KSR - 2026-04-20- KSR - Hour 1

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Matt, Ryan, and Shannon talk Kentucky Football's Spring game, Basketball recruiting, 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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This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now, here's Matt Jones. Welcome, everyone. It is Kentucky Sports Radio Monday. April the 20th. I am Matt Jones here on what hopefully will be the last few cool days of spring. Before I think starting tomorrow, maybe summer weather is here. Yeah, high. It's supposed to be in like the low 50s today.

We all have buddies on. Yes, but this is it because I think starting Tuesday, it's going to be great. You can give us a shout on the Clark's Puppet Shop phone line, 859-2802287. A Vision Auto Glass text machine is 772-7752524. And this is sponsored by the T.J. Smith Law Office, you call T.J. I'll make them pay. Shannon is in Louisville. Ryan and I are in Lexington after a big adventure-filled weekend of recruiting.

I'm in a good mood, Shannon, because last night I got to do something I'll probably never get to do again. What's that? Which was sit on my porch right outside of my house and listen to one of my favorite artists like playing live to where I could hear it from my porch. You didn't even have to pay to get a ticket. Dwighton didn't have to pay for a ticket. Just got to sit there and listen to him and go, thousand miles from nowhere. And I, like, that was kind of cool, Shannon. That's the first time they've had a concert in that park.

And the acoustics, I think it sounds better at my house than it does. So I'm moving, unfortunately. But, like, actually, I think that's shit in a perfect place. You can maybe book them to play your backyard barbecue. Maybe at your new house. I don't know if I can do ZZ Top and Dwight Yon. You're close enough to hear it. Were you close enough to see him on stage?

I can't see it. I got some, there's some trees that block it. But honestly, it was interesting learning about acoustics in some ways. Because when I turned into, on to my. street, I couldn't hear anything. And then halfway to through the street, it sounded like I was on stage, which just shows, you know, Shannon, how acoustics can work like that. They've got that down to a science.

They do the same thing with these big festivals and everything. They've got four stages, but somehow they've got it to where you can only hear it in this area, you know, this zone. Yes. And you could tell. And like it felt like they designed that entire Gatton Park thing for my porch. They did. And now you're moving.

And now I'm moving. Yeah. It was, but it was really cool. Like, he's one of my favorite artists of all time. I mean, I saw him play for the first time when I was like 15 years old, and he's right outside of my house. Right in your backyard. Yeah, the only thing I couldn't do is like to see him shake his tail like he likes to do.

They just announced five minutes ago, August 28th, Dwight Yocom, Louisville Palace. Yeah, but again, that's not at my house. Yeah, but you got to play some Louisville, though, you know. I know, but this was to sit on your porch. Like, I mean, imagine Stone Tipal, pilots, Shannon. I would be there. I would be front row, you know, headbagging.

Well, I heard, I will say, I heard that the actual, if you went, maybe a little bit, they may need to work on their logistics a little bit. First big concert they had there. First big concert, I heard maybe they need some more bathrooms. Really? 14 porta-potties for that entire place. And was there a huge crowd? 14.

Well, I mean, they were expected between 4,000 and 5,000 people. 14 out of 5,000 people. That's just what I heard. I'm not, if somebody wants to tell me that that, but that was it, and I thought that was Shannon, such a specific number that it kind of had to be. Yeah. And then, I actually think this is cool. I don't know if the people that organize it will think it's cool.

Manchester Street now, people just learned you can just stand on the street and watch it. Yeah. You know. Yes, you can. So there's just people standing on the street. It's got to hurt ticket sales. That might in the future now that people, people know that. But I'll tell you where you can't be.

You can't come to my porch. Because my porch, you're not going to find a better place. You could charge a fortune for parking and bathroom use. I'm going to let all these people in my bathroom. Are you kidding me? Hey, you're going to get $5 for your bathroom. $500. Yeah.

So anyway, that was very, very cool last night. I didn't expect it to be as awesome as it was. All right. So let's talk about what happened this weekend. It was massive recruiting weekend. Really two stories. Let's do the positive story first. For me, maybe the player in the portal that I wanted Kentucky to get the most,

well, the one I wanted him to get to most was Rob Wright. Obviously, that didn't happen. Zoom Diallo for me would be point guard too, so I was good with it. But my second favorite player in the portal was Alex Wilkins from Furman, and he commits to Kentucky. Yes. I think he's going to be our best player next year, or at least our best score next year. To me, this is a steal.

