Welcome everyone, It is Kentucky Sports Radio. Friday, December the twenty seventh. I and Matt Jones here live in Glasgow, Kentucky at the Don Franklin Cadillac. Absolutely huge crowd here in Glasgow, probably one of our, if not the biggest crowd we've ever had here, certainly one of the better crowds we've had on a road trip in a long time. So thank you all very much. The weather is absolutely horrendous outside and yet everybody came out, So give yourselves a big round of applause here on this Christmas break you can go to shown the Clark's Puppy shop bold line. That's uh twenty two eighty seven a vision auto glass text machine seven seven two seven seven four five two five four in this distion sponsored by the TJ. Smith Lofice called TJ. I'll make him pay. You can probably hear. I'm a little under the weather. Uh. Last night about seven or eight o'clock, I thought, Man, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to get down there and do that tomorrow. But feel a little better today. Ready to go, Ryan Drew, And definitely glad I made the trip through this downpour to see how many people came today.

00:01:40
Speaker 3: How about this guy, he's sick and he wanted to come down here to be here at Glasgow today.

00:01:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, to Glasgow. Think about think about what all? Think about what all has happened over here in Glasgow over the years. First of all, one of my good friends, Judge Gabe, lives here in Glasgow. Yeh. Aaron Fleener, one of our friends whose grandmother is sitting here right here in the front row in a chair. He's he's from here. Kent Bull, another one of our friends is from here, Drew. I've played in the Glasgow Golf screenball, though I haven't been invited the last couple of years. Games moved on, but I've played in it probably ten years over the year. Has been in a couple of near fights at this golf course over the years. So this has been a lot of fun here in Glasgow.

00:02:21
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, we love Baron County, have many good friends from this area. And I gotta call myself out. I'm an idiot this morning. I'm not gonna say I doubted there'd be a good turnout. I worried with this weather. We're kind of in a quiet period of UK athletics. I'm an idiot. This is a great turnout. This is double what I expected in You're great to see everyone.

00:02:40
Speaker 2: Had the one time drive representative Jamie Comer home here once at one of these events. Actually, I don't know if he'd wanted me to say that, but nevertheleast that's happened here in Glasgow before. But Jelly Kraft, Big Barrion, Kelly Craft is from him, Brandon Stockton.

00:02:57
Speaker 3: He's still alive. He's still We're good. We've seen him today. He's still alive.

00:03:01
Speaker 2: That's good. So great crowd here, thank you all very much for coming. So I want to do something today in part because you know a little under the weather. So I want people to to to like help contribute. But it also, you know, Drew, sometimes people listen to our fade this podcast and they'll say, you know, you guys tell stories on there that you wouldn't say on the radio, and that's probably true, but it's also just kind of the format of what we do. So I want to do something Drew, what I would call a behind the scenes uh Friday, which means if you have a question that is about behind the scenes of either KSR, UK basketball, UK football. I'm in a mood to share. Maybe it's because of the end of the year. I mean I already said it just share a Jamie Comer's story. I didn't mean to, so I'm in a mood to share. You can go to text machine seven seven two seven seven four five two five four or a five nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven. Give a little if you've always wondered, Okay, what really happened here? Today's the day to do.

00:04:03
Speaker 4: I like the spicy Glasgow Matt might be a little unfiltered.

00:04:06
Speaker 2: I hope our callers will talk about it. Take it a lot, but a bunch of medicine. My head is a little amen nod.

00:04:13
Speaker 4: All right, I didn't wear shoes. I want sure if we were racing a.

00:04:16
Speaker 2: New week, I listen, I could beat all of you in the race, every single one of you. But but yes, today we will. We'll do that.

00:04:24
Speaker 3: There are little stories we've hinted at over the years and never really told the actually details.

00:04:28
Speaker 5: Today's the day you can find out.

00:04:30
Speaker 2: So we are. This is kind of a dead period a little bit in UK sports. We're kind of transitioning from the non conference to the conference play. Let me ask you all, just because it's nice to ask a crowd, what is the general How positive are you about Mark Pope so far in his time at Kentucky. I think that's a good indicator, uh, in general, of where people are. I was looking at some of the numbers because Drew mentioned yesterday, you know the Ken palm and stuff aren't great for Kentucky, and they're really not. But I still think as we make this transition, we ought to remember we beat Duke. That's a pretty big deal. Hadn't beaten them since twenty fifteen. We beat Gonzaga on the road, even though it was in the middle of night, one of the better comebacks we've ever seen with Kentucky basketball, and we beat Louisville. So going into conference play, still very happy about everything. I just I'm kind of with Pope, though I wish we didn't have this two weeks in between our loss and the next time to play a good team.

