2026-01-05- KSR - Hour 1

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Comedy Up Broadway in Lexington invite you to celebrate New Year's Eve with Lexington's own lee kem Berll for two shows only on December thirty. First then from Netflix is a Joke. Catch Ray Low January second and third. In January eighth through the tenth, don't miss AGT finalist Aaron Blyle. Four tickets to all Comedy Up Broadway shows called eight five, nine, two seven to one joke or visit Comedy Up Broadway dot com.

00:00:26
Speaker 2: Comedy Off Broadway.

00:00:30
Speaker 3: This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage.

00:00:34
Speaker 4: Now here's Matt Jones.

00:00:35
Speaker 5: Welcome everyone. It is Kentucky Sports Radio, Monday, January fifth, the first show of twenty twenty six. I'm back after about a week and a half alive from these parts, I don't act like you worked much here. Ryan Lemon is here, Shannon the Dude is in Louisville. Drew has this week off, so we don't have the full crew, but you can give us a shout on the Clarks Up and Chop Phone nine eight five to nine eight twenty two eighty seven. A Vision Auto Glass text machine is seven seven two seven seven four five two five four a lot of stuff has happened since I've been gone Kentucky. UH played basketball, Uh, we lost our quarterback. We nearly got a new quarterback, but didn't. We have a whole portal stuff. Women's basketball got one of their most exciting wins of all time. The women's volleyball team, UH lost in the championship. So we could talk about any of that stuff, but more importantly, Ryan, Shannon, Mario.

00:01:34
Speaker 2: Good to see you guys. Welcome back. All three of you guys were gone last week. We kind of missed you, but kind of you know, it was lonely.

00:01:40
Speaker 5: Was it was very lonely? Yes, you and who Drew true? Yeah, that's okay. Sometimes you all need to carry your weight, Shane, and we can't do everything.

00:01:49
Speaker 4: That's right. Yeah, good to see you guys. Good to be back.

00:01:51
Speaker 3: And it was also good to hear you doing your Playboy play debut.

00:01:54
Speaker 5: I listened to the I want to talk about that a little bit in the second hour. Thank you very much, Shannon, and that y'all thought you guys. You guys said first thing that was that was I'm going to talk about that a little bit in the second hour. We'll talk about a little bit of some of the stuff that happened during the offset. I also had to do like a photo shoot, which I have to talk about. While I was making fun of Mario's photo shoot, you spent that whole time before the to do one for a job. He Mario was doing it for Instagram. Mario Mario's Instagram, Shannon. I don't know if you ever go to it.

00:02:28
Speaker 4: I need to follow him on there.

00:02:29
Speaker 5: It's the funniest thing in the world because Mario will like pose in like an abandoned street with one of his buddies, and they'll be sitting there and he'll be looking off in the sunset. He'll be like, follow you, yeah, read me a caption of one of them.

00:02:44
Speaker 2: Uh, were we go?

00:02:45
Speaker 4: Let's see here, let me find a good one. No one just says, take care.

00:02:49
Speaker 3: See the lessons you learn and the growth that you experience is never spontaneous.

00:02:53
Speaker 5: That's exactly right. But Mario says things like that. They cracked me up. He always has all these life after mad it's never spontaneous, the life you grow. And then it's like looking there and they're just two random guys. I don't know who these people are. Mario has his own posse. Mario is supposed to be our company, and Mario has his own people.

00:03:15
Speaker 2: They're looking good, thyough, they got their foot, they all look great. You know, they smell good.

00:03:20
Speaker 5: What you know, they smell good. Smelling people.

00:03:24
Speaker 2: I can't help it smelling you walk smelling people.

00:03:27
Speaker 4: Joe Biden stuff, rubbing off.

00:03:28
Speaker 5: Yeah you're not Joe.

00:03:31
Speaker 4: Taking one picture of Joe Biden. Then you go on snapping people with a dog, don't you don't.

00:03:35
Speaker 5: Kids telling people they smell good all the time? Eight oh twenty to eighty seven. But this, I don't know. I guess we should start. There's a lot of football news. It'll probably take some set up because if you haven't been, if you don't follow the internet on a minute by minute basis, you probably wouldn't know all this. But let's start with the basketball. I think, I mean, we lost Alabama really bad performance. I mean, you know, after the first five minutes, ten minutes, never really in the game. It didn't feel like I don't know, man, Jyalen Lowe played well, Away played pretty well, and then the rest was just a disaster. I mean, I feel like it's a broken record from the Gonzaga game and from the you know, from the Michigan State game, and from even the Louisville game of I don't understand the lineups. I don't understand why we can't get any offense going. I had people close the game tell me this team argues with each other constantly off the court, like like in the huddles and stuff like in a non good way. It feels like some of the good vibes we had after Indiana Saint John's, I don't know, did they all go out the window.

00:04:55
Speaker 2: Man. I've been thinking for two days what I'm gonna say about this game today, because this is not you can't just write this off as a one off thing. There's been This is kind of a little bit of a pattern. We've seen getting down early, down by twenty to these good put players, and this is the first time you're pretty much at full strength. You know, there was no excuse for the second game of the year at full strength, and you also had two weeks to get ready for this team, and they looked like they didn't know what was coming.

