2026-04-03- KSR - Hour 1

From YouTube and social media, Comedy Off Broadway and Lexington welcomes Josh Wolff, March 19th through the 21st, then from late night TV and the Bob and Tom show catch Nick Griffin, March 26th through the 28th, and don't miss New York Comedy Superstar and podcaster Mark Normand, April 2nd through the 4th for tickets to all Comedy Off Broadway shows, call 859-271-Joke or visit ComedyOffBroadway.com. This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now here's Matt Jones. All right, good morning this Friday edition of Kentucky Sports Radio, Friday, April the 3rd. Ryan Lemon, Drew Franklin and Shannon the Dude here. We drew an hour live at KS Bar and Grill. We'll explain why in just a minute, but as always, Kentucky Sports Radio sponsored by the T.J. Smith Law Office called T.J. Shannon. What's he do? He'll make him pay. He'll make him play. Make him pay. We'll have our Clark's Puppet Shop phone number will be open. It's 859-280-2287. It's 859-280-CATS. I also have the A-Vision Glass text machine. You brought it? Oh, looky there. I got it. Look at this guy. I got it. How about that consistent tomorrow? It took you a whole week. Well, listen. I already see a bunch of messages on it. One of you smart Alex must have posted something because I had like 50 people remind me to bring the text machine today. Not me. Somebody posted it somewhere. It could just be listeners looking out for you, but I'm glad you have it. It could be nice. Here's the question. Do any of you remember the phone number, the text machine phone number? 502-7. Yes. Oh, I'll take it from there. I just know that you really emphasize that seven. 502 because five plus two equals seven. And then 35, 36. There we go. 35, 36, 80. There we go. 502-7, 35, 36, 80. Yes. 35 and 36 doesn't equal 80. No, but it kind of rolls off the tongue. Just let that brain do it again. I'm just glad to see it. I'll be honest. I wasn't going to call you out, but you had left it at home so many times. I thought you might have lost it and just didn't want to confess that you had misplaced it. It was in the drawer, but not charged. So I haven't got it out, charged it, and realized that people have been sending a lot of text messages this week. Let's use it today. So listen, we'll use it, maybe even like between every other phone call. Maybe we'll throw in a text message from the Avion Glass Text Machine. And we got to start with, I think, guys, the fact that we were supposed to be on site today and Mother Nature threw us a curveball. During the summer, we like to do these pop-up shows. We just show up unannounced. Usually someplace we've never been. Some are kind of fun. So since Matt's not here, we thought, well, maybe we should go down the road and do it in Midway, downtown Midway, where if you've ever been there, it's this beautiful quaint little Kentucky town. There's a train track that goes right down the middle of Main Street and there's shops on each side of it, these boutiques, restaurants, bars. It's just a cool area. We thought, perfect place to do our pop-up show this morning would be in downtown Midway. Yeah, today was your programming day, and you told me earlier in the week, you gave me like three options. You're like, these are my ideas. What do you think about these? And I was like, you know what, I've always wanted to go down to Midway. I've never really hung out there, driven through it. And I thought that'd be a great idea. Probably get good weather. We could have some fun. But then today, stepped outside and I'm glad we called an audible. Not the best day to be on the sidewalk. We were going to be on the sidewalk. It's really literally 20 feet from the train tracks. Yeah, that didn't help. When you told me we were near the train tracks, also had a little worry about that as well. Yokey Girl and I went over Wednesday night and scouted us out of location. Had a perfect little location. Sterling Gypsy was going to let us use their outlet outside their store. The mayor of Midway was going to come on. Oh my goodness. Grayson, don't call me Brock. Vandergrift is the mayor of Midway. They're filming a Christmas movie, Shannon, a Hallmark Christmas movie in downtown Midway right now as we speak in the rain. Yes, I'm sure they are in the rain. And we were going to try to twist the mayor's arm to get Shannon a speaking role. Oh, man, I didn't know this. I didn't know that either, Shannon. It's not too late. You can still call up, would you say Vandergrift? Mayor Vandergrift? Grayson, don't call me Brock Vandergrift. Yeah, you can still call up Mayor Vandergrift and make that happen if you wanted to. It's a Hallmark Christmas movie. They're shooting it right now and Shannon could have a speaking role. Oh my gosh. See, I looked at the forecast, which I don't think you did. Well, when I looked at it, it looked like the rain was going to clear out. You know why? You got one of those droid weather apps is what you get. Oh, that's what it is. Yeah. Yeah, the Apple weather app is more accurate. I was excited. I went downtown yesterday and I met Billy and I got a table for my heart. I was going to get us a little table. It's still in my car. Yeah. When you got three chairs. I've got chairs in my car. I was looking for a tent when I saw the rain, but when the rain just kept coming, I got halfway to Midway and called him. I was like, I don't know if this is the best idea because, you know, it's our last day before Matt gets back. I had this vision of lightning and then a train coming by as we're trying to do the radio show. So this is the safe bet, but it was a great idea. I wish we could have pulled it off. Maybe the next time Matt takes one of these 14 vacations, we'll sneak down to Midway and do the show down there. We will get our redemption tour around Midway. So big thank to the shout out to the city of Midway who really went out to help us when we start setting this up. We just couldn't pull it off with the weather today. All right. 