KSR - 2024-04-12- KSR - Hour 2

Episode Date: April 12, 2024

Live from the Moonshine Trail with UK AD Mitch BarnhardtSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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joined on the phone by mitch barnhart kentucky athletics director and mitch i'll start with this a very simple question. You have a new coach, I assume, and it's Mark Pope. Tell me how you ended up getting there and why you ended up picking him. Yeah, that's a long question. The process is are complicated and all these things, and they move rapidly. And obviously on Saturday night, we didn't anticipate being in this kind of search this week. And so obviously you start on Monday and when you get news that things are moving. So you're prepared in, you're prepared in terms of things that people that you might want to talk to and in conversations you might want to have. But at the end of the day, I think people have this notion that the pool is massively big,

and it's really more like a puddle of names, because the folks that would, would, could want to do a job like the University of Kentucky is smaller than you would surmise. And so you get to that, and then you begin the process of working your way through availability and people that you want. you've got a lot of big personalities involved in these things. And that includes not only the coaches, but the representatives as well. And so you're working your way through all that. And then obviously you've got the media and the public piece of that. So a lot of moving pieces. And we sort of vetted a few, not a few, several folks, and then walked through it

and got to a spot where I had a really good conversation with Mark Pope, which we've known Mark for years from the times that he's been back around our campus. And he and Leanne, we had a chance to visit with Leanne. She was in Houston, and so we had an opportunity to bring her into the conversation and really enjoyed the opportunity to spend more time with them and felt like he had the energy and the passion and understands this place at a really, really high level. There's not a lot of people that can say they captained a national championship, team in any sport. And he did that for the University of Kentucky. And he brings an amazing

passion and energy for this place. And then he has got the skill set that goes with it in terms of the offense and style of all that he plays and the things that he does and the relationships that he has here. And once Mark gets here, we're hopeful to get him here in the next day, hopefully tomorrow and in some way, shape, or form. And getting here, people get to see him and see his heartbeat for Kentucky, he's one of ours. And that means a lot to all of us and to the players that played here and to people who saw what he did as he represented as a student athlete. He'll do that and more as a coach.

When you, if I'm a fan that's listening right now, and I'm saying Mitch Barnhart, give me one thing to get really excited about Mark Pope as the next coach of Kentucky beyond the fact that he played here. would it be? Well, I think there's two pieces to the puzzle. So if you said one, I'd probably go two different sides of the coin. You know, one is the personality side and the other is the technical side. When you talk to the people in the basketball community, they talk about the unique

offense that he runs and the way he forces teams to defend. And then he makes them defend all the way out, 27 by 50. So they come all the way out and the way they break it down and they shoot the threes. They led their third in the country and made threes. They were first in, I think, three-point field-go percentage, or three-point field-go percentage. So they were up there at least in the top five all year. Their offensive efficiency is high level. They were 81 points a game.

So when I talk about why that fits in today's landscape of college basketball, obviously we had a team that was upper 80s this year. And sometimes on the defensive end, we didn't get as much on the defensive. in as we used to. And so I think what Mark does, he brings a little bit of his style as a player when he was here. And he's matched it with some nuances to the offense that I think are really, really cool. And we talk technically a lot about three on one side of the court and two on the other. It's the new move of the NBA and where the NBA is going and some of the things that they're doing. And the players like to play that way. And he has already put that in his stuff. And it's really good.

And so as you talk to some of the basketball, I don't say junkies, but if you talk about some of the people that are sort of the nuances of the game, Mark's on the cutting edge of those things offensively. And defensively, he likes to do some of the things that his team was famous playing for and how they put pressure on people and turn them over. So from a technical perspective, I'd say you're going to see a little bit of a throwback to some of the things that look like a team that Mark played for. And not exactly the same because he's tweaked it a little bit

and put some of his own stuff in there. And then on the other side of the coin, Matt, I think what he has done is he brings the tenacity, the toughness, and the positive energy. He is a positive guy. You can't be around Mark Pope very long with. You don't hear the positivity in his voice. He uses words like, we're crushing it. We're going to crush that. We're going to, you know, get after it.

