KSR - 2024-03-18- KSR - Hour 1

Episode Date: March 18, 2024

Matt, Ryan, Drew, and Shannon talk NCAA Tournament, SEC Tournament, and everything from the weekend.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories,

their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Clivert Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, Hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out.

Quarterback on office blue 42. A rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifferts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Comedy of Broadway in Lexington welcomes Ian Bagg.

March 7th through the 9th. Then catch J.P. Sears March 14th through the 16th. And don't miss Jeffrey Osmus. March 22nd and 23rd. Comedy of Broadway opened in downtown Lexington in 1987. And they're still bringing the best and stand-up comedy to the area 37 years later. Call 859271 joke or visit Comedy OffBroadway.com.

This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now here's Matt Jones. Welcome, everyone. It is Kentucky Sports Radio. I am Matt Jones live in Bristol, Connecticut at the ESPN headquarters, where I'm staring at a massive picture of Dickie Vitale's face, looking right at me on a big head. And Ryan is in Lexington. Shannon is in Louisville.

You can give a shout on the Clark's Puppet Shop phone line. That's 859-2-80-2287. A-Vision Auto Glass text machine is 772-744. And this is sponsored by the T.J. Smith Law Office. If you call T.J. He'll make them pay. Ryan, I'm on the campus of ESPN television radio. I was in the cafeteria.

I'm going to go down to the store and see if I could get you an ill-fitting t-shirt. It's a fun day here in Connecticut. Well, I know it was a big day for you. I'm anxious to hear how it all played out with you getting the brackets early and everything and the draw. But I also want to tell you that our son Drew is also here today. I do five days a week now, Matt. Don't forget. That's right.

I forgot about that. My fault. Is he a lick? Can we turn him down just a little bit, Shannon? Sure. Ryan. Drew's fine. I'm good with 859-280-2287.

The bracket is out. There's a lot that's going on. You got the SEC tournament. Who's breathing? Shannon, do you hear that? I did. My mic is off or was off. I think that somebody there and somebody knows breathing.

But 859-280-2287. The bracket is out. Kentucky lost Friday night to A&M in, well, so the question is, how much do we want to talk about that and how much we can talk about the bracket? I've generally taken the view that we should look at the bracket because the bracket is the thing that's to come. and in that respect, it is about as good a news as I would think Ryan Lemon you could get

with the game against Oakland. Your six seat is Texas Tech. Your two seat is Marquette. If you're Kentucky getting a three, getting that draw, I'm not sure you could be much happier. Yeah, there better not be too many Kentucky fans complain about the draw they got. I mean, come on, really, after the way the season ended against Texas A&M to get a three-seat and to get that bracket. I mean, there's really not anything I can really complain about when Marquette is your two and Houston's your one and they both look beatable to me.

Yeah, so I was sitting here. I had some time to kill before the bracket show last night, Drew, and I was looking at where I thought everything would be. Joe Lenardi was unbelievably accurate. He got all 16 of the top seeds. And essentially, he got everything exactly as it was, except he kind of flipped us in Auburn. He thought Auburn would be a three and we would be.

a four. It ends up being we're a three, they're a four. If we had been a three, we would, excuse me, a four, we would have been with Yukon, which would have been awful. Instead, we're a three with Marquette as our two. Drew, I mean, you can't get better luck, I don't think, in terms of how the draw is going. No, not at all. Usually Kentucky fans, even Cal himself, we'll find a reason to complain after the bracket comes out, even if we don't really have a reason. We complain, but not yesterday. There was no reason to complain about that whatsoever. when they started revealing the East and it got to that four slot with Spokane and they had already shown Yukon as the one, I was a wreck in my house. And then they put Auburn in that spot and then it all felt like good news from there.

Auburn ended up having what happened to them be what I thought could happen to us if there were upsets, which is they ended up winning the SEC tournament, but they didn't get really Ryan quality wins by winning. Okay. So because of upsets, they didn't end up beating Tennessee. they ended up beating Mississippi State. They didn't end up beating Alabama or Kentucky. They ended up beating Florida. So even though they won all those games,

I'm not sure it helped them a lot. And then I guess if it was a tiebreaker between us and them, we beat them during the regular season on their court. So I actually think probably that last three seed probably came down to us in Auburn. And then we got it. And because of what we had done, during the regular season. And then Duke was the highest four seed.

I don't think they are a scary four seed. So I really think to me, it's not, I mean, March is, we've talked all year about how March is going to be the deciding factor for this team and for a lot of things in the program. I don't think anybody could look at that and go, all right, we can win, we can't win this. So now it's just a matter of getting through that regional. We get to play in Pittsburgh instead of Spokane.