859-280-2287. That's the Clark's Publish Outphone number. KSR the website. I don't know if you've heard of it, Drew. I've heard of it for about 17 years. I've heard about it every day. They have been posting some updates on some of our guys, our basketball guys, transfer portal. Should I stay? Should I go? Let's just kind of go through the three posts and they did it on Cameron Williams, Colin Chandler and Jasper Johnson. So let's start with Colin. What are you guys hearing about Colin and what does the article say? At least on what I'm hearing, the article's pretty similar. And then we got the KS Board too where the real scoop goes down. That's where we can throw some Scuttlebutter around. But I think Colin really trusts Mark Pope. He knows this is where he needs to be, but there is the temptation of going back home. He had the two-year mission where he was away, then he comes straight to Lexington and he's married and his wife's from there. So I think there is a pool of getting back home. But at the same time, he knows for basketball standpoint, he's better off here and it is a big centerpiece of what Pope is building for next year. I think the NIL pay would be a little bit better. Everybody thinks of BYU, but he also grew up a Utah fan out there as well. But it doesn't seem like either one of those would really be able to match what Kentucky can do because Pope is prioritizing him to return. But that sounds like that is in his brain a little bit. You could think why. That's where he's from. Wife's from there. He's already been gone for so long. There's the religious aspect of all that. But I think Colin knows what would be best for basketball. It's just a matter of getting that done before the portal opens soon because if it lingers too long, that temptation could grow to leave Lexington. But I think right now, he trusts Mark Pope and what's next with him at Kentucky. I agree with you. He's 21, 22 years old. You've been away from home for four years. You've got a chance to play ball in your home state. We're on your family's there. We're your wife's from there. I can see where at least you might entertain that thought of possibly going back home. Now, Pope and company need to get it done and get an official here because you don't want to leave the door open where one of those schools could come up with money and really, really tempt him. But I think if if he were to replace in a bet right now is Colin Chandler coming back, I would certainly be saying it as long as that's not anything official. I just think he knows Kentucky's in is the right place. I think he's coming back. Shannon, what do you think? Colin, sorry, I was answering a phone. Colin Chandler? Yes. Yeah, I think he probably will come back. He's the guy that you know, you can, I don't want to say build your team around, but it definitely a guy that gives you that continuity and a very good three-point shooter. So I'd love to see him come back and they're going to take care of them. I mean, there's a lot of math to math with the budget. I don't have any idea what Pope's got in the cash register right now, but I know that Chandler is high on his list to get that done. I think you want to keep him to help you put together that roster kind of the centerpiece. They're all like Otega was last year. They went out, made sure they kept him. They need to do to keep him. They have to do with Colin. And I think he can make a big remember I was on the fan club early when people weren't sure and you know, I think he ended up having a huge jump. And if he can make another jump next year, I mean the way he shot from three, if he can just create his shot a little better and drive and you know, improve just in a little bit, but the shooting aspect is incredible. And then his defense isn't great, but how many times did we see like those elite plays like the block? He had so many steals and critical moments. He was almost like a young Reed Shepard a little bit where sometimes maybe couldn't stay in front of his man, but just timing and some of his help defense. He could get in and create a lot of turnovers. And let's totally off topic. Did you see what Reed had nine three-pointers? Yes. Nine three-pointers. I think he was nine of 14. It's crazy. From NBA three-point range. Still couldn't start for Kentucky. Still didn't start for Kentucky. My brain, I know Reed's been good for years now. My brain still can't believe this is happening after we were there at that, his regional tournament. 13th region tournament. If you had told me when we were sitting there, he will be hitting nine threes in a game while playing with Kevin Durant for the Rockets, I would have thought that's the craziest thing ever. But he's still living it. And I know a lot of people are used to it now. I still, when I see him out there on the court, I'm like, I can't believe he's doing this. So they're going to be the playoffs. You've got a chance to kind of watch him a little bit more than playoffs. They love him in Houston. All right. Let's move on to Cam Williams. What are you hearing about Cam Williams? He keeps saying all the right things. He wants to return. And I know fans really want him as a piece with him. He's unique though, because like, you know, Stokes could have a big play in what he could do. They kind of play a similar position, not same type, but Stokes will command a lot of minutes on the wing if he ends up here, who knows about that. But also, I guess he's kind of just got to look around and see what Pope's doing in front of him. I don't know that Pope would recruit over him. Pope really likes him too, but that's a spot where we all say Kentucky needs to go out and get a star. So I think Cam Williams likes it here. But if they were to go out and land a big fish, you know, he might consider other options. But I know he really, really likes Kentucky. Saying all the right things in interviews, he said it a couple of times now. And he kind of got cheated this year when he got hurt, you know, missed so much time. Thankfully came back a little bit, helped them. You know, I didn't get a lot of minutes, but at least he kind of helped them kind of spread the defense a little bit, having him out there in the tournament. And he really started getting going right when that injury happened. Yeah, more minutes, you know, earlier in the year, wasn't getting a lot of playing time. I think of all the new guys, it took him a little longer to adjust to this level, but he was just starting to turn it on right when he had the foot injury. So you could see where he'd want to run it back and have