And his positive energy for anybody that comes into contact with him is contagious. And I think, you know, a few back, I went back and looked at a couple of his pressers. Now, from other things that he'd done, you know, words like relentless and tenacity and toughness roll off his tongue easily because that's what his teams do. And he went to some really in a league that arguably may be right or wrong. You can say arguably they're the best basketball conference this year in the deal. That's what they all said and went in. And that Big 12 did not have anybody in the Final Four.

But they had a lot of teams in that conversation in terms. of the NCAA tournament. And he went in to venues and hosted teams in the venues. And in his first year in that league, and probably should have been named Big 12 coach of the year. He did not get that. But he win places. He beat teams that we didn't beat,

and he beat teams that were people that we interviewed. So, you know, I just say he has a lack of fear of the situation. He is ready to take everything on. And he knows how big this job is. and he knows how important it is to this state. And so that's more than one. It means a lot to him, Matt. Well, let me ask you this, because I'm going to give you,

the average fan sort of thought, concern I've heard, and maybe you can address some of them. I think that school he was at has unique challenges in recruiting. Do you believe he can bring the best talent to Kentucky? I think most people believe in his exes and O's. Can he get the players, here that people think you need to win a title? Yeah, well, I think that the person in the pudding, obviously,

and we got to go get that done. So I get off the phone with him last night, and he already talked to me about two players that he couldn't get to come to have a conversation with him at BYU that already called him back and said, Coach, I'll come to Kentucky. So it is about the name on the front. It's about the name on the front of the jersey, right?

And there's something about that brand. So if you go back and you look at that, if you look at just in the social and press, from Monday at 3 o'clock until Tuesday at 3 o'clock. The University of Connecticut won the national championship, obviously, and they had 17 million impressions in that 24-hour period of time. Kentucky basketball coming off something that everyone would agree is not where we want to be. In that same 24-hour period of time, we had 37 million impressions.

Over double. So my point is the brand is real, and it is really, really important. And we've got to effectively use it, and we use it. We combine some things in recruiting with, with the tenacity in recruiting, a staff in recruiting, the brand that we have, and then the NIL space, and we've got some people that have already stepped up over the last 24 hours. We've got several donors that have stepped up to put over $4 million in our NIL portfolio for coach to work with to get started.

That was reported earlier. You can confirm that's true? I can confirm that's true. Gotcha. So that's hugely important for us as we go forward, obviously, in terms of roster management of the current roster as in the roster management going forward. Everyone wants to talk to what we can say that these are weird conversations. This is stuff we've really never talked about on the air before.

It's new, but it's real. And so, yes, so that is part of our deal now. And we continue to move forward. We've got more coming. If people want to get involved, we can tell them how to do that through our avenues. Well, can you, I mean, how can you do it? You want to do that here? You can do it through Club Blue.

If you go to Club, I put it on my social, there's a, link to Club Blue if you want to go to that. All you do is you can go to, and I'm not plugging my Twitter page because I really don't, you know, that's not my deal. But there's, if you go there, you'll find on my social, there is a link to Club Blue. I'll put it out later. That way people can get it. Yeah, yours is probably more popular than my partner.

Well, thank. Let me ask you this question, because this is going to be, this is going to be what people are going to talk about. over the last few years, everybody knows what it has been like. Do you feel like, what are some things in the last couple years that were weaknesses maybe around the program that you think Mark Pope makes better with his presence? Everybody knows the strengths of the Cal era.

What about some things you think will get better with Mark Pope as the coach? Well, I don't, I think as we look forward, and that's why I want to be really focused on that. And I think that's where you're headed to, man. I really appreciate Mark's desire to bring the Big Blue Nation and all of us together as we galvanize to go back and be who we want to be. And when I tell the first thing, when we sat down, he says, Mitch, thanks for the opportunity to sit down with you. That place changed my life. He says the trajectory of Mark Pope's life changed the day I walked on the campus at the University of Constitution.

