2026-04-16- KSR - Hour 2

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00:00:58
Speaker 3: Welcome to our two of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now here's Matt Jones welcome back.

00:01:05
Speaker 4: I remember two Kentucky sports radio a f I'm nine two eight, twenty two eighty seven here at ks bar and grill open for UH for lunch. And remember tonight trivia seven o'clock, Get your team. Should be a should be a beautiful evening of fun and excitement. And then you know what are you laughing at?

00:01:23
Speaker 5: You said, Judge Gabe is bringing some ringers tonight.

00:01:26
Speaker 4: Judge Gabe's coming. We got all kinds of people. This is gonna be a celebrity filled UH filled trivia which I'm gonna spend a lot of this afternoon, UH afternoon getting ready for UH. One person writes Matt, is there a chance Otaga would come back for a fifth year if we have the five year rule? I think Otaga already wasn't there already a fifth year thing? Did he sit out or something a year or do you know, I'm not aware if he did, well, let's talk about that rule real quick, Otaga. So the NCAA is going to adopt, according to reports, the five You get five years of eligibility, but it's five years, no exceptions unless you go on a religious mission or military service. So except for so if you get hurt. It counts towards the year if you graduate or whatever, it counts towards the year everything is. But you can play for five years, which means there's gonna be a lot of guys play for five years. Sure, you know, you know how we'll see players and be like that guy's been in school forever. Get ready, that's gonna be even more of that. But no, no injured reserve. I think it's really only religious mission trips and service in the military are the only things that will not take away your five years. And it's five years from when you graduate high school or if you're overseas, from when you turn nineteen. So I guess the theory is there won't be any college players that are twenty five twenty six. It'll be it'll be that. So do you like the rule?

00:02:55
Speaker 5: I like the rule. I don't. Status nerds are not happy about it because it's gonna make all the records seem a little.

00:03:00
Speaker 4: Yeahs will fall, yeah, some of the some of the Pete Maravichy kind of records will probably fall.

00:03:06
Speaker 5: Yeah. But most guys, you know, especially in football, the red shirt anyway, and they're there for five years anyway.

00:03:12
Speaker 4: Now, You can't. You can't make changes about the future of the sport just for stat sheets from the past, no doubt. When you do that, When you do that, you're just you're just you know, it's what the same argument I made about the Triple Crown. You can't keep saying, well, the preat and it's gonna be two weeks later if none of the horses running it, then what's the point right now? The question is, apparently all players in college now will get an extra year. So like, take Trent Noah, He's been in college for two years. Trent Noah's gonna wake up and now find himself with three years of eligibility instead of too, which is kind of interesting.

00:03:48
Speaker 5: For a guy like Trent that's not gonna make the NBA, he can make a lot of money in three.

00:03:51
Speaker 4: Years here exactly right, So these guys now have a lot more time to play basketball now. The counter to that is they don't know what they're gonna do with seniors right now. So guys who just finished went through their senior days Denzel Aberdeen and apparently the decision has yet to be made. Do you think the guys that just graduated that would think their career was over, you think they should get another year.

00:04:19
Speaker 5: I mean, you gotta draw the line somewhere, right, So I mean that this is the new rule effective today. Then if it was yesterday, it's too bad, and they get's effective today.

00:04:28
Speaker 4: Okay, so nobody, nobody. We'll give us some option to maybe get some more players. I mean, I will say, if they decide the guys that are seniors get another year, all of a sudden, you're gonna have a whole new group of people that have the ability to play college.

00:04:43
Speaker 5: Basketball, no doubt, no doubt.

00:04:44
Speaker 4: And so the portal all of a sudden gets a little bigger because you're gonna get although you know, Denzel Aberdeen is the only guy saw that that got in the portal. What's interesting is the portal closes on Monday. If they decide after Monday get an extra year, but the portals closed, that would mean those people could only play at the school where they.

00:05:05
Speaker 5: Were, so you'd have to come back to kentuckt So it would be interesting.

00:05:07
Speaker 4: To me to see, as these reports that it's gonna happen, do some of these graduate seniors do what Aberdeen did and jump into portal?

00:05:14
Speaker 5: Really, just in case very interesting.

00:05:18
Speaker 4: I mean, Aberdeen might end up have been smart one. He might be one of the few that would have the ability to go somewhere else.

00:05:25
Speaker 5: You're You're right, you would think others would fall suit, you know, just in case this real passes.

00:05:30
Speaker 4: Now, let's talk about a couple of teams, real quick. Florida is gonna be stacked next year. Stack. Yeah, they're bringing back their whole team except for that league kid. They brought in Aberdeen to replace him. All those guys came back, Condon, how uh, what's the big guy? Can never pronounce his name, the strong guy that's not close to the name. So I'll just get you to stop, stop stop. But they're all coming back, and now they add Aberdeen. I think Aberdeen's better than Xavi and Lee, so they might be better next year than they were this Year's.

