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

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

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I've even used Stockton Mortgage myself on my own home loan. For your home loan needs, Stockton.com, and click, get started. Stockton Mortgage, NMLS 8259 Equal Housing Lender, NMLS, Consumer Access.org. Welcome back. Hour number two, Kentucky Sports Radio here at the KS Bar and Grill. By the way, they just gave me they're making the Masters food for Masters Week with like the egg salad and the pommino cheese. That egg salad, they got the exact recipe from the Masters.

It's really, really good. Like I'm not a huge pomeo cheese guy, but that egg salad, good job. I don't have the, does Master just give out the recipe? I don't know. Monique said she makes me calls and for finding it. Nick Mingeione is on the phone. UK baseball coach and maybe the manager of the hottest team in the SEC. Nick, it's great to have you on.

I've been following. I have at least followed online every game you've had this year, and I've probably watched parts of. 15. I've watched more UK baseball this year than I ever have, and I'm excited about your group. I'm sure you are as well. We are. We're excited. You're falling along, Matt. Hey, we're all about setting records, and that is a Matt Jones record right there. So for this early in the season, we're thankful for you and everybody else. So thank you. So, like, you tell people just, you know, this is the natural kind of inclination sometimes

for UK fans. It's when it moves on from basketball. They sort of come in and your team, you know, I just look at names I recognize and there's a couple, but then there's also a lot of new guys. Tell people about your group. Well, we, number one, we have a team. You know, I always say the strength of our team is our team. And you just watch our guys play. We have an unbelievable dugout. They have so much fun, Matt, like they're competing. They're getting after it. But we do have a good mix of guys that were in our program from a year ago. So when you think about last year and us hosting the regional and winning our second ever regional championship and a lot of people that can hear my voice right now, were at that game. And if they weren't, they were watching it.

And it was awesome. So we had that special year. We were two wins from Omaha, end up losing to the eventual national champion in LSU. And we have a lot of those guys back. So they kind of, you know, tasted it and smelt it and saw what it's supposed to look like. And then we were able to add some really good players on top of that. that, whether it through high school recruits and the transfer portal. So we've gotten to a spot where we're in a really good place again, and guys are playing great. So you started the SEC.

You're now 8 and 1, swept Georgia, swept Ole Miss. I mean, like, in Georgia, since they've played you, has been really good. You've kind of were the one blemish on their SEC season so far. You've got to be excited about how you all have jumped off in conference play so far. Yeah, it's been awesome, Matt. And, you know, it's one of those things you know this. I mean, the SEC has played for the national championship in baseball, 14 of the last 15 years. Let that sink in. That is unbelievable.

14 of the last 15. Yes, it's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. So, you know, at any point in time, you know, it can swing in it either way. But, yeah, we're just thankful. The guys have played great. Georgia, when we faced them, they only have one loss in.

a whole year. So to beat them, there was, I think, 17 and one, and then to beat them all three games. And then, Ole Miss, we just went down there and swept them at their place for the first time in school history. It's never been done. So, yeah, it's been good and exciting. And still a lot of games to go, though. But so far so good. He's being humble. They just swept Ole I watched a little bit of all those games. The place was packed. It was loud. Like they were ready to go. And you all just silenced them. Two of the games were blowouts, Nick. I mean, like, you, I know, I know, you're confident, but you couldn't have necessarily seen that coming. Well, our guys, you know what they've been able to do, Matt?

And this is like, I don't know, I missed my motivational Mondays, but, you know, trying to get our guys to just understand that when you just focus on what you're trying to do and your energy is not on what other people are doing, which you can't control, it is such like a freeing, nice place to be, right? Like, we didn't have to worry about all the crowds and what old was doing and everybody else, when they put their focus on what they're trying to do and what we're trying to execute, well, then it doesn't matter what else is going on around you. You're just so locked in on you, and you're not focused on all the other things that don't matter.

And number one, you can't control. So, like, let's focus and put our attention on that. And as a result, the guys were comfortable. They were just like, coach, this was awesome. Like, we made this feel like our home dugout. The dugout felt just like it was at home on the road. and I'm like, well, that's how it's supposed to be. Good.

Let's keep doing that. That's working. Well, you will be at home this week. Let me ask you like a philosophy question. I don't know that I've ever asked you an X and O baseball question. But, you know, I like a lot of people who are sort of casual baseball fans. You know, Red Moneyball watched it. And I thought and read about this revolution about how, you know, fielding doesn't matter.

