KSR - 2024-04-26- KSR - Hour 2

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

Live from Clark's Pump-N-Shop in Masterson Station -- more on UK basketball recruiting, recent comments from Calipari, uncertainty and nervousness about next season, and more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We are here at Clark's Pumpin Shop, corner of Sandersville and Citation Boulevard. You can stop in during the show free 20-ounce coffee. And we're giving away a two, $250 gas cards at the end. So come on out. Got a great crowd here this morning on a beautiful day out here in Masterson Station. We got to cope open lines. That's a rarity on here. So 859-280-2287, if you want to get in.

One person on a text machine writes, Matt, I'm not going to compare Mark Pope to what Cal would have done. We should compare Pope to what the other coaches Mitch could have hired would have done, and that's how we judging. Well, okay, I mean, I don't think that's ridiculous, but you don't know how they would have done. done. So like, I mean, so again, all, first of all, let's go through them. They tried to hire Danny Hurley and Scott Drew. Couldn't get him. I think Mitch did all he could do. So I don't, they couldn't get them. What do you want? You can't force these people to come. So that's the net first. Then Mitch was not allowed by folks higher up in the process than him to talk to Bruce Pearl, Sean Miller, and Chris Beard. So I think he,

Whether that's a good decision or bad decision, you just have to take those out of the mix. So that means, really, they were choosing between Shaka Smart, Tommy Lloyd, and Mark Pope. Now, if you want to compare him to those guys, it's perfectly reasonable. I think that's a perfectly reasonable comparison to say, but, you know, if you want to compare him to a mythical person that in theory you could have hired, I just don't know that that's how you make decisions, Ryan. you choose amongst what is with you. I didn't think Mitch gave the greatest. I thought his pep talk that Friday on the show was good,

except for at the beginning when he was like, well, people think there's a pool of people. There's a puddle. I was like, I wouldn't start with that. But he also wasn't wrong, Ryan, that there weren't all these contenders in the end that people thought once Scott Drew said no. I mean, like we said,

I understand why we're all anxious because we're all so excited. But it's not for a lack of effort. I mean, Pope and his staff, they're busting their ass the past two weeks since you've got the job to try to get that roster field. I think if we're just showing no patience, we're going to be perfectly happy when it's all said done. And also, all your friends that are writing when, like, Saunders doesn't come or whatever, bookmark their tweets. Because I'll tell you what, we've won the national championship in May for about 15 straight years.

The national championship is much. March. We've been winning the your roster looks awesome for 15 years. We've won the actual championship once. So I will freely grant our roster this year probably on paper won't look as awesome as it would have been with Cal. But the question is, are we going to win more? And that's why we made the change. Absolutely. Last year's roster, one of my favorites all time. They went 0.2 in the postseason with all due respect to that team and I love them. Got a lot of room to move up with that, whatever the pieces look like. How many rosters looked better than last year?

If you said to me, I got the number one class in America. Oh, by the way, the worst of those freshmen is going to be national freshmen of the year. I'm going to bring in a returner in Antonio Reeves who's going to be an all-American. Would you expect an Oakland loss in the first round? Nope. As I've said before, player for player, I would put that roster up against just about any team in college basketball last year. And they came up short. I'll go even farther.

This is how disappointing last year is to me. I think if you go player for player, that roster is Cal's fourth or fifth best roster, and we lost. Yeah. It's not as good as 10, 12, 15, or 17. But I think you can make an argument it's next. And honestly, considering how good Reid, Rob and Reeves were together might be better even than some of the other ones. And that's why it just, we needed a reset. He could have brought in the NBA All-Star team,

and people just wouldn't have gotten the expectations at Kentucky basketball deserved because so much of the fan base was just out on that formula. We had seen enough of it. Do you remember going into the tournament? We were talking about what team would you be afraid of? The answer was no one. Kentucky, we felt like we would be that team.

And we weren't. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall in the last two weeks of the year, because I will say not only did we lose to A&M and Oakland, the Rob, Cal, All that stuff looked different to me in those last couple weeks. I don't know what it was, but you all know it. Like, it looked different.