I don't care where he's ranked in the ratings, 25th, 28th. I will go on record as saying, I'll look in the camera. When the after the season's over, portal rankings come out, that kid will have been a top 10 to 15 player in the portal. I genuinely believe that. He is a dynamic score who I think is exactly what Kentucky needs. And I don't know how the rest of the portal, I don't know how this team is going to look next year,

but I know we will come at the end of that season and go. that was the best get Mark Pope guy. You got to look to see who else wanted him. He picked Kentucky over Yukon. Yukon. In the National Championship game. I think they had a pretty good year last couple of years. Alabama's been killing it.

Yes. And there were other schools that tried but just didn't have the money that they wanted to put that those Kentucky, Alabama and Yukon. So I got so mad at some of our fan base said, oh, come on, we're settling for a transfer from Furman. Everybody wanted this kid. Everybody. And let me give you some numbers.

I put this on Twitter. I think it's really important. And again, this is, it's a small sample size. It's four years. We need to look at this in 15 years. But 20 first team All-Americans in college basketball in the last four years. Ten of them came from the same school the whole time. Okay.

Now think about that for a minute. Ten of them were upperclassmen who always played at one school, showcasing there is value in getting guys and keeping them in your program. we only kept two people in our three, Trent Noah. But 10 of them were those guys. Four of them were freshmen. Okay. Probably less than people think.

Less than I thought. Four were freshmen. And by the way, three of those were this season. I'm going to say this season alone. This season. Four were freshmen. And then six guys were transfers from low schools to high schools. Okay.

You know what's yet to be a first team All-American in the NIL era? someone that transferred from a Power 4 school to another Power 4 school. Really? So we keep hearing, let's just get this kid from Kansas, from Arizona State, from, you know, Washington, from Oregon, from Maryland, whatever. Turns out the ones that turn into stars are actually the ones from the men majors. Yaxil was one this year. Dalton Connect. Mark Sears, Walter Clayton Jr.

I mean, I'm giving you the ones over the years. So I just thought that was interesting. I'm not saying Alex Wilkins is going to be a first team All-American. Now, if you go back five years, Oscar was a Power 4 to a Power 4, but that was pre-N-IL. He came here before NIL. Yeah. Now, while he was here, you got NIL, but he came here before an aisle.

So anyway, Ryan, I think that, you know, I thought that was a huge gift for Mark. All these schools wanted him. It was really the first guy he's gotten. Other schools bid the same amount, and he picked them. Yeah, he had to get a couple of these guys. He had to win these recruiting battles, whether it's a freshman or a transfer portal guy. So now you're hearing some of these national pundits calling this, maybe Pope's best backcourt. He's put together in his top three, first three years here.

Who said that? On the internet. But you said some of these punitive too. I can't remember who it was. Well, I mean, is it plausible? Yeah, it's plausible. But, like, I think he's, you know, I think O.A. in Aberdeen ended up being pretty good. I think Butler and Jackson Robinson and Braya and O'Wea were pretty good.

You're going to have a hard time putting together better backcourt in what you had last year with O'A and Aberdeen. I think this one can be as good, though. I think this one will be better passers. This one, I think, will be better creatively. Now, Aberdeen at the end was a pretty good shooter. We'll have to see if these guys end up like that. O'A was great going to basket. because Diallo kind of struggled

as a shooter as a freshman year, but made a big jump last year. But we really didn't have a point guard who could pass. No. And Diallo will be that. So I like it. I think they actually did really well with that. Now I will say Shannon, you know, you hesitate.

Can I say a criticism with love? Of course. Can I do a criticism with love? Especially when you put it that way. Okay, because I love I love my good friends at KSR the website. Yes. And they do an amazing job. They get too much criticism, a lot of which is just because it's KSR and they want to criticize me so they criticize them.

Guilty by association. It's a guilty by association. I tell them that all the time. Like a lot of these times, these people are mad at me and they're taking it out on you. With that said, I love Adam Luckett. Does an awesome job. Yes, he does. Adam Luckett's my guy.

Adam Luckett's probably going to be on here one. day this week to talk football. Shannon, we got to talk to him about headlines. He puts on stories. Oh, okay. What's the headline? Did you see the headline? He put up Saturday. Mario's laughing. I don't think I saw it. Could Zoom Diallo, Alex Wilkins, be Mark Pope's John Wall, Eric Bledsoe? Oh, you know what? I did see that. Yeah. I saw it go through on Facebook.