00:06:10
Speaker 5: Boogie staying also, my goodness, So.

00:06:13
Speaker 4: They're gonna be good. Louisville's gonna be good. Does that bother you? Yes?

00:06:17
Speaker 5: It does. I ask you this during a break. Where's Louivill getting all this money to sign these kids?

00:06:21
Speaker 4: I don't know. Louisville just decided. Louisville fans got mad because I put out they were gonna have the most expensive roster in the country. I put that out a couple days ago, and they were like, you're coping, you're lying. It's just coach Pat Kelsey's great cookery ball time. And then of course like yesterday Goodman and Norlander said, Louisville's gonna have the most expensive roster in the country. How tell me how you know what I think Louisville's doing. Yeah, you know, we talk about Pope. They have some of the same questions about Kelsey, like is this I think they're like, we're gonna give you a squad, Pat, Let's see what you do. Like, we're gonna give you. If you can't do with these guys, then you can't do it. So we'll see. I mean they've they're gonna have a really good team. But they're also you know, we'll see. I don't know, but they've got the Wolves always had money. It's just they've spread it out around a lot of sports. But they're they're going all in on basketball. They're gonna have the most expensive roster in the country.

00:07:21
Speaker 5: Well, they had a good transfer portal team put together last year. I mean, this one's better, this one's better. This one's gonna be better, all right. So I have a question.

00:07:29
Speaker 4: A name from the past popped up a few minutes ago and he wrote something and I actually think there's it's not bad and I want to get your takeofka. This is from Mark Maggard. Wow, Mark Maggie, Yes, Mark Maggard. For those of you that were on the internet for Kentucky fans, he was. If you go back to the Billy Gillespie years and the late Tubby Smith years. If you were to said who are the big names in UK online sports, Mark magger would have been one of them.

00:08:02
Speaker 5: Oh, he absolutely one of them.

00:08:04
Speaker 4: In three or four and he was one of them and then kind of disappeared. But he wrote this. This was what he said on Twitter today. Look for better or worse, and I think a case can be made for worse. Mark Pope has info on lockdown. He's been that way for a while. He doesn't tell anyone anything, no leaks, no whispers, no friend in the media to help drive the narrative. When you do this at UK, the void will be filled by others who drive a narrative, and normally that's not better. When you don't leak to reporters, they're going to find a way to have something to write. They'll tell a story, a side of the story that benefits those who do cooperate with them. That is one of the reasons you hear so many false stories about UK. The truth is, nobody knows what Pope is trying to do, who he's prioritizing, etc. He doesn't even tell close friends who he's spoken with. So when you hear detailed accounts of stuff that's supposedly happening, I take it all with a grain of salt. Most of its rumors plays together as people make wild ass guesses. I think he's Mark and I have rivaled over the years, but I think he's one hundred percent correct. I think he's one hundred percent correct about this people. Mark has made a decision that I don't think any other coaching staff in the country has made, which is talk to no one at all. Every coaching staff will talk to different people, like for a while, Cal talk to me, then he stopped, and then he talked to Kyle Tucker, and then he stopped, and then he talked to Seth Greenberg and Andy Katz, and then he's well, I think he still talks to those guys, right, every coach has their guy or guys. But Mark has taken the view we're speaking to no one. And I don't know that that's a good idea. I actually think it's a bad idea, but he clearly thinks it's a good idea. But so he when they're getting mad at reporters, like they all got mad at Jeff Goodman yesterday, I think Mark Maggart makes a good point. It's natural that Jeff Goodman's gonna get information from other people, and when he puts it out it might not have a great spin for Kentucky, in part because Kentucky's not giving him any information. And so, you know, I actually think that's a bad PR strategy, but it is clearly marks PR strategy. Do you think it's good or bad?

00:10:29
Speaker 5: I don't like it. I mean, I gotta give cal credit. He kind of knew how important it could be to leak certain info out. You know, hey, Matt, once you pump up this Indiana series or whatever it might be, you know, he'd use your voice to kind of help promote something. Pope can also use our voices today with recruiting news or scheduling news or whatever. It is an over trips overseas trip. He just keeps it all so quiet. We fill the void with no noise. Shannon, what do you think?

00:10:58
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you do you need to. I mean we saw what happened with the football team last year, right, I mean we were making up our own good point thoughts on what the football team was going to be like because Marsteps did.

