KSR - 2024-03-22- KSR - Hour 2

Episode Date: March 22, 2024

Recap of the Cats' 80-76 loss to Oakland in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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ryan i think i'm going to go to the sweet 16 semifinals in the morning baby yeah go see uh hopefully lion County and Great Crossing may be playing. That would be a good game. They're getting ready to play Great Crossing and McGovern County getting ready to tip off right now. That matters, as a matter of fact. So we'll keep you up to date on those that we'll show those games all weekend at the bar. Plenty of good seats available today. Come see us.

Ryan and Shannon are going to be there. Go say hi to them. They need to be consoled. You all can. Well, we're talking about KS. Barr. You know, we handed out all those little draft king basketballs last night. Yeah. At the end of the game, let's just say some of them got tossed around in here quite a bit.

Did they throw the basketballs at the TV? Yeah, they were throwing them everywhere. You know, the big, the big ass fan at the top, they were throwing them up into that fan. They were going to get the fan. So they became like a little rowdy there at the year. Yeah, yeah. Like an ammo to throw at the TV. But I've got one at least now.

Yeah, Shenz got one. I tell you, man, it was rough in the building, too. I got home last night, Ryan, and they asked me. me the guys that part of my take to do an interview and right drew and i were trying to figure out i had to shoot on my phone and right now tweet out this that picture of me oh yeah drew took a picture of me to do the interview i had to put the equipment case for that we use for our equipment and a coffee pot and stacked them on top of each other to have something to put my camera on it was very professional shannon i looked like a top tier media star i'm sure you did i'm sure all the other

media people out there were doing just the same thing right yeah All right, so I want to, I just want to talk a little bit about sort of the status of the program because I think, you know, I try to do this every year after we lose because I think it's good to kind of give a sense of where we are and what's to come. We did this last year, and there were a lot of people at the time who sort of didn't believe me. And then back in like June, Kyle Tucker wrote an article that was basically San Francisco. the same things and people didn't believe him. And I think Kyle Tucker's article really got people

sort of worked up about this idea that the media was against Cal and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But everything Kyle said in his article was true and everything I said on this show was true. It's just sometimes people don't want to hear the truth. They just, they don't, they, it's much easier when you hear the truth and you don't like it to say, well, that person has an agenda, et cetera. But the truth is still the truth, whether you want to believe it or not. And this is the truth about Kentucky basketball right now. You're in a situation where the fans are done. A lot of them. Not all of them, but a lot of them. Charlene's call, I think, I've had a lot of people write and say they thought was great. Charlene's call is a perfect example, but she articulated it. The fans are done,

and I don't need to tell you how the fans feel because you are fans. But let's just practically about what's happening behind the scenes. Mitch and Cal have no relationship, none. I don't care what either of them say publicly, they do not have a relationship. They do not speak unless they have to, and it's like there's no relationship there. You know, I think they'll talk about the fact that they meet once a year to talk about UK basketball. I mean, how many times do you talk to your boss once a year? Like, it's not, that's not normal. They don't have a relationship. Whose fault it is probably depends on who you talk to, but I know this. Mitch has some relationship with every other coach he has, right?

He doesn't have a relationship with Cal. The major donors, the biggest donors to the university, don't really have a relationship with Cal anymore. There were times that the biggest donors not only had a relationship with them, like they were, like, traveled around the country together, kind of stuff. Not anymore.

And the reasons are varied, depending on person to person, but the basic thing is Cal doesn't, you know, when donors give money, have some certain expectations of like relationships and cow has not cultivated those so like that's why a lot of what's happened in recent years has had to be donations by people who are friends of cow because the traditional Kentucky donor does not exist and I think part of the reason they wanted to expand the law familiar thing to include fans is it was kind of just cows people

and they knew the moment cow left that's gone right so No relationship with the donors. Administration. I think he has a friendly relationship with the president, but besides that, no one in the university really communicates with it. So he is a man on an island. He has his guys, and there are a handful of guys. It's really the people on the staff, right?

