KSR - 2026-03-25- KSR - Hour 1

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

Matt, Ryan, Drew, and Shannon talk the latest news, coaching moves at Kentucky, 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.

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Have a great day. I heart radio. 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, 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. Dude. Hey, Rhett, my mama want you to weigh better. What?

Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. From YouTube and social media, comedy off Broadway and Lexington, welcomes Josh Wolfe, March 19 through the 21st. Then from late night TV and the Bob and Tom show catch Nick Griffin, March 26th through the 28th. And don't miss New York comedy superstar. podcaster Mark Norman. April 2nd through the 4th. For tickets to all comedy off Broadway shows, call E-59-271 joke or visit ComedyoffBroadway.com. This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now here's Matt Jones.

Welcome, everyone. It is Kentucky Sports Radio Wednesday, March the 25th. I'm Matt Jones. I'm here in Louisville, Kentucky, Ryan and Drew are in Lexington. Shannon's in Louisville as well. You can give us a shout on the Clark's Pubb and Shop phone line. 859-2-80-2287. A-Vision Auto Glass text machine is 772-745-254. And this is sponsored by the T.J. Smith Law Office. If you call T.J. I'll make them pay. Guys, I woke up this morning very casually was going to do the show from home in Louisville

and then come to Lexington and then all of a sudden realize Shannon they changed all the ways to get into the show now. All the little, what do you call them, IP address? The little ports that you have to click on. They changed all the ports and I couldn't get on. So I had to drive my car, speed in. You should have seen me. I was like I was at a road course on Formula One getting through downtown Louisville and walked in here about two minutes before ready to go. Well, you made it.

Welcome. Yeah. I'm proud of you for obeying all traffic laws. I did not. There were not. Lots of laws were forsaken. But we got here and ready to go. And this is a, this is another.

like insanely huge day of news. Drew, Drew, I don't know. I can't think of a day in a long time where so many different things happened last night that there's going to be really kind of big stories that I don't even know if we get to today. Yeah. And if you combine it with, excuse me. You okay?

I don't talk. I have something in my throat. All right. I'm back. Sorry. No. When you combine it with yesterday, what a crazy 48 hours of news. It's just been one thing after another here lately. We have a full slate today. We do. as I clear my throat. So let's get started and figure out.

I'm trying to figure out which way to go. I think probably for the future of UK athletics, the most important thing today is a story that came out, at least in a surprise to me this morning, from the athletic, which is basically the New York Times, about the UK Athletics Department. And I can't tell if this is a story.

So the athletic is a paid site, but I can't tell if this article is free or not. Did any of the three of you look at it yet to see? Because I subscribe, so I can get it, but I don't know if the general public can get it. Do you know? I don't think we can get it yet. Okay, so you can't get it. All right. So I guess if that's the case, I don't really want to start a show talking about business, Shannon.

That seems boring. Yeah. Right? Yeah. But I do think this article is. very important. So I'm going to compromise and talk about the article in like 30 minutes so that we talk about sports first. But I would say if in those 30 minutes in the background, you want to read that article you should. Because I think it's a lot of our questions about JMI and all those

things that people have asked are talked about in that article. But let's start with probably the most important thing, which is that Kentucky's, one of their assistant coaches, Jason Hart, is leaving for SMU. He was kind of the head recruiter. I would say on this staff. He wasn't the only recruiter, but he is probably the head recruiter for UK basketball. He's going to SMU for a similar job, although I guess his job title will be associate head coach, but that's really a job title. It's kind of the same job. Drew, what do you make of the decision of Pope losing heart or heart leaving, whichever it happened? Well, he's returning to a guy who worked with Inberg for a long time. I think he's like being named

associate. So it's a little bit of an upgrade. I'm conflicted on how to react because I can see it two ways. He either is leaving UK because he couldn't get recruits and it's not really his decision or he's leaving because he was bringing recruits to the table and Kentucky couldn't finish the job. And I really don't know the answer to which way that goes. But I know he was the Dink-Pate connection. Anyone wanting Deke Pate. He's also Tyron Stokes, right? Yeah, but Pate was the big one. He had coached him before. Any interview of Pate, it's heart, heart, heart, heart, heart, heart, heart, heart, heart, heart. So he was the big pay connection. And then, yeah, recently, any of the trips that have been made to Stokes were Jason Hart. But as far as, you know,

