KSR - KSR Postgame UK MBB at Ole Miss 02/04/25

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

Matt and Billy recap the Cats' 98-84 loss at Ole Miss.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome, everyone. It is the local Toyota dealers. KSR postgame show, Kentucky loses 9884 in a game where they were embarrassed for a half, fought back in the second half, but a pretty bad loss on the road in Oxford. Kentucky now four and five in the SEC. it is only the first time since 2013 that they gave up as many points as they did in the first half, and it's one of only a couple of times in the last 15 years. They've gone one in four in a row in SEC play.

The other time was 2017, 2018. So look, this was, the first half is one of the worst Kentucky halves to start a game I can remember. You know, I saw, I think it was Corey Price said the last time we were down 23 in the first half in SEC play was to Tennessee in 2013. And that actually was the game that as I was watching, I thought of. That was the last time I remember watching Kentucky play a game and thinking, we are just not even in it. And that was the game after Nerlands Noel got hurt. and even though we didn't have anyone new get hurt in the last game, that Nerland's Noel loss was kind of a, uh-oh, this season's in trouble.

And I wonder if the Arkansas game had a little of a similar effect, at least for a half. Now, unlike that Tennessee game, Kentucky fought back, got it as close as 11, but you let a team score 98, you're not going to win. kind of some unbelievable numbers in this game. Ole Miss only had one turnover, one turnover. It's only the second time since 1990 that a team has played a game in the SEC and only had one turnover.

And it's a testament to the big storyline from the game, which is our defense is right now awful. second half it was a little better old miss made some difficult shots but we are lost on defense part of it I think 50% of it is athleticism

you know earlier this year even when we were good I said and I didn't think it was controversial but people sort of took it that way that this was the least athletic team in the SEC and I still think and I think that's true and I think most people would now agree.

We just don't have great athletes on the team. And there's nothing any of those guys can do about that. I mean, you know, they are the athletes they are. So 50% of it, I don't know that you can fix. I mean, there are a couple guys on this team that they're not going to be able to stay in front of their man one-on-one no matter what. But the other 50% I do think is, if not fixable, should be an improvement, is they just they get lost they make odd decisions and there's a hustle factor that just isn't there that i don't understand there were 13 points scored out of the first 30 that were big men

shooting wide open shots where the big man gardening three times amari twice garrison didn't even get a hand up i mean didn't even get a hand up and not surprisingly all 13 were nothing but net. The defense in the first half, I'm not sure when I can remember Kentucky playing worst defense. Offensively, we scored 84, but once again, I still don't think take enough threes. Only took 25. I looked it up.

Kentucky has taken 30 threes in only three of the nine SEC games. If you remember, Pope said 30 to 35 is a goal every game. We've hit it three times, and I think more damn. seemingly we have given up six, six of the nine games the other team has made more threes than us. Earlier this year, we led the nation in three-point shooting. And we now only three of the nine games, forget about percentage, only three of the nine games have we even made more than the other team. You're not going to win like that. I mean, we're just not going to win like that.

And I don't know, I don't know what we do about it. We look lost on defense, and we all too often look lost on offense with any ball pressure. Ball pressure is killing this team. And a big part of that is you don't have a point guard. You don't have Lamont Butler. But if you listen to Mark Pope talk, he doesn't talk like a guy who thinks he's going to get Butler back. He was asked about it tonight, and he said something like, we got to figure out how to be better now without Butler. Hopefully we get Butler back.

I still think we will, but, you know, what happens until then? It's frustrating. You know, Amari Williams made history tonight with a triple double. I mean, it's only the fourth one in the history of the school. And by the way, Billy, what an absurd group of names on our triple double list. Chris Mills, Deeran Fox, Isaiah Briscoe, and Amar Williams. Is that not wild that those are the four people in our triple doubles? I mean, that is a wild list.

But Amari joins the list tonight. And kudos to the kid on the pregame show who predicted it. Yeah, Mason. I mean, Mason, what are the odds you could have gotten on a triple double before the game when there's only been three in the history of the school? But he got it. Unfortunately, it's for not because of the loss. So Amari played well, although still, I don't know what,

I don't know what it is about him not putting his hands up on defense. But on offense, he had a great night. Jackson Robinson played well. Otega O'Way played really well in the second half. But it's too little too late. If we're giving up 98 to teams, we're not going to win. And, you know, Mark, Pope, he sounds like a guy that isn't, well, it's not sounds like.

