KSR - KSR Postgame UK MBB at Oklahoma 02/27/25

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Matt and Billy recap the Cats' 83-82 win at Oklahoma.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The Cats with an absolutely awesome, exciting, thrilling, and big victory on the season. Winning in Norman, Oklahoma, 81 to 80 in a game. that I got to tell you, had me, well, you could guess what it probably had me doing, or 8382, sorry, had me pacing back and forth. You can give a shout 859-280-2287. You know how to deal. It's 1235 at night. If you're up, this post-game show I'm going to look at as almost two different audiences.

There's going to be a huge chunk of you all that are listening to this that will be hearing it for the first time tomorrow morning, right? And so for those of you tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon, I know you enjoyed the game as much as anybody. But for those of you that are awake tonight and are listening live, I was thinking about this as I was waiting for the start of this. To me, since I've been doing this show, and even going back to when I was a kid, these weekday night road SEC games where we win, especially if it's It's a thrilling win. There's just something kind of awesome about them. You know, 9 o'clock, late game, random gym, and when we win these games, then staying up and being

excited about it and not being able to go to sleep even though you have work the next day or school or whatever, like there are a lot of you out there just shaking your head right now. This is, I mean, this is what Kentucky fandom is, and this will be a game. You know, every year there are a handful of games that stick out in your mind, that you remember from any season in the regular season. We tend to remember all the postseason games. But then we remember a handful of regular season games, and you never know when that game is going to come up.

I think when we look back at this season, we'll remember the Duke game. We'll probably remember the Gonzaga game. I think we might remember like the Tennessee on the road game because we didn't think we'd win it. And then I think you're going to remember this one. I think this is going to be one that sticks in your mind. Playing in Oklahoma for the first time in the history of Kentucky basketball, kind of a unique, you know, a unique statistic. Having two guys who played college basketball last year in Oklahoma and a third in Jackson Robinson,

who is from Oklahoma. The gym is full of, it's like kind of empty, which is weird for SEC games, but then the people that are there, there's a ton of Kentucky fans to where you hear Go Big Blue chance. And we come in, and when you're watching, you think,

well, Oklahoma's not good. We should be winning this game, but it has the feel of a game that we're going to lose, a game that we look back, on like we did the Texas game and go, how did we lose that game? And then they go up five in the second half. And Billy, I admit to turning it off for a couple minutes. When it was 60, 65, 60, I think. I think maybe I turned it off and then turned it back on when it was like 71, 69. So I don't really know what happened in those minutes. But the rest of the game, you know, you see a performance where

Otega O'Way puts forth one of those like legacy game performances. You know, obviously remember when like Jody Meeks went for 54, Malik Munk's game against North Carolina. But then there's other games that kind of where one guy just had a game. You know, Dante Allen had won a few years ago against Mississippi State and Nerlands Noel had all those blocks against Old Miss. This is going to be one of those like that for Otega. In the last 12 minutes and 50 seconds, only one plus.

player for Kentucky had a field goal. And it was Otega O'Way. And he was amazing in the last 10 minutes of that game. It was interesting to hear Mark Pope talk in the post game because I had thought to myself watching the first two-thirds of the game that I was really frustrated with O'A and I thought he was playing really poorly, missed five layups by my count, got beat a bunch defensively and I was like I don't want to say anything because like he's played so well at the end but pope said that too pope actually said he thought he was really bad the first 32 minutes but special

the last eight I'll give him a little more grace I'll say special the last 12 but it was really special those 12 taking it to the basket I mean the offense basically became outside of the one drawn up play that pope had out of time out all right Otega go do it you know we came in without having played a number of games without Butler and Robinson. And then for the last eight minutes, we were out without Butler and Robinson again, right? Even though we thought, hey, here these guys are back. By the end, they're not back. Robinson re-injures his wrist a little bit.

Butler is fouled out. So we're back to the lineup of the last few games, and Otega gets the win. I thought he was excellent. And then the final shot, man, come on. I mean, that's a shot you'll remember. Hanging in the air, kind of throwing it off the backboard. It's the kind of shot, Billy, that if it happened against us, would give me nightmares. Like, how did that go in?

Yeah. But it went in for us. So, and then the ending, I mean, it's just crazy. We didn't have a timeout. So after he hit the free throws, we had to go straight through. And then they didn't call time out because I think they thought we were denying the ball to fear. So the best chance for him to get a shot off was just to get it into him. He drives to the basket and the two kids from Oklahoma.

O'O.A blocks it first. Garrison blocks at second. Which brings me to the second star of the game, which I think is Brandon Garrison. Another guy that I thought in the first half was not good. I actually thought Garrison and O'Way had really, really bad first halves. But in the second half, that might have been the best half he's played at Kentucky. Not only did he hit the two-threes, that's the easy thing in the first half. But in the second half, I thought he played elite defense, which is amazing because that's been his weakness to me a lot this year.

I thought he was great. And if you go back and watch, if you get a chance, go back and watch the play before O.Way's basket. Okay? We end up fouling the guy with like three seconds left. But Jeremiah Fierce has the ball, and Garrison gets switched on him, and he can't get away from him. Garrison probably played fears on that play as well as we did on any others. And even though we fouled, it was, I think, symbolic of how good a defense Garrison played in that second half. He really was good.

It was like I was looking at a different player. He returned and did well. Now, Billy, I don't – I love his energy, but he was about a half a second from cost of the second game. A lot happened in those final seconds. Well, I mean, what he did at the end of the game defiers, if it was in regulation, like if the clock hadn't gone off, that would have been a technical. And it would have been, like, infuriating if they called it at the end of the game. But they might have.