Hey, Adam. Slow down, man. I know what he means. What he means is the way Mark Pope plays. Wall and Blentso were both point guards, but they made it work. And Diallo and Wilkins, there's nuance. Uh-huh, yes. But, Shannon, you can't put nuance in a headline. Yeah.

Because then what ends up, like, that went everywhere. And I just wanted to go. You know, I was like, I'm not going to let Adam have his weekend. But, you know, I don't put these guys in the Wall Bledso category, Shannon, just yet. No. I love them, but like, come on now. Let's slow down. So I come there on my Facebook.

Facebook feed and they got a lot of those laughing emojis more than I think the like like emojis just because people are like, what are you saying? There's no way these guys are going to be better than those two. I think Adam just got excited, right? Yeah. Because I said in theory, Cal played two point guards together. I think he means it can be Mark Pope playing two point guards together. Yes, that's exactly.

I'm sure what he meant. But that's like saying if we get Walsh, if we get Diallo, Wilkins and Freeman, is this our LeBron Bosch way? It's like, slow down. So, all right, so that's step one. We get a player. Got a good player. Step two, not as good a news.

We talked about they had two big guys to choose from. Donnie Freeman and Sebastian Ransick. They were both here last week. Both here last week. On Saturday morning, I was essentially told by the end of the day, Sunday, we'll have one of them. And I didn't say this specifically, but at the time I was told, Sebastian Ransick would come now trying to, to get Freeman on board, if not do Rancic Sunday. Saturday, they do everything they can to try to get Freeman on board.

Doesn't happen. Get to Sunday, Rancic picks Florida State. Tired away. Now it's all in on Freeman. As the day goes on Sunday, St. John's ups their offer. They're now offering more money than Kentucky. And as of this moment, you have neither one of them. You know, this is an.

elaborate high-stakes poker contracts game. That's what this is. Absolutely, that's what it is. Once the kid likes you, this is a poker game. And you've got to be good at the game. And they made a decision, Freeman's better than Rancic. We'll wait on Rancic. Eventually Rancic says, all right, I'm your second choice.

I'm Florida State's first choice. I'll go there. You lose your leverage now. Yes, you do. Because you don't have a fallback. Freeman's agent, who seems like he's probably a pretty good agent, says, hey, St. John's. Now, look, I got some leverage. St. John's, I guess Petino doesn't have a lot of love for Pope here.

Put the pressure on, they make a higher offer, and now Kentucky could end up not getting either one of them. That would be the whiff. We talked about the whiff last week. He can't have any whiffs. That would be a whiff if you lose it on both of those guys you just had on campus and felt good about both of them, I feel like, at one point. So what do you do, Shannon? Do you blame them? If you think... No, no, no, I don't blame Rick.

No. But if they end up with neither of these guys, is that dare say I whiff? Yes, yes it is. That's on Pope. I would love to be a fly on the wall just to know what the pitch is. What are they saying to these recruits? See, I don't think this is a pitch.

I think this was a... A money issue? Because we spent more money than anybody last year. But no, I think we played the game incorrectly here. we thought, here's what I think they should have done. Hindsight's 2020, but when they didn't get an answer yes on Freeman on Saturday night, they probably should have just taken rent. Just take him.

Just take him and say, listen, we can't afford a situation where we get neither of it. That's correct. Now, maybe they still get him. Maybe they go match St. John's offer, at which point we just ended up paying more money than we wanted. But we'll see. The money guy at St. John's at Micropoli. It's the guy with the horses. Yeah, and he's got some deep pockets, so I don't want to get into a bidding war with that guy.

And they don't have to pay for football. That's the thing you have to remember about the Big East is they can win these bidding wars because they don't have to pay for football. So their rev share, they can spend it on basketball. So Shannon, that was, you know, so Pope gets a win this weekend. I think a big win. Beat Yukon and Alabama for this kid. But now, Ransick. could have had him, chose to wait on Freeman,

if you got to get Freeman. So now I think you've got to pay the extra money, don't you? I think you have to. I think you do. The big thing is, though, he got one over the weekend. He did. And a good player. He did.

And that is good. And I think one of two is better than zero. Of course, yeah. But you, you know, you had this situation where you've got a bird in the hand, but there's another in the bush. and you want the one in the bush more. Do you let the bird out of your hand to go jumping at the bush? Sounds like that's what they did.

