KSR - 2024-05-03- KSR - Hour 2

Episode Date: May 3, 2024

Matt, Ryan, Drew, and Shannon talk all the latest UK sports news and talk horse racing with Jonathan Kinchen.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Great crowd here. The restaurant is opening. Got folks coming pre-post-graduation all day. Drew said it decided he's just going to hang here. With all the traffic, I brought all my necessary. supplies to work. I'm just going to make a day of it here. Yeah, we got Oaks. What time does the Oaks TV start? It starts pretty soon, doesn't I start the stuff? So that'll be good. And then Derby tomorrow.

So lots of good things going on. The text machine is 772-774525-4. By the way, you guys did this for me when I went away six, seven years ago, and you guys gave me some recommend. I remember there was a listener who told me his family owned a castle in Italy. and we went and stayed at it. And it was awesome. So my question for you is if you have a place in Europe

that's uniquely like you don't have to give me like general recommend, but things like your family has this or this, just shoot me a message on the text machine when the show's over, like 772-745254. I always kind of meet and see cool stuff. This family like ran a castle like in this little country,

Italian town and we went and stayed at it and it was one of my favorite things I did when I went last time. Do you know what countries you're going to or is it still kind of a fluid thing? I'm landing in Rome and I'm going to go to Greece for like 10 days and then besides that, completely open. Wow. And at some point I'm meeting some friends in Spain, but that's really it. Otherwise, just wherever the winds take you, Drew. Maybe any backyards in Luxembourg or any other things for the I didn't expect to get stuck in a person's yard in Luxembourg, so maybe that'll happen again.

You never know. I probably won't go back to Luxembourg. It's tiny, and I've already been. But the only thing I know I'm going to do, the European soccer championships are in Germany for five or six weeks. And I'm going to go to some of those matches just because I want to see the atmosphere and be at a few of those. We're going to try to make sure that when you return, you still have Kentucky Sports Radio here. Yeah, that's my goal. We're going to make sure it's still here.

goal is so for those of you that care about this show two things one listen and then come visit at this restaurant during those two months those are the two we need both of these things to continue to exist when i come back first week of august so i'll be back my first show back will be like august 5th and my last show will be friday may the 24th whatever that is in somerset we're doing a show in somerset and that'll be the last one i'm jealous i mean it's like once in a lot lifetime experience to go over there and just kind of see the country. Part of the country. A lot of countries.

Yeah, they have more than one over there now. That's very cool. A couple of them. That's a good thing about it. When you went last time, I'm trying to think you said it was some kind of delicacy you could only get in one place and you were going to maybe somebody get it. So we were in Croatia and we hired a guy, a local guy. He drove us all over the country.

And we were going to Dubrovnik. If you've ever seen Game of Thrones, have you all seen Game of Thrones? They film all that, or a lot of it in Dubrovnik, Croatia. But to get there, you had to drive through Bosnia, like, for just, like, a few miles, and there's this, like, snail that they can only, you can only get in Bosnia because it's endangered. And for some reason, we felt like, well, we need to be endangered. We need to help, like, we need there to be one less of them, which feels kind of mean in hindsight on our part. And we ate it.

It was terrible. but I guess you can say you did it. You did it. And I was in Bosnia, which I didn't think I would ever be. So let's talk football for a second. On this show, the other day, we got a commitment from Marquise Davis running back from the Cleveland. I don't know if people out there realize how big a deal that was. First of all, the second biggest running back commitment, second highest ranked running back commitment in the history of the school.

All right. So think about that. Only Boom Williams was rated higher out of high school than this kid was. But even more to the point, this is a kid who Ohio State and Michigan were recruiting. He decided to eliminate Ohio State because they're also recruiting someone else. Everyone thought he was going to Michigan. Michigan people were hyping him up as this is our next star running back. Michigan was all in.

I get a phone call the night before he comes on, hey, we got this kid who wants to commit on the show. I said, sure, he comes on. No one knew it was coming. And the Michigan people, all you need to do is do a Twitter search of his name and look at what Michigan people said after it happened. They were not only shocked, they were furious. They were like, how in the world did we lose this kid?

and many of them were saying, how does Vince Mero steal all of our kids? Because if you go back in time, he stole the Smith twins, right, that are coming from Corbyn. They were originally Michigan commits. Dion Walker, many years ago, Justin Rogers. Who else am I missing there, Drew?

There's been like eight that people thought we're going to go to Michigan and he has gotten them to come here. It's really amazing. We've always thought of Vince is doing Ohio and Kentucky. This kid's from Cleveland, but the way he's been a thorn in Michigan side is kind of amazing. And with the online, you know, the picks they do, I think if you added them up across the sites, there's 17 in total picking Michigan, and you don't see that many misses on the room. Everyone missed.