Like it's a bruiser, it's Orlando, it's, you know, the Welsh. There's a handful. But he doesn't have a lot. and then everybody else, the athletics department, the people who do the jobs that matter, they're scared to death of him, Drew, right? They're all scared to death of him. The people that work at UK athletics, I'm not talking about Mitch, I'm talking about people in the secondary job, they are scared to death of him, and they are tired of him.

Working with him is hard. Then you have the media. He's shut out every media member, every single one of them, one by one everybody. Not just me, but Kyle Tucker, but also he's cultivated some relationships, but they're all done,

because if you don't give him 100% loyalty, you're gone. If you don't say exactly what he wants you to say, you're gone. You are out. And the only ones that are left are Seth Greenberg, who's now on television taken up for him,

and like Mike DeCorsi, so he'll still talk to them. Without saying names, he's even gotten on some of the young people that are just getting their footing. Just the people just starting. And you know who some of them are. You see them online, the ones that say the most pro things.

If they even hicc up something negative, they're out. You, it's, you're out. And, you know, I've listened to three years of people going, Matt, you're just bitter because you're out. It would be impossible for me to be in because you could, I'd have to come on here and say, well, you know, things happened. Oakland got hot. Like, you can't do that. So because of that, he has relationships with no one. How do you win when you are on your own?

When you're an island to yourself? How do you win? I think it becomes very impossible. He has built a foundation of the program that is Cal-centric, not Kentucky-centric, right? When Cal talks about guys in the NBA, he's right. But he skips over the guys that were in the NBA before. He doesn't talk about Jody Meeks or Tashon Prince or Keith Bogan or Rayjon Rondo. He doesn't talk about those guys.

He acts like the program started the day he got here. Right? When he's talking about NBA contracts, does he mention those guys? Does he mention Jamal Mashburn who became one of the, who's extremely wealthy, both because and afterbats? It's all about the day he started. And because of that, it's a cow-centric process. program. It's not a Kentucky-centric program.

And the problem is that leaves you in a tough spot. Because now the question is, what do you do? Let's say you wanted to buy him out. It's $33 million. I don't know where you're getting that money. I don't. I know some places they're not getting the money. I mean, let's say that there's a dude that frustrates you and that has annoyed you for a while. and it hasn't been nice to you in your mind. And somebody says, well, you write a $5 million check to him.

Ryan, who's going to do that? Not those people. I mean, most people aren't going to do it. Now, is it possible that it happens? Yeah, anything's possible, but that makes it much more difficult to do. How do you raise $33 million? You have a coach who I don't think is leaving unless he gets those dollars. Now, maybe they reach an agreement where 33 goes to 25, but he ain't, Shannon, he ain't leaving

at a discount, right? No, no. He's going to get everything that he can. So you're in this place that's like, what do you do? But Mitch knows. Mitch has had 14, Mitch has not had a relationship with him in 14 years. There comes a point where that's exhausting, right? And I think it said it all when Mitch wouldn't talk last night.

I don't blame him. But how many times when Stoops has lost a big game has Mitch expressed support? Mitch expressed support last year when they lost. Even after St. Peter's when they lost. Like he's expressed support every year. Ryan, don't you think it's telling he wouldn't say anything yesterday? I think that's very telling because he's usually very open about it, really. He has lots of faults, but one thing Mitch is pretty good at.

That's being loyal. Yeah. And he hears what we hear in those arenas, the people yelling. Yes. He knows how uncomfortable it is. And there's other things that one of these days we'll talk about that have occurred even in the last year that have been shockingly crazy. You know, a lot of times when people have heard me articulate things that are going on,

folks think that's the only thing. for every one thing you hear there's 10 things we can't say right when Kyle Tucker puts all that stuff in print there's a lot of stuff he's not saying if people were willing to tell him that what did they keep in yes and the reality is why don't you hear it because people don't want to hear it you give them 10% they're mad about that what if they heard the whole thing right but i'll give you some basics i mean Eric lindsay t j byisner all these people who've worked for him who adore him they left that's not a quince they left to go do jobs that i'm sure were not the jobs they wanted when they were growing up

why did they do it well it's exhausting he is exhausting and that's why i don't know how it can continue how does everybody get up and do this again there will be changes if he were to come back i expect at least one or two staff members would not be back would you agree with that I would hope so. Something would have to change because the game planning and getting this team ready was not there this season. I don't know who's at fault, but you can't run it back with the exact same formula. So it's just impossible for me to see what the scenario is of success. I don't know how you make it work.

