KSR - 2026-01-05- KSR - Hour 1

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Matt, Ryan, and Shannon talk Kentucky Basketball's loss to Alabama and take your calls.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. Life is full of hurdles. So how do you keep going? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we're talking with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness from professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions about the challenges that shape them and the mindset that keeps them moving forward. At our level, at this scale, being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can do anything. 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 I Heart Women's Sports.

What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me, he goes, A, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office, Blue, 42. Hey, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Comedy of Broadway and Lexington Invite you to celebrate New Year's Eve with Lexington's own Lee Kembril for two shows only on December 31st. Then, from Netflix as a joke, catch Ray Lau, January 2nd and 3rd. In January 8 through the 10th, don't miss 8th. G-G-T finalist Aaron Belial.

For tickets to all comedy off-Broadway shows, call 859-271 joke, or visit Comedy UpBroadway.com. This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now, here's Matt Jones. Welcome, everyone. It is Kentucky Sports Radio Monday, January the 5th, the first show of 2026. I'm back after about a week and a half, away from these parts. I don't act like you worked much here. Ryan Lemon is here.

Shannon the dude is in Louisville. Drew has this week off so we don't have the full crew, but you can give us a shout on the Clark's Puppet Shop phone line 859-2-80-2287. A Vision Auto Glass text machine is 772-775254. A lot of stuff has happened since I've been gone. Kentucky played basketball. We lost our quarterback. We nearly got a new quarterback but didn't.

We have a whole portal stuff. Women's basketball got one of their most exciting wins of all time. The women's volleyball team lost in the championship. So we could talk about any of that stuff. But more importantly, Ryan, Shannon, Mario, good to see you guys. Welcome back. All three you guys were gone last week. We kind of missed you.

It kind of, you know. It was lonely, wasn't it? It was very lonely. It was just you and who? Drew. Drew. Yeah, that's okay. Sometimes you all need to carry your weight, Shannon.

We can't do everything. That's right. Yeah. Good to see you guys. Good to be back. And it was also good to hear you doing your play-by-play debut. I listened to that. I want to talk about that a little bit in the second hour. I want to talk about that a little bit in the second hour. We'll talk about that a little bit in the second hour. We'll talk about some of the stuff that happened during the offset. I also had to do like a photo shoot, which I have to talk about while I was making fun of Mario's photo shoot. You spent that whole time before the show. I had to do one for a job. He, Mario was doing it for Instagram. Mario's Instagram, Shannon, I don't know if you ever go to it. I need to follow him on there. It's the funniest thing in the world.

Because Mario will like pose in like an abandoned street with one of his buddies. And he'll be sitting there and he'll be looking off in the sunset. He'll be like, follow you. Yeah, read me a caption of one of them. Here we go. Well, let's see here. Let me find a good one. one.

Yeah. It just says take care. See, the lessons you learn and the growth that you experience is never spontaneous. That's exactly right. Like Mario says things like that. They crack me up. He always has all these life affirmations. It's never spontaneous.

The life you grow. And then he's like looking there and they're just too random guys. I don't know who these people are. Mario has his own posse. Mario is supposed to be our company. And Mario has his own people. They're looking good though. They got their fit on looking good.

They all look great. Yeah, you know they smell good. What? You know they smell good. He walked in the day's smelling good. How are you going around smelling people for? I can't help it smelling me. You know, why is he smelling people?

Joe Biden stuff rubbing off while. Yeah, that is. You're not Joe Biden. You take one picture with Joe Biden, then you go around sniffing people like a dog. You can't just go out. Telling people they smell good all the time. 859-280-2287. But this, I don't know.

I guess we should. should start. There's a lot of football news, but it'll probably take some setup because if you haven't been, if you don't follow the internet on a minute by minute basis, you probably wouldn't know all this. But let's start with the basketball, I think. I mean, we lost Alabama. Really bad performance. I mean, you know, after the first five minutes, 10 minutes, never really in the game. It didn't feel like. I don't know, man. J. Lowe played well. O.A. played pretty well and then the rest was just a disaster. I mean, I feel like it's a broken record from the Gonzaga game and from the, you know,

from the Michigan State game and from even the Louisville game of I don't understand the lineups. I don't understand why we can't get any offense going. I had people close to the game tell me this team argues with each other constantly off the court, like in the huddles and stuff. in a non-good way. Feels like some of the good vibes we had after Indiana St. John's. I don't know.