Kentucky. He said, that place means more to me than you can possibly imagine. That, no one can replicate that DNA. No one can. And so it's passionate and it's emotional. And that's what you get when he told, and I don't want to steal all of his stories because he's got some great stuff. But when he talks about the autograph signing line after the national championship and what it meant to the people was they stood in line to to catch a chance to have a glimpse of a national championship. champion. That's the heartbeat of all of our fans from border to border in the state, and Mark gets that. And that's what I want to make sure that we galvanize that. We galvanize our department around that. There's been, you know, some things that have happened that we need to be banded together better. And I've challenged Mark to really be thoughtful of how we do that. And that's important to me. That helps us as we create culture within our department and culture within our team and our locker room. and we become a program that walks out with that name on the front of the jersey and we walk out there representing the Big Blue Nation and the 4 million people in our state and worldwide.

That is so important. That's what I think I'm hopeful that we can be as a department better, and that's on me, and as a basketball program, that people feel that. I want them to feel that. When they walk in, we understand the goal. We're going to have the pressure in Rupp Arena. It's going to be in Rupp Arena. And it is very clear.

So you're going to have the press conference in Rupp Arena. Do you know what day that'll be? They're working on the logistics on that. Probably Sunday, Matt. Probably Sunday. So we're working on that probably Sunday. So working trying to get all the details pulled together. There's an event in Rup on Monday.

And will that be like for the public? Like the public can come? Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. All right. So that's the first time I can remember that being the case. So that will be on Sunday.

All right. So again, I'm kind of. I apologize to the media. I apologize. I apologize the media on that. I know it's not a great day for that, but we're trying to get everything going, get everybody going. And he needs, obviously, the task at hand is, his rosters and recruiting. Yeah. All right. So let's talk for a second. One other thing. One of the thing that everybody understands. The process has to move really quickly because the dead period ends. You know, and so all of a sudden now everybody's out in recruiting to. That was critical mass as we move forward in terms of recruiting. So you didn't feel like you could wait for someone, am I right? right? You can't wait long in this process because a lot of things happen. You know, people are, you know, all of a sudden you got people making decisions in the transfer world and that kind of stuff that are, you know, are critical to rosters. And, you know, you just give us time and no one's willing, no one's going to give you

time. I mean, that's not a, it's not in the, they don't care who you are in that, in that deal. It's, it's moving quickly. Do you think there will be, have you all reached out to, or do you think there will be any players that were either currently on the team or were potentially committed that you can be able to get to still be at Kentucky, play for Kentucky under Mark Pope? Well, I certainly, you know, obviously those are coaches' calls and he's going to make those calls, but I certainly hope that everyone give this staff an opportunity to be able to have

a conversation before they do it. That's why getting it done quickly was really, really important, not getting it done quickly, but getting done officially and being ready to go was really, really important. because those, we're not crazy, this notion that no one's, quote, unquote, tampering with your roster, that's gone. I mean, that's, NCAA says, you know, please call us if you hear that's happening. I don't know that they can handle the number of phone calls, that it happens on a daily basis from sport to sport. It's not even something they can track. So, yeah, I mean, you've got to be, you've got to jump in the middle of this pretty heavily and get to your roster and manage that.

that and he's doing it. He's going to do that. That's that's job number one, position number one, role number one, whatever you want to talk about. That's the first thing on his list, amongst other things about connecting with our fan base. I'm not sure if you moved or something, but you're a little harder to hear. So for the last question, if you go back to where you were before that question, that would be easier. I want to give you one, I want to say one last thing. Okay, so I got online last night when this got announced, a lot of skepticism, a lot of frustration. A lot of worry, to be honest with you. Seems much better this morning, but that's still out there.

Part of as an AD, you want everybody to rally the troops. I'm going to get you to put on your Colonel, you know, Mitch Barnhart hat. Rally the troops. Why is Mark Pope going to be successful at Kentucky? I don't know that you can ever describe what it feels like to put the sea on a shirt and captain a group of guys to a championship. We're going to roll out at Ruppelin, and we're going to have a spotlight on the banners that represent this place.

There's very few people that can stand on a podium and say they were a part of that, and they captained the team, and now they're ready to leave the ship. This is our time to not bicker. We've been vicar in a while about what we should do. not do. It's time to say this is our guy. He's one of ours. And it is time to roll in, get behind this guy, and let's go win something together, and let's make sure that we have a heartbeat of what's on the front of that jersey the right way. And this guy can do it. He's got an unbelievable passion for this program. He's got an intelligence about the game, and he is

absolutely the most positive people I've ever been around. And the players, they're going to be at that presser that have come out. They believe in him. And so I don't ever want to cast away the opportunity to say, you know what, ours aren't good enough to go lead our program. They are. And this guy's great enough to lead our program, and he is. And we can go win championships, and we will.