00:05:19
Speaker 5: And it was a team that you could make an argument you built this roster exactly for this game exactly. I mean, I think there's a really good argument that Mark Pope changed his entire roster building philosophy because of what Alabama did to Kentucky three times last year.

00:05:34
Speaker 2: You're exactly right, he said, Okay, if I want to compete in the SEC, I got to do this, this, and this because Alabama they had They were no match for Alabama last year.

00:05:41
Speaker 5: And we didn't play poorly last year in Alabama still, so I mean, it was clear like he created this entire team on the Okay, I have to build a roster to be able to play against the Alabamas. Yes, and you did just as poorly, maybe maybe worse, because at least last year you would offensively be pretty efficient. You just couldn't guard it. Now we can't score.

00:06:06
Speaker 2: Like I said, you gotta start questioning the coach. You guys start questioning. Is this team just not very good? I mean, because I don't, like I said, this is this is not just a one off thing. You can't write it off. They just had an off night.

00:06:16
Speaker 5: This is bad.

00:06:17
Speaker 3: The frustrating part was you know exactly what they're going to do and you still couldn't stop.

00:06:21
Speaker 5: You can't stop, first of all, number one most important thing, more than anything else. How in the world did we go into that game and decide to let them shoot open threes? How do we How did they think that was the way to go? And how many do they have to make before they decide closing off the three is the number one most important thing? How many times do they have to make a three before we stop going underscreen?

00:06:45
Speaker 2: Exactly?

00:06:45
Speaker 5: How many times do they have to run a pick and roll to where we do not leave it? Make them beat us at the rim? We have like ten seven footers on the team, make the if they make if they beat us at the rim? Okay, but how do we keep letting them shoot open threes? How?

00:07:03
Speaker 2: And like I said, you had two weeks to get ready for it. You knew that's how Alabama plays, That's what they that's what their offensive design around the.

00:07:09
Speaker 5: Change it at the end. And it's too late, you way too late. How are you gonna wait thirty minutes? If Colin Chandler runs under another screen, I'm gonna go crazy and I will notice a couple of postgame callers said they still had open shots in those last two minutes, they just missed them. True, I mean that three point defense is putrid.

00:07:28
Speaker 2: And like Bill's kept pointing out Alabama's getting in the lane whenever they want and then kick it out to a wide open three pointer.

00:07:34
Speaker 5: And then after the game's over, Oates makes a really good point. Oates is like, we studied them, they don't pass. Yeah, I mean he he basically said the coaches won't do that. But he basically was, like, we study him, they don't pass. When they throw it in the post, it ain't coming out that number. And I'm just gonna assume he's right because he said it. We only have seven assists by our bigs when the ball goes into the post in thirteen games.

00:07:59
Speaker 2: I don't you gotta assume that's right.

00:08:01
Speaker 5: And if that's right, that's horrendous, awful. I mean Alabama probably had six or seven in that game. Yeah, really, you know it is. Watching this team play is so frustrating. And I have to tell you, if Jalen Low wasn't on the team, I'm not sure we would ever score. But he is the only person that can generate any offense.

00:08:23
Speaker 2: Him and Otaga were the only offensive threats they had games.

00:08:26
Speaker 5: And listen, we need Otega. But he's drawing files, yeah right, Like he's going into the painting, but in terms of generating ball movement, no one else even no one else even attempts it.

00:08:39
Speaker 2: The whole offense was Jalen Low trying to create something and get us a bucket. That was the offense that I feel like.

00:08:44
Speaker 5: Remember I used to say at Pitt, I watched him and he was so good, but he had to do everything and he didn't have it. I feel like I'm watching that this year. Yeah, I feel like he's having to do the exact same thing this year where he did.

00:08:55
Speaker 2: Saturday against Alabama. He was the offense. There was no other offensive threat other than Otaga trying to why.

00:09:01
Speaker 5: I mean, this team is clearly poorly constructed, but I'm going to keep saying this. Yes it's poorly constructed, that is obvious, but there's nothing you can do about that at this moment. Can't Why are they so bad that? Why can he not get something positive going out of this group?

00:09:18
Speaker 2: So I think guess why people were starting to question is that the coach's responsibilities is the coach's fault or is this team just not very good?

00:09:26
Speaker 5: All of it is the coach's fault? Right? The roster construction is the coach is fault. The way they play is the coach's fault. They don't like each other. They just don't. I mean you can tell. And I mean I may see a clip where somebody says something nice. That doesn't mean they like each other, right, you know. I work with people at ESPN. They like, they'll say nice things about each other, and in the moment somebody goes away, they'll be like, gosh, that per No, I'm serious, like like it, it's hilarious. That's one good thing is like, you won't get that from me, Like if I don't like you, you'll know we were past that then when we're not. They argued the whole time. I had a friend who who was who drove down there bought tickets and was like, dude, I mean they just argue all the time, just constant and that, and it's the best players arguing with each other. Basically. It's like, well, I don't want to divide the team into it, but there is a divide of kind of like one certain you could almost guess if I were to sit here and tell you guess which you'd guess it. Yeah, so I don't know what you do. And then I don't understand, pope. I mean that interview with Tom Leach. I'm not gonna play it again, but I played it on the post game show. I mean, what, what what has happened to him in these losses? Why? Why does he become like a different person when we lose?