I mean, thank goodness, however the community viewed us ahead of all, and thank goodness they did it. Yeah, Pittsburgh, a short drive. We've talked about five hours for some students. I mean, Kentucky fans, six hours for a lot of people. That's a short, easy drive to make. I was shocked, to be honest. I thought that loss to Texas A&M in the SEC tournament was really going to doom us,

drop us to a four in like Yukon's brack. I just kind of conceded that's the way it's going to happen. I think that's exactly what I, you go look at Auburn's draw. That's almost exactly what I thought our draw was going to be. I thought we were going to play San Diego State in a second. round and then Yukon, go to Spokane, go to Boston, and it was like for the first time we ended up with the best draw you could get. Shocking.

I mean, I was really, I was like Drew when they would do the east region first and that four seat was getting ready to come out for Spokane. I thought that's it. You guys are headed to Spokane. I mean, it was just like it was obviously there. So like you've talked about before in the past month or so, it not necessarily the number of wins, it's who did you beat? Well, so we had the.

on the ESPN radio show, we had the committee chair. And he said, it was funny, Shannon, he acknowledged that you can never guess what they do because the committee just changes every time. No, I mean, he said that. He was like, so they have, if you got to listen to it, I went into detail with how they picked the teams because it's always fascinated me and I've always thought it was wildly inconsistent. And he basically said, look, every year we get a different set of committee members.

and we give them 12 criteria, but it's up to each committee member what they decide is the criteria that matters. Shannon, that seems like a ridiculous thing to me because you have no idea what they're going to pick. But he said this year, what mattered to them the most was road victories. Okay. Now, it may not be like that all the time, but what mattered to them this year is road victories. And if you think about it, if that's what it was, we won at Auburn, we won at. Tennessee and we won a neutral court game against North Carolina and none of the other teams had better road resumes than us, Shannon. So that's what put us in, even though we had no idea that's

what it would be what it is. I'm glad it worked out in Kentucky's favor this time, but they've got to clean up that like they got to have a hierarchy into what matters the most for everybody. Just saying, well, whatever you think matters the most is what you can pick. That doesn't seem like a good way to do it. He said they take the 12 members, Drew, and each person gets to decide what it is matters to them. And that just seems like if I didn't make the tournament, that would seem like an utterly bizarre way to do it. But that is exactly what he said yesterday. And you think they'd have a little more consistency or try to even bringing in new people every year. But really, as you mentioned, I'm glad they did it the way they did this year with all those road wins. Don't forget, Florida,

who is in our part of the bracket, also had a road win there too. So I was another one adding to their resume and getting them to see they wanted. Yeah, that's right. They did win it, Florida. So you have also Florida on our side of the bracket, which you don't want these circumstances, but a big injury yesterday to a team you might end up facing. I actually think that's going to, they, I don't think they're going to get through that. But if they do, that was a major injury. They had a very, that was, I don't know how many people saw it, but that was a gruesome one as well. So they play against Oakland.

What do we know about Oakland? All right. So here's what, here are the only things I know about Oakland. Oakland is in, is in Detroit, Michigan. They have what they call the Oakland Zoo, Shannon. Do you know about the Oakland Zoo? Is this the fans behind the basket during the free throws? We talked about them, right?

We talked about them during the season. The Oakland Zoo, that was the group of fans that one of the students got a tattooed during the game. He got a tattoo during the game. If you look up the Oakland Zoo, and I'm sure they'll be at the game in Pittsburgh, their students like do crazy stuff, Ryan, during the game. They get their hair, one guy got his hair shaved. Yep. They wear Speedos.

one of them got a tattoo during the game. And I'm sure when they're playing Kentucky in the NCAA tournament, they will do something equally ridiculous in Pittsburgh. That's the only thing probably most of us know about Oakland basketball this year is that they're their fan base. And I do hope that group of guys and those, that family shows up and they do some crazy stuff while Kentucky's theirs because that'll be a lot of fun. Do you think they're going to be allowed to do that? Like, can you do that at the NCAA tournament?

What are you going to do? I mean, you think they're going to ban tattoos at the NCAA tournament? No, as long as you put the hair on. a power a cup when you're finished with it that's all that matters i don't i mean i don't know what you can do to stop it i feel like you have to uh they're they're in the what are they in you know we did fade this and they're the horizon league that's exactly right they're in the horizon league um do you know anything else about them drew i was a very late last night learning about them uh they've won eight of nine games their coach has been there 40 years he's turned down several other jobs

He's the 11th all-time winning his coach in college basketball and the second longest tenured coach at one school. So we are running into a big coaching match up there. He'll be tough going against. They also have their own Reed Shepard. Their star player, Trey Townsend, both of his players play, both of his parents played basketball at Oakland. Yeah, he's a lifer at Oakland.