And it comes down to this. When you have a lot of success in life, I talked about this on the post game show, Ryan. When you have a lot of success in life, it's easy to believe that you did all of it. Yeah. but real leaders don't get up and say, I'm the only one who can do this, right? I think in Cal's mind, he doesn't listen to anyone. And because of that, do you think that's going to start changing all of a sudden?

He literally looked before the Oakland game and said, we do what we do, we're not worried about what other teams do. I mean, really? That's his line. You ought to be a little worried about it, Shannon, right? a little bit of work. Maybe watch a little bit of prep, you know, maybe watch a little bit of game film. If we aren't good enough to beat Chandler Bing and basketball,

maybe we need to worry about what the other team does. And by the way, the bracket opened up too. Of course it did. It opened up when we got it really. Yeah, as if it weren't already open enough. So, all right. I didn't love last night in his comments, someone kind of asked what happened with the Bill for March, and he said, well, they're freshmen.

We don't know how they're going to respond. So are we just always going to do? not know how they're going to respond in the tournament? No, it's... Because later in the same conversation, someone asked, because obviously you just admitted the freshman, you don't know how they respond. They said, are you going to continue with the freshmen? And he said, I don't see myself changing.

I've always done it this way with freshmen. So in one conversation, he said, I don't know how freshmen respond in the NCAA tournament. But I'm going to keep doing it with freshmen. So it's like you're admitting we don't know what we're going to get every year. It's a roll of the dice every year. Yeah, well, I mean, here's what you do. Lose in December, we're built for March. Lose in January, we're building.

built for March. Losing February, we're built for March. Losing March, well, you never know with these freshmen. By the way, we got new freshmen coming in next year. He said that last night. I couldn't believe it. He said, I have an unbelievable group coming in next year. And I was thinking, now is not the time to say that. What counts? If you make it to where November, December, January, and February don't count because of March, then when March, we don't win, what counts? Oh, next year? Like, it's just a complete, like, hidden ball trick. Keep coming. Keep coming. That's Tennessee football. That's what we make fun of them for.

Who's up next, Brick? Howie is up next. Howie, go ahead, Howie. Hey, Matt. Good morning. I called last year, about a year ago, a little over a year ago, and gave the Batman quote, either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain.

I think maybe time has passed Cali. And I'm afraid we got one more year of him. He's either going to have a good run next year, pump his chest out and kind of leave, you know, on that note, or else he's probably, you know, we're going to see the same thing, and then it's pretty much he's got to be gone. Well, but I thought that was this year, right? Like, I appreciate the call. I thought that was this year.

I thought he was going to go one more run, pump his chest out, and then, but like, this was the group. You think he's going to have more likable players next year, Ryan, than Reed Shepherd, Rob Dillianham, and Antonio Reeves? I can't see that happening. No. No, he's not. this was supposed to be that year.

Oh, for a bust. We all said it. These were these guys. These were the guys, and we lost to Oakland. Cornbreadhemp.com. I needed it last night at 3.15 in the morning when I tried to go to sleep. Don't stress over Big Blue Madness. It's hard not to, but Cornbread Hemp is giving away limited edition Kentucky themed t-shirts.

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Be right back. Kentucky Sports Radio. Welcome back, Kentucky Sports Radio. Drew just tweeted out the picture of me trying to do, Ryan, pardon my take last night at 1.30 in the morning with a coffee pot holding up my phone.

He just tweeted out. That was me last night. I will give them credit, man. They tape in the middle of the night. They were just starting their show at like 1.30 a.m. I'm over here. dozing off on the couch and they're talking like it's new and they're all energetic and ready to go.