00:10:57
Speaker 2: I don't know, but it's it's not a good look, it's all horrible.

00:11:01
Speaker 5: Look.

00:11:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, you gotta grow up and be a man and look Tom Leech in the face and answer his questions.

00:11:06
Speaker 5: And when people go, well, what do you expect him to say? He just lost? I expect him to be a grown up. This is a smart person, This is not He is not a jerk, He is not an idiot. He is smart. He knows what he's supposed to do, and then he goes in and he becomes a different human being. I expect him to be a grown up. You judge people's character in a time of adversity. Anyone can be good when you're winning. Well that's not true. Some people are bad winners too, but most people are pretty good when they're winning, and gracious. You judge how you deal with adversity. Yeah, I'm saying, like Mario and his Instagram.

00:11:44
Speaker 4: Put that on your captions.

00:11:46
Speaker 5: But I mean it's true, and I you know, go back to Louisville when he says, you know, something happened in the locker room. When you go back to Michigan State where I've never seen a the Michigan's I'll never understand. I mean, Rick Patino said, I called to him and said, what is wrong with you? Good for Rick? Right to Gonzaga where he said nothing. And now this, I don't get it. And I've been told by the way, and I'll say this, I've been told he's been spoken to by folks at UK going you got to stop. And then he did it again.

00:12:21
Speaker 2: If you're a recruit sitting at home and you hear your coach talk and act like that, and you is that the guy you want to play for?

00:12:26
Speaker 5: Well, I don't know. I mean I am, I am baffled by this. I said on the post game show. When we hired Mark, I had a serious question about ability to get talent, and that question still exists. Although he's gotten some, the question still exists. So I knew that would be an issue. The thing I thought was a given was they would play smart. They'd played hard, right, Yeah, they'd be well prepared. I was like, that's a given. I don't know, doesn't feel like a given.

00:13:00
Speaker 2: You're you're a coach, be a leader, Act like a leader. You're a leader of young men. They're looking up to you. They see you act like that, They're going to act like that.

00:13:08
Speaker 5: And then I don't understand our team. I really don't. Colin Chandler looks scared to death. Denzel Aberdeen, you sit there and go, what does he bring? And how did that happen? I mean he was on a national championship team last year. Yeah, so he's clearly good. Diabate is yelling at everybody throughout the game.

00:13:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, how does Cam Williams not play hardy at all? If he just had eight out of ten time?

00:13:35
Speaker 5: How do you not play Cam Williams? How many threes does a man have to hit to get time?

00:13:39
Speaker 2: Eight out of ten in the last game out he didn't get in to play like what six minutes in the first half.

00:13:44
Speaker 5: I mean, I sit and look at it. I don't know what if Jayalen Lowe had not come back, they'd gotten be by forty. I mean, would we score thirty five points a game? I'd be pushing it so, I mean they have a big week now. Missouri looked at the beginning of the year like, Okay, that's easy. They beat Florida's beat Florida, and they're coming in here Wednesday, and you cannot lose.

00:14:04
Speaker 2: No, you have to win these two.

00:14:05
Speaker 5: You have to win these two home games coming back to back. Have to So I don't know if I'm nine, two eighth, twenty two eighty seven, welcome back? Uh. Somebody wrote, are we gonna have to start calling him Mark Mope? I mean, after these games.

00:14:20
Speaker 2: There's a little Mope be a leader man.

00:14:23
Speaker 5: Am I wrong? Shannon? Is that unfair? No?

00:14:26
Speaker 4: It's not.

00:14:27
Speaker 3: And it all seems like it started with that Louisville game and ever since then when they've lost that lot man.

00:14:32
Speaker 5: More than what we're very Can you ask one of your Instagram people.

00:14:37
Speaker 3: Can you get Mark Pope some inspirational quotes Mario inspirational?

00:14:42
Speaker 5: Get him a Jack Handy quote or something from Saturday Night Live. Be right back.

00:14:49
Speaker 6: Oh if I'm not eighth, the podcast has the music in the podcast, He'll be great.

00:15:03
Speaker 5: He's gonna be me making mowning noise.

00:15:05
Speaker 3: This hall gloomed to sparing agony.

00:15:08
Speaker 5: Where it makes sense if you do it. But again, no, let's see, I've been off. You forget a while, and I forget all right if I'm nine twenty two eighty seven. We do have some breaking news.

00:15:22
Speaker 4: Oh okay, running on.

00:15:24
Speaker 5: A Baylor center Coleton Price has committed to Kentucky. Uh, it's part from the transfer portal. Just so people know. Center is not a sexy position, but as play will tell you, it's important on the offensive line. This is probably the biggest kit Kentucky's gotten so far. He started thirty three straight games for Baylor, all Big twelve. He'll be the center for the off for the UK offensive line next year. This was a priority. Apparently. I've been told for will Stein, his center does a lot of the work snap and they wanted this guy and they got him. So that's great.