He said, we don't really know what to do. I give him credit for honesty, but that's not the most confidence-inducing thing in the world. But I do give him credit for honesty on that. But they got to figure something out. You know, I'm sitting here, I'm looking at the schedule. All right, so we are, I am shifting my thought process for these last nine games. I'm kind of shifting my process to let's just, I sound like Cal, let's just get to March. but i do think it's worth noting march is not assured we are 15 and 7 we do have as good a wins as

anybody so if it's close we'll get in i think if you're 19 and 12 you're almost certainly in 20 you're definitely in 19 you're almost certainly in and you might even be in with 18 but i think you need 19 or 20 to be sure so let's look at the schedule you play south carolina saturday billy must win right have to win yeah they don't have a win in the SEC they don't have win in the SEC yeah you lose that all of a sudden like it's a whole different thing got to win that that would get you to 16 You later play Vandy at home. I know you lost to them, but you got to beat them at home. That would be 17, and then you later play LSU at home.

That would be 18. Now, those are three games against teams that if you don't beat those at home, those are bad, terrible losses. I'm going to assume they get all those. That's 18. That might get you in. But let's say you need another one, Billy. Because I think 19 is for sure, 18, you're shaky.

All right. Let's say you need 19. Let me give you the rest of it. Tennessee at home, at Texas, at Alabama, Auburn at home, at Oklahoma, at Missouri. I mean, none of those are gimmies. And none of those, I'm going to go so far as to say, I don't know if except the Oklahoma game,

I'm not sure we'll be favored in any of those games. I bet we won't, actually. So, you know, while I still think it's much more likely than not that they're in the tournament, and once they're in the tournament, especially if Butler's back, I think they can beat most any team, it's not certain. As far as the SEC tournament, you know, this year, the field. changes, we will have four games on Wednesday, which means teams nine through 16 will play on Wednesday.

And as of now, we would be playing on Wednesday because right now we are in 10th place in the SEC. And again, you look at that schedule, you know, the chances of playing on Wednesday are greater than, what, 30 percent? I, you know, I think it's, I think unless you're 500 in the SEC, you're probably playing on Wednesday. So I'm shifting my brain a little bit to my hopes when conference play started. Come in the top four in the SEC, get a double buy, get a top three or four seed so that you get placed in a region that's closer to your home. I'm kind of putting all that aside.

I think the loss to Vandy and the loss to Arkansas took that off the table. So now we just, for me, need to start playing significantly better, beat these teams we're supposed to, get some of these, the other six I said. Get a couple of them.

Whichever couple you can get. Get them. and then go to March, hope we're as healthy as we've been, and then play with the same kind of aggression and no fear to lose that Arkansas did on Saturday. Because, you know, the team that played tonight, we're not doing anything if it's that team. But a week ago, we won in Knoxville. So I'm not giving up.

I see people giving up. I'm not giving up. but we got to find a way we can't have performances. We lost that game tonight in like the first six minutes. We can't keep having that happen. And hopefully Pope and his staff will start being able to come up with a plan to change it. Because right now what's happening in these last two games is not working. 859-280-2287.

We'll take your calls. I'm going to try to have a little bit of fun because starting at midnight, I can't eat again until Thursday at like 4 p.m. Yeah. And so I'm going to eat like one candy bar right before bed. I don't eat after like 7 o'clock. It's like a way to like lose weight. Right, right. But I'm eating tonight because I can't eat for a long time.

You're going to be hangary tomorrow. Wait till Thursday show. Yeah, exactly. We'll be right back. This is the local toy dealers, KSR, post-game show. Welcome back. It is the local toy dealers, KSR post-game show. 859-280-2287.

Let's just get started, Billy. It was no fun night, so let's just get the phone. Who's up first? Let's go to Wes. Wes, go ahead. Hey, what's up? Matt Jones, first off, you guys are also, I wanted to say something, though. I normally call it with a different name.

I'm calling today with my actual name because I am going to be critical, and I think, you know, out of respect, I'm going to use my real name, because I'm going to be critical with you guys. And, you know, if you'll give me that chance. Louisville, the reason why they went to where they are is because I think it wasn't just Petino was the worst person in the world. I think he was allowed to just be not, not. questions, not not, not spoken against. And that builds and builds and builds. And that's kind of

where we are in the country in everything, to be honest. And right now, we're in a situation where I can't like Mark Pope because I do. But the last four games has been one of the most coaching. But who's saying you can't be critical? Hey, hang on, hang on. When is you guys, no one is telling you. No one is. First of all, I don't go to the press conferences so i can't ask any questions i've been very critical of i literally started this segment by saying that's one of the worst games uh halves defensively that i can remember so of course you can ask the question so i mean i don't know that's not fair to say no one's being critical i'm not there to ask mark pope because i'm not in oxford because i'm doing things like this show

but i am being critical and i and to some people Well, I'm being way too critical. Of course you can, but that's just not fair to say no one's being critical. And you're 100% right if that is what I was saying. But let me respond because I have written down. The first thing you started your show on was you told the fan base that you believe that 50% of the reason that we are bad at defense is because of athleticism. And so you're telling me right now, that's how you started to show Matt. But I believe that.