But luckily it happened after the clock. And then, you know, they almost get a fight in the layup line. Somebody threw a beer at him after it was over. That's not good. You're going to have to find Oklahoma. You can't people throw a beer. We were joking about $1. beer night, well, that's what happens when you have one dollar beer night. You get guys throwing

uh, throwing beers at the players. But just an awesome victory. You know, I think the, I think always the star, Garrison played really well. You do also want to go back to the first half where I think some guys, uh, really gave them good minutes when the starters, you know, we're out. Kobe Brea, I think kind of kept us in it in the first half, not just threes, but getting to the basket. Marie had some good minutes. Andrew Carr made some plays. But at a time where we were in severe foul trouble, where, I mean, just think about the end of the game.

Once again, at the end of the game, we did not have Butler Roberts in her car, because I guess he didn't want to play car. So we were out there with Travis Perry, Kobe Brea, Otega O'Way, Amari Williams, and Brandon Garrison. We took that lineup, and we won the game on the road. And this is a massive, massive game for kids.

Kentucky when it comes to seeding. I think it makes it to wear so long as we beat LSU on Tuesday of next week, we'll be a top four seed, maybe a three seed, even if we lost to Auburn and Missouri. I still think we'd be that. I think it makes it to where, again, if we beat LSU, we almost certainly will get a first day by in the SEC tournament. Now because of some other records, we might even get out of the eighth seed, to be in the or seven, at which point we could avoid Auburn in the quarterfinals, play the games at night

instead of in the afternoon. Like a lot of things are now possible because of that win. And if you could somehow in that last game of the year beat Missouri or beat Auburn on Saturday, it's not crazy. I mean, look, Billy, I don't think we're going to win out. But if we won out, we might get a double buy now. Wow, that would be something. If you look at the records and who plays who, it's plausible.

I don't expect that to happen, so I don't want to get overly excited about it. But I do think this was a huge win. This is one you had to have. Now Auburn is kind of like Alabama was Saturday. Just go have fun. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if Jackson Robinson does not play against Auburn, because why risk it? You had to have this one, and they did.

Now, of course, we have to see what happens with Jackson Robinson. That is a worry for me. You know, he started the second half and then immediately went out. He had the ice on his wrist. I think that's just going to be something that is going to be a game-by-game thing. Looks like Butler is, if not, 100 percent close enough that he can play. So, you know, if Jackson and Robinson can get to where he can get on the court, he made some shots.

So, you know, or at least made one. I think he made two shots, didn't he? How many points do you have, Billy? Who, Robinson? Yeah, he had seven points. Seven. Three of seven from the field. Yeah, three of seven and only played 12 minutes.

So if we can get him to at least that, plays 24 minutes, gets 14 or 15 points. I think you'd be thrilled. But huge win, and one of those like, this is, it's 1248 at night, and we just won a game on the road in maybe the new, worst place in the SEC outside of Starkville. at least when it comes to the arena. You think? Well, I mean, I think from a, I've never been to Norman, so I can't say what the town is like. But is that the worst environment in the SEC?

Could be. Kentucky fans took it over. I mean, I think it might be. You know, I mean, I've seen great. If Oklahoma can't get a crowd with free tacos and dollar beer playing Kentucky, then they ain't going to get a crowd anytime, right? So that might be the new. worst environment in the SEC, but we won it and a massive win.

And a couple quick shouts out. First of all, big shout out to Mark Pope for the play call, down one. Running that play leads to O'Way with an open layup. Brilliant play call, great decision by Amari on making the pass. Mari had a couple of really wonderful passes. And you know what? We didn't play well defensively, but really nice final play. three different guys blocked Jeremiah Fier's final shot and end up getting the victory.

Cats win, 83, 82. Look forward to talking to you. 859-280-2287. I think as long as we beat LSU at home on senior night, Kentucky has, I think, wrapped up a top four seed in the NCAA tournament. I think they've wrapped up at least a first round by in the SEC tournament, assuming we beat LSU and just overall a great night. We'll take a break.

right back this is the local toy dealer's ksr post game show 82 81 comes into oway he gives it back to parry 15 seconds as perry comes across the line calls for oway to come out he takes the handoff always got it goes to his left down the lane angles right flips it up goes in with six seconds to play here comes oklahoma fears drives into the lane goes for the rim it's blocked by garrison picked up by braya oh my zero on the clock and the cats get out of Oklahoma with a win. What a win? Otega always saves the day against his former school.

How good is Tom in those moments? Like, come on. I mean, there's nobody better at getting the excitement out of the moment that he does. And, you know, Jack sounds like everybody's uncle cheering him on. I love it. And let me also say to the, the SEC Network announcers. What was that?

Roy Phil Pot, and I don't even know who the other guy was. Who was the other guy? They were good, though. I thought they did a really good job. I don't know what the other guy's name is. Do you know, what's, did you be, Billy, do you remember who that was? No, but I got nothing but complaints for the SEC network, Matt. Well, yeah, I mean, we'll talk about that probably some more tomorrow.

Because for you all, so I was watching it on the app at the beginning. They didn't really go to the game until like eight minutes left in the first half. 44 left in the first half. That's amazing. That's amazing. Yeah. I mean, so a lot of the stuff that frustrated me, y'all probably didn't even see a lot of people. So we should have been up more early.

That was that, I mean, we really should have probably been up 12 to 15 early and it just didn't happen. But they still got the win. One person writes, Matt, I'm getting old. I'm 47. First of all, you're not old. It's a little older than me. Stop. I have a soft spot in my heart for 9 p.m.

