KSR - KSR Postgame UK MBB at Vanderbilt 02/06/24

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

Matt and Billy recap the Cats' 109-77 win at Vanderbilt.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen to learn the hard way on the IHard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome, everyone. It is the local trade dealers, KSR postgame show. The Cats put on a nice show tonight down in Nashville, winning 10977 over Vanderbilt. You can give us a shout. We'll go ahead and open up the phones.

If you're up this late and just kind of hanging out with us, this is the kind of postgame show we haven't had in a few weeks. Kind of a laid-back celebratory post-game show. Kentucky wins by 32, 859-28027. The Cats did exactly pretty much everything you would have hoped this game. They came out, scored the first five points, got up five-nothing, never trailed. Honestly, the game was really never in question at any point. It was kind of, it was a great performance by UK.

I mean, I thought they did pretty much everybody got in on the act. Six guys and double figures. You got to see a couple of Kentucky's elite scores go off. Rob Dillingham in the first half had 16 or 13 points, including three threes pretty close together. It looked great. Antonio Reeves had a couple different flurries of points, finished with 24. So two of the big time scores kind of had one of their games like they have. Tonya Reeves has between 19 and 24 points every single game.

And then some guys that we haven't gotten to talk about as much had big nights. Justin Edwards was 17. I was happy for him. He looked really for the first time in a long time. He looked comfortable on the court. I think it's important that he played the four quite a bit. Sort of injury and circumstance, I think, caused him to have to play the four. And I actually like how he looked there.

I thought he was able to do the things he does best, worry less about hanging out the top of the key, attack, get to the rim, rebound. I really like him at the four. I've kind of always felt like he's a college four. And I thought he played really, really well. 17 points. That dunk was terrific. I mean, you can see some of the potential that everybody saw coming in with that dunk. And it was awesome.

see him play well. And then a couple guys, you know, Big Z man, 11 minutes or 12 minutes, 11 points. He comes in and he fills up the stats no matter what, points, rebounds, fouls. When he's in, you know he's in. And I thought it was great to see him play well tonight, too. And then Jordan Burks, a guy with 13. I mean, Jordan Berks, the dude that's easy to forget sometimes is on the team. I mean, he doesn't get a lot of minutes. He, you know, has just kind of been the odd man out, and tonight look great. There's a lot of potential with him if he can score because I think he is a pretty good defender. The worry has been, can he score?

And, you know, you put up 13, hit a three. So it was nice to see. I thought Bradshaw was better. Pretty much everybody played well. I mean, Shepard was the only guy who kind of didn't score. what he normally does, and he was still plus 35 for the game. So he was, you know, still really good. Probably the only guy that you might have said had a disappointing game was Hugo,

but again, when you win by 32 on the road, you're not going to be picky. Vandy is not good, but you know what? When you win and beat anybody on the road by that margin, I think you've got to be happy with it. You've got to be, it's a step in the right direction after a couple of very sort of negative games. And now you get Gonzaga Saturday. That's a game that you need to win.

You should win. You're better than them this year. They're not the Gonzaga team of the last few years. But you had to stop the bleeding. This would have been, a loss here would have been devastating. And so to win, win, but not only win, but do it thoroughly and really never being in danger. and with the offense kind of clicking.

You know, in SEC play, it really just, the offense has, we've put up a lot of points in games, including against Tennessee, but it just hasn't quite felt exactly the same. This felt like the offense we saw for the first 10 to 14 games of the year. And so now let's hope they can keep it up. They got Gonzaga and Ole Miss at home, win those two, And then you go to Auburn, and that's probably the hardest atmosphere they face all year. But if you could somehow get a win, you know, that would be a good way to get back some of what you lost last week.

859-280-2287. Billy, we, you know, we did the pregame show. We got a little Bucks sons right now. Janus just dunked on somebody's face. Devin Booker's new shoes coming out. we'll try to keep this interesting on what was otherwise a pretty routine win. But that's what we needed. And we got it done.

We will take a break and be right back. This is the Kentucky selection. Or no, it's the local Toyota dealers, KSR postgame show. The local toy dealer's KSR postgame show, 859-2802287. A couple people writing him. One person writes, Matt, talk about how the South Carolina loss is not as bad as we thought. Well, I never thought that loss was bad. I thought it was bad that it was by 16, and I still think that's not great.

But I never, look, losing games, you'll always hear for me, losing games at home is the much bigger deal to me than losing on the road. Every single year, even really good Kentucky teams will drop a game or two on the road that they shouldn't. I thought the game that we shouldn't was going to be South Carolina. It looks like the game we shouldn't probably will be A&M, and South Carolina makes sense because they're eight and two. in conference, and they look really, really good. My concern is more the home losses.

North Carolina, of course, lost at home today. They're an odd team, because when they're hit, when they're kind of locked in, they look great. But I don't know. I mean, I still think right now, Yukon and Purdue look like the two best teams with like a group, and maybe Houston, with like a group that includes, I think Carolina, Kansas, and a couple other teams below them.

But I don't think there's any team that's great this year. And so it's another year that if you could go on a run, you have a chance to make some noise in the tournament. One person writes, Matt, what do you think is the budget for the buckle up, put your phone down commercial? That's a great question, Billy. I think conservatively believe I've heard that song 23 times today. Just today.

