KSR - 2026-07-08- KSR - Hour 1

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

Mark Pope joins the show. Also, Matt, Drew, and Shannon talk a potential Kentucky vs. West Virigina basketball game on Black Friday, and Mitch McConnell's health.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Comedy of Broadway and Lexington welcomes Dale Jones, June 25th through the 27th, then catch Ariel Eli 10th and 11th. And Don't Miss Brian Bates, July 17th and 18th. Comedy Off Broadway opened in downtown Lexington in 1987, and they're still bringing the best and stand-up comedy to the area 39 years later. For tickets, call 859-271 joke or visit Comedyoffroadway.com. This is Kentucky Sports Radio, presented by Stockton Mortgage and the Kentucky Office of Highway Safety Safe Summer Driving Tour. Now, here's Matt Jones.

Welcome, everyone. It is Kentucky Sports Radio Wednesday, July the 8th. I'm Matt Jones here in Lexington. In the studios, I got Drew, I got Shannon, and we have a special guest coming today. That's exactly right. For the first time, I believe since maybe... May or June of last year, maybe August, at least 11 months, Mark Pope will join the show today, which I'm very excited about.

How about you? Coming in to join us. Yes. So he will be here for the second segment, probably. They're on their way. You know, you never know about this Lexington traffic. That's right. It'll get you. But they're coming in here to the studio and be with us hopefully for the rest of the hour.

And then we'll take your calls in the second hour on the Clark's Pubpit Shop phone line 859-280-2287. A Vision Auto Glass Text Machine is 772-7474 in this edition is sponsored by the T.J. Smith Law Office. If you call T.J., he'll make them pay. Quick announcement, the KSR Golf Scramble, the way we do stuff for these golf scrambles is we sell out part of the thing and then we do a second round. So that the people who've played before get the first opportunity and then there's a second. Well, the second round goes on sale today. So go to 790 Louisville.com. If you would like to play

in the KSR Golf Scramble, it is in August. When is it in August? Is it, I think it's right next to my birthday. But I'm going to have to double check. Yeah, it's actually 24th. 24th, 24th, on this 24th in Louisville.

And you go to 790 Louisville.com and sign up and get in and join us. It is, it's usually an awesome day. It's usually a hot day. And it is also the KSR Golf Scramble that I think where the golf is the best of the, because the people are pretty good. And I'm backing the tease up this year. Oh, you are. And I made that decision for the Lexington one. And the scores didn't

weren't as low as they usually are. You know, people didn't shoot 49 and 50 like they did. So I think we're going to do, we're going to back it up. But it can still be fun because, you know, you can still get pars. Of course. And it's at Glen Oaks. We've been there forever. But that's kind of of a fun course. There's some tricky holes, tricky shots. Chances to make some zoos. Some what? And I'm going to be, you know, I usually played, I think this year I'm going to, because of ESPN,

I'm going to be doing my ESPN radio and TV show from the 18th grade. Commentating on how in one place. Or I might go to the 18th T and just comment on people's swings. It'd be good. But so that's a good chance too. You will get to see whatever is going on there. Maybe you could turn the camera and show off a few swings. Yeah. If you have that technology. Somebody has a long putt, I might show you on national app.

National. I was going to say it's on television, but I don't know what television even is anymore. Like it could be, you know. So how are they going to set that up out there? You're going to take out like a camera out there. We got a month and a half to figure it out. Mario's got that. You know, I don't know off the top of my head, but we're going to figure it out.

We're going to have to figure it out. We don't have a choice. Sometimes things, they still have Starlink. I think so. I mean, I always see that like they have it in Ukraine for the war. I feel like we could get it at Glen Oaks, right? Yeah, here it works well. I got a friend in Bergen, Kentucky, that uses it.

It says it's great. All right, Starlink, if you get me set up, I'll give you a free shout out. You just did. Well, but they haven't got you set up yet. Thank you. Go Starlink. So Mark Pope's coming in. Let me ask you a question.

Okay. I'm going to do this since I've got 10 minutes. I want you to write on the text machine, 772, 7745, 25, 254. I'm going to save three questions, or at least two questions, depending on the time when he gets here, for text machine questions. All right. So what would you like to ask? 772-774-5-25-4? Drew, you might have a chance to ask.