00:05:38
Speaker 3: I'm sure they were chopping at the bit after losing to Ohio State trying to get back out there. They got this long drought, a ten day break between games. But you know what's amazing about this crowd. They cheered about where they are at the UK basketball program that is coming off of pretty much a twenty point ass kicking you just got from Ohio State.

00:05:54
Speaker 5: Everybody's still all in on the basketball team.

00:05:56
Speaker 2: Do you the twenty point to use Ryans for he's ass kicking against Ohio State? Do you you said yesterday it does affect how good you think the team's gonna be a little bit, a little.

00:06:09
Speaker 4: A slight dip. I'm not changing my prediction from him, I guess I think I said twelve and six in the conference. I'll stick with that. But some slight concerns I had are growing a little bit with each new game. I mean, we keep saying they're a good three point shooting team and oh, don't worry the next one, they'll be fine. But we've had a lot of it'll it'll turn on this games that it hasn't happened. It's been several weeks of that, and you can only keep saying they're good three point shooters so long until they're just not. They're one hundred and fifteenth in the country right now.

00:06:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it is. They are one hundred and fifteenth, and that makes my worry. But at the same time, we're gonna have a big game on the fourth against Florida, and I'm gonna give away Ryan here today in Glasgow tickets to the UK Florida game, an eleven am game. You all will have to get up early. We're gonna have a little bit later a little will draw names and then have a little bit of a trivia contest on air here in order to try to win the tickets.

00:07:01
Speaker 3: That could be a good ticket to get because Florida is sneaky, really really undefeated. Yeah, they're a really good season opener for the SEC schedule for the Cats.

00:07:10
Speaker 5: That's a big time. Oklahoma is still undefeated.

00:07:14
Speaker 4: I can't think of when they would have lost.

00:07:16
Speaker 2: I think they are. I think we have Tennessee's undefeated, Florida and Oklahoma. Auburn has one loss at Duke. I mean it is, you know, pretty good group.

00:07:27
Speaker 4: And that opening game, you know those little numbers on the on the score at the bottom, both top ten teams, the old UK Florida games back when.

00:07:34
Speaker 2: Both teams were really good in the year.

00:07:36
Speaker 4: With that, yeah, that'd be the biggest game on whatever Saturday it was. I mean, it's not quite to that level of the old school days when Noah was there, but it is a very exciting Top ten matchup.

00:07:46
Speaker 2: So the big story in college basketball is Jim Larrinaga, the coach of Miami's seventy five years old. He's one of the I think he's the fifth highest winning coach in basketball that's still co today. He retires mid year and I had some things to say about it, but let me do the positive. First, great coach, right went to Final four with two different teams. You know, there are very very few coaches who've been to the Final Four with two programs. The amount of that have done it is a lot less than you would think he did. It. He went on, I would say, Ryan, the run George Mason made to the Final four, is that maybe the most shocking Final four run ever?

00:08:33
Speaker 5: It could be.

00:08:33
Speaker 3: It's definitely one of the most shocking runs in the last twenty years that he was able to get George Mason that run.

00:08:38
Speaker 5: There's what's more.

00:08:40
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, they're the I think they're the biggest sin.

00:08:42
Speaker 2: You know, VCU and Butler made it that year, but then Butler made it again the next year. So I mean, like it couldn't I.

00:08:51
Speaker 4: I think if George Mason and Loyola just when I think those two come to mind.

00:08:57
Speaker 2: George Mason, if you remember that year, beat it can edit team that was like undefeated on their way to the Final four as well that year. But so he's obviously a great coach, but he retires midyear and he complains and basically says, you know, nil's exhausting. I can't do it anymore. I don't have the passion for it. So he quits midyear. Now I this is now the second, along with Tony Bennett, legendary coach to quit midyear on his team, to quit when the team is not good mid year, and I have to tell you, Ryan, I just have a problem listening to all these old coaches who if their player quit on the team midyear, they would absolutely like, go crazy, How could you quit on your brothers? How could you do this? And then they do it, And then I listen to all the media who goes and has dinner with them at Hooters in South Carolina at the Peach Jam talk about how sorry they feel for these guys that made eight to ten million dollars a year. Assuming he has no health problems, and he said he didn't, so I'm gonna assume that's true. It once again, this is the second legendary coach we've had become a quitter at the end of the year. Again in the middle of the ear.

00:10:13
Speaker 3: Excuse me, because this the Nil issue was there, like back in June and July. They could have stepped away then Why did they wait till the season starts before they finally But even.

00:10:22
Speaker 2: More than that, he complains about Nil and I think it's so hypocritical for two reasons. One, they made the Final four two years ago. Does anybody remember why? Because they bought eight players from Nil. Lara Naga was probably the first guy to really embrace in al. He went and bought eight players, brought them in. They made the tournament and made the final four, and then he had he said yesterday, what I couldn't believe is we made the final four and when it was over, my players came to me and they wanted to get in the portal. You bought them to begin with. I mean that you did exactly like he is mad about the one thing he did that actually gave him the success at Miami.

