KSR - 2024-04-12- KSR - Hour 1

Episode Date: April 12, 2024

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If you call T.J., he'll make them pay. So Mark Pope is the new coach at the University of Kentucky, and it happened last night. It was, for me personally, an absolute shock. I knew he was one of the candidates, but I thought if he was. He was hired. It would be at the end of the process, and I was, to be quite frank with you, completely taken off guard. And everyone I know around UK athletics was taken off guard when it occurred. But he is the coach.

He will be the eighth coach, only the eighth coach in modern NCAA basketball, or in modern Kentucky basketball history. I mean, there are graphics that say 23rd, but a lot of those were a long time ago, and they coached for like a year, and they were a player coach. In the modern college basketball, only our eighth coach of all time. so let's start with this. There's a lot to get to. First of all, Mitch Barnhart is coming on the show at 11 o'clock. So Mitch Barnhart will be on here to interview at 11 o'clock. So that'll be something.

And then, listen, well, I'm going to give you my opinion and admit about the whole thing because I do think this is how I'm going to look at it. Everybody's free to look at their own way. But let's just start with the reaction. I was shocked. And at first, I'll be honest, a little panicked, like we're not really doing this. are we? Over the course of the night, though, I tried to sort of talk myself into it, because that's what I do. I'm not going to be negative forever. So I do think there's a path

to success. With that said, I was shocked. What about you? I think shock's the good word. I mean, it's not the sexy hire that I think would have gotten us all excited. Come on. You know, not Mark Pope. Not Mark Pope. Not the sexy hire. But, you know, as we get into it, we're going to go. He checks a lot of boxes that Mitch Barnhart wanted. Maybe not what the fans were looking for, but what Mitch Barnhart wanted, he checks a lot of those boxes. He loves this place. He wants to be here. He'll work his butt off.

He'll work very hard. We have nothing to do, but after the shock wears off, get behind this guy. Drew. I was just very shocked by the decision. When it was leaked that Pope was a candidate, I thought, okay, kind of get him, maybe a yes from him. You have him in your back pocket down the road. Now maybe we wait on Donovan. We make some calls some of these guys

The people have been calling Tier 2 But it's good to maybe hear of Popesie yes If we have to get to him I did not expect for a couple hours later For that decision to be made to be Mark Pope Actually yesterday knowing I need to get a list ready Because people are asking I wrote my top 10 And Pope was actually 10th so I'm not that anti-Pope

But that shows you where he was in my pecking order I was just a little surprised It was in the same day Hey Hurley here's 100 million no okay Mark Pope It was just it seemed like a very quick Hurley to Pope for me It was very quick I mean, let's be real.

Scott Drew told him no at like 8 o'clock yesterday morning. They then went all in, I think, on Danny Hurley and got to know about 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon. And Mark Pope was the coach at what, 9, and 930, 10 last night. So that's a huge turnaround. I mean, that's a quick turnaround to get two nos and then end up at Pope when they did. All right, so I'm going to go through the timeline of what happened and et cetera.

But Shannon, first, what about your reaction? I was very surprised at how quickly it, happen. I mean, let's keep in mind, this time last week, John Calgary was still our coach. That's a really interesting point. That seems like 10 years ago, and it was a week ago. So I would have preferred for Mitch to have reached out and talked to maybe a couple of other coaches and not. I think they did talk to a lot of people, but go ahead. Well, okay. But I would think maybe a couple more weeks, you know, and still see what's out there and, you know, maybe wait for Billy Donovan's situation to open up. I don't know. Maybe he has talked to him. I don't know.

Yeah, so I'm going to give you what I think was the process, and this is informed speculation, but it's, you know, I wasn't there, so I don't know all of it. And then a couple things I might have done differently, and then how we ended up with Pope. All right, so number one, they started with a list of about seven to eight guys. I called them Tier 1. I don't think that's their official term, but that's what I called them. That list included, I think, Jay Wright, Brad Stevens. Frank Vogel that's in the NBA,

Danny Hurley, Scott Drew, Billy Donovan, and I think at one time maybe Nate Oates was on that list, but that got taken off for reasons that have nothing to do with basketball, and I don't know what they are, and to be quite frank with you, I think it's personal life stuff, so I'm just staying out of it.

So that leaves you. They get a note from Jay Wright. I think Brad Stevens says something like, we're going to be playing until the end of June, so sorry. then I think a Vogel, it was also a timing thing. So now you're down to three, really. So you're down to Drew, Hurley, Donovan.