There were Michigan blogs writing about how he'll fit in, you know, and it's just a huge gift for Kentucky to steal him, but not just taking him from Michigan because he's in the next class. I mean, that's a huge building block with the, I think they've got four or five other guys. in there as well. To have a big fish like that already in, I think that'll only help moving forward. And there's a four-star quarterback whose name escapes me now, but is down to Michigan and Kentucky. And the moment the kid picked Michigan, he did the thing with the eyes where he went, oh, wait a minute now. Maybe we end up with him too. I can throw Dane Key in the mix. He was down to Michigan.

It was one of his final schools in Vince committed to come to Kentucky. They just got a quarterback that's left Michigan to come into Kentucky. That's right. That's right. That's his DJ Waller. That's right. So are you surprised at the way. Michigan just won the national championship. I mean, are you surprised at the way we've been able to do that? That's what's crazy about these last two guys, the quarterback and the running back, coming off a national championship, and Kentucky's able to steal these two guys away, that's impressive.

And in the Michigan-Ohio-state rivalry, us stealing this kid has become a huge thing because Michigan hired Ohio State's running back coach and talked a lot of trash about we took your running back coach, and he was the main recruiter of this kid. So Ohio State fans have been talking trash of. You couldn't even get the running back, Drew, after you stole our running back coach. They're looking to Lexington, like, where'd you all come from? And with Waller and him and some others in the past, I wouldn't be surprised that Michigan

kind of wants to fight what's going on down here. We've been taking a lot from them. Well, they've tried to hire Vince many times. I mean, like, one time I thought he was going to leave, he ended up staying. But they've inquired. They inquire about him almost every year. They try to hire him in every year he stays, and you end up with results like this. So who's next, Shannon?

Let's go to Brittany. Brittany, how are you, Brittany? I'm good. How are you? Doing good. Good. I'm with Drew. I knew from the get-go that I did not want to walk at my college graduation.

High school was boring enough, and I went to West Desmond. I graduated with like 130 people from high school. So I knew immediately my parents. were not happy, but I was like, look, guys, I'm not doing it. So they knew. But then I ended up having to go to my brother's graduation at Transea over Memorial Day weekend in that heat. It was terrible. Yeah, Transeys is always Memorial Day weekend, and it's always so hot because that's really when it starts to get brutal in Lexington. Well, if we go to Lake Humberland over a Memorial Day weekend with my husband's family, and I was not happy. I didn't even go to my own graduation,

let alone want to go to his. But also, I'm all in on Pope. His energy is infectious. And for the first time in years, I'm excited about basketball again. I think his style of basketball is going to be so much fun to watch. I definitely think the excitement will continue into the beginning of the season,

definitely if we keep winning. Yeah, I hope you're right, and I agree with you. I appreciate the call, Ryan. I think the style of play is going to be huge. You know, when Cal got here, a lot of the things he did were very appealing to us because we hadn't had it in a long time. So if you think about the tubby era through the Gillespie era, we had only had honestly like two guys who had been really good NBA players, Tashon and Rondo. Like you had to go back to Petino. Like during the

tubby era for as good as Tubby was, we only produced a couple of really good pros. Tashon and Rondo in 12 or 13 years. So here comes Cal. We're producing pros. We're getting the top recruits. It was perfect for that time. Fast forward to now. We have had 50 players in the draft.

When you watch an NBA game, you turn it on. It's all our guys. So we're used to that. But we actually kind of miss watching teams players stay here a little bit, watching them run offense, all the things we took for great. Granted in the tubby years, we now miss. So in some ways, I think Ryan, whereas Cal was perfect for that moment he came in, I actually think, interestingly enough, Pope is perfect as a counter to the era we're in right now.

Yeah, the game has changed, and this is how we're Pope. I heard him on the Tom Leeds show this morning talking about algorithms and analytics and all these terms and how he's putting together this roster. Like, what? He said algorithms and analytics? Yes. Yeah, it was a fascinating interview He was talking about it.