Did they all go out the window? Man, I've been thinking for two days what I'm going to say about this game today because this is not, you can't just write this off as a one-off thing. This is kind of a little bit of a pattern we've seen getting down early, down by 20 to these good players. And this is the first time you're pretty much at full strength. You know, there's no excuse by hell. The second game of the year at full strength. And you also had two weeks to get ready for this.

team and they looked like they didn't know what was coming. And it was a team that you could make an argument you built this roster for this game. Exactly. I mean, I think there's a really good argument that Mark Pope changed his entire roster building philosophy because of what Alabama did to Kentucky three times last year. You're exactly right. He said, okay, if I want to compete in the SEC, I got to do this, this, and this. Because Alabama, they had, they were no match for Alabama last year. And we didn't play poorly last year in Alabama still. So I mean, it was clear like, He created this entire team on the, okay, I have to build a roster to be able to play against the Alabama's. Yes.

And you did just as poorly, maybe. Maybe worse, because at least last year, you would offensively be pretty efficient. You just couldn't guard them. Couldn't guard them. Now we can't score. Like I said, you got to start questioning the coach. You guys start questioning, is this team just not very good? I mean, like I said, this is not just a one-off thing.

You can't write it off. they just had an off night. This is bad. The frustrating part was you know exactly what they're going to do and you still couldn't stop them. You can't stop. First of all, number one, most important thing more than anything else. How in the world did we go into that game and decide to let them shoot open threes? How did they think that was the way to go?

And how many do they have to make before they decide closing off the three is the number one most important thing? How many times do they have to make a three before we stop going under screen? Exactly. How many times do they have to run a pick and roll to where we do not leave it. Make them beat us at the rim. We have like 10, 7 footers on the team. If they beat us at the rim, okay, fine. But how do we keep letting them shoot open threes?

How? And like I said, you had two weeks to get ready for it. You know that's how Alabama plays. That's what they, that's our offense is designed around that. And then they finally change it at the end and it's too late. Way too late. How are you going to wait 30 minutes? If Colin Chandler runs under another screen, I'm going to go crazy.

And I will notice a couple of postgame callers said they still had open shots in those last two minutes. They just missed them. True. I mean, that three-point defense is putrid. And like Billis kept pointing out, Alabama's getting in the lane whenever they want and then kick it out to a wide open three-pointer. And then after the game's over, Oates makes a really good point. Oates is like, we studied them. They don't pass.

Yeah. I mean, most coaches won't do that. But he basically was like, we study them, they don't pass. When they throw it in a post, it ain't coming out. That number, and I'm just going to assume he's right because he said it, we only have seven assists by our bigs when the ball goes into the post in 13 games. You got to assume that's right. And if that's right, that's horrendous.

Awful. I mean, Alabama probably had six or seven in that game. Yeah, really. You know, it is. watching this team play is so frustrating. And I have to tell you, if Jalen Lowe wasn't on the team, I'm not sure we would ever score. But he's the only person that can generate any offense. Him and Otega were the only offensive threats they had the entire game.

Listen, we need Otega, but he's drawing fouls. Yeah. Right? Like he's going into the paint. But in terms of generating ball movement, no one else even attempts it. The whole offense was Jalen Lowe tried to create something and get us a bucket. That was the offense. I feel like, remember I used to say at Pitt, I watched him and he was so good, but he had to do everything and he doesn't have it.

I feel like I'm watching that this year. I feel like he was having to do the exact same thing this year. What he did Saturday against Alabama. He was the offense. There was no other offensive threat other than Otega trying to drive. So why? I mean, this team is clearly poorly constructed, but I'm going to keep saying this. Yes, it's poorly constructed.

That is obvious. but there's nothing you can do about that at this moment. I can't. Why are they so bad? Why can he not get something positive going out of this group? So I think that's why people are starting to question, is it the coach's responsibility? Is it the coach's fault?

Or is this team just not very good? All of it is the coach's fault. Right? The roster construction is the coach's fault. The way they play is the coach's fault. They don't like each other. They just don't. I mean, you can tell.

And I mean, I may see a clip where somebody says something nice. That doesn't mean they like each other, right? You know, I work with people at ESPN that, like, they'll say nice things about each other. And then the moment somebody goes away, they'll be like, gosh, that person. No, I'm serious. Like, it's hilarious. That's one good thing is, like, you won't get that for me. Like, if I don't like you, you'll know.

