KSR - KSR Postgame UK MBB at Auburn 2/22/26

Episode Date: February 22, 2026

Matt and Billy recap the Cats' 75-74 loss at Auburn.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Clivert Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me.

He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. A rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's he at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifferts show on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. You just understood. That's how personal it got.

Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming until, he's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome, everyone. It is the local Toyota Dealer's KSR post game show.

Cats lose a heartbreaker, 75, 74 in a game that it looked like they were in control of, then looked like they had completely given up, then look like they were going to win, and then they drop it at the end. 859-280-2287. I think we probably should attack this in like three parts. So let's just start with everything except the final sequence of the game. I think two people that deserve a lot of praise, O.A. in Aberdeen. If Kentucky had won, I think the two of them,

would basically have willed the team to victory. Aberdeen apparently was sick and Al didn't practice in the two practices since the Georgia game. And you wouldn't have necessarily known it. He looked a little tired, but I thought he played super hard, made two huge threes, both of which I think if they hadn't been made,

probably they get beat by double digits, and then hit free throws at the end. As a matter of fact, I kind of wish he had, when he made those last two, I thought when they were going to inbound the ball there at the end, I kind of hoped it would go to him. I thought he was excellent. Play pretty good defense too. And then O'A was great.

I mean, this was the best of O'A tonight. Getting to the basket, finished nearly everyone. I thought he was excellent. And I thought didn't force things like he sometimes will do. I just thought the two of them played like Warriors, and then I thought Diabate played really well, even though he didn't score a lot, just physical, et cetera. But the other, like,

I'm not sure Kentucky really deserved to win this game because I thought the rest of the team was not good. And Kentucky just, you know, you saw the limitations in some ways of this group. Auburn's not a great team, and I think if Kentucky was a, you know, they lost five straight coming in this game. And, you know, we've now lost back-to-back games where Georgia had come in, losing five of six beat us, Auburn had lost five in a row and beat us.

So those are tough losses to take. I didn't think Kentucky really played well tonight. I was kind of shocked a lot of the game. At one point we were up nine, and I was texting with a buddy, and I said, I don't even feel like we play well, we're up nine. We would have won because of the will. I think of those two guys. Colin Chandler had a decent first half, but the second half was awful.

That's as bad as he's played. Multiple turnovers, bad decisions, bad shooting. And, you know, the other guys just wasn't a great performance. With that said, though, because of that O-Way Garrison sort of effort, or excuse me, O-A Aberdeen effort, they were up three with 15 seconds left. and give Auburn some credit. They took it to the basket there. I think a lot of teams would have just taken a three.

They took it to the basket, forced the contact, got the call, cut it to one. And all year long, Kentucky had struggled in these inbound situations. I tweeted about it, then I deleted it because, you know, obviously they hit the play against LSU. But really, when we've just had to get the ball in bounds, if you remember, especially early in the year, We had a number of situations. I think it was, maybe it's Bellarmine. I can't remember who it was, but we just could not get the ball inbound sometimes. And I thought about that going on this play.

They don't really have a play to get someone open just to inbound it. They did the thing that they've done all year on these inbound plays, which is just kind of hold a hand up in the air. And the call there by the official, I thought, was an egregiously bad timing call. Is it technically a foul? Maybe, although I think he flopped. I mean, he started falling before Chandler extended his arm. So there was no doubt he was flopping.

Chandler, however, did extend his arm. So, you know, you almost give the officials the knife for them to stab you with when you do that. So it was a complete flop. The officials, Stephen Pearl said after the game they could have called 50 fouls on each team. And that's the truth. I mean,

they beat each other up. And I actually liked that the officials kind of let them play. I thought the officiating actually wasn't bad most of the game because they just kind of

were letting everybody beat each other up. But if you're going to call a game like that, then I don't know how you call that foul right there. It's just a, that's just not the time to call that. If you're going to call the game like they did.

And it was called by Courtney Green, who was on the other side of the court. I like Courtney, but that's a terrible call by Courtney. You're on the other side of the court. There are two officials closer to it than you are. That's not your call, and you insert yourself into the game. So I hated it. I thought that was a terrible call.

But I also think Chandler, who had played terribly in that second half, you've got to be smart enough not to extend your arms like that. But he may have thought, you know what, they've let us do everything. They'll let us do this, and they didn't. Then on the final play, you know, great blo. by Diabate, you know, the second attempt at the shot, Garrison should have had that rebound. He did not. And then the third one, the guy goes over, Chandler's back.

But, you know, it is what it is. I hated that call. I also, though, can't necessarily say we deserve to win. I don't know if they did either. Neither team really played that great. But I don't know. I'm very frustrated by that loss. I'm frustrated by the call, but I'm just more frustrated we were in that situation.

They're not good, and we did some really dumb things. You know, in the first half, we're rolling, and then we do the thing where we put four reserves in, and they come back and take the lead. Now, we get it back. We lead at halftime, which is for only the fifth time this year against a major conference team. And, you know, in the second half, we start well, we're up nine, you know, and we give it all back up in about three minutes. And it was a battle back and forth, back and forth. We just couldn't get any offense consistently going.

And then I hated, we tie the game and we go zone, which was odd to me. We really hadn't played zone the whole game. And then on a key possession, we go and no one picks up the guy who's having a career high scoring night. and he shoots a wide open three, and we get up three, and then we score the next six points, and it looks like we're going to win, and that happens. So just frustrating. You know, it brings, in my opinion, the possibility of missing the tournament.

That's now on the table, and you got to win Tuesday night at South Carolina. Now, they're not good. They're the worst team in the – well, maybe not the worst. They beat Mississippi State. So second worst team in the conference. But – and I think if you win that game, you're in the – tournament. But if you lose, you're all of a sudden playing your way onto the bubble because you still got, you got three hard games to finish the year. So this is a bad back-to-back stretch,

and this is a very disappointing loss. I, you know, it's just disappointing. These games back-to-back, Kentucky should have won both of these games. We should be sitting here tonight with Kentucky 10 and 4 in the conference in second place in the SEC, but they're 8 and 6, and, you know, on a collision course to play on Wednesday in the SEC tournament for the first time ever, as far as I can remember. We need to talk about what happened after the game. I'll tell you what, Billy, pull up the, we'll do this in phases, okay? So pull up the quote that he, that Mark,

gives in the press conference. The video? The video, yeah. So this is, I posted it. It's about 40 seconds long. It's the post where I say he's a little passive-aggressive. Because he's asked about the officiating. He's asked about that call.