a redo. So what do you think, staying or going? I'll say stay on him. I'll say stay on him. But that's one, if they go out and get a couple of just huge names, he would, he would have to, you know, look for somewhere he'd get more playing time. Cause I think a lot of teams have won him. I think he's staying. Shannon, what do you think? Yeah, I think he is too. I mean, obviously, as Drew said there, he has a desire to come back. He just wants to know what his role is going to be with this team next season. Another good three point shooter, a guy that could be a good six man coming off the bench. And the other article you guys wrote on, on three KSR website, great website, check it out. Yeah. KentuckySportsRadio.com is Jasper Johnson. What's your scoop? I don't really have one. I genuinely don't know much about what you, I mean, the word is he would like to prove that he could do it at Kentucky. But at the same time, I don't know how that conversation with Pope goes. Cause same with, you know, going out and getting a star on the wing, they have to go out and get a good point garden. And as much as we all love Jasper to have an amazing sophomore year, you can't give him too much of a role without knowing how that will look. But you know, there's, there's buzz that he would like to have a second chance just cause he doesn't want to, you know, have one year here and not go or go the way it went. I think he would like to prove people wrong, but they have to go load up in the back court. And I don't know where he would fit in that with, with what he would want. All these guys are going to have to take some serious pickups from what they got a year ago. Any of these guys returning. So I genuinely don't know what he would do. I would, I would still guess transfer, but it's not like Jasper's running, trying to get out of here. He, he likes the idea of a redo and trying to prove himself. And if he's looking at, you know, Pope has been talking to Dink, Pate several times talking to the other, the European, I guess, point guard they've been trying to talk to. You already got Mason Williams, who knows what he'll be, but you know, it's already one guard in there. So there he, Jasper knows they're going, they're going out and looking for an elite point guard. He may be the type of kid to look, I can compete. I'm as good as that guy. Give me another redo and I'm here ready to play. And I think he believes he can be a point guard. It was a little unfair this year. You know, he's supposed to be a shooting guard, freshman. No one expected Jaylen Lowe to not play most of the years. So it was, unique circumstances, but like I said, Pope's got to go out and get a start point. This is such a big maker break year for Pope. He can't mess around. He's got to really do well in the portal with some, some guys that we know are already proven. And I think, you know, he's made a point that that's how they're going after first. Yeah. And then they'll go after maybe a post player and try to get some other guys, but they're going after a point guard. I think it's playing a, and Jasper was really close to North Carolina. Remember, we grew up in North Carolina fan. Yeah. You know, they don't have a coach right now. So if Hubert Davis were running it back, I would probably even guess North Carolina, but there's so much uncertainty on that end. New coach might not even give him a call. Who knows? Well, stay tuned because the portal opens officially on Tuesday. Tuesday. Four days from now. Four days. And really, even though it's already moving and shaking. So there may be even some news happening today here Friday, probably like 12.05 when our show is over. Some portal news. Drop drop. It's because they're in the basketball program. Mark Pope's in the air right now. Did you see this tweet? Didn't see that. It's a picture of clouds. Yeah, well, it is cloudy. It says after a bumpy start, my pilots found the perfect zone. Not too high, not too low. Clear skies ahead. Let's go BB in. Where he's going. I don't know. Don't really know what that means either, but he hadn't done much tweeting tweeting. So he's, uh, it's good to see him. They're busy. They're in the war room. They're in there. They're in the portal house. Getting everything ready. Go get somebody. All right. We'll take our break. Come back. Go to the phone lines. 8, 5, 9, 2, 8, 0, 2, 2, 8, 7, Ryan, Drew and Shannon. This is Kentucky Sports Radio. Welcome back to Kentucky Sports Radio. Ryan, Drew and Shannon joined now by Billy R. Sports, who makes the John over from the I heart studios to hear at KS bar and grill, where we expect maybe to get a good crowd today because Keeneland opens today, Drew. First day of Keeneland got the new fancy paddock bar area, whatever that you want to call it going on. It's going to be fun times over at Keeneland. Hopefully the weather gets better for everyone going to Keeneland though. That's it. Yeah. The weather clears up. If not, come over here. Well, you know, we'll have a little NIT preparation. They played the NIT last night. You know, was just seeing the NIT game. I didn't. And Shannon was telling me this morning that there's a whole other tournament still going on. The CBC. Do you watch any of that, Ryan? I didn't even know that was going on. The crown college basketball crown. Did you know that West Virginia, Baylor, Oklahoma and Creighton are still playing basketball this season? This is news to me. I had to look. I didn't know who's in the NIT final for let alone the crown final for crowns out in Vegas. I'd have a lot of fun out there. Well, I do like the fact that the NIT is moving to the site of the final four. It's like the final four is in Indianapolis. So the NIT is at Hinkelfield house in Butler University. If you've never been here, it's one of the most awesome gymnasiums you'll ever go into. It's where they filmed the movie Hoosiers, where you hit the final shot that was in Hinkelfield house. So last night, Auburn won Auburn and Tulsa won. So the NIT championship tomorrow night is Auburn and Tulsa line up now. Get your tickets now. I need Stephen Pearl to win the NIT so bad. Oh, you want him to win? I just think it'll be funny. I mean, they go from the final four, win the SEC, Bruce hands it off. It's not a good year. And then they're going