00:11:09
Speaker 4: The same thing exactly. Marks Stoops did the same thing at the end. And I think there's a narrative sometimes online about me specifically where people will go, well, the you know, these staffs, staffs have stopped talking to you because or whatever, they don't talk to anybody. At the end, Stoops was talking to no one. Pope's doing the same, And I just don't think it works. And I'll use the realm of politics because I think it's the closest equivalent. The Republicans have been very good under Trump of many years of kind of getting the information out they want through their mouthpieces whoever it is, and I think the Democrats did it wrong in twenty twenty four. So Trump like went on these podcasts and he got his message out to all these people, and Democrats kept it to themselves and they didn't use like they used to, and I think it hurts you. I think you have to have voices out there promoting you absolutely, and he hope is not doing that now. It may in the end work out, but I will use the Rob Wright thing as an example. I knew what had happened with Rob Wright, and as I was watching people get excited, I knew that internally folks around UK weren't as confident once he got on campus and everybody got themselves worked up in a frenzy and I wanted to kind of calm everybody down, but I couldn't get the confirmation that I needed from UK, so I didn't say. And then when he went somewhere else, you saw what happened, and I, you know, I wish that. I wish they would do a better job about that, because a lot of the anger that comes out at Pope and the staff could be managed better. And I've expressed this to them, and there are people at UK that are goree with me, but I don't think the head coach does. So this is how it is.

00:13:04
Speaker 5: And usually there's even an assistant coach that may talk.

00:13:06
Speaker 4: To It's always an assistant with cal So in his col would talk directly to me, but that's rare. Usually it's assistance. And let me say, who's doing a great job of it? Will Stein? Yeah, you're right, Like will Stein is doing a great job and he talks to that like his people talk to him. But like, have you noticed all the good publicity will Stein's How many times do you see a national college football reporter going things are going well? You can't, Well, why do you think they're doing that? In part, it's because they like him, because he's talking to him and he gets him excited.

00:13:39
Speaker 5: He's talking to him. The assistant coaches are going on shows talking to people. It definitely helps spread your message.

00:13:44
Speaker 4: I think it helps. Who's up next, Let's go to Brady Brady, go ahead.

00:13:47
Speaker 6: Brady, Hey, Matt being asked anything Thursday. I have a question that I've been wanting to ask for the past few years. So to revert back to a previous roster, we got z in the school. You alluded to the fact that there was crazy stuff that went on behind the scenes to get him in. Now with him being moved from Kentucky, can you get into that at all? All right, I'm jumping off here.

00:14:13
Speaker 4: So that's a great question. I appreciate the call. So remember when Z got into school, the semester had already started. Correct. I heard you could tell me if you agree with this, it was past time you could register someone for school.

00:14:28
Speaker 5: The deadline would already had already passed.

00:14:31
Speaker 4: I heard that they registered a fake student. This is just what I heard. I can't swear this, but I think it's true. They registered a fake student, and then when Z decided to come, file the paperwork that said we got the name wrong and put z as the students worked. No, I don't think this was like pulling one. I think everybody agreed kind of under our UK bylaws, this is what we have to do. So Shannon, they registered like you know, Zach Isaac. Yeah, and they got him registered, and then when a visis decided to come, they went and did a name change form. It said John whatever how you pronounce the first name of He's.

00:15:23
Speaker 3: The first player I've ever heard that could just come in whenever you want, so, I mean, you can pull that.

00:15:28
Speaker 4: So somewhere there was the name of a student that was not a student, Zach Isaac. Let's just say Zach Isaac so it could become of Esi.

00:15:40
Speaker 5: It was kind of miraculous, hell a sudden the middle of semester.

00:15:44
Speaker 4: But I've had multiple different people tell me that story. Everybody was like, we gotta get somebody registered about zach Isaac. Oh. Yeah, and then they wrote back and go listen, we got his name wrong.

00:15:56
Speaker 5: It was you know, translation issues.

00:15:58
Speaker 4: Shannon, it was translation. It was lost in translations. That's what That's what I heard happen.

00:16:03
Speaker 5: I love that story. I hope it's true because I love the fact that's what Kentucky did to get him in.

00:16:07
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Speaker 4: For cornbreadhimp dot com. You get your gummies, you get your oils. But now these seltzers are flying off the shelves. Cornbreadhimp dot com. This is the good life. We'll take a break. Be right back to Tucky Sports Radio. Welcome back Tukey Sports Radio A five nine two eight twenty two eighty seven. One person writes, mad, if what you said it's true, why would we listen to anything you say? If Pope doesn't talk to anybody. That's actually a fair question because I'm not getting my information from from Pope, so everything comes secondhand. But but but that's a fair question. I mean, that's part of the reason we don't say as much is because we want to make sure it's right. And if you don't get it direct from the source, you have to go through other directions.

00:17:25
Speaker 5: He's not talking, his assistant coaches aren't talking. So we have to fill the void with what we what we think? What we think.

00:17:32
Speaker 4: Whiskey Thief tomorrow in Frankfurt. Yes, what's the address?

00:17:36
Speaker 5: Crab Orchard is the name of the street out there, crab Orchard Street.

00:17:40
Speaker 4: We will be there tomorrow with the crew, So come see us tomorrow at Whiskey Thief.

