KSR - 2026-01-08- KSR - Hour 1

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

Matt, Ryan, and Shannon talk Kentucky's loss to Missouri 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.

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This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now here's Matt Jones. Welcome, everyone, Kentucky Sports Radio. It is Thursday, January the 8th. I'm Matt Jones here at the KS Bar and Grill on a somber Thursday. We're still, the weather's nice.

And you can give us a shout in the Clark's Puppet Shop. Phone line, 859-280-2287. A Vision Autoglass Text Machine is 772-7-7-4 in this edition. sponsored by the T.J. Smith Law of us. If you call T.J. He'll make them pay. There's going to be plenty of time to talk about the game. I do want to say, I was just telling Mario, I think they're going to send our NFL Cover Zero podcast to the Super Bowl. What? But not to the Super Bowl. What you mean you're sending to the Super Bowl? They're going to send us to Super Bowl week.

But not to the Super Bowl game. But we have to come home before the Super Bowl, Shannon. That's a tease. That's almost like I would almost rather not go at all than to do that. So we'll be at the Super Bowl from like Tuesday to Saturday. Yeah. But then they send it home on Saturday. So you just do your shows from Radio Row. We'll do this show from Radio Row and then cover Zero from Radio Row. But you're not important enough to be there for the actual game.

But when it comes to the actual Super Bowl, get out. Yeah, because you're not covering it anyway. We can't even stay in the same city. That's exactly right, Shannon. We'll be covering zero of the Super Bowl. Cover zero. We are covering. zero of the actual Super Bowl.

So you've got to work that. You've got to figure out how to stay for the game. Well, I don't think they, I mean, I don't think they could get us into the game. You would think the NFL could. You do a show for the NFL. But I don't, I think the game is out. What I'm trying to do is get them to let us at least stay because there's a big party Friday night, a big party Saturday night, and we're invited to both of them.

They're draft king's party. And I'd like to be able to go. But they're just going to sit at his home. I mean, I can't, you know. I don't know, shit, if there's a lot of, Wednesday? Probably not. Super Bowl parties?

No. What day is the day they do the stuff on the field? The Super Bowl, like where people dress up as marshmallows? Yeah, I'm not sure when they did. I hope we could at least go to that. But that might be before we get there. That might be like Monday. Not the beginning, not the end, like right in the middle.

And it's in San Francisco, so it's not like it's close. So you're going to do all the stuff leading up at the Super Bowl. But with time for the game, the big event. Get out. Get out. You can be watching the game on your couch going, I was just there. No, we're going to be back in our house. You know, Kentucky plays Arkansas the Saturday before, which we were going to go to, but I'm just going to tell you, I ain't going if we're this bad.

I'm not going down there. It'll already be bad enough for me anyway. Every time we lose, every single time we lose, they just start posting that video of me thanking Tyson Farms. And by the way, I still thank Tyson Farms. I'm not taking myself away from that. Put all the rest of this stuff away. If Cal was here, it wouldn't work. So I'm not like, I'm not changing that view.

But I do get tired of every game, Arkansas. It's like Arkansas hog face. Eat a fat job! So I'm not going down there to take that stuff in person, especially if I immediately got to fly the Super Bowl to not see the Super Bowl. I'm glad you're not going to take us to watch Arkansas and Kentucky now. I'm not saying that if we come back, if we're playing well, but it's looking less and less likely that that's going to happen.

All right, so we lost. And I'm not thrilled. I said that was the swing game of the season. I genuinely think it was. We lost, and missing the tournament is right there. Let me just give you some numbers. If you listened to the Postgame show last night, I went over all these, but I do want to just go through them for a second.

Kentucky now has in the Mark Pope era a losing record in SEC games. That's not acceptable. I mean, that's not acceptable. No. It's just not. I mean, I, you know, he now has a worse record at this point in his career than Billy Gillespie. That's right. That's also not acceptable.

He's doing that with a roster where I don't know if you heard me say this last night. I'm going to update my numbers from last night. At least six, and I think maybe eight players on this roster make more money. this season, then L.E. De La Cruz is going to make this season. I heard you say that, and that can't be true. It's true. That's insane. True.