to have to awkwardly hang a banner because he won the NIT. You got to hang a banner if you win, don't you? So I'm all in on Stephen Pearl getting a Marine. Got a championship in his first year as coach. That's right. He's pretty impressive. He's already a step farther than his dad last year. Yeah. Yeah. That'll keep him around for a little bit longer. Oh, yeah. Ryan, I don't want to be rude, but are you old enough to remember when the NIT mattered? I don't. I do remember though, the year that Kentucky, the year after they won the title in 78, they played in the NIT in 79. I remember thinking, well, that's not cool. It seemed like then it was a step down. So before my time with the NIT was really a big deal. Yeah. Well, I guess there was a time where that was a big deal. It was fun in Lexington. Did you all go? No. I didn't go either. No. I mean, it sucked that we were in the NIT, but it was a fun atmosphere memorial that game. That's what Perry Stephenson did. That's it. That's everybody's lasting memories, the Perry Stephenson dunk against UNLV. I think it was, wasn't it? Yeah. I mean, we were definitely coping with not being in the big tournament, but I will say it made for a fun atmosphere for two hours as we pretended to care about being in the NIT. All right. I found the AVs in the last tech machine. Where? In my drawer. Where was the drawer? Is that a junk drawer? Yeah. We knew where it was. That wasn't the problem. The problem was getting Ryan to actually go into the drawer and bring it with him to work. Charge it and then bring it in. That was the trick. I'm very proud of you. 502-7, 35, 36, 80. Here's the first question we're going to ask. You are Mark Pope. It's a make or break year for you. You have 15 to 16 million. Stokes will cost you probably four million. Are you doing it? Yes. Without hesitation. I think you have to. He needs a win. He needs a win, Ben. He needs to show Kentucky fans. He needs to show everybody other recruits that he can go out and get a big recruit because I don't like to use the word whiff. It's used a lot on the internet, but there has been a lot of whiffing lately and he needs to go out and get a big play. Stokes is awesome. He wasn't the star of the McDonald's game earlier this week, but if you watch the fourth quarter, you saw the potential and why he's ranked number one. Not just a big recruit. The recruit. Number one in the class. I think that would go a long way for perception purposes for the reason why you brought maybe like Mo Williams in to get land players like this because he understands that money is the driving factor, not the name on the front of the jersey. So I think this would be a huge win for Kentucky and Pope if they were to get him. Andy's projected the number one draft pick, you know, the summer after the summer. I mean, if that were to pan out and he were, if it was the Kentucky logo that we're seeing at the draft, I know we left that behind with Cal, but it'd be nice to have a number one pick again, especially for Pope where he can turn around and use that on the recruiting trail and say, look, I can't help guys get to the NBA. You're both right. You're both dead on the perception that you can get the big number one guy and what the number one guy can do for your program, what it represents exactly. And he's just a guy that can take over and, you know, Owey was pretty good at that, but they need more, more guys who can just go out and get a bucket when you need it. And if you get Stokes and you don't get it done, then there's some finality in that, right? Like there's like, it's not going to work if you can still get a recruit, but not win. Other from the Avision Glass Tech Machine, which I found and brought today. Do you guys have any updates on the coaching staff? There was that picture Pope posted with a recruit included an assistant coach we'd haven't talked about. He said coach somebody. No, he and McLean and figure went out visiting the 2027 recruit. So a few reading tea leaves that would suggest figure and McLean aren't going anywhere. Things are still, I don't know the Mark Fox situation, but that's one I'm watching. I know all those guys sound like two years deals when they got here. It's kind of, they just didn't renew heart and Brooks. And I wonder if there are any more left as he Pope kind of has a lot of staff turnover there. I was a little surprised to see Brooks leave. Just seems like a really positive guy. I'm not, I wasn't there behind the scenes to see what was happening, but somebody that seemed like it was making a positive impact on the program. But I mean, if you can just bring in a player, why not just hire their dad as a coach Ryan? Well, especially if that dad has a connection to Jamal Crawford, who has a connection to Tyron Stokes. I think, you know, we can read the tea leaves. Why not be in that little pipeline? Yeah, it's not just through Crawford. I mean, Williams knows him too. Williams offered Dinkpate three, almost four years ago and same for Stokes for Jackson State. So he's been personally recruiting them, not that those guys would ever go to Jackson State, but Mo Williams was making those efforts years ago. So he has the connection to the self thing coming back. I've, I'm losing optimism on Stokes. We need, we need Nike to, to pull all the strings to push him to Kentucky, but it's, I don't like the buzz point in that direction. And obviously I think that's why Stokes was delaying it to see what self was going to do. But if self pulls a Bruce Perron steps down up for the season starts, what's that do for you? But like, why do it after the Nike Hoops Summit? Like if you're a Nike athlete, you're waiting after a Nike event to sign with an Adidas school. That's just, as we've talked about the last time. Another good theory. Another good theory. All right, from the Avigio Glass Tech Machine, Pope has to do one of these three things to keep his job at the end of next season. Either win the SEC regular season, which secures a one or two seed, win the SEC tournament or get to the final four, which do you think happens? Well, that's close to my, my guidelines for every year. I always say year together, win the regular season, win the SEC tournament, but then I say elite eight to consider it a successful year. I feel