KSR - 2025-11-14- KSR - Hour 1

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

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Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on. A Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hardway with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor? It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen and learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Comedy Off Broadway and Lexington. Welcome Cincinnati native and club favorite Josh Sneed, November 14th and 15th. Then catch the return of AGT finalist Preacher Lawson, November 21st through the 23rd.

And November 28th and 29th, don't miss the Queen of Comedy and Lexington's own, Adele Givens. For tickets to all comedy off-Broadway shows, call 859-271 joke or visit ComedyoffBroadway.com. Welcome, everyone. It is Kentucky Sports Radio here live in downtown Lexington at the Affinity Rooftop, located on the eighth floor of the Marriott City Center. This is for what we can remember, our first show downtown. And look where we are, this beautiful building.

the city center, eighth floor, where today we got folks here watching and eating. And if you come today at the Affinity Rooftop Cafe and you eat a meal, Ryan, you can win. We will draw this gift package that includes a Mark Pope signed basketball. Very nice. It includes bourbon. It includes a lot of stuff. Somebody in here will win that today at KSR. You can give Shailant Clark's Puppet Shop, phone line 859-280-2287, A Vision Auto Glass, Tax

machine is 772-745254. And this edition is sponsored by the T.J. Smith Law Office. Call T.J. He'll make them pay. There's a lot of stuff to get to today. Two games. Basketball tonight. Football tomorrow. Lots of news. There is a ton going on. But we will start with the news that I just found out about 20 minutes ago. I'm sure all of you have heard that Jalen Lowe re-injured his shoulder in practice yesterday.

Apparently a collision with Diabate, which, you know, I've seen that dude. I don't think you want to have a collision. He was hurt yesterday in practice. They did imaging on him last night and today. And the latest update, which I got pulling into the parking lot, is that he, the injury is slightly worse than last time. Surgery could be an option. He also, there are ways potentially he could play through it. but they are going to think about it for the rest of the day and then make a decision.

What I was told kind of could go either way, and it's in part what the staff thinks is best for him long term. I got the sense that this is probably a surgery that would have to happen at some point, but maybe you'd wait and do it in the offseason or you do it now. This is basically exactly what happened with Lamont Butler. I do not know if it's the same injury, so I want to be clear. I don't know if it's the same injury. But if you remember, Lamont Butler had to have surgery in the offseason, but he wanted to get through the season and play.

So he did, I don't know if we're in a similar situation here. So I think probably by tonight we will know whether or not Jaylen Lowe will play this year. He certainly will not play tonight, and I would think he would not play at least a lot of the non-conference season. So that's where we are. That's the new news, guys. Well, I'll just give my take and then I'll pass off to you all. I've said all summer, anybody who listened to this show knows that I thought he was the key to the team. I said we'd be as good as he is.

You know, in my opinion, I don't know if I thought he was the best player, but I thought he'd likely be the leading score. That's probably still would have been true for all this. If we don't have him, I think it certainly hurts our ceiling, meaning, you know, I thought we could be the best team in the country with him. I don't know if we can be the best team in the country without him. still think we can be really good for a variety of reasons, but now you've got a lot of things that have to change. Always going to have to step up. One of these guys like Jasper Johnson or something's going to have to be a lot better than they've been so far, but it would be a bummer. If you had asked me before the season, who's the player UK can afford to lose least? I probably would

have said Jalen Lowe, and now it looks like three games into the year, Ryan. There's at least a chance we might have lost it. Does suck. I mean, they can still be really good without him, but it does suck that if he's going to be out for a period of time, I mean, I've been doing this a long time, and I can't remember a shoulder injury ever, and our point guard's been got it two years in a row. I mean, we need the, we had the ankle doctor, we need a shoulder

doctor or something. This seems like a deja vu that we don't want. It is crazy that you would have a shoulder injury on your point guard twice in two years in a row. I mean, that is, I'm with Ryan. I can't remember ever having a basketball player with a shoulder

injury, period, and to have them back-to-back years at the most important position. You know, I think losing Lamont crushed us last year. Now, he did come back. I hope this one doesn't crush us as much. It's just insane to have another injury at the exact same position. We ran out of point guards last year, and then in the blue-white game, you lose one this year.

Even though we got him for a stint there, I'm counting it as he was out pre-seasoned. It's just ridiculous to have these injuries. I'm no doctor, but the moment I heard, I thought probably going to have to shut that down for the year for surgery. I'm glad to know that they're leaving open the opportunity to not do that. But it just immediately I thought, well, there goes low for the year. That was my first reaction.

