KSR - 2024-04-8- KSR - Hour 1

Episode Date: April 8, 2024

Coach Cal leaves for Arkansas. Matt, Ryan, and Billy disscuss who should be next for Kentucky, reasons for optimism, and more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome, everyone, to the KSR pre-show before Kentucky Sports Radio. I'm Matt Jones. I have hijacked this show for the next hour to join until the two hours of KSR with Ryan Lemon and Billy Rutledge, Billy R. Sports. Billy, let's start by thanking you for letting us do this. We kind of took over your show, but I think it makes sense. And with Shannon gone and Drew gone, this will allow you to be on

the whole thing, but thank you for agreeing to do that. Great to have you guys on as a guest here on the KSR free show. Groundbreaking Day here in Lexington. It is a great, a great guest. But so, I mean, look, the next three hours, we know exactly what we're going to be talking about. one of the more shocking things that I think has ever happened around Kentucky basketball, certainly in my lifetime, and we are at the KS Bar and Grill. We're going to be here. You're welcome to come for any and all of it. Last night, John Cal Perry leaves Kentucky for Arkansas.

Let's go over just quickly initial reactions. There's a lot of ways to talk about it. I want to talk about what the future is for Kentucky, future is for Cal, and how we got to this point. What are some of the ways that this happened? And there are probably three hours of conversation. But let's start with this, Ryan. Were you surprised? You know, I learned a hard lesson in 2007 when it broke that Tubby was talking to Minnesota.

I remember thinking of myself, Minnesota. He's not going to leave Kentucky for Minnesota. Well, we all know what happened. He left for Minnesota. So when I heard that about Caliparian, Arkansas, I felt like kind of that, you know, there's maybe a little truth in there somewhere. I didn't know how serious it was, but maybe there's a little truth in there somewhere. I was shocked.

I'm not shocked he's gone. When he walked off the court against Oakland, I thought that was it. But I'm shocked it went down like this. I'm shocked it went down with Mitch publicly backing him. They do a television interview next to each other. And they come out and publicly take the same side, and then he's gone a week later. That shocks me.

And it happened so fast it seemed like last night. happened like over like literally we'll talk about Bobby bones is going to come on Bobby bones has actually become a big Arkansas he's always been a fan but he's involved and I think he'll talk about kind of what he says is exactly when it happened wow but I was shocked Billy were you shocked shocked is a great word I think I'm still stunned about it this morning trying to find the words to react and Cala Perry's going to take a job that Chris Beard and Jerome Tang turned down just last week They were interviewing the coach at Arkansas Little Rock before this, from Arkansas Little Rock to Calgary.

So that's amazing. I have a number of thoughts, and I want to just make them sort of as succinctly as possible. I'll do this in a broader form at 10 o'clock when KSR starts. But this is the best thing that could happen for everybody. It's very few things in life that are win-win. this is a win-win for everybody. It's a win for Cal.

I think it's a win for Kentucky. And I think it's something where if, and this is a big if, Barnhart makes the right higher, all parties will be better off. And that's very rare in relationships. But it is. The Calapari stuff, and we've talked about it, and we took a lot of criticism for talking about it,

but it was true. It had become so toxic. It didn't work. I thought it didn't work for the administration. side, which is why I thought they'd come to a separation. They decided they could make it work. I was very, well, let me tell you, let me give me an example. I was talking to somebody that is very, very connected with the program, certainly more so than me,

much more pro-Cal Perry than me. I asked them, what are the chances next year is successful? And they were like 10%. Because it was just, it was just a disaster. And people don't realize how much of a disaster it was. was. And the thing is, we had fans didn't want to hear it was a disaster, but it was. And it was time to move on. Calipari was unhappy. You heard the report yesterday from Matt Norlander. Calipari began reaching out to schools in February, according to him. That was, that was damning,

I thought. That Cal Perry had made it known he was interested potentially in the Ohio State job, but the timing didn't work because they wanted to coach before the tournament, and Cal thought he was going to have a deep March run. Well, that didn't happen. But you want to know why all of a sudden things looked weird in March? Well, that's an interesting report. It very much is. Right. So this was, this, this needed to happen.

But one thing I want us to remember throughout the whole show, as we talk about the Cal era, a lot of which was positive. You're not going to hear me blast it. I think he did a lot of really positive stuff. But this was not going to work going forward. It wasn't. He was just going to have more freshmen here next year, and it was not going to work. And I think now, let's take it from the Caliperi side. He has a chance to go to Arkansas and be rejuvenated and have a final run at it, right?