it's also very obvious that we have zero players and that was his job the last year. So you could also say, well, he didn't bring anything to the table. So what are we losing? But I don't know if he's leaving because he was getting them all the way through the door and up to Pope and Pope couldn't close or if he couldn't do it himself. Well, I mean, we first don't know if, yeah, we don't know if it's like he's leaving because he wants to leave or he was being pushed out. I really don't know the answer to that. And I haven't, I haven't really gotten, I'm not sure. So I don't know. I will say, Ryan, I was very excited when Jason Hart came here, heard good things about him. I think he had done a good job at USC. And I was very excited. I thought when he

came here that he would be a really good addition. I think his emphasis was on like high school recruiting and I think the two guys from Kentucky weren't even guys that he was necessarily the main guy on Johnson and Moreno. So I don't know that it's a huge loss because I'm kind of with Drew like I don't know that he was able to get anyone. Now was he not able to get anyone what reason? Was it because of him? Is it because of Pope? Is it because I don't that I don't know. But in terms of like we're losing our connection to recruits, I'm not sure that we had that to begin with. You know, and it could be something as simple as he's a West Coast guy. He wants to go back back on us.

Dallas is not West Coast. He's going to SMU. Oh, we just have West part of the state. Get closer to home. It's not even the West part of the state. Closer to home, I'll go, should have said, start with. Maybe he just wants to get closer to home. Does he have a map?

He's been to Texas before. You've been to Texas. You know it's kind of like in the middle. Right. I thought we were next to Vegas when we were in Texas. I mean, to get to be honest with you. he's not that much closer. Dallas to Los Angeles?

Not really. I mean, you're not, we've done this drive. Do you remember it took like two and a half days to get from Dallas to Los Angeles? But I think what else were it hurts? As far as in-game coaching, him and Mark Fox were the only two guys

that really did like a lot of in-game coaching it looked like on the sideline. You know, if you watch the bench, it was Pope and then Hart and then Mark Fox. Those were the guys that kind of did most of it. So I think, I think this is a blow. You meant you guys to touch on the recruiting, but I think on the coaching

also this is a blow. He loves the beach, Shannon. The Dallas Beach. That's right. I mean, he's big on the sand that sort of borders Fort Worth. Waco is kind of like Malibu, really. Yeah. It is. South Padre Island down there somewhere, right? Yeah. It's not there, but it's in,

it's around Texas, right? It's around Texas. So, I mean, yeah, it's the West Coast. Drew, you were going to say, are you saddened by the loss regardless of how it happened? I'm really indifferent because my bigger concern is whatever you think of Jason Hart. I don't love the idea of a new assistant coming in on maybe not even here yet. Late March, when we need to roster ASAP. Well, and there's people who believe this won't be the only one. Yeah.

I mean, you mentioned Mark Fox. There are those. Again, I have no idea what part of the coaching staff will be here because I, I haven't heard, but there are people on the internet who don't think Mark will be here after this year. I don't know. I will say if they're going to be staff changes, I do hope Ryan they happen quick because the portal opens April 6th, but I'm assuming work is already taking place right now. Yeah, you've got to move fast right now.

There's no delay whatsoever because when that portal opens, players are going to find a home very quickly. We saw it happen last year, man. It doesn't take long for them to find a new place to go. Yeah. So, but then Kentucky officially added the Keegan Brown guy, as the associate director of player development. They're very clear that this is not a GM,

but we still don't know whether or not he's going to hire a GM. This may be part of the GM. I don't know. I don't know much about this guy, Drew. He was at the, what, Wisconsin herd? Is that right? Yes, video guy for them. There's a video guy for the Wisconsin herd,

which is a G-League team, Shannon, you heard, right? I heard that. And so I don't really know anything about him. I mean, I think when we get into these jobs where it involves getting players and NIL and negotiation, I don't know that we're always going to have heard of these people, to be honest. So I really don't know if this is good or bad, but we have a new person in that job. Yeah, he left Wisconsin to get closer to Utah down here in Lexington. I will say, when Pope first got hired, you know, we're all trying to guess who the assistant