He was on Tom Leitz this morning. I didn't know that. I turned it on at the end of the interview, so I don't have the exact quote, but it sounded like he was saying something about when someone has a different opinion of him, they just disagree or maybe they're offering a suggestion. He loves hearing, excuse me, that side to learn more

and wonder why they're not thinking the same thing. Those are the smartest people. I know. The smartest, I've said this for years. The smartest people in the world are people who want to listen to people that disagree with them. If you're, I say this with respect to people, but the moment somebody writes me and says stick to sports, because they don't want me to hear my opinion, I say, you're not the

smartest person. Because smart people want to hear. I don't say that to be mean. It's just true. Smart people want to hear the other side. And the fact that Mark Pope wants to hear counter opinions, I didn't know he said that. Yeah. But Ryan, that's the most appealing thing I've heard about him.

period. It was very fascinating to hear him talk about it and just how he is, and like Drew said, he talked about his assistant coaches. They'll show him the one guy. An algorithm will show why this guy will fit our team and what we're trying to do. I'm like, man, where is this coming from? This is crazy. He said algorithm.

Analytics and flow charts. You think in 13 years, anyone on our other staff said the word algorithm? I don't think so. I just don't know that numbers and computers were, big part of the operation. I just, like, I, when I hear a really smart person talk about any subject and they're really smart and I disagree with their opinion, it oddly makes me want to hear it more. Because my thought is, if anybody can counter, anybody can argue down a dumb person that

disagrees with it, anybody. But if you can argue down a person that's smart that, that disqual, that disagree with it. agrees with you, then you've got an opinion. If you're Mark Pope and you think of basketball one way and a smart person thinks of it the other way and you have a counter for that, well, that must mean it's a pretty good opinion. Does that make sense? And I like that he thinks like that. That's very, that's very good to hear. Who's next? Wes. Wes, go ahead, Wes. Morning, gentlemen. I'm back to Drew where he was at Bob Evans for his graduation. I went to the University of Ryan, which is in the hometown of Bob Evans.

Evans Farms. Okay. And Bob was the key speaker at my graduation. And they had to wake him up to give him to give his little 10 minutes. So your speaker at your graduation was Bob Evans? Wow. Correct. Spider-Man mean. Right. Which then Ryan is also the home of a guy by the name of Bevo Francis, which at one time scored a couple times, a couple times he scored over 100 points in one basketball game. Okay. Well, I'm more than the Biva in the Bob Evans. I would have gone. Yeah. Go to your.

Well, I appreciate the call. So it sounds like more people skipped graduation than I thought. The last two callers skipped. How many of you all had a graduation and skipped it? Anybody? You? There's one person. I should add, there's another wrinkle.

I was a semester behind from where I was in the portal. So I was a December graduate after everyone, all my buddies were in the spring. You were in the portal. Yeah, Madisonville Community College. I thought, don't laugh. Great education there. I recommend it to anyone. But I thought everything would transfer.

They told me it would. I thought I was good. So you had good grades. Then when I got to meet my UK advisor, they were like, hey, these don't transfer. And I'm like, well, why did I take them? So you have the same cross Debbie and Smith had. Exactly. It wasn't a great issue.

I was misled. Maybe it was my own fault, not blaming MCC. Great stuff there. But stuff didn't transfer like I thought I would. So I was a semester behind my peers. That's why I wasn't as excited about my graduation. I love that. I love that.

859-2-8027. Tell me, Ryan, about Stockton Mortgage. Stockton Mortgage. Are you shopping for a new home this spring? Declining inflation and steady job market may mean it's time for you to consider taking your home buying plans off hold. If you're shopping, you need someone knowledgeable and trustworthy you can partner with. So talk to the team at Stockton Mortgage. You want to go into this home buying season with a pre-qualification letter in hand.

At Stockton, you can get pre-qualified in about 24 hours. So give them a call. It's easy to apply. Online, hit the button, Stockton and Mortgage, NMLS, 8259 Equal Housing Lender. I noticed you read that one. Are they wanting you to stay closer to the script? I kind of throw that one in every once in, maybe once a week. The script?

You throw the script in? It's nice of you to occasionally say what they would like you to say. Well, I do want to throw one more thing. They're growing. They're continuing to grow. They're growing. Stay with the script. We'll take a break and be right back.

This is Kentucky Sports Radio. So this is my derby song here. Yep. Shannon discovered it for me, what? 12 years ago. Probably so. And now I listen to it every day on the derby. Every year at the Derby.