I think he'll bring all or most of his players there. It's a little harder to get to Arkansas, but that $5 million their pledging a year in NIL will make that an easier path at Arkansas. all. He'll do well. And we need to, everyone listening needs to be prepared for this. Be prepared for John Caliperi to be rejuvenated. Yep. Back in suits that look amazing, wearing ties, getting in shape, recruiting at the highest level, bringing in a coach to do the X and O's. He is going to go like the guy who got a divorce and looks in the mirror and goes, man, what happened to me,

he's going to go make the best version of himself, right? So he's going to come out and do well in Arkansas. But the thing you need to remember is he wasn't going to do that for his first wife. He wasn't. This was for the new wife. He wasn't going to do that here. He was stubborn, and he was going to be him. He'll be the best version of Cal.

But I also want to say this. I don't understand, and most of these fans are young. They've not been through this before. You guys have been through this before. I've been through this before. You have. Billy, you really haven't. But people haven't been through this before.

But this idea that Kentucky basketball is now headed for the dumps because we lost Cal, we were good before him. And if we make the right hire, we'll be good after him. when you believe success is based solely on one individual, that is a cult. Okay? That is not a team or a religion or a party. It's a cult when it's one person. Kentucky basketball is not a cult.

We won with Adolf Rupp. We won with Joe B. Hall. We were winning with Eddie Sutton. And then that happened. But we won with Rick Petino. We won with Tubby Smith. We had a two-year gap with Billy.

But I will note, even in the... those two years, Billy made the tournament in one of them. Yeah, he did. And we won with Cal. So we will continue to win if we make the right hire. But our fans, if

you hear fans out there going, all we're going in the dumpster, tell them to buy history book. Like, we can be just as good as we were if we hire the right coach, Ryan, which is the if. Yeah, and I agree with you about the timing. The timing, the

timing is just right, I think, for Cal and four Big Blue Nation. And to piggyback what you're saying about Cal, I think he goes there and not does well because now he's also going to chip on his shoulder. He will. He wants to prove all of us. And he'll have years, might even be next year, where he's better than us. Yeah. It still doesn't mean it wasn't the right decision because this was going to be headed for a messy,

nasty divorce. I'll also note, though, he's going to go to an Arkansas team. They got expectations. Yes, they do. In the last, let me tell you what they've done in the last four years. we've won one NCAA tournament game. What have they done? Two elite eights and a sweet 16.

That's a good run for them. That's a great run for them. That's seven tournament wins in four years. He's going to have to show up and do well to do that, right? Eight tournament wins. So I think they're going to be excited, but there's going to be a lot of pressure on him too there. So it's not, you know.

We've seen it, you know, the second best fan base in the SEC during the night. No doubt. Was Arkansas. And if they have the Tyson chicken money, what do you think of Tyson chicken now? Never eat Tyson chicken ever again. Not one more dino nugget from me. But, you know, in Caliperi's own words, he said the shelf life at Kentucky basketball is about 10 years. Yeah, he did.

I mean, he just completed the 15th year, and I think we can all agree that maybe the relationship had run its course. Stephen Peek is here. Stephen, give me that quote that he said in your book. Do you have that easily accessible? So Stephen read Cal's book. And a lot of Cal's comments directly from his words would have said that the John Calipari of 2010 would have agreed this was best for everybody. I'm going to read you his exact words. And in his exact words, he would have said what we are saying, which is this is best for everyone.

And it has been left in such a way that now one day he can come back here and get a round of applause. and we can thank him. If it had gotten much uglier, I don't know if that could have happened. Now, it can't. Now, I don't know if that'll happen next year. What happens when he comes in here with Rupp? You know, the SEC is going to have that on the schedule.

Arkansas comes to Rupp Arena. They were already scheduled to. That ticket would be amazing, hard to get. We remember when Rick came back, the first time when he was at Louisville, it was one of the most exciting electric environments I've ever seen in there. I'm going to read. This is John Calipari's,

own words. So when you see people on the internet or you hear people out on the street telling you we can't be good, I'm reading you Cal's words from his book Players First. The team had won a total of just two NCAA tournament games in the previous four seasons combined. And over the last two, it had lost 27 games. That's not supposed to happen in Lexington. There was nowhere to go but up. Those are his own words. There was nowhere to go but up. If that applied when he got here, that applies when he lives. There's nowhere to go but up. And so, you know, when people say, are you going to find somebody who was as good as him?