Yeah, and he just had 38 in their Horizon League championship. He did. He's a shooter. Oakland has one player I saw. And this better be. and the scouting report. Their third leading score, Ryan, shoots 97% of his attempts are threes. He's only taking six shots this year inside the three point line. Wow. All right. So when that guy's out there, stay with him on the three point line and make him beat you on

the drive, right? I think that's an easy fix on the scouting report. Yeah, do not leave him out on the perimeter for sure. I did say he scored over 100 points a couple times this year, played northern Kentucky a couple times this year. But so there may be a team that maybe, I think the average like seven, oh, in the high 70s, the team that maybe we match up with pretty well. This is another thing that if you just sit and look at the draw, you got a team in the first round that plays the way you want to play. Yeah.

You got a team in Marquette as your two seed that plays the way you want to play. Now, in the second round, Texas Tech and NC State, they don't play like that. So if you're sitting there going, okay, well, what's what's the game that would, worry you a little bit, maybe that would be it. But, you know, we talked a lot throughout the year about, well, what do you expect this team to do? And I'm interested what the three of you say. I kind of was of the belief, look, if we get a four seat in Yukon's bracket, that's

going to stink. And if we lost to Yukon, I'm just going to say we got to have a better regular season. Well, we end up getting a three seat. You look at this bracket. Drew, I look at it and say, this team needs to go to the elite eight. I mean, in that bracket, with this talent, they're better than all of these teams. I'm going to be disappointed if we don't find our way to the elite eight at least. I was already going to be disappointed before I got the bracket.

And now that I have the bracket, there's no reason they shouldn't be in the elite eight. There were a few matchups you could get early on or get a big physical team and you worry something might happen. But with what's in front of them right now, they need to be in the elite eight at the least. Yeah, I mean, you're in Pittsburgh where you can get a, good crowd. You would go to Dallas where you could get a good crowd. You have, you have a home court edge in Pittsburgh. I don't know if you're going to have a home court edge in Dallas, especially if you play Houston and the elite eight, but if you were to play Marquette, you should have a home court edge. I mean, to me, you couldn't ask for a better setup. Now, Ryan, if you're built for

March, you go get yourself to the elite eight. You know, we did the post game show after the Texas stadium loss. Everybody was down. But we both said it all is going to depend on the draw on our expectations for the NCAA tournament. And after you look at that draw, you do, I think a lot of us, me included, feel good about the team's run. Their chances to make a big run now because it is there for the taking. So it's there for the taking. That is the way I would put it.

This tournament, or at least the first three games, are there for the taking. So now it's a matter of going and doing it. And I think there's going to be a lot of pressure, but I think the pressure is different now. I think the pressure is now you have the expectation to win, and now you just got to go do it. 859-280-2287. We are going to talk about the bracket. Also, I do want to go over the SEC tournament. I just got a text that I have to counter Shannon already in segment two.

There's a text I already have to say is wrong, but we'll deal with that next. We are here. I'm here at Bristol. The guys are all over the place. We'll take a break. This is KSR. Welcome back, Techie Sports Radio. 859-2-80-2287.

The guys are at KS-Barr. It should be a big week at KS-Barr with Sweet 16. Congrats to Sacred Heart. The girls' team has now won Ryan four Sweet-16s in a row. Is that a record in Kentucky? I assume it is, isn't it? It may be. They've got this girl, Zikaa Johnson, who's like a superstar.

She's just a junior. She's been the best player in the state for the last two years, even as a sophomore. She's really, really, really good. So she's coming back for another year? Yes. So they might end up with five in a row. Exactly. Yes. Well, congrats to them.

And we'll talk more about the Boy's Sweet 16 bracket as it gets here. But it is looking like going to be a great weekend there in Rupp Arena. Let's go back for a second to the SEC tournament, Drew. So I'll read you a text here that says, Matt, I think we now know the bracket. The SEC tournament does not matter. So why do we worry about it so much? Well, I will say it matters to me. I don't know if it matters to anybody else.

I did a poll, and 97% of the people said it matters to them. Matters to me. Bruce Pearl cried after they won the tournament on Sunday. It may not matter solely for the seating, but my view is if you lose in the Sweet 16 or Elite 8, it might be the thing that you remember the most of the season. So no, I will net. You are never going to ever convince me the SEC tournament doesn't matter.

I don't care what the coach says. I don't care what anyone says. the SEC tournament matters and it matters to the people down there and that loss on Friday was very disappointed. I completely agree. I feel the most sorry for all those fans. We met so many cool people with awesome stories of why they're there, who they're there with. They were all so excited for a long weekend. I had several conversations with people about how it just felt different this time and it felt like Kentucky was back and maybe they are back moving forward, but they certainly weren't in Nashville. and that one, that one hurt a lot of people.