You know, I thought we were past that. Nah, we're not. We're not. They argued the whole time. I had a friend who was, who drove down there, bought tickets and was like, dude, I mean, they just argue all the time. Just constant. And it's the best players arguing with each other. Basically, it's like, well, I don't want to divide the team into it.

But there is a divide of kind of like one certain, you could almost guess. If I were to sit here and tell you guess, you'd guess it. Yeah. So I don't know what you do. And then I don't understand Pope. I mean, that interview with Tom Leach, I'm not going to play it again, but I played it on the postgame show. I mean, what has happened to him in these losses? Why does he become like a different person when we lose?

I don't know, but it's not a good look. It's a horrible look. Yeah, you've got to grow up and be a man and look Tom Leach in the face and answer his questions. And when people go, well, what do you expect him to say he just lost? I expect him to be a grownup. This is a smart person. This is not, he is not a jerk. He is not an idiot.

He is smart. He knows what he's supposed to do. And then he goes in and he becomes a different human being. I expect him to be a grownup. You judge people's character in a time of adversity. Anyone can be good when you're winning. Well, that's not true. Some people are bad winners too.

But most people are pretty good when they're winning and gracious. You judge how you deal with adversity. Now I'm saying like Mario and his Instagram. Yeah, I put that on your captions. But, I mean, it's true. And I, you know, go back to Louisville when he says, you know, something happened in the locker room. When you go back to Michigan State where I've never seen a war,

the Michigan State thing, I'll never understand. I mean, Rick Petino said, I call it to him and said, what is wrong with you? Good for Rick. Right? to Gonzaga, where he said nothing. And now this, I don't get it. And I've been told, by the way, and I'll say this,

I've been told he's been spoken to by folks at UK going, you've got to stop. And then he did it again. If you're a recruit sitting at home and you hear your coach talk and act like that, is that the guy you want to play for? Well, I don't know. I mean, I am baffled by this. I said on the post game show,

when we hired Mark, I had a serious question about ability to get talent. And that question still exists. Although he's gotten some, the question still exists. So I knew that would be an issue. The thing I thought was a given was they would play smart, they'd played hard, right? Yeah. They'd be well prepared. I was like, that's a given.

I don't know. Doesn't feel like a given. No. You're a coach. Be a leader. act like a leader. You're a leader of young men. They're looking up to you. They see you act like that. They're going to act like that. And then I don't understand our team. I really don't.

Colin Chandler looks scared to death. Denzel Aberdeen, you sit there and go, what does he bring? And how did that happen? I mean, he was on a national championship team last year. So he's clearly good. Diabate is yelling at everybody throughout the game. I don't know. not play hardly at all if he just had eight out of ten threes to get before. How do you not play Cam Williams? How many threes does a man have to hit to get time? Eight out of ten in the last

game out and he doesn't get in to play like six minutes in the first half. I mean I sit and look at it. I don't know. What if Jaylon Lowe had not come back? They'd gotten beat by 40. I mean, would we score 35 points a game? I'd be pushing it. So, I mean, they have a big week now. Missouri looked at the beginning of the year like, okay, that's easy. They beat Florida. And they're coming in here Wednesday and you cannot lose. No, you have to win these two home games. You have to win these two home games coming back to back.

Have to. So, I don't know. 859-280-2287. Welcome back. Somebody wrote, are we going to have to start calling him Mark Mope? I mean, after these games, there's a little mope. Be a leader, man. Am I wrong?

Shannon? Is that unfair? No, it's not. And it all seems like it started with that Louisville game. And ever since then, when they've lost. What happened in that locker room? I don't know, man. More than what we're hearing.

Mario, gas, one of your Instagram people. Can you get Mark Pope some inspirational quotes, Mario? Yeah, he was inspirational. Get him a Jack Handy quote or something from Saturday Night Live. We'll be right back. 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 athletes 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 Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway 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, Tripp 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, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about. How healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Jacob Kingston grew 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 Levin this went 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. life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Life throws hurdles big and small.

The question is, how do you conquer them? On hurdle with Emily Abadi, 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 Ladeki. 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 IHart Women's Sports. Oh!

8-9-280. That's just sound good on the podcast. Nobody has the music on the podcast. That's going to be great. No, it's just going to be me making moaning noises. It's the he-haul, gloom despair and agony for everybody on podcast. Yes, where it makes sense if you do it. Do it again.