That's not, I believe that. No, Jackson Robinson is not, hang on, Jackson Robinson is not a great athlete. He's good, he's a good athlete, but Kobe Brea, Ansley Almanor, Travis Perry, Trent, Noah, Brandon, Brannan Garrison should be a good athlete. He's just not a good defender. McDonald's American. Okay, but that doesn't mean they're great athletes. I mean, Jimmy, I'm not the only one said this.

Jimmy Dyke said during the game, we have an athletic disadvantage at almost every position. without Butler. And I agree with that. Amari's really the only one. You think that's more athletic than we are. Yes. Of course they are. We believe that. Of course they are. Okay. Well, that's that I do not agree with. But hey, we're allowed. We're allowed. We're allowed to disagree.

How do you explain? How do you explain them beating us off the dribble play after play if we're, if you're, by the way, saying they're not good athletes is not an excuse. it's just a reality but that's what it is no it's not because he recruited him and if he's going to have a team of guys that are athletes they're by point but that's but that's different than saying they're not an athlete does not mean that you are absolving the thing he recruited the team he has to he has to create a defense around what he has and right now it's not happening you're right But I can't just say these are great athletes when some of them can barely dunk. Okay, I think that's a stretch.

But I will say I agree with you. I just say that's how you started the show. And the show should have started with, hey, let's be real here. Like the last four games, some of the coaching decisions and just pure coaching has just been astronomically bad. Okay, give me an example of what you mean. Why don't we get Mark Pove on here? I can't get Mark Pove on here. I can't make him come on the show.

You're right. You're right. And I wish he would. You're right. That's right. That's 100% right. You're right. But I would say, I do know that you guys have the biggest, you know, you all have the, you have a bigger spectrum than, you know, that's because you've earned that.

This show deserves it. And it's awesome. So I just wish, you know, I was at the Arkansas game. And I left. And I remember me and my dad were talking and he never gets critical. And I was like, man, why can't they ask like, I'm at the game. and I watched Brea and Amar and then come in to check in in a TV timeout, and the entire fan base went up in cheers because they were like, finally,

thank you, put these players back in the gate. Okay. I appreciate the call. I get it. I mean, I'm not exactly sure what your first call is about me and what we're saying or we're not. We were very critical of the decision to play Chandler and those guys as much as they did the last game. But if objectively the reason we can't play defense man to man is that our guys are not good defenders, but that's not an excuse to give up 98 points.

I mean, again, athlete is 50% of it. But did we, Billy, have better athletes than St. Peters and Oakland? Yes. Yes, we did. And we lost. You know why? Because our athletes didn't play well and they outschemed us. Mark Pope has and I'm not even being hugely critical of him.

I think he got the team he could get considering everything happened. But we have to create a defense for this team. And if we put Kobe Brea on an island with a guy that's 5-11 and fast, he is going to give up basket after basket. And that's what happened a lot of the game. So, you know, maybe it's play zone, but they went zone and they gave up a wide open corner three. And I love Andrew Carr, but he was playing zone with the back to the guy in the corner.

That ain't going to work. So I don't know. Who's next? What a start. Let's switch gears a little bit. Glow girl is next. Glow girl. I will say this, by the way.

His point, though, about how you can love a coach or like a coach and still be critical of them, I agree with that. That was my frustration with some of our family. based during the end of the calcare is like you couldn't criticize it or you were like didn't support the team you can be critical of pope and still think he's the guy for the job that is totally fair go ahead glow guy is that what you said glow girl glow girl glow girl okay i just i was at the game and first of all i disagree i with jack hillgram acting like the atmosphere was substandard or whatever word he used because it was packed, the lower bow.

It was so loud, my ears were ringing by the time I left. They played music the whole time. Their student section goes three ways around the arena, and some seats were empty in the upper level, but the lower level was full. They were loud. They were fester. It was a beautiful new arena.

and the other thing I want to say is they, we can't shoot threes when they're constantly taking us out of the position. Like they were guarding so well that we can't just lob up a bunch of threes when they're not open. Well, you can, however, you can, and we did this in the second half. You can create hard backdoor cuts, which leads to drives to the basket, which when they then, cut off the drive, you can kick out to shooters. We did that a lot in the second half, and it worked. In the first half, we did none of that.

We had guys tried to go one on one. We tried to force it into the post, and a lot of that stuff didn't work. Uh-huh. Right. And we missed a bunch of layups, too. We missed like seven or eight layups. Well, that's so frustrating. That was last year, too.

But that's the most frustrating that those layups they miss and those hook shots they miss. Then they tried. I mean, but when you say, Well, and I look on Twitter, and it makes me sad because everyone's saying they aren't trying, they aren't trying. They looked like they were gave a lot more in the second half, but even in the first half, they're doing what they can do. You know, they work hard. And I go to all the home games, and I've gone to some of the away games. So I do hate to hear the criticism that they're not trying hard.