Do you have that, Bill? You see where I'm saying? I don't have it yet, but I'll have it here in just this. Okay, well, Mark is asked, first of all, he goes to the press conference very soon after the game. That's one of the interesting things about the way these work. the losing, usually the losing coach goes first. Sometimes that doesn't happen, but usually the road team or the losing team goes first

because they got to go home. He gets on there really quick. So he's clearly very emotional and clearly very upset about the call. And he's asked what he thinks about it and hears his comments. You refuse to give control to people that are outside of our program? refuse, regardless of how personal it might get or how bad it might get. We refuse to give control to fans, to give control to anybody else associated with this game. Regardless of how blatantly people are trying to make this not happen, we refuse to give them their power.

That's what I talked about. We have 48 hours to turn this around. We've got a massive game at South Carolina. We're going to go find a way to win it because that's what we do. So we're not giving away our power. We're not. We don't make excuses. We don't do that.

regardless of what is happening, regardless of how disgraceful things are, we don't give away our power. Regardless how embarrassing, personal, awful, like unacceptable things are, we refuse to give away our power. An odd set of comments, right? He's saying he's not essentially blaming the officials,

but he's, but then he says, regardless of how, blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean, that's a little passive-aggressive. Is that fair to say? Very. Yeah. I mean, I'd honestly rather him just go, I'd rather him just say, like, they cheated this.

Well, as he walks out of the press conference, okay, so he gets up out of the press conference, he walks, I guess he gets to the other side of the wall, but I don't know if he doesn't realize they can, here at the media room, or maybe he did on purpose. He says, Mitch, if those mother effers try to find me, screw them, I didn't say a word about how they cheated us. And he actually did say mother blankers. You know, he said it, and it's on video. Like he said it, like everybody heard it. So he says that after those comments.

you just heard. And then he says, when Tom Leach asks him on the post game show, what he thinks about the call, he said, we don't talk about officiating. We have to find a way to win games. You know, I don't, this is just my opinion. Other people can disagree. I think that's a pretty bad look. If he wants to say we don't complain about officiating, that's probably the right thing to say.

I'll be honest with you. I'm not sure I could do that if I was the coach, but that's probably the right thing to do. Or if he wants to say, we got cheated, I'm kind of okay with that too. But when you, I don't like, one of the things I don't like is passive aggressiveness. Just say what you feel. And when you go, we don't make excuses, but then you're making excuses and you're saying it's personal. I don't know why he, I mean, maybe there's something with that official that I don't know. But, I mean, you're essentially saying a referee is being personal about you.

I don't know. That's, you know, I don't think that's a great look. Billy, what do you think about that? You know, he's done this before after losses. He's obviously been told not to complain about officiating, but. But he's going to, I mean, if he was going to get fined, do you think they're not going to. No, they're going to fine him. They're going to find him because he said it.

Like, like, I mean, the. he said they can't find me because I didn't say anything about officiating and then he goes they cheated I mean is he like a fine's coming a fine's coming there's not a rule that it's fine to say it as long as you do it out in the hall and scream it yeah and by the way I'm okay if he wants to say he thinks the officials cheated I mean I don't know that they cheated I think that was a horrible call in the context of the game So you'd rather him do one or the other not be... I want people to say what they mean.

I hate when politicians or coaches or really anyone in life thinks something and then says something else. But then's like, but I'm kind of saying, just say it, right? Yeah. Just say it. Okay. Whatever it is. Just, just, just say it. I appreciate that.

So he clearly thinks Kentucky got cheated tonight. just say it you're going to get fined anyway if you're going to go out in the hall and scream it you're going to get fined so you know and then Oway has posted on Instagram

that the refs cheated which I can't get mad at him right because the coach did it so you know I really like Mark there's this narrative that will be out that we're in that situation And we were in it and with Cal at the end.

You're in this situation where there's a huge group of people saying, Matt, say Pope needs to go. I don't believe that at this moment. Then there's a huge group of people that say, Matt, you're trying to run Pope off. You know, Billy, there's no way to win. So I learned during the Calip during the time, the only thing you could do is say what you actually think. So here's what I actually think. I think this has been a very disappointing year.

They've had terrible injury luck, but this was also a poorly put-together team that at times this year, I think, has been poorly coached. So, but there's four games left. They still not only can make the tournament, they still should, unless they completely collapse. And in the tournament, I think they can beat all but a handful of teams in the tournament. There's a few I don't think they can beat. I also think, by the way, they can lose to almost anybody in the term. So we got to wait and see what happens, right? Now, am I worried about Pope and his tenure?

Yeah, I am. And it's not just about this year. It's about what we have coming or not coming yet next year. And it's things like this. There's just been all year kind of like a temperament issue. Mark's a nice guy. He's not like a bad guy. He's a really good guy. But like he doesn't, he's made some really strange post-game press stuff. And it makes you wonder kind of just what goes on a lot. So yeah, I am concerned. But I also know they should have won tonight. And they should

one Tuesday and they were in the game at Florida and they won at Arkansas and they won at Tennessee. So, you know, I'm not giving up, but I am disappointed. And, you know, I went, you see moments sometimes where the stress of what happens on the court shows itself off the court. And if you go back through since I've been doing this, when things weren't working out, usually stuff, off the court was similar to what we were seeing on the court. And I think the comments tonight were just kind of a guy that, I don't know if he feels aggrieved, or if he just doesn't handle losing grade. But it was disappointed.

But I'm also disappointed at that stupid call. Because Billy, they didn't need to call that. Well, he's got a right to be mad. I mean, that call sucked. It does. Sucked. He was falling down before the arm even extended. But he did extend.

his arm. I mean, you know, for me, it's a terrible call in the context of the game, but also Chandler can't extend his arm right there. The only thing you can, the worst thing you can do right there is get an offensive foul. And we do. Now, it is ridiculous that he made that call, especially the way the game had been called the whole time, right? I mean, they let them beat each other up out there. And then to call that, I kind of agree with Oway on the postgame radio. He was like, the whole game, people have been doing this. And now you call it?

That's kind of how I feel to. 859-280-2287. So that's a lot of emotions all over the place. What do you all think? I'm sure, I actually think we're going to get some really interesting calls tonight, Billy, don't you? I think some anger's coming tonight, don't you? Yeah, and I'm off tomorrow from Matt Myron, so I don't have to rush to get to bed. So you should like that.

That means you can, I won't make you stay up to you. I'll get to stay longer. That's right. We'll take a break and be right back. It's a local Toyota dealer's KSR post game show. Welcome back. Local Toyota dealers, KSR post game show. Kentucky is going to end up with double-digit losses this year.