I think everyone kind of knows what it was. Pretty obvious. But it didn't really manifest itself right there until the end. I don't know why. Now, Brian the intern wrote a very controversial article on KSR today. That's what he's good for. He about once every six months sticks his head out and goes, I will be listened to America.

he says the Kentucky Derby is overrated as a sporting event for Kentuckyans. He said, I don't understand why everybody acts like it's so great. It's actually kind of miserable to be at. Agree or disagree? I hope and pray I never have to go back to the Kentucky Derby ever again. That's right. You got dumped in the puddle. But with that said, I disagree with him.

It's important for our entire state on Derby Day. Like on Derby Day, we all want to go to a party. We'll all tune it in. But as far as me going, I'll sit right in front of my house in my boxer shorts and watch it before I go back to watch it online. Please don't do that. So if I got you, if I got us a suite at the derby? No. Not even in a suite?

You wouldn't go. Remember this. Yeah. In a sweet? Listen, one day I will have a suite and you are now not invited. I'm okay with that. I'm all right with that. And you've made us go there for Oak's day a lot of time to do the show.

We do the show. Then we stay that day. You leave immediately often. As soon as we get a chance, I'm out. All right. So you're in Brian's side. What about you, Drew? I like to have a good time.

We know I'm a derby guy. I cannot believe Brian, the intern, put that out this morning. If we had an actual KSR office, Nick Rausch would have been fighting him. There was lots of texts disappointed in BTI this morning. Put it that on the internet. Shannon? Of course Kentucky. The Kirby's important to Kentucky.

I enjoy the atmosphere and the party more so than the race itself. So if you had a sweet, yeah, I would go. Would I go to the infield again? Probably not. The infield is 100. $135. That's crazy. You're not going there to see the race anyway. I mean, that's crazy. Yeah. I would say I like the atmosphere and I like being there if I'm in a place where I don't have to stand up and see like beer ton of. But agree. The logistics of getting in and out and the traffic and all that is miserable to me. I mean, it's just absolutely.

So getting in and out of there has now become just a disaster. Drew spent how much on an Uber one derby to get to see Ron Jeremy? $200 some dollars to go a few miles to see you. It was like 10 times. It was 10 times surcharge back when they could do that. Getting in and out of there. It's a headache. It's a nightmare.

So once I'm there, I enjoy it. But getting in and out is just, it's a, it was a nightmare when we went. 15 years ago. It's even more of a nightmare now than it was then. But it is cool for the state of Kentucky that for one day in the sporting world, the focus is on Kentucky. And you know where I live during Derby, Bardstown Road is a parking lot. Oh yeah. You can't get like you can't get in or out. It's just it's just a parking lot the entire weekend. Who's next? Billy. Billy. What's up, Billy? What's up, Matt, man? I just want to say I love you guys. And I tell you what, the pre-show is excellent.

Thank you. Look at that. Nice to appreciate you. How about that? I want to give condolences to Shannon on his Dana. I hate that for him,

but I just wanted to say in response to the caller earlier, I don't, I'm not going to judge Mark Pope. I think he's going to be fine. And that's not our place to judge him. I've coached little kids basketball. That's it.

I was hard enough for me. I could not imagine. When you say, when you say you're not going to judge him. I mean, that's not true. Like, you are going to judge him eventually as to whether or not he's successful, right? Well, right, right. But I don't know. I'm not going to get too deep and the hatred and the animosity that some people get towards some of these coaches. And I know I couldn't do it. I have a hard enough time doing my job to work now as it is. You know what I'm saying?

I'm just going to try to appreciate it and enjoy the show. You know what I mean? I understand. I understand. I appreciate. Go ahead. I'm sorry. I work eight or ten hours a day. I work eight or ten hours a day, work my butt off. And me and my brother, we always get together on the weekend to watch either football or basketball. UK predominantly, and I love it.

Cheerful. That is a very healthy attitude to have. However, Drew, is not the attitude a lot of the Big Blue Nation has. It is healthy to say, well, this is just sports. You know, I don't know if you saw LeBron last night. Did you see LeBron? So LeBron loses game three. and in the post-game press conference, they're like, you know, might just be one more game in the Lakers uniform.

You all have lost 11 straight to Denver, like your career's coming to an end. What do you think? And he goes, eh, it's just a game. And, you know, there's a lot of people going, well, when you're saying it's just a game. I don't know if you're still, you know. He's not saying that when he's winning and it's all about look at this. But when he's not winning, it's just a game. So, I mean, I feel like I agree with what he says, Shannon.