Just today. I mean, I drove a lot today, so I was in the car quite a bit. And then we had it on the morning show, we had it on the pregame show, and I heard it on Cal's post game, and then I just heard it here. So I do, and then I think I just heard it on regular radio. So what do you think, how many times do you think that song has played this college basketball season? Oh, this season? Oh, boy.

thousands of times at least i mean do you think there's anyone that is a u.k sports fan that could not sing buckle up put your phone now uh i don't know maybe i don't know i feel like if they at rup arena if they want to get the crowd hype against kinsaga just play buckle up put your phone now because i think the whole audience will have to see i i had somebody shadow me in the studio today possibly hiring a part-timer, and he specifically said he hated that song. And that's the first person I've met that didn't like that song. Well, okay.

I mean, I like it. I will say, though, it's getting into that point where, like, I feel like it's going to be in my, I feel like I'm going to be on my deathbed at the point where, like, I have a hard time remembering who is who. And they're going to look at me and they go, do you know who this person is? and like it might be my maybe it'll be my currently non-existent son, right? And I'll just go, no,

but he should buckle up and put his phone down. I feel like we're getting to that point. But hey, it's working because we know it. 859-28027. Who's up first? We'll start with Red. Red. How are you red? Good, Matt.

I'm here in Clemson. I just wanted to give a shout out to the Tigers, taking down the taller hole tonight. That was pretty awesome. I wanted to say, I think, it really hit me tonight when I heard Calgary go on this postgame show and say the exact thing

fans have been saying for weeks about this team. I mean, word for word almost, the exact thing that we've been saying for weeks, he just comes down and says it. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? Like, he comes down and says, oh, we switch this.

zone on the inbound play. It comes in and says, what about Jordan Berks? Did he say that? I didn't, I mean, they did play zone on the inbound's play, and it worked, although I will say, go back and watch those plays. If the dude was looking up, there were two layups still to be had. But they didn't get them. Yeah.

So, but listen, that's good. Glad to hear, glad to see it. You know, my view is, it's always been like this. If somebody makes a change, and that changes for the better, clap. for the change, don't mock for the change, right? So if he changes and does what we've always hoped, we have to salute it and not just go, well, of course you did it now. That's a no-win situation.

So I am happy that they did do that. We didn't give up any lay-ups tonight. You know, as far as like what will happen in other games, we'll see, because I do think Vandy isn't the best. That is true. And I just, I don't know, it just struck me when he came out and said that. I mean, he didn't even do the post game last game. And of course he does it after a good win, but, you know, I don't know.

That's just frustrated. I understand. Listen, everybody heard my, I mean, you probably heard my postgame Saturday. I was very, very frustrated. Still, still frustrated about last week. With that said, you know, tonight was positive. I don't really have anything to complain about tonight. So we'll just leave Tuesday.

Like, for me, I just kind of leave Saturday in the past, and now let's see what happens next Saturday. right great win great win appreciate it appreciate the call and i um you know i do i did i was excited he goes billy he said did you see what we did on defense in there and i was i was excited to hear what he was going to say and then he goes if you watch the game well you saw what we did on defense and that's what we did and i was like well to tell me what you did oh you basketball bennies you figure it out yeah um but no they did I do think a difference today is the primary defender did a better job keeping his man in front of him at the start of the defensive plays.

So I thought in part because we kind of were playing more wing guys. We were playing Edwards, Theero and Berks. We were kind of playing them together a lot. We just were a little better defensively than we've been. And we didn't suffer on offense because Dillingham and Reeves were shooting. shooting so well and Edwards played well. That gives you an example of how the team can be a lot better if Edwards plays well because you can be bigger and play better defense if he's not killing you on offense.

And tonight, he clearly did not. Who's next? Morrison. Morrison. How are you Morrison? I'm doing pretty well. This is my first time calling in. Well, who are?

Morrison. That's a very like proper name, Morrison. Where are you from, Morrison? Well, I'm originally from Kentucky, but out in the bat. Where in Kentucky? Frankfurt. Frankfurt. You know what?

I think that's where I would think. Like Morrison feels like someone who's like family worked in government, and they're like, we're going to have an upstanding young son, and we're going to name him Morrison. So I like it. Go ahead, Morrison. Well, you hit it dead on with the family and government stuff. See? Billy, am I good at figuring that out? I mean, it's a good comment.

I'll give you that. I mean, that's not a huge guest because it was in Freyford. But Morrison feels like the son of government workers' name. But go ahead. Well, I just wanted to be a little positive tonight and say, I was really happy more than anything to just see how Justin Edwards played and looked tonight. He's obviously been through a lot, I'm sure, with social media and the way fans have reacted to the way he started this season.

And even though it's against Mandy, it's great to see his country. confidence boost, especially after that dunk and watching how obvious it is that this team is so supportive of each other and watching how they celebrate it after his dunk. Yes. It was really wonderful. One of the great things, and nice to hear from you, Morrison, one of the great things about this team is they do seem to really get along. They seem to really connect and they pull for each other.

And it was nice to see the kid smile, man. I mean, like that kid has seemed at times to have the weight of the world kind of on his face. And it's nice to see dudes like that have a good moment and smile. So I was really, I was really happy for him, you know, to get a game like that. And I hope the confidence carries on. You know, I mean, he has not played well. And it's clear it's been a disappointment. But he's not as bad at times as he's looked.

I mean, he's just not. It's clearly a confidence issue in part. And hopefully this does, hopefully this helps in moving his confidence in the right direction. Who's next? Pumba. Pumba. How are you Pumba? Pumba.

I am fantastic, man. Thank you. What's your name? It's not Pumba. Is it Puma like the shoe? No, like Tima Puma. Yeah, it's Pumba. Okay.