When I used to go, there's always people, playing it at the dead flowers out on the roads and stuff making bets on Kentucky Derby Day the rolling stones now what we're talking about all this in the derby is that why hunter dickinson was in town last night is he going to the derby I would assume so for people who don't know people all these college kids kept sending me pictures a hundred Dickinson at two keys and they're like why is he here and I thought I don't think I can post hunter dickinson at a bar on a Thursday night but I assume he's here for the derby I think he can't to the derby last year. He was out in accident

last year. I think he was at Stagger in last night, too. Made his rounds. Sticks out a little bit. That's such a weird thing to do when you're a rival, Blue Blood. Like, imagine one of our players just being like, you know what, I'm going to go to Lawrence, Kansas, and bar crawl tonight. Yeah, especially the derby's not here. Yeah, it's just weird. Like the derby's in Louisville. But yeah, so Hunter Dickinson was here. There's a ton of people going to be here. I mean, this is, I saw somebody say

they think this is the most stars they've ever brought in for the for the derby this year. Will Levis had a great tweet. Will Levis said, looking forward to going to the derby every time I've been to Louisville, I've been treated really well or something, acknowledging that he lights them up every time they play. Yeah, I wonder, you know, usually the guys from Kentucky basketball that are going to the draft make their rounds. We'll see Reed and Rob and maybe some of the guys that have moved on Antonio Reeves.

I don't think any of those guys are here. Okay, maybe not. I mean, Reed may be, but every single person from the top. team took off the moment the game was over. I think DJ Wagner may have been here for a little bit, but I don't know if any of those guys are even still in town. They seem to enjoy themselves derby weekend once they move on or getting ready for the draft. Oh yeah, there's been some great stories over the years of players of the Cal era during their derby thing. That is, and it always been a thing. I forgot about that. They always walk the red carpet, the Kentucky guys

that are going to the draft. That's kind of a thing. All right. So, you know, UK and Arkansas play baseball this weekend. Like we said, probably the biggest series for Kentucky in, you know, in quite some time. And it's interesting because for Kentucky, for Arkansas, this is really for first place in the SEC. The winner of this series will be in the prime slot for Kentucky. If they can win this series, they'll almost certainly host both rounds of the NCAA tournament. probably will host the first round either way. But for, I mean, Nick Mingey on two years ago was going to lose his job.

And it's amazing that this is a situation where Arkansas, which the Arkansas radio guys here with, you all probably have the best traveling radio, the traveling baseball fan base in the country, don't you think? They do. They do. Is there anybody that goes more than you all? Yeah. Maybe LSU.

Maybe LSU. So it would be Arkansas and LSU. The fact that we're in a situation, where. Arkansas will come here. And Kentucky has a shot. Like the fact that this is a series that matters is crazy. I mean, it really is, isn't it? Yeah. The

baseball philosophy Mingeon went with. He went with a lot of older guys and transfers, which is kind of what we're seeing in basketball this transition. And it's working for Mijon. And with that Tennessee series, when I went, I thought there was going to be a lot of orange. Blue kept the orange out. They got to find a way to keep the Arkansas fans out this weekend.

How many Arkansas fans you think are coming this weekend? Have you, you think a lot. Thousand? Okay. I mean, Tennessee didn't get a thousand in there. No, they didn't. Remember a couple years ago when we played them, it was all Tennessee.

I was there. I was outnumbered. And this year, that wasn't the case. Correct. So it'll be, now being Derby and graduation, I do wonder if that's going to hurt. Well, that Tennessee series was Derby that year. It was? Yeah, I skipped Derby to go to that, and there was not much blue.

Wow. So I do wonder if the Derby, especially Derby, tomorrow, if that's going to. But tonight, probably should be a pretty good. Is the weather supposed to be okay? I think it's supposed to chance of rain most of the day and it kind of off and all in rain. I think it might clear up for game time. mentioning Tennessee, we have a one-game lead on them in the east. So, I mean, the overall series you're tied with Arkansas, but it's also just important to stay above the vals in the division as well, winning a couple games. Well, I will say for people who are looking for

something to do that's not just horse racing this weekend. First of all, going to the series would be great. But you've got to watch Kentucky baseball play. I think they are unbelievably fun to watch. You know, college baseball is, unlike the majors, which has become dominated by pitchers, college baseball is hitting. But Kentucky, the way they play, the way they run all the time, I mean, they steal every base. Still home. They stole home the other day. Not only did they still home. Did you see the play? There's now a different angle that the SEC network didn't show. Did you see the play they ran? I don't see the different angle. So there's a play on first and third. The guy from first started running towards second and acted like he fell down.

No, he did fall down. Okay? You didn't see this? No. He intentionally fell on the ground to get the pitcher's attention and then the guy went home. Broke home. And then so he threw it home, the guy scored, and the guy got up and ran the second and was safe. They ran a play that like you think you would run in little league. And it worked in college. They're always like trying to take the extra base, running on, you know, ground balls, you know, things that conventional baseball got away from. I love it. I love the way they play now. They really do.

I mean, you heard Mingie Yonsei, this probably wouldn't work in the majors, but we assume these are college guys, and they'll make mistakes. And so we put the pressure on them not to make mistakes. The one dude is Ryan Nicholson dude, though. He's hitting a home run like every game, too. He's like 12 home runs in the last 16 games or something. Yeah. Who's next, Shannon?