ESPN games. It makes me think of my dad. Every game like this, he would make a pot of coffee, stay up and watch it with me, go to bed at midnight and be at work at 6 a.m. at the sawmill. He was true 606 badass, and that's what the state is about. I have those, like, I have that same, like, I hate these late games, sort of, but there also is, like, it does kind of remind me of my youth. You know, for a long, long time, we were the Tuesday or Wednesday night game, and they always had a big 10 game at 7, and we were the game at 9. And so we've played in a ton of these games over the years. And, yeah, I do, they're not fun to get ready for, but like when you win one of these,

there's something about it being late at night and all that that I do think is, you know, is really cool. One person writes, Matt, I'm glad we won a game where we only had seven threes. I didn't think we'd win one of those all year. I didn't really either, to be honest. Two of the seven were Garrisoned. See, I think he's the only person. Only got to hit more than one.

Yeah, that's crazy. But, you know, listen, you can just win. At this time of year, you just win. There are a lot of things about this game that were frustrating to me, but ultimately we're in that time of year where it's the result because it's win or go home here starting in two weeks. Who's next or first? We'll start with Michael.

Michael, go ahead, Michael. Hey, what's up, man. How are y'all doing tonight, brother? Doing good. Hey, I was just going to say game was fantastic tonight. I was a little irritated with the way the SEC network started that out. I was watching it on my phone as well, just like you said. I don't know how in the world we could go almost a whole half and not be able to see anything while a minute and 47 seconds, I think, was in the band again.

Yeah, that last minute and 47 seconds apparently took charge. 28 minutes of real time. Yeah, but I just want to say, I still don't understand any substitution lines up with what Pope does. I know you mentioned statistics and analytics. I work in health care, and I mean, they talk about health care. You don't have a pandemic, but every 100 years due to statistics and analytics, that's what they say. However, we've had five in 50 years.

So, I mean, I still feel like folks could, you know, have a little grace. Let these guys just run when they're going. Let go with the run. Just let them ride that wave. That's what me and my buddy Brock was talking about tonight. Ride the wave. Let them cook. Let them do the thing.

I kind of agree with you. I mean, that is a frustration to me is that we get a five or seven point lead, call time out, and then it's back to tide again because we switch our lineup. I will say this, though. He went at the end with that two big lineup and with like six minutes to go. I noticed that it was Williams and Garrison in together. And I thought to myself, oh boy, I don't know if I like that. And you know what it worked.

So, you know, I'm with you on the, he didn't do line changes as much tonight. He still would do it. But like, I'm with you. At the same time, though, I do have to give them credit because I didn't think the too big lineup would work at the end. And it did. Caller's gone. Yeah. 859-280.

You also know it's a late night game when I'm doing the post-game show and I have San Francisco Oregon State on my time. Oh, there you go. Do you know their conference teams? They're in the same conference teams. Do you know that? No, but I don't know any teams in their conference team. I mean, Oregon State used to be in the Pact 12. San Francisco, I think, was in the West Coast.

I think they're both now. Oregon State's in the West Coast for one year. I think the new Pact 12 starts next year. Who's next? Greg. Greg, go ahead, Greg. Hey, how's it going, man? How you doing?

Doing good. Hey, I just want to say, man, what a fun game. You know, what a great night. And, you know, I'm blessed, fortunately. I don't have to work tomorrow, thankfully. But, you know, I do have two, I do have two young boys. And they've got school tomorrow and my eight-year-old around the seven-minute mark there in the second half. You know, responsibly put him to bed, you know, after, you know, around, you know, shot tip off him with bed.

Did you make him to go to bed? Did you make him go to bed? Well, you know, but that's it. That's the thing. You can't do that. You can't do that. In 1994, wait a minute. In 1994, my parents put me to bed.

I have a redemption moment here, man. Hang on just a second. I'm going to finish my story. And then you can talk. You go for it. The Kentucky LSU game. My parents made me go to bed. And I missed the 31 point comeback.

I didn't know about it until the next morning. Next morning, I walk upstairs and Larry goes, oh, by the way, we won. What do you mean, by the way we won? It wasn't like now. You couldn't go back and watch it. I didn't see it for years. So I hope you let him get up and watch the end of it. Yeah, so, okay, I was down in the basement and around the 7, 8 minute mark, right around that time where O.A. scored all the points, right?

He came downstairs and he just very politely said to me, he's eight years old. He goes, Dad, I know it's a Kentucky game, so you're allowed to say bad words. but you woke me up. And I think you should let me watch a game with you. And if you do, we're going to win by one point. And he called it. So this one's for Carter. I love it.

Carter, all right, first of all, I like Carter's reasoning skills. He can be an attorney with logic like that. He put your fault and then made it for his success. I like it. So congrats to you and Carter. Appreciate the call, man. Thanks for giving you show. I still, yeah, I still, after that LSU game, then I stayed up for a

every other game. But I still, I still remember Billy, matter-of-factly, Larry just was like, oh, yeah, we won last night. Oh, yeah, by the way, they came down. We were down 30 when I went to bed in the second half. Oh, yeah, by the way, we won. Yeah, I can't help but be with Greg on that one. It felt like that game was slipping away a little bit, didn't it?

Oh, for sure. When I turned it off, I thought we were lost. Yeah. When it was 60, I think it was 65, 60, or 68, 60, maybe 68, 63. I was like we've lost. But we didn't. Who's next? Thomas.

Thomas. Go ahead, Thomas. Hey, what about Alamonore? That's kind of surprised in tonight. Four minutes. What's going on there? Skettled butt? I think part of it was because what was the guy's name that Oway was John with?