Are we going to find somebody that was as good as him in 2010 to 2019? That's going to be hard. You still got to go try to do it, but it's going to be hard. But can we find somebody as good as he's been 2020 to 2024? four? Yes. 58 coaches have won more NCAA tournament games in the last four years than him. You don't think one of those 58 will take a call?

And let me tell you what the great programs do. They make transitions. Since I don't know if Hubert Davis or John Shire are even good coaches, but you know what they've done? They've made the transition. It's true. Hubert Davis made the Final Four. Then he made a sweet 16. John Shire had his team to the elite eight this year and has the best recruiting class that we've seen in a long time coming next year, if we make the right hire in the transfer portal era, we'll be right back,

and everybody will understand, we are not a cult. We do not require one person for success. We've never been that, and I don't think Ryan will be that there. And I think Cal was the right hire in 2009. That was the right guy at the right time. So now Mitch needs to go out and. do that again. So who is it?

Well, let's take a break. And let's think about who it is. Are you sad at all, Billy? A little bit. But, you know, kind of like what you're saying, Kentucky basketball is bigger than John Caliperi. Maybe some of the younger generation has a hard time seeing that. But, you know, they'll be bigger and better things.

And he was bringing back six freshmen, getting ready to do the same thing. We were about to do the same thing. We were about to do the exact same thing. Are you secretly excited you get called up to the big chair today? Oh, yes. With Drew and Shannon gone on maybe one of the big. biggest shows in history. I'm thrilled.

I'm ready to be here, even though Frank Franklin would have been great this Frank Franklin's going to have stuff to say Wednesday. I'll just go ahead and tell you that I will say this before we go to the break. UK folks were taking aback by this. Shocked. Didn't see it coming. I mean, I was at the football practice Saturday. The conversation, nobody saw it coming.

And I would argue even up through yesterday, people didn't see it coming. This was out of nowhere. and there's a lot of stuff to think about. So when we come back, I want to deal with how do we get here? How did we get to a point that John Caliperi would leave Kentucky for Arkansas? We'll deal with that next right here on the KSR pre-show on Kentucky Sports Radio. He is gone. John Caliperi, I haven't asked you all this question.

Who do you hire? I'm going to give you my ranking. Okay. All right. This is if it were up to me solely, who would I hire in order? Number one, my first call, you got to call Danny Hurley. He's going to tell you no, but you got to. He's clearly the best coach in the country.

You got to at least try it. I don't think he'll come. If you want him, I think you root for Purdue tonight. Yes. I think it would be a lot easier for him to leave if they lost than if they won. He couldn't leave the one back to back. I don't think you can leave if you went back to back. But if he won, won't won and lost, maybe.

So he won't come, in my opinion, but you call him first. Second, I think you at least reach out and go, hey, Billy. Third time's a charm with Billy Donovan. No, I mean, you just see. The problem for them is timing because they're going to be in the playing game, and then if they make the playoffs, it might be three or four weeks, and you can't wait. Can't wait that long. You can't wait in this transfer portal.

So even if you wanted him, if you want him, you need him to go lose in the playing game, because you cannot wait that period of time. So let's assume neither of those work. The slam dunk is Nate Oates. It's a slam dunk. Of the realistic options, he's a slam dunk. I wouldn't have said that a month ago. Okay?

But he made the final four. And he won me over when he sat there in the halftime of that Clemson game, excuse me, at the end of the Clemson game, and talked to me about a third-party analytics firm that came into his thing at halftime and expected win rate. And I thought, are you kidding me? In addition to Nate Oates being this fireball and this recruiter and all this, he's smart.

When I heard it, I was like, okay. My view is, smart people make it work. And he's got the personality, so he would then be my choice. I think they will talk to Scott Drew. I don't hate Scott Drew. If it's him, it can work. I think I'd rather have Nate Oates, but I don't hate the Scott Drew thing. It's got to be one of those four.

Or Jay Wright, if you could somehow get him. If it's not one of those five, then I think you're taking a risk. But I think all those five I'd be okay with, but my guy would be Nate Oates. What about you? And I think Nate Oates won a lot of UK people over the game here at Ruff when Kentucky ran around the gym.