00:17:45
Speaker 5: It's awesome out there, and now they've got like live music like two nights a week. They've got food trucks out there on the weekend, so it's awesome.

00:17:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love it. Is Derek Anderson going to be there.

00:17:55
Speaker 5: I don't know he's gonna be there, but they've got like one of these Bourbon lines getting ready to start. He's supposed to be there.

00:18:00
Speaker 4: I don't know. I think Derek Anderson will be there. Good, so you can meet Derek Anderson.

00:18:05
Speaker 3: He can do the little yeah says He'll be doing a signing right after the show, and there.

00:18:11
Speaker 4: We go signing autographs. Look at that, so we will see whiskey Thief is always a fun when it's beautiful out there. It is beautiful. It is really really beautiful. So so come on out and join us there tomorrow before we go the five eighty seven din and Russini resigned from the Athletic for the finger locking thing. Do you think she should have had to resign, mister journalist?

00:18:36
Speaker 5: There was a lot of pushback because their they're stories that they told didn't seem to add up. They said they're there with a group of six people, but yet there were no cheating.

00:18:44
Speaker 4: Let's just say that they were cheating. Do you think that should be. Should you have to resign as a as a reporter for that?

00:18:55
Speaker 5: If it's with someone that you cover, maybe so you think it's not so much the cheating, it would be because it was someone you covered. Yeah, something that she has to work with on a regular basis.

00:19:07
Speaker 4: What about you, Shannon, do.

00:19:09
Speaker 3: You think I'm obviously not going to condone the cheating part, But I don't think you should lose your job because you're covering somebody that you're dating or.

00:19:15
Speaker 4: But I mean, let's be can we be honest here for just a second, Like, can we be honest if every reporter that has cheated on their spouse had to be fired? I mean, this is not They're gonna be a lot of people that are not gonna be having their jobs. I ain't saying anything Shannon about people who but like, there'd be a lot less people in positions of employment.

00:19:46
Speaker 3: I'm sure there's a lot of this that goes on behind the scenes that most of us have no idea about.

00:19:50
Speaker 4: You may leave a side, they'll leave a side that it's who she covered. You can't be firing people for cheating on their spouse. You'd be firing eighty percent of the reporters out there.

00:20:00
Speaker 5: No, I just think it's the fact that her beat was NFL and covering his teams.

00:20:06
Speaker 4: So it's the fact that she she's covering his team.

00:20:08
Speaker 1: Yes, we're going to give her a different team to cover.

00:20:11
Speaker 5: They couldn't shift her out to Los Angeles and cover the Rams and the Chargers out of here.

00:20:15
Speaker 4: Why doesn't he get in Trumble?

00:20:18
Speaker 5: I don't know.

00:20:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, you guys get a new coach.

00:20:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean he's continued to deny, to deny, deny.

00:20:26
Speaker 4: Well, I mean I'm not, I'm not. I thought their explanation like that, that like they were just friends. And first of all, they have no pictures of the friends. Zero a group of six people. Think there was a group of six people. We haven't seen one picture of the friends. None. We've seen no no proof that friends were there.

00:20:45
Speaker 3: They're coming to photos photo shot people in.

00:20:48
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's no people have come forward as having been there. And then the interlocking fingers like it is what it is. But I don't necessarily think she should have gotten fired for it. I guess she didn't get fired, but they were she resigned because she thought she was gonna get fired.

00:21:03
Speaker 5: Yeah, they may have had that conversation with people with the athletic like, look where we'll give you the chance to step down. If not, we're going to fire you. So to save her career. Yeah, she falls on the sword.

00:21:13
Speaker 4: Agree with that, although I will say the explanation of we were with friends, I don't buy that anymore. No, because you would show some picture of you with your friends.

00:21:21
Speaker 5: To them laying by the pool by themselves, no friends.

00:21:24
Speaker 4: That wasn't very friendly. Who's next?

00:21:25
Speaker 3: Good to Dennis?

00:21:26
Speaker 4: Dennis? Go ahead, Dennis, Dennis, All right, Dennis, Bob, go ahead, Bob.

00:21:36
Speaker 7: Good morning for Madison bill o K.

00:21:38
Speaker 6: Why guys, what's up?

00:21:41
Speaker 7: A couple of questions about Travis.

00:21:43
Speaker 4: Perry just talking for him?

00:21:46
Speaker 7: Hey, I heard him through his name intal portal? Yes see do you all see a landing spot for him?

00:21:53
Speaker 4: See?

00:21:55
Speaker 7: Did he save this our four career with his play in the SEC tournament? And d could Travis getting at Arkansas Little Rock?

00:22:04
Speaker 4: Were were you listening to our conversation? You have to be sitting in this restaurant because we just had this conversation seconds ago during the break. I appreciate the call you were saying you've heard he might go to Arkansas, Little Rock.