That was going to happen whether we won or lost tonight. but that's four, excuse me, four straight years with double-digit losses. That's only the second time in school history that's happened. The other time were the last two years of Tubby and the Billy Clyde years. So, you know, that's an unfortunate stat too. SEC is better now, so I think that's partially it. But we also had more losses coming into the SEC than we normally do. as well. All right, who's up first, Billy?

Jamie. Jamie. Go ahead, Jamie. Jamie. Yeah, hey. I just want to start off. I do not know how you're Jay and Clayton's and you're sitting on the bench,

watching your team lose the way that we have and you don't care. And at the beginning of the year, this is a kid that said he wanted to be the number one pick and he is sitting out. Go ahead. Well, I mean, you don't know that he doesn't care. I mean, I totally understand why people are skeptical about the Quaintance thing and at times I've been skeptical.

But at the same time, I don't know. And you don't either. And so when you say he doesn't want to, that might be true, but like you don't know that for sure. Yeah. I hate that they made that call. But if you want to make it, that's fine. But you cannot be on the other side of the floor. you were closer to Mark Pope than Colin Chandler making that call.

I do not see any world how you make that call in that situation in this game. Yeah, I agree with you on that. I mean, I appreciate the call. There are two officials that are on, so you got the guy under the basket who probably has the most direct line of sight, and then the other official is at half court on Chandler's side. So you have two guys on Chandler's side of the floor, neither of which call it.

And Courtney Green calls it from the other side, and if you go look at the replay, there are two people standing in between him and Chandler and his defender. I don't know how he calls that. He doesn't have the angle to call it, and it's also just a poor spot. So, you know,

it's a bad, it is an unnecessary call. It's hard to say it's a bad call because he did extend his own. but nobody calls that there. And my guess is if we went back and looked, both teams pushed off 30 times to get open up to that point. I bet if we looked,

because they were smacking each other the entire game. Who's next? Wade. Wade, go ahead, Wade. Matt, the last time when we won the 2012 National Championship, I was a freshman in high school and 14 years old. I hadn't met my wife yet, and I now have a one-year-old daughter, and I turned 30 this year.

I only say that to say we've wasted so much time, just hoping that this coach is the right one. Like the cow's last five years, I think we all had a little bit of hope, but I think deep down we knew it wasn't going to happen again. And I had that same feeling with Pope, and I just don't want us to waste more of all of our lives, hoping for something. I watched the Michigan and Duke game today, and I was like, we used to be that. We used to be these event games, and we didn't have it. And then the Konsega game came on. I'm like, wow, this is a different product. No, it was.

You know, you saw that. When I watched Michigan Duke, yeah, especially if you saw, like, the first five minutes where they couldn't miss both teams, you kind of thought, yeah, we're not playing the same game they are. And I don't know. I mean, I'm not quite as negative that it's not going to work as you are. and it's hard for me to read where this fan base is, because if you were to look at my, if you were to look at the comments people send to me both online and on the text machine,

it is wildly all over the place. There are people who've completely given up on Pope and there's people who are like, why is everybody so hard on Pope? Like, people are all over the place. And so I can't really get a sense of where the majority of the fan base is because I think it's all over the place. And I'm kind of,

I'm not as down on Mark Pope the head coach as it seems like a lot of people are, but I'm maybe more down being nervous about next year because of what we don't have. So I think Mark is a good X and O coach, but it just hasn't worked this year. And I, to be honest with you, I'm kind of perplexed as to why. I mean, I know we've had the injuries, but the team wasn't good before the injuries. So it's just kind of, it's kind of strange. I'm kind of afraid that Mark is the worst kind of coach that we can have because he does give us a lot of really good emotional fun moments

like beating Tennessee's and Arkansas and Duke but then we still get double-digit lost seasons and I just want to know I know you're... But that's what he did at BYU too. What it is that you're holding on to. That's what he did at BYU too, by the way. Though, I mean, that's at BYU they would beat good teams and lose to bad teams. What am I holding on to?

That's a good question. I appreciate the call. I think I'm holding on to the fact that I think he's very smart, and I think he has shown that he can produce a team that can beat good teams. And he wants it badly, and I feel like, I don't know, I still feel like he can do it. But I will tell you, for me, it's all going to. to come down to next year.

Like, I'm just, I'm going to have to see it next year. And there really aren't going to be any excuses for me next year. Like, they've got to be good. But yeah, that's probably what I'm holding on to. Who's next? Kevin. Kevin. Go ahead, Kevin. Matt, I think he comes down to exactly what you said just now.

He gets one more year. And that's it. He has to produce next year. I have no faith in what I can do this year. if you look at what took tubby smith out of coaching at kentucky his nickname was pen lost tubby and that carried on to billy gillespie and we see what he has done this year and what scares me the most is the bipolar nature of mark pope when we see him and he smarts off to tom leach and that's the nicest guy that you could ever talk to and yet he has an attitude with tom leach

and he is bipolar when it comes to his post-game press conferences and all of that, I just don't think that he is the right person to fit at Kentucky. And we're just not seeing the results. And I think that you see a team that does not know what they're doing because Mark Pope is not giving a clear message of what he wants to do offensively, defensively from game to game, and we're seeing that play out on the court. Well, I appreciate the call.

I don't know if I would use the word bipolar, but I would use the word of his emotions after games are kind of all over the place. I mean, I think that's fair. You know, again, when he came from BYU, there were people who did stories where they interviewed, I think it was Jacob Polichick at KSR, who basically talked to people. about what Mark was like at BYU.

And they would all say, great guy, great coach. But when they lose, like, tease very hard on himself and others. And, you know, we've seen some of that. And some of that's okay. But, you know, there have been a lot of strange moments in post games this year. I mean, there have. There have probably been enough, like, there have been some strange moments from the Louisville, like something happened in the lot.

locker room to what he said after the Michigan State game, which caused Rick Petino to call him and be like, what's wrong with you, to the game where Missouri, where he was kind of weird with Tom and, you know, the game, he had a game the other night. It's just, to this, it's just, there's been a lot of sort of odd things. Who's next? Robert. Robert. Go ahead, Robert.

Matt, I've got four or five very quick comments, if I can, please. First of all, I was looking on CBS. I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you three since it's after midnight. So make them your best ones. All right. Okay. They were rating the top 100 players for the NBA draft. Kentucky had two, Queens, who obviously is done for the season, and Oway.

And Oway was rated 93. The bottom line, number one, is we don't have the level of talent that we've had. I agree. Okay. Number two. I know this is going to sound crazy, and I've had too many people tell me this that Otega, who's shooting 65% and free throws in SEC play,

people, when I'm watching the game with my buddies, some of them are screaming to take him out because he clang so many free throws late in the game under pressure. He does occasionally. example. He did, he did, but he also made a couple. He also made a couple there at the end. But yeah, you're right. But my thing is if you take him out, like, who scored? Like, we don't. That's my response. Yeah, who scored? I mean, yes, he's not perfect.