Drews talked about it a lot, how he said and said, hey, man, I looked out there and I saw that lineup. That's Cal's lineup. I think he won some people over by how he once he praised what Cal and UK did that night, that game. And then after the game that they lost on Saturday, I thought he was very gracious and humble and somebody that I think

would be endearing to our fan base? Would that be your pick? That's my number one pick. Well, two thoughts on Nate Oaks. He has an $18 million buyout. Ten. Is it 10? Tuscaloosa News reported this morning. It's not 18, it's 10.

It's a much easier. A lot more manageable. That's a lot more manageable. Plus, by the way, you just saved 33 just for the record. So you just saved 33, but go ahead. Are you over the wrong place, wrong time comments that he had a year ago?

Huge mistake. I don't like it, but I don't like it. But at the same time, I think if I heard an explanation, I would need to read more on it, but if I heard an explanation that wasn't awful, I could get over it. I mean, I didn't like, look, if we're real, I used to write bad things about Cal back before he started. I mean, a lot of us did.

Like, some of that is the trash talk of the rivalry. Now, that incident, I'm not going to claim that's, not a nothing incident. And it might be that Mitch Barnhart, that's an incident that would make him not call him. I don't know. I don't know enough about it. But I'd want to know more about it, but I probably would still want him. Okay. Just on the list, I think Scott Drew's the first call just because Mitch is the one making this higher. He would you want, though? Nade notes. And then I like to add Rick Bettino to the list too. Come on. Yeah. He could be good for a couple of years. But this, we don't need that.

Arkansas needs that. Arkansas needs that three or four. We don't need that. That would be a mistake. First of all, Rick now, this is the best thing ever could happen to Rick. Yeah. He's not the number one villain. I mean, Kentucky fans are not going to, like, what are they going to be upset at Rick about now?

You know, they're not going to be, they're not going to be upset at him. But I'm a no-on Rick. I mean, if they hire him, I'm going to cheer for him, but I'd be a no-on-rick. Well, we're talking about Mitch. I mean, he stuck his neck out for Cal, I felt like, you know. I want to get to that. Okay. Because I think that's a hugely important point.

You know what? I'm a save for 10 o'clock my how we got here. So let's go to that point. I can't believe he did that to Mitch. I agree. I mean, you know, there's a part of me. I actually kind of feel bad for Mitch. You make that decision.

That was not with the booster class of Kentucky. not a popular decision. It was not. And you could debate whether or not it was popular with the fans, but it was certainly close, and I think a majority of the fans probably disagreed with the decision. But you did it. You stuck your neck out. You set next to him on an interview and tried to act like y'all liked each other when

you did not like each other. And then, I mean, Chet Lemon has that picture of going, how you know when you're in couples therapy and one person's cheating on you. Like Mitch has got this big look on his face and Cal looks like he's about to sneak off. If I'm Mitch, I'm upset. Now, he got handed a lifeline not having to pay you that lifetime contract. But wouldn't you be upset? You stuck your neck out for that guy and then he leaves a week later to a conference rival.

Yeah, very publicly, the two of them sat there in that interview a week and a half ago. And they were like a bromance, a big love fest. And I think Mitch, yeah. But it was fake. Knowing what we know now. But you know it was fake. You knew it was fake then. We couldn't say it because a big chunk of our fan base wanted to go,

see, Matt, they have a great relationship. What are you talking about? They're friends. But it was, there was never a friendship. Cow always treated Mitch like he wasn't his boss. He did. Mitch has had to take it for years and then he took it again. and then and then so I actually feel bad for it too I'm gonna be honest with you I feel bad for it

to to have to sit there and take it after Cal has at best been indifferent with Mitch if not at times disrespectful to take it and then still stick your neck out for the guy and then he leaves Mitch be a better guy than I if he's not upset that TV interview will go down as one of the more bizarre moments in Kentucky basketball history and then we find find out that he's been flirting with Ohio State since February. If that's true, and that was reported by Matt Norlander, let me tell you this about Norlander. I don't know where he heard that, but Norlander was getting Cal info. Okay, Norlander's the only journalist I had seen with a connection that clearly was from

cow people. If cow people are saying that he was interested in Ohio State in February, then I believe it. because that's cow people that told and I worked with Matt Norlander. He ain't going to make stuff up. That's just straight down the minute. If he says it, I believe it. And that's telling, Ryan, it just is.