Was it Boer? Is that was his name? Who was their four man? Their four man was very athletic. And I got the sense that Pope did not believe either Carr or Almanor. could really stay with him, which is why I think he went with the two bigs at the end. But Almanor, I mean, Carr's not a great defender, but I think Alvonar is actually worse. And so it just probably just wasn't a good game for him.

But I don't read anything into it. I don't read anything into it more than just matchups. Well, incredible that Garrison stepped up. 28 points from Ortega, 12 from Garrison. An incredible way to win. Love that. That's exactly right. Appreciate it.

I mean, we had that period for a little while that when guys returned to their home, you remember we just had a period where they just didn't play well? I can't remember who all it was, but Drew used to always comment on it. Well, you talk about tonight. I mean, O'A against his former school, they were booing him every time he got the ball. Garrison played at Oklahoma State, so not just playing in his former state, but playing against the rival of Oklahoma State to have those games. That's got to be just awesome.

So does this change how you look at Garrison for the rest of the year? Because we've been pretty critical of him. Well, no, I mean, like, you know, he played, I thought, well in the non-conference. I think he has struck. I mean, I think he struggled the first half tonight. But that second half was great. Now, if he plays like he did in the second half, now you got something. But, I mean, listen, I'll take it.

I'm just glad we didn't have an Isaac Humphrey's moment there. Yeah, it was close. It was close. But no, he was great. And what made him great, what's odd is I thought he played really poorly in the first half and still hit two threes. So you could sit there and go, well, he scored six points. But I still thought he was not good in the first half. In the second half, you know, I think he had, what, four points.

But I thought he played a lot better. No, he had six in the second half, too. I thought he was great in the second half. So, you know, you can't always just look at the box score. But I thought he was excellent tonight in the second half. Who's next? Michael number two. Michael, go ahead, Michael.

Hey, hey, what's up, Matt? What are you talking about that wind, man? I'm all worked up. Let's go, baby in. All right, well, it's 1 o'clock in the morning. You should be worked up if you're calling a radio show. Hey, man, I got to work tomorrow, but I'll get there when I get there. But, hey, shout out of Tia Oway, man.

That last drive there, like, I swear it was like a final four moment right there. but he he cared to say the last oh for sure 17 15 minutes i think he took not only not only did he score all the field goals in the last 13 minutes there was a period that i counted where he took eight of the nine shots like he was i mean he was the team during that run oh yeah i got a question for you what would you have done if they were to call the technical on garrison he went it's a great question I would have threw my bourbon glass across my bone. It's a great question.

I would have felt the same way, and I appreciate the call. I would have felt the same way I felt with the Isaac Humphrey's play, which was technically by rule it would be right, but you can't call it. I still think the Isaac Comfrey's play was a complete, there was just no reason to call it. And I would have felt the same way. But by rule, what he did is a. technical if it's during the game. So like, but if they had called that with half a second left,

Billy, my head would have exploded. My head would have exploded. And, you know, the other thing is it would have been like a PTI story tomorrow, right? Yeah. No, it would have. Like, they would have been debating it, like, on Around the Horde and PTI first take, like, should they have ended this game this way? Thankfully, that didn't happen.

But I would have felt the same way I did with Isaac Humphreys. Like, okay, yeah, you could call that, but why? in the world would you call that? Yeah, and we won't talk about the officials tonight, but there was a flop that injured Amari Williams' ankle in the first half. Most people didn't see that because the game wasn't on the TV. I think that actually, when I rewatched it, I think he did foul him, but they didn't call it when he fouled him.

So he fouled him, and then the guy hit the ground. They didn't call it. Then the guy pulled him down with his leg, and that's when they called the flop. That was crazy to me. Like, if you go back and listen to that whistle, it was a full second after he hit him. It was just a bizarre string. Yeah, it was weird. But I will say, Billy, we got some breaks on the officials.

I remember Brandon Garrison crushed that guy and they called it a jump ball. You remember that flight? And they flipped the Amari foul to Butler. I didn't even know you could do that. Did you know you could do that like five minutes later? That was huge. I mean, he picked up his third. in the first half with still nine minutes left.

I didn't know you could do that. So that was a good, that was a little good piece that happened to us too. Who's next? Jacob. Jacob. Go ahead, Jacob. Hey, Matt. I just wanted to say I was impressed with Otega tonight.

I wanted to ask if you thought that he could be that person for us down the stretch to, you know, have the ball in his hand. make things happen in other games. I know that this was an impressive performance. Well, I don't know. I mean, he could be that person. I mean, there was a part of me going down the stretch going, man, I don't know if he's going to be able to keep doing this the whole game, but then he did. So I don't want to say no because he did it, right?

So I don't want to say, no, he can't do it again. I think when you have Butler and when you have Robinson and O.A can be one of three options, and then Brea can be a fourth floating around. Then I think you become really, really. dangerous. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think he definitely showed a different aspect of his game tonight, and I was impressed with that. And also, I was a little taken aback by Garrison's outburst there at the end. I thought he showed that he just needs to mature a little bit. I know he's young and whatnot, but he just needs to grow up, you know, go and celebrate with your team, but don't almost cost

your team the game with that, you know, because we got Doug Shows on the officiating, you know, I could have easily seen him call that technical. He could have. I mean, he definitely could have. Like that, that was a, it was there for the, for the calling if they wanted to. So thank goodness they did not. 859-280-2287. Let's do one more and then we'll take a break.