00:11:09
Speaker 4: Yehen n il started Miami, they were maybe number one?

00:11:13
Speaker 2: What was that like walat hub Or they were the first thing? What what cow was to the one and done? Larenaga was to the nil.

00:11:24
Speaker 4: And my thing with his timing, they're four and eight, four and nine something like that. If they were nine and four, he ain't stepping down, of course completely because it's not happening on the court, and he just doesn't want to see the year through.

00:11:35
Speaker 2: And then this is the thing that really gets me about these coaches. All right, by the way, everything I'm about to say, lary Naga should have done. But he went and coached at George Mason small school outside of DC. That's where I studied for the bar exam. Nice place, but it's a tiny little school, makes the final four. He a few years later decides, you know what, I'm gonna go for a payday. I'm gonna go to Miami. He goes, He takes advantage of his success, goes to a bigger place. Then when he's at Miami, they go to a final four. You know what they did. After he went to a final four, he went to the school and said, give me more money, and he doubled his salary after he went to the final four. I'm fine with all that, but now, Ryan, he complains when the players do the exact same thing he did at multiple stops around the way. And I these coaches, I tweeted this, all these old guys who can't handle it. They just need to all get out and let a new, younger generation, people like Pope, who are embracing it. They need to just let them do it and stop wanting.

00:12:43
Speaker 3: I remember you kind of said that when it Ben Bennett did it, like you thought, maybe there may be some more older coach coaches follow suit. Now is the time to get out and do it.

00:12:50
Speaker 5: Now.

00:12:51
Speaker 3: My big problem, I mean, he's a highly respected coach, highly respected guy in the coaching world.

00:12:55
Speaker 5: I just have a hard time doing it in the middle of the season.

00:12:58
Speaker 2: But exactly if his players had quit midyear, do you not think he would whether maybe not publicly, but he would blast them.

00:13:07
Speaker 5: Bro.

00:13:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, That's why a lot of it is for me. The results. This is why I'm reading it. They just took a horrible loss and he stepped away right after that.

00:13:15
Speaker 2: He lost them out Saint Man.

00:13:16
Speaker 4: If they had been winning these games, you know, he might still be complaining internally, but he's still coaching. I think it's just because the season's gone so poorly and he's tapping out.

00:13:25
Speaker 2: Here's the thing. And then, you know, I don't think people there's a lot of you, probably even here listening to the crowd, that think, oh, I don't like nils change college sports. And I get that there's a way in which it is worse. I understand that, But I also think people have to realize what we did in college sports for seventy five years was illegal. Okay, it was illegal. We college sports violated the law and everybody just turned their head. They took labor for free, made money and gave them nothing except for education, and then it was okay, and the Supreme Court. When finally challenged on it. You know, I'm a law dork. You know politics, give me something everybody agrees on in politics, there ain't much. Supreme Court ruled nine oh unanimous opinion. All of them said you can't do this. This is illegal. So they've basically turned college sports into what every other business in America is, which is you have a right to go make money based on your worth. And these people who for years just acted like the system should be, Hey, this person should work for me for free, now they're mad and I want Ryan all of those people to exit stage left and allow the next group to do it.

00:14:51
Speaker 3: Like like I said when you mentioned that about Bennett, do you think this is more coming o?

00:14:56
Speaker 2: How can they all go if they can't do it? I mean to like you know, Tino cal uh is, Oh, if they're gonna complain about it, leave right. Somebody else will do it. Somebody else will do it, and then they'll be fine and they can move on. It reminds me of when I said this online. You know, when a lot of you guys were when I was young, it was a certain kind of business and then here came the tech revolution and you could sit there and say, well, I'm not into computers, but if you weren't into computers, you'd go away. People have to be into the nil or they're gonna go That's right.

00:15:34
Speaker 3: You got to adapt and adjust because the college game has changed. It ain't going backwards, it's.

00:15:38
Speaker 2: Not going backward. So I just thought it was good to I thought it was lame of him to quit midyear, But it's also a good example that probably in the next couple of years, all those dudes like him are gonna be gonef I'm nine two twenty two eighty seven. We are here at Don Franklin rainy day and Glass. Oh, massive crowd full of Cats fans. Will take a break, be right back to Kentucky Sports Radio Watermack. It is Kentucky Sports Radio here live in Glasgow. It's Don Franklin Cadillac Chevrolet. How about this. First of all, I didn't know they had a Cadillac dealership in Glass. Right here it is.

00:16:13
Speaker 5: We're saying you can.