Mitch Barnhart, thank you very much. I appreciate you calling in, and I will see you Sunday. Thanks, Matt. Appreciate it. All right. We'll take a break and be right back. This is Kentucky Sports Radio. All right, welcome back here at Kentucky Sports Radio. We are here at Barrelhouse Distillery.

I'll tell you what, to Barrelhouse and the folks here at the Moonshot Trail, you'll be a remote I'll always remember. I'm not going to lie to you, considering all that's going on. Thank you guys very much for having us. All right, so you heard Mitch's comments. What would you take? Yeah, we talk about coaches winning the press conference. Mitch won the radio interview. I mean, I think he did himself a lot of favors by his answers,

how he handled your questions, and I went away more excited about Mark Pope than I was before the interview. Let me say this about the press conference Sunday, and I'm not telling people what to do. I know it's Master's Sunday. That's not the greatest day in the world. But I do think, I don't care what you think about this. Get your ass down there Sunday to that press conference. I mean it. I mean, like, Cal had a good crowd at Arkansas. It wasn't crazy. But we need a big crowd there on Sunday.

I was already planning on doing nothing on Sunday. I'm coming. You need to, it is important. If this is, whether you think this is a good hire or not, and I'm not going to be the one to tell you what to think, because at first I thought it was a bad hire, now I'm kind of into like, eh, hope so.

But it doesn't matter. Like, it's happened now. So because it's happened, like, we got to rally around him Because the only one way to ensure it fails is if the fans don't have excitement. Now, if the fans have excitement and it doesn't work, then it doesn't work. And he did what you did. But you got to make it to where you give him a chance. And Sunday, to me, Drew, is that start.

So I hope we, it'll be hard to fill up Rup Arena for a press conference, but we need to have a lot. It's the first time I ever remember them having an open press conference. conference for a coach. I think we need to have as many people as possible there. Yeah, and I don't want to tell people how to fan. I know some people are still confused by what's going on, but, I mean, we take pride and being the crazy, passionate fan base, and we can use those powers for good right now and put some support behind Mark Pope. And while it seems the, you know, internet and the national people might be dunking on us right now, we can show them what we do

by getting behind Pope and giving him all the resources he needs to make things happen. Yeah, I mean, the narrative is going to be, Shannon. Oh, the Kentucky fans, this higher and I think a lot of them did last night and maybe some of them may still do it the greg shiano thing was thrown out a lot last night it was but i will say this if you end up with a big crowd there sunday and everybody's going nuts i know i like mitch barnhart he ain't exactly a rally the troop speaker exactly gave him an opportunity it's pretty he's pretty monotone that's the way it goes but that's not how mark pope will be yeah mark pope will be like me and he'll be his arms flapping around and he'll be doing all that stuff it'd be we need to like give him

it a shot. Might as well embrace it. He's our new guy, and I will say that Big Blue Nation is the best fan base that there is. So I think that we're going to have a big crowd there on Sunday. So let me ask you a question. TV cameras turn off for this because I don't want people being embarrassed. No, I'm being serious. You can do it right after this. All right. When the thing was announced last night, how many of you were like, no? Raise your hand. This morning, how many of you are still like, no? But how many, all right? And how many? And how many, many of you are like, I'm going to give this a shot. All right. So for people who can't hear, 85 to 90 percent said no last night. And now it's about 85 to 90 percent saying, let's give

it a shot. Yep. That's how I am. I was 85 to 90 percent no. And I was, and now I'm like, you've got to give it a shot. You can turn that camera back. We just needed a little sleep. I mean, we needed some sleep. I had a friend last night texted me that he's going to go outside and light himself on fire. And this morning when I woke up, he put, we're so back. He just needed some sleep. That's all he needed. I mean, that is the Kentucky fan base. That's why we're crazy.

And that's why I said Scott Drew, no offense, he would. Here's the thing. If Scott Drew had come here, chances are we'd all be excited. But you know what? If we scared him off, then he didn't need to be here anyway. We certainly ain't going to scare off Bart Pope. Right? I mean, we're just not.

