KSR - 2026-02-11- KSR - Hour 1

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

KSR is Live at KSBar & Grille talking what is success for Kentucky basketball, the El Paso airport being shut down, and 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 headlines. 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. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Clivert 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, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue 42. A rep. My mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's he at?

Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford Show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season.

And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming until he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs.

This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Comedy Off Broadway in Lexington welcomes the hilarious New York comedian Phil Hanley, February 5th through the 7th. Then it's the return of the G.T. finalist and Impressionist Greg Morton. February 12 through the 14. And don't miss legendary comedian and podcaster Greg Fitzs. Simmons, February 19th through the 21st.

For tickets to all comedy off Broadway shows, call 859-271 joke or visit Comedy OffBroadway.com. This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now, here's Matt Jones. Welcome, everyone. It's Kentucky Sports Radio Wednesday. February the 11th. I'm Matt Jones here live in Lexington, Kentucky at the KS Bar and Grill. You can give it a shout on the Clark's Pubpit Shop phone line.

8859-280-2-807. A-Vision Autoglass Text Machine is 772-7-7-4. This edition is sponsored by the T.J. Smith Law Office. You call T.J. O make them pay. We are here at KS. Bar and Grill. It is Wingsday. It is also the KSR Pickham Day. And we got a full house, me, Ryan, and Drew. Mario's here. Where are you from, sir? What'd you say? Pikeville. You said Pikeville like somebody from Pikeville, too. Yes, he did. I heard a Pikeville there.

He's been in here before, I recognize. Yeah, 859-28022A. I love people from Pipeville, so nice to be here with you and ready for, you know, normally we'd have a game tonight or last night, but midweek off and here we are. It was weird even last night. There were only two SEC basketball games last night. This is a slow week, it seems like, for everybody. A lot of teams are, I think this is the last buy week for some teams, so a lot of teams off.

And, you know, give you a chance to reset here, Drew. It is odd. I mean, one, we're coming back for San Francisco. I've already adjusted that. But now it's like, well, where's my Kentucky basketball? My body clock is just expecting a game today. But that's all right. We're glad to be here.

And tonight is the KS. Bar Pickham, sponsored by Cornbread Him. So here's what's going to happen tonight. I've picked. Basically, you can look at your little score sheet, and every game at 7 or 7.30 tonight in college basketball, you're picking. So, like, Ryan, you have the time to research. There's only like 11. Okay. Six of them are on TV.

We'll be playing to me. Nice. You have to be here and get you. So I said 630, but you've got to get your picks in before the games tip off. Okay. And we'll do something. It'll be a whole thing through the, it'll go through about 9, 930. And at the end, money will be given, I think $1,000 for first place and $300 for second and $200 for third.

And it'll be excellent. And I don't know. See, we've never done this. So I don't know how many people are going to be here. You know, it might be, might be a lot of people, might be just a few people in which way you're going to win. So we'll see what happens. I'm actually so excited about this. I'm coming tonight and I'm bringing yoga girl with me.

We're kind of coming with me. We're both coming tonight. She can play. I can't play, but you can't win the money. Yeah, I'm going to play and try to show my, you know, because I know ball. So I'll probably, you know, I might win the thing. What ball do you know? You're welcome you guys sit up here.

Yeah, you know ball? Yeah, I know ball. So I may win the contest, but I won't take the money. All right, well, good. Well, we'll put you up against the masses. Okay. So I looked at the games. There's like 10 or 11.

Most of them are major teams. Yeah. Right? So most of the games are major teams, and you'll be picking not only who wins in the spread, but you'll also be picking high scores. So you might need to take a second to kind of look at the rock. We'll be picking high scores of the big games. I'm not going to make you pick like Western Michigan's high score.

But, you know, so you may have to do that on a few. So you're picking just money line? You're picking against the spread. You'll find out tonight. You don't have to get all the rules right now. Some of it is supposed to be a surprise. You just go look at the game. Gotcha.

And try to get a feel of the team. I got a great feel because I know ball. All right. Who's playing the night? Duke. Duke played last night. North Carolina. Okay.

None of these. Florida, Georgia. North Carolina lost in Miami last night. Florida Georgia is a big one. Alabama Ole Miss. Our friends, you know, we did the pregame show out west, and it felt like everyone in Clemson was out there. Now, they're home tonight. I hope

everyone made it back for that. Yeah, just so you know, you've got Yukon. Here are the games that will be on tonight. Florida, Georgia, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Yukon Butler, Colorado, Texas Tech. Okay, those are all the ones that we will be competing it with. And then, let's see. I think Michigan plays tonight, too, if we want to include them. They're pretty good.