Shout to them. Also, WKYT Shannon has just shown up at our house here to do video. So I feel like Uh-oh. I don't know. If you look at this place, it doesn't look like it's ready for television, but it looks like we eat a lot of chocolate chip cookies and we leave half of them and just random parts of the apartment. Well, you know what? That might be true, right? I thought, I got enough chocolate chip cookies for the week. I didn't know I was only getting them for 13. days. Yeah, this could have been a backpack trip again. That's right. 859-280-2287. Who's up next? Brady is up next. Brady, how are you Brady? It's brain, but, you know, we're just hurt.

We're so hurt. We're tired of the same old, same old about four years straight. I mean, this ain't to go staring no more. I mean, our old Kentucky home is not shining no more. and Cal has not only lost one, not two, but three straight first round next, first weekends, I mean. They are one and four, one and four in their last four NCAA tournament games. Is that right? Sounds about right. One and four in their last NCAA tournament games. That's the worst in school history.

But I do think the worst statistic is last 10 postseason games, two and eight, and Kentucky's been favored in all 10 of them. Yeah. Two and eight, and Kentucky's been favored in all 10. Yeah. We're tired of the same all stuff, but Mitch Barher's got a girl set of balls and do something about this. I mean, we're so proud, Cal what he's done from 2009, 2009.

That's a gold standard, but from 2020 to 2024, it's Mickey Mouse standard for him. He's got to go. Just wasting talent being the first weekend. I appreciate to call. What about this, Ryan? I saw this this morning as well. Since Cal got here, going all the way back to 2010, in the NCAA tournament, in our elimination games, all right,

the games where we were knocked out, we were the favorite in all of them but one. That's unbelievable. 2017, North Carolina is the only time we were the underdog. We were favored against West Virginia. we were favored in 2011 against Yukon. We were favored in 2014 against Yukon. Favored against Wisconsin in 2015.

Favored against Indiana in 16. Favor against Kansas State in 18. Favorite against Auburn in 19. Favorite against St. Peter's. Favorite against Kansas State. And, surprisingly, but we actually were favored against Kansas State and favored last night against Oakland. By 15 points.

The stat that gets me is Indiana basketball has more tournament wins than Kentucky in the last five years because we talk about Indiana like they don't even have a program anymore and they have more tournament wins only the second team in history only second coach in history Shannon to lose twice to a team that you were an underdog favorite of 14 or more in the tournament that is that is the definition of underachieving and that is not kentucky basketball that does not happen at kentucky yet it has time after time what do we do like you know Kentucky has become the laughing stock of college basketball in the last four seasons. I never thought we'd see Kentucky basketball get to this,

but this is where we are. This is our reality right now. Who's up next? David is up next. David, what's up, David? Good morning, gentlemen. Sorry, I'm not going to be able to see y'all in Phoenix. I was looking forward to that.

Yeah, I just wanted to get to Dallas. I mean, Phoenix was the final stuff. I was just hoping we'd get out of Pittsburgh, but go ahead. Yeah. And please drive safe on the way home. You know, when you read or listen to Calipari's comments last night, to me, he's not in touch with reality to the extent of being delusional. He's not in touch with the fan base. And as far as the stay of the program, I mean, his goals as the lady, the previous caller, articulated are not aligned with the fan base.

And they're certainly not aligned with the athletic director. You know, as a leader, when you're not aligned with your constituency, you have to be humble and work towards gaining that alignment. And it sounds like Calipari doesn't have that as part of his mission. You know, this is not just about Calipari's legacy, but it's about Mitch's legacy as well. Yeah, we'll talk about that. I want to talk about it. First of all, you're exactly right about the first point. And I appreciate the call.

Cal Perry has not been aligned with the fans, I think, in a number of years. We have had younger fans who grew up with him as the coach who have really been adamant taken up for him, and I understand that. I give him credit, but even they have kind of turned. But he has not been aligned with the fans in a long time. He's not been aligned with, you know, he sees the media as hostile. I mean, I'm sitting here. You got Lee Kay and Steve Moss here.

They're Kentuckians. Like, we've been, we all been doing this forever. guys longer me. Like we're not, if we're hostile, good grief. What's, what's the rest of the world? I'm a fanboy. I'm a blogger fanboy that's wearing UK gear to games. You're not supposed to do that.