I'm sure many people thought the same thing. Now, remember, you do have that kid for two years, and maybe you now have him for two years again if he doesn't play. But I think he was on a plan to play here next year regardless. You know, Shannon, I, what would you do? Like if you, I mean, let's say you knew you were going to have to have surgery at some point. From what I understand, it's a four to five month recovery, so you could wait until the end of the year

and then be ready for next year, even if you played, would you try to play or would you say, look, man, there's no reason I'm going to be in pain for four straight months. I might as well go ahead and do it. Well, it's easy for me to say, but I would say you just got to play through the pain and try to get to the off season and then take care of that then. You know, I wasn't really willing to change my projection

for how the season was going to go after the level loss, but I think if Jalen Lowe is out for a significant part of this guy, then I think you do have to change the way you look at this. Is it a shooting hand or the other one? It's the other one. He's left-handed. It's his right shoulder. With Lamont, it was his shooting, though, right?

Wasn't it? I believe it was. Yeah. So I do think, you know, Lamont, it clearly affected his play. You know, there is an argument that with your off-hand arm, it's a little easier because it's not your shooting arm. That's, I mean, I'm just saying, there is an argument that maybe that wouldn't be as bad. But if the baller was older, didn't have a lot more basketball to play.

might have had to push through. That's true. Good point. I just want to know what kind of drills they're running in practice to where this is happening like this. But to Pope's credit, I mean, he had to deal with those injuries last year and they, you know, turned out to have a good season. So it, you know, and this is why, by the way, you got two of everything. I mean, people wonder why did they build their roster like they did. They did it for this reason. Now, I think Aberdeen's a good backup point guard that can become a starter. The question then becomes who's your, who becomes the backup because we saw what happened when Chandler and Johnson were

running the point guard. I think Ryan, Jasper Johnson's going to have to figure out how to be a backup point guard. I think because I love Chandler and I think Chandler's great in his other role. I do not think he's a point guard. So I think you're going to have to figure out a way for Jasper Johnson probably to be the backup.

Yeah, Colin's been playing great. We see how he does when he plays off the ball. It was the Georgetown exhibition game. He played point guard and just had troubles, just had a lot of struggles. Jasper, I think I feel a little more confident. If he's got to be a backup, I feel confident in Jasper. Maybe we do, I mean, if he goes to be out for the year, you know, I don't know if you saw BYU just signed a kid from the G League

that's going to play this year. You know, Drew, maybe. Listen, I've already thought. Maybe you go do something like that. I mean, that's not crazy. We have an assistant in Europe right now scouting. We know we can do the big Z move. School doesn't matter anymore.

Whatever. We'll fake that. But I'm in Europe right now like, hey, anybody want to go play college basketball in January? unless they really believe in Jasper, they would know behind the scenes. But I would really consider finding someone to add. I mean, you really, if you wanted to. I think we had added Big Z for at this point in the year, last, two years ago. Would you, would you consider that?

Would you consider going and saying, hey, let's find another point guard? I guess you've got to look into it a little bit. You got to look into it. And then Jasper could be your good, your fallback plan if you don't find a guy out there. I don't think you want Jasper to be. You want him to do other stuff. But I can see him to I mean, BYU literally just got a player

And they had a kid get caught drunk driving They'll probably get kicked out of school So I mean I think that might have been partially why he did it Every year, I mean we don't fall Every school, but every year A high school kid reclassifies and enroll There are options. Hopefully Jasper can do it But with Chandler it's just not that he couldn't play defense

You don't want to take away from him being the two guard He's been so good since he moved over there He's shooting 58% from three So even if he could play point-gain. guard, you don't want to ruin how good he's been in his national position. Leading the SEC and three-point shooting? I mean, you don't want to do that. So that's part one.

Now, let's go to part two for a second. By the way, so we don't know about Jalen Lowe. I mean, we're talking like he's gone. I got the sense in my conversations that they really are deciding, that it is not. But, you know, he'll get asked after the game. We'll probably know when the game is over because they're spending today thinking about it. Let's go to the second thing. Mark Pope does his press conference yesterday.

and very odd. I mean, I think Mark Pope has nailed almost everything you could say to the press. I didn't really understand his press conference yesterday. He said before the Louisville game, a situation happened that threw the team off and that caused essentially something that kind of put him in a bad frame of mind for the game. He said, I'm not ready to say what that is now. Really bad decision to say that, in my opinion. You either say it or you don't.

What you don't do is say it and then not say what it is. How many times did you hear me in the cow era talk about people are going to fill the void. Like if you have speculation, people are going to guess what it is. And there are already a ton of rumors floating around. I have no idea if any of them are true. I bet one of them is true, but there's like three. I've heard three different ones multiple times. They can't all be true.

But one of them probably is true. I think I have an idea which one is true, but I'm not going to, I don't want to spread misinformation. But regardless, the fact that I'm having that conversation, Ryan, is why I think that was a bad idea for Mark Polk to say. Really kind of strange that a head coach would say that about something right before a major game like that.