Who's next? Tim. Tim, go ahead, Tim. Hey, what's up, Matt, John. Jones, thanks for letting me on, Mr. Billy. How you are doing tonight? Doing good. I was going to ask, I had a, first off, thank you, I have a whole, you know, normally, I'm not, I'm kind of bummed out.

I'm a huge Kentucky fan and, you know, but I had this stuff and I don't really want to go on that because I do want to say shout out, double O, double O way. Come on. I mean, that was awesome. Wait a minute. Why are you bummed out? I'm bummed out. Well, see, I was trying to get away from that, Matt. I was going to say, I'm bummed out just because, like, man, like, if you, if you watch the second half of that game, I mean, it's just, it's, it's like we're Vanderbilt now.

Like, we're all just, like, excited. We won. All right. Okay, you're right. And that's why I wasn't doing. Well, but I mean, like, I don't even think you should have that opinion because we won. And we want, I mean, look, SEC Road Games, I think you should go back and look outside of all. Auburn and Alabama, who I think are, well, even Alabama's gotten beaten bad on the road.

Outside of Auburn, who's one of the two best teams in the country, everyone has lost road games to the middle to lower of the pack. Right. So, I mean, Florida was down 26 to Georgia last night. Now, they came back and only lost by a couple. They were down 26. Florida could win the national title, right? You know, Georgia, excuse me, Oklahoma, they're not good, but they have a lottery pick on their team, and he got really hot in that second half.

And remember, we spent the last seven minutes without our two best players and with the third on the bench in Andrew Carr. So I would have been really frustrated if we lost, but also when we win, like in the SEC on the road, unless you're elite, which we're not elite this year, unless you're elite, you just got to win, period. Now, if we, if we played this game one point in Rupp, I would agree with you. But I'm not going to feel that way on the road. Okay, you make some great points, and that's why, you know, you actually just made me feel better. Thank you. But I just want to say, you know, like, because I've been critical in the past two of a lot of these same things.

And I want to say, first and foremost, like, I'm on team post. I think he's great. I'm so happy he's here. And also, but I've always just been a guy that's like, I see what we can be and I'm, and I don't, I wish I wasn't this way, but like I know how good we can be. And it just, it really hurts me kind of like watching tonight

because like it's not that we won or not on it. It's not even how we played. It's just, if you watch the second half with the audio off, and you tell me that there's four players other than Otega O'Way out there, that actually looks like they're trying hard. like that they even care. I don't believe it.

That is what hurt me. Yeah, I don't believe that. I mean, I appreciate the call, but I don't buy that. I don't buy. Who on that team tonight do you think didn't care? You think Brandon Garrison, who almost gotten five fights, didn't care? I mean, Amari Williams, you know, he sometimes has the, doesn't put his hands up, but, like, he cares.

Travis Perry's playing as hard as he cares. can so is so is college handler and and noah uh braya can't guard billy but he's like giving in his all he's just not he was jack given's defensive player of the game no he was he was really yes coby braya yeah all right well i mean his man kind of lit him up though okay fine i mean listen i'll take jack's knowledge don't question jack but my point is i don't think these guys aren't trying. I do think there are times that their energy level can look low. But I also don't know, I mean, we have to get used to a Mark Pope team. Our brains for 15 years have been judging teams based on a Cal philosophy. And we have a coach that plays a completely different philosophy. And we

just have to orient ourselves to that and that includes me and so yeah I wouldn't say they didn't try they do frustrate me don't get me wrong but I'm not going to be frustrated about an SEC road win against the team that could maybe will make the NCAA tournament 859-28027 let's take a break very back to KsR welcome back it is the local toy dealers KSR post-game show billy and I during the break are trying to billy I'm trying to figure out. I messed with the knobs, the sound settings on my thing, and I still feel like I haven't gotten it exactly right. So it sounds a little tinny in my ear, which I think probably comes over the radio a little bit, but I think this is better. Does it sound better? I think it sounds

about the same, but you know what? Well, I don't want it to sound the same. I want it to sound better. No better time to figure this out than 1.17 a.m. on the air. After a big win, yeah. I don't really know why it does that i think it's like my voice coming through my headphones back through the mic and i'm doing my best all right well either way eight five nine that's too loud eight five nine two eight oh uh twenty two eighty seven one person says what do you think about mark pope uh cussing oh yeah so he he he cussed about the uh lamont butler thing right he said that uh he thought it was bleeping bleep, bleep, right? The final call.

You think that was a turning point in the game? You think that mattered? Yeah, I mean, I thought Kentucky was going to lose at that point. Butler going out. Robinson R. I think it was 7169 when that happened, and we lost Butler. That was a tough call. Butler, I don't know what it was.

It could have gone either way. With four fouls, Butler probably shouldn't have put himself in the position to where the ref got to make that call. Yeah, it was tough. But if I was Pope, I'd be very frustrated to lose my point guard on that play. That was one of those. I wonder if the ref should just eat his whistle since it's the fourth foul, but they didn't, and we still won, so that's okay.

Who's up next? Will. Will, go ahead, Will. Richard Hendricks, by the way. Who ought? Richard Hendricks was the guy who. who is the announcer. I just want to give him a shout-out

because I thought he did a really good job. Go ahead. So I live in Lexington, but I so happened to be in Norman for work today, so I made my way to the game. You're not wrong in saying the Lloyd Noble Center might be the worst arena in the SEC. It felt like,

I don't know if you've ever been to a game with the old Frankfurt Civic Center for it tore it down. It was like a scaled-up version of that. Oh, really? The fans were feisty, probably because of the $2. I don't know if they're like that every night, but I was right next when they threw the beer can at the players that they were exiting the arena.