Six players, maybe eight. I know six, make more than L.E. De La Cruz, and it might be eight, because I don't know what Jasper and Malachi make. So, I mean, Owey, Lowe, Quaintance, Aberdeen, Diabate, and Cam Williams all make more

than L.A. De La Cruz. And Jasper and Malachi I may, I don't really know what their deals were. So that is something. And two of our players after the game, one was posting his highlights on Instagram, and the other was selling hats on Instagram. One was posting his highlights 30 minutes after the game. The Instagram hats was at least two hours after the game.

The Instagram hat won, I think, at least been taken down. Maybe the highlights have two. I'm very frustrated. Very frustrated with how he played. I mean, I guess the one bright spot, Mark Pope, did sound like a human being during the post game. First time he sounded like himself. He did.

Honestly, the first time he sounded like himself this year, which makes me think they had to have said something to him. Somebody had to have said something to him. Because he did sound like himself. Now, his explanations are no better. No, they're not. But, you know, it's bad. The question is only how bad and can it be fixed?

Mark's... He talked to basketball. I mean, he said, look, we are miserable in the half court in terms of pace. He's right. But you just couldn't lose that game. You put everything else aside. Put the bad play in the first half. Put bad decisions.

They were up eight with four minutes and 15 seconds to go at home. You got to win that game. You got to win that game. Put it away. And they made two plays back-to-back that were bad. They came out of the timeout. Gates, the coach for... What's his first name?

Dennis. Dennis. Dennis Gates, the coach of Missouri, eight Mark Pope's lunch all day. Every time we got up five, he called timeout, and they would score immediately on the next possession. Go look, that happened three times in the game.

It would be a five, well, three times. Five, five, and eight-point deficit. He called time out every single time came out and they scored the next play every time and got a lay-up every time because they ran a play that we weren't ready for. Same thing here.

So that takes it from eight. to six. Then Jalen Lowe, who I like and think generally played okay, took a really bad shot where he was at the top of the floor, so he had no balance on defense, got blocked, came down, layup, and it's eight to four within like 30 seconds. And then there's like two minutes where neither team scores, right? So it's a four-point game. Four-point game with a minute, what, 23 or something? You give up a three. Two Malachi-Morino turnovers. I love Malachi-Marino. I think he actually played pretty well last night. Don't know how you're giving him the ball twice in the last minute and 20 seconds to make a play.

And then Garrison makes a turn-up. And then O'A misses a lay-up. Tom Hart gave me the stat. You know what, O-A's lay-up percentage this is? Oh, it can't be good. 60%, 63% on lay-up. On lay-ups. Okay, on lay-ups.

And he missed it. A huge one. On defense, we, Malachi Moreno doesn't box out on a free throw. That was really bad. I give Colin Chandler a lot of credit for that great play at the end, but part of me goes, why are you bringing Colin Chandler for defense? That worked, so I can't, you know, but why are you doing that? That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

I don't know. And then the last play, you know, Pope explained the last play said Jay and Lowe was supposed to drive the basket and then kick it to the corner for Cam Williams. But I was just saying to the gentleman here, we were down three. If Jalen Lowe drives the basket, aren't they just going to let him shoot? Let him go. So, I mean, Jailen Lowe takes that three, but I got to part of if I'm Jailen Lowe, I might have been like, what am I going to do with the basket?

You know, I, it was such a terrible performance in the last four minute and 15 seconds. And it's hard not to feel like this is just a failure because it's going to be hard us to make the tournament. We're going to have to upset some people and probably get one or two upset wins on the road to make the tournament. And I've been talking about how Mississippi State's the worst team in the conference, they're now 2-0. They beat Oklahoma by 20 last night and we play them Saturday. I feel broken. I mean, my spirit is broken because for the second time this week we're sitting here talking about a horrible loss. And we're now at the midway point of the season, the exact midway point, and what positive things do we have to build on the

things we can upset somebody you're talking about? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, last year when we lost, I still felt like this team can beat teams. Like even when we would lose, I'd go, well, but, you know, we didn't hit shots. Yeah. Or Lamont Butler's hurt, right? Like there was some Andrew Carr was hurt at times. Jackson Robinson was hurt at times.

I don't know what to think about this team. I was saying on the post game show, I want you to take Imagineate. Let's say Jalen Lowe decided he had a need to have surgery and couldn't play. Oh, my. Do you think we would win another SEC game? No. I mean, I'm sure we would win a couple, but I set the over under at like three. That's a good number.