Like, he's been through it. So, you know, we've said for a long time the program makes the coach. You've said that, right? Well, now it gets the ultimate test. There's going to be a lot of stuff put on the line here. Barnhart's putting his legacy on the line with this one. Let's be real. He's had a couple huge successful hires, Stoops and Cal.

He's had some failures with Joker and Billy. This is going to be the one that'll decide it. for Kentucky as a brand. The national people say Kentucky's not the brand it was. But if Mark Pope, who's won no NCAA tournament games, comes and wins here, then guess what? The brand was a pretty big part of that, right? So there's a lot of stuff put on the line,

and I, for one, hope it succeeds. I'm not going to say that I'm going to bet the world on it, but I'm going to do whatever I can to help make it happen because we need it to. We'll take a break and be right back. This is Kentucky Sports Radio. Welcome back here, Kentucky Sports. radio here at Barrow House to Sealing by the company. By the way, I had to use cornbread hemp last night.

Not going to lie to you at cornbread hemp.com. It was very hard for me to go to sleep about one o'clock, but took cornbread hemp promo code KSR and was able to get some rest. Actually slept pretty good until my phone went nuts this morning. But you go to cornbread hemp.com, full spectrum, flour-only hemp CBD gummies to help you sleep and help you do all that you need to do. We probably need to turn this down a little bit because I can already tell it's going to echo. 59-280-2287.

I'll go to the phones. I want to hear more fans, but a couple quick news things I think were important from the cow thing. He already has a couple people who said he'll come play for him. Don't know who it is, but that's interesting to hear. It is clear to me he made it was very important to him to say the name on the front of the jersey.

We really emphasize the word together. We're going to do this together. He said it like that. He said that a number, a number of times. Is there anything else out that stood out from you in that regard? Well, his whole news conference, it seemed like he was taking jabs, I thought, at Barnhart and UK administration.

That's just my take on it. I do think it would be kind of awesome, Shannon, if we packed that place on Sunday. I mean, Arkansas got a good crowd, but if we got a packed house, that would be something. I have some. I was going to say that's what I would expect. I also want to point out that Mitch said that, you know, Mark Pope won a couple of games and beat a couple of teams that Kentucky didn't last year. He didn't want that.

I don't know if anybody noticed that or not. He did say. What were you going to say? I have some friends. They were very unhappy last night. And this morning, after hearing Mitch, they're already texting me. We need everybody we can to go to Rupp to show that, I won't say what they said, that blank that might have left that this is still Kentucky.

So I think it is important that that crowd looks good. I'm not trying to link with what we had, but I think it is important. You know, I'm a big believer in. I'm a big believer in. Let's only do things that. work, right? Because you don't, well, this is a big gamble. Now we've got to make sure it works.

We can't be at Rupp Arena and not have a lot of people there, right? So, like, we got to go. That's, you just need to. Speaking of going, Antonio Reeves, you want to talk about relating to UK players? Antonio Reeves signing tonight at 630. There was some questions yesterday. Well, with everybody doing this, should you cancel it? Antonio Reeves is flying from Chicago, said, I want to do it, meet everybody.

Good. Go out there tonight. $25 to get an autograph. I think it's important that we stay connected to the Cal guys too, right? This is going to bring a lot of the older folks in, but we need to stay connected to the young ones. I was glad to see John Wall's comment the other day. This is, I mean, it's not, I know that I ain't getting a dollar from this signing tonight,

but like I want to do it, and I hope everybody will come. I think it would be good. Antonio was literally flying in from Chicago to do it. So that's tonight at 6.30, KS. Bar. It's just first come, first serve, but he's only scheduled to be there an hour. I think if people are there and there's longer than that, he will stay, and there's now a bird in this building. Two birds in the building.

All right, they're gone. All right. Who's next, Rick? Mark is up next. Mark, go ahead, Mark. Afternoon, guys. I'm kind of like what you all said. Last night, I got a text.

Pope's the new coach. I was like, man, that's just a horrible hire. Didn't like it. Didn't want to agree with it. I felt bad for Pope. I did too. Barnhart put him in a horrible situation. But then they tell you, sleep on it.