It's healthy to look at sports like that. But at the same time, it's because everybody cares that we have all these people here in April for a show and a gas station. We don't want to hear that from our coach or any of our players after a game because it's a way of life for people in Kentucky that are fans of this program. And I think Mark Pope gets that, by the way. He does. I mean, I do think he at least understands how much this means to everybody. I think that's why he's going to work so hard in the recruiting world or in game prep or whatever it is to make this program successful and get it back where it used to be. Who's up next?

Robert. Robert. Robert. Hey, guys. How are you doing today? Doing good. I wanted to thank you guys for helping me out with how to remember that basement doctor web address that came in real handy.

Is there any tips that you all could have the Clark's Puff and Shop web address? I keep messing it up. Would you do me a favor? Go to basement, dr.k.com and say, the way Matt did that adress, really made me remember it. That would be very helpful if you ever do that. Do you have any tips for the Clark's Pump and Shop web address? I don't know what the Clark's Puppetshop and Shop web address is. I appreciate the call. Is it Clarks Pumpandshop.com? I feel like you can remember that.

Nope. It is MyClarks P&S.com. There you go. I'm going to work with you on that. P&S has, that could be bad. My Clark's P&S? Pump and Shop. We better stay away from that one. Yeah, I'll tell you what. MyClark's P&S.com, great, great website.

I've said that for a long time. What's next? Colby. Colby, go ahead, Colby. Hey, Matt. Sorry, I missed the first 10 minutes or so, so apologies if y'all did cover this. Last week, or over the last week or so, you mentioned a few big names that hadn't entered the portal yet that we would all know. Yeah.

Last couple days there's been some giants, obviously, that have entered. So I'm wondering, are those still unknown, or has there been any of talking about you? There's been, I think I said that, like, right after Pope was hired. Am I correct? I'm trying to think of which time I said that. Yeah, I think so. I remember you said it was a name that we don't know. Yeah.

Well, one of them has come in and didn't come here, and it was the story I was telling it, beginning of the show. All right. So that was one of them. I think one is out there now and one still is yet to come in. So that's the best I can do for it. But we, there's a kid that I, I thought, I think we would have gotten if things had played out just a little bit differently. But let me just say, I don't blame the fans. I don't blame the media. Like, this beast is what it is. And like, you're not going to be able to tame it. But I think there's a kid we would have gotten that had things just played out a little bit differently. Gotcha.

All right. Appreciate you. So, but I do think there's probably still at least one guy that's a pretty good name that fans would like that I don't think is yet in the portal that Drew, I think if they get in the portal, is a very good chance. And I'm not even counting Jackson Robinson on that. I think there's another one, too. I expect it maybe not even for Kentucky. But as the deadline gets closer with this NIL world, I'll think you'll see some guys step out in the portal at the last second, too. Me too.

I think the portal is only going to get a lot bigger. When I said I want two guys who I consider studs, I consider Jackson Robinson one of them. If they get him, that's one. And then to me, you just got to go find Ryan one more, and then I think you'll be where you want to be. That's why I'm kind of glad you calmed us down the other day when he entered the NBA draft. There's still that door is open where he could return back and still enter the transfer portal and come here. I'm still confident, but talk to me again on Tuesday. Okay.

I'm still confident, still very confident, but talk to me again. on Tuesday. Stop overplaying for sunglasses, all right? I don't want you to do that. Go to shady rays.com. It is an independent American-owned company started right here in Kentucky. What cities it started in?

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because I'm trying to save before I get my haircut right before my mom's graduation. Because when I go to Europe, I don't want to get my haircut over there. Understood. Does that make sense? Yes, it does.

so I'm, but now my hair won't get tangled in the Shady Ray sunglasses, thanks to that innovation. Use the code KSR, 50% off two or more pairs, Shadyrays.com or the summit at Fritz Farm. It is shady rays.com. We'll take a break and be right back to Kentucky Sports Radio. Welcome back, Kentucky Sports Radio. Here at Clark's Puppet Shop, they have at Clark's Puppet Shop. They've got locations in Nicholsville, Midway, Frankfurt, Masterson Station, for all that you would like. They also have Hanger 54 pizza, crispy, crunchy chicken, perfectly Cajun and more.