And you just hit and you don't worry about stealing bases, etc. You early on in the last two or three years really took a different view. kind of against the mainstream of. You were going to run. You were going to bunch. You were going to do all these things that analytics were telling you not to do. And now I'm watching in Major League Baseball, all these Major League teams are following what you're doing now. Stealings back in the game.

They're doing a lot of the things. The analytics have almost flipped in a different way more towards what you were doing. You seem to me to be, you know, the first one at least I knew kind of heading in that direction. what led you to sort of decide that's how you wanted to play and does it feel gratifying that a lot of these major league teams are now following what you're doing? Well, Matt, I didn't realize I was the trend center for me. I didn't say you were the trance center, but you were the first one I saw do it.

Yeah. No, so Matt, here's what happened. A couple years ago, we were one and two, two at the last three years, not counting last year. We were one and two wins short of the postseason. I mean, we were right there. We're knocking down the door and the committee's like, yeah, you need one or two more wins. Well, we just basically decided that, hey, listen, we don't, I understand there's analytics for major league baseball.

We don't deal with major league players. We're dealing with college athletes. They're 18 to 23, sometimes 24 years old. And we just made a commitment that we're going to go on the attack in every phase of everything we do. So on the mound, we are attacking the hitters. We're going to ram the ball in the strike zone. And if our stuff's good enough, we're going to get them out. And if not, we'll put somebody else in that can do it.

And we're going to have an attacking style defense. And then offensively, we're going to try to create pressure. And if that means we're going to have a whatever it takes type of offense. So that means if the third baseman's back, we're bunting. And we're going to force you to play them in. And we're going to gain a couple steps to our left and to our right. The second we suck them in. And then as soon as we get a guy on first, if the pitcher's break time is not fast enough, we're going for it.

We're stealing. We're going for it. And we're going to make you throw us out. And if you do, we'll tip our cap. And we're going to have this constant pressure on the opponents. And what we've realized is when you do that to college-age kids, they have a tendency to not make place. That's interesting.

Listen, yes. I don't mean to interrupt. But on that, so it's like college-age kids make more mistakes, so the analytics of the major leagues don't apply to guys who are 19, 20 years old. You nailed it. And you know what? In college, in college, Our guys run faster.

They run faster home first time. Sometimes in the big leagues, guys are trying to play 162 games. They're not going to maybe run their fastest home the first time, right? So there's been a lot that's gone into it. And here's another thing, Matt. There aren't many other teams that play this way in our league. There's not another team. So every time they're playing us, they have to play and prepare for something different.

Maybe a little bit, I don't know, in a football terms, maybe how fast old miss just runs place. Like, you better be ready every seven seconds. Like, you know, whatever it is. It's maybe some version of that to where it's just different. And we've been able to recruit the personnel. And Matt, getting used to Kentucky crowd park has gone into this. You know, we played at Cliff Hagan Stadium. It was more of an offensive ballpark. This ballpark is more about run prevention. So we've kind of shifted and we've gotten the personnel and the right recruits and people. And we've, you know, really found our identity for this ballpark. And it's worked. Well, that is awesome.

All right, so let's talk about what's to come. The Louisville game today has now been postponed because of the storms coming through the region. Coach, I got this, there's this family here, came in from Louisville with two kids, and I had to announce on the air the game was postponed. They look sad, so I'm trying to cheer them up. They can't hear you talking right now, but the game is tomorrow at 630. Now, then you've got Friday, Saturday, Sunday, a big home series against Alabama. You guys could come out of this series, depending on how it.

goes first place solo in the SEC, depending on how the series goes. I know you're ready to see a big crowd there at the stadium. Yeah, we need it too, Matt. You know, we just last year and even this year, when the weather's been good, we have just seen us have a legitimate home field advantage. And you know this. You know, we go on the road. You just mentioned we were watching our game and it is pack.

We go on the road. and there's times 8, 10, 12,000 people at the opposing stadiums, and it affects the opposing team. And we've seen that here. So we need our fans to come out and support these guys. I mean, they're playing great. They're playing with energy, with edge, with real toughness, and everybody that can come out will make a huge difference, as you know.