like putting all the pressure saying you were unsuccessful if you came up short of the final four. I think it's a little strict, but I always say elite eight, SEC tournament or SEC regular season. But as far as keeping his job, I think that's, that's a big, I mean, if he finished, you know, second the SEC and made it to Sunday in the SEC tournament and then made the elite, I don't, you know, he's not getting fired there. I think that would be a big turnaround. So in that scenario from the Tech Machine, I think that's a little too much to ask, but that's what Kentucky needs to be doing regularly. Most likely probably weekend of the SEC tournament, right? Like that draw could, could lay out for you and Kentucky could get hot and win a couple games, but really just matters what you do in the post season, right? I mean, Kentucky and Oscar Sheeboy get a two seed and all you remember is their first round exit. So I mean, it's, it is a make or break year, but if they have a ton of success in the regular season and it doesn't translate to the NCAA tournament, it's going to be all for nothing. But if you had to pick one of the three, the most likely, what would you pick? Oh boy. I'll probably, I'll probably eliminate final four. And we haven't been to a final four since 2015. And we don't have a team, so it's hard. I don't think they would win the, unless you go out and just completely nail it. I think winning the SEC is tough. I think final four is tough. So maybe winning the SEC tournament might be the best round of the three. I guess, yeah. I'd start on Friday and win three games for that crowd. I'd say it's the most likely, but right now with one player on the roster, I don't think any of those would be happening. Yeah. And that would be, that'd be good for the fan base too, right? Everybody that goes to Nashville for those games to, to win the SEC tournament would go a long way. Get a, get a draw like Cal got this year. Just, well, yeah. He had the double buy, get the double buy, figure it out. But it played on Wednesday. I'm still upset about that. That was just embarrassing. And then the flex that we won two tournament games, well, we won two tournament games because we played on Wednesday and Thursday. Start on Friday and maybe you can win three games, figure it out. Speaking of Cal, you see he was up in Mason County this week. Yeah. The Lundurgans, they had some kind of big reveal, a garden. St. Patrick's Garden. Yeah. Bill Clinton and John Calipari, both in Maysville in Mason County. That make you double take. You see Bill Clinton and John Calipari in the middle of the week. It's probably Matt wasn't there. Those are his boys. No kidding. All right. We'll take our break. We'll go to the phone lines. Ryan, Drew, Shannon, Billy, eight, five, nine, two, eight, oh, two, two, eight, seven. This is Kentucky Sports Radio. TJ Smith, personal injury attorney, call TJ. He'll make them pay. Now more of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Here's Matt Jones. All right. Welcome back. This Friday did take Kentucky Sports Radio, Ryan, Drew, Shannon and Billy are sports from the A-Vision Glass Tech Machine. Got another one. I'm a distance runner at Midway University. Oh, nice. We had practice started 10 because of Good Friday. It is perfectly clear right now. No rain. Has there been a train? Get back out there and get me that speaking roll. Billy, did you hear that in the first segment? No, they're shooting a movie there in Midway, you said, right? Yeah. A Hallmark Christmas movie in downtown Midway right now. And Ryan said there was a chance they could get me a speaking roll and you're supposed to be on that. You know that. You're my agent. Well, there's another Christmas movie being filmed in Kentucky right now that we just talked about. Yeah, on Somerset. So there's two Christmas movies filmed? Even better. There's a big movie in Lexington. They've been here all week. It's got Kim Jong from the Hangover. There's a lot of big names. They've been all over town. They were downtown just two days ago in front of the Lexington Theater. I think they've been at Jacobson Park. I mean, it's not a small cast. I've seen a lot of the names. I don't know exactly what the movie is. I tried to find it, but they've been all over Lexington this week. Well, I'll make some calls. Shannon, if we do any filming next week, you're going to come in? Well, no, I'm out of town. I'm going to be in Hollywood. I'm going to put out there to try to find a Rolls speaking roll. Right. Okay. Well, we're already at a disadvantage. Kim Jong's from the Hangover. Y'all know what I'm talking about? Yes, of course. Okay. So he's a huge Duke fan and he was in Lexington for the Duke game because I know they were filming on Sunday. So I was like, man, I wish I could have known where he was watching. No kidding. That would have been fun to go find him and troll him. Well, he's probably listening right now. You can come to KS Bar and Grill and we'll get you on the show. Talk about Duke, Dukey basketball while your Duke Blue Dubs are crying right at home watching the game this weekend. We do have the Final Four on all weekend here at KS Bar and Grill. We got the women play tonight in the Final Four, the women and the men tomorrow night. So we'll have all that out here at KS Bar and Grill. Matt's trivia. He announced with Moe it'll be Thursday, right Moe? It's next Thursday. This coming Thursday will be Matt's next round of trivia here at KS Bar and Grill. All right, Shane, I got a story for you. Yep. Annabelle Dahl. Uh-oh. You know, they had a guy who was turning around the country. His name was Dan Riviera. 