KSR - 2026-03-23- KSR - Hour 1

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

Matt, Ryan, Drew, and Shannon talk which players are likely to return, Kentucky's loss to Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament, 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 IHeart 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 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 with 42. A rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's he at?

Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to The Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Joey Dardano, and on my new podcast, Hope from a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, recommend some of the most legally dubious advice. known to man. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know.

Listen to Help from a Hypocrite Wednesdays on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. From YouTube and social media, comedy off Broadway and Lexington, welcomes Josh Wolfe, March 19th through the 21st, then from late night TV and the Bob and Tom show catch Nick Griffin, March 26 through the 28th,

and don't miss New York Comedy Superstar and podcaster Mark. Normand, April 2nd through the 4th. For tickets to all Comedy Off Broadway shows, call E-59-271 joke or visit Comedy OffBroadway.com. This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now, here's Matt Jones. Welcome, everyone. This is Kentucky Sports Radio. I am Matt Jones.

It is Monday, March the 23rd. Yeah. That's right. March kind of runs together. although unfortunately for Kentucky fans, it's now going to slow down. And the Clark's Puppet Shop phone line is 859-2-80-2287. We'll be taking your calls today to see kind of your thoughts on where things are. A Vision Auto Glass text machine 772-74525-4. And this edition is sponsored by the T.J. Smith Law Office, you call T.J.

I'll make them pay. Ryan and Mario rolled into Lexington a little after midnight last night, listening to basketball all the way back on Westwood One. and heard Florida get beat by Iowa, which was kind of exciting. And then other games that were, we got to hear the Johnny's Rick Petino go. But still sad about Kentucky's kind of miserable defeat at the hands of Iowa State. We spent a lot of time we stopped in Mount Vernon, Illinois at the Buffalo Wild Wings and did the show. I this morning got to hear how loud that screaming baby was behind me.

that baby was much louder over the air than I even realized. But then got home. And, you know, now we're going to, we start the next phase, which is talking about what's next for the UK basketball program and the UK women play today at 5 o'clock against West Virginia. That's right. So we will talk a little bit about that. Drew is here. Drew didn't get to go on the trip because he selfishly is having a baby.

That's my bad guess. And so we haven't gotten to talk to him a lot about what's happened. Let's just talk about yesterday, Drew. What were your thoughts about what went down? Like everyone else, extremely disappointed in how it ended. I never really saw Kentucky getting out of that weekend leading into the tournament. But after Always Magic in Round 1 and Iowa State having that major injury, I talked myself into a little bit of a run.

You know, we saw, I didn't really want to play Iowa State at all because that ball pressure. We saw what a nightmare that was. But I genuinely thought going in that game, Kentucky had a big chance when I didn't believe that before because of the opportunity that opened and then to go up 12 and then to lose by 19 like everyone listening just dumbfounded by how you could do that on that stage. Yeah, you go back that we were up 12 with eight with eight minutes to go. Is that right? Or we, no, up 12 with 12 minutes to go. It's like 11 and change, I think. Yeah. So 12 minutes to go, we're up 12. With eight

minutes to go, we were down 23. It's crazy. So that means in a course of 24 minutes, we lost by 35 points, which is kind of unbelievable. I mean, but we've done that before in games, not usually at the beginning, not in the middle, but a 35 point swing in 24 minutes is, I don't want to say it's unprecedented because it has happened with us before. To a team without their best player. Without their best player. And it was, they made one, we made a couple substitutions and they made one adjustment and it

was over and it kind of felt like in some ways a fitting way Ryan for the season end all year we've talked about substitution patterns adjustments and giving up big runs and all those things showed themselves in this game yeah that adjustment Iowa state made by going to trapping pressure as soon as we're bringing across the mid court line we could not handle it and did not handle it well at all and they were start pushed us our offense was starting way out close to the three to the center court line it was just we had no answer for it the play that sort of symbolized that was that play I think right the end of the first when Colin Chandler just crossed half court, picked up the ball and got double team.

And it was like, they have decided that we cannot handle this. And I think I said after the game, they were right. Yeah, they were right. The only person who kind of could handle it a little bit was Aberdeen. But pretty much everyone else, the moment the trap came, they just panicked. And it was chaos. It was like when little kids get the basketball and go, give me the ball, give me the ball, and then they're take it, take it, take it away.