00:16:14
Speaker 2: Get up to eleven thousand dollars off Select twenty twenty four Chevy Silverado models. But who knew Glasgow was so fancy Drew to go riding around Cadillac style as Sammy Kershaw would say, you can't have money Barren County.

00:16:28
Speaker 4: I see all these Cadillacs out here at this dealership looking ready to be purchased. That's exactly right.

00:16:32
Speaker 2: Well all right, so people, So again this is behind the scenes Friday. Couple open lines. I'd love to hear your questions. Eight five, nine, two eighth, twenty two eighty seven. Let's go for some from the text machine. Are you ready ready?

00:16:45
Speaker 5: Let's go?

00:16:46
Speaker 2: What person writes? What is the story behind Severe Wheeler not playing his last year at times for Kentucky? Well, Drew, I mean, I think what I would say the story, The best way to put it would be that there was an internal divide in the team. Let's see you tell me if you agree with this. There was an internal divide within the team, kind of Oscar on one side, everyone else kind of on the other. I think Oscar, even though fans, we as fans, loved Oscar, his teammates, I don't think they disliked him, but they found him a little odd and so they kind of were on the other side. And Severe kind of thought, this is how I read it. He was kind of the leader of the team and when the team kind of turned on cal Perry, which I do think happened. At one point Severe kind of got the punishment for being the most vocal of that group, and it kind of led to him deciding not to play. That would be my read on it. Would you agree with that?

00:17:52
Speaker 4: That's pretty much how I understood the rift. My big thing with Wheeler was it was early February, maybe even January. Someone told us, hey, he's not playing. This is all a charade of he might play, practice a little bit, he's coming around. And then a week later they said, trust me, he's not playing. We get to the tournament and remember they brought him out for interviews about how he's gonna give it a go, same person he's not playing. Then of course street clothes, so there was just so much around him. I don't know specifically where it all started in the locker room, but everything we were getting from UK was I think of just kind of smoking mirrors because they knew he wasn't gonna play.

00:18:31
Speaker 2: If you go back and you look at the first ten years of the Calira Ryan, a consistent theme was that the players loved cal Now they'd get mad at him. They think he was insane, sometimes, but they came out of there really loving him and feeling a real connection to him. When he would say players first, I think the players felt that way post COVID on every single team there was a serious problem between players and CAP. That first year the COVID team just a disaster, then Severe Oscar. There was a big Oscar Cal problem at various points there was a big Severe and that group problem. I think last year I wouldn't say it was big, but I don't know that he and Rob Dillingham will be sharing a lot of Christmas cards going forward. I mean, I think a guy that always had such a great relationship with his players in those last few years, as his relationships with the media, the boosters, the school was falling apart. I also think it was falling apart with the players.

00:19:37
Speaker 3: I think there was a definite problem in the locker room in these past several years. And I think, like you just mentioned Severe and Oscar, those were the leaders supposed to be your leaders. You know, your point guard, your best player, and for whatever reason, the Cal lost the locker room those last couple of years, and that we saw the result on the court.

00:19:52
Speaker 2: You had a situation in that in that year where we lost to Kansas State, where you really had Cal over here, the team over here, and Oscar over here, like like there were three different groups and they none of them really liked each other, wouldn't you agree?

00:20:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think there's a lot of Oscar jealousy because we all know we loved Oscar. He signing autographs two hours after the game into the crowd, so I think everyone else involved is seeing that and Oscar is getting all the eleven attention, which I still think Oscar deserved, but that just added even more conflict behind the scenes.

00:20:26
Speaker 2: One person rights is Max. Okay, did you find him?

00:20:30
Speaker 5: I wondered that myself.

00:20:31
Speaker 2: Actually, yes, I did find him. He had stayed out until four point thirty in the morning and his phone had died. I think somebody predicted that, and I started to get worried about him. I did. By like three in the afternoon, I hadn't heard from him, so I went and knocked on his door and he was like, oh, man, was I supposed to do the show? I was like, yeah, yeah, three in the afternoon and I woke him up.

00:20:57
Speaker 4: So I appreciate Max. You asked him to fill in for me. He said half of it, right, But you have to then get up.

00:21:02
Speaker 2: And it's one thing to say yes, it's another thing to actually show up and go and do it right.

00:21:09
Speaker 5: That I missed the show. It was five hours ago. Max. Yeah, I think you missed it, buddy, So I just thought he's okay.

00:21:14
Speaker 2: One person writes, Matt, how did the culture slip this year with the football team? R How would you answer.

00:21:20
Speaker 3: That we talked about a little bit on the pre show, and I this is my totally my opinion. I just think the coaching staff let some of the star players just slide by, get by, not come to meetings, not come to workouts, not even come to practice, maybe goof goof off in practice, not take it serious. And I think that spread throughout the locker room. When the other players in the locker room saw how the stars were being able to let do whatever they wanted to do. I think it created a problem in the locker room. Whereas all your players, no matter they make more money in the other they all need to be treated the same on that playing field, and they just weren't.