This is a really nice location out here. This is a part of town. I don't get to a lot, but this is your stomping ground, and we are here on the corner of Citation and Sandersville Road. And when I come here, you know what makes me want to do? Return, refresh, refuel. I was really proud of that. I was really proud of that. I like how all of our, the other three of our, we had the same reaction of looking away.

sort of feeling embarrassed and deciding like, you know, we're just going to, I just wanted to let it hang there, Shannon. Yeah, I had nothing to say about that. Yeah, that's right. 859-2802-287. What person writes, Matt, I'm a Kentucky fan through and through, but I'm going to be honest with you. I'm disappointed with Pope so far. Billy Richmond just committed to Caliperi. Now we realize Cali Perry was a bigger brand than Kentucky. Just shut up. I mean, first of all, you're not a Kentucky fan if you say that. So clearly it's okay. You're in the text machine.

I appreciate it. You're an Arkansas fan. But if you think Caliperi is a bigger brand than Kentucky, how do you explain the fact that four other coaches have won national championships here? Cal Perry is a huge coaching brand. As a matter of fact, I would argue he's probably the biggest coaching brand in the country. I think that's probably fair to say. But here's what I would ask you to do.

When the TV schedule comes out next year. See how many, see how many national? nationally televised games Kentucky has versus Arkansas. Just count them. Guarantee you it's more Kentucky. Go look at the TV ratings at the end of the year. Unless we stink, I guarantee you Kentucky's TV ratings are going to be ahead of Kentucky, and they've got, or in Arkansas,

and they do have the biggest coaching brand. It's nice they have Billy Richmond, Boogie Flan. That's nice. We would have had them here. Were we excited? No. I don't want to be negative, but part of the reason I want to Cal to go, I didn't want six freshmen next year.

You know? I mean, I'm just saying like, those guys all were going to come here. And fans were, for the most part, ready for a change. So I'm not surprised they're going there. As I said, I'm surprised when guys don't go there. But my reaction is still the same. Now, he did an interview. I have not heard this clip yet.

But he did an interview, I guess, yesterday with a radio or TV station in Arkansas and was asked about leaving Kentucky. I have not heard this yet, but here's the audio. Go ahead. I am doing something that's going to make me happy, my family happy. I loved my time there. Loved it. But you know what?

I'm going to love my time here, too. Well, I think you may have said somewhere along the way when you're talking about coaching 10 years, that 10 years is maybe the max somewhere. And you went five years past that. I had an opportunity to leave at 10 years, and I probably should have. And I didn't.

Back then, again, you're leaving players. That kind of got me to stay. Joe B. Hall, I said, how long, coach? He looked around and he goes, 10 years is what he said. He said, I stayed three too many. So I'm hoping the people in Kentucky don't feel like I stayed too long. I hope they're looking at it saying that, you know what, he did, what he did. And they look at what we did.

And I'm out other than when they're playing us, I'm not, and there's no ill will toward Kentucky. This is me coming to Arkansas because I wanted to do this. And I want to do it with all of us. I'm a gatherer. You know, if I do this right, there should be thousands saying without us and me, this would have never happened at Arkansas. If I do right, you bring people together. All right. So here's my reaction to that.

First of all, I hope he is happy. I think that's everybody deserves happiness, certainly him. But I want people to understand. Those are his words saying, I stayed too long and I wanted to leave. Stop acting like Kentucky fans push that guy out. Those are his words. He is saying, I mean, he goes up there and goes, I stayed too long, and then he says, I hope our fans.

don't think I stayed too long. He thinks he stayed too long. That's, I mean, I like Cal, but that's such a classic Calism, right? You know what? I stayed too long, but I hope you don't think that. It was the next sentence, I think. I mean, that was like, that's so him. But he probably did stay too long, and he recognizes that.

But I am not, Ryan, going to feel sorry for the person who acknowledges. he stayed too long. We are all very, very thankful for what he did here at Kentucky. It was just time. It was just time for a change. And his original quote, when he said something like, they just needed a new breath of fresh air in that program. I thought that was the most honest thing he said.

Me too. Me too. But, you know, Shannon, when he gets up and goes, I should have gone to UCLA, which is a historical power, he's basically saying, yeah, I should have done that instead of them. He wanted to pick somebody over his five years. years ago. Right. It said he wanted to stay because the players, I would argue the lifetime contract, probably had a lot to do with that as well. Well, first of all, again, you got to cut through the

BS. I want to stay for the players. Remember, he asked for a lifetime contract. He didn't say I want to stay for the players under the same contract I have. I want to stay for the players, give me $3 million more a year, take away every incentive to win so that there's no incentives for winning in the Final Four. And, oh, by the way, give me a lifetime ambassadorship. He didn't stay for the players. He used UCLA as leverage to get a better contract. No problem with that. That's fine.