We did. And Rancic flew off. And now... Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, not one in the bush. I have a different version of this. If there's only one bird in the bush, I'm keeping the one in my hand. If there's two of the bush. Well, there you go.

No, there was one in the bush was a better bird. Oh. And so now we're fighting with an old man in the bush for the other bird. who also happens to be your your your father yeah yeah it's true so now we're all I mean it's the analogy could use some work Shannon I could have workshoped it a little bit we'll think about it in the break yeah it just kind of came up on the top of my head 8592802807 we will take a break very back's KS up last night a blown call changed the game this morning the internet lost its mind highlights are trending opinions are flying and nobody's telling you

exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slic 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. Trip 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.

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showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart women's sports. I was like singing too. Because it was weird. Your neighbors appreciated it. Because here's the thing. The music is so loud that I could sing and feel like I was at the concert singing.

But I think unlike if I sang at the concert, the people around me could have heard. So I think about my neighbors, if they were sitting on their porch, then Shannon, they probably just heard an a cappella version of these songs for me. Yeah. Well, you know, you had the best case situation, though. You could hear it. You could hear it. But then when you needed to use the restroom or go in to get something to eat, it was right there.

I didn't have to stand in the porta potty line. One person right, Matt, I was there. It was a disaster at the porta potty. He said it's not just Gatton Park's fault. Some of it was the people. Instead of lining up in front of each porta potty, everybody just stood in a mass in front of the porta potty. And then grabbed the quickest one that opened. It was not a good thing.

but at that point I'm just going all the way to the front there's no line well that's the zipper merch yeah right that's the porta potty zipper merch you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes yeah first first concert they'll get it they'll get the king's worked out yeah yeah

I mean they'll get it it did sound great though I will say did you hear it inside your house oh yeah yeah I mean like it when they have music there so wait till it's a band you don't like though yeah well they've already they had DJs there last year one night and I was like all right y'all just i was can y'all go home but for all the neighbors you can hear but you but you i mean you can yeah you can definitely hear okay yeah it's it's it's it's it's also uh it's also nice

say 59 2802287 when person writes matt that article was uh quoting something jeff goodman said about poor man's wall and cousin i or wall and blood so i understand but you just have to like somebody just sees the headline headlines it's what's great about headlines headlines can make a good headline makes you click on the article. Absolutely. So by the way, Adam's headline probably did make people click on the article. Yes, it did. So in that respect, it was successful. Yep. But you also

gave something that like when we lose next year to Georgia at home, people go, oh, better than Wall and Bledsoe? Like, you give people fodder. Yeah, there are people whose main jobs a lot of times are just come up with headlines. Well, used to be in the newspaper business. Oh, for sure. Just do headlines. One person writes, Matt, multiple people who know more basketball than you say this back court will be better than O'A and Averdine.

What do you think about that? Well, I hope so. But O'A and Aberdeen were pretty good. I know we lost 14 games, but it wasn't because of O'A and Averd. They were your offense. They were the team. It was because they had no backups, because the rest of our team was ice cold most of the year.

But we didn't lose because of O'A. in Averde. No. In my opinion. Where would we have been without those two guys? It would be awful. And if they had a bad game, we were done. We're done.

There was nothing we could do. If they had a bad game, we were done. Especially Oway. That's why he had to score double figures and 20 points every game for us to have a chance to win. All right. So let's go back to the negotiating strategy. I want to act like Ryan Limman's my coach. Okay.

Ryan, you know you know you have two players. And let's just say you definitively think player A is better than player B. Right. You can get players. B for I'm going to create a magical number, $2 million. Okay. You can get Player A for I'm going to create a magical number, $3 million. Okay.

So Player A is better and he costs you one more million dollars. B says I'm here. You can have me. A says, I love it here. I'm coming. Just give me a minute. How long you wait? I think you got to wait at least.

give him the end of the day. So you would have said it by midnight, Saturday night, no. Yeah. Then you just get the other guy. Like you said, you risk losing both. What if he says, look, I'm going to do it tomorrow. I'm just waiting. I'm saying I got to know by the end of the day.

So you're going to let him go? Because I wouldn't want to lose both of them. What are you going to do, Shannon? I'm telling them both. Hang on. Hang on until Monday. Well, then you'd be. might lose them both.

Well, no, not of both. I mean, they clearly, Rancic called their bluff. Yeah, he did. He called their bluff and just went to Florida State. He sure did. And at that moment, you lost your leverage. Because you were playing them off each other.