Now, here's my thoughts about it. If it was something internally, I don't think he, I don't think he would have said anything because stuff internally happens all the time, like fights in practice, fights in the locker room, I think they just kind of worked through that. But if it was something like they got into it with somebody in the arena that led to a altercation or something, but still, why do you even say it? And then he promises it goes, I'll go get into it more in the future.

Like he said he's going to tell us. So what do you wait on, Chan? I mean, like, if you're going to, if you're going to say it one day, why are we letting it drag on? Just say it. It's like when somebody says, I've got news, but I can't tell you what the news is. And there's nothing more frustrating. People get mad at me because I'll do that. You do.

But it's kind of like that a little bit. Like, well, this happened, but I can't tell you about it. I would say that's going to probably be the first question for the Mark Pope Colin show. What happened? It's going to be his first question tonight. Yeah. I mean, he's going to get asked that.

That's going to be the first question in the post-game press conference. And then, you know, he's going to be put in a position, do you say it tonight, or do you keep it lingering? Yeah. And then after the Michigan State. game is that going to be the first question like i i don't know i like that he's open and honest with us but sometimes i think he overshares sometimes we don't need to know all the stuff that's going on behind the scenes and that i think that's probably an example of one of them yeah so odd decision first of all

do you think what he said do you think it did have an effect on the game it seemed like some guys may have been affected by it we all talked about some guys just didn't play well we talked about the body language and some of the other guys on the team so i whatever it was it seems to maybe affected him or he wouldn't have even had the notion to bring it up yesterday i do not think so i've heard three different stories i will give one because because there's one that i think is the one that people are talking about online i do not think it is necessarily the our guys got into it with the student section because i think that's happened before and that would get out well there was video yeah i mean there's video of jalen low joh on with the student section

but Jalen Lowe really didn't play bad most of the game So I couldn't like Jalen Lowe played well He took a couple of bad shots at the end But he actually played pretty well So I don't think Jalen Lowe joined with the student section Drew would have had an effect on the result of the game No and that was it doing the I have a secret I can't tell you now Over a player yelling at a student

That happens all the time I mean it happens to rub against teams that aren't even good I mean last year I would sit and watch players go at it with the student section it's usually playful, I can't imagine that would be it. Plus, by the way, if you say publicly, if you're a coach, the student section yelled at our players and it rattled them. Yeah, that's not a good sign either. That's telling every other team to do the same thing.

But that's telling every other student section in the country, rattle our guys, they get rattled. So I can't imagine that would be a good idea. You might as well just say I have a very soft team. Yeah, I mean, that camp. So it's got to be something else. Yeah. And I think it's probably something else.

I actually think, Ryan, it's something else that did. did actually have an impact, but I'm surprised he said. It's one of those things that I'm really surprised you would say because you could kind of have kept that in-house, if that makes sense. Or the second thing is Louisville did something and he's mad about it. He's trying to figure out when he's going to say it. I think that's the most right of the scenario. He said we were out of character, but yeah.

So I don't know. I mean, I think I know, but I don't know. But either way, I'm surprised he said it. I don't think he needed to bring that out. I'm very surprised he said it. He knows what kind of fan base we are. We're all going to speculate now like we're doing right now. I mean, this is what's going to happen if you do that.

And people less responsible than us would sit here and say them all and then debate which one was more likely. That's just a dumb decision. And there will be places that do that right now. And they just took a horrible loss. You need to close the book and move on. That's true. What are you going to, in two weeks, you're like, oh, by the way,

let's bring up that Louisville pregame again after you're playing Indiana. Like, say it now, we can move on. That's a great point. Let's say we go to New York and lose to Michigan State. You're going to explain why we lost to Louisville? No, close the book on Louisville. We have the BBN United TIP-Off Classic Championship, presented by Kentucky Tourism Championship tonight. Tonight.

Tonight. Right down the street. By the way, I saw a little sneak peek of a trophy. No, there's not a trophy. I'm not the only one taking it seriously. There's not a trophy. I think I convinced UK to take it seriously. Because I'm the only one that mentions the stamp term.

There's a trophy? I just, I got a little scuttle butt. We got to put that in the trophy case right next. Right next to National Championship. The number eight. We are here at Infinity Rooftop, eighth floor, Marriott City Center. Come on out. If you get something to eat, you've got a chance to win this beautiful prize package.

Either way, you can join us. We are. What are you laughing at? Showing off the trophy. I was told I wouldn't show it, so don't show anyone. Yeah. That is a terrible trophy. We will take a break and be right back.

This is Kentucky Sports Radio. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the Internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying. and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise.

Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games,

from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsLice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardaway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations

with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses.

Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keer Gaines,

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we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness. Professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going from the WNBA standout Kate Martin and rising hockey star Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain.

It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't belong. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs Gabby Thomas and Katie Ladeke. The ability to show a gold medal to someone and have their face light up and smile, that means the world to me, and that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything.