00:16:03
Speaker 2: You lose all five your offensive lineman, are you okay? Got a little frog on my throat. I haven't talked all weekend. You know you haven't been around.

00:16:10
Speaker 5: You lost all talk in your private life.

00:16:11
Speaker 2: I don't I just sit and watch study, do game show prep.

00:16:15
Speaker 7: Game show prep. Price is right, Yeah, I do this game? What is game show prep? Game and show preps?

00:16:23
Speaker 5: He does game show prep. Sounds like it. All right?

00:16:26
Speaker 2: Anyway, go ahead, they lose all five offensive linemen. You have to start with somebody you can kind of build around. I think this is that guy. I think they went out and got this guy and now they can kind of build around, get their guards, get their tackles.

00:16:37
Speaker 5: That's so, that's that is a big get. Well, we'll update the portal just in general. But that just happened here this morning. KSR breaks it congrants to Jacob pull a check on that. All right, so back for a second. Why doesn't Jay when low start?

00:16:52
Speaker 2: I don't have an answer for you. I mean, you wait until you're down to bring him in? What second half? Like you put it out, there's a minute and a half into the second half, then you bring him.

00:17:00
Speaker 5: That one makes no sense to me. I mean his reasoning for doing it is he says, well the analytics say or we bought no analytics says, don't play for a minute in twenty five seconds and then put and then put him in. What analytic is going to say that there is none?

00:17:15
Speaker 2: There is none? You got He's your only offensive three, he's your best player. He needs to be on the floor as much as possible.

00:17:20
Speaker 5: I always when Kyle did it with Reid and Rob it was stubbornness or maybe promising DJ to Justin that they would start. What is this, like, I'm.

00:17:31
Speaker 2: Seriously, I don't have an answer for you. I don't.

00:17:34
Speaker 5: It makes no sense to me. Like I can understand the argument for quaintance while he's trying to get back he hasn't played, but Jayn Lowe is out there, probably shouldn't be playing, and he's playing to try to help your team. Yep, why not just I mean, he can get hurt in at any moment, so why not just put him in at the start?

00:17:52
Speaker 3: Might as well because they gave up nine straight at the very beginning, in the first five minutes of the game went you know.

00:17:58
Speaker 5: They were up five to nothing, and then they gave up no, Nine straight points and then they put him in. By the way, somebody pointed out, Jaleno's played against four good teams this year. When he's checked in the game, we've been losing all four times.

00:18:10
Speaker 2: That's a pattern.

00:18:11
Speaker 5: Why would you do that?

00:18:12
Speaker 2: I don't know.

00:18:13
Speaker 5: And the stats, these stats are so awful. Somebody gave him the postgame show thirty four games against Power Conference teams. Since Pope's been here, We've been down double digits in seventeen of the thirty four half. We've been down twenty in eight of the thirty four games.

00:18:33
Speaker 2: And five of them are this year.

00:18:35
Speaker 5: One fourth of the times we've played someone from a major conference, one out of four we've been down twenty in the game.

00:18:44
Speaker 3: That is not Kentucky basketball that way, That is not Kentucky basket.

00:18:48
Speaker 5: And I'm not Look, I'm not giving up on Pope. Some people are, I'm not. I still believe he can do it. I still think there's almost nothing that could happen this year with it would tell me he shouldn't come back next year and give it a run. I think last year was actually successful. I will note, however, through his first fifty games, it's coach of Kentucky. He has the same record Billy.

00:19:13
Speaker 2: Gilespie Yeah, thirty three and fifty seventeen, right, exact same record, Billy. I was saying, through the first fifty games.

00:19:19
Speaker 5: That's troubling. Yep, I think that's I don't It is not crazy to say that's not good.

00:19:29
Speaker 2: And you know you just pointed out the Jalen Lowe. You've pointed out to Cam Williams, these two guys that you know, you think can help you in a situation, because when you start the game with Aberdeen and your point guard, you're getting down every single time. He's just not a point guard. You need Jalen Low out there to kind of run the offense for you.

00:19:44
Speaker 5: He does have confidence, though, shit, he believes.

00:19:46
Speaker 2: I'm Billy confident a little too much.

00:19:49
Speaker 5: He's like Billy in a bar full of models.

00:19:52
Speaker 2: Huh. Yep.

00:19:53
Speaker 5: He thinks he's getting it all.

00:19:54
Speaker 2: He thinks he's the number one option. He's going to show you.

00:19:58
Speaker 5: Let's go to Justin, Go ahead, Justin.

00:20:01
Speaker 8: Hey, there's a lot of stuff that I was going to say y'all talked about, but a lot of the stuff that Pope like he's a smart guy, but like the common sense stuff that think he looks past, like for example, going underpicks, like at some point you got to know to force them into the lane so they don't shoot wide open threes and then don't help. And then Cam Williams to me, would be built to play more in this game because he can switch yes, basically one through four, and yeah, somehow he don't play and I don't know.