They were not very happy. So could you tell that they were, that he had thrown a beer can in a moment? Oh, yeah. It was very clear they were throwing some at it. Travis Perry about went, he's from the 270, but he about went full 606. He looked like he wanted to climb up the rail and try to fight the guy through it, to be honest. Oh, I love it. That's good.

you know what he's got a little 606 in even if he's from western Kentucky yeah yep yep so I appreciate you taking my call thank you but just wanted to back you up on me I don't understand I appreciate the call I don't really understand why they don't have a crowd they've got an NBA lottery pick on their team this was a huge game for them I mean I think if they had won they would be in the tournament almost for certain and people still didn't come So it makes you wonder like, when are they going to come? Maybe they're never going to come, right?

You know? You didn't get them for dollar beers and free tacos. I don't know if you'll ever get them. Yeah, when are you going to get them? I don't understand. Who's next? Aaron. Aaron.

Go ahead, Aaron. So I went to the game as well tonight, falling up with another person, I guess the one that was just before me. It definitely felt like being in Whitehall. If you've been in that facility at the UK's campus, it definitely felt like that is a basketball gym. Really? Yes, definitely not my favorite place to be.

I've been in maybe five other SEC away games, and this was by far the worst. I don't necessarily want to just crap on OU and all of that, but it wasn't the best environment, that's for sure. And I don't know if you guys could see that the student section was being aligned with security guards, like they were about to storm the court, but they were prepping for that about seven minutes,

seven minutes until the end of the game they're getting ready for it. That's an interesting thing if you're a school because you have to be prepared for it, but it also has to probably pump up the other team if they see you doing it. So that is interesting. Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, again, this is our first taste of it. I feel like, and I appreciate the call, I feel like I've watched old Big 12 games with Oklahoma that had good atmospheres. So I don't really know why it was so bad. I mean, it's a, I don't know. That was just really disappointing. It reminds me of like, I think when George is bad, they have bad atmospheres too.

But that was, I mean, it was a terrible atmosphere for an SEC game for what ended up being an absolutely great game. Who's next? Mike is next. Mike, go ahead, Mike. 859-28027. Go ahead. What about it? What's up, Mike?

Oh, yeah. So we want to know, I just have, want to know what your input is about. Wait a minute. Was that someone else? Was that someone else that just went? Yeah. I did a bait and switch. Okay. Well, why would we not have wanted to talk to you originally? Because I accidentally cussed on the last time I came home. Oh, we don't have that level of, we don't have that level of analysis to remember who's cussing. But go ahead. Okay.

on. I just want to know what your thoughts are on Butler being taken out of the game because I didn't think that that foul was. Well, I mean, you know, like I said, I don't know that I would make that somebody's fifth foul. I think it was a tough situation. You know, he, I appreciate the call. Both players made it to where contact happened. So, like, if I'm Butler there, I cannot get my fifth foul that way. So I probably don't. I probably avoid that contact because they both kind of ran into each other and the ref's got to call something.

And I think if you wanted to see a charge, you could have seen it. And if you wanted to see a block, you could have seen it. And so, you know, back in the day, Billy Day, we'd call that a blarge. And they'd call it both, which I always thought was ridiculous. I could be a foul both person, people. But it almost kind of was if you go back and look at it. He extended, like Butler kinds of throws himself into him, but then he extends his arm. So in some ways, Billy, it was almost a foul on both of them.

Well, you can tell how much that guy means to this team, Lamont. When he's out there, it just makes everybody better. It does. But then, to always credit, he was able to drag him through. Let's do one more and we'll take a break. Who's next? Dwayne. Why do you sound so perturbed when you say all these people's names?

I'm not sure. Like you said that, like, Dwayne. Oh, no, I'm in a good move. Like, you know, you don't mind Dwayne, do you? No, we're just picking who's next. Okay, all right, go ahead, Dway. I like you, Dway. I'm glad you called. I like Dwayne. I don't know. Some I did. I didn't mean, I didn't mean no harm, Billy.

Oh, he just seemed very judgmental there on that one. But go ahead. Oh, Oway played like a beast tonight in the second half. Like, he was driven. He pulled this team through. And everybody wants to give his team a name. And after all these games, when I go to my cardiologist next, I'll ask him what we should call them because this team's going to give me a heart attack. The season is over. I understand. They're rough on my blood pressure.

Well, they are me too. I appreciate the call. I was going crazy during that game. So, yeah. By the way, Rick Petino, on Scott Van Pelt right now, he's going to be the first coach in the history of D-1 basketball to win the regular season conference title at five different. different schools. I mean, it's kind of a unique stat because how many coaches even coach at five different schools? Most of them that are as successful as Rick end up at one school for a long time. And Rick sort of off the court decisions led to him leaving Kentucky, led to him losing the job

at Louisville, led to him having to take a job at a place like Iona. But nevertheless, still pretty amazing that he's going to do that. 859-28027. We will take a break. Come back, celebrate the final segment. Cats beat Oklahoma and Norman. This is the local toy dealers, KSR postgame show. Welcome back. It is the local toy dealers, KSR post game show. All right, so I'm looking at the SEC standings.

Right now we are in eighth place in the SEC. We are a game ahead of Mississippi State that's in ninth place, but we also own the tiebreaker against them. So we're really two games ahead of them. So that's why I said, I think we beat LSU. if we beat LSU, we're probably in pretty good shape to get a buy. Now, I will say, Vandy is also there, but they have, they got some loseable games. So we're in eighth place.