54 years old. Unexpectedly died. When? Like this week. I thought that happened last year. Yeah, somebody check on Matt Reif because I thought he had bought the Dahl and was moving it around. Well, I saw it on the online. I assumed it was this week. I think it was right before Annabelle came here. That was part of the big story. The guy died. Yeah. Very unexpectedly. He was the one transporting Annabelle. What's no secret that as soon as Matt made fun of Annabelle the Dahl and the guy carrying Annabelle the Dahl, Kentucky. I believe in that. Here's the post from July 15th, 2025. Well, there you go. That happened almost a year ago. But still. Still resting peace. Breaking news. I'll defend you, Ryan. I saw it going around on Twitter. People were even sending it to me. Yeah, I saw it. People were kind of presenting it like it just happened. Just happened. So I got to defend you. You weren't the only one that, uh, well, not even fell for it. It's just, it was recirculating, but it did happen last year. You're worried about this curse next year? Yeah. Like, do we need to burn some sage or light a candle? We got to do something or bring Annabelle here with the owner and kind of do a little make good with Matt. We just had Comic-Con here this past weekend. We did. We've been going to that for years. I kind of hated not going over there. We missed it this year. I saw the, the sidewalks of downtown. You just don't know what you'll walk past. Best people watching ever. Oh, my goodness. Is it Comic-Con? Yeah, we had a blast there last year though. If I, we should have run it back. That's always a good time. 8-5-9-2-2-8-2-8-7. Let's go to our phone line, Shannon. Who we got? Orvin. Orvin. Go ahead, Orvin. Hey, Ryan. I was in Florida a couple of weeks ago and my cousin was getting married and she got married unexpected. Well, I guess, expected me to one of the Hainies. It's, I was just saying it's such a small world that, uh, but listen to the show for like 70 years now. So, um, and they brought you up to, they said they're great friends with you guys. So about Danny Haney, the former Lexington Catholic basketball coach who moved down there to Florida, I guess you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. His son got married to my cousin. I've been listening to you guys for like seven or eight years now and, uh, and, um, yeah. And it was just such a coincidence that she got married to one of the Hainies. So, very cool. Appreciate it, Orvin. It's not fair to you guys. Thank you, man. Appreciate the phone call. Shout out to them. The Lexington Catholic gymnasium is the floors named Danny Haney Corked. Okay. That's what's a little big name around here. So, all right. Let's get on the phone call, Shannon. Who we got? Let's go to Jeff. Jeff, go ahead, Jeff. Are you there, Jeff? I think, can you take us on Bluetooth? I can't. I'm driving a tractor trailer. No, no. I'm not to let you go. I'm gonna go out there. Yeah. Okay. All right. Call us back. Sorry to bug you. Yeah. He's a working man. Keep both hands on the wheel if you're driving a big tractor trailer truck. There was some news. I guess I kind of skipped over. I should have talked about it. The UK women had somebody drop in the transfer portal. Lexi Blue. I know she was leaving the team. I guess she's been there for a couple of years. I remember she was supposed to be a maybe play a bigger player, a bigger role this year. Just didn't work out for her this year, seems like. Yes. She was, if not top 10 close to it as a recruit, but I got here and just didn't get the minute. She probably wanted. So, she's on the move. But, you know, Kenny Brooks still loading up with that recruiting class he has bringing in. That's probably partially why Lexi's on the move and then Clare Strack returning. I think they're gonna be awesome again next year. Maybe we'll take another step forward. I mean, I fully expect Kenny Brooks to keep this train rolling, make a final four with Kentucky soon. Disappointed. It didn't work out with Lexi Blue as somebody whose name is perfect to come to the University of Kentucky, right? So, hopefully she cash in on some NIL deal before she left. What was a great name though, Lexi Blue. Had to come to Kentucky. Now she's getting replaced by Savvy Swords though. So, we're still on the all night. Oh, that's one of the recruits. Yeah, Savvy Swords. What a great name that is. Yeah, but that's a great recruiting class. We talked about it earlier this week for the McDonald's game, but you got two top 10 players and then the other's like maybe top 30, I believe. So, Kenny's loading up and got some big returners coming back. You got a name picked out next week? For my child? Yeah. Well, if she's born on her due date on Masters Sunday, I'm just hope I'm Tiger. I'm just trying to go with whoever wins the Masters. So, Rory Franklin, Siwu Franklin, Kedeki Franklin, Ludwig Franklin. Abby hasn't agreed to this, but I'm still hoping that in the back of my mind, if she is truly born on her due date, Masters Sunday, we'll just go with the champion. You have to. Jose Marie Franklin. I'll put it in the middle name. There we go. Zalia. I threw that one out too. Nice. That'd be good. Yeah, I'm trying. Probably going to be a no, but you know, I'm excited. I was just telling Billy during the break, if she's truly, if we hit the Masters weekend, I ordered the Masters kit where you get all the food and the cups. I'm going to have a little Masters party with the nurses. He's going to have a tub of pimento cheese and egg salad in the room with him. Yeah. Well, Abby's trying to give birth. Birds chirping. We're having a Masters party. You do have your bag packed, don't you? Mostly. Still working on that. We're efforting, but we're counting down. You're in single digits. You're in single. We're at like any moment, kind of like check my phone every 15 minutes, make sure I haven't gotten the emergency code word to drop what I'm doing and run. It's exciting. Your life is going to change so much for the better. You're going to love every second being a dad. It's the greatest thing in the world to be a dad. Thank you. We're very excited looking forward to it. Eight five nine. So I wanted to shout out your shirt, by the way. Oh yeah. You're wearing my guy Manny on your shirt. I appreciate that. The Manny shirt today. Yeah, we made a lot of those. I'm glad you're wearing it around. Well, we missed him during March Madness. That's when that's kind of his, his Super Bowl. That's right. He loved March Madness and loved hosting parties to watch the cats play, cheering on the cats. And so Drew made these shirts when he guys all worked at the SEC tournament right here. Made a hundred of them. I love seeing people wearing them. Well, just shout out to Manny. That's right. Thanks for wearing it today. You got it on TV, right? Oh yeah. On the background. Then a little shirt pop even when we won. We had to let him know. Well, Wednesday