Without him? Without him? I mean, Shannon, how many do you think we'd win without it? Not many more than that. We might not win a lot with him. Yeah. Get everybody healthy, and now the excuses are over. And then you watch the Vandy Alabama game after.

That's a different game. And it's like, well, these are two different teams. And I don't know what Vandy's roster cost, but it didn't cost what ours cost. So, you know. I just feel like the offense is so awful. They have no idea what they're doing on offense. In the half court, it's pitiful. It's awful.

When they get in transition, they can get some stuff going. They can. But like, if they don't, they're just stuck. So like I said, we're at the halfway point of the season, and they still don't have any idea what they're doing offensively now that they're at full strength and healthy. So the natural thing people ask is, all right, well, what do we do? I mean, there's nothing we can do this year.

We just are going to have to play out the season. It feels like this is a huge indictment on Mark, and obviously part of it is that we don't have recruits coming next year. Right. Zero right now. Are there, do you think there are positive, like, you know, at the end of the Mark Stoops era, no one was kind of on his side, right? Right.

Do you think there's, I mean, I think everybody still likes Mark Pope. No one doesn't like Mark Pope, right? You like him as a person. But are you, are you, do you have confidence this is going to work? I got more comments today from national people. Like national reporters going, dude, is this just not going to work there? Yeah. I think that sentiment is growing that he's not the guy to sit in that chair and do this job at this place.

But we didn't feel that way last year. Not at all. So, I mean, why? I mean, on one hand, it's only been 15 games. You know, last year we had this. It's half the season. No, it is. Half time of Saturday night's game will be the halfway.

Yeah. That's the problem with it. Yeah. So, you know, we had this rag tag group of guys last year. that kind of overachieved and we fell in love with him. But now he got some guys who I thought were some dudes. I just don't know if he knows how to coach. But is it possible that we just end up paying a lot for another rag-tab group of guys,

just a group that couldn't shoot? Maybe. I just don't know if he's. I mean, it is worth noting. And again, you know, I took a lot of heat in the preseason for this. take quaintance out. None of these guys are playing the NBA. None of them.

Yeah, right. Yep. I mean, I guess Jasper Johnson could. But certainly nobody were putting in the game is playing in the NBA. Yeah, Jasper played, I played as much as Jasper did last night. So, you know, maybe it is, it kind of is just what it is, right? You have no stars, you have no stars. And I think he thought he had the right roster to compete in the SEC.

He tried to, you know, fill some, some, uh, part, that struggled last year's team. He tried to fill those. What do you think the biggest mistake is? Is the biggest, like literally, if we had one dude who could consistently shoot threes, do you think that would be a difference? I think that's a huge difference maker. And I think he thought he had those guys with Chandler, Williams, and Noah.

We heard about that in practice. These guys making 100-3 straight. You know, all these stories from practice, and they can't make anything in the game. If I had to rank, if I had to say, why is this team not good? And I hate to say it like this because I'm not trying to put. it on individuals, but you just have to say what you have to say.

Number one, he recruited too many big guys at the absence of shooters. We do not need Garrison, Diabate, Moreno, Quaintens, and Yellivik. We do not need five of those guys. Do you agree? Agreed. There's too many. Too many. Probably should have never gotten Yellivik and should have gotten a shooter.

Maybe he's supposed to be a shooter, though, right? But he's seven feet tall. We just didn't need five, seven footers. Yeah. Okay. So that's number one. Second, Aberdeen's not been good. No, he's not.

I think if you were going to pinpoint the biggest problem, Aberdeen was supposed to be really good and he's just not. No. And then third, I think they hoped O.A, Chandler, Garrison, and Noah would all take a big leap, and I don't think any of them did. Any of those four guys are significantly better. No, and that was the thing. Everybody thought in year two in Pope's system, everybody takes a big jump in year two.

of those four did. None really have. So I think those are the three things. If you were to sit there and go, what are the biggest problems, I would say, missing a shooter, Aberdeen is not what we thought he was, and the four returning guys didn't get better. I'd say there's a lot of truth to everything he just said. And I think some of the guys he brought in were kind of six men. They weren't like the guy. Aberdeen was kind of a six man. Diabate was a six man. Cam Williams was a six man. I don't think he went out and got a guy, a dude. 859-280-2-87 we're going to make this kind of an ask-anything Thursday it can be

asking anything about basketball or anything else I just got word that media day is Monday so we won't even be at that either well that's one of the so we really are going to get to cover zero living up to your name but you know what that's in the name though so that's probably why they're doing it when can we send them where the least will happen Tuesday through Thursday got it 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 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 beaders to controversial calls, we break it down,

give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsLice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. 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. 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