That's business. But don't sit there and tell me you stayed for play. How many players were even staying that year? You're probably like one. I mean, come on. Well, that was my big take. I was my first time hearing that. But it just kind of what we thought all along.

It's Cal and the players he brings here. He didn't say I stayed it. I stayed five years ago because I like Lexington or I'm close with the administration or the fans of the school. He said the reason I stayed then was. because the players, which has kind of been the problem for a while now, it's just... If it was just for the players, you don't renegotiate the contract. Again, I'm fine with him renegotiating the contract. He took leverage he has.

He used it against Barnhart, and it worked. But then don't get up there and say to me, well, I stayed for the players, and because I love to, stop. Like, it's a business. I understand that. I think he was honest in the fact that he realized himself, it was time for me to leave. It was time, you know, to move on and go to take the job at Arkansas. And Mark Pope is here because he loves his play. Yep.

At the end of the day, now we hope, we got to hope it actually succeeds. 859-280-2287. You were going to get to bring that as Richie going to play tonight, shirt again. Well, not now. We'll be right back, KSR. We're back, Tegie Sports Radio, here live at Clark's Pump and Shop. Big weekend coming up. Big weekend coming up next weekend.

I was just talking about this. In Lexington, next weekend, you're going to have the same weekend. You got Derby weekend. A lot of people go to Derby, stay here. Graduation is next weekend. And then the UK Arkansas baseball series where it might be two top five teams playing each other here in Lexington. And Arkansas has one of the best traveling baseball fan bases in the country.

They travel in number. It's going to be a wild weekend. I would love to own a hotel in Lexington next weekend. Well, hopefully KS. Bar, the place where everybody wants to go to do all their pre-gaming and post-game celebrating. and the pre-graduation meals? It's going to be the traffic in this town. First of all, how bad is the traffic here?

I don't know if you all think, like, in the last three or four weeks, I feel like the traffic here, there should be a rule. Something's going on. Like, if you try to drive at 4 o'clock around this city, like there's nowhere, Drew, you can go where there's not a million cars. I think it was two days ago around 536. Not a good time to be driving, but I did a full lap around New Circle, and every exit was backed way down New Circle.

people trying to get off so I didn't know what was going on and also there should be a rule anybody who does construction Shannon during rush hour yeah that should be I mean I like Linda Gordon but that should be like a week salary taken like I agree with you why can we do that at night maybe on like you know they're doing right in front of Ks bar right there on on Harrisburg road they're like working on something and they only do it during like the afternoon yeah like why not do it at night like if you have one of those jobs you should have to work later on in the night. I know that's, you know, not the 9 to 5, but you've got traffic going on. At least when you're on, at least when you're on a primary road. I feel like that they're, but that's not the way they do it. Who's up next? T.O. Tio, what's up? Hey, Matt Jones. God bless you, boys. I tell you what, when Cal left, that was like Christmas came early to meet. Steve Masiello could have done the job he'd done the last five years. Hey, two quick points. Hubert Davis, flying into our town, linking it up, eating our best steaks,

that burns me up. Tell you what, can't stand it. And one last thing, Matt, for you, it's going to make you the next milk caper. You'll wait and see. I've got a two terms to throw out on these players. All right, you give it to me. I'll tell you what.

If you tell me something good, I promise you I will use it tonight. Give me a term. Hey, I got several of them, Matt. I just want one or two. One or two. Okay, okay. Well, you can say this player's got attention

to detail or you can say they have fourth quarter player or you can even say my favorite look at this guy's footwork I feel like other people have said those I thought you were going to come up with something unique footwork is something I think people say a lot yeah yeah well all right I appreciate it Tio thank you very much yeah you need something like violent hands that you got from bugger you need to come up with something for you on your own for your own tell you what on the text machine 772 7752525 for somebody gives me a good unique term I'll make that my thing, Drew. Tonight, I'll say that somebody has something.