at SEC tournament was our thing, you know, because normally Kentucky wouldn't be playing. We're going there to have fun. So Wednesday would be my fun day. Then we'd lock in. So I wore him this year, but I'm glad you're wearing it today. I'm proud to. Eight five nine two eight oh two two eight seven. That's the Clark's Publish on phone number. There is one other transfer portal name I want to throw out there. Brent, Brett Decker, who is from Liberty. May not ring a bell, but he's from Elizabeth town, played at Central Hardin High School. And he was one of the top three point shooters in the country this year at Liberty. I brought his name up on this show, the second game of the year in college basketball as a name to watch because he yeah, he was like seven for seven or something. His first game and followed up with another big game. I kept an eye on him all year. Recently I heard it's got a butt. Okay. That they're a they're a Louisville family. So I don't know. I don't know what I'm not saying that he's going there. The kid is called. I don't know where we are on our journey with reaching out to him, but people in the E town area have said that they're they're their card family. So that might be something to watch. The more shooters, the better. Right. Space out the floor. That seems to be Mark Pope style of play. And he got away from that a little bit last year. And you know, to see the Yukon guy hit that shot and then hear that he was steps away from being at Kentucky. Yeah. I mean, that's the, you know, you need to bring those guys in shot 47% taking seven a game. My goodness. That's pretty strong. That's pretty good. Average 17 for Liberty. That's the good point of the transfer portal. A kid like this over exels at Liberty, probably a little better than playing at the Liberty level. Now he's got a chance to go prove himself somewhere else at a power four school somewhere. So that's what's the good part about the transfer portal. Unless you're Liberty. That's true. Western Kentucky where, you know, your best player has a good year. And then, you know, they're out. I was reading a story about the Queens coach. They were having their conference tournament, right? And you had an SEC assistant in SEC logo and gear courtside for the conference tournament to wait until they lose so he can talk to the players. It's become like the Peach Jam where you wear your gear. But instead of at a high school game, you're at another college game just staring at their players. Like they're not hiding it anymore. Oh, that's disrespectful, though. Is it not like it's unethical a little bit to do that in front of the coach and the team? Listen, I've got some news for you all. When people go play at other schools, they're recruiting them when like, I'm just going to say Kentucky, an example. Kentucky plays at wherever Texas name it. If Texas, there's a player on Kentucky's team they want, they're recruiting, they're checking on mom and dad in the front row or in the hotel lobby. And that's everywhere. I'm not I use Kentucky, but that is happening. It is out of control. We can pretend the portal starts on Tuesday. The portal is open nonstop. They've been talking the whole season. They've been talking before this season. Everybody tampers. Everybody. If you're not tampering, you're behind. And that's just the reality. True. Some truth of that. You have to. Now, I mean, that might not be sitting down a meeting and making offers, but there is a, hey, how are you all doing? Glad you're coming by. Are you taking care of how's your state? You like the arena? How's your son doing? That's going on everywhere. It's just more egregious now, I guess, right? Like you just wear your school colors and you talk to the coach, hey, I'm going to recruit your kid after this. Well, you see in football, when the on the, we can see it on the field when the coaches will run over to the other team star player and there'll be a little extra lingering hug or a few extra comments. They're doing plain sight. I was going to say that. I mean, it 100% absolutely happens after the football game during the handshake line. There's a little recruiting going on right then and there on the playing field as soon as the game's over. So you're telling me if mom and dad go to watch their kid at name a small college town the night before, they're at the local restaurant, the hotel lobby. You're telling me an assistant coach might not walk by and be like, oh, welcome to town. How are you all doing? Let me pay for your dinner. What do you have? That is happening. Have another bottle of wine on me. Yeah. All right. 859-280-2287. We'll go back to the phone line and we come back after the break. Ryan, Drew, Shane and Billy, our sports. This is Kentucky Sports Radio. Welcome back. Ryan, Drew, Shane and Billy. We're explaining to Billy during the commercial break. We were going to be at Midway this morning, but Mother Nature kind of threw it to Kerbal. The train splits Main Street, right in downtown Midway. So on one side of the street, you're going one way. It's a one way one lane. Then you got the train track. And on the other side is the one way going the other way. I mean, it literally is splits Main Street. It's really kind of cool. Oh, that is cool. Yeah. It is a very scenic downtown. It's like one of our most postcard downtowns in Kentucky. Here's a little trivia. You know why they call it Midway? Why? Is it middle between Louisville, Kentucky? Close. Is there a Louisville in Lexington? Between Lexington and Frankfurt. Midway between Lexington and Frankfurt. All right, 859-280-2287. I got a Clark's Puppet Shop phone line. A couple of lines open. I want to go to the Avision Glass Tech Machine. How much more money is the average college team paying for the roster now versus pre-NIL when it was wink, wink? Are you saying people paid before NIL? Well, you know, allegedly, supposedly. Money in McDonald's bags being passed around. I'd say there's a ton more money spent now. Put a little cash in the football program. Yeah. I mean, money was spent back then, but I think there's millions and millions more spent now because you can get it from the booster legally and they're taking advantage of that. What's weird is I'm seeing players are commanding even more this offseason. Their prices just keep going up. I'm also hearing that schools don't have as much or boosters are hesitant because it didn't go as well. So it's weird that players are asking for more, but in a lot of places, they're like, we just can't keep doing what we've been doing, but they might have to. Well, you got to win. Let's say you donated a bunch of money and Zach Kazada's throwing it around. Do you want to do that again? Do you get any return on investment unless your team wins a conference championship? Things like that. There's a pool of dedicated money now that can be given to athletes with revenue sharing. So it's obviously going to be more than what it was, but definitely how much it is depends on each school. Right. 