I know it's an expensive trip, but it's not just finances. There was so much excitement down there to see what they could do, and they just tripped over their own feet against Texas. There's just never going to be a world rhyme where I'm going to hear anyone say, and I know that Cal says this. Well, it's just for seating or it's not. It is not. It is a tournament that matters, and that performance against A&M was bad.

They beat us. They went through the whole time. Now, that does not mean they can't bounce back and win over these next three weeks. I actually think they can. I picked them on national radio last night as the final four, as making the final four. I think they can. But it doesn't mean the SEC tournament doesn't matter.

It should matter. And I wish, I don't, I think the guys play hard. So I'm not saying they don't try. But if we lose, which we did, we need to accept the loss and stop acting like it doesn't matter. All those Kentucky fans bought those overpriced tickets. You packed that arena. You've got a home court advantage year after year after year,

and you're not able to take advantage of it and win a basketball game. And you're right. You know, I think it was even last year. What Texas A&M made a big run last year, they didn't even get a bid last year. So I don't know if the tournament matters for seating purposes, but it matters to all the fan base. And leave aside it being a conference tournament and seating,

just the fact that Kentucky is playing an arena where they have 99% of the crowd. That should matter. We should want to win basketball games as Kentucky basketball. We shouldn't just surrender and say, oh, well, this one, doesn't matter for seating. Let's just go home and we did our best. That should matter because it's Kentucky playing in a tournament that was once known as the Kentucky Invitational. I mean, it's almost like, Shane, why say any game matters? Why does anything matter? Like, if you're going to get that philosophical, just sit in your room and, you know, have a gummy and say

nothing matters, Shannon, at some point, like they, if you play the game, it matters. Yeah, I guess luckily to the selection committee, it didn't matter as much, but it definitely matters for all the fans that go down there and spend their hard-earned money. And it should matter to the players as well. And it does matter in some of them. I mean, Illinois ended up jumping up to a three seat. I think that was cause of the Big Ten tournament. Some of these teams clearly got in because of their tournaments. Probably what hurt Auburn is, Ryan, they just ended up not playing anybody good,

just because the bracket fell apart. And so they ended up getting wins, but the committee just didn't think they ended up playing anybody that good. Do you think the comment that Bruce Pearl made after the game was a shot at Cal or he said, you know, we know it means a lot to our fans. we don't want to lose on the first night and go home. We want to be here for the fans. I didn't see that as a shot.

I mean, Tennessee lost too. You think it was a shot at Tennessee? I mean, we sort of tend to live in this world where it's like, we're Kentucky fans, so everything anyone says must be about us. And I did not, when I heard Bruce Pearl's comment and I heard it live, I didn't see it as a shot. Then I looked on the internet, Drew, and I saw that there were some people.

who took it as a shot. I did not take it as a shot. Drew, did you? Maybe not a direct shot, but it was obviously he has a different approach to how he speaks about the tournament. Maybe that's because he just won and he's trying to, you know, make the most of it since they have the trophy with them. But I don't know that Cal was on his mind as he's saying that.

I think he's just taking a different way and trying to play up the tournament more than Kentucky fans did. I agree with that. I agree with that. I mean, he clearly cares about the tournament. And so do I. So I agree with him. But I don't think, Ryan, after he cuts down the nets to win the SEC tournament,

his first thought is I'm going to take a shot at John Caliperi. Like I don't, I mean, maybe, but I kind of don't think that's what it was. I kind of took it as both against Kentucky and Tennessee, the huge fan bases, both those schools, both lost on their first game going home. He's like, you know, hey, I know how important it is for these fans. We're not going to do that. We're not going to lose in the first night. Yeah, well, I mean, again, I think we'd sort of live in a us-centric world where everything must be about us.

And I'm not sure that I agree with that. We get to go to Pittsburgh. That's a deep breath, Drew. You and I were talking all day about how are we going to get to Spokane? I was ready, Shannon, to fly to Missoula, Montana, and drive. Oh, God. No, I mean, I couldn't figure out another way to do it. Just with my schedule, I could not figure out how to get to Spokane,

Washington and be there at the right time because by the time the brackets were about to come out, the flights were almost all already booked. So I didn't really know. I was like, well, I guess I could go to Missoula and rent a car, but I didn't even know what a Missoula, Montana was, Shannon. So Pittsburgh makes this a lot easier to work out. You're already close to Pittsburgh, right? Like how many hours are you away from Pittsburgh? Yeah, so I'm going to go, I've got to do meetings here. all day. So then I'm going to drive to New York tonight, stay in New York, I'm doing the show at ESPN

in New York tomorrow, and then I'm just going to drive to Pittsburgh. So I'll get to Pittsburgh Tuesday night, I think, and then just stay there and then I'm going to ride home with Drew when it's over. So yeah, I mean, it's all drivable now for me. But that's a lot different than getting