I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness.

So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levant this plant to a billion. dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds,

just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of

Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. It's Kentucky Sports Radio here live at Infinity Rooftop. If you would like on Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving brunch buffet here at Infinity, booking fast. If you want to spend less time in the kitchen and more with family, here's what's at your Thanksgiving brush buffet, Shannon. Smoke turkey, ham, salmon, all the side dishes, six different desserts, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at an infinity rooftop restaurant.

You can learn more at their website or on Instagram and Facebook or get your table at open table. See, that's my kind of Thanksgiving. I don't have to cook. I don't have to do anything. Just show up and eat. We've done this a lot. the last few years of my family and I actually really enjoy it. You just show up, you do you, you get out of there. I mean, I don't clean up. You don't have to do the dishes, you know? Exactly.

Free parking in the parking garage, I think, for your Thanksgiving buffet. So big deal. That's right. Come on up and join us here in downtown. This is a, you get a good view of the city right here. A lot of people are, a couple things people have said since the low injury that I think are important to know. Number one, somebody wrote, and I think this is utterly ridiculous.

There was another media member that said something to the effect of that Jalen Lowe's injury prone, and then I saw somebody say he soft. He missed one game at PIP, one game. He missed literally one game. So that's ridiculous to say he's injury prone. Second, I've seen people say he's soft. Dude, it separated his shoulder. He separated his shoulder, then came back a couple weeks later, and you can't help separating your shoulder.

That's like saying you're soft because you break your leg. Like, what are you supposed to do? I mean, he was boxing out Diabate for a rebound. Yeah, exactly. He was going up against Diabate. If you're soft, you're not going to be anywhere near Diabate. So I just think any criticism of him or any even criticism of Pope for the fact that he got hurt, you know, he separated his shoulder. I've seen people saying the athletic trainer's got to go.

I mean, this stinks. There's been a lot of injuries. What are you going to do? We were courtside when Kerr rolled his ankle. I mean, you saw it right there last year at Gonzaga. And now you got a point guard just boxing out against a big man. And they've mostly, you know, they seem like just freak injuries, and there's just been too many of them.

Freak injuries happen. I mean, things happen. I think our fan base, we have the greatest traits in about 95% of what fans are. But a problem we have is we freak out and we make grand proclamations about little things. And I think I saw that last night with his injuries. Yeah, we overreact to everything. We beat Purdue. We're ready for the national title.

We lose to Georgetown. Oh, no, we suck. He says, that's just what we do as a fan base. When person writes, Matt, would it be nice to have Travis Perry back? I mean... He hasn't done anything at Ole Miss. He's averaging 2.3 points a game at Old Miss. So, like, yeah, I mean, he'd be a body, but I don't think it would make any difference.

He'd be third string point guard. Maybe now he gets to play. But I love Travis Perry, but you saw last year what happens if we have Travis Perry as our point guard in elite games. We get run off the floor. I mean, we saw that last year. We get the SEC play. You need a guy, athletic guy like Aberdeen. He's the guy that if Lois out,

Aberdeen's a guy that can carry you as your point guard. One person writes, Matt, you said go to the G League and get a point guard. Does that really work and is it allowed? I think so. BYU just did it. Louis has got one coming next year, but BYU's got one coming this year that is going to start, I think it said in December, so I guess you can.

There are no rules. Yeah. There's no rules at all. I mean, I still think it's crazy. I'm glad he's here, but Yelovich was in like the championship game of the biggest pro league in Europe. And now he's going to UK 101 on campus. None of it makes sense to me. And imagine you're in the G League. You're not probably making that much of money. You can come here and make a lot more in NIL to play for Kentucky. Amen. And have the spotlight be on you where people are actually watching your games unlike the G League. Totally agree. A couple of open lines. 859-280-2287. Let's go back real quick to the Pope comments. wouldn't you say whatever it was that happened pre-game?

Part of why I don't understand why Pope said it is, okay, fair enough. But at halftime, we were down what, seven? Yeah. Whatever happened in the first half, okay, maybe that affects the start of the game. But by half-time, you're down seven. With three minutes to go, you're down four. So whatever happened at the beginning of the game, Ryan, I still don't say that affects the entire. I mean, we were up 13.

We actually had a good start. We took a lead at the start, if you remember. We actually looked pretty good at the start. I think we were up five. So it's more reason it's so rare for him to screw up public comments. I don't understand this. Sometimes we get on coaches for not being open enough. Pope maybe be too open about stuff.

This may be just something with just his nature, his character. He's just trying to share what really is the story to keep us from worrying. I don't know. but I think coaches need to get to keep a little things internal and need to stay in time. It kind of feels like it is, but it kind of feels like an excuse. Like we don't want to hear that. See, that's. I don't want to hear that.