What do you want to hear from Mark Pope today? I'll have a long list of things I want to hear. They just announced the Vegas trip this morning, but without really any context, it just says cats in Vegas. So I'd like to know what's going on there. So people who haven't seen that, they've announced the cats are going to Vegas. Jack Pilgrim had reported that it was basically to watch the Summer League and to have a bonding experience. So no games. I'm assuming that's what it is unless something has changed.

But he could go into detail on that. I think everyone's curious because he's mentioned adding another player. We know we're watching Christa Rica, the Serbian. I don't know where they stand with that. But like how dire do they need an extra player and how hard is he really pursuing that at this stage? Yeah. I was last night sitting down, you know, I try not. to prepare for interviews, really, unless you're, you know, unless it's something I don't know

much about. But I wanted to think, you know, I want to use this time. And I was trying to balance, okay, what are we asking about the future versus, you know, I mean, he never really did a press conference about last year. So to what extent do you bring that up or is it just moved on? What do you think, Shannon? I mean, to what extent do you talk about now and the future versus going, okay, what about last year? I think it's fair to talk about last year since.

he went pretty much radio silent for like the what month after that a couple months after that so I think you can touch on it and then you know at that point just move on to whatever we got going on this this year and practice I want to hear I mean we keep hearing about Trent Noah do we believe Trent Noah is still knocking down

95 and 100% to be knocking down the shot I will say I've heard from people who have been at practice that it has been a slightly different Mark Pope in practice, much more aggressive in his coaching, and that he has seemed to connect with these guys more. That has been a theme that I've heard a lot from people who watch it. They seem to say that like there just feels like more of a connection.

I'd be interested to see if he agrees with that because that's a good sign, I think, if that's true. That one. And, you know, last year I don't think it was team turmoil or anything, but people are already saying this group seems a little more gel. and closer than last year's group was. I don't know to what extent they had a lot of issues last season. We always wondered that after the Louisville comment,

but so far so good on that with this current team and them getting along and playing together. So we will get to all that. I've got one more fun one I want to ask. Okay, what's your second one? First, Shannon and I have to apologize for accusing him of AI on that beach photo. But we never found out. Remember he had the JK cards in his hand?

Everybody was trying to speculate. Was he sending a sign there? I want to know if that was intentional. What was he hinting at? Maybe he can reveal what those two playing cards. I was saying when he posted that thing after we got Milan. You thought it was AI? For a second.

We retracted it. Oh, I think you both were. It looks AI. How could you not believe? I thought it was real. Well, we thought he was in Destin, right? Somebody says, that's not Dustin. People were saying he was on a beach in Destin.

That is not, you can tell it's not Dustin by looking at it. But it turns out he went from Destin to Costa Rica. So it looked a little more like Costa Rica. But he was very intentional holding those playing cards. Oh, it was a jack and a key. And we speculated for a long time. I want to know if that was intentional what was going on there. That's a good question.

All right. So the text machine is open. 772-745-254. What questions would you ask? I'm going to try to save a couple for text machiners. The one piece of basketball news was broken by yours truly, the fourth most famous person from Bell County, according to Billy yesterday, behind the guy who invented the touchscreen. And the Coon Creek girls.

And the Coon Creek girls. I went back. The Coon Creek girls are bigger than I thought, so I'll give Billy that one. The negotiations are going on right now between Kentucky and West Virginia to play on Black Friday in Nashville. I was told that it's not certain, but that they are talking, and either way, we'll probably know it by the end of the week. Matt Norlander then reported later that it was 50-50, which I guess that's true about everything, Shannon. Everything could happen or not happen. Would you like that?

Would you like West Virginia in Nashville on Black Friday day after Thanksgiving? Probably a lot of people are off. A lot of people could make the trip. Do you like that? I guess. I'm still haunted by the last Friday game in Nashville. I was there for Gonzaga last year, and that was certainly a low point in my Kentucky basketball fandom. But I like giving another go.

Nashville always gets a great turnout. People have fun around the game. People won a West Virginia rivalry. I mean, we saw what just happened in baseball. I think they're probably mad at it. Kirk Cresa they can have. Does the loser get Kerr Kriza? And the winner against Oscar Shibway and Trey Mitchell.

Let's not forget them, too. People keep talking about the Kerr transfer, but we took Oscar and Trey Mitchell from West Virginia. But I like that we could get a border aisle route going with them. I like it too. I kind of wish it's weird that we would play in Nashville, which is not where our border is. They're going to have to drive past Lexington to get there.