00:21:53
Speaker 2: I think there was a lot of Barry and Brown problems. Right, you think that's fair?

00:21:57
Speaker 5: Oh?

00:21:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know if he was always given one hundred percent.

00:21:59
Speaker 2: And then I think Dion Walker, I don't think he necessarily didn't try, but he was disconnected from the team, and so the two guys probably making the most money, they felt like, we're getting a completely different set of standards. Yep. Now it's not the first time that's happened. I think we've talked about it. Lynn Bowden was like that, but the difference was drew that the players felt like, Okay, Lynn Boden may act like this, but when we play that dude puts everything he's got on the line, so we'll look past it. Didn't necessarily feel that way about Barry On and Dion.

00:22:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, that season when Lynn Bowden might have not been his best self at every practice, might have been late a time or two on Saturday, he's putting the entire team on his back, and we all saw it on the field. So you just live with it.

00:22:45
Speaker 2: You just kind of live with it because you go we know when we get out there, we'll get the best of him. I don't think they felt that way about those other two guys. We will take a break and be right back. We are here in Glasgow, this is Kentucky Sports Radio, Warnermack. It is Kentucky smarts A. I'm nine two twenty two eighty seven here in Glasgow. The rain is finally dissipated here a little bit, and it is uh uh. As soon as we got inside, the rain stopped. A great crowd here. You can go to Don Franklin Auto dot com and find all of your auto needs. One person rights Matt. One of the reasons I've always distrusted KSR. Well, that's not very nice. You all know bad things about the UK basketball team, and then you don't tell the fans. I think that's bad. Well, but again, what do you want. First of all, you find some of this stuff out after the end of the season, but I will hint at things. I will just use last year as an example. There was a It was again, if you were around the team, you knew that Rob Dillingham and Cal did not see I die you. We all knew Rob Dillingham and Reed Shepherd should play more. We would basically insinuate that all the time, and our thank you you was online every single day. I got beat up by people saying I was disloyal to Kentucky and disloyal to cal and behind the scenes, Cow was trying to get me fired. So that was the That was the sort of reward for telling the truth. So I mean, Drew, people can say they want to know the truth. But when things are going good or even moderately positive, and you try to suggest anything's negative, people go absolutely crazy. Uh in In in sports, look at politics. Try to be a Republican and say something about Trump, or try to be a Democrat during the election and say something about Harris, people go crazy. Same thing when you're a UK fan and you criticize the team.

00:24:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, we all want Kentucky to do well. And if you hear something behind the scenes you don't love, if you go and say it on the radio, it's you're gonna get a lot of your creating controversy. Why are you doing this? Things are going so well, we love this team. Why are you being negative? Why are you bringing that up? It's like, well, it happened.

00:24:58
Speaker 2: I mean it's true. I remember we he said something about DJ Wagner. I can't remember what it was last year, but people went nuts. And then as soon as it was over, one of the assistant coaches called me and said you had bad the way you were right about that. But you can't. I can't go on the air and say, hey, the assistant coach just told me it was right. They're just gonna get so like it's a no win situation. So a lot of the times what I try to do is I hint something without saying it, and then people who listen to the show can decide whether they want to believe it or not.

00:25:27
Speaker 4: A lot of times it's what it is or how you heard. If someone kind of tells me in private, they're telling me they don't want me to go blab it into the radio. So if you want them to continue to tell things, you have to keep some of yourself. Or you can be like Ryan go to the club boot Club Blue Christmas Party and just tell everything you hear.

00:25:41
Speaker 2: But there is a little bit the opposite through a filter to let it leak, like you'll let it go sometimes not intentionally, or maybe I think your just brain just farts a lot. Uh double volleyball scoop on that day you did have two volleyball scoops just letting everything fly.

00:26:00
Speaker 5: Or I am a diehard reporter, Yes that's what I'm gonna report. The report Vince.

00:26:04
Speaker 2: Mayri stayin Yeah. I think this is the fourth time he's been staying this year, but this time it comes from the source that said he was likely to go to North Carolina Football Scoop. I think I can say I spoke to Vince last night. He says, in certain, So now they have him, which was good because I don't think that was certain. For a long time. I never thought I'm gonna go to Louisville, but I thought the North Carolina thing could have happened. But it looks like it won't.

00:26:33
Speaker 3: You know, you know Vince Cloat more than any of us, anybody in this room, and I could tell you were a little uncertain whether he would go to North Carolina or Now that's the first time after Vince's name has been hooked a lot of these jobs, you thought yourself, this may happen.