There's a part. So I know what you're saying. We do want our coach to tell us things at the same time. But also there's a fine line between telling you and it being an excuse. And I, again, we don't know what this is, but it feels like it leans toward excuse. Now, what if it comes out, Louisville did. something. Well, then maybe that would be a valid excuse. We've got to hear what it is first. What could they have done? Yeah, and he said out of character for us. So you almost have to be

the reaction to what Louisville will do. I think the most likely scenario is this is really dumb. And Pope's had a golly G moment behind scenes and then set it to him at it. And if we found out, we'd be like, that's it. Why did you bring that up at all? I totally agree with you. I think that is, I think the most likely scenarios you're going to hear about something that happens probably more than you realize, and we are blowing it out of proportion, but we're doing it in part because he said that, right? Like, because he said that, that's going to make it to where you don't have a choice. I mean, after he said that yesterday, everyone I talked to,

I was getting texts from people I haven't talked to in 10 years. What happened? Because, you know, people want gossip. Like, it's just natural human nature. And the fact it came out after Louisville just beat us, does that magnify it? Like, oh, what's the problem? What happened? We need to know.

What caused that? And if we never hear it, it's going to go down in, like, Kentucky folklore for years to come if we never get the reason, you know, because we're going to be talking about this. Well, now he has to say the reason. I mean, if he doesn't say the reason now, the stories are going to get wilder and wild. It's like the old story about the fight on the plane. That's it. Team turmoil. Find on the plane.

Between Gerald Fitch and, what is it, Corey Sears. I don't know what happened on that plane. But, like, over the years, it's become like it was snakes on a plane. Like it was an absolute bra. And it probably, whoa, what just happened? Something fell. All right, we'll take a break. We'll be right back.

This is Kentucky Sports Radio. Welcome back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio. 8-9-280-2287. Infinity Rooftop, 8th floor, Marriott City Center. Kentucky plays to tonight. 7 o'clock against Eastern Illinois. Our pre-game shows starts at 4.30.

If you're coming to the game, come on out to KS. Barr, we will be there. Or you can come watch the game tonight. Ryan actually will not be there, so it is me and Drew Roland Solo on the pregame, and then I'll be doing the postgame tonight, and then tomorrow morning we'll have the pregame football at 930. We finish at 1130, and then Drew and I get in a car, and with Mario and Billy head towards Buffalo. I'm ready for some Buffalo.

I am bummed to miss the final home game, even though it is an FCS game, but the Bill's Stadium, a Bill's game and Bill's Mafia is high on my life bucket list, and I can't wait to get up there. heard us when we're on the road, you're definitely going to want to hear the show, the post game show Saturday, Shannon, because we're just going to pull off on the side of the road in some town and do the post game show. Been there, done that over the years. And Monday, we will be doing the show in Buffalo, me, Drew, Billy, and Mario there in

Buffalo. I was telling Billy, this is his first ever KSR road trip. It is. First time. So I think to properly break him in and give him his initiation, you need to make sure you find an Airbnb with a princess bed to make him sleep on that, because that's the first time. what you got to do when you're on a road trip. Just the record.

We did book at Airbnb. There you go. It has three king beds. Yep. And one bunk bed. Billy gets the bunk bed. You get top or bottom, Billy. Your choice.

You do get to choose, though. He can choose top or bottom. That's options. Which one are you? Yes. He's more of a bottom. He's more of a bottom. He's certainly a bottom for this trip.

I hate to mention. I miss the basketball pregame show tonight, but I have a hot date. What is it like, Douglas versus, you know, Henry Clay football? It's right up your tiger beat alley. What is it? Sean Cassidy concert in Cincinnati. Yeah, uh-huh. All the ladies my age are like Sean Cassidy, like, oh, boom, boom, boom.

I don't know who that is. Who's that? I do run, run, run. He sang that one. How old is that guy? Oh, he's 60s, maybe 70s. You're going to go see Sean Cassidy in concert? Little Miss Yoga Girl loved her some Sean Cassidy.

She would dump me for Sean Cassidy in a second. Is Chubby Checker opening? Maybe. So wait a minute. You're skipping work to take her straight to someone she would dump you for. It seems like a bad idea. Where is this concert at a Wendy's? Yeah.

Some place called the Drudge Garage in Cincinnati. A garage? He's going to play at a garage bar? Not Riverbun. No. No, he's playing at some guy named Bill Drudge's garage. I mean, I could book him at my garage

if you really want to come over. Well, I wish you the best. All the ladies my age, they know, Sean Cassidy. Wow. I've seen one woman, two women have a reaction. One person writes, Matt, you're being a hypocrite. You're saying Pope is wrong by saying he has info he won't share, and now you're doing the same thing.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. Well, I mean, I guess there's some truth to that. But I would say, you know, if the governor of Kentucky says something, that's different than if Ryan Lemon says it. I mean, Mark Pope has a responsibility as coach that's different than the responsibility of a person on the radio. My reason for saying, I know there's three things, is I actually want people to not too much overreact. I mean, I saw some things online that were like rumors that were terrible. And I just want people, I'm almost wanting to throw Pope a lifeline and go, don't go say something. that makes people think it might be something huge.