Maybe they just can't help it, like you say, because I've called one before and you talked about. Yeah, I think they try. There's a difference between trying. It's hard to articulate. I think they try. It's not like I think these dudes are like quitters. There's a difference between trying, though, and let me give an example. This was one play.

Probably nobody remembers it. There's a play towards the end of the first half. There was a loose ball. It got knocked. It was right at the top of the key on our offensive end. Jackson Robinson, who I love. And if we didn't have Jackson Robinson, we might not win another game this year. So this is, he might be my favorite player on the team.

So this is not a, not saying anything bad about him. But he, there was a loose ball, and he reached for it. And you could almost see he could either put his shoulder down and go grab it. Or he could reach for it. He reached. Old Miss guy came and grabbed. Old Miss guy got it. Lay up.

If Robinson does that, he gets it. He stopped. It was like he saw contact. and he said, I'm stopping before this contact, and contact got the ball because old miss did it. I think our guys do that a lot. It's like they shy from that final moment of aggression that will go get you the ball. And I think that hurts us a lot. Okay.

Okay. Well, thank you very much. All right. Thank you, go, girl. I mean, you know, we, you have to play as, as, uh, hope, I think, said in a game earlier this year, like your hair's on fire. Go back and watch how Arkansas played Saturday night. That's what they did. They play, and which is crazy, because oftentimes I didn't, I thought Cal's teams didn't do that at Kentucky. This team was playing like

that earlier in the year. And in the first half, now I thought in the second half we did do it, but we were down too much. But in the first half, we just, we didn't do it. And then you throw in, you know, I think O'A missed three shots at the rim. I don't know what the garrison back to the basket hook shots are. I mean, those aren't going to go in ever. I mean, we did that on three of four plays in a row. I didn't. There's a 10-second call in the first half.

It was extremely frustrating. We walked it up the court, walked it in. I mean, Chandler picked the ball up into a trap. It's like, what? All right, what's next? Taylor. Taylor, go ahead, Taylor. Hey, Matt, I'm struggling with two words tonight,

and those are expectations and perception. Obviously, our expectations are Final Four championships, certainly not being down by 23 at half in the SEC. My perception is colored a little bit by the fact that the last time we had a new head coach, it was John Wall, DeMarcus cousins, Eric Blitzow. Yeah. And now I'm looking at the schedule a little bit, and frankly, I see 18, 19 wins, 20 maybe. And so I'm kind of.

But a much, much, much tougher SEC, much tougher SEC. You're exactly right. Much tougher SEC. I went back, before the Arkansas game, I watched that clip. I think we've talked about it. There was an hour and 20 minutes of one score from every UK game that we won during the Calera. And one of the things that struck me is how bad. the SEC was during some of those years.

Like we were beating teams by a million. It's a much tougher SEC. If we were in the ACC right now, we'd have gimmie games. There just aren't many gimmie games in this league right now. No, and I agree with that, but that our present is the reality. And so I kind of wonder with the expectation being what it is,

how do we view this team if, if in fact, what plays out looks like it's going to with, you know, 18, 19, 20 wins. You're looking at a 7, 8, 8, 9 seed. And then you don't know. I think it depends on what happens. I think it depends on what happens in March, right? I mean, so let's say we win 19.

And we're 19 and 12. We go down the SEC tournament. Let's say we win two games, which in some years would have gotten us to the finals. But this year might only get us to Friday. right and then so we go in the tournament with 21 wins let's say we're with that record of eight seed we win that game and then we play Iowa State in the second round the reality is how that Iowa State game goes my friend is probably how we look at the year right I mean, wouldn't you agree?

It is an Anthony Davis and Julius Randall and the Harrison twins aren't coming. I guess it's. No, they're not. They're not. But remember about the Julius Randall. Remember about the Julius Randall year. Awesome year. If James Young misses that three, we lose in the second round.

And then how do we look at the year? I was there. We looked terrible. I was there. But it was awesome. Yeah. And that's really, to some, extent when you're not dominant, how you look at the year is going to be, like, what do you remember of the

Jamal Murray-Taylor-Ulis year? Losing to Indiana. You remember losing to Indiana, right? Like, that's what you remember. You know, I mean, that's kind of how these things go, is that, you know, and I'm as guilty as anybody, the St. Peter's year, we were a two-seat. We were good. But what are we going to remember?

St. Peters. You know? So, I mean, to some respects, and I appreciate the call, unless your team is dominant, like the John Wall team, or like the 2015 team, or even like the 2017 team, you're inevitably going to look through the lens of how it ended as to how you judge it. I thought this team had a chance to go 25 and 6. And even if we got upset in the tournament, people say, wow, that was still a heck of a year, man. That was fun. Well, I don't know if people will look at it like that if we're 19 and 12.