I think this day and age, that's what agents are going to do for their clients. So that gets me to my point. I don't think this staff, we saw this last year. The staff is not good at the negotiating part of this. I'm not even talking about the basketball part, whether somebody's a good player or not. I think we saw a lot of the guys they lost out on last year. It ended up being pretty good where they win. Yeah, they sure did.

I think they're actually talent evaluation. Ryan was pretty good last year. Yes, it was. The problem was when it came down to the business mechanics of the deal, we were the dude at the poker table that wasn't as good as everybody else. You know, there's that line in rounders. If you look around and say who's the sucker at the poker table and you can't figure out who it is, that means it's you. Right.

Good point. I kind of wonder if at the poker table in these business negotiations, Shannon, are we the sucker? I think we are. I think you're seeing a lot of players using Kentucky to get better deals elsewhere. But these other schools are not having it happen to them as much. Yeah. Like these other schools are getting a kid on campus. they're committing the next day.

That's why I said they're using Kentucky a lot of times to get a better deal. But why are we not using them to use a different phrase? That's a good question. Like what? We need sharks. As I said, a lot of people online last night were blaming Freeman's agent. I don't blame Freeman's agent. That's his job.

You know what an agent's job is to make you money? That's it. He's not there to be people's friend. You know, when I was doing, hey, Kentucky, I had this agent, my agent say, let me do that deal. I was like, dude, I'm a lawyer. I can do it. He's like, let me do it. I can be the jerk. I let him do it. All of a sudden, I was making twice as much money as I would otherwise. We need to have somebody who can do that for us. We need a jerk. We need a jerk. 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, Techiesports Radio. I'm ready for your calls. 859-2-80-2287. Text machine 772-7-4-7-45-254. Did you watch WrestleMania? A little bit of it. Watch a little bit of the main event on Saturday night,

and then last night I thought the main event was good. I thought the main event last night was great. Saturday night, garbage. Yeah, all the Pat McAfee stuff. He saw him, notches. Jelly roll. Yeah, I mean, I did enjoy your live tweeting

and I had when I had no idea it was going on just seeing your disappointment. Saturday night was terrible. But last night was good. Last night the main event was great. Seeing punk and Roman rains. Danhausen was in it. I like Dan Housen.

The jelly roll putting Pat McAfee through a table. I mean, come on, dude. Yeah, I mean, jelly roll. First of all, jelly roll doesn't get a lot of air on his jumps. No, no. Yeah. Now, the one dude, your internet guy that I show speed. He did a good job.

Did you see him jump off that? thing, Shannon? That was pretty impressive. I didn't see that part. That was pretty impressive. For just an internet guy, he gets on the wrestling room gets at the top pole and then jumps up in the air through a table through Jake Paul. That was kind of cool. For a kid who doesn't wrestle, I thought that, I did like that.

So before we get the phones, one person writes, Matt, the fat lady hasn't sung yet. Are you giving up on Freeman? No, I'm not giving up. And that is an important point. The fat lady hasn't sunk. If you get this kid, then it doesn't really map. You know what I mean? It doesn't matter at all if you get the kids. As Drew would say, ain't my money.

That's right. Right? At the end of the day, all that matters is the final thing. But with that said, my assumption is the less money you spend on Freeman, the more money you have to spend somewhere else. That's right.

Which is why you want to get them as cheaply as possible. I don't care how much they spend if the team is good. But if we can't get a player in the future because we don't have enough money because we overpaid Freeman, that's where it matters. Is there a backup plan? I think there's a huge drop between these two guys and their next plan. That makes it hurt even more.

That's why it hurts. Unless there's a couple dudes that are better, but Kentucky hasn't been in on them because they didn't want to spend all that money. Now they might have to go to that kid from Arizona State and go, all right, five and a half million dollars. So we'll see. I don't know. Today's the last day for the portal?

And then Mario also asked me tomorrow. Mario also asked me, and this was a good question, who is it that does all this? This is what a GM is supposed to do. And in sports, a GM has two roles. Role one is discovering the player. Right? Look all across college basketball

and go find the best players and then determine if they're a good fit for you. That's role one of a GM. I think that's what Keegan Brown is there for. The dorm. The what? And then has he titled the dorm director of recruiting? The dorm director?