Take 24 hours and think about it. And you hear Barnhart talk about it today. You hear other people talk about it. You go back and you think, hey, Reed Shepard wasn't a top five recruit. He wasn't going to be the big guy. He came in and rocked it. Let's go with it. It happened.

Let's move on. Let's give the guy's shot. And let's support him. Appreciate the call. You know, I mentioned somebody wrote me. and said this is going to be like Billy Gillespie. I have an odd opinion. If Billy didn't have personal demons,

I think that could have worked, to be quite frank with you. He wasn't a bad coach. It was everything else. Like, it was everything else. He recruited weird people, too. I guess that's true. But, like, again, this will be a good test of the brand. And it's going to be a test of Mark,

and it's a test of Mitch. A lot of people putting their necks on the line on this one, and we'll see what happens. Who's next? Nate is up next. Nate, go ahead, Nate. What's up, Matt? So I think I've got a pretty good perspective of, like, the whole one side and the other.

We were kind of part of the whole group of trying to raise hell to say, hey, maybe we can stop this. You know, I think, like, everyone, we were in that 90 percentile that was just shocked. He went from Hurley and Drew to this. And I think, you know, even in your space, I think we kind of laughed it off and we heard the name late last night. Then it was like, oh, my God. but like here's the thing we're not going to go against Mark Pope this was never against Pope

I think it was more along the sides of thinking this was irresponsible by Mitch but Mark Pope's the coach and nobody should ever go have a fire Mark Pope you know sign it's over it's done with and you know what screw Tennessee, screw Arkansas screw Duke all those fan bagases we ride with Mark Pope and I hope 15, 20 years from now

I have to go back and look at some tweets and eat all kinds of crow because I'm a big enough man to say I want this program to succeed and it doesn't matter who the coach is. I appreciate the call. You've heard me say this before. If you're more worried about being right than being successful, that's where you lose.

I think towards the end of Cow's era, he was more worried about being right than he was about being successful. If he had just changed, I think he'd still be here and he'd be winning. With me, I said that I was hoping for a separation. When it looked like Cal was coming back, you know what I said the next day?

I hope I'm wrong. I'd rather be wrong and successful than right and fail. If you were like me and you heard this and you said, no, no, that can't be it, which was what my initial reaction was. I called both of you guys when I heard it. And what did we say? What? I've never heard that tone in your voice ever.

No, I was like, no. But I want to be wrong. I do. I want to be wrong. I want it to work. Like, I want somebody to go, hey, Matt, you initially thought it was wrong. Guess what? That's what I want.

That's what I wanted for Cal for the last two years, right? Yeah. I mean, there are times when I felt like there was a big disconnect with the fans and the last group. I just want you to just feel like you're with us. We are not going to have a problem with Mark Pope being with us. There are going to be points where like, will you just please put your shirt on and stop doing the cat's chant for a minute? I mean, he is going to be some of our craziest fans, but he's the head basketball coach. I'll tell you what he, well, I tell you what he won't do.

He ain't going to tell us to stop being us. He's not. He's not going to look at the Kentucky fan base and say, stop being the Kentucky fan base because he is one. He'll encourage you. Like Jeff Foxworthy said, I can make fun of rednecks because I is one. He is one. But he can't tell us to not do the L's down. Okay.

Oh, yeah. When we have our first interview. When we have our first interview with him, remember he told the fans not to put the horns down. I'm looking at him and saying you ain't telling me not to put a deal. That's right. Don't tell us how to fan. I can't even control it. It just doesn't.

Who's up next? Brody is up next. Brody. Go ahead, Brody. Hey, Matt. Thanks for taking my call. I've got a quick comment and a question for you. Basically, echoing what other people have said.

Last night went from shocked to panicked to now just being, I'm 100% all in. I'm excited. I can't wait to see what the future brings with. Pope. I think his enthusiasm and energy are going to bring this fan base together, and I think everybody is looking forward to the continuity and stability that this program is going to experience. I think we all miss that in recent years. Thank you very much. You're going to be there.

I appreciate it. Thank you. Hey, Rick, I just texted you a phone number. Jack Givens texted me and said he wants to come on and talk to the fans. So will you call him here? Is that all right? Well, do. All right, while you're doing that, put somebody else on.