Joanne. Joanne. Joanne, I got about 40 seconds. Oh, that's not enough. all hang on. No, just go ahead. Okay. I've been following BYU for a long time, and I'm thrilled with Pope, and I have my two

favorite nephews became Mormons back when they were teenagers and lived up in Alaska. And so I've been following BYU. They're also big cats fans. They lived in Lexington, and so I was just ecstatic, and they're even ecstatic. They're so glad he's coming to Kentucky. And so I really look forward. to it. I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled with our football team, shaping up the way it is, and I am very, very happy. And I could get out my 1966 championship t-shirt. I don't know what that means.

You there? Yeah, you mean 1996. 96. 96. It's got Pope and Beal and McCarty. Anyway, thank you very much. Appreciate it. We'll take it. T.J. Smith, personal injury attorney. Call T.J. He'll make them pay. Now, more of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Here's Matt Jones. Welcome back here, Kentucky Sports Radio. K.S. Bar and Grill, great crowd here on graduation, UK, Arkansas, Oaks Day.

Jonathan Kitchen is on the phone. UT Big Hair. He gives us all the picks we need. Well, sometimes they work, but that's all right because I still listen to him because I have a feeling this is his year, Ryan. This is his year. This is the year, Big Head. You, Team Big Air, Jonathan, is here. Jonathan, how are you, sir?

I'm good, I'm good. I'm recovering from some harassment in the LaGuardia airport. This KSR thing goes pretty far. Some guy yelled at me on the escalator asking me who I liked in the derby and then wanted to argue with me about it. So this KSR thing goes coast to coast, huh? That's why you got to get it right this year, so you get some people not harassing you anymore.

How's that? That's fair. I understand it. All right. So let's get started. Let's do the Oaks first. All right. Kentucky Oaks looks like there are two favorite.

Actually, why am I saying it? You're the guy. Who's winning the Oaks today? Well, I mean, I think that the three horses at the top of the market, Tarifa, the eight horse, very likely winner for Brad Cox, Ways and Means for Chad Brown and Just FYI, the two-year-old champion. But look, I love Ways and Means. It's a horse that, you know, friendly with Chad Brown.

And over the summer, before this horse ever ran, he told me that he might have one of the best dirt horses he's ever had in his career. She comes out first time out, and she just runs off the screen so impressively. Her second start, she got hurt in that race and had a bunch of time off. She came back in March, made her first run as a three-year-old and got into some terrible trouble in the race, but still ran pretty damn good for, you know, coming back off that break. I think she takes another step forward, and the 11 ways and means will be my top choice. But I don't have a problem with the other two horses. They deserve to take money, but I'm going to lean with her the most.

So you're going ways and means in the oaks today. All right, I'm listening to you. We've been in three races, but you've made a good explanation as to why. I had, let me give you my sleeper and Ryan's sleeper and see if you like either one of them. I had Thorpeedo Anna after my scientist. research and Ryan had lemon muffin just because it's lemon in the name. Do you like either one of those? Thorpeado Anna, a lot of really smart people that I respect like her.

So I don't have anything really overly negative. I just prefer the other three. So it's kind of hard for me to warm up to her. I wouldn't talk anyone off of Thorpeta Anna. The six lemon muffin. Ooh, boy, I don't see her getting it done. I think she was fortunate to win a couple of races back. He said, ooh, Ryan.

Oof, I don't see her getting it done is what he said. I'm betting everything on it now. We heard that about She Dare's the Devil, too, though. Yes, that's true. You hated She Dare's the Devil, and one Kentucky Joe picked it and won, if you'll remember. That is true, but I will say this about She Dare's the Devil. She's about 20 times better than Lemon Muffin'Urins. Oh, eat it, Ryan.

Well, actually, somebody wants to say something to you about She Dare's the Devil. Kentucky Joe is on the phone. Joe, you got some words for Big Hair. Well, no, I think he's trying to pacify me. I'll tell you, Big Hair, I'd like to go out church with Downs right now and have a wrestling fight or battle with Hugh in the mud. What is what? Joe, you don't need to fight Hugh T. Big Hair.

That's not, I don't think that's necessary. Jonathan, you ever response? Well, yeah, I mean, I'm married, so wrestling in the mud might not be something that my wife would approve of. Joe, who's your pick in the Oaks? You're pretty good at the Oaks over the years. Yeah, we have four years ago. God bless. Brad Cox again with Teripa.