859-280-2287. Who's this segment sponsored by before we go to the phone? Well, I was going to ask you, is the sun out or is it still raining there in Lexington? Pouring. Just started pouring hard. Maybe today is not a good day for your shady rays, but the sun's going to come out tomorrow or at some point this weekend and you want your shady rays. You can get the same quality as $200 pair of sunglasses for much, much cheaper at shady rays. We're talking about premium polarized lenses that cut glare and super clear optics, durable frames with solid hinges, clean classic styles that look sharp without trying too hard. And you can get it at shadyrays.com. They have over 300,000 five-star reviews. Millions of people have switched to shady rays. They're also at the summit at Fritz Farm and on the the Oxmore Center in Louisville, shadyrays.com. Grab a pair today. All right. 859-280-2287. Who we got Shannon? Let's go to Shane. Shane, go ahead Shane. Hey guys, thanks for taking my call. I've been listening to this show since you all were on 1450 way back in the day. And I love what you guys do. But so real quick, I was 12, 13 and 14 years old when we played in three straight national championships. So I have high standard. Those guys were my heroes. Mark Pope was a hero of mine growing up. And I just, I'm really sad about the state of our program. The fact that the Kentucky Wildcats do not have a single high school player committed. I mean, Kentucky should be selecting who plays for this team. That's just, that's the standard we select. We pick who plays here. And now we got money involved and we can pay them. And it's like we're bet, we can't get a top high school kid to come play here. What, it just feels like the end of the tubby Smith era to me, man. And I love tubby too. But like just my two cents, man. I really believe we had a good thing with our former coach. And people can say he wasn't going to succeed here. All they want, that's just convenient for that argument. The fact of the matter is Cal, we beat him this year. But you know what, they won the SEC tournament because he's got elite talent. And I want elite talent. I'll take that every single time over what we got now. I hope this works out with Mark Pope, but I am dumbfounded at where our recruiting stands today. I have really, it makes me sad. I brother appreciate you. Appreciate it, man. That's still the check mark that with the box has not been checked yet. Can you get in a top recruiting? That's not from Kentucky. A top recruit, not from Kentucky. A top level guy. That box has not been checked yet. No, not at all. And that's why there needs to be some urgency with Pope and getting some wins here and showing fans he can do it. Because you know, next year, we can pretend it's not, but it's a pretty big maker break here for Pope. And he needs to go out and get some stars. And if, I mean, he got Jasper Mallakoff from Kentucky. But if you look at his past recruiting classes, when he was at BYU, he didn't really get anybody outside of Utah. It was all, he's always just kind of gotten local recruits and he's got to go out and prove he can do it. Because I, I agree with the caller on Kentucky should be handpicking who they get. I disagree with the caller about Cal wholeheartedly, but I'm all in on him on how recruiting has been awful. It's inexcusable. It was 15 years of Cal getting the best guys, right? And then you see A Cuff succeed for Arkansas and you're like, maybe he should have been at Kentucky. But it's, it's a completely different landscape. The transfer portal brings in a whole different dimension. You're right. There should be a sense of urgency to get freshmen, but also that's just not how these teams are created anymore. I got to step in real quick on Cal. He had A Cuff and lost by 30 and had a pretty easy path to SEC. I mean, they almost lost to like Winthrop. So I'm, I'm not in on the Cal part of that argument. He's still got a star and still didn't do anything with it. That was the problem here. Cal's been on all morning. That was like a generational guard he has and I'm, SEC tournament, congratulations, but that wasn't a great year for Arkansas. We're showing the Cal replay of him getting in the Hall of Fame and he was on first take just this morning. It's all Cal this morning. Every TVI turnaround, TVI turned to it's like got Cal on it right now. Do you see the news about Dino Nuggets? What's that? They were getting recalled. They got led them. Yeah. The ones in Walmart. You'll get the lead out. Well, I would admit that Dino Nuggets, they sent us Tyson food, sent us. I ate every one of them. You're full of lead. I mean, I'm drawing you. There he is. Yeah. All right. Let's get another phone call before we take our lady and your head. Let's go to Richard. Richard, go ahead, Richard. Yeah, I want to ask you, uh, is it required by the NCAA for colleges to use the wood? The, I mean, the aluminum bat. If not, why can't colleges use wood bat? If the wood bat is good enough for the professionals, should he also be good enough for colleges and also the sound of the aluminum bat hitting the ball sucks. I added when the bat hits the baseball, it's a much, much more pleasant sound. Uh, what is your take on all of that? All right, we appreciate it. We'll get to that maybe after the break. The aluminum bat versus the old wood bat issue college baseball. Now the aluminum bats are like titanium, not even aluminum, they're titanium. All right, we'll take our break. Come back. Ryan, Drew, Shannon, Billy, this is Kentucky Sports Radio.