I think they talked to all three of those guys in parallel. Okay, I don't think any of them got an official offer, but they talked to them all in parallel. I think they thought Drew was the most likely. Danny Hurley was the longest shot. Donovan made clear he wasn't going to really engage on it until their season was over, and they play next Wednesday. So then Drew and I think Hurley became the focus.

Drew, I think they felt like they were going to get, so they bring the family here, right? Don't know why he decides no, said he needed to pray on it. They end up telling them no. They go all in on Hurley. They offer him what I think was the largest package ever for a college basketball coach. He says no. I don't really know what you can do there. So then they're left with a choice.

Do you wait on Billy Donovan? and he might tell you no. Remember at one time he said told him yes and it ended up no, right? But they decide not to wait. Personally, I would have waited. Me too. I would have waited. But I think the worry was let's say you wait and let's say they win the two play in games.

Now you're waiting another two weeks. And I don't think Mitch Barnhart wanted to do that. He's going to be on here. I don't know if he's going to talk about other candidates. My guess is he's not because, like, you now have a coach. What's the point of talking about that? What's the point of talking about? But, like, I'm all asked about the process.

But nevertheless, that's how you get. So now, once you decide not to wait for Billy, now you're in a second tier of coaches, all right? I don't know all the names that were on that. I do know there were at least three names that it was decided. We're not going to be interviewed for background-related reasons. All right. Pearl, Miller, Beard.

So that, I think, is the debate. Like, they can't make those people come who didn't want to come. So then the question is, would you have called Bruce Pearl? My view, NCAA problems, there are no rules now. So, like, even if Bruce Pearl broke rules, there are no rules now. So, I don't know. Chris Beard, I don't think that ended up. could have worked because I think when I when his name got floated out there a lot of our

fan base especially women didn't like it okay everybody can have their judgment about whether that's what good but that's just I think the case so then so really it is do you call Bruce Pearl or not personally I didn't want Sean Miller that's just my personal opinion so it's just do you want Bruce Pearl or not once the decisions not to talk to them they talked to a few other guys and they decided Mark Pope was the one they wanted the best out of those people. And Ryan, I think that's how we ended up here. Yeah, and like we said, you know, Mitch wants a guy I think that he can work with. You know, I think the last couple of years with Mitch and Cal, I think Mitch decided this guy that I hired this time,

it's going to be somebody that I can work with, that wants to be here, that loves this place. So that's why I think Mark Pope became the leading candidate in Mitch's eyes. So my take on it is this. Everybody, most of the fan base, certainly last night, I had. have not looked at the message boards and social media today. I don't know if it got better. But last night, the reaction was overwhelmingly negative. I will tell you, I think the people at UK know that, okay?

But I think there's also a view of he's our guy. We're going to do everything we can to make him win. I announced this on Twitter. You may not have seen it. Two donors have already stepped in to pledge that they will pledge up front $4 million in NIL to help get the roster started. Well, that's a big deal. I mean, like say whatever else you want,

there's a belief out there that no school last year spent more money than $4 million on the NIO in basketball. So immediately, in theory, we would have the highest NIL payroll. You know, there was some talk that maybe Arkansas pledged three to five. The AD then got up there and said, well, we don't have anything yet, so we'll see. But I think this will drew definitely, at least put Kentucky. at the top of that. Oh, that was wonderful news.

I think the biggest concern, well, it is the biggest concern with Pope, is just getting the talent. Yeah, I don't know if anyone knows BYU. They actually play a really good brand of basketball. He's a really good exes and O's coach. They finished ahead of Kentucky and Kim Palm this year, just throwing out there with, like, no stars. So, man, the man can coach basketball. I was just worried he doesn't really have a recruiting pipeline. He's only been at Utah Valley.

BYU hasn't really done much in the area where there's a lot of talent-rich pipelines to tap into. but if you're putting $4 million in his pocket to start, that gets me excited that he can have a shot at this with getting the talent. Because if he gets the pieces, we know he loves Kentucky. We know the energy's there, and he has a good basketball mind. It's a matter of can he recruit, and $4 million will help. I just want to say this for fans. When you're evaluating this, and I am not going to tell anybody how to evaluate it,

I will admit when I heard last night, my reaction was no, please don't do that. I'm being honest with you. Now, maybe it's coping. I'm in a much better place today. With that said, though, when you're evaluating it, this is what you really need to understand. You can't talk theoretically about people. You need to talk about what they were actually deciding.