00:26:47
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, Vince and Stoops have a weird relationship, like the they're best friends, but they're best friends who fight right and you know, over the years they've had these arguments and they always ended up coming back together, and so I think there was some of that, and I thought they would come back together. But then there was a little period where I don't know, And you know, it's interesting because we get foot here. I've learned that this this has changed over the years. So it used to be when Stoops first got here, all the players pretty much came from Vince at first, and then it was like Vince and Schlarman, and then it was Vince Schlarman and Klink who went to Michigan, and then it kind of became Vince and like Eddie Grant because Eddie Graham would pick a lot of the portal people. And now it's kind of Vince, Will Wolford and Eddie Grat And I think it's natural that there's some competition between those guys about the players and who they get and when somebody gets won and they don't necessarily think it was the right one. I just think some of that plays into it. Sometimes could be.

00:28:07
Speaker 4: A little bit of that. And as we said at the time, it's one thing when Louisville's calling you or Toledo or and name it that Vince has had out there. When it's Belichick on the line, that's one you've got to take very serious. Shared the same agent, when when Mark Stoops steps away, he doesn't have to coach football again if he wants to. But Vince still, if he wants to, I mean, he has more coaching to do. Might want to get in the NFL. If you want to dip your toe in the NFL, I don't know you can have much better on your resume than coach under Bill Belichick.

00:28:36
Speaker 2: Michae Lombardi, former Super Bowl winning GM calls you up and says, Vince, I'm basically the GM for North Carolina football. I'm in charge of bringing in players, and I want you to come and tell me who to bring it. I mean, you got us. You got a Hall of fame coach, a Hall of fame GM. Giving you that call, you gotta at least think about it. Ryan, you have to think.

00:29:00
Speaker 5: You take that call and you listen to that call. You have that calls like.

00:29:03
Speaker 2: That, Yeah, who's up first? Brandon is up first? Branding, go ahead, brand Hey.

00:29:09
Speaker 6: Guys, I had two questions, so I'll just pick one unless you want to pick a number one or two.

00:29:15
Speaker 5: Uh, I like this game.

00:29:17
Speaker 2: I'll pick number two.

00:29:20
Speaker 6: Okay. Would you care to share some insight on the conversation you had on the phone towards Seattle?

00:29:30
Speaker 2: Which one there were like four.

00:29:32
Speaker 6: Of them, basically the one that you all have brought up maybe once or twice.

00:29:37
Speaker 2: You come back my conversation with Stoops, Yes, sir, Yeah, well maybe I should have picked question one.

00:29:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, what was question one?

00:29:47
Speaker 2: Yeah? What was question one?

00:29:50
Speaker 6: Since it was kind of recent the players receiving payments, you know, for not doing work, I'm just wondering if y'all had heard any skuttle butts of pre encounters like that. That.

00:30:02
Speaker 2: Oh, I mean that look, yes, that's been happening Ryan for fifty years. I mean, that's part of the reason I can't get mad at Chris Rodriguez and these guys. Every school in the country, every school in the country had guys going back to the rough days, had guys who had jobs that weren't really jobs that they got paid for, that were kind of jobs but not really jobs. That's been happening since the sixties. So like it just so happened Chris Rodriguez and those guys got caught.

00:30:35
Speaker 4: You mean, our best basketball players back in the day weren't also great at bank tellers and horse farm employs.

00:30:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate the call, but you know what I.

00:30:42
Speaker 5: Mean, construction jobs.

00:30:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, the tho'll can check the job considered a lot a lot of times sitting in your dorm room and watching the sun go up and down.

00:30:49
Speaker 5: That was your construction job.

00:30:50
Speaker 2: You were constructing an image of life. Yeah. Throughout the I mean that's happened all the time. The difference was UK Healthcare. I think they got audited by new CEO and then it came out. But other but like what was happening had been happening forever Drew, not just here at every school in the country, if we're being honest.

00:31:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think everyone finds a way to get short cuts and cut corners to help their guys out. In the case of UK, maybe show up for a couple of the shifts though to Jim get them off the train.

00:31:21
Speaker 2: And they had a guy one of the employees that UK Healthcare was literally clocking the players in and that's issue, and that was I think that was the bigger issue. Who's up next? Jackson?

00:31:32
Speaker 4: Is up next?

00:31:33
Speaker 2: Jackson? Go ahead? Jackson?

00:31:36
Speaker 4: Oh, hey, guys, I ricially for Chris Scott SEC Tournament dickats and so I was.

00:31:45
Speaker 2: SEC tournament story. First of all, that's an awesome present SEC Tournament Jackson. I hope you realize SEC tournament is maybe the best year the tournament could will ever have.

00:32:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm super excited to go.