So then it's just going to be what we do in March. And I don't think it has any judgment on what's going to happen for Pope in the future because he had a month to build this roster. Like Cal, he didn't have four, five-star guys already committed to him at another school. But, yeah, it's different because, I think in large part, because the Butler injury, we just changed the way things are going. Let's do one more. We'll take a break.

Nathan. Nathan. Go ahead, Nathan. Hi, Matt. A long time, listener, first time caller. Who are? What's up? So I was at the game tonight.

And I want to say, I really like the effort that we gave the second half. I think starting out and they could have just dropped the bomb and kind of given up. Saw a lot of strength in those backdoor cuts like you were saying. I think there's hope there. But it's been seem to be a trend in the past few games that when teams are pressing us super high on the court and we can't get those threes off, especially in the first half, it takes it super long to adjust. I just don't know what we should, what needs to be done about that. Yeah, I don't either.

I mean, you know, there's probably a part of it. And I appreciate the call that when what it opened. shooting the first half, Billy, 65%. I mean, a lot of that's because we helped them. But, you know, they hit, when they hit threes like that, we're probably going to lose either way. But it was just, I think, I think what was frustrating to me about the first half is that we were down 23. It felt like we were never in it. We were down 23.

And in some ways, Billy, I feel like we were lucky to be down 23. But, you know, like zero turnovers in the first half in Ole Miss, one in the game. That's unacceptable. That's crazy. That's crazy. It's, and some of it's, a lot of it's them, but some of it was us, and we were just bad. And, you know, I do, I like Mark Pope said, there are no moral victories at Kentucky. There aren't. That was unacceptable.

If it's the biggest half-time deficit since 2013, that's bad. We'll take a break and be right back. It's a local toy dealers, KSR post-game show. Welcome back. It is the local toy dealers KSR postgame show. I haven't had a Snickers in a long time, Billy. And I just ate the first bite. That was really good.

You're not yourself when you're hungry. You know, I can't eat these because then I'll get big again because those are really good. No, I'm serious. You've got discipline. You can have a Snickers every now and then, right? I don't know, man. You eat nerd dummy clusters like it's a... Yeah, but I'm down like...

That's not true. Not anymore. I eat like... I like literally don't eat more than like six a day. Like, and I mean like six clusters, not six bags. I was going to say bags. Like six clusters. I mean, I've lost, you don't give me any crowd.

I've lost a lot of weight. No, I'll give you a lot of credit. You have lost a lot of weight. That's why I believe in you. That's why I can't eat these because they're too good. I'm only doing it for myself tonight because I, because, you know, people are saying there's no way I'm going to be able to do the show on Thursday. I'm doing it.

I'm just not doing it at the bar. Well, you know, the bathroom's not really close here either. You've got to run through multiple doors down a hallway. I'll make it work. Don't you worry about me. Who's up next? Okay. Skyler is next.

Skyler. Go ahead, Skyler. Billy, stop body shaming Matt Jones on the area. No kidding. Like, you can't. I had my physical last week, and I was 23 pounds less than the last time I was in there. And that's still not a good enough for Billy. Think about him.

But go ahead. Billy, come on. Hey, a couple things, guys. First, I'm still mad at Reed Shepherd. I'm still hurt. But he had a big night tonight, 16 points, seven rebounds for the Houston Rock. Reed, Reed Sheppard did? Well, good for him.

Reed did. He still shouldn't have worn that shirt. Still shouldn't have worn the shirt. Absolutely. Hey, I'm curious what your thoughts are on what you think Mark Pope's mindset is right now. This is kind of the honeymoon, his kind of. Tough. The honeymoon has kind of.

I've worn off a little bit. The thing is he knows. This is what's tough. This is what's got to be tough for Mark. Mark knows so much about this that he can't, like, dilute himself. You know, like, if you've been to karaoke and you hear some woman or man get up there and sing and can't sing, but they believe they can sing, in their mind, they're killing it, but they're not. Sometimes I envy those people.

It's like it doesn't matter. They still feel like they're killing it. Mark knows. Mark knows because he knows how we feel. He's not listening to this show, but he knows what these calls are, and that's got to make it tough. Yeah, I think the loss to Cal, personally for him, probably had to be really difficult because I think that's a big kind of monkey on his back that he has to get off, almost for his own confidence. And I don't know him, but I'm just, I'm projecting that.

And I think that that likely is really difficult for both Mark Pope and on. honestly, John Calipari, because John Calipari is going to be, continued to be hated by the fan base because he won. Honestly, it's weird. It's weird. If Mark had won, I think things would have been better, at least with the Kentucky fan base for both of them. You know what I mean?