No, I see, I've been off. You forgot. For a while and I forget. All right, 859, 280, 22, 87. We do have some breaking news. Oh, okay. One-ee-na-na-na. Baylor Center.

Coleton Price has committed to Kentucky from the transfer portal. Just so people know, center is not a sexy position. But as anybody who played, will tell you it's important on the offensive line. This is probably the biggest get Kentucky's gotten so far. He started 33 straight games for Baylor,

all Big 12. He'll be the center for the UK offensive line next year. This was a priority. Apparently, I've been told for Will Stein, and his center does a lot of the work pre-snap, and they wanted this guy, and they got him. So that's great. You lose all five-year offensive linemen.

Are you okay? Got a little frog in my throat. I haven't talked all weekend. You know, you haven't been around. You don't talk in your private life? I don't. I just sit and watch, study, do game show prep. It's game show prep.

You mean like Price is right, prep? Yeah, I do that game. What is game show prep? Game and show prep. I let the word out there. He does game show prep. Sounds like it. All right, anyway, go ahead.

They lose all five. All five offensive linemen, you have to start with somebody that you can kind of build around. I think this is that guy. I think they went out and got this guy. And now they can kind of build around, get their guards, get their tackles. So that is a big get. We'll update the portal just in general. But that just happened here this morning.

KSR breaks it. Congrats to Jacob Polichick on that. All right. So back for a second. Why doesn't Jalen Lowe start? I don't have an answer for you. I mean, you wait until you're down to bring him in. But the second half like you pointed out, there's a minute and a half into the second half, then you bring him in.

That one makes no sense to me. I mean, his reasoning for doing it is he says, well, the analytics say or we blah. No analytics says don't play for a minute in 25 seconds and then put him in. What analytic is going to say that? There is not. There is none. He's your only offensive threat. He's your best player.

He needs to be on the floor as much as possible. I always, when Cal did it with Reed and Rob, it was stubbornness or maybe promising DJ and just. that they would start. What is this? Like, seriously? I don't have an answer for you. I don't. It makes no sense to me.

Like, I can understand the argument for Quaintens while he's trying to get back. He hasn't played. But Jaylon Lo is out there probably shouldn't be playing. And is playing to try to help your team. Yep. Why not just, I mean, he can get hurt in at any moment.

So why not just put him in at the start? Might as well, because they gave up nine straight at the very beginning in the first five minutes of the game. They were up five nothing and then they gave up nine straight points and then they put him in. By the way, somebody pointed out, Jalen Lowe's played against four good teams this year. When he's checked in the game, we've been losing all four times.

See, that's a pattern, man. Why would you do that? I don't know. And the stats, these stats are so awful. Somebody gave him the post game show. 34 games against power conference teams since Pope's been here. We've been down double digits in 17 of the 34. half, we've been down

20 in 8 of the 34 games. And five of them are this year. One fourth of the times we've played someone from a major conference. One out of four. We've been down 20 in the game. That is not Kentucky basketball that we've seen

that all long long time. And I'm not, look, I'm not giving up on Pope. Some people are. I'm not. I still believe he can do it. I still think there's almost nothing that could happen this year with it would tell me he shouldn't come back next year and give it a run. I think last year was actually successful.

I will note, however, through his first 50 games as coach of Kentucky, he has the same record Billy Gillespie. Yeah, 33 and 15, right? Exact same record Billy Glemsman. That's troubling. Yep.

I think that's, I don't, it is not crazy to say that's not good. You know, you just pointed out the Jalen Lowe, you pointed out to Cam Williams, these two guys that, you know, you think can help you in a situation. Because when you start the game with Aberdeen's your point guard, you're getting down every single time.

He's just not a point guard. You need Jalen Lowe out there to kind of run the offense for you. He does have confidence, though, Shand. Oh, yeah. He believes he's the best player on the floor. A little too much confidence sometimes. He's like Billy in a bar full of models. Uh-huh.

Yep. He thinks he's getting it all. He thinks he's the number one option, and he's going to show you. Let's go to Justin. Go ahead, Justin. Hey, there's a lot of stuff that I was going to say y'all talked about, but a lot of the stuff that Pope, like he's a smart guy, but like the common sense stuff, it's like he looks past.

Like, for example, going underpicks. Like, at some point, you've got to know to force them into the lane so they don't shoot wide open threes. And then don't help. And then Cam William, to me, would be built to play more in this game because he can switch basically one through four. And somehow he don't play. I don't know.