I think the game Friday is at 630, Saturday is at 2, Sunday is at noon, and then tomorrow against Louisville is at 630. I'm hosting trivia here at the bar. I'm going to have the game on here, but if you can't come to the stadium or here, you've got to go to one of them to watch the game. I'll say, go to the stadium first unless you like trivia, Drew. I'll be at the stadium, Matt.

No offense. Good luck with trivia. I'll be watching the cats. But, Nick, I'm really excited. Drew and I've talked about getting out there, and I'm going to come to at least one, maybe a couple games this weekend, and congrats on really the revitalization of this program

in this conference, and good luck. The schedule, especially the last two or three weeks, gets a little harder, and I look forward to watching and seeing how your team does. Well, I appreciate you saying that, Matt. It's been a lot that's gone into it. The fans have been amazing. Our administration's been an awesome help. NIL, Club Blue Baseball is the one that we're using.

It's been awesome. We've had a tremendous response from that. Like I said, Club Blue Baseball with our NAL. It's been awesome. It's just been everything, the fans, the people, people, administration, everyone's been great. Yeah, by the way, the number one team in America, Arkansas is coming in here in three weeks. I know coaches don't look ahead to their schedule, but I have a feeling.

I have a feeling that's going to be a rocking Kentucky proud park here in about it. Get the baby shark ready. In about three weeks. Hey, Nick, thank you very much, and good luck on the rest of the season. Matt, we got time for a quote. Of course. Give me, oh, yeah, we need a motivational Tuesday quote. Go ahead.

Hey, have we done the Thomas Edison one? Have I ever told you guys about Thomas Edison and a young reporter? Did we do this one? I don't think so. Go for it. Hey, Drew, what is Thomas Edison known for? I need to make sure you pay attention in second grade. The light bulb.

Yes, my man. So a young reporter once asked Thomas Edison about the light bulb and it said he had asked Thomas Edison, said, how did it feel to fail 10,000 times before inventing the light bulb? said, I never failed one time. It just happened to be a 10,000 step process. Ooh, I like it. And that's how I feel about a program, Matt. Like, it has just been a process to get it to this spot,

and I'm just thankful for all the people and all the lessons we've learned. So hopefully I can bless somebody. I love that. That's great stuff. That's great stuff. Thank you. Appreciate it. Go cats.

How about that? See, there's no failure. It's a 10,000 step process. I like that. I do like that. I'm even more excited about the game. Still a little bummed. I have to wait 24 more hours tomorrow,

but he got me even more fired up with all the special things they have going on over there. Yeah, it should be a big weekend. Now you'll have a Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, four out of five games there in Lexington. And when you go, just take cornbread hemp. I mean, I don't know if you take it inside. Take it afterwards when you go to bed. Because you're going to be so worked up for the day.

I'm going to eat this cookie tonight, and it's going to get all my sugar going, and then I'm going to go to cornbreadthemp.com. The promo code is KSR 5, and you get buy one, get one free to celebrate five years of cornbread hemp. Five years. It's been that long? I think it has. It's getting so old.

Yes, we are getting on. I have a story about that, by the way. Cornbread hemp.com. The promo code is KSR 5. Check out cornbread hemp, and you can rest, relax, full spectrum, flour-only hemp, CBD gummies with cornbread hemp. Like yesterday, I was at a, I was at a store, a, a, store, a, a, a, place. you know, like a place to get yourself feeling better, right? Like a, you know, workout, that kind of thing.

And the woman at the front was a young woman. And I said, yeah, do you have something, you know, for my back? And she was like, I was like, you know, as you get, and I was going to say, taller, your back hurts. And I'm like, as you get, but taller, I'm not getting taller. My point was just, but I said, as you get, you know, your back starts hurting as you get, And she just looks at me and goes older. And I was like, well, you don't have to look at me and say I'm older. But she was right.

She wasn't wrong. She was not wrong. I feel it too. We'll take a break. Be right back. Kentucky Sports Radio. We're back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio here at the KS Bar and Grill.

859-280-2287. Come on out to lunch while the weather is good. Enjoy yourself here last night. We had the game on. A little Caitlin Clark action. They'll play again on Friday night, by the way. don't know if people realize the women's final four is Friday night, men Saturday, women's championship Sunday, men Monday. That's the way it goes this year.