00:20:36
Speaker 5: I don't understand that You're exactly right. Cam would be the perfect person for this. I appreciate the call. I mean, listen, there is when you play Jalen low you're going to have a defensive issue, so you need to make up for it by having long guys around them. Although I would argue we were so bad Saturday, Jalen Lowe's defensive issues don't even matter because everybody has a defensive issue. You're right right, None of we had no one that could guard anybody. No, probably the only guy that played pretty good defense was our way on file On. Yeah, that's the other thing. Alabama was out there without think about this. Huh. They beat us like that. They're two big guys starting big guys didn't even really play. One of them was out the whole game. One of them got out five minutes in. Yeah, and Filon had two points at halftime and we were still getting crushed.

00:21:24
Speaker 2: You tell me before the game, you hold Filon like that and their big guy has to see out cause they got hurt. You got a good chance to win that game and still did not matter at.

00:21:30
Speaker 5: All, didn't It weren't even competitive?

00:21:32
Speaker 2: No, they brought off that seven foot off the bench who has a career game against us.

00:21:36
Speaker 5: They just find people on the street and we give them wide open shots.

00:21:39
Speaker 3: The play when Alabama was up the free throw line and then they get the offensive rebound and then throw it out door, wide open.

00:21:46
Speaker 4: Three, and you give up a three off of a free throw.

00:21:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, summed up the entire game, it did.

00:21:50
Speaker 5: You're exactly right, Joe, go ahead, Joe.

00:21:55
Speaker 9: Yeah, man, I think you said it last year playing Alabama, and obviously we were a lot back of last year. But you know the thing with Alabama is they do everything we want to do, or we told we're gonna do pot yes better.

00:22:10
Speaker 5: But I mean Alabama, no, alab Joe, You're with Alabama is what I thought we were getting, didn't you? Isn't that what you? I thought? That's what Mark was gonna do.

00:22:21
Speaker 9: He said he built this team to compensate for what happened against Alabama, and we we couldn't looked worse on the offensive end or the defensive end.

00:22:32
Speaker 5: Alabama, I appreciates, called Joe Alabama under natoats. It's what I thought Mark Pope basketball was.

00:22:40
Speaker 2: Gonna be not even close yet, But.

00:22:42
Speaker 5: I mean, didn't that what you think? Spread the floor. Everybody could shoot, share the ball, find your moments. You give up points, but you know what, it's okay because you can score a lot and we're not even close to them, and we're not even competitive with that. Right now, we'll take a break. Right back. It's KISR. TJ. Smith, personal injury attorney called TJ. He'll make them pay.

00:23:08
Speaker 3: Now more of Kentucky Sports Radio present it by Stockton Mortgage.

00:23:11
Speaker 4: Here's Matt Jones.

00:23:13
Speaker 5: All right, Shannon, this is my new Uh. I don't want to say favorite song, but one of them, and I'm like, I really like this artist. Just listen to this chorus. All right, it's called Gary. What do you think it's It's not bad.

00:23:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm kind of surprised you like it though.

00:23:29
Speaker 5: I like it. It's like he calls himself half country, half grunge. He has a version of that song Hunger Strike. Shannon, play that at the next brok. Yeah, you know for a Temple of the Dog.

00:23:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's got to cover for that.

00:23:43
Speaker 5: Okay. I really like this guy. Now. I know, like some of these modern country people that don't like him, but I've listened to a lot of his album and it's all about like the decline of rural America. And I think it's really good. Named Stephen Wilson. If you look at him, he looks like he's from the Hollers.

00:24:00
Speaker 3: Any song that's got the line they got the same nicotine pouring out their pores exactly.

00:24:05
Speaker 5: That's a great lie. And he says his point is there's not a lot of people named Gary these days, because Gary is a dude in your town who would like fix everything. Yeah, and that's true. That give me the youngest person you can think of named Gary.

00:24:18
Speaker 2: Well, my dad's Gary.

00:24:20
Speaker 5: Not you give me somebody under forty named Gary.

00:24:26
Speaker 2: No, my childhood best friend was Gary.

00:24:27
Speaker 5: Also not young. Stop acting like you're young. Anyone under forty? Can you, all right? Anyone under forty named Debbie?

00:24:36
Speaker 4: Hmmm?

00:24:38
Speaker 5: His point is small towns used to be filled with Gary's that would fix your car and stuff, Debbies that would do your hair. Yep, But we're at it like those people don't like our economies taking those people away.

00:24:50
Speaker 2: We needed some more Gary.

00:24:51
Speaker 5: What is this world's better with Gary's? If we need more Gary, we don't have any more Garys. Would you name your kid Gary? Now? No, would you name your kid Debbie.

00:24:59
Speaker 4: Now no, does that it be called the pre show a few minutes ago?

00:25:03
Speaker 3: It's funny that you said, well, no, no, but I bet she was over forty probably yeah, hope.

00:25:08
Speaker 5: So what about all your Atlanta cool guys, Any Gary's, any Debbies?

00:25:13
Speaker 2: Every Gary I can think of is over forty.

00:25:16
Speaker 5: We just at some point collectively decided we're not using that name any.

00:25:19
Speaker 2: But it's not a like an you're thinking like, It's.

00:25:22
Speaker 5: Not like Ophelia, yeah, or Oga.

00:25:24
Speaker 2: It's just a name that just kind of just goes away.