I think it's what Drew was calling him. The director of recruiting management. Yeah, the dorm. Okay, I thought you meant like he lived in the dorm, Shannon. And I was like, I don't know. Okay, that may be his title. But that's his job. But a GM, then there's the business job.

There's the sleazy job. There's the Ari from Entourage job, Shannon. The getting the down and durny of the contracts and be mean. Do we have that guy? Last year, the guy doing that was a purpose. private guy that negotiated contracts for a living. And he was good at it. Now, we ended up overpaying for reasons that are a different conversation for a good

uncensored podcast one day. But he did probably save Kentucky a couple two, three million dollars just on his negotiating skills on a couple kids. JMI decided to take that in house. So now they are that guy. And we'll just have to see if it's going to work or not. That's what I know. Are you good at the go be dirty and get?

the deal done. And we don't know that yet. Yeah, that article Jack and Jacob wrote in the fall that Pope can get him to the closing table. Had people tell him that. Pope's pretty good about getting you to the closing table. Just couldn't close the deal. So that's part two of a GM. And I feel like we can do part one. I think it remains to be seen if we can do part two. And that's what we have to see. All right, before I go to the phones, I do have to mention, how about my reds? I listen to the ninth inning last night. Shannon, I'm not saying. I'm not saying because then they'll probably lose to Tampa Bay tonight. But they're 14 and 8.

Two comeback wins. You know, last year they played 15 extra inning games. You know what their record was in the extra inning games? Oh, and 15? 3 and 12. 3 and 12. They've played three extra inning games this year, 3 and 0. They've already won as many extra inning games this year as they did last year, the whole year.

Yeah, yeah. Two comebacks on Saturday and Sunday. guys that I stink, they still get a hit. We only have three players hitting over 200 in the entire lineup. That's amazing. And they just win it. I love how excited you are. Only 140 more games to go.

That's okay. How excited you are. 22 down, 140 to go. The two worst teams in division, the Reds and the Cardinals, are battling out for first place right now. That's good. In L Central might be the best division in baseball right now. Everybody's got a win.

only division everybody's got a winning record. I did. I just happened to get in the car and turn on. It was the top of the ninth and they're down 3-1. And the announcers, you can just tell, they are just, they're ready to go home, pack it up and get out of the game's over. Because they had like the bottom of the order up. Yep.

And then hit, hit, hit. Friedel. Friedel had a huge hit. Friedel, who was Cal's cousin decided to. So anyway, I'm not saying. Congratulations. I watched the whole weekend of games. Yeah.

Are they back home then now? No, they're in Tampa, then home than. the weekend. All right, who's up first? Tio. Tio, go ahead. God bless you, Matt Jones. Good to hear from you boys. Good to be on the line today. You guys think you might have heard of some port-of-potty incidents, but back in Estal County in 2009, now that was a real porta-potty incident. There was a lot of good men didn't go home that day. Anyways, okay, Matt, the reason I call today is because you've been glad. laying it out all morning, Matt Jones, what I've been calling about today.

We get these guys right to the edge of committing. We get them right there. It's not the coaches. It's not the program. It's the negotiator. It's JMI. Is it possible? Just humor me for a second.

Is it possible? JMI, I've researched them extensively for four or five days. And yes, Ryan, I can read. They work with Florida State and St. John, but they do not ask the players to sign away their NIL rights as soon as they get there. Is it possible? Just maybe that a player would say, hey, this school isn't going to me. The only school in America that wants you to sign away your NIL rights is Kentucky. Is it possible?

I appreciate to call. I gave you, you said, is it possible a lot? So I'm going to stop and answer the question. I appreciate to call. The problem I have about saying it's anybody's fault is I don't know who has the jobs because they have not said a word in a year. I don't know who does what. Mark Pope has yet to do a press conference since the season ended. Mark Pope has yet to talk publicly once to the press about the season that just happened, about what he wants to do now.

We have no idea. When it comes to JMI, the only interviews they've done have been interviews with themselves. So there's no way to know the answer these questions. Mitch Barnhart was asked about these questions. He told the reporter to shut up. We don't know who the new AD is yet. The president has spoken to no one. So these are all legitimate questions.