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It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app. Podcasts for 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. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world,

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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 Eyehorn. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio 859-280-2287. One person writes, Matt, historically Blue Broad Programs benefit from giving a coach some

grace and giving them a chance to weather a storm. Or do they benefit more from having a short lease and going and finding excellence? Depends. I mean, I don't know. Depends. You know, Coach Kay got grace, worked out. other guys get grace never works out Matt Doherty didn't work out

I think they gave him what four years and it didn't work out so you know I have had a rule for 15 years that I broke for this one which is what do you know Shannon my rule that I've had for 15 years on coaches that I broke with Mark Pope yeah bring in guys that are former players

my rule has always been don't bring in former players at Cloud your judgment yep it's always been my rule because you give them more benefit of doubt because they played here. And so what I always ask is, would you hire that guy if he didn't play here? It's always been my rule. I think I've said it.

And when you don't follow that rule, you usually bite you. Look at Joker Phillips, but you can Matt Doherty? I mean, you can just go, Huber Davis now at North Carolina. I mean, you can go through and you see it. Now, John Shire looks like he might work for Duke. So it's not always the case, but that's my rule. but I broke it with Mark Pope in part because even though when they announced it, I was really upset.

Twelve hours later, I'd taught myself into it. We all did. We all did. I hope that rule is wrong, but, you know, it was a rule, and maybe Ryan, I shouldn't have broken it. I think what is scary for most of us is like, I said this on Monday. This is not a one-off game. This is something that's happened all season,

and I just don't see how it's. going to get any better this year. So if it's not, how can you let Kentucky basketball, the elite of the elite, get in that situation without making a change? One person writes, Matt, would you give, if you're a fan base or an AD, would you give a coach more grace and maybe more time because he played here? That's a good question. Now, of a sudden, you're lowering your standard of what your program is, though.

No, you are. Yep, you are. But do you do that because he played here? No. No. Shannon says no. No, absolutely not. You're Kentucky basketball.

I mean, you don't lower your standard because of the guy you played. Okay, so then let's play out the, all right, best scenario. Let's just play out scenarios here for a second. Best scenario. We turn it around, we make the tournament, go to the Sweet 16. That's best scenario. Then he's fine, right? Absolutely, he's fine.

Play out the tournament, make it. You're a 10 seed you're losing the first round. probably still are back. Still are back. So I think those are not even debatable, right? Agreed with you. People are grumble, but he's back. But he's back.

What about it collapses? We don't make the tournament, and it's a disaster. I said yesterday he could lose every game, he'd be back. I still think that's more likely than not, but I, you know, I sits a rising tide. can't say I led this one just for the record. You can blame me for Cal and you can blame me for stoops, neither of which I deserve, but, you know, whatever. This one ain't me.

What do you think? If it falls apart in your scenario and they only win three SEC games and don't make the tournament. Say they go three, I mean, because it's not crazy. It's not crazy. I don't think they will only win three. I think they'll probably win. I think the worst case scenario is you win like six and go like.

six and 12. At which point you probably don't make the tournament. What happens then? I think you've got to look at making a change because you have no recruit signed up so your future's not looking that great. There would be people like my mom who would be very upset about it.

Because they love him. He is like every person like everyone over 40 wants this to work so much. Yeah. I and still do really like Joker Phillips. Okay, but that's not fair because Joker never had any success. Mark went to the Sweet 16 last year.

After Joker's second year, you had to say goodbye. But he had had no success. I don't think you can say Mark's had no success. I think last year was successful. So you think last year buys him another year? Well, I don't know what I think. You're all of us right now. Nobody knows what you think.

I don't know. It never occurred to me we would be this bad. It occurred to me that we might not be great. It never occurred to me we would be this bad. I did not think there was any way you could have this many players that on paper were good and be this bad. Because it's not just that we're nine and six, although that's bad. It's that we have gotten destroyed against good teams, and we just lost to Missouri at home. This is the worst home loss.