If he was perfect, he wouldn't be 93 on the rankings, right? He'd be a lot higher. But like if it's not, again, without him in Aberdeen, we might have scored 35 points tonight, you know? fair point the other thing is and I hate just to trust the players but I thought that the performance tonight was just it wasn't just bad from a basketball standpoint

it was bad from a smart play standpoint or more meticulay lack thereof I usually think Chandler plays well and plays smart he was he was bad I don't know what happened he was a disaster net-s-

You had five turnovers in the first, in the second half. It's hard to get five turnovers in the game. Yeah. He had five and a half. I think when he had those back-to-back plays where he tried to feed the post to Moreno both times and both times it got stolen and then he got taken out. Just Paul couldn't have gotten that pass on. Yeah, no, no.

Those passes were terrible decisions. And Pope took him out. And I felt like after that, like I don't know if he was pressing. I just, he was really, really bad in that second half. And the turnovers were bad enough, but there was other stuff. Like he was not good in that second half. And it was kind of, he hasn't been like that really since conference play. So I don't really know what happened.

You're right. Yeah. Hopefully it was just a one game blip. I appreciate the call. I, you know, that's kind of what I was saying about, about feeling like they, whether they deserve to win or not. I look back, Billy, and it's hard for me to figure out how we scored. I know that sounds strange, but we scored 74 points.

And as I sit there and try to think of remembering when they scored, I feel like I remember O'way getting a bunch of layups, and I remember Aberdeen hitting a couple threes. And it feels like, though, we just ended up with 74 points, And it's just hard for me to, it almost is like we willed our, if we had won this game, let me tell you what I was going to say if we won.

When it was 74, 71, and they called time out, I remember thinking, if we win this game, I'm just going to go, man, that was a game won on sheer willpower by two dudes. And then we didn't. But it's kind of sheer willpower we were even, in it because it just didn't feel like we played good at all yeah i mean especially with brandon garrison

making those plays out there and Trent noah outmatched jasper johnson wasn't i actually thought trent did okay he's that he was a little he was outmatched i actually thought he played okay what were you going to say about bg i can't i can't i can't i mean i i'm not sure the last time of players frustrated me more than he does he got like three thousand And he made one, he made a, but how did he miss that layup at the end? Oh, the bunny at the end, yeah. I mean, how did he? But he had put great defense right after.

Like, he kind of made up for it. He did. He had a, that was a good defensive play the next time down. But there were a few that weren't. And I don't know where he was on those last rebounds. Like, he was like six feet from the basket. Like, I, I, I, he is one of the more front. frustrating players I can ever remember.

For me personally, I'm not saying it. I'm not saying it. Just for me personally, I find him to be one of the more frustrating players that I can remember in a long time. Who's next? Another Kevin. Kevin. Kevin, go ahead, Kevin.

Hey, Matt and Bill. What's going on? This is Kevin from West Virginia and Crystal. Hello. And I'm a Kentucky boy. I went to the UK and then I went to Auburn for bed school. And I converted my wife to be a UK fan to a riding a roller coaster. Yeah.

And I just wanted to say, like it's 1230 now. And this is the time. This is for Ryan for lovers. Okay. You don't have to say. See, we don't need this to continue from other people. But go ahead. That's it.

All right. I appreciate it. That's why I call it. Okay. Well, it actually didn't make me laugh. A couple people are quote tweeting the tweet I've said many times, and it's true. I said this a long time ago, and it is a true story. One fact of sports in life when you're complaining about the refs, you lost.

And that's true. We are complaining about the refs, and we did lose. So this is just, tonight's another example about it. Who's next? Skyler. Skyler, go ahead, Skyler. Hey, Matt, this is the first time caller in a long time. What's up?

But I would like to say that, yeah, I'd like to complain about the rest, to be honest with you. But I would also like to be able to say that I felt like that they costed us a game at the end of the game whenever they had the call. You're talking about the Chandler call. Yeah, that was a bad call. Yes, the Chandler call, yes, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah. Yes.

Well, it certainly didn't help. I just felt like that was very terrible, and that was devastating for the game. It was very terrible. That's true. It's good to hear from you, sir. I hope you're having a good evening and thank you for calling. Would you, Billy, how outraged were you at that call?

Like, were you, were you, were you furious? I could see why? Could you see it? I mean, I always say you listened to it. Yeah. Could you see why, but I mean, Jack was the one that was mad. I mean, you could hear it in his voice. What did Jack say?

You're talking about Givens? Yeah, yeah. It was like, well, I mean, he was fine with it too. He said he saw the arm. end, but they had not been calling it all night. And if you have to call the last minute the same, you would, the first. I mean, that's, refing one of the one. That's my, yeah, that's my biggest thing.

I will grant you that that could be a foul, but it was not a foul in the context of that game and the way they were calling it. You can't just all of a sudden in the last 20 seconds call, normally sometimes what happens in the last 20 seconds is they stop calling foul. They kind of let them play. But this is almost worse. Because you've set the precedent, you're going to let them do one thing, and then you call that. You know.

But now, you know, I don't understand what chance. First of all, we should have embound it to Aberdeen. I mean, Chandler's not had a good game. You know, Aberdeen had just made two crucial ones. By the way, again, big shout out to that dude, especially if he's playing sick. he played 39 of the 40 minutes. So, and he made those free throws. I wish we had imbounded it to him.

That's what, and if he misses, he misses. But even if he misses, they're all the way on the other side of the court and, you know, but who's next? Well, that's it. Go ahead. I was just, yeah. Well, I mean, he's the perfect guy for our Johnny Rocker, personal injury attorney moneymaker of the game. Injured gets small town compassion with big city results when you call the rocker at 2703-3-1-4. 4-4-2-9.

And Matt, you're right, didn't practice in the lead-up to this game. He scored 15 points, had three big three-pointers in this game as well. He has really been impressive the second half of the year. I am. I have been a lot of things about this year frustrated me. He has really, like, he is my, like the thing that maybe has made me the happiest over the second half of the year. Two things I've really enjoyed. Watching Moreno develop, although he's got to get stronger.