Iowa, Maryland, well, we won't miss that one starts at six. So the game's starting at seven begin. Florida, Georgia, Virginia Tech, Clemson, American Lehigh, California, Syracke, and then there are many others. I'm not going to read all these. But Alabama Ole Miss is one of them.

Nice. So, you excited? Oh, I tell you, I'm so excited. I'm dragging a yoga girl with me tonight. We're going to have a party. Don't drag her. Just ask her if she would like to come, get in the car, drive with you. We don't drag people to things.

We just bring them. Florida looks like a juggernaut right now, but we need to root for Georgia because if Georgia wins tonight, Saturday will be for first place. Well, Saturday's first place anyway, because if we beat them. We could tie them. If we beat them, we would be tied with them in Arkansas, and we have the tiebreaker on both of them. Right. So, like, we Saturday have a chance to do something historic.

Or I don't know if it's historic. But it would be good, which would be the – Shocking. It would be shocking. I think when you start 0 and 2 to then lead the conference after 11 games, it would be amazing. When one of the two was Missouri at home. Yeah, exactly. They put that graphic up last night during the Vanderbilt game,

And there's Kentucky sitting in second place behind Florida. Like, oh, my goodness, how did this happen? Yeah. All right. So let's talk about, so yesterday I filmed. I sound so old when I said. You in the 70s? Yesterday I filmed.

Yesterday I recorded a podcast with Field of 68. That's Jeff Goodman and Rob Doster, which they put up this morning. And I don't want you to stop the show to listen to it. But when the show is over, it's a very good interview. I tweeted out. I think it's on YouTube. We talk for like 30 minutes. And for people who say, Matt, why don't you all do more like serious ball talk?

This is serious ball talk. So if you like 30 minutes of serious UK basketball talk, that's what it is. And the first 15 or 20 minutes is them interviewing me. But then the last 10 or 15 minutes is almost me interviewing them. They're asking me about how the fans are. how the team is, et cetera. And then at the end, I talked to them about some of the stuff with recruiting. So I want to go on both things and get your own take on it.

The first thing is during my part, they're asking me questions, and one of the things they say is what is success for UK this year? All right? What is success for UK this year? And I'll summarize my answer, and I want to see if you all disagree. My answer was basically, if you look at the big picture of what we thought at the beginning of the season, chances are low, it's going to be successful because we were like we could win the title.

I said, but then if you consider where we are now, today, I would say if two of these three things happen, I would consider success. Coming to top three in the SEC, which I think would be really impressive with what our schedule is left, make a run to the championship game of the SEC tournament, considering we've only been to Saturday once since 2019. Which is crazy.

Or second weekend of the NCAA. And I said if you got two of those three, you'd have to call it successful. And even if you got one, it would be okay if you get zero unsuccessful. That's how I was. Would you agree or disagree with that? I'm one of the same wavelength. I want the double-by in the SEC tournament. That would mean top four.

And I want to at least get to the weekend. I mean, you know, you said championship game. I think I'd be happy just to get to Saturday, just to finally get to the weekend of the SEC tournament. But I'm thinking in my mind, maybe I'm still holding on to our dreams of the preseason. I think we've got to get to the Sweet 16. Not just to the Second weekend means the Sweet 16. Well, I thought you meant like the Elite 8. Well, that's not.

Second weekend is the Sweet 16 is played in the second week. Yeah, to me, I'd be very happy with that. Okay. Yeah, that's the second weekend. All right, what about you? Yeah, I'm so conflicted because I hate lowering my expectations. from the beginning, but I feel like you have to acknowledge the injuries. I mean, a lot of stuff, I think, is on, the team is still in my mind not constructed the best,

and I still don't know how good they really are. I lower my bar just a little bit for the injuries. I think you've got to get second weekend, anything first weekend. We really do start becoming. Anything first weekend, let's say we came in second, because I could see this scenario. We come in second in the SEC. We have the championship game. but we're still at that point probably a five seed in the tournament

well don't be a five that's my thing don't be a five seed then like we can't just keep saying it's good i mean but if we do if we do year after year of will this happen will that happen then you're just you're just not what you once were at some point we have to say first weekend sucks i don't care what happened and that should be kentucky standard all right shannon what about you so yeah for me it all depends on what happens in march so so for you regular season doesn't matter yeah i mean well i mean if you get to the tournament, you're going to have a decent regular season. So I would say you need to make it to the Sweet 16 at least. It'd be nice to make it to the championship game of the SEC tournament,

but even if you don't, as long as you get to the Sweet 16, you match what happened last year, I think that's the success. Well, I would just note that to get to the Sweet 16 probably will require Kentucky to pull an upset. I mean, and that upset could be being a six to be to three, being a five to be to four. It also could be an eight to be to one. or a seven to beat it two. I mean, we still potentially have a lot of losses on this schedule. So I do think to get to a sweet 16 probably requires an upset. So that was conversation one, and let me know what you think.