I just want to be clear. Besides the COVID year, I'm just going to throw the COVID year out. Okay. Besides the COVID year, I think this is the worst loss. Besides that game's Cal lost to South Carolina, you remember that? Yeah. This is the worst home loss at least since Billy. Besides the, I think the South Carolina loss was worse,

and a couple of those COVID losses were worse. But even in the COVID losses, the arena wasn't full. So, like, besides the South Carolina game, I think this is maybe the worst loss they've had. Kentucky was a 12-and-a-half-point favorite, I think it tip off. At home. But it also, the game was the swing game. Had to have it.

Had to win. Had to win it. When you're up, like you said, eight points with four and a half minutes to go at home against a team you're better than, close out the game. Do you agree worse besides? I mean, South Carolina game was worse. They finished like one in 15 that year or two and 14 or whatever.

I mean, they did lose to Evansville. When was that? Was that? COVID year. COVID year. Awful. Yeah. Or maybe that wasn't the COVID year.

I don't remember. That was a bad one too. It was a bad one. Lost to UNC Wilmington. Yep. Yeah. 859-28027. All right.

We will take your calls right for this. This is KSR. T.J. Smith, personal injury attorney. Call T. T.J., he'll make them pay. Now, more of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Here's Matt Jones. Welcome back, Tucky Sports Radio.

859-28022-287. Text machine is 772-75-45-4. I'm going to go to to the phones. One person writes, Matt, the only highlight of the game last night was Tom Hart reading Mario's Instagram quote

and saying the prove-it state. Most people heard him say that Missouri was the prove-it state. But I don't know, Shannon, that everybody heard him read Mario's Instagram. I missed it. And I watched the entire game. I missed it.

I didn't hear it either. He did. He read Mario's Instagram quote from his Atlanta trip where he says, the lessons you learn, and the growth you experience is never spontaneous. How did he work that in?

It was like coming out of commercial or something. He was like, the lessons you learned, and the growth you experience is never spontaneous. We'll be right back. Wise words. Wise words. So that was a deep cut. I got to say, only like two people wrote me on the text machine

and said they heard that. I give you to a salute. You get the KSRBC. sides. The prove it, so the Prove-it state, if you heard that one, you're a KSR fan. Yeah. But if you got the Mario

Instagram quote, then that's a deep... Kudos to you. Kudos to you. You guys get the official award for the month. One of the highlights of the game. Outside of that, Coach Pope dropped an F-bomb, I think, on camera. Okay, so he did cuss. I didn't see the F-bomb. I saw the S-bomb.

Yeah. Or B-S. Same scenario. He was on the baseline, and he dropped the F-bomb, and then when the camera was on his face, he said the poopy word. Do you like the name for when he does that as dark pope? Yes, love it. I think that's good. Because it's Mark Dark.

What? We need more of that. I'm going to say that. That's the little more dark Pope. I've ever seen him fired up in two years on the side line. And then you, Ryan made freezing cold takes last night. Did you know that? No, I didn't know that.

There's a Twitter account called Freezing Cold Takes. Uh-huh. And it retweets when people predict really bad things. Yes. I've been on there multiple times. My Arkansas thing's been on there at least three times. You made it last night. You made freezing cold takes with your, I think that Otega O'WA shot has changed the season.

Well, I got hacked at half time. After hit that shot, somebody hacked my account. But are you excited? I think that's the first time you've ever made freezing cold takes. I put it on my resume now that I've made freezing cold takes. And then Tyler Thompson made freezing cold takes last night, too. What was hers? It wasn't her.

It was when she retweeted, or when she tweeted out that Mark Pope said he was sitting on a Ferrari. So that really wasn't her take. She was just saying what he had said. I really had it feeling that that shot was going to not just turn the game around, turn the season around for us. I believed in him. I was thinking, is that the, like, that's got to be one of the longest shots in UK history. Oh, yeah.

I asked Tom Leach about that. What did he say? Well, he said there was one that was longer. I can't remember who he said that made. Well, isn't, there's a legendary shot at Memorial Coliseum where was it Frank Hatton shot from the others? Vern. Vernon. And they had a little steak in the floor where he shot.

Was that farther than always? If I remember seeing what the steak was, it was definitely farther. That was at Memorial Coliseum. So this may be the longest shot ever at Rupp. Okay. But for a UK game, you think that was closer than Vern Hatton? Yes. Yeah, I believe it was.

But it might be the second longest. Maybe. Yeah. I don't remember one longer, do you? No, not that long. We've had half-court shots, quickly hit one. Keldon Johnson hit one. But that was three-quarter cord.