I'm going to have a trifecta, be a box of the 8, 3, and 2. Eight, so you like, Tarifa, where's my ring and Jinjin? Yeah, I'll tell you why. And I think Johnson would agree with me. Had two, had a great workout. Is that right? Jonathan, did Jin Jin have a great workout?

No, no. No, I'm sorry. Joe, I didn't ask you. I'm talking about where's my ring. Okay, did where's my ring have a great workout, Jonathan? Great is a strong word. She worked well. Thank you, Joe.

Thank you, Joe. Nice to hear from you. All right, let's go to the derby. Jonathan. 20 horses, obviously, Sierra Leone, and fierceness are the favorites. Who do you like? Well, I think your audience will know a couple of horses I'm going to talk about it here, justifying American Farrow, the last two winners of the Triple Crown.

American Farrow, when it comes to speed figures, right, it's like a quarterback rating and football, the higher, the better. It's just a way to compare all these horses' performances to know who's run the fastest. American Farrow ran a 105, a 102, and a 105 when he won the Triple Crown. crown in the Derby, Preakness, and Belmont. Justify 103, 97, 101. Not one of those horses ran faster than 105 in their three races when they won the Triple Crown.

Fierceness ran a 105 last year as a two-year-old and ran a 110 in the Florida Derby. He's faster than both of those horses. Faster than American. So you're saying fierceness is faster than American Pharaoh and justify. He's faster than them, not just once, but he's faster. You're welcome. Joe, that's it. Joe, hang up.

You're good. Joe, we got you. All right. Joe, that's there. I don't need Joe. Hang up the phone, Joe. Joe, you can get off now. All right.

So, go ahead. So you're saying, so you like. Joe, hang up. Joe, hang up. Joe, hang up. I'm going to get my derby winner. No, no. Hang up.

Come back. Tomorrow. You're an Oaks guy. Bye, Joe. Okay. All right. Okay. Go ahead.

Finish, Jonathan. Joe, what's the rest of the rest of the infills. sounds like. Yeah, he is faster. He is faster in those two performances. The one chink in his armor is that he has a race, a couple races back that wasn't him. It wasn't very good. But I think there's an excuse for that race. I think that he, you know, that, you know, when you have a two-year-old champion who ran a 105 buyer speed figure in the juvenile in the Breeders Cup, you don't come back as a three-year-old and say, man, we can't wait to win the Holy Bull. It's a set, it's a stepping I compare it to college basketball.

Who gives a damn if you win the first five game, a first five, you know, one of the first five games of the season. It matters what happens in March in the Sweet 16, the elite eight. It's the same thing with fierceness. He didn't run that great in that Holy Bull, but he came back in the Florida Derby, ran off the screen, and I think he'll do that again on Saturday. All right, so you have fierceness.

Now, when I do my trifecta, I always look for four horses. I usually pick five, but I usually take two of the three favorites and drop a favorite out. I'm taking fierceness in Sierra Leone. It looks like the third favorite is catching Feldman. Would that be a good one for me to drop? Yeah, catching freedom.

Catching freedom. Yeah, I like your top two. I like Just a Touch, the eight horse for Brad Cox. That'll get Kentucky Joe fired up. And then the 15 domestic product for Chad Brown. Ran extremely well last time the Tampa Bay Derby and worked well as well. Okay, so domestic. I always also like to throw in a long shot, so I look for somebody 20 to one or more.

You're telling me you think the good long shot to throw in is domestic product. That's the one. That's the one I would use, yep. All right. I like that. I'm picking my long shot today. Yeah. Big hair is pretty good at getting the long shots.

I like your confidence on fierceness. Last thing on either the Oaks or the Derby card, if you had to give me a horse that you would say, hey, KSR fans, here's the one to bet that I like better than any pick of the day besides fierceness in the derby what would it be race six today the two overcharged is a horse that I like the most probably of any horse this weekend it's a turf sprint it's raining but I think this horse won't have a problem with that at all and then on Saturday

that horse is so 7 to 2 overcharged in the 6 Ryan his horse of the meat Number two in the sixth race She'll be a shorter To be a shorter price than that They've had a couple of scratches And I think it's probably a bad morning line But she'll be favored

But she won't be seven to two All right, good deal Jonathan's great to hear from you Sorry we couldn't work it out Where you were here this year But everybody misses you And I always appreciate it I hope you have a great derby

All right Matt we'll talk to you guys soon There you go UT Big Hair He's all in on fierceness Faster than American Pharaoh And Justify That's strong words Pretty good numbers there.