772-745-25-4 a call. Like, what do you think consider success? I said two of those three things. The next thing we talk about, and I would say for you regular listeners of this show, you kind of know my opinion on things. I think you'll really be interested in the last tenor. 15 minutes because it kind of flips. You know, I have a hard time

not being in control. No, now, don't be so hard on yourself. I mean, I... Don't beat yourself up. I know. Come on, it's okay. I mean, I know you all probably don't want to say it. And it's not a big issue. It might be a little issue.

Right. We'll say it. We'll say it. Control freak. Yeah, maybe a little. Maybe the most. Most I've ever met my life. You don't need to We don't need to just keep going. So I kind of flip it in the second half,

and I almost start interviewing them. They probably like that. I think they did, actually. And I said, I got a question for you. I asked them if they had read that KSR article a month ago about the recruiting. And they said they did. And I said, was it correct? Essentially, what do you think about Kentucky's recruiting?

and they almost went even farther than that article. They said Kentucky is way behind in how to recruit in today's college basketball. They said not only does Kentucky need a GM, they need a GM that's way different than what they have right now. He said Mark Pope assembled a group of coaches that are used to recruiting pre and Iowa. They were great recruiters pre-NIL. And he said now, Jeff Goodman was like, now being a recruiter in the NIL is you got to be connected to the world of agents. He was like, Mark Pope's staff is connected to the world of AAU, which is what you used to do.

But now you've got to know agents because they're negotiating the deals. And he compared it to Duke, where the woman that's in charge at Duke, she used to work for Nike, And she knows all these agents. They're her friends. She throws dinners for these agents. She takes them out because that's what she used to do at Nike. And now she runs Duke. He was like, that's what you got to do.

Kentucky not only has no GM at all when all these other schools have them, they don't have anyone that's even in that world. And so a lot of the times when they're having conversations with these agents, they're just meeting them or barely know them. Whereas the Duke people have been going out to dinner with them for 10 years. And they were like, Kentucky has to change that. And Rob Doste was like, they got to do it quick. Because this starts in April.

This idea we might hire a GM. They're like, if they're going to hire GM, they've got to do it like now. Because they got to start getting players first of April. I found that fascinating. What do you think about? One, it kind of surprises me to hear that. You'd think Mark Pope, they're so. you know, modernized basketball and proactive about things.

I'm almost surprised they're not ahead of the curve. But modernized in coaching, but maybe not in this new thing that they do. But he was, they were adamant. They were like, Kentucky needs to hire a GM and they need to do it right now. Like they cannot wait because the moment the season's over, this will start. And if they don't have one, they're going to be screwed. There are many top players left even out there. They said that most programs, Drew, their GM doesn't even go to practice.

All they do is spend their time watching other teams in the country to get ready for a portal season. Yeah, we all have been on the camp. If we needed those a long time, just hearing that from two national guys furthers that opinion. And, you know, we heard from agents in the summer and then that article that the guys did of being a little too emotional. And I think that's because he loves Kentucky so much. And, you know, we want this to exist where you say, come play for Kentucky. But honestly, that doesn't. At the negotiating table, that doesn't carry much weight.

And I worry with Pope, he's putting too much on that when these agents are like, what is the dollar amount? And then that's what's deciding at the end of the day. And to the extent, like, when Vince Merrill was really good at recruiting here for football, a lot of it was his relationships with high school coaches, et cetera. They're like, now those relationships have to be agents. And you need to go. I think Goodman said, Pope needs to go into that world.

and bring in somebody that he probably doesn't even know, but did he better learn? And again, they kept saying Duke does it the best. Like Duke went and hired the person at Nike who was in charge of dealing with agents. Well, that's smart. That is very smart. Right.

This shouldn't be this hard with the NBA connection. I mean, we have the reigning MVP in the NBA. I mean, Devin Booker is a superstar. They should be using that more than they do. I know we take pictures of them and there's the connection and they come back. But there has to be a way to. help that with recruiting and Nike and all the stuff that comes with it when you have some of the stars at the next level.

So, 8.5, 9, 2807. I would encourage people to listen to that to hear their opinion. Because when that article came out, you know, a lot of people were like, I don't know what I think of that. These are people with no connection to Kentucky essentially making the same point. We will take a break and be right back. We are here at KS Bar and Grill. Wingsday. This is Kentucky Sports Radio.

Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves.

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Welcome back. It is Kentucky. Sports Radio 859-2-80-2-80-27. Text machine is 772-7-7-4-5-254. Seems like most people kind of agree with us on what is success. Probably somewhere in between me and Drew. There are people who are saying, got to go to the second weekend. I haven't seen anybody say you've got to go to the Final Four.

That's good. So that does mean that people have understood that maybe we've taken. One person says, Matt, I do worry that both of those conversations you had suggests Kentucky lowering its standards both in success and how we do things in the offseason. Well, maybe, you know, we used to say Cal needed to change, and we've talked all about that style play, et cetera. Well, I do think Pope needs to maybe change in just understand. I think Pope's a control freak. Cal was definitely a control freak. I think Pope's a control freak in a little bit of a different way in the sense of like he wants to surround himself with his people and it may

just be time you have to go outside the box I mean those guys know that world better than me drew and so that's why I wanted to ask those questions and uh it further confirmed kind of what the kSR article said what we said the only thing we didn't I didn't really ask about the jMI stuff I don't even know to what extent they know about that but but they were all adamant about the I completely agree and you know we don't like to say this out loud but we're in two years we'll have one title in 30 years

and we're creeping up on one final four in 15 years I mean that's not good for what we say is the gold standard so there needs to be some urgency in finding success again or that Indiana conversation gets pretty real boy that one final four so right now we still got a while before

the one of 15 years it's been 10 though yeah our last final four was 2015 which it doesn't feel like that long ago, but that's a long time ago. But if every year we go, well, but, well, but, well, but, well, but, we're Kentucky. At that point, no, you're not a gold standard. You're just well-button, you're Tennessee

football on yourself every year. You don't want to just keep well- saying, well-in-well-in-ex year's the year. You just don't want to just keep well-bought. At some point, we have to be honest of what's happening, and not a lot has happened lately. One person says, Matt, why do you sound drunk in that video on field? I don't know. I got to figure that out. There's something about when I film these

interviews, I think it's mostly at my Lexington house. But I don't know why. Both on my phone and on that thing, it makes me sound like, it makes me sound like when Shannon slows my ad reads down to finish the 60 seconds. And I don't know what it is.

I don't know. Can the internet be like a millisecond slow? It's got to be a, yeah, if it's affecting everything you do in that place, it's got to be the wireless connection. Because, you know, when I used to do those Twitter spaces, It sounded like I had a list. Yeah.

And this one, it's not bad. It's just like I'm a quarter second slow. There's got to be some kind of lag on the streaming between you. But it doesn't happen when I do it in Louisville. And it doesn't usually happen even when I do it like in my car. But for some reason. In your house. In my house in Lexington.

You pay in your Wi-Fi bill? You got good Wi-Fi? You go cheap on that? I think I pay 75% of it. So I feel like that should. You don't have like the knock-off live-fi? I feel like that should work. All right.

Before, I want to go to the phones. 859, 28027. Yes, conspiracy theories were a big thing. We do have to talk for just a second about this El Paso thing for a second, Shannon. I feel like you'd like that. Did you see what happened? I don't know that I know this story. So late last night at 11 o'clock, they closed the El Paso airport and all airspace around El Paso.

And they said for 10 days, no explanation. First time in American history besides 9-11, where they, close for multiple days in airspace. And so everybody's like, what's going on? That's close to the border. So some people thought, wait a minute, are we invading Mexico? This morning when I woke up, like everyone was guessing, nuclear test, all this stuff. And then at 845 this morning, they opened it back up.

And they just say, we're opening it back up. but no explanation for why last night it was closed for 10 days. Now, they did put out a statement right before the show that said it was just miscommunication between the Department of Defense and the FAA. That feels like a pretty big miscommunication. We're going to shut down an entire airspace for 10 days.

Oh, wait a minute. Sorry, wrong number. Whoops. Whoops. So my thought is they were going to do something And then overnight everybody was like wait a minute What are you doing And then maybe they changed their mind

What do you think? So there was a report this morning That was drones What do you mean it was drones Drones? You can't just say drones What does that mean? Some sort of drones on the military base or something was So they were going to just fly?

But what do you mean drones? I don't know What are they up to? He heard a report this morning That it was Are drones? I'm not. Not sure. I think President Trump said it was Mexican cartel.