on a plane and going to the other side of the country. I've got your car parked in my driveway. I can just leave it there until you finally get back to Lexington. No, no, Drew's driving my plane. car. Okay. So Drew's going to drive my car to Pittsburgh. Why's that funny? No, it's not. You got to do what you got to do. Say hello to Tiley while you're up there for me, please. We'll see what I can do. Drew, are you excited for four or five days in Pittsburgh? I don't think we've ever spent that much time there. Abby took a video of me watching the selection show and we

couldn't share it because of my language of how excited I was to hit cancel on that flight I bought to Spokane, Washington. I bought one yesterday at three o'clock. because I could cancel it within 24 hours. I was just being safe. But that leading up until that show, all I can think about is how bad I did not want to get on that plane. So when they put Auburn in that slot. Why were you so anti-d though?

Like, I mean, it was going to be a hassle, but just prepared to drive into pits. I knew Kentucky fans wouldn't go or not me. It wasn't just about me. I wanted it close as possible so we could try to recreate that atmosphere we just had in Nashville. I just thought Spokane would be a ghost town, harder to get there, a whole day travel. So when I got to hit cancel on that button, I'm so excited to get in car and driving. to Pittsburgh? There are no direct flights, Shannon. So also you have like you'd have to fly to Denver. I was going to Atlanta, by the way, not even Denver. I was going wrong direction than back to Washington.

Taking a hot air balloon to get into the city. Like you have to like cross cattle at the city line. It's hard to get into Spokane. Yeah, you guys lucked out. We did. It'll be much easier to do Pittsburgh. Auburn, Alabama and UAB are all in Spokane. The whole state Alabama will be in Washington. We'll take a break. Great back. Skiassau. T.J. Smith, personal injury attorney. Call T.J. He'll make them pay. Now, more of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Here's Matt Jones. Welcome back, TechSports Radio. 8592-80287.000. Text machine 7-7-4-45254. One person writes, Matt, I wasn't at the conference tournament. But I wonder what it was like Saturday was Nashville a ghost town after Kentucky lost? No.

Nashville, I don't think it's ever a ghost town, Shannon. There was. million people. There was also a million Kentucky fans. I think most Kentucky fans stayed. I think a lot of them stayed. It was also St. Patrick's Day night, right? So there were people, Saturday night, there were people everywhere. What I saw was a lot of Kentucky fans being absolutely hammered. Well, I mean, what else do you go to Nashville for after your team loses, right? I mean, the arena drew was empty, but I think the streets were filled. It looked like a lot of Kentucky fans to be bought green shirts that said Kentucky on them or whatever for that day. And, And then they were like, I'm wearing them no matter what.

I don't care what anybody says. Yeah, from my vantage point, it was a different drunk, though. Thursday night, it was an excitement. It was a happy. After the game, it was just a sloppy, miserable. Yeah, but all three of you left. All of you left, just for a bit, all of you left. I left Saturday.

All of you left. I walked Broadway Friday night. It was miserable. Everyone was so angry. Saturday, I think most people decided to just drown their sorrows, Ryan, because I saw Kentucky fans everywhere, angry, but then letting their anger just turn into sloppiness. It's kind of what I saw happen a lot on Saturday. Yeah, I had a lot of people tell me, look, we spent a lot of money on these tickets.

We're staying, yeah. We're staying because they could not resell them. Like the resell value went down. You couldn't get anything. Nothing. Like nothing. I think like people were paying $1,000 for tickets. Could only sell them for like 100.

Yeah. There was. Why not stay and then Saturday night there were a lot. There was a ton. I mean, they were like, you know, that's a whole other thing. is what a circus Nashville is. Oh, God. It's just a circus.

It is too much. There's not almost too much. It is too much. It's too much. There's too much everywhere. It has like the Vegas vibe to me a little bit. Does it not for you? Like it's just a nonstop party.

It feels like 24-7. It just doesn't end. I just feel like though Vegas is a little bit more controlled. Maybe because it costs more. But Nashville, it just feels like every. Every frat house in America just poured everyone into the streets. Yeah.

Gave them, you know, a cowboy boot and a hat and said, have at it, Johnny. Like, it's like, they're just people everywhere. It's crazy. Can you imagine how much those bars make? Oh, I mean, beer, $10. $10 for a bottle of beer. It's unbelievable. And on Saturday night, the line to get into Kid Rock or Garth Brooks or Jason

now the line, Ryan, is down the street at all of those places. Yeah, we talked about, you know, in the early days going down there, everybody was up again around Tootsies and legends on the upper end of Broadway, but now with these name bars that have opened with all these country music stars, that's where all the action is, and they're all kind of that little area right there. And I don't get it, Shannon, like, why is it on a bar? If it has the name of a singer you like, how does that make it a better bar? I don't know what I mean?