I mean, you could play in Ashland or Huntington. I don't know how big an arena you would be able to play. but I actually like it. I think Kentucky fans deserve to have a game they win in Nashville. Now, I don't know how good is West Virginia supposed to be. I think they're supposed to be better, aren't they? I haven't kept up with their off-season moves, so I never imagine they'd be on the schedule. Originally, I'd heard that we might be playing Illinois there, but I guess that fell through.

So I don't mind West Virginia. I feel like it's a marquee opponent, but one you certainly can beat. We always, those national crowds. is the Black Friday on Nashville because we play Louisville at home at noon the next day in football. So I was thinking about that. I would be very surprised if they were to schedule that Kentucky game Friday night. I'm going to guess that's like a noon or 2 p.m. game in Nashville because if you remember, there's football on on Black Friday, but usually it's later at night.

And there's probably an opening in the gap there that like we could sneak a basketball game in here. So I could see And the fact that Matt Norlander responded immediately makes me wonder if that's a CVS game maybe Which might lead in to like an NFL game Or a college football game So that's kind of just what I'm thinking is to be an afternoon Because we do have Louisville at noon the next day in football

A lot of hondo over people Driving from Nashville to Lexington I would be surprised if we played it eight at night And then immediately got in the car To go play Louisville the next day But as we've seen with all the SEC tournaments and even the lead-up to that Gonzaga game last year, Nashville might be our best home court advantage. I agree.

And do you think we would fill up an arena on Black Friday against West Virginia? I think so. If it's at night, that Louisville game would probably keep some Lexington and people away that have tickets. But we always count on Western Kentucky taking advantage of that opportunity. I think West Kentucky would fill that place up. I mean, they filled it up for Gonzaga. Now that was more of a marquee opponent. And let's also say I think West Virginia would bring a lot of people to that game.

It's close enough that I think a lot of. that I think a lot of West Virginia people would go and make the trip, right? Oh, yeah, I think it would be good. I'm still a little haunted. Fridays haven't been good down there, but it'll be a good chance to get some redemption. Yeah, I think that would be good. That would leave, you know, there are two games left on the schedule. One of them's probably going to be a decent team.

So I think that's probably what they're trying to do is find a decent team to play. and probably if they could add a home game too. I know the schedule is already stacked, but there's only Louisville at home before the SEC that really matters. They're already playing like 11 of the top 25 teams, so it's not like they need another difficult opponent. But I think not to be Ryan here, but I think the Rupp Arena home schedule could use some juice if they're able to add one.

Well, we'll find out. 859-280-2287. Continue with your questions in. Billy is reporting live from the lobby. What's he reporting? Well, Billy's down there to meet Pope and bring him up here. He's our transport. Yes.

And he is down in the lobby. He is very nervous. What's he nervous about? I don't know. He just put in, they are running late, no time given, we'll keep you posted. I bet he's just pacing back and forth in that lobby. So I tell you what, we're going to take them. break. If Mark is not here

when we start, we will talk about a couple other things, then get to Mark, and I will let you know Billy's reporting from the scene. So we call Billy? Check in. See how he's doing down in the lobby. This is KSR. Welcome back to Tatea Sports Radio.

West Virginia Mountain Mama. I'm just saying if we beat West Virginia, we play this game. Do you think we play this? We take their song. Ooh. Yeah. We say West Kentucky. Is that dirty, though, to play their song and like hold and like you know rock like they do that would make a math but didn't their coach

who was it that did the the waltz was it remember that vaguely there was there's some kind of waltz that one of the coaches either for or against West Virginia did maybe you can look that up I want to say it was one and Dumas Walker side by side was Buzz Williams maybe Buzz Williams

beat West Virginia in something and then he acted like he was waltzing That's great. I love it. Anyway. Yeah, that would be a dirty. Here's the headline. Buzz Williams incites a Morgantown riot with Celebration Dance. Look at you. See, I follow, I know ball. Yeah. A lot of people on the internet say Matt Jones doesn't know ball. I know ball. Yep, he was ballroom dancing or waltzing as they played country roads after Marquette beat them. Okay. So, yeah, so he did it during country roads. 14 years ago. Okay. See? I remember it very well. Mo Williams should bring that back? I remember it like it was yesterday. Billy is not put in a report in five minutes,

so I'm going to assume that he's not here yet, which means I do want to play this from yesterday. The messy soccer game was unbelievable. It was like at noon, so most people probably didn't get to see it because you were at work or whatever. But, you know, Argentina was down to nothing, came back, Messi gets the goal to tie,

and they win a few minutes later. and you know, I'm not, you've probably heard this call by now. But the Spanish commentary call, I'm putting this as one of the three greatest calls in sports. Ever? What's better than what we're about to play? I mean, seriously, you believe in miracles. What else? What else?