Mexican cartel drones. That's what Trump said this morning or something like that. Where did he say that? Did any of this? First of all, is any of this real news? It was on the news report during on the radio this morning. They said Trump said Mexican cartel drones. One of the... Here we go. I found it from the AP. Do we trust the AP? No, I trust the AP. Okay. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said... Oh, that's a dude from the real world.

said that the FAA and the Defense Department, and here's we got quotation marks, acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized and there's no danger. So cartel drones. I don't believe that for one second. I don't believe that either. Cartel drones. Why would you need to shut it for 10 days?

Like if it was a cartel drone, why would you just be like, all right, we got to stop it for a minute, we'll get the drone? All right now open. Why would you say we're going to be close for 10 days? I'm not believing in cartel drones. I mean, there may have been a cartel drone. I'm not saying, but like I don't, the 10 days is the part I don't understand. Like, 10 days is a long time. Were the airlines shut down for 10 days after 9-11?

I don't think it was that long. It was that long. 10 days would have been, I think, the longest shutdown in American history. And ended up being, what, 10 hours or something? Yeah. So I don't know. I could believe it was drones, but I can't believe the 10. 10 days. Something is a muck.

Or it was a muck. Maybe they stopped the muck. But something was happening. All right. We'll take your calls. It's right for this. 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. Did that air? Did that get on? I don't think they got on. Yeah, I did it? I fell in love with a Mexican drone. 859-280-2287. Okay, so somebody writes, Matt, maybe it was they said 10 hours, but the miscommunication was they thought they said 10 days.

It was about 10 hours. It was about 10 hours. Seems a pretty blatant mistake. I would still want more competence for my people making decisions. That actually makes me more concerned. We don't know the difference. 10 hours. Okay, days, got it.

I don't believe it was just a drone. If it's just a drone, why do you say 10 days? I mean, they initiated the biggest air, because 9-11 was apparently eight days. Okay. So they initiated the biggest air shutdown in American history. I can't imagine that's just because of a drone. It reeks of something bigger they're trying to cover up, right? Or miscommunication of 10 hours, 10 days.

That's actually the second most plausible. It's a big miscommunication. That is a big miscommunication. All right, one more thing, and then I do one. If we're going to do conspiracy, what do we think about Savannah Guthrie's mother thing? I am so, and Shannon and I were just talking about during the break. I'm into it. I mean, like last night especially.

Are you trying to solve it? I just like listening to all the updates. Okay. Here, there's a 94.5, mix 94. So you're getting your updates from the pop station. Yeah. They have a true crime radio show every night. You're not getting it from the news.

You're getting it from Mix 94.5 in between the James Taylor and Neil Diamond song. Well, they have a true crime show every night. They don't play music. They have this true crime show every night. So they stop the music to do that? They stop the music to do true crime. Yes. Now, what would say, Shannon, why do they do that?

We have our answer right here because this man will listen to him. And last night, this news was breaking in real time. as I'm in the car, like they arrested a suspect. They've released the video of a prowler. I mean, it was all happening. And like I was watching CNN or something. But no, you were listening to Mix 904.5. Live on the air.

He's a company man. I got to give him that. I'm so ridiculous. You get your news from Mix 94.5. It's a great radio show. You should listen to it. What's it called? True Crime Show.

X-94-5. That is amazing. My band's like, all right, how do I get the latest? And they were all over it. The rap station was in commercial. Breaking news, like live on the spot. Oh, we've got to take a commercial break. We'll be right back.

Come back and be something else happened. Christmas music. Isn't that the Mix-Mist station? Yes, it is. True crime, Christmas music. Boy, they do a lot of Mix-94-5. Shout out to I-Heart Radio. How do we beat them in the ratings with all of this information?

Before their show. is Mario Lopez has a show. So you can give Mario Lopez. About what? When you said, we don't know much about Ryan, this is what I'm talking about. We learned so much when he starts talking. That's true. We don't know about his brain because it operates in odd ways.

Okay, so they released the thing, the pictures of him. Apparently, because he disabled the camera. Yeah. But I guess ring or whatever, whatever kind of camera they had, they apparently, and by the way, this was good in this instance, but something for people to think about, even when the camera ain't on, they still got it. Yep. Because they went in the archives, and even though the camera had been disabled and all that

and turned off, they still had it. Just something for people to remember, like, you think this stuff is not there, it is. In this case, it was positive. They see the pictures of him. He's wearing like an old-school mask, like a mask from like a 1970s movie. You know, it was like a ski mask. ski mask. He seemed to unprepared too because he just picked up a random bush to cover the camera.

Very nice to lie. If he was a pro, I thought he'd have better gear than that. He's like, let me use this random shrub. Didn't seem to be well thought out. He didn't seem to be in a hurry at all. He did not. Again, it could be a she. Back to my thing of how have they not caught him.