Like, like, okay, so who's your name? your favorite. Let's say Stone Temple Piles. Yeah. Let's say you go to Nashville and there's two bars. Yeah. And one of them you could get in and have a seat. Yeah. Or you could wait in line for 30 minutes to the Stone Temple Pilots Bar. Are you waiting in line? Let's see. Now, if there's a Stone Temple Pilots bar right next to it is the Coldplay Bar, I'm going to the Stone Tipple Pilots Bar. But why? Neither one of them are there. Because maybe, well, maybe it had like some cool themed stuff and maybe some like pictures on the walls of the band that could get a selfie with? I don't know. Like, I think it's kind of cool.

So you're standing in line, too. I'll play into that. I'm that guy. Drew, are you like standing in line? Not at all. Not at all. I think it's, sorry, Shannon. I think it's ridiculous to pick a bar because Garth's name on it.

They're not a music nerd, though, like I am, though, right? I know, but Garth's not walking in. Garth probably don't even know the address. But if they have a long line, I am up the upper Broadway. Second fiddle, legends, Roberts, one of the old-timey ones where I don't have to wait for anyone. You're saying, though, Shannon, about the idea of memorabilia. Like, if there was stone-timore. But then why not go, like, when it's not crowded and just go look around?

Well, if there was an STP bar, it would never be a time where it's not crowded because it's so popular. I saw that Eric Church has a bar and he's going to play there. Yeah. Okay, I get that, right? Like you would go and go, I'd like to get into this bar to see him play. Yeah. I get that. Like, KSR, I get why you would say, I want to go there because I'm a Kentucky fan and there's an experience associated with it.

but I actually went into the Kid Rock Bar, and it wasn't like I just saying bah with a bar when I got in. It's just a bar. It is. It is. And if you notice like all those bars, now, everybody's got their own bar now. It's like Miranda Lambert has one. Well, they're opening up a Morgan Wall and one.

They have a, yeah. It used to just be like the Honky Tongue Bar. Now it's Kid Rock's Honky Tonk. Where's Mark? Or Joe Diffy's bar. Where does that happen? What person writes, Matt, over the years. when our bracket has been easier, I feel like we play worse.

So part of me wanted us to get a hard bracket because I know we'd show up for the Yukon game. Do we know we'll show up for a second round game versus Texas Tech? Ryan, what do you think about that? There's no guarantee with this team. I think it all depends on the matchups. Texas A&M was a bad matchup for Kentucky. Texas Tech could be a bad matchup for Kentucky in that game.

Let's not forget about NC State. NC State would be a bad matchup. Okay, can you imagine if we play NC State? Like, how is that matchup going to go with R.J. Burns, Drew? Like, who are we putting on that guy? I mean, that'll be, like, who guards him? Like, Trey Mitchell, I guess. I don't even know if you can guard that guy.

I think you just got to run and hope he has both hands on his knees minutes into the game and can't keep up. Because he just backs. Do you like him? I love him. He just backs down whoever's guard. him. It doesn't matter who it is. I'm going to use Ryan. He puts that big butt and puts him wherever he wants and just turns around and lays it in. I want to go, Shannon, to the open practices the day before. You know, I'm going to go. And I just want to go, like, talk to him. I want to take a video,

like, RJ Burns, is he the most, now that Cream Abdul-J-Jabbar is out, is the most entertaining player in America? Probably so. I'm trying to think of anybody else that would rival that. He's going to blow up even more now. I mean, they won the ATC. but now the NCAA tournament, he will blow up this one. If they beat Texas Tech and then they play Kentucky, he'll be the biggest star of the tournament, won't he? I mean, Drew, like, he's going to be the guy if they end up, if they win their first round game.

Yeah, since Cream didn't get in, this is going to be the character if they have any kind of a win. I think he's already going to be the character if they get by 50 in the first game because you just don't see someone that size, that good at college basketball. He said in an interview, they asked him like why he was so big, which that has to be a hard question. Why are you so big? Why are you so? It's the way God may be. Well, he said something like, I like to play and I like to eat, which I thought was a great answer.

Like, why am I so big? I'm hungry. Shannon, I think that's a good answer. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's a weird question to ask somebody. It is. How do you look at a guy and go, why are you so big? Yeah. You got to give them credit, man. They went through North Carolina, Virginia and Duke back to back to back and knocked up and won five games in five days. only the second team in history to win five games of five days and the first team won the national championship the yukon 2014 team but nobody else has ever done five and five days who's up first shannon justin justin go ahead justin yes the cc championship does matter because of our program's history but another reason why it matters because we've got one cc tournament win in five years first time and since like 1330 something that we haven't made it to the