That's kind of how it was. Well, I wasn't going to use that analogy. But when I was watching it, I remembered when I played junior, pro. I was on a Madisonville traveling team and we went to I believe it was either Hopkinsville or Evansville. We played up a level. I could not bring the ball up the court and that's when I knew basketball won for me. Just a little double team and I had nothing to do. I felt like I was watching my little junior pro team out there that couldn't even cross half court. You do sometimes get that

moment in sports where you're like, oh, that's what good is. Yeah. Yeah. Millsborough. I remember I got pretty good at tennis and then they maybe play Seth Houser at Corbett. Oh, the Corby guy. Seth Houser. Yeah. And the first time he served. I was like, yeah, well, that's never getting returned. Because I could hit a lot. I could hit people that were better than me, and I'd kind of dink it back and then out think them. And then with Seth Hauser, I was like, no, I don't even have a chance to think.

It gets here too quickly. And I was like, well, there's the end of me being really good at tennis. I think that's, I was state's pressure made it seem like, okay, there's the end of us being able to run an offense. Because before they started to do the pressure, our offense looked surprisingly really good. But we couldn't even get into it. They made it to where we couldn't even get into anything. And we all wanted Chandler to hit threes.

Right away, bangs two. And that was the last of the scoring for the game. And then Aberdeen hits two. And you go, we get a couple lucky bounces where we get like the ball falls in our hands and we get a layup. And we're playing great. I thought we played great defense the entire first half. Like even though we were behind a half time, I thought our defense was excellent throughout. But the offense just, just collapsed.

So then we lose. And the question, I think, going first. is less about this loss and like how do we feel going going forward there we were driving and so I didn't see a lot of the the post game online reaction but I can just kind of guess that it was probably not the most positive thing in the world wasn't pretty yeah well why don't you you you would know more as we moderate a message board had to delete a lot I mean Twitter's nasty especially those accounts that don't have a face on them you know they can say whatever they want it was just ugly I thought a lot of it's disappointing I was I thought there's a lot of over-the-top

on there too. I was good to see that the Arkansas fans found my video again. I like that every time that that video is going to continue to exist. Arkansas fans now are in my mentions as much as Kentucky fans. It was funny while we were in, while we were in St. Louis, Mario gets a message, Shannon, from Draft Kings. Yeah. And Draft King says, hey, we're going live in Arkansas on Friday. Would you like to make a video encouraging your fans in Arkansas to go on draft Kings. And I'm like, I don't think you want me to do that. You don't understand. I don't think that's going to.

It'll get a reaction. I mean, you'll get a reaction. People will be angry. I think you will lose subscriptions. I was in that group chat. It's kind of like, what are we doing? Mario, you can handle that one. Yeah, it's like, Matt, send a message welcoming all the Arkansas people to draft

Kings. I'm like, no. Any of the other states, not that one. The KSR website team was live on YouTube for the Rapid Reaction last night, and you can like donate a super chat, donate money. An Arkansas fan donated a little bit of money and said like, enjoy your trip home or something like that. I mean, they're even giving money to troll. There's a way for people to donate money to you?

Yeah, like if you want your question bumped, you can give $10. Some of them get a lot of money, but it rarely happens. But Arkansas fans were doing it. See Ryan's eyes go, wait a minute. Why aren't we doing that? I remember Ryan was doing that with the YouTube guy who was streaming. That's how you did it with the YouTube stream. I want to see my name on the bottom of the screen.

Hey, you're going to write a shout out. Thanks, buddy. We got to start investing in just getting $5 to say people's names. Well, all right, so now what? I guess Mark Pope said he wanted to have 24 hours to mourn. He was asked after the game by Tom Leach, what about the future? And he was like, we're not going to think about that tonight. We're going to mourn for 24 hours.

So I guess that means by 5 o'clock we're going to think about the future. But we're not going to be on at 5 o'clock. He will. He's got his show tonight. Yeah, he got one more coach's a show tonight. He probably would have loved a gap between Sunday and Monday. Are they interviewing Brandon Stockton? Like, what is the, no offense to Brandon Stockton. But you, I mean, so if I were in charge of media relations for UK, which I'm not,

and if I had the authority, I think some of those folks at UK don't have, like, they're not allowed to do things they want to do. I would say, Mark, the best thing you could do is an hour of a real conversation. Right. No beautifuls, no specials. This is the state of Kentucky. Here's what went right. Here's what went wrong.

It can't just be we didn't get our full deck of playing cards. You got out coached. You need to acknowledge that. You need to like, okay, where do we go from here? We need some encouragement. I hope that's what he does. I'm doubtful that's what he'll do. But I hope that's, well, wait a minute.

Do we have to show? Because the women's team's playing. That's I was going to ask. I'm going to run it. Because the women's team are five to set. I check. They're putting it against the women's game? Yeah, I checked with Billy when I got here.

More PR greatness. Let's put the final coach's show up against the women's NCAA tournament game. Let's dilute both of them. That's great. All right. Well, regardless, I think that's probably what he should do. The first question, I guess, is what does the roster look like, which means what players are back?