00:22:20
Speaker 5: That's the rumor. I think people are throwing out there because of Travis in the connection with Western Kentucky, with Travis being from Madisonville, Travis Ford.

00:22:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think he's better than that. Yeah, I think I listen, he played well in the SEC tournament. He did. I just don't think the SEC is the league for him. But I do think he could play. If I were him, especially now that you got five years of eligibility, I would go to a school like Western or which Toss State or school like that, go be really good. Maybe you love it and you finish your career there, or then you get one more chance at a big power school. That's what I would do if I were Western Kentucky.

00:22:59
Speaker 5: Would make total sense. He probably get a lot of money, probably get a lot of playing time, probably score a lot of at Western.

00:23:04
Speaker 4: I mean if he goes to Western, though, like he could be really good there.

00:23:09
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't have an il deals.

00:23:11
Speaker 4: Probably if he's an SEC starting point guard, can he play in like.

00:23:15
Speaker 5: The ACC of the Big East?

00:23:17
Speaker 4: So the maybe depending on the team. Maybe, Yeah, I don't. I wouldn't give up on him yet. We'll take a break. Be right back ks R, but TJ. Smith, personal injury attorney, called TJ. He'll make him pay.

00:23:30
Speaker 3: Now more of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Here's Matt Jones.

00:23:35
Speaker 4: Welcome back Tucky Sports Radio. If I'm nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven uh text machine seven seven two four five two five four Uh. Somebody wrote me and said that that Travis Perry is between Vandy, Dayton and Murray State.

00:23:50
Speaker 5: I could didn't am I crazier?

00:23:52
Speaker 4: Did he did?

00:23:52
Speaker 5: He almost go to Vandy when he went to Old Miss after he left Kentucky lst year seem like Vandy was one of his choices.

00:23:57
Speaker 4: Maybe, Yeah, I don't know.

00:23:58
Speaker 5: Can he play a Vandy?

00:24:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, he can play a band. I don't know if he could. I don't know if he can start. Although again, you know, he played really well in the SEC tournament, so maybe that's a level that we haven't seen him. We haven't seen him hit before. One Persson writes his questions for you and Ryan since you've been covering UK. What were the two teammates that were on a team together that disliked each other the most? That's an interesting question.

00:24:25
Speaker 5: Killed Sears.

00:24:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, so because that they were the two guys that got in the fight.

00:24:30
Speaker 5: In the plane right on the airplane.

00:24:32
Speaker 4: Was that like though, did they really dislike each other or was it just they got in the.

00:24:36
Speaker 5: Fun It could have been an isolated incident. Yeah, on the plane that night that day.

00:24:40
Speaker 4: When I think of rivalries that defined a team, I think the Severe Wheeler Oscar shebway is the one that sticks out to me.

00:24:47
Speaker 5: That's the first one I was going to say.

00:24:49
Speaker 4: They really just didn't get along and Oscar was the best player, but the team kind of rallied behind Severe and that's uh. That was a a bad combo when when the much better player is not the one the teammates like.

00:25:07
Speaker 5: I think there was some issues between Rondo and a couple guys, maybe Patrick Sparks.

00:25:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was definitely true, but that didn't really affect the way the team played. I felt like the Severe Oscar thing affected the team.

00:25:19
Speaker 5: I think it definitely did. There was a there was definitely a divide in the locker room that year.

00:25:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's probably the one that would stick out to me, is being is being the the most important one person, writes Matt. I got a question that I think would be fun funny to hear, especially from Ryan. You get a free trip anywhere in the world for two weeks, no questions asked. Where is everyone taking it? Channon, you go first? Where are you taking? You get a free trip anywhere in the world for two weeks?

00:25:49
Speaker 3: Two weeks? Good question. I'm gonna say Australia. I don't know why, but I just feel like it would be fun. It's a place, so I'm gonna go Australia.

00:25:59
Speaker 4: Good call.

00:25:59
Speaker 8: Far.

00:26:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm gonna say. I'm gonna say a yacht in Greece because I'm trying to think what is expensive. Since it's free, I want to go ahead and do an expensive trip because then I could when I pay, I'll go to one of the cheaper places. So that's what I would do. Now. Ryan's gonna say something like, uh, you know, Jamaica, Nashville, Kentucky. No, Nashville, Kentucky, which is not a place Nashville, Kentucky.

00:26:37
Speaker 5: In there in Nashville, Kentucky.

00:26:38
Speaker 4: No, okay, So what do you pick it?

00:26:40
Speaker 5: I said this one another time in this show. My dream has always been as I was a kid, to go to Hawaii. I know you've been. I've never been. I would probably want to go to Hawaii.

00:26:48
Speaker 4: It's been two weeks hamp and though. Yeah, but that's what I think I said to you when you said this last time, is like that is doable.

00:26:54
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's still on my bucket list. I've not done it.