So you were right, Billy. And I just have one philosophy. How dare me question you, Billy. Sorry about that, but go ahead. It's a Kuna Matata. We just got to just take it easy. You know, look at what we got right now. We got everything in front of us and we got all of the tools we need in our toolbox.

And Cal is just making it all work for us. We just got to be patient with it. Okay, no way. Let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question. Yes, Matt. Do you really, first of all, I agree with the first part of what you said. It is all in front of us.

and there are all the tools on this team to do really well. I don't know about the defense, but maybe you can do it with that. But the Cal's got it all under control. You don't really believe that. Like, you don't believe losing to Florida and Tennessee were, like, a part of what we needed to do. As much as that hurts is as much as I believe in this team. And you can't just let that go, right? I mean, I can.

I can disagree with you. Like, I mean, I don't think they, I don't think. I don't think losing to Tennessee and Florida at home is like part of the master plan. It hurts big time. But as much as that hurts in the regular season, coach would also say it doesn't matter because we could just use that in the same way that we used to use the regular season in the same way that if we win the SEC tournament, it doesn't matter at all.

All right. Well, I hope we do. I appreciate the call. We haven't won an SEC tournament since 2018. So I hope we win one. and listen, I said this Saturday night, if they make a run in March, you are correct. None of this will matter. They won't.

I mean, you know, they won't. We don't care that in 2014 that team was not very good in the regular season. And we don't care that at times in 2011, that team really struggled because they went to the Final Four. So if this team makes a run, you're right. We won't care. The problem is if we don't, we will care. And so that's why, I mean, it all comes down to March. In some ways, assuming that they do well enough, it's weird because I was talking about this with Ryan and Drew today,

in some ways, the rest of this regular season, and I'm not going to say it doesn't matter, because we still got to finish this out, get in the tournament, try to get the best see we can. but in some ways the rest of this regular season really doesn't matter it's highly unlikely when we win the SEC not impossible but highly unlikely and we're not going to be a number one or two seed probably no matter what we do so in some ways it kind of doesn't matter because i think this whole season's going to come down to march and you can say well every season does does that i don't really think that's true i think Kentucky takes pride in having good regular seasons and winning the SEC, et cetera.

But this year, I don't know, Billy, do you agree with me? I don't know if these 11 games, as long as we do well enough that we're in the tournament and we have a decent seed, I'm not sure the rest of these games do matter a whole lot. Do you? No, I think you're right the way that you're laying it out. You could say the rest of the season, Akuna Matata, you know. Let's say we finish. I guess my point is.

No worries. Let's say we, I got you. Let's say we only lose. one game for the rest of the year, and we finished 24 and 7. We probably would be a three-seed and the tournament starts. Let's say we lose four games, and we finish 21 and 10. We'll probably be a 6-seed or a 7-seed, and honestly, the only difference is how hard our first-round game will be.

If you're a 3-seed, you're going to play a 6-seat in the second round, And if you're a six seed, you're going to play a three seed in the second round. So you're basically going to be in the same part. So in some ways, as long as we make the tournament, I'm not sure that the rest of the regular season does mean a whole lot. This whole thing is going to come down to a couple weeks in March. You could use the rest of the regular season to ramp Big Z up because he could be a difference maker from what we saw tonight.

Well, no, no, keeping yourself playing well and who you play and all that. I don't think matter. I guess I just mean like, you know, I don't know, for instance, if we beat Gonzaga and then we beat Ole Miss, how much of a difference is it going to make if we win at Auburn? I mean, it'd be exciting, but it's not going to have a huge impact because at the end of the day, every cow is going to be judged this year on March. He just is for better if it's good or worse, if it's not. Who's next?

Thomas. Thomas. What's up, Thomas? You guys are making my point. I almost didn't watch the game tonight because I thought, what's the use? If we win by 40 or 30 or 20, what does it help us? I'm going to watch it because I love team Birx, do something good, Edwards. And here's the thing.

Matt, if we're in the tournament, do you want to play us? I don't. No, I don't. In 2014, I used to have a caller. I'll let you finish your point. But I had a caller in 2014 when the bracket came out, if you remember, we were, I think, an eight seed, and we were playing like Kansas State in the first round. And I remember a caller called and said, Matt, we're going the final four.

And I was like, well, why do you say that? And he goes, if you're Wichita State, you're the number one overall seed, do you want to see us as your, see us as your eight? And I was like, well, probably not. And he was like, and if you're in Louisville and you're sitting there at the four seed, you don't want to see your cross-town rival as the, and he was right. and we did all it. So you're exactly right. Let's say we're a six. If you're a three, you don't want us to be your six.

Because we're unpredictable. We're so bad, we're so good. You're exactly right. No, you're exactly right. And I appreciate the call. I mean, you're, you would not want to see Kentucky in your bracket. At the same time, unless we play a 14 or lower, I'm probably not going to be overconfident, Billy,

in any tournament game. Are you? Sorry, I was on the phone. Okay. Am I going to be confident in any tournament game? Were you calling your broker or were you like calling a pizza? No, no, no. It's a call-in show.

So you got to answer the phone sometime. But no, I'm not going to be confident in any game. And I think those first two tournament games are going to be the most nerve-wracking things for John Caliperi. Maybe it's Kentucky tenure. I don't think there's any doubt. I think the second round of the tournament. But let's assume we win the first round.