I mean, like we said, I think that's very damning to know, okay, where was your head? Did you already have one foot out the door the last couple weeks of the season and going into March? Is that one reason why you guys didn't succeed in March? You know, you have all these questions now. Yeah, well, we will see. All right, we're going to talk about kind of, well, there's so many angles to all this.

There really is. What's going to happen when he comes in Rupp? Oh, he'll get booed. Do you think he gets booed? Yes. Oh, well, everyone's sitting here thinks he gets booed. Well, we will take a break and be right back. It's Kentucky Sports Radio.

Al Perry's going to have to now. Yeah, he's got to feed the hogs. I can't believe that dude wants to live in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I mean, again, Fayetteville's nicer than you think it is. if you haven't been, especially, what's the town just to the north of it? I don't know. There's a town where Walmart is. It's just the north of it.

Bittenville. Bittenville. That place is actually pretty, that's where he'll live. I'll bet you any amount of money he lives in Bittenville. But still, I can't believe he's going to Arkansas. Like we said, if this was the 90s and Arkansas was like. It's not about that. It's just his house living in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

This is a dude who. thinks this place is too tiny and like Bobby Petrino and John Caliperi, the head football and basketball coaches at Arkansas, is it official? Like, is it done deal? You know, I haven't heard that. But, I mean, everyone's like saying it is. Yeah.

I mean, that would be funny. Well, he couldn't come back now. You can't come back now. You can't come back now. No. Once it's known that you, like, you can't, that would be even worse. Yeah. No, I mean, he's got, he's got to go at this point.

So actually, let's talk a little bit about how we got here. I was going to save it until 10, but let's just go. I don't think people realized. I know people didn't realize because we all don't want, people don't want bad news. Right? Yeah. People don't want bad news. And when they really like somebody or something, they don't want to hear any bad news.

It's true. They don't want to hear. Democrats do not want to hear bad news about Joe Biden. Republicans do not want to hear bad news about Joe Trump about Donald Trump and we don't want to hear bad news about John Calapair. You want every human being is like this, myself included. You want news to filter what you already think, right? Like you search for news that agrees with you.

So people don't want to hear, did not want to hear the bad news about Cal. Perfect example. Go read people's comments when Kyle Tucker put his article out last year. Here's what I'll say about Kyle Tucker's article. he didn't even go as far as he could have it was a disaster behind the scenes it was a disaster calipery became for the people at uk impossible to work with he did that's why people connected to him left he just couldn't he was just too much i think they all still loved him he's not a bad person but he just became too much one of the

these days, Ryan Lemon may say to me, you've just become too much. That's what he was doing. He was too much. And all you got to do is go look and see who left. Yes. Yes. We've talked a lot about Robic, Dwayne, and Kenny. But it's more than that. When Eric Lindsay leaves to go work at the Blood Center, or when T.J. Beisner leaves to go take the same job essentially at North Carolina, what does that tell you when j lucas leaves to just go be the same coach at duke for last money what does that tell you it tells you they can't do it anymore right right you've you know this i mean i'm not i'm saying things you know and i think that what you said is accurate i think they love him and they respect him but just working with him i think some is is is a lot i think there were

people who were like if i'm going to continue to love him i got to go yeah You ruin the relationship. You know what I mean? Like if I'm going to continue to be friends with him, I can't be here anymore. And why it changed, somebody would have to know him psychologically, and I can't claim that. But he became obsessed with proving critics wrong and winning, but winning his way. Yeah. That was always, I said this over and over.

The man wants to win. I never will believe people who said he didn't want to win, but he wanted to win. his way. He wanted to win the way he thought you should play, the way you thought you should do things so that he could win and then go and say, see, to me, Cala Perry post-COVID is best summed up, and everybody should take a minute today and do this by going and watching the Auburn post-game press conference. If you want the best encapsulation of what it's like to be around Cal the last four years, go watch that press conference. That was Cal unfiltered.

He came in and said, see, oh, you all wanted to come see us lose. See what I did? He was angry at everyone. He was angry at fans. He was angry at media. He was angry at boosters. He was angry at people at UK. And that anger, while I still think he's a good guy, that anger just overwhelming.

It just did. And yet that all could have been covered up if they would have won. No, if you win, none of this matters. But there's a reason why you're losing. Yeah. There's a reason why you're losing. When Frank gets here, he'll tell you some stories. I'm going to let Frank take the fall for him because he knows more about him than I do. But there's some stories that came out of there in the last three or four years that were crazy and that were so crazy that when you heard them, you'd go, well, that can't be true. And then it would be. And you'd say, And you'd go, are you serious?