were. And I went and I nerded out on a story about Keegan Brown. I'll admit, I was like, we got to get this guy because he did seem like a young mind. What did you like about him? He seemed to be a big part of the offense Pope was running. Everyone watched that video game offense YouTube video when Pope first got hired. The help talks us into it. And I think Keegan Brown was a big part of building Pope's teams there. I actually was rooting for him to be an assistant just completely based on one YouTube video. And then the story I read that was, I can't remember if a BYU story, but if something out in Utah, that made him seem like a young up-and-comer, and then it kind of, you know, obviously didn't make the move, and he ends up in Wisconsin,

and I didn't think much of them. So I at least a couple years ago thought highly of them based on what I was reading. Okay. So, well, that's good. That makes me feel good. So you've actually, Shannon, he's done Keegan Brown research. Yeah, the only one on the show who has. Yes. Well, I certainly have not done Keegan Brown research. So you're pro Keegan Brown. I am. We'll, you know, we'll see. But in the role he's in, which Pope said he's just going to be around the clock, you know, collecting data, spreadsheets, all that stuff. I mean, I can't hurt to have them. And like I said, I can't switch up because I wanted him in the beginning just based on

one article I read. All right. Well, Drew is pro Keegan Brown. Then I'm pro Keegan Brown. It's all that one art. I'll tweet it. I'll find it. It was a couple of years old.

Oh, you find that article. All right. What were we going to say? Is this as close as he'll get to a general manager? Is this guy? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, you know, I feel like we say quite a bit.

I don't know. which has been kind of the theme of a lot of stuff with, I mean, UK has been so close shot for a while that it is hard to know. I, and this kind of will go to the second thing I was going to bring up, but I have probably had more positive or constructive conversations in the last 24 to 48 hours with folks around UK sports, athletics, just to get an understanding of what's going on. Not necessarily to agree with a lot of the decisions, but just communication lines that had kind of gone down.

I don't know if the – here's what I think's happened, Ryan. I think the loss Sunday, and then the reaction to the loss, and then the realization that Mitch Barnhart is going to be gone, and the realization that a new air is coming, and then all the conversations that have been going in all different directions with fans on every side of every issue. issue. I do think there has been a little bit of a come-to-jesus moment in the UK world that, okay, whatever it is we were doing this last year or two, we can't do that anymore. Okay? Yes. And I appreciate that. Now, I'm as concerned as anybody about some of the stuff going to forward. I'm concerned about whether or not we're going to have a roster next year. I'm concerned about a lot of stuff. But for the first time, and this is really in the last 24 to 48 hours,

for the first time in about a year and a half since the early years of Pope, really when the early days of Pope, since Mark Stoop started having his bad season two years ago, UK has been in this hunker down mentality of everybody get away from us. We're going to be in our cocoon. And I do think Mitch Barnhart was a big part of that thought process. It seems to me in the last 24 to 48 hours, a realization from a lot of people in a lot of different areas, all right, that didn't work. So let's try something else. And that, to me, people sometimes ask me,

I get asked, I got asked four times yesterday. Is Kentucky basketball going to ever be back? I feel encouragement that at least it feels like for the first time in about two year and a half, that the university seems to realize that the way things have been going just can't keep going like that. Now, we'll see what happens with that. So I'm excited about the Keegan Brown. I don't know if the Jason Hart thing's going to matter. But now the question is, can we get a roster and can we get players? And there's some developments on that. Also, there's some developments on some recruiting. We got a guy coming on campus today. So there's a lot

of stuff to talk about. 859-28027. 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

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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, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What?

Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to The Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. In Fort Worth, Texas. You know, Ryan's just using the same map that they used in Justified. Did you all watch Justified?

Oh, yes. And Justified, they would say, they said Harlan was like 10 minutes from Lexington. Right down the road from Lexington. It said it was right down the road from Lexington. Just like Dallas is for Los Angeles. And that made a lot of people in Kentucky mad with that show, if you're It did. They were like,

Harlan is not 10 minutes from Lexington. And on one of the first scenes, he's on some old dirt road. And he's on the phone. He's like, I'm on Tate's Creek Road. I'm like, oh, no, you're not. Where's Kroger? Where's New Circle? Tate's Creek is not dirt road.

Yeah. So we obviously have serious things to talk about. But Shannon just told me a headline during the break. Yeah. Read me that headline again? Quadruple amputeeathechornhole champion, charge with murder. Quadruple amputee. cornhole champion.

Yeah, championship player, professional player. Professional player. Yeah. Charge with murder. Yeah. Well, what did they say he did? Shot a man. And then dumped the body.