The second round will be the most nerve-wracking game for me, and I'm sure for Cal, since the 2012 Louisville Final Four game. In the 2012 Louisville Final Four game, I thought it was a no-win situation for Kentucky. If they lost, that was going to be awful against Louisville. And if they won, well, you were supposed to. this will be the second round game or first round i mean for a six seed the first round game will be like this will be we'll be like that again who's next logan and frankfort logan go ahead logan to frankfort car yeah hey matt hey billy i actually live in nashville now i just moved about a month

ago so i want you a game tonight with some buddies you know lived in nashville nobody does nobody thinks about doing that anymore it's not crowded at all man yeah It was a long story. We don't got time for tonight, but I'll tell you some time. All right. We've talked about turning points a lot this past week, and, man, I've been in the same camp, but I hope tonight was a turning point, not for the fans, but for the players. We can lose two bad games in a row at home, but fans will still drive a decent amount to pack Vanderbiltzstanium out,

and, man, they were loud. What was the Kentucky turnout like today? Did you go? Man, I did go. Yes, I did go. Okay, so what was it like? We were in the UK section, all blue, all loud, felt like a home game, and in the Vanderbilt sections, there was a lot of blue. I'd say it's probably 80-20 Kentucky fans.

Well, that's pretty good. And was the place full? No, no, it wasn't. Yeah. No. Well, 80-20 is pretty good, so. I might be wrong. I might be wrong.

The callers, feel free to weigh in. And the last thing I had, and I'll get off here. Bradshaw has had a few tough weeks, but there was no one more supportive on the bench than he was tonight. I watched him all game. He was the first one to tear. He was the first one to get out, up out of his seat. I believe in that kid. I'm glad he's here.

I'm glad Coach Cal's here. Good night. Yes, I mean, this is a great. Look, this is the most, and I appreciate the call. This is a likable a team from a player standpoint. point. There's nobody on the team that I think seems to have a bad attitude. I think they all have great attitudes. They all seem positive, even when things aren't going well for them, they seem very cheerful with each other. So I'm, you know, I'm very positive. It did sound like Cal will seem to

suggest that maybe Trey Mitchell, did you get, when you listen to him, did you get the sensibility that it might be more than just a game with him? Yes. Yes. Yeah. kind of non-committal answers on everything. Well, and he just said, like, he may need some time. So I could see us not having him against Gonzaga. The question for me is Wagner. I mean, you know, he's missed three. These next two home games are must-wins.

You know, they knew they probably knew they'd be all right with having tonight. I'll be interested to see if he ends up going Saturday against Gonzaga. Who's next? Crew. Crew. What's up, Crew? Hey, my name. name's crew first time long time who are what's up crew how old are you crew nine years old

did you go to the game yeah my parents took me for my ninth birthday we had awesome seats right behind the bench bench got a couple autographs and it was a great game whose autograph did you get i got j wagner bradshaw and big z are you will you give them to me No. But see, I don't have their autograph. I feel like you should give them to me that way I can have their autograph. I'm good. So you're just going to keep it for yourself?

Yep. All right, I'll let you have it. So I'm glad you had fun. Who's your favorite player? Let me guess. Is it Dillingham? Nope. Who is it?

Reed Shepherd. Reed Shepherd. Okay. Well, maybe that would have been a better guess. Well, listen, you and your parents have a safe drive home, and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thank you. Appreciate it.

See, how can you not like kids, Billy? You know, you're such a grouch. And, like, how sweet is that kid? Crew goes to the game for his ninth birthday. He gets all those autographs, and he won't share them with me, but he gets them. And, like, you always talk about how terrible kids are. How could you hate that? I can tell when a kid has a good point, but it's when the parents call in and then hand it to their kid.

and then they're in the background saying, that's not what crew did. Say, go cats. That was, is that your impression of parents? Parents talking to their children, yeah. I like, that was the first time I've heard you do like a Kentucky Southern accent.

I don't, maybe the last time. There you go. I thought it was a little bit. I didn't appreciate it. Who's next? Let's go to Cecil. Cecil.

How are you, Cecil? I'm doing good, man. I hope you're doing good. Doing one. Two positives. for tonight. First is Burks. Good to see him

because it seemed like he has butterfingers out there even though he's a good player. But he came through and I thought he had a great game. Hopefully it is a kickstart. Yeah, kickstart a great season. And Edwards, man,

we need him. He's the only three we have on the team. We have a lot of guards. We have a lot of bigs. We have no three. besides him. We're going to need him, just like in the 2015, when we lost Poitris, we need that guy. And with that size and leave, he's not a four. That's, he's six, six, and on the soft side, I think is ridiculous to think or play him at the four.

But, man, it's good to see him. Hopefully, this is the confidence. You just like to argue with me, Cecil. you just like to argue with me. You say it's ridiculous to play him at the four. Cal specifically talked about how good he was at the four and then he was going to do more of it. You just like to argue with me.

You're arguing with me. You're lying on me again. First, it was the next day you and Drew implying that I was lying about a study that you knew about. You still haven't sent me that link. I'm still waiting on your link. But go ahead. You said you knew about it.

Yeah, because it was 10 years old. Go ahead. I was reeled off to you and you cut me off. This was a positive cause. I don't want to argue with you. All right. I love you, Cecil. Thank you very much.

I appreciate it. One person writes, see if you agree with this. Okay. This is from somebody they've never texted me before. Why do you sound so miserable? You should cut this post game short. You're coming off emotionless and bitter, almost disappointed that they're win. You need to give Cal credit for taming player emotions.

Managing young players is a skill. Give Cal credit. Wow. Do I sound emotionless, bitter, and disappointed we won? No. No, but it is a different tone of voice on the postgame shows. But that's every post game. But it's kind of indoor mat.