I tend to think the problems are not any one thing's fault. I think there's a lot of stuff in play. But I also think because they have said, said not a word in months and had the PR strategy of get into a bunker and hope it all goes away. There's no way to know the answer to this question. A person at UK a few weeks ago said to me, look, it's going to be what it's going to be during this portal season in terms of the media. But if it were you, what would you do? And I said, look, if y'all know you're going to get a super class, it probably would.

doesn't matter if you talk to the media or not. But if you don't, you're going to need to help people understand what's going on. And they've chosen not to do that. And if at the end we get a massive group of great players, it'll be fine. Nobody's going to care. But if we don't, Shannon, these questions are going to continue to happen. The natural reaction is, who do you blame? and there'll be people who blame Pope and there'll be people who blame the administration,

there'll be people who blame JMI, as we've seen, there'll be people who blame me. But all of it is because they don't control the narrative and it's their own fault. They did this to themselves. If you get Freeman, none of this probably will matter. But if they don't, then Ryan, these questions are valid. I feel like this is when, above all, we need a leader and it seems to be a leaderless institution going on over there right now. Mark Pope is, I think the biggest mistake he may has made besides his coaching errors is that he hasn't spoken since the season ended. He's our coach.

That is, to me, from a leadership perspective, that's malpractice. How have you not spoken since then? How have you thought that was a good idea? How did people think that was going to be positive? the last time we saw him was him yelling about Yaxel Lindenberg in that press conference

remember that when he was asked about the Yeah he did like one coach's show after the day He did a coach's show But those coaches shows are just like Let's bring on Jeff Shepard

And that's when he brought out all the stats about him versus Cal Remember Which was also weird It was kind of weird Yeah for that to be the last thing We've heard The last thing we've heard

Is him comparing his resume To John Calipary Yeah which was weird. It was kind of weird. Well, that might be an inclination of what, you know, goes on behind the scenes with these recruits. I just, it was just weird.

But listen, again, get all these guys and it probably doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. You know, cornbread hemp. I didn't have cornbread hemp on Friday. Didn't sleep very well. Saturday took it. Oh, my goodness. Baby.

Oh. No, I didn't make that sound for the right. Cornbread Hemp's, seltzers, gummies, topical oils, all help you sleep and relax, expert crafted, lab tested, and work like a charm. Use the code KSR. It is cornbreadhemp.com. They're fighting to help you rest. And also to keep these ingredients legal, go to cornbreadhimp.com slash action. It's cornbread hemp promo code KSR. We'll take a break. Be right back. Stadie Sports Radio. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where

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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 Hardaway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month,

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Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Lone Star. Yeah. I kind of fell in love with the woman in this video. You still, every time I play the song, you talk about her. Well, I remember. Definitely had an effect on you as young Matt Jones.

Have you given up on Bailey, the backup dancer with Motley Crew? Yeah, I've given up. I feel like she's probably moved on. That's a shame. I got her picture. I mean, she was never here to have moved on from. She wasn't aware of you. She wasn't aware of my existence.

You were aware of her, that's for sure. I do, yeah. Sometimes, you know, once every five years, you just see somebody and go, this was probably me in 1996 or something. Yeah. Yeah. Did he still do the little shake across the stage and stuff? Who? Quite Yolkham. I mean, I told you I couldn't see. So I assume so. I'm going to say he's a little older. I mean, I can't hear him. He's an older guy. I know if he still does that or not. Teo, I bet he does. What's the point otherwise? He's the best at it. Yeah, no. He actually really is. One person writes, Matt, Will Stein, and staff speak almost daily to the press.

You should talk more about it. I will. We're going to lead the second hour with Spring Game. Ryan is our Spring Game reporter. Gotcha. He's been keeping up. One thing I do want to note, Bob of Bob and Tom died. Yes.

And if you're in the radio world, Bob and Tom, like one of the biggest shows of all time. Just a syndicated show of two old men telling bad jokes and laughing nonstop. I listen to it a lot. I lost a friendship over Bob and Tom. What? Did you really? Yes. I was living with Garland Hurt one summer who lives here in Lexington.

Shout out to Garland. And we were living together one summer. And I would, before I went to work at casual living and patio center to go deliver patio furniture around the state, I would wake up and my alarm would be Bob and Tom. And he hated it so much. And he didn't tell me. and he grew a growing resentment over the fact that I would play Bob and Tom so loud while I was waiting. And then finally we were moving out. He was like, I cannot stand Bob and Tom.

Wow. I was like, well, why didn't you say something before? But I listened to it, Shannon, because it was good past the time, wholesome for the most part radio, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For me growing up in the 90s, it was either Howard Stern or it was the Bob and Tom show. And you could listen to Bob and Tom with your parents.