I don't understand. You're exactly right. Cam would be the perfect person for this. I appreciate the call. I mean, listen, there is when you play Jalen Lowe, you're going to have a defensive issue. So you need to make up for it by having long guys around them. although I would argue we were so bad Saturday, Jalen Lowe's defensive issues don't even matter

because everybody has a defensive issue. You're right. Right. We had no one that could guard anybody. No. Probably the only guy that played pretty good defense was O'Way on Fire on. Yeah. That's the other thing.

Alabama was out without, think about this. They beat us like that. They're two big guys starting big guys didn't even really play. One of them was out the whole game. One of them got out five minutes in. and Phylon had two points at halftime and we were still getting crushed. You tell me before the game you hold Phelon like that and their big guy has to sit out because

they got hurt, you got a good chance to win that game and still did not matter at all. It weren't even competitive. No. It brought off like seven footer off the bench who has a career game against us. They just find people on the street and we give them wide open shots. The play when Alabama was at the free throw line and then they get the offensive rebound and then throw it out to a wide open three and you give up a three off of a free throw. summed up the entire game.

It did. You're exactly right. Joe, go ahead, Joe. Yeah, man. I think you said it last year playing Alabama, and obviously we were a lot back to last year. But, you know, the thing with Alabama is they do everything we want to do or we've been told we're going to do by Pope's, but better. But, you know, Alabama is. Go ahead. No, Joe, you're with. Alabama is what I thought we were getting. And you, isn't that what you?

I thought that's what Mark was going to do. He said he built this team to compensate for what happened against Alabama. And we couldn't look worse on the offense event or the defense event. Alabama, I appreciate the call Joe. Alabama under Nate Oates is what I thought Mark Pope basketball was going to be. Not even close yet. But I mean, didn't that what you thought? Yes. Spread the floor.

Everybody could shoot. Share the ball. Find your moments. You give up points, but you know what? It's okay because you can score a lot. And we're not even close to that. And we're not even competitive with that right now. We'll take a break.

Be right back. KSR. 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. All right, Shannon, this is my new, I don't want to say favorite song, but one of them. and I really like this artist.

Just listen to this chorus, all right? All right. It's called Gary. What do you think? It's not bad. Yeah, I was kind of surprised you like it, though. I like it. It's like he calls himself half country, half grunge.

He has a version of that song, Hunger Strike, Shannon. Play that at the next break. Okay. Yeah. For a Temple of the Dog. Right. Yeah, he's got a cover for that. I really like this guy.

Now, I know like some of these modern country people that don't like him, But I've listened to a lot of his album, and it's all about like the decline of rural America. And I think it's really good. Name Stephen Wilson. If you look at him, he looks like he's from the haulers. Any song that's got the line, they got the same nicotine pouring out their pores. Exactly. That's a great line.

And he says, his point is, there's not a lot of people named Gary these days because Gary's a dude in your town who would like fix everything. Yeah. And that is true. Give me the youngest person you can think of named Gary. Well, my dad's Gary. Not young. Give me somebody under 40 named Gary. No, my childhood best friend was Gary.

Also not young. Stop acting like you're young. Anyone under 40? Can you think, all right? Anyone under 40 named Debbie? Hmm. His point is, small towns used to be filled with Gary's that would fix your car and stuff. Debbie's that would do your hair.

Yep. But we're out. Like those people, like our economy's taking those people away. We need some more Gary's in our life. His point is this world's better with Gary's. We need more Gary's. And we don't have any more Gary's. Would you name your kid Gary now?

No. Would you name your kid Debbie now? No. Just had a Debbie called the pre-show. A few minutes ago. It's funny that you said that. Well, no, no. But I bet she was over 40.

Probably, yeah. Hope so. What about all your Atlanta? Cool guys. Any Garries? Any debbies? Every Gary I can think of is over 40. we just at some point collectively decided we're not using that name anymore but it's not a like

you're thinking like it's not like ophelia yeah or Olga it's just a name that just kind of time it's it just goes away I like that song and I like him so far now I saw he did a song with Hardy Shannon that almost made me say I didn't like him anymore I think now you know he did a song with Shiboozy too and I didn't like that but he has a song of like grunge covers and then I do like that song. All right. Well, I'll see what's your name again? Stephen Wilson Jr.