Go ahead. Who's next? We have disgruntled up next. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. This might be your negative call. This may be we wonder when we were going to get one. Go ahead.

So I love Mark Pope as a coach, but not Kentucky's coach. I feel like this was rushed, and I felt like I was kind of talking myself into a listening the last hour, but then Mitch started talking. And I just, I'm not really sure what to think anymore. I was, I'm still kind of torn, but it's just, I'm, I don't know if I'm mad or sad, and I don't know anymore. Well, let me ask you a question. I think those emotions are completely reasonable. Both mad or sad is not unreasonable.

Now that it's happened, do you want it to succeed? Yes, I do. Okay. For Mark's sake, because I feel like he was kind of thrown in this, and I feel sorry for him, too, because of what happened last. night. I know that didn't make him feel good, because it was crazy last night. But I just, I can't get over Mitch in the way he, I just, I'm not a fan. I just, and I'm sorry for ramming like this. No, no, no, listen, I think what you're expressing right now is what a lot of people feel. I think there are probably people sitting here in this building that feel like you do, okay? I think there's a lot

of people that are upset at Barnhart. They're still going to be upset at Barnhart. But would you agree with me that it still would be better for everybody if you and my initial reaction last night were wrong and he comes out and does well yes yes yeah i mean i mean i'm a ukbatchel fan to the bone i mean it's it's something that my whole family we were we're we're just the UK to the bone. And I just, after yesterday, I just did not think that it would end with Mark Pope. And I loved him to death as a player. I just, I feel, I feel, I feel, I feel like I said, I don't know how I feel anymore, but just listening to Mitch. It just kind of made it worse for me for some reason, just the way he talks about stuff. And I don't know, I just, I feel like we need

a guy with more fire as an AD that won't. Well, Mark Pope has fire. I will say this. Listen, Mitch is not a raw. Maybe he could be the 80. I appreciate to go. I mean, he's not a, he's not a raw, right guy. I thought for a long time, the athletic department needed some help in the PR world. Well, Mark Pope's going to be out there doing PR. I'll be shocked if Mark Pope's not the most accessible coach we've had here since Joe B.

Hall, to be honest with you. That's going to be my, that would be my guess. Is Jack on? I've got Connor. He's a one-answer. Jack. Don't have Jack. I sent you Jack's number.

No offense to Connor. We probably hit him Jack in a minute. I mean, I sent you Connor, too, but I also sent you Jack. Did you get it? Yeah, I just got it. Let me. Okay, let's put Connor on while you're doing it. Connor, um, Connor played for Mark Pope at Georgia when Pope was an assistant coach.

Connor, you tweeted last night and I retweeted your tweet. Tell people what he's like as a coach. I know he was an assistant, but when you were there. Yeah, no, thanks for having me on, guys. Coach Pope is one of the most energetic people I've ever been around. And I'm not here to, you know, try to convince you guys that this was your number one choice or anything like that. But what I will say is what you're going to get. And, I mean, it's the most infectious energy you can find.

I mean, he had quit law. He quit med school and moved his family to Athens from New York City and was doing laundry. And he would be the first person there. he'd pop out of the hallway, you know, we're in there seven in the morning, and he would be screaming, you know, great day to be a dog type of stuff. I mean, he's the guy that just would motivate me more than anyone. And so it's like, it's super exciting for me to think about him in this job, just knowing him as a person.

So you played for him at Georgia, right, Connor? Yep. He was there for one year, and, I mean, what really stood out, too, is, you know, he played in the NBA, and he would, he's a, he's a, guy that's not going to let talent go to waste. He was pushing everyone because to even make it to the NBA, he obviously had to, you know, work harder than anyone else. He wasn't the most athletic person. He was tall, but he was kind of always instilling that enough. And it's just, I mean, he's a great person. And yeah, if someone doesn't like to hire, that's, you know, their perspective. But he's going to be, he's not going to

be outworked. I can promise you that. Do you think he'll be able to recruit players? You were there when he was trying. Yeah, no, I do. I mean, he wasn't a recruiting assistant when he was at Georgia, but I'm telling you, this guy is so personable and charismatic, and he has the resume, he has a national championship. He played in the NBA. I mean, he's going to be able to speak to kids and their families. I guarantee you that. Connor, thank you very much. Come to Lexington, and then we'll host you for a game, all right? Let's do it. Thanks, guys. All right, appreciate it. Quickly, stock to mortgage. You know, let's just say, you're a guy just moving in from Salt Lake City and maybe you need a place to live.