He gets the ball taken from him, too. much, but he's really developed and become a good player, and I'm excited about him for the future. And then watching Averdeen go from a guy that was bad at the start of the year. I think he, you know, he's not, he's not good enough to be our second best player, but he is our second best player. And he gives everything he's got. And so I have a lot of love for him, and I wouldn't have thought that earlier in the year,

but he really does. He gives everything he's got every game, and I appreciate that. We'll take a break and be right back. It's the local toy dealers, KSR Post Game Show. Welcome back. It is the local toy dealers, KSR Post Game Show. Text Machine is 772-745254. One person writes, Matt, I've kind of been with you

and thought we needed to only play our top five guys, but did you feel like they got tired down the stretch? And maybe it would have been good to play more people. Um, no, because when we did play more people for a stretch. Well, it depends on what you mean by play more people. I think what he did in the second half is actually fine, which is he kind of, it seemed like he kept three of the starters in it, three of the big four in at all times. It felt like to me pretty much all the second half, Aberdeen O.A. Chandler, Moreno,

at least three of those four were in. which I think is what you have to do. He gave Yovic some minutes, Garrison some minutes, played Diabate most of the game, you know, gave Noah some minutes. I'm okay with that. But in the first half,

he went Jasper, Noah, Garrison, Diabate, Oway, and we gave up eight points at about 12 seconds. And you can't do that. And, you know, I don't know, Billy. Jasper, John, I just can't play him.

And that's sad, but it's true. Not even like four minutes at a game? Well, I mean, he was in there tonight. His man makes a three. He doesn't get back on defense. He gets the ball stolen from him. You know, Pope didn't put him back in. Two minutes minus six tonight.

Yeah, he was minus six in two minutes. Against Georgia, he was minus 16 and nine minutes. And tonight he was minus six in two minutes. Well, Pope mentioned fatigue a lot in the post game tonight. Well, fatigue was certainly. part of it, but here's what I'll say about fatigue. We were down, we were down, what,

six, with five minutes to go and came back and we're up three. So clearly the fatigue didn't get them in the last five minutes. Right? Right. I mean, you know, the person who was the most fatigued was Chandler.

Well, may I just say something? Chandler had two thousand, two minutes and set out most of the first half. Mm-hmm. So, like, of all the, the guy who played the most played 39 minutes and was sick, he didn't look fatigued. Did he? No. I'm just being sick.

Like, Aberdeen, back to my Aberdeen, my man plays 39 minutes. He's sick, hasn't practiced all week. He's not fatigued. So, you know, I don't know. There was a moment where I felt like Chandler needed to go out and the timeout. came and that's but i'll tell you this i they may have been fatigued but i'd rather have have a fatigue guys we have on the court though billy than what we saw in the first half for that little stretch yeah that's what it seems like it's becoming i mean they they went five and a half

minutes without a field goal early in the same thing from the 18 minute mark of the second half to the four minute mark of the second half that's 14 minutes and we scored 14 points geez that's where we i mean that honestly that's where we lost the game was in that stretch Who's next? Larry. Larry. Larry. Hey, Matt.

What's up? First time, long time. Who? Hello lawyer from down here in E-town. Oh, well, hello, E-Town. E-Town, Esquire. Hey, my son went to University of Michigan, so I follow them a lot. My text to my son tonight was, great games today between top five teams, one versus

three and two versus four, probably is none of them were Kentucky. Well, what are we doing? Well, we're not in the top four. And right now we've lost two straight games, the teams that coming into it had lost 10 of their last 11 games. So, you know. You know, I'm not much of a AI man,

but I put this in. It says, I was just thinking, how long has it been since Kentucky's been a top one or two C? And Google team sits out. 2017? It's been 10 years since Kentucky Wildcats earned a number one seed. This is a 10-year drought, but prior to this, this is double. Before this drought, the longest gap between number one seeds for Kentucky and the modern era,

64-plus teams was only five years between 1998 and 2003. Yeah, I don't think that's right. I think A.I. I think A.I. is wrong about that. We had, I don't think we got a one seed from like 86 to 93, maybe. But in general, your point, it may be, very well may be the longest time since we've had a one seed in history. I mean, it's been 10 years. We had a one seed in 2015. We were two in 20, 2017. Where are we at? Are we now Indiana? No. We talked about that last week. We were also two the year we lost to St. Peter's, but we lost to St. Peter's. Let me ask you. No, we're not Indiana, but we are, we are. Are we relevant anymore? Yes. I mean, we are, you know, well, it depends on what you mean by relevant. I mean, are we relevant in terms of can we win a national title? We haven't, I'd say since COVID, we've only had one team. since COVID that went into the tournament where people thought we could win the national

title and that was the year we lost to St. Peter's. So I guess my, are we looking at that in regards to blue eyes, though? No, I mean, look, it depends on what you mean by relevant. Okay. Well, I mean, if you ask you my opinion, you just tell them, I mean, if you're asking my opinion, we, when it comes to relevant, if you mean do we matter in college basketball, nothing moves the needle except for Duke more than Kentucky in college basketball. We get the highest ratings, we get the most clicks, we are always in a prime time spot

in our games on ESPN even when we aren't good. So yes, we are relevant. Think about how many times you see Indiana in a marquee game versus how many times you see us. We are next to Duke. We are the most marquee program in college basketball. still. Now, the second point, have we been a contender? No. Okay. And that's really more important than even being marquee. But the idea that we're not, like, like we're irrelevant, that's just

not true. They put us at 830 on ESPN because we're relevant. Yeah, but we, yeah, but we weren't the top five. You see what I want you to look at the games, and I appreciate the call, sir. I want you to look at the games that were on that were on the national prime slates it was number two versus number four number one versus number three right now it's number six versus the number one pick in the draft and in between we're two unranked kentucky albert teams why because it's kentucky but we are not playing up to our marquee status though that is a fair critique we since COVID have not been what we should. That is fair.

And that's why I believe there should be wholesale changes in the athletic department. And we're going to have another year, in my opinion, to see whether that needs to happen with the basketball program. But the standard has slipped, but we are not irrelevant. That's not true, in my opinion. Who's next? Lance. Lance.

Go ahead, Lance. Yeah, Matt. To me, it seems like we always play either up or down to our competition, especially in conference play. I agree. Would you say that a problem Pope has with preparedness for these games, or what do you think about it? You go back to his time at BYU and you throw it here.

It is clearly the case that Mark has, in his coaching career, had teams that seemed to play to the level of their competition. At BYU, he made that program relevant, and they would beat good teams, and then they would lose to bad teams. And that's kind of been what it's like here. Why is that the case? I don't know. I can't figure that out.

But it is frustrating. And, you know, the guy mentioned Michigan, and I think Michigan is a good situation to sort to sort of compare it to, and I appreciate the call. I mean, Michigan has a second year coach that came in highly touted and had all the resources in the world this summer, as we did, to get a team. And like us, had kind of struck out on some top targets as freshmen. And they are one of the two or three best teams in the country, and we are where we are.