Season's over now, so we can give honest opinions. I want to we're going to quickly go through percentage chance they're playing for Kentucky next okay yeah all right the max duffy game uh let's start with let's start with Colin Chandler percentage chance I will say 85 yeah 85 Shannon 70 70 80 for me all right let's go malachi Moreno I'll run it back in 85 I like that spot for those two okay 50. He's been negative about it all year. He's been negative about it all year.

I've seen this in him all year. I'm going to go 75 because I just can't see them letting that local talent get away. But Ryan makes me worried because he knows all these people. He probably played grade school basketball with the laundry guy, great crossing. Shannon. I'll go 80. Okay. Cam Williams 75.

65. Shannon. 70. I was going to go 75. So Ryan's the lowest on all these people, just for the right. Ryan doesn't think anybody's coming back. Ryan thinks we're going to have no players next year. Okay.

Diabate. I feel pretty good about him too. I'll say 75 for him. I'll go 45. Shannon. 65. 65. I'll go 50.

I'm not as confident because I've heard no buzz about him returning. So it's hard for me to. Brandon Garrison. Oh, boy, this is a wild card. Yeah, it is. Because I know Pope still loves him, but, you know, a lot of the fans have voted on him. I'll say 40 on Garrison. Yeah, 45.

Let's hope it's like 10 because he's the guy I don't want back personally. Oh, man. He had a BG time. He had BG time. A.D. He had a BG time. I can't. I'm going to put the number.

I'm going to put the number at 25% just because of things I've heard. But I would be fine with him being back. It was a BG time. But now it has to you understand. What do you tell? It was BG time. Yeah. One game out of how many?

Hey, we lose that game. Wait. It was twice in a week and a half in the post season. BG time. Right. Yeah. Okay. Learn the words.

Enjoy your BG time. Jaylon low. Oh. I have no idea what they're going to do with that spot. I'll say 20. Yeah, 25. 30. I'm going to say 20 because I think there's just been some chatter that he, Jalen Lowe, might be looking into.

His comments to the media aren't great. Yeah, Trent Doa. I can see him being Travis Perry type situation to where he ends up somewhere else. I'm going to go 20. I'll say 70. 40. 70. I just think if it's up to Trent, he would stay.

It's what's Kentucky's role going to be for him. Yeah, I'm going to go 25, 40. Okay. Who am I missing here? Jasper. Jasper. Ryan? One.

One. Okay. I'll also say one. I don't want to be too negative. I guess I'll be the optimistic one and go 10. Three. Wow. It just didn't go well.

I have triple the chance of these two. Yeah, he did. There's three times as much of a chance for me, Shannon, is then. I gave a 10. You gave it 10 times as much. He just needs a fresh start somewhere, I think. And then is there anyone else? I think that's it.

I mean, I guess, Yellovich. Yellovich. Oh, yeah, Yellovich. Hawthorne, by the way, I assume 100 if he, like, I don't see any reason why he would. Yeah. Why was he here if he did? But yes. Yellowvich.

Oh, man. he seems to really like it. And honestly, he was, he's one of the favorite people to hear from in interviews. He's brutally honest. I love when he was like, no fatigue's not an excuse. Or when he called out his teammates for being selfish.

I'm rooting for him to come back. I'll say 50, but that could, who knows with him. I don't know what Pope thinks of him. I go 40. Kind of close to 50, 50, but I think it's the other way. I'll go 40.

I'll go 30 to 35 somewhere around that. I go 25. I haven't heard any buzz that would suggest to me that he would be back. I'm clearly leaning on a lot of returns. Yeah, Tyron Stokes. The Bill Self situation is a big win. With the understanding that Bill Self kind of hinted it, maybe retirement. I'll still say 15.

Yeah, 25. Chanon. 25. I'm going to go 50. I think what's going to happen is there's going to be a massive amount of pressure on Pope to really go for this. I think there's a chance we get him. We vastly overpaid,

but we do it because we feel like we have to. That's my. They got to get somebody just for the perception. But it's also interesting in like a couple of these, like, all right, guys that committed to Kansas, guys that committed to North Carolina. There's a top 10 player committed to North Carolina. Like I wonder if they scored of scramble, you know.

That guy decommits? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I have no idea. That world is not really my world anymore. But all right, 859-28027. Those are your predictions. According to Rime, we will have no players next year. And according to Drew, we'll have all the players.