Maybe the first thing you should do is get pre-approved at Stockton Mortgage. He might actually use you. He knows. This is an important ad for you. I'm available as a realtor and Stockton Mortgage is available to be your mortgage provider. Or if maybe you're a local radio host and there's a house that's opening up on Main Street that's going to be for sale here pretty soon. Maybe you should get pre-approved.

I did have somebody say to me, wouldn't it be funny if you bought Cow's house? I was like, dude, I can't do that. There's no way that's going to work. Go ahead. But if you do decide to do that, you want to get pre-approved in Stockton Mortgage. You can do it online at Stockton.com. NMLS 8259 Equal Housing Lender. All right.

Jack Givens, when we come back right after this, it's Kentucky Sports Radio. All right, welcome back, Kentucky Sports Radio. Jack Givens, one of the two voices of the cats on the broadcast is here. Jack, what are your thoughts? I wish I had more time with you, but what are your thoughts? Well, Matt, I am ecstatic with this higher. I really, really like what Mitch and his team has done in this hire. One thing I didn't want going into this process was because I am a former player

and because I love the University of Kentucky, I didn't want to have a situation where we went out and we bought a coach by writing them a big check. Because my thought would be, why is this guy here? Is he here because he wants Kentucky basketball? Or is he here because we're paying him the most money? And for a former player, I still think Kentucky basketball is Kentucky basketball. A lot of great coaches. And I wanted someone who knew this situation inside out,

as opposed to outside in. And Mark Pope, I had one other guy who I thought would be perfect for this job. Ten years ago, he would have been me man. And I'm not talking Rick Petino. But I'm talking a guy by the name of Dwayne Casey, because Dwayne is like me. He's a Kentucky boy. He loves the program.

He learned it from being here and from going through. the rigors of what Kentucky basketball is about. And on top of that, he was a great basketball coach, and he gets players to oversee. I think Mark Pope fits that perfectly. So I'm thrilled with it, man. I can't wait to get started. He'll get players.

I was going to ask you, I was going to ask you, you've been around the program intimately in the last few years. Do you think, because I think from an X and O standpoint, point, I'm sold on him because I've watched his stuff. I think he runs great stuff. Do you think he can get players here? I think he will. It's a different day now.

This transfer portal has changed things. And there are bunches and bunches of players every year who have wanted to come to Kentucky. But because of the personnel that the players that Coach Cow had, they didn't think the opportunity was here because he's committed to playing those guys that he has. I think they're great players out there that would jump at the chance. And we'll see this real quickly. I don't think it's going to take long for Mark to get players to come. There's some reports, by the way, right now that Jack's on Robinson,

who is his best player, is looking at Kentucky. That's just kind of come out in the last couple minutes. Jack, you know how much respect I have for you. give me 30 seconds of a message to the big blue nation to the people who were naysayers or maybe still are that you think that why this will work well i think it'll work because i too have been a mark a private mark boat fan i've watched them coach guys and i've seen his themes over it cheese mark is going to love kentucky and that's the main thing i want it but he's going to be able to coach guys to overachieve and to be much better than we thought they could be.

So I'm just saying jump on board, give this guy a chance. He's going to have everything he needs to make this program successful. And I have no doubt none that that's what's going to happen. Jack, thank you very much. Appreciate it, ma'am. Thank you, Matt. I let me come on. No problem.

All right, couple things. Moonshine Trail.com. Thank you guys very much. Six locations around the state. Go check them out. Thank them for hosting today. Antonio Reeves tonight at 6.30. Come see.

I think it would be an awesome gesture, and I think it's exciting for him. Second, the press conference for Mark Pope is Sunday at Rupp Arena. And then if you're a UFC person, that's Saturday night at the bar. Thank you all very much for coming out here. It's going to be a big next few weeks as well.

great to have you back. Billy, it's been awesome. Mario, great. What a first week. It ain't always like this, I promise. We'll see you later. This has been Kentucky Sports Radio. 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

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