Cow's gone, right? Cow's gone, and he wasn't coming back. And I'm firm believer in this. He's a grown man, he walked his ass away. I wish him luck, but like nobody pushed him away. He left. He made that decision. we have to live with it, he has to live with it.

Part two. All these people told you no. They decided not to wait on Billy. On a personal level, I'd have waited. At the same time, though, if you wait two weeks and they say no, then we look not great, but that I would have waited, but they decided not to. They also decided, the other thing is Bruce Pearl. They decided not to talk to him.

That's really, those were the choices. Like the choice wasn't to pick this magical person that doesn't exist. The choice was, wait on Billy, don't call Bruce Pearl. Those are the choices. Amongst the other guys, if you look at the other guys, like you're talking like, Shaka Smart, et cetera, I don't think Mark Pope seems like a crazy choice in that group because he played here, et cetera. So the question just as you're evaluating this, would you have waited on Billy?

Would you have called Bruce Pearl? Those are really the only two to me questions. My answer is yes to the first one, probably to the second one. But I'll finish with this. And I'm not being a, listen, I was called the dude that tried to ruin college basketball for two years, which was ridiculous. Everybody knows I'm not a sunshine bumper.

But if he's going to be the coach, even if you hate it, don't you want it to succeed? We all do. We have to have it succeed. Kentucky fans first. we have to have it succeed. Like we can't have him come here and fail. Here's what he is as a coach.

Brilliant offensively. There's a video I posted, 14 minutes of his offense. It's the exact opposite of everything we've done. So we should prepare ourselves. It's going to be exactly the opposite of what we've watched the last few years. For good and bad. It's good. They're going to run out of bounds plays.

They're going to have sets. They're going to have drawn up plays, right? They're going to have guys cut into the basket. Every single person is going to be able to shoot. Every person on the floor is going to be able to shoot. They'll play five out. They led the nation in threes for most of the year. I think at the end we might have even passed them,

but it was right there with us and them in Alabama. The one thing we don't know is he was at a school, a Mormon school, where you have to sign a pledge not to have sex to go to the school. It ain't easy to recruit them. I would be out immediately. He's not bringing that pledge with him, right? I don't think they're going to make the players sign that pledge here. Let people make their own decisions on that one.

Shannon, you're not going there? No, absolutely not. Anywhere but there. So we don't know if he can recruit. We don't. And that, to me, will be the question. I want to see what his staff is. I will tell you, as we speak, they are talking,

trying to talk to a couple of big-name assistants that everybody in this room knows. Whether it'll work, I don't know, but they are, as we speak, doing that. The question for me, Ryan, is, you're going to be able to bring players. We need to prepare ourselves. The players ain't going to be as good as we've had.

They're not. We're not going to go get 10 or, you know, five of the top 30 guys. That ain't going to happen. But can they make the second weekend? That's the question. No, I'm serious. It's a lot of fun to watch Reed Shepard,

Rob Dillingham, Cason Wallace, Taitai Washington, etc. But if we lose to Oakland and St. Peters, it was fun, but what difference is it made? We're going to have a different kind of guy here now. And I do think, right, our fans, we've got to get in that mentality because it's going to be different. Yeah, on the basketball court, you know, he won at Kansas. He beat Baylor this year. He beat Iowa Stadium.

He had some really good wins this year with a really good team. He led us. People forget this. When he was at Utah Valley, he led us at 10 at halftime at Rupp Arena. Now, we came back and beat him. but he led by 10 at halftime. I had an assistant coach that his coached against him texted me last night, and it was like,

I can see the reaction online. He was even on your Twitter space, but he's like, having gone against that guy, he knows basketball, and they're a hard team to coach against a game plan for with the style they play. I had a person who knows him very, very well. Send me this last night.

He said, I'm going to give you my honest opinion about Mark Pope. And this is somebody that you guys would all know. He won at Utah Valley, He was disappointing a little bit at BYU, but then he changed his recruiting philosophy and his thoughts on how to build a roster, and they were really good this year. He can coach like heck. He runs some of the best stuff in the country. He's a solid guy. I don't know if he's a good recruiter.

At BYU, you cannot be a good recruiter. You just have to do what you do, which includes using a lot of Mormon missionaries and doing the best you can. The issue for me is recruiting. If he gets players that are a half as good as cow, he'll do as much if not more with them. The question is, can he get dudes? That's my take. Well, talk about then.