Shot a man and dumped the body. That's pretty good luck to unpack here. That's a lot. Shot a man where? The amputee was driving. Was driving. It was driving. Okay.

And then pulled over and shot the guy, then dumped his body. Wow. And he's a cornhole player. Yeah. Not anymore. Well, it'll be a different kind of corner hole. In prison, he can be a cornhole player. I don't.

That's an unbelievable story. It's a lot to unpack. Yeah. Huh. Well, I mean. Where is that? In Maryland. In Maryland.

Yeah, it's close to D.C., I believe. Yeah. Well, I'm going to have to read that story. I don't make any comments because I don't even know. I don't even know how to begin to. That is one that's hard to even begin to process. There's videos of the guy like firing guns, not associated with the crime, but like he has a lot of videos. Prostatic arms.

Is that how he fires it? Yeah. He also just kind of. I don't know. I'm going to shit. He's driving a car? He's just got to see the video. I don't know how to describe it.

Turn rides, Mike off. I got to say one thing. I know. Just let me say one thing. Because you already made one inappropriate joke in this segment. No, I didn't. Yes, you did. That's not the joke.

No, that was not the joke. Come on, let him make the joke. I'm making a joke. I want to know how he's driving a car and shooting a gun at the same time. Well, prosthetics. But that's what I just said. It's because of prostate. I mean, I assume, although Drew says we need to watch the video.

He didn't pull the trigger with his tongue. I mean, he did it with his finger. Well, Drew says there's a video. I'll watch the video. I need you all to stop talking because I'm not worried about what any of people will say. We'll save it for it's the news later. Yeah, that's probably a good one for our podcast. That's it.

This afternoon. All right. 859-280 2287. What person writes, Matt, we Jason Hart did get us Lamott Butler. Okay. He was great. So, I mean, that would have been a good start. I don't know.

Are there any players on the roster that were on the roster this year that he was the direct guy, Drew? Do you know? I would be guessing. I'm not sure exactly who he reeled. in this year. Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm not sure either. 859-280-2287. Since I got off track with your story, I do need to say one thing to all the listeners. Yesterday, I highly recommended the show Neighbors. Yes. I watched the end of episode two yesterday where he does karate. Maybe the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life. You've seen it, Drew, right? Episode two is the one with the, like,

white-haired guy and pool, and he's... Yes, yes. Episode. Two is the couple. The characters in the show are unbelievable. The character, these people existing, there's a guy who calls himself the Italian stallion that multiple people wrote and said was Shannon the dude in 10 more years. I got to see you. And like at first I mocked it and I kind of drew think it's true. The guy in episode two with the ponytail. I haven't seen it. No, not even because he looks like him, like the actions. Oh, what's he do? Well, I'll let you watch it. All right. Then episode three is amazing about, I can't even. like watching it last night, I just, I couldn't believe these people existed.

And it made me, these two best friends arguing over a plot of land that's like three feet. I bring all this up to say, episode six, I'm told, is one that I need to warn the viewers about. Drew, I haven't seen it. But I had a lot of people write me and go, you need to say to viewers that episode six is different than everything else. And I haven't seen it. But I just want to say I'm not responsible for episode six because I haven't seen it. yet. I have not gotten to six yet, but my friends knew I was watching it last night, and they're done with it. And they also warned me of episode six. They said, do not watch episode

six with your mom or Larry. Wow, really? Yes. I think there's some male nudity involved. All right. So Shannon, just for the record, I'm recommending episodes one through five, no comment on six. Okay. I won't watch six. I just watch two. I want you to watch two because that guy's you in 10 years. We'll see what you really think about me. No, I'm not the one who said it. It's the people on the text machine. 859-280-2287. Adam, go ahead, Adam.

Hey, what's up, guys? You know, I see a lot of pushback online with assistant coaches leaving. You know, Corey Hart came in as what the reputation of we're going to get all these G-League players. And that hasn't happened. And, you know, even, you know, Alvin Brooks on the staff came in from Baylor. It's like he's a top-notes recruiter, and we have zero recruits for next year. So, you know, I can't really cry over these coaches leaving. I sort of agree with you, Adam, to be honest with you.