And I just knew it, man. I felt it in my bones. Things were going to turn around right there. And that was a freezing cold take. Hacked. Who's up next? Let's start with Mike. Mike. Go ahead, Mike.

Hey, Matt. So, I guess I'll start off of football. Listen, I'm not trying to be overly. pessimistic here, but I feel like we kind of settled for the QV that we got. I think Sam Levitt could be really, really special. And I guess he hasn't committed anywhere, and that's fine. But what if, I mean, let's be real, okay, on talking about that for a second. Sam Levitt had the option to go to LSU.

May still, he hasn't, he's at Tennessee this week. You know, he went to Texas, or he was going to go to Texas Tech. They ended up getting another guy. if you're will I will agree with you Sam Levitt would have been a safer choice but if you're Will Stein and his brothers

Sam Levitt's brothers say we're not going to decide to this weekend and we're going to visit LSU and we're going to visit Tennessee if you're Will Stein LSU and Tennessee are both better programs with coaches who've had more success

with quarterbacks at least in the short term I mean, you can't wait, because chances are when you can't wait. Like, what are you supposed to do? No, I guess my biggest fear is that he goes to Tennessee and just light. If he does, he does, but like we can't hold him hostage and make him come here. If he chooses to go to Tennessee, he chooses to go. I mean, I don't think you, you know, if I'm choosing between marrying Giselle and Gertrude, it might be settling to take Gertrude, but I can't make Giselle marry me.

Okay. Also, I think you and Wilmington. I think that was worse. Yeah, no, I think it probably was. Yeah, I appreciate the call. Oh, and I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Go ahead. Sorry, one last thing. Please continue to respect there in TLS, and you've got to clean up some of those Instagram likes, Matt. I see some of the as reals you'd be like, and they're a little salacious. I appreciate the call. I don't think I... Clean up the LTS.

I don't know what that means. I don't either. Well, but back to what I'm saying about the... You know, the quarterback. I understand... If you had gotten Levin, the number one quarterback, you want that. Yeah. But if you can't get it, you can't get it.

What's the saying? A bird in the hands, better two in the bush? Yeah, that's it. You got it right. Thank you. Good job. You got the same right. I slept in a Holiday Express last night. Okay, I wish you would stop saying that.

But go ahead. So if Levitt is like flirting with other girls, if you got another girl coming your way, I'm going to go for the other girl. I'm not going to wait around and wait for the hot girl. I'm going to get the next girl coming my way. Speak for yourself. I feel like mine was better, my analogy.

It also was the same, that was the exact same way you made. He's going to take the first thing that comes at him. He's not going to worry about the heart. girl. I'm just agreeing with what you're saying. Well, you can't take it. But, I mean, we still got a top 10 quarterback. He's ranked 10th. Right? I mean, like, when's the last time we had a top 10 quarterback?

That's why, I think I said this, the day committed, people act like 10th is awful. We're never 10th in football. No. Especially not for a quarterback. If we were to come in 10th in football, first of all, we'd make

the playoff. Everyone around here would lose their mind. Yes. And then people are like, and I have a shadow for the 10th one, this Kentucky football.

Isn't that good? No. How many times in history, in history, have we had, how many seasons, one of the 10 best quarterbacks in history?

Let's just, we'll go with my lifetime. Tim Couch. Yes. I mean, maybe Jared and Andre. That's it. And maybe Will Levis.

I don't think he was top 10, was he? Well, he got picked in the draft. I'd say he probably was like 8 to 10. Okay. So four seasons in our lifetime. That's the list. And I'm not sure Jared and Andre would necessarily have made it.

They would have been close. Yeah. That's pretty good. Now, I'm not saying this kid's going to be one of the 10 best. I'm just saying the fact that he's ranked there means it was worth a shot. A dude that almost was a starting quarterback at Notre Dame. I think he can work out here. I think we'll take him, yes.

Yeah. Who's next? Let's go to David. David, go ahead, David. Go on. First time, long time. Huah. All right.

Mark Pope is, obviously, a former player of Petinos, and Petino's teams are always named early on. And, of course, you had the unforgettable, I think the unbeatables, the untouchables. This team, especially without low playing, are the unwatchables. They're hard to watch. I think they're hard to watch. They're incredibly hard to watch with low. I think they are a hard, hard, hard, hard team to watch. You got to love it.