That's where the N.I.L. comes in. To me, that's where the N.I.L. comes in. He didn't have that. And if I'm them, they got to talk to the fans. They got to win you people over. This is a huge crowd here. The goal for this, for Mark Pope and Mitch Martinard, has got to be to win you all over.

If they do that, some boosters that were not involved in the program in the last few years. And it's always the same couple that people get mentioned, but it's a lot more than two. It's more like 20. I think they'll be back now, don't you? You know that group too. Yeah, and part of it, and we all know the resume and the concerns,

but he is going to bring a passion and a fire that I think the last regime lost, which led to those results. I think that energy and that work ethic is a lot of what's been missing. And yes, he's Mark Popen, not a Hall of Fame coach. But I think that'll do a lot for him and getting fans back and get NIL support because they'll see him going to work

as soon as he gets here and really wanting to make this work. I tried to put myself in these shoes last night before I went to bed because what's made KSR successful over the years is I try to say what would the average fan think, okay? That's what I try to do. I'm not a media member. I'm also not on the UK payroll. So I try to say what would an average fan?

fan thinking. Here's what I thought going to bed. The average fan loves Mark Pope the human being and loves that a dude that played here is going to be the coach. The average fan is scared to death that it's not going to work, and the average fan is probably upset that they feel like Barnhart rushed it. It is now, those things aren't going to change. So now the question is can Mitch and Pope get fans past that? Right? Because when the game start, none of this is going to matter. The national people that are mocking us, let them keep mocking.

If we win, it ain't going to matter. If we lose, they're going to keep mocking. So it's all about winning at this point, at least in my mind. All right. We're going to take a break. We're going to take calls. We're going to have Mitch on at 11, and we'll go from there. We'll be right back.

This is KSR at the Moonshine Trail at the Barrelhouse Distilling Government. Welcome back, Tegi Sports Radio. All right, let me go over some comments that people are writing. I think a lot of the questions are very similar. Let's go over. One of them says, Matt, you've always said, don't hire a person just because they went here. Isn't that this?

Yes, it is. I don't think you hire a person just because they went here. I think that's usually a mistake, but we did. So now we've got to make it work, right? I mean, perfect example. Hubert Davis and John Shire. I'm not sure that I think, I think, thought. either one of those guys was going to work.

I still don't know if they're going to work, but Hubert Davis has been to the championship game now. John Shire, they're keeping getting good players. So, like, I don't know that I would have done that, but they did it, and they're committed to trying to make it work. Ryan, I kind of think that's what we did it, so now we got to try to make it work. Yeah, you want it to be a Hubert Davis or John Shire, not a Mike Woodson and Indiana. Yeah, well, there's a ton of those over Patrick Hewing.

There's a ton of those over the years. keep seeing that comparison though. Shire and Davis were assistants of those schools for like a long time. Like maybe in David like a decade and Shire like six, seven years. So it's not really the same as just pulling Pope from Utah and putting him in Lexington, the people that are making that comparison. That's true, but Pope actually has been a head coach. No, that's what I mean. You could look at it differently like he's a head coach. You can look at that either way. I'm just saying it's not the same. Whatever you think, it's a different. It is different. You're right. You could look at it as better or worse.

One person writes, Matt, he's never won an NCAA tournament game. How do you hire a coach that's never won an NCAA tournament game. Fair question. I mean, that's a fair question. You just have to determine that. And that's going to be a question I'm going to ask, ask Mitch. I will say, and I know people don't necessarily want, they were as good as we were last year. I mean, to be honest with you, they were pretty much, I mean, we had a little better seed, but like they maybe even had a couple wins that were better than ours. They're ranked ahead of us in the final They were ranked at him and the Kim Palms. So we were probably similar teams.

One person writes, what's it going to be like for us to go recruit and not be with the top top guys? Well, I'm not willing to concede we won't be with the top top guys, but we don't know we will be, right? But let me just say, what have the top top guys done for us? Remember my comment the other day? You know what I mean five stars were in the final four this year? Two. You know how he started for one of the final four teams? One.

So, I mean, it's a different world. How many times have we heard fans say that they wish that our players would be here for two or three years? This might be the type of roster that he could put together. Shannon, that's a great point. I've heard people for years calling this show. I want guys who've been here for a while. I want guys who love the name on the front of the uniform, not the back of the uniform. I want guys who know how to play, who are coached.