Absolutely. Now, it wouldn't have, I mean, Cal still wanted to win, and it's better for the Arkansas fan base that he would. But for the Kentucky fan base, I think if Pope had won, both of them would have been better off. But that's the way it goes. Yeah. And to speak to the expectations, too, the last caller talked about about, you know,

Caliperi's first team had John Wall and all that stuff. I do not miss John Caliperi for a minute. I appreciate the honesty, the in-depth analysis from our coach now, the care. He gets it. I know he's feeling the pressure right now. He should feel the pressure. But I'm just eager to see now how, like, this is kind of when a coach is made, right? When you kind of get everybody has a plan until you get punched.

in the face. And so he's lost two point guards. And so now, now what is this going to look like for him? I'm kind of excited to see honestly, which way it goes. I'm worried. I'm kind of worried right now that it could go south. But that's a great. I mean, Mark's story, and I appreciate the call, Mark's story wrote in the Herald leader that you don't become the Kentucky coach until your adversity. If that's true, then here it is. Right? Here it is. I do think when I'm comparing Pope, though, I don't think it's fair to compare him to the first year of Cal. Cal just took the team he was going to have at Memphis, which was already full of five stars and brought him here. And then he added Patrick Patterson, who I was pretty good, right? Darius Miller.

This is a different situation. Pope didn't recruit five stars to BYU. and he only was able to bring one guy from his team last year. Now, the portal makes it easier in some ways than what Cal had to do, but he didn't get to say, hey, John Wald, to Marcus Cousins, we're just moving to a different location. He did do that at Arkansas. So I think it would be fair, actually, to compare his first year at Kentucky with his first year at Arkansas.

But for Pope, this is a lot of, more like Rick's first year in some ways he's having to start over and in some ways he's done amazingly well but we've now had some clunkers too and that's weird that's a weird dichotomy who's next donnie donnie go ahead donnie hey I'm sitting beside the road up in my hollering and pippa passes and when I get home Matt I'm going to have two hot dogs And I'm going to have a cake. Okay. But anyway.

Why two hot dogs? Well, it's in your honor. I think what you're trying to lose weight. I'm not trying to. See, Billy, why did you make my weight part of this conversation? Like, by the way, like, what is that about, Billy? I don't remember, I don't remember bringing that up. I think you did.

I think you do. I'm not trying to lose weight. I have a colonoscopy Thursday. This isn't about the reason I'm not. I have to have a colonoscopy Thursday. This is not about like a weight loss routine. I don't get to eat tomorrow because I have to do the colonoscopy prep. My deepest apologies, but I'll still have the hot dogs.

Okay, you have one nevertheless. Listen, this is so simple. My gosh, you are playing in the most athletic conference, probably in the world. other than the NBA. I mean, these teams, listen, they're athletes, but they're athletes who are ballplayers. They can jump.

They can shoot. They have the first step on you. They will get the loose ball. They will get the rebound. Mighty Kentucky comes to town. They are hungry. That is why this Kentucky team is in the position. that it's in.

Make no mistake. If you know basketball, you know this league is all about athletes. Every team, they will kick your butt. They're good. They can shoot. They can run. They can dunk.

They can do it all. They're not only athletes. They are basketball players. Now, that being said, I wish you would comment on that. And here's my question. we don't have a point guard right now. Robinson is very uncomfortable with the ball. I think our other two-guard away,

he is good off of a pass. I don't think he can, he doesn't have that. He's not a huge, yeah, he's not a huge, offensive talent. So it makes it hard for it. Like Jackson Robinson create his own shot, but you're right. He doesn't want to be, he's not, he doesn't look 100% comfortable as a point guard.

Okay. Okay. Here's my question to you. Here's my question to you. I don't think we have a point guard right now. No. And you know more about this than I do. You know, I'm very tempted to throw purry out there and live with him.

Well, he played all right. He played all right tonight. I appreciate the call. He played all right tonight and he was aggressive. But he was also playing against. a dude that was closer to his height. You know, he did not fare as well against the Arkansas guards for the couple minutes he played then.

Yes, Perry, I think there are games that can work. I actually thought he played pretty well in the minutes he played in the first half. To your point on the athletes, we are the most unathletic team in the SEC. We just are. We just are. Now, I think we are more skilled than all but a couple of the teams, but we are the most unathletic team. And we're not used to that.

Because in the Cal years, we were either the most athletic team or like the second most athletic team every year. Well, now it's the exact opposite. And so, you know, long term, we'll have to see, can you win in the SEC? Because the thing about the SEC is even when the guys weren't talented, they were always great athletes. The SEC's had great athletes my entire life. The talent's coming gone, but the athleticism has always been there.