00:26:57
Speaker 4: So you would use your trip anywhere around the world for free, you go to Hawaii.

00:27:00
Speaker 5: Probably. I would go to Hawaii because it's been a dream.

00:27:04
Speaker 4: Why why is it a dream?

00:27:05
Speaker 5: I don't know, you know, kind of a bucket list.

00:27:09
Speaker 4: What is it you think? Yeah, what is it you think will be there? What is it that makes it a dream?

00:27:14
Speaker 5: Beautiful beaches, beautiful scenery, all the tourism things. Go see the uh go see what knocking on a blank?

00:27:21
Speaker 4: What's the you're talking about?

00:27:25
Speaker 5: Pearl Like, yeah, Pearl Harbor? Yeah you want to go see Pearl Harbor? Oh yeah, I think it'd be awesome.

00:27:29
Speaker 4: Okay, well, you know we can probably make this happen, which gets me to the announcement today from the NCAA that basketball teams will be able to take foreign trips now every year, not just every The rule before was every four years. Now they can take a trip around the world. Uh, every year. I expect Ryan Kentucky will do this. Why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you go to I mean it's cost money, but relative speaking, they can get somebody to sponsor it and you get to take your team and go play against real teams. Don't you think UK does this every year?

00:28:08
Speaker 5: I think the most major teams will do it every single year. Why wouldn't you, Like you said, you get a free practice time, free time of your guys to get on the court and play somebody.

00:28:16
Speaker 4: Go a million different plays. Sure, right, so I think Kentucky's gonna go somewhere this year. Why wouldn't you. I think we will have basketball this summer at some point.

00:28:25
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I'll say, why wouldn't you do that? Get a chance for your guys to get on the court a lot earlier without this trip.

00:28:31
Speaker 4: I think the theory behind this continues to be a revenue based theory. Basically, they're doing this saying this is ways for schools to make money. I mean, so, I don't think these are necessarily gonna be free fun trips to to Wins or Canada. I think these will be trips to resorts that UK packages with tourism companies to sell to people, and it'll be they'll try to make revenue out of it.

00:28:56
Speaker 5: You think they'll have like little round robin tournaments like we saw down in the Bahamas.

00:28:59
Speaker 4: I mean, think about if you could have Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas and yukon round robin and the Bahamas, people are gonna go that's huge.

00:29:08
Speaker 5: That's of course basketball fans would flood that place.

00:29:11
Speaker 4: So I think what I think this is this is the start of you know, in volleyball, I saw Kentucky is playing Louisville in an exhibition game in volleyball like Saturday. Did you know that.

00:29:24
Speaker 5: Yeah.

00:29:26
Speaker 4: What they've basically done in volleyball and baseball is they've made their fall baseball exhibition games. They are spring volleyball. I think basketball is going to create a summer exhibitions where basically these basketball teams get to play games that do not count during the summer, and I think that's going to start.

00:29:42
Speaker 5: I guess they could play even like professional teams in Europe if they wanted to go to Europe.

00:29:45
Speaker 4: We've done that before, yeah, I mean when we played that, we played the team in Croatia where zibig Ze and yellowch came do So who's up next? Lee? Lee? Go ahead, Lee?

00:30:00
Speaker 9: First time?

00:30:01
Speaker 8: Long time?

00:30:02
Speaker 9: Who are I just wanted to wanted to call about the uh well, the caller earlier had mentioned about the twenty fifteen team with guys sitting on rotation? Do you think it hurts where Pope doesn't have like the pro thing that Cal did, where guys that are still gonna sit and listen thinking they're gonna go pro because you know, Pope doesn't really have that in his history. And then the second thing I was gonna call about, do you think Pope will ever change his ways on the media and how he wants to go about like feating things out just to make things better for him, because right now it's just not really going his ways.

00:30:36
Speaker 4: I think there's a lot of people at UK there's I appreciate the call. There's a lot of people at UK that are giving him, Pope advice to change on this, but as of now, I don't think it's gonna happen. I think Mark Pope probably takes the view that next year is such an important year, he's gonna do it his way and then hope it works out. And I understand that if that's if that's I get that view, like, if this is gonna be my year, that makes everybody judge what I'm gonna do. I want to do it my way and then it'll either work or it won't.

00:31:05
Speaker 5: He kind of did it his way his first year. He came in so late. He kind of did put pieces together to fit his system.