Well, you're getting all that. You're getting all that. and now we'll see if we wanted it. I think something to note. Jeff Shepard and Mark Pope were college roommates. Okay? Jeff Shepard and Mark Pope are lifelong friends. If there was ever going to be a chance, Reed Shepard would come back.

This is it. Now, I don't think that kid should come back because he feels an obligation. But if he was going to come back, this would probably be the best way to make it happen. There's no doubt that that helps. That connection. Jamal Mashburn's kids in the transfer portal, Blackman's kid in the transfer portal, there's some good players out there with Kentucky ties that maybe could get us all excited for the roster.

There's a lot of stuff that happened under Cal that it's impossible to know if this will be better. I do think, however, and this is crazy, but I do think there'll be a lot more money in the program than there would have been otherwise, and I do think you'll see a lot more former players. Now, the question is, will the Cal players? Yeah. And I don't know the answer to that.

All right. We will take your calls right after this. We are here at Barrelhouse Distilling on Manchester Street, KSR. Welcome back, Tucky Sports Radio, here live at Barrelhouse Distilling. We are here for the Moonshine Trail. Let me tell you quickly about the Moonshine Trail. By the way, big ups to Moonshine Trail, who's getting probably more listeners than they ever thought they'd get on this advertisement today.

The Moonshontrail.com, six distillers around Kentucky, that each have a different type of moonshine. barrel house here, regeneration distilling in Winchester, Kentucky Mountain Moonshine in Ravena, Kentucky. Where's Raven, Irvin, Kentucky? All right, Irvin, Kentucky. Kentucky Mist Distillery in Whitesburg, Polly Hollow, although I'd say it, Polly Haller Distillery in Pike County, and Backwoods Moonshine Museum in Beattyville. Those are the six things on the moonshine trail. We have a sample from all of them up here that Drew, I'm sure, is going to take as soon as Mitch

got off the air, because I don't want him drunk. while Mitch is on the air. Don't want to disrespect, Mr. Barnhart. I'm such a significant day. All right, so let's go. I've done a lot of talking. By the way, here's the one part of news. Matt Norlander reports Calgary taking his whole staff to Arkansas.

Same guys replacing John Welch. That was the X and O guy with Brad Calgary. All right. I'll have one. I'll drink to that. I'll do one. Seemly who's going to replace somebody. Welsh would be the wrong guy to replace.

You know what's the good news about that? I'd heard some chatter that maybe Ken would think about going that would have helped them yeah no offense that staff replacing welch with brad good luck great value you can touch do love let me be clear i do love i do love Orlando i'll take or like Orlando I think is great but for me all right good luck that's that I'll just I'll just you took you took the one thing that came in that was a positive last year was that offense and the guy who did the offense is leaving so that that's a You know, that is what it is.

Did they take the shovel with them? All right. Who's up first? Got Joe up first. I'm interested to hear what people say. Let's go, Joe. Hey, how's it going, guys? What's up?

A lot of my points got wind taken out of them, but I think one thing KSR should be excited about is you're going to be able to communicate with somebody. It's probably going to come on the show at least once or more a week with you to talk. Yeah, but let me just say. I think that will happen, but that's not why I will or won't be happy. I've said this over and over. It's all about winning.

If he comes on the show every week and we lose, that doesn't make me happy, right? So, you know, I want him to win. I know Mark Pope. Ryan, and I appreciate to call it. Ryan, you know Mark Pope. You knew Mark Pope as a player. You worked with Mark Pope on television for a couple years. What's he like as a human being?

He's an awesome dude. I mean, you talk about a, it's a super. super smart too. Wasn't he a road scholar? He is without question, in my opinion, the smartest person to ever play in Kentucky. He was a finalist to be a road scholar, and he went to medical school for two years and dropped out to be because he wanted to pursue his dream of coaching. I always say there are people that are sports smart and real-life smart. Mark's the smartest real-life person that I've ever known to play here, just being, you know,

Now, that doesn't mean he'll be a great coach, but he is very smart. He's very funny, too, just a great guy to be around. You know, I covered him in 96, but then in 97, he was part of our crew at WLAX that we went on the road for March Madness. Like, he took his shirt off on the ski slope at Salt Lake City that year during one of our live shots. I mean, he just kind of crazy stuff like that. We all got to know him as a person, just generally a great, great guy. Is that where you got the shirt thing from? Did Pope give you that move?