But let's say, Ryan, what Mitch now? Because it is now on Mitch. What does Mitch do? If you were Mitch, Ryan, what would you do? Because it's, because the caller's right. Like, it's now on him and his legacy. So what do you do? You know, he was just faced with a tough decision with the women's basketball program,

and now he's got this tough decision with the men's basketball program. But if he looks at what the Kentucky basketball program has been in the last four years, it is unacceptable. And he has to make a change. Something has to change. I don't know what exactly they do, but something has to change because this isn't acceptable. How many more years until we get to the part of his contractor where he can be like the ambassador for Kentucky? Four more seasons.

I think that's honestly what's going to happen. We're here with him for another four years regardless. I don't know how he can. How is it going to work? I have not had one caller on the postgame show or one caller on the morning show. Tell me they want him to stay. It's telling. Not one.

Yep. Yeah. Like, how do you do that? I don't know how you do that again. I don't. At a program like Kentucky, how do you do that? You don't. How do you do that?

I'm going to go put contacts on so they don't see me in my broken glasses. And we'll be right back because it's KSR. Welcome back. It is Techie Sports Radio 859-280-2287. I put on my eyes so that I look a little prettier. Sitting here, well, we got television in here. Thought about putting on my robe. Literally everyone in the national media is like writing trying to, I mean, that's what everybody wants to talk about.

You know. It's all over here. me in. Yeah, like sitting here watching it on TV. It is what it is. Somebody, I've had a number of people ask me this. So, I mean, this is a tough, this question is tough for me to deal with. But I think you have to deal with it, Ryan.

There's a lot of people asking, well, what about Joe Kraft? Because at the end of the day, Joe Kraft is Kentucky's biggest donor, right? You know, I just, I think that relationship probably isn't. I mean, it's kind of done with, Cal. Joe and Kelly are my friends and I it's why I hesitate to get too far into it but I don't think it's a secret that like he's a football guy now you know he that's just how it is he sat he sat there at the game last night with Vince Merrow I mean that's that's another thing I think Cal has has the biggest donor to UK sports I just don't think that relationship's good either

like you said in the first hour it's one thing to give your money to your alma mater the team your support but to literally just hand it to someone to go away your hard-earned money, someone you've had a falling out with. That's a big ask for anyone. I mean, that is like a personal, I am just rewarding you for letting me down to get you out of here. That's different than building a building

or given to a fund at UK. That's just handing money to someone you don't like. And Joe and Kelly, I think, are very good people. I know, obviously, they've gotten in the political game, and some people have strong feelings about that. I try to set that aside in judging people. I think they're both

very good charitable people. But like, you know, you don't make a lot of money by making stupid decisions. And it's going to be hard to write somebody a check, Ryan, that you don't have a great relationship with to go away. I mean, like, that's just not something people want to do, right? Absolutely. And so, you know, if you're sitting there, well, the big donors that have always, always, always been behind basketball and now they're behind football there's a reason for that that's damning yeah

i think the football team okay if it were just kentucky donors because again there are some donors to basketball nil that are calipari guys but if you were just talking kentucky donors i think there's more money to be donated now for football n i l than basketball right i totally agree with that sentence would have been said at the University of Kentucky. Never, never, never, never, not even a couple years ago I ever thought that would ever happen. But that is a fact. But I think that's true now. I think that that is true. And that's a legacy of where we are. Like that's that's a legacy of what's what this has been like. And I don't think you're wrong. I mean, I don't know all the rich people behind the scenes giving money, but of the names I'm familiar

with it seems they're much more focused on football these last four or five years than basketball, which is part of. But that's just ice. Isolating yourself. But that's personal relationship. That's what I'm saying. He's isolating himself. And I'll go back to something. The basketball, football school thing.

Here's why that was so damning for this university is that people took sides. And you know, once you take a side, it's hard to back off from that. And that's one of the reasons we've got to stop perpetuating it. Because people just were like, all right, I'm on this side now. and unfortunately, I don't think two years later, we've totally gotten over that, Ryan. Do you? No, I think we're still feeling the sting of it. And when it comes to the donors, I think that is a direct result of some of that that happened.