I saw someone say online, you can't both say Pope needs to make changes and fix things and then get mad when changes are made. Right. And I think that's a really fair point. I mean, if you do not think what happened last year is acceptable and it needs to get better, then changing things would presumably be the way to do it. Exactly. And obviously a head coaching change isn't going to happen this off season,

but this is the way to go. You've got to do something to try to make it better. And, you know, this is how you take care of that. Yeah. New assistant coaches. Appreciate the call. I agree with you. I don't know how you can do both.

Hubert Davis is out. Yeah. But surprising. I mean, this is a pretty monumental thing in college basketball. ball, Hubert Davis being gone. Matt Norlander said this yesterday, and he's right. This is the first time in any of our lifetimes, in any of our lifetimes that the North Carolina job is open.

The North Carolina job has not been open since Dean Smith was the coach. They've always just picked the guy. Promoted from within. They've always promoted from within. And they say they are now going outside the family for the first time ever, ever. So however you see. think of brands in college basketball. North Carolina is certainly one of the three or four biggest. Of course it is. And that job is open. And I think that job has as much potential as any job.

And the Kansas job might be open. Yeah. It's not official. It's not official. There's been no official announcement. But you could end up with a case where the North Carolina and Kansas job is open. And Matt Norlander said last night, he thought that there were some top coaches that would leave for those jobs. So what happens, Drew, if Dusty May goes to Kansas or Todd Golden goes to North Carolina or something like that happens, how are things going to feel in Lexington? Not great. Billy Donovan's name is also being thrown around a lot that he might want to return to college for that job. That would really hurt after just two years ago. We wouldn't wait four days to talk to him. Yeah, we couldn't wait. We had three different times to hire Billy

Donovan. And if he comes, none of those three and then goes to Carolina. I mean, what if we just look up and, you know, Todd Golden's at USC, Nate Oates, and I'm just guessing, Nate Oates is at UNC, or Nate Oates is at Kansas, Golden's at UNC, whatever. They just all upgrade and get the best coaches. And that will also come with a trickle effect across the board with recruiting and then other coaches raising their contracts and buyouts at other schools. They'd both be out of the SEC, though. That's true. No, I mean, you got to try to find some positive out of it.

But those jobs, those are two of the best four jobs in the country. Yep. We'll be right back. 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. Welcome back, Tucky Sports Radio.

Kentucky beat Murray State and baseball. That's a college world. College World Series baseball team we beat yesterday, Drew, right? They went to college. Was it last year? Oh, yes. Last year, Murray State. Also, we've been struggling against teams in the state this year.

Yeah, Morhead State beat us. It's good to get a big win. One by 10. Okay, so you can, apparently this JMI article, or this article about UK's athletics can be shared as a gift article. I don't know what that means, Shannon. You give it as a gift. But you can give it as a gift.

So someone sent it to me as a gift and they say that I can share this as a gift. So, Drew, I'm going to give this for you to share it as a gift. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Okay. You can also join KSR Plus and it comes with an athletic subscription. Shout out. Is that right? Yeah, 50% off right now.

Are you not a member of KSR Plus, Matt? I am, but I pay for the athletic. I guess I didn't have to do that, did I? Yeah, comes free if you're on KSR board. Get in there. You just saved me money, Drew. Thank you very much. And we have a sale.

Go there now. So I will tweet out the gift article or you can either way. If you want to read this, there's a way to get it. It's by guy named Justin Williams. It's very long. Here are the basics. UK for the first time talked about how this whole new athletics department's going to run. Justin Williams says that Kentucky has become the first athletic department.

to completely transition their athletic department to a non-profit entity LLC. No other college university has changed their athletic department to an LLC except Kentucky. Now, in the article, they quote, a number of people who say this is revolutionary in a positive way. and then they quote a couple people who say they're a little skeptical, but nevertheless, Kentucky is the first university to ever do this. I remember when they announced it a few months ago, or what was it, like eight months ago, Ryan, however long ago that was they announced. They said soon every university will do this.

Yes. As of right now, only Kentucky has, but that doesn't mean there won't be others that will do it as well. In the article, I'm going to read you this paragraph. It's understandable to assume that with the amount of money the Wildcats are paying, they could be in financial distress, an overly leveraged asset that would have financial expert Dave Ramsey folding his arms in disgust.