I guess Pope started it off, yeah. He's very dorky, Shannon. I mean, there's a video of him rapping to Hamilton. There's a video where he put on his UK basketball uniform. You've seen the dorkiness. I know you don't usually like dorkiness. What do you think of that? I think it's very dorky, as you said.

I think if we got Scott Drew, we're going to get another dork. So either way, we're going to get a dork. Look, he may crush it here, you know. And right now we might as well just embrace it because it is what it is. I just didn't love how quickly he was. I think there's a lot of people that feel like that. That's just kind of where I stand it. But I'm going to embrace him.

I hope that he does well. But we'll see. Tom will tell. If he wins, everybody will be happy. It doesn't matter. I have to stand up for one thing. We're not going to have Hamilton slander. I mean, love doesn't discriminate between the sinners and the saints, Matt.

I mean, at this press conference, I'm ready to challenge him if he wants to go bar for bar. Mario, there's an online thing. Mark Pope versus Drew and Hamilton. More of an Aaron Berg out of myself. I would like to see that. Who's next? Randy is up next. Randy.

Go ahead, Randy. Good morning, guys. Hey, I'm about like everybody else last night. I was one of your 23,000 on your Twitter space and was really kind of frustrated with the hire because I felt like it was an emergency or knee-jerk reaction. After listening to you and reading, and I think, you know, Danny Hurley hadn't done anything before he went to Yukon, correct?

I know he went some NCAA tournament games maybe, but I thought if we didn't get the tier one and tier two, maybe we went Todd Golden at Florida. I think there's some things that would, I think there's some things that would have made that impossible. Right, okay. But I think this is our Todd Golden hiring, 51. He's going to put energy in the program.

And let's go. That's all I can say, guys, I'll be down there next to your chair in a more. Appreciate the call. Look, let's put it like this. If he doesn't do X's and O's well, this will fail, right? Like, he's not going to be able to win by personality. the way in some ways Cal was at times. Like he's not going to be able to just recruit the top 10 players in America and hope it works.

He's going to have to be good X&O. Every single person today should watch that video I tweet out. It's called they play basketball like a video game. And the guy, it's not the most well put together video. He's kind of, it's slow. But they show the way they run offense. And Kelvin Sampson, this is Kelvin Sampson's probably the best defensive coach in the country. Kelvin Samson, in that video goes, this is the hardest team to play against in the country because nobody plays like they do.

Yeah, and they've got that, you know, for all you shot chart people that would make those go viral. It's threes and twos, and they get wide open layups because they cannot leave any of their shooters. So as long as he can get the right personnel and it's going to take a lot better than what he had. With their brand of basketball, it's kind of like that, whatever one likes with that Nate Oates. It's a layup or a three, and it's just a matter of getting the right people to perform it at this level. my biggest concern is can he get a roster this year? Because he's probably not going to bring too many recruits. They have one kid who was a top 35 player who went on a two-year Mormon mission and is now coming back.

Does he decide to follow Mark Pope or does he go to BYU? I don't know, but who's next? Darren is up next. Darren, go ahead, Darren. Good morning, Matt. Can you hear me? Yes. Matt, I'm not going to lie.

I got up this morning. I actually went to bed pretty early last night. I got up this morning, and I've been burning my phone up for the last 24 hours, wondering who he was going to get. But my reaction was probably the same as everybody else. I was shocked. I was just like you. But listen, let's give him a chance.

I mean, he knows what it is to put that jersey on. He knows what Kentucky is. He knows what it means. does fans. He would play under probably the best coach that we've ever had, you know, arguably. And let's give him a chance. I mean, you know, let's see what he can do. I believe, you know, we've got the N IL to back him up. I mean, you know, hey, don't think he can't get recruits. We've got money and we're Kentucky. I mean, if John Shire can do it, we can do it. Appreciate the call. That's actually a fairly positive call. So we got at least one very positive.

I will say on the NIO money. I keep getting texts during the show. He's going to have everything he needs to build a roster. I think there's a really good chance we'll have, this isn't guaranteed, but I think there's a really good chance we'll have more in Iowa money than anybody next year. Now, it might take a year for that to work itself out, right?

Because you still got a, he's not going to have any, like we're going to be old next year. Like I hope people are us. We're probably going to have the oldest team in the country. because I don't know, I bet Travis Perry stays. Oh, yeah. I mean, if I'm Travis Perry, you just drew your dream coach for how you play, don't you think? Absolutely, yeah, that's him.