00:25:27
Speaker 5: So I like that song, and I like him so far. Now I saw he did a song with Hardy Shannon that almost made me say I didn't like him anymore. I think now, I think he did a song with Shaboozie too, and I didn't like that. But he has a song of like grunge covers, and then I do like that song. All right?

00:25:44
Speaker 4: Well his name again?

00:25:46
Speaker 9: Uh?

00:25:46
Speaker 5: Steven Wilson Junior okay A five nine two eighth twenty two eighty seven. What person writes, Matt, What all your callers are saying is Mark Boat just needs common sense. He plays like a smart guy who's never actually watched a game. However, Jalen Mo should play forty minutes, take Oway should play forty minutes, and a lot of guys we play shouldn't play at all. Do you agree with that?

00:26:09
Speaker 2: I do agree with some of that. He goes by the analytics where you know you make these substitute and these mass substitutions. Midway through the first half, you try to rest your legs so you're ready to be into the game.

00:26:19
Speaker 5: The most time we rest our legs, we're down fifteen.

00:26:21
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter how our legs are.

00:26:23
Speaker 2: It's too late. You got to play your best players. You can't afford to get down twenty again in the first half.

00:26:31
Speaker 5: Healthy though, for that second half when we're down twenty, yeah, healthy legs.

00:26:34
Speaker 2: So it is now out of the six, Like Power five teams, we've been down by twenty in the first half four four of the six games.

00:26:41
Speaker 5: For it's seven four of the seven.

00:26:42
Speaker 2: That's how can that be?

00:26:44
Speaker 4: Man?

00:26:44
Speaker 2: You're we're better than that. I think we're better than that.

00:26:47
Speaker 5: I don't know if we're good, but we're not as bad as we're playing.

00:26:50
Speaker 2: Agree.

00:26:50
Speaker 5: So what I would say is I think our roster build, I thought this team could make a final four I think our roster mistakes have made it to where that's not gonna happen. That's on the building of the roster. But losing these games and getting blown out is on the coaches. Yeah, that's the way I look at it. Maybe not being elite is on your decisions on who's on the team. But we should be better than we are. There's no excuse the way they're playing. There's just not Roy.

00:27:20
Speaker 10: Go ahead, Roy, I can take them right quick. Well I'm here. Uh, will Stein don't have to show those people his dream. All they gotta do is watch Oregon play and that shows them. Now. I got a comment about Mark Pope. If he doesn't win too many games, the money people will get tired of him and buy him out. They bought out Stoops down Punts, and we'll come back and make your Kentucky fans happy. We're not happy. I'll get off your listens to appreciate it.

00:27:58
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean they're not gonna I don't. I don't see a scenario Popes not to coach next year. But I will say this, the thing that made Billy Gillespie not be the coach after two years was other stuff besides losing Mark's not anywhere close to that stuff. But I don't understand these interviews. The thing that Mark had going for him was that.

00:28:17
Speaker 7: You know, personaal charismatic exactly, Tom, So what did you tell your team in the locker room?

00:28:24
Speaker 5: A lot of things like, that's just a rude answer, Shane. And that's just a rude answer, period. That's it. I don't there's no there's nothing you can say to me that doesn't say that's rude. And then the second thing, Uh, what is it you need to improve on for the next game. That's a long list. That's rude. That is just rude. It's rude to Tom. It's also rude to the Kentucky fans. They're sitting there listening to you, saying, hey, coach, make us feel better about this, and you don't get to then hide in a hole. Let me let me give you an example. If your govern I nerve Kentucky. You may have a bad day. Okay, you may be mad about something, but then if something happens that's important, you gotta suck it up and you gotta talk about it. Yep, that's the job. This is not nearly as important as that, but it's the same thing. You play thirty one games a year. Mark, that's it, thirty one thirty one times a year. You gotta look in that mirror, take a deep breath and talk. That's not too much to ask for five point six million dollars a year. And I know you're upset. You lost. We're upset, but you owe it. You gotta talk. That's that's the deal. And I said this after the game, and I mean it. Go look at the coaches when things have gone down. You can always tell when things are falling apart by how they act after the games. When things got bad for Tubby what used to happen on his calling show. He stopped taking call stopped taking calls, and former players would come in.

00:30:05
Speaker 2: Uh huh.

00:30:06
Speaker 5: That's kind of how you knew that Tubby air was coming to it. What happened at the end of the Billy era? After games he started being a jerk to people. Yeah, he started saying, I'm not an ambassador for Kentucky, right. Janine Edwards and Jerry Tipton interviews You saw, yep, this is in the University of Jody Meeks. What happened to the end of colire He just started skipping didn't even do it. He just started walking out and saying, I ain't doing it now. I don't think we're at the end of the Pope, Ara, I don't think of that. But this the pattern of when things start getting bad in the postgame interviews, it starts to be a pattern. Ryan, How could you not see that right here?

00:30:51
Speaker 2: You know, just what you just laid out is very similar to what we've gone through. You know, in life you face adversity, how you handle adversity, how you dictates your legacy, and the way he's handling it right now. Like I said earlier, why would guys want to come play for a coach that acts like a little baby.