And let's also be real. Look, we're being real on Friday morning. The head coaches don't like each other. Yeah. Counts don't like each other. Like, let's just be real. I mean, they don't. What happened to law familiar?

All one university here. I mean, they don't like each other either. So it's like you do wonder how can it continue like that? Who's next? I'm going to say one more thing. When the football recruits used to come in, they used to take them to Cal's office. And he would openly and gladly visit with football recruits, women's basketball recruits, swimmers, whoever.

I don't know if that happens anymore. Yeah, I don't either. Certainly not for football, maybe for some of the other ones. Who's up next? Justin is up next. Justin, go ahead, Justin. Yes, I've called many times through the years. I've called a few times this year.

I've taken flack for saying, I don't think this team's really going to make it far in the tournament. It was the inconsistency. I'm tired of Cal mocking us fans. I'm really sick of it, saying that we're not a fan because we say, oh, this year's a bus because we don't do X or Y. This is ridiculous.

Us fans pays for his salary without us filling the damn arena, his salary doesn't get paid. And I don't care about the players that's coming in next year. I do, but I don't. I do because they're not going to get the best experience of being at Kentucky basketball. And that's a disservice to do. I hate it for those guys next year. Yeah.

Next year is going to be so hard for those guys and it's not their fault, but whoever they are coming next year, you're right, Justin. It's not going to be the experience for them that it should be, unfortunately. And I don't want to hear any more basketball bennies from how. A lot of us have said all year that we should be starting the best lineups, not even this year. We even knew last year what the best lineup was, and he still wouldn't do it, and it's out of spite because it's the fans saying it, and it's the media saying it, and this is ridiculous. He's running our program, our historic program, into the damn dirt, and I'm tired of watching it.

It's not right. Thank you, Justin. All right. I'm going to try to say this as Ryan is. diplomatically as possible. Okay. All right. Because I felt this way for three years, and I have held it in most of the time to try to keep the peace.

I am so tired of listening to John Calgary tell people what they can and can't say and how they can and can't fan. I am so tired of the basketball bennies. Did you see what I did? You know, you guys want this. but I did, I am so tired of that. What Justin said is correct. He's a better coach.

He's forgotten more than I will ever know about coaching. But it ain't that, this isn't rocket signs, okay? This isn't brain surgery. This is basketball. And you should play the best players. And we don't. Our starting lineup, there are 34 lineups that have played at least 50, 40 possessions this year. Our starting lineup is 33rd out of 34th inefficient.

I don't care. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that's not the way to go. Reed, Rob, and Reeves, with Shepherd playing poorly, were plus four last night. When they weren't in, collectively, we were minus eight. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that. It was not insane to think Kaysen Wallace should have been the point guard last year. It wasn't insane to think Taita Washington should have been point guard two years ago. Yet, when people said it, we were told they're not fans, they don't get it, built for March, blah, blah, blah.

I'm so tired of that. I'm so tired of the condescension. I mean, I'm someone who can be condescending. If it's too much for me, that should say a lot. I'm tired of it. These fans were here before him. They'll be here after him, and they have a right to express their feelings, and they have a right to disagree with Cal and not be told they are not fans. They have a right to say, you know what, I think we should do this and not be told, stay at home and cheer and don't try to coach.

They do, because one day he will leave and these people will still be here. You know, we sometimes talk about older fans, but there are people listening here who watched, you know, Louis Dampier play, right? And who were here when Rupp coached. And there are younger people here who will see the coach 50 years from now. The condescension towards the way he talks to our fan base, I'm just over it, Ryan. I am. And a lot of times, I don't think he hates the fans. To be quite frank with you, I think he hates a lot of the media.

and so he's talking to us. But he's talking about the fans in doing it. And, Ryan, I'm just, I'm over it. I'm so over the condescension. If you win, then be as condescending as you want, you basketball. But when you lose to Oakland and your condescending, Ryan, I'm just done with it. Yeah, when they were winning, and he would talk that way to us,

we would kind of laugh it off all. That's just cocky cow, swaggy cow. But now when they're losing and he's talking to us like that, that gets old real quick. Shannon, what do you think of that? You know, fans will tolerate, like Ryan says, winning Curesall at the end of the day, right? So you can get away with your cute comments

and see what I did there. Fans will tolerate that when you're winning. You got to read the room. When you lose to Oakland in the first round, fans don't want to hear that. They're not going to tolerate that. Go back and watch his press conference after they beat Auburn. Unhinged behavior.