15 at night. Yeah. Right? Like, I'm not going to be going, hey, everybody, this is a good day. You know, I mean, it's 12, 15 at night, and we won. And, like, if you've listened this year, we've had this tone of voice, Billy, quite a bit during the year, especially in the early season when we won by a lot, right? Yeah.

I'm very happy. But I'm not so not going to act like that, like, we're winning the title now when we beat a 6 and 15 team. I mean, it's exactly what we needed to happen tonight. That's exactly what we needed to happen. But this team has the same record Louisville does, right? So like, let's not go crazy. Let's be happy. But at the same time, you know, this is a step.

And there was a lot of positives about it. And that's kind of the way that I look at it. Let's take a break. 859-28027. The local Toyota dealers KSR post-game show will be right back. It's the local toy dealers KSR post-game show. 59-2-80-22-87. One person writes, Amanda, writes in since I was at the game.

It was a ton of fun as a game to go to. That's always a fun environment because you probably get more Kentucky fans at that game than any road game, except maybe at Louisville this year when they, when no one was, they had no one there. But it's always a great environment. And it's a lot of fans, you know, I think Cal said this on the post-game show, too. It's a lot of fans that, like, you know, they don't get seen. Kentucky play a lot.

So they're excited to be there. It's a similar kind of mindset that comes at the SEC tournament, except in some ways this one may even be more sort of regular fans because it's cheaper, right? Like you don't have to, you know, the SEC tournament has now become a very, very expensive trip. And this is now a lot, a lot better. So it is a very fun game. I've been a number of times over the years, and it's a lot of fun.

Plus, it's such an odd arena. Have you ever been in there? ability to watch a game? I haven't, but I thought they changed the rules with the coaches and the baseline. They did. Well, now they can walk to mid-court, but the benches are still on the end. But the coaches can now walk all the way to mid-court, which they used to not be able to do. It's like you're watching like an opera. It's such an odd gym. It's elevated too, isn't it? It is. But it is a cool place to watch a game. Who's next? Hunter. Hunter, what's up, Hunter? Hey guys, I hate to have to be this guy.

Oh, there you go. Yeah, here you go. Great win, and I'm super happy to do that, to watch that. But we beat the brakes off of Vandy. And aren't we supposed to beat the breaks off of Vandy? How about we all just get on board with it? Yeah, but you got to enjoy it. I will say, and listen, you heard how harsh I was in my critique.

Saturday. You also, though, you do have to enjoy a victory. I mean, at the end of the day, oh, yes. If you're going to, you can't make it to where you can't make it for whether it's cow or the team or the players. You can't put it where it's a no-win situation. Like, you cannot put it where no matter what they do, you're not going to be pleased. They won by 32. Now, are we supposed to win that game? Yes. But we were only favored by eight and a half. winning by 32 at bandy is an impressive performance i very much agree with that but there's a lot of work to be done and i liked everything i saw today i just want to see more of it and against better competition all right well i appreciate the call you'll get a chance to see that saturday and

uh next tuesday against old miss those are those are both like bubble teams right so that's that's basically what we're going to see. All right. So we lost at home Saturday to a top 10 team kind of got beaten down. Before that, we lost to a tournament team at home. Now you're going to play essentially two bubble teams. So Gonzaga is on the bubble. Old Miss is probably on the bubble slightly out, but has a shot.

That's what you're looking at. So basically, let's go back to my tournament. theory. If we go in as a six seat, which probably is what happens if we lose at Auburn and at Tennessee, if we go in as a five or six seed, these two teams were about to play at Rupp. That's who you're playing in the first round of the tournament. That's the way to look at it. These two next games are first round of the NCAA tournament unless we get really hot here at the end of the year. So that's a good way to judge it, Billy, right? Like this is your first round NCAA tournament game coming up.

And it's at your court. So let's see how we do, right? Right, I agree. And you say it's only Vandy. I mean, they'd won the last two games of the series, including the SEC tournament. So, I mean, you just... Yeah, they were a lot better. I mean, as bad as they were last year, they were better than they are this year.

How bad must Missouri be, by the way? I mean, Vandy crushed Missouri last game. So, who's next? Mike. Mike, what's up, Mike? Hey, Mike. this is right. How are you?

Go ahead. Yes, I'm good. Can you hear me? I just wanted to point out something, and I don't know if this was pointed out earlier in the show, because I didn't get the first part of it, but, man,

our dudes looked like they were having fun tonight, man. Like, it was like playground basketball. They were having a, a good time. I saw smiling, laughing, they seem relaxed. And my question

to you is, do you think that's a kid a relaxed playing a less I don't say lesser team, but Vanderbilt team that was lesser than us? Or maybe Cal changed

a little bit of his philosophy. No, I don't think he changed his philosophy in three days. But I appreciate the call. What do we think was happening with that call, Billy, before I, before I asked. I think he was having fun tonight. It was like the phone would be. It felt like the phone was in, at times he was speaking into it, at times it was on speaker.

It felt like it went back and forth. Yeah. And it sometimes felt like it was in different places vis-a-vis his mouth, depending on where he was. As far as having fun, though, they did. have fun and I think it was in part because you're winning and like vandy plays a stop i thought bandy would try to slow it down they did not they uh they tried to run with us and i don't know man you better be really good to try to run with this team i mean to be fair tennessee did and kind

of beat us but most teams that do that that's going to be hard and and uh i think this team look this kentucky team needs to get up and down the court now that's sometimes easier said than done But when they get up and down the court, they're tough and they're fun. And then when they're hitting shots, I mean, Dillian, they hit, what, they hit seven of their first eight threes or whatever Kentucky did? Well, when they do that, I mean, you can't guard them. You can't guard this team when they're hitting threes. So, you know, I think that's why it looked like they were having a lot of fun.