00:31:06
Speaker 5: I mean, it's it's it's It sounds bad to say, but Shannon mark Mope is a good I actually think before the season you called him accidentally, Ryan park Mope did. But maybe you.

00:31:19
Speaker 2: Right now, I don't want it to fit. I don't want this to be the situation where he is that.

00:31:25
Speaker 3: We said we want our coach to hurt and to feel that. I do, but but but it's on a different level. I feel like, but you.

00:31:32
Speaker 5: Don't get to do that right Like, you know, if you have a family member in the hospital. You're very sad. You might want to go out and cry, but you got to be strong for that family member in the right. They need you to be the strong one, right. Be sad in your own time, you know, but be strong for the person sitting there.

00:32:01
Speaker 2: Even be strong for the rest of your family that's sitting there.

00:32:03
Speaker 5: That's exactly right now. This isn't nearly as serious as that. But you are the one that has to be strong. Your players might be sad, they're kids, Fans might be sad, but you have to get up there and do the thing.

00:32:21
Speaker 2: And to all people. Do it with Tom Leach with the most nicest, yes, most professional.

00:32:26
Speaker 5: To the occasion. That's a phrase my mom used to use, and it's true. It's very true. Rise to the occasion. Don't let aches and pains following you to the new year, Start twenty twenty six. Strong Court Physical therapy can help you get back to what you love. Whether you want to get back in the gym, pick up a new sport, or just be able to get around easier. A physical therapist from Court can can help you do so pain free. With over seventy locations across Kentucky, chances are there's a court near you. Visit KRT dot com for the closest center or calling book an appointment online. Today it's court dot com. We're gonna talk a little portal when we come back. Also, we'll take your calls, but we're gonna talk about cutter lab to all this that's next here. I kaa song Welcome back, take you Sports Radio. So I love this song when it originally came out, didn't you Yeah?

00:33:09
Speaker 4: I like this cover too.

00:33:10
Speaker 5: I think this is a great cover. I listened to it on my plane ride yesterday. This is like one of the most underrated ninety songs in my opinion. Right, I don't mind stealing bread from the mouths of decadence, but I what is it? Don't want to steal from people with nobody. I don't remember what the second one that I don't mind seeing miles of decadades, but I well, if I wasn't on the radio, we get it. But I think this is a great cover, don't you?

00:33:40
Speaker 3: Oh yeah yeah. I haven't heard many people cover this song, so it's a hard.

00:33:43
Speaker 5: Song to cover. Do you sing it? This sounds like the kind of thing you would.

00:33:45
Speaker 3: Sing anything that's Chris Cornell, I'm probably not gonna sing it.

00:33:49
Speaker 5: You just think you can't get it.

00:33:50
Speaker 4: Well, his range is crazy, Yeah, so yeah, probably what.

00:33:53
Speaker 2: Is he gonna be a real bird? Who is Stephen Wilson Junior?

00:33:56
Speaker 5: Well, if he is, i'mgoing that that can get me to real bird.

00:33:59
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:34:00
Speaker 5: I wanted to go like, he's got shows for the next three months, all all sold out because they're all in like smaller venues.

00:34:06
Speaker 2: I like this one better than the Gary song, well because you've heard it before, because this is like an older song.

00:34:11
Speaker 5: He if I'm nine two eight h twenty two eighty seven, one person says. Mark Pope says that the guys hit a wall two and a half minutes in, and that's why he subs out two and a half minutes in and we hit a wall? What is this hockey?

00:34:25
Speaker 2: Do other teams just magically not hit a wall two and a half minutes in.

00:34:29
Speaker 3: That goes back to conditioning, which I did not think would be a problem at all.

00:34:32
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean he comes Patino school of conditioning. All right, let's talk football. Cutter Bowley transfers. Were you upset?

00:34:39
Speaker 2: I was? I hated to see it go. I mean I kind of understand, but I hated to see it because I thought he could be a really good quarterback here and kind of help us build for the future.

00:34:47
Speaker 5: So here's what I was told about what happened with Cutter Bowley. He was offered basically numbers. To me, when I see numbers, you know my view, I think they're all exaggerated. Yeah, I think they're closer to the truth now than they were a few years ago, because you have rev share, right, But the thing you have to remember is we evaluate this stuff. We're under a salary cap. Basically, basically you're getting seventeen eighteen, nineteen million dollars. So not only when you're talking about numbers. The only way you can go over that is if you're in ale will raise money for guys. So I think will Stein looks at this roster. I don't think. I know. I've talked to some folks around the program. They look at this roster and they say, well, there's a lot of stuff we got to get this year, and we also have to build for the future. And that Cutter bowl Ley they thought was good, but he wasn't good enough to give a huge percentage of the salary cap, right, right, so they basically Cutter probably wanted. Was told Cutter got offered two two and a half million dollars in Arizona State, Kentucky, I think was willing to offer him a million. Cutter base said can you get it closer? And they said no, and that was that.

00:36:06
Speaker 2: Couldn't get closer. And they're going to bring in other quarterbacks to compet.