Go back and watch his press conference. Now, of course, we can't say anything at the time because we just beat Auburn. Right. But where is that energy when you lose to Oakland? Seriously. Where is that condescension that you showcase when we win Tennessee and Auburn? Where is that when you lose to St. Peters and Wilmington and Oakland?

Think about those teams I'm talking about. Evansville, Wilmington, Oakland, St. Peters. I mean, this ain't the murderer's row here that we've lost to in the last few years. I think at Auburn, he said, oh, you all traveled here. to see me lose. No, we traveled in Nashville into the NCAA tournament to see you lose.

First of all, just think about that statement. That's how he started. You traveled here to see we lose. How arrogant. No, here's why we traveled. We love Kentucky basketball. It's not about you.

It's about it. He also showed some colors when he said he called Reed y'all's favorite player. That one stuck would be a lot. That said a lot. When he said y'all's favorite player, Ryan, he said it with condescension.

Like, I know you like him. That's what he... That one hurt. And that's, you know what? Ryan, that's not fair to Reed Shepard. Nope. Nope. It's not.

And he's had a chip on his shoulder for Reed, I think, all year because he knew he was a crowd favorite. He's had a chip on his shoulder for Antonio Reeves because he didn't think he should play. And now he's our best player. Yeah. Same with Shepard. It took the whole team being injured last year for Reeves to truly get his, you know, shoot him all Antonio game. We have an All-American in Antonio Reeves, who for half of the season last year, he wouldn't even play. And he is now an All-American.

That type of spiteful behavior towards media, towards fans, is toxic. It's toxic. That's exactly right, Chairman. It's toxic. It is toxic. And it has caused our fan base to fight with each other. I say this all the time. And you'll hear me talk about it a lot with politics.

But I say this all the time. I'm always like, hey man, why are you being so rude to a stranger that I'm sure you would like over a politician you'll never meet? Right? You're never going to meet Joe Biden or Donald Trump. So why are you yelling at a stranger about somebody you'll never meet? That person that you're sitting with, one of these days, if your house gets flooded, they'll donate money to help you. You know who won't? Donald Trump or Joe Biden.

So why are you yelling at him about that when it's not like real life? This fan base has been going at each other's throat because of toxicity that we don't deserve. We just don't. And it's easy for people to blame us for that. But the problem is that the overall culture of being together, Drew, has gone away in recent years, unfortunately. Yeah, like you said, when he leaves, whenever that is, we're all still going to be here. We're going to have to look at each other like, well, That was awkward.

We all yelled at each other there for a while. It's things like just a week ago. That energy in Nashville was so awesome. I met so many amazing people with cool stories of why they're there. And then he's like, well, this doesn't matter, but I guess for you all, we'll fake it. But then they're going to be mad. We bowled on Sunday. It's like, why can't you just be like a lot?

That means a lot to everyone. We wanted to win it. We fell short. I mean, again, two guys here, Lee K. And Steve, you know what it's like. You've been in that tournament for 25 years. It matters to. us and for 15 years he tried to talk us out of it finally he's given in and go i get it that it matters

to you but it doesn't feel genuine we know i mean bruiser said the week before told on call he's like we're saying internally it doesn't matter well what matters then he said last night i don't want this to define the season well what does define the season next year's class the draft in next year's class you're right huh that was fun well at least you have the draft king's sports book it's really hard to do these reads oh i held so many arrows on that app yesterday

i gave draft kings a lot of money last night give them some more today which seemed free money kentucky makes the sweet 16 well we might be pulling over to hitch for gas on the way home go to america's top rated sportsbook app draft kings turn five dollars into 150 dollars in bonus bets with my code KSR. It's your chance to rack up bonus bets and be happy.