Because they were really fun to watch tonight. Who's next? Sam. Sam, what's up, Sam? Hey, Matt, thanks for taking my call first. want to show some appreciation to you and bill. You guys do a fantastic job and deserve nothing but the best. Thank you.

Tonight, I've seen a post on your Twitter and someone replied to him and goes, six and 15 Vandabilla, are you really happy? And to answer that, I'm very happy. Tonight, it looked like the offense had clicked better than it had in quite a while, without DJ, without Trey. It just felt like more of a team effort. And my second thing is, was it ever confirmed on what Jerry was so upset about there at the end of the game? Yeah, you know, he's an interesting dude, right? Like, it feels like he feels like, I mean, he obviously, it's obvious he and Cal can't hate each other.

His son is on the staff, right? So, but it does feel like he's always got like a temper issue when they play us, you know? So I don't know. It was weird. I mean, he did shake Cal's hand, but then it didn't look like he shook anyone else's hand on the Kentucky bench. So I don't know. I'm not sure. But I appreciate the call.

And yes, if you didn't enjoy that game, my argument would be if that game didn't make you happy, then why did you watch it to begin with? Because, like, Kentucky's not going to do much better than they just did. And if you walked out of there and go, well, I'm not happy, then why did you watch it? Like, what was the point? Did you just want to be angry? Because that should have been plenty happy for you, at least it was, for me. Let's do one more and we'll take our final break.

Who's next? Dakota. Dakota. How are you, Dakota? Pretty good for, you know, 12.15 in the morning. But I think Big Z, I love. love watching him he's an agent of chaos though like he comes in and i think they showed on the score bug in like i think four minutes he had seven points but he had three fouls so he's coming in

there making an impact either way and then no he's going to be like if watching him in the first half when he came in i just kept my eyes on him the whole time he's it's it's all over the place like he's not in the right place defensively. But then on offense, he got six offensive rebounds in 12 minutes. Six offensive rebounds in 12 minutes. That's crazy. So you're right. I think that's a good phrase.

He's an agent of chaos. Yeah. And also I noticed something else just like watching highlights of the other games tonight. I saw Houston and Kelvin Samson. And I was like, he reminds me of somebody. And then my mom shouted out. He looks like O.J. Simpson, and now I cannot see it. Interesting. I've never noticed that before. Well, there you go.

I appreciate the call. You know, you know, it was an easy win when your mom is comparing basketball coaches to former football players slash murder. So that's the way it goes. 859-28027. Let's take a break, Billy, and we will come back for our final segment. The Cats with a massive win in Nashville. This is the local toy dealers, KSR Postgame Show. Welcome back. Final segment, Local Toy Dealer's KSR Postgame Show.

It is 859-280-2287. Text machine, still people texting in late at night. This is the best fan base that there is. I mean, if you can see how many people are still texting, it's unbelievable. One person writes, UNC lost Eclipse at home. Do you still think UNC is really good? I do. You know, traditionally speaking, if you lose at home to a non-top 25 team, it is very rare for you to win the title.

Not impossible, but very rare. So I'm going to keep that in mind. I'll probably still have North Carolina in my five teams. The only two I'm, I mean, you definitely have to have Yukon, and I think I'm definitely going to have Houston. Objectively, I should probably have Purdue, but it's hard to pick Purdue. Purdue because it's just Purdue. But those three are probably going to be there. And then the question is, North Carolina, Kansas, you know, beyond that, it's hard for me to see any of these teams in the country winning the title.

But we'll see. You know, Auburn in the metrics looks like, I mean, they have the metrics to win a title, but when I watch that team, I don't think that looks. looks like a title team, but we'll see. They host Alabama tomorrow, so let's see how that game goes, and maybe we'll have a better idea. Who's up next, Bill? Thomas. Thomas.

Thomas, what's up, Thomas? You dread us the worst if you're in the last tournament, 64 teams, you dread us the worst because you do not know what we're going to do to you, right? Yeah, you don't have any idea. Like, you don't know what team you're going to, to get, right? I mean, you know how we're going to play, but you don't know, like, are we going to play well or not? We might, we might beat you by 10 or we might lose by 10. You just have no idea. Love it tonight, but it's frustrating against good teams. Yeah, well, but you can't,

again, like tonight, I don't think tonight's the night to complain about how we've done against good teams, right? I mean, we play who you play, and we won. All right, I appreciate the call. He was still there. He's just stunned in silence. All right. Who's next? How about Chiwu? Chiwu.

How are you, sir? Doing well. Thanks, Matt. Thanks for taking my call. Three wins, three in the hook in the NCAA tournament. If that's the question, I don't think, I don't know if they could win for. I hope they can't think. I mean, you got to remember how much Chi Wu of the tournament.

is about your draw too, right? So it is. It's a matchup. It's a matchup. There's a lot of it that's when you're a great team, okay, when you're 2015 Kentucky, until you get to the final four, it's not about your draw. You're better than everybody, right? When you're just good or very good, then the draw matters.

I mean, it matters who you get. It matters if teams get upset, right? Like if somebody gets upset and you end up playing an 11 seed, it's different. So, no, do I think it's impossible for us to win four straight? No way. Of course I think we could win for straight. But we're going to be kind of, but we're going to be at the mercy. And I'm sorry, I'll let you finish.