We'll see which one ends up being correct. We'll take a break. Be right back. This is 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. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica 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 possessing. 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 or are you a good person because you're afraid because that's two different intentions bro absolutely and that that's two different levels of trust I want you to just really be a good person join me Keer gains is we have real conversations about healing growth fatherhood pressure and purpose on my

podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. 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 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, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. If you're watching the latest season of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, you already know there's a lot to break down. Norsha accusing Kelly of sleeping with a merry man. They holding Kay Michelle back from fighting Drew. Pinky has financial issues. I like the bougie style of Housewives show. I think it looks like it's going to be interesting.

On the podcast, Reality with the King, I, Carlos King, recap the biggest moments from your favorite reality shows, including the Real House Wise franchise, the drama, the alliances, and the team everybody's talking about. As an executive producer in reality television, I'm not just watching it. I understand the game. As somebody who creates shows, I'll even say this.

At the end of the day, when people are at home, they want entertainment. To hear this and more, listen to Reality with the King on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Wow, wow, well, where. Welcome back, Techie Sports Radio. All right, let me run through a few things that have in postgame that I think are kind of interesting. What do you think about the Iowa State player saying that they knew, Ryan, that if they went on a run, Kentucky would quit?

Not a good look when an opposing player says that about your team, but I guess, you know, they probably looked at the Gonzaga game, maybe the Vanderbilt game and saw when they got down, they did just kind of quit in those games. There were games this year where we came back. Yes. So, I mean, it was not consistent, but he said, and you rarely hear players be this open,

we thought they would quit. And in this case, I don't think they quit exactly, but they certainly, their effort went down for a period. Yeah, that guy was kind of a villain. I watched this whole interview. He also said, we weren't really sure if we wanted Santa Clara or Kentucky. We were good with either. And then he said, it was fun watching Kentucky fans leave early.

That was a nice bonus. So he chose violence in his comments. But I do think they probably Cherry picked games to watch because Kentucky did not quit Tennessee, LSU. I mean, we know all the big comebacks. So I didn't completely agree with this point. One person writes, Matt, I was at the game. Part of what made me sad is we didn't have the usual Kentucky turnout. True.

But it wasn't bad. I actually think the Kentucky Iowa state contingents were relatively the same. The difference was there were a lot of Purdue people. Yes. So the stadium was a little more empty during our game because the Purdue people had kind of left. But I would say Kentucky and Iowa State had about the same amount of people, maybe a little bit more Iowa State. It was definitely not the big blue swarm we're used to. On TV, it sounded like it was all Iowa State fans there.

Well, that was because they were making all the shots and went on. Maybe so. But there were a lot of them there. Despite all that happened, you're still got a chance to go into halftime up like six or seven points. Yeah, that was a huge, we talk about that in the postgame show, that little play where, well, first of all, I mean, we're going to talk about the game. The stat of the game is Denzel Aberdeen 37 minutes played with him in the game, minus five, with him out of the game, minus 14. In 37 minutes were minus five with Denzel Aberdeen. In three minutes without him were minus 14.

That's one of the craziest stats I remember in basketball. It really is. And then, you know, the moment they make that sub, everyone's like, well, they're probably going to go on a run. and then not overrun. And same thing in the second half. I mean, we were already down big when they took him out in the second half. But then we went down even more. I mean, that was huge.

And then the stretch we talked about where the ball falls in Malachi's hands. He drops it. Trips, guy catches it shoots a corner three. We should have been up six to eight at halftime and we're down one. Yeah. You know. You called it too. You said they're going to hit a shot and go up by one at halftime.

And, of course, that kid in the corner. As far as the crowd, I'm going to say this to take up for the BBM. Yes, it was less. And, you know, it was less at the SEC tournament. But the university has to look itself in the face for this. This is slowly becoming a culmination of, I think, a few years, really going back to COVID of fan neglect by the administration. I don't blame Pope. I really don't.

I think he tries. You know, I did have some blame at the end of Cal for fan stuff. But really, I think it's courts the administration. They've raised prices. they've also kind of gone away from the mission of giving fans what they want to protecting their ownership of things. You know, we'll talk probably more later about Eli Capiluto's video. But like all he said was if you watch his video about let's talk about the future of UK athletics it was we have to earn more revenue and cut expenses. Way to get people excited, Eli.

Earn more revenue. Cut more expenses. Go cats. O-C-U-T-S. Cuts, cuts, cuts. I mean, that's, you know, come on. So there is a point then that you have this game and fans don't really believe we're necessarily going to win. And so I get it.

When Kentucky fans are valued, Kentucky fans show up. Go look at Mark Pope's press conference, right? Just go look at anything. When Kentucky fans feel valued, they will show up like anybody else. but if you take them for granted, as I think this university has done for a number of years, and now the university needs fans more than ever, for financial reasons.