I don't know what it is. I like this game. When Adam Lefco did TV in Louisville before his broadcast, I would text him something, like Leaping Lizards, and he'd have to work it in. It was pretty fun watching the broadcast and hearing your little line, so we tuned in tonight for whatever you're going to throw out there. I'll see what I could come up with to talk about these players that I do not. That's what we would do back then.

You can work that in. It's going to be hard. I don't think you want to compare a player to a lizard. I don't think that's a good thing to do. Who's next? Mark. Mark, go ahead, Mark. Hey, what's going on, Matt?

What's up? Hey, enough of much. Hey, real quick, I think he makes some really good points in regards to, you know, bringing in Mark, folk, and counseling. Like I said, it's got stale. It's best for both parties. But you had a caller, probably four or five calls ago, talked about how his interest in basketball.

He's probably not as diehard. And I think a lot of that happened right after COVID. And people just look at things. lot differently. And a lot of things changed with Kyle around that time. And I don't know exactly what it is. Yeah, I agree. At the same time, the contract probably helped with a lot of that. Let me ask you a question about that. You know, I look at what really are your expectations for Mark in the next three or four years? Yeah, let me see what in the next three or four years. Okay, so like I said, I think we talked about this. For next year, let me see what the roster is,

Okay, because I have generally taken the opinion that when Cal left, this goes back 10 years ago. Drew and I used to talk about this. The year after Cal left, I've always taken the view we're going to suck that next year. I've always believed that because I knew he would take all the players. But the portal has changed things. So now I don't know you have to be terrible. But as for what I expect next year, let me see what the roster is. But three or four years from now, Drew, I want to be clear.

I love Mark Pope. I think as a person you couldn't have a dude who gets this program more. But I expect him to win. The expectation to win is still here. You still have to go and win. In the next three or four years, do I expect me to win a title? Well, that's a high expectation. But do I expect us to regularly contend for final fours and SEC championships?

Yes, of course I do. That is the job, as he put himself, that is, you know, that's why you're here. That's the assignment, that's the assignment. That's the assignment. So yes, I expect Mark Pope to do that. And if he doesn't, it will be a disappointment. But I'm not necessarily judging that this year because I need to see what the roster is. I'm with you.

And a title in Final Four, I give him a little room on that. But I expect some SEC titles pretty quickly. Maybe not year one. But it's been a while since we've gone deep in that tournament and had a regular season ring. And that's not too much to ask of Kentucky basketball. Alabama, let's put it like this, Shannon. Alabama, Tennessee, and Auburn for four straight years. have all at least one, two, either SEC regular season championships or SEC tournament titles in those last four years.

We should be a better program than both of those. So in the next three or four years, we need to at least be doing what they're doing, but we probably need to be doing better than that. And if you don't want to do that, you shouldn't be the coach here. Pope says he wants to do it. Right. At the University of Kentucky, when we're talking basketball, there really is no. honeymoon period that you have.

I mean, maybe this first year a little bit, but after that, you have to have the same expectations you had before. Otherwise, as we've said, you kind of become Indiana. You become Indiana. The moment you lower your expectations, you are Indiana. And the one thing we can't do is we can't rhyme become Indiana. We just can't do that. I agree with everything you guys have said, but I'm still in the boat where I don't want

to see us to lose to Oakland or a team like Oakland in the first round. They still got to have some success to show me that things are not going to be the same anymore. You know what I mean? Make the second weekend of the tournament would be nice. With the SEC, I don't think it's that crazy to compete right away. Lamont Paris went from Chattanooga to South Carolina where there's not a whole lot of minor tradition. And they almost won the SEC in his second year. Good point.

That's a dude going from Chattanooga to South Carolina. And he beat Tennessee at Tennessee, whip Kentucky. Jerome Tang in his second year took Kansas State, who's never won anything, to the Sweet Sixth. and had they not screwed up, they probably should have made the final four that year. So, no, you can turn it around. Yep. But bigger picture, the expectations we had for Cal, we should have the same expectations for Pope. I don't think because he played here, Ryan, he gets a break from him.

No, not at all. And I think his comments when he got introduced, he understands that. Like Drew said, he knows what the assignment is. He knows what's expected here. He wants the same thing. He wants to get back to where we're competing for championship. What I love about him is he never acts like we should bring the standards down. No.

He never says, like, give me a pass. He seems to raise him, which I like. Who's next? Jason. Jason. Jason, go ahead, Jason. Yeah, how are you, man? Good.