00:36:09
Speaker 5: And they were going to bring in somebody else. Yeah, So that combination, I think they may be thought, we want to spend that on two guys. If you're going to be one of them. Yes, I can see why Cutter would say, I want to be the guy. Yeah, But if will Stein doesn't want him to be the guy, will Stein should get to pick his quarterback, don't you think.

00:36:30
Speaker 2: I think he's proven that he can is a good developer of quality quarterbacks. So if he's got somebody his eye on somebody, you can't argue against that, I don't think. So.

00:36:40
Speaker 7: I hate to see Cutter god to but.

00:36:44
Speaker 5: But I understand.

00:36:45
Speaker 2: I understand. I hate it, but I understand.

00:36:47
Speaker 5: All right. So now, then Sam Levitt the number one quarterback in the portal. They had to load their visits. So I want to make sure, as people sort of evaluate the portal. We had a ton of good guys come the first day. I think there's a sense that because those dudes haven't committed yet, some people are like, oh, will Stein failed. No, he may or may not get those guys. But they all came the first day because it was the only time will Stein could do it because he's got to go back to Oregon. Correct, So normally these visits would be spaced out over two weeks. He couldn't do that. Didn't do it. He had to do it at first because he's got to go put Now that's the bummer of having a coach who's still in the playoffs. But that's why it happened. Yeah, so they're not losing. They just had to do this immediately. They didn't have a choice. They basically took their top choices and said you gotta come right now. Other people will wait on will you can you come right now? We'd like ten of you right now, and like four of those guys have already committed.

00:37:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had a pretty good success rate at it.

00:37:46
Speaker 5: They actually have had a great success rate. They brought in I think twelve or thirteen guys, and four of them have committed and they still expect they'll get a couple more. So that's pretty good success rate. Now, quarterbacks the most important thing. Sam Levitt comes. Here's what I'm told on Sam Levitt. I think this is good information. Okay. They sam Levitt has expressed to them he wanted to play for Willstein. They have said to him, we want you to be here. It was between Kentucky and Texas Tech. I think he comes here. If it's Kentucky and Texas Tech. Texas Tech was offering twice as much money. He was still giving indications he would come here, but he did want to wait and see what the market gives. LSU does not get their top choice. LSU's waiting to see if someone gets in the portal. I've been told it's Ty Simpson, that God Alabama. Until then LSU says, all right, sam Levitt, now you come here, and so now LSU wall for more money because they are better in Aisle than we do. And it's LSU and it's Lane Kiffin. Kentucky still thinks they have a very good shot at him. He's visiting LSU today. We might lose him. I would understand if we lost him. Its Lane Kiffin. It's LSU, and they will offer him more money. Yeah, But the fact that we're even in that, the fact we're even in the contest when we've been terrible the last couple of years. A new quarterback, a new coach who's never coached before, and that's Lane Kiffin at LSU. Ryan, I'm kind of amazed, and they're offering more money. I'm kind of amazed we're even in the conversation, aren't you. Yeah.

00:39:33
Speaker 2: I think Levitt just wanted to play for will Stein, had Stein develop him as a quarterback more than anything. Look what he did with bon Nix, and these guys are Dante morning.

00:39:41
Speaker 5: Understand if he takes the LSU get.

00:39:43
Speaker 2: There's maybe just a couple other coaches he might pick over will Stein at this point, and Lane Kiffin would be one of them.

00:39:49
Speaker 5: And if if Ty Simpson enters, the portal might be different. Yes, the chamblist kid at Old Miss re signed with Old Miss. I saw that this morning, So that's an option. I think as she was interested in that goes away.

00:40:02
Speaker 2: So Levitt did cancel his visit to Tech.

00:40:05
Speaker 5: He did. I think if it was all, if it was going to be Kentucky and Texas Tech. Kentucky was going to get him, but now it's Kentucky and LSU and we'll see. Let me also say they have backup options. I've been told they have two, one of which they feel really good about. But they specifically told me we we can't know what we can't you can't know. So there's an assumption sometimes that people go move on to the next guy. They got it, they knew there was a possibility they can lose this kid. But I, by the way, I will say, I don't think they've given up on him.

00:40:42
Speaker 2: So it is the reports that the visit with Levitt here it went really well.

00:40:47
Speaker 5: He was here until he was here from Friday night till Sunday morning, throughout Sunday morning, including stayne after Stein left. Stein already gone back to Oregon. He's stayed. So I think he loved it. But also you could understand if I'm offered a better program with a coach that has more pedigree and more money.

00:41:10
Speaker 2: Be tough to turn that down.

00:41:11
Speaker 5: It's tough to turn that down. I will say this though, if he does turn it down, then that means Will Stein's a heck of a sales guy. If you can turn to get him to turn down better program, better pedigree, and more money.

00:41:24
Speaker 2: More money that would be pretty amazing. Tells you what Filevitt thinks of will Stein as a coach.

00:41:30
Speaker 5: I've said this, I feel good about where things are set up for next year, but when it comes to we'll have to see about coaching. I've not seen him coach, but for program building, I've gotten a sense this weekend of how they're doing stuff. Remember how how much we complained about unorganized the other group was, Yeah, this is the exact opposite. We're running it like a pro franchise now, which I like a lot. We'll take a break, come back number two K. Sorry,