And there's a part of me going, you reap what you sow. You reap what you sow. And so different conversation, but that's kind of why. No, we didn't have our usual showing, but actually Ryan don't blame fans. I get it.

I get it also. I think it goes way back to even what they did to the UK football fans, what, 10 years ago. That was like in 2012. I think it all started right then. That's what it started. Part of the reason St. Louis was hurt, too, and I talked to a lot of fans in Nashville, three days off work in Nashville playing Wednesday at noon, Thursday at noon, Friday at noon. They're like, I was invested as I could be.

I can't make the trip to St. Louis. And then we play Friday at noon. After already doing the week before. Yeah, no, there's a little bit of that. And we treat the SEC tournament very serious. I think if we'd been gone to Chicago, if we'd won, we would have a bejillion people there. And I get excited again about it. So I do think there's part of that as well.

The other thing is, it's weird, Shannon, when I put a KSR kind of inside joke out there and then the world that doesn't understand KSR gets involved. Right. Because I tweeted that everyone knows I almost leave the game. Yeah. Or do leave the game. Almost. Usually.

I usually leave. And then, of course, people know about the referee incident. Yeah. So I thought it would be funny because I did come close to wanting to yell at that referee. And I just thought it would be funny. I decided I had to leave the game because we were going to lose. So I was like, oh, I almost got so mad at the referee. I left.

You know, I mean, I really was, I mean, I wasn't going to get kicked off a press row yelling at the referee. I just needed to leave the building because I was getting nervous. And I tweeted that out. And then I became a symbol of what's wrong with the media. like all these dudes all these dudes who work for like Longhorn in your face 37 are like

This is what's wrong with our profession I want to be like Listen you'll snot I was doing this when you were a baby Shut up You know the reason Longhorn in your face 27 gets credentialed It's because people like us fought for it

Which of course makes me sound hold Right you walk so they could run I walked I got denied So you could get, like, but they didn't, you know, that's what happens. All these people, I became like the symbol for fan journalist. You know, one of our entities is still working and some of these others aren't. But I hate when the media tries to police other people. I don't know you.

I don't work for you. I don't work with you. Sit your chair. Yeah, we're not friends. Never even met you. Why do you care what I'm wearing? Well, I mean, you look good. No, the UK stuff.

They complain about that. We'll take a break. Take your calls. It's right for this. personal injury attorney. Call T.J. He'll make them pay. Now, more of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Here's Matt Jones.

Welcome back, Tucky, Sports Radio, 859-2-80-2287. Text machine, 772-75-4. One person writes, Matt, would Drew leave a restaurant if his baby was as cranky as the one on the post-game show? Oh, yeah. That was wild. When you first made the comment, I thought, Matt's probably being a little harsh on a baby being there. And then I heard that first scream.

And actually, I had a pretty good laugh, it and it just continued the whole show. It sounded like you were giving your headset to the baby to scream to the listeners. And it was, the baby was just, it was a lot. And it was fitting. You were trying to have this big picture talk about Pope and you're in your

serious tone. And then Mario eating all the food also laughed at that. Yeah, Mario, just wait till we start to show eat all our food. You were doing a radio show. I know, so he was like, now's my time to eat all the food. One person writes, Matt, do you agree

with what Cal's been saying recently about coaches win games, administration win championships. Do Kentucky feds owe him an apology? No on the second thing. I do agree with him on coaches win games, administrations win championships. But Cal has revisionist history about UK. He thinks he didn't win championships because of Mitch.

I'm not saying Mitch gave the best support or not. Those two hated each other. They blame me. It's their relationship, all bad relationships are a two-way street, right? KSR's bad relationship with Cal, we deserve some of the blame. He does, I would argue he deserves more of it, but you know what? Whatever. But it's not, no one is innocent in those scenarios.

But the team that lost to Oakland had every one you could want. He had an elite college transfer. He had the number three pick in the draft. The number eight pick in the draft. A dude who went in the second round but played big minutes for the 76ers. He had the best recruiting. Like, come on, man. What else did you need on that team?

Mitch Barnard ain't to blame for the fact that you couldn't stop a dude who plays at the YMCA from going off on you. That's not Mitch Barnhart's. That game. Am I right about that? That ain't his fault. It's got nothing to do with the AD or the administration. So, like, come on. Now, in general, I agree with that.

But I think he's used. He's taking this chance to take little jabs, especially Mitch and I get it. That's him. That's who he is. He loves doing that. And that's fine. And that's between, you know, my name's Paul and that's between y'all. But you didn't lose to Oakland because Mitch didn't get you in I.L.