I'm just a little worried about him with Kentucky Joe. We're going to the challenge. So what happened, Shannon? Why couldn't you just hang up on Kentucky Joe? Both of them locked in there. I didn't want to take the chance of hanging up on UT Big Hair by hanging up on Joe. So I figured Joe would do what a normal human being would do when somebody says, thanks for the call, Joe, and hang up. He just lingered.

Thank you guys. They just, looks like they're going to graduation. Oh, they graduated. Oh, they're sitting out there. Okay. I was like, what's going on? All right. We'll learn to take a break.

859-280-22. seven first let me tell you about cornbread hemp go to cornbread hemp.com promo code ksr full spectrum flour only hemp CBD gummies they help you rest relax get your sleep uh I use them everybody on this show use I'm taking I'm trying to get it to where I can take a big chunk of them to Europe I'm sure they have other things there but uh you know I'm used to cornbread hemp so cornbread hemp so cornbread hemp.com promo code ksr if you if you need to rest and relax there's nothing better than cornbread hip we'll take a break and be right back this is kentucky sports radio Welcome back. Final segment here, Kentucky Sports Radio.

Baseball game starts 640 tonight. Do we get to be on the SEC network? We've been on SEC Plus every game. Is it same this weekend? I think we're plus. I think not putting any of our games. This is a matchup for first place in the SEC. You're telling me you can't find one network to put it on.

Two top 10 teams in the country. We didn't have one of our Tennessee games was on the SEC network either. Boo. I mean, we have a whole SEC network. TV facility in the baseball stadium. I love that they gave us that SEC network. They gave us that second channel, Shannon, and there's never anything on the second channel.

The alternate channel that just has the SEC logo bouncing all over the screen. The SEC alternate channel. Like how hard would it be just to put an SEC plus game on the SEC alternate channel? And they never do anything. I guess it's our competition. Arkansas, you all got to be better. Got to bring bigger names in here so we can get on TV. Actually, Phil, come on here just one second.

I want to ask you a question about since you are an Arkansas person. So, Phil, you host a daily show in Arkansas? That's right. There's on four stations. I also do the play-by-play for the baseball and women's basketball teams. All right? So you work with the Matt Jones, the quarterback, right? That one, yes.

And I talk with Matt Jones, the writer sometimes, too. So this is just. So you all have an Arkansas Matt Jones writer. He works at the Democrat Gazette. Yeah. You have an Arkansas Matt Jones player. Yeah. And then you have me who all of your fans write.

900,000 times a day. They would call you a torment or potentially. So let me ask you this. Give me the mood of Cal of the fan base now that Cal is at Arkansas. Excited is probably the best way to put it. You know, they're just, it's just a lot of basketball talk for the end of April, early May. And I just don't feel like, you know, I've been used to it. They're just kind of exuberated about the whole thing, to be honest.

Now, you guys have had a ton of success the last few years, though. You've had two elite eights and a sweet 16. I don't understand why you were unhappy with Musselman. I don't know if, I mean, I don't know if the fans were unhappy with Musselman. It kind of felt like he was looking for a way out as the season went through. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I really do think it happened with both teams.

Yeah. So, you know, I mean, they got, Arkansas was jilted by Musl. I think people would have been happy to have him come back. but, you know, his track record is what it is. And I think you'll do well at USC. But, you know, when you're looking for a new coach, programs are kind of, you know, what their coaches are in a lot of cases. And we didn't know who was going to come in.

There was nobody that necessarily generated the kind of excitement that this has. And then town falls in your lap. Literally, that's exactly what it felt like. Yeah. Are you serious? This just happened? Yeah. So do you, a couple of the rumors that have been out there, Is it true that Arkansas will have unlimited NIL budget?

I don't know if unlimited is the right word because they're still going on tour to try to raise money, you know, the grassroots way. So they're still trying to do that. They've just kind of, it feels like this started late with a new, you know, a new branding of their NIL called Arkansas Edge. It was called Arkansas One before. It's a new, it's a different organization. And they're really trying to generate funds through that too. But the whole Tyson money will get you. Is that real?

Absolutely, and it's not just Tyson. It's also Stevens Incorporated, which is headquartered in Little Rock. It's a big off Wall Street brokerage that helped Walmart go public in the early 70s. And so, I mean, that's another aspect of it, too. You know, Arkansas is a very interesting place in the terms of financial inequality. We have a lot of, we have billionaires. That's true, you do. And a lot of poor people.

And the billionaires are now getting involved in ways that I don't think they have okay so you do think that's real that there are people who are now going to give money to basketball that wouldn't have done it before i don't think it was that they didn't give it before i just think it's coming at a different level okay gotcha well phil thank you good luck enjoy yourself in lexington this weekend you go ahead nothing about baseball well we're going to win right oh i think it'll be a good series and and just all right you can take this for what it's worth the reason why the kentucky Arkansas series is only on plus is baseball is different from basketball or football and that they pick what network it's going to be on before the season starts.