Busy time of year for sports, even though our cats are done, I didn't even hit me until you said it out loud that this little game tomorrow goes right into the Bama games. I'm going to go see some of those in baseball. Then we've got to keep up with all the Final Four stuff too. 859-2807. A couple open lines. I'd love to get your call. One person writes, Matt, you can't just skip over. No staff changes. If that happens, Drew said he wouldn't consider it a serious year if it happens. No, no, no, I said Cal is not a serious coach, just to be clear.

I want to really. Well, that's even more strong. Let me just say, I don't know how you bring everybody back. If they do it, and again, we'll see. But if they do, I don't know how you do that. I don't know how you do that. I don't know how you don't make any change. How?

How do you? How? how can you look at the last three years and say we don't need to change anything? I think I made my point very clear. I didn't actually say a lot of basketball involved, but my reasonings, the defense has been awful. We just need to say that out loud. I mean, guys are out of position.

I know they're young, but some of it, I'd say a lot of it, is how they were coached. Basic inbounds plays. It's not just this year. Michigan State was doing it last year. The last three years have looked bad. Game planning, scouting. The last three years of the NCAA tournament have been awful.

The last three years of the SEC tournament have been awful. And heck, I thought this was a make or break year. I guess I'm the only crazy one who thought that all season. Going in next year, I cannot believe he would use the exact same formula on a legacy year. But it ain't my legacy. I hope Kentucky wins, but I think it'd be crazy to do the exact same thing again. I mean, I just assumed. Okay, so let's just go through.

Like, what in the UK Bravassing? basketball program works right now and what doesn't. Okay, so here's what I think does work. We still recruited a very high level. Yes. Okay, so recruiting works. So if you look at the guy that's kind of in charge of recruiting, it's Orlando to a great extent. That's working.

I'm fine with him, right? I think the offense worked for most of the year. That was Welsh, so I'm good with him. I don't really know what Chuck Martin does, but like, also don't know that he doesn't do anything bad. I know he was big with Big Zian international. I don't know what he does day to day, but I at least know he hit, but here's what I know doesn't work.

Our defense doesn't work, and that's Chin Coleman's thing. I also know that the organization of the program was a complete and total disaster, and anyone who tries to act like they're otherwise is just fooling themselves. Everything behind the scenes has been a disaster from it, like from in, from in a, organization to communication with players to just basic messaging to photo shoots like it's all been a disaster and you can't bring back and organize the same way and expect it to be different so the people that are on the back end that are in charge of that I just don't know how you can just run that back so I don't get it I just if that's what they do now maybe

Maybe they won't. But every day, though, they don't make a change. You have to assume they're not going to make a change. Because you're setting yourself farther back going to roster. Yes. And because, like, this is the time you go to the transfer portal. And this is the time, you know, the longer it goes, the harder it'll be. Assistance are moving around, right?

Like, you wouldn't get your top choice. if it were my job and I know a lot of people aren't happy with me there were whispers of billboards I've seen a yard sign I know people are upset I would go I cannot do the exact same thing and I would look at the last year and I would go we were 110th in defense at the University of Kentucky in no season ever should the University of Kentucky be outside the top 100 in anything in basketball so I would go where's my defense who's in charge of my defense and scouting and that's the first area I need to clean up, which is why I had my rent recently.

That same position also got here the St. Peter's year, so the postseason ain't working with that formula either. So that's why I was so passionate about it, but as I keep saying, it's not up to me, and if he wants to do that, I think that's just going to further add to the concerns people wanting change, not just with the staff saying we're going to get

more defensive, tougher, older, but what was said in those interviews recently, it's not really the words and actions are lining up of what's actually being done. I found it fascinating when, Nate Oates talked about the game against Clemson. And that clip was fascinating to me. He said, we had our analytics people, a third-party analytics people,

come up to me at halftime and tell me that our expected point differential is we should be up 11. Here's what I was thinking to myself. Can you imagine two things. One, can you imagine at halftime of a game John Calipari listening to a third-party analytics company. Can you imagine that occurring? No. No.