You know, I've heard three stories. I have the one that I think is correct. I could sit here and tell you, but what if I'm wrong? Then I put out a false story to everybody. Is that a positive thing? I'm just telling you of the ones I've heard, it's not that huge a deal, which is partially why I don't think Mark Pope should have said it to begin with. Why didn't even say it then?

Because I think it makes people, people will always speculate with the worst version. You may remember when I was that. in the hospital. You remember I called in one day? Yes. I called in because people were spangulating things that were much worse than what was actually happening. I mean, what was actually happening was important.

But, like, I was hearing that people were, like, thought I was about to die. And so I wanted to make sure, hey, it's, it's, I'm okay. I kind of think, like, when you just throw it out there, Drew, and you give no context, people end up going a lot farther than it probably is. And this is a head coach in a press conference talking about just getting his butt kick in a rivalry game. And you're a sports radio host just trying to interpret his comments.

So I'll define you a little there different circumstances. I think they are. Hopes in an official setting and he need to have some answers because a lot of the fan base want to know what went wrong and then he just kind of was like,

I got a secret, but I'm not telling you. Yeah, yeah, probably a mistake. Who's up first? Neil is up first. Neil, go ahead, Neil. Hey, man, I'm actually going to be a little critical of Pope here. I think that he constructed this roster

to the opposite of what he thinks a team should look like. They can't play defense and they can't shoot. He didn't bring anybody in to really fix that. And I especially fault them for bringing back Brandon Garrison. I don't want to kill a guy. But there's nothing that he did last year that you could look at and say this is a starter in the SEC and a starter for a top five team.

Let me counter your first point for just a second. Okay. I think Pope might have made a couple mistakes on the roster. I would note we're three games into the season. And so, you know, maybe slow down just a little bit. We're three games into the season. If you count the two exhibition games, we just beat Purdue, who just went on the road and beat Alabama.

With that said, I do not agree with your premise about the defense. Yeah, they did not play well against Louisville. But otherwise this year, their defense has actually been pretty good. Even in times they've struggled, I don't think you can just say they can't play any defense. I actually don't think that's fair. They did not play great defense in the first half against Louisville last game, but I don't think you can say definitively they can't play defense.

Well, I would say that they can play defense against, you know, the bottom 200 ten-pom teams, but once you see a team-well-how do you explain the way they help Purdue to fit? How do you explain Purdue scoring what, 58? Purdue's slow and an athletic and a big 10 team. Well, they scored 85 against Alabama. Well, Alabama doesn't play defense in his shooters. We don't have that. Okay, well, I mean, again, now I feel like the argument I'm having against you,

football. Every team sucks if we beat them and we sucks if, like at some point you actually have to give them credit. We played defense well. I mean, even Georgetown, the reason we lost was even played good offense. I'm not willing to give up on the team. I will make you a bet. By the end of the season, Louisville is one of the three best teams in America in offensive efficiency. I'm going to make you that bad. And if that's the case, would you say that maybe sometimes, you're going to be that that team might just be really good. And we were playing on their home floor, on their home floor in a night

where in the first half they were crazy hot. Is that possible? Yeah, that's very possible. And I hope that is the case. I hope we can turn the defense around and learn to stop athletic teams. But just the prospect doesn't look very good when we do have Brandon Garrison

and our centers aren't very, you know, the most athletic people. We're losing low. Trent, no, is not going to be our best. Well, low is the worst to fit in our team. So I appreciate the car. Our defense will not get, our offense is going to get worse, Drew, but our defense will not be worse without low.

He's the worst defender on the team. And I love the kid. I'm his biggest promoter, but he can't play defense. So the defense, I actually think, will get better without him. I'm worried about the scoring. Yeah, and I have plenty of concerns, too. I'm not going to sit and act like it's all roses over there. But that game was on November 11th.

I don't have a crystal ball to know what it's going to look. I'm not going to form any season-long predictions losing a rivalry game on the road in the third game. in the year. I'm as disappointed as anyone in that Oway you need to get it going. Three-point shooting needs to get better. Lots of things need to be corrected but I'm not going to make any statements about the season after three games. Sometimes, Ryan,

also, the more we see of a guy, the more critical we are. Oh, yeah. Okay. I mean, that's why I used to say sometimes guys can stay in college too long because you start to pick out their holes. Who are the two players that have received the most criticism for UK this year? O'A. and Garrison. Who are the

two dudes that returned? Right. Because we all wanted them to take a story. I hope in this new era, this non-Cal era, we're going to have guys return. And I do hope we're careful not to always punish them for returning by them being the people were the most. Look, I was very critical of O'Way. I've never loved Garrison as a player going back to last year. But I also think if Garrison doesn't play well, there's a little guy named Jaden Quentin's

coming in a little while. You got Yelovich. You got Moreno. Always a bigger deal to me than Garrison, because I don't. don't know if we have the replacement rhyme for Oway. Garrison, we can sit on the bench if he doesn't play well. You know, you brought up a great point. How many times did Pope say his players take a big step up in year two?