Okay. 859-280-2287. What person writes, Matt, what all your callers are saying is, Mark Bope just needs common sense. He plays like a smart guy who's never actually watched a game, however. Jalen Lowe should play 40 minutes. O'S Tago away should play 40 minutes. And a lot of guys we play shouldn't play at all. Do you agree with that?

I do agree with some of that. He goes by the analytics where, you know, you make. these substitute and these mass substitutions midway through the first half. You try to rest your legs so you're ready to run into the game. By the time we rest our legs, we're down 15. That's it. It's too late. It doesn't matter how our legs are.

It's too late. You've got to play your best players. You can't afford to get down 20 again in the first half. Our legs are healthy though for that second half when we're down 20. Healthy legs. So what is now? Out of the six, like power five teams, we've been down by 20 in the first half, four of the six games. Four of the seven.

How can that be, man? We're better than that. I think we're better than that. I don't know if we're good, but we're not as bad as we're playing. Agreed. So what I would say is, I think our roster build, I thought this team could make a final four. I think our roster mistakes have made it to where that's not going to happen. That's on the building of the roster.

But losing these games and getting blown out is on the coaches. Yeah. That's the way I look at it. maybe not being elite is on your decisions on who's on the team, but we should be better than we are. There's no excuse the way they're playing. There's just not. Roy, go ahead, Roy.

If I could make them right quick. Well, I'm here. Will Stein don't have to show those people his dream. All they've got to do is watch Oregon play, and that shows them. Now, I've got to comment about Mark Pope. If he doesn't, win too many. games, the money people will get tired of him and buy him out. They bought out Stoops. And he made a comment. We're going to get down to 20 points and we'll come back and make

Kentucky fans happy. We're not happy. I'll get off you to listen to it. Thank you. I mean, they're not going to, I don't see a scenario of Popes not to coach next year, but I will say this. The thing that made Billy Gillespie not be the coach after two years was other stuff besides losing. Mark's not anywhere close to that stuff. But I don't understand. understand these interviews. The thing that Mark had going for him was that, you know, personable, charismatic. Exactly. Relate to the fans.

So what did you tell your team in the locker room? A lot of things. Like, that's just a rude answer. Shannon, that's just a rude answer, period. That's it. I don't, there's no, there's nothing you can say to me that doesn't say that's rude. And then the second thing, what is it, uh, you need to improve on for the next game? That's a long list.

That's rude. That is just rude. It's rude to Tom. It's also rude to the Kentucky fans. They're sitting there listening to you saying, hey, coach, make us feel better about this. And you don't get to then hide in a hole. Let me give me an example.

If you're governor of Kentucky, you may have a bad day. Okay? You may be mad about something. But then if something happens that's important, you got to suck it up. And you got to talk about it. Yep.

That's the job. This is not nearly as important as that. But it's the same thing. You play 31 games a year, Mark. That's it. 31. 31 times a year. You got to look in that mirror,

take a deep breath, and talk. That's not too much to ask for $5.6 million a year. And I know you're upset you lost. We're upset. but you owe it, you got to talk. That's the deal. And I said this after the game, and I mean it.

Go look at the coaches when things have gone down. You can always tell when things are falling apart by how they act after the games. When things got bad for Tubby, what used to happen on his call-in show? Stop taking calls. Stop taking calls and former players would come in. That's kind of how you knew the tubby era was coming to it in. What happened at the end of the billy era? after games.

He started being a jerk to people. Yeah. He started saying, I'm not an ambassador for Kentucky, right? Janine Edwards and Jerry Tipton interviews you saw. Yep. This isn't the University of Jody Meeks.

What happened to the end of Cal era? He just started skipping. Didn't even do it. He just started walking out and saying, I ain't doing it. Now, I don't think we're at the end of the Pope era. I don't think of that. But this, the pattern of,

when things start getting bad in the post-game interviews, it starts to be a pattern. Ryan, how could you not see that right here? You know, just what you just laid out is very similar to what we've gone through. You know, in life, you face adversity. How you handle adversity is how it dictates your legacy. And the way he's handling it right now, like I said earlier, why would guys want to come play for a coach that acts like a little baby?

I mean, it sounds bad to say, but Shannon, Mark Mollinger, And Mark Mope is a good, I actually think before the season you called him accidentally, Ryan, Park Mope. I did. But maybe you know. It does right now. I don't want it to fit. I don't want this to be the situation we're in. We said we want our coach to hurt and to feel that.