00:31:12
Speaker 4: But it reminds me if you remember the conversation I had Ryan when Mark Stoops got here with Vince Merriw. This was like one of the wisest things Vince Merrill said to me. Vince Marrow was talking about recruiting, because you remember when Mark got here that first year, he got a bunch of players, yes, and he got some high end guys to come here. And I remember Vince saying to me, here's the thing, Matt, right now, we're recruiting based on what Mark did at Florida State Miami, right, and what Neil Brown his offensive theory, and like what I did at Nebraska. He was like, we're recruiting based on other places. He said, but after a year or two, we can't talk about Miami in Florida State. We have to have done it here, right, And he said, it's almost easier to work recruit now, then it will be when there's results. I think we're seeing it with will Stein. Will Stein's doing this awesome job. You know what, will Stein's recruiting on Oregon, Oregon. He's recruiting on Oregon, and he's recruiting on the being the quarterback coach with Lamar. But after these games start, he's gonna have to recruit on what he did here. Yes, Mark Pope that first year was able to recruit on here's my system, it's Kentucky. Here we go, blah blah blah. Two years later he has to recruit on Mark Pope at Kentucky correct. And I think that's why you see sometimes the splash when you first get here. But then it becomes okay, don't tell me about what kl did. Don't tell me about what you did at b YU. What are you doing here?

00:32:51
Speaker 5: So you have confidence he'll get guys to fit his system like he did in the first year. That kind of worked.

00:32:57
Speaker 4: He got one. See what happens my next Let's see how many. Let's see what our roster looks like at the end. You know, I said, Louisville's gonna spend the most money. I bet Kentucky ends up spending the fourth fifth most money. If you are at Kentucky and you cannot put together a roster that is really good with the fourth most money in the country, that's on you.

00:33:25
Speaker 5: Don't you agree, you'll kind of almost be a failure if you can't do it.

00:33:29
Speaker 4: If you can. Your first year you did it. Yeah, your second year you didn't. Really.

00:33:37
Speaker 5: Let's see, gotta gotta.

00:33:39
Speaker 4: There's no Here's the great thing about Kentucky basketball. There's no excuses here. At Kentucky football. There might be some excuses. You don't have as much money, you don't have history, you don't have talk you about. There's no excuses. You've got the money, you've got the fans, you've got the resources, you've got the history. But you gotta do it, you know what I mean.

00:34:04
Speaker 5: You know, this time last year, we thought he was putting together a great roster. We thought there were.

00:34:07
Speaker 4: Too deep every position paper he did. But it didn't work. Didn't work. Now it's got to you know, actually, uh, actually work. Let's do DraftKings eight five. Might I do this DraftKings dot com. You can make your bet put five dollars on any any game, and you and you can win up to three hundred dollars in bonus bets. The playoffs start. Did you watch the games last night?

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00:35:31
Speaker 5: Good people this time you need your Shady Raise.

00:35:33
Speaker 4: Do do you ever say anybody or bad people? No? You ever?

00:35:36
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00:35:38
Speaker 4: Say good people all about a lot of people. Is there ever a product I could bring up and you would go bad people? I don't think so. Not.

00:35:44
Speaker 5: I they're advertising on the show they're good people. Okay, they're spending money good people.

00:35:49
Speaker 4: So you're just like, if you spend money on KSR, you must be good people. I don't think you should take that view. Yeah, because yeah, because you never know. I mean like we don't. We don't know all these people and they're bad people and they might so like I think you, I don't think you want to put your personal credibility on the line for every like you need to be careful when you do that. You you don't. You can't just sell Ryan Lemon to the highest bidder.

00:36:12
Speaker 5: But Shady Raise, we know these people, they are people, but don't.

00:36:17
Speaker 4: Don't diminish others by saying everyone is good.

00:36:21
Speaker 5: If you're buy advertising on this show. I think you're good people.

00:36:24
Speaker 4: Saying he's not he's doubling down. Sham, He's not gonna he's not gonna change anything. Uh did did we talk about Louisville about yesterday about them getting the US Gymnastics Uh trials?

00:36:38
Speaker 5: You didn't mention it.

00:36:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, So Louisville's gonna host the US Olympic Gymnastic Trials in twenty twenty eight. That's huge. That is a massive event. City of Louisville like to have the trials. That's huge for them.

00:36:54
Speaker 5: I don't think Kentucky we've ever hosted anything gymnastics related to the United States. Do we Olympic team?

00:37:00
Speaker 4: We have a gymnastics thing in Kentucky? Like, how did we get picked for that?

00:37:06
Speaker 5: I don't know. I guess just the downtown Louisville with the Yump Center kind of perfect setting for a hosting event.

00:37:13
Speaker 4: That's awesome for the city. It's just kind of feels very random, because do you know anyone that does gymnastics.

00:37:19
Speaker 5: No, and our UK gymnastics team, true, they have we have a we have a big I'm sure U of l has a gymnastics team.

00:37:26
Speaker 4: Shannon, do you it's gymnastics big in Louisville. Like I know, volleyball is big in Louisville. You know, they have volleyball tournaments in Louisville.

00:37:33
Speaker 3: Like every week I'll see like a lot of gymnastic just randomly driving around gymnastics like buildings. But I don't know that it's huge or you know, bigger here than it is in any other city.