We are tied with Ole Miss, who has the same record as us, but Old Miss also has the tiebreaker on us. Old Miss's last three games are home to Oklahoma, home to Tennessee, and then at Florida. So they are probably, you would think, going to lose two of those games. I'd say they lose to Tennessee, lose to Florida. If they were to do that, if we could beat LSU and Missouri or LSU and Auburn, we could pass them and get all the way up to 7th. Another one to watch, though, is Texas A&M, who's only one game ahead of us. Here's their schedule, Billy, at Florida, host Auburn at LSU.

Oh, ouch. so if we can end up tied with them, we have the tiebreaker on them. So there's a world where if we could beat Missouri, if we could beat LSU and Missouri, we could get all the way up to the sixth seed. I think that's genuinely very possible. So, you know, I don't, to me, we can win at Missouri. I mean, I think if we were healthy, I'd give us a shot Saturday. I just, I kind of, I don't think, I still don't think we're healthy yet.

But I think we can win that last game of the year at Missouri. We'll see. All right, so we've probably got five people on. Let's just go through them and that'll be the show. Who's next? Darlene. Darlene. How are you, Darlene?

Hey, Matt, it's a pleasure to speak to you. I just wanted to kind of connect with you guys tonight because I'm like a huge UK fan. It goes back to 1978 when Jack Givens was a part of the, the UK championship and I ended up working in Harlan County, Kentucky, where Tret Noah is from for 21 years in coal mining, it all flatlined. And I ended up coming in to Tennessee, coming across that line and getting a job at University of Tennessee campus. So I'm kind of inside with all of the enemies and I love my job. I help feed the kids and the kids love me. They do not know. that I'm a UK fan, but I just listen to their stories and go on with it.

But I am like number one fan in UK. Darling, I love you. I can already tell you're awesome. Oh, oh, Matt, Matt. I have raised four sons. I am like the mama on campus. I am ruling the day, baby. But I am number one, UK.

I like the balls, but they, will never be over my UK. I've been there eight years. All right, I love it. Thank you, Darlene. Now, I just want you to think about Big Blue Nation. It's 1.30 in the morning. Darlene is calling in the postgame show.

She feeds the Tennessee students, but still bleeds blue. Billy, how can you not love that? Harley, come on. I love it. And with Kentucky sweeping Tennessee this year, she's got to be the big mom on campus. It sounds like. It sounds like it. I love it.

Who's up next? We'll just keep it rolling with Heather next. Heather, go ahead, Heather. All kinds of Eastern Kentucky. Well, I was calling to give a shout out to my nanny. Today was her 95th birthday, and O.A. has been her favorite player since the first game this season. But this may be my last time calling the post game,

because Billy, I'm sorry, but you can only hurt my feelings there. You told me when you answered, this was my third postgame show, and you was going to give me a break after this one. Now, wait a minute. Hang on just a second. Hang on just a second. Heather, I cannot believe you just aired out our laundry on the air. First of all, Heather.

You hurt my feelings really bad. First of all, Heather, I'm vetoing Billy's decision, okay? Billy does a good job of sometimes making sure we get diversity of cars, but that doesn't apply to Heather. Okay, Heather gets a pass. So Heather, first of all, you can't use Billy's sometimes snottiness against the show. So it's not going to be your last time calling. And so you don't worry about that, okay? Well, I just didn't understand because, you know, shoot at Bob and James Town.

I mean, there's several different people that call five days a week. I don't even call the morning show. I only call the post game show. The first one out of these three was just to update right after the plug. Exactly. Heather, Heather, I'm on your side. All right, we're good. Like, we're not going to worry about it, right?

Heather, we're good. Yeah. Okay, so I will hear from you. Anyway, shout out to my hand. Hang on just a second. Hang on just a second. You're going to call back, though, right? Uh, I, it may be a while, but.

Heather, come on now. You can't do that to me. Don't let Billy, don't let Billy make you upset, Heather. You're going to call back, am I right? We'll see. All right. I appreciate the call, Heather. Thank you very much.

All right. Bye. Billy. Yes. Billy. I mean, I feel bad. I made her cry, but, you know, I had to do that every now and then. Heather, Heather's wonderful.

We have callers that you have to cattle pace out, but it's nothing against them either. But Heather, people love her voice from Pikeville. A lot of people want to be on the postgame show. I like to spread the love. Sometimes children have to be spaced out. Sometimes Heather has to be spaced out. Wow, unbelievable. I didn't say she could never, never be on the show again.

I just need a break. I want you to call. All right. Who's up next? Unbelievable. Who's not? Hunter. Hunter, go ahead. Yeah, I don't know how to top Heather.

Heather's always a gem to listen in the postgame show, so I can't complain. Keep her, please. I agree, and I think everybody agrees. Yeah, so you were talking about how Larry would tell you in the mornings if Kentucky won or not. I actually have a funny story, so the title game, the 2012 title game happened too late at night when I was younger. I was in sixth grade, I had to go to bed before the game started. And my dad works multiple days in a week, so I don't see him until the weekend. I didn't learn that we won the championship until I saw a picture of the team on Time

magazine. So there was a good... Wait, man, hang on just a second. You didn't find out we won a championship until what? Until I saw in the school library, the Time magazine, I had a picture of the cat. You're just making stuff. No, I'm being, I'm being serious.

Time magazine. Uh-huh. All right. I appreciate the call. I feel like the show. This is what happens at 136 in the morning, by the way. Is that you just end up this segment, Billy. Two more.