Dave Ramsey, Shannon. Rice and beans. The reality, however, is quite the opposite. Kentucky Athletics has access to plenty of money, potentially swimming in it, Scrooge McDuck style. In an industry where a lot of schools, even at the power conference level are scrubbing their budgets and pleading for Congress to step in. Kentucky is embracing an adapt-or-dive mentality.

They want to be up there with schools like Texas and Ohio State, which have budgets over $300 million. Eric Monday, university administrator and likely future president of university. That's my thing. We are running to what is next in college athletics. We're going to provide opportunities for our fans at a level beyond what we've traditionally done. We're going to have an athletics department beyond. 200 million a year to 225 million a year to 250 million a year so we can do more at UK. So that's the biggest part of it.

Basically they're saying we're going to essentially an LLC model and we're about to roll in money. Now, that's hard for me to hear we're rolling in money Scrooge McDuck style, Drew, after Eli Capiludo came on Saturday and said get ready for cuts. I don't, that messaging seems different to me. But if you read this article, it goes into detail how it will work. It goes into detail as to how they believe it will succeed. And it seems like to me reading it, a lot of it is they think they're going to be able to grow lots of revenue off things that are not just athletics. specifically the restaurants, entertainment districts, hotels,

all the things they've talked about building. They say those businesses and shops. Those businesses will benefit from game day traffic, but also have year-round money for athletics as they are essentially businesses that will have UK athletics as their profit center. What do we make of all that? Well, since they're pretty much Kentucky's collective,

days. I'm rooting for them. I'm still a little skeptical with how all that will work. As you said, it hadn't been a week since Eli told us there's going to be cuts and all of that. On the football end, I've always thought we're good. I still wonder how this works with basketball, and it might even not reflect well

on the basketball staff if it's true that they have a Scrooge McDuck's amount of money. Can't sign anybody. But I like the optimism within the building, even though I still have my guard up a little bit, that this is going to work out. I mean, they're saying, all the right things. And this story obviously paints it all in a bright light for Kentucky and leading the way in NIL. So I'm hoping it works out. But I've still, you know,

people that have had to work with them have said the opposite and people in the building. So I'm still conflicted on how that, how it will actually play out. So when I read it this morning, I mean, I think it sounds great. Okay. It sounds great. We're going to run UK athletics like a business. I've been saying that for a long time. I think without saying it, it's kind of a, hey, by the way, the way we did things under Mitch, we're not doing them anymore. I think there's. a subtext to this in the way they say that, although Mitch is quoted in this a couple times supporting it.

I think it looks good if you read it. I also agree with Drew that I actually think what they're doing is working for football. Basketball is a different question. There's a couple things that I think, though, to watch. One, the Scrooge McDuck language. I wonder if that's going to be Shannon like Ferrari was with basketball this year. Do you think we're going to hear that a lot? I think if we, now granted, this was the writer that said that it wasn't UK.

But like if we don't get recruits, are people going to go, I thought we had Scrooge McDuck. Yeah. Yeah. A Dave Ramsey reference and a Scrooge McDuck. Right. The other thing is, and UK cites this, and this is where I'm going to need help from the listeners. I'm going to do something that people say I never do, but I'm going to do here. I'm going to admit I don't know what I'm about to talk about at all.

and I want over the next 24 hours, there are many listeners right now who will have experienced what I'm about to say, and I would like on the text machine or on, you know, Twitter or whatever, write me and tell me, because I really want to hear from you on this. In the article, they basically say, we're going to do to UK athletics what we did to UK healthcare. They say in this article that this model they're doing for UK athletics, they did for UK healthcare and it had a ton of success.

I will be honest with you, I have no idea if that's true or not, because I don't know anything about health care. So what I would like is I think there's probably a ton of you out there that have experiences or dealings with UK healthcare that you can tell me, let's assume UK athletics, let's take what they say at face value. They're going to do with UK athletics what they did with UK healthcare. If that's true, those of you that have experience with it, tell me what that means.

Because Ryan, I don't know. I don't know what that means. But the university itself cites what UK has done with UK healthcare as to what we are about to do with athletics and it's going to change and make UK a Texas, Ohio state like power. All right. So somebody who knows what they've done with UK health care, Ryan, let me know what that means. I have a question. Do you happen? Do any of you know what happened with you? No.

Okay. I don't. Drew, do you? Yeah, I know there was a guy there a long time and maybe paid him well to take another gig similar to what we're seeing with UK athletics. Well, that might be similar to it. Is that a thing around there? Is that actually what happened?