Second, can you imagine John Calgary using the phrase expected points differential? No. No, I just can't. I can't imagine it. So when I was listening to that, Nate Oates is one of the most arrogant people I've ever seen in basketball. He was arrogant when he hadn't done anything. but my view is if this arrogant man who is as arrogant as they come will listen to a third-party analytics service at halftime and then make it changes based upon it maybe that's what you ought to do

right like maybe you ought to sit and think because what the expected point differential was the analytics company was saying you're getting the right shots they're just not going in that was their point he told them keep doing what you're doing what you're doing you're supposed to be He was like you're winning by five, but you should be winning by 11. You're just missing open shots, so keep it going. He was like, the company said if you keep doing this in the second half, you'll win, and they did. They pulled away because all the layups they were missing in the first half. They ended up making them in the second half.

But implicit in that was this notion of it's not just about what the score is. It's also about like a numerical do what works. go look at, and I know people last year, not this past season, but the year before that, we're always like, Matt, I can't stand you with your shot chart or shot charts. Go look at Alabama's shot chart against Clemson. They took one shot, folks, one shot that was not a three or a layup. One. And they're in the final four.

Go look at Yukon's shot chart. They took a few more long twos, but for the most part, three points in layups. And now I did not look for Purdue, but I got to assume with Zach Eady and no shooters, Purdue's the same way. The only one that might be different is NC State because they play a different way. And Nate Oates said, he's like, people that look at my box score just say I'm launching threes, but they're ignoring, we're not launching threes.

We're taking the most efficient shots. Which is the important one. Which is the layups and threes. So 859-28027. We will take your calls after this. These cookies are impressive. I've got to start wearing a headband more. You know, just like, that'll make me look really cool.

Take a break. Be right back. Be right back. Welcome back. Tucky Sports Radio here at KS. Bar, Matt Jones, and Drew Franklin. Enjoying ourselves. Ryan is in Florida.

Shannon is getting ready. The visitation for people who wondered, the visitation for his grandma is tonight. And then the funeral is tomorrow. For people who were asking, it's at a funeral home in Mount Washington, but I'm sorry off the top of my head. I don't remember which one it was.

But that's where he is. And so our prayers are all out to Shannon. I know he's been, you know, has been tough on him, but he'll be back on the show on Monday. And I think he's leaving maybe after the funeral and going and spend in a few days with Ryan down in Florida. Gotcha.

Well, we know he's hurting right now, and I hope he can get on the other side of this and just remember all the positive memories because, I mean, as we said yesterday, that relationship they had special. Yes, it was. Did you see the video of the kid that got blown away on campus? That's why I didn't go to class. You never know when a tornado could just keep you.

It's an amazing video. It's on my Twitter. Guys, kids trying to walk to class and there's like a wind tunnel right there. Oh, yeah. And he gets caught in the wind tunnel, and he ends up really getting like blown off his feet. It was this morning. It's quite a video. The Patterson Wind Tunnel, if you've been on UK's campus,

you know it can get aggressive there. But it's kind of, I'm not saying it's funny. It's a scary video once you kind of. I'm going to assume he's okay. Yeah, once you know he's fine. But, I mean, we certainly don't need students walking around on campus where they can just be picked up and blown away. You say there's a Patterson wind tunnel.

What is that? Well, heck, campus has changed so much. I might date myself naming buildings that have been torn down. But over there by the Whitehall classroom building and the Patterson Office Tower, a gust of wind could lift you up from time or two. So if there is severe weather, I bet that is the worst spot to be on campus. I didn't see I didn't know that not having gone to UK I say all that none of that could exist but when I was shaking his head he says it still there we go all right I haven't been over there in a while well watch out for the Patterson wind tunnel to get going who's up next Joe is up next Joe go go ahead Joe quickly Matt I was good time and getting Kenny Brooks when we did with Tennessee's letting their head coach go women's coach that's right do you think they stick with it later you think they'll try a man coach as far as their next head coach.

I mean, I have no idea. I guess they'll probably get the best coach they can get. I don't know. I mean, they're better. Right answer. Right answer. How am I going to know that? Like, I mean, they're successful men's women's coaches

and they're successful women's women's coaches. I think they'll go for Louisville's head coach myself. That's my opinion. Well, they might. They might. I mean, I get the sense, and I appreciate the call, that Jeff Walls might want sort of a new thing. You know, you heard Kenny Brooks say this.