And part of the reason you didn't get in NIO was you, sir. A lot of the people didn't want to give you money anymore. So, Jack, go ahead, Jack. Warren, fellas, two observations, not an observation. I found this is relevant to Indiana and Kentucky. I found an old magazine about two months ago on Sports Illustrated, and there's a picture of an Indiana player and a Kentucky player going up for a rebound on the cover. The Kentucky player is Charles Hurd.

There's an insert of Bobby Knight and Joe Hall, and the headline is Kentucky College of Basketball's Biggest War. those two programs are totally irrelevant now. Yeah, you guys got to stop comparing us to Indiana. It's not totally irrelevant. Indiana is not even, Indian doesn't even go to the tournament. We are not irrelevant, all right?

We're close. No, we're not. I mean, no, we're not. Why do you think that game was in CBS in a time slot with nothing else playing? Is it because we're irrelevant? Is it because you think everybody wanted to tune in to see Iowa State play? Now, are we winning at the last? Are we winning at the level that we need to...

What? They tuned in to watch Kentucky. Exactly. So we're not irrelevant. Well, I think... I mean, you just answered your own question. They tuned in to watch us. We are not irrelevant.

Now, are we good enough? No. Are we on the path that's towards downgrade? Yes. But you can't say we're irrelevant when you agree with me that people tuned in to watch us. I think we're trying to, I'll clean this up, we're trying to pick nat crap out of pepper here. We're trying to find something positive. And now I'll move on to this.

I'll ask this to all of you. If something is absolutely inevitable in life, in your lives, it's absolutely inevitable. I know college collegiate sports deal strictly with contractual obligations. Why can't you cut ties? Well, because you're making an assumption, and I'm not saying you're wrong, but you're making it, you're coming to a conclusion because you're making an assumption not everyone would agree with. Your assumption is it's inevitable Mark Pope's going to fail. That's your assumption. Maybe you'll be right.

But that's an assumption. That's not a conclusion. You don't know that. So that's why saying if I knew for certain, and I appreciate the call, if I felt like I felt for certain Mark Stoops was not going to bring it back. So it's time to make a change. I'm not there yet with Mark Pope. Maybe you are. And that's fine.

If you are, I'm not even saying you're wrong. But in order to say cut ties, you have to think it's inevitable he'll fail. And I'm just not there yet, Drew. And I don't have a lot of optimism in Mark Pope. But just for the school, as we're making cuts, we can't just keep paying buyout after buy. You're paying stoops. I know Pope's buyout isn't huge. But we've already got the Mitch thing.

I mean, they're talking about being efficient. We have to cut expectations. Yeah. They're talking about being efficient. You can't just keep firing people and paying them lots of money. Now, if it doesn't work out and he should never been hired and that sits on someone else's shoulders who won't be working here anymore. But you can't just keep firing people over and over when it's not working. Not after two years at least.

I mean, I don't find it inevitable he's going to fail. Do you, Shannon? No, no. I mean, this third year, though, is going to be make or break, though. If he comes back next year, then it's inevitable. Yeah. But I'll give him, he's going to get one more year regardless of what we think. So he deserves one more year at least.

I'm curious to see what we say two months from now. After he's got his roster, pretty much built for next season, how will we feel going into year three? Well, I hope we all talk ourselves into it. If we don't, then that's really a bad sign. We talked to ourselves. We always do. We always do. I'm not talking myself into a guy with Billy Gillespie like that's posing with roses in eighth grade.

Michael Avery. I'm not doing that. I'm going to need. I'll end up convincing my, you know, here's one of the things that's kind of interesting that we watch this weekend. Mark did a good job scouting players. We just didn't get them. Oh, the top five he went after would have been the best team. By the end of the year was playing well for UCLA.

The dude, Shannon, that hit the game winning shot against Florida, we thought was coming here. What's his name? Figuarez from Robin Morris. That looks like a lot. But we thought he were getting him. He hit the big shot. I mean, Scoop over here had us ready for Yaxil. Yaxil's first team All-American.

Like they looked. Wilkerson at Indiana. They looked at the right guys. We just didn't get any of them. We know who the good players are. We just can't get them to come play here. That's right. That's the problem though. That goes to the point of close. You can find them. You can get them on the phone, but you've got to get them here. And the question is, why don't they get here? Which gets to the hole, is it UK, JMI, is it Pope? We don't really know. But I kind of feel like we'll know in two months. I do too. And we'll find out. Mike, go ahead, Mike. So we're going to give him a third year. But how do you justify?

the poor evaluation of the talent they have and the amount of money that they spent on this team, how can you just give up that much money again? Well, but that's what Jack Given says that worries me. So I think the most worrisome thing that happened yesterday, maybe the most worrisome thing of the day was what Jack Given said on the post game show. And it got little attention. But Jack just kind of threw in offhand. I don't know if they were going to have the NIL to get players next year like we did this year.