Like just the laziness of some of the staff members was beyond belief. It was beyond. I mean, you know what I'm talking about. It was beyond belief. And it's why you kind of knew that this thing like was coming to an end, Ryan. It just couldn't keep on like that. We've said it many times. It was just time.

The program needed a fresh start. I think Kyle needs a fresh start. So what do you think his legacy is going to be here? For me, his legacy is still good. His legacy is 10 years of greatness. His legacy is 10 years where we were the coolest program in the country, and we had all these stars come through here, and we won probably should have won a little more,

but we won a lot, and it was fun, and every day was exciting, and I loved it. And I think, like, the kids this age, like you guys, you grew up, this is it. Like that's the legacy to me. We've had four years where it wasn't like that. That four years does not override for me the 10 years that were awesome, all right? Had it been many more, though, it might have.

But it was just the right time to move on. It's like I look back at Tubby. When I look back at Tubby, I don't think of that last year or two where we lost in the second round. We kind of weren't very good. I think of the national championship team, the 0304, 05, Bogan's, Prince, all those teams. teams, I don't really think about that last year or two where we were starting Shiree Thomas and that. I don't really think about that. That's how we'll be with Cal. We'll remember the 2012, the 2015, John Wall. I don't think we'll remember these last few years. Do you agree? I'm glad you said

that because that's the way it should be. Right now we're still, I think, stinging from what has happened the last couple of years. But what he did for us that first 10-year run, that's one of the best runs in the history of college basketball. We can't deny that. Can't deny him that. I disagree to a point, I mean, has a coach ever done less with more than John Caliperi? I mean, I see the amount of NBA stars, not just draftics, but stars and a failure to win anything past 2017. This is not a criticism of you because I want you to be who you are, but you didn't grow up living this like we did.

In some ways, you missed those years. To a degree, I mean, I watched it, but I wasn't doing radio shows. And you weren't a fan, though. You weren't like a. Sure. So, like, one of the things about being a Kentucky fan for guys. our age. When we were young, we weren't the cool team. I mean, we were good, but we weren't cool. He made us the cool team. We'd never been that before, Ryan. Would you agree? Never.

No. I mean, the way, think about the way you guys look now at like, if you're young, think about how you look at Houston. Yeah. That's how the country looked at us, but just a Blue Blood Houston. Like a team you respected, but people weren't lining up to watch you. When Cal came here, that changed. To some extent, it did with Rick, too, but it changed with Cal. So that's why I have a positive view. But I want to go back to just a second how it became untenable.

This is a fact. At the end of his time, he had no relationship of substance with his AD, no relationship of substance with his athletic department. no relationship of substance with the biggest boosters in the program no relationship of substance with the media any of them he was down to having a couple of his people contact national media he had no one locally so when things went bad who was there to turn to when things went bad why do you think when we lost Thursday night he flew back with the team and then immediately went to New Jersey think about that I want you Think about that. This is twice the St. Peter's game and this game where we lost and he got out of town immediately. That's not a person connected. Is it?

No. You need to do a little damage control. You're the leader of that program. So when things are going good, you can do whatever you want. You don't have to be friends with anybody. You can be whoever you want to be. you can be Frank Sinatra singing my way. But when things go bad, that's when you need people.

And the reality is he had run those people off. So at Arkansas, he'll be back to the good cow. You know, I think a lot of that people. He'll reach out to all those people. Yes. Because now he doesn't have to get over the pride of having been wrong. Right. Right.

So if he all of a sudden rebuilt a relationship with Mitch and rebuilt a relationship with the boosters and rebuilt a relationship with the media, Part of that would have required him to admit he was wrong. Now he doesn't have to do that. No, he doesn't. He can just go and be himself, and it'll work. It will.

Because it worked here for 10 years. But it was going to require him to take a step back and go, you know what? I need you, you, you, and you to build this back. That's not him. He alienated a lot of people. And then the reports came out that he said he didn't feel wanting. by Matt Norlander. Do you think that was the case? Yes, but it's his own fault.

Right. It's his own fault. Again, I will take up for Cal in the first 10 years with anybody anytime. These last four years are his fault. They are his fault, both on the court and off the court. And so, Arkansas did Kentucky a blessing. Saved them 34 million? He gave them $34 million, and they're going to get a coach that'll be good there.