I mean, he was at a school that he took to the final four, and he basically, he said this in his interview with us yesterday. Big difference between the ACC, or Big Ten SEC and everybody else. I mean, there's a big difference money-wise. There's a big difference resource-wise. It's about to get even bigger. I mean, here's the thing people need to understand. Starting next year, the Big Ten and the SEC already get more money

from their TV deals than the other conferences, by a lot. But starting next year, the college football football, playoff money, by rule, the Big Ten and SEC get double the other conferences. So the money for the SEC and Big Ten is about to just be a different, it's just a different thing. And if you're one of the, what, 16 teams in the SEC, and I guess there'll be 18 teams in the Big Ten, if you're one of those teams, like, you're going to be at a completely, when it terms to resources, those 34 teams are going to have more than even the ACC and Big 12 can have. And with Tennessee and their coaching search now, I mean, I don't know anything,

but just outside looking in, you'd think Brooks would have been high on their list. So Kentucky getting Brooks when they did. Huge. We might not end up with him if you're going head to head with Tennessee. If Tennessee had done that earlier, he might be at Tennessee. So kudos to Mitch Barnhart for getting that done as quickly as he could, so no one else could make Kenny Brooks phone ring over there in Blacksburg. Exactly right. Who's next?

Got Bill up next. Bill, go ahead, Bill. What's up, guys? You know, with the higher of Kenny Brooks and hearing him on your show, that guy got me fired up thinking about women's basketball, the trajectory of that program. And then you've got Mark Stoops, who's really embraced the transfer portal. I can't talk this morning. And trying to, you know, get guys over into that program, I just, I wish, I really just wish that. If Cal doesn't do it, I wish our next coach would have that same mentality because I swear,

the way I love this football program and what it all stands for with the family and all the recruits, how they talk about Vince Marrow, I just, I would give anything to have the community and the field that we have for our football program back in basketball, because I feel like that's, to me as a fan, that's what I'm missing. I think it's me personally. I do think it's been lost, and I could trace it back. I appreciate the call. I don't think it's all on Cal.

Don't get me wrong. I don't. I think, though, you go back to 2010, 2011, even 2012. You go back to what that was like as like the community aspect of it. We got away from that. Now, some of that is natural, the growth of the program, social media, but we got away from it. Camp out. I know that's a little thing, but camp out was awesome.

You could take kids and they could go meet the players and the players embraced it and they played basketball with them and all that stuff. Like that went away. Big Blue Madness is a shell of what it was. It's a shell. It's not even the same thing. It's like a different sporting event. And that could be fixed overnight. If you wanted to fix Big Blue Madness, you could.

They choose not to. They know it's not good. They choose not to fix it. I give a lot of credit to some of the students, especially a lot of the students online, because they tried to get that going again with like waiting out and camping out for the basketball games and all that stuff. And that was cool.

But that used to be the norm. Like that used to be regular and that's kind of gone away. And like all the things you do to build community, look, you know, to get these coaches on, for the most part, like we have to go around the university. Like, like the reason, let me just get, let me just, I'm just being honest. The reason Mark Stoops, Vince Morrow, Kenny Brooks even, Nip Mingeyone, the reason those guys get on is they want to come on because they want to talk to the fan base.

And they basically tell JMI, we want to do it. Like, JMI is a hindrance when it comes in my opinion to getting to the fans. Let me give you a perfect example. I would love to have Mark Stoops would love to walk in here, sit at this desk and do an interview with me and then meet all the fans. He would love to. He is not allowed to do it. He is not allowed to do it. Why?

He's not allowed to do it because the official restaurant of UK is a different place. That's absurd. That's absurd. Last year, during the NCAA baseball tournament, I wanted to take my show to UK, do the, the show outside of UK to promote the regional to get fans to come to the UK baseball game, which was at noon. I was like, I'll be on from 10 to 12. We'll tell people to come.

They'll then walk into the baseball game. JMI said, no. You cannot come here. This is our place, only our shows. And I'm like, you don't even have a show right now. There's no show on. And they're like, sorry, no. Nowadays, because of NIL, I can get these players to come on here.

But do I go through UK? No, I have to go through their NIL agent to get them here. UK will tell them no, but their NIL agent will tell them as part of your NIL deal, go on match show. So my point is just to say, everything that keeps people connected to the fans is gone. And the only way coaches get around it is they just say, I'm doing it. Mark Stoops and Vince just say, I'm doing it. And that's just going to be the way it is. But, yes, we've gotten away from it.