Just comment. I mean, Calgary is gone. Calgary should be gone. The last five years have been back. and it has nothing to do with his relationship with you or anybody else in the media as far as I'm concerned. He didn't do the job on the basketball court. But I heard people saying that they're a lot more excited at this point. I heard an earlier caller talk about how excited they were about the recovery.

Well, at this point, there's a lot of unknowns and a lot of uncertainty. People get nervous about uncertainty. Yes, they do. You see player after player here, committing there, and Kentucky is getting very little. Yeah, but, okay, but,

okay, I agree with your first point. Uncertainty breeds nervousness. That's perfectly understandable. Uncertainty breeds excitement. That's also understandable. But what I don't agree is, well, we see player after player after player committed.

There is one guy, I can tell you, that has gone to another school that Kentucky really wanted, like really wanted. I think besides that, most of the guys they really want are still out there and they feel very good about. So that's why I said let's wait till next Tuesday. You see a, here's what happens sometimes, and I'm not saying this as every kid, they throw Kentucky on their list. Why? Their value just went up when they put Kentucky on the list.

I can tell you there was one guy that committed somewhere else that can't. Kentucky thought they would get and wish they had got. But other than that, the big targets are all still out there for the taking. Kansas has picked up four kids. But we didn't go after those guys. First of all, we didn't go after those guys. And Bill Self has been the coach at Kansas for a decade and has won a ton of games. And they already have players.

So, like, you can't compare us to Bill Self. You can either build a program in a year out of the portal or you can't. I agree with you, but Bill Self is not trying to build a program out of the portal. He has the best program in the last decade consistently, along with Yukon. Don't disagree with that, but the flurries, he's getting out of the portal or the best out of it. Because he's been at Kansas. He's been there for a long time. He should get the best players.

Mark Pope has been here for two weeks. He just got his employee ID. Like, seriously, what do you expect, sir? I mean, you really expect him to moment one get better players than Bill's self within a week? I expect him to compete. We are blue blood. He is competing for the guys he wants. He wasn't going after those dudes Kansas wanted.

Well, I don't know why. Well, I tell you what, we should have hired you. I appreciate the call. Tell me about Stockton Mortgage. Stockton Mortgage, you know, if you're out here and you're looking at all this new construction going on out here in Masters and the Station, you may think of yourself, I want to look into moving down here. Stockton Mortgage can help you. They're easy to work with. You give them a call.

You set down with them. Go all of your financials and tell you what you're qualified for. Give you your approximate monthly payment, mortgage payment, and they'll get you to the closing table, and that's what it's all about. So give them a call. It's easy to apply online. Stockton.com. There's a button there says, get started. Hit the button.

Stock to Mortgage, NMLS, 8259, Equal Housing Lender. I try to make it my thing, Drew, to. take up for this fan base because I think Kentucky as a fan base is the best fan base in the country. Kentucky as a state is the best state in the country. And I think the people here, you ask anybody that knows me from around the country, all I do is talk about Kentucky and the people of Kentucky. With that said, if you don't want the stereotypes of us to be correct, you cannot say, well, Bill Self has more players. I should hope so. If Mark Pope was getting players in a week before before Bill self, Shannon, that's a comment on Bill self more than it is on anybody else.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So he should be getting more players. He's been awesome for a decade plus. It will happen. You just got to have a little bit of patience. He's only been here, like you said, 14 days on the job. His staff literally got finalized Wednesday. Yeah.

So calm down. It'll happen. Listen, if we get to next week and we have no players privately committed beyond what we have, all right, I'll get a little concerned. But how about we, so far, every player that's come here to visit except one has committed. And we got four guys here this weekend. Why don't we see what happens? Yeah.

During that weekend. We'll take a break. Be right back. This is KSR. Come back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio here live at Clark's Pubbets Shop. I'm going to draw right here at the end of the show for $250 gas cards before the weekend. The Rolex three-day event is this weekend in Lexington.

You're going to go see any of the dressage and all the equestrian stuff, Shannon? Grisades, dressage. It's all the same. Probably not. What about you? No. I don't know what it is exactly. I don't either.