We have the entire government, federal and state, how have they not caught this person? But they haven't. They did, however, go and detain a person who turned out to be a FedEx driver. So they went to the guy and they detained him And they were like, we hear you have Nancy Guthrie. And he's like, I just drive Phoenix. I do not have anyone. And so they let him go.

Very scary stuff. But she was clearly kidnapped. I mean, like that's we, we, so I'm kind of surprised they can't, because it's not like a master criminal. It's a guy in a ski mask using a bush to cover up the camera. You would think they would have caught this guy. And she's a former UK student wrote for the Kentucky Colonel back in the day. There's a little connection with it elected in here.

So you're in it. Will you do me a favor? Yeah. Listen to Mix 94.5 tonight so that I can get the update. I will gladly update you tonight. Well, I'm going to be here at the party tonight, the big shindig. All right. I can listen to the way home.

We'll turn it on. Should we mute the sound of the game to put on the crime show? They'll have all the updates right there for us. Okay, we might do that to keep up. All right. It was first, Shannon. Kevin. Kevin, go ahead, Kevin.

Yeah, a couple, I think it was last week or something. guys talked about your predictions of the top five players who you think will return and you guys left off Jasper Johnson. So I just wanted to get reasoning behind that. I think he could really make a huge step forward next year if he comes back. Well, I appreciate the call. Well, first of all, you have to take the initial answer to that is we don't know who's coming back or not. So this is really, we were asked to guess. I saw criticism of us online that we talked about it. You know, when you get asked, we're going to talk about it. Jasper Johnson, I don't know what he's going to do. I have no insight. I don't think it's unreasonable, though, not to put him on

the top of the list of people who will return because he doesn't play a lot. He was a top recruit, and, you know, he's had family members publicly online, you know, being frustrated with his, with the way he's been used. So I, you know, I don't think the kid has said anything that I remember, but I could understand why many people, myself included, would not say he's the most likely guy to return. I think Jasper turned down more money to play at Kentucky this year. He wants to play here.

He loves it here. He grew up a Kentucky fan. There's going to be teams throw a lot of money at him, I think, this offseason. Well, if you're a school out there looking for a player, there are two different kinds of players people look for, Drew. One is the mid-major guy to take a lot of. step up, right? Your Antonio Reeves, your Dalton Connect.

And the second thing is, got a high major program that for whatever reason it's not just work, it's really not working out, and you think he'll do better here. And Jasper would seem to fit that to a teeth. Yeah, that, and I know he does love it here, but he was very close to not coming.

Remember, our football recruiter had to step in and help a little bit, too, to help get him over the hump from Alabama and North Carolina. Vince Merrill was a big part of the final decision there. It's probably the last thing he did for Kentucky in some way. He was close to UNC and Alabama, and now that he's gotten here, and again, I've had no conversations, but just watching.

Jasper's more of that creator type, needs the ball on his hands, maybe a little one-on-one, and it doesn't seem to be meshing well with what Pope's trying to do. We can see it every little once a while where he gets it going, but overall, I think if you were to get the Johnsons on Truth Serum and ask if this year went the way they thought it would, that would be a null. That's an interesting point. There's been the debate about whether or Jalen Lowe is a Pope.

kind of point guard. If Jaylen Lowe's not, then I don't know if Jasper Johnson is either. Now, I will say this. When he gets rolling, his threes are smooth. Like, he's got a smooth jumper. I think, you know, his minutes have been limited, too, because Aberdeing's been playing so well, you know?

Yeah, because we thought when Lowe got hurt, we'd see a lot of chance. See a lot of Jasper. And I won't get to Jasper's credit when he does get his number called. Like, he dove on the floor twice the other day against Tennessee. Like, he's busting his ass when he gets in there, had the spark against Tennessee down in Knoxville.

He's doing his job. But Aberdeen's playing so well. It's hard to take him off before. still going to be a game they're going to need him. Yeah. The back court is so thin. You know, you're going to get a guy in foul trouble or something. He's going to need, there's going to be a game where they're going to need him this year.

Who's next? Don. Don. Go ahead, Don. Yeah, the Miami of Ohio, if there's a possibility they lose in the tournament, I'm not real sure. I don't like some of the teams that they're playing. Indiana, East at Colchamo, basically, there's a lot. small school in southwest Indiana used to pad their stats on that team.

I'm with you. I'm with you. I mean, it depends on how you look at it, right? Should Miami of Ohio make the tournament if they lose? Well, on the one hand, it feels wrong to go undefeated and not put them in. On the other hand, if you take Old Miss and you give a Miami of Ohio schedule, they probably go undefeated. Probably. So, why do you say, who on that schedule's beat?