I do. But it's on a different level, I feel like you know. But you don't get to do that, right? Like, you know, if you have a. a family member in the hospital. You're very sad. You might want to go out and cry, but you've got to be strong for that family member

in the hospital. That's exactly right. They need you to be the strong one, right? Be sad in your own time, you know, but be strong for the person sitting there. Even be strong for the rest of your family that's sitting there. That's exactly right. Now, this isn't nearly as serious as that. but you are the one that has to be strong, your players might be sad.

They're kids. Fans might be sad, but you have to get up there and do the thing. And to all people do it with Tom Leach, with the most nicest, most professional guys. Rise to the occasion. That's a phrase my mom used to use, and it's true. It's very true.

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the closest center or call and book an appointment online today. It's court.com. We're going to talk a little portal when we come back. Also, we'll take your calls, but we're going to talk about cutter left, all this. That's next here on KSA. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

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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. Welcome back, Techie Sports Radio. So I love this song when it originally came out, didn't you?

Yeah. I like this cover, too. I think this is a great cover. I listened to it on my plane ride yesterday. This is like one of the most underrated 90s songs, in my opinion, right? I don't mind stealing bread from the mouths of decadence. But I, what is it? Don't want to steal from people with nobody, essentially.

I don't remember what the second line is. That's what it is, yeah. I don't mind stealing very for some of the miles of a decade. But I, well, if I wasn't on the radio, we get it. But I think this is a great cover, don't you? Oh, yeah, yeah. I haven't heard many people cover this song. It's a hard song to cover it.

Do you sing it? No. This is like the kind of thing you would say. Anything that's Chris Cornell, I'm probably not going to sing it. You just think you can't get it? Well, his range is crazy. Yeah. So, yeah, this is like that.

Is he going to be a real bird? Who? Is Stephen Wilson Jr.? Well, if he is, I'm going. That can get me to Railbird. Yeah. I wanted to go. Like he's got shows for the next three months all sold out because they're all in like smaller venues.

I like this one better than the Gary song. Well, because you've heard it before because this is like an older song. 859-28027. One person says, Mark Pope says that the guys hit a wall two and a half minutes in and that's why he subs out. Half minutes in and we hit a wall. What is this hockey? Do other teams just magically not hit a wall two and a half minutes in? That goes back to conditioning, which I did not think would be a problem at all.

He comes from the Patino. Patino School of Conditioning. All right, let's talk football. Cutter Bowley transfers. Were you upset? I was. I hated to see it go. I mean, I kind of understand, but I hated to see it because I thought he could be a really good quarterback here and kind of help us build for the future.

So here's what I was told about what happened with Cutter Bowley. He was offered basically numbers to me. When I see numbers, you know my view. I think they're all exaggerate. Yeah. I think they're closer to the truth now than they were a few years ago. go because you have rev share, right? But the thing you have to remember is we evaluate

this stuff, we're under a salary cap, basically. Basically. You're getting $17, $18, $19 million. So not only when you're talking about numbers, the only way you can go over that is if your NIL will raise money for guys. So, I think, Will Stein looks at this roster.

I don't think, I know, I've talked to some folks around the program. They look at this roster and they say, there's a lot of stuff we've got to get this year. And we also have to build for the future. And that Cutter Bowley, they thought was good, but he wasn't good enough to give a huge percentage of the salary came. Right? Right.

So they basically, Cutter probably wanted, I was told Cutter got offered $2, $2.5 million from Arizona State. Kentucky, I think, was willing to offer him a million. Cutter basically said, can you get it closer? and they said no. And that was that. Couldn't get closer and they're going to bring in other quarterbacks to compete for the job. And they were going to bring in somebody else.

Yeah. So that combination, I think they maybe thought we want to spend that on two guys if you're going to be one of them. Yes. I can see why Cutter would say, I want to be the guy. Yeah. But if Will Stein doesn't want him to be the guy, Will Stein should get to pick his quarterback, don't you think? I think he's proven that he can as a good developer of

quality quarterbacks. So if he's got somebody his eye on somebody, you can't argue against that, I don't think. So I hate to see Cutter Go. I do too. But I understand. I understand. I hate it, but I understand.

All right. So now then Sam Levitt, the number one quarterback in the portal. They had to load their visits. So I want to make sure as people sort of evaluate the portal, we had a ton of good guys come the first day. I think there's a sense that because those dudes haven't committed yet, some people are like, oh, Will Stein failed.