finals in five straight years. And we've only had four postseason wins total in so many years. It does matter. And now, because we didn't do anything in the SEC tournament, for me, it truly is a final four or bust for this year. There's too much talent for what has happened. And it's been nothing but a roller coaster. And I'm tired of it. I understand that. And I appreciate the call. And I think, Ryan, it's been interesting. You know, the Cal came out last night and he said, anybody who says, well, he basically said anybody who says what Justin just said. He basically said anybody who says, if we don't do this, blah, blah, blah, blah is not a fan. And I heard him say that, and I'm like, Cal stop telling people who they are fans or not. Because people are going to do that,

right? They are. I mean, they just are. People are going, Justin has called this show a hundred times. I've heard him for 10 years. You cannot say, I, I, I disagree with him that it's Final Four bust. I might give him a little more grace than that. I might say, well, I don't know what I'll say yet. I'm still trying to think about it. But Ryan, fans are going to do that. And when he was like, anybody who says we've got to do this or not is not really a fan,

I wish he would stop that, don't you? Makes me upset because it matters. We've talked about it already a lot this morning. It matters to us. Yes, it matters. And, dude, you said yourself this team was built for March. well, you go to the first tournament game in March and you lose. It matters to all of us.

So yeah, stop saying that. Everybody in a fan has taken the bracket in your mind where you want your team to go, playing what ifs, how it could happen, how it could not happen. That's literally the part of being a fan. It's like people telling you where they need to go or what if this happens, they're not being real fans. No, that's literally what a fan does. And by the way, Shannon, we got the easiest bracket we could have gotten.

Oh, yeah. We got the easiest bracket we could have gotten, considering our season. The only way it could have been easier is if we were on one seat. Kentucky has had years where the bracket opened up for them after a game, you know, the first round. The bracket's already open for you to start the tournament. You got the worst, first of all, you got to be a three seed, which could have not happened. Yes.

And you got the worst two seed. That's the best you can ask for. You cannot ask for a better one. Now, maybe playing Purdue would have been better than having Houston is your number one. But that's like nitpicking. Literally, you got the best bracket you could ask for. Now, let's go win. And when we do, we'll celebrate with Clearcut Hero.

Because when it comes to staying hydrated, I don't want mediocre performance. You don't either do you, Drew. You want something that's revolutionary. Exactly. I want a hydration drink that's changing the game. Clear Cut Hero has six electrifying flavors, only 25 calories, and only 5 grams of sugar.

It's got potassium. You need potassium, Shannon. Be reading up on that. You can bet on blue and grab a cosmic blue raz and feel like a champion. Find clear-cut hero now at your local Kroger on Amazon. Rick Patino does it make the tournament and said the reason was fraudulent. I love. He's always such a sore loser.

We'll talk about that next on KSA. Welcome back. It is Teague Sports Radio. 859-280-2287. Text machine is 17. 7-7-7-4-5-254. There's a guy here, Shannon, that has sent me. I'm going to count them.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fourteen, text since the show started about how terrible a fan I am and how cow is right. None of us are Kentucky fans. I appreciate his consistency. It is consistent. So I always like to look back and see what else that person. has sent over the years. And about three or four weeks ago,

he sent me something saying that Taylor Swift was a Satan worshipper. Block. So that is a block, right? Yeah, come on, dude. It's always good, though, to see that the people who give you the harshest criticism are also Ryan somewhat insane. That's good to see. As long as you see that consistency, I'm good with it.

Yeah, that's why God invented that block button. Use it. Get rid of it. One person writes, Matt, you know, Kid Rock was at his bar Wednesday night. So you're wrong. No reason to go to a different bar. Listen, if you're a Kid Rock fan and Shannon, someone says Kid Rock is at the bar, I get that. Yeah, that's cool.

But he's not there that every night, right? Are you just going on the hope that you could run into him? I think that's it. I think you just nailed it. Like, maybe I'll walk in and maybe Garth Brooks will be singing Friends in Lo Places. But how much could that possibly? happen. But wouldn't you want to be there if it did on the off chance? I wouldn't care if Kid Rock was there. If you told me Garth Brooks or Eric Church or one of those guys was going to be there,

then maybe. But I'm not going on the off chance on a Tuesday he's there. I think that's the allure. I think that's why people go to KS. Barr. Maybe Matt Jones will be there. But I'm there all the time. You know what I mean? Like I'm there three or four or five times a week. Do you think those guys are there that much? No, not that often. But again, I think you answered your own question when you said that you know you go in there on the off chance that maybe they are there and how cool would that be okay we did go to the jerry lawler's bar and he was there yeah we tweeted him and he ended up showing up yeah but we knew he was there because you tweeted even said come well i knew he wasn't a line yeah there was no one exactly that i think it's the line it's all about

the line it's not walking into it i went into that bar that line goes quick i was in line for less than a minute and it was wrapped around they just go come on in come on in they're barely even checking out ease they just I will notice. I did notice that. They're not, they're not like. They're not going to hassle you. They are definitely not interested in doing like a long-term thing. One person writes, Matt, what do you guys think with this bracket?