No, they probably do it very easily much easier than Miami-A-Bohawk. Yes, okay, we agreed that. Yeah, I appreciate the call. I don't. So, I mean, maybe every team in the SEC goes undefeated with Miami-O-Hou schedule. So I'm all for these small teams getting into the tournament with their automatic bid. But without larges, I think you've got to take that. the best teams, right?

Yeah, we keep saying they're undefeated. If they don't win their conference tournament, you're not undefeated. And whoever you lost to, that would be a bad loss. And their strength of schedules like rank 330th. I don't think you can just put them in if they go, you know, win the regular season and losing the conference. Would you feel differently if they played like Ohio State in the non-conference and beat them? If they had one win of someone ranked in the top 75, I think you do.

But they don't, none of these teams they're playing are ranked anywhere you're doing. That's kind of how I feel. If they had gone and played one good team in the non-conference. difference and beat them, just one, then I would say let them in. But if you're going to play none, then I don't know. Going into the season, they had to know they had a pretty good team, why wouldn't they want to schedule some tougher games? I will say, with all that said, one of their people in their athletic department

listens to this show, heard our conversation and has invited me to one of their games. So if I go to one of their games, I will flip my opinion, I'm sure, because it will be fun. So I can watch them beat up on Indiana Kokomo. Is that why you want to go? Well, no, I just, I think it would be cool. Like, I like going to it. I mean, we went to Cal Berkeley's campus. I loved it.

I like going to random places and doing random things. You know. Who do we go see play? Ohio University played Youngstown State. Yeah, that's exactly right. They have one win in the top 140. Yeah, that's not good. If you haven't made your Valentine's Day reservation, you probably won't get one.

But it's not too late to plan a special dinner with locally grown, dry-age beef from Noche Linda Far. We have them here at KS Bar. You can eat them tonight at the pick-em contest. They offer everything from traditional filet and ribby to great cuts you'll never find in the store. And you can order them at home for you. And if you're in the Kentucky area, you can get local delivery or shipped overnight. Noche Linda Farms.com.

N-O-C-H-E LindaFarms.com. This is supporting Kentucky Farms. And by the way, it's a lot better than the rest of it. 859707, 7,004, a Kentucky proud partner, nochaelinda Farms.com. We'll take a break and be right back. It's KSR. 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. SportsSlice 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 Slices 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, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free, our heart radio app. Search learn the hard way and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clever 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. Quarterback on office, Blue, 42.

A rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The story I've told myself about love or relationships can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown and explore the journey of healing, self-discovery, and returning to yourself.

We explore higher consciousness, emotional well-being, and the practices that help you find clarity, peace, and self-mastery in a world that can feel overwhelming. The world is becoming lonelier. We're not becoming more social and connected. We're becoming more individualized, but we actually meet people in connection. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brom. from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Welcome back at East Kentucky Sports Radio, 859-2-80-2287. Text machine is 772-774-5254. One person writes, Matt, are you concerned about playing time for Pope players because of how many guys he plays? I was a little concerned about that about recruiting, but like since we've had the injuries, he's ended up playing these guys a ton of minutes. I think it's just a matter of kind of getting him focused, Drew, to play in the right guys or, unfortunately, injuries. Yeah, I still think he needs to show that a high school kid bring one in and be like, look, I played him 30 minutes a

game. I think that is a concern for Stokes or a star. You know, we don't like to hear that these guys won all the minutes and all the shots, but that's the world we live in now. And I think Kentucky needs to go out and you've got to have one of those dudes. Look around college basketball. The teams that are good have a superstar. And I think that's what Kentucky's like. Always great, but he's not the category of a lot of the guys that have these top five, top 10 teams right now. We also have two twins here, who it's their birthday. Yeah. Megan and Danielle, who it's nice to see you.

Happy birthday. Thank you. Two of our biggest fans have been coming. We have two sets of twins that are always loyal fans. So nice to see you on. Happy birthday today on Wings Day, your birthday and Wings Day, close to Valentine's Day as well. It's very exciting. 29 years old, I think they said today.

We'll say they're, listen, 29. Listen, on Facebook, you can be whatever you like. Spoken like you have a little knowledge of that. At this point, my life would like to change it, and they will not let me. I've had multiple conversations. They're just like, no. Because I'm tired of explaining it, but they will not let me change it. So, you know, all right, it is what it is.

I got a big shout out, big shout out to the Pope. The Pope? The Catholic Pope. Don't know him, but I'm giving him a big shout out. Did you see what he did? No. Next year, to open the season, Villanova, his favorite college basketball team, he's a Villanova fan, is playing Notre Dame in Rome.