That was kind of his narrative all summer. We talked about it. And out of the four guys, Colin Chandler, maybe the only one of the four second year guys that have really stepped up. The other three guys are still, we're still kind of waiting for it to happen, maybe. We still haven't gotten a fair look at Noah. I mean, he was cold in the first few appearances, but with the turned ankle, you know, hadn't played in two and a half games.

I'm still hoping he makes that sophomore jump, but it's way too early to say anything about him. Yeah, I would say wait until we get to the conference schedule. You know, we're three games in. I mean, we are. We are three games. Yeah. And people are already, you know, we had a call yesterday on the pre-show,

already wanting Garrison out of the starting lineup. Well, maybe, but like, let's not give up on them yet. It's still so early. We're three games in. Yeah. We've got a championship to win the night. I mean, remember, last year we beat Duke. And we all, myself included, were like,

we're the best team in the world. And then a couple weeks later We lost by like 50 to Ohio State So you know Take Alabama Alabama Go wins at St. John's And you're like

Man, this team's great And then they just lose at home to Purdue Yep Like you know Sometimes early in the year Drew you're going to get weird results And I'm going to tell you all get ready Louisville's about to play a terrible game

They've got a tough three game stretch coming up One is against John Calipari Won't shock me if he beats him by 25 because that's just how it goes sometimes. The roller coasters, 25 is a little high, but the roller coasters of college basketball, especially in November,

I just don't think you can really judge the big picture yet. I do think it would have been nice to get one more shooter on this roster. I do think that. I wish we had one more guy. Maybe Noah will be that guy when he gets healthy. I wish we had one more shooter. If this goes on like that with Cam and Noah not shooting well, then Pope did form a bad team.

If you want to take 33s a game and you don't have a good shooter, then that is you didn't build it the way you like to play. Hey, you wouldn't let a bad call slide in tonight's game against Eastern Illinois. Well, Ryan, what if you had a mold that changed shape or a spot that wouldn't heal? What would you do, Matt? That's an interesting transition. Kentucky Skin Cancer Center has your back, your chest, your ears, your scalp, and every other spot. The team of dermatologists and skin cancer surgeons use state-of-the-art technology to cure your skin cancer.

You can get it. Where is it? What cities? Powderly. That's true. That's the one you remember. What about that? What other one? Lexington.

No. Owensboro. Correct. Mount St. Helens. I don't know. Mount St. Helens. But it's in Powderley. It's in Owensboro, Powderley, Bowling Green, Glasgow, and Franklin.

Call 270842-1999. It's the Kentucky Skin Cancer Center.com. We'll take a break and be right back. This is KSR. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending. are flying and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down,

give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kier Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations.

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Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross. Because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust.

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If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't feel like. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs Gabby Thomas and Katie Ledecki. The ability to show a gold medal to someone and have their face like.

up and smile. That means the world to me. And that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can, like, I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth.

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Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio. 859-2-80-22-87. Text machine 772-7-4-7-4. We are here at the Infinity Rooftop on top of the Marriott City Center. Great crowd here.

Somebody's going to win the smart poke basketball, bourbon and other things. On the text machine, one person writes, Matt, I hate how negative our fans get. We are going to be fine. This Kentucky team has played three games. There have been very few seasons outside of a couple in UK history where we didn't lose to a bad team early in the year. It happens. Fair enough, I don't think Louisville's bad, though.

I mean, I actually think Louisville's good. So, but you're right, we lost to UNC Wilmington a couple years ago. At home. I mean, I'll remind you, some of the undertones of our most negative people are people who still wish we had cow. I'll remind you that cows last year with Rob Dillingham and Reed Shepard, we lost to UNC Wilmington early in the year at home. right, you know.

We don't have enough time to count Cal's November losses. We couldn't win a championship class. One person writes, Matt, Purdue didn't scout against Kentucky. You can't pay any attention to that game. It's becoming clear Pope can't coach defense. Just look at the Georgetown game. Also, we can't pay attention to the Purdue game, but we also have to pay attention to the Georgetown game.