We're going to be at the mercy of the draw. You know what I mean? That is going to be true. What would you set the number at if you were over and under three, three in the hook, or four? Y'all have a good evening. I appreciate the call. That's tough. I mean, yeah, I don't want to answer that because there's no answer that is not just going to lead to people screaming at me.

So I think I'll just, I think this team today, if the tournament started tomorrow, could make the final four or could lose in the first round. I'll probably treat this for the rest of the year like this. I'm going to look at it like, what if the tournament started today? If the tournament started today, we're probably a six seed. We're playing an 11. So we're playing a team like Gonzaga or Florida. I think we could lose that game, but I also could see us playing a one seed Purdue and beating them by 10 in the elite eight.

So who knows? It's going to be exciting because I have no idea what to expect in the tournament. I really don't. Now, maybe over the next five weeks, we'll have a better indication. But if the tournament started tomorrow, I would have no idea what to expect. Who's next? Jordan. Jordan.

What's up, Jordan? Jordan, turn your radio down. Go ahead. Hey, Matt. Hey, hey, Billy. Thank you, Billy, for taking my phone call. You're welcome. I just wanted to say, thank you for Jordan Burke.

Jordan Burke stepped up tonight. Yeah, he played great. He played great. It was good to see him. happy too, right? Like he's a guy who has had to kind of be a cheerleader the whole year, and he got out and played, and you could see he enjoyed himself. And Justin Edwards, they both stepped up tonight a lot in their role.

Yeah, they did. They both were great. And Reed is a potential defender, and he bites on a lot of stuff instead of hopping over the screens and stuff like that. And I wish he would just stay, you would just hop over the screens instead of look over steals. And I feel like that's where he fails a lot. When he looks for steals,

instead of just stepping over like Reuse does, and Rob sometimes does. Yeah, Reed Shepard is one of the more, and I appreciate the call. He's one of the more, it's a feast or famine defense with him. He either gets blown by, or he gets a steel and a crazy fast break block.

and like he's Reed Shepherd's defense is a lot like this team. You really don't ever know what you're going to get. You might get something amazing. You might get something bad. But like it's always exciting. You don't know what it's going to be on any given play.

Billy, I just had this dude the one who's text I read earlier. Yeah. He has texted the text machine the same text 14 straight times. Oh, you got him riled up. What is he saying?

Well, it's mostly about how awful I am. Oh, okay. And I'm going to block you now, 859, 7, 5.3. And just for the record, I did see all 14 texts, and they were all because it was the same phrase, equally incoherent. And so I blocked you so we don't have to see you anymore. 14 times, though, to copy and send again, that's something. Who's next? He got his point across.

Let's go to Larry. Larry, what's up, Larry? Hey, man, how's it going? Doing good. Good. Hey, first time caller. Who are? I was just going to make two comments real quick. I was at the game tonight, and I'm a Kentucky fan for life, for sure. But I'm excited tonight. It was fun to watch.

I mean, I think we have to take what we get and who you play and have fun. But my real question was about the defense, you know, the defense efficiency, talking about national title contenders. you know, where we're at now, we're definitely not there. But we're not going to get better. We're not going to get better at that. I hope everybody knows. Like, we're not getting better.

We might get a little better, but we're not winning on defense. Do you switch to his own? Is that possible? He's not going to do that. I mean, he's not going to do that. You know he's not going to do that. Like, if you were going to switch to his own, you wouldn't wait until right now to do it. Like, we've been bad at defense all year.

So we're not switching to a zone. I actually am not even sure if that would be good at this. this point. How much could they possibly have practiced it? You know, who knows? Maybe there's a game where they break it out in a specific situation. I mean, it's always possible. This team is, here's what this team is, in my opinion. You got to go out, you got to play good enough defense that you can score 90 and win, and you've got to score 90. But I think this team can do that. There's no reason, there's no reason Tennessee should score 100 and however many points they scored, right? If you can score 93 and lose by 11th.

Yeah, you can't do that, right? But you need to get to where you hold them under 90 and you score 90. That's the way this team wins. And that's a tough way to win, but I think it's their best chance. I agree. I just didn't know if there was any change we could do to make it work. Because, I mean, I love watching this team. They're awesome going to obviously, Shepard, you know, coming from Jeff Shepard back in the day.

I just, I want them to win so bad. Well, I do too, and I appreciate the call. And I think you, you know, again, I don't know how you can get much better defensively when you cannot keep your man in front of you. And I'm not sure how much that's going to improve in five weeks. But I hope it does. But remember, Billy, six weeks ago I said we're not going to get any better on defense. People yelled at me, and I was like, I just don't feel like we will.

And we haven't, right? I mean, we haven't gotten any better on defense. Yeah, not much better. You mentioned Reed Shepherd. The bigger issue is our offense hasn't been as good in the last couple weeks. Yeah, it's kind of dipped a little bit. But I was going to say Reed Shepherd only scored six points, but he was plus 35 tonight. Yeah, well, they didn't need.

He didn't, how much did he even shoot? He didn't shoot that much. He didn't need to. He didn't need to. Yeah, he was two of six, two of five from three. Yeah, so, I mean, he didn't even need to. He had five steals. See, he does that a lot.

He's feast or famine on defense, but he gets some great steals. Let's do three more. Who's next? Mason. Mason. Mason. Go ahead, Mason. Hey, good evening from Honolulu.