00:37:44
Speaker 4: Where are the gymnastics buildings in Louisville, I don't know.

00:37:47
Speaker 3: I don't have the address place. There's one in Mount Washington, I think.

00:37:54
Speaker 4: Okay, so you know, well that's true. The Bullet County to the Olympics pipeline, that's pretty big.

00:38:00
Speaker 5: I never knew the city of Louisville though, was a pipeline for United States Women's gymnastics.

00:38:05
Speaker 4: Well, it's very cool, be a great event for the city.

00:38:08
Speaker 5: I gets a great opportunity for the city to kind of shine.

00:38:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I thought that was good news. Who's up next, Kevin?

00:38:14
Speaker 10: Go ahead, Kevin, Yeah, thanks for taking my call. I just had, a first of all, Matt, a couple comments to go from you. You took my reason for my call with the will Stein and let's see what he does before you know the media honeymoon is over, but so I'll just switch to a second topic. Let's say we get Freeman and the Wilkins and then obviously Diallo paired with the six guys we have coming back are already in house, and maybe two to three role players from the portal. Do you think this.

00:38:44
Speaker 4: Team is good? Question?

00:38:45
Speaker 10: It's good or better than the team we have?

00:38:47
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a great question. So let's say that's the team. Appreciate the call. Diallo, Wilkins, Freeman, Malachi, Cam Williams, Trentono, Mason Williams. And let's say we go get one or two shooters and another big in the portal. That's your team. How good is that team?

00:39:06
Speaker 5: Just me on the outside looking in, I would think that's not a Final four team. But that's a good team I could get behind, that could really win a lot of games. I don't think that that's a Final four team.

00:39:14
Speaker 4: I think that's a team that's probably in the ballpark of the team the first year, so like Sweet sixteen ish, Yeah, but you're one player away from being a lot better. And that player might be Tyron Stokes, or that player might be a kid from overseas. But you're you're you're one player. I think last year, the first year I thought we were like I thought Jackson Robinson would be a star, and he was really good, but he just wasn't quite a star. And I think that's what kept us from hitting that other level last year. I think the combination of some guys not improving and then Jalen Row getting hurt kind of kept us from being what I'd hoped. And then I don't know that Pope did the best job with that team. I think that's a really good team, but I think in order to take another leap, it needs something, you know, and maybe that's something Stokes.

00:40:14
Speaker 5: Like we said Zoom made a huge jump from his freshman year to his sophomore year. If he does the same thing moving to the SEC, that's something you can get excited about.

00:40:22
Speaker 4: But is there is there a star on that team? I don't know, Like are Diallo and Wilkins? Will they be better than Aberdeen and Oway m? Maybe not? But I think Freeman will be better than any big.

00:40:43
Speaker 5: We had if we get them, and I think Malachi will make a jump.

00:40:49
Speaker 4: Alexi gets better, you get a full year of cam Yeah, But if you're asking me I still think we're one player away.

00:40:55
Speaker 5: I think we're just Cam Williams, you know, with just just kind of finding himself. He just became a starter and was playing well. He had eight three pointers in that one game against Fellerman.

00:41:03
Speaker 4: But it's also worth remembering this college basketball as a hole is not gonna be nearly as good next year, not nearly as many freshmen, a lot of the fifth year guys and the COVID guy like all that's kind of ending. So I think the quality of college basketball, the best teams in college basketball won't be quite as good as they were, say last Yearah, so that might help us to who's next? Justin, justin, go ahead, justin.

00:41:29
Speaker 8: Hey man, I feel like everybody's forgotten that we don't have a full staff. We still need one more assistant coach. What's going on with that? If you heard anything about that, don't hopefully to the portal and we're working with incomplete guys.

00:41:44
Speaker 4: It's a great question. We are missing an assistant coach. Do you.

00:41:49
Speaker 5: Wonder why It almost like they're feeling it by committee. The guys that are already on staff are kind of filling that mission.

00:41:56
Speaker 4: Do you think they have a person and they just haven't announced.

00:41:58
Speaker 5: It kind of felt like they were going to promote one of these guys from within that's kind of acting as an assistant coach.

00:42:05
Speaker 4: Now, yeah, I don't know if I love that. I think we gotta continue to shake it up. But we'll see. But right now, Uh Freeman, I think his visit is either ending or may have ended. Wilkins will this is today is his visit. I'm sure we will hear about another person or two over the course of the day.

00:42:27
Speaker 5: Take him to Keenland, don't take him to Carsons and we'll get him.

00:42:30
Speaker 4: No. By the way, yes, uh Diallo went to uh uh Malons. There we go, So I got Diallo. Was that was at uh or? No, No, Freeman was at Malones. Diallo was a Carson. So Carson's got one. Okay, all right, thank you folks very much, Trivia and I good luck than you speak can tell you. Sports Radio