What are great calls in sports? What's the greatest call in Kentucky sports history? I enjoy Tom Leach calling Brandon Knight beating Ohio. state. It's pretty specific. I don't really remember it, though. What did he say? Well, now that you mentioned it, I'm having a hard time playing my head. So maybe it wasn't as memorable as you thought. I know I'll listen to it on repeat for many years. I think Stevie got loose was not our guy, but also I don't think the announcer said that. I said that, didn't he? Yeah, I love the Music City Miracle Call with the Titans. That was a good one. No flags on the play. It's a miracle.

That's a good one, actually. I remember that. But I would say to you that probably, I mean, Everybody remembers Al Michaels. There's a steal by bird. Passes to DJ. That's a good one. Does nobody remember that? No, I remember that very well. Okay.

Well, I don't even know what language. I mean, this is Spanish, but I don't even know what he's saying. Yeah, you can't repeat this one back other than goal. I know the main point. And I love my man is losing his voice. Yeah. But when he knows a moment, he knows a moment.

And he ain't letting it die. Play it right here. All right, Messi, so I love just going to just going. Oh, Jim, no, he was going to get tirado, he said a man, Messi. All right. So I love just going, oh, Geneo. His voice is going on.

I mean, his voice is dying. He sounded like a wounded animal. But the thing is, he's like, I'm not. letting this moment die. I'm going to keep going and then my voice is just going to collapse, but you know what, Shannon, I'm doing another one. That's right. He's going to, I love it.

It kind of reminds me of Calipari yelling go instead of gold. If you heard a dog doing that, you'd be like, we got to take it to the van. I love it. So I post that. And then last night before I go to bed, I'm just checking my Twitter messages. And he writes me and says, thank you, Matt.

Oh, I was hoping he'd say, Go on Twitter. What if he just wrote? Go! And I actually, it was one of the more exciting things I've had. Shannon's not going to stop playing it.

I'm sorry. So it made me very happy. It was one of those moments. It was like when Tracey may or may not have written me that I got really excited when Andres Cantor wrote me thanking me for my compliment. We're starting to learn you don't really get Starstruck except for announcers in sports. Random celebrities. And Andre's Cantor in a month. Random celebrities.

I mean, you've got to have so much energy. just to live life like that. I just think it's so joyous, Drew. How could you not love it? Does he do breathing exercises? I know it almost sound like we lost him there, but he holds on to those goals so long. How quickly did he reach for a water when he was done?

Tom Hart needs to do this in one game. He could just say, I got a field. I would love. love it. Like Montilovich for three and then he just does that. Who would not, who would not go crazy for that? So Andres Cantor salute to you for what might have been the best call. New friend of the program apparently. We have breaking news, Shannon. Uh-oh.

Running a nah. According to Billy R. Sports of Kentucky Sports Radio, they are, quote, headed this way. Nice. But I don't know what that means. You know, a lot of times people say on my way when they haven't left the house yet, do you think it's that case? Yeah, I do wonder if this is, you say on our way, you could be anywhere. I mean, I'll admit, I've sent on my way when I'm still getting dressed in my bedroom. I'm in the car.

I'm almost there. Yeah. Well, that's okay. But, all right, so that gets us to another thing. I was going to wait until after Pope was on, but you know what? He's not here yet. So let's do it. Mitch.

Did Scott Jennings talk to Mitch McConnell for 20 minutes yesterday? Hold on. How did you word that? Two or with? I think that's an important detail. I do think the, is it two or with? Because he can talk to him, to him, at him. I do not.

Shannon, that's not something you can just lie about, right? Like there's going to be an objective answer. Yeah. He went on TV and said, I spoke with Mitchell Confer 20 minutes. He said we talked about Ukraine. We talked about all these things. Presidential libraries. Presidential libraries like.