Be honest, where's Kentucky going? I got Kentucky, and this is a Homer pick, and I know it, but I got Kentucky losing in the championship game to Yukon. That's where I am. What about you, Drew? I haven't done my whole bracket, but they are, Certainly in the Elite 8 with Houston, probably going to the Final 4, and I still need to finish my whole thing.

But I have them, I anticipate them being in Phoenix when I fell out my bracket. What about you, Ryan? I've got them losing to Houston and Dallas in the Elite 8. That's one of the bracket I filled out. That's going to be a tough haul to do to beat Houston down there in Dallas. I was worried about Houston until they got destroyed on Saturday. They did get destroyed. Points in the game.

They did. But again, I remind people, we lost in the quarterfinals. They lost essentially a true road game. Iowa State had 95% of the fans there for that game. But yes, that's a bad performance. No scenario in which Kentucky can't score 42 points in a game. I don't care who files out or who. That's true.

That's true. But Houston may play A&M in the second round. We'll see how they do. All right. What about you, Shannon? I think this team sleep walks to the Sweet 16. And then, you know, I feel good if they face Marquette. So I think Elite 8 is probably where they're going to end up.

and I think that's probably as far as they get, Elite 8. So you and Ryan have Elite 8. Drew's got Final 4. Just notice everybody who's got them going the farthest. I don't have all. I've got them to the championship game. I've already put 100 on to win it. And by the way, the odds on draft kings just went from plus 2,200 to plus 2,500.

So there's more money to make if you decided to go with the cats. Who's next, Shannon? T. HAMP. T. HAMP. How are you? Matt, I'm doing great. I went to Nashville for my first ever of SEC tournament and had huge expectations,

but unfortunately we all lived it together. So my story, though, is after the Friday night game, I go back up to my room at the Omni. I drowned my sorrows with my last beer in the cooler, and I walk out to go get some dinner with my wife. I see a man approaching me down the hallway. And as I get closer to him, I realized it's Doug Schaels. And I looked at him and I said, Doug, and he kind of bewilderedly looked at me, had my UK polo on.

And he obliged me for about 10 minutes to stand there and break down the game and ask him about the calls that his crew made. Now, he really talked to you about it. He really sat and listened and talked to you about it? He talked to me for 10 or 15 minutes. My wife stood there with me. I think that far away. Okay, so real quick, I just got like 30 seconds. What did he say? I asked him why he didn't run Cal that game because I said he's running for less. And he said he wasn't that bad.

And then, of course, we see the video come out on Twitter later where Cal's clapping his hands say, great job, Doug. So that probably wasn't true. I asked him. Yeah, I think they're used to it, though. What about the thing? I was going to talk about this next hour about the one referee and the calls that everybody's been focusing on. Did he say anything about that? Well, I asked him if this was his normal crew,

and he said, no. And I said, well, what's the point of being a crew chief? I also, I'll say this, because I know you got to go. I looked at him and I said, Doug, do you know where you're going next week? And he said, no, we'll find out on Sunday. I think we're going, I said, I think we're going to Pittsburgh and I hope we don't see you there. My wife asked if we could take a picture. I got to take, I got to go. I'm sorry. I have to let you go. He said no. Yeah, I don't think referees are supposed to do that. They've said no to me before, too. I think I took one with Doug one time, and I don't think you're really supposed to do that. I think they try to, they don't want pictures of guys with fans, Shannon, so that it looks like they're four-one team. I can understand that.

Yeah, like a judge or something, you know, he can't be taking pictures. I, you know, Drew and I used to really blast Doug Shows. And then like a lot of people, Drew, when you meet them, it's hard to hate people. You know what I mean? It's easy to hate them when you don't know them, But then you meet them and they're nice and it's hard to hate them, right? That and then Cal had him like work some fantasy camps. I'm like, if Cal's hiring to work fantasy camps, then why am I so mad at them? And let me also say this. A lot of the referees we hate, meaning like the fan base,

Cal literally hires them to work fantasy camps, including the dude that everybody was complaining about the other night. Just keep that in mind. When y'all are like, they hate Cal, Cal literally hires these guys to work fantasy camp. So you might not know always what you're talking about when it comes to hating on individual riffs. Now, there was one guy that that wasn't true about,

but nevertheless, we'll be right back. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite, unhumored me with Robert Smygel and friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman helped make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and headwriter, Street or Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?

We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise,

breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment and the stuff nobody gets to hear.

Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. What's up guys? This is CliverTaylor the 4th.

And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being in internet, that famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes,

hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker.

Listen to the Cliverts show on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.