He will be happier, and so will we. I know that feels weird. There's a sense of like, are we going to be okay? But we are Kentucky basketball. We're going to be okay. It's just going to be different, right? Very. It's like my marriage analogy.

It's a divorce. It's a divorce where you know you and your wife. we're not happy together anymore. But the day she walks out the door and you go to sleep by yourself, there's a part of you going, uh-oh, what now? But the thing you have to remember is you weren't happy the night before.

And so now you have a chance to go make yourself happy again. Get back out there. And so does she. And that's what you got to hope happens. We'll take a break. I'm very back. It's KSR. Welcome back. KSR pre-show, Billy, Ryan and Matt, Billy filling in on big day.

Shannon and Drew gone. Billy steps up to the plate here. All right, so let's talk for a second about what's next. Yeah. So let's give you some reasons for optimism, okay? Because I think it's natural for people to be pessimistic. Let's talk optimism. We got about four boosters that basically had stopped. Stop participating in basketball, either because of personal dislike of Cal or because of neglect.

They'll all be right back in it. So I'm not worried about the money. You want to, I mean, look, I don't know how much I can go into all this. But I was, you know, I was around and giving conversations during the start of the law familiar thing. and I was just giving my advice to them, and I said, I don't know if this is going to work for a variety of reasons. But the biggest one is you got to have the big guys. And Cala Perry created the program in his image.

Okay? That's awesome because his image was this MBA image. He created the program in his image. it was a Cal program more than it was a UK program. Let's be real. These players came here for Cal. They did not come here for Kentucky. That's okay.

It still benefited us. But he created a Cal program. But there's been a worry for five years at UK about, well, what comes next? Right? I hate to keep analogizing it to politics, but I don't know how else to do it. The Republican Party just replaced everyone in their leadership with Trump people. Well, that's fine when you have Trump. But what about after Trump?

What happens when he's gone? If the whole thing is built in his image, what happens when he's gone? That's what this is. It was built in his image. So part of the worry for people is all these donors are cow people. The UK donors have kind of gotten pushed to the side for cow people. So now you've got to go get all those people back. But the thing is, they're waiting to be taken back.

So the money's there. I'm not worried about the money. Would you agree with that? Yeah, these boosters were there before Cal, even early during Cal, they'll come back. They'll be back. So the money, whatever Nate Oates buy out or what is, the money will be there. The NIL will be there. I'm not worried about the money.

Now the question, though, is, can you make the right hire? Because if you do, the money will take care of itself. Cal had neglected UK donors for Cala Perry donors. Cal had basically looked at the longtime UK people and said, hey, I love you. But then he looked at these people and goes, I know these people will be loyal to me. Cal's all about loyalty.

Well, that's not, they were loyal to him. But now he's gone. And so now you've got to go back to those old stalwart UK people. Yes. And that's what we'll end up happening. Since we're talking about money, I've got to ask you, what about this law familiar money that was, Don't know.

It was only like 50 grand, though. Yeah, but there was more money behind the scenes, I think, with donors. My assumption is it'll still be used for UK stuff. I would think so. It might still exist just with a different name. I mean, the goal, I mean, give this, the people who created Law Familiar, the goal of that, honestly, was to try to create an NIL thing that survived Cal. They asked me my opinion.

I'll tell you what I said. Don't call it law familiar. No, I mean, that's a cow thing, right? Like, my thing was you want to build a, you want to build something for the future? Don't just make it about Cal. And that I got overruled on there. We'll talk someday about the video. Yeah.

I mean, the video to me was very telling. It was. And I'm not going to do that today, but we'll talk about that video. The video for the intro of that. the way that played out, well, I'm going to be honest with you. I mean, what do we have to worry about now? The way that video came out is how I knew this wasn't going to work, right? When you heard the things that happened.

There were, it was just a process that should have worked differently on that. And that's when I knew, like, it's just not going to change. So, but I still think in the future, the money's things. the donors are there. The fans will get, whoever this next person is, fans will get excited about it. Remember down the road at Louisville. They hire Pat Kelsey. Louisville fans are dispressed.

Yeah. And in two days, he won them all over. And now they gave a million, the new coach will do the same thing. Whoever we get will walk in here and we'll be excited and this fan base will be re-energized. And then it's just about going and winning. Do you agree? Do we have a coach by the end of the week? We need to.

Yep. We need to because we got to go get players. Yes. We're going to have to go get players. All right. We will take a break. Draft Kings, promo code is KSR. That's right.

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