And then no one else, like. When you say that he talked back to you, if he didn't and you're lying about that, that's egregious. I mean, he ought to be kicked out of office if he's lying about that. He's not in office. He's on television. Scott Jennings. Oh, I thought Scott Jennings was somebody. See, I told you what I know about politics. Who did you think it was?

I thought he was like some politician. But anyway, he should be kicked off TV than if he's lying about that. It's one of the better ratios I've seen on social media. It has like 11 million impressions. Lots of people are replying with a Ouija board saying this is how you talk to. him. I mean, listen, I unlike a lot of people online, I think like making jokes about him, like dying is, is wrong. I don't care who it is. Like, you shouldn't. I'm praying for him and his family. I hope he recovers. Take all that. With that said, there's a legitimate question whether he's

a lot. And that's important because the Senate, A, he's a senator from Kentucky. B, it can't do anything. because he's in charge of the committee that gets all the bills through. So right now everything is just lying. So they owe an explanation. But Scott Jennings better not be lying. No. It says we talked. You cannot go on television and say you had a conversation with him unless you had a conversation.

Now, if he did, fine. But if he didn't, that's pretty agrees. Is there any chance he took a call from Ryan Lemon? Oh, you think Ryan called him and just. It is impersonation. I don't know. Mark Pope is with Billy in the lobby, which means he will be here when the break is over. Nice job, Billy, our sports on the scene.

We will have Mark Pope right after this. 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, Kentucky Sports Radio. Happy to be joined by Mark Pope. Mark, great to see you.

I'm happy to be here, man. I like that blue sweatsuit you got going there. Thank you. UK gear, I think, has improved in the last year or two. I don't know if you have anything to do worth it or not, but I like it. Man, when I was here 30 years ago, we had all of it going on to. It was controversial at the time with the denim and then with the like. Hey, look at this right here.

Look at these. Yeah. Yeah. I got the denim converse on for you. Got the metal hands. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think we've been setting the standard for a long time.

Well, let's talk. We only have you for a little while. So I actually want to get substantive basketball questions if you're good with that because I know people would like to hear. Let's talk about the team coming up this year. You've got 14 players, a lot of whom we don't know, how are workouts going? And what do you think of the group you've seen so far? I know a couple are injured. I like our gym.

Our gym feels good. You know, we set out with some very clear intentions as we work through the portal trying to put this particular team together. And I think I like where we are. I think we have a ton of creator vibe, and we're seeing that on the practice floor. We got a ton of length, a ton of shooting in some really fun, different levels. And I think we have some, you know, when we get healthy, this center spot's going to be a real strength for us. So it's a good group. There's unbelievable juice on the practice floor.

Is there always should be in the summer? But this group is going to be special. And it's been fun, man. Every day is a joy to walk into that gym. Was there anything you saw that maybe didn't work last year with the team that when you put this roster together, you said, I want to make sure I get that? Well, yes. I mean, this whole, and we've talked about it a lot publicly over the last couple of months, but this whole vibe of having more creators on the floor is really important. And we could get deep, deep into the weeds on that, where we have more guys that are capable of actually creating shots for themselves and creating shots for teammates that are close.

causing power plays on the floor. So power play is just a term we use from hockey. We stole it from hockey where any time that you can earn a second defender and you earn the rest of your team a four on three or a three on two or sometimes a four on two if you're really good. We like to work out of space. And we didn't have as much of that last year as we traditionally do. You know, Jalen was such a massive piece of our organization.

And so we didn't have that healthy. we suffered a little bit through that our first year. And so we came in with two major priorities. One, Malachi Moreno is a massively important piece of what we're doing. Did you ever think that you were going to lose him? Well, you never know for sure. Malachi's heart is in Kentucky. He loves this place.

I think he's got a lot of faith in our staff. He's got a lot of passion about what we're doing. But the NBA poll is real. It is a real thing. But you never thought you were going to lose him to another college. No, listen, anything can happen to the portal, as we've seen. Yeah. You know, day after day after day, it's such a dynamic place.