That's what we do, man. That is the kind of negative fan that drives me crazy. And by the way, how do we know Purdue didn't scout against them? Because they said it, right come on that's ridiculous if you don't believe Purdue did anything then you're insane

plus they're pretty good I watched them last night a lot of the things they do we stopped give us some credit for right I don't know the idea that we have to say whatever bad happens that's legit

whatever good happens well there's an excuse come on we've heard the same version of that on football the last couple of weeks when you dominate Florida well Florida sucks Auburn's no good. You just got back-to-back wins in the SEC. We won.

Give yourself some credit. Yeah. It's like you just get, I don't understand that. And then another person writes, what do you think about Marcus and Jeff Teague saying they're worried about Kentucky basketball because we don't have stars anymore? I love Marcus and Jeff Teague. They're hilarious.

I wouldn't exactly call them intellectuals. No, they're awesome. Those two guys, Jeff Teague makes me laugh as much as anyone. in sports right now. With that said, their version of what Kentucky basketball should be is what Cal had, which was a ton of stars coming in, which we liked, but it wasn't working anymore. It wasn't. No. I said this yesterday, and Ryan, I want to know what you think about this. I said that the book on Mark Pope has yet to be written. It's a novel that hasn't been, it's like we're 30 pages into it. It might end up being a great book, a classic.

It might end up being a book that doesn't work, but we don't know yet. But here's what I know. The book on Calgary was closed. It was finished. I was done with it. It was a great book. I loved it, but then I got to the end and I was ready for a new book. It had a sad ending. It was kind of like Game of Thrones. Got to the very end. I was like, yeah, God, I was loving you, but this is, we're on our, It's a great example. It's like Game of Thrones. You're like, man, season two was awesome. Those first seasons were incredible.

They were amazing. But you know what? They could have stuck the ending a little bit. This is a new book, and we'll see what happens. The Mark Pope book is even one I think I would sit down and read. You know, and you read a book? No, you would. Oh, I would.

I would read the Mark Pope book. No, you wouldn't. Some chapters are a little disappointing. Some chapters make you happy. I think we had a lot more happy chapters coming than we do disappointing chapters. It's tough for you to make book analogies. It really is, but I thought I nailed that one. I thought I did a pretty good.

job on that one. Yeah, I don't know if that's true. By the way, weekend watching when you're not watching UK sports, that movie on Netflix about James Garfield's really good. It's about the guy who assassinated James Garfield.

I got 15 minutes in. He's played by Tom Wopat from Succession. You know, Shiv's husband. It doesn't sound like it'd be good, but everybody would like it. It's called Death by Lightning, and it's on Netflix. It's only four episodes. I finished three.

Really, really good. Who's next? Greg is up next. Greg, go ahead, Greg. Yeah, good morning, gentlemen. How's it going? Doing good. Yeah, I wanted to make just a few comments, if I may.

First of all, let me say in defense of Coach Pope, I'm overall well-pleased with him being hired as the coach at the University of Kentucky and pleased with Mitch Barnhart's decision to hire him. but, you know, based on what you had said in the beginning of your show about something going on with what he said in his press conference, that we don't know what that is. But it seems like the Louisville game, you know, Coach Pope seems like last year pretty much answered.

Brandon, volume down. Go ahead. I'm sorry? No, go ahead. Yeah, it seems like last year Coach Pope had answers when Kentucky was not playing good. he would go in at half time and come up with a plan. But I don't know if somebody's already made this comment. Maybe this has affected him more than it has a team.

It's carried out of the team in the Louisville game because he did not seem to have any answers at all. He didn't try anything. He couldn't slow down Louisville at all. And I know he don't play. I understand that. He's on the sidelines. Well, I do think he did. I do think he had answers.

It just took him too long to get him. I mean, we played well in the last eight or ten minutes. What did me what that answer was besides Cam Williams? Well, that's an answer. Well, first of all, our defense got a lot better. One of the things they started to do is they started immediately pressuring McHale Brown the moment he got the ball. Go back and watch the possessions in the last 10 minutes. They got it out of his hands.

And they said, okay, Cromwell, I keep forgetting the kids. McNeeley, I'm going to make you beat us going to the rim. And they really weren't able to. So they made a couple big – the biggest was they got the ball out of Brown's hands most of the time. Now Louisville countered that late in the game. They would set double screens, which would get him one-on-one, and that big play where he got the end one, biggest play of the game occurred during that.

But they did make changes. Now, I think it took too long, but they did make changes. That definitely helped him, of course. Let me say I didn't watch the game. I usually have the game on the radio with Tom Leeds. Well, how do you know he didn't make any changes? Well, based on what I heard on the radio, that's why, because I'm sorry, man.

I appreciate it. I got to go to break. We'll take a break. We'll be right back. Wow. That's incredible. We'll be right back. This is Kentucky Sports Radio.

Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs. banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its

mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where sports slice comes in. I'm Timbo. And every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines. And we're going to Going straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Hey, what's good, y'all?

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I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on, a Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.