Hope tends to not recruit like that. How's that going to work? We'll see. Next year he's already got better athletes coming in than we have this year. But we'll see. But this year, it is what it is. Like, you know, how many dudes on this team, Billy are as athletic.

Think about last year's Kentucky team. Rob Dillingham, Reed Shepard, Justin Edwards, DJ Wagner, Aaron Bradshaw. Think about those guys. Antonio Reeves

was a good. Antonio Rees might be the best athlete on the team if he was on the team this year and he was the worst athlete last year. You know what I mean? Like, it's just a different team. And so we have to, to, that's why we have to make shots.

That's why we have to out scheme people, because we're not going to out athlete people. I mean, they could use a Trey Mitchell, too. I mean, I mean, Antonio Rees was probably like the eighth best athlete on the team last year, and he might be the best athlete on this team, except maybe O way.

So it's just different. And so it's like we, and for us Kentucky fans, we Kentucky fans, we've just not seen a team like this here. It's fun when it's rolling. Think about the Duke game and the, Florida game and all that, the Gonzaga game.

But tonight it was tough to watch. 859-2-807. We will take a break and be right back for the final segment. It's a local toy dealers, KSR Post-Game Show. Welcome back, final segment. It is the local toy dealers, KSR Post-Game show, 859-280-2287. Thank you all for listening and calling in.

We got five people on. Let's do them. Then we'll get ready for tomorrow and hope we can forget about this game. This won't be one that will stick in the memory banks, at least for me. What's next? Jonathan. Jonathan. Although it was history.

Actually, I say we won't remember. We probably will build it because we're triple double. Yeah. I mean, because of the triple double. And then a rare 28, what do they call it? Trillion? Basically, Ansley Alamonore and Trit Noah both played more than 10 minutes. Anzley-Arminor 15 minutes, Trent Noah 13 minutes.

Neither one of them had a stat. Out a single one. All zeros. That's amazing. Just for perspective, the last Kentucky player to play more than seven minutes and have all zeros was Perry Stevenson in 2009 played nine minutes. So we had two guys tonight have all zero for stats with more minutes than Perry Stevenson. first time it's happened in 20 years, and it happened twice in one game.

That's wild. All right, go ahead. Jonathan. Jonathan, go ahead, Jonathan. Hey, Matt, a couple questions here. You were talking about seeding earlier, and even after the Arkansas lost, the ESPN's Joe Lannardi, he has a still as a three seed today. And then also just, you know, just, you know, curious just to, you know,

I'm curious in the fact that won't the committee evaluate, Kentucky's resume differently with Lamont Butler being out several games. So here's what they do. So the first question is, yes, you're right about that. And that's why, I mean, normally if you went, say, 19 and 12, you would not be a 7 seat. You'd be in like the first four. But the reason we would be, I think, is because of how good the SEC is and how good our resume is.

With Lamont Butler, here's what they'll do, because I've been on this mock committee. they will look at our record and if our record with Lamont Butler is significantly different than without him and he's playing then yes they will consider it if however he comes back and we go like

two and two then it probably won't make that much difference does that make sense so if they can look at a gap on our record and go well they were one and eight when he was gone but the rest of the time they were this then yes, they will consider that.

It might move us up like one seed line. I understand that. And it'll be interesting to see. I think next Saturday is when the committee does their top 16 seats that they reveal. So that means we have South Carolina and Tennessee two games before that. So we'll see what they think of us. And hopefully we can pull these next two off and see what we're getting back. Yeah, if we won the next two, I bet we would be on that list.

If we didn't, the South Carolina game, here's what's going to happen. Even if we win, it's going to hurt us because it's going to bring our strength of schedule down. Because that's the only team in the SEC that's not a, what, quad, whatever, right? So in some ways, even beating them doesn't help you. But if we can beat Tennessee, then you're probably right. Just hope we get in the tournament. I think if we get in the tournament, I don't want us to blow all those good wins away where we could have had a good season and a real good chance to make a good run.

Yeah, I agree. I appreciate the call. Four more. Who's next? Steve. Steve, go ahead, Steve. Hi, Matt. How are you tonight? Good. The real problem of the night, let's get to it.

You know, I know the defense isn't good. We only had one steel. That was Jackson Robinson. We only had one block. That was Travis Perry, of all people. Is that right? Wow. Is that right?

We only have one block that was Travis Perry? I didn't realize that. Yes, yes. But you said yourself, these guys are getting old. and defensively we shouldn't expect them to get much better, and they're not going to. The real problem is our offense. Amari Williams is awesome, but tennis says a lot about how good he is, but also just how much he's, you know, handling the ball.

And we need a point guard. We need Butler back healthy, and we need car back healthily so that Angeley Almanore and Kobe Brea can return back to their normal positions and coming off the bench. and our offense flows better that way. I agree with that completely. Yeah, even when Florida scores over 100 on us, when we score more than them, we win. So we can't really expect our defense to get much better.