I just wanted to say, well, it's like, I don't know, almost eight. But I just wanted to say, I get as mad enough to punch a baby whenever we lose. I don't care who we lose to. But, I mean, and this season's not really gone the way we would hope. But the reality is, is like at this point, everything's kind of, it's kind of a one-game season the rest of the way. like you just kind of got to go who's next let's beat them who's next let's beat them like leave the rest when it gets here and like i i just don't really see why people are getting so upset i mean i guess

i get it but like at the same time it's like we we like these kids had fun tonight and and i love seeing that and that made me enjoy the game yeah well i mean i don't look i don't totally disagree with you. I mean, you know, the, and I appreciate the call, Dave. No, I got one more thing. Oh, well, sorry. Go ahead. No, I was just going to say, does, uh, was it just me or does Billy's, uh, Eastern Kentucky parent kind of remind you of like Will Ferrell's Harry Carey a little bit? Oh, it was not a good accent. Like, he didn't do a good job on it or anything. I just, uh, I appreciate that he tried. He's trying to, you know, he's not from Kentucky. So he's trying to relate

as best as he can, and I appreciated the, you know, I appreciated the effort. All right. Thanks, Matt. Appreciate, appreciate the call. What is our record, Bill? Are we 17 and? A lot of appreciating going on there. Yeah, there is. Let's see, Kentucky's record.

Is it 15 and 6 now? Is that what it is? No, it's more, it's better than that, isn't it? Is it 17 and 6 or 16? I think it's 16 and 6 now after the win. 16 and 6. All right, so we're 16 and 6. If you win the next two, you'd get to,

18 and 6 going into what I think is a difficult stretch. If you win the next two, you're guaranteed, by the way, 20 wins because you're going to beat Arkansas and Mandy at home. So that's the thing you got to remember. Our last two home games are Arkansas and Mandy before the final game of the year, which is at Tennessee. Two more. Who's next?

Josh. Josh, what's up, Josh? How y'all doing tonight? Doing good. Go cats, number one. I've been a UK basketball family whole life. And I've seen a lot of teams play. And regardless of their defense situation, it's terrible.

But this team, it's really fun to watch. You know, win or lose, they're still, you know, there for one another. They're still kind of smiling, having a good time. And I want to say this, man, a lot of people forget this. And, you know, I've been one of those ones that, you know, if we don't win the national championship every year, you know, I'm pissed. But I've really come to realize with Cal, he's. he puts kids in the NBA. He makes kids, you know, they behave when they're on the team, man.

They're in the community. And he really, he recruits good kids to this program. A lot of people want to forget that. And I just kind of wanted to bring that up. And Austin and call a shot, we're taking down Tennessee and Knoxville this year. Y'all have a good night. It's possible. I can see him doing that.

And they do agree with you. I think if you had asked Kentucky fans, if you had asked Kentucky fans when, when Cal was hired. Do you think 14 years later, you will have had the quality of kid here? They might have said that no. And they have. And that's a test.

I mean, I do think Cal has always recruited good kids. I mean, he's had a couple of, you know, minor issues. But for the most part, I've liked almost every player that played here. And so, yeah, that is something he definitely does deserve. credit for. Who's next? Donnie to finish it up. Donnie, we'll finish strong. What do you got?

Hey, you're right on. This defense is going to get better, but not. Why do you say that, though? Like, what do you base that on? What do you base the confidence that the defense is going to get better on? Here's what I think is wrong with this team.

I think it is so, so elementary. It is talking. It is communicating. This team does not do that. If they talk, if they communicate, pick, pick, drop, drop, drop. Get my man, get my man. Shot, slide. Help, help, help. But that's why, I think it's just a matter of communication because the talent is there, Matt. You know that. But here's what we can't do. We can't, and I think we've given up 35.

threes in three games. We can't give up drives to the basket uncontested and then give up 11 threes, 12 threes. No, we can't, but I, you know, I hope you're right. I hope you're right and I appreciate the call. I'm less confident just because I don't think it's all communication. I think a lot of it's just keeping their man in front of them. but the thing is, you know, I used to say early in the year, look, we'll have to win by offense and we can do it. I still believe that's true.

I think with the exception of the Tennessee game, which was kind of an all-systems failure in some ways, in the other games, if we had had our normal offensive output, we were to want. This team is going to have to win on offense. When they play like tonight, I know they beat Vandy, and I know it's easy to go, well, they stink and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. but when they play offense like they did tonight, they'll beat anybody. And they didn't even have DJ Wagner and Reed Shepherd scored six points. And Trey Mitchell was out. I mean, they'll beat anybody playing offense like this. So to me, the path to success is continue to push the ball and score as many as you can.

And then hope you make individual plays on defense like they did tonight. They made some really good plays. tonight. Thank you folks very much for staying up. Tomorrow we will be at KS. Bar, again, full house. Full house from now on with Drew full time. We don't have to say whether it's a full. We'll always have a full house unless somebody's off. Thanks to Billy for staying up. We got more late games coming, Billy. Next two weekday games are both at 9 o'clock. Yeah, I heard you're taking one off. Yeah, I'm going to let Ryan do. Ryan felt like the old Miss game's a Ryan game, don't you think? Well, yeah, 9.m. I have two more. I have two more off during the year. One of them I have to be gone, so I have to take that. So I'm going to let Ryan take Ole Miss.

It feels like his game, really, and it's cool, don't you think? I'm with it. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah. I'll be here for the LSU one, which that one may be the latest of all, because that was on ESPN, so that one might not start until the middle of the night. Thank you, folks, very much. We will see you later. This has been the local Toyota dealers, KSR, postgame show.

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