But I know Malachi's heart. I know what he cares about. Everybody in Kentucky knows how much he cares about this place. So he was a huge point of emphasis. And then this creator side of the ball was such a huge point of emphasis. And so we went really hard after those two spaces and then built in the rest of the roster. During the portal period, like, it's hard to know sometimes who you got. are going after and who you aren't. I mean, you're kind of, you're kind of beholden to what the

information is that out there. You had different guys in. How important was it because of some of the stuff that maybe happened earlier to close on Milan? Did you feel like that was a huge finishing piece? Well, yeah, so two things. One, it's unfortunate that you go through this process and there's so many reasons why we need to be private. One, it's rules that we have to be private. But two, there's a lot of times when we're dealing with players who want to keep things private or, you know, we're dealing with complicated negotiations. So we do go through quietly. And so it leaves a lot of people having to just postulate. And so you end up with a lot of complicated information out there that might be far off the mark, but it's just everybody doing the best

in there. But is there anything to do about that at a place like Kentucky where people want to know information? Yeah, I think you just ride through it. You do. So, you know, there are a couple times this year where news broke from, you know, there's everybody, as we all live in, Kentucky is the greatest place in the world and everybody wants to know. And so, you know, you might be in a really sensitive moment in a negotiation and news breaks where it kind of makes a family upset because it's gone public. That'd be one of a million examples of how we kind are trying to like thread the needle as we go through this. Does it upset you? Because I think that probably happens. It doesn't upset me at all. Okay. It's just, it's all part of the business, guys. It's

part of the deal. Yeah. And so our job is to navigate these spaces the best we possibly can. And, um, but also do it here where everybody cares more than they care everyone else. And so that's a thread like, like doing both of those things at the same time as our job. That's what we do. And so, so there was a, you know, I think we felt a lot different in the office than maybe, uh, people felt publicly because I think from the very, get-go, we knew exactly what we were trying to chase and how we were trying to get there. I do think Milan is a really important piece for us, not because he was early or late, because he fits me, he fits what I care about, he fits how we play. He's a veteran,

veteran guy. I always thought, I mean, he looks, seems like if you were to draw up a Mark Pope, stretch three, four, however you use him, it would be him, wouldn't it? Yeah, he's, he's there. And, you know, he's, and so he was a, he's a very important piece of this puzzle. he happened to come later in the story. But the nice thing was one of the reasons why he came was because all the other pieces that we had put in place, they fit him so well also. And so I think we had a really nice dynamic where these guys are going to be able to play off each other. And I'm excited about it. So I think your original question was, you know, early on with some of the stuff that happened, did it make it so important late?

It was important. He was an important piece of the puzzle, whether it was early or late. There's no doubt about it. Just like Zoom is such an important piece and Alex is an important piece and Mason Williams is an important piece and Justin like you got a list. I hear that he's, they're really important. I don't want to say been better than you thought, but maybe better than we as fans thought

early on. Is that true? Yeah, he's going to, he's got a good, Mason. Yeah. Mason has got to grow for sure, but he's coming in with a college ready body. And he is a voracious worker. He's a guy, you know, I've talked about this publicly a lot about how he just is relentless in the gym.

He's shooting the ball at a little bit. elite level. He's one of those guys right now as a young player that I'm trying to get him to stop deferring and actually go hunt possessions. He's a great playmaker. He's got to learn how to play us. He's got to learn all the freshman stuff. But he's, I'm telling you what, I have high hopes for him and his trajectory. I think he's got a chance to be a very good player. So you, I mean, when you first came here, you and I sat down and you said something to me that I really stuck with me. You said, look, I know you have to do your job. And if things don't go like they should, you need to go on there and blast me.

That's your job. It's not BBN if you don't. I remember telling you at the time, that's easy to say in the abstract. What's it like when it happens? Two years later, you felt at times, I'm sure, the pressure of Kentucky media. Do you feel the same way two years later? 100%. Like, one thing, guys, is like, I know exactly what Kentucky is.

I mean, I'm probably right now the world's expert on Kentucky basketball. I know exactly what it is. And I'm learning how to navigate the challenge better and better every single day, as we all are. But our standard is never going to change. It's what's make this place great. And the way we chase it is never going to change. And our care is never going to change. And so it's all part of the gig.

Like it is. Every single day, it's all part of the gig. And it's the gig that I want more than any other gig in the world. It's awesome. Do you, last year before the season started, you were very excited about that team. I think you said that you were sitting on a Ferrari, was your quote. Obviously, the Jalen Lowe injury changes a lot. Do you look back and say, I was overestimating the team or it just really didn't have a chance after Lowe got hurt?