00:32:03
Speaker 2: Oh dude, I'm jealous. We don't even have SEC Tournament tickets yet. Best moment of the SEC Tournament well, I sort of do it in two eras. I have the era where I used to go with my grandfather. And then that best tournament was nineteen ninety two. I think that's right, the year in Birmingham when that was probably the best tournament they've ever had, where we had Mashburn and those guys. And then you had Alabama with Robert Rri James Hollywood, Robinson, latrell' spree well, Arkansas had Todd Day, Lee Mayberry, Scottie Todd Day, Lee Mayberry and Oliver Miller. Lsu had Shack and that whole crew that was probably the best one. And then I think the best environment for an SEC Tournament game was the year we played Tennessee. Remember that was at John Wall's.

00:32:56
Speaker 4: Year or when they beat him by a million?

00:32:58
Speaker 2: Well, yes, when they beat him by a million? What was that John Wall's year? That was the best environment in that arena we played Tennessee had Scottie Hopson and we had John Wallen and we beat him by like a thousand, and then the next day had that game against Mississippi State with the put back and all that. That's probably the best modern one for me.

00:33:17
Speaker 3: My two main memories don't even involve basketball. The Tornado game, the Toto went through Atlanta dur in the SEC tournament, and then when COVID hit and we were the SEC tournament in Nashville.

00:33:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true, the COVID one. The other game I tend to remember was I'm trying to think what year it was, Drew, but what's the year we played Texas A and M?

00:33:37
Speaker 4: Not last year?

00:33:38
Speaker 2: I think, No, I think it was. I think it was maybe twenty sixteen. The Jamal Murray Tyler Ulis team. We played Texas A and M in the finals and Derek Willis and Dominique Hawking and had like this yea, yeah, I had this crazy game and it was like, that's the That's my other sort of SEC tournament game that really sticks out in my head.

00:34:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, Jackson, the callar didn't sound old enough for my favorite SEC tournament memories, but a good story that I have as I turned down great seats for the wall Cousins tip in game. I was just watching it on TV. I think I could even see my seats empty and clearly would have gone had I known it was gonna be a good game. I thought we were gonna kill them because they just killed Tennessee. So I didn't go, and then it, of course long ends up being one of the best games. Questions how long has it been since we.

00:34:24
Speaker 2: Won it.

00:34:26
Speaker 4: Twenty nineteen?

00:34:28
Speaker 2: I mean, I think we've only won once in like eight years.

00:34:36
Speaker 4: Did they win in twenty nineteen with.

00:34:38
Speaker 2: Hero I will have to look at that. Billy looked that up during the break. I think we've I want to say we've won like one of the last eight or something. That tournament that we used to own win.

00:34:49
Speaker 3: It every single year when Tubby was here, Man, they'd win that thing every year.

00:34:53
Speaker 2: Well, I mean even in the early days of cow we won it almost every year. Did not have it won it recently? Hey, go beyond rest ills this year. Create a happier, healthier lifestyle that you can be proud of with cornbread hemp, whether skipping the alcohol for a healthier care free moment, supporting a better night sleep, aches and pains. Cornbread Hemp is there for you. Visit the co cornbredthimp dot com promo code ks R check out thirty percent off your first order at corn Bread Hemp. By the way, people may be doing more. Do people know that? Like they're about Tobaan vaping in Kentucky? Like completely, does everybody know that?

00:35:28
Speaker 4: I don't know. If about that, I've talked about a little bit.

00:35:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll tell you more about it. I don't think everybody knows what's happening here in like four days in Kentucky. I think it's gonna take a lot of people by surprise. We'll take a break and be right back. This is Kentucky Sports Radio.

00:35:42
Speaker 5: What amack?

00:35:43
Speaker 2: It is Kentucky Sports Radio here live in Glasgow. Don Franklin, you know, Don Franklin. You're in savings red Tag sales event. Up to eleven thousand dollars off some twenty twenty four Chevy Silverado Mo Silverado models all out here. Got four days left for in the year sales. We got a great crowd here in Glasgow, a lot of people writing in questions on the text machine. But we got I think when people have these behind the scenes, they get nervous to call, you can call A five nine two twenty two eighty seven. We have open lines. So get in here before we get to a couple more of these. The vaping thing, Drew, I'm I'm against vaping. I actually think it's probably really bad. It'll be one of these things that like in ten or fifteen years, we'll find out is really really really really really bad for you. So I'm not against this law. But there's two things. I don't think people in Kentucky know that, like virtually all vaping is going to be illegal to buy in Kentucky in four days. You know, like if you go buy like fruity like it's flavored, like all the fruit stuff gone. They'll only be like twenty products that are allowed. And they're all like tobacco flavored. And so I don't think a lot of people vape the tobacco flavor they vape one of those. All those will be gone, won't be able to buy them in Kentucky and buy them in other states, can't buy them in Kentucky. Now, when I saw that, I was like, Wow, who would have ever thought Kentucky would be like so pro health? Uh huh? Any what it is it's the tobacco industry is basically made it to where they banned everything except what the tobacco industry sell sells, which is the vape flavor that is tobacco. So it's like it's class at Kentucky. It looks like on the surface it's positive, but then the only thing legal. It's basically creating a monopoly for the tobacco company. So I it's it's nonsense, but there's a lot of people, Like you go into a gas station. I don't know if it's like this here in Glasgow, but it's just flavored vapes everywhere. All that's going away in four days.