Also, the other guys didn't show up for his championship. I'm sure he's, I shouldn't say, I'm sure I don't know him, but I mean, I would be excited for what's ahead. We're going to have an old team next year. The effect on recruiting in NIL is probably going to take a year to really figure out one way or the other. I think the staff, now that money is there, we know Pope's got the energy, the UK connection, He needs somebody with some actually recruiting contacts. Like I said, Pope's been getting people in Utah. We need you to start going to Texas, Atlanta, the Northeast.

You need people that already have these contacts. Recruiting at BYU has one major advantage and one massive disadvantage. The major advantage is you get the best Mormons. It sounds like I'm joking, but there's usually one or two really good Mormons a year. And you get them. One year the Duke stole one of their Mormons, and he was girls. and it crushed them. You get the Mormons.

So every year there's like one or two Mormons that are really good and you get them, right? But the hard part is getting the non-Mormans. Because like Shannon said, I'm coming in your house. You're a top 10 player. Shannon, great place here. We got everything you need. Great fan base. BYU is a massive university.

All good. You in? Oh, I love it, man. Offensive style. You're going to get 100. Okay. You can't have sex. Nope.

Sorry. That's it. That's it. Get out of my house. Deal killer. Leave. You can't drink. No, what?

No, absolutely not. I don't think Mitch Barthart's religious. I don't think he's going to make him do that here. So, you know. Our Fade this listeners are laughing right now. I don't know how many of you listen to Fade this. But Drew and I've talked about, I only bet on Mormon teams. We're kind of a Mormon show.

Mormon teams cover more than any other team in the country randomness. So Drew, first thing he texted me, goes, do we bet on Kentucky every game next year? Great hire for Faith this. That's exactly right. Shady Ray's is a Kentucky-based company. You can get sunglasses. If you lose or break them, they'll replace them. You can buy two pairs, use the code KSR for 50% off.

They got them in Lexington and Louisville at the summit. It's all there. It is shadyrays.com. They are a big investor in the state. They've done amazingly well, started right there in Simpsonville. Shadierase.com, best sunglasses, best prices at Shadyrays. We are here at Barrowhouse. Mitch Barnhart at 11 o'clock.

We'll take a break and be right back. Kentucky Sports Radio. Welcome back. Tuggy Sports Radio here at Barrowhouse to Silling. You know, those of you that showed up didn't know you all were going to get to speak for the fan base with these TV stations here. So there's going to be a lot of post-game interviews, I think, where people will say, what do you think of the new hire? We're going to find out here in a little bit.

Mitch Barnhart will join us in the next segment, but I want to give people a chance to talk. So who's next? Up next is Hunter. Rick's still going at his pace. I love it. Hunter, go ahead, Hunter. Hey, Hunter. Hey, Matt.

First time caller. Who are? I'm a big Mark Pope fan, so I kind of want to stick up for him a little bit. His two best teams were actually his first two years. In the first year, the reason why he did winning March games was because he got upset by UCLA, who ended up in the final four. So I wouldn't count that too hard against them. That's right.

They lost in the first four in Dayton, right? Isn't that? Am I correct? No, they made it to the actual game. UCLA played in the first four, though. Gotcha. And was that the year the year UCLA played in the finals or whatever, or against the semifinals against Gonzaga?

Yeah, they played the final four. Okay. Gotcha. All right. That's a great UCLA team. Then the second year, they had three first team all WCC. So they were another great team. They were 18 to the eight people.

And then COVID canceled the tournament. So I believe he should have got at least one or two wins out of that teams. And I don't think you can blame them too much for that. then going to recruiting, I think if you look at his transfers, he can recruit with about anyone considering it as BYU. He got Jackson Robinson from Arkansas. In this past year, he got Marcus Adams Jr. from Kansas, a bunch of non-Mormans who were looking to go other places but still came to BYU.

So I think a lot of our fans who were giving them a lot of crap, you know, need to give them a chance. All right. Well, I appreciate the call. I didn't know any of that stuff. You see, it's good to have people who actually. Pope. He's a lot of info.

He must be an agent. Who's next? Up next is Joshua. Joshua, go ahead, Joshua. Hey, good morning, K.S. Sir, taking my call. So my wife this morning took me to the DMV here in Louisville to get my license renewed, standing next to a guy wearing a Kentucky shirt.