Eh, it's, it's, I don't know what's public. But yeah, kind of. Okay. Well, leave that. part to the side. I didn't know he was going to say that. What were you, what was your question, right? So, you know, when they said they were going to make athletics part of an LLC, like, what do you said, like eight months ago, I remember we all applauded. I thought it was a great idea. So why haven't other schools? It still might be a great idea. I don't know if it's a great idea or not.

Their argument is it will be a lot easier for us to do things like buy businesses as an LLC than if we were part of the university. And they're right about that. That's true. Now, here's the problem. with making anything of yours a business? What can happen to businesses, Shannon? They can go under. They can fail. Yeah. Right?

So at least when you have government regulation, and there are many, many negatives of government regulation, you have a backbone of the government to hold you up. And sometimes that leads you to make bad decisions. Sometimes it doesn't. But you always have a stopgap that, okay, at the end of the day, we have this pot of money from our government that will keep us in order. With a business, you can have infinite success, but you also can go bankrupt.

And what's going to happen? Is this LLC going to then have to come to the government and go bail us out? That I don't know. So I'm sure that this could be really good. but Shannon businesses can succeed and they can also fail. And that they do put in this article, what happens if they go belly up? And UK's answer is basically like, we won't. Love the confidence. Okay, I mean, that's confidence, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see. But what I'd really like to do is that this is really put out there of, let me know you all in the UK healthcare world. I want to hear from me over the next, like, 24 hours. because it seems like whatever they did to U.K. healthcare, that's what we're doing to U.K. athletics.

So we'll see what that is. There's the quote in there about Kentucky is not afraid to swing and miss. Let's swing and hit, though. How about we, let's make contact. Let's make contact. I watch the Reds a lot. I see a lot of swing and misses. Yeah, we don't want that.

I'm glad you're at the plate. I'm glad you're ready to swing. I want to get some home runs. It starts tomorrow, too. Yeah, we've got that. Summer Valley's coming. We'll take a break. We'll be right back.

Take a couple of your calls. K. Last night, a. a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to

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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? Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, rec, my mama want you to wave at her.

What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clivert show on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. You got to give Scrooge McDuck a lot of credit as a reference that has lasted a long time. It has. You know,

because when's the last time you've seen anything duck tails related? 90s. In the 90s for sure. And Scrooge McDuck was not even a huge character, was he? No. And yet, when you say Scrooge McDuck, everybody knows. Everybody knows what you mean.

Vision of them jumping in that pile of gold. That's right. Yeah. So it really has worked for a long time. time. Now, I'm getting a ton of messages already from people on the UK health care. Keep them up today. I want to read them later tonight because I do want to understand kind of, because, you know, the fact that UK specifically made that comparison means that, you know, they see it as the same thing. And Drew was correct. They did essentially push out the leader of UK healthcare and gave him some money to put somebody else in. So I don't know if that's coincidence or not. Now, you had a question, first of all, let me, so a couple of people criticizing me for saying Ryan told inappropriate joke, but not saying it to Shannon a couple segments ago. There's a different, Shannon.

It's called tact. It's called subtlety. Yeah. Go back in podcast, listen to that joke as told by Shannon, subtle, and Ryan, Shannon, less subtle. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know any idea. Exactly. So that's the difference.

Now, what was your question? Zol, like you said, they started this LLC eight months ago or whatever, and we thought it was very innovative idea kind of headed the curve. But why eight months later has no other school done the same thing and followed suit? Don't know. It says in the article that their other schools have dipped their toe around it like Clemson, Louisville, and Miami. But that no one's done it but Kentucky. Does that they think it's not going to work?

I think what they're saying is those schools have taken parts of their athletic department and made them LLCs, but we're the only one that's done our whole athletic department. And I, you know, why haven't other people done it? Maybe they will. Or maybe they want to see if it works or fails with us first. Right? And you would think eight months later somebody may have followed suit and follow the leader. Yeah.

Mike, go ahead, Mike. Good morning, guys. Good morning. I'm just looking at next season. Oh, my gosh. But anyway, so Jaden Quaitence, you know, we know that situation. But Mo Diabate, Moreno, and Chandler. I think those are the three players that we got to focus on.