And then some of that is on Cal. You know, I went back and looked. In 2012, the year we won the national championship, we had 31 regular season games. Cal did the pregame press conference, 29 of the 31 games. You know how many pregame press conferences he did this year? One.

One. He did one of the 31. Now, is that the most important? thing in the world? No. But if you want to hear from your coach and hear what your coach has to say, that's important. He skipped the postgame radio show nine of the 31 games. That's a lot, considering three-fourths of his salary comes from that. So there has to be a mindset change. Forget about X's and O's. Cal will change those or not, but there has to be a mindset change about this being a community. That's why I loved. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm ranting right now.

But when I heard Kenny Brooks yesterday, Kenny Brooks said, I want to talk to people. And he even said whether they're criticizing me or not. I found that fascinating. He doesn't even know what's going on. And he said that. He said, I want you to come up to me in Kroger. Right? Well, Cal is probably a little too famous to have everybody come up to him in Kroger. but there is a sense in which they got to get back out in the community. They got to get back out connected because there is a family feel around UK football, UK baseball, UK gymnastics. Gymnastics is going for the national championship on Thursday.

Women's basketball, when we've been good, has that. That'll have all kinds of passion here in a few months. Basketball's got to get back to that. They got to get back to that. got to stop the see what I did see what I did what you think about that oh did you all come here to see us lose like get away from that this is supposed to be a community and let's get back to that and I know we focus it being KSR because it's our show and we're doing it right now but I the first thing on my checklist if I were a coach feeling some heat is I would be on every radio

show I don't care if it's got 20 listeners or 20,000 I would just want people to hear me being a of them explaining what went wrong and how it's going to change moving forward, not just people guessing, well, is he going to make a change? What does it mean to get tougher? What are we doing in the port? No one knows. Let's just be blatant about it. When I mentioned yesterday, should I have the U of L coach on?

You know what happened within 30 minutes? The U of L people reached out to me and said he'd love to come on. Where are we where the U of L coach would like to come on and the U.K. coach would not? Like, where are we? And just by what people say, we are still fans and would not, you know, we're still positive and it's nothing to run from. The guy who wrote me literally said he'd love to mix it up with you and talk trash. Don't make me start to like him over there. Now, I don't know if I'm going to do it, but like, where are we?

Where that's the case? And again, let's say he's too mad at KSR to come on. Is he going on any of these other shows? He should be on a tour right now Even if it's not this one, do something Fine, don't want to come here, there's other ones, go do that one. Right? If you want to throw it in my face, go on every show but ours.

But don't sit there silently, and I hit my finger on that, and it really hurt. I heard that. Ow! You all right? Rick, ow! Take a bite of that cookie to cool off. You're all right? We can't have any more pain given us this spring.

We have enough pain. I threw my hand, and that hurt. Okay, this may hurt my KSR bowling league abilities. Is that your, uh, that was my rolling in? KSR bowling league starts Wednesday night, the 24th. Get your team in. Listen, we got a couple teams left.

Go to KSR bowling.com. You don't have to be good. As a matter of fact, the worse you are, the better. We have a lot of people who've agreed to visit and come during the year. I can't say the coach's names because JMI will tell them not to come. But guess what? We have some coaches that will come. I think we might have some former UK players coming as well.

It's KSR bowling.com. Get your team now. It is a community that enjoys itself. Get your team now at KSR bowling. com at the Collins. Is it? No, Southland. Collins on Southland.

Underrated pizza there, by the way. So if you're on the fence, go just for a weekly pizza from Southland. Is that good pizza? That's kind of the reason I love our bowling league. I get excited about my week. You eat bowling pizza? That bowling alley's got some special pizza. Bowling pizza.

I didn't even know. Not even know there was bowling pizza. They have bowling pizza at KSR bowling.com. We'll take a break. Be right back. Kentucky Sports Radio. Welcome back. Final segment, Kentucky Sports Radio, 859-280-2287.

I want a couple quick things. First of all, prayers out to the family of Kate Coughley. She was the UK dance team member who died after a battle with cancer. She died yesterday. 4.0 student, identical twin. and was on the dance team in college now and passed away after, you know, a terrible battle with cancer. Everybody, I didn't know her, but everybody around the school that did said she was a wonderful human being 20 years old. I mean, just an absolute tragedy.