Howard Stern, not with your parents. That's right. Yep, but he was a broadcasting legend. You know, I think they're a big reason why Pat McAfee has his show at his podcast now, because he got his start on the Bob and Tom show when he's good friends with Bob. Is that right? Yeah, they would bring him on as a guest, like a regular guest. I didn't know that.

You know, they're based out of Indianapolis and with McAfee's playing for the Colts. They did a lot of work with him. I actually didn't know that. A lot of comedians, you know, your Ed Amaze and Rick Wilson's and all that went through there. Wilson. Tim Wilson. Sorry. What was the name of the sports director?

I always thought he was funny. Chick McGee. Chick McGee. Yeah. Christy Lee. Yeah. So rest in peace to Bob, Bob and Tom. The show is still on.

When he retired, they still kept the name the Bob and Tom show. So I bet like they did a tribute today that was probably very sweet. Probably so. Yeah. Yeah. This morning. There was a time in my life where I did not miss the show one day. I listened to it every day.

Yeah. Now I haven't heard it probably the past 10 years. Yeah. either. But RIP Bob of Bob and Tom. Who's next? Let's go to Ron. Ron. Go ahead, Ron. Ron. All right, no, Ron.

Joey. Joey, go ahead, Joey. Hey, but as far as, has anybody seen Pope? Because it is kind of odd the last time we heard from him was two cryptic tweets. The plain ride tweet, and I don't forget what the other one was. As far as the coach is communicating, like I seen another day where the Louisville coach was like, had some kind of video. He was showing up to an event, April 28th, a bunch of hoopla.

But no, I feel like it's circling the wagons. Like, this is end all be all. It's circle the wagons. And I don't think it helps. But I'll let y'all go. I'm with you. I'm with you. I appreciate the call.

I don't understand. I don't understand. I haven't understood anything PR-wise since last fall. before the football season when Mark Stoops and them did no preview of the year. I mean, it has been, remember before football season? They did nothing. We could even go back to last spring. There's spring football season.

No publicity, no spring game. They've gone a year that with the exception of Will Stein, who has a different view on this, their entire mentality has been silence. Yeah. And it's a terrible, ranging from every, I mean, it's not, it's everything. It's football, it's basketball, it's Mitch Barnhart's contract, everything, just silence. And when people ask questions, yell at them. Not the best thing for a leader to do either.

It's not been a great, it's not been a great strategy. And, you know, we'll see. If they get Freeman, it won't matter a whole lot. What's next? Bren. Brin, go ahead, Brent. Hey, Matt. I wanted to ask you, the two athletic directors that you think,

that might have the job after Mitch Barnhart, do you think, what's your guess, that they will make a move on Mark Pope if he doesn't do good this next year? And then my second question is, do you think Jai Lucas can come in and take all the pressure and do a good job? He's going to be a star,

and I appreciate the call. The longer you let him build his program at Miami, he might be a star at Miami and just feel like he never needs to live. leave. But Jay Lucas is going to be, Jay Lucas is smart. He knows how to interact with kids. You know, I'll give you a little Jay Lucas tidbit. Jay Lucas and Cal, but it hits. And why was that? I mean, I feel like we can say it now. Nobody's here. Jay Lucas was saying to Cal on the staff, you guys got to modernize. Like, you guys got to do stuff differently. And Cal was like, no. And they

basically shut Jay Lucas out. Why he left. Which is why he left. He was like, I'm trying to help. This job, trying to help the program. And they just, they pushed him out. And then as soon as they pushed him out, it collapsed. But it was going to, like they weren't, he literally was, they had him to where he was doing nothing because they didn't want to hear it. And now he's at Miami and he got a great class.

Yeah. And he was a good coach this year. I think he's going to be a star. The only good thing for us is that like the Duke job's not going to come open anytime soon, unless Shire were to go to like the NBA. But yeah, I think he's going to be great. As far as how long the new AD, I don't know, we don't know who the AD is. So there's no way for me to know the answer to that question.

Here, I thought like a week and a half ago, they're about to make an announcement. I, they had told everybody that it was going to come mid-April. We've kind of passed that now. Yeah. So we'll talk a little football. and some other stuff. In just a second. KSR.

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on the Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories,

their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Life is full of hurdles. So how do you keep going? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we're talking with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness, from professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions about the challenges that shape them and the mindset that keeps them moving forward.

At our level, at this scale, being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can do anything. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on. A Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud.

But how long can this be? Alliance last. Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.