I gave him a little thumbs up and said, Mark Pope. He looked back to me and smiled and said, man, I'm pretty excited. And for the next 90 seconds, we're just giddy about Mark Pope being our next head coach. I'm super excited. I think he is not the sexy choice, but he is the correct choice. If he can bring Jackson Robinson, like the caller said before, with him, if he can get a guy like Wade Taylor out of the transfer portal who announced 15 minutes before the Mark Pope news broke last night that he hit the portal,

if we can maybe get reading here too, I'm super excited. I'm all in. I'm Mark Pope. God bless you guys. Go cats. Well, I will tell you, we've taken four calls. And everybody knows, we don't screen calls. They've all been pretty positive.

I'm surprised. I was expecting some people to go nuts. If you go online, it's only people going nuts. So maybe that's a good sign. Who's next? Chris is up next. Chris, go ahead, Chris. Hey, guys, I also am super positive.

I am thinking that Coach Pope's going to restore us to our deserved relevance and show the national media what we're really about, that it's not University of Cal. And then show Cal, I think Mitch wants to show Cal that ADs can win championships, but coaches also got to be a part of that. And then to all my friends who tell me to stop calling so much, I hope you hear my voice in your dreams.

I love you guys. Appreciate the call. Oh, good call, Chris. You know, we haven't talked a lot about it because so much has been going on, but that comment that Cal made at the press conference where he said administrations win championships, like that was clearly a shot at Barnhart there, didn't you think?

I don't know how many people picked up on it here, but he started saying it in Lexington just shortly after the drama we had a couple summers ago. We felt it then and he took it to Fayetteville, so it shows how a strain that relationship really was. Yeah, clearly, well, that's a whole other drama for another day. Right now it's Mark Pope. What's next?

is up next. Tyler, I mean, I'm telling you, the fact the first six calls have all been positive is not what I saw coming, Shannon.

I'll be honest with you. Tyler, go ahead, Tyler. I'm keeping the train rolling. So first off, thanks for all the extra coverage this week has just been a roller coaster. And,

you know, being able to listen to you on the extra times was great. But, no, so I've talked to myself into now overnight that I am excited as well.

First off, like, with the, the hardest part about Kentucky is the circus that is Kentucky. And I don't think anybody in the country, we could guarantee that they would know that other than Mark Hope.

So that, I mean, he already has that going for him, and that's the hardest part. And with recruiting, I mean, I get it, but we're Kentucky. Now we only need to get one or two solid recruits a year. You know, it's not like Cal. We don't need that every year.

So that's another positive. And also it just kind of lowers the expectations for next year, which is a good thing, Because if we did get a Danny Hurley, a Billy Donovan, you know, we would be expecting the world like we have been the past 15 years. And if we were let down again, it would hurt even worse. Now we know we might not get that the first year. So that's another positive. And just my last point is with Danny Hurley, the caller hinted at it earlier.

If you look at, you know, everybody thinks he's the top coach now, which he is, but he felled at Yukon before. I mean, it took him a while. And he didn't get the term at their first four years. He was there. You're right. And then he lost from the first round. Well, I got to let somebody else go, but I appreciate the call. I will, and that's good stuff.

I will say, all right, I know there's more people negative than are calling. Saving all of our negative calls for the second hour. Maybe so, but let me say this. I want everybody, I like to think positive sometimes, so let's just dream about what would be an awesome moment. All right. For anything else you think, Mark Pope's of Kentucky. guy, right? Mark Pope loves this place. Mark Pope wore our uniform on the BYU floor to make a video. I want you to picture next January or February when Arkansas comes into town. All right,

Cal's going to come into town. He's going to be wearing red. He's going to have with him on the sidelines a staff that I think some of whom at times didn't help him out, and they're going to come in here probably with some big name recruits. What if Mark Pope's? Hope coming there with the 96 team sitting there on the sideline with him. What if we were to beat their ass here in Rupp Arena next year? Can we wear denim? I mean, it would be kind of awesome, Ryan, wouldn't it? You march out the 96 team before the game or at halftime, maybe even Coach Petino comes out and invoices his support for Mark Foep?

The drama here will never end. Quickly, one more before the break. Who's next? John is next. John, I just got like a minute. 30. Real quick. I think the pressure is off and I'm looking forward to this.

The one thing I think is different now, this is a real Kentucky person, a real guy who understands. The one thing that makes Kentucky different from everybody else is us. Me, you, Drew, Shannon, everybody that listens and watches that lives this 24, 37 365. Pope understands that better than anybody. All right, Mitch, thank you very much. Mitch Barnhart next here at Barrelhouse, DeCille. It's Kentucky Sports Radio.

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