And at some point, if you're sitting there going, okay, well, what's a good way to judge Mark? You have to look at Dusty May in Michigan and say, why is the gap so large there? And that's probably a question for the offseason. But we're very similar programs in terms of what we had as a possibility this year. And they have ended up much, much better than we have. Who's next?

Tommy. Tommy. Tommy. Hey, Matt. This is Tommy here at Tompkinsville, Kentucky. How are you doing? Doing good. Okay, so I got two quick things.

I don't want to keep you long. But first thing is I saw some comments earlier about how you weren't happy with how Pope reacted post-game. I just want to hear how you think he should have acted. Do you want him to be happy? What do you want him? I want him to be consistent. If he's upset about the officiating, say I'm upset about the officiating. If he's not upset and he wants there to be no excuses, say there are no excuses.

But don't say there are no excuses and then walk out of the room and then say they cheated us. Okay. Those are just inconsistent messages. And I just want, like, just say what you will think. Like, just be Mark Pope. and it was clear what Mark Pope felt was they got cheated. So I wish you'd just say it. Just say it.

Be like you, we got cheated. Now, do I think we got cheated? No. Do I think that was a bad call? Yes. But that doesn't mean we got cheated. I mean, like, you know. What about do you think it was personal?

I don't know. I mean, he says it is. I don't, I mean, I don't know what would make it personal unless he and that referee have some. But if he thinks it was personal. it is, I can't say it's not. I don't know their relationship, right? I just would say this. If you're going to say you lost and a ref has made it personal, like, well, you better be ready to stand on that because the SEC's probably going to ask you about that, and you're

probably going to have him calling another game of yours at some point. Right. Okay, well, last thing, real quick. This is the one, this one's trying to lighten the mood. I understand you're not a big bro country guy. I was wondering if you were a fan of J. B. Shelburne's music, and if you can name one song. I do not know a name of his song, but I do like J.D., and I have enjoyed hearing him. He's a Kentucky fan and a fan of KS.R, and so I'm a fan of his. I'm not, but I do not know a name of a song, but it's not usually my kind of music. But I feel like J.D. the same way I do about my cousin.

Like, if you're one of my people, I'm going to be for it. Who's next? Brad is next. Brad, go ahead, Brad. Hey, I was going to say, you know, I thought the referees were bad, but I thought the coaching was pretty, substitution and stuff were bad, too. We ran literally nothing from about a 17-minute point on in the second half to the end of the game. I'll take O.A, bailed us out, Aberdeen, Bells out of the Big Three.

I just, I just, I mean, you're right, by the way, almost. almost every possession in the last in the second half ended with either O'A or Aberdeen creating something off the dribble. I mean, like, that's kind of what we did. But I also think, like, I'll be honest, it didn't look like anybody else out there wanted to shoot. You know what I mean? That's true.

It didn't look like Chandler wanted to, I mean, Chandler and Noah, or Chandler and Noah, they both had multiple open looks, and it did not look like they wanted to, you. wanted to shoot, right? And Moreno got the ball on the block, and he didn't really seem to want. It's funny. When you talk about people that I know are cool shooting the ball, O.A. and Aberdeen are. Unfortunately, the next two people that seem most ready to shoot are Garrison and Diabonte, who always feel confident to have their number called.

Well, Garrison, he should have a won't. He don't care. Yeah. And Diabate, when he gets the ball, by the way, when Diabate gets the ball and he makes the decision, I'm going to the basket, there could be eight guys on him, and he's going to shoot. He's going to shoot it no matter what. But go ahead. My big concern is, you know, this year is what it is. The roster is bad.

I think a pope completely overcompetated for athleticism. But my big concern is next year, what do we have to be excited about coming in? Right now. Chandler or Malachi is going to be your best player. No, I mean, I don't think that. I don't think that. I think, well, I'll say this. If those are the two best players, then we're not going to be very good.

But I think that there will be guys in the portal that will be as good, if not better than Chandler and Moreno. It is now up to Pope. It's now up to Pope to get them, right? That will be what, that will be where we, that will be what decides next season. And I appreciate the call. We don't have freshmen who can bail us out.

You know, I think you're going to get Chandler, well, I hope you're going to get Moreno, Chandler, and Cam Williams back. You might get low. or you might want, I mean, I don't know what they want, and then I don't know about the other guys. But you're going to have to go get four or five guys in the portal, and you need at least one of them to be a star. They have to get a star. They haven't really gotten a star star star yet in the portal.

Last year, they got a bunch of guys that were really good, and that was a good team. But they didn't quite have a star. I think they hoped Jackson Robinson would be that, and it didn't quite happen. and this year, you know, they struck out on a lot of the stars. They're going to have to get a star in the portal this year. And I don't know who it'll be because I don't know who's going to be in the portal, but they're going to have to get one. When ESPN puts out those rankings, top guys in the portal,

we've got to get one of the top five if we're going to be good next year. We'll take a break. 859-280, 2287. Come back. Final segment. It's a local toilet dealers, KSR post-game. Welcome back. It is the local toy dealers KSR post-game show.

859-28027. Text machine is 772-745-25-4. Mostly good text message, text machine comments today. When person writes, Matt, I agree with what you said about us being relevant, but do you think that Kentucky will remain relevant if they don't start winning at a high level? I mean, it's a fair question. Like, if you, I mean, that's how you get to be Indiana. Because there was a time that everything I said about Kentucky was true about Indiana.

Like, they would be in the marquee spots and that had stopped. So, yeah, I mean, if you go 20 years without it, it will. But, well, this is something I know a little bit about because of my ESPN work. Every single story written on ESPN about Kentucky will be the highest rated story read on ESPN college basketball that week. Like, I don't know if you watch Field of 68, but they will make a Kentucky game, one of the top three or four games they talk about every night because more people that are watching them from us than anyone else.

We drive. The only school that's close is Duke. We are these, even North Carolina, Kansas don't drive traffic like Kentucky. and Duke. So, you know, could that go away? Yeah, I guess it could, but we're still a long way from it going away. You know, Kentucky, Arkansas was until last week the highest watched game on ESPN this year. That'll probably get passed by, that was passed by Duke, Carolina.