Like, how do you look at when you evaluate yourself last year's thing? No, I feel the same way about the roster as I did before the season. We just didn't get to see it. You know, it's just a hard, that's, listen, I wish there was a better answer than that, but we just didn't get to see it. You know, we, you know, you don't get Jalen. Really, at the very beginning, we kind of had an unbelievable lead guard scenario. Like we do this year, we had that to start with a couple other players that once Jalen came,

they left. So we had great depth there. I felt like at the five, I thought we had unbelievable depth. to really go. And we just never got to see the team. I say this all the time. We got to see him for 17 minutes in the second half against St. John's. And even in that scenario, you're seeing guys that never practiced together, that never got to develop. And you think about J-Lo and J-Q a lot. They changed the way our team could function on the floor. And so the upside with those guys was so elite. You think about J-Q, he played four games all season. And he's, he played four games all season.

gets drafted, you know, solidly in the first round. That's the type of talent that he brings to the table. We just unfortunately didn't get to see it last year. So is that in your mind you say, look, the plan was good, the roster build was good, it just, we had injuries. Is that how you see it? Yeah, I mean, there's always things you can do better, but man, I would have loved to take that thing for a ride, for sure. Like, I like the way it was built. I like the way it's put together. I wish it had stayed because that would have given us some real, like, backup function. And we thought that was going to work and it just didn't. So there's a couple pieces that I wish had hung in there with us.

But if you gave me that group healthy and said, hey, run it back. I'd be like, let's go, man, let's go figure this out because it's a good fun group. Oh, 100%. Do you, when I was watching the team, and this actually goes back to the first year some, one of things I've noticed about you, you don't tend to play the guys huge amounts of minutes, any of the guys. I will say, one of the things I've always thought is, look, there's a big drop sometimes between the ones and the twos.

And oftentimes we might get a lead and then the subs happen and then it's back tied again. Is that just, is that your kind of plan going forward? Is it unique to those two teams? Well, it changes. So there's so many variables that go into it. I think my instinct normally is to kind of like, let's go lead out in the energy part of the game and win that part of the game. I think part of our optimism going into the last season was we felt like we come wave after wave after wave and we never got a chance to do that because we never had that group. And so I do think that there's a ton of variables that come into making those decisions.

But I do think there's a place actually to play guys more of a solid rotation. And I think there's a time and place to do that. And so striking that right balance is important. You do do it in the postseason often. Well, developing guys is really important, right? And you saw that, you know, a great example is Colin Chandler. Colin Chandler was the seventh most improved player in all of college basketball last season. That doesn't happen by accident.

You have to kind of nurse guys and grow guys. You know, Jasper Johnson is a player that has a tremendous upside. and we needed him and we kept, you know, trying to find the right situation for him. And he's going to be a great player. And some of that's going to come from those developmental minutes. You know, you look at Otega always rise and like us being able to continually put him in new situations. That's how guys grow. Malachi Moreno, you know, early on in the season, force-feeding him some minutes,

helped him grow into the guy that actually had to carry the load for so much last season. You kind of go down the list. So there's a, for us, we are developers of players. I think it's one of the things we do better than anybody else in the country is we help our guys get better. I'm really proud of the fact that Amari came in here as a non-draft board guy, that Kobe came in here as a non-draft board guy, that Otega came here as a non. These are not guys that were predestined to be drafted players. JQ was, but those other three weren't. And the fact that those guys came here and we're able to develop them to where, and they developed.

it themselves. It's their hard work that does it. To earn themselves a chance to go play at the next level is really important to us. And I think part of the reason why we, you know, part of our plan, part of this process is bringing players in and helping them grow and get better. And I think it's something our staff is a lead at. So that comes into play too. But like I said, there's a thousand variables that goes into those decisions. And that's certainly one of them. I've got, I ask fans for questions that they wanted answers to. You have to go for practice. I love the fans questions. All right.

So these, but we got to go quick if we're going to get them. Let's go. Are you going to hire another assistant and win? The answer is most likely yes. But potentially no. I can't tell you when. This is what I can tell you. I love the way that our staff is working right now.

So there's been a change in NCAA right now in terms of staff. So right now I get Will Corman and I get Nick Robinson and I get Matt Santoro on the court. All staff members are allowed to be on the court right now. I like the way we feel as a staff. I'm engaged in conversations about staff every day. Even when our staff is full, I'm still talking and talking to people and kind of seeing where it goes. If we hire someone, it's going to be the right person. That's going to be exactly the right fit for what we do.