00:37:53
Speaker 4: All I hear is there's about to be a lot of cheap real estate because I feel like there's a vape shop every fifty yards in Kentucky. Yeah, that and what will college kids have in their hand now? Because I feel like anyone under the age of twenty constantly has a vape in their mind?

00:38:08
Speaker 2: Do you think people know that in Kentucky? Like, do you think the average person knows that that's about to happen.

00:38:13
Speaker 3: I consider myself a below average person, and I had no idea the first time I'm hearing of it.

00:38:18
Speaker 2: Actually, you consider yourself a below average person.

00:38:21
Speaker 4: That's very good.

00:38:21
Speaker 3: I didn't know that. And I have an old My oldest son vapes. He probably doesn't have any idea. He probably doesn't know it.

00:38:26
Speaker 2: I considered myself a below average person. Yeah, I like that. One person rights, Matt, you skipped over two things there in your last segment. You gotta go over. You do need to answer this question about Stoops and then the cow got you fired or trying to get you fired.

00:38:41
Speaker 5: I wonder if you're gonna bounce back and.

00:38:43
Speaker 2: Well on the on the cow trying to get you fired. I have four days left on my contract, but I'm trying to get a new one. Let's see if we get a new one, and then we'll talk about that, all right.

00:38:56
Speaker 4: To add stressed to that.

00:38:57
Speaker 2: Between now and January first, I have a lot of uff I have to do. Let's see if we get that done, and then if I'm not on the air January second, then we'll do it that way, or even if I am, we'll do it that way. The Stoops Stoops conversation, you know, to his ca I intentionally never talked to him during the year, like, what are you gonna say, you know, I mean, am I supposed to be like you guys aren't doing good? Like like what am I gonna say to the guy? So he called me on that trip and just said, like, you know, what are the what's the fans sort of take on the year? And I was honest with him about where I thought the fans were. I was pretty upfront about the things I thought most fans thought. I think it was a hard conversation for him to listen to. He pushed back on some of it, but he also, I think understood some of it. I think I said, on this show, he needs people to tell him that it shouldn't have to be me. He needs people to tell him like the fans are here. And so it was a long I mean we talked for like a an hour and a half. You all heard half of it. How would you characterize well?

00:40:04
Speaker 3: I told you when you hung up the phone, I said, the best thing you did in that phone conversation was tell him some things that he didn't know how the fans were feeling. You know, he needed to know the fans were disappointed. He needed to know the fans thought the culture was getting bad, and to his credit.

00:40:20
Speaker 5: It sounded like he listened at least when you were trying to tell you.

00:40:22
Speaker 2: I think here's something I give him a lot of credit for. I look at you, folks in the crowd. He wants He genuinely wants to please you all like he has. Mark Pope is the same way. He has a desire to make people happy. Sometimes I think coaches get so big that they don't care. They almost get angry at the fans. I don't really get the sense. Mark Stoops is like that. Mark Stoops like wants to be loved by the fans, and he sometimes I think doesn't understand why people are frustrated. But I told him in that call, I said, you you heard me say this, Drew. I said, you screwed up with the pony up stuff. You screwed up. That was a mistake. I was like, the way you did it when you did it, And I think he'd be fine with me saying He said to me, you know what, you're right, And I said, you need to come on my show and say all that, and he said to me he would after he sort of completed the rehab for the surgery he had to have, which I think so probably we'll do that sometime next week.

00:41:23
Speaker 4: I believe we ranked number two on our contentious Call number two. So there are some moments, but only hearing one half. I think it went well for both parties.

00:41:32
Speaker 2: Sounded like his.

00:41:33
Speaker 4: I mean, you have a pretty good feel of the fan base here between The show sells media everything more than he does. Honestly, he's a little busy, so I think you were just able to tell him a little bit about how the fan base is really feeling right now.

00:41:44
Speaker 2: I will say this, I don't know if it's gonna work next year, who knows, but I do think he does want to please the fans. He does now. Whether or not they're gonna be able to do it right, I don't know, but I think he wants.

00:42:00
Speaker 5: If he didn't care, he would he wouldn't.

00:42:02
Speaker 2: Have called Yeah, you're exactly right, he wouldn't have called me. We'll take a break, come back our number two K S R.