So God bless her, her family, her twin sister. It's awful, the dance team, but I did want to note her passing. It's just awful. I don't know what else you say, but that's terrible. So sad. and seen a lot of the social posts and memories from friends, obviously very beloved. It was just starting her life.

Tragic getting there in our thoughts and prayers with family and everyone that knew her. Life can be unfair, and that's why you take every moment and enjoy it as best you can because that's sad and unfair. On a completely different note, last night, I decided still like the Reds because they won. It's exciting. Well, it's two to one, or excuse me, two to two, they go into the tenth, load the bases,

little Spencer steer with his little head, hits a home run. Little baby Spencer's steer. I don't know, by the way, nobody understands why Drew and I are saying that. I know it sounds weird. There's a long story. It'll be stupider if I tell you what the story is, so don't worry about it. But we call him, there's a big of steer. He hits a grand slam, and they win the game, and now they're three and one, and I'm back on board.

3-1. I mean, even the biggest red fan in the world might not have seen 3-1, even with the competition you started with. Are you thinking? Are you dreaming big dreams? World Series. The problem is there's only 14. Remember we talked about the bet? First team to lose, right? Or the last team to lose. There's four teams left. Two of them are in our division. The Pirates are 5-0. How are the Pirates 5-0? That's cheating. That should be allowed. It's cheating. The Brewers are 4-0. The Yankees are 5-0 in Detroit. So who would have thought those would have been the teams? The Brewers, the Tigers, the Pirates, and the Yankees are the four teams. And did I see, you got a little TBS game tonight? Oh, is it on TBS tonight? Yeah, you're playing.

You know, the Braves beat up on the Phillies for you. So you got a team, I think you could get a little more wins against. I think it might be supposed to rain there tonight, so that game might get canceled. But I've already watched more baseball this season than I've probably watched ever. before like August. Usually August I lock in, but I'm really enjoying this. I watched a ton last year, but this is the most I've watched besides last year. So I, congrats to Little Spencer Steer.

Who's up next? Got Gary up next. Gary, go ahead, Gary. Hey, I've been trying to get a hold of you guys for several months. I've been trying to find some schedule where you have the OBW wrestling. So normally it's every Thursday night in Louisville. we're going to be, where are you talking about? Where would you like to see it?

Because we travel around. Well, I live in Paducah, but you know, I do travel. So every little, every, we actually have one tonight. We have, because it's WrestleMania weekend. They're taping the show tonight. So tonight at 7 o'clock they have it. Otherwise, the most consistent is every Thursday night at Historic Davis Arena at 7 o'clock. You have it.

We're going to be going to Bowling Green, I think in May or June. And Paducai, I know, is a little far. I'll let you know if we head that direction. I know. My son. Oh, I know. Nashville. April 26th, we're in Nashville.

Okay. My son and I, when I were raising him up, we all went to the local wrestling in this in the area when I lived in Lexington. Well, now he's got a son now, and he wants to go see it. You should go see it. April 26th in Nashville would be good because we're doing some NWA people are there with us. It's like kind of a co-thing, so you should go to that one. Okay, well, I appreciate your help. Thank you.

Who's next? Got Doug up next. Doug, go ahead, Doug. Yeah, I just wondered if you knew the information in the background on the Wayne County coach. He was... Yeah, we heard the story about the wife and the superintendent. Yeah, we've talked about that. No, no, no, I'm talking about his background.

He was a All-State player at Lone Jack. Yes, and then played at Tennessee. Oh, okay. I didn't know he knew that. Did you know he had a first cousin that was the first parade All-American at Kentucky? Who's that? I'm trying to take the first night. He played Long Jack.

He actually scored 80 points against Pine Bowl one night. See, there you go. We mentioned Loan Jack the other day. Bobby Slusher. Bobby Slusher. I appreciate the call. A lot of slushers there in Bell County. Did you know that, Drew?

No, but I use Google to help my man out there so we get the name right. Yeah, Bobby's well done, getting your Lonejack heroes of the past. We want to make sure we had it right. That's what you do. Thanks all the folks we're here today. We will be back. Well, actually, we will not. We will be in Louisville tomorrow.

My trivia is tomorrow night. Say a prayer tonight before you go to bed for the young woman on the dance team and Shannon's grandmall. We'll talk to 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, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel,

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