You got to love it to watch them. You do. Poking your eyes with scissors, man. They're extremely hard to watch. There's no offensive execution whatsoever. Yeah, I appreciate the call. All right, so tomorrow. Tomorrow we are at Cornbread Hemp.

I'd love to see all the folks out at Louisville. Don't let the fact that our team isn't good not allow us to have fun. Have a good time. Because we're going to give things away. We're going to dance Yes, it's buy one, get one free Yes They don't sell the selters in store

I saw that You can thank Mitch McConnell There we go It was this parting shot to America Is you can't sell the seltzers in store But they got everything else All the other products are bogos Apparently you can like order online in store

Which is stupid Stupid rules But anyway, everything else is buy one get one free They'll have samples Nice Which means Shannon will probably have a crowd of people feeling good. Yep.

They make me feel good. So where is it? 4612 Shuff Avenue. But Shuff is spelled weird, isn't it? S-C-H-U-F-F. S-C-H-U-F-F. 46-12 Shuff Avenue tomorrow in Louisville. I'm going to Louisville tonight to sort of be prepared,

and then I'll be at Shuff Avenue tomorrow. We've been there before, and it's kind of a cool place. It is. Like you can see through the window and watch them making it. Right. It's kind of cool. It's like old school. Like if you were to go into a factory and you see, you watch the, you can,

watch the gummies being made. Yes, yeah. From the very big, they pour it into the little mold and they're baking. From the time the gummy crops come out of the womb. Yeah. All the way through the boxes. It was kind of a cool show to come to. That's right.

We'll take a break. Be right back. 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 there.

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

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To talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that can't. 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 Ledecki. 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 IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports.

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 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. Welcome back, Techie Sports Radio. 8992-2287.

Text Machine 7772-745254. We tomorrow are in Louisville. I'm going to go ahead and warn you. Well, first of all, one thing people might enjoy my interrupted podcast today, Billy, to his credit, found a Venezuela expert. Oh, yeah? Somebody who follows Venezuela, has covered it for years to talk about what happened in Venezuela. So we're interviewing him today.

So I don't know anything about him. Billy found him, Shannon. If it's a disaster, we blame Billy. That's good. It's all on Billy. If it's good, I'll take credit. I'll also give Billy credit for it. Yes, I mean, he found the guy and we're interviewing him today at four.

So it'll be on WHS tonight, six, but also on podcast tonight. You know, I need to listen to it to figure out what the heck is really going on down there. What's going on down there? To be honest with you? It's already happened. It's for you. I appreciate that. Yes.

Because it's, you're, I actually, can I tell you something? Yeah. This is a compliment. Okay. It's not going to sound like what. But it is a compliment. I was interviewed. They're doing a profile of me for Kentucky Monthly magazine.

Are interviewing me this afternoon about you? Oh, they are. Yeah. They asked me if they can interview you, Drew and Myron. They specifically said they didn't want to interview you, Shannon. That's fine. I don't want to talk to them anyway. Drew, you and Myron.

I don't have time for them. But they asked me, they said, how do you decide when you're talking about current events, like how to talk about it? And I said, I try to explain everything like I'm talking to rhyme. I'm not offended. I think that's a compliment. I thought it was a compliment, too. I'm glad you're taking it like that.

Somebody who's so out of touch and has no idea what's going on. I didn't say all that. That's Shannon saying. I said I just try to explain it as if I'm talking to Ryan because I feel like if I can make you understand. Uh-huh. Then everyone can understand. Yeah. That's a compliment.

I think that I represent the common man. so I'm not offended at all. I think you do too. Yeah. Yes, I think you do too. The Reds have opted out of their TV deal, which means we don't know what it means. They don't know where the Reds games are going to be on TV this year.

Might be over a free channel this year, or it might be on the MLB app. So, like, you could get it as, like, part of, if you live in the area, you might be able to get it for free. Yeah. The point being a lot of people haven't gotten to see the Reds games because if you had YouTube TV, you couldn't get it and all that. You might now be able to get it because they've opted out of their Fandual TV app. Well, let me tell you a little problem about the MLV app because I've had it.

They won't give you the Reds games here. They black them out. That's true, but they won't do it this year because they don't have any other partner. Oh, that's good. You see what I'm saying? So, like, that's how it's been because they've wanted you to buy Fandual TV. Right. But apparently this year, until they find another partner, they might give the games free on the app.