No. He may or may not get those guys, but they all came the first day because it was the only time Will Stein could do it because he's got to go back to Oregon. Correct. So normally these visits would be spaced out over two weeks. He couldn't do that. Couldn't do it.

He had to do it at first because he's got to go. Now, that's the bummer of having a coach who's still in the playoff. But that's why it happened. Yeah. So they're not losing. they just had to do this immediately. They didn't have a choice. They basically took their top choices and said,

you've got to come right now. Other people will wait on, can you come right now? We'd like 10 of you right now. And like four of those guys have already committed. Yeah, I had pretty good success rate, I think. They actually have had a great success rate. They brought in, I think, 12 or 13 guys, and four of them have committed.

And they still expect they'll get a couple more. So that's a pretty good success rate. Now, quarterback's the most important thing. Sam Levitt comes in. Here's what I'm told on Sam Levitt. I think this is good information. They, Sam Levitt has expressed to them he wanted to play for Willstone.

They have said to him, we want you to be here. It was between Kentucky and Texas Tech. I think he comes here if it's Kentucky and Texas Tech. Texas Tech was offering twice as much money. He was still giving indications he would come here. But he did want to wait and see, what the market gives.

LSU does not get their top choice. LSU's waiting to see if someone gets in the portal. I've been told it's Ty Simpson, the guy to Alabama. Until then, LSU says, all right, Sam Levitt, now you come here. And so now LSU will offer more money, because they have better in aisle than we do, and it's LSU, and it's Lane Kiffin. Kentucky still thinks they have a very good shot at him.

he's visiting LSU today. We might lose him. I would understand if we lost him. It's Laine Kiffin. It's LSU. And they will offer him more money. But the fact that we're even in that, the fact we're even in the contest

when we've been terrible the last couple years, a new quarterback, a new coach who's never coached before, and that's Lane Kiffin at LSU, Ryan, I'm kind of making. And they're offering more money. I'm kind of amazed we're even in the conversation, aren't you? Yeah, I think Levitt just wanted to play for Will Stein. Had Stein developed him as a quarterback more than anything?

Look what he did with Bonix and these guys. But you could understand if he takes the LSU gig. There's maybe just a couple other coaches he might pick over Will Stein at this point, and Lane Kiffin would be one of them. And if Ty Simpson enters the portal might be different. Yes. The Chambliss kid at Ole Miss re-signed with Old Miss. I saw that this morning.

So that's an option I think LSU was interested in that goes away. So Leavitt did cancel his visit to tech. Is that right? He did. I think if it was going to be Kentucky and Texas Tech, Kentucky was going to get him. But now it's Kentucky and LSU. And we'll see. Let me also say they have backup options.

I've been told they have two, one of which they feel really good about. But they specifically told me, we can't. No, we can't, you can't know. So there's an assumption sometimes that people go, move on to the next guy. They got it. They knew there was a possibility they can lose this kid. But I, by the way, I will say,

I don't think they've given up on him yet. So is the reports that the visit with Levitt here went really well this past weekend? He was here until, he was here from Friday night till Sunday morning, flew out Sunday morning, including staying after Stein left. Stein had already gone back to Oregon.

He stayed. So I think he loved it. But also you could understand if I'm offered a better program with a coach that has more pedigree and more money, we tough to turn that down. It's tough to turn that down. I will say this, though. If he does turn it down, then that means Will Stein's a heck of a sales guy. If you can get him to turn down, better program, better pedigree, and more money.

More money. That would be pretty amazing. Tells him what Levitt thinks of Will Stein as a coach. I've said this. I feel good about where things are set up for next year. But when it comes to, we'll have to see about coaching. I've not seen him coach. But for program building, I've gotten a sense this weekend of how they're doing stuff.

Remember how much we complained about how unorganized the other group was? Yeah. This is the exact opposite. We're running it like a pro franchise now, which I like a lot. We'll take a break. Come back. Hour number two, KSR. 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 Podcast, 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 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, podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Life is full of hurdles. So how do you keep going? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we're talking with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness from professional athletes, coaches,

and Olympic champions about the challenges that shape them and the mindset that keeps them moving forward. At our level, at this scale, being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can do anything. 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 IHart Women's Sports. What's up, guys? This is Cliverts Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, A, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out.

Look, quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Brett. My mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.