And I know a lot of people say about Diabate, but I won't say about Diabate. Is that this guy? You wouldn't put Cam in there? You wouldn't put Cam in there, Williams? just because of his injury, I don't know. I mean, I mean, I know it was just ankle and stuff, but no, I like, I like, I do like him. You know, I do, yes. But with Mo, Mo was, he was a battler, man.

He got us rebounds. He played some deviant. He played some good defense. He knows, he's not, you know, he's not an offensive guy. But man, when we needed some, we needed some grit, he got us some grit. And that's the reason I really like him, you know, and I just really think we got to have a core for next year that we can build on. And we got, I mean, this is, this is my fear is that because of the situation we're in,

we're going to make bad decisions. I worry about that. That's a very, that's a great, that's a very good point. I appreciate the call. Of the 16 teams playing right now in the Sweet 16, 14 of them had at least three players in their top six that were returners. So it is important to have that. Yes.

Michigan, and I want to say Texas, and Texas was an 11 seat. They're the only two teams, I think, that are in the, that don't have at least three of their top six guys were returners from last year. So, Drew, knowing that, it is important that some critical mass of these guys come back. I agree that that's important too. Now, if you look at a lot of the guys that came back, they were some of the team's best players a year ago. It'd be nice if, you know, Aberdeen O'way had a little eligibility left, and they're the guys you're returning.

So sure, I want to keep a lot of the guys, to be honest, but under the circumstances that they take a big jump forward and you get some stars to put next to them, because I don't think anyone's going to make big enough jump from the current team to be a star. So I want to keep lots of bodies. I think that's important in this era, but the ones Kentucky have an option to return right now

aren't quite as good as what a lot of the other schools had to bring back that are still in the conversation. David, go ahead, David. Hey, Matt, I know you haven't touched on this yet, but I've got a bone to pick with Michael Wilbon. Okay, well, I'm going to do that next hour, David. Can we hold on until then? Sure, I'll hold on.

All right, why don't you hold on? Let me play Wilbon's clip, and then, Shannon, we'll let David give a good response, okay? Yeah, we'll let David fire on. All right, so you hang on, David, because I want you to fire at Will Bond when we do that next segment. All right.

Let's go to Will. Go ahead, Will. Yeah. Hey, thanks for taking my call again, guys. Long time to speak. I really did want to kind of piggyback off the last person that was talking. Just kind of see who you guys really want coming back on the team next year. And why there's so much hate for Jasper Johnson.

He is such a good kid, local. He could develop into a great player. Same with Malachi Moreno. He struggled toward the end of the year. This is want to get your guys thoughts on that. And try, please, keep. BBN in line. We have the best fans, but also some of the worst and nastiest fans. It's one of your guys. Yeah, so we talked about the people coming back or not yesterday.

There's a video online. I don't want to repeat it and go over it again. But you can see what we thought about all those. Let me hold off on Jasper just a second. I do think Jasper's a really good kid. I want to talk about that because his uncle made a comment yesterday, which will go to a bigger conversation. Again, one I have in the next hour. But I do think we need a critical mass of these guys back and there's nobody on the team that like, Drew, if they came back, I'd be unhappy. But I do think we got to go get some studs to go along with whoever comes back. I completely agree. And I've seen people, I'm just going to use Brandon Garrison as an example.

Some people don't want him back. I could understand. At the same time, it's not like the portal is full of people that want to be a backup center that are going to be better than that. I mean, we got to recognize Pope's not going to go out and just nail every position on the roster with the best of the best. So some of these guys, even if you don't think they're going to be great or whatever, you still need guys on your bench as long as they can accept that role.

We had nine dudes that played last year. So two of them are gone. That's seven. Of those seven, like I'm fine with all seven of them back. I don't think they're all going to, seven going to come back. But I think it's key what you do with the other three or four spots. Ryan, they better be really good. You know?

You've got to get some dudes. Because we are losing our two best players. Yeah. I mean, we went 22 and 14, and we're losing our two best players. So we got to go get some dudes. Like Drew said, though, Brandon Garrison and Diabata, they both kind of fit in their role coming off the bench. And I would really like to have them coming off the bench again next year.

But you could end up with much worse. Without question, but you also have to make sure they want to come off the bench. Yeah. And who knows if they do. All right. We're going to come back our two. We're going to play Will Bond. Hear David's response.

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