Who's next? I didn't mean to make her cry. We just try to put on a good show here. She's not. She's just, we're good. Heather, you're going to call back. And if you don't, if you don't call back i i'm going to be saying and you're getting bob in jamstown every postgame

show from now on brendon no this is no that's it no he's different no he's different go ahead britton we'll do it matt i'm calling from buckner kentucky what county am i in buckner i do not know where buckner is buckner is in oldham county kentucky okay that's where i'm from did you know that billy yeah yeah you should have said it Okay, go ahead. I have a connection to Billy that I won't share publicly. I just wanted to share it tonight was the first time this season that there's a point in the game.

I felt like we're going to lose this game, and then we won it. And I think in an unsymmetrical way or unsustainable way, that's a positive because all of our losses, there's been a point in time where I said, we're going to lose this game and we lost it. And tonight I said, we're going to lose this game and we want it. Well, that sounds perfect. I love it.

Well, I appreciate it. You were wrong. So was I. I kind of thought when we got down five we were going to lose two, but they ended up winning. Let's do one more here late night with the local Toyota dealers KSR post game show. Who's next? You're getting absolutely roasted on the text machine. You're getting absolutely roasted on the text machine.

All right. then you'll hear the same callers every show from now on. No, we're not going to do it like this evening. The same people call all the time. No, they don't. It takes a great producer to space it out every now and then. I agree. I didn't know Heather was going to air out all the dirty laundry.

Last one. Chris. Chris, go ahead. Hey, Matt. Hey, Matt. First time, long time. Who are? Calling from Burlington, Kentucky, Boone County.

I do know Burlington. I could have gone. gotten that one right. There you go. There you go. So, hey, first of all, happy with the cats win, huge win, right? Really needed that win before the Auburn game coming up. But I have a couple questions, and I'm curious to see what your take is on offense and defense for the cats. So on offense, right, we have a lot of really good shooters. We need to put up threes in a game. Do you think there should be more dedicated screens instead of dribble handoff on offense? And on defense.

Well, he does do dedicated screens. He doesn't do them maybe as much as I would, again, like I would know anything, but off the, like to create threes, he does do them for backdoor cuts quite a bit. I actually like his handoffs to the right guys. I love his handoffs to O.A. I think when it works well with Kobe Bray, it works, I think the person that's done the best with it are Robinson and Butler, and we just haven't had them the last few games, right? So I think you may be used to seeing those handoffs with Perry and with Bray and not always

working quite as much. But when they were with Robinson and Butler, that was how our offense initiated most of the time. So I do think that in general that's a good way to go. Yeah. And I mostly agree. But I just feel like with teams pressuring them so much on the three point line, they're really trying to blow up that dribble handoff.

So I feel like there's maybe an opportunity to do some dedicated more screens. But like you said, I'm not a coach. you're not a coach, but we'll see. But I hear what you're saying. On the defensive side, do you think that it's a lack of fundamentals, toughness, or a combination of both? Because I feel like there's a lot of opportunity where it's just like basic stuff that we just miss out on.

So I'm curious to get your take on that. Say that again. We're missing out on what? Basic? Yeah. So there's basic fundamentals of defense, right? No, we do. We're not good defensively.

Yeah. And what frustrates me the most with our defense is not, our guys are not good, like they don't have good lateral quickness. I don't think there's going to be anything that Kobe Brea and Ansley Almanor and Andrew Carr, I don't know that there's anything they can do to get better lateral quickness. Now, I think always decent at it. I think Garrison can be decent at it. Williams, Robinson Butler.

Butler's actually pretty good, but the others can be decent. But what does bother me is what you're saying about like weak side defense and like not rotating over. That was my frustration with Garrison in the first half. He never rotated over. And so that stuff can. Yeah, it's frustrating. But you know what? This team is going to give up 83 points a game or 82 or 80.

And so we just have to say, where are our 85 coming from? Because that's really what it is, to be honest with it. And then when we play Alabama in those teams, 85 is not enough. We got to figure out how to get to 100 because that's probably what it's going to take to beat those teams. No, I hear you. You know, just what I was taught is see your man in the ball at the same time, help rotate on defense. And sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not. But I think it takes a lot of effort, right?

You've got to work hard on defense and you have to work harder than your opponent consistently. Sometimes we do it. Sometimes we don't. But when we do, I agree with that. You see good results. I think that's totally fair. And the defense has been very inconsistent. I think, again, this will be something we'll have to see during the Pope era.

Is this like, like Cal's teams all play defense a certain way? Right. Pope's teams might not play defense like this when he's got better athletes. I don't know. We'll have to wait and see. You know what I mean? Like this group, you know, this group, I appreciate the call. He threw them together.

They're older. They're not. You know, there's there may be no. NBA players on this team. Like it's just a different, it's a different group that we'll probably see in a lot of his tenure. Big win. Cats are 19 and 9.

Three more games left. Folks, we'll focus on this tomorrow, but the number one team in America's coming in here. The number one team in America is coming in here on Saturday for an afternoon game on ABC. Billy, I can't remember the last time we played a basketball game not in the SEC tournament on ABC. I mean, it's probably been 20 years. Big game.

Game day is not even coming. Since we played a basketball game on ABC that wasn't the SEC tournament. But we will on Saturday. Bruce Pearl, that crowd's going to be wild. And we're going to be a big underdog. But you know what? We can win that game in Rupp Arena. And I'm looking forward to it.

But this one was a biggie. Massive win in Norman. Thank you all very much for staying up. Heather, if I don't hear from you before the SEC tournament, I'm going to cry. Billy, you're doing your job. So I still love you too. but everybody thank you all very much. This has been the local Toyota dealers, KSR, postgame show.

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