It'll probably be passed by Duke Michigan because Duke actually probably is even more marquee than we are now. But we're still two. But now, we want to win title. and in that respect we're way behind these schools and on that I completely agree who's up next Matthew Matthew go ahead Matthew hello Matt how are you doing doing good uh tonight was a was a rough one it's a lifelong Kentucky fan's always hard to uh you know have a win and they get ripped in that manner yeah but through it all uh whether or not mark pope is the man for the job that's yet to be

team because last the year was quite a magical year for me personally. But, you know, he just didn't get the right roster construction that he needed this year. And, of course, we're losing games because of it. So I'm willing to always give him another year to see how way he can do. Yeah. And, you know, if I could talk to him personally, I would like to say something to the effect of, you know, coach, you know, I'm not behind you. You know, you voice your frustrations when you got every other college coach saying whatever they want to say, you know, I'm right there with you.

But, you know, I'm optimistic and excited to see what he could possibly do next year. I know it's going to be a whole roster of reconstruction. And other than Malacomero, I love the Kentucky boys, but I don't know how many of those guys are going to be even ready for what they need to do. But, you know, I love coach, and I hope the best. I still think we're going to make the tournament, but I don't think we're going to make a whole lot of noise, but I am excited that the possibilities as to what we can do.

Well, I appreciate the call. Those, I think all of that is reasonable, and I'm sure, you know, I don't think there's anybody listening to this that doesn't want Mark Pope to succeed. Part of what makes it hard is we all want him to succeed

so much because we know how much he cares and we know how much he wants to win. You know, I, it would be so much, it would be so awesome to win with him as the coach. Because it would be, like, it would be more special in some ways than it is with coaches who just come and go because he's part of this. So we all want it, and he wants it.

He probably wants it too much, which is probably what causes some of these weird things that happen after losses. Let's do five more and we'll call tonight. Who's next? Dave. Dave. Dave, go ahead, Dave. Hey, Matt. What's up?

So like you just said, nothing. Like you just said, as awesome as it would be to win with Pope, it kind of makes it as more painful when we lose it from now. I agree with that completely, yeah. Because you just hate it. It's like, it's hard to, it's hard for me. It's hard for everybody to criticize him because it's like you're criticizing, like one of your family members, you know?

Exactly. It's like when Mitch hired him, It was like we didn't want it. We didn't, you know, it's good. It felt good, but it's like if it goes south and it's like we have to almost kind of. Yeah. It's like hiring. It's like you remember when Mark Stoops hired his brother Mike Stoops is the linebacker coach?

And I remember thinking it would be awesome to have your brother coach with you. But what if he's a bad coach? Are you going to fire your? your brother? Like, what are you going to do? It's going to be terrible if it doesn't work out. And I kind of wonder if it's like this. Like, we all want a former Kentucky player to coach, but then what if it doesn't work out? It makes it a lot harder. Yeah. So one thing, I know this might be wishful thinking, but what do you think our record would be or how many games do you think would be different if a Caden Lewis had a decommission?

I mean, it'd be better. It'd be better because you'd be able to play, have another guard who can score. You probably could play Aberdeen. It is more regular position. Yeah, we'd be better. I mean, we'd be better if Jalen Lowe wasn't hurt. We'd be better. We'd be better if we had one more guard who could play.

I honestly think that the thing we miss the most, is we need another guard who can play. And that could have been Jalen Lowe. I thought it could have been Jasper Johnson. And it's ended up, Jalen's hurt, and Jasper's not playing well, and Cam Williams is hurt. And so, like, you just have a situation. Wouldn't it have been nice if tonight when Chandler was off,

you could have put somebody else in? You know what I mean? And we just couldn't. And that's kind of the way it goes. Yeah. So I appreciate the call. Who's up next? TJ.

TJ, go ahead, TJ. Hey, Matt, been a while. You know, look, I've got the final four tickets. I'm 40 years old. I'm up there with you. You know, the name on the front of the jersey, not the back. That doesn't matter anymore. These kids get paid.

It doesn't matter if you're from Puerto Rico, China, Japan, America, Mexico, wherever. Pay the best players. It doesn't matter. Oh, it's the page. of Kentucky. But you know, with Calipari, if we had a bad season, we still had the excitement of, well, we've got the number two class coming in. You don't even have that, Matt. And I, here's the thing. One more thing. Here's the thing. Oh, it was a bad call. It was this. It was that. This is a game where it shouldn't have been a bad call or not to lose the game.

They're on a five-game losing streak. You are concerned. Kentucky. We are now the Tennessee and the Nebraska of football if we don't change soon. This is pathetic. Appreciate the call. I mean, I, we're definitely not Nebraska. You know, I think we're still not quite Tennessee, but Tennessee's been relevant. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, the analogy is probably, if we're not careful, if we're not we're going to become like UCLA, which is UCLA will still have years where they're really, really good, but they're not consistently, like, you don't look every and go,

wonder if UCLA's going to be good. That's kind of, that's something that could happen. That's a very good point, though, about with Cal, you're like, well, so-and-so's coming in next year. Part of what I think is making this hard is that nobody has confidence about next year. If you think about 2013 when we went to the NIT, we had the number one class in America coming in the next year with the twins and Randall. Remember, people go keep calm, the twins are coming, right?

Yeah, we don't have that. And so that in and of itself makes it difficult. And I'm with you. I get the best players. if there's a tie and you want to add a kid from Kentucky, that's awesome, but get the best players. At the end of the day, we want to win. Three more.

Who's next? Ben. Ben. Ben, go ahead, Ben. Hey, what's going on, Matt? What's up? Hey, so me, so I've been leaving the game, heading back from Aubur.

And I was a big, it sucked. It was, uh, it was, uh, It was a tough game to be at. The thing I take away the most is I'll worry that Pope cares too much. And I think it shows up in the press conferences and everything else that he just, he cares too much. And he wants the guys to care as much as him. And they just, I don't feel like they feel the same way.

Yeah. I mean, I don't want to say the guys don't care. I think they care. But the question is about Pope care too much. much. I mean, you're not the first person that said that. I don't know. I think he takes stuff really personally, but, you know, I guess I'd rather it be that than the other way. Yeah, I mean, I think the guys, I think to me, it's like, Pope cares too much in the sense of, like, the guy who, uh, he weirds me out with, like, even the post game stuff,

complaining about the refs. And I think everybody would complain about the refs. But in my mind, it's just like, Coke can't do that. And it's like the, guy who, you know, he's on the second date and asking the girl how many kids she wants, you know, and he, you know, he cares so much about her, but she doesn't maybe feel that way. And I think the guys are just kind of, it just, I don't know, it's just, it's a lot. Auburn was, it was fun, but at no point, it felt like we were really, you know, pulling away. And I feel like it's been that way all year. We'll get up, even if we get up eight, you know, it's feel like we can't just put a team

away. Well, you're right. I appreciate the call. I think that's fair. Christy Nome announces Billy that pre-check is being suspended at the airport due to partial government shutdown. Oh, you have to stand in the same line as us. It's a good way to make this administration more popular, is to suspend pre-check. Just make the lines longer at the airports. Yeah. That's one thing that'll make everybody thrilled. Let's make the lines longer at the airport.

airport yeah oh you that's right because i you have to you you go that line oh yeah i'm with the normal people you're you're already done with security by the time i get there wait a minute i pay for pre-check though he's going to spend something that we pay for they better suspend those payments too i mean you better yeah exactly you better suspend the payment i pay for that you can't just see sorry two more who's next orie tory go ahead tory hey matt uh uh brother, this stinks. This stinks really bad. I'm not even having like a little bit of fun.