They're going to have to make what they get work. When I heard that, we were in the car. Yeah. And I went, oh. He wouldn't have said that if he wasn't concerned about it. That was an interesting comment for a guy well connected to the program on the official postgame show to say. Yeah. And you combine Jack Given saying, I don't know if they're going to have the money,

with Eli Capoludo saying, C-U-T-S cuts, cuts, cuts, with Mark Pope saying we got to start getting guys who want to play for the front of the jersey, maybe not just the big... You start to think, are they not planning on spending money? So I appreciate the call. I am concerned about that. I do wonder, like, you know, none of those people said they're going to do whatever it takes. Jack saying that is important, I think. I think he wouldn't say it if he didn't believe it.

Right. But Ryan, that was maybe the thing. When he said that, I was like, oh, I've taken it as assumption. They'll go get whoever they need to get. Maybe they're trying to set us up for they're not going to be able to go get these guys. Are we running this back? Kentucky fans have always been expecting. We're Kentucky.

We'll pay whatever we need to to get these players. What you just laid out right there doesn't sound like that's going to be in the plan. Sounds like I always hear Yankees fans complain and Red Sox fans that, they were used to go getting whoever they want and now they are all like, you know, trying to balance a budget. Uh-huh. Kind of what it sounds like. It's kind of what it sounded like.

Well, we just did that percentage exercise and I was optimistic on returns. I wouldn't have said that five days ago. Jack's comment in the back of my head and Pope even said straight up, we have a lot of good young players. We've got to start with retention and that kind of thought, well, we're running this back. It's going to be hard to get people excited with that. I mean, we'll see. but I did find that to be very

Even if they do that They still may need to make a big splash with somebody They gotta go get somebody But But we talked about CUTS We talked about not having much star power I mean they won't have anything close to an O-WA

If they're just returning with the head now If you're going to lose By the way we're losing our two best players Right Our two best players are gone Stop overpaying for sunglasses If you're tired of buying expensive sunglasses Only to lose or break them

you need Shady Ray's. An independent American-owned company starred right here in Kentucky. Premium polarized shades for every activity, running, fishing, biking, golfing, you name it. Every member of family can find their perfect pair. They got the best protection program industry with lost and broken replacements.

So take on your next adventure. It's ShadyRase and ShadyRase.com. We'll take a break. Take more calls. 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 SportsSlice comes in. On 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 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 and 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 or are you a good person because you're afraid?

Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

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Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Jared Adano. You might know me as that loud guy who yells out, help on the internet. Help! Somebody! Please! But there's so much more to me.

I'm an actor. I'm a comedian, and recently I've become quite the helper myself. And on my new podcast, Hope from a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with my sage advice and thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to man. If I'm calling you, even if you're on your phone, let it. ring twice. One ring is too scary.

Cream a chicken suit. Hey, cream. Cream a chicken suit. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from Hypocrat as part of the Mike Coutura Podcast Network available on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome

back, Techiesports Radio. 859-280-2287. Text Machine, 772-74525. What do you think about? Oscar Combs tweets Well, I mean, when you lose Oscar, you know, part of it, Oscar really, really

loves Mark Pope because they have a long relationship. So I think part of where Oscar comes from is Oscar is Oscar is going to take up for Mark. And so he's going, I think, to blame the administration more than than Mark. At the same time, I'll never dismiss anything he says

because he's seen more than any of us have. And he went middle fingers up to the administration yesterday. Yes, he did. So when people are like, oh, those KSR and Matt, they're always negative, like, go look at Oscar. I mean, you think we're negative. Go look at Oscar. I get it, though. I mean, his complaint is clearly a Barnhart complaint and a president complaint.

He was mad. He's mad about the contract. he's mad about the 10 lifetime tickets. I'm shocked how many people are mad about the 10 lifetime tickets. I'm in that crowd. Those are expensive tickets. Yeah, and you could argue, like, how many people you need. And if you would sell those, you're saying let's be more efficient.

Why are you giving away 10 lower level tickets that come with huge K-fund donations and everything else? So would you be cool giving him two? Yes, that's fine. And also, it says like if he passes away, the family still gets him through his wife. How long do you need 10 tickets? Tens a lot, though. Like, nobody knows 10 people, Shannon. You know?

Yeah. Like, I'm not taking... You know how hard it would be to organize 10 tickets to a game? Every game? Yeah. I mean, we get it for the SEC tournament, but that's once a year. I know, but to say, like, you get 10 for the rest of your life. Yeah, you don't have that many good friends.

And you pay for those. Yeah. He's not paying for those. And he's not paying for them. I mean, I get it. Those are expensive seats that could be sold to someone. Yeah. But we're on a budget cut.