But it's going to be, there's a ton of people in town for it. Somebody likes it apparently then. I don't even know really what equestrian is. Is that where they jump over the little obstacles and stuff? They do the walk where they pull their legs up in the air and crancel. Yeah, they kind of being sassy. They do that. And then they like do something in a field where they,

They jump over water and trees and things like that. They jump over trees. They pull the carts. Yeah, they do a lot of stuff. It's a, you know. Maybe I'm missing out. Maybe I should check it out there. Are you going to go?

No, I've been. They have three different events, cross country, jumping, and dressage. Those are the three events. So the jumping is over like. Jumping is in like their stadium. So does the same horse do all of them? I don't know if they do all the same horses or not. I don't know.

Do they do the horses? No, they're really into this. Yeah. It seems. Well, if they don't do the same horses, so then the jockey wins. I guess they don't even call them a jockey, right? A rider. I didn't do my equestrian show prep today.

We should have done that. My bad. 859-280-2287. Who's up next? John. John. Go ahead, John. Hey, guys.

Thanks for taking my call. Thank you. I got a different perspective of looking at these freshmen and evaluating them. My wife's a cheerleading coach, I see a lot of high school basketball. Very rarely do you. ever see a freshman come in and dominate the game, you times it by two or three. I mean, I'll take a veteran over freshmen all day, every day. I'm like Drew, so Cal can bring his five freshmen into Rupp Arena next year,

and we're still going to be Arkansas Super Bowl, so suck it, Cal. That's going to be my Kentucky-branded woe of the day. Go to kentuckybranded.com. You know, I think you can still win with freshman ride, but they better be like, like really good. Like they got to be elite, elite level freshmen. I think you can win with elite, but they better be like top of the top of the elite.

Yeah, we've talked about this. The roster construction in college basketball has changed. Used to be guys would go try to get the best recruits, the best one and done guys. Well, now that's not going to work. You've got to get a mix of some transfers and some older guys, I think, to go along with maybe two or three. I mean, Yukon has the mix down, Drew.

Yeah. Like, Yukon has it. They have a couple of freshmen. They keep a couple guys in the process. program two or three years and then they go to the portal. They do it every year and it's working. That's what we hope to be one day. Sorry to the caller a moment ago who's upset we don't have that right now.

Also with the elite freshman, turns out you need more than two of them to win a postseason game. So I think that also makes it difficult. I don't know if you get more elite than Rob Dillingham and Reed Shepard and that went nowhere. I would also note this kid that we skip over, this kid that's coming from the mission was 32nd in the country, right? So, I mean, it wasn't like he was chopped liver. And then Travis Perry ended up being like 50th in the country. So we may not have elite elite, but we have two very good freshmen coming as it is right now.

Who's next? Nolan. Nolan. Go ahead, Nolan. Morning, guys. I've really appreciated your Clark P&S program today. I would also, before I get into my comment, I would like to remind that caller a while ago that. But Mark Pope did beat Mr. Bill Self.

directly this season, this past season. On his home floor, yes. On his home floor. Right. I would like to bring it to a top of you all covered earlier this week, and that is, uh, rubs, uh, beardless wonders. Okay, I just got like 30 seconds real quick. We're about to end the show, but go ahead.

Sure. The, the main player on that team was, was Mr. Jack Tingle, the pride of Trimble County. And he was the, the straw that stirred the drink, as they say, right? Um, he had great footwork. Rup always said he had great footwork and violent hands. But one of the things you need to know about Jack Tangle, he is one of seven players to be all SEC four years, and he was the first player to ever be drafted from our historical program.

Both good facts. I didn't know either of those. Appreciate the call. Thank you very much. All right, cornbreadham.com, if you need to rest and relax, let's say you get done with the radio show at 2 in the morning, Shannon, you got to sleep. What do you do? Cornbread hip.

You make sure to close the door so you can't hear Max is snoring and then you take cornbread hemp. You go to cornbread hemp.com. Promotechimp.com. Promotechimp. All right. Hemp, only hemp, CBD Gummies. Go check it out. Cornbreadhimp.com use the promo code KSR for 30% off.

All right. You got to be here to win this. $250 in gas. Let's see who we got. What is Jennifer Williams? Right here. Right. Right.

Right. Right. And then we will do one more. Nice. One more. winner. Jennifer Williams is going to be just chugging gas. The whole well, her car is. I was going to be doing it. And finally, if they're here, where is Derek and no way? Right there. Congratulations. We're in the KSR hat. Nice. Appreciate it. Sir, you're walking away as

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