We really need our offense to get sorted out. Totally agree with that completely. I appreciate the call. I mean, the thing is, one thing that's clear is until Butler was hurt, our offense was pretty good even when we lost. That really hasn't been the case the whole time since he's been gone. And hopefully, hopefully that changes if he returns, which we really need him to. Who's next?

Todd. Todd, go ahead, Todd. Hello, Matt. Hello, Matt. Like he was talking about earlier, Pope has got to use what he has. And it is amazing he was able to put together a team even this good. and when the short time he had. But I was wanting to touch on what you said to tonight about how the team seemed to get better the second half.

You know, it looks to me like we should have made those changes in the first half. Surely, you know, to wait until halftime, you know, as soon as you see what's happening, it looked like you need to make a change right then. because it seemed to me when we kind of doing that against Tennessee. We were. I'm sure Pope wanted to do it. The guys just weren't executing it. And then I think this team really has a tendency.

I think Pope is one or two plays short on calling timeouts sometimes. Jack Givens mentioned that on the post game. Martin may just have to say, I'm going to take a timeout one play quicker than I'm used to because we've given up 80, 10, oh, run. very quickly now in multiple games in a row. Yeah. And if I have figured correctly,

and you might have Billy to look it up too, the way I figured we're averaging giving up 78 points a game. Yeah, you may be right. I don't know. I actually thought it might be more than that. But when I figured it up, it was like 77.7. Yeah.

That's still a lot, though. I mean, that's a lot. And in an SEC play, it's more than that, I bet. I mean, so, yeah, that's a lot. And it's going to, you know, for us to win like that, our offense has to be pretty flawless. And that hasn't, hadn't been the case yet. Appreciate it, Todd. Two more.

Who's next? Todd number two. Todd number two. What's up? Hey, man, I appreciate you taking my call. A couple points. First thing, I know we're down two point guards. But somebody on that team has got to light a fire under these guys to get them more intense on defense.

We're so kind of lackadaisical that it seems like the other team gets in a flow, and it's just like we have no defensive answer for that. We had no answer for them in the first half. I mean, when they went zone, what scared me about when they went zone is how lost we looked on zone. Like, that possession when they played zone, if you go back and look, that was a horrible defensive possession. I mean, I don't know that any of the dudes knew where they were supposed to be. And when they got, that's why he didn't play it anymore is I think they would have scored a thousand if we stayed in zone. Because right from the beginning, all four, five of them were looking at each other like, where are we supposed to be?

it was, that was not going to go well. Yeah, there was no communication at all, Carr, and I think Robinson were like on the same man, and then the guy that hit six three, is standing under corner wide open. I'm like, guys, somebody's got to be like, go get, you know, I've got him roll back or something. But second point, offense, I know people are pressuring up on us

and we're starting the offense like 30 feet from the goal. I get that to a degree, but the dribble handoff is killing us. We're getting nothing out of that. No, we're not. And then we wait to backdoor people when we're down 27. I mean, we should be doing that within the first five minutes. There's no screens away from the ball to free up the guys that can't create their own shot. Yeah, well, so Brea can't get separation, right?

No. Neither can car, neither can all manure. So the only two guys that can get any separation are OA and Robinson. So they're really the only ones that can come off that screen. and get any downhill momentum. And the problem is that Robinson, apparently that dude that was Guarded Robinson is like one of the best defenders in the league.

And so really now you're to Oway, and if you'll notice in the first half, Oway got the ball downhill towards the rim, but how many times did he miss the finish? So again, like, we just couldn't get anything to work. Yeah, I'd like to see him go downhill and then slide Barrella off the wing to the corner and have someone set him a screen, like kind of a backdoor screen to free him open or something,

because we've just got to find an open look versus a contested look. Good luck Thursday, by the way. Thank you very much. All right. So tomorrow, I will be at KS Bar, and Thursday I'll have Billy in charge of keeping the door open in between the studio and everything. That'll be something. There's no doubt about that. Thank you all very much for staying up.

Tough loss. next thing you just got to beat south carolina saturday south carolina saturday is a must must must win we will see you guys later cats go down 98 to 84 this has been the local toy dealers ksr post game show another podcast from some s nl late night comedy guy not quite unhumor me with robert smigle and friends me and hilarious guests from bob odenkirk to david leterman help make you funnier this week my guest s n licky day and head writer street or Idle 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, 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.

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If we didn't talk ever again, I was hungry. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come 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. There are times when the mind becomes a difficult place to live. This is David Eagleman with the Inner Cosmos podcast. and for Mental Health Awareness Month, we'll talk with singer-songwriter Jewel about anxiety. I started living in my car, and then my car got stolen. I was having panic attacks. I was agoraphobic.

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