No, it's not been a lot of fun. I agree. This year, this has been, this is one of the weirder teams that I can ever remember. I never know what's going to happen in the games and I don't. Yeah, you're right. It hasn't been a lot of fun. I think that's fair. It's a daily occurrence online.

You've got fans and then various levels of media making the, case as to why it's not that bad. You've got to look at it through the splins. And then there's others that are just like, well, this stinks. He's got to go. And then in the responses to each kind of tweet is just people making the case for whatever their side is. And it all just amounts to people are just trying to figure out like, why is this so bad? And at the end of the day, it just stinks. And Mark Pope goes into press conferences and he says, like, is there something about like they're trying to take our power, which like I know what he's trying to say. Like I like words and like I'm all about the Genesee qua of like the specific English language

and saying something that sounds pretty. But it like it just comes off as cringy. And maybe, well not maybe. I think Mark Pope might be cringe. And he either has to work on it or hire a manager to offset that when he talks to these kids. But the dorky stuff and how much this all. stinks. It's just, I'm just not having a good time, man. Yeah, you know, he might be a little cringe.

Yeah, maybe. I thought that. But I don't know. Like, ultimately, I guess what matters most is he does as he get those like 12 guys in the locker room to buy in, right? Like, ultimately, that's probably what's most important. And he certainly did last year. I don't know about this year. I can't really tell. It's hard for me. What has been so hard to interpret this year, the team did not like each other at first.

It feels like they've kind of gotten through that. But I can't tell sometimes how well Pope connects with the team this year. I think he really connected with them last year. I can't tell. I'm not saying he doesn't, but it's hard to see it sometimes. and so it's hard to know. I'm with you. It's not been fun.

And I think you're right. I think a lot of it is fans trying to figure out why is it like this and us all kind of not being able to figure it out. And so Pope resonates very well with me. The things he say sit well with me. And I'm a 35-year-old white dude. He's, I think he gets into these conversations or these dinners with these younger guys. and like this is just my opinion right and i think the team's probably a similar reaction as he gets in there and he says like this is beautiful and he tries to motivate him in this like very

empathetic powerful way that this like shakespearean discussion he has with these players and i think a lot of it is just met with a big iroar yeah and yeah i don't know if it is i just don't know if it means a lot you know it's interesting when i've talked to pope i always i find him really interesting, but I find him interesting kind of like I find, like I used to find my law professors interesting. And I don't know if you would put my law professors in a locker room of college kids, and they would be the best motivators in the world. So I don't know.

I really don't know. I think ultimately there's a lot of different ways for things to work. I think it worked last year. It doesn't seem to have worked as well this year. So I appreciate the call. but I do he's different man he's different I think that's clear and uh but if we won I guess none of us would care is it one more yeah and I'm sure there's a lot of coaches that are cringe but sometimes when you well I mean I'll tell you like like like you remember how I can

say this now because we've actually and I think you have to kind of become friends with you Tom cream right yeah like like we used to always joke like Tom cream was like the most cringe guy in the world but But his, Dwayne Wade loves him, you know, and a lot of his former players love him. So even though maybe we found him cringe, like his players really liked him, and I've gotten to know him since I've started doing ESPN, and I think he's awesome. So I don't know, you know. I think it's ultimately, can you get your players to buy in? And there are people who might, you know, then there's like the guy with the Miami Dolphins, Mike McDaniel, who tries to act cool.

and I think he's cringy in a different way, you know. So you got to be yourself. You got to be yourself. That's exactly right. You got to be yourself. And I do think Mark is himself. You know what I mean? I think he is what you see.

So. You just wants it too much. Maybe. One more. Alex. Alex. Alex, finish strong. Matt,

appreciate it, man. I'm a UK grad. I flew to Atlanta today from Miami, rented a car, drove to Auburn. I've got to be honest. man, it's just really freaking frustrating. Atmastew was electric.

This was a game years and years and years in the past. Kentucky goes in and wins. The Otega Owey, fast breaks, slam, the lead. Same issues again. Bad first half, letting them go on run. Weird substitution. Insane lineup. We have a timeout with 30 seconds left.

Why is Colin Chandler pushing off, man? Like, why? That can't happen. Use a timeout. It's okay. Otega, incredible. Again, right? Without him, we're not in the game.

The fast breaks. Everything was incredible. I can spoke with Tom Hart after the game. It should everyone is on the same page. This is three in a row. I just don't know, man. I don't, Matt. And I know you feel the same way.

I just, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. And I appreciate the call. I do know that this year we have four games left. We could win them all, we could lose them all. Even the game at South Carolina too. We could lose that game if we don't play. So we could go 4 and 0, we could go 0 and 4.

We could get to the tournament. I mean, now I think we're trending towards, if we beat South Carolina, a nine seed, something like that if we lose the other three. But we also could play our way to a six seed. We could be an 11 seed. We could miss the tournament if we don't win another game. So I don't know.

And I don't know what's going to happen. And I don't know what our roster is going to be next year. And I think all that unknowing, that lack of knowledge, is part of what makes this so difficult. At the end of the Calaparri era, I knew it was over. I knew it was over. I don't know what we are right now. And so, you know, what are you going to do?

We're going to go play Tuesday night and hope we win. So that's kind of all we can do. Cats lose a tough one. 75, 74, one rebound, one in position referee, not calling a foul. you know, one box out, we could have won. But we didn't. And so now 17 and 10 with four games to go. We'll take a break. Well, we won't take a break. We'll end the show.

We'll see you later. Be back on Monday morning. This has been the local toy dealers, KSR, post-game show. 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, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your 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 Sports Slice comes in.

I'm Timbo. In every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to 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. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all. all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee.

We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, ref, my mama want you to wave at her. What?

Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford Show on the iHeart radio. app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point Game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was part of you. You just understood.

That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come to you, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the I Heart Road. radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.