But we're working at a really high level right now. So no, Jamal Crawford. Jamal is still got two years left on his NBC contract. I'm a good friend with Jamal. We've been friends for a long time. there might be a time where it's good for him to jump in coaching. It's something that he would like to do. He's one of those guys that's cut from a little bit of a similar cloth like Moe Williams

is where, you know, Mo was, it's hard to run an AAU program. And there's a lot of guys that fund an AAU program. Mo was running an AU program. Jamal is running and coaching an AU program. And when you find guys like that with their background, he could have a great future in college, he could go get a job, baby in the right, in the exact right space as a head coach, in the NBA maybe. But I think there's a good chance coaching is in his future, but he's got a sweet deal right now,

and he's got a couple years left. I've had a lot of people ask me, why no father, son, camps, etc. this summer. Yeah, so we were working through so many dynamics. We thought we would take a pause on those this summer and just reevaluate with everything that's changing. there is a real place for those camps. I love them. I actually like the daddy-daughter camp,

even better than the father and son camp. But you're not doing any of them. We're not doing either of those this year, and we're going to kind of just take a pause and reevaluate. Re-evaluate, meaning you think they'll come back? Meaning, I could see us going huge into camps. I could see us, you know, walking away from them. I'm not sure where the future is going to go with that,

but it's something we're thinking about. Why no summer trip? So we had kind of worked through several dynamics. We actually have, and we're still under consideration for something that we have to get some waivers for to do. But it's, again, there's been some rule changes. You know, the best thing about these overseas trip is the 10 days of practice. The 10 days of practice are game changers. But the incidentally, rightfully so.

And I hope they keep going this direction. They took our four hour limitation on the court and they extended it. They doubled it now. so we have much more time on the court. It makes those 10 days of practice a little bit less of a boost. There's also a cost. There's a financial cost, and there's a time cost, and there's an energy cost to go out on the trip.

So if we find the exact right one, we thought we've had something a couple times. So you still could? Well, and I can't really go into detail. There's actually something we'd have to need some waivers for right now that we're pushing on right now. We're talking to NCAA about see if we get a waiver on a program, but we just can't, you know, I'm not allowed to talk about it.

going to get another player? Maybe we're still actually going to. I love my roster right now. But if we find the right piece at the right time, and that could look like a lot of different things, it could be a developmental piece, it could be a, it could be a depth piece, it could be, there's a lot of different slices where we've gone. If we find the right person we could, but I like the roster a lot right now, I think we can go to battle. All right, they're telling me you have to go. We went a long segment here. Could he stay till 1110? Yeah, let's do it. Come on. Let's say.

We can do it. All right. So we're going to take, this is going to be an extended break, but then we will come back at the top of the hour and be able to have Mark. We'll be right back to KSR. Don't make it too extended. Welcome back to Techie Sports Radio. Have a ton of people riding in. Let me give you, we got a minute here before I have to take another break. Zoom Diallo Alex Wilkins.

What's that back court going to be on. Man, if you guys could have heard what the conversation was in this room during the break. It was great. I wish we could have that conversation on the air. There's rules, guys. There's rules. There's rules. Waivers.

We got waivers. Hey, before we get to have kidding, how is our guy Ryan Duhlin? First of all, I'm glad you asked. He is doing much better. He had a really difficult time. I mean, like in the hospital for 10 days, at one point looked tough. And he, but he's doing much better. He's on vacation right now, so he's okay.

He's come back to the show. Okay, good. It's good to hear. Because I know you care about him a lot. Okay, hear me with questions. Zoom, real quick, Zoom and Alex Wilkins. What's that back court going to be like? It's going to be super fun.

man. I hope that's the recruiter. They're both 1-0 creators and they're very different in style of play. They're going to be really fun. Yeah. Do you think together, is the shooting enough at the guard position with those two?

Yeah, so Alex right now shoot 79% on it. We do a series of 103s a day. And on this in the, we're just, you know, right close to that four week mark. He's 79%. That's pretty good. He can shoot it, guys. All right.

We're going to do five minutes with you when we're returning. let you go to let you go to practice. We will take a break and be right back. KSR.