Yes. This tells you that the folks who run the SEC network who choose the games didn't think Kentucky was going to be any good. Yeah. That's what that's about. Well, they're fun to watch. I don't know how much you've watched this year. I love baseball the way they play it.

I can't wait to see it. Well, that's awesome. Well, thank you, Phil. Thank you for your 859-2-80. Welcome, Phil here for Kentucky folks. Yes. Yeah. Sounds seems, you know, nicer than most the Arkansas fans ride in my comment section every day.

It's really interesting to hear the whole Cal thing from the Arkansas perspective. You know, how they did have anybody, any idea who was going to come in and Cal kind of falls in their laps and the world just explodes for them. They really did sort of fall in their laps. Who's next, Shannon? Josh. Josh, go ahead, Josh. Good, Randy Oaks morning, gentlemen. I hope you all are doing well.

Matt, over the past week or so you alluded to a basketball player at a university who wasn't in the portal yet. but if he entered, he's probably coming to Kentucky. I haven't seen anything falling up on that, so I apologize you've already answered this. But how is that guy now in the portal now that it's closed? I'm going to assume they were not in the portal because I never heard it, but there was an ACC player that I was told if they got in the portal would end up here. But I kind of watched on that last day,

didn't see on the last day an ACC player enter that I think would fit. So I'm going to assume that means they did not enter. Awesome. Thanks. So there you go. I get asked that question a lot. Yeah. But I think that's the case.

I think people were kind of holding out. There's going to be some, but he fall on our lap like that. I wondered if the kid from Miami was that guy, the Wuga. Wuga. But then he had already entered, so I don't. think that was it because he when I was told that he was already in the portal at that point so I don't think it was him I don't know about a big fish but the north florida chas lanier's that i say i think they would love him yeah there's been some contact there i have no idea how realistic him joining the team

would be but that's a name that hasn't really been on uk's radar until just yesterday yeah who's next sam sam sam go ahead sam hey fellas how you guys doing from south carolina well i hope hey listen i just want to say first of all i do subscribe to your podcast so i suppose that it titles me to ask a question or comment. Feel free. Since you subscribe, you get a question. That's right. So, Matt, I'll be in Europe at the end of the month as well. I'll be in Greece. So look me up in Greece. I'll be the guy in blue and I'll buy you a cold or a warm break. There's only what, 211 islands there. Hopefully we'll run into each other.

That's it. That's it. I'll be in Santorini. So I have one comment for you guys. So I probably would be embarrassed to tell you how closely I follow all the recruiting throughout the year. Yes. And I just have to say that I disagree with you guys where the cats are going to rank in the SEC this year based on how Pope put this team together. I think he put together the team that fits his strategies on the offensive side of the ball perfectly. And so I disagree with you guys. I think Katz going to win the SEC first year out. And I guess disagreeing with me makes it with you guys makes me pretty smart too, huh?

No, disagreeing doesn't make you smart. Me listening to your disagreement makes me smart. I appreciate the call. I don't think it's possible. I don't think it's impossible they could win the SEC, but Alabama's going to be really good. Yeah. Okay. Alabama is going to be really good.

I think Tennessee will be good. I think Arkansas will be good. I think Auburn will be good. So, like, you know, I just don't want to set an unreasonable expectation that Kentucky's going to come in right away and win the SEC, Ryan. I think that's a lot to put on Pope in his first year. Knowing already what Alabama's got coming in, they're the team to beat. So, okay, yeah, if Kentucky can compete, maybe beat them, that's just going to be much sweeter. Yeah, I don't have expectations of winning it, but I think they'll be in the mix,

and I think we'll go to Nashville with expectations of being there more than a game. I think that's right, too. Stop over paying for sunglasses. You understand that? I have to. I don't want you to do it. Shadyrays.com. If you go to Shady Rays, you can get a great pair of sunglasses at a price you deserve.

Phil, you seem like the kind of guy who could use some sunglasses. Okay. How about Shady Rays? promo codes KSR, 50% off two or more pairs. You can wear them while you're watching us beat you. today over the next three days. Go to Shadyrays.com. They're a good Kentucky company,

50% off two or more pairs, and if you lose them or break them, let's say you get hit with a foul ball today, right? Hope not. Take them back. They'll replace them right there. That's what they do at Shadyerase.com. Enjoy your oaks. Enjoy your derby. Give yourself time if you're going to graduation and go out and watch the baseball team beat those hogs

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