Wow, really? he scheduled the gate. He said, like, I'm the Catholic, big dude. I make stuff happen. So he gets Notre Dame, the Catholic school. Yeah. And then his alma mater and says, you're coming to me. I can't go to you.

You're coming to me. In a world where I were to become Pope, granted, long shot. Very unlikely that's going to happen. But if I were to come Pope, you tell him. me, I'm not bringing Kentucky to play a home game. Like you guys, I can't get all the way to Lexington, all the security. It's hard to get that car in an airplane.

Like, I'm bringing you to me. I got to give a big shout out to the Pope. If the Chicago Bears end up playing in Rome, then that's going to be even more impressive. I love it. That's a college basketball fan right there. I love it too, and, you know, he got his Catholic team here, but I think next

year he has to challenge Pope. I think Kentucky Oh, Pope be Pope. Yeah, he's like listen, this world's only big enough for one of Love it. We go to the Vatican. If Mark Pope wins, he becomes Pope. If Leo's team of his choosing wins, he gets Kentucky basketball, one Pope after that game. Listen, you're a marketing genius.

Pope v. Pope. Lay it all in the line. You can have the whole church, but I get Kentucky basketball, and I get to pick my team. This will be the first Pope to ever go to a college basketball game. I'm sure he's going to go. He has to go. Oh, he's going to bet on it. It will be sponsored by Draft Kings, and he will have a parlor.

He has to go. I mean, you can't bring your favorite college team along with the team of the Catholic Church and not go, Ryan, right? You know, probably I wasn't a fan. He's a Cubs fan, but I love this. This is awesome, and I think this is the first of many times he'll do something like this. Do you think they'll do a football game? Like, you have a Notre Dame football. He's a Villanova fan.

He's not a Notre Dame fan. He went to Villanova. So he is a – I mean, I think the Notre Dame is just first. all the Catholics. Villanova's for him. I love it. Right? I don't think it's a question of does he go. It's does he go as the Pope or is he like foam finger, face paint, hoodie?

Like what kind of fan is he? Does he go in all elegant with security or is he front row crushing popcorn and booing the wraps? Is the Pope allowed to go out in public without all the stuff? Can he just wear like a hoodie and shorts? That's what I'm wondering. Because he's not quite as popy if he

doesn't do that. But having this game already is not very popy, so I'm just wondering how far he goes. Maybe he slams a couple arena beers. I love the idea of him painting his face. I actually think I would like it more if he was in the Pope gear with his face painted and a number

one foam finger. Maybe he takes a sign. Do you sit him on courtside? I don't think they put him in the rafters. I think it becomes you give him a court side seat. Wow. I think you let him do the jump ball. Let him toss it. Not he jumps. He tosses it for the two players. I guess at Villanova you'd be the V.

He could be the V. Yeah. I love it. They should hire us to put this event together. That's my, the Pope just raised a notch if he's going to bring the teams to him. I love that. Half a court shot for a million dollars. If you were a Villanova or a Notre Dame fan, I would think if you're a Villanova,

a Villanova is a Catholic school too. Yes. So like if you're a Catholic, Villanova, you got to go. Got to go. Right. Like you're, I mean, this would be the coolest thing that you got a chance to meet the Pope. Game of a lifetime. Yes, that would be, what an awesome event.

All right, who's next year? Let's go to John. John, go ahead, John. Hey, how are you doing, guys? Good. So I got two quick questions for you. One, if the tournament started today, how far do you think we would go based on our, I guess you could say, inconsistencies? Second question, how, what kind of advice would you all, and I guess,

especially Mario. What kind of advice would you give a guy who's just starting out on YouTube? Well, the second question is probably a little longer, so I'll see if I can remember that to do it in the break. First question, appreciate the call. If this tournament started today, I think we'd be a six seed, which means we'd play an 11, like a Miami of Ohio, I think is who a lot of people would project us.

I think we'd win that game. And then a three seed, and for me it would depend on who we got, right? Are we getting, like I've seen this paired up with Nebraska. I like our chances of winning that game. But we could also get paired up with, I don't know, who else is a three? Michigan State, and that's a harder game. So I'll go ahead and say if we start today would be a Sweet 16, but I worry we're going to lose games at the end of the regular season

and drop to a 7 or 8, and then advancing is a lot harder. Yeah. So it kind of depends on what our seat is. We'll take a break. Come back. Hour number two. 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 headlines. 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're

get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. What's up guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, the Clivert 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, Hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office, Blue 42. Hey, Red, my mama want you to wave at.

What? Where's he at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford Show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano.

It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was part of it. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know I love you, dog.

You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.