They've already done that for like five other teams around the country. But you would have to live in Cincinnati or Lexington. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. You'd have to live in the Reds TV demo. If you lived in Nashville, you would still have to pay for it. I see. Well, that is something big because, you know, you've not been able to watch the Reds games.

I have. I have, but I bought it. You bought the package. But if you didn't buy it, you couldn't watch it. Did you renew your season tickets? I did. Thankfully, they raised the price, which is good. Thank you, Reds.

They also decided I thought this was a little sneaky I sit on the aisle Yeah Now aisle seats are quote unquote Premium And they cost a little more Come on now

I like the aisle But they weren't premium before Did you keep them? Yeah Because I don't want to crawl over people But I thought that was a little I'm for all this But you better resign Ellie

How can they not Because he's going to cost a lot of money They have to. Yeah. They have to re-sign that guy. Yeah. I think we can be good this year, but they still haven't found the other bat. They still need one more bat.

Who's next? By the way, real quick, the longest shot at Rupp Arena, according to Tom Leach. Bo Lanter. Do you know that name? Todd Lantor's dad has the longest shot at U.K. Yeah, he didn't say how many feet from the basket it was. Bo Lantor has the highest shot? Longest shot?

Yep. Wow. A few people would come up with that name. Wow. There you go. I wonder if anyone remembers that. I don't know. Bo Lantter with that.

the longest shot. Yep. Scoop is up next. All right, Scoop, go ahead. Yeah, guys, I guess the biggest frustration I've got is the fact that you've been with these guys for seven months. And as a coach, you can't get them to buy into your system. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, first of all, let's go back and take a look at what we did against Purdue in the preseason. Yep. I mean, where is that team? I mean, you can sit there and point fingers and Diabot, they can stand over there. I saw a clip last night where coach was getting in his face and he's spouting back and that. I mean, that's what we get when it's come down to nothing but money for these kids today. Yeah, I got to stop you.

I got to stop you on that. It's coming for money. How do you explain these other teams that are making money being good? Well, that's what I want to say. We got a coach that for some reason, I don't. know what his offensive system is. I saw a clip two last night. Okay, I agreed with you with the first point, but let me go back to your second point, because this is a very common theme people keep saying, well, none of these kids care. It's all about money. What about these other schools?

Like, that explanation does not work if these other schools are playing well. If you go look at the teams that spent the most money on their recruits this year, they're good. Michigan, Texas Tech, Duke, Yukon, those teams are good. We're not. It's not the money. It's us. Yeah, and it starts at the head of the coaching staff.

I can't accept that. What I don't like is the fact that we have teams like Missouri and Vanderbilt and Georgia and all these teams that are in our conference that have guys that aren't four stars, five stars, wherever you want to call it. And somehow their coaches are getting their kids to buy in. That I agree with. When you took this job, when you took this job, Mark, you told the fan base, I know what it means to wear this jersey, and it's about hanging banners.

Yeah. Well, right now, I don't know if you're cut out for it because you're not getting these guys to understand what Kentucky basketball is. Well, I appreciate the call. I agree with all of that except the default explanation of, well, they're getting money. Okay. But so is everybody else, and they're beating us. So, I mean, the money is not, the money only works as an explanation if you pick guys who can't handle the money, and then that's on you.

Right? I mean, I will say, we had a player go online and sell hats after the game. That's a bad look. Really bad look after a loss like that. But that's on your coach and your program. And I would say, you know, I mean, you don't have to search hard to find who it was. It's probably not who people think it was. Yeah.

Right? It's probably not who you thought it was that did it. Now, they took it down, but the fact that they thought to do it is a problem. The fact that one of our players, 30 minutes after the game, puts three highlights of him playing well, is a problem. And that's a culture problem, and that's a coaching problem. We talked a lot about culture in the end of Mark Stoop's era. Yeah. Is there a culture issue in basketball?

I mean, I think it's not been good in the last few weeks at least. 859-28027. We're here at KS Bar and Grill. We're about to open and have a little chow. We'll take a break and be right back. Kentucky Sports Radio. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite.

Unhumor me with Robert Smigel 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 headwriter 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 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 the game. 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 SportsSlice on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife-Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hardway with your favorite therapist and host secure games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that

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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.