That's right. So we need to give this guy. who's leaving two million more dollars. Be efficient, Matt. Because that way we can be efficient. It's very important in this new age to create new sources of revenue. The first one is to give Mitch $2 million. That will be very creative in revenue generating.

But if you work for UK athletics, don't you dare ask for a raise in the next year. Yes, because efficiency. By the way, well, let's just make it 20 tickets. I get it. Bryn, go ahead, Brent. Hey, man. You really got me worried about. the NIL. I think last night I was listening to you on the post game and that was the most

worrisome thing what you said about Jack Givens. When will we know if NIL is okay going forward? Well, we don't know, we don't know because, and this goes to one of my worries when we sort of sold the athletic department to a private company, basically, is that this stuff is not released. You know, now the UK has claimed, and I will take them at their word, that they will release everything the same way they would if it was under the public scrutiny rules. We will know that come those releases, which will start to come this summer, about budgets, etc.

But we don't really know. And when questions are asked, we're told it's garbage and shut up. And then only two or three people are mad. Yeah. I mean, so we don't know. is the answer. I mean, so far, we've asked just on the question of why did Mitch get the extra $2 million because, and other schools have done it.

So, like, we don't know. So to answer your question, I'm not sure we will for sure know what the JMI commitment is, but the proof will have to be in the pudding. We'll just see what players we get come mid-May. So then my next question is, if, like, next year, Nate Oates' contract drops down to an $8 million buyout. Do you think if it came in and saw that the J.M.I deal was bad, can we go to court or try to get JMI to read?

I don't. I mean, that I have no idea because I don't know whether or not, I mean, I know the university feels like the deal is good, right? So I think it's very unlikely the university wants to end. ended. So I, I think for, I think JMI is not going anywhere. So then the question of, is it good, is it bad? Is something we'll learn more about? We, we, there are, there's, and I appreciate the call, there's evidence that there's, there's some really good parts of it. There's, I think there's evidence that I'm not sure how it works for our basketball program, but the proof's in the pudding. Like,

look, if they go in the portal season and they come out with a great roster, then, then no one's going to worry about it. If they don't, you know, what the thing is, this is part of what worries me. I mean, I got to be honest. It's so hard to know what to say in these scenarios. Because no matter what is said, there are people that get angry. So the only thing I can do is be honest.

Everyone behind the scenes is pointing their fingers at each other, right? They won't explicitly say it. but they're very much like these problems are happening, not our fault, go look over there. And then you go over there and they go, not our fault, go look over there.

And the only thing they can agree on is they can all go, but really the fault is you people, the media. Well, yeah, but when the cameras aren't on, you guys tell us privately

it's other people's fault. So, I don't know. I think it's a mess. I think the whole thing is a mess. I think there needs to be a rearrange. I think it's salvageable, but there needs to be a rearrangement. They need to use this time with Mitch leaving to completely change how everything's done,

to quit having a centralized power structure of four people that make all the decisions and get into the modern age. Am I wrong? No, and you made the argument for the people that think they need to hire somebody from the outside that position. I think there needs to be somebody. You need to do what companies do when they're failing, which is you bring in somebody that has no connection to anybody and say, look at this and tell us what we're doing.

Right? Yep. Because here's the problem. I've been doing this 20 years. The same people are in charge that were in charge 20 years ago. The same people in like every position. Now, it seems like natural attrition is going to start changing a lot of these things. They need somebody to come in that doesn't know who any of us are and come in and go,

all right, this house is dysfunctional. How do we put it back in track? And here's the thing. Privately, everyone that doesn't have a platform all agrees with me. Talk to the rank and file member of the athletics department, the basketball staff, the presidential office. Not the big voices, but the same. secondary voices will all say, Matt, you're exactly right. We need somebody to come in and restart this.

But nobody can say it publicly because the loud voices just go, nothing's wrong. And media are bad. And fans are unrealistic. But go talk to the people that work in it. They don't tell you that. Am I wrong? No. We're just knuckleheads.

We'll take a break. Come back. Hour number two, KSR. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. On Humor Me with Robert Smygel and Friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel,

help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to Humor Me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning,

The internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlic on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and the TikTok podcast.

network on TikTok. What's up, guys? This is Clever 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 guy 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, rec, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clifferts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Why are we all so obsessed with romance? On the Radio 831 podcast, join us, Sanjana Basker and Tyler McCall, as we unpack all the trending tropes, fuzzy adaptations, book talk drama, and celebrity love stories with hot takes and sharp guests. Each episode digs into what these stories reveal about desire, fantasy, identity, and how we love now. Listen to the Radio 831 podcast on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.