Look, if we can't win, maybe you can pick something that'll win. Go to Draft Kings, a sports book app, that bit, with the code KSR. And remember, if you have a game problem called 180-Gabber, 18 plus, physically present, Kentucky bonus bet expire 1-68 hours after issue. It's eligibility and depository supply terms of sportsbook. Dotrathkems.com slash B-ball. We will take a break, come back for the final segment here in Pittsburgh. It's Kentucky Sports Radio.

Welcome back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio. 859-2-80-2287. The text machine is 772-7-4-5-25, but we just got four minutes left. Let's take a call first, and then I want to finish with all four of us with something. Who's up next? Randy is up next. Randy, go ahead, Randy.

Good morning, gentlemen. I just got a couple questions. How good is he a developing talent? Because it seems like after they leave here and they go to the league, guess what? They become all-stars. So if he's the factor of that or is it the next coach? I think he's very good at taking talent and cultivating it in a process where it gets better. I do think he deserves credit for that.

I mean, Reed Shepard, I mean, just look at what Reed's done this year. He has improved exponentially. Tyler, Hero did, Maxie, quickly. So I don't think it's fair to say he's not good at developing talent. You can question whether or not he wins at the college level, but I do think he is good at developing guys. I think you do have to give him credit for that. but if they would stick around, I wonder what they would be like the second year. I guess is my question, guys.

And my second point here is, we're stuck with him. I don't see it changing. You know, I'm a season ticket holder. I talked to a fellow from Louisville that was a season ticket holder this morning, and he said, you know what? Next November, we'll come back to that arena, and we'll sit there and we'll cheer him on. But do we believe any of what's happening? No, we will not.

Yeah. No. But I mean like, I think most fans will do that. But the question is, and I appreciate the call, how much toxicity do we want to deal with between now and then? Because that's what it is. Yeah, this is a year-round sport in Kentucky. In the summer, we're looking forward to the schedule. Just nonsense.

We're talking about a player's tweet that he put up that means nothing just because we want to consume every little piece of Kentucky basketball we can get. But this summer, that will be brutal if it's exactly what it's been recently. All the fun that is being a fan will be gone. At least all the fans, though, will be on the same page for the most part. We won't be divided like we talked about if they made the Sweet 16. I do think this is not going to be as divided. I agree with that. People are kind of on the same page.

All right, let's do this. First of all, Sweet 16, Great Crossing is beating McGoffin County. They're going to go to semifinals. Lyon County plays next. We will have all the games on at KS Bar, including the NCAA games. Ryan and Shannon are going to be there today. Go say hi to them. They're bummed out.

Drew and I are going to be driving. If you get a chance to come watch the games this weekend at the bar, I'd appreciate for the fourth year in a row. We bought a lot of food and we lose on day one. I'll be there. I need a beer. Yeah, so if you want to drink or whatever, they've got specials, that would be nice.

But Ryan and Shan will be there today. Go see them. Let's finish with this. Where are we going to be, right? What's going to happen over the next two weeks? Nothing? I don't think anything's going to change. I mean, I think he's still going to be our coach,

and I think he's still going to have our hopes up again with another exciting freshman recruiting class, and we'll hope and pray and get excited about March again next year. I think it's just a repeat. Wash, rinse, repeat. I hate to agree with you, but I think that's exactly what's going to happen. We're going to be talking about next season again. But at some point, these next seasons have to come to an end, and you've got to figure out when that's supposed to be.

This season was supposed to be that year. Yeah, Drew. They have to figure something. out in my brain. I don't know how that will get figured out, and I don't know it'll be in the next week. But next season, I can't see it be in this exact same movie we've watched the last four years. I think the next three days are pretty crucial to see what the people that are most influential on this, what direction do they go? I think by Monday or Tuesday we'll have a good idea of where this is going.

I'm not as definitive as you that it's not that this is going to be salvaged. But if it is, I'm going to pull for him. But I think this is going to be a tumultuous weekend for UK basketball. While Mitch is trying to hire a woman's coach, too. I mean, so. Good luck, Mitch. Hey, thank you all